Shucking was the Easy Part

So it turns out there's a lot more work to preparing all that corn than just the really long process of shucking 12 dozen ears. Because when it comes to freezing and storing fresh veggies you first need to blanch them because:

"All fruits and vegetables contain enzymes that, over time, break down the destroy nutrients and change the color, flavor, and texture of food during frozen storage. Corn requires a brief heat treatment, called blanching, in boiling water or steam, to destroy the enzymes before freezing. Blanching times generally vary from one to 10 minutes, depending on the vegetable. the duration should be just long enough to stop the action of the enzymes."

After shucking all the corn, the process begins with washing all the ears to remove those pesky strings and cutting off any remaining stems and bad parts. Then you boil the corn in a large pot. I found several different recommendations on the amount of time to use, the farmer's wife where we got the corn suggested 5 min. and the site where I got that explanation said 10 min., so we opted for a time in the middle at about 7-8 min.

 And yes, that is a ton of baking I did in the background: 2 loaves of strawberry bread, 8 mini loaves of banana nut bread, and a large apple walnut cake...it was a very busy and tiring day in the kitchen! So I solicited some help from IK to work on this huge process because there was only a few minutes between each batch of corn.

As soon as the corn is done blanching in the boiling water you immediately remove the corn and place it into an ice bath to quickly cool off for the same amout of time (7-8 min.) that it spent boiling.

Then after the corn cools off you wrap the ears individually in plastic wrap and then place them in large ziplock bags. Going through this process makes it so that the ears will last in your freezer for up to 12 months. Since we had so much corn we took the small ears and cut them off the cob with my electric knife to store them in smaller bags which will be perfect for adding corn to soups, stews, etc.

The process was a lot of work and IK and I were really tired when we were done! But it was so nice to know we now have all this corn in our freezer...and it's nice to know you only have to go through this big blanching process once!

And yes, we had corn on the cob with our dinner that night...and it was really sweet and delicious!

KW loved it, he was the first one sitting at the table ready for dinner!

GF Strawberry Bread

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while and finally managed to last week, and oh man it was worth it! Everyone absolutely LOVED this bread! IK ate it for breakfast every morning, and it's also perfect with a cup of hot tea or for dessert.

We added a little butter to the warm bread and then sprinkled cinnamon & sugar on top and it was perfect. MMMM!!!! The only slight criticism my kids had was that some of them didn't like the slightly tart bites where the fresh strawberry chunks were, so next time I will mash up the strawberries more so there aren't any really big chunks through the bread. But that's just my kids, otherwise this bread was amazing!

Another great thing is that 1 batch makes 2 large loaves, or you could split these up into a bunch of smaller loaves and freeze some to pull out when you need them.

GF Strawberry Bread

3 cups all purpose flour (or GF: 1 1/2 cups white rice flour, 1 1/4 tapioca flour, 1 1/4 cups potato starch all mixed together plus 1 tsp. xanthan gum)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup cooking oil

Directions:

1. Mix it all up - by hand.

2. Add the berries at the last.

3.Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes in small loaf pans, or around 60 minutes in 2 large loaf pans.

4. Remember each oven is different, so make sure and UNDER-SET your timer, so you don't over bake the bread!

Simple Grilled Ham & Cheese

It's amazing to me some of the really good meals I can manage to throw together with a bunch of odds and ends type foods from the fridge when we're low on groceries. I made spaghetti for the kids the other night, but needed to make something different for SD because of the red sauce he can't eat.

So here's what I came up with:

I had some Pamela's GF bread slices, some leftover ham slices, and shredded cheese I threw together for a yummy grilled sandwich with a side of mustard for dipping.

Then I used some more shredded cheese to top some leftover fresh baby spinach leaves I had bought for another recipe along with a chopped up apple and some delicious raspberry vinaigrette dressing which made a wonderful side salad.

Not bad for a mix of leftovers, huh? See, eating GF really can be pretty easy.

Grocery Shock and Challenge

Do you know how much your family spends on groceries each month? Do you really know? Or would you be surprised if you actually took the time to sit down and add it all up?

