January goals

can you tell today is catch up the blog day?

My goals for January

Health

To not injury myself again (pulled groin then adductor on top of already bad back) right after I fell backwards over the concrete lid of the septic tank and knocked myself out, slight concussion with mild whiplash ).

To take my Crohn's meds which means I have to eat a protein,carb to take them twice a day.

To take my vits,calcium and Vit D to stay healthy and repair my thinning bones.

To eat a rainbow of colors to keep the Crohn's from making me malnourished .

Blog

To post at least once a week.

To read 1 new blog a month.

Pantry

To eat from the pantry with minimum bought at the store for this month (and hopefully next couple months)

To finish preserving what is left of the fall produce (apples,pears, pumpkins,potatoes, (red and white), onions and butternut to say the least possible other winter squashes)

To finish bagging the frozen turkey meat that is on cookie sheets.

To finish canning the turkey broth after I remove the fat on top of it (fat goes in jar and in freezer for use later).

To learn to make powdered eggs (I found a way but haven't tried it)

Garden

To sort through and reorganize of what I am going to plant

Sewing 

To make brown paper patterns for aprons

To make brown paper patterns for my pj bottoms

Organization/Cleaning

Put away Christmas decorations in correct containers

Clean kitchen from top to bottom

Organize kitchen aid mixer attachments for easier use

Declutter four rooms

Shopping/Errands

Drop off give away items to thrift stores.

Order seeds needed for garden

Attend Amish produce auction (with friends)

Make January shopping list.

Knowledge

To learn one new thing

To read one new book

goodcheapeats pantry challenge

Jessica Fisher over at goodcheapeats.com is having her annual eating from the pantry challenge. Not only is this a good way to use up what you have but it saves you money.

Our pantry probably is closer to Brandi's over at www.theprudenthomemaker.com

I have 26 shelves in the pantry, 10 are double or triple stacked. I have a 27 cubic, a 20 cubic and a 7 cubic deep freezer along with my French door 26 cubic frig with it's freezer. I have 250 lbs of potatoes, over 300 winter squashes and close to 100 lbs of onions in cool area storages. One being my mud room that we insulated to keep warmer and now have to keep the kitchen door shut as we opened the windows to cool that room down to store produce.(I adjust the windows to keep it at the correct temp) (thankful it got cold before I had Hubby put in the AC in the window)plus I have 12 shelves in the butler's pantry with half of them double stacked and 2 shelves of dried fruit and dried veggies in the dining room china cupboard along with a 5 shelf cupboard  also in the dining room filled with spices and herbs and extra brown and xxx sugars and salts.

In total at last inventory I had over a year's worth of meals. GOOD for me, been a time that grocery money was very little for a period of 2 yrs. Thankfully the gardens did well but winter was a time of hunger.

This month we started eating from the pantry. I usually do it in late Nov or early Dec but we were actually still eating fresh produce from our gardens and the Amish produce auction we go to regularly. With warmer than usual Dec turnips, radishes and other root veggies were still coming in fresh.

It's nice to have some support from other bloggers about eating from the pantry for a period of time.

I did buy a calendar (on clearance) to keep track of a menu as I want to look back next year and see how we did....4th day in and I can tell you I haven't fixed one thing that was already on the two week menu I did. Like today was going to be cabbage rolls...but I am playing catch up with the laundry because I was down (kind of still am) with crud and a strained adductor. With a wringer washer it's more hands on than an automatic (but my electric dropped $30 a month) so I decided since I had cooked hamburger I would do pasta and cheesy bread and salad...all things we have in the pantry.
I will just write what we eat on the calendar and put a highlighted orange star on it.

Are you eating from the pantry?

Frugal things I did last week

because most of December was making theses

Twenty five of them later with my tears of frustrations on the last 3, you would think by then I would have had it down pat. All filled with packing pellets AKA snowman poop and 10 gag gifts with a small amt of cash. Then after delivery I pulled my groin muscle and that strained my adductor muscle I already have a bad back and struggle with leg pain because of it and then if that wasn't enough I caught the crud...you know the crap between the head cold and chest cold but won't go away but you are thankful you didn't get the stomach crap that was going around ..yeah that crud.

So last week I roasted 2 turkeys and froze the meat then made broth and canned it after following old timer's directions of skimming the fat off the broth and froze the fat to use later.

I sliced up what was left from the prime rib that I roasted for the holiday and now have some for a couple quick sandwiches and some for soup in the freezer.

I found mild sausage and hot sausage on sale so bought that and cooked it and strained the fat in to pint jars. Meat will be for casseroles, omelets , quiches, pizzas and calzones among other things. It went in the freezer in 1 cup servings (sandwich bags work well and then put in a freezer bag). Fat is in the frig.

I found hamburger on sale, made some in to patties so I don't have the excuse we can't have hamburgers because I forgot to thaw them, and cooked the rest with some water (trick learned when I cooked in a day care to make the meat less greasy), strained the water off and cooled it and took the fat off it for the freezer also.

Milk gravy tastes better if you use a favored fat to make it with.

I made a point of not turning the Christmas lights on during the day until Christmas eve and Christmas day.