Can I Buy Organic on a Budget?

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There was a time when I was a coupon queen and the thought of spending over $75 on a grocery trip would have given me hives.

Then I had my third child and had to cut back on couponing due to my sanity, though I did still make sure to find great deals and not spend a ton.

And then I decided that I wanted to feed my family wholesome foods. I wanted to buy as much organic as possible and avoid genetically modified foods because I started to see that the food we put into our bodies is what keeps us healthy. Pay more for food now and pay less later in medical issues is the though I kept in my head.

My grocery spending has obviously gone way up- to me right now spending $150 in a week for food is awesome. I actually feel good about what I buy now and do not let great deals and freebies sway what I bring into my house, which is so hard because passing up a deal on free and cheap food makes me almost want to cry sometimes.

The thing is, and I am being completely honest here, that I need to try and do better. As of right now with me quitting my part time job and my daughter going to a very expensive preschool we are just barely able to pay all of our bills. We can pay everything, but there is not enough leftover for me to feel comfortable.

I am so happy that I left my job because I get to spend more time with my family and am also so happy with my daughter's preschool because she is thriving there- I do not regret either decision one bit. I suppose many would say take my daughter out and put her in a cheaper one but she really loves it and I still have major mom guilt for not being able to afford to send her to preschool when she was three. Preschool is just a temporary cost because she will be done in June (and my almost two year old won't be going for another two years) so we just have to make it through then- which is totally 100% possible if I can stop my wayward shopping ways (grocery and other miscellaneous things). I think food is the best thing you can spend your money on but I think being wasteful about it is not good- to me I am be wasteful right now.

Even with wanting to be able to save more money I refuse to give up buying the types of foods I have been buying. Organic and gmo free are very important to me so I just need to find a way to make it work. I really need to go back to making a menu plan and a sticking a strict grocery list. I need to look at what I have been buying and see what I can eliminate, which I am sure is a lot because I love to impulse shop! Put out a free sample and I will buy your product which is so not frugal in any way, shape or form. I am also going to have to force my kids to eat what I buy- especially when it comes to fruit and veggies. My girls are good at this but my six year old son is terrible- he is actually at the point now where I am going to pack his lunch with 75% fruit and 25% other food with no special snacks just so he will eat the fruit.

Please stick with me on this journey- it is not going to be easy and I know I am going to stumble along the way. I may even have to make some compromises in what I buy to try and stay on target. I would love for suggestions on how I can do better or any other tips on how to save some money while going organic.

Kitchen Stuff...

Yesterday my daughter and I made a batch of waffles while my son was at school and the baby was sleeping. I only made one batch as this was a new recipe and there is nothing more annoying than making a triple batch of something only to find out that it tastes terrible. Well, the waffles were a huge hit and the one batch we made was gone by this morning.

Now, the recipe is not what I would necessarily call healthy but I am not one to tinker with a recipe until I know the original works. Now that I know my kids love the waffles, I am going to experiment with adding whole wheat flour and somehow cutting back on the butter. Maybe this will be a project for next week... I do have tons of flour in the pantry just waiting to be mixed up into deliciousness!

I also made meatloaf yesterday. I prepared the loaf earlier in the day when it was less hectic and then just popped it into the oven for an hour. Let me tell you- yum, yum, yum! This was a new recipe and it was perfect! The next time I make it I will definitely make a couple more for the freezer- the only thing that I would change about the recipe is to saute the onions to soften them before adding them to the mix.

I am really digging this whole menu planning and freezer cooking thing- I feel like I am getting back to the mom I used to be. Yes, it takes more time but it is so worth it! Plus, it is a great way to spend time with Alli (who is 3.5 years old) because she loves to put on her apron and help out. When I get my freezer full I know that I will start seeing the time savings and cost savings, but more importantly I know that my family will be eating wholesome food.

On Sunday I am planning on making burritos that can be frozen for me to eat for lunch. I did not have any canned refried beans so I decided to make my own- I only got as far as soaking and cooking the beans today but on Sunday I'll be able to follow this recipe. Then I'll add some brown rice, lots of spicy seasonings and whole wheat tortillas and have myself some yummy lunches!

Helping the Self Feeding Baby...

naked baby when eating equals less laundry!

Children love to do thing themselves- it makes them feel like big kids when they learn new skills and the look of accomplishment on their face is priceless.

Babies are the same way and if your baby has older siblings these learning milestones seem to come way faster than they did with your first child.

When it comes to feeding, Jilly is little miss independent. She no longer wants me to feed her with a fork most of the time and definitely will not eat fruit if I try to feed it to her. This put a damper on her fruit intake because most of the fruits she eats are very slippery when cut up and she was having trouble picking the pieces up with her little fingers. I was kind of getting sick of ripping off little pieces fruit and putting them into her mouth- she's got teeth and she likes to bite my fingers.

My solution? I sprinkle crumpled up Cheerio dust on top of whatever fruit she is eating- the dust coats the fruit and gives her a good enough grip that she can shovel the food in her mouth like the fat little blubber bum she is (I love fat little blubber bum babies).

Now she can feel like a big girl and I don't get my fingers bitten off by sharp little teeth.

I'm Lazy and I Made Baby Food!

I recently bought a five pound bag of pears at BJ's for about $6 and true to form I left them out on the counter for too long and let them over ripen. I put a few in the fridge for the older kids to eat over the next couple of days and decided to turn the rest into homemade baby food- how marvelously frugal of me!

I was never one to make baby food, mostly because I told myself that I didn't have time to. Well I guess I was wrong because it really takes no time at all to do! I used a baby food blender thing that I got on clearance for about $7 at Target when I was pregnant with Jilly Billy and within ten minutes I was able to peel/cut the pears, puree the pears and pour the puree into an ice cube tray.

I'm not sure how much cheaper it is to make your own baby food but in this instance I was saving money because I would have most likely thrown out the pears for spoiling before the older kids were able to eat all of them. Plus, there is something nice about knowing exactly how your baby's food is made.

Dairy Free Waffles

I have been on a search for a dairy free waffle recipe that tastes good and I finally found one!

I made this recipe this morning but substituted soy milk for the milk and non-dairy spread (I use Earth Balance which I buy at Whole Foods) for the butter. I only made a half batch because I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out.

They came out delicious and you can't even taste the soy milk which is great because I hate soy milk. Why do I use it you may ask? Well, it just seems to have a closer consistency to real milk so it works well in recipes- much better than the rice milk I was using before (rice milk is very watery). My kids even liked them. You have no idea what a big deal this is because this is the first time the Alli, who is two, has ever eaten a non-round waffle (I usually buy the Nutri-Grain Eggo's).

If you want to make them healthier I'm sure you could substitute some of the flour for whole wheat flour but I'm not going to mess with a good thing, especially with picky kids in the house (though maybe white whole wheat flour would go undetected by them). Next time I'm going to make a big batch and freeze some for quick breakfasts (just pop the frozen waffles into the toaster to heat up).

I am so excited that I can eat waffles now and can't wait to try this recipe without substitutions once I wean Jilly Billy from breastfeeding (six and half months to go).

Homemade Chicken Soup- A Really Frugal Meal!

We had roasted chicken for dinner the other night which came out awesome. I decided, since I am somewhat getting back into my cooking groove, to use the leftovers to make homemade chicken soup.

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I took as much meat as possible off of the chicken carcass to use in the soup and put it into a bowl in the fridge. Then I proceeded to take all of the skin off of the carcass- why you may ask? Because I decided to go all out and make my own chicken stock.

I threw the chicken carcass into a large stock pot along with a quartered onion, a couple of bay leaves, carrots and celery ends and then filled the pot up with enough water to almost cover the chicken. I simmered the chicken for I don't even know how long- I suppose you just kind of know when it is done. The smell that emitted from that pot made my house smell wonderful!

I set up my straining contraption which consisted of a small pot and a colander with a paper towel in it (you can also use cheesecloth which is probably way better but I didn't have any on hand- just make sure you change the paper towels out frequently). I scooped out the large chunks of chicken and vegetables with a large slotted spoon (hence the Target bag- I have so many Target bags in my house that I am starting to this I have a problem) and then slowly poured the rest of the chicken stock into the colander to strain the smaller pieces of food out.

Here is what my chicken stock looked like after straining. I let it cool on the kitchen counter for awhile and strained off as much fat as possible. Then I put the covered pot into the fridge until I was ready to cook.

Cooking time! I put the pot on the stove on medium-low and added the chicken meat that was in the fridge, chopped celery, chopped carrots and salt and pepper. I let the soup simmer for awhile until the carrots and celery were tender (there was that wonderful smell again). I added cooked egg noodles and let it all simmer for a bit longer while my rolls cooked in the oven.

Here is the final product- it was simply delicious and we only had a little leftover which I had for lunch today. Both of my kids liked it and my husband loved it so I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Now that it is getting colder out I will be making a lot more soup- maybe next time I will make a double batch and freeze some.

I don't really know what the actual cost of this meal was but the chicken we used was about five or six dollars (on sale for .79/lb) of which we were able to use use for two meals including the soup, the carrots and celery were from a meal last week and were about to go bad, the onions were something I had on hand, the bay leaves were already in my pantry and the egg noodles were free from a sale awhile ago. So in other words it was really cheap. A great tip I have for anyone who want to start making their own stock is to save chicken carcasses, carrot ends, celery ends, onions, etc. in a big freezer bag in your freezer, this way you will always have the ingredients you need on hand and won't be throwing anything away.  

Quick, Easy, Healthy and Cheap Recipe

Last night my husband had to work very late which threw off my plan for dinner. 

I was going to make a new recipe from Rachel Ray Magazine but I wanted my husband to try it too so I scratched that one. I could have just made the kids something quick but I was hungry and wanted a real meal.

That is when I decided to go to my old standby recipe- Parmesan Tomato Spaghetti. It is the easiest recipe (if you even want to call it a recipe) and is healthy and cheap too. Plus, my kids love it which is amazing because they can be pretty picky.

The ingredients I use are whole wheat spaghetti, a can of diced tomatoes, parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper. The pasta was free and the tomatoes were most likely less than .50 a can.

Pour the tomatoes into a pan and season with salt and pepper. You could also add whatever else you have on hand such as onion, peppers, spices, etc. Simmer tomatoes to cook down. As my tomatoes simmer I like to chop them up a bit because my family doesn't like big chunks. While simmering the tomatoes, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.

Here is what my tomatoes looked like after simmering- yum!

Drain cooked pasta and dump into a bowl. Add olive oil and mix together. Then add your tomato mixture and mix it all up so that the tomatoes are evenly distributed. Add as much or as little parmesan cheese as you want and mix. That's it- your yummy spaghetti is done!

Here is what my dinner looked like- I love parmesan cheese so much that I added a lot more to my pasta.   I also had some string beans and a piece of whole wheat bread with butter.

In case you're wondering what I feed my kids, here is one of their plates. My kids are not big on the veggies so I just put one string bean on each plate and make them at least try a tiny bite. I gave each of them half a pear to make up for their lack of vegetables. To round it out they each also got a piece of whole wheat bread with butter and a Simply GoGurt. I am not big into making separate meals so my kids pretty much eat what my husband and I eat.

So that was it- a quick, easy, healthy and cheap recipe that everyone enjoyed.

Simple Asparagus Recipe

Tonight our menu consisted of:

Panko Crusted Chicken Breast

Baked Red Potatoes

Parmesan Asparagus

Beets in Vinegar

The panko crusted chicken sounds fancy but it is really just a chicken breast with panko bread crumbs (we love the Progresso Italian Style Panko). We fry it in a bit of oil to get the outside crispy and then finish baking it in the oven- yum! I love the breadcrumbs so much I could actually eat them out of the box with a spoon (don't worry, I didn't).

What really stood out to me tonight was the asparagus- it tasted absolutely wonderful! Near dinner time I realized that I hadn't the faintest idea how to to cook the asparagus I bought on Sunday. Lo and behold I went to my trusty All Recipes and I found the Parmesan Asparagus recipe. It looked simple and healthy- two things that I love.

Basically you coat the asparagus in olive oil, put on a baking sheet and bake for a few minutes on each side. When I made it I spread olive oil on 5 spears (no one in my house would touch asparagus with a ten foot pole) and then sprinkled with garlic salt. I baked for 6 minutes on one side and three minute on the other side at 400 degrees. Then I sprinkled some grated Parmesan cheese on them and proceeded to scarf them down before I even ate my delicious chicken. I never thought I would say this, but I love asparagus.

