Now That's A Bag of Oatmeal

Little did I know when I joined a grain co-op that we would be surviving off it. With my husband making less and less money per week and being gone so much, I have had to be really creative with meals. Thank you God for Wheat and Oatmeal! I must say I had no idea what fifty pounds of oatmeal looked like until I picked this up from the drop off point! Now, I am going to split it with a friend, but still...it's a lot of oats! At the rate things have been going I think it will get used. The wheat, which is under the oats in the picture, has been really allowing us to make ends meet. I have made bread three times a week along with some cookies, waffles, and muffins. It has filled my family up. And we haven't had to purchase much at the grocery store, except for eggs and milk. I am so glad I had had my freezer stocked with frozen veggies before all this happened, especially bell peppers. I had bought two big bags of them at BJs in June. I didn't use much of them until this squeeze. Now I put them in everything, pasta, potatoes, rice and meatloaf. They give flavor and vitimins that we need. We sure aren't losing weight on this budget. Healthy foods are so expenseive. Fresh vegtables add up. Eating potatoes, pasta, bread and beans isn't going to make you skinny. That's for sure. But it will save you a dollar. My garden didn't come in real well this year. My tomatos are still green! We have eaten a little bit out of it, not as much as I would have liked, though. What has helped us is the food I had stocked up on before all this. For example, things are really dwindling in the pantry, but I did have a can of stewed tomatos, a can of black beans, a can of corn and some frozen spinach. I also had some really yucky Cambell's Select soup that I didn't toss after tasting the nasty stuff. Thank goodness I didn't throw it out, because it, along with the other cans, gave us a wonderful bowl of soup. I also added a little extra garlic and Pace Picante sauce. It turned out real well and it was easy. With all this bread baking, homeschooling and cleaning I need some easy meals. I even have some left over for another meal. Just realized I'm out of milk and eggs. Been going through those really fast. I guess I'm going to have to go to the grocery store. Got to have milk to go with oatmeal in the morning.:-)