Healthy Shopping in a World of Supermarkets

Well as fired up as I am about knowing where my food is coming from I felt almost powerless when I made my grocery list today. My children have to eat this week, my garden will not be producing for quite a while, and I have even gotten my pigs yet much less had them slaughtered!

SO.....what's an organic health lovin' mama on a budget to do??

I started out by making a list of what I knew was good for us. Then I bought the most important items first...here is a few of the items I got:

Cage Free Eggs - These were considerably higher than the regular eggs but all I could think about were those poor hens in battery cages laying cheap eggs. I just could do it. So I found these eggs instead. They were more than I normally spend but I only bought 2 instead of 3. Plus my long term resolution to this issue is that we are getting our own free range chickens this spring. In the meantime I will buy free range eggs.

One very important part of healthy living is to only use pure foods. We have been using pure cane syrup all year and we love it. We use this instead of pure maple syrup because it is about half the price ($3/can). Artificial syrup is a created product and it is not a good idea to put those kind of things in your family's bodies. Also this brand of syrup is made/canned in Abbeville, LA....so it is local. You can buy this little jar at Walmart.

Fill your buggy with produce first. Get all those good fruits that the kids love. Now, I have also learned that many off season fruits and vegetables are carried in from far away, picked before being ripe and then ripened with a gas.....GROSS! BUT...I have to feed them something so I bought organic as often as possible (especially when there was little price difference). The strawberries were the most off season fruit I bought but my little boy was standing by them saying...."look mama, strawberries!"....I couldnt help it. I will be posting how to keep/use all this produce without waisting it soon.

Buying milk and cheese made from cows that are not treated with rBST is another important thing we can do to help shield our babies from chemicals. Bordon milk and cheese is sold at Walmart.

I also found whole chickens for about $4 each that were free range chickens. I bought 2 for this week.

Making these little changes is how we begin to change our lives!

Now I am off to make homemade yogurt, homemade granola, & homemade bread......babysteps lead me to this....haha! Yeehaw!

Food Inc....Rent this tonight!

I watched Food Inc and it honestly has only confirmed my desire to grow our own food and raise our own meat. It is insane how our food is truly only coming from a few companies. And the living conditions of these animals is sad.

Watch this video ASAP and then make a change so these companies get the message!

This year my home will:

Grown as much of our own produce as possible

What we do not grow we will buy from farmers markets

We will raise 2 pigs for a years supply of pork

Harvest & replant as many fruit producing plants as possible

Buy a very limited (emergency cases) amount of prepackaged food (boxed meals)

Buy only grass fed meats

Limit our purchases to Walmart and other large corporations and increase our purchases with local farms/meat stores

Homemade Granola - Do this Tonight!

Today I was looking for a snack to soothe some stress and quite frankly, I did not have ANYTHING worth mentioning. Then I remembered that a friend from Sunday School had told me she made her own granola and how easy it was.

SOOOO......I googled this recipe and got to work (click here).

It was fantastic. You can add any nut, dried fruit, or even coconut & chocolate chips (after the mix has cooled) that you have laying around.

Do this SOON!! I will probably be making 2 batches one time per week. This will allow for several snacks/breakfasts of yogurt and granola, and some in a bag for a traveling snack.

Love ya!
Ash-

Homemade Yogurt and Fruit - A healthy affordable snack

I LOVE homemade yogurt.....it is so creamy and so much better than store bought. Honestly, just like everything else, if you get on a schedule for making it, it is easy and routine.

I make mine every Thursday afternoon, that way we will have a fresh batch every Friday evening to enjoy. It is so easy and I am reposting the link to the instructions below. I make a half gallon of yogurt and dont forget to save 1/2 cup or so as your yogurt starter for next week!

Dont delay, try it today! Once this was just one of those things I "wanted" to do and now it is part of our life......I highly encourage you to enjoy creamy homemade yogurt this week!

Add the following items to your grocery list:
Milk (I prefer whole fat)

Your favorite yogurt - I use vanilla store brand pint.

Frozen fruit (optional)

Then I use the following from my cupboard:

Vanilla Extract

Natural Sugar

Cane syrup or Maple syrup

Recipe for Homemade Crockpot Yogurt here

Here are some photos of my babies enjoying their nighttime snack today:

Abi totally skipped the yogurt and made herself ramen noodles!! CHEATER!

I just wanna eat this face up.....

A Better Way

Well often I have found myself in the depths of despair (the Anne of Green Gables sort of despair) and I have said "There has to be a better way." This is often followed by an intense spike in internet research and a revelation of sorts.

This past month I have become "sick and tired" of being "sick and tired" and sought out how I can change the health of my family. Thus my health, holistic journey began.

As Wyatt got sick again this last week I discovered that rubbing cinnamon essential oil on your feet aids in relief of congestion!! (It also turns your feet a little yellow, but hey no pain no gain)

We have also seriously increased our vitamin intake adding fish oil and vitamin C to our daily regime. On top of that our snacks now consist of almost totally healthy foods (with an occasional cheeto!)

Today I went to the grocery and this is what I bought for this next week:

Yogurt
granola
bananas
grapes
oranges
apples
whole wheat bread
cheese stix
cheese stix (cheddar)
water bottles (dont worry Grandaddy, they were SUPER cheap)
protein powder for smoothies
frozen fruit for smoothies
skim milk
spinach for smoothies (dont tell the kids!)
chicken breasts
sweet potatoes
skim milk
pretzels
corn
broccoli
brown rice


BAD STUFF
Sprite
saltine crackers
dr. Pepper (ok I caved!)

After I got home I made a green smoothie for all the family and they LOVED IT!!

Here was my recipe:

1tbsp OJ concentrate
skim milk
ice
frozen fruit (any)
a few leaves of fresh spinach

It was green! It will be good for my baby with yellow feet to drink the green smoothie...haha