Deals: bell peppers, lettuce, strawberries, grapes
Some non-paleo splurges for the weekend (eating with friends) include the chips, string cheese, and frozen rolls. I even bought deli roast beef, which is something I rarely do because it is so expensive (and processed). I mean seriously, at $6 a pound, I might as well buy steak. But if I am going to buy deli meat (for convenience sake), we like roast beef :) The cake mixes were on sale and I can use them when I make treats for church or something.
We had a relaxing weekend, and it was GREAT. We needed that.
I'm bucking the trend and NOT making a summer to-do list, for neither me nor my kids.
I have read several posts lately, including both here and here, on the paleo diet boosting fertility. I wonder if it would have made a difference for me when I had PCOS. My situation was tricky, because my doctor told me I had the "thin" form, as in I didn't have excess weight that I needed to lose to help solve the problem... But while my diet was pretty free of chemicals, etc., I was still a carb addict, feasting on lots of flour and sugar. Even without losing weight, would it have helped me to cut those things out? Interesting. I guess I won't know. I took the pills, got pregnant, and my body seemed to recover.
What is with all these yogurt bar places that are all so similar but with a kajillion different franchise names? Did a bunch of people have the exact same idea at the exact same time? Don't get me wrong, they are quite tasty, for an unhealthy treat. I'm not knocking them. It just seems weird to me that they all popped up at once, but under different names.
Still waiting on our Trader Joe's to open.... :)
Time to go out in the sunshine and get some Vitamin D! Happy Tuesday!
I washed the windows today. All 14 of them. Only said a bad word once when dealing with the broken shades in the laundry room. