Project Sorghum Part 1: The Challenge

A woman in our local mommy group was giving away a partially full 5 gallon buck of sorghum kernels/ berries/ whatever they're called. I pounced on it. I love using new, real ingredients. If nothing else, we need a bucket to hold the 25 lbs of rice we just bought from Costco. After getting the bucket home, I began to realize just how much sorghum was in that bucket. It's about 40 POUNDS of sorghum. "What they heck am I going to do with this?" I asked myself. "Use it," I answered.

Since the bucket is open, I made it a personal mission to use every bit of it before the end of the year. There was just one problem: I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with 40 POUNDS of sorghum. Naturally, I went where any red-blooded American woman goes when she needs ideas- Pinterest. This is what I learned from my 1 hour of  Pinterest "research":

• Sorghum is a gluten-free grain that grows well in hot climates.
• It can be made into sorghum syrup. (So not happening in my kitchen, but nice to know.)
• It can be ground into flour and used to make breads. (Good thing we have a grain mill.)
• It's easy to cook. Very similar to rice. Cook it in 3 parts liquid to1 part grain for 50 minutes.
• It can be popped in a pot on the stove! (Think of the old fashioned way to make popcorn.)
• It's really good in curries.

I won't lie; The task seems immense, but it also sounds like a lot of fun. The Lord provided us with this bounty, so I intent to make the most of it. That said, if you have any recipes for sorghum, please send them my way. I be here, under the pile of sorghum.

Saving Money the Old Fashioned Way

     There was a time, not too long ago, when I was a "coupon queen." In any given week, I would save $50 or more in coupons. Most weeks I even made money on purchases. $0.10 for a box of pasta, $0.25 for a box of crackers. Most of the time, it was cheaper overall to buy more items than the one we needed. It was a rush. The feeling was doubled when we'd give missionaries bags of food after feeding them a meal in our home or box after box of food and vitamins (money makers) with my mom, who distributed it among the people she knows who are in need. It was great to be able to bless so many lives and help my family in the process.

     Then the well of coupon craziness went dry. Everybody and their mother (including mine) started couponning. There were stupid reality shows about it. Manufacturers couldn't afford to give our as many good coupons, so , instead of getting $1 off something, we get $0.25 off. I'm not complaining, I promise. Manufacturers have to make money. I get that. However, it has made saving money on groceries tougher. I've had to go back to basics to keep us in budget.

• BeansDave Ramsey suggests eating "rice and beans, and beans and rice" to save money. Beans are FULL of fiber, protein, and other nutrients. A one-pound bag is anywhere from $1.25-$1.75. They're even more economical if you buy larger bags.
  
  Growing up, I never ate beans because my mother never made them. She didn't like them (and didn't know how to cook with them), so they never made their way to our table. My husband comes from a Southern family. Beans are a staple. Black beans, red beans, black eyed peas, pinto beans, lima beans (baby and large), and the list goes on. When we got married, he made beans and made me try them. Yes, I felt a bit like a 5 year old being told "Try it. You might like it." But he did it with the love and humor, not in a patronizing way. A crazy thing happened- I fell in love with beans! Now, one of my favorite lunches is brown rice cooked in homemade stock with black beans, and some red onion. Lentils take 25 minutes to cook and don't require soaking, so they're very popular in our kitchen.
  
  I credit this book with teaching me to cook with beans and lentils. I had no idea that beans can be used in so many ways! Now that I have Pinterest, I get new bean dish ideas all the time. They best part is that they taste REALLY good. I have a bunch of easy, delicious bean recipes in the works. I'm hoping to have a couple of them up by the end of the week.
• Cook more from scratch/ Use the freezer
  I lump these two together because making use of my freezer allows me to cook from scratch, even when I don't have a lot of time. Often, I can throw made-from-scratch meals into the Crock Pot and cook some spinach or make a salad to have a complete meal. Other times, I'll have the most time-consuming part of a meal ready in the freezer.
  
  When I was couponing, we ate more convenience foods than I'd like to admit. Not as bad as many Americans, but still. The lack of amazing coupon deals combined with my resolve to get crud out of my family's diet, especially with 2 young kids, lead me to get back to real cooking. I can make homemade "helper" for pennies, surprisingly cheaper than I could buy it even with coupons.
  
  My big money saver is broth. It's FREE! When I cut up vegetables, I toss the scraps into a gallon-size freezer bag and store it in the freezer. When I get a couple of bags worth of peelings and ends, I throw the contents into a pot and cover with water. I add some salt and pepper, and let it cook down for a couple of hours to release all of the flavor and nutrients. Then I strain it, and freeze 2 cup portions in freezer bags.
  
  Like I said, I like to have the most time-consuming part of the meal done with and hanging out in the freezer. Taco meat and shredded chicken are prime examples of this. We buy our meat in bulk. (Thanks, Costco!) I take 1-2 hours to do my freezer cooking from start to finish. I brown ground beef with salt and pepper and freeze some of it as it is and add taco seasoning (homemade, not from a packet) to the rest. I bag it and freeze it. On the nights we're having tacos, I take the bag out of the freezer (because I never remember to defrost it) and put it in a pan to heat up while I cut up tomatoes and lettuce. A full taco dinner is on the table in under 20 minutes!
  
