Struggle Meals... Pizza?

Can pizza really be a Struggle Meal? Yes it can. Homemade pizza is very inexpensive. In this post I will share a pizza crust recipe made from an artisan bread recipe. It only takes a few minutes to mix up and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. This dough can also be baked into loaves of bread, focaccia or crusty rolls. This dough is a time saver and it only contains water, flour, salt and yeast. No expensive oils or other expensive ingredients. No kneading required. I will do a "Struggle Meal" bread post in the future.

A five pound bag of flour from Walmart costs $1.56. Now, this is still pretty cheap and I checked the price online. No shipping was available on this product. A 3-pack of yeast cost $1.52. Salt costs .48 cents and has 491 servings. The cost is not even a penny. A 6 Oz can of tomato paste costs .62 cents. An 8 Oz block of cheese is $1.86. I just added .15 for pan preparations and seasonings. You can purchase yeast from Sam's in bulk for a lot cheaper and you get a lot more, but for this let's just stick with Walmart. Let's break the pizza cost down. This recipe makes two very large 12X17 cheese pizzas. 

Dough Ingredients:

6 1/2 C All Purpose Flour   .78

1 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast    1.00

1 1/2 Tablespoons Salt         .01

3 C Lukewarm Water

Toppings And Pan Prep:

6 Oz Tomato Paste               .62

8 Oz Cheese                       1.86

Seasonings                            .05

Oil                                         .05

Cornmeal                              .05

 Total Costs                       $4.42

If you want meat or veggies on your pizza just break down the costs to figure out what your willing to spend. We usually use a small amount of ground beef or beef smoked sausage and jalapeños. It just depends what we have on hand. I tried to figure the cost as close as I could. You get two super large cheese pizzas for under 5 bucks. That is a lot of meals for us. It is actually 16 large pieces. We eat 1 1/2 to 2 slices each, so that is 8 meals for the two of us. That is .28 cents a slice or .58 cents per 2 slice serving. Add a salad or a side to round off the meal and you have a really cheap "Struggle Meal". We usually just eat the pizza. Sometimes Number One will have a salad with his. 

Let's mix up the dough. Warm 3 cups of water in a pan. In a large bowl mix flour, yeast and salt. Pour warm water into flour mixture. Mix until flour mixture is incorporated into the warm water. Do not over mix. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel in a warm place for 2 to 5 hours. I prefer the 5 hour mark, but I have used it at the 2 hour mark. Store dough up to 10 days in the refrigerator. 

Dust with a little flour to make the sticky dough more manageable.

Let's prepare the crust. Oil and lightly dust your pan with cornmeal. The cornmeal keeps the bottom from burning when baking and adds flavor and texture to the crust. 

Divide the dough.

Press the dough out in the pans.

Let's get the sauce going...

Put the tomato paste in a small saucepan. Add enough water to make a smooth thick sauce. Mix well.

Add your preferred spices. I used salt, sugar, garlic, pepper, crushed fennel seeds and Italian seasoning in my sauce. Mix well. 

Simmer on low for 15 to 20 minutes.

Let's prepare the toppings...

I browned about 1/2 pound of ground beef. Do not over cook your meat. It will cook more in the oven.  This is not added in the cost, but it would be around $2.00. Wow, that sounds crazy.

Grated cheese and jalapeños. The jalapeños are not included in the price. It would just be pennies to add them. I also did not use 8 ounces of cheese. I used less. Make the pizza how you prefer. 

Let's put it all together...

 

Spread sauce equally on the pizza dough.

Spread the toppings equally on the sauce.

Add the cheese.

Top it off with jalapeños or whatever you choose to use. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 450* for 20 minutes.

Set your timer. Depending on your oven you may need to adjust the time.

The finished product...

What I did with the other pizza...

I wrapped it in plastic wrap...

and managed to squeeze it into our tiny freezer. When I'm ready to bake it I will pull it out and let it rise for about 30 minutes before I put it in the oven.

If you add meat just add the cost to the total to figure out what it cost per serving. It is still a "Struggle Meal" cost wise if you add other toppings considering the cost for a store pizza that doesn't taste as good and has all kinds of bad ingredients in it. 

Enjoy!

Mrs. Smith

Struggle Meals... Soup And Bread

The price of everything is going up. Not only is it going up, sometimes it is missing altogether. Some shelves are bare. Are we going to see the same thing that we saw during the worst of the pandemic? It seems to be happening again. Limits are starting to show up again too. The consumer price index was up 8.5% in March. This index does not include food or energy. What is the point of this number if they don't include the things that we have to have to live? Imagine what the real inflation number looks like. 

I haven't been doing "Gather Up Your Fragments" posts lately. I realized this the other day. I did let a bag of fresh sweet peppers go to waste. Shame on me. I was very disappointed. I knew that I needed to put them up and I even checked on them, but I waited too long to process them. The reason that I have not been doing these types of posts is that I haven't had any leftover fragments to gather especially during this construction phase that we are in. 

Throughout history we can find the struggle to get and purchase food. Food in a lot of places in this day and age represent the largest portion of ones' income along with the fuel needed to cook the food. Shortages and high costs were not uncommon in the 18th and 19th centuries. People made struggle meals out of what they could buy or scavenge.  Even the Bible has examples of famines. Truth be told, until farming and ranching became industrialized food insecurity was commonplace. Now, after a series  of devastating events we are witnessing food insecurities and shortages despite having industrialized farming and ranching. 

So, how can we stretch what we have and make do with what we have in the pantry. We will have to get creative with very few ingredients, because even the ingredients for depression meals have become expensive. So, we will have to go back further into history and find out what people used to make a struggle meal. 

People used basic ingredients like unprocessed grains, garden vegetables, wild game and foraged edibles. If they were able they also raised their own animals like chickens and had a milk cow. They spent a lot of time gathering and saving food for the Wintertime on top of  cooking and gathering for their daily needs.

I want to focus on soup and bread in this post. Soup is nutritious and can be made out of scraps. Bread is also nutritious and filling. Put soup and bread together and you have a great inexpensive meal. Broth can easily be made out of leftover fragments saved and gathered from other meals and garden scraps. People did not waste food. They knew that food was important for basic survival.  

Definitions:

soup/so͞op/

Noun:

A liquid dish, typically made by boiling meat, fish, or vegetables, etc., in stock or water. A substance or mixture perceived to resemble soup in appearance or consistency.

Chicken and Dumplings

bread /bred/

noun

1. 1.

   food made of flour, water, and yeast or another leavening agent, mixed together and baked.

Homemade bagels

Soup is a delicious, nutritious and affordable meal. It doesn't require a lot of time unless you choose a recipe that has a lot of steps and preps in it. I enjoy cooking a big pot of soup on the stove in the winter. It warms my home and my heart. The aroma of a good pot of soup makes your home a welcoming place to gather for a meal. Anticipation is heightened, as family and friends alike go by the pot to stir the soup to make sure all is well.

Soup is a forgiving way to cook. Every pot made is a master piece in it's own right. Never to be duplicated. Ingredients change, spices change and cooking times may vary, so just feel free to add or subtract depending on what you have on hand.

 I like to make "leftover" soup. At the end of the week, I put all the leftover cooked grain, meat and vegetables into a pot of stock, broth, water or milk on the stove to cook. If I do not have enough leftovers to make soup, I freeze the leftovers in anticipation of adding it to a pot of soup one day. If I have salsa leftover, I will add it to chili or taco soup. I combine foods that compliment each other into a soup. If I have chicken and vegetables left over, I will add homemade noodles to make chicken noodle soup. If I only have chicken, I will make chicken and dumplings with it or freeze it for a later day. These are just examples. Let your imagination run wild with creativity.

Soup promotes a life of living within your means. There is very little waste if any when you cook soup with your leftovers. It makes more meals out of the same amount of groceries, which translates to reducing your grocery bill. Since you simmer soup for a long period of time, you can use tougher cheaper cuts of meats in your soup recipes. Using a pressure cooker retains vitamins, reduces the amount of energy needed to cook with and saves time. Using a crock pot is time saving too. Just throw everything in the pot in the morning before you start your work day and when you get home dinner is waiting for you.

You are not limited to cooking soup with leftovers. It takes very little fresh meat, vegetables and grain to make a good pot of soup. This also helps to make your groceries last. Soup is a well rounded healthy meal. You can make a light summer soup out of your garden vegetables or a hearty soup out of your root vegetables in the winter. Use spices sparingly to add depth to your soup.....

Bread is said to be "the staff of life". Jesus tells Satan that "we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". Bread can take many forms and is found in almost every society. Soup is also eaten in virtually every society. I encourage you to use whole grains if possible. White bread was for rich people only way back when. Little did they know it was not as nutritious as whole grain bread. Now, white bread is the least expensive bread and is mainly consumed by the poor and those who prefer processed foods. 

I make white bread, but I make it with eggs and milk to add protein. Potatoes, oats and other things can be added to make a more nutritious loaf. I consider cornbread, muffins, tortillas, pancakes, hoe cakes,  and crackers forms of bread. There are more types of bread, but I am most familiar with the kinds that I listed. 

This will be a series of posts as we continue to see inflation rise, witness limits and missing products at the grocery store. There are only so many ways we can cut expenses as the power of our dollar shrinks. Most of us do not have unlimited funds to just pay more and more as inflation continues to soar out of control. It's better to do it now rather than later. We have to cut back, change our habits and navigate through our "new normal". Our wages have not gone up enough or at all to cover rising costs, but our living expenses have increased exponentially. 

We can do this...

Mrs. Smith 

 

Update: Sick Chickens

 

God answered our prayers. Praise God! All of our chickens are fat and happy. The two that were sick miraculously recovered. We did not have the dreaded avian influenza. I have never seen a chicken recover from being that close to death....

Mrs. Smith

Sick Chicken - Avian Influenza?

