Economic woes hit American stomachs

[*anj*]

Amy,

I can totally understand how/why it would seem like bread baking would throw you over the edge. You are running a thriving business out of your home! In fact, I'd imagine that some of us here would love to barter bread for soap with you! :001_smile:

 

I am about to bake bread right now. Here's how long it will take me:

 

10 minutes to grind the wheat

10 minutes (max) to combine all of the ingredients

10 minutes to let the machine knead the dough

 

one hour rising in bowl

 

40 minutes to take dough out of bowl, split into loaves, and put in pans

35 minutes to bake

 

Total: 3 hours and 10 minutes, BUT I overestimated the time it would take to grind, combine, and split into loaves because sometimes I get interrupted or distracted or whatever. And while I am hands on with it for the first three steps, I'm busy doing other things during the rising and baking times. So yeah, it means that I have to commit to being at home that whole time, but it sort of takes care of itself during some of that time, you know?

 

Oh, and while I just said that you commit to being at home, that's not totally necessary either. I can run out and do other things as long as I'm mindful of the rising time.

 

hth!

[Kim in Appalachia]

I've made my kids cut back on how much milk they drink. They are now limited to 2 cups a day. They used to drink 4-5 cups. Only 3 of my 5 kids drink milk (the other two drink soy). we used to go through 6 gallons a week, we've cut it back to 3.

[PineFarmMom]

We spend about $700-$800 for a family of 6. It has become ridiculous. Even when I'm trying to be careful, I can't seem to do less than $150 per week. Every item seems to have gone up!

 

Teresa

[Jenny in Florida]

I'm just making some changes in how I shop and how much I cook from scratch.

 

We're already a vegetarian/vegan household, so cutting back on meats and dairy products won't help us, and cutting back on fruits and veggies isn't an option. With my daughter living most of the time away from home, we don't go through that much bread. I'm just watching sales more carefully and keeping a lid on waste by planning meals and snacks more intentionally. I'm also making treats from scratch at home instead of buying prepared (baking cookies instead of buying a package, for example). And I'm thinking far enough ahead to make sure we pack snacks and lunches when we leave the house for the day instead of grabbing something while we're out.

 

I got alarmed sometime last month about how much we were spending on groceries and determined to get it under control. So, I am now tracking everything we spend. This past month (from 3/15 to now), we spent about $510 for our at-home family of three. It's not as little as some of you folks manage, but I feel better because it is below the national average.

[Jenny in Florida]

"In the article one woman said that she has cut back on meat, fruit, vegetables and snack food in order to save money. What are they eating?"

__________________

 

 

What are they eating? I would really like to know. No meat, fruit and vegetables?

 

I just wanted to mention that the woman quoted in the article didn't say no meat, fruit or vegetables, just that she was curtting back on the amounts of those three things.

[Ravin]

Beans are vegetables.

 

Yeah, but the person who made the original comment probably wasn't thinking in those terms. People tend to get sort of a whacky view on what food groups things are in, depending on their sense of diet.

 

A couple of weeks ago the Brownie troop I help with was doing food pyramids, and several of the girls kept putting potatoes in with the grains/breads, I guess since potatoes are starchy. At least the girls had an excuse, though, since they were in 2nd and 3rd grade.

 

Okay, I can't resist. Beans are usually grouped with meats as "high-protein foods" because from a nutritional standpoint that's what counts with beans. They have fiber and some vitamins, too, but legumes (except fresh peas) are generally not considered vegetables, unless you're ordering side dishes in a soul food restaurant.

 

Ditto with potatoes, which are a starchy food to be lumped in with grains because they are primarily carbohydrates.

 

And, to be technical from a botanical standpoint, beans are seeds and potatoes are roots. Neither is a fruit. They could be considered "vegetables" because they grow on plants, but by that criteria so are all grains, fruits, nuts, etc. and few people count pasta and bread as 'vegetables'.

 

And while we're at it, tomatoes are fruits. They're only categorized as vegetables for political reasons.

[Sandy in Indy]

Not only did Ronald Reagan count ketchup as a vegetable but public schools are allowed to count it as a veggie in their lunches. (unless something's changed) Yikes!

[GailV]

Actually, Ravin, I'm totally with you on this, and almost replied to the ketchup-as-vegetable comment with the bit about tomatoes being a fruit (which goes back to a tariff on fruits vs. vegetables, or something like that).

