My new LOVE Green Smoothies

A new love in my life, has got to be green smoothies! I am so glad I finally tired it. And since then we've had one at least daily. The hubby even liked it. And Levi is drinking about 2) 8 oz. cups a day. I drink about 20 oz. a day. And the little girl is drinking about an 8 ounce cup daily.

More Green Smoothie Goodness

I took the kids on a 30 minute bike ride this morning and we stopped in at Food Lion to pick up some more fruits for our smoothies and a head of romaine. I used 4 $1 coupons getting all this just under $3.50!

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night we weren't able to go to our regular bible study since the man didn't get off work until late. So, I made sausage and peppers, a wonderful Italian dish! And then Cinnamon rolls. They took two hours, but it was so worth it.

Sorry, I took this picture after I already ate one, so the plate is a little messy

I love her face...I don't know what she was doing

Now she is laughing cause I was laughing at her making faces.

Green Smoothies and more

I decided to get up with hubby this morning at 5am. There were several things I wanted to get done before the kids got up at 6:30.....yep, they are early risers.

How my day started out

Last night's grocery loot so I can make our first ever green smoothies...total spent just shy of $6

The ingredients I used to make our Green Smoothies


Blending the fruit first

Adding three handfuls of spinach

The end result. We each had a glass, Levi was done with his first, then drank the rest of Annabelle's

Then we went out to hang some diapers



The verdict on the smoothies: They were actually good! I was really surprised! I have read about them for about two years now but thought, yuck! I am glad I finally caved in and tried them. It will become a treat we have several times a week. I was also equally surprised that the kids liked it. I didn't use any sweeteners and it was sweet and didn't taste anything like spinach.

Making your own chocolate sauce

Start with a medium sauce pan, add 2 cups water, heat on high.

Add 1 cup of cocoa, stir until well blended.

Add three cups of sugar, I add a cup of each, stir until dissolved.

Boil for three minutes, remove from heat, add 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Store in jars, refridgerate. Will keep for several months.

Dinner

Dinner, my favorite meal. Tonight we had hamburgers....with grass-fed beef, raw milk cheddar, and organic whole wheat buns.

Soaked whole wheat tortillas

If your new here you might think we live off frozen pizza and waffles from my recent posts. Really we eat a whole foods diet about 75% of the time, and much of that is organic as our budget allows. I promise. Our local store (Food Lion) has had some great deals using coupons, and I've been stocking up on there free stuff (like frozen pizza, and waffles). We might eat either one of these about once a week....except for the hubby. He will eat either about once a day. He always has a "snack" after dinner, before bed. It's really his 4th meal.....but hey the guy could stand to gain about 60 pounds, so I don't say much.

To see some of our more regular shopping check this post here. Or here to see what I do with our milk.

Now, onto tortillas. I usually make all of our tortillas, we are from Texas and eat a lot of tortillas. Really I could replace it for loaf bread and never really know the difference. Soaked whole wheat tortillas are just as yummy, if not more so than the "other" ones. You can also make it with other grains, if you are gluten free or have a wheat intolerance.

I use the recipe from Sue Gregg's An Introduction to Whole Grain Baking. I actually have all of her cookbooks and HIGHLY recommend them to anyone wanting to eat better but doesn't know where to start.

After tripling the recipe, mixing it, and letting it soak overnight....the next morning this is what happens.

I always start out with a good cuppa! Really, rolling 40 tortillas isn't that fun.
Need salt into the dough, I more salt than what she calls for...we like salt here.

Divide the dough into sections

Divide the sections into sections to make balls. Some big, some little for different size tortillas.

I throw my tortilla balls into flour while they are waiting to be rolled(this is white flour I find it easier to roll, than using wheat, but wheat would work)

Take your ball and start the rolling process

Soon it will look like a real tortilla.

Throw it onto a griddle or skillet, I prefer cast iron, but others would work
Flip it once it starts to get air pockets

Finished product, lots of tortillas for the freezer and some for eating fresh

Veggie tacos and more savings

Last night we had veggie tacos to use up some squash and zucchini. They we yummy!


Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet, saute a chopped onion. Add squash and zucchini, cook until tender. Add a tablespoon of fajita spice, stir. Serve in warm corn tortillas.

A friends birthday is Sat. The kids and I are taking her family lunch so she doesn't have to cook. So I needed some sausage. I also needed mayo for 2 dz deviled eggs I plan on making for tonight's bible study. So off to Food Lion we went this morning...again.

We got all this for a little under $6. It should have been less. The cashier didn't scan a $1.50 coupon I had. I didn't realize it until we got home.

Three stores and lots of fruit and veggies

Our loot from 3 different Food Lions

Since today was the last day to use the $2/$5 produce coupon and $1 off any guiding star item (pretty much a healthy food product the stars rate it's "healthiness") coupon I made it to three different stores to do two transactions at each one. Here's what we scored.