Zucchini Muffins

Yesterday I made my kids some zucchini muffins.

This recipe was my muse but I changed it up a bit to make the muffins healthier. I tried a bite and thought they were good but because I cut way down on the sugar they weren't quite sweet enough for me. My kids loved them though (they haven't had twenty eight years to develop a sweet tooth).

Zucchini Muffins

3 large eggs

1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups pureed zucchini

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the pureed zucchini, applesauce (instead of whole cup of applesauce I used two containers of applesauce and filled the rest of the measuring cup with enough olive oil to make one cup), sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Grease muffin tins (or line with muffin liners) and fill 3/4 of the way with muffin mix. To make it easier and less messy, I use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin tins.

Bake for about 20 minutes (I used the convection feature on my oven so cooking times may vary) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. You can also make mini muffins (for some reason my kids will not eat mini muffins) but the cook time will be a lot shorter.

Transfer muffins to cooling rack. The recipe makes about 18 muffins but only 16 are pictured because my kids wanted to eat some right away. If I had any ground flax seed I would have added that but I ran out awhile ago and could not believe how much it cost at Shaws.

Here is a picture of my daughter enjoying a zucchini muffin and some yogurt.

Whatever isn't eaten in the next couple of days will be frozen. To freeze, I put the muffins on a baking sheet in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then I transfer them into a Ziploc freezer bag. To defrost you can either leave a frozen muffin out on the counter overnight or if planning that far ahead is not your thing (putting a muffin out the night before is a little too organized for me) you can just pop a frozen muffin into the microwave for about 20 seconds on high.

Having pre-made healthy food like muffins, pancakes and waffles in the freezer is a lifesaver for days when I am feeling lazy and don;t want to put effort into making my kids food. They still get something healthy to eat and I get to indulge in my laziness.

Lazy Baking Day

We have no baked goods in our freezer- well, unless you want to count one whole wheat pancake and a few boxes of Buttermilk Eggos.

After feeling a bit panicked (having healthy snacks in the freezer is my life line), I decided that I was going to have a baking day today. I was going to make wheat waffles, wheat banana pancakes and wheat zucchini muffins.

I made the waffles and feel too worn out to do anything else baking wise today. Maybe tomorrow I will bake the muffins and then on Friday I will make the pancakes. Sounds good to me!

As for the waffles, I am freezing half of them and the other half are staying in the fridge for snacks for the week. This is my second attempt at waffles and they came out good- I actually tried one and liked it! I used the recipe from the book that came with my Cuisinart Waffle Maker- not the super healthiest wheat waffle recipe but I can always tweak it now that I know it works. I actually replaced about half of the milk with apple juice and I replaced the butter with olive oil (I didn't want to open a stick of butter and have the rest go to waste).

Butternut Squash Whole Wheat Pancakes

I steamed the butternut squash that I bought the other day at the store but my kids hate it. I don't blame them because I hate butternut squash too (of course I would never let them know that).

I was running low on frozen pancakes so I decided that I would make some more but realized that I did not have any bananas- what I did have was some steamed squash. Off to google I went to search for a whole wheat butternut squash recipe- seemed like a shot in the dark to me but people actually use squash in pancakes. Weird.

So anyways, the recipe is here. I made a few revisions:

I didn't add nutmeg or ginger because I don't have those spices.

I substituted the butter for oil because I didn't want to open a stick of butter.

I did half wheat flour and half regular flour because all wheat seems to make too dense of a pancake.

I omitted the salt.

I added some vanilla- not sure why I did but it was there so I added it.

They seemed like they came out pretty good. My daughter wouldn't eat her but she has been anti-pancake and pro-muffin lately. My son ate his and he is so very picky so I guess the squash is pretty discreet. Me- well it will be a cold day in you know where before I would eat these pancakes because I hate butternut squash and I know it is in there. If I didn't know that it was in there then I would try them- I am just an overgrown kid sometimes...

Big Old Batch of Pancakes for the Kids

I used my last frozen homemade pancake this morning so this afternoon I whipped up a batch of new ones.

