1/20/12 Egg McWhoWhos and Goat Pizza

For breakfast we had Egg McWhoWhos or homemade egg sandwiches. A third lb. Grass-fed real smoked bacon, cooked, 1/8 LB. Thinly sliced cheddar, 4 English muffins and 4 eggs fresh from our chickens, three scrambled and one over easy. (Phyllis prefers hers deconstructed, so hers is with the muffin on the side). Cost - $2.00 For lunch, my dad had the remainder of the pasta bake that I had frozen withsome of the goat sausage and a bit of mozzarella added. The kids and I had goat sausage pizza with garlic sautéed spinach, a sprinkle of feta cheese, a couple greek olives and black olives with a sprinkle of oregano and granulated garlic on top. Cost - this used up the rest of the goat sausage, and pasta bake for a total cost of $6.00. For dinner we had leftovers from the night before, i.e. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. This was an expensive dinner since we inadvertently lost the leftover chicken. Wahhhh! Most saddening. Total cost of dinner.... $25.00. Ouch. Food waste is a problem for restaurants and home cooks as well. This was particularly hard for me, because I really wanted to see just how far I could stretch it.

1/19/12 Slum-gulleon and rubber chickens

Breakfast Slum-gulleon (a name my mom used for whatever you have, thrown together) 8 eggs 1/2 c. Leftover scrambled sausage from breakfast burritos 2 green onions sliced thinly 2 oz. Sliced baby Bella mushrooms 8 kalamata olives, pitted and torn into small pieces Less than an oz. of feta cheese, crumbled very fine Black pepper to taste In hot skillet (we use cast iron) reheat sausage. Add other ingredients, except for the eggs. When the veggies are heated, add eggs. Allow to cook for a minute or two, then scramble to cook through. We all loved it. Cost - $3.00 for four Lunch Tuna salad rolls with chow chow pickles Can tuna, drained and flaked into a bowl Stalk celery, diced finely 1/2 onion, diced finely 2 T. Salad dressing Mixed and served on bulkie rolls with chow chow pickles on the side. Dinner Roaster chicken (Emery's Meats) 1 lemon 1/2 onion Salt and pepper Place-chicken in roasting pan, squeeze lemon juice over, then place lemon halves and onion in cavity. Salt and pepper to taste. Roast at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until done, that is an instant read thermometer reads 165.size of chicken will determine cooking time. Mashed potatoes 12 potatoes (Emery's), cut into half 2 T. Butter 1/2 c. Stonyfield plain nonfat yogurt 2 t. Granulated garlic Salt & pepper to taste 1/4 c. Shredded cheddar cheese, leftover from breakfast burritos When potatoes are done, drain and put back into cooking pan and return to heat. When steam no longer rises, shut off heat. Add butter and mash. Add seasoning and yogurt, then cheese at end. Peas and carrots Green salad with green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, orange pepper slices, and a few black olives with Ken's lite salad dressing. All of the spices are from the co-op. The chicken was divine, and there is barely a dent in the overall meat. I think three additional meals will be easy to do. Tomorrow I will pick the meat off the bones, then save the bones and connective tissue for stock. The rest will be portioned forchicken tacos or burritos, chicken noodle soup and chicken stir fry. The soup will easily make two if not three meals. That is a rubber chicken, it stretches and stretches!

On Goat Sausage and Gold Plated Chickens

Tuesday, we went to Emery's Meats to pick up a chicken. Not just any chicken, a guilt free, pasture raised, humanely treated, happy chicken. While we waited for said chicken, I found goat sausage. Yay, we had been discussing raising goats, but were unsure about the meat. I am not a huge fan of lamb, although my dad and Dave love it! So, finding goat was a huge score.
Finally, one of the owners found a chicken. A large chicken that I mistook for a turkey! Price, $30.00 US. I nearly fainted. Not really, but I did some quick calculations. If I stretch it to four meals, that's $7.50 per meal. Four meals, you ask? Yes, I can stretch a roasting chicken that far, and perhaps farther. More on that later.
We had the goat sausage on pizza last night. It was really good. We all tried it plain and declared it a yummy hot sausage. It cost $8.00, but I used only half so the cost was $4.00. The rest will be used today or tomorrow.

This is my quest

This year I resolved "to stop making resolutions and just live my ideals and values". Sounds simple doesn't it? It might be if you weren't a person who prefers broad statements like this because they have less wiggle room.
So, after a 24 hour period of false smugness, I encountered my first real challenge. I came across a reference to Coca Cola's impact on an African country. I recognized this as my first chance to "do the right thing" or "do the easy thing". I believe I chose... Wisely. So, now, I am Coke-less. I know it is good for me, good for my budget, and voting with my feet seems to work for me.
Within a week we had watched "Food INC". (Insert painful sigh). I am a reasonably well read individual with a morbid fascination for biological processes and the ramifications of the things we humans do to our world. So, this movie with it's detailing of how we are mucking up our food systems via factory farms was just the kick in the butt I needed for change. As a resident of Maine, I am aware of "agricultural runoff" laws because we do have farms here that are affected by them. But, after seeing feed lots crammed with beef critters, well, it all begins to make more sense.
We, as a family, decided to *choose* pasture fed, and where possible, locally grown meats and poultry. Luckily, I had just purchased a half a pig and half a cow, that fulfil those criteria. So, how is this going to affect us?