5lbs. Strawberries

2 pints blueberries

2 pineapple sticks

2 squash

2 zucchini

5 pk carrots and ranch

2 heads garlic

2 salad kits

5lbs. onions

2lbs. green beans

1lb cheese cubes

1 tarter sauce

3 boxes foil -FREE

3 bottles soap-FREE

1 box trash bags

1 neosporin

All for just under $20!

Now, my back hurts. But it was worth it. Just have to wash and freeze all the berries. The kids have already ate a pound of strawberries, and Annabelle is working on a pint of blueberries. We have 5 more pints in the fridge ready to be bagged and frozen.

Farmer's Market and more...

Our score of produce from the Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago. That was our 3rd flat of strawberries and that doesn't include the 22lbs. we picked from a local farm.
Pastured chickens, and uncured bacon, ham and hot dogs from our co-op

The rest of what we scored from the co-op. Almost everything is organic and anti-biotic free, for health reasons. In a couple of months I'll go more in detail with my anti-biotic free diet.

Finally Finished!

After 6 straight hours of peeling, coring, and canning I am finally finished with the pears. A neighbor of ours let us pick as many pears as we wanted from their tree....two laundry baskets later I thought we'd have enough pears to last us till next year.

We ended up with 12 Quarts, 12 pints of pears and 40 ounces of pear baby food (waiting in the freezer until we start feeding him next month!).

Not too bad...huh?!?!

Canning season??

A friend and I got together Monday and put up some peaches and applesauce. Not only did we have fun, but now we have some wonderful fruit to show for it. I love homemade applesauce much, much more than anything you can buy in the store. Haven't tried canning peaches yet, so we'll see how these did. Economically, it is cheaper to can peaches yourself at .99 cents a lb than buy them in the store (at least at our local prices). It is much cheaper to buy applesauce in the store, but it doesn't taste near as good, so every year we can some when apples get really cheap in the fall.

My Bosch...

For my birthday my wonderful husband bought me a Bosch mixer that I have been wanting for so long. I set it up the day it came and used Crystal's recipe for bread and chocolate rolls. Both turned out wonderful! It only took about a hour from start to finish and that includes clean-up.

Yes, some of the chocolate rolls are missing...I promise I only ate 2. We have since used the Bosch to make more bread, rolls, and smoothies....lots of smoothies. I love the mixer and it is by far one of the best gifts someone has ever bought me.

Safe Plastics??

If you are paying any attention to the news I am sure you have heard a lot about plastic safety in the last few months. In what I have read and seen, one source says a certain "number" is safe while another source says it isn't . I have come to the conclusion that we will start phasing plastics out of our house, starting with plastic cups! We have made the switch to all glass for us, but for the littles they still have plastic. Our daughter doesn't do "sippy" cups but rather uses a straw. I haven't yet found one that is either glass or metal.

Glass storage containers are expensive, so we will be buying these gradually as our budget allows. There are a few places were you can buy stainless steel "sport bottle" type cups. Of course plastic is the cheap version of all of these but instead of having a cabinet full of plastic ones, one or two stainless steel cups will do. I always carry a bottle of water with us when we go anywhere, two if hubby is going (he drinks mucho amounts of water and isn't good at sharing!).

To see if your plastics are safe go here.

If you are looking for baby bottles or sippy cups born free is a good resource.

Going Organic...

Its been a while since I have done a "Going Organic" post. While we get some things organic, I don't make it an idol. With "earth day" coming up, I am seeing a lot of folks who are more worried over "mother earth" than Father God! There is no "mother earth", only Father God! I do want the best for my family and I want us all to be eating healthy. There are ways to eat healthy even if you can't afford organics.

We have a very modest grocery budget of $160 a month, which includes toiletries and dog food. I can get most things we need that isn't food from CVS for free....we haven't bought toilet paper in over a year, and still have a garage full. (Thank you Lord!) A trick to saving money is going to the store LESS, unless you are just super good and only get whats on your list....ahemmm...that isn't me, so the less I go the less I spend on things we don't really need.

If you make everything possible from scratch, you not only save money but are feeding your family more healthy foods! I try and make all of our bread from scratch ( I haven't done this in a while, because I am trying to stay off my feet). I have been making 3 dozen muffins a month, all in one day. This only takes about an hour and gives us a freezer full for the little one. It makes a quick breakfast when you add a banana and a glass of milk. I make all of our bread and muffins with no sugar and use only whole wheat flour. Sometimes its organic if I get it on sale otherwise its just the King Arthur brand flour.

I only buy organic butter, I will pay the $5 a lb. to me it is worth it and since we don't use a lot it doesn't break the budget. Some other things we get organic is pasta sauce, our commissary has this for .79. Its Hunt's brand and a "traditional" sauce in a tin can. It works because we can easily add garlic and a small amount of ground beef.