When it comes to feeding a family of 6 I expected our monthly grocery budget to be rather big, but my best guess was somewhere around $600/mth. I decided to test that theory and find out exactly how close I was after reading through another blog I enjoy, Owlhaven, where Mary is hosting a $75 per week grocery spending challenge this month.

Mary is a very interesting mom, she has a total of 10 children...yes I said 10! Some of her children are biological and several of them have been adopted. She and her husband have such a profound and inspiring love for each and every one of these children and it's so evident in every post she writes. I've never met her, even though she lives nearby, but she strikes me as such a genuine person and a tremendously awesome model of a great mom.

Anyway, if anyone knows about the struggles of feeding a large family on a small budget, it's Mary! So this month she's been experimenting with her family's grocery budget because she firmly believes it's possible to feed a family of 4 on just $75 per week! Mary's so confident this really is possible, and even realistic, that she's published a book about it called Family Feasts (hint, hint, just in case anyone's looking for Christmas gift ideas for me :D). Now granted, one of the main supplements her family has used to aid them through this process has been the huge garden they grow each year and all of the freezing and canning that comes out of that harvest to help offset their monthly grocery expenses...but she's also sticking to this $75/wk budget with 10 mouths to feed, not just 4.

But even if you don't have time to garden (like me, although I'm going to try really hard to get my garden up and running again next year! That's the plan, anyway) I think the concept of spending less on groceries is still totally doable!

I've been concerned about all the extra new expenses of converting our whole family to gluten free, and because those items are generally SOOOO much more expensive I honestly thought we've been spending a lot more on our groceries since making this change.

But when I sat down and went through ALL the expenses from Jan. - Aug. of this year and added up all the groceries we bought, all fast food, all eating out, etc. I was actually incredibly surprised to learn we now spend much LESS since making the change to going totally GF! How's that possible? Well, one of the major changes is that we eat out a whole lot less these days...because there's no options for, "hey, I'm tired and don't feel like cooking tonight, let's just order a pizza." And since the other fast food options are so limiting, you tend to get sick of fries all the time and just start eating them less often.

While I've complained about being forced to be so much more disciplined in my meal planning, it's been an awesome trade off to know that the extra discipline is actually saving us money!!!

That was the good news when I did this grocery spending analysis. What's the bad news? Well, the truth is I was WAY off in the actual amount of money we've been spending each month on groceries....WAY off! I added up all the grocery bills, the random trips to the grocery store, all fast food expenses, quick stops for drinks at a gas station, etc. I included not just edible items, but everything we buy at the grocery store, so all those expenses for shampoo, toilet paper, diapers, light bulbs, etc. each month.

Of course every month's totals varied, depending on how busy we were (relying more on fast food quick dinners) and when the paychecks arrived. So, any guesses just how much we've been spending??? For the past 8 months, Jan. - Aug. 2009, we've spent an average of.......$970 every month on groceries!!!

Ummm....YIKES!!!!!!!! I honestly had NO idea we were actually, truthfully spending soooo much money in this area! Wow!!! While my meal planning skills have greatly improved over the past few months, I know I could still be doing much better and definitely find ways to cut down this monthly expense!

So, I'm not going to go crazy, and no one's going to starve or anything, but I am going to make some big changes. Of course, I don't have any gardening stash to help me out here, but I fully plan to add that tremendous help into our groceries next year!

For now, here's where I'm starting. Since we've already bought our groceries this month, I'm going to start this savings experiment in October. Here's what I plan to do:

1. Setting the monthly budget: I'm going to cut our average spending from $970/mth to $600/mth. If I can drop the grocery bill by just that much per month we will end up saving $4,440 per year...that's HUGE!!! So breaking this down, that gives me $150 per week to work with for all our meal planning for my family of 6.

2. Feeling the difference: We all know how much easier it is to justify adding those extra impulse buys to the cart when we can easily swipe that debit card and hardly notice the extra $2, $3, and $5 items here and there. Instead, I'm going to buy everything with cash only. There's a much stronger emotional attachment when we hand over cash and our buying decisions become far more disciplined when we have a set maximum amount.

