Eating Well on a Budget

seedcorn said:

USA canned foods are allowed a certain amount of mice, excrement, etc. why I hate canned goods in stores. Can’t convince wife of it. Grew up by 2 major label canners.

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any processed food will have some contaminants in it. even home processed foods may sometimes have contaminants in them.

when i was doing tomatoes the other day did i get every little bit of skin or inclusions out of there? maybe, maybe not... did i drop an eyelash or skin cell in the pan while stirring? etc.

no rat or mouse turds for sure.

Sorry, I CANNOT make my own rice!!
Or t.p. ...
Or gasoline ...
Or iceburg lettuce, unless I can grow it next year in my new greenhouse.

We are in Cologne today, and there are always more choices in bigger cities. These are the contents we got today from the Too Good To Go app.

The first one is from a Turkish supermarket, 3 Euros for about 5kg veggies and fruits. They can't compete with whatever we planted in the garden, but for me, they are a very cost-effective supplement for our chickens. Commercial feed is more expensive after the war.

The leafy salads were dehydrated and looked sad, but they were totally fine for the chickens and quails. The girls already took them with the cooked shrimp shells for their snacks. Corns, tomatoes, pears, and the pomegranates will all become chickens' food tomorrow.

I will only keep those peppers and kiwis.



The second one is from a bakery that has a good rating (4.8/5) in the app. This magic bag cost 4 Euros.

The bakery closed at 18:30, and the magic bags were available from 18:40. Everything in the magic bag is from today's offering.

This is a perfect budget-saving deal for a family with 3-4 persons and is used to having bread as breakfast or lunch.

I think cooking as much as you can instead of buying already made foods is cheaper and that's what we do. Fortunately we are retired and have the time. I even stopped buying tortillas at Costco and have gone back to making my own.

We seldom go out to resturants anymore because of high prices. On the rare occasion that we do we do lunch since it's cheaper than dinner. Portions are big so we always take home our leftovers and have them for dinner. So we get two meals for the price of one. We also forgo the glass of wine and drink water instead. It's amazing how much your bill will go up with a couple of glasses of wine or beers on it.

I'm on facebook a lot and we have several free groups. I recently got a huge box of spices from someone who was moving. Went through it and only a couple had expiration dates. I'm set on spices for quite a while.

I have found 2 jars of pepper jelly from a eastern chain and it was $8.50 per jar for free. Have also gotten lots of teas and coffee. I'm always amazed and what people give away.

In our community there is a big sense of recycling and reusing so there is always tons of good things being given away. Whenever I get something I'll ask the gifter if they would like some zucchini or tomatoes from my garden as a thank you though it's not required. They are always excited to get them.

Mary

digitS' said:

Study Links Binge Eating To Stress, Contentment, Depression, Joy, Boredom, Anger, Relaxation

DURHAM, NC—Providing insight into the potential causes underlying the unhealthy behavior, a Duke University study released Wednesday has discovered a strong correlation between binge eating and feelings of stress, contentment, depression, joy, boredom, anger, and relaxation. “Our data indicate...

www.theonion.com

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Should not be a surprise as we “celebrate” good things with parties that have our favorite foods-birthday, wedding, anniversary, promotions, etc.... When someone is down, what are the6 told? Eat something you will feel better. We associate food/drink with pleasure..

The meals we have today from discounted and homegrown ingredients - I will say it's eating well on a budget.

A lot of them became chickens' special meal. I only kept the best parts to ourselves.


The portion for ourselves

The portion for the chickens


They also got the corns.

I used half tomatoes, red peppers, eggplants, homegrown chili, and some bacon to make the spicy tomato sauce.


Such a bottled sauce will cost more than 3 Euros (the amount we paid for the magic bag).

Green peppers, deboned chicken thigh (50% discounted from Lidl), sliced shiitake, and homegrown salad greens

With one croissant, DD and I had a lovely lunch.

brunch today will be a few stuffed green peppers. some ingredients from the gardens with added rice and canned mushrooms. now we're out of store-bought onions so we'll be eating from the garden for those now for a while. not very big onions this year but they'll do.

@ninnymary , I mentioned earlier on the Coffee thread, but Wifezilla (RIP) and I had a discussion/study of coffee years ago and we discovered that coffee/coffee beans will deteriorate after about 6 months, no matter how you store it.
Drink up!!
Tea, on the other hand, if stored properly, will keep for YEARS.
Thought I'd remind everyone and congratulate you on your finds!

Ducks, I didn't know Wifezilla had passed. I sometimes wonder about those that were here when I first joined. I was thinking about that young man Seed something that used to be here. I liked to hear his young enthusiazem on gardening.

I thought if you kept coffee beans or ground coffee in the freezer that it would keep for a year.

Mary