When buying our groceries I always look for an organic version for whatever I am buying. You will be surprised that some organics are actually cheaper than the conventional product or very close in price. If that's the case I go with the organic product. I am always on the look out for organic coupons as well. I have gotten really good deals before using coupons for organic items and gotten the item for just pennies.

I hope this helps you when you are deciding whether or not to make the organic switch. We feel blessed that we have freezers and cupboards full of food, organic or not. There are many people around the world who aren't as blessed, especially with food prices rising. Some people spend 75% of there income on food! We spend about 12% of our income on food and we can feed our family well, with healthy foods and a stocked pantry.

Stocking the Pantry!

Ok, I know I have been talking a lot about my pantry. Bare with me. This is part of the nesting phase, ans soon we will have a baby and you won't hear about my pantry for another year or so. ;) I got all of the above for just over a hundred dollars. Using coupons and shopping at our commissary makes this possible. I can get brand name products cheaper than what the generic cost at Walmart.

After being put away this is what my now stocked little pantry looks like.

This is our bigger pantry, although it is bigger in size the bottom half is taken up by a water heater, actually making it much smaller since there is only two shelves for items to go.

We made another trip to the store this week for flour. I have been trying to order wheat berries in for a month and can't seem to find anyone that has any in stock. I've looked online and at our local stores. The store near me says they have been trying to find some for two months now, but everyone seems to be out. So we went to the store and bought about 20 5lb. bags of whole wheat flour. It is actually much cheaper to buy it this way, but you don't get all the nutrients you do from grinding your own wheat.

Besides flour we stocked up on pasta, with the wheat shortage it didn't occur to me that this too would go up, but one brand of pasta at our store went up .50 from last month.

Menu's from the pantry!

We are getting down to just some canned goods and boxes of cereal. But we still have a lot of meat and veggies in the freezer. I am not a "meat person" I could live off bread and pasta. I have had the same 2lbs of ground beef in the freezer for almost 3 months now! Hmmm..what to do with it.

Thursday:

Breakfast- Baked Oatmeal

Lunch- PB&J Sandwiches, chips

Dinner- Popcorn Chicken, baked potatoes, salad


Friday:
Breakfast-Cereal, milk

Lunch- Hot Dogs, chili

Dinner- Steak, baked potatoes, salad

Saturday:
Breakfast-cereal, milk

Lunch-soup, salad

Dinner-Leftovers

Sunday:

Breakfast- Cereal, milk

Lunch-Leftovers

Dinner- Chicken nuggets, green beans, mashed potatoes

Menu Eating from pantry

Menu for Wed. 04/02/08


Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal, milk

Lunch: Hamburger Helper

Dinner: Orange Berry Salad
Leftovers

Orange Berry Salad:
Romaine Lettuce
Baby romaine lettuce
Strawberries
Mandarin oranges

Dressing:
Grated orange peel from orange ( I grate the whole orange)
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons sugar
pepper to taste
about 1/3 cup of oil ( I don't measure the oil, just pour until it looks right and I use olive oil)

Poppy seeds would be good with this, but I didn't have any.

Mix in blender until well blended, store leftover dressing in fridge.

To the store we go!

Ok, now I know I said I wanted to wait at least until mid April before making a trip to the store, but I have only 7 pre-natal vitamins left. I will only take the pre-natals from Whole Foods. Out of all the ones I have tried Rx and OTC this seems to be the only one that stays down and doesn't make me sick or give me adverse effects.
Tomorrow is our only "open" day this week so we may make the trip then, or I may just hold off until Monday. I dread going. It is about a 3 hour drive for us, and I am tired of driving and just wanna stay home! When I go I will stock us up on our essentials, leaving a little extra money to get fresh produce in May. I plan on spending about $300 which I'd rather save. I'll let you all know when I do indeed make the trip and I'll take pictures of what we got!

Were has the time gone???

We have been so busy this week and I'm afraid the rest of the week looks booked too! We had Dr.s appointments yesterday and today both took a couple of hours :( It seems that I won't be able to stay home one day until Sat. We generally do all errands in one day and sometimes I may only leave the house two times a month...except for church. So all of this running around is running me down! We have been good and are still eating from the pantry, but it seems like we are living off sandwiches. Thankfully, that is dd's favorite, nothing beats a grilled cheese or PB sandwich. I guess if I only had 6 teeth, I would like them a lot more too.

Today's Menu

Breakfast- Toast w/ butter and jelly egg

Lunch- Peanut Butter Sandwich

Dinner- HUGE salad with leftovers

All from the pantry or fridge

Menu for Monday 3-31

Eating from the pantry

Breakfast: Cereal, milk, banana

Lunch: Grill Cheese, Tomato soup, milk

Dinner: Beans and Rice, cornbread

All ingredients are from our pantry or fridge.