 

We have a sick chicken, possibly two. I had to call the Department Of Agriculture this morning. We will know in 24 to 48 hours if it is Avian Influenza. The whole flock will be infected and die. Then they will come take the birds and test them. If one bird has it they all have it. I hope that this is not the case. Our hens are our pets. They eat out of our hands and jump in our laps. We really enjoy keeping chickens for many reasons.

Just because a chicken dies does not mean it is Avian Influenza. The lifespan of a chicken is 3-7 years. Our chickens are over 4 years old. They are well cared for and pampered. Chickens die. They just do...

Mrs. Smith🙏

Construction Zone...

Our little blue birds showed up a couple weeks ago, We only have three. Two males and one female so far. I'm concerned the others didn't make it because of the bird flu. We normally have dozens and dozens. We named the male blessing and the female double portion. The other male has moved on to find a mate. They have a nest already built in the chicken house.

Number One has been doing a light re-modeling job on our home. I help out when I can with the light stuff like handing him tools and the clean-up. We are tired physically and tired of the mess. I must say that things are well organized now. Jobs that should just take a few hours have turned into days and days. It took three trips to town to get the paint matched, but it still didn't match, so more painting had to be done. We also purchased the last can of base that the paint store had after checking three other stores over three trips. Apparently, there is a paint shortage and a trim shortage. We have just enough paint left over for future touch-ups. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We just have a few more touch-ups and easier jobs left. The trim will have to wait until they get more in inventory.

I put together a lasagna the other day that I am just now baking.  Number One is taking a much needed nap. Little Abby is pacing the floor. The smell of food cooking drives her crazy. I also was finally able to bake bread after weeks of being out, however, my Kitchen Aid mixer broke down and needs to be repaired, so I had to finish the bread by hand. It still turned out beautiful.

I am definitely going to bed early tonight. We probably will not eat tonight either. It's after 7:00 already. Our last two Sabbaths have not been very restful. We will take it easy the next couple of days to rest up a bit. That's it for now...

Blessings,

Mrs. Smith

 

Breezy vs Windy...

I always laugh when I see the word "breezy" in the forecast. That means windy in my language. It's when I see the word "WINDY" that rally gets my attention. It has been windy since yesterday. Usually, we may have one day of windy, but we have not experienced windy for this long before. 

This usually means there will strong storms South and East of us and with the Spring warming going on everyone needs to hang on. I do not like tornados or even the threat of tornados. I'm happy to live in a place where we rarely get them and they are slow and weak.  

Be safe out there!

Mrs. Smith

• This
  Afternoon

  

  Slight Chance
  Snow and
  Windy

  High: 47 °F

• Tonight
  
  

  

  Mostly Clear
  and Windy

  Low: 18 °F

• Wednesday
  
  

  

  Sunny and
  Breezy

  High: 36 °F

• Wednesday
  Night

  

  Mostly Clear
  and Blustery

  Low: 18 °F

• Thursday
  
  

  

  Sunny and
  Breezy

  High: 45 °F

• Thursday
  Night

  

  Clear and
  Blustery

  Low: 23 °F

• Friday
  
  

  

  Sunny and
  Breezy

  High: 55 °F

• Friday
  Night

  

  Mostly Clear

  Low: 28 °F

• Saturday
  
  

  

  Mostly Sunny

  High: 61 °F

Detailed Forecast

This Afternoon

A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly sunny, with a high near 47. Windy, with a west wind around 34 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear, with a low around 18. Windy, with a west northwest wind 26 to 33 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph.

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 36. Breezy, with a northwest wind 21 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.

Wednesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 18. Blustery, with a northwest wind 13 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 45. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.

Thursday Night

Clear, with a low around 23. Blustery.

Friday

Sunny, with a high near 55. Breezy.

Friday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 28.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 61.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy.

Sunday

A chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 54. Breezy.

Sunday Night

A chance of snow showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 29. Breezy.

Monday

A chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 52. Breezy.

Monday Night

A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. Breezy.

Tuesday

Snow showers likely. Partly sunny, with a high near 46. Breezy.

Lodge 14" Cast Iron Wok...

Number One Bought me a present. I have wanted a Lodge cast iron wok for quite a while now and we finally found one in stock. I think that they make and 18" one, but the 14" is big enough. I can't imagine a larger wok fitting on my stove. 

I washed, dried and oiled it and now it is ready to go.

I decided that I would cook Chicken Lo Mein in my new wok as an easy first meal. We are still under construction here at the ranch, so it had to be quick and easy with very little clean up and it was. 

Sauté carrots, peppers, and celery in some oil until tender. Remove from the wok and set aside. 

Add more oil and throw in a heaping tablespoon of sugar, soy sauce, pepper flakes and sliced chicken. Sauté until chicken is cooked thoroughly. 

Add sliced onions, minced garlic and

broccoli. Cook until broccoli is tender.  

Add the vegetable mixture back into the chicken mixture.

Add cooked pasta.

Mix well.

Top with chopped green onions and serve.

The wok performed perfectly. I couldn't be happier with it. The pre-seasoned surface is awesome. Just like my Lodge bread pans. I just washed, dried and oiled it again when it cooled off. It's simple and easy to care for. I highly recommend the Lodge wok. 

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith