Living Life in Rural Iowa
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Prepping. Homesteading. Frugal living. Tired of the BS that is our world today. Random thoughts by Erica.
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In my last post, I wrote that I was rewriting the rules for the pantry challenge and I post what I was doing. I have not made it through my pantry yet to show you those things, but this is what I pulled out this morning.

Pic 1: I have a bunch of k-cups that need to be used up. Green tea is not my favorite tea, but I will get these used up as well as the coffee ones.

Pic 2: From home, I brought apple butter that was made in 2017 to have with toast, tea that was dated 2017, oatmeal that is dated Jan. 2022, tuna packet (2023), and an opened bag of craisins.

Pic 3: I also have a half bottle of creamer from the holidays to use up. No need to waste food. I had quit drinking coffee, but I will drink it til this is gone.

#pantrychallengereimagined is the hash tag I'm using. Please use it too so I can see what you are doing!

#foodstorage #pantrychallenge #foodwaste
In my last post, I wrote that I was rewriting the rules for the pantry challenge and I post what I was doing. I have not made it through my pantry yet to show you those things, but this is what I pulled out this morning.

Pic 1: I have a bunch of k-cups that need to be used up. Green tea is not my favorite tea, but I will get these used up as well as the coffee ones.

Pic 2: From home, I brought apple butter that was made in 2017 to have with toast, tea that was dated 2017, oatmeal that is dated Jan. 2022, tuna packet (2023), and an opened bag of craisins.

Pic 3: I also have a half bottle of creamer from the holidays to use up. No need to waste food. I had quit drinking coffee, but I will drink it til this is gone.

#pantrychallengereimagined is the hash tag I'm using. Please use it too so I can see what you are doing!

#foodstorage #pantrychallenge #foodwaste
The start of cleaning out my food storage. I started with my kitchen pantry shelves and accumulated this motley selection of items. I still have three cabinets to sort through in the kitchen and then I need to tackle the basement food storage.

This pantry challenge will be going on for a while. I needed to do this for a year or better. I'm making lists of what needs to be replaced, but I don't see a lot of this being replaced. My food choices have changed over the years.

We will be having some interesting meals and desserts in the next few months...

#pantrychallengereimagined #pantry challenge #foodstorage #prepping #preparedness
The start of cleaning out my food storage. I started with my kitchen pantry shelves and accumulated this motley selection of items. I still have three cabinets to sort through in the kitchen and then I need to tackle the basement food storage.

This pantry challenge will be going on for a while. I needed to do this for a year or better. I'm making lists of what needs to be replaced, but I don't see a lot of this being replaced. My food choices have changed over the years.

We will be having some interesting meals and desserts in the next few months...

#pantrychallengereimagined #pantry challenge #foodstorage #prepping #preparedness
Supper tonight: Depending on who you are, it's burrito bowls or roast chicken and rice. I have one kid who doesn't eat meat and one who hates beans with a passion.

One chicken roasted in the slow cooker (recipe on the blog). Red kidney beans that soaked for several hours and were cooked in the pressure cooker. Brown rice cooking on the stove with water, chicken bouillon, and butter.

From yesterday's pics, I used up a bag of red kidney beans and some chicken bouillon.I also have quite a bit of brown rice I would like to eat and replace.

For those of us who had burrito bowls, we topped ours with avocado, salsa (canned in 2019), and shredded cheese.

#pantrychallengereimagined #pantrychallenge #foodstorage
This morning it was back to the cooking and baking grind. We are starting today with banana zucchini bread.

I had two bananas that were overly ripe. I have a lot of frozen shredded zucchini that needs to be used up. I also used pastry flour and superfine sugar from the pile of things I need to use up.

The recipe comes from Real HouseMoms. It's been my go-to banana bread for a few years now.

#pantrychallengereimagined #pantrychallenge #foodstorage #nofoodwaste
New post! Gardening and putting away food can be time-consuming. One year you have a high-producing garden and the next year you can't hardly grow a thing. When times are good, we need to preserve food like crazy so we can weather a bad year or something worse.

https://www.livinglifeinruraliowa.com/2022/01/why-you-need-to-grow-food-one-year-and.html
Today's lunch: Chicken Stuffing Bake. My mom made this meal for us growing up.

1 box of stuffing (any flavor) (from 2019)
Any roasted poultry meat: chicken, Turkey, etc. (from supper Wednesday)
1 jar of gravy (turkey, chicken)(from 2020)

Make the stuffing according to box instructions. Add a good layer of meat on top of the stuffing (an inch is usually enough). Add gravy to the top. A smaller jar is enough, but I had a bigger jar so I only used half.

You can cook this in the microwave for 10-15 minutes or until hot in the middle. Or you can cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes until hot and bubbly.

This is food storage friendly meal. My mom would use the whole chicken in a can to make it. I've used canned chicken to make this.

I usually serve it with vegetables. Today it was fresh green beans that needed to be used up.

I also finished deboning the chicken and put the scraps in the freezer. I have plenty of stock canned right now. And yes, the bag has been washed and reused a few times.
Today's lunch: Chicken Stuffing Bake. My mom made this meal for us growing up. I have no idea where she got it from, but it's simple and delicious.

1 box of stuffing (any flavor) (from 2019)
Any roasted poultry meat: chicken, Turkey, etc. (from supper Wednesday)
1 jar of gravy (turkey, chicken)(from 2020)

Make the stuffing according to box instructions. Add a good layer of meat on top of the stuffing (an inch is usually enough). Add gravy to the top. A smaller jar is enough, but I had a bigger jar so I only used half.

You can cook this in the microwave for 10-15 minutes or until hot in the middle. Or you can cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes until hot and bubbly.

This is food storage friendly meal. My mom would use the whole chicken in a can to make it. I've used canned chicken to make this.

I usually serve it with vegetables. Today it was fresh green beans that needed to be used up.

I also finished deboning the chicken and put the scraps in the freezer. I have plenty of stock canned right now. And yes, the bag has been washed and reused a few times.