Nearly 2 Weeks of No Shopping, Lots of Cooking and Canning!

I have to say I am better at living on my food storage than I am blogging about it. It has been an amazing couple of weeks. I have discovered some big problems of the items I have stored or not stored. Mostly, it is non-food items such as dishwasher detergent and health items like cold medicine. I was lucky enough to be able to trade some pumpkin bread for a small box of dishwasher detergent and I have just been using some good old fashioned remedies to keep a cold from getting the best of us.

During the last  2 weeks I have kept busy with canning and planning meals with what I have on hand. Fortunately the weather held out until this last Saturday. We have never had such a long fall and it was wonderful. On Saturday I awoke to snow and took this picture.

Even with the snow, I was able to still pick cucumbers for 2 days until it froze for good. The tomato plants were covered with tarps and I am still picking a few green tomatoes each day to let ripen indoors. In a few days I will finish picking the green tomatoes and make relish. I have red peppers and some pears in the garage to still take care of first.

Last week my 4 year old grandson helped me wash tomatoes to make tomato juice. He also help crank the Victorio Strainer and got so excited watching the juice fill up in the bowl. He also helped me make this pepperoni pizza.

Together we ground the wheat flour, made the dough, pressed out the crust and spooned some of my home canned meat sauce all over it. We then sprinkled peppers and onions on my side of the pizza and then he helped put pepperoni all over it. Doesn't it look yummy?

This morning I made whole wheat English muffins. It has been a lot of years since I have made them and never whole wheat ones. They turned out really well I think. I served them split and toasted. I fried up some of the home canned potatoes, some sausage patties and scrambled eggs covered in melted cheese. I used half and half fresh eggs and powdered eggs so as to save fresh eggs for later. My family didn't seem to notice any difference. I was impressed.

A One Month Test of Living on What I Have Stored

I woke up this morning with a brilliant idea. Since I have been working hard at canning and storing my 2 year supply,lets see just how prepared I am. How about not buying anything (other than fuel and electricity) for the next 4 weeks. I know this sounds impulsive, but if I had planned it ahead it wouldn't have been much of a test because I would have made a mad dash to the store to make sure that I could do it. This way, I will know how well I have done and what needs work and planning. I have already found some weaknesses today. I didn't store dishwasher soap and I also know now that I don't have a month supply of food for my rabbits (so I will be scrounging around in the garden and flower beds for edibles for my bunnies). I do have several bottles of dish washing  liquid. That means I will be doing dishes by hand very soon. I also only have enough disposable diapers  for a week and a half. I have been meaning to make cloth diapers and now I have no more excuses.

Breakfast was cold cereal and milk. We had left overs for lunch, nothing exciting. Dinner will be mashed potatoes, steamed chard from the garden and salmon patties. Carrot cake for dessert.

I am not planning on telling my family about my test. Lets see if they notice.