Gardening in a Bag - Simple Steps

- Choose a sunny location with at least 8 hours of direct sun each day with easy access to water.
- Purchase bags of potting soil.
- Arrange bags so you can reach into the middle of each bag without stepping on the soil, about 4 feet maximum.
- The best plants to start with are leafy vegetables: leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, or Swiss chard. Use square foot gardening planting rates.
- 1 plant per bag: tomato, pepper, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower 9 plants per bag: bush beans or spinach 12 plants per bag: arugula, leaf lettuce, parsley, Swiss chard 16 plants per square foot: kohlrabi or micro greens
- Use duct tape on the out-side, seam edges and one strip around the middle of the bag to prevent breakage.
- Make a hole in the soil by pushing the soil back just deep enough to cover the transplant or seeds. I found you do not need to remove the soil from the bag.
- Put transplant or seeds in the soil.
- Reach under the plastic and pull back the soil to cover the root ball or seeds
- If you planted seeds, cut the plastic flaps off so the sun can help germinate the seeds quicker.
- Water the plants as needed; ensure you have a good soil to seed or soil to root contact for a quick start.
- After one 1 week or when the seeds grow 2 inches high make sure there is only one plant per hole. It is sometimes difficult to see the multiple plants.
- Continue with regular water, sunlight, and weeding procedures until harvested.
- For more information, visit vegetablegardener.com.

Advantages:
Easy soil preparation – no digging, plowing, and tilling or sod removal.
Space saving – all vegetables are concen-trated with no rows.
Easy weeding – potting soil is free from weed seeds.
Low cost – It cost me about $13 to plant one bag with Swiss chard transplants in March 2013.
Minimal soil diseases and insects common to vegetables like tomatoes.

Disadvantages:
Ugly bags – try covering with mulch.
Water management is more involved with bags – regular soil has a deeper water reserve.
Bag breakage – be careful with the mower and string trimmer.
Not organic – no solution.

Thoughts about gardening:
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. –George Bernard Shaw
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God– Thomas Jefferson
When the world wearies and society fails to sat-isfy, There is always the garden. — Minnie Aumonier

Fun Facts: 
- There are 57 kinds of tomatoes.
- Lettuce is a member of the daisy family.
- The largest edible fungi was 8 feet 8 inches high.
- The fastest growing tree grows 2.5 feet per month.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

These bars have the distinct taste of bananas - perfect for breakfast in my opinion! These have less sugar than many recipes since the bananas add moisture and sweetness. The bananas also work as an egg substitute allowing these to turn out great without any eggs.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars work great for a make-ahead quick breakfast option or also go well as an after school snack. I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:

¾ cup brown sugar

¾  cup plain yogurt

¾ cup mashed bananas

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup dried fruit or chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix brown sugar, yogurt, mashed bananas, vanilla and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix well. If mixture looks too dry, add 1-2 Tbsp milk. (The need for milk will depend on how thick your yogurt is. My homemade yogurt is thinner than store bought so I did not need to add any milk.) Add dried fruit or chocolate chips very last. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. or until golden brown.Cut into bars. These freeze very well. Allow the bars to cool completely before placing in freezer bags or containers.

Tips for S t r e t c h in g Our Money As We Stock Up

Make a menu and plan your grocery list from your menu.  

Always shop with a list. 

Distinguish your needs from your wants.

Eat less meat.  Implementing 2-3 meatless meals will give you more money for other items (and will be healthier).

Many meat departments will discount meat early in the morning.

When making casseroles or soups, use ½ of the meat that is suggested.

Generally, buying meat in bulk is less expensive.  Place in freezer bags and date.  Freeze.

Milk can be frozen.  When you find a good bargain on milk, buy several gallons.  To allow for expansion of the jug, use about a cup from each gallon before freezing.  If you are going on vacation and you have milk in the refrigerator that has not expired, put it in the freezer and use when you get home.

Whipping cream and buttermilk can also be frozen.

Consider using powdered milk by itself or mixing it with regular milk.

Grow your own garden.  

Consider canning your produce or dehydrating it.  

Freezing fruits and vegetables is also another way to preserve foods.  Buy, chop, freeze.

Buy cheese on sale and freeze.  I like to grate my cheese before freezing.

No need to buy canned beans.  Soak, cook dry beans and freeze in baggies.

Limit your eating out.

Watch for sales and stock up.  If you don’t take a newspaper, you can go online to the various grocery stores and look at their weekly ads.

Instead of buying frozen waffles for your children’s breakfast, make your own and freeze.

Store what you eat and eat what you store.

Grind your own wheat and make your own bread.

If you don’t make bread, stock up on bread at the day old bakery.

Don’t shop for groceries when you are hungry. If possible, leave kids home.

