Pumpkin

We took a trip to a pumpkin patch this week. A favorite and somewhat new tradition. We took the boys for the first time last year and had such a great time, we repeated it this year. The patch is a farm north of us and it's a great open, country space. Reminiscent of my younger years, where I grew up. I lived in the country so I well remember the open space and big skies. Oliver loved the chance to run freely (we live in a suburban area) and Aleksandr loved the pumpkins and gourds. He took a bite out of one actually. Woops.
But I picked up two pie pumpkins while we were there. I've been roasting and pureeing my own pumpkins since Oliver was a baby. I have been on a food journey for several years and the more I learn the more excited I become about it. Food is so healing, and eating for those purposes just makes sense. The old saying, "you are what you eat", is so true in my own life. I started this food journey because of my personal health issues. I feel like the Lord has led me along this road and He continues to bless as we make better decisions for our food and health choices in our family. I can start a list of how good He has been to us, but I know that it would be LONG. I may post about it in the future, because I love to tell of what God has done. Entering into a cleaner way of eating, cutting out processed foods and focusing on nutrient dense meals (and snacks) is not easy. It's time consuming, it's expensive, and it can completely become an idol in itself. All of these keep me in prayer whenever I learn something new that I'd love to include in our food budget, as well as keeping everything balanced and in perspective. What is the most important thing? My relationship with God first.
If I am struggling with finding a balance with our money and time for foods, putting God, my husband and my family after food, well, then it's time to refocus and eat a bag of doritos. Ha! Maybe not the doritos, but definitely take a breather and get my focus back where it should be.
Really, I have seen a HUGE difference in my health (physical and mental) due to what I have taken out of our diet and what we've added in. Cooking from scratch, eliminating processed foods (as much as you can), reading labels, switching out refined sugars for natural sweeteners, and using real fats is a great way to start if you are wanting to go down the path of eating real foods.
SOOO, with that said I love sharing something that is easy and good for you!
Pumpkins!
It's the time of year when they are in season and the "pie" pumpkins are easily available just about anywhere.
I like to use pureed pumpkin in anything I can. It's considered a superfood and is packed full of vitamins. (I love that seasonal foods deliver such a punch with nutrients for our bodies. I think God did that on purpose! :)
Roasting a pumpkin. I know it sounds like something your grandma would do, especially when you can buy a can of it on the shelf. But I take satisfaction in the freshness of getting it straight out of the ground!
To roast your own pumpkin:

1. Chop the pumpkin into two pieces (I chopped the stem off first), and scoop out seeds and that stringy stuff (I set my pile of seeds in a bowl to roast later).
2. Wrap in foil and place on a cookie sheet. 
3. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour. 
4. Scoop out pumpkin from shell.
5. Puree ( I added a little bit of water to make it blend easier) and store. You can freeze it for later!

My one pumpkin made about 4 cups puree. What to do with it?

I am searching out pumpkin recipes. I have never tried it savory, so maybe I'll be brave and do that (soup?), but I usually add it where I can easily like in oatmeal, as muffins, breads and of course my favorite holiday treat–pumpkin whoopie pies. They aren't a nutritious option, but we look forward to them each year! 

When all this was done, I was thinking of how long this pumpkin would last when I looked on the counter and realized I had another pumpkin waiting. Yah for forgetfulness!

Meanwhile, I'm drying out my pumpkin seeds to roast later. Hoping this time they taste a little better than the last time I tried roasting. Any favorite pumpkin recipes you'd like to share? 

coupons?

