a taste of victory

My husband just said one of the best things in the world to me today!

"After eating home cooked meals all the time fast-food doesn't even sound good."

be still my heart. One word. Victory! It's been a longggggggggggggggggggggggggg road when it comes to the husband eating healthier issue, as I'm sure it is for a lot of men. Let me say that again, it's been a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG road but the taste of victory is so sweet! I had to record his quote here so that when I get discouraged with the cooking healthy for my family (who can be picky sometimes) I'll remember this.

Tomorrow

Don't forget about these for tomorrow....
our family doesn't do Halloween but we do celebrate Reformation Day! I think we'll be painting pumpkins tomorrow (our tradition is to paint them instead of carve them) and possibly making some kind of new reformation day dessert. We haven't made dessert in a long time around here so I think it's due time! Usually we go out to a restaurant of our kid's choice and sometimes they wear costumes out to dinner since you can get away with that on Oct. 31st. but we'll be hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma who are coming for a quick visit.

Series- MOA Make homemade household products

We've talked about making homemade food from scratch, homemade snacks, homemade ready made foods, but now let's talk about homemade for out of the kitchen. One of the ways that I've made more room in my grocery budget for organics is by making homemade products for the rest of the house. I'm still experimenting in this area of more natural living but for over a year I've been making my own laundry detergent and using my own homemade reusable dryer sheet.

I've also experimented quite a bit with using vinegar as a cleaning product around my house. It's great because it's safe and natural. It does smell though so that is a down side.

I've been reading recipes about making your own dusting product and furniture polish. I can't wait to try those as well.

I've made my own pest repellent for the garden and the flower beds.
-Cinnamon and cayenne pepper for the garden.
-A few drops of dish soap in a spray bottle of water for the flowers.

It can seem so strange to use every day natural products but to our great-grandmothers it was normal I'm sure. Isn't it amazing how marketing has convinced us that we have to buy it in a bottle at the store with a pretty label rather than just make it ourselves with basic ingredients and it does just as good of a job if not better and we don't suffer the chemical affects?

What wonderful ideas do the rest of you have in the area of making your own products? Have any recipes for making your own products that you love? Do you feel challenged to try something new? I hope so.

Farming methods

Joel Salatin I think is one of the farmers interviewed on Food Inc. He calls himself a "Christian Libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer"

"Yes, the prices are higher, but it's because all of the costs are in the price of this chicken and you are paying it here at the cash register, not paying it in sickness and disease and pollution and stink," he explained.

Read here for the full article

Polyface Farms link

Organic is a step in the right direction but it would be great if all farmers practiced these same methods of farming.

"We are beyond organic," exclaimed Salatin

His books:

~EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO IS ILLEGAL: War Stories from the Local Food Front

~You Can Farm

~Salad Bar Beef

~Pasture Poultry Profits

~Holy Cows and Hog Heaven

~Family Friendly Farming

~and the Polyface Farm DVD

Series- MOA No More Paper

I decided at one point that I would try to save money when it came to paper products to make more room in the budget for organics. Over a year ago I switched our family over to cloth napkins. It took some time to adjust to this and to find the kind of cloth napkins I was happy with. After trying a few different napkin fabrics and a few different solutions to cheap cloth napkins (ya, dish rags were cheap but not very soft) I finally landed on some plain 100% cotton napkins from Target.com. They are Target's brand called HOME. I went with a sage green color because it worked well with all the colors in our home. Because they are 100% cotton they are soft and they wash out wonderfully! I haven't had any issues with stains. Of course you could make your own napkins and that would be even more frugal.

I wash them in hot water with my homemade detergent and a scoop of oxiclean. Once they have washed for about 10 min. I stop the washer and let them soak in there for at least 30 min. Then I turn it back on and let it finish. They fold nicely and usually don't even need to be ironed (I only iron them if company is coming over for dinner).

At first it seemed strange to use a cloth napkin but it only took about 2 weeks for it to feel normal to us. Now when I use a paper napkin it feels so rough and strange to me. I love the soft cloth.

I did stock up quite a bit on cloth napkins so that I wasn't washing them twice a day! But one thing we do to help cut down on washing them is that we use one set for all three meals of the day. Each person gets a fresh napkin at breakfast and they keep it for the day at their spot at the table. Of course, company is always served a fresh napkin! Once dinner is over we gather them up and into the laundry room they go. They are much more efficient than a tiny square of paper for a napkin so they hold up nicely through three meals in a row.

