Well here we are in the 2nd full week of 2010, and I thought I’d let you know how it’s going.  The menu plan is working wonderfully.  Although I’m not strictly following what is supposed to be on each day, having a list of menu options helps tremendously.  I’m also following along with Money Saving Mom’s eating out of the pantry challenge, and I’m working on getting my freezer cleaned out so I can defrost it. 

The routines are not going quite so well.  We’ve had a wrench thrown into the works by way of a cold that has sidelined me and now Boo.  I’m a big baby when I don’t feel well, so the kids are being fed and I’m assigning schoolwork, but not much else gets done.  Schoolwork actually went really well last week so I’m rather bummed about Boo being sick because it delays us all since I have the girls doing science together. 

This week’s big goal is to get the Christmas stuff put away.  It was too cold last week for me to pull all the stuff down on the outside, and somehow the tree got half undecorated but not finished, but when those 2 things are done, I am done.  I even went through some of the boxes I have put away and purged some Christmas decorations I will never use.

Speaking of which, why is it that I feel guilty about throwing away (donating) things I have been given that I can’t stand.  I don’t like them, I won’t use them, and they take up precious space in my house.  I know in my mind I am fully justified in getting rid of them, but somehow I feel guilty. 

Well I’m off to be productive!  I have blueberry muffins baking at the moment (an experiment with dried blueberries), and I need to go pull my meat out of the freezer for dinner. 

I am terrible at menu planning.  Actually, I’m terrible at menu follow-through.  I’m actually a wonderful planner.  I make lists, charts, schedules…and for me they are usually a bunch of papers.  I am BAD at execution of these plans.  The big hang-up for me I think is organization.  I am so disorganized it is paralyzing.  So when Money Saving Mom reviewed a service called Stolen Moments Menu Planning, I went to take a look.  After all, I love a good plan.  So, I took and look and I was impressed.

Imagine if someone could come in and see how your family eats, how you like to cook, and then does all the planning for you – menus, recipes, and grocery lists based on the foods your family likes and avoiding cooking techniques that just don’t work for you.  Now, I’m kind of picky.  We have to eat as naturally as possible for Boo (although it certainly doesn’t hurt the rest of us), but if something is too complicated, I won’t make it.  Have you ever seen some of those recipes for “from scratch” food?!  So, with high hopes and a bit of skepticism I signed up. 

I filled out a pretty extensive questionnaire on my family’s likes an dislikes, how I wanted my menus and grocery lists organized, what kinds of cooking work best for me (go crockpot!).  There were even places for me to comment … things like “we use fresh whole wheat flour” which is important because some recipes do NOT convert automatically to whole wheat…and “we avoid MSG” which means no prepackaged seasoning mixes for us.  I signed up for the full plan which includes breakfast and lunch.  Let’s face it, the girls and I are home everyday and it is just as hard to think of something interesting and healthy for breakfast and lunch day in and day out as it is for dinner.

When I got my plan I was even more impressed.  The recipes looked yummy.  They were simple and doable.  As I was noticing how the recipes were simple and doable, I got a brilliant idea!  Everything was all in one place… plan, recipes…directions…the GIRLS could read what was for breakfast/lunch/dinner and then THEY could MAKE IT!!!!!  Dreams of a life of leisure filled my head…

Okay, now I haven’t actually tried any of the recipes yet (remember that execution thing?).  December was probably not the wisest month to try to begin.  However, I am raring to go now, and I will give you an update next week.

The one caveat I must mention as a former desktop publishing guru is the layout of the menu plan.  It arrives in it’s PDF glory (mine was around 50 pages for the month), and I found its layout to be less than polished.  The content was excellent, but recipes broke across pages and the calendar, recipes, and grocery lists ran together a bit.  Now this is decidedly a minor quibble that may only be an annoyance to those of us who fix up these sorts of things for a living, but in my eyes, it is the one thing that keeps the service from being perfect.

Today I am thankful for Mennonite ladies with discontinued Bosch mixer models!

Making homemade bread from fresh-ground flour seems to be helping Boo, and it really doesn’t hurt the rest of us any (except maybe the Dad and I’s waistlines since we are gobbling down warm bread on baking days..).  So on average I am making 4 loaves of bread every week and will continue to do so probably forever.  While I enjoy making bread from scratch including the kneading part, it presents a problem when we run out of bread and we have something on the schedule for the day.  You see, from grinding the flour until the dough goes in the oven to bake it takes about 3-3 1/2 hours.  So I began researching mixers that knead bread.  My first choice after researching carefully was this one.  It carries a hefty price tag to go along with the hefty motor that everyone seems to love for making multiple loaves of bread.  With Bug’s braces, a mouthful of dental work for me, and the medical bills for Boo, plus the fact that we just splurged on the Vitamix, an Electrolux Assistent was obviously not something I could just order spur-of-the-moment.  Disappointed with the fact that we are not independently wealthy, I began to research cheaper options.   I ruled out pretty much everything including the Bosch Universal machines which are almost as expensive and take up more room on the counter.  Plus, I certainly don’t need the blender attachment!  I reluctantly resigned myself to saving up my pennies and begging my entire family to pitch in on my mixer for my birthday/Christmas present.

