Thirteen years ago, I only had a toddler and infant and was living overseas, but when we were visiting our parents here in the US, I naturally did some shopping .  At that time I found flannel sheets on sale for $10 per twin set, and bought four matching sets sporting the 101 Dalmations on them (those were the only patterns suitable for kids).  That has worked out great over the years, since we have two bunkbeds in a room (that means four beds), and I like for all of the sheets to match.  Those sheets have seen plenty of use over the years, especially the fitted sheets, getting increasingly well worn, and surprise (!) – my ds15, who shares a room with three younger brothers, doesn’t especially want to use them. 

After thirteen years, today I bought  my kids new flannel sheets!  I love flannel sheets – it’s so nice to crawl in the winter into a bed that doesn’t take warming up.  I was at Walmart, not finding anything I was looking for, nor did I find an associate to point me in the right direction, when I stumbled upon these sheets, reduced 50%, to $11 a set.  That kind of tag gets my attention, especially for an item I’ve been thinking about getting for a while.  There were several patterns, but only the plain blue had four matching sets, so that’s what I got for the boys. 

A little further down the aisle, I found fleece sheets on sale ($12 a set).  Have you ever used fleece sheets?  I haven’t, but I figure they must be nice if it’s anything like using a fleece blanket!  I managed to find four matching sets of those, too – it took some looking though.  I got them in plain ivory, for the girls, which I thought would be a good match for their lavender walls. 

I have to laugh at how unspoiled my kids are.  When they saw me walk in with all of these bags full and I pulled out the sheets, they were so excited.  They all rushed upstairs to make their beds, and then do a big clean up to make the rest of their rooms match their beds.  My ds15 politely let me know that he didn’t like blue when he first saw the sheets, but then later retracted after his bed was made, and told me how nice the room looked.  Our bedrooms aren’t large, and I think that it makes a big difference for the bedding to be uniform in keeping things looking neat and pleasant. 

Unfortunately, when the girls opened the fourth set to make up the empty bunk in their room, they discovered that someone must have returned a defective set to the store, and it was placed back on the shelf – it was missing the pillowcase, and the top sheet had a stain and a hole!  I’m disappointed because I really want to have four matching sets, and I know there was nothing else left in the store I was at.  Maybe tomorrow evening I can head to a different Walmart and will have more luck finding something suitable to exchange it for.

When I bought the original flannel sheets years ago, I made blanket covers of the top sheets for two of the sets.  I like blanket covers.  In the winter, it adds another layer to the blanket for warmth, in the summer it can be used alone in place of a top sheet, and all year round it makes neatening the bed much simpler.  Right now everyone’s beds look neat since they’re freshly made, but I don’t expect that to last very long once they have to make them every day – it takes more time and effort to make a bed with a top sheet and blanket, especially on bunk beds, when it’s harder to get around to maneuver.  Since blanket covers have worked so well for everyone (and hide the different blanket patterns they have), I’d like to make some more with these new sheet sets. 

To make the blanket covers then, what I did then was use the flannel flat sheet for the top of the blanket cover, and a flat white sheet I had around for the bottom of the blanket cover, and attaching a zipper at the bottom center.  It’s a very easy project since the flat sheets are a standard size and all you have to do is sew long straight seams down the sides.  I’m thinking it would be a good use of materials to take apart the two old blanket covers, and reuse the flat white sheets and zippers from them to make new covers for the boys.   Since I don’t think the dalmation sheets will see much use anymore unless it’s as a backup measure, it will be a better use of them than taking up room in the linen closet.   Then I’ll see if I can find a couple more inexpensive white flat sheets to make two more matching blanket covers for the other boys.  I’ll have to look for a different sheet color that will be complimentary to the girls’ sheets (white and ivory aren’t quite a good fit). 

So today I have some work cut out for me – to take apart the covers, start resewing the new ones, and buy more flat sheets for the others.  There’s always something fun to be busy with!

Avivah

Woo hoo!  I am so excited by my newest kitchen additions!  I’ve been wanting to get stainless steel baking pans for ages, but they are sooo expensive.  Several years ago, I bought a number of baking pans at Walmart, not realizing they were aluminum.  I soon discovered they were terrible quality (they left black marks on the bottom of the food cooked in it, through the parchment paper) and after a while I threw them away (and I don’t recklessly throw things out – they were really horrible).  And I went back to using disposable aluminum pans lined with baking paper. 

But I really don’t like using them.  I don’t like the wastefulness of having to periodically buy a large stack, and then having to throw them out (I rewash and reuse them, but they still don’t last long).  Pans are something you should be able to buy once and then have them.  And I don’t like the health concerns associated with using aluminum (even though I line them before using).  And my kids really don’t like washing them, since they have those difficult to clean ridged sides. 

