I want it!

Any of you ever hear stuff like this when you take your kids to the toy store?!?!

Mom!!! I want it, I want it, I want it! Can we get it??? PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE MOM??? It only costs 31199!!! Can we get it mom??? Please mommmmmmyyyyyyy! Please can we just geeeeettttttt it?!?!?

Mom: Not today.

Whhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy not?

Mom: It's too expensive.

Well, how much money do you have?

Mom: We need to first use our money for our needs before our wants.

(crying now)

Nooooooo! Why do always have to buy our needs first?!?!?! That's NOT fair!

ugh! It's now time to leave.

Don't let these smiling, happy faces fool you. :)

Day 7 - 8

Day 7
pancakes, homemade blueberry syrup - so easy
chicken nuggets
tator tot casserole

*Homemade berry syrup
1 1/2 c berries
3 T sugar
1/2 c OJ (or water) -mix with 1 T cornstarch
Heat and serve!

Day 8 - Sunday- Mother's Day
Pancakes, bacon, tator tots, toast and eggs
chicken nuggets
Sweet and sour meatballs over rice, salad

So far the first week has been easy, I have plenty of meat, cheese, dairy, fruits and veggies. Of course, I could anticipate the month without groceries so I was able to stock up (a mother -load or groceries) before May. I don't anticipate really feeling the hardship of the experiement until week 2 1/2 or 3. Week 4 will probably be a killer. :)

Food storage: Day 4 and 5

Thursday, May 4th
Day 4
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: chicken nuggets (I think I had leftovers)
Dinner: Bow tie pasta w/ cheese, bacon and broccoli

Friday, May 5th
Day 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo - and Happy Birthday to my big brother!
Breakfast: cereal (what will we do when the cereal runs out?!?)
Lunch: Nachos
Dinner: Taco salad (I bought 2 very large bags of tortilla chips from Costco on April 31st!)
*Also, I stretched my taco meat by only using half the amount and then I added in 1 cup of wheat berries. It tasted great and the best part is that Dallin and Thatcher didn't even notice anything was added or missing.

Today I started feeling pretty smug about myself, thinking that I can do a whole month....no problem. I should probably stop thinking like that because that's when things will get really hard. :)

Anyway, the wheat bread I made earlier this week didn't turn out well. It's amazing to me that I have been making bread for about 4 years now and every once in awhile I still get loaves that don't turn out. I remember that I made bread every week or every other week for a YEAR before I got a loaf that didn't fall in the oven! That is probably why I am not using the bread for sandwiches this week, but just as toast and bread/butter at dinner time. As we do our little experiment I have realized what a blessing to be able to make bread. You can add so much to a meal by having a loaf of wheat bread, french bread, rolls or even sour dough.

1 month food storage challenge!

Call me crazy, but a friend of mine and I have decided to try to live off our food storage for a month and see how we do. We figured we will probably learn alot of things and it will help us to see what we really really missed and what we would want to have in our food storage in the future. Here are the rules: ]
No buying food in the month of May.

Simple huh? :) We did make 1 exception and that is for milk. You can go to the store and buy milk. My friend, Kathie and I both have a substantial amount of dry milk which we use when our regular milk is about half gone. (Just make up a half gallon of dry milk and pour it into the jug of 2% you buy at the store, but SHHHH! don't tell anyone in my family or they would probably turn their noses up) But, we are both not quite ready to live entirely off dry milk, so we made an exception.

I wanted to document each day so I could look back and remember recipes, how soon I ran out of stuff and what I really missed.

So here we go:
Day 1
Fast Sunday :) That makes it easy
Boys only
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: leftovers from Red Robin and PB and J on homemade bread
Dinner (everyone): Roast, rice, bagged Asian salad, jello

Day 2 - Monday
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - PB and J sandwiches on homemade bread
Dinner - leftover roast, leftover potaoe, cheese soup, broccoli salad

*Made 2 loaves of wheat bread and made baby food.

Day 3 - Tuesday
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - chicken nuggets, leftover potatoe, cheese soup
Dinner - Used the last of the roast to make a beef stew (stretch the meat with wheat berries)

I know it's only been 3 days and we have a long way to go, but I find myself worrying about the food we have. For example, when the boys are hungry and want a snack, I have this internal debate, "We shouldn't eat the crackers because once they are gone what will the baby snack on?" "We shouldn't eat the string cheese, because that is what Jason takes for breakfast." "We should only eat our fresh fruits and veggies very sparingly, because 4 weeks is a long time for fresh!" I was freaked out on day 1 because I thought I didn't have any more cheese, but I found a few blocks in the freezer outside and was very relieved. I can't imagine the stress that would be on me if this were truly and emergency. It will be good to have a practice and see what I can learn so in the event of a real emergency I can put my mind to rest.