Smoother Times Ahead

In a continued effort to heal my digestive system and my leaky gut from years of taking proton pump inhibitors (prilosec), I’ve decided to add smoothies into my diet.

This is the thing, I’ve tried smoothies in the past and did not like them. It was a texture issue for me. My blender was not strong enough to blend the smoothie well and drinking a drink that has small chunks of kale and spinach is not pleasing at all.

So, I bit the bullet and bought myself this…. I bought it at Walmart for $89.00

I am so pleased with this blender. In a matter of seconds it completely blends all the ingredients perfectly. Now I can actually enjoy smoothies instead of trying to choke them down because they are good for me.

I went ahead and did some smoothie prep for the week… right now I’m putting a baby kale and spinach mix, a frozen mix of cherries, strawberries, blueberries and grapes, banana, ground flax seed, turmeric, L Glutamine, protein bone broth and I’m using raw milk for my liquid. The banana adds a nice sweetness to the smoothie, but a squeeze of honey helps too.

I did cook some pumpkin from the garden in the pressure cooker that I will freeze in ice cube trays so I can add those to my smoothies too. I’m thinking something like a pumpkin pie flavor using pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, my homemade yogurt and some honey or pure maple syrup, and of course the greens, ground flax, ground turmeric and L Glutamine.

I had some coupons that were set to expire this week so off to the grocery store I went. I kept my side blinders on and stuck to my list. I spent $33.43 and here is what I bought.

I also stopped to pick up some avocados that are on sale right now and some cucumber and tomatoes for my jar salads. I spent $19.91

I’ve got to accept the fact that my digestive system requires somewhat of a special diet of fresh and organic as much as possible, good fats, very limited amounts of wheat and smaller meal portions with 5 – 6 small meals a day instead of 3 larger meals. Because of this it’s very important for me to plan and prep healthy meals and snacks.

It’s also important for me to track my spending to keep it in check. My total for this week is $53.34 and I’m well stocked up so I’m not planning any additional spending this week.

And by the way, have you notice the cost of nuts, especially almonds. Crazy expensive! Which is why you don’t see any in my grocery pictures. 😉

Do you have any smoothie suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Till next time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five

I just love fall. It is my favorite time of year when the weather cools down and it’s time to pull the crock pot out and make warm you all over stews and soups.

It’s also the time to pull out my big tea mugs for my hot teas. The Z Man is a coffee drinker, but I am a tea girl.

Friday’s Frugal Five:

I’ve slowed my roll this week and got back on track with meal planning and prepping. What a huge difference that makes in the budget. Listen, we have food and I mean we have plenty of food in our house, so there is no reason I should be at the grocery store. I do not need to be at the grocery store more than once a week (if even that). But if you don’t plan then you might as well plan to fail.
Saturday is the beginning of hunting season and I am ready. While the Z Man does all the hard work of harvesting the deer, I do all the processing. Knives are sharp and freezer bags are stocked. Stocking our freezer with venison saves us a ton of money every year in beef purchases. The thing is that we really like venison. We actually prefer venison in place of beef in most all recipes except a burger, because Double M Dairy ground beef is awesome and makes the best hamburgers!
I’m disgusted to admit this, but in full disclosure I have to come clean and admit that I have become somewhat obsessed with frozen yogurt over the past month and was indulging myself way too often. Not good for me and certainly not good for my budget! That stuff is expensive, especially when you put all the yummy (unhealthy) toppings on it. I am proud to report that I did not get one frozen yogurt this week, saving about $6
The importance of taking care of yourself for good health is obvious, but it’s also an important part of frugality as well. I got back into my exercise program this week, cut out the junk and got back to whole food, clean eating. Missing work, paying insurance deductibles and prescription cost… that’s NOT frugal.
Our usual frugal routines of drying clothes on the clothes line, having our meals at home, paying our bills on time avoiding late fees, returning library rentals to avoid late fees, reducing waste, planning, budgeting and still breathing fresh air and adding to the pickle jar. Whew, that’s a mouth full!

How about you, what frugal fun have you had this week?

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Till next time,

Lori

Happening On The Homestead

It’s been over a month since I last blogged and the simple reason for that is…. I burned out and I got sick.

Between working a full time job six days a week, putting something in jars (canning) almost every night till late (sometimes till early morning), helping the Z Man take care of our homestead and all the animals, it just all caught up with me and I came crashing down. I went to the doctor because I wasn’t feeling good then came home and went to bed and slept for two days, then I got up and laid on the sofa for three days.