I have been diligently working away at couponing, meal planning and grocery lists this past week.
All of which are not exactly something I would choose to do willingly. I really have a hard time with each of these. But I have been challenged lately to work harder at these things because they are some thing I not only need to do but must do. They are my responsibility.
My job, given by God, is to run the home. To be the home maker. Not lead the home- that is my husband's God given gift, but to organize and efficiently keep it in order. It's something I think some women shy away from, or procrastinate or somehow justify not doing for the sake of so many excuses. I fit right in there.
It's easy to put other things ahead of these tasks that, well are not exactly my favorite. I have laundry to finish, a little boy to teach, emails to respond to, bathrooms to clean, meals to cook...and on goes my list.
Yes these items need to be done too, but along with the ones that I well, dislike.
But I know that I am more than capable, and God is willing to help with each task He has expected me to do.
I'm not a failure. In fact I can be pretty determined when I set my mind to doing something. Firm even.
So I jumped in this past week. I knew the road before me would be long and frustrating as I planned out meals, researched sales and coupons and wrote my grocery list.
And guess what? I finished it. (meal plan here if you'd like to look)
I was determined to finish no matter how long it took. And I did. Thank you God for helping.
I prayed over the time I invested as I headed to the store and I feel God blessed the efforts I put in.
Will it get easier? I am hoping so. I'm starting to see a reason to all the madness.
Meal plans= less stress each day, less money on store trips, and more time for other things. So it does make sense. I think I forget that planning always equals more time in the long run.
And the coupons.
I struggled using coupons for the fact that I try hard to keep our foods more whole food based, or with as little processed foods as possible. It's tough to do this on a small budget but also with coupons as so many of them are for boxed, canned, packaged processed junk that really shouldn't even be on the shelves, because of the unhealthy things that are in them. (thinking of sugary cereals, microwave meals...etc.)
But I was again challenging myself to find the best deals, whole food or organic, without stocking up on things that were unhealthy.
The first thing I did when I was researching coupon deals was to look for all the free things. By free I mean the things that you end up getting free when you use the coupons combined with sales. Now these items can often be junk items if they are food, but not always. Free things were also toiletries or paper products such as toothpaste, kleenex, cough drops, soaps etc. When I saw those as free I knew that even if we didn't use some of them, I could still pick them up and donate them to others. Now that is awesome! Also, some of the freebies actually make you a little money when you have coupons that pay for it, with overage. So even if you don't use the items, buy them to make the little overage and donate them.
After I found all the free items and made sure I had the coupons necessary (that's key), I then looked at sales for things we could use.
After shopping between Kroger and Publix (they are minutes from each other where I live) I was able to stock up on some great items including: organic soup, organic broths, organic granola, annie's mac and cheese, natural eggs, salsa for cheap! I also picked up some other basic groceries including produce, which I could spend a little more on with the savings. I picked up a turkey for a great deal at .79 lb for Thanksgiving. Overall between the two stores I spent roughly $58 or so. $19 at Publix (saving over $19) and $38 at Kroger (saving $25 or so).
Also for the free things I headed out to Kroger on a special trip just for those. My total from that trip? I was paid over $7 back. That was pretty awesome. I think that was what encouraged me to try a little harder at coupons. A word of encouragement- you can coupon, save and still buy healthy good food for your family.
Shop sales, in season, and stock up when you have coupons combined with sales on good foods. I thought it was kind of like hoarding to stock, but you want to buy a bunch when it's at it's lowest price so that you are well stocked until the next sale. And I don't greedily buy things we don't use. If something is free, I'll pick it up to donate if we don't use it.
It's a lot of fun to chip away at our budget and get things as low as I can. We don't have wiggle room when it comes to going over so I have to shop smart, there isn't an option here!
Here are the groceries from my two grocery trips:

Also I stick to one site for all this- www.southernsavers.com
I think this helps me tremendously, otherwise I'd be all over the internet searching for sales.
I also shop at Aldi for things, and CVS- but that's another story for another day.
Be encouraged women, you were made for the calling God has on your life- being a home maker, managing all the tasks at home, training up your children, what a huge blessing and honor it is! You are capable of doing all this too, with God's help, don't give up.
Psalm 128:2 
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
I also like the translation in the ESV that says:
You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

So don't give up! It will be worth it.

