Always Learning

The internet is a great tool for living frugally and sustainably. I'm learning new things, practical things, all the time. And so I share. There are some of you who already know so much more than I do, please bear with me.

Foraging-It means free food. Can't beat that. I have hops, ginger,cranberries, lamb's quarters (wild quinoa), wild amaranth, etc., to harvest this time of year. I went to harvest the amaranth seeds and found that they were already blown to the wind.

Wild Amaranth 

 So I harvested the seed from the lamb's quarters. These I'll use in breads.

Lamb's Quarters seeds 

I winnowed them, washed them and roasted them. I didn't end up with a lot, but it's a cool project.During the process I came upon a series of videos on Youtube called Joe and Zach Survival. You can find information on making curly dock flour, clover flour, spruce honey, and a whole mess of really cool things.

Another new project was making homemade Macaroni and Cheese mix. I found a great recipe on Food Storage Made Easy. It makes six mixes and you just buy a big box of elbow macaroni.

 Macaroni and Cheese Mix
 heaping 1 cup instant dry milk
 heaping 1/2 cup cornstarch
 2 cups cheese powder
 Mix well and store in an airtight container. To make macaroni and cheese: 2 cups cooked noodles heaping 1/2 cup macaroni and cheese mix 3/4 cup water 1 tablespoon butter. Mix until blended.**

 **Last new idea was more like a realization. Everytime that I make stir fry, I make too much rice. It either goes out to the dog or the chickens after a week in the refrigerator. Then I realized I could just dehydrate it and have minute rice on those evenings when everything is so busy. These types of things make me happy. Now if I could just learn how to put paragraph breaks in my blog....I think I just figured it out.  Happy again.

That's all for now, catch ya later.