Your ​Week 8 assignment-- Going off your  Inventory Shopping List and this week’s sales, buy the 3 months’ worth of as many different food items as you can (= Buy For 3) as your new budget allows.  Only 10 more weeks of this step!

This week's skill:
Did you know that you can bottle meat, beans, stew, and chili at home?  When you find a great sale price on meat, you can buy a bunch and save yourself a lot of money in future months!  For instance, a couple months ago I found boneless skinless chicken for $1/lb. I bought a case (40 lbs), froze about 10 lbs in meal-sized quantities, and bottled the rest.  The bottled chicken makes for quick meals, and I know exactly what was added to it.  In this case, that meant chicken and salt.  Other times I’ve put sliced carrots, celery, onions, and herbs in the jars with the meat, to have a great base for a quick, wholesome chicken noodle soup or pot pie. My food storage includes home-bottled chicken, beef, salmon, pork broth, chicken broth, black beans, pinto beans…

Did you watch the video at the top, on making bottled stew?  Do you have some of the dehydrated diced carrots from the Home Storage Center?  They're great for adding to canned foods.  It helps to soak them in hot water for at least 10-20 minutes first, so they don't soak up all the water in your jar while it cooks.

Meat, beans, and vegetables (except tomatoes) are in the category called ‘low acid’, compared to things like tomatoes and fruits, which are ‘high acid’, or contain higher acidity.  Higher acid foods may be processed using a big pot with boiling water to heat the jars and food, but low acid foods have to be heated to a higher temperature.  This means the only way to safely bottle them is with a pressure canner—a pressure cooker made to hold 7 or more jars at a time.  They start around $65 and go up from there, but you may have a friend who is willing to let you try it out at her house, or borrow it if you’re the confident type.  (I have one. It's very similar to the one in the video above. Come on over!)

Where can you find instructions on pressure canning?  Most pressure canners come with an instruction book and charts, and there are great resources online.
 
The first place to know is your local Extension Office.  In Utah, that’s the Utah State University Extension office, and somebody there knows the answer to just about any question you come up with on the topics of food, kitchens, preserving, budgeting, gardening, yard care, house and garden pests, and more. They’ll even test your pressure cooker gauge every year for $2.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/ has lots of canning information; one of its pages is this one.  It has instructions on canning
Chicken, Rabbit, Chicken or Turkey Broth, Chili, Meat (ground or chopped), Meat (strips, cubes, or chunks), Meat Stock, Meat and Vegetable Soup, Mincemeat Pie Filling, Clams, Crab, Fish (fresh or smoked), Oysters, and Tuna!

This page has info on how canning preserves food, how to make sure your food is safe, what jars, lids, and canners to use, how to know if the jars sealed correctly, canning food for special diets (including baby foods), and more.
 
Other good resources are The Ball Blue Book  and its online counterpart, https://www.freshpreserving.com/home

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

So Easy to Preserve    (388 pages of instructions and recipes from the Extension Office in Georgia)

There are lots more.  Look for USDA-tested recipes.
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Are you ready to try this?? It's great!

Week 6 assignment-- Going off your  Inventory Shopping List and this week’s sales, buy the 3 months’ worth of as many different items as you can (= Buy For 3) as your new budget allows.    You'll do this through Week 21.
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A big part of food management at home is reducing waste.  There are many ways to do this. 

Serve only what you’ll eat.  Refrigerate, freeze, or re-purpose leftovers. Or share with a neighbor.  A friend of mine regularly fixes a plate of leftovers immediately after dinner, and takes it across the street to an elderly widow.

You can use a lot of your food prep trim - lemon peels can be used to flavor things, clean kitchen disposals, make homemade lemon extract and lemon sugar. Shriveled lemons, orange, grapefruit, or limes are good for making marmalade. Tops and bottoms of celery can be frozen and saved to make broth or to add flavor when you cook dry beans. Broccoli stems can be trimmed and cooked along with florets, or chopped and added to salad for a nutritious crunch.  Things you can't re-purpose or eat can be fed to chickens, and many can be added to the compost pile.