Well, Friday was our state’s curriculum fair so like a book-crazed good homeschool mom I headed over with a friend to pick up as much loot as possible a couple of books for next year.  There in the middle of the largest building was a lovely Mennonite family selling grain mills, wheat, and Bosch mixers.  Since I have been researching those very things, I began chatting with the nice lady behind the table.  Come to find out this nice lady had one Bosch Concept 7 mixer which she had originally bought to try out herself and never got around to and then Bosch came out with the new Universal machine and she started selling that one instead.  Apparently there are rules about being a Bosch distributer which limit you on what prices you can advertise etc., but because it was a discontinued model and we were at a homeschool show with no “advertising” she offered me the Concept 7 for $219.  I called the Dad to discuss it, and his response was “Don’t you think for less than half the price of the other one you could TRY to like it?”   Remember, this is the husband who cannot stand kitchen gadgets!  After hanging up I went back in and told the nice lady I’d take it!  It struck me at how good God is.  He is providing the way for me to feed my family well and to ease the burden on me at the same time.  It is amazing to me that with all the other “big” things God has to worry about that he cares about my convenience!  Now I can make bread, and batches and batches of cookies, pumpkin bread, banana muffins…

Now I have a lovely new gadget sitting on my counter and I have made one batch of bread so far.  There is a learning curve apparently since I ran the dough on low for 5 minutes (which I usually knead for about 15) and it was a little over-kneaded, but the bread was definitely edible, and it only had to rise once cutting my bread making time in half!  God is Great!

(Sung to the Spiderman tune…)

Check out my new toy.  I have to say after abusing using my new Vitamix for a few weeks now that it actually does do everything the Vitamix people say it does.  I had ignored several demonstrations at Costco and Sam’s because of the very dear sticker price.  However, with Boo’s health problems I had been considering purchasing a grain mill for a while when I stumbled upon a Vitamix demonstration at Costco.  I asked the demonstrator if it could really grind grain without any other attachments and then spent the next 20 minutes with Boo getting to try various concoctions and the guy put the machine through its paces for me.  Whole fruits and veggies, uncooked brown rice, and popcorn kernels (for cornmeal) were all transformed in seconds.  The 30-day money back guarantee (and the fact that I could return it to Costco on day 29 if necessary) convinced me to throw caution (and at the time I thought perhaps good sense) to the wind and take one home. 

Well, a few weeks, a lot of whole food smoothies, fresh ground flour, salsa, hummus, and tomato soup later I will not be returning my Vitamix.  Boo seems to be doing a little better and I think that the food mashed up in the smoothies makes the nutrients easier to digest.  It is really easy to mix up good whole foods with little effort and minimal time which allows us all to eat a little better.

Here are the pros and cons I’ve found.

Cons:

• It comes with a large container that does not fit under my cabinet.
• I need a skinny spatula to scrape the stuff out from under the blades
• Its kind of loud.  (The Bug covers her ears and the dogs leave the room when I turn it on.)

Pros:

• It really does what it is advertised to do (I could not find a bad review on the web, and I looked specifically for bad reviews).
• It’s very easy to clean.  (Hot water and a dash of soap run on high for 30 seconds.)
• It makes it simple to use whole unprocessed foods = healthier diet.
• It has a 7-year warranty.

The Dad has a pet peeve about kitchen gadgets that aren’t used a lot.  He also has a thing about spending lots of money on things we don’t need. (Go figure!)  However, he readily agreed to a trial of this machine and has agreed that its benefit will probably be worth the price tag in the long run.  While I don’t think everyone needs to run out and drop $400 on a nifty new toy, if you have to blend food for health reasons (feeding tubes, etc.) long term, and/or you have or are in the process of incorporating whole foods into your diet the Vitamix is definitely worth a long look.

I’m looking for a cow. Yes this is part of my all natural food craziness.   It started with an innocent little search on how to make clotted cream.  (If you haven’t been to Great Britain or Australia, don’t get all grossed out.  It’s not what it sounds like.)  I found that you need raw milk to make clotted cream.  Hmmm I thought, with raw milk I could make my own butter, buttermilk… Then I remembered the “raw milk debate” I’d read about and went searching over at Weston Price to see if I could get my hands on some.  To make a long story short, I can’t without crossing state lines and going at least an hour away.  Not exactly a quick trip to Walmart or even my new favorite place to shop the Amish Market.  The Dad is starting to think I’ve lost my mind and more than one person has asked me if I’m going to start wearing dresses everyday and put my hair up in a bonnet.  I do sigh longingly as I read other people’s homesteading adventures, and I have to admit I really am enjoying making bread (and it is a nice ego-boost to have my family wolfing it down almost as fast as I can make it).  Alas, since I can’t convince the Dad to let me buy myself a cow and tell the neighbors that it is simply a very large dog, we will have to do with boring old processed organic milk from the store.