Costco Trip

So I made my monthly trip to Costco this week. Definitely didn't buy the usual though since I was buying in anticipation of going full food storage in January. That means no meat or other non-food storage items that we wouldn't have time to eat before January.

I did buy their 5 gallon bucket of powdered milk. I already have all my powdered milk but theirs was SO cheap ~ only $27! It makes 52 gallons of milk so that is like 51 cents per gallon! Can't beat that. Unfortunately it not real powdered milk, it's milk substitute, so while it tastes good, it lacks some of the nutrients. It will be great to use in baking though, and drinking occasionally.

I also bought some spices, chicken boullion in particular. I have realized already that I don't have enough spices stored. With such a limited number of ingredients to cook with, and most of them very bland, spices will be all that stands between us and food fatigue. Especially when I have little ones who would rather just not eat if they don't like it.

On a related note, I FINALLY got my kids to eat a 13 bean soup recipe. I've been experimenting with different recipes and my kids have hated them all so far. This week I decided to keep it simple so I just put 2 cups of my dry mix of 13 beans in my crockpot with 6 cups chicken broth and turned it on low for 6-8 hours. When the beans were soft, I served the soup with a sprinkle of garlic salt on it. It was a HUGE hit! My 5 and 7 year old literally licked the bowl clean and asked for more. My older kids just said, "Finally mom, a bean soup recipe that isn't gross." :) Apparently less is more. I should have just tried chicken broth to begin with instead of a bunch of complicated spices. Lesson learned.