3. Keeping my eyes open for really great deals: Since I don't have a garden this year, but many other people do, now is an excellent time to take advantage of many garden over abundance sales! The expenses of fresh fruit and veggies can really add up, so I'm watching out for any great deals on these items I can buy in bulk and freeze. Now that we bought a new fridge we have our old fridge hooked up in the garage and it's ready to be filled.

4. The bulk advantage: I don't often buy in bulk, even though I know it saves me money, so I'm going to work harder at doing this more often, esp. when stores are having great sales! Normally I buy white rice flour and tapioca flour at Fred Meyer in bulk where I can also buy potato starch in bulk...even though I know I can buy the flours much cheaper at Winco. I drove out to Winco last week and discovered that (not all items) but many items were much cheaper there than they are at Wal-mart. Taking advantage of these savings requires a longer drive to the other end of town to get to Winco, but by shopping there first and then heading to Wal-mart for the items I know aren't cheaper or I can't get at Winco actually saved me a bunch of money last week.

And speaking of awesome deals, yesterday I was browsing through Craigslist and found an ad for a local farmer here in town who is nearing the end of his crop and has too much sweet corn still growing. So he listed an ad for u-pick sweet corn at only $1 per dozen!!!!

I called him and met at his house, and then followed him down the road about a mile to his corn field. Since KW was with me and I wanted 10 dozen ears of corn, he offered to help me pick it all. He also gave me two huge extra armfuls of corn just in case there were any bad ears in the bunch to make sure I would have the 10 dozen good ears I paid for. I grabbed a couple of boxes from the garage on the way over there and the car was completely full of corn by the time we were done.

KW and I arrived home just before IK and EJ got home from school...perfect timing! We unloaded the car and with all my helpers we went to work shucking all our corn.

I told the kids KW and I were just driving through town and saw some great looking corn so we decided to pull over and rob a corn farmer...they actually believed me for a couple of seconds! Ha! Then I explained the story behind this awesome deal and they were amazed at the tremendous savings! And we thought 4 ears for $1 was a great grocery store price last week.

 

LA came home shortly after IK and EJ and quickly joined in the fun. Even with all of these helping hands it still took us more than an hour to get through all that corn!

A few of the ears had bad tops on them, but we simply broke those sections off. The corn looked really good and juicy!

 

 

 

 

We were all sick of shucking corn by the time it was over, but you know what? That hour and a half we spent sitting out there was on a beautiful afternoon where the weather was simply perfect and it gave me a great opportunity to spend some quality time chatting and catching up with my children...can't beat that!

 

At the end of it all, we only had to throw out 2 or 3 ears of corn that were bad...which means those extra armfuls of corn the farmer gave me really paid off! By the time we were done we had a total of 139 ears of corn, so we were just shy of a total of 12 dozen ears of corn...all for only TEN BUCKS!!!

Which means we have plenty of fresh sweet corn to freeze whole and to blanch and cut off the cob and freeze into ziplock bags to store for easy corn to add to soups, stews, etc. all winter long! That's a really cool savings and the food will go a long way in helping to provide for my family this year. Awesome!

So I'm on my way to this new grocery spending/saving challenge. I'll keep you posted on my spending progress throughout the month as well as what meals we're eating as soon as this experiment starts next month! It should be an exciting challenge to see just how much money our family can save.

What about you? How much does your family spend each month? Want to join me next month and see how much we both can save?!

Random Pics of a Random Day

There was a great sale on corn on the cob at 4 for $1 so I grabbed 12 of them and EJ helped me shuck the corn while I worked on throwing together the rest of dinner and wrapping up the day's baking.

She had never shucked corn before and it she thought it was a kind of fun experience. Meanwhile I threw together a quick meatloaf and some veggies to go with it. I've been saving the ends of the bread loaves I make and then toasting them as much as possible so they're really dry. Then I crumble the bread slices into tiny crumbs as much as I can to add into the meatloaf for a GF alternative to crackers or regular bread crumbs.

