hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[Icu4dzs]

So HQueen,
Now that we are learning a little bit more about you, what is next?
I thought about what you wrote and I had a hard time imagining where all of you were while the three folks of that family stayed with you. Did you make them sleep in the barn? OK so I can be a jerk at times.
This lady fed 4 adults and one growing adolescent on $100/week? That is very cool. Why not tell us about some of the menus she made and what she used in them.

I really like the way you write and can't wait to hear more...
Bring it on...

Tvaal,
Urer vf nabgure zrffntr gb qrpbqr. Ubcr lbh ner rawblvat pbqr jbex.
Orfg jvfurf,
Qnivq

Trim sends

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[hqueen13]

Sorry but I have to ask, where in Nature does the concept of cooking come in? I have never heard of any animal other than man that cooks any part of their food. Is it not the main process of processed food? we know that it denatures protein and changes fats and carbohydrates. It seems to me that if you really want to be "natural" it means eat it raw. Please no replys I am not trolling for a fight, just think about just how natural you want to be.

I like a good debate, and I appreciate your thoughts.
You're right that 'au natural' would be raw. I suppose that the focus behind my words is the difference between prepackaged items that are sold as food and often 'ready to eat' in mere minutes and home made food that comes from 5 or 6 basic ingredients, not dozens that I can't even pronounce or hope to know what they are. For most of your average Americans in my generation making home made stock is beyond their skills or knowledge, and they would consider that a 'natural' thing to do. Making stock is a great example of one of those processes that enhances the nutritional value of the end product. The minerals and healthy fats from the bones aren't accessible to us unless it is cooked.

I don't intend to go to the extreme of a raw diet. I don't think I could, honestly. I'd miss bacon and bread too much! I mostly want to continue to get back to our roots of what wholesome food and cooking was meant to be. If you asked me a year and a half ago if this is where we would be, I would have laughed at you. So standing here looking back I can see how profound the change is. And I look into the haze of the future and wonder what my perspective will be another year and a half down the road... who knows, maybe I'll be posting recipes for all things raw then! I doubt it, but one never really does know

Thank you for making me think over my words.

 

[CheerioLounge]

This lady fed 4 adults and one growing adolescent on $100/week? That is very cool. Why not tell us about some of the menus she made and what she used in them.

Yes, I would be very curious to know that too. $100.00 a week seems a little steep to me. I feed 2 adult males with very hearty appetites for about $170.00 a month! Now, I don't buy organic or free-range or anything like that. Could that make that much difference in the cost of food?

 

[hqueen13]

So HQueen,
Now that we are learning a little bit more about you, what is next?
I thought about what you wrote and I had a hard time imagining where all of you were while the three folks of that family stayed with you. Did you make them sleep in the barn? OK so I can be a jerk at times.
This lady fed 4 adults and one growing adolescent on $100/week? That is very cool. Why not tell us about some of the menus she made and what she used in them.

LOL, no, they didn't sleep in the barn They slept in their bus! Joe outfitted the bus with a platform bed, and they put screens on the windows so they could keep them open, and even had a little a/c unit that they installed in the back. They used the house during the day, and just slept in the bus at night. It was creative with all of us living in the same shared space, but it worked out much better than I think any of us could have dreamed.

And yes, just $100.00 per week. It was really impressive.

I do plan to post a lot of her recipes and things, we still use a whole lot of them.

 

[hqueen13]

The Art of Going Poo-less.
This was one of the big changes that Jeanne opened me up to. I am quite a tom-boy and prefer to be low maintenance as much as possible. That and I'm lazy. Prime combination for simplifying life!
Jeanne turned me on to the benefits of cutting out shampoo and conditioner. Conventional shampoo and conditioner are actually pretty yucky things. Apparently the health care/beauty industry is one of the least regulated industries, despite the fact that our skin is our largest organ and can easily absorb things it comes into contact with. When I stopped and thought about it, it just didn't make sense to complicate things. Not to mention that I could save a buck along the way, it was a win-win.

