Call me a loser! 🙂 I couldn’t have done worse but please hear me out before you judge me. 🙂
A friend from Louisiana was in Abilene visiting a friend and I don’t get to see her enough so I told Vince I was going to go to Abilene today and visit with my friend and he said “I’ll take off and go with you!” We tried to tell him it was a girls day out but he wanted to come too so . . he did. My friend had never met him so it was nice for us all to get together.
We left home fairly early . . I went out in the garden and picked two big bags of lettuce, stuck them in a styrofoam cooler with ice and gave it all to my friend. Vince I had had breakfast at Chick-Fil-A in Abilene. Then we met my friend for lunch at a Thai restaurant. It was our first time to go there but we have always seen many cars there when we passed it so we thought it would be good and it was. Dinner . . we were stuffed from lunch so if we get hungry, we’ll have a piece of fruit or something.
The whole world would have done better on this challenge than I did today . . even though they didn’t know there was a challenge! 🙂 I’ll do better tomorrow.
Emma says
I rather unexpectedly took part in this challenge this week! I usually grocery shop on Sundays, but we were out all afternoon last Sunday with a friend. We didn’t feel like shopping afterwards, so we’ve been making do. We had plenty of food since we’d bought a whole chicken and a 6 lb brisket the week prior and had those already cooked up. For lunches, we ate at home (tuna salad mostly) all but once, when I had a farewell lunch for a coworker who’s retiring after 26 years.
I live in a high rise apartment building in downtown Seoul, South Korea, for the next year or two, so gardening isn’t quite available to me, but I’m doing what I can. I sprouted two romaine lettuce stems from our lettuce the last month, and have little 3/4″ leaves coming up out of them. I’ll pick up some pots, soil, etc. this week and try to set up as much self sufficiency as I can here. Besides, if I can get enough of the romaine heads going, we won’t have to buy lettuce again while we’re here…we can just cut off the leaves we want for our lunchtime lettuce wraps. The little root buds are just popping out of the stem today. 🙂
Anyways, sometimes life gets in the way, so no worries on your Chick-Fil-A…although I could never eat there anymore (Celiac’s Disease plus I get hangovers from MSG, which is in EVERYTHING they make).
Sherrill says
Oh WHEW!! I’m so GLAD you did bad today! LOL Now I don’t feel so alone. I had the 2 rugrats for a couple of hours today and they ALWAYS want a donut so I took them to Dunkin. Of course, I had to have one, too, even though I had cereal for breakfast. We were out geocaching and then stopped by Sonic for a drink and wound up getting corn dogs. I had to go to the grocery store to pick up stuff for Sunday morning breakfast at church (so technically it’s not for THIS week) and then I had Good & Plentys and salt & vinegar chips. I know, I know, I eat so healthy–LOLOLOL
Carol Harper says
Still on track… Except for some ice cream for desert, that is! Breakfast was my usual coffee with milk and juice, lunch was some canned soup from the pantry, and dinner was an “almost ratatouille” (eggplant and seasoned cherry tomatoes from last summer,s CSA, cooked with half an onion and minced garlic from the pantry) and rib eye steak (freezer), all of which (ecpxcept the ice cream) predated hysbands little shopping trip yesterday.
I see that I COULD make it a week on wwhat we have stashed away… It’s just hard to when we don’t have to!
On the plus side, I bought the veggie sets I plan on growing at home and our CSA starts up in a little over 6 weeks! Then I can restock my freezer (never learned to can… And I think I’m too old to now but I can, and do, freeze excess produce!). Since our CSA is enough for five and there are only two of us, I often have excess to freeze…
Barbara says
same ole same ole for me…ate everything out of frig/freezer
I will do fine until the eggs run out…I never buy more than a couple of weeks worth…after they run out that would not only disturb my breakfast (I’ve eaten eggs for 30+ years for breakfast) it means no mayonnaise. I only eat home made mayonnaise, and there is no storing that.
Certainly not the end of the world, but it was a rude awakening!
MarilynS says
Judy, am loving all of your prepping ideas. We have a fairly small home and are prepped with store bought canned foods, tp, napkins, paper towels, kleenex etc. Plenty of canned fruit and veggies, tuna, chicken roast beef. We always have an extra tank for the bbq and old stuff (pots & frying pans) that can be used on a bbq. Living in the So CA desert (hotter than hell today) we are prepared for earthquakes and fires. In fact, our skies are full of smoke from the San Diego fires. I cycle the canned foods during the year and replace what I use. We also have toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant . soap, blankets, pillows that we can get too. It is too hot here and I have no place to store home canned good and extra supplies other than enough for about a month. But, we are prepared. We do have a swimming pool full of chlorinated water which we can use for cooking, bathing (out of the pool). I think what you are doing is fantastic. Car is also supplied if we can get out of town. No basement or outbuildings. Prepared with radios (crank style), lots of batteries,flashlights and solar lights in the yard and candles. We have been this way for many years. Also, have cash we can get to. We are doing the best we can do but are prepared to last at least a month if a disaster hits. And, most of it is stored under my longarm.