Zucchini chocolate chip cookies have become a regular favorite in our house, tying with the all time favorite pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! The granola bars shown in the back are also becoming regular snacks. And I've found with the Pamela's bread mix my loaves end up looking much nicer if I wet down a spatula with water and smooth out the top of the loaf just before rising and baking.

One of the best things I love about these granola bars is their light hint of peanut butter flavor. I love peanut butter, but it's so high in calories so I usually try to avoid eating it most of the time. But with these granola bars I can eat something that still gives me the pb taste I need to satisfy those cravings.

There's really no good segue into this last picture, hence the randomness mentioned in the post title. As EJ and I were bustling with all the cooking & baking in the kitchen, I walked through the house and found SD so exhausted he had fallen asleep at his desk. This is how you know you need to catch up on sleep!

GF CrockPot Cream Cheese Chicken Recipe

I needed a dish I could throw in the crockpot and not have to worry about all day. This was great, everyone really liked it and the somewhat different flavor it had from usual chicken recipes we eat. They all had the exact same comment, that it was really good, but the flavor was just a little bit too strong. We attributed it to the 2 tablespoons of Italian seasonings, so next time I make this I would definitely cut that down to 1 tbsp.

I used 1 box of Quinoa colored spiral pasta which honestly didn't look like 1 box would be enough to feed all of us, but it really made a ton after it cooked up...so much that we were all full from dinner and SD took this to work for lunch 2 days last week!

GF CrockPot Cream Cheese Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

--2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup

--frozen chicken--enough to feed four adults

--2 T Italian seasoning

--1/2 t celery seed

--1 T onion powder

--1 T sugar (weird, I know.)

--1/4 t black pepper

--1 t kosher salt

--2 cloves minced garlic

--block of cream cheese (to add later)

or you can make it with:

--1 can cream-of-something soup

--1/2 cup chicken broth

--frozen chicken pieces

--packet of Italian salad dressing mix

--2 cloves minced garlic

--block of cream cheese (to add later)

Directions:

1. Put everything except for the cream cheese into the crockpot. 

2. Cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred. Shred the chicken with two large forks, and mix in the block of cream cheese. 

3. Switch the crock to high and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is fully melted. Serve over pasta. 

KW had to have a picture of his dinner taken too.

Soccer in Full Swing

Three nights per week and all day long on Saturdays are now filled with the usual fall soccer madness. So far we're managing through it pretty well, and even still finding time for SD and I to get in our big weekly 10k runs and walks. This last Sat. we tried something different by bringing our bicycles and quickly biking all the way back to the car after our 10k run and it provided a big extra workout for our quads!

Since schoolwork is also consuming much of my time and schedule these days, I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking today.

 

There's some very vast height differences in the players on IK's team this year. He, along with 3 other boys, stand head and shoulders above the rest of the team. I believe he said their team name this season is the Raiders.

 

 

 

 

 

IK and EJ both enjoy the benefits of working as referees! They love having their own checks and spending money.

KW's favorite part is waiting for the snacks after the game.

LA's team this season is called the Shooting Stars.

 

 

 

Gotta have some tree climbing in there while waiting for IK's practice to finish. Yup, lots and lots of this stuff EVERY week.

My Baby's 1st Shave

I knew this day would come sometime. After all, my son has been growing a really cool mustache and awesome sideburns for a while now. But he's also had a bunch of really long hairs growing on his cheeks and a goatee beginning to grow too. So finally, SD took some time to show IK how to shave.

I simply couldn't resist the photo opp! It's one of those huge childhood milestones, just like all those baby phases of learning to roll over, sit up, crawl, walk, speak, etc. This was my baby's very 1st shaving experience!

SD explaining the trickiness of shaving around the sideburns before IK lathered up.

He really didn't want me in there taking pictures of him, esp. feeling like a clown, he was such a good sport putting up with his camera crazed mommy.

SD did part of it to give IK an idea of how hard/lightly to press against his skin.

After SD did a little bit he let IK do the rest to practice for the 1st time. It was such an awesome dad/son moment.

By this time IK had had enough of mommy gushing all over this moment, so I promised him that would be my last picture, although I really wanted to take one of IK holding the razor himself. He's growing up so much!