How to buy and prepare wholefoods on a tiny budget

I have been busy in our kitchen this summer. Busy at the store and occasional farmers market too.
My ongoing journey into wholefoods, cooking from scratch, has taken a good turn. My focus has been able to be on it even more.
One reason being that I am now at home with our sweet son. I ended my full time job, left the workplace and really I am not even looking back. It's been a WONDERFUL experience so far. I love being at home with my husband and son, and I love being able to plan our eating a little more.
In this food journey it's very easy to quickly become overwhelmed with what you should and shouldn't eat, how you should cook something, what you should soak, what should be sprouted, and above all else, how in the world you can stay in/under budget- or my biggest one- shop and prepare whole food meals in a very small budget.
Is this even possible? I found myself wondering that so frequently it almost made me want to quit.
But my knowledge of the benefits and my knowledge of what many 'food' products on the shelves contain is enough to make me press on. It IS worth it to have nutritious homeade meals on your table when all is said and done.
I thought I would share some of my latest attempts at a few different foods.
One is tortillas.
These are usually a little pricey in the store, and the list of ingredients on the package is a little unnerving. I'm eating what exactly??
I was determined to find a way to at least try to make them at home, and if it failed or was impossibly hard, well, back to storebought I suppose.
I came across a fabulous little recipe for some whole wheat tortillas. The ingredient list? four. That's it, and one is water. Okay sounds simple....
It was. And guess what? They are also delicious. My one batch made roughly 12 medium to small sized tortillas and I popped them in a ziplock and put them in the fridge to use for the week. So handy and healthy to make wraps with meat and veggies, or peanut butter and banana, or quesadillas for us.  One of my favorite recipes is: fresh garden tomatoes, cheese, and basil (picked out of my garden) on a tortilla folded and half and toasted to melt the cheese. Oliver loves these and they are so easy!
Here is the link for this simple recipe: wheat tortillas
I used King Arthur's whole wheat flour (being sure it was made with red hard winter wheat- nutritious). And you can freeze these for later use.
I also dived into breadmaking. I thought I'd try it out to see if it really was worth the time to make it. Bread is another product on the shelf that has a long list of ingredients, many being preservatives of some sort.
I had purchased my whole wheat flour, so I actually just used the recipe right on the back of the flour bag. Pretty easy- the longest part is waiting for it to rise. If you have ever made breads of any kind, you are familiar with this process. So if you are running and doing other errands, you have to stay at home so that you don't miss the times to punch down and transfer, then later bake. But if you make more than one loaf at a time I would say it's worth it and cheaper than buying bread. At least for us it is since we spend over $3 a loaf at the store. We try to buy bread that is better quality and nutrition- never white bread. Not anymore! I remember eating some white bread after being without it for so long and my stomach was so upset...not sure what the relation could have been. Maybe it wasn't the bread at all! I do know white flour is bleached and processed, much of it having vitamins added back into it- or 'enriched'.
The only negative about bread making is that it doesn't stay fresh too long and gets dry after a few days. I am going to try freezing the second loaf to see if this helps.
I have also been storing up our freezer with fresh produce. When something is in season at the store I'll buy a bunch and freeze it. I did this with sweet corn, summer squash, blackberries, blueberries, mango, some peppers (I have many growing in our garden- so exciting watching them get bigger!), peaches, eggplant, cauliflower, and broccoli. I also bought some green beans in an attempt to freeze some but never got around to it. I'll be on the lookout for more things that are low price. Seasonal is definitely the way to shop- whether at the store or at a farmers market. Farmers markets offer fresh from the garden and often the sweetest, most flavorful foods if you have a good local one. I found our tomatoes there and my goodness what a delicious difference. I'd love to go and pick some produce too as we have several places near us. I love stocking up our freezer with produce at it's peak flavor.
This is as far as I have gotten in our kitchen/freezer.
I did read a great article about freezing things- even cooked beans! (this is great for me who likes to soak a bunch, cook them only to have them sit in our fridge because we can't possibly finish the huge pot of them I made!) I found that here.
I have found that shopping seasonally and using a minimum amount of coupons has saved us money. Well, at least we are able to buy more and stay in our budget.
Some things I did this past grocery week: purchased a double Sunday paper (to keep coupons). I actually looked through the local grocery store flyers (even though you can find them on southernsavers.com) and I found some off the wall sales for different things like mangos for .50 at Aldi's. Big discount there, considering I have only seen them on sale for around .85 elsewhere. I also found some great deals for back to school items, even though I don't have school age kids, there were sales on computer paper for sooo low. Yes, .25 for a ream, cheap.
I also glance through the grocery flyers, but mostly just look at the deals listed online for those.
I am not giving up entirely on couponing- I know it's really tough to do when you are trying to be wholefoods conscientious. So I'm giving myself at least 6 weeks or so of really trying it to see if it's worth the effort.
I usually search for sales at two different grocery stores that are actually 2 minutes from each other for me. This is helpful since I really wouldn't choose to shop at 2 places if they were farther apart. I also keep an eye on Aldi sales. I've found that they have some great items for low prices- items that have only a few ingredients and that are still healthful.
My stores of choice are Kroger and Publix- welcome to the south.
I also found a great resource for coupons: recyclebank.com
You sign up for an account and to earn points you take little quizzes that are so easy- even if you get the answers wrong they still reward you points. You can use these points for different organic coupons or for coupons to get money off your order at Publix. Pretty easy and useful.
I have to admit that it will take some time to find a system that works- an efficient one. I am not one that loves to sit and plan grocery shopping for hours on end. I have found that I'm getting a little faster as I know what I will look at.  For example when I'm comparing store sales I go immediately to produce and fresh foods and keep an eye out for wipes and diapers or some toiletries we use. Those are really the basic things I focus on and it helps narrow it down. I don't stock up on crackers, cookies, processed foods and sugary cereals as you can imagine. (those seem to be big items that couponers find to be good deals)
I'm not perfect at this in anyway. I only hope to encourage others that are on this similar journey. I'll try to update as I go along....
It is definitely worth it to buy quality items and stay in budget isn't it?
For now I think thats about it. I have a nice long row of peaches sitting on my kitchen window ready to be sliced and frozen. Nice and ripe now!
And my final thought in all of this, don't forget to pray over each decision. I have found that I was trying to hard to do everything right. You can only do your best, and God knows that and will bless your efforts!

