#meals from scratch

[thestudentfarmer]

The base cure time has arrived!!

We are going to eat one of the sweet potatoes we grew and harvested for the first time ever!

We ate the biggest one (we split between 2, but hoenstly 3 or 4 could have eaten from this behemoth!)

I just did something super simple, a baked sweet potato :)

Wrapped it in foil and cooked it in the oven at 375*f till soft. Peeled the skin back and split it.

Had some homemade meatloaf + fresh baked green beans with them. Super simple meal.

Sprinkled a little sea salt on top. It was super good, to be quit honest I might need to make a sweet potato pie with the next monster potato as this one was a lot sweeter than we expected.

I also think we'll need a few more taller raised beds to add to rotation as I think sweet potatoes will now be a more common grow for my garden. They produced vines we humans and our chickens can eat (plus I believe all parts of sweet potato are edible to them), were easily trellised to create a bit more shade, grew fast and the spuds that grew were sort of suprise bonus as I didn't think they were in the ground long enough before they died off.

This is our gardens first potato success 🙌 now to repeat it at a little bigger scale :) that I will be working on a bit this week 😀

Thanks for swinging by!

🍠🌱Happy Homesteading and Gardening 🌱🍠

3 14 2024

[theotherpath1]

Eleven Foods I Make Myself That Taste Better and Save Money

I should preface this post by adding most of the time I make these items myself…meaning weather and schedule permitting. Living in the Los Angeles area it’s warm most of the year. The summers can be extremely difficult to cook. When it’s 100 plus degrees outside and 110 in our kitchen, you probably won’t catch me making bread or pizza dough from scratch. In colder weather in LA, cooking is fun…

[dunroamins]

Don't mind me.

I'm just a person.

Sitting here wondering.

How Joey Batey can be SO GOOD AT SO MANY GODDAMN THINGS.

And feeling like a total failure in comparison! 🥹

[fruitless-vain]

Can I pick your brain for a moment? How did you bring up not working anymore with Jack? I'm in a bit of a differe t situation than you, i don't have physical health issues, only mental, and I'm not married or even moved in with my boyfriend. But working is so draining to me, it always has been and I can't even work full time. I'm just going through a rough patch right now and I can't stop dreaming of a future where I can just be a home maker, but im worried if I ever bring it up to my boyfriend he wouldn't approve or understand.

Even now working part time, I feel like a drain on my mother, and i know i get judged for not working full time and living with her as someone in my mid 20s. Have you ever dealt with those feelings?

Thanks in advance if you choose to respond. Im a long time follower and reading your life experiences has made me feel less alone in my own experiences

Sorry it took so long to reply, in my situation this was actually a goal that Jack had from the start. She wanted to be the one working and earning enough that I wouldn’t have to.

When it came to actually making that change it was a combination of my physical and mental health collapsing. After thinking about it for a while I considered trying other jobs, part time, or finding at home things I could do since the idea of being fully dependent on someone else was really uncomfortable for me at the time. I ended up sitting down with Jack, explained how I was feeling, my concerns, and we sat down at the computer to go over the budget together and see what would be feasible for us. Turns out she was making enough on her own to cover all our expenses so we went forwards with me converting to not working anymore.

Depending on your situation and the people around you it may be best to share your feelings with them. Explaining to Jack directly that I didn’t want to be burden or make our lives harder allowed me to see that she didn’t feel that way at all, her priority is my happiness, she made sure I knew that. Having that open conversation made it a lot easier to feel comfortable and safe making that change, as well as acknowledging whether or not it was an option for us

(And they’re not “only” mental health issues, they’re just as valid please don’t feel the need to downplay them)

Depending on you and your capacity you might also explore other strategies to earn income if that’s something you still need to happen (selling your own creations, content creation, there’s some apps that pay you for surveys, I do one that pays you for reaching milestones in mobile games for some spending money and there’s audio transcription that pays you from home) there might be things you feel more capable of handling if you aren’t financially able to quit altogether.

Ultimately I find it comes down to being open with people you trust, explaining your struggles, goals, and compromises while being understanding of both sides

[soniabigcheese]

I MADE SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE

I just wanted to shout from the rooftops

Annnd

I made it all from scratch!- no jars of sauce were used

At all

I made far too much so ..I'll be having more tomorrow

Occupational Health are going to get me some large handles so that I can use knives for chopping properly

I did try and use a chopper but it was absolutely useless, as you need to chop stuff up really small for it to work properly

[denyjesuschrist]

did i ever tell y'all about how a doctor i went to for like four years (back when i lived in tallahassee) told me to "not reach for the pizza so often" because i put on about ten pounds due to a mental health episode (after being significantly underweight) - meanwhile‚ he'd gone from having a shredded body to a prominent beer belly over the time i'd been going to him 🤷‍♀️ he also ignored every request i ever made to treat my chronic pain

[kaoharu]

tbh i harp on a lot of people for eating/not eating properly but im like The Worst at feeding Myself. i would cook my friends ten billion meals before i think to put something in my stomach

[lamortwrites]

ARGH

[dumbbullet]

Quite enjoyed my thanskgiving dinner which made me feel like that mouse from the aristocats

[laurelorel]

cooked orange chicken + rice with the gf and it turned out delicious

[lovvecherrymotion]

some people are stress bakers, i'm a stress cooker

[magistralucis]

@absolut--kurant!

