Hi, I’m Emily from Front Forty Farm, and I am honored to be a guest blogger here on Farmish Momma. Tricia is an amazing momma, and she and her beautiful family have been an inspiration to me. I was so excited when she contacted me asking if I would participate in her “Real Food on a Real Budget” series. As a mother of ten, I, too, am faced every day with the dilemma of how to feed my children healthy food on a tight budget.
I loved all of Tricia’s points in Episode 1 of the series. Buying in bulk, shopping locally and in season, not wasting, and drinking water are my favorites. Those four suggestions are probably the most important things in keeping our large family eating healthy foods within our budget. In addition to this, we do have a large vegetable garden that helps out tremendously in the summer, but I have noticed as our family has grown that I no longer have the abundance of produce to preserve for winter use as I used to. We are now eating almost everything that we harvest during the summer, which is great when it is available, but we really miss having the preserved food in the winter. Hubby and I are currently making plans to revamp our gardens and plant a summer eating garden and one that is strictly for freezing and canning. I’m excited to implement our plans and see how it works out. Having more home-grown, organic vegetables (some fresh, some preserved) through-out the year will greatly reduce our grocery bill.Having farm fresh eggs from both our chickens and guinea hens is also a big help. During the summer when eggs are in abundance, I always try to incorporate lots of eggs into the meal plan. When fresh berries are in season, we pick as many as we can through-out the season to make jam and freeze them for smoothies. In the fall when apples are in season, we go to the local orchard and ask to pick their drops (apples that have already fallen from the trees). The price of a bushel of drops is significantly lower than picking apples directly from the tree. We eat apples until we can’t look at another one, freeze them for future baking, and turn many into applesauce. Using what is available, in season, or in abundance is key to saving money on food.
As far as meat goes, we try to buy as natural and local as we can. We have found a local farmer that sells all-natural, grass-fed beef and pork for around $2.99/lb., some cuts being a bit more. Sometimes he has a “cleaning out the freezer” sale, and marks certain things down to $.99 to $1.99/lb. We then take advantage of the low prices and stock the freezer with the reduced meat. We otherwise stock up on the one pound packages of ground beef and sausage, making them part of a meal, rather than the main course of the meal. Feeding my family individual steaks or chops would be much more costly and not budget friendly.
Like Tricia, I buy as much as I can in bulk. We do not have a Whole Foods near us so I am limited to the local grocery store and a small health food store. Our health food store is locally owned, and I do like the fact that I can support a small, locally owned business. I mostly buy loose tea, spices, grains, beans, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit and molasses in bulk from the health food store. I try to stick to fruits and veggies that are in season and most often the ones that are on sale.
I want to share a few of my family’s favorite, budget friendly recipes that utilize items I almost always have in my pantry and freezer, including the dried beans that I purchased in bulk.
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Lentil and Brown Rice Soup
Jane Brody’s Good Food Book
5 c. chicken or vegetable broth, or more
3 c. water, or more
1 1/2 c. lentils, rinsed
1 c. long-grain brown rice
1 qt. canned tomatoes (I use tomatoes that I have canned from my garden, but I have also used freshly chopped tomatoes)
3 carrots, sliced or chopped (whichever you prefer)
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 c.)
1 large stalk celery, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
3 large cloves garlic, minced (1 TBS)
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano (of course, you can use fresh herbs if you have them on hand)
1 bay leaf (I omit this)
1/2 cup minced, fresh parsley
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper, if desired, to taste
1. In a large sauce pan combine the broth, water, lentils, rice, tomatoes, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, basil, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring soup to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer…stirring occasionally for 40-45 minutes or until lentils and rice are both tender. Remove and discard bay leaf. (I have also made this in my crock pot, cooking on medium for about 6 hours.)
2. Stir in the fresh parsley, vinegar, salt and pepper. If necessary, thin soup with additional hot water or broth.This lentil stew goes wonderfully with homemade popovers.
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Calico Beans
(The original recipe, when given to me, called for canned beans and a can of baked beans, but I have replaced both of these items with dried beans and tweaked the other ingredients a bit to accommodate the substitutions.)
1 lb. ground beef or sausage — browned (can be eliminated)
1 lb. dried beans of your choice (I use a mixture of dark kidney beans, light kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, navy beans and/or great northern beans…anything I may have on hand.)
1 Tbs. dry mustard
3/4 c. ketchup or BBQ sauce (or both)
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1/8 – 1/4 c. brown sugar, honey, molasses or sweetener of your choice
(I also like to add a couple pinches of red pepper flakes)
Rinse the dried beans and soak overnight, covering with plenty of water. Drain beans and cover with water again. Bring beans to a boil and let simmer on low until soft. Drain beans; pour into crock pot with browned meat, dry mustard, ketchup and or BBQ sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar or honey. I always add one to two cups of water as well. Set crock pot to whatever setting works best for you. I usually cook for four hours on medium heat. I do check it periodically. You can adjust any of the ingredients to your family’s liking…less sweet, spicier, saucier… My family likes the beans to be on the soupy/saucy side, so I add more water if I find the beans are absorbing too much liquid.
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Cabbage and Sausage
This recipe came about when we had an abundance of cabbage from the garden and we needed more things to do with cabbage. It has become a favorite.
1 cabbage head (you may use less…I use the entire head, plus more since I am feeding 10 kids)
2 lbs sausage (I buy our sausage in 1 lb. packages that comes like ground beef…no casing)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. celery seed
Salt and pepper to taste
Apple cider vinegar
I use a large enameled, cast iron Dutch oven for this recipe.
1. Wash and slice cabbage thinly, set aside.
2. Brown sausage along with garlic, onion, and celery seed in large pot or Dutch oven.
3. Add the cabbage, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place cover on pot, and turn heat to low. Cook until cabbage is soft, occasionally stirring and mixing the sausage into the cabbage.
4. When cabbage is cooked to your liking (we like ours to be a bit crunchy), remove from heat and serve. Sprinkle with a bit of apple cider vinegar if desired.
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It was a pleasure being here today. Thank-you, Tricia, for inviting me. I’m excited to see what else you and the other mamas have planned for this great “Real Food on a Real Budget” series.
**Tricia here: Thank you so much Emily for being my guest in this series. What an amazing tip on buying the drops (apples that have fallen to the ground). I would never had known to do that! I hope to try at least one of your recipes very soon.
I hope to see you all back here tomorrow for the Pinterest Pin-along. Mine is Valentine inspired. Can’t wait to see what you all have been up to. So finish up your posts, get your pictures done and I will see you tomorrow.
