Grocery Store Struggles.

Today was grocery store day. I went prepared with my list and my reusable bags and this morning the hubby got to come along to help! The Little One loves the grocery store but it is sometimes difficult to shop with her so I was thankful for the extra hands.

When we reached the eggs I grabbed the organic eggs. My husband quickly noted the significant price difference. My response was yes but it is important for us to put more healthful food into our bodies rather than eggs that have come from chickens who are fed a diet with hormones and have no access to the outside. My husband is frugal with a degree in finance so paying more for food can sometimes be a battle. He really has to be convinced that it is really important and even then I think it pains him to know what we pay for certain items in comparison to mainstream. This is why he usually does not participate in the grocery shopping.
I won't lie I still cringe when I compare prices or when conventional items are on sale and organic seems to NEVER be on sale. For example those really good deals where conventional chicken is $1.99/lb I am tempted to just give in and stock up on cheap chicken.

Since the Little One has entered the picture I have gotten much more passionate about food and nutrition. I really enjoy cooking now and reading about our food system. I worry about what goes into her little body and I want to do my best to give her the healthiest start that I can. I read this post awhile back about how as the one who does the grocery shopping and the majority of the cooking I am responsible for the health of my family. That is a huge responsibility and one that I take very seriously. This is why I take the extra time to make whole wheat rolls from scratch, bread from scratch, make my own chicken broth, granola bars and to buy as much organic produce as I can afford! So we do pay more for some items but it is worth it to me to do my part to keep those I love healthy.

This is not to say that delivery pizza does not show up in our house or that we completely abstain from fast food because we don't! I love a good pizza and as long as it is in moderation I'm OK with it.

Homemade garlic and rosemary rolls, mmmmm

If you are on the fence about processed food or organic vs. conventional produce I STRONGLY recommend watching Food inc.. Knowing what is going into your body and where it comes from is empowering!

She enjoyed her sample of the roll!

Happy Earth Day!

On this Earth Day I thought I would share with you a few ways our family attempts to be ‘green’. In this last year we have made a lot of changes in this area and I am so glad we have. It seems that the ‘green’ thing is quite trendy but we have not made these changes to keep up with the Jones but to have a healthier family and to do our part to take care of the earth that God has blessed us with. I believe that we should be good stewards of what we are given, our planet included. We still have a long way to go but here is what we do:

Recycle

Compost

Make our own laundry detergent 

Make our own all purpose cleaner

Cloth diaper our Little One

Use re-usable baby wipes

Use a clothesline instead of our dryer

Grow some of our own vegetables in our organic garden

Buy organic produce for the most part.

We do our best to fix or re-purpose what we have instead of buying new

This year I hope we make more changes that will help us lessen our carbon footprint and make us a healthier family!

Monday Monday

On Monday I try to be productive. Right now it is my only full day at home and I try to make the most of it. I love the feeling of getting things done. I am one of those people who has a very hard time being lazy and I feel like I must do something productive during the day or that day has been a flop. So today I have grocery shopped, washed and folded clothes, baked and worked on a crafty project. I'm feeling pretty good so far! Usually after Monday my productivity goes WAY down so I'm trying to get as much done today as I can.

These are the granola bars I made today, I found the recipe here. They are delicious!

The Little One is napping right now so I had time to indulge in some tea and a muffin that I made earlier. I found the recipe here. I was a little skeptical about cooking with oat flour, but as I explore this healthier eating bit I'm finding that it's quite common (I used it in the granola bars too).

It hasn't been all work though, the Little One and I took a trip outside this morning and picked these beauties.

Things are blooming like crazy around here! It is nice to have these pops of color around during winter, if you can call this Florida weather winter, that is.

Real Food Challenge

Soooo there hasn't been a Real Food Challenge post in awhile has there? I got off track when Christmas rolled around and I haven't picked it back up since. I am thinking I may suspend the weekly challenges for awhile. Right now I am focusing on how to feed our family healthy food on a tiny budget. Let me tell you it is not easy. It is really tempting to just pick up six packages of Ramen noodles for $1.00 and let my husband eat those for lunch (he loves them, he would not be offended at all if I made this choice). We are learning to stretch our leftovers and doing our best not to waste anything. Before we always had produce that went bad and ended up in our compost, just wasted money. Now there is a lot less of that- it still happens but not nearly as much.

I am trying to find recipes that fit into the healthy category but do not cost so much. Instead of purchasing quinoa we eat brown rice, we have cut out meat several times a week since it is so expensive. The hubby sometimes has a hard time not having meat but we are adjusting.

Made this recipe from Clean Eating Magazine. Loved it!

My sister pointed me to this great blog that has simple recipes, with 5 ingredients or less. I am going to try this one next week. I have never been very good with coming up with creating a recipe on my own, I am very much a recipe follower. I think that I may have to get creative though. If anyone has any simple, budget friendly meals PLEASE send them my way!

Real Food: Week Six

Last week's challenge of two new whole foods was fun! I tried watercress in our salads, it was strong but tasty and I ate steel cut oats one morning for breakfast, the texture was different but once I added bananas and a little maple syrup the hubby and I both enjoyed them. Yes, I hope you caught it, I got my husband to participate fully in last week's challenge! There was a few dirty looks but he was a good sport and did not complain about either food!

This weeks challenge is No Low-Fat, Lite, or Nonfat food products. The rules are:
"Do not eat any food products that are labeled as “low-fat,” “lite,” “light,” “reduced fat,” or “nonfat.”

I'm not big on low fat or nonfat products though I usually buy low fat sour cream and the hubby drinks skim milk, but I was a little confused as to why these were bad. It turns out that many products that have had fat removed from them have added sugar or hydrogenated oils to make up for the loss of taste. In addition, people tend to eat more of an item if it is labeled nonfat or low fat instead of a normal portion of the full of fat version. I did notice that my greek yogurt is made with skim milk and my soy milk is lite. I can cut out the yogurt but the soy milk is brand new and I will not waste an entire carton of milk. So minus the soy milk I will be participating in this challenge