Making Do Without Missing A Thing---Putting It ALL Together--final week

   Good morning everyone! I am sorry I did not get a chance to post yesterday--my twins have been up at night often and it makes for a very worn out Mamma!

and this is what is needed to get through the day then

   I really desire for this blog to fit with my home life as well, and so if you want to see a post every single day, then sorry, I hope that I can do that, but sometimes it just isnt going to be possible. I am also trying to get over to my page on FB and post ideas I have every once in a while--like yesterday's little bit on great ideas for your garden. If you havent made it over there yet, then please head on over by clicking this link. Once we get through this series (only a few more days) then I will be coordinating the two of them and sharing ideas back and forth.
   Today we are going to be talking about the week four series on Jars of Gold. I wanted to stress to you just how important canning and dehydrating has become in our house for saving money on our grocery budget and being able to roll money over for larger bulk purchases. I can year-round and have found it to substantially make a difference in how high of quality and how quickly I can get a meal on the table. As to dehydrated food, I am always finding new ways to work it into our meals, and am continually surprised by how versatile it can be.
   Let me give you an example of how easy it is. I am not advocating you purchasing a dehydrator and a canner just so you can put food on a shelf and it sits there.

I want you to use it.

   Well, I have been going through my dried foods, and found a jar of dehydrated potatoes that still looked like the day I took them out of my machine, and they were from the end of 2007. SO, just over 3 years old. No O2 absorbers, three moves, and still amazingly well preserved. I got my dehydrator right around then and was determined to learn how to use it, but as you can see, was much better at putting the food in jars, rather than actually rolling it into meals. Ha!

image courtesy

   Well I was also making bread that day and realized that I had forgotten to make fresh mashed potatoes since I had run out of my frozen potato balls the week before. I looked at the counter, a little stressed, and then my eyes fell on the dried potatoes. I mean, aren't potato flakes just dried and flaked potatoes? So I powdered a handful of potatoes in the food processor, then the coffee grinder for a smooth powder, and used 1/4 cup of it in the bread. No kidding, into my mind came my mother's voice saying: "Necessity is the beginning of invention:" ~ or something like that. I didn't listen really well as a kid, sorry. :)
   I don't think I will ever go back. It made a beautiful, smooth, moist bread that did wonderfully and turned out even better than normal. If you missed the bread recipe on week three, you can check it out here. All you need to do is substitute potato powder for the fresh potatoes.
  I think we probably use a minimum of 20 jars a week of items that I have canned over the previous year, and I would bet we use dried foods in meal prep at least four times a week. The things that get used the most are the basic items, meats, veggies, and for dried foods, it would be the herbs, and the things like the onions and garlic. I have only recently started drying spinach and have found it going in many things as an added veggie for my kids, who will eat salad well, but here in MN it is very expensive in the winter compared to other places.
   I have planned my garden for the year and boosted quite a few veggies that we use a lot of. I use the Square Foot Gardening method, and will be talking about that in the next couple weeks, showing you my plans and how you can use a smaller space and garden more intensely, producing more in the end. Last year was the first year I did it full scale through all my gardens, and I will do it from now on, because the results were spectacular, even with an incredibly rainy spring where things did not get planted until later than normal, a crazy storm that dropped trees on my garden, and a not so hot fall. I had things producing well past the normal pulling date, and we just let it go. :)

  Anyhow, THAT is all information for another post.

Gotcha hooked now don't I?

   I have made the committment to a couple friends to put all of this in e-books that you can all have. I will be having a giveaway on the blog in the next couple weeks once they are done--I dont think it is fair to have one now when I have not even finished one of them. Each one will include more recipes, more tips, more tricks, and more ideas for everyone.

   I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and we will be wrapping this up on Monday!

Many Blessings to You and Yours,

Heather