Eggs can be frozen.  When you see a good sale, buy several dozen.  Crack each egg into an individual ice cube tray and freeze.  When they are frozen, take them out and store in a zip lock bag in the freezer. (ice cube trays may be hard to find - check a thrift store.)

Use coupons if they work for you.

Make your own laundry detergent for pennies a load.

Rinse and reuse zip lock bags (except for bags containing meat).

Invest in a freezer and dehydrator.

Cook from scratch.

Eat food in season.

Buy in bulk when it makes sense.

Stock up when things go on sale.

Buy store brands.  Most of the time store brands/generic brands are cheaper.

Make a budget and stick to it!

Check out Pinterest for money saving tips.

When baking, cut down on the sugar.  Less sugar will also reduce  your waistline!

Don’t go into debt for food storage.  Remember, one can at a time!

FOOD (stored) FOR THOUGHT:

Believe it or not, provident living and being self reliant is much more than collecting 5gallon buckets of beans.

A great quote I recently heard is “Being provident means planning ahead so you don’t have to panic.”  We all face adversity in our lives on a daily basis.  If we live providently, we will be better prepared to deal with whatever comes our way.

So what exactly is provident living? And how do we know if we are living providently?  The church has categorized self-reliance into 6 elements of preparation. They are:

* Physical Health

* Employment & Income

* Emergency Preparedness

* Financial Management

* Production and Storage of Food and Basic needs

* Spiritual, Social and Emotional Preparation

There is detailed information on these 6 areas on providentliving.org If you haven’t visited this website, it is a must!  You can find everything on there from budgeting worksheets to determining your BMI (Body Mass Index).

Tammy Price, our Stake Provident Living Specialist, said, “Our biggest hurdle in Provident Living is to stop asking ‘do I really need to do this’ and start asking ‘how do I do this for our family’?”

Obedience is crucial, if we choose not to heed the counsel of becoming more provident, we are denying the Lord to perform miracles and magnify our efforts.

Becoming more self-reliant “looks” very different for each of us.  Let the spirit guide you as to what area you need to focus.  One family might feel inspired to get out of debt.  Another family might choose to focus on emotional health.  And another may choose to start exercising.  This is so individualized; the important thing is to prayerfully create a detailed written plan.

We are asked to involve our entire family in this process.  H. David Burton said, “Each generation must learn anew the principles of provident learning.” 

This means it doesn’t matter if your mother was really great at budgeting, or you father was perfectly prepared for emergencies.  We all must learn to do it ourselves.  We can’t stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.  Nor can we expect our children to just know how to do this.  Eventually we all must learn these principles.  As we become more provident, let us take the opportunity to teach our children these skills. 

There is a caution we must heed: Don’t do too much at once!  These 6 areas are so all encompassing, so just pick one area, and work on it.

 

Russel M Nelson said, “Be patient with your self.  Perfection comes not in this life, but in the next life.  Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement”.

Year after year of making little changes to improve our self-reliance, we will find we ARE living more providently each year. 

The Freezer - A Food Storage Tool

January 2014

Freezers: they are in practically every house. Some houses even have two. But are you using your freezer to its full potential?

First off, do you know what’s in your freezer? Take fifteen minutes and organize it. Don’t keep the box of 30 corn dogs if there are only 2 corndogs left. Consolidate. Check the size of your containers, if you can move something into a smaller container, DO IT! Throw out anything that your family won’t eat. Throw out any meals over a year old or anything that has been destroyed by frostbite.

After you have consolidated and chucked unwanted or old items, you need to layer your food in a smart order. Raw meats should always go at the bottom of the freezer. If for some reason there is a power outage or open door and they thaw they won't leak juices onto other foods below. Cooked meats and meals should be layered next. They might leak juices and ruin other foods if they thaw, as well. Above those keep the fruits and vegetables. And finally put breads and baked goods at the top, so they don’t get squashed.

Now that your freezer is nicely organized, how full is it?  Freezers work most efficiently when at least 75% full. The less space available the less the freezer has to do to keep the temperature down. If your freezer is less than 75% full, you can store water in it to fill the space AND increase your water storage supply! Milk jugs, plastic applesauce jars, soda bottles, etc. work great, but be sure to leave some room at the top for the water to expand as it freezes. For those of you who have a full freezer, make sure you can navigate through your frozen goods. It shouldn’t take two minutes to position everything so you can close the freezer door.  It’s also recommended that you label by listing the item, quantity, cooking instructions, and date.