In addition to doing away with cloth napkins I also stopped buying paper plates. I have a confession to make. I used to be the paper plate queen. I hate doing dishes and well, paper was so easy. Now I've got two awesome dish helpers and so I was able to kick my paper plate habit.

I'm thinking about trying out hankies instead of disposable tissues. We use so many tissues...we are just one of those tissue families (it's the allergies). So, I'd like to give the cloth hankie idea a try. My daughter loves embroidery and I could see her loving the task of designing many of these for the family to use. Each person could keep a stack in their nightstand and a basket of them in the bathroom.

If I had infants I would for sure be giving the latest cloth diapers (and these) a try and if we end up getting to pursue becoming foster parents for infants then I WILL try it out. Now, I've heard of people making cloth toilet paper but I'm not ready to go that far. They have two baskets by the toilet. One with fresh cloths and one basket for used cloths. They only use the cloth for urine wiping. There are also homemade feminine napkins. Okay, is this a cooking blog? Where am I going....sorry to all the male readers, um, I think I'm done on that topic so I'll wrap it up now.

Anyway, coming full circle. I keep looking for ways I can cut back on disposable items in our household that help us make buying organics affordable. Frugal living is something that makes me feel really good about how our money is managed. The trick is giving something a try and being willing to make a change. The best part is when we are surprised how easy it was!

I would love to hear any other ideas you have for changing over from disposable items like paper....okay, even if it's the toilet paper....I'm game. At least then it's a bit hidden in the comments, right?

Series- MOA Grow a Garden

Growing a garden just makes sense. A garden can provide you with everything you need to make things like salsa, pasta sauce and other yummy things from scratch. A garden can save you lots of money on fresh organic herbs. It's truly the best way to get organic produce the cheapest way possible! Not to mention PUMPKINS! Have you seen the price of pumpkins lately? And if you want organic pumpkins then you'll be paying even more. Save yourself some money in the fall by growing pumpkins all summer.

Getting started can be a little costly at first when purchasing organic/heirloom seeds. Once you grow your first garden though, you can save seeds from at least one fruit of each plant you grew, wash them, dry them, and keep them for next year. Make sure that the fruit of each plant that you pick for seeds is full grown to maturity so that your seeds are mature. Now you have your own seeds for next year's garden and you don't have to purchase any. Garlic is especially easy to let go to seed, dry, and save.

So, next spring, grow your own organics and pumpkins! Save yourself a ton of money that way!

pssst.....

when you get a chance, check out my new blog.... read about it here.

Series- MOA Breakfast for Dinner

Typically dinners are more expensive than breakfasts. Having breakfast one night a week for dinner helps keep any food budget down, not just organic food budgets. This is one more of the many ways I make it affordable for our family to eat organically.

Usually our "breakfast for dinner" meal is pancakes, but sometimes we'll have egg burritos.

To make sure I don't forget to have breakfast for dinner once a week, I make a point of putting it into my meal plan for the week on our meal plan calendar.

Here is my current meal planning method:
(I only plan dinners. Breakfast and Lunch are easy because I usually have things on hand for them or we eat leftovers at lunch.)

2 rice/bean dinners
1 pasta dinner (really is brown rice again)
1 chicken dinner
1 beef dinner
1 leftover dinner OR freezer meal
1 breakfast dinner

That's my method and it's not in any certain order. But those are the things I try to fit into one week. This way we are eating brown rice for at least 3 dinners a week. With this method we are also limiting our meat intake which I'll talk about more later.

Anyone else have thoughts to share about breakfast for dinner? What kind of breakfast dinner does your family love?

Comments to talk about.....

There is some great info in the comments section in the post below. I wanted to point out two of them.

Jessica points out that Nourishing Traditions talks about the benefits of soaking beans per Amy's question about soaking beans to make them healthier. Unfortunately I foolishly packed my cooking bible Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Thanks Jess for pointing that out. I can't wait to unpack that book! For those that don't have Nourishing Traditions or like me, your copy is sitting in a box in your garage somewhere, maybe we can talk Jessica into sharing what page 495 says in a post on her blog. Pretty please with a cherry on top?

I also loved the info that Jessica quoted about beans and rice being a complete food. I did know that and should have posted about that in my original post so I'm glad that she reminded us. The cool part to me is that beans have lysine. Lysine is my favorite virus fighter. Whenever I feel like I'm getting sick I down a tone of L-lysine (I've been known to take 14 a day!) till the sickness is gone. Go beans!

