Prepping from a single parents point of view

Okay as some of you may know, I am a single parent, but I still live at home with my parents. Even though I am still at home with them does not mean that I can't begin preparing for a disaster, job loss, sickness, etc. I know that with the economy being the way it is, everyone should be putting a little a side every chance he/she can get. I started out the begging of this year by purchasing my Berkey water filter system which has been a HUGE blessing for us. We have very nasty well water that has an awful egg smell and a rusty - yellowish color. Who want's to drink that!?!? So our Berkey gets plenty of use, since we use the water for cooking and drinking and the filters should last my family for at least 5-10 years, depending on how many gallons we use daily. Another thing I began doing is keeping and filling gallon milk jugs with our tap water and adding 1 tsp of bleach to it, so we can use for hand washing & toilet flushing. I also coupon and stock up on good deals when I find something good for my family. Yesterday I went to the local LDS home storage center and purchased some #10 canned items to add to out long-term food storage. Since this was my first time going, I didnt purchase too much. I purchased black beans, pinto beans, white beans, both quick & regular oats & white rice. I also went ahead and purchased the hard white wheat berries and the hard red wheat berries, since I am planning on purchasing a grain mill next month sometime. We also got a 4lb bag of pancake mix there also. I am planning on going back again next month to purchase more bulk items, this time I will have to to buy the 25 lb bags of items because my local cannery will no longer be allowing you to can in the building anymore. They will however still be selling the items in 25 lb bags. The older guy that I spoke with yesterday told me that I could buy a bunch of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and seal the pouches with an iron! So guess what I gonna do since I dont own a sealer. =) lol Till next time guys....

Homemade Chili

With all the cool weather sweeping in through the south, I've really started to crave comfort foods. Well yesterday I wanted chili, but didnt have a chili season pack on hand. So I found a recipe, but tweaked it to my liking! ;-) I also froze about 6 cups of it for later use as chili & cheese baked potatoes or for chili dogs, so I may take a picture of it then if I remember. But enough of my talking, here is the recipe. Hope you enjoy as much as we did!! :-)


Chili

2lbs ground lean turkey, chicken or beef cooked and drained of all grease
29oz can tomato sauce
2-14.5oz cans kidney beans, undrained
2-14.5 oz cans pinto beans, undrained
1/2 cup sweet frozen corn kernals - *optional*
1 med onion, diced & cooked along with ground turkey
1-3oz can diced green chilies
1/4 green bell pepper, diced & cooked along with ground turkey
1/4 cup celery, diced & cooked along with ground turkey
1-28oz can petite diced tomatoes
3tsp cumin powder
3tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp table salt
1/2 cup water

First you cook your ground turkey, onion, bell pepper, and celery together using non-stick olive oil spray or regular olive oil. After your meat mixture is done, drain(sometimes I even rinse it off with warm water just to make sure all the grease is out if I'm using ground beef)and then add to a large pot along with all of the other ingredients. Stir to mix everything together and then simmer on low for 30min to 1 hour. Enjoy!!

I like to serve mine with a side of sweet cornbread or saltines. Yummmm

Semi-Homemade Freezer Salsa

Since I have discovered that you can freeze salsa, I have been doing this recipe for about half a year now. I use a package called Mrs. Wages and it has everything that a salsa should have, minus the tomatoes. The recipe calls for 6-14.5 oz cans of petite diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of white vinegar. I have never doubled the recipe, but I'm sure that it would be no problem doing so. The pictures below are of my salsa. I used Ball 8oz freezer containers and got 12 1/2 cups of salsa after it was done.

New Dominican Hair Care Products

I just wanted to do a quick review on a new product products that I have been using. I am Jamaican-American as I'm sure most of you didn't know and I have been searching high & low for new products that will help grow my hair. I do relax my hair every 6-8 weeks because I have very coarse hair, but I was wanting to extend the time between relaxers. After searching I found a product called "CrecePelo" by Boe.

The image above is from Amazon.com, but I DID NOT puchase my items from there. The products are made in the Dominican Republic and work wonderful!! And they also smell great!! :-) I purchased the 4pc set which includes 16oz shampoo, 16oz treatment, 16oz rinse & a 16oz leave-in-conditioner. I have noticed a complete difference in my hair since the first time I used it. My hair is now very smooth, silky and easy to comb. I last relaxed my hair a month ago today and it still looks fresh as if I just got it relaxed. I usually just keep my hair wrapped and if I go out I comb it pull it back in a pony and I'm out the door. I have not noticed any significant hair growth as of yet, my hair is a little past my shoulders. So I will have to update in a few months to let you guys know if I noticed any.



*HAIR CARE UPDATE* 12/12/11

Alright folks, I am back again with a hair care update since this last post. I just got a perm/relaxer on 12/1/11, so I went I believe 10 weeks without a relaxer and my hair was really kinky!! I did wash my hair every other week and flat iron it, but a couple hours after, it would be very frizzy and start to kink back up. I did notice some shedding, but I am not sure if it was because of the product I was using, or because I went so long without a relaxer/perm. I had about 2" of new growth, so that was good for me.

Being Hospitable

Lately I have been talking to my child about his behavior and trying to instill character in him. We have been using the Duggar Character Quality chart as part of our bible study for homeschool. Well, yesterday we had a visitor come by our home and she was there for a couple hours and as she was playing a game with my son he says"_____, would you like a glass of water". She tells him yes and how nice he is for offering her water. He then goes on to tell her that "well my mom says that if someone poor comes to our home we are to offer them things". We got a good laugh out of it, but then corrected him and told him that when you have visitors come by for a visit you should make them as comfortable as possible and share with them what God has blessed you with. I really do suggest using the Duggar Character Quality chart as part of your homeschool, family devotion, sunday school, etc.

Homemade White Bread

Last week Friday I made 2 loaves of white bread for my family, one was a regular loaf for sandwiches, toast, etc. And the other was a breakfast loaf filled with cinnamon roll filling, but shaped life a loaf of bread. We also had homemade strawberry jam that I made a few months ago and froze to go along with it. It tasted so good, that my mom asked me to make 6 loaves today and freeze them for a later time. So I set out today to clean and organize our homeschool room, make 6 loaves of bread and cook dinner, needless to say that dinner did not get made today!!! But here are the pictures. I ended up with 4 loaves and 23 cinnamon rolls. Hopefully I can post the recipe by the weekend.

The finished product!!

The dough rising!!

Cinnamon rolls that I made using the bread recipe. My mom made a glaze to pour over the top...delish!!

Freezer Cooking: Salsa & Strawberry Jam

Okay, so I have decided to do all my cooking for the month of March at the end of this month. I have 35 meals planned for dinner as well as some freezer items for breakfast and lunch. I also plan on making my bread and freezing it. I will try to post the monthly menu for March as well as a few recipes to go along with my post. In wanted to post a few pics of what I made last week just to try to see how they taste, but my computer is acting weird. I never knew that homemade jam could be so tasty until I made some. I also made some salsa using canned diced tomatoes, next time I will make it using organic tomatoes. Till next time.