I wish we were in a position to do what you do. We travel quite a bit during the year and are not here to maintain a vegetable garden any longer We are doing the best we can, being prepared and using and replacing our being prepared kit.
I am loving following this – so many good ideas here.
JudyL says
I understand what you’re saying. That’s the constant dilemma around here . . if we want a vacation home or want to travel, then we can’t have the big garden, orchard or chickens. With the drought, there’s watering to do every day and even if we had it all on automatic timers, we have to monitor the well levels and not over tax them so either we give up one thing to get something else or . . we just do what we’re doing til we’ve had enough and them move on to a different lifestyle.
I was wondering if the fires were affecting you. Hopefully they’ll get them out soon.
Dianne says
Well I haven’t done well today either. After grandchildren left we went and grabbed something to eat. Then this afternoon we were out running an errand and grabbed junk food.
So hopefully tomorrow we will be back on some regular schedule.
Cathy says
lololol….and here I was stressing because I forgot to buy sugar last week so I’d have enough sweet tea to get me through the challenge!!! I ended up trading my quilt layout/design services for 3 cups of sugar today to avoid going to HEB.
Glad you got to have friend time today. Sounds like a much needed break.
Helen Koenig1 says
Judy – I don’t think it’s a winner or loser thing – just that you KNOW you have the foods IF you need them – that you can make it through tough times, blizzard and snowbound weeks, weeks of grocery store empty shelves, tornadoes, flooding, and all the rest of the natural disasters that CAN happen (and, based on the news, all to often DO happen) without going hungry – and that your family is provided for. You are trying to show others that they can be good providers and take care of their families during some horrible disaster or other – and, in my book, that DEFINITELY does NOT make you a loser! Would that we ALL of us would care about our fellow man enough to try to help or teach him or her that!
PegTurner says
I started making my chicken gnocchi soup for dinner and realized I had no barb spinach in the house, so I had to go to the store for that, 🙁 so much for planning ahead!
patti says
still doing good, using leftovers for enchiladas tonite and taking extra produce and eggs to a neighbor. from tomorrow on tho we’re traveling so it will be eating out. this didn’t seem strangely different to me because of the timing; had it been a ‘lunch out with the girls’ type of week i wouldn’t have made it.
Anne W says
Enjoyed your challenge greatly. Had one piece of birthday cake on Monday( brought/bought by someone else), Refreshments at the guild meeting on Tuesday night (also brought/bought by others). Bought one unsweet tea at McDonalds on a really stressful day. I think I lost a couple pounds; my blood sugars been very good and I have saved a few dollars. All in all a very worthwhile challenge. Thanks.
Katie Z. says
We did well again yesterday: cereal, sandwiches and leftovers, and soup with fresh bread!
JudyL says
Good job!
Nancy says
I found your website when it was mentioned on another site. I have read all the prep posts and have a question. You mention cooking different meats and canning the left overs, are you using a pressure cooker? You also showed pinto’s on one post. I didn’t even know you could do beans. I am assuming you soak them and then assemble like you – do you fully cook them first? What cook book do you use? I was sorry to read that you had bad feed back from some of your readers. You never know when you will need to be prepared for something. This last winter we had more snow than usual. In our area of the country – none of us know how to drive in the snow. I always stay how when that happens. It was nice to be able to pull dinner our of the freezer and pantry.
JudyL says
Nancy, if you’re just starting out, there’s so much info on the internet. My recommendation is to begin by doing a bit of research. Any low acid food needs to be canned under pressure. On the right sidebar on my blog is a search bar and you can find some information there. The pinto and baked bean recipe I use i sunder the Recipes tab at the top. For beginning canners, I would recommend the Ball Blue Book, available at Wal-Mart or Amazon.
Nancy says
I haven’t used a pressure cooker in about 20 years. I had used one before but all I ever can’t was green beans and carrots. I usually froze my corn. And used a boiling hot water bath for the fruits and jams. I will have to brush up and have the pressure cooker checked before I attempt to use it again. I love the idea of canning the baked beans and pinto’s. I remember my mom and grandmother canning meat but never did it myself. Course when the kids were home we never had to many leftovers. Nor a lot of money to buy extra meat for that matter.
Another reason to prepare….
JudyL says
Nancy, if you’re just starting out, there’s so much info on the internet. My recommendation is to begin by doing a bit of research. Any low acid food needs to be canned under pressure. On the right sidebar on my blog is a search bar and you can find some information there. The pinto and baked bean recipe I use i sunder the Recipes tab at the top. For beginning canners, I would recommend the Ball Blue Book, available at Wal-Mart or Amazon.