Becca shared a link to a recipe for lentils that sounds amazing and I can't wait to try it! YUM! Thank you so much Becca for sharing it! I'm going to try it very soon! It's called Honey Baked Lentils...go check it out! I've browsed through some of Becca's other recipes and I'm thinking she's one amazing and healthy cook! Thanks for sharing your website with us!

Series- MOA Rice and Beans

Rice and beans are two of the cheapest food products in the WORLD and the healthiest. You can not go wrong with this combo either. In fact, in many countries rice and beans are the stable food. Not just Mexico if that is the first one that comes to mind. Many countries in South America have rice and beans as their stable food, like Brazil for example. Going to the other side of the globe, many Asian countries have rice and beans (usually varieties like Adzuki beans and other pod bean varieties) such as China and Japan. Countries like Indonesia also have rice and beans as a major component in their diets.

Why? Why would so many people groups of the world have rice and beans as such a major component to their diets? Well, rice and beans are plentiful and affordable as they are here in the U.S. The best part is that they really are great for you. They are both detoxing foods (pull bad things out of your body) and beans are a protein (leaving you well nourished and full).

I buy my brown rice (be sure you are eating brown rice to get the full benefits of the fiber and to keep your blood sugar in check because it's a whole grain) in bulk. I buy 25 lbs at a time. Scan through our label called Dinner and Side Dishes to see lots of ideas for using rice like in chicken rice burritos, fried rice, spanish rice, etc.

I buy my beans in 5 lb bags. Some of the beans that I like and use are:
pinto beans (bean dip, refried beans, beans for burritos, layered bean dip, frito taco salad)
white northern beans (chili, taco soup, mashed for wraps)
navy beans (chili, taco soup, baked beans)
adzuki beans (cooked with garlic and added to wraps or burritos or eaten alone)
black beans (taco lasagna, burritos)

Sometimes I also use black eyed peas, red beans, kidney beans, etc. for things like 3 bean salad and chili.

Don't forget this old post about beans.

I treat legumes like beans too. My two favorites are chick peas (garbanzo beans) and lentils. If you click on my beans/legumes link on the left you'll get a whole list of recipes for beans and legumes.

So, lately, when I do my meal planning (I only plan out dinners), I've been making sure I work rice and/or beans into our meal plan at least 2 times a week for dinners. That doesn't count when we have rice for breakfast (ricemeal), rice/beans at lunch, or when we have pasta (which I try to work in 1 night a week). We only eat brown rice pasta which puts even more brown rice into our diet.

Next I'll share with you another thing we do for dinner to make organics affordable and I'll give you the formula I'm currently using for meal planning. See ya Friday.

Any other thoughts on rice and beans? I can hear Dave Ramsey saying it right now! "RICE AND BEANS!", "RICE AND BEANS!" .....

Series- MOA Keep a Food Budget and Pay Cash

This is huge but honestly it works for any sort of shopping not just to make organics cheaper. Keeping a food budget and paying with cash prevent me from buying those extra little things that I see at the store that I don't really need but feel tempted to buy. When I started paying cash I had to keep a calculator in my purse.

My method is this:
-Say I have $300 to spend cash on groceries.
-I subtract the amount the tax percentage would be from the $300. Most calculators even come with a % button nowadays. If you are like me and need step by step instructions when it comes to math, here ya go.
-Type in 300.
-Then hit the - (minus) button.
-Then hit 6 (or whatever your tax percentage is in your state, ours happens to be 6. But if yours has a half in it you would put 6.5 or whatever your amount is. If you aren't sure what it is look on one of your old grocery receipts).
-Then hit the % button. It will give you an amount showing what the % amount is of 300.
-But now hit the = button and you get the amount you can spend on groceries with your cash which will provide plenty of leftover cash for your tax.

The only time this is a problem is when I'm ordering groceries online. Can't pay cash that way. So, I carefully go through and place my grocery order online and then I subtract that total from my total grocery budget and whatever is leftover I take in cash to the stores that I visit in person. I apply the tax subtraction above and into the stores I go.

We use the Dave Ramsey method of finances in case anyone is interested. I'm often asked about the program, the books, and budgeting tools. In case you've wondered too....

-The conferences/CDs/DVDs are the same material that is in the books but he is very motivational at the conferences which the CDs and DVDs are made from.

-No, I have not been to the conference. I have the books and the CD set. I've seen 2 of the DVDs from the DVD set but don't own them.

