Comments on: Half-Way Through

By: barbara (in Tennessee)

barbara (in Tennessee) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:02:56 +0000

I know what you mean, leftover beef means veg.beef soup with barley thrown in, leftover chicken in more of a chicken and rice or maybe a gumbo. Not exactly recipe material, but pretty much predictable. Anyway, when I run across a good one, I’ll let you know

By: Kathie

Kathie — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:06:35 +0000

Barbara, That was mostly written as a joke (obviously not very well, I’m a poor a humor writer). Anyway my fear was that all we were going to eat was 14 soups through this challenge and that hasn’t been the case at all.

We eat a ton of soup around here in the winter, mostly its just a hodge-podge of veggies and left over bits of meats, rarely does it follow any kind of recipe.

By: Simply Authentic

Simply Authentic — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:22:33 +0000

This is so inspiring that you’ve been able to do this and that so much of what you are eating truly is coming from the labor of your own collective hands. Obviously I haven’t been keeping up with blogs very well the last several months, but it’s good to see that things are going well over there!!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:38:28 +0000

Love the concept. I’ve finished a wine cellar and am just finishing a root cellar that will be ready for the coming season, and intend on making good use. I’m already storing food more, meal planning better, enjoying the economic and health benefits, etc. A very worthwhile way to live. Now that I’ve got wine, root veg, fruits, game meats and pork sorted, next step is cheese and dry cured meats..

By: Willow

Willow — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:01:20 +0000

Because I don’t own or have room for a freezer, I can’t store much food. I do have berries in the frig’s freezer that I purchased at the farmers market. But our market is open year round and it doesn’t seem to be particularly useful for us to store up much produce. I did blanch and freeze a few lbs of green beans because the bean season ended last month.

By: teresanoelleroberts

teresanoelleroberts — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:18:39 +0000

I’m not in on this challenge, but we’ve been eating through our stores nevertheless.

Garden potatoes AND storage potatoes gone. Apparently if they’re there, we eat them. The storage squash is still hanging in there, but we should get to it soon. Canned tomatoes are almost gone–we didn’t do a lot but hope to do many more this year. We’re enjoying the applesauce and frozen beans greatly, and I’m nibbling dried apples as my work snack. The lesson for the coming season, I think, is to preserve a)more tomatoes in all forms and b) more variety. Much as we love beans and applesauce, we’re jonesing for other flavors–but supermarket veggies fall flat.

By: barbara (in Tennessee)

barbara (in Tennessee) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:38:29 +0000

Like the other commenters above, I, too, am trying to curtail grocery spending to only those can’t do without items (such as coffee ) since I also have a freezer still more than half full of vegetables (like squash and okra) and plenty of canned green beans and tomatoes. Anyway, your posts intrigue me, so I went back to the first of the 6-mo no buying posts and noticed you said a 14 soup rotation I would love to know more about those, i love soups and am always looking for more great recipes. Thanks

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:22:29 +0000

I’m doing an eat from your pantry/freezer challenge this month witha reduced budget for groceries and it’s been interesting. I’m trying to improvise with ingredients already on hand to make something from scratch rather than purchase store-bought. I think it’s great what you’re doing and hope to do some home-preserving this year.

By: Paulette

Paulette — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:56:35 +0000

Wow, it sounds like you are in very good shape, lots of choices for meals, and they all sound delicious.

We are contemplating a challenge of sorts, but Mike is slow to buy in

I want to try going for one month without buying anything except agreed upon staples. He’s ok until I argue that M&Ms aren’t staple. I’m going to work on it though, we really need to use some stuff up before buying more.

You are doing great, congrats with the success.

By: Carla

Carla — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:56:54 +0000

I did a little food preservation last fall, pickles, salsa, applesauce, peaches…and was able to use some for Christmas gifts, with appreciative comments from all recipients. I will definitely being doing more pickling with a plan for gift-giving…and more salsa for me!