But I haven’t been successful in finding affordable alternatives.  I looked at Sam’s Club, to see if they had some decent quality pans, but they were all aluminum.  My husband checked prices from restaurant suppliers for stainless steel pans a while back, and they were out of my budget.  Periodically I think about where and how to get good metal baking pans (not glass because glass doesn’t last long around here), but I  haven’t had any luck finding anything suitable in mainstream stores at reasonable prices. 

On Weds. night, I was totally out of disposable pans, once again unexpectedly (it happens when you discover all the pans you have have teeny pin sized (or bigger) holes on the bottom and have to all be thrown away unless you want a burnt-on mess in the bottom of the oven at the end of the cooking time from the leaks).  And the pan I borrowed when I was given the meat from a restaurant a while back (the meat was in it) happened to catch my eye.  It’s been put to the side for ages, waiting to be returned, but hasn’t quite made it out of the house yet.  I figured since it was the only usable pan in the house and the people I borrowed it from wouldn’t mind, I’d use it for our honey baked lentils last night, and I did. 

Then this morning, I finally took out the Lehman’s catalog that came along with my oil lamps a few weeks ago.  I was flipping through, and in the kitchen section, I looked to see if they had any stainless steel baking pans.  They had one baking pan with a lid for about $35.  The pan I used the night before from the restaurant suddenly flashed into my mind, and it occurred to me that I could ask the owners if they had extra pans like that which they might be willing to sell me.  If they had more than they could use, they’d make a little money and get rid of pans they weren’t using, and I’d be able to buy some more cheaply than I could buy them new.

Yesterday I asked my husband if he could speak to them, since he’s the one who has more of a relationship with them than I do.  He said he’d try, and I figured within a few days, I’d hear if they would sell them and what the price would be.  When he came home several hours later, he brought a surprise for me – nine stainless steel pans!  All of them were 9 x 13, six were standard depth, and three were like the one I didn’t yet return, about double that depth.  So now I have ten strong pans that will last me forever, enough for whatever cooking I do at any given time.  Bye, bye, disposable pans!

And guess what?  They told him we could have them for free!!  Can you believe that?!  I wasn’t expecting it AT ALL.  I would have gladly paid for them and counted myself very lucky to have them at less than the retail price.  (I think the only reason they did that is they like my husband. :)) Isn’t that a nice way to go into Shabbos?  And my ten year old son, whose turn it is for dishes, is very happy about them, too – he hates washing the disposable pans, and just in the nick of time, he’ll have something much easier to wash this Saturday night! 🙂

Avivah

I’ve written about how I find it most effective to store the bulk grains that I buy (http://vibrantmoms.com/food-preservation/storing-bulk-grains/), but since someone recently mentioned to me that they planned to buy buckets, and someone else called us a couple of days ago to ask us about where we got buckets (and I know many new blog readers don’t go too far back into the archives), I thought it would be helpful to share again on this.

You can find 3 – 6 gallon food grade plastic buckets for free or a nominal cost at many restaurants.  Restaurants buy lots of foods that come in them, and usually don’t have a need for them when they finish.  Ask around at local restaurants, and let them know you’d love to take the buckets off of their hands when they have extra.  You may have to wash them out yourself (or you may not – I’ve been lucky in this regard, since they very generously wash them for me), but since it costs about $6 for a five gallon bucket, and $10 for a six gallon bucket, the savings in spending five minutes washing each bucket are justified.

You can also ask at ice cream stores and bakeries.  Frosting buckets can be a pain to wash out, but other than that, they work as well as anything else.  I don’t recommend using the buckets found at stores like Home Depot, which aren’t intended for food use. For the same reasons, I wouldn’t use empty drywall compound or paint buckets.  They could be useful for other things, though.

Because there are so many similarly sized round buckets but the lids vary slightly from one company to another, you might get some buckets and lids that don’t perfectly match up.  My choice was to accept whatever buckets and lids they had, and then keep the ones that didn’t match up for the next time around when I picked up buckets.  Over a period of time, I got lids to match almost everything, and even when I didn’t have the perfect fitting lids for my buckets, they were still adequate to cover the top.  When I put another full bucket on top of it, the lid was held down and pretty effectively sealed against insects or other intruders for all intents and purposes. 

Another option is if you are able to get the buckets but still need lids, you can buy the lids separately online.  Look for gamma lids, which are better than the regular lids because of ease of use.  If you have tight fitting lids, I wouldn’t personally suggest going to the extra expense.  But it can make it possible to take advantage of the free buckets that you otherwise might not think usable.

