What's That In Your Hand?: 1/15/22

Inspiring you to focus on what you have to work with, not what you wish you had or hope to have in the future, but what you have right now … ‘in your hands.’ ~ A Working Pantry

I had some shallot blades in the freezer and decided it was time to get them out and get them dehydrated. I did that and then turned them into powder for use in seasoning food and or making seasoning blends.

My parsley needed harvesting, so I did that and then dehydrated it.  It too got turned into powder and I used that powder in making the garlic salt spice blend I mentioned in last week’s post.

This is the time of year that I harvest and preserve collards.  

That’s been my big project this week!  

I'm happy to be able to restock this yummy food in our pantry.

I finished dehydrating the turmeric I harvested last week.  

It is all dried now and the plan is to jar it up today and add it to my pantry.

I'll use it for cooking purposes and in herbal remedies.

I found wrapping paper at that 90% off Christmas sale I mentioned in last week’s post.  The original price for each roll was $9.99, since it was 90% off I paid $1.00 per roll for it.  We don’t use much Christmas wrapping paper so why would I buy it if I don’t use or need wrapping paper?  Because I can use it for another purpose, of course, which is to make pattern pieces when sewing.  This wrapping paper is of good quality and works just fine for pattern making purposes … and you can’t beat the price.

We are preparing for a possible winter storm, we're on the line of maybe we will or maybe we won't get anything from it, but just as a precaution, we are preparing.  Right now, it looks like, if we get anything, it will be ice ... I do not like ice storms, they almost always mean loss of power for several days!  I looked at what we have on hand and at what we could possibly need if we lose power and decided that we would be fine.  Then I asked myself if we had to help others meet their needs or even possibly house someone should our area lose power, would we be prepared.  The only thing I could think of that we would need was milk, so hubby picked up a gallon at the store.  I have been praying for all those in the path of this big storm, it looks like it is going to be a doozy!

As part of preparing for a possible winter storm, I headed out to the garden and harvested everything that I could:  Leeks, more parsley and rosemary.  Sometimes we can winter over our rosemary and sometimes, due to freezing temps we can't.  I tried to harvest as much as I could to tide us over until we could get a new start should we lose it during this storm.

That's it for this week for me, what's in your hand, what can you do with it?

Until next time,

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

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Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

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What's That In Your Hand?

You’ve heard the old saying, ‘start out the way you intend to go,’ that’s what we’ve done this first week of the new year …

A yearly event that occurs during the holidays and right after Christmas every year is the arrival of seed catalogs.  I like to curl up in the recliner with them in the evenings and plan the upcoming gardening season.  He who fails to plan, plans to fail!  Our garden contributes a lot to our pantry, so planning is very important, and it begins with the seeds!

For the past several weeks, every time I opened the freezer above my refrigerator 2 packages of chopped green onions tried their best to fall out!  I mean it happened every single time I opened the door, I rearranged and moved them several times to no avail.  Well, this week when it happened it was the last straw.  I promptly set them on the counter, let them thaw and put them in the dehydrator.  Those rebellious green onions are now shelf stable green onion powder that’ll I use in seasoning and cooking.  Enough said!

I’ve been harvesting and dehydrating turmeric, ginger, and horseradish from our container garden.  This week I started jarring them up for future use (pictured).

We were given a couple of unopened packages of ‘pass the best by date’ bread by a friend with the instructions that we could feed it to our animals if it was too hard.   I checked it and while it was a bit stale, I decided that I could still get some use out of it.  So, I opened the packages and laid out the pieces to dry …. you know what I’m going to do with it don’t you … yep, I’m going to make breadcrumbs ... seasoned breadcrumbs to be exact.

I washed used zip lock bags and hung them on a pasta drying rack to dry.  It’s not what it was made for, but it works fine, sometimes you just got to think outside the box!

I watched this Youtube video and knew immediately that I could make this seasoning (garlic, parsley and salt) so, I got up, chopped some garlic and promptly added it to the dehydrator (there's no time like the present).  I already have dried parsley (from my herb garden this summer) and of course salt on hand so when the garlic is dry and has been turned into powder, I'll be ready to make this seasoning mix.  

I had some leftover banana bread that was getting a bit stale, so I cubed it up and put it in the dehydrator (I actually had enough for two trays of it).  When it’s dry, I’ll run it through a mill to turn it into crumbles and then use it for yogurt toppings (when I’ve completed the sugar fast, I’m currently on).  Being on a sugar fast is the reason it got a bit stale, otherwise it would have never made it to the stale stage.

I happened upon a really well stocked 90% off after Christmas sale at Hobby Lobby this week and was able to purchase several things that we'll use for gifts next Christmas.   One item in particular was $30 and I walked out of the store with for $3.  I felt really blessed to have found this sale as it puts us ahead in the gift giving department for a fraction of the cost.

