Time seems to be moving at double pace right now. Lots of fun but not a lot of time to keep you all up to date with our adventure. It's been a week since I told you of my family's progress.
Want to know how it is going?
First, some menu changes occurred this past week due to unexpected life events.
Actually, lots of menu changes. I had wondered whether or not I could actually create a menu before I saw the food ads. Now I know that I can't if I want to keep to a strict budget.
So this week the menu will start today and run to next Tuesday night. It will be a much better representation of reality.
Our black bean soup for Wednesday turned into winter vegetable soup instead since I hadn't yet repurchased black beans.
Breakfast Thursday started the slide away from the proposed menu.
I decided to really focus on using all of our leftovers efficiently, since we had already paid for them.
I created a lovely pumpkin rice pudding custard for breakfast to use up the extra rice that Ed cooked in the office for lunch that I baked off on Wednesday night. We couldn't resist and had a bit for dessert with ice cream.
Our lunches on Thursday and Friday were leftovers as well.
The girls don't like to see leftovers that look like the last meal they had. Unless I manage to turn them into some thing else, Ed and I get to eat them.
The Friday night birthday party didn't materialize. We ended up with pasta again, this time with salmon sausage patties on the side. I was fortunate this summer to have a friend at
Wild Catch let me in on the warehouse sale. A pair of lovely seasoned salmon patties- pure salmon and gluten free spices no fillers- were $1 per package. Approx weight 1/2 pound. I know that I can't replace these now at that price but we love them.
We had the remainder of one of the patties cut up and added to scrambled eggs in the morning with tortillas and avocados before dashing out the door to the Community Awareness event.
Lunch on Saturday was truly interesting. There were so many amazing vendors there for the sampling that we all just noshed our way through them.
My favorite was the Santa Fe Rice and Beans from
Storehouse Foods, although their chicken gumbo was tasty too. I was surprised that food that comes shelf stable, freeze dried and vacumn sealed was so good. I couldn't believe it was rehydrated food. It tasted fresh, nicely spiced with separate grains of rice not clumpy or sticky. I am so glad that they gave me a bag of each to review for you. I'll make it up sometime soon so you can see the ease of preparation and judge for yourself. I know a few of these will be living in my pantry soon just in case the winter driving gets bad.
But a close second was the greek pizza from
Fairhaven Pizza. Somehow I missed out on the cheese-less pizza that he made for other GF CF volunteers, but the greek was savory with hints of oregano, feta and olives.
Yes, I still made the gluten free sourdough bread on Wednesday last week. As you can see it is lovely while rising.
I promise I will share, just need to finish the tweaks for perfection.
If you live in Whatcom County, I will be teaching this recipe and all the techniques needed on January 26th at the Cordata Coop. Every participant in the class will go home with sourdough starter of their very own.
And as for Saturday night. We were just wiped out. Ed and I managed to chat with all the folks who had questions for us. The girls helped to keep the events actual landfill contribution to a small waste can by working with
Carbon Masters led by Mary Jensen. Katie even managed to get to a birthday party.
So when Ali and Tom asked if we wanted to go out to eat after the event, we said, YES!. We gathered the girls, they gathered their clan and off we went.
I know that on a food stamp budget, you just can't go out to eat.
Thank goodness, that typically making this kind of choice is easy.
But for right then, it felt right to go and enjoy the company of folks we truly enjoy. Best of all, we went to
On Rice in Barkley. When we asked our normal questions about gluten free food, the waitress left to reappear with a lovely printed menu that showed which menu items were naturally GF and which could be made gluten free specially. It even mentioned which items Couldn't be gluten free.
The little card also covered dairy, nuts and shellfish. Nice to get so much information so easily.
I will figure out the costs of creating a meal at home like we had there but for right now, I just put the amount we spent into the
spreadsheet.
Want to know how it is going?
First, some menu changes occurred this past week due to unexpected life events.
Actually, lots of menu changes. I had wondered whether or not I could actually create a menu before I saw the food ads. Now I know that I can't if I want to keep to a strict budget.
So this week the menu will start today and run to next Tuesday night. It will be a much better representation of reality.
Our black bean soup for Wednesday turned into winter vegetable soup instead since I hadn't yet repurchased black beans.
Breakfast Thursday started the slide away from the proposed menu.
I created a lovely pumpkin rice pudding custard for breakfast to use up the extra rice that Ed cooked in the office for lunch that I baked off on Wednesday night. We couldn't resist and had a bit for dessert with ice cream.
Our lunches on Thursday and Friday were leftovers as well.
The girls don't like to see leftovers that look like the last meal they had. Unless I manage to turn them into some thing else, Ed and I get to eat them.
The Friday night birthday party didn't materialize. We ended up with pasta again, this time with salmon sausage patties on the side. I was fortunate this summer to have a friend at Wild Catch let me in on the warehouse sale. A pair of lovely seasoned salmon patties- pure salmon and gluten free spices no fillers- were $1 per package. Approx weight 1/2 pound. I know that I can't replace these now at that price but we love them.
We had the remainder of one of the patties cut up and added to scrambled eggs in the morning with tortillas and avocados before dashing out the door to the Community Awareness event.
Lunch on Saturday was truly interesting. There were so many amazing vendors there for the sampling that we all just noshed our way through them.
My favorite was the Santa Fe Rice and Beans from Storehouse Foods, although their chicken gumbo was tasty too. I was surprised that food that comes shelf stable, freeze dried and vacumn sealed was so good. I couldn't believe it was rehydrated food. It tasted fresh, nicely spiced with separate grains of rice not clumpy or sticky. I am so glad that they gave me a bag of each to review for you. I'll make it up sometime soon so you can see the ease of preparation and judge for yourself. I know a few of these will be living in my pantry soon just in case the winter driving gets bad.
But a close second was the greek pizza from Fairhaven Pizza. Somehow I missed out on the cheese-less pizza that he made for other GF CF volunteers, but the greek was savory with hints of oregano, feta and olives.
I promise I will share, just need to finish the tweaks for perfection.
If you live in Whatcom County, I will be teaching this recipe and all the techniques needed on January 26th at the Cordata Coop. Every participant in the class will go home with sourdough starter of their very own.
And as for Saturday night. We were just wiped out. Ed and I managed to chat with all the folks who had questions for us. The girls helped to keep the events actual landfill contribution to a small waste can by working with Carbon Masters led by Mary Jensen. Katie even managed to get to a birthday party.
So when Ali and Tom asked if we wanted to go out to eat after the event, we said, YES!. We gathered the girls, they gathered their clan and off we went.
I know that on a food stamp budget, you just can't go out to eat.
Thank goodness, that typically making this kind of choice is easy.
But for right then, it felt right to go and enjoy the company of folks we truly enjoy. Best of all, we went to On Rice in Barkley. When we asked our normal questions about gluten free food, the waitress left to reappear with a lovely printed menu that showed which menu items were naturally GF and which could be made gluten free specially. It even mentioned which items Couldn't be gluten free.
The little card also covered dairy, nuts and shellfish. Nice to get so much information so easily.
I will figure out the costs of creating a meal at home like we had there but for right now, I just put the amount we spent into the spreadsheet.