Category — FOOD

There are many ways of preserving foods, dehydrating, freezing and canning. Today we will discuss canning. There are many foods that can be canned, meats, vegetables, fruits and such… but did you know you can can other foods as well? How about crackers? Breads? (more…)

Food, it’s something I really REALLY love, I love cooking and eating. As a young child, while my little sister was busy playing with her dolls and tea sets, I was in the kitchen watching my mom cook and bake. My mom was great in the kitchen, she could take a few basics and whip up a grand meal, fortunately that rubbed off on me. :)

I have a few old standbys, one is a tuna casserole, this recipe always makes me think of my mother in law, she makes a similar one and is quite the good cook herself! (more…)

LOL, if you read many of my posts, you will notice I have a fetish for food, I also write about health and living off grid, but food is one of my major passions. I love cooking and baking from scratch. I cook by the seat of my pants, I’m one of those who can look at a kitchen full of staples and can whip up a tasty meal. Give me the basics, flour, butter, cornmeal, leavening (yeast, baking powder, baking soda…), seasonings, some protein like chicken, beef or fish, perhaps some fresh veg and I can put together a meal fit for a king.

Today we will focus on one ingredient, coconut oil. Not too long ago, it was considered to be a “bad” oil, it was cheap and often the oil of choice for fast food restaurants for deep frying. Like many foods that have been demonized in the past, now it’s considered a healthy fat, go figure… (more…)

It’s NOT too late to start prepping! If you are still breathing, and you are reading this, it’s not too late to start prepping! Even though the main stream media is doing its utmost best to make preppers look like the bad guy, that’s not your problem, your focus needs to be on taking care of yourself and your family, the more people you are responsible for, the more you need to buckle down and get ready for whatever may be coming down the pike.

The USA is still considered a prosperous country with lots of safety nets, I’m here to tell you that we are on a very slippery slope, what is at the bottom of that slope? Well, look around at what’s going on in other countries that were once prosperous and see where they are now. With the dollar being devalued quicker and quicker, hint that means the buying power of a dollar is less and less, saving money, ie savings accounts, hiding it under your mattress and such shouldn’t be your top priority right now, unless you already have a major stock of food and other necessities put back. (more…)

Since I live so far from town, it’s a 40+ mile round trip to go to the nearest town that only has one grocery store, it’s 80+ miles round trip to go to the next closest town that has 2 grocery stores, and we don’t have our own chickens, yet! I sometimes find that I am short an egg or two when I want to make something that requires eggs. It’s just not worth it to drive to town just to pick up a carton of eggs. I ran across this article with lots of good info about how to substitute other things for eggs, and the good thing is these are things you probably already have in your pantry. :) (more…)

Saving money, everyone talks about it, everyone wants to do it, but it’s hard to do. With most of us on tight budgets, it’s more important than ever to save every penny you can.

The main reason saving money seems hard to do is it usually means having to give up something that you would normally want to buy or do. My hubby and I live off grid, we budget ourselves tightly, that includes food, but we still eat very well, the trick is to find ways of saving that doesn’t hurt so much. Here are some of the ways I save money. Let’s focus on food, something we all have to have to survive. (more…)

Lots of things are going on today, the one getting the most news coverage is the president of the US being sworn in today, I read recently that the inauguration ball was going to be scaled down in respect of the bad economy and unemployment numbers being high, then today I read that it’s going to cost over 300 million… THAT’S CUTTING BACK? So, in light of this, today I’ll write about something really important, cooking and eating! A few weeks ago, we were snowed in, fortunately we had enough provisions to get us through. (more…)

Staying healthy (to me) means eating more foods that are healthy than the unhealthy ones. Staying healthier means I can live a longer more fulfilling life and can stay independent, living off grid for a longer period of time. I for one try to eat a larger balance of healthy foods vs unhealthy ones, I try to tip the scales toward the healthy ones and away from the unhealthy ones. We literally are what we eat, your body has to get everything it needs from what you consume, if you are consuming a great deal of incomplete nutrition, then your body will eventually begin to fail, you will notice more aches and pains, and you will not bounce back as quickly from colds and viruses. (more…)

Staying healthy, especially during the winter is one of the things I actively work on. I believe one of the reasons so many more get sick during the cold months is because we tend to stay indoors more and have less fresh air coming in because it’s too cold to raise windows. We cram ourselves inside the house, inside stores and are around more people. The more people you are around, the more likely you are to be exposed to someone who is sick. I am not exposed to very many people as a rule, just because of the way I live in a low population area. The main exposure I have is going to church and being a caretaker for a friend, it means I sometimes have to take her to doctor appointments, I do my best not to go into the doctor offices, clinics or hospitals, but sometimes I have to. So I work hard to keep my exposure to a minimum and to keep my immune system in tip top shape. (more…)