There is no One-Size-Fits-All Method to freezer cooking. Some people spend one day--eighteen hours--cooking a month’s worth of freezer meals. Some people batch cook, which is doubling, tripling or quadrupling a recipe that you’re already making and freezing the extra “batches.” Again, there is no One-Size-Fits-All Method to freezer cooking. If you don’t like casseroles, don’t cook them! Start with recipes your family already loves and makes on a regular basis. Think about how parts could be adapted and made ahead of time and stuck in the freezer. Be realistic with your time, energy, and money. Choose a plan of action and jump in!

The following are recipes using food storage items that freeze great.

Homemade Refried Beans 

Turn the crockpot on High and dump in the following:

2 1/2 cups pinto beans—previously soaked for six hours or overnight

1 chopped onion

1 tsp cumin

Pour 8 cups of boiling water over the ingredients in the crockpot.  Cook on High for 6 hours.  Then remove most of the excess water.  The more water you remove the thicker the refried beans will be.  Better to take out too much and then add some back in than to leave too much water in.

Mash the beans.  Add 2 tsp. of salt.  Add 1/3 lb. of cheese (cheddar, monetary jack, colby jack) cut into cubes or shredded.  Mash again until cheese melts.  I serve the beans from the crockpot to help keep them warm, but I do turn it off.

These beans make a great dip especially with a couple teaspoons of taco seasoning, but we usually make them for burritos with the normal works:  tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc. I freeze the leftovers in one cup quantities and use them in recipes requiring refried beans or spread them between corn tortillas. Yum! However, I’ve only been able to test these beans in the freezer for 2 months. They don’t last that long at my house! The consistency does hold up for two months.

Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas

1 Tbsp oil ½ cup onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic 1 lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded 1 cup salsa, divided 4 oz cream cheese, cubed

1 tsp ground cumin 1 cup black beans ½ to 1 cup quinoa, cooked 1 cup shredded cheese, divided ½ cup chopped cilantro Flour tortillas

Heat large skillet with oil on medium heat. Add onions and sauté until soft and translucent. Add garlic and sauté for one minute. Add chicken, ¼ cup of the salsa, cream cheese, cumin, black beans, and quinoa; mix well. Cook until heated through, stirring occasionally. Add ½ cup of shredded cheese. Add cilantro when cheese is melted; mix well. Pull off heat.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray 9x13 pan and pour and spread 1/4 cup of salsa on the bottom.  Warm up a tortilla in a frying pan (lightly sprayed with Pam) on both sides.  Place slightly browned tortilla on a plate and spoon about 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla. Roll up each burrito using the Taco-Bell-Bean-Burrito method (I learned this method at BYU where I bought many a bean burrito) and place seam side down in the 9x13 pan.  Continue to roll up the chicken mixture in tortillas. I make as many as I can, usually around 10 or so.  Pour remaining salsa over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Put into the oven until heated through, 20-25 minutes.

Energy Bites

¼ cup butter or margarine

½ T chia seeds soaked in ¼ cup water for ten minutes

1/3 cup sugar (or honey)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup ground flax seeds

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

pinch of salt

½ cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl combine butter, chia seed/water gel mixture, sugar, and vanilla; mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop out on to a plate or cookie sheet like you would cookie dough. Place in freezer to flash freeze for 30 minutes or so. Place bites in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for quick and easy snacks.

You can use peanut butter as a substitute for the butter and chia seed gel.

Food Storage for College Students and Young Families

December 2013

“Build a small supply of food from your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.”

                                                All Is Safely Gathered In , Food Storage Pamphlet

Following these guidelines for food storage for a college student or for a young family seems like a simple way to begin.

1. Make a list of the “staples “ that your food storage should contain according to the foods you like to eat. Keep a collection of your favorite recipes.  This also helps meal planning and staying on a budget.

2. Keep this list as a “Long Term Grocery List” inside a cabinet door so you can purchase items as they are on sale or when the food budget allows for extra purchases.

3. As your ” Staples” storage grows move on to complete a full three-month supply.

Kathy Bray, co-author of Not Your Mother’s Food Storage, suggests to “write down the date you open something and then look at the date when you’ve used it up.” Just write it on the packaging with a sharpie. This will help you know how quickly you use up your staples and calculate how much you will need. For example, If you use one jar of peanut butter in a week, you will need 12 jars for a 3 month supply. This can be helpful when using a food budget and planning a monthly budget.

Food storage in an apartment or small living space can be easier when think outside the kitchen. Start with a closet that can be used as a “pantry”. Use plastic bins to hold homemade mixes. Place food under beds or on shelves located in less conspicuous places. Keep food accessible so you can easily rotate your storage.

An important part of food storage is budgeting. Building your food storage on what you like to eat will reduce wasteful spending and increase your ability to store food on your budget. Also, a storage full of items you enjoy will lessen your desire to spend more on a fast meal elsewhere also helping you stay on a budget.

