We are all feeling the cost of living increases. It seems everything has gone up but for me Food is the worst. Buying organic is expensive enough but now it’s so ridiculous that I have had to reduce or just do without some things.

One way of dealing with the increases is to like many people eat local and in season. I think I have gradually gotten used to eating what’s in season just by doing it. Over time I have adjusted to not having everything I want when I want it. And then when It comes in season it tastes so delicious that I enjoy it even more.

And then if Im not growing it in my yard I buy it at a local stand. I’m noticing more small stands around where people are selling their extras and sometimes giving them away.

I’ve also learned that fruit and veggies just don’t taste the same out of season. So I adjust my meals accordingly. I also make adjustments to recipes. For instance, basil and cilantro lose their flavor in the winter time. They probably have 25 to 50% of their flavor. So for instance, if I make pesto in the winter time because I run out of my freezer batch then I actually use half kale half basil. Kale is sweeter in the winter it’s not overpowering and will not overpower the pesto but adds good flavor actually and texture to the pesto and then I have to usually add a little extra garlic.

Another thing I buy less of in winter are tomatoes. Who wants to eat a tasteless tomato and in the winter time they’re at least 15% more costly sometimes 25% more than they are in the summer. So, in most instances, I sub out sun-dried tomatoes that I either soak because they’re dry packed or buy the kind that are packed in olive oil and garlic and use those where I might have used fresh tomatoes.

For salads, I tend to lean towards the stronger greens in the winter and add in all kinds of other delicious veggies, but not usually tomatoes or cucumbers because they’re tasteless in the winter. Speaking of cucumbers, if I do, do anything with cucumbers in the winter, I salt the slices before serving because that does help bring out some of the flavor.

Another way that so many people do know about but don’t do is preserving by canning or freezing produce to extend the use of it into winter. Obviously you can’t freeze everything and you can’t can everything but you can preserve quite a bit. I think what freaks people out or scares people is thinking that they have to can a huge batch of something at one time. When in reality they don’t. You can make tiny little batches and put up pint sized jars of things three or four at a time. You do not have to do gigantic batches of things. For freezing I love doing things like freezing chunks of zucchini, and onions mixed with herbs and fresh tomatoes and then in the winter time I take that out, throw it in a pan with some olive oil and cook it all up and add Parmesan cheese and serve it as a side dish and it’s fabulous.

I’m not a master canner so I’m not going to be able to give you some sort of canning class or education on it but I can tell you a couple of things that I do as shortcuts that have made it easier. One thing I do is sterilize my jars in The microwave. I fill the jars half full of water. Put them in the microwave and get the water up to a boil. Usually takes about 3 or 4 minutes depending on your microwave. Then I take that super hot, (be careful use a mitt to get the jars out) but I take that super hot water and pour it into a stainless steel bowl and put all my rings and lids in that bowl with that hot water. So I’ve reused my water and didn’t have to bring any water to a boil on the stove. I also sterilize them in my dishwasher sometimes but then I have a sanitizing feature on my dishwasher that gets up to like 140 or 150° to sterilize the jars. I only do this if I’ve got a really big batch that I’m doing. You can throw your rings in the dishwasher too, but it may get a little hot for too long a period of time for the lids. You can get yourself a canning book or look up a tutorial on canning to really know what you’re doing because I’m not going to try and educate you on that. But it is a good way to preserve summer flavors. I think we all know that, I’m not telling you anything new. I’m just hopefully giving you a couple of tips that might make it easier for you to try it.

And like I said, one of the things I like to do is freeze pre-made dishes that are uncooked so that I can just toss them into a pan on a night that I don’t have a lot of time to cook and make a delicious dish. One of the other examples of this is corn. Summertime corn is amazing. We (hubby and I) can’t eat it all the time because neither one of us needs that many carbs on a regular basis being that corn is one of the very high carb foods. But I have prepped corn for the freezer by cutting all the corn off of the cob into a freezer bag, then scraping all of the good milky stuff out of that corn cob with a knife into that same bag, seasoning it up well, possibly adding some chopped onion and then rolling that up and freezing it for good sweet corn during the winter. Oh, a lot of times I’ll even add pats of butter just so everything’s in the bag and all I have to do is drop it into a pot with a little water to cook on low until the butter melts then on medium until the corn cooks about 5-10 minutes.

Try this with some of your overripe tomatoes or ones that have reached peak deliciousness. Pack them into sterilized jars. Cut into wedges with a little bit of onion. A little bit of garlic and a bunch of basil fresh basil leaves and just about an inch of water in the bottom. Make sure you salt them and then cover them with dry sterilized lids and process them in boiling water for about 10 minutes and you’ll have a delicious, fresh tasting tomato condiment so to speak to utilize with cheese, fresh bread, olive oil and herbs. You can achieve the flavors of a caprese salad which you normally wouldn’t do in the winter time unless you like tasteless tomatoes by adding some fresh slices of. Or you can add it to a marinara for a delicious boost when you’re making a marinara sauce.

One of my other favorite things also my family’s favorite things is my fresh homemade salsa. Now, how do you achieve a delicious salsa by canning it instead of freezing it. This is what I do. I like it. It turns out good for me.

I cut everything up that I do for a pico de gallo except of course avocado or cucumber if I’m adding that. And then I pack that into jars with all the herbs, and spices even cilantro and so forth keeping it all raw.  Then I process it for 10 minutes.  When I open it in the winter time or the next year or whatever it’s actually very delicious. It’s more like a fresher salsa, not a pico de gallo, but definitely a fresher tasting salsa than what you would get in the store.

There are lots of other ways to enjoy our food year round even though it’s not growing in our backyard.

If you don’t already, try adding more beans to your diet. There are so many beans out there and you can buy them dried, cook them up and have them available in your refrigerator all week. Or you can actually cook them and can them if you really want to. But you need to look that one up cuz I don’t can beans. However, I do use beans quite often and that helps stretch our other more expensive foods. It also adds a good amount of fiber to our diet and mixed with the right foods it can also be part of a protein replacement.

So the point is to get creative. Try things you haven’t tried before. Find foods that you will eat that are lower cost to help stretch your budget. And see what you can come up with. And if you are so inclined, come back to my blog and let me know what you thought and what you created. I would love to hear other people’s ideas and recipes as well.