If you wonder how much improvement you could make-- and how much money you could save on food!-- remember this:
“What’s measured gets managed.”

For one week, notice, measure, and take notes on what gets thrown out. 
 Aramark, a food service contractor, began doing this, and has reduced their food waste by nearly half (44%). For them, that was 479 tons of food saved from being sent to landfills. 

This is an interesting article on what some restaurants have done to reduce waste. Most of what they've tried works in homes, also.

You may have heard that in the US we waste 40% of our food-- 63 million tons of it per WEEK. But do you know where that waste is happening?

The largest share of it (43%) is happening in our homes-- 27.1 million tons of it per year. That's about 51 ounces per person, per week, or 3.17 pounds. If my family was average, that would mean the 8 of us currently at home would be throwing out 25 pounds of food every week. Shocking!
​
That would count food trimmings when I'm cooking, vegetables and fruits that went bad before getting used, whatever is wasted on a plate, leftovers that didn't get eaten in time, and anything that got burned too badly to eat. :)

We waste much less than average, though, and truthfully throw out very little. We belong to the "Clean Your Plate Club" that my grandma and mom talked about; all but the tiniest kids have learned to only serve up what they are willing to eat. We serve the 2- and 4-year-olds their food, and only in small amounts. If they want more, they get it after the other food on their plate is gone. Usable trimmings get saved for soup or broth. Unusable ones go to the chickens. Produce that went bad gets washed and trimmed; any good parts are used, bad parts go to the chickens. (We call these, "chicken treats"!) Bananas and apples that are getting mushy get put in smoothies or in baked goods. We understand what "expiration" dates mean on food, and so use our senses of smell, sight, and taste to know if they're still fine. (And they ARE, for much, much past those dates.)   When I miss a container of leftovers in the back of the fridge and find it after a week, that goes to the chickens too. Somehow we had THREE gallons of milk go sour this week, so they were turned into quick cheese; the whey went in muffins and bread. 

Let’s look at how to reduce waste with one item- MILK.

What can you do when milk goes sour?  This applies whether it happens before the ‘sell by’ date or after. Why does milk go sour? Does that mean it will make you sick?


Milk is high in lactose, which is the natural sugar found in milk.  When bacteria are introduced to the milk, they eat the sugars and convert them into lactic acid (=fermentation).   This means the milk has less sweetness, and more sourness.   This is the process used and controlled when making yogurt, cultured buttermilk, cottage cheese, and more.  

Some bacteria can make you sick, others are perfectly safe.  Because you don’t know which bacteria made your milk go sour, using uncooked sour milk has a possibility of making you sick.  Cooking with it, however, kills the bacteria, and is therefore safe.

Ways to use sour milk
 
-use it in place of buttermilk in pancakes, biscuits, chocolate cake, cornbread, wheat   bread, or any other recipe. 
-freeze it for using in recipes next time.
-pour a cup around your garden plants- it’s good fertilizer!  Milk is used to help grow     giant pumpkins, and helps prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes.  
- feed to chickens, pigs, or dogs (boil it first if you’re concerned for your dogs)
- make CHEESE! 

That’s right, you can take sour milk and turn it into cheese.  The fastest, easiest ones to make are cottage cheese and Queso Fresco, a mild fresh cheese. The method for both is the same until after the cheese curds are drained.

One gallon of milk will make about one pound of cheese.
 

Cheese from Sour Milk
You will need:

Sour milk
Salt
Vinegar or lemon juice—maybe.
 
Spray the inside bottom of a heavy saucepan with nonstick cooking spray.  Heat over low for about a minute to form a coating-- this helps the milk proteins NOT stick to the bottom of your pan.(You can skip the spray and still be fine.  Just stir more.)  Add your sour milk, and heat over medium-high until the milk starts to steam, stirring often.  If your milk is sour enough, it will start to curdle-- separating into curds and whey.  (Remember "Little Miss Muffet"?  Curds are the white clumps, whey is the yellowish liquid left behind.)  If your milk isn’t separating on its own, add up to ¼ c. of vinegar or lemon juice, a few DRIPS at a time, stirring after each addition.  The milk will immediately start to curdle.  Remove from heat and let it rest for one minute. 

