Help cutting costs on a TF, mostly primal diet - Page 2

[Magelet]

Heya Magelet! She's another neighbor. Maybe the 3 of us should get together sometime... Magelet was gonna teach me saurekraut, and I can teach you yogurt and creme fraiche. honestly I'd love that. We could cook and the babies could play
Hey Cristeen! I've been laughing about the fact that this thread is just us three bay area ladies except for one post. Most definitely we should get together. No babies here yet, but I'd meet t yours (and see Cristeen's lo, haven't seen him in forever it seems), and teach eachother TF cooking techniques. As soon as I'm mobile/can stand for periods of time from this dang sciatica at least I can walk to the bathroom or the kitchen for a snack I don't have to cook now... I'm improving, it's just snail's pace. I'd love to teach you how I make sauerkraut, and I want Cristeen to teach me yogurt cause ours always tastes gross when we make it.


That cheese planer is very similar to what I grew up with, they work great.

I think I may just need to remind myself that I can always have more, but to really pay attention to whether I'm actually still hungry. I know that often I eat more for reasons other than hunger. Just because it tastes good, or its more fun to eat than do something else that isn't as pleasant.
Oh that's a battle I've fought. It's hard. I have found that eating slowly (which takes thought), and trying to be really mindful help somewhat. That said, there are still a lot of days where I reach "really really full", and get myself another plate/bowl, because it tastes so good. I don't eat from boredom/better than the alternative, but it took a long while. I started stopping before I got something to eat, and assesing. Am I hungry, or do I want something to do? If I'm hungry, I'll eat. If I want something to do, I won't. I don't really boredom eat anymore, it took a while to get out of the habit though.


I've definitely made decent soups in the past, but I like to get ideas for new soups I can make. Without a recipe I feel like I'm not sure what flavors go together or what combo of food/veggies/spices will taste good.
Let's see, one of my fave soups is butternut squash (it might be too carby though). I roast or saute or otherwise cook a butternut squash, and saute an onion and an apple and a little ginger or ginger powder if I have it. combine them together, add chicken stock to cover, and simmer for a while. Add salt and pepper to taste (as best as possible with the chunks). Blend. Add more stock to get the texture how you want it (I usually serve it puree style. DP prefers that blended soups whether butternut squash or gazpacho mound in the bowl lol), salt pepper and a dash of nutmeg as needed, serve with a dollap of yogurt or creme fraiche.
It's hard, I'd say 90% of my soups are really carb-y, because we don't eat a lot of meat to save money and afford good quality meat. So our chili is thick with beans. Our beef stew is thick with potatoes. Chicken soup is often no meat, just broth and spices and potatoes or sweet potatoes and greens.

I don't know. french onion, (I make it without cheese on top) is filling enough to eat with just a big salad, if it's nice and fatty. Particularly if you give him some bread. Maybe try serving soup and sandwhiches and salad for dinner? sandwhichs are easy and fast to make, and that way it feels more like a meal to your DP? I feel him about growing up without soup. I had this bias against soup (though in my case, it was the fact that usually soup was bland, flavorless and not yummy at all, and pretty much fat free. (and veggie.) so basically veggies cooked in storebought veggie broth (without fat) and without enough salt. and that was dinner. makes sense I was soup prejudiced.)

[cristeen]

I just really like to have mayo around because chicken salad with mayo is one of the only ways I can stomach leftover chicken. Partly because we eat all the skin off a roast chicken the first night. So I figure that Mayo adds back some fat, so it's not just lean protein. Plus one of my favorite ways to eat eggs is deviled which needs mayo. I also eat mayo as a dip for artichokes (I know I could use butter, but I prefer mayo), to make tuna salad, and I'll need it for making blue cheese dressing too. Do you think a batch could last a week (without spoiling)?