Avivah

This past Friday, I ran into the store at the last minute (something I rarely do) and noticed that ground chicken was on sale for $1.29 lb.  Hmm, I thought, I smell a bargain.  🙂  So true to myself, I had to buy some – 35 pounds or so; I hate to leave a good deal behind.

No, I don’t worry about if I’ll like it or how I’ll use it.  I figure that I’ll work that out once I get home, and if it’s inexpensive enough, we’ll have to like it. 🙂   I had just finished placing the last of six large packages of it on the conveyor belt at the store when the woman in front of me noticed it, and asked me what I was going to do with it.  While I was answering her, a man behind us in the next lane asked ds15, who had come along with me, what we were doing to do with it.  Fortunately I had told my son I’d use in the same way I use ground beef, so he had a ready answer. 

When I was checking out, I asked the cashier if it was a new item, since I didn’t remember noticing it before (though I didn’t find it quickly even when I was looking for it because of it being in the sales flyer).  She said she hadn’t seen it before I checked out, and I was there on the last day of the week long sale!

I did some online searching for recipes, and came up with some that looked good.  We used one package (five or six pounds) for chicken burgers for dinner on Monday, and they were a huge hit.  (That made enough for two meals for the ten of us, and it cost less than $8.)  I then canned 17 pounds of it, which filled 17 pints.  A pint may only be a pound of meat, but it’s enough to frugally add some flavor and body to a casserole or stew.  And I can always use two jars instead of one for dinner and not be so frugal, so that one canning session should be enough for 8 – 17 meals.  And now it’s not taking up freezer space. 

My experience so far with ground chicken is very positive.  It is juicy and flavorful – I was expecting it to be more bland and dry, like ground turkey.  Because it’s lower in fat than beef, it doesn’t reduce too much when cooked, so it’s really a bargain, since most of what you’re paying for, you end up eating.  My kids all liked it a lot, and I like that it costs a third of ground beef – I can be a lot more generous with it and make it go a lot further.  Ground beef has small pieces that are easily defined, while this is kind of pasty and mushy (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?!), so don’t picture it being the same consistency, but it’s very easy to work with.  The difference once it’s cooked isn’t noticeable.

So why was I seemingly one of the very few people to take advantage of this great deal in the past week?  I think that it’s because many people don’t want to try something new, because they might not like it.  Or they think that if it’s a really good price, something’s wrong with it, or it’s not worth more than that (the ‘you get what you pay for’ philosophy).  We tend to get stuck in our culinary comfort zones, like everything else.

I checked the online flyer for this week and didn’t see it listed on sale, but I went back anyway, thinking there might be some left at the sale price.  Sure enough, there was – it looked as if no one had touched the shelf since I was last there!  So I did the store a favor and emptied the shelf for them. 🙂  There’s more canning in my immediate future!

Avivah

Yesterday I went with my dd14 and ds15 for our big shopping stock up.  I usually say my monthly shopping, but since it’s been 7 weeks since I last went shopping, it wouldn’t be quite accurate to say that.  Since it was my son’s tenth birthday, he spent the day with his grandparents instead, and in the end, most of the other kids joined him there.  This was the first time I’ve ever gone with just older children, and it was very nice.  🙂

It was nice to go with a budget for two months instead of one, since it allowed me to purchase a lot of bulk things at one time instead of breaking it into smaller amounts that better fit a monthly budget.  I got a bunch of bulk grains and frozen vegetables, among other things.  Whoa, did I get frozen vegetables.  $140 worth (and since none of them were more than $1 lb, and a lot were less, you can do the math….).  I kind of went overboard.  For the first time, I ordered them in advance by the case with the person in charge of the frozen food department, and since I wasn’t seeing how much I was ordering, it was very easy to overdo it.  I was like, ‘Two cases of that, two cases of that, four cases of that….’  It didn’t sound like so much!  When I got there and they wheeled out my order on an industrial sized cart, I was a little taken aback for a minute, wondering how in the world I would fit it into my freezer. Especially since at the store before, I blithely bought two cases of blueberries and two cases of strawberries.  But do you think I’d let a little consideration like that stop me?  🙂

When we got home, we unloaded everything before picking up the other five kids (wouldn’t have had room for them to sit in the van before unloading), and came home to do the major work – finding space for everything.  Because the weather is so cold, I had my kids take five or six cases of frozen vegetables to the steps outside our house, covered by the storm door.  Then I had them put most of the milk there, too.  After filling our large freezer almost entirely with frozen veggies (fortunately it was much emptier than usual thanks to the long space between shopping trips), that worked out perfectly.

