Today is day 30 of the July Food Stamp Challenge and my family is good and ready to be done with this month long social experiment. Because despite cramming our refrigerator full of delicious food, they are dead sure that I am sacrificing their diet in the name of The Non-Consumer Advocate.
Dinner last night was simple — grilled chicken with rice and a big salad made with the last of the salad greens from my sister’s farm. My husband both prepared dinner and cleaned up from it, as I was milking my swollen eye for all it was worth. (Seriously, what else can I get out of with this eye thingy?!)
I think I’m going to try my hand at homemade yogurt today, using the uber-cool Salton yogurt maker that I discovered in my father’s basement.
I am disappointed in myself that I didn’t get to do all the things I had wanted to do, such as volunteering at The Oregon Food Bank and going to a local farmer’s market. However, it’s not like these places disappear in a puff of smoke at the stroke of midnight on August first. July is a busy month, as the kids are underfoot (does this term still apply when one’s kids are taller than oneself?!) and I do still have a job and we spent a week hosting a British soccer coach.
On today’s agenda is:
- Get my older son to work and back.
- Make yogurt from scratch.
- Take a fire hose to my messy house.
- Start planning the details of our family vacation, which starts on August 8th.
And yes, I’ll prepare some kind of frugal yet impressive dinner such as burritos with homemade tortillas. (These are seriously delicious!) So I guess I gotta go start the dried pinto beans in the slow cooker and take a couple of Ibuprofen to see if I can make a dent in my eye inflammation.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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You’ll love the homemade yogurt. I make it at least twice a week for my hubby and kiddos who all think it’s better than ice cream from our fresh goat (or cow) milk. One of my neighbors gifted us with a gallon bag of snow peas, the biggest green onions I’ve ever seen and some eggplant. So I threw together a stir-fry last night using our homegrown beef. It was so easy and simple, and all home-grown (well, if you don’t count the rice or soy sauce, lol).
Funny you should mention the homemade tortillas because earlier today I ordered a tortilla maker!
So, that is what my freecycle Salton yogurt maker looks like. I got it four years ago and never unpacked it because things around here went to Hell in a handbasket. But, I swore I was making yogurt next week. My hens love yogurt, too. That means I will have the yogurt maker running full-time to feed them and me.
I always told my children the next house would have concrete walls, tiled with a drain in the center of the floor so I could hose the place down. They thought it was bizarre. Not really.
I love Greek yogurt but not “regular” yogurt. I think you mentioned that your husband likes Greek, Katy. Fage works great as a starter, if you’re interested in that style yogurt. Delicious!
I didn’t end up making yogurt after all, as my next-door-neighbor invited us to go swimming with her, and then we ended up all eating dinner together. I did buy the milk though, so I am one step closer. 🙂
Katy
With the eye thingy, have you tried stroking the area several times a day with a gold ring (or anything gold?) In England, where I’m from originally, the most effective cure for a stye (an infection on the inside edge of your eye) is just that. And it works too.
Love the blog!
Gold? Weird. I’ll have to unearth my wedding ring and give it the ol’ college try.
Katy