Mine aren't this pretty, but this is the picture from the recipe I used...
Monday, September 5, 2011
Fall Weather Means Baking!
I am so excited about fall! We have turned our air conditioner off and opened the windows. Hopefully the a/c will stay off the rest of the month! This is the time of year for cheap utilities and we love it! I'm already looking forward to warm nights by the fire! Come on long sleeve weather! I have jump started the season by baking up a few batches of whole wheat biscuits this weekend. They take some getting used to, but they are pretty tasty. So far we made a batch for breakfast yesterday and I made two more (one to freeze, one to eat this week) today. I also prepared a turkey meatloaf to freeze and one to bake tonight for dinner. My goal is to get some baking and freezing done every weekend so weeknight dinners and homework aren't so hectic/unhealthy. I am just so glad it is almost fall!
Friday, September 2, 2011
"Real Food" vs "Poorganics"
Recently I was finally irritated enough by my average weight gain of 5 lbs a year since we married (going on 5 years later this month, you do the math) to actually try to do something about it. I am back on the treadmill as of this week and trying to eat healthier, forcing my reluctant husband to do so as well (hey, it isn't fair to have to watch someone continue to eat potato chips and it is not very cost effective either).
I happened across someone asking about The Maker's Diet on Facebook, and that somehow led me to find 100 Days of Real Food, both a blog and a Facebook page. In it a woman and her family give up processed foods and switch to only organic, all natural, grass-fed foods. She managed to do so on $168 a week, which is supposedly just shy of what the average family of four is allowed on food stamps. There are only two of us, so I decided it was worth looking into. This weekend I will try my hand at whole wheat biscuits, and if those go over well I will freeze some and try the pizza dough too. Then the ravioli.
One thing I will not do is the recommended purging of the pantries; we cannot afford to waste good food or replace everything all at once (especially since I stocked up on a few staples just a few weeks ago!). I figured we would eat down the boxed junk and regular pastas and slowly replace them with healthier alternatives. Then I went to the health food store and got a little overwhelmed. $6 for strawberries is a good deal? I paid $1.50 last time I bought them at Wal-Mart!
Thank goodness for "poorganics." I came across another blog and Facebook page two nights ago called Eating Poorganically, for people who are interested in eating healthier, but can't afford to go all "uborganic" and eat everything local, grass-fed, and organic (or see the point, really). There is a list of fruits and veggies called the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen; the produce with the most and least amounts of pesticides respectively. If it is on the clean fifteen there is no need to fear the cheaper variety. I think I can actually afford this! Taking the Real Food shopping list and making the non-organic substitutions for the clean fifteen and using some of her own garden produce the Poorganic writer was able to cut the same list down to just $106!
So, around our household we will be eating "poorganically" from here on out (hopefully)! By the way, the window of opportunity for planting your fall gardens ends in two weeks! I'm going to plant my fall lettuces in the front flowerbed (what, they're pretty?!) here in the next week. Lettuce (the good stuff I eat at least) is expensive and hard to eat before it goes bad when there are just two people munching on it, so this way I will be able to just pick, wash, and eat what I need as I need it. You can also plant carrots, potatoes, cucumber, garlic, herbs, and a host of things I had never heard of over the next two weeks. I will just stick to the lettuce as half my flowerbed is otherwise occupied with perennial bulbs I have yet to move!
Here is to a happy and healthier fall, which just happens to start on our fifth anniversary!
I happened across someone asking about The Maker's Diet on Facebook, and that somehow led me to find 100 Days of Real Food, both a blog and a Facebook page. In it a woman and her family give up processed foods and switch to only organic, all natural, grass-fed foods. She managed to do so on $168 a week, which is supposedly just shy of what the average family of four is allowed on food stamps. There are only two of us, so I decided it was worth looking into. This weekend I will try my hand at whole wheat biscuits, and if those go over well I will freeze some and try the pizza dough too. Then the ravioli.
One thing I will not do is the recommended purging of the pantries; we cannot afford to waste good food or replace everything all at once (especially since I stocked up on a few staples just a few weeks ago!). I figured we would eat down the boxed junk and regular pastas and slowly replace them with healthier alternatives. Then I went to the health food store and got a little overwhelmed. $6 for strawberries is a good deal? I paid $1.50 last time I bought them at Wal-Mart!
Thank goodness for "poorganics." I came across another blog and Facebook page two nights ago called Eating Poorganically, for people who are interested in eating healthier, but can't afford to go all "uborganic" and eat everything local, grass-fed, and organic (or see the point, really). There is a list of fruits and veggies called the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen; the produce with the most and least amounts of pesticides respectively. If it is on the clean fifteen there is no need to fear the cheaper variety. I think I can actually afford this! Taking the Real Food shopping list and making the non-organic substitutions for the clean fifteen and using some of her own garden produce the Poorganic writer was able to cut the same list down to just $106!
So, around our household we will be eating "poorganically" from here on out (hopefully)! By the way, the window of opportunity for planting your fall gardens ends in two weeks! I'm going to plant my fall lettuces in the front flowerbed (what, they're pretty?!) here in the next week. Lettuce (the good stuff I eat at least) is expensive and hard to eat before it goes bad when there are just two people munching on it, so this way I will be able to just pick, wash, and eat what I need as I need it. You can also plant carrots, potatoes, cucumber, garlic, herbs, and a host of things I had never heard of over the next two weeks. I will just stick to the lettuce as half my flowerbed is otherwise occupied with perennial bulbs I have yet to move!
Here is to a happy and healthier fall, which just happens to start on our fifth anniversary!
Just Call Me Thrifty Jane
I am cheap. I have no problem admitting that. There hasn't been a lot going on around the house since Andy finished the table and built 6 of the 8 chairs (two for sunroom), but I have managed to have some fun anyway.
There is an awesome second hand clothing store I visited for the first time last week and managed to spend some of my birthday money at. The most expensive piece I bought was $12.50 and everything looked new!
I have been looking and looking for affordable apothecary jars for the guest bathroom ever since Andy broke two of my three. Turns out it runs about $14 each for the style I wanted. Instead I just used some glass canisters from the kitchen that were no longer in use.
I really like it! Not only does it provide the needed storage, but it looks pretty too!
I have recently started using the treadmill again, and complained that I can't read while using it. I used to take my textbooks with me to the gym and multi-task. There is a dial in the middle of mine, which by the way was a freebie from some of Andy's friends, that does not allow the propping up of books. Andy used some scraps of wood left from other projects to make me this:
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