Food Storage Challenge - Day 15

With the Thanksgiving Holiday, I decided not to include Thanksgiving and the last couple of days of leftovers in this food storage challenge. (Aren't turkey sandwiches the best!) Today, we are now back to eating from our food storage. Day 15 report...

Menu

Tuna Sandwiches
Cream of Mushroom Soup
(For Mike, he loves it. Doesn't sound too good to me, though!)
Mashed Potatoes
(Final leftovers)
Apples

And, a photo... A friend, Deeann, told me that she'll put all her dry ingredients into containers and create several containers of the same meal. Then, when she cooks, all they needs to do is dump in the dry ingredients, and add any liquid ingredients. It has made cooking so much simpler for me. I've done this for my spaghetti sauce, pumpkin soup (stored in freezer), spanish rice, and many other. Anything I can do to simplify cooking is a bonus for me!

Images From Our Thanksgiving

The Christensen Family hosted Thanksgiving Dinner this year in our home. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Turkey Brine

Playing card after dinner (Sidney, Alexis, Mom)

Mike, listening to conversation.

Madison's Clarinet Concert

Dave and his Kiss imitation/shirt.

Dinner guests, Dad, Steve, Mike, Alishea, Mom, and Alexis

Dinner guests - Mom, Alexis, Chantelle, Dave, Madison, Dad, and Steve

"Normal" Dave

In conversation, Alexis, Chantelle, and Steve

Alishea and Mom

After dinner... The girls playing cards, the guys watching football

Seven Layer Dip

(I didn't take this photo. I suspect it was Alishea, proof that we did have this on Thanksgiving.)

Food Storage Challenge - Day 12-14

I was thinking last evening that I'm not sure if this test is working or not. I feel like our freezer is just as full as it was when I began and our shelves look just as stocked. Oh well, it is a good test to see what we have.

A quick story... I was making the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving last evening and it called for one apple. Well, the apple I had been going to use was eaten a couple of day ago, so I thought for a few moments and came up with the idea to use the dried apples I have in my food storage. They worked great! Can't wait to eat the sauce with our Thanksgiving meal...

Day 12 Menu

Hamburger/Rice Casserole

(I substituted my last zucchini for the celery, which I didn't have!)

Peaches

Day 13 Menu

Spaghetti

Corn

Bread

Oranges

Day 14 Menu

Leftover Spaghetti

Fried Rice

Smoothies

Purchased: Oranges, bread. (I guess I could have made homemade bread but I wasn't in the mood. There are too many other things to make in conjunction with Thanksgiving!)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving... I'm brining our turkey and quite excited about this. We are also having Seven Layer Dip - not the traditional Thanksgiving food, BUT a request from my niece Alishea!

Food Storage Challenge - Day 11

This morning during our Relief Society Presidency meeting, one of my counselors suggested I list the blogs I subscribe to for deals, etc., on my blog. So, this post is for you, Annette!

On the side bar is a Provident Living section and links to the sites I subscribe to via google reader. (I LOVE google reader, except for those blogs which require a password, causing me to access those blogs manually. Thanks to those of you who don't require passwords, and thus I just receive your feed!)

Okay, back to the business at hand... See the sidebar for the links. And here is today's menu post...

Menu for Day 11

Enchiladas (leftover)

Meatloaf & Baked Potatoes (leftover)

Baked Potato Soup (leftover)

Pizza (for my brother Steve, who doesn't eat 'leftovers')

Smoothies (My answer to when we don't have fresh fruit, but need fruit to balance out the meal)

Learnings, con't.

1. Always have Pizza in the freezer because 1) it is easy to cook; 2) it doesn't qualify as a leftover; 3) and everyone seems to like pizza

2. I need a freezer. While I've been using items out of the freezer, I still don't have much room for when I make a dinner that I can freeze 1/2 of it and use at a later date.

3. I need to have a year supply of tinfoil pans that I can make dinners and freeze them in.

Other items I have purchased (that we used) during this experiment

1. Milk - I know that Mike would drink powdered milk, but I'm not sure Steve will. So, milk was a necessary purchase.

2. Items for Thanksgiving dinner. Since I'm hosting this year, I feel obligated to provide the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Food Storage Challenge - Day 10

For the record... we are also eating our breakfast and lunch from our food storage as well. But, I don't post what we have for these meals because we usually fend for ourselves. I have items like cold cereal, oatmal, etc., in our food storage. (I loved Kellogg's promo a few months ago when I bought cereal for almost nothing (25 to 50 cents each) and then ended up with a $10.00 rebate!)

My latest fun rebate is with Nabisco. All of their crackers are on sale this week and what better time to stock up and then receive a $10.00 rebate in the mail as well. (Click the coupon link and you'll see the rebate info, too.) I really enjoy having the food companies contribute to our food budget via great deals and rebates!

Menu

Baked Potato Soup

Smoothies

Banana Bread

Food Storage Challenge - Days 8 & 9

In some ways, this is easier than I expected. Make dinner one day, eat leftovers and a pizza the next. I grew up in a family of seven and so when I cook, I make enough for seven. I have never seemed to be able to cut back to make dinner for just two (or three, since my brother is living with us for a while).

Day 8

Menu

Leftover enchiladas

Green beans

Pizza

Tangerines

Day 9

Menu

Meat Loaf (Chan's Recipe!!!)

Baked Potatoes

Green beans, yes again
Peaches

Banana Bread (If I get it made)

Okay, I confess, I have bought hamburger so we could have some meat variety, but that's about it. Not bad for nine days and no planning!

My Latest Quilt...