-When it comes to the books (I've read them both) and they are Financial Peace and Total Money Makeover. Total Money Makeover is basically the newest version of Financial Peace. They have the same content for the most part so if you have a choice read Total Money Makeover. Most libraries have them if you want to check them out instead of making a purchase.

-If you purchase the CDs or DVDs you can legally make copies for family.

-You can get some of the worksheets that are in the back of the books or that you get at conference on his website free to download. Click here to download them. We use the Monthly Cash Flow worksheet every month. Yes, we print and fill one out every month! It's a working budget that fluctuates so it's not the type of budget most of us think of when we think "budget".

Anyone else have tips about keeping a food budget or paying with cash?

pssst.......

My Albertson's has a ton of it's organic products on sale. They have an organic section but then they also have organics spread through out the regular store shelves. Some of their organic spices are on clearance! Much of their Wild Harvest organic brand is on sale (they seem to be making more and more Wild Harvest products which I'm just thrilled about) and the most importantly the Wild Harvest butter is on sale. Whenever their butter is on sale I stock up on it because it's the cheapest price around other than when Fred Meyers has it on sale. I love the new Wild Harvest salad dressings and some were on sale for $1.99 (usually about $5). Oh and we really like the fire roasted chipotle salsa by Wild Harvest, it was on sale too. Anyway, be watching for great sales on organics in your local grocery stores.

Series- MOA Stop Buying Snack Foods

The darn stuff is so convenient but it's another thing that runs up the food bill and if you are looking for more ways to Make Organics Affordable then this is a great one to try. Store-bought snacks are super convenient but they get gobbled up quickly and they aren't cheap when you add them up.

I keep challenging myself to make snacks from scratch and freeze them. I do still buy some organic snacks when I can find them on sale or in bulk like at Costco but other than that we are staying away from store-bought snack foods. Funny thing is I realized that it made us, unintentionally, eat more fruits and veggies for snacks instead of bad carbs. That's awesome!

It helps to have that once a week baking day (and yes I struggle to make it happen especially with our current life situation) but it's worth it when I do. Think about how much cheaper it is to make some homemade granola or trail mix rather than buy a small bag of it. This is where having a baking day comes in super handy. It's a chance to get lots of snacks made and into the freezer. I have found that my family prefers my homemade snacks to the boxed and bagged store bought versions. Some of the snacks I make are:
granola
granola bars
muffins
healthy cookies and these oatmeal cookies and these secret cookies and these banana cookies
nut bars
healthy fruit bars and these apple granola bars
pickles
macaroons
pita chips
corn tortilla chips
trail mix

Some things I'd like to try making but haven't yet are:
fruit leather
beet chips
Parmesan cheese crisps
bagels
pretzels

Anyone have some great snack recipes to share? Post it in the comments or link it!

THANK YOU to my readers!

Hey, I just want to say THANKS to all the readers who comment on my blog! I LOVE getting your feedback and I SUPER LOVE hearing all the ideas you have to share too! You gals (I don't think any of my guy readers have commented yet but I know some of you are out there) are always inspiring me to try new things and to press on to eating healthier! Thanks for being a follower of my blog! I appreciate your input and ideas and even your experiences that you share with me and others!

If you have your own blog with blog links would you consider putting me as a link if I'm not already one of your links?

THANKS!
Jen
author of www.What'sCooking4us.com

Search Feature Added

I just added the Search This Blog feature on this blog and I've tested it out with recipes that I've posted and for some reason every once in awhile something won't come up. Does anyone have any insight on this feature? Usually it does pull up a good search of my recipes but sometimes it won't pull what I'm searching for up and I know it's right there on the page. I'd appreciate any words of wisdom concerning this feature! =0) I'll leave it up in hopes that it helps people search through the recipes better.

UPDATE ON THIS: apparently Google is aware of the problem but unwilling to fix it. Go figure. Well, for whatever it is worth, I'll leave it up in hopes that it works most of the time for you.

Caramel Apple Instructions

Dipping instructions have been added to the caramel apple post per request. =0) Enjoy!

Caramel Apples

I interrupt this series to bring you a very unhealthy recipe. Every once in awhile we take a break from our healthy eating and enjoy indulging in something not so good for us. But, I hear that if you eat healthy the majority of the time that your body can better handle and process (digest) the not so healthy things. Hey, that works for me! So hopefully our bodies were ready to handle flushing out this toxin.