Put a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl and pour the curds and whey into the sieve.  Move the sieve to the sink, and rinse with hot water to get the acid out.  Rinse with cold water for about a minute, until no more whey is in it.  Add salt, ½ tsp. per cup of curds.

Cottage Cheese-
For each cup of curds, stir in 2-4 Tbsp. of yogurt or sour cream.  Cover and refrigerate.  This works great in recipes like lasagna.  I can make a batch of cottage cheese (using dry milk powder) faster than I can drive to the store and purchase it. (That’s saying something; the store is about a mile away.)
 
Queso Fresco-
After draining, rinsing, and salting the curds, put them in a couple layers of cheesecloth or on a flat (non-terrycloth!) dish towel.  Twist the top of the fabric closed, and tightly squeeze the cheese over the sink.  More liquid will come out.  Attach the twisted part of the towel (your ‘bag’) to a cupboard handle, and set a bowl under it to catch any more drips.  Let hang overnight.

If you want a nice flat, round shape, instead of hanging the bag, set it inside something round—a clean, empty 29 oz peach can, a food storage container, or whatever you have.  Set something on top of the cheese, and put something heavy on top of it to press it down.  Let that sit overnight. 
In the morning, wrap and refrigerate the cheese.  Use within a week or two; this one doesn’t have a long shelf life.  Here are ways to use it. https://www.thekitchn.com/queso-fresco-the-cheesemonger-91408
 
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Now you have leftover whey - a yellowish, clear liquid that contains protein, carbs, calcium, phosphorus, and several B vitamins.
 
The resulting whey in this recipe is ‘acid whey’ (versus ‘sweet whey’) because it is a little acidic.  How to use it?  Very much as you would sour milk or buttermilk.  Use in most recipes that call for water or milk.  Use it as a tenderizing marinade for meat; add flavors and spices as you like.  Use it to make whey lemonade, feed it to animals (chickens love it!), or as a last resort, pour in your compost bin.  It’s also reportedly used as a great hair rinse, but I haven’t tried it yet.

What else have you done with sour milk, or with whey?

“Prophets see ahead. They see the harrowing dangers the adversary has placed or will yet place in our path. Prophets also foresee the grand possibilities and privileges awaiting those who listen with the intent to obey.”
-Neil L. Anderson, quoting then-Elder Russell M. Nelson, in “The Eye of Faith”, April 2019 
 
Recently, I ran across a talk that Harold B. Lee-- then of the Twelve Apostles-- gave during the middle of World War II.  He shared several things that the First Presidency had asked the people to do in the few years before, and what happened afterwards nationally that made it apparent that our prophets were prophetic in their counsel. The biggest takeaway for me was the pattern of counsel given and how it later proved them prophets, though not given in a manner we'd usually consider as 'prophesying'. I highly recommend reading it; there was a lot of Church history that meshed with bits I knew of WWII history.  And there were pieces I had to look up.

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”(2 Peter 1:19-21)  "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7)  "Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments."(D&C 1:17) 

Prophecy most often comes in the form of commandments, not as "thus saith the Lord" or "this is going to happen" statements.  (President Nelson has, however, given plenty of prophetic promises too. I have a list you can see if you want it.)

Here's more of the pattern.

In 1998 and 2000, President Gordon B. Hinckley said he couldn't get Pharoah's dream of the seven good and seven bad years off his mind, and said, "There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed."    In 2001, when the Twin Towers were destroyed, the stock market fell a huge amount.  It wasn't a huge deal economically for long, but it was for a little while. And 7 years later, a huge shift in the economy occurred.

In 2007 the church (First Presidency) published the "All is Safely Gathered In" guides for financial safety and food storage. They created food storage packs at the Home Storage Centers- those boxes with 6 big cans in them. Each included wheat, rice, milk, the All Is Safely Gathered In booklets. In January 2008 this information was shared again through the Church News.

Do you know what happened at the end of September 2008?

It was the stock market crash, followed by 'the Great Recession', from which the nation has only recently recovered.

