Cooking Like Mother Hubbard

Her cupboards were bare. Ours are not bare, but they--and our frig--are not bursting in the typical way. We like it like that. We like to know what we have and use it up before it goes bad. I get a genuine kick out of using absolutely everything.

We're now into the third week of our version of Mother Hubbard cooking: buying only the bare essentials to boost what's already in the kitchen. Last week was especially fun, because it snowed Saturday and the Farmers' Market was nearly deserted. I bought only our milk, cheese, and the big $3 bucket of not-so-pretty-but-perfectly-delicious apples. (They have $1 big buckets, too, which are downright ugly. I'll make pies one of these weeks.)

Then to the grocery store, where $30 of groceries included: broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, frozen peas, hot cocoa, wheat thin, & two boxes of cereal (3 remaining processed food pleasures!), sausage, and a loaf of bread. Including the Farmers' Market, the week's groceries came to less than $50, thanks to what I already had on hand. Our weekly total also includes the $3 I spent on 18 eggs from the family at church that has free range chickens. How nice is that?

So here's what was on the menu this week:
- On Sunday I baked 3 rather bland loaves of whole wheat bread, using up the rest of my whole wheat flour. We ate it w/eggs I scrambled with cheese & salsa (had the salsa in the frig from football snacking)

- Baked potatoes with steamed brocolli & cheese, adorned w/leftover Sweet Potato Chili from last week

- Sausage with Roasted sweet potatoes, white potatoes, & onions, and peas (that same night my friend Diana came over with leftovers to share--several grilled chicken breasts, which we gladly added to the menu)

- Shredded chicken (see above) and sausage jambalaya with peas

- Pasta & sauce from a jar (both already in the cupboard) w/the rest of the sausage thrown in

- And for breakfasts, the girls ate the cereal (takes about 4 days to finish it), I ate peanut butter & jelly on bland bread, and then I used a loaf & a half of bland bread to make ok French Toast, and this morning I made Baked Oatmeal--a family favorite that I can prep the night before.

- The girls' lunches usually include things like bags of nuts, craisins or raisins, cheese-and-mustard sandwiches (their favorite), sliced apples, applesauce, carrot sticks, and boiled eggs. This week we added wheat thins to the mix. Alan and I eat dinner leftovers for our lunches.

Now I'm off to the Farmers' Market & Grocery store. Let's see if I can keep this week to under $50, too! I have to buy two kinds of flour, though, and I'd hoped to get some Tahini to make hummus, so the bill may be higher. We'll see!