Here are the regular pancakes.

Here are the chocolate chip ones (a special treat for my three year old son).

This is the recipe I originally used to make wheat pancakes but after much tweaking I now have my own hybrid recipe:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup ground flax seed

2 eggs

2 cups milk

2 pureed bananas

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then mix everything together.

I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour the batter onto my griddle (I cook the pancakes at 325 degrees).

I cool the cooked pancakes on wire racks and then place them in airtight containers and put them into the fridge. After a couple of days I freeze whatever is left over by placing the pancakes on a baking sheet in a single layer. Once frozen I pop them into freezer bags. When I'm feeling lazy and don't want to cook (isn't that always?) I just defrost the pancakes in the microwave for about a minute each.

When I made these pancakes I added a container of pureed sweet potato baby food that I found in my cupboard. I also added some chocolate chips to part of the batter per my son's request. I have also made apple pancakes with this recipe- I just replaced the pureed banana with pureed apples. I pretty much just use what I have laying around.

Because these pancakes are for the kids I try to make them as healthy as possible. I do not add sugar, salt or oil for this reason. I don't use all whole wheat flour because it makes them a bit too dense, to the point where my son won't eat them.

When I am making Sunday pancakes (Sunday is our family day- it is the only day that we are all home) I use this recipe. It is absolutely not healthy but they are darn good and the best homemade pancake recipe I have made yet!

Roasted Tomatoes

My neighbor gave us some tomatoes the other day and I let them sit on the counter just a bit too long. What to do with tomatoes that are a little too ripe... roast them!

I cut each tomato in half and cut out the stems. Then I drizzled olive oil in my baking dish, put the tomatoes in the dish cut side up and drizzled them with olive oil. You can pretty much add whatever spices strike your fancy- I added oregano, parsley, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Put the dish into an oven preheated to 200 degrees and cook for 10 hours- yes I said 10 hours. Believe me- it is so worth it! Your house will smell wonderful!

This is my finished product all packaged to go into the freezer. These tomatoes smell amazing- like the most delicious pasta sauce in the world. I don't know what I will use them for but whatever it is will end up tasting great!

Yogurt Pops- Healthy Treats!

I bought this huge container of yogurt awhile ago at Shaws because it was 50% off and I had a $1.00 coupon making it extremely cheap.

Fast forward to today when I found it in the back of my fridge with an expiration date of Sept. 19th.

I decided the best way to use most of it would be to make yogurt pops- I just poured the yogurt into the pop molds and put in the freezer- very simple! By tomorrow they will turn into healthy pops and my son will yet again be tricked into eating something that is good for him.

The rest of the yogurt will be eaten with meals. I found some baby food in my pantry so I will be mixing the pureed fruit food into the yogurt for an extra boost of nutrition.

If you can tel anything by this post, it is that I need to keep better track of what food I have on hand.

Zucchini Muffins

I had a huge zucchini that I got at the farmer's market last week for $1.50 so I decided to use it to make zucchini muffins. My kids love them and they are pretty healthy and are cheap to make.

I used this recipe with a bunch of tweaks as follows:

-cut the vegetable oil from 1 cup to 1/4 cup

-cut the sugar from 1 1/2 cups to 1/2 cup

-added one single size serving cup of natural applesauce

-added 1 1/2 cups of pureed zucchini instead of 2 cups of grated zucchini

-added a pureed banana

-omitted the salt

-substituted the wheat germ for ground flax seed

-made mix into muffins instead of bread and cooked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Because to zucchini was so big I pureed what was left and froze two cups to use in the future.

My kids already ate a few of the muffins (my son hates veggies and loves these muffins) and whatever is left after a few days I will freeze for a quick and healthy snack. To reheat you can either let the muffin defrost at room temperature or do what I do and pop it in the microwave for a bit.

Nutty Guys Order

(3) 8 oz. Bags Diced Dried Apricots

8 oz. Bag Dried Blueberries

Total: $6.02

 ($5.02 for the order after using $18 gift certificate and $1was the cost of the gift certificate from Ever Save)

If you sign up for Ever Save they will deliver deals to your inbox and you will get $5.00 in your account that you can use towards your first purchase- that is how I got my gift certificate for $1!

I posted about the deal here.