Foodie

It's been a while. I know. 

I haven't been faithfully posting to this blog because of well life. 

Busy, full, rich, fast. That's how the days are going by as of late.

I have been dipping my hand (mind) into many new things. Reading, studying, learning. It's been such a great thing to learn. Feeding my mind is so important. You know the old saying, "Knowledge is power?" 

Clarity comes with knowledge. I have been praying over this word in my life. Clarity.  It seems to be the theme for the year, as I go back to it and pray for it in so many areas. Clarity about nutrition, about decisions, about direction. It's been amazing.

Right now one of my focuses has been on food. Of course. It's always there in the back of my mind, begging me to draw it out and learn learn learn more about it. Food, nutrition. Your body truly is the temple for the Living God. This is convicting in itself, but the thought, You are what you eat, also crosses my mind.

In my 29 years of life, I have gone through many phases of diets. Not the lose-weight-diet. But different eating habits. Growing up I had home-cooked meals often, which I am so grateful for. Even if it wasn't always the most convenient, my mom made most of our meals from scratch, using produce from her garden in the summer. What an amazing woman my mom is, to care for a family of 6, cook, clean, make sure we had clothes that were clean, and all the million other tasks in her life. What a balance she showed.

Then onto my college years, I remember suffering from various health issues due to my poor diet. It consisted of many processed, sugary foods and drinks. And on top of this much coffee.

In my after college years, my diet was whatever was at home, not exactly home-ade at that point, some, but not all. 

The next few years of my life were when I was first married. I shared already how I went through a valley in my life, suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. That was when a light went off for me.

The turning point. 

I realized how little I actually knew about what I was allowing into my body, whether it was food, drink, or medicine. 

That passion has been lit, and while it sometimes gets put on the back burner, the more I learn, I remember. And I get excited. And I want to share it with everyone (which I try not to do, so as not to annoy!). 

But these past few months, I have been blessed to cross paths with many like-minded women that share that same passion. Perhaps it's the new responsibility of caring for my son. Realizing how much I want to give him the very best. In turn, I want to provide the very best meals for my husband and I.

All of this though does come at a price. The price for healthier foods is not cheap. I have been trying to implement things, in baby steps. I realize as I learn more, I will find ways to be thrifty in obtaining the best foods for us. 

Proverbs 31 says 'she seeketh her food from afar'. I think she was a wise woman that knew how to find a bargain, but also provide the best for her family. 

My desire is to do this. I've planned a get together with several woman this Monday. We are all going to be talking food. I'm so excited about it. Here we meet after months of me thinking, and learning and growing in this area of food, and I get to share thoughts with others on the same path. What a blessing that is to me! If anyone is interested I can share my thoughts here next week. Now onto a quiet evening of reading! Baby is down, hubby is reading, I think I'll join him.