Jeanne sent me this article that 'splained some things: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/going-poo-less/

I figured that I didn't have much to lose. My hair was getting longer at the time, down well below my shoulders, and thick as well as curly. The kind of hair that walking out into a rainstorm in the middle of summer produces instant uncontrollable frizz. In all of my life I had never gotten to experience what it was like to have shiny, glossy hair. Except for once when I spent 6 weeks in western Colorado and the lack of humidity finally dried the curl out of my hair. Soon as I came home.... SPRONG! Like it never happened. My hair was beginning to get fried on the ends just from life, and was tough to comb out after a shower. I was constantly breaking hairs and had to go very slowly to untangle it.

I decided to try the baking soda and apple cider vinegar, what could it hurt? It didn't seem like much in the shower. A little odd since there is no suds which I was used to. Mixed the baking soda with water to make a slurry, poured it over my head (probably missed half of it the first time and poured it down the shower wall...), rub around, rinse. Mix apple cider vinegar with water, pour over head, rub around, rinse. I got out of the shower and wrapped my hair up in a towel to dry for a bit, and then towel dried that off after a while. Got my comb and combed STRAIGHT through my hair. Not a broken hair once. I couldn't believe it. I was SOLD at that point.

Since then, I've had it cut because the split ends were getting wretched. My friend that cuts my hair used traditional shampoo and conditioner on my hair, and it was DISGUSTING! I could FEEL it in my hair, and it dried with this gross feeling, I had to get into the shower the next day and wash it all out! I am normally able to go a couple days between washings with no problem, but that was awful! That just cemented by resolve to not use the goop anymore. If I need a little moisture, I rub coconut oil into it after I've towel dried it, and it dries nice and silky with a little gloss (I have to wash it sooner if I use too much, but it is nice to have shinier hair once in a while!)

I've read that YMMV, and there are plenty of comments in the article from Mark's Daily Apple about personal experiences. For some people it takes more than 2 weeks for their body to balance out and start producing the oil for their hair at a normal natural level. Thankfully, mine did not, and that made life a lot easier.

Since then I have also stopped using as much body soap as well. We use Dr. Bronner's castille soap, and I don't use a whole lot at that. Nobody has complained I stink yet!

 

[Beekissed]

This lady fed 4 adults and one growing adolescent on $100/week?

Is that considered cheap? I've fed one adult and three growing boys(teens and beyond) for years for less than that. I didn't know that what I was doing was considered abnormal....how much do you all regularly use per week for food?

 

[framing fowl]

Is that considered cheap?

I would imagine it depends on where you started from. If you had reduced your grocery bill in 1/2 to accomplish this and were eating better food, it is very cheap. If you are looking at it from your perspective, it may seem expensive. For being just over a year or so into the real food learning curve, I would say this is a real accomplishment.

 

[Beekissed]

Poverty can force a learning curve real quick and in a hurry...which is how we got there.

 

[hqueen13]

We had been eating for just the two of us on about that, with MUCH lower quality higher processed foods. And what she was cooking tasted SO much better!
It was a big change for us, and at this point our bill has probably increased some as we are not as good with eating as we should be, and we are getting all of our food from a buying club but it is TOP quality dairy and meat. It would be the kind of quality that I would want if we raised our own. It just comes with the price tag that we didn't raise it ourselves!
It is convenient for us currently because we do not have much storage. Frozen storage we only have a freezer over the fridge, and then another small upright freezer that is about the same size as the over fridge freezer.
Part of our issue is time... he works LONG hours with a LONG commute, I have more time, but the care of the animals is more in my hands, and I just don't enjoy cooking, which makes it really hard for me to get motivated :-/

 

[Beekissed]

I don't enjoy cooking either. I find that cooking things in bulk and freezing them for later meals helps me overcome the whole cooking every night thingy. The crockpot is my special friend, as are large stock pots and frying pans. Single working moms can find all kinds of ways of getting out of cooking every night!

Home made bread can be formed into flatter rolls that have crust all around so they retain their moisture and fit into a freezer bag well...freezing these and then toasting them for meals is a great way to not have to make fresh bread all the time.

When you get around to canning, if you don't already, making up soups to can is also a great way to get out of cooking every night. When you process your chickens, chop them up and cook them right then~with the appropriate veggies~ for stir fry and such...then freeze. That way you can just cook the rice, add the frozen mix and you have a meal.

Some people even can ground meat...this is a great way to just open the jar and dump into chili, stir fry, soups, etc.