Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I think watching all the storms you can see right off that the store shelves went empty and water runs out. This is something you can avoid by keeping your storage up. I think lots can be learned. 

I watched a podcast where a woman and her husband were talking of their preparations. They talked about heating soup over a candle for a big family (they have a large family). They talked about building with bricks and using the oven rack. I think that could work IF it weren’t raining as bad as it was going to be doing. So, give thought to what you would do. Waiting to the very last to do this won’t work. I did notice that she had been cooking ahead. That is good but try to have foods that don’t require cooking like peanutbutter and bread, things like that. They were saying they lose power all the time, makes one think. I know they just stocked a freezer. If it wasn’t totally full, freezing water in jugs can help in the freezer and in the refrigerator.

I keep saying no one wins with water. It will be work no mater what, so the best thing is help each other for sure.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/10canstove.pdf - this is a doable thing.

I have been redoing my kitchen cupboards. Upon doing this I noted that shelving needed to be reinforced. It was a huge job. I wanted to move my jars to a cupboard pictured below which had a lot of the cookbooks on it. So everything got moved around. Prime realty is what I call it. When rearranging things the most often used items get the prime spots in this case it really helped.

Also this week I took a jacket to a dress in….

I thought of several things I could try but finally chose this version. I took the patches off then I made two French seams, one on each side going from the front then over the shoulder and down the back. I pressed them with steam and the clapper tool then I reattached the patches right over the front seams. It looks like it was there from the beginning. I then took in the sleeves in the under arm seam.  That was my frugal sewing project for this week.

I was given these white bowls and plan to use them for my main mixing bowls. So they will live on my butcher block…prime realty for sure very handy.

https://www.budget101.com/content.php/166-Mix-Recipes - this is my favorite site for making mixes.

I just want to point out the gluten-free section for those who need it.

https://www.budget101.com/content.php/193-Mug-Cup-Mixes I chose this one to show how many are under the categories.

https://www.budget101.com/content.php/466-Baked-Custard-Mix-in-a-Mug I chose this one to show how you could use as a gift idea,  save that egg white when making this.

I keep egg whites in the freezer mostly for angel food cake then for meringues but they freeze wonderfully.

Again, I want to point out that cooking from scratch is best on the budget and healthier for you.

I use my crockpot a lot. I will fix supper while working on breakfast. It helps me sooooooo much on busy days. This helps with my fibromyalgia as well, by that time of day I am in lots of pain…

So let us know your favorite recipe for scratch cooking or crockpot recipe, we all benefit from each other.

My favorite chili so far is my aunt Marilyn Horn’s recipe..

Chili
-I brown and drain one pound of hamburger and put in my small crockpot.
-Two cans of tomato soup and one can of water
-One can partially drained dark red kidney beans
-One tsp dried onion
-One to two tsp chili powder, or to taste (my daughter does 1 1/2 Tbs. chili powder)
-I shake generously black pepper from my shaker, I do not salt until in my bowl as I find it gets saltier as it cooks.

Yum and is better leftover.

Do the best you can at putting in storage and supplies and finding frugal ways of doing things.