This year I'm going to set a goal of drastically reducing the amount of ready made pantry items I purchase. Obviously, there are staples such as flour, milk, eggs, olive oil, etc. that I can not make myself. But gone will be ready made crackers, cereals, cookies ... and much more. I have been practicing this goal for the past three or four months. Even with the holidays, I found ways to cut back ... less baking, making recipes from scratch (just where did that phrase originate?;) And I will take planting my garden more seriously with great planning strategy to produce more in the space I have plotted. This will be my third year of planting a veggie garden ... still a novice ... but with a better grip on what is involved. Below is a list of practices I hope to employ:

• never take my hungry children grocery shopping
  
• take my own reusable grocery bags WITH me instead of leaving them at home or in the car trunk
• grow, can, preserve, freeze enough food to last from summer to summer
• purchase no out of season ... grown out of country produce
• buy local and organic when possible
• buy only local farm meats (Thanks to watching the movie Food, Inc.;)
• use my crock pot more often
• plant only open pollinated, organic, heirloom veggie seeds
• use no toxic products in the garden or for cleaning purposes
  

This should be a good start for the new year.