I also had them take the bulk bags of grain to those same steps.  (Yes, this very small area is packed now.)  I like to freeze grains before putting them away in buckets, to make sure if there are any insects in it, they’re killed.  But that’s problematic when you buy things in fifty pound bags and there’s not more than an inch of available freezer space, so I often skip this step, as important as I know it is.  It occurred to me that with the weather being so cold outside, that keeping the bulk grains in that area would be the same as keeping them in the freezer.  I’ll leave them there a couple of days and then do the transferring – I’m kind of glad to have an excuse not to have to deal with unpacking them yet.  It’s always a big project – yesterday I got 150 lb. hard white wheat, 25 lb. millet, 25 lb. brown rice, and 100 lb oats (50 – rolled, 50 – quick) – it takes some muscle and spatial organization (I call on my oldest son to do the muscle stuff, ie, hoist the bags and pour them into containers; I do the organizational aspect).  This should hold us over until our next shopping trip.  Though I don’t enjoy cold winter weather, I’m so grateful for this beneficial aspect of it – I’d be canning up all those veggies for the next few days if I didn’t have the possibility of keeping them cold in nature’s freezer.  As it is, I made a 16 quart pot of veggie soup to use some of those vegetables right away and free up some freezer space, and will be starting to can that as soon as I finish here.

On the way home from the shopping, my ds15 asked me why I buy so much food.  I told him, ‘Because we eat so much food!’.  I know it sounds obvious, but because I don’t shop weekly, the amounts are much more noticeable than they’d be otherwise when I do shop.  It is kind of amazing how much food a large family can go through, and even family members forget until they see (and have to unpack) all that we buy. 

Avivah

A well stocked pantry is crucial to keeping food costs under control, since instead of shopping for your menu plan, you shop to refill your pantry, and you can keep a stock of basic supplies on hand at all times (in whatever quantities appropriate for you).   Most of what I’ll share below doesn’t need refrigeration, but I what I call my pantry includes staples in my fridge or freezer.  Everyone will stock different things, depending on their tastes, but I said a while ago I’d post a list of what we like to keep our pantry stocked with, so here you go!

Flours – whole wheat, rye (I use this for sourdough starter), white, coarse cornmeal, fine cornmeal, teff (currently trying it out, but don’t know if I’ll replace it when we finish it), tapioca flour; nut flours – almond, walnut, hazelnut, pecan

Sweeteners – sucanat, honey, agave nectar, white sugar/brown sugar and powdered sugar (for baking for others)

Fats – coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, cold pressed vegetable oils, butter

Nuts – peanuts, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, whatever else is on sale when I shop; dried fruit – usually raisins

Misc. -yeast, arrowroot flour, cornstarch, potato starch, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, vinegars – Bragg’s apple cider vingear (acv), regular acv, white vinegar, wine vinegar, dried unsweetened coconut

Spices – salt (regular, sea salt, celtic coarse, Real salt, kosher, and canning), Bragg’s amino acids, tamari/soy sauce, large variety of other spices – important to adding variety to food, especially ‘boring’ foods like beans and grains, miso

Grains:

• rolled oats, steel cut oats, quick oats, whole oats (for grinding into oat flour)
• hard white wheat (for grinding into whole wheat flour)
• popcorn, yellow corn (which I hardly use and has been around a while – won’t get this again)
• buckwheat
• millet
• brown rice (white rice stays for storage purposes a lot longer but nutritionally it’s valueless so I don’t bother with it)
• quinoa and amaranth (not always, but when I can)
• barley
• flax seeds
• sesame seeds

Beans:

• kidney, red, pinto, black, large and baby limas, Northern, navy, black-eyed peas, pink, chickpeas, misc.
• brown lentils, green split peas, yellow split peas

Canned goods:

• tomatoes (diced, sauce, paste, whole)
• peas
• corn
• green beans
• pumpkin
• tuna, sardines, gefilte fish, salmon
• fruit – pineapple, mandarin oranges, cranberry sauce; home dehydrated fruit
• evaporated milk
• home canned foods – chili, meat sauce, beef stew, beef chunks, turkey, broth, fruits, beans

Eggs, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, hard cheese

Peanut butter, jelly, jams (homemade), pectin

Tea bags – mostly herbal, small amount of regular black – very low right now, bulk herbs for tea mixes

Miso, mustard, mayonnaise

As far as fruits and veggies that aren’t preserved, I’ve written before about keeping those items in a cool area of the house: potatoes, yams, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, cabbage.  We try to have at least the first few on that list on hand all the time, the others get added in when I do vegetable shopping and last until they run out.  I don’t rush to restock those.  Frozen vegetables usually include peas, corn, limas, green beans, and carrots.  As far as fruit, we get whatever is on sale and seasonal at that time: what keeps well out of the fridge are apples, pears, and citrus (oranges, grapefruits).  We also usually get a lot of bananas when they’re cheap.

