Make ahead advice, day 1

I haven't been posting nearly enough frugalities.  This is my blog to chat about my adventures, but its also supposed to have regular postings on what I do to pinch a penny, health-up the pantry and wildcrafting.  I'll try a tip a day for the next week and see how well that goes.

Today's tip:  Homemade is always cheaper and convenience is not lost with the 2-for-1 rule.

All extreme couponing aside (I still haven't completely managed to grab that particular brass ring yet), a little basic corner anyone can cut, involves a healthier/better/bigger product for less money.  I hate cooking.  Nothing irritates me more than hearing, "What were your plans for supper tonight?" after a long day.

If you are at all like me, you don't have that amazing gourmet cook husband that will not only cook fantastic suppers every night, but will also actually pick up his underwear from the livingroom floor AND take off his boots at the door, kids, or a sterile bubble of perfection surrounding your 6-figure income, I will describe convenient cooking tips at Chez Edwards.

When I make anything that involves assemblage, I set up a time and place to make as many as possible at once. While I can't (and won't) give up cooking all together, I can get rid of the kids and hubby for a few hours to give me quiet and space to power cook.  Not only do I manage to create a from-scratch meal for the night, BUT, for the same money as 1 high sodium, preservative rich, mystery meated, and plasti-packed BPA item, I can make at least 2, with real ingredients, non-toxically packed, and more good stuff in them.  One to feed the spawn that night and 1 to throw in the freezer that can be yanked out anytime and conveniently cooked.  2 or more meals with only 1 mess.  Oh YEAH.

Assuming that you are a bargain hunter and carefully shop for the best price on your groceries, you can vary your results.  For the sake of simplicity, I like Aldi.  You can go in and get a good price on really nice products without spending tons of time comparing prices.  Seriously, if you haven't shopped Aldi, you should.  I am really impressed.  There is a lot of information I can share here, so ill only focus on one of the most expensive:

Meats:  This is  a big variable.  Fresh meat is expensive no matter where you buy it.  My family hunts and we can process everything ourselves, so we have venison.  I also barter with neighbors and a couple of members in the nearby amish community.  I also have neighbors that utilize the local food pantry and give me the items they don't want--usually whole chickens, venison, and whole hams; canned and dried beans, rice, oatmeal, grains--stuff that they don't know what to do with, they think is too much hassle, or there is simply too much of it to use in a timely manner.  So, for me, its free.  Shop around for good prices on meats on shopping day and throw it in the freezer for 2-for-1 cook days.  Always shop for the rainy-day.  Have a deep freeze and keep your eye open for a deal.  A great time for deals is right after a major food holiday.  Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Ham is something my family LOVES and we just can't make it ourselves.  Its insanely expensive most of the time, especially in the form of lunch meat.  Post-Christgiving will yield you great ham deals.

Lunch Meat:  Another incredibly expensive convenient item.  A spiral cut ham cleaned off the bone will give you several pounds of sandwich meat already sliced.  Separate the slices into 1 pound packages and freeze what your not using.  Keep and freeze the bone for black eyed peas, or soups.  After you have gotten what you can from the bone, hand it to your dog to buy his love.  A 10$ ham can foster a ton of love and adoration if used to its completeness.  
How about roast beef?  There again, a roast sliced up will give you pounds of sandwich meat.  No slicer?  A sharp knife will work until you save up leftover grocery money to get one.  I got mine for 30$ used.  Really nice quality.  FYI, when slicing meats you will have lots of tiny little chunks and pieces.  Home made lunch meat is not compressed and processed to slice all perfect and uniform.  Collect those little bits and pieces and bag them up.  Use them in soup, hot dishes, salads.

Over and above any advice I have, I want my readers to know that if you are using meat, that meat was once a live, warm, breathing animal that died to nourish you and feed your family.  Most of the time, how that animal made it to your freezer is out of your control; however, the least that any of us [consumer] can do is to respect that gift and use that gift to its very limits before discarding any waste.  Yes, yes, you can choose to not eat meat.  I have my own opinions on this and will share them another time.

Lastly, we are such a horribly wasteful nation.  We battle and scrape to produce as much as possible and it sickens me to see half or more of that product thrown away.  Animal or vegetable, this disgusts and saddens me.  Even more so when there are people starving on the street while a grocery store throws away pounds and pounds of produce that is perfectly useable, but a date has passed rendering it "unsafe."
Instead of boycotting the use of these items, how about working to make a point to utilize as much as possible.  You are only a family of 2?  Go ahead and cook that whole chicken, eat what you want for dinner and then clean off meat and freeze it in small amounts for soup or sandwiches.  Experiment with flavors and create a ready-made favorite at home.  Take the bones and boil them for soup base and broth.  Can it or freeze it.  One less thing to have to pay for to make Christmas dinner when its time.  Take your cooked and cleaned bones to the local animal shelter for dog treats.  If you feel your stockpile is not getting used quickly enough, share with others.  Make that soup and bring some to an elderly neighbor, bring some hot homemade soup to someone in need.  Share with the homeless on a cold day.  Ask a church if there are people who could help you use up your stockpile.  Teach others how to do what you are doing.  Teach them how to save money and use the resources they have to get as much as possible from what they do have.  The more people that know how, the less waste.  The less waste, the less land needed to grow crops, less animals need to die, and less people will be starving because of something as simple as ignorance.

Cream of wild foraged food soup

I made the most WONDERFUL soup last night.  A combination of several ideas that just ended up being really nice together.  I was reading up on dandelions  because I really wanted to try making jelly while the blossoms are so nice.  I had read a short article about pickling new buds and creating a wild form of the commercial caper.  The buds would be the new spring growth after the leaves are up, but before the flower grows out.  Like this:

See how the buds are still at ground level?  They are very tightly bound and really nice for pickling.  I was also happy because using these as opposed to the crown is a lot less dirty.  The crown really offers a nice morsel, but unfortunately there is virtually no way to get all the dirt out.  Something I just cant handle in my mouth no matter how minimal.  These are dirt free and just as plentiful.  I picked about 2 cups for my first try.  

After that, to my pleasant surprise, I checked on my asparagus that I have been nurturing for 3 years.  This would be the first year that I am allowed to harvest.  I ended up with a beautiful bundle of about 8 stalks--YAY!

Lastly, I saw that my old fashioned day lilies were up and decided to dig up a few tubers.  They are similar to a potato, but look like a pearl onion.  If you've never had them before, work your way into them.  While harmless, I have run into a little gastric upset when someone is new to a wild food and gorge themselves.  I picked about 2 cups of these.  In case you are wondering, these are the OLD FASHIONED day lilies found feral on the sides of the roads and old homesteads, NOT the ornamental day lilies you buy at the garden center.  When in doubt, look at the roots.  They look like pearl onions. 

  Those that are close to me are saying, "But Jess, aren't you doing the Paleo thing?  They don't eat tubers!"  Yeah.  your right, but I'm no purist when I don't see a reason to be pure.  Why would a Paleolithic person not eat a tuber or a grain?  I would.  Someone had to.  Nutritionally perfect in every way and free.  

Mine.  Num.  

Anyway, I grabbed up some nice dandelion greens ( a good stiff handful  to go with the rest of my treasures and went inside to make a soup.  

I had some chicken breast in the freezer and put them in a pot (frozen) with about 8 cups of water, 2 good tablespoons of chicken base, about 10 whole peppercorns and about 7 or 8 whole cloves and about 3 bay leaves.   I brought all this to a boil to cook the chicken through.  When the chicken was white through, I removed the pieces from the water and placed them on a plate off to the side.  I skimmed the foam from the top of the water and then drained the stock through a clean cotton dish towel to remove the cloves and peppercorns.  I washed up my dandelion leaves, buds, and day lily tubers and trimmed any dirt or unappetizing bits.  I put the trimmed tubers directly in the water whole.  I chopped the leaves up and added those to the water, then the buds and finally I chopped up my asparagus and added that in.  For color, I chopped up some carrot and added some peas as well as some celery and chopped onions.  While this all simmered in the stock, I cut up my chicken breasts and added those back in as well.  

Lastly, I added 3 small cans of cream of chicken soup.  If you really want to be a Betty, you can make your own cream base, but I have a life outside of foraging.  3 cans of soup.  

Your thinking, whoa  this is a huge pot of soup right now.  Yes it is.  But a very good rule of thumb when frugal living with a larger family, its always good practice to make a meal double.  Half for supper now, half to freeze for later.  If you do this every time you cook a meal, you will have a lovely stockpile or prepared suppers that can be just heated and served up on a day you simply don't feel like making an effort.   

While the soup simmered merrily on the stove, I went to the freezer and pulled out 5 bread bowls I had made on an earlier day from frozen bread dough.  I can post this recipe another day, but when I store them in the freezer, I leave them slightly under-cooked  not golden brown, so that I can toss them in the oven to thaw and cook completely.  By the time the bowls were golden and crisp, the veggies in the soup were tender and ready.    

When everyone came to dinner it looked very nice and was made with very little effort, all in 1 pot and enough to feed 10-15 people.  Total cost for the meal?  About 3$.  It would have been less depending on where/how I got my chicken and if I had the extra vegetables grown myself.  

The soup was a success.  Even my finicky oldest boy cleaned his plate.  The dandelions retained none of their bitterness that is a turn off in the wild food world.  Very hearty, but springlike and complex.  Perfect for a cool rainy spring day.  

Day lily tubers are high in vegetable protein and natural oils.  Dandelions are rich in insulin and are very good for diabetics to help maintain insulin levels without synthetic means.  They are naturally detoxifying and are grown for detox teas and the roots can be roasted and made into a coffee of sorts.   A powerful and natural diuretic, they do very well to flush excess water from the body without depleting potassium like synthetic diuretics.  As a matter of fact, potassium is also a prevailing benefit of this wonderful herb.  They also help with muscle cramping and act as an appetite enhancer.  A lovely, nutritious, and versatile plant to aid in holistic healing as well as being a nourishing pot herb.  

As always, please make sure to harvest your wilds far from any roadsides.  At the very least, 100 yards from the nearest pavement.  Don't be greedy!  Dandelions are pretty hearty and therefore less likely to be over-harvested  but if you have a really good picking spot, leave some for the animals and other wildcrafters that might be looking for the same.  If taken responsibly, this is just another perfect and nutritious, organic, unprocessed and free food.  

As for the day lilies, they are also rich in vitamins and minerals and are used frequently in Chinese cuisine.  Make sure not to eat the commercial varieties.  While some will tell you they are okay, I am not completely sure and cannot vouch for that theory.  I've never bothered to try because the "safe" ones are so abundant and extremely hearty, having been brought and often planted by homesteaders for the sole purpose of food.   They are easily transplanted and very good at establishing themselves anywhere.  When eating the golden needles (unopened flowers) and blossoms raw, please use moderation the first few times.  Like I mentioned before, if you aren't used to wild food, you can gave some mild GI upset with the greens.  

Enjoy!!   

Thank you livestrong.com, for some of the nutritional information, and thank you norwichbulletin.com and jimlongsgarden.blogspot for the photo help :)