Sunday, August 22, 2010

Salsa, Sun Oven Bread and Walking


LAWKI DAY 3
August 22, 2010

Yesterday was a fun day. I woke up and started making salsa. I had about 30 tomatoes and onions, hot peppers, and garlic from the garden. I had bought green peppers before LAWKI started just for this purpose. (By the time I have more tomatoes ripe, I hope I have some green peppers ready too.) After all the work, I only had enough for 5 pints of salsa, plus the bowl of fresh stuff I kept out. In case you are wondering, we do have one package of tortilla chips left, so we can have salsa for a bit longer.

As that was cooking, I made bread. It has been almost 2 months since I last made bread. Katie has done it most of the summer, or I have been too busy with stuff and just bought it. I made 3 regular loaves and then cooked 2 smaller (8-inch) loaves in my Sun Oven. It was so cool! It took about 40-50 minutes to bake and the bread never browned, but it tasted just the same. It was fun to do. I am planning to try a casserole, pasteurizing water and making a soup in it as well. So far it did okay on the bread, bread sticks, frozen pizzas and refrigerated cinnamon rolls.

I also grated garden zucchini, froze 4 quarts of it, and used one more quart to make 2 loaves of regular zucchini bread and 2 chocolate zucchini bread loaves. Yum.


Day 2 Menu:

Breakfast: cold cereal
Lunch: salsa, fruit, chips
Dinner: chicken fajitas, watermelon, zucchini bread desert


We only have 7 chicken breasts, and another round of pork chops left in the fresh meats. We do still have bacon and lunch meat turkey, and 4 packages of already cooked frozen ground beef in the freezer. We also have some sausage in the freezer, a turkey, ribs and various other meat things that we likely will not get into. On the other hand, the turkey is sounding better and better all the time! Think of the soup!

I lectured the kids this afternoon about only using 2 slices of turkey per sandwich. I wonder if it is better to just say that, or just use it up. I debate that with the eggs too. Limit them or use them. Is the lesson in want/scarcity or in stretching things out further than we want them to go?

The walk to church today was not as bad as I thought it might be. I think it took until the middle of Sunday School until I stopped sweating though. It was 85 and sunny, but the wind was pleasant. On the way home, it was very windy and mostly cloudy, with the occasional raindrop. I don’t think I will mind walking, but I will either have to carry dress shoes or keep wearing my more casual and more comfortable in the future. I am not thrilled that we get to walk back for the fireside tonight, but I guess we do it anyway. We discussed if we would ride bikes to church or let the kids ride and agreed that it was an acceptable transportation option. Now we just need to figure out how make it work in a skirt.


Day 3 Menu:

Sunday Brunch: hash browns, 1 slice of bacon, 1 egg, watermelon
Sunday after church: fruit, bread, other various foraging
Sunday dinner: pork chops, rice, blueberries, broccoli

Overheard at our house:
"I would have used my $10 on salt if I thought we were going to run out of that." (we won't)
"Pudding is such buttery, fatty goodness." (made with skim milk)


Overheard twice, from 2 different families, at church:
"Interesting idea" from a parent, quickly followed by "don't get any ideas," from the kids.

5 comments:

Staci said...

You go! I'm intrigued with the idea, but not quite enough to join you. I'm trying a 90 day body transformation deal that starts tomorrow. That's about all I can handle right now. Good luck! Anxious to hear how it progresses.

J said...

This is just about the coolest idea ever. Two side benefits I can already think of. I'd probably lose some weight, and have a chunk of money at the end of the month to go get a nice steak dinner.

Jenn said...

Shannon, please keep posting. This a very interesting idea and I would love to see how it progresses.

Shannon said...

I must admit I am looking forward to spending the food budget money for September. And I know steak will be on the menu. I miss it and hamburgers already.

Mike Roberts said...

The solar oven worked very well for the bread. It tasted just fine.