Monday Kitchen Management

We had a houseful of guests last night, so I made the vegetable bean soup and a loaf of bread.  A vegetarian soup is a good way to please everybody around here.

Refrigerator Bread is a recipe I found on the Internet . It is King Arthur Refrigerator bread.   It takes a matter of minutes and makes multiple loaves. Sixty four cents makes 2-3 loaves depending on the size of your loaf.   Or, about 21 cents a loaf.  A little more work than peasant bread, but about the same price.

Finding scratch recipes that are efficient and taste good is not hard.   It makes a difference in how things taste, and reduces your exposure to those ingredients you cant pronounce.
Your food shouldn’t be a science experiment and your food bill shouldn’t be an arm and a leg.

You can eat well on four dollars a day.   I’m not going to tell you that you can feed the 17 yo linebacker on that, but you can do it for a regular family.  

Eating and exercising some portion control is a good thing.  If you can't see any white of your plate you are probably eating too much.  We have a problem with obesity in this country.   A lot of it in my opinion is due to portion control.   4 ounces of meat is ample unless you are building muscle for some reason.   Que the 17 yo linebacker.   Check with your nutritionist.   We still eat more than the RDA of nutriments.

Buying your food at a rock bottom price and paying attention to labels and pull dates is a good thing. We got organic diced tomatoes this weekend for 3/1.   They have an April 2018 pull date.   We ate them last night.   I’m sure that food doesn’t go from ok to spoil on a designated date.   We should have some wiggle room. But I don't tend to be adventurous.  That’s why I suggest a 4-6 week supply of food.  That is enough to cover yourself if you have a family emergency, but not too much so that you are strapped for cupboard space and have trouble keeping up with it.    There is just some smug satisfaction of knowing you beat the system and have yourself covered when life throws you a little curve  ball.  Studies have shown that the stress of not having food in the house can reduce your life expectancy.   So can drinking sugar laden drinks.