The Pancake Epiphany

I think I was in my late 20's or early 30's when I found out pancakes could be made without a premade mix. It wasn't a big 'ahh' moment for me...more like a 'hmmm.'

In my early 20's I worked with a woman who made her own cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. I thought she was insane.

There was a whole list of things that I had no idea could be homemade. Spaghetti sauce. Bagels. Salad dressing. I could go on and on.

My mother didn't cook from scratch. My grandmother didn't cook from scratch. It was a foreign concept to me...it was possibly something reserved for people in third world countries without access to the grocery store.

I was clueless.

But today I'm eating pizza with crust I made and sauce I made and mushrooms I sliced. Honestly...its not that good. It is a work in progress. It is better then the last time I tried. With a few tweaks here and there it will be even better next time.

Today I have the luxury of making homemade lasagna. I usually buy the froze stuff. *blush* I think it might be to time consuming to do it on a work day. I haven't done any serious math, but I think it might be cheaper then the frozen stuff, too.

Ahh...the things I could accomplish with more days off.

Processing.... ... ...

I am working my families way away from processed food. This weekends grocery trip brought no new processed food into the house. I mostly bought fruits and vegetables. We had plenty of meat in the freezer that needs to get used up.

Which brings me to the next thing I'm working on....

I want to waste less. I looked for statistics...which vary on the amount, but American's waste a lot of food. I am very guilty of this. I forget about things in the freezer until they are freezer burned. Canned foods go bad before I use them. I forget about produce and it goes bad. A good thing about the lack of new processed food coming into the house is that it forces a second look at the produce.

I'm getting into the habit of baking something every weekend. I've done bread two weekends in a row. The first loaf was edible...barely. This weekends loaf was better. I've been doing in in my ancient breadmaker but I think I'm going to do it without it next weekend.

This weeks new food is going to be donut muffins. I planned on doing them today but I didn't have nutmeg. Its not healthy but its not processed.

New Foods

This weeks food experiment was banana 'soft serve.'

 Its as simple as throwing frozen bananas in a food processor and blending until its an ice cream consistency. The blog I saw it on said it would change my life. I almost think this might be true. It was very tasty. I'm going to do some experimenting by adding other fruit. My daughter is not a big banana fan and wants some other taste with it.

It is going on the 'keep' list.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year...and with the new year comes the resurrection of Whilst I Harvest.

There are some things I'd like to do this year.

• Try a new recipe or food once a week.
• Have a monthly 'around the house' goal.
• Do a stock up shopping trip once a week with a $5.00 spending limit.
• Continue to pay down assorted debt.
• Continue to grow food.

I look forward to sharing 2013 with you.