Food storage can be helpful and less expensive by making recipes for mixes made out of bulk items and stored in Ziploc bags, ie, noodle mixes, brownie and muffin mixes, dry soup mixes. Included are some recipes.

Food storage can bring peace to your mind during any rainy day, whatever your situation may be. It also allows you to serve your neighbor on their rainy day.

Ready to make mix recipes:

Instant Oatmeal Mix

13 cups quick cooking oats                          1 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup dry milk powder                             1 Tbsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag or ice cream bucket. To make 1 serving: Mix ½ cup of oatmeal with ½-1/3 cup water. Add any dried fruit you would like. Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Basic Muffin Mix

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour                          Add: 1 tsp  vanilla

½ cup sugar                                                             1 egg

2 tsp baking powder                                                2 TBSP oil

¼ tsp baking soda                                                     ¾ cup water

¼ tsp salt                                                       optional: add berries, dried fruit,

2 ½ TBSP dry milk powder                                     cinnamon and sugar on top

Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag. You can use ¾ c. wheat flour and ¾ c. white flour. To make: Pour mix into bowl and add wet ingredients. Mix or stir together. Pour into greased or paper lined muffin tins. Bake 400’ F 20-22 minutes.

Basic White Sauce

3 cups non-instant dry milk powder , 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 Tsp salt.

Mix together and store in an airtight container. Use in any recipe that calls for making a white sauce using milk, butter and flour. It is a completely fat free alternative and tastes great! It will store for up to 5 years on the pantry shelf.

Homemade Mac and Cheese

8 oz macaroni, cooked                                 1 ½ cups cheddar cheese

½ cup + 2 TBSP white sauce mix                salt, pepper, garlic onion to taste

2 cups hot water                                                       Diced ham, optional

Cook noodles, Whisk white sauce mix and water together in sauce pan. Cook and stir

Season with spices to taste.  May add ham and buttered bread crumbs . Bake at 350’

Until bubbly hot. You can freeze this dish before baking. To use frozen casserole just thaw and bake as directed 

HOW TO PREPARE FOR SEVERE WINTER WEATHER

With winter just around the corner, we all need to make sure we are prepared for any possible severe winter storm.   We are fortunate to live in an area that does not get severe winter weather but there is no guarantee we won’t.

It is best to prepare for severe winter weather before a storm actually heads your way.  A few basic things you can do to take the stress and worry out of winter weather are:

·        Store bottled water and food that does not require cooking in case of a power outage.  Some ideas are tuna, cereal, canned or dried fruit, crackers, nuts, peanut butter and jelly.  Remember to store things your family will eat.

·        Have sand or rock salt to make driveways and sidewalks safer.  Make sure your snow shovel or other snow removal equipment is easy to get to and in good working order.

·        If you have a fireplace, make sure you have wood that is in a dry, easy to access location.

    If you have a gas grill, make sure you have a full propane tank.  It may be possible to cook on your grill once the storm lets up.  If you have a generator, make sure you have fuel and that it works properly.  Only use a generator outdoors.  Keep a fire extinguisher on hand.

·        Learn to shut of your water main and gas line in case there is a problem.

·        Make a winter emergency kit for your car.  Include:  window scraper, small broom, flashlight, blanket, battery operated radio, snacks that provide energy, water, jumper cables, small shovel, sand or cat litter for tire traction, hat, gloves, extra socks, first aid kit and a piece of fluorescent fabric to use as a distress flag.

·        If you have a baby or someone that requires medication, make sure you have plenty of those extra things you will need on hand.

During a storm, it is important to remain positive and use good judgment.

 

·        Have a battery operated radio so you can listen to weather reports.

·        Dress in layers of loose, lightweight warm clothing.  Your coat should be somewhat water repellent.  Wear mittens, they will keep your fingers warmer than gloves.  Wear a hat and scarf.  Use the scarf to cover your mouth.  This will protect your lungs.  KEEP DRY.  Change wet clothes as quickly as possible to help keep from losing body heat.

·        Avoid overexertion when shoveling snow.

·        Drive only when absolutely necessary.

·        If your power is out.  Close off all unnecessary rooms and stay in one main area.  Eat regularly and drink plenty of fluids.

·        Don’t forget about your solar lawn lights.  These can be left out during the day and brought in a night.  Several together can give off a good amount of light.

·        Have puzzles, games, books or any other light activity you can do while you are homebound.  Turn this into an opportunity to relax or make it an adventure.

·        As tempting as it is to snuggle down and sleep, it is important to move around occasionally.  This will help you keep warm and keep you alert.

·        Have plenty of blankets.

Hopefully we will not have to experience any really severe winter weather.  But being prepared will help in any storm and will give great peace of mind.