Have you ever noticed that the Church is always ahead of the curve, whatever the curve happens to be?

A couple months ago, the First Presidency sent bishops a letter and a lesson outline, asking them to use one of the two next possible 5th Sundays (2nd hour block) to teach "Being Wise in Managing our Finances" to their ward members.  This included an impressive amount of cautions concerning investing, like this line- "Do not invest if you cannot afford to lose your investment".  

The Lord works through small and simple means- including through living prophets' counsel and commandments.
 
As Harold B. Lee said in his talk,

"We as a people seem to be willing to accept many of the ancient prophecies as having been literally fulfilled but when we see prophecies fulfilled in our own day we are prone to question and to express some doubts. As the Master said, ' . . A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country'  Mark 6:4 and he might have added, 'Save in his own time'."

What else have our modern prophets said? Here are several quotes.

“Liv[ing] principles of self-reliance and provident living… are essential things which must be done before nonessential things. … What a different world and Church this would be if every Latter-day Saint sister… was self-reliant enough to be able to give freely of her knowledge, talents, and resources”.  -Julie B. Beck, "What Latter-day Saint Women Do Best"

“Loving God and loving our neighbors is the doctrinal foundation" of all programs in the church.  "Teach members to provide for themselves and their families and to assist the poor and needy in the Lord’s way.”
-M. Russell Ballard, “The True, Pure and Simple Gospel of Jesus Christ”

“A cardinal principle of the gospel is to prepare for the day of scarcity. Work, industry, frugality are part of the royal order of life… Inspired preparation rests on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, obedience, and a provident lifestyle. Members should not go to extremes, but they should begin. We call upon priesthood bearers to store sufficient so that you and your family can weather the vicissitudes of life.” 
-Keith B. McMullin, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/lay-up-in-store?lang=eng  
 
“There is a careful way and a casual way to do everything, including living the gospel.” 
-Becky Craven, “Careful versus Casual”
 
"We no longer have the luxury of spending our energy on anything that does not lead us and our families to Christ. That is the litmus test . . . for our lives. In the days ahead, a casual commitment to Christ will not carry us through." 
-Sheri L. Dew, "We Are Women of God"

“How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being”.
-Julie B. Beck,  Basic Principles of Welfare and Self-Reliance, 4)

"Self-reliance is taking responsibility for our own spiritual and temporal welfare and for those whom Heavenly Father has entrusted to our care. Only when we are self-reliant can we truly emulate the Savior in serving and blessing others. It is important to understand that self-reliance is a means to an end. Our ultimate goal is to become like the Savior, and that goal is enhanced by our unselfish service to others. Our ability to serve is increased or diminished by the level of our self-reliance.”
-Robert D. Hales, "Becoming Self-Reliant"

“There may be…times when we recognize a need but feel inadequate to respond, assuming that what we have to offer is insufficient. To do just as He did, however, is to minister by giving what we are capable of giving and to trust that the Lord will magnify our efforts to bless our “fellow travelers on this mortal journey.” … Although we may feel that our efforts are inadequate, … small and simple acts are powerful because they invite the companionship of the Holy Ghost”.
-W. Christopher Waddell, “Just as He Did”

“the Holy Spirit affirmed two things to me. First, the work of ministering to temporal needs is vital and must continue. The second was unexpected, yet powerful and clear. It was this: beyond selfless service, it is supremely important to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
-D. Todd Christofferson, “Preparing for the Lord’s Return”

Your assignment this week is to look through the grocery ad for things on your inventory list that you need. With the budgeted amount of money you have (ballpark figure is $14 per week, per person) buy your three months' worth of however much you can on your list.

Do you like to use instant oatmeal?  You can save money (and know exactly what you're eating) by making your own. It's so quick and handy to have it all made up!
 
Homemade Instant Oatmeal 
4 cups quick oats (oatmeal), gluten-free if you need them
1-3 tsp. cinnamon
½ - 2/3 cup brown sugar*
½ - 1 tsp. salt
optional: 1/2 cup dry milk powder
optional: 1 c. chopped dried fruit or toasted nuts

Put 1 ½ c. of the oats in a blender; blend on high until almost powdery.  Dump this into a medium-sized mixing bowl; stir in cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and milk powder and fruit/nuts if you’re using them.
 
After making it for the first time, see if it needs adjusted for your family’s tastes-- take 1/4 c. of this mix, combine in a bowl with ½ cup water, and microwave for 60 seconds. Taste it.
Is it great? Does it need more cinnamon? Sugar? Salt?  Add as needed, then cook another bowlful to see.  Take notes so you don’t have to do this next time.  😊 
 
Store in a canister, a quart-sized ziptop bag, or pre-portioned into snack-sized ziptop bags.
This batch can easily be doubled or tripled.
 
You can pre-portion these into snack-size baggies (then reuse baggies!), or just keep a measuring cup in the canister or bag. If you want individual servings measured out ahead of time, place either 1/2 c. or 1/3 c. mix in each baggie.

TO USE:
One large serving:  use ½ c. mix and 1 c. water.  Microwave 90 seconds; let stand. 
One small serving: use 1/3 c. mix and 2/3 c. water.  Microwave 60 seconds; let stand.
For four large servings (or 6-8 small ones), use four cups boiling water and add 2 to 2 ½  cups oatmeal mix.
Adjust water and/or mix to make it as thin or thick as you like.  

    
* For children who aren't yet accustomed to sugary oatmeal, use 1/2 cup brown sugar.  For those sugar-addicted husbands, you may need to add more. Regular sugar, evaporated cane juice, or an appropriate amount of stevia may be used. 
If your brown sugar is lumpy, it can be added to the blender with the 1 ½ c. of oats and blended with them.
 
Here are some flavor combinations; the sky's the limit!

Apple Cinnamon- Use the higher amount of cinnamon; you might even go up to 1 ½ to 2 Tbsp. Stir in 1 c. chopped dried apples.

Apricot Almond- Add 1 tsp. almond extract to the oats being blended.  At the end, stir in ½ c. finely chopped dried apricots and ½ c. chopped toasted almonds.

Banana Maple- Add ½ tsp. maple extract and ½ to 1 c. banana chips to the oats when they’re blended.

Chai Spice- Use 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. ginger, ½ tsp. cardamom, and ¼ tsp. cloves. (If you like, you can also add ¼ tsp. ground black pepper and ½ tsp. allspice.)  For Vanilla Chai, add 1 Tbsp. vanilla to the oats when they're blended, or use vanilla powder.
 
Date Nut- Use the higher amount of cinnamon. At the end, stir in ½ c. finely chopped dates and ½ c. toasted chopped walnuts or other nut.  TIP- if you chop the dates and the nuts together, the dates won’t stick to your knife as badly.
 
Dinosaur- Use the higher amount of cinnamon. Stir in ¼ c. dinosaur-shaped sprinkles.
 
Maple Brown Sugar- Add ½ tsp. maple extract to the oats being blended. Use the higher amount of brown sugar (dark brown if you have it), and the lower amount of cinnamon.

Pumpkin Spice- Use 2 tsp. cinnamon, plus 2 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/2 to 1 c. pumpkin powder. Best if you also use the 1/2 c. dry milk powder.

Raisin, Apple & Walnut- Use the higher amount of cinnamon.  At the very end, stir in ½ c. chopped raisins, ½ c. chopped dried apple, and ½ c. chopped toasted walnuts.

Strawberries and Cream- Use either ½ c. dry milk powder, or ½ c. powdered creamer. Stir in 1 c. chopped dried or freeze-dried strawberries. You can also make Raspberries and Cream, Blueberries and Cream, or Peaches and Cream this way.
 
Very Berry- Add 1 tsp. vanilla to the oats being blended. Use the lower amount of cinnamon.  Omit brown sugar, and use 1 c. of the berry drink mix from the Home Storage Center. Stir in 1 c. chopped dried cranberries or other dried berry.

The week 4 assignment:
Going off your new Inventory Shopping List and this week’s sales, buy the 3 months’ worth of as many different items as you can as your new budget allows. This plan calls for buying your 3 month foods each week over the next 18 weeks. From now on, I'll refer to this as B for 3. 