So, I actually don't like caramel apples. What? Say it isn't so. Here's the deal, usually they are made with really big green sour apples. I don't like sour apples even to contrast the sweet stuff you coat them in and I don't like huge apples where I eat all the caramel off and then there is all this sour apple left to eat. So, here's what I came up with and can I just tell you, I'm craving more and it's been two weeks. These were so good!

I started with small organic gala apples. Gala apples are a dessert apple which means they are sweet to start with (how appropriate...dessert!). We washed them and stabbed them with the sticks. We melted candy caramels that we unwrapped one piece at a time....I'm a sucker for doing things the old fashioned way...no peel and stick caramel for me. Then we melted Ghirardeli milk chocolates (I heard that Ghirardeli has no hydrogenated oils and since I didn't have my organic chocolate with me at the time- we were at my mom's house we went with Ghirardeli), Ghirardeli vanilla chips (way better than white chocolate), and peanut butter chips (I have no clue what that stuff is made of but I closed my eyes and melted it).

We spread, we dipped, we drizzled, we dipped and drizzled some more. We put them on a cookie sheet with buttered wax paper. YOU HAVE TO BUTTER IT! TRUST ME! We set them in the fridge for about an hour and then, OH MY GOSH! YUM! They were amazing. What a way to go off the healthy eating kick!

Instructions:
~The caramel was really smooth so we dipped all the apples first in the caramel using a spoon to help spoon the caramel over the apples.
~Then we put them in the fridge for about 10-15 min. to cool and harden up the caramel.
~Next layer was the peanut butter because it was the thickest. I used a knife and spread a layer of the melted peanut butter chips on them.
~The chocolates weren't so easy to dip so we took a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the apples next. Once the peanut butter and both chocolates were on the apples we put them in the fridge. The topping got heavy and started to slip off a little so next time I think I'd refrigerate for 10 min. in between every topping.
~Once all the layers are on refrigerate for about 30 min or until ready to eat.
~If they've been the fridge for a long time let them sit out for about 15 min. before eating.

To see more pictures of our caramel apple family night visit here.

Series- MOA Stop Buying Boxed Cereal

I'm referring to the boxes of cold cereal, not boxes of hot cereal. You know, the colorful boxes, the ones that you pour into a cereal bowl in the morning and pour milk over. Those are the ones I'm talking about. Now I know that you can get great coupons for this stuff and end up paying very little but since I refuse to be the coupon queen I was buying cereal full priced. BUT, it's terrible stuff anyway so in the eating healthy efforts I couldn't in my right mind keep buying it anyway.

Regardless, cooking from scratch breakfast every morning is not only way more enjoyable (I should write a post about how healthy cooking has helped us to enjoy our meals so much more!) it also saves a lot of money.

Typically we eat oatmeal and ricemeal (I know that's not a word, my kids made it up) most mornings. They are easy to make, super healthy, and an easy way to get detoxing food down the kids.

Other mornings we might mix it up by having:
homemade granola and yogurt
fried egg sandwiches
pancakes
bagel and cream cheese
applesauce and toast (applesauce recipe coming next month)
scrambled eggs
baked french toast

These are the basic things we work into our breakfast menu but sometimes we throw in something special like:
waffles
German pancake
breakfast strata
quiche or fritatta

Series- MOA Stop Buying Soda Pop

In order to make organics affordable for my budget there were things I learned that I had to cut out. They just plain old run up the grocery bill and aren't necessary especially when I'm trying to switch to healthier living. I'm going to focus on 3 of those things this week in my posting. The first is Soda Pop. I call it soda because I'm from S. Cal. but where I live now, they all call it pop. They all laugh when I say soda. You can take the girl out of S. Cal. but you can't take the S. Cal. out of the girl, right? That's how I feel when I say soda without thinking.

Sorry, I side tracked. Soda pop runs up the grocery bill and it's just a beverage. I won't even get into all the crazy stuff that is in soda pop and why we shouldn't be drinking it anyway!!!!!! but suffice to say it's not healthy and it's a waste a money in my opinion. We should be drinking WAY more water as a society.

It was tough making this change I will admit. Well, not for me, I weened myself off of the stuff in my early 20s, but it was tough for my husband. Still is tough. To make it easier, when I stopped buying it I did start investing in organic 100% juice to help his habit. Juice thankfully is cheaper. The juice is like the Nicorette gum of soda pop. So, save your grocery bill a few several dollars every trip and quit the habit.

Drink water!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

If you happen to be visiting my blog at the moment, it's under construction and will hopefully be complete soon.