What I have on hand will change depending on what the sales are, but these are the basics off the top of my head (yes, I could get up and look but then I’d end up cleaning my kitchen instead of coming back here to finish this post!).  I shop according to price, so if potatoes suddenly became very pricey, I’d get a lot less of that and a lot more of something else.

Avivah

My baby is so cute – at 16 months, he’s on the go all the time.  And one of the things he love most to do is open any kitchen cabinet he can, and pull out everything in it. Then he moves on to the next one.  Then to the coat closet, then the end table, then the next surface he can reach.  All day long.

Now you can imagine that this doesn’t make it easy to keep things neat.  Usually, he’s busy pulling things out in the kitchen while I’m carefully walking over and around those things while I prepare dinner- I definitely have to watch my feet.  And while it doesn’t bother me since it’s just a stage and will pass, it does make for a lot more work and clutter.  So when my husband thought of a quick and cheap way to secure the doors (I didn’t want to install special latches – we already have magnets on each cabinet door), I was thrilled.

Here’s what he did – he took some thick rubber bands, the  kind the broccoli comes wrapped with that he’s put aside, and simply fastened the door handles to one another.  If I want to open a cabinet, it takes me just a second to unwrap it, and another second to put it back on.  Very cheap, fast, and low tech. 

The baby’s been a little frustrated that he can pull the doors but they only open a little bit (because of the give in the rubber bands), but I figure a little frustration isn’t a bad thing to experience while you’re young. 🙂

Avivah 

Yesterday I got my first order from Lehman’s, an online Amish store (I know, that seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it?); they have all the manual/non electric stuff you could imagine and a lot more.  In it were the supplies I need for oil lamps.  (Why would I want that, you wonder? :))  I thought it would be practical to have some back up lighting other than candles and flashlights for power outages, and the idea of a lamp was appealing.  It’s much more secure than a candle, and provides a lot more light.  And it’s so atmospheric!

I did some research on oil lamps, but I wasn’t interested in breaking the bank, especially since it’s not something that I was intending to use for every day, and most of those I saw recommended were just too expensive.  When I heard about the possibility of using canning jars as the base for an oil lamp, and buying a converter so it could effectively be used as one, that very much appealed to me.  I don’t like having things around taking up space if it’s not necessary, and since I already have canning jars around, I appreciated being able to use them for more than one purpose. 

It took me ages to find what I was looking for on their website – they have loads of stuff and I didn’t have a catalog number to search for it with, and if I hadn’t known they had it, I would have given up.  But I finally found it.  (Here’s the link in case you’re interested: http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=978&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=1310 )  I bought three adapters, chimneys, and burners, which would give me three lamps – it was about $8 per lamp.  And I got three extra packages of wicks.  I’ve read that you can make your own, but until I know enough to know what to do, I’ll stick with these.  So these supplies will provide lighting for three lamps, which means that if necessary, three rooms will have some light in it – carrying a lamp or even a flashlight from room to room isn’t so efficient when it means leaving 9 other people sitting in the dark!  (About six years ago, there was a hurricane here that knocked our power out for a week, and it was really spooky for my kids at night, even with flashlights and tea lights.  I think this would have helped a lot.)

But why wait for a power outage to enjoy dinner by lamplight?  Last night we (well, I already told you I went out at dinner time, but everyone else) ate dinner by the light of our oil lamp.  I waited around to leave until it was lit to see how well it worked.  It was really nice and I think we’ll use it more often just for the special feeling it adds to a family dinner. 

For fuel, we used the citronella torch fuel that is made for outdoor torch lamps, that I got for 50% off last week.  I can’t yet estimate how cost efficient this is in comparison to using electric lights (and I’m not likely to do all the necessary calculations, either!), but a jar of fuel is 55 oz, enough to fill the one quart canning jar we’re using as a base 1.5 times.  The amount of fuel we used was negligible, but I’d have to burn it all down, keeping track of exactly how many hours it lasted in order to really give you an accurate idea of the cost.  In any case, it’s a lot cheaper than the lamp oil they were selling at Lehman’s for 6.95 for 32 oz!  So maybe I really should go buy some more of that lamp fuel before they sell out. 

Now I need to pull out those cheapy hurricane lanterns that I bought last week (the day after placing my order for these) for $2 each, and see how they compare.  Those will definitely be better for camping because I can hang them up.

Avivah