I'm pretty sure that my friend Mari doesn't read my blog, so I'm posting my latest quilt, which is to be her Christmas present, up on the blog early. Last Christmas I realized that I should have made Mari a quilt and shortly have the holiday season ended, I pieced together this quilt. I recently completed the machine quilting and binding.

I named this quilt Serenity. The quilt measures 87" x 60"

(I don't think this photo does the quilt justice)

This quilt pattern is one of my favorites. This is the third quilt I've made from this pattern and I think I'll be making another one shortly.

I'm actually quite excited about Christmas this year. I have bought some fun gifts at some very good deals. I have many of my gifts purchased and they just need to be wrapped. I'm seriously thinking about bringing out the wrapping paper SOON to wrap and then leave the gifts outs for the entire month of December. I guess the good news is that I buy all of my own gifts, except for one (it is easier on Mike!), so the anticipation of what is inside the package doesn't get to me, because I already know!

Food Storage Challenge - Days 5-7

Well, I have already begun making a list of things I am learning from this challenge...

1. I am craving fresh food, vegetables in particular. I thought that having canned vegetables and frozen vegetables would help, but it really doesn't. Note to self: I better make sure I have enough seeds for a BIG garden!

2. I make a lot of 'creamed' dinners. I don't want to eat creamed dinners night after night. I need to make sure I have items that will balance this out.

3. Next time I do this, I need to have some beef on hand. (I did go to the grocery store yesterday to purchase hamburger to provide us with variety.)

Day 5 Menu

Mike and I went on a date = we went out to dinner!

Day 6 Menu

Sausage

Eggs

Toast

Orange Juice

Day 7 Menu

Bean, cheese, and green chili burritos with enchilada sauce,

(Because I had a can of sauce and wanted to use it. I even made fresh tortillas!)

Corn

Tangerines

(I confess, this isn't going to be a colorful meal this evening, just orange and yellows. Sometimes, it just happens.)

Lake Powell - 1964 or 1965

Mike has often told me about going to Lake Powell when he would come to Blanding and spend the summers with his grandparents. Halls Crossing is 90 minutes from Blanding. These trips occurred in the early days of Lake Powell, just after the dam was completed and the lake was filling.

Another shot of the gang

(Calvin Butt to Mike's left and again, possibly, Dennis Guymon, in hat to the far right of the photograph.)

Lake Powell Ferry Service

Bryce Redd and Mike Christensen

(This is Mike's "cig" photograph, although it is actually a sandwich and NOT a Marlboro. Mike had orders from Dr. Libbey to cut back on his use of 'cigs'.)

Mike, ?, and Huck Finn (is this Jim Redd?)


The Gang (Mike in blue shirt and red swim trunks)
Calvin Butt, to the left of Mike while Dennis Guymon- possibly is at the far right.

Thanks to Uncle Joe for emailing these photos!

Food Storage Challenge - Day 4

My mom asked me a couple of days ago if I had gone to the store just prior to starting this challenge (you know, to stock up on items!) The answer is NO. We don't have some items and honestly, I haven't decided what I will do when they are needed, if they are needed. This 'challenge' wasn't pre-conceived, just a random, on the fly, quick decision!


Today was easy...

Menu

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Green Salad

Spanish Rice (leftover from last evening)

No fruit what-so-ever... thus not a balanced meal

Food Storage Challenge - Day 3

I know, I know, most of you probably don't care about how I am using my food storage. But, I have determined that having to post each day is actually an incentive for me to keep up with this challenge. Plus, I have a record of what we eat each day. I have also realized that if I am going to post a menu, that it should have the appearance of being balanced and colorful! Sometimes that is a challenge for me...

Tonight's Menu

Homemade Refried Beans

Spanish Rice

Green Chili Salsa

Tortilla Chips

Green Peas

Grape Juice

The green chili salsa was available the last time I went to the cannery and so I shared a case with friend Annette. Since the cannery had no red salsa, which is the best, I decided the green would be the next best thing. I'll let you know what I think.

Food Storage Challenge - Day 2

Hey, this may be easier than I think! Cook one day, eat leftovers the next! I definitely think I have 15 days worth of meals in my repertoire!

Tonight's meal...

Tombstone Pizza

Leftover Clam Chowder

Fruit

I'm going to play cards this evening and I am taking Rice Krispie Squares. Of course, everything has come from our food storage. Yea!!!

The Food Storage Challenge

I've always worked on having food storage, but the past year or so, I have been very diligent about buying items on sale, watching blogs about free stuff, and of course, collecting my 'beer money' refunds. (It isn't what you might think!) The Result, a LOT of food building up in our year supply of food storage.

So, the time has come for the Christensen Family to see if we can live on the food storage we have in 'stock' for one month. I honestly don't know how we'll do, but I will let you know. Maybe this will turn into a Julie & Julia type of posting! Who knows! But, I am grateful to the several blogs I follow that help me with purchasing a lot of good deals on foods that I have purchased.

One of our many storage areas in the back room.

What you don't see is 15 Tombstone Pizza's hiding behind all the food in the freezer! Mike's excited to have them in our Year Supply! (Just ask me about how I bought 17 Tombstone Pizza's for $15.00. Yes, that's right, $15.00!)

More Food... Plus, I still don't have room for a lot of can goods that are on the floor!

I don't usually cook breakfast and lunch, the Christensen family just fends for themselves. But, I do make sure we have cereal and bread, and of course, there are usually leftovers in the fridge which always make a good lunch meal. So, I'll just be posting our dinner menu. Wish me luck!

Day 1 Dinner Menu

Clam Chowder

Cornbread

Black Grapes & Tangerines