 

I guess I shouldn't have used the value-laden word "whacky" in my sentence. My point is that we tend to classify foods according to various systems depending on what we're talking about.

 

For example, aren't grains actually a fruit when considered botanically? So are peppers, bean pods, nuts and corn, if you're being botanical. And wheat gluten is often used as a protein source, so you could place some grains in the "protein" category if you're thinking about proteins vs. starches. What we call them really depends on how we're discussing the subject. I imagine most people think of beans as being a protein source and lump them with meat in casual conversation.

 

Unless you're one of my kids, in which case you endlessly argue this with your mother at the table ("You need to eat your vegetables, dear." "But, Mom, wouldn't the red pepper be a fruit? So she isn't eating any

vegetables!" "Yeah, well, that cucumber she's eating is a fruit, too, isn't it? So there -- it doesn't count either!" Aargh!)

 

 

For the record, the Brownies in my example were gluing pictures of potatoes on a paper with sorting categories of grains, vegetables, fruit, meat, fats and sweets. "Starches" wasn't an option, as that's a different system. I was fine with the Brownies gluing the beans wherever they wanted -- meats or vegetables -- by the way. Frankly, I think the current food pyramid isn't that great, so I wasn't too hung up on getting stuff politically correct. But I totally balked at calling a potato a grain.

[*anj*]

I don't care for most frozen broccoli either, however I found some awesome frozen broccoli at Sam's Club, right now, I've been able to get a 4 pound frozen bag for about $4.27 and it's all heads. Dh even comments how good it is. It's the only frozen broccoli that I buy now. Anyway, just thought I'd give you a heads up in case you want to try it. Most frozen broccoli is nasty because it's all stems.

 

Kristine

 

Thanks, Kristine. I'll give it a try the next time I get to Sam's. :001_smile:

[*anj*]

We love bagels here, too. I learned how to make them at home from this. It really is very easy. Give it a try and see how you like them.

 

I made them yesterday and they were awesome!!! Thanks so much for the link. The directions were very clear and we loved them. I am now ready to experiment with different things like adding an egg, maybe some malt, sprinkling on sesame seeds, etc.

Oh, and I used half whole wheat flour and half white, and we thought they were great.

Thanks, Audrey!

[*anj*]

LOL I just made a batch yesterday and they came out great. I have done them before, but I was running low on time. I am making a committment to start a dedicated baking day. I used to do that years ago and don't know why I stopped.

 

Absolutely.

A dozen bagels cost about $8 here. The recipe I used made 8 nice sized ones, and it couldn't have cost me more than 50 cents to make the whole thing. Way cool. I plan to double the recipe next time.

[Leta]

We bake our own bread. The way we do it is make four bakings (8 loaves) at a time, and freeze them. For our small family, this is a month's worth of bread.

 

Our standard size oven is *just* big enough to bake all the loaves at the same time. We bought the loaf pans for $0.25 each at the thrift store.

 

If you have a good bakery thrift store available, baking bread may not be as good of a deal, but also remember that homemade bread, being more filling, replaces other things you might normally buy, like crackers and stuff.

[Leta]

Oh, and one more thing: the lady who created Hillbilly Housewife has a new website called Frugal Abundance. It has more of a emphasis on whole foods and virtually no red meat. The site isn't complete yet, but I love it.

[Stirsmommy]

Another thing I like to do is to keep sourdough starter going in a crock on my counter. You feed it and then make bread twice a week. )

 

So would you share your starter recipe with us? Please??

[Sunkirst]

We've budgeted $150.00/week for food, home & beauty stuff and gas a week.

 

I garden and can fruits and tomatoes. We eat mostly vegetarian (some local chicken when we splurge). Usually I try to set aside 5-10 dollars to treat the kids to a "date out" with hot cocoa and a cookie (our local coffee shop is owned by a HS family!). Just recently, bulk, organic oatmeal (a staple) went from .97 to 1.49 a pound. Bulk flour has made a similar jump, as have bulk beans. I'm cutting back to basics and still just making it.

 

I'm just hoping that the farmer's market prices haven't gone up too much this summer, or we are going to have to cut back even more.

 

Just the other day I spend some Christmas money on a bike carrier. Now I can cart the dd's around while ds and I bike. I'm hoping to save the cost of the carrier in gas this summer!