Meal Planning - update!

I am proud to say I have been doing quite well with my meal planning these days.  It's still challenging to find variety each month with two picky eaters but I'm working on it. This month, November, I have decided to throw in a meal of Lamb Chops.  My husband has never tried lamb and neither has my son.  I used to cook a lot of lamb so it's time to get back to it.  If they like it we may get some freezer lamb from the lady who processes our chickens.  You can't beat anything fresh from a local farm, lamb would be no exception.

I didn't realize until I started meal planning that I was cooking the same boring stuff all the time. BBQ steak was on that first meal plan at least 4 times.  Granted it was a summer month but still there's much more to summer cooking than BBQ steak!  My meal planning is bringing me back to my old recipes, the ones I cooked years ago when I worked in a small town that had no fast food restaurants and a husband who actually preferred home cooked meals.

I have been using Pinterest a lot to source new recipes.  My November meal plan contains 5 new recipes.  BBQ steak is only on the menu once ha ha.

We are also saving money!  There is a noticeable difference in our bank account. I realize this should not be a shock but our excuse was always "we don't drink alcohol and we don't smoke so it's okay to indulge in take-out".......  I am keeping track of what we spend on take-out now, it is the only way I can make my husband truly see how much it is costing us and how much we could save.  

It is very tempting when you are tired after a hard days work to just swing by a restaurant.  No cooking, no dishes.....And some days take-out is inevitable, like the days my husband works a double shift and I get off work at 6pm.  I have actually scheduled those inevitable take-out days into the meal plan .....  But there are nights there is no excuse not to cook.  Our biggest obstacle most nights was the fact that I had nothing planned and no food out of the freezer.  I was throwing frozen steak on the BBQ last minute.  With our meal calendar I simply look ahead to see what meals are coming up, head to the freezer, get what I need and put it in the fridge.  Last night I came upstairs with a shopping bag full of frozen meats for the next few days.  I thought - "this is like grocery shopping right in my own house".  I used to throw out a ton of spoiled vegetables.  Now I only purchase what vegetables I need for upcoming meals.  I used to purchase vegetables so I had what I needed on hand for whatever I might make.  I now realize how dumb that was.  Some things like canned goods and frozen vegetables can be stocked to have on hand but to buy fresh vegetables with no plan as to how you will use them is a waste of money.

I have used colour coding on my calendar as well.  The days my husband cooks is orange, take-out days are red and new recipe days are blue.  

Here is a link to my Pinterest account where you will find my recipe boards:

http://www.pinterest.com/luv2cook2/boards/

I almost gave up on my meal plan a few times as I was finding it very time consuming to prepare and frustrating to think of meals ahead of time.  I have learned that putting the work into it today makes tomorrow much easier.  I save my past calendars to see what we have eaten the previous months.  I don't have a detailed meals list, just my prepared calendars.  I am learning as I go, saving money is a huge incentive to stick with it not to mention the health benefits.  I hope hearing my journey is helpful to you and encourages you to give meal planning a try.

'til next time!

The great big piggy went to market!

My husband often asked other farmers the question "is it worth it to raise your own pigs?"  They would always answer "it's a lot of cost and a lot of work, you're further ahead to buy your pork from someone else".  We took their advice into consideration but decided to give it a try.  As they also said "but when you raise your own you know what they've been fed and you know what you're eating".  Which was what we were looking for.  Knowing what has been put into our food is very important to us.

We were unsure if this would be the year we would try raising pigs.  As with everything we do it was a quick "let's go get them" decision.  I found piglets near by on Kijiji, the breed we were considering raising, and that was it.  We purchased 3 Berkshire Piglets in April.  We had the barn space but no pasture ready for them.  We purchased a solar fencing system and built another building for them within the fenced in area.  The building is on a skid so we can move it to another location when the time comes we no longer want to raise them in this particular area.  

Berkshire is a heritage breed known for good flavour and kind nature.  Having a small child being kind in nature was important and of course good flavour ranks high on the list as well.  

We worked hard to feed them as much of a variety of food as possible, not just store bought hog grower.  We fed them garden vegetable scraps (some of which we cooked), apples, pears and lawn clippings.  Just since Thanksgiving they had a feed bag full of over grown beets which we cooked, swiss chard and approx. 8 feed bags full of apples and pears.  And lots of green tomatoes!  They were losing their interest in the green tomatoes lol.  We raised happy, very well fed, pasture roaming pigs who enjoyed fresh air and sunshine.

Since we have been asking others, and really came up with no straight answers, here's the final numbers.  This is what it COST us to raise our pigs.  Not including the fencing materials, solar fencer, barn, water barrel, feeders, etc.  This is strictly cost of pig, feed and butchering:

Cost of Pigs $80 each = $240

Hog Grower: $738.35

3 Bales of Hay for bedding/food:  $9.00

Butcher (killing and cleaning, not cut up): $100

Total cost: $1087.35

Total weight of all 3 pigs 598 lbs

Cost per lb $1.81

Of course this does not include our physical labour, fuel for picking up feed and apples etc.  I guess in the end we "made" nothing off it, but we provided ourselves and family and friends with healthy, flavourful, moist, delicious, pasture raised pork.

I was very afraid we had gone "into the hole" so to speak.  I am pleasantly surprised that we managed to stay on top of it.  We had no idea what to charge per lb for the meat.  We asked around and got the "going rate".  We are not farming to make money but we really didn't want to lose money!  That was my main concern.Considering this was a new venture for us I think we did quite well.  We learned to feed them the other stuff first and the grower feed last.  If they have tummies full of grower they won't eat the other stuff. 

And now the question everyone is asking "will you do it again?"  The answer is "YES".  And we are planning to raise the number by one or two, raise 4 or 5 instead of 3.  

I am a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type of gal.  If I find something that works I like to stick with it.  My husband is different, he likes to think of what he could change.  As I mentioned previously I am happy with the Berkshire and would like to stick to that breed.  My husband would like to try a mixed breed.  He is mentioning Berkshire and Tamworth mix.  I think we have been told "York" can be a nasty breed.  We will spend our winter trying to decide what to do.  Seeding in the pasture and planning for the newcomers in the spring.  We're even stocking our barn with bales of bedding hay so we'll be ready for their tentative arrival in March of 2014.  :)

'til next time!!!