[healthilyathome]

Weekly Groceries

I thought I'd try to make this a somewhat regular thing (as much as I find the time for it lol). I'm not promising these will be the healthiest or cheapest meals ever, they're just average person meals. I don't hold myself to this schedule, I just make a list of meals and make what I feel like eating whichever day it sounds good. I just thought it'd be easier to format for you guys if I did it this way.

Monday

Fried egg on bagel

Egg salad sandwich

Burritos

These are white people burritos, I'm not doing anything fancy lol. I do make my own taco seasoning so you'll see individual spices on the grocery list. The fried egg on a bagel has become my new obsession breakfast. I use a plain bagel and put jam and sometimes bacon if I have some premade.

Tuesday

Fried egg on bagel

Egg salad sandwich

Sheet pan sausage and potatoes

I've been loving sheet pan meals lately, they're so easy! To be clear the sausage referenced is ring sauce, not like breakfast sausage lol.

Wednesday

Oatmeal

Leftover sausage and potatoes

Pierogi and kielbasa

We actually do leftovers a lot! It just depends on the meal lol. My husband takes leftovers to work most days, so there's not always enough for both of us to have them for lunch.

Thursday

Oatmeal

Salad

Ravioli (or maybe tortellini... depends on what I find at the store first)

As you'll see on the grocery list I don't buy pasta sauce. I just buy a can of plain tomato sauce and add Italian seasoning. I'm sure there's great recipes out there that accurately replicate store bought pasta sauce, but a small can of tomato sauce is like 50¢ lol.

Friday

Oatmeal

Salad

Stuffed chicken breast

I use a cheese ball recipe for the stuffed chicken breast. Whatever I don't use for the chicken (at least half of the recipe) I eat with crackers and vegetables as a snack. If I feel like being extra fancy I wrap the chicken in bacon before cooking.

Saturday

Fried egg on bagel

Grilled cheese

Honey garlic shrimp

I make our bread from scratch as well so you won't see that on the grocery list either.

Sunday

Fried egg on bagel

Grilled cheese

Pancakes

I love doing breakfast for supper! I love breakfast foods and I don't subscribe to the idea that certain foods are for certain times of the day. I had leftover chicken parmesan for breakfast this morning lol.

Groceries

This list is not reflective of what I'm buying this week. It assumes you don't have any of the ingredients needed for these recipes, including spices. I'll include prices from Walmart because it's the most popular grocery store in the US, I fully understand it's not the closest for everyone (when we move the closest one will be an hour away). For the most part I'll assume the cheapest version of each item is being bought. I buy certain things in bulk so I won't have to buy them again the next week. You may notice this lacks much produce, I wanted to leave that to personalize. So, depending on personal preferences and where you actually shop your total could be higher.

3lb Ground beef

Tortillas

Sour cream

2lb Cheddar

Chili powder

Paprika

Cumin

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

18ct eggs

2lb butter

Bagels

Raspberry jam (this is what I like for the bagels, obviously choose what you like)

Flour

Sugar

Active dry yeast

Mayo

Dijon mustard

Garlic salt

Yellow onion

Smoked beef sausage

Red potatoes

Mini pierogi

Kielbasa

Old fashioned oats

Brown sugar

Heavy cream

Raisins

Peanut butter

Ravioli

Tomato sauce

Italian seasoning

Sliced cheese

6lb chicken breasts

Cream cheese

Ranch powder

Dried onion

Honey

Minced garlic

Soy sauce

Avocado oil

Shrimp

Spring mix

Baby carrots

Bacon

Chocolate chips

Baking soda

Baking powder

Like I mentioned a couple times I make a lot of things from scratch. If you're wondering why I didn't include something, it's probably something I make myself.

[waitineedaname]

I love cooking so much

[illegiblehandwriting1]

for a little bit there, i forgot about secondary goals in scenes and that might've been part of why writing has been so fucking hard.

anyhoo, i remember now. So now i have a whole checklist of Shit That Needs to Be Done this chapter. I am giving myself just one chapter to do it all. And all the groundies are doing is sitting there. Doesn't sounds so complicated, right?

holy fucking shit. i am excited to see if i can do it.

[quantum27]

fatphobes act like telling a fat person to avoid processed foods in the us is gonna fix everything. like yes, telling one person not to engage is a systematic problem will fix everyone.