A couple of weeks later and after a few more visits with my doctor, I’m feeling better, but still not 100%.

Time for some soul searching into what’s most important for us and weed out the rest. I get so caught up in an idea or a project I want and it’s 100 miles an hour until it’s done. The thing is that sometimes it’s never done. I want more and more and more….

I have to admit that during this time, my diet was awful, just grabbing something here and there and grabbing all the wrong stuff. This is one of the main reasons I got sick. For someone who is six months coming off of Prilosec after having taken it for over 20 years, I can not neglect my diet.

The discomfort of my reflux and indigestion had become so bad that I went to urgent care thinking I was having a heart attack. The EKG was normal, and the bariatric cocktail the doctor gave me to drink worked, and I am feeling much better, about 90% better.

But it’s time to slow down and get back to taking better care of myself, eating better, working less and Yoga begins this week.

In the meantime, here is what’s been happening on our little homestead.

Our beautiful Maddie delivered 6 perfect little puppies, three girls and three boys.

I was there with her while she was delivering and it was amazing. She is such a good mama.

They are growing so fast. I mean is this just not cuteness overload?

We got three new chickens. Three Leghorn hens and they lay white eggs.

I kind of like getting white and brown eggs.

We harvested three of our older hens, which was the first time for the Z Man and I to do that. I don’t have pictures, but it went very well and peaceful.

Back when I quit smoking on January 4th I started saving my weekly cigarette money. By saving the money specifically for a “treat” for the accomplishment of quitting it not only motivated me to get through the cravings and over the habit of smoking, it gave me something to look forward to as well.

So, the Z Man and I had a little fun with my quit smoking money…

We went to the Redskins season opener against Pittsburgh. I am a Redskins fan and the Z Man is a Pittsburgh fan, so it was perfect that this year they were playing each other. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well for my Redskins.

It’s amazing to me that by quitting smoking I was able to pay for a little mini vacation for us. Now, that’s some good motivations right there.

So, that’s whats been going on around here. I’ve really missed blogging, but I’ll be talking to you soon 😉

Till next time,

Lori

Homemade Yogurt

I started making my own homemade yogurt about a year ago when I ran across a recipe on the Frugal Girl website.

I still use this same process because it’s easy and now that I’ve done it so many times I’m able to whip it up pretty fast.

I like making yogurt mainly because it taste so much better and it cost a lot less than store bought.

It’s easy as could be, all you do is

heat up milk
cool it down
add a cup of prepared yogurt
pour it into jars
let the jars sit in a cooler with warm water for several hours.

I can get local raw milk so that’s what I make my yogurt with, but you can use commercial whole milk too.

The yogurt keeps for a month in the fridge so I just use a whole gallon of milk which turns out 5 pints of thick greek yogurt and 2 quarts of whey for me.

Yep, whey. You know that protein whey that everyone wants in their diets now and most people have to buy the powdered stuff at the store. Well, make your own yogurt and you’ll have plenty of it. (more on that later)

The ingredients you’ll need is:

1 gallon full fat milk
1 cup of non flavored yogurt (your starter yogurt)

The equipment you’ll need is:

A heavy bottom stock pot (not cast iron)
A thermometer
A Whisk
Canning funnel
Measuring cup or ladle
Quart size mason jars (preferably wide mouth)
A cooler

This is what I do:

Pour your gallon of milk into a heavy bottomed stock pot
Gradually bring the temperature of the milk up to 190 – 195 degrees while gently stirring occasionally (do not scrape the bottom of the pot as it may scald a bit and you don’t want that in your yogurt)
Fill a sink with ice cold water while milk is reaching temperature
Gently lower the pot of milk into the ice water to cool the temperature down to 120 degrees
Remove the pot from the sink of water on to a towel on the counter
Thoroughly whisk in your starter yogurt
Ladle the mixture into your jars and put the lids on tight
Put the jars in a cooler and pour 2 quarts of warm water into the cooler
Keep water in cooler at 120 degrees for 4 hours
Remove yogurt from cooler and refrigerate

At this point you have yogurt that is ready to eat.

However if you want a thicker yogurt like a greek yogurt (especially if using raw milk, which tends to make a thinner consistency) then continue on doing this:

Let yogurt refrigerate overnight in the jars
Strain all but 1.5 cups yogurt through a fine cloth to release the whey (I have to do this in batches and it usually takes a few hours)

Whisk the 1.5 cup of thinner yogurt into the thicker yogurt to end up with a perfect creamy textured yogurt.
Spoon yogurt into jars, put lids on and refrigerate.