  I boil boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a pot with salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and onion powder. (While they're boiling, I'm browning the beef.) When the chicken is done, I put 3-4 breasts at a time into the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer and use the paddle attachment to break up the chicken. It takes about 30 seconds. After the shredded chicken cools, I bag it and freeze it in 2 cup portions. I use this chicken all the time! I use it in my Enchilada Zucchinis (recipe to come), and I add it to soups, pasta dishes, and quesadillas. I add some barbecue sauce to make sandwiches. The possibilities are endless.
• Make the most of what you buyI may be aging myself a bit here, but I remember these things called leftovers. They were nasty. They had a weird texture, and their temperature was always wrong. Most of the time, they became science experiments that got thrown in the trash. So what's a thrifty girl to do when she has extra food? Use it, but use it in a different way. Those left over green beans aren't going to taste as good if you just microwave them, but they're delicious in soup.
• Meal PlanI know, I know. You're probably sick of hearing this one, but it really does work. My meal plan is based on three things. 1) What's on hand. 2) What's on sale. 3) What's in season.
  
  I make my plan on Friday morning, so I can do my shopping on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. I browse the ads of my local grocery stores, and check my pantries, freezer and fridge. I see what needs to get used up and build meals around those things. This week, I noticed that I have apples that are getting old (something very rare in our house of fruit-lovers), so I've planned to make stewed apples with the pork chops I have planned for Tuesday night. I've also planned to add them to the baked oatmeal I'm making for Saturday's breakfast.
• Not buy
  This one is the hardest for me. I grew up with my Depression-era grandparents. I was taught to always stock up on food, because you never know. I've had to learn some self-control. If something isn't in the budget, no matter how good a deal, it isn't in the budget. Period. If it's that important, I need to put something else back.

I still use coupons and take advantage of sales, but they're no longer my most important means of keeping in my budget. What are your favorite ways to save money on groceries?

But Wait! There's More...

When we began our cloth diapering adventure, we did so to save money. The environment had absolutely nothing to do with it. Even now, I list "cuteness" over "environmentally friendly" when listing the reasons I love cloth diapers. After diving into the world of cloth diapers, I learned about the health benefits. Money and health still rank high on my reasons to skip the diaper aisle at the grocery store, BUT I've found other benefits to fluff.

• Stink: When Babyzilla has a rather stinky poop, it gets flushed down the toilet. Actually, all of his poops get flushed down the toilet, but I'm most thankful when it's a really stinky one. With disposable diapers, the stink stays in the trash can until you take out the garbage. Even if you take it out every night, a stinky poop in the morning will fester. People tell me that cloth diapers are "way gross" but I think letting poop sit around and stink up your kids room is grosser (more gross?).
• Blowouts: Really, it's more the lack thereof that I love. I'd heard horror stories about car seats, couches, carpet, etc. covered in poo. Babyzilla had one blow out in his 10 months on Earth, and it was while he was wearing a disposable diaper. Relatively speaking, it wasn't that bad of a poo. He's had way worse since then, but the pocket formed by the pre-folds holds the poo. There have been some stinky, messy ones, but never a poo leak. No matter how bad a poop is, I'd rather spray it down the toilet than scrub it off the walls, carpet, and couch.
• Versatility: We use pre-folds, which look like a thick dust rag. I've used them in more pinches than I can name. They're burp rags, soft enough for wiping faces, extra padding on high chairs in restaurants, toys (especially for peek-a-boo), oh the list goes on and on.
• Travel: By using our overnight method (bamboo insert with a pre-fold and cover), Babyzilla can ride in the car for hours without getting a rash or needing to make a pit-stop just to change a diaper; a big time-saver, let me tell you.
• Emergency preparedness: We live in Florida. Hurricanes are real. I have a great deal of peace of mind that, in the event of a big storm, my kid has diapers. Worse case, I have to hand-wash diapers in a 5 gallon bucket with rain water and line dry them. (We have drying racks that we use on a regular basis.) Super clean? No. Better than nothing? You bet.
• The illusion of a butt: My kid has NO butt. The cloth diapers give him some padding so his pants stay up. I know most people don't have this issue, but it makes my life a heck of a lot easier.

I'm sure this list will grow when Bump #2 gets here.

Weekly Menu: 7/5-7/10/11

We were too busy on the 4th of July to post the weekly dinner menu, but here it is:

Tuesday: I'm working until 8:30. Hubby is on his own.
Wednesday: (School night for me) Spaghetti, salad and garlic bread
Thursday: S&P chicken, zucchini ribbons, green beans, steamed carrots, couscous
Friday: Salsa chicken and peppers, tomato and cucumber salad, brown rice
Saturday: Beef stir-fry noodle bowls
Sunday: Tacos!

Something new!

The Feminist Breeder has decided to do something called Family Food Fridays. Basically, it's posting our meal plans for the week in hopes that it will help us make sure our families are getting decent meals (not Ramen, take-out, etc.) MOST nights. Hallee the Homemaker does something similar, but she posts on Mondays and has her menu for breakfast and dinner. Either way, I see great resources for dinners. I've decided to TRY to get our meal planning on the blog once a week.