My friend Heidi recommends this inventory app- you scan items and they’re automatically entered.  I can’t vouch for it yet, but she loves it.

How can you afford to buy all this extra food?

Waste less- this saves $$ on your regular food budget, freeing up money. Did you know the average family of 4 throws away more than $2000 of food every year?  (See ways to waste less, here.)  This alone has the potential to completely fund your food storage!

Budget it in- in addition to freeing up money by reducing the food you waste, there are other ways to find money you already have.    Plan on finding $14/person/week.  Vaughn J. Featherstone gave a talk years ago on how to get your full year’s worth of food within just one year.  He recommends sitting down as a family and deciding on ways.  Some of his suggestions include

-skip going on a vacation; use the money for food storage, and spend the time on growing a garden.

-at Christmas time, designate 25-50% of the regular gift budget for food storage.
-make your clothes last longer.  Don’t replace anything that still has good use in it, and mend or repair what can be.

- cut your entertainment budget by 50%.  Find memory-building activities that are free.

-Sell a ‘luxury item’ like a snowmobile, ATV, boat, camper, etc.  (Modern note: If you have a storage unit, sell what’s in it; use the proceeds --and the rent savings-- for food.)

-watch the grocery sales, buy extra when what you need is on sale.

-reduce the meat you buy and switch in a protein source that costs less. Buy less ice cream, candy, chips, magazines… whatever is tempting to you there.  Spend the difference on what’s on your inventory purchase list.
 
If after going through Elder Featherstone’s suggestions it still looks impossible, pray to see what you can do.  Ways will open. God is still a God of miracles!

Grow and Glean- Grow the food you can- berry bushes can fit easily in a landscape, as can fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables.  Gleaning- when a neighbor has too many zucchini or tomatoes, volunteer to take some.  Use them in recipes, freeze them, bottle them, dehydrate them-- seasoned dried zucchini slices are great for snacking! Very often there are people around who have fruit trees they don't harvest. Knock on a door and ask!  Usually they're a little sad about it going to waste otherwise, and grateful to have someone use it.

Buy smart – My dad laughingly said he learned in college about the ‘SOS’ Method. This can mean Stay Out of Stores or Stock up On Sales.  Both have their place and their limits.

Stay Out of Stores-- the fewer times a week or month you visit stores, the less money you will spend there!  

Stock up when things are on sale- know what the regular prices are, so you can recognize a good price.  Buy as much of your 3 month's worth as you can fit in the budget.  (Remember it’s only a ‘deal’ if you were going to buy it anyway.  Don’t buy stuff just because it’s on sale. Be intentional!)  If chicken is an amazing price, you can buy a case or however much your family will use; divide it into meal-size freezer bags, raw or cooked, or bottle it to store on the shelf.

Buy when others don’t want it.  Buy foods that are marked down because they are at or near the ‘best by’ date.  (The date matters much less on some foods than others.)  Work this week’s sale produce into your meals and snacks.  Ask the produce guy at the grocery store if they have too many bananas; several times I’ve been able to buy a 40-lb case of bananas for $10 or even $5.  That’s enough for about three rounds of filling my dehydrator with sliced bananas, plus a batch or two of banana bread for the freezer.  (My kids adore home dried bananas.)   Some stores give away their day-old bread and other bakery items rather than marking them down.  If you’re local, give me a call; I have access to some of this and am looking for people to share with!

Know the best places to buy things - call around or look online. But don’t spend too much time running from place to place. Remember the first SOS.

Two places you might not have considered that have great deals are the Home Storage Centers -- you can buy in person or order online-- and NPS-- a store that sells inventory overage, lost and missing freight.(This is in Salt Lake and Utah counties only.  Other areas may have similar stores.)
Again, if you’re local, I’m glad to show you around at either place.  NPS has amazing deals- including on GF and dairy-free items-- but not everything there is inexpensive. I tend to shop there once every couple months, and get a lot of what’s good.


How can you afford to build your food storage?  
-Waste Less
-Budget it In
-Grow and Glean
-Buy Smart!