What Do You Have in Your Hand - Eating from the Garden and the Pantry

This summer I have really been trying to be careful about how much we spend and to cut costs in various ways so I have done very little shopping of any sort including groceries. Sometimes that can seem overly challenging but a lot of the time it is just a fun challenge.  

   I didn't do any shopping during the month of July (But Ken did buy milk for himself and a few other things) and so sometimes we would have that thought - "What do we eat now?" but truly because I stock up so much and because our garden has been producing well we had plenty to eat I just needed to use what we had in a good way so that it sounded yummy and fun to eat.

   One Sunday because we had a friend that needed to get on the road right way after church we packed a picnic lunch to eat in town. When we decided to do that there was a moment of wondering what I would take. We were currently out of bread, we had very little lunch meat and not really enough eggs to make egg salad. I just struggled to think of easy picnic foods. So I decided to look on Pinterest for ideas for picnic foods. That was really fun. I saw lots of different ideas and discarded the ones that didn't work and took the ideas that did. I ended up making a much fancier lunch than I would have if we would have had sandwich stuff and chips or something like that. We ended up making Kim-bob (a Korean sushi like food), I made one hour rolls that morning, we made carrot sticks and had green beans, peas and radish from our garden. We also made deviled eggs, I had some crackers left in my cupboard and some cream cheese from the freezer and our last jar of hot pepper jelly. We also took along some homemade blueberry jelly which was delicious on the rolls or on the cream cheese and crackers.

On that particular picnic Megan climbed and tree but was having trouble getting down. She was nervous about just jumping. We finally sent our 6 foot 2 inch Jonathan over to help her.
 We have had more picnics since. We have eaten things like cucumber, cream cheese and sunflower seed sandwiches (on homemade bread), chicken salad sandwiches, energy bites (homemade from peanut butter, honey and dry milk and other odds and ends), salad and various other things.

   When you are out and about it can be tempting to buy things but if you plan ahead it can generally be avoided. I also discovered rather by accident this year that when you volunteer places you often get a free meal to go with it. I volunteered in the kitchen both at the Bluegrass festival and at the fair (the 4-H food booth) and got free meals both times as did the kids when they helped out.

   Sometimes specialty food items that are at events like the fair can be very tempting but often you can make them at home instead. The kettle corn smelled and looked good but it was so easy to just make at home. Simply put a little oil in the bottom of a cast iron pan and put it on medium/ high. Cover the bottom with popcorn seeds and then spread a few tablespoons of sugar over that. Put on lid and wait for the first pop. When the popping starts you will need to shake the pan regularly. When they are popped transfer to a bucket or bowl and sprinkle just a little salt on it. This was so easy but very much enjoyed.

  The kids thought the funnel cakes looked really good at other places. Aaron found a recipe to make them and made them for our breakfast this morning. They are not hard to make and were pretty yummy. No need to buy them elsewhere.

  When you are out and about it can be tempting to take cold drinks. I have take a cooler along and fill it with water bottles and also herbal iced tea that I made. That was nice to have.

   Eating out of the garden is what we are doing a lot of now. It is such a blessing. I love all the fresh items! It still can be challenging to think of what to make with what I have but it is also pretty fun!

   I would love to hear your stories of using what you have int he food department of your home.