Cloth on the Go

This past weekend Hubby, Mimi, Babyzilla and I went to a family reunion. It was our first time traveling with cloth diapers, and I was nervous to say the least. I packed some sposies "just in case," but we never used them. That's right. Our trip was 100% cloth! No leaks, no chaos, and, unlike previous road trips, no rash from waiting for the next rest stop to change a wet diaper. Even better, no need to stop at a rest stop just to change a diaper!

For travel we used a prefold with a hemp fleece insert. It works for overnight, why not in the car?  The drive to the reunion was about 3.5 hours, including a stop for feeding, and when we got there Babyzilla got passed around, so he was in the one diaper for about 4 hours. I changed him, and the pee hadn't made it to the outer part of the pre-fold. I swear, those inserts were the best $5 we have ever spent.

We stored the wet diapers in the normal wet bag, but ran out of room on the way home Sunday. Target bag to the rescue. Thank goodness it was only the one diaper.

I will say that the one down side to packing cloth was the room the prefolds took up, but it helped us organize everything. The black bag for clothes and toys, the brown bag for diapers, and the green bag for bottles/ feeding. Hubby and I could grab what we needed without rummaging through everything, so I guess it wasn't much of a down side.

Monday morning, I popped the diapers into the washer and washed them as usual. The ones from Saturday morning were a little strong, but nothing terrible. I sniffed them after they came out of the washer. No smell at all.

At first, I wanted to use all cloth just to see if we could do it. Maybe for a bit of shock value. Maybe to show how easy cloth diapers are for family members that think we're "crazy." Either way, I'm so glad we did it. Cloth diapers made the trip so much easier! And we're one step closer to being 100% cloth!

I use cloth diapers because I'm cheap and lazy.

Originally, using cloth diapers was a matter of money. Everybody is on a tight budget theses days. When I was pregnant, Hubby thought we could save a few bucks with cloth. (Yes, my husband wanted to use cloth before I did.) Then we crunched the numbers.

We are assuming a box of diapers lasts about a week, and a box of diapers costs about $20. (I'm a coupon girl, and I can usually score some really good deals, but I've never been able to get a box of diapers cheaper than $15.) Also assuming a child will potty train at age 2. There are 52 weeks in a year (104 in two years). Thus:

104 weeks X $15 = $1560 to diaper a child from birth to potty training. *2 years is an average. Most will take longer and keep in mind that you won't be able to get $15 diapers every time, so this number should be higher.*At $20/box, it will cost more than $2000!

Compare that to cloth, using pocket diapers (which are more expensive than PFs, but are the most common choice) at $25 each (most are not that expensive). A two day supply is about 20-25 diapers. 25 diapers X $25= $625 Keep in mind that most pockets are one size, so once you have your stash, you're set.

You could save over $1000 by the time the child is potty trained. If you have more than one child, you've already made the initial investment, so every cloth diaper you use on child #2 is pure savings. That's a savings of $3000 or more with two children! Even with detergent and electricity factored in, that's a huge savings. We use a quilt rack to air dry the diapers, so we don't use the dryer.

Even with the "extras" we've acquired along the way, we've spent less than $500 for everything (including 6 boxes of sposies). We have 1 more size to go with pre-folds and we plan on using cloth training pants, so we'll probably end up spending about $600 total.

While money is our main reason for using cloth diapers, it's not the only one. I've heard stories about "emergency" trips to the store for diapers. We never have that issue. We wash on a schedual, but if we do run low, we can always pop a load in the washer and in less than an hour we have a full stash again.

Another motivation for using cloth is the concern over the chemicals in disposables. The same absorbent materials in diapers used to be in tampons, but were removed because of the connection to TSS. Now, I know that the method of contact is different, but there's something to be said for keeping a toxic material that close to a baby's genitals. Have you every smelled the diaper area at Target? It reeks of chemicals and I'm not comfortable with putting that on my baby's skin 24/7.

The most common reason to use cloth diapers is the environmental impact, but to be honest, even if cloth diapers were just as bad as sposies for the environment (And that argument has been made) I would still use cloth. Eco-friendliness or "going green" is at the very bottom of my list, even below cuteness. (Cloth diapered butts are SO cute!)

I'll admit that we're not cloth purists. My mother in law watches Babyzilla 4 days a week while I'm in class and he wears sposies there. When we visit my mom, she buys a box of diapers, so we don't have to worry about packing them. Every family has to develop their own system that works for them. Many daycares don't use cloth, but baby wears cloth at home. I know a family that uses cloth on the weekends and overnight. In our cloth adventure, we've been all over the spectrum too. It's not something you're locked into. That's why I'm a huge fan of the Change 3 Things Challenge. The idea is that you commit to changing at least 3 dcloth diapers a day. It won't save you thousands of dollars, maybe just a couple hundred, but it's a good place to start. Many people find themselves changing more than that. I'll give you fair warning though: Cloth diapers are highly addictive! :)