A batch lasts a week easily. I don't know that I'd trust it much longer than that though. But, for chicken salad, deviled eggs or tuna salad, yogurt or sour cream can take the place of mayo. I do make mayo for artichokes though.

would a pyrex bowl with a plastic lid work? I definitely have a heating pad. Do you just use a regular store bought yogurt as a starter? How much starter to how much milk do you use?

Yup. I use a glass bowl with plastic lid that holds half a gallon. I usually add about 1/4 -1/2 c of Strauss or TJs whole milk yogurt as starter.

I love egg custards and frankly they always sound delicious in the morning, but I'm worried that adding something sweet to my morning might make me crave more sweet things throughout the day. But I could easily eat custard every day for breakfast and it would definitely get me to eat more eggs. I probably could get dd to eat them too as an alternative to yogurt.

Well, a single spoonful of honey doesn't seem to bother me when it's offset by that much protein/fat. And I usually use blueberries or nuts in it. But you have to make that determination for yourself.

honestly I'd love that. We could cook and the babies could play

I'll PM you to work out details.

I do think stews would satisfy him better. He also loves chili, but I need to find a recipe that is a bit more stew like because last time I made it without beans (to cut down on carbs) he said it just tasted like eating taco meat. Unfortunately "mr. picky won't eat crab or avocado so those soups are out. And i probably can't eat chicken and dumplings because of the carb content. I think I need to find a really delicious beef stew recipe. Maybe a beef burginione (sp?)or something.

Well, for chili, could you just open a can of beans and mix them into his bowl?

Is this like what you have? I could order one of these next week. I think dh would go for using it. http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-56581-Stee...4200306&sr=8-2

Yup, that's a cheese planer. It's the easiest one to use and the most sturdy, but it only does very thin slices. You can find it at Bed Bath & Beyond - no reason to pay for shipping if you don't have to.

[junipermuse]

So I did check Craigslist for eggs and I found a guy selling them for $5/doz that is just the next town over, so I'm going to pick up 2 doz tomorrow.


I also made egg custard for breakfast. I used 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks (I'm saving the whites for a souffle recipe I found). I added some milk and some cream, but I didn't measure just eyeballed it. I also used a table spoon of palm sugar and a tablespoon of erythritol, though I think a lot of the palm sugar was strained out because it didn't dissolve all the way in the mixture. I ended up eating two custards for breakfast and will probably eat the other two tomorrow or maybe take one to the park for lunch today.

[pajaro]

yogurt making with a slow cooker

My family eats a lot of yogurt also. I find it much easier to make now that I use a slow cooker to do it. (No temperature monitoring required.)

Here's the method (I think I got it from the blog "A year of slow cooking"):
1. Put 8 cups of whole milk in a slow cooker and cover. We cheat here and use Costco whole milk. We use non-homogenized whole milk for cooking and raw milk for drinking.
2. Set the slow cooker to low and set a kitchen timer to 2 1/2 hours.
3. When the timer goes off, turn off the slow cooker and reset the timer to 3 hours. Take the starter yogurt (a small container of plain Greek yogurt works great until you have your own) out of the fridge and let it come to room temp.
4. After 3 hours, take the "milky crust" off the top of the milk and discard. Take two cups of milk out of the slow cooker and put it in a bowl. Mix in your yogurt starter slowly and then pour back into the slow cooker. Put the lid back on and cover the slow cooker with two towels (we use beach towels). Set the timer for 8 hours or just leave it alone overnight.

5. Scoop yogurt into Mason jars, reserving half a cup or so in a separate container for your starter for your next batch. Chill it for at least 4 hours and it will thicken a bit.

You can make a bigger batch if you want but you will need to heat the milk longer (to get to 185 degees F) and cool it longer (down to 118 degrees F).

You can strain some of your homemade yogurt as a way to make yogurt cheese and a way to get some whey for making mayo that will not go bad in 3 days in the fridge and for making other great stuff that needs whey (such as beet kvass).

Hope this helps!

[junipermuse]

hey Pajaro thanks that looks pretty doable. And I have a slow cooker too so maybe I'll try it this weekend.