The only thing we purchased in the form of groceries this week was a bag of crinkle cut french fries, my husband loves these things and every once in a while, we'll splurge.  This was a good week to do that since we didn't buy any other groceries at all.

As you can tell frugality and planning are on our minds and we’re trying to stretch, make wise purchases and use up what we have to the best of our ability.   We’re looking at ‘what’s in our hands’ and at ‘how we can use it.’  

I’m going to leave you with the question I’ve asked myself several times this week … what’s in your hand, what can you do with what you’ve got?

Until next time,

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

You can receive A Working Pantry blog posts via:

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Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Fitness Friday: 1/7/2022

It’s Fitness Friday and time to check-in with a fitness update!

Last week I set 2 goals for January ... complete with rewards.

(1) Start a 40-day sugar fast
The rules: no white or brown sugar; can have honey if it is in herbal remedies. Reward: $1 for every successful day paid out at the end of the 40 days.

(2) for every workout I do that lasts for at least 20 continuous minutes I earn $1 per workout. I'll put the dollar bills in a container and when I reach $100, I'll reward myself and begin again.

How’d I do? I'm on day 6 of the sugar fast and thus far I have stuck to the rules I set forth. There have been a couple of times when I came close to breaking the fast, out of habit! I’m pretty fond of ginger balls (they are not sugar-free) and will pop one in my mouth if I’m hungry when preparing dinner to keep me from grazing while cooking. I had to really think about this a couple of different times as I almost did it without thinking!!!

I’m on target for my workouts too, thus far I’ve earned $5!!!

I had a doctor’s appointment this week for a check-up … (I’m making a note to not make doctor appointments immediately after Christmas next year if I can help it!!!) At any rate, I had a good check-up, and all my bloodwork came back ‘excellent!’ My doctor told me to keep doing what I was doing. She and I also talked about maintaining my weight loss and fitness level, I shared some things I was doing, and she added a couple that I hadn’t thought of. Here’s the compiled list …

Weigh every single day

Don’t let yourself gain more than 5 lbs before doing something about it

Get rid of all ‘elastic waisted’ pants or skirts. The ‘tightness’ that comes from gaining weight in waist banded clothing will make you uncomfortable and remind you to get back on track

Keep a food journal and record everything you eat

Stay motivated by reading books, listening to podcasts, watching weight loss related TV/videos, sharing with others on the same journey, etc

Make yourself accountable to someone (A group of us are doing this in this FB group.)

Exercise every day

My doctor said these are top things people do who have lost weight and kept it off.

Can you add anything to the list?

For those who want a more private setting to share, I’ve created a private FB group for Fitness Friday.   Here's the link ... Fitness Friday.  Please note that answering the question when you request to join is required for approval.  If you've asked to join but have not been approved, please go back and answer the question.  Thanks!

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

The first two entries in this series:

A Part of Preparedness We Don't Talk About Much

Preparedness and Physical Fitness, My Journey:  #1

You can help support this blog by shopping Amazon via this link.

Some tools I'm using in my fitness journey:

Whiteboard

Food Scale

Step Counter/tracker

Measuring cups   (The reason I went with these is the many different sizes)

Measuring spoons

Hand weights

Leslie Sansone Walk-A-Way the Pounds DVD

Chair Exercises for those times when standing exercises are not medically possible or advisable

Paper Calendar

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

My Focus for 2022!

(picture:  we're growing carrots in containers ... yes, it can be done!)

We’ve been all tucked inside this week doing inside things with only daily treks out to do the chores, run errands or keep appointments.

I continue to focus on what I want 2022 to look like and am giving lots of prayer and thought to the road/year before us.   What do I want A Working Pantry’s focus to be this year?  My heart is telling me frugality, using what you have, stretching resources and keeping the pantry well-stocked and so I'm going with that.  

I’ve come to realize that my style of blogging is not to lay out step by step instructions on how to do specific things (I follow and read several blogs/bloggers who have this gift!).   My style of blogging, however, is to share what I’m doing in the hopes that you can glean something that'll inspire you to find what works for you.  I guess you could say my blogging style is all about inspiration, hence my word for 2022 is ‘INSPIRE!’

A Working Pantry's focus for 2022 is to inspire you to:

Meet the challenges of this year head on …

Keep your pantry well-stocked …

Prepare as best you can with the resources available to you …

Stretch your resources …

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without …

Work with your hands ...

Get in the best physical shape you can ...

And so much more.

I hope you’ll join me; I’m working on the first ‘inspire 2022’ post and hope to have it ready for posting over the weekend!

Let’s do this, let’s inspire and encourage each other in 2022!

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

You can receive A Working Pantry blog posts via:

Bloglovin (signup in the sidebar) ...

Email subscription service, follow.it (sign up on the sidebar)

A Working Pantry Facebook page ...

A Working Pantry Instagram page

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.