Heading toward the challenge

September will begin a more frugal period for my family.  Our family structure has changed and my income will drop rather drastically.  Today, I think, was my last latte.  I have been paring down a bit to get ready for the changes that are coming, but it will still be a challenge.  I am going to try to decrease our food spending from about $900 for 5 people to $600/month for the three kids and myself. 

I'll also try to add to my earnings through small things.  I already teach 3 courses but I need to bring in more money.  I am happy to use my creativity to do that.  I have begun selling off my old books on Amazon -- sold two today and made about $14.  I have been a book hoarder so it is good to diminish my stash a bit.   I am working on my needle felted hats.  They are a nice quiet activity that I can do in the evening and I love creating them.  I've signed up at the winter indoor market to sell my gourmet dry mixes under my business name "Fast Foodie." 

I hope this gets us through the winter and spring.  I need to plant a bigger garden next spring and take better care of it.  We had a terrible growing season in Idaho this year.  It was a short, cold summer.  With a chance of frost anytime after Labor Day, we could harvest very little from the garden.

Tonight, we did have potatoes, onions and parsley from the garden.  Yesterday we had zucchini fritters for dinner (shredded zucchini, eggs, cheese, onion) and zucchini chocolate chip cookies (trust me they are good!).  But, the tomatoes remain green, the onions are the size of golf balls, the corn is only 3 feet high, the pumpkins didn't fruit and there are only a few lonely peppers on the pepper plants.  How sad, my worst gardening year ever. All the gardeners and farmers I know talk about what a bad year it has been and it reminds me how little we rely on local food systems.  If local foods were a necessity, we would all be in for a long, hungry winter here.  The large farms in this area grow wheat, dry peas and lentils so I suppose we wouldn't starve.  But, we would all be fighting over the end of season onions, kale, carrots and tomatoes. 

At any rate, if your garden was more abundant this year and you need some zucchini recipes here are the two I mentioned above:

Zucchini Fritters
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  Fry in olive oil like pancakes on a griddle.  Serve with brown rice and/or tomato sauce.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
Blend above ingredients.
Add:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (aka white wheat flour)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix with wet ingredients.

Add:
1 cup zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 from 35 minutes in a greased 9X11 pan  for bar cookies or place spoonfuls on cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes.