Making Vegetables Last Longer

I have been meaning to do this for years and keep forgetting.  Sometime during the summer I remembered this way of preserving fresh vegetables again.  I got on line and ordered the jar attachment to my Food Saver.

If you have a Food Saver vacuum sealer you will need the jar sealer attachment.  I will not work without the jar sealer attachment.

I had bell peppers, green beans, and two tomatoes that were going bad.  I am determined to keep the food waste down this year.  I cut the bad parts off of the peppers and tomatoes and trimmed of the ends of the beans and tossed the bad ones.  I put them in the jars and used lids that I have saved from jars of previously canned food.  I couldn't get the jars to seal with big indents in the rubber ring, but the ones that were slightly indented worked good.
This picture is 6 days after putting them in the jars.

NOTE:  THIS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTION FOR CANNING!!!!!!!! THIS JUST HELPS FOOD LAST A LITTLE LONGER.

Dehydrating Marshmallows

Did you know that you could dehydrate marshmallows?  I didn't until last week.  I got the information from CFD Publications which is simplyprepared.com.
You can also find them HERE on Facebook.

Here is my dehydrating marshmallow process.

Two bags of small marshmallows single layer filled four trays.  The temperature is set to 125°.

The instructions on CFD Publications says that it takes 24 to 36 hours to dry them.  Mine were dry in 18 hours.  The dry climate I live in probably made a difference.  I tried one after about 10 hours.  The outside was hard, but when I bit into it the center was sticky. A very weird texture and hard to chew.
After 18 hours I tried another one and it tasted like the marshmallows in cereal. I guess I know how those are made now.
Notice that they look the same finished as when they were put on the dehydrator trays.  They don't shrink, but they get hard.

You will know they are dry if you drop one on the floor and accidently step on it, when you back up to find the one you dropped, and it breaks apart and part turns to powder.

I put various amounts into bags and Hubby vacuum sealed them.  I plan to use them mostly in hot chocolate.  CFD Publications added them to chocolate chips and nuts to snack on.  I may do that too.

Canning Sausage Patties

A few years ago I canned ground sausage.  I saw a post on a food storage group where someone canned sausage patties, so I decided to do that too.
I bought the sausage on sale in November.  That was the same month it was on sale when I canned sausage last time.  That must be "sausage sale month".
You can see the ground sausage at the bottom of the page by clicking HERE.

Here are my sausage patties.

I bought Jimmy Dean sausage.  I cut it into patties.  There were 10 patties from most of the packages. One had 9 and one had 11 patties. I flattened them to barely fit into a wide mouth jar. I just browned them and oops, overcooked a few.

Then I drained them on paper towels.

I then filled the jars to about 1 inch (or a little less) below the rim. Saved a few out for Hubby and saved the grease.  There are seven sausage patties in most of the jars. This picture is before pressure canning.

Here they are after they are after pressure canning.  I kept the sausage flavors separated.  I didn't show pictures of the plain sausage, but it made the orange grease.  The white grease is the maple and sage mixed together.  That ought to be an interesting taste when I use it.
There is a lot of grease in the jars and the sausage shrank a lot after the pressure canning. Hubby always wants gravy so this will have the grease in the jars to make gravy with.  If it isn't enough I can add some from the two little jars.  They are stored in the freezer.

I can with the Tattler reusable lids.  I not sure if the marker will wash off of the lids, so I put an "M" for maple, and "S" for sage and put nothing on the plain.

How to Plan a Monthly Menu

We plan a monthly menu for dinner only.

Breakfast is cereal, yogurt, eggs, pancakes, waffles, muffins, and even sandwiches.  There is always breakfast items on hand, so that is rarely planned.

Lunch isn't planned either.  It is leftovers or sandwiches usually.

Dinner is the one that takes planning.  So how do you plan for a month worth of  dinner meals?  You can use this same way to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner too.

The first thing I did was sit down with the family and write down every main dish we liked to eat.  I have a folder that I keep that list in and add to it as we find new recipes we like.  I don't remove the things we no longer like, because sometimes we want to try that again or it reminds us of a new version of that item we want to try or tried and want to add to the menu.

This is what my monthly menu calendars look like.  I created this in Word.  I inserted a table then added text.
Each month I look at old menus and our list of main dishes we like and just start writing them on the menu.  I add salads, fruits, vegetables, breads, and anything else that is needed to make the meal complete.
If I am trying something new I write the book name and page number at the bottom of the box. If it is a recipe on paper then I clip it to the back of the menu. Recipes from my file I will sometimes (when I feel really organized) pull out of the file and put in order in the recipe holder.

I go grocery shopping every two weeks at the most.  I plan to use the items with the shortest storage length first i.e. peaches, avocados, and those fresh foods that don't last long.
I write everything in pencil, so it is easy to move meals around if say, I planned to us an avocado in 2 days after buying it, but all the store has is hard ones that won't be ready for 5 days then I just switch the meals around.
Sometimes what is planned just doesn't sound good or there isn't enough time to fix it, and last minute events cause the menu to be switched around again. Almost every event is equal to last minute when you plan meals a month in advance.

Friday nights are usually "I don't feel like cooking nights", so they are easy meals.
Plan for meals that create more than you can eat in one night and use as lunch leftovers the next day.

Sundays are a day of rest form cooking for me.  We clean out the refrigerator by eating the leftovers from the past week and usually tossing what little is left after that.

Freeze things like soup and chili that are easy to reheat next week or next month.  Just don't forget about what you froze.

See my pretty Menu Calendar here.

Other Preparedness Thoughts for 2016

What are you really prepared for?

How long can you go without grocery shopping?
What ways do you have to cook without power?
How are you going to stay warm in the winter without power?
How long can you live on your savings account?
How will pay for an unexpected major expense?
What skills do you have to barter with?

These are situations that are constantly changing and things we hope to never have to deal with.  I want to try to be prepared for these things and hope to never have to deal with them at the same time.

This year a budget is a bigger priority than in years past.  I went through the checkbook and categorized all the expenses that I could and made a budget based on last years expenses.
To begin with the budget will have to change monthly as we pay quarterly bills, unexpected maintenance bills and have other expenses that are not the normal monthly expenses.


Learn to cut expenses.  Use it up, make it do, or do without.

Where do you cut expenses when you have cut everywhere you can already?  I'm trying to figure that out also.

  1. No cable or satellite television at our house.
  2. We go to one theater movie a year for our anniversary.  That is not every year either.
  3. We borrow books and movies from the library and friends.  We do buy a few movies the weekend
     after Black Friday.  There isn't a movie we want bad enough to be part of that crowd.
  4. Grow a garden and use what is grown.
  5. Set the thermostat a little lower in the winter and wear a sweatshirt, sweater, or some extra layer of
      clothing. We keep it a little higher in the summer.  I get up extra early and open all the windows to
      cool the house off as much as possible.  Then about 1 hour after the sun comes up I close all the
      windows and blinds.  The air conditioner doesn't come on until late afternoon usually.
  6. Wash clothes in cold water and hang to dry when possible.  Put damp clothes in the dryer to finish
       drying and soften.
  7. Plan menus and eat at home.  I was shocked to find that our eating out expenses averaged about $35 a
       month last year.  That includes while on vacation.  We rarely eat out.  I didn't think we spent that
       much.
  8. Mom usually cuts my hair and Hubby lets his grow longer that he likes to keep that expense down.
  9. We keep a shopping list for groceries, household supplies, home and auto maintenance
      and everything that comes to mind, so we can make as few trips as possible getting things we need
      or forgot.
10. I tried making our own laundry soap.  It works fine for everything but Hubby's work clothes.
11. I check prices and buy the container that is the best price per ounce, whether it be an off brand or
      bulk.
12. I shop thrift stores and yard sales for things we need and sew a lot of our clothes.  I even shop thrift
      stores for fabric.
13. I rarely use coupons.  I find that most of them are for things I don't use.
14. I make almost everything from scratch.  No prepackaged food at our house hardly.  Angel food cake
       mix, hot chocolate mix, brownie mix and stove top stuffing can be found at our house sometimes
       when the price is right.

What we do have.

 1. Netflix instant watch.
 2. Android Cell phones with unlimited everything.  I hate the expense, but Hubby has to have it for work.
     Adding me on was a minimal expense.  With the new phone services coming out now we may be able
     to cut that expense.
 3. Internet service.  I am looking into a new provider, because mine has become more expensive than I
     want for the quality.

So if you are living similar to the way my household lives; where do you cut expenses?  I'm not sure, but I am looking for more ways.

Let me know what suggestions you have.

It doesn't take long to live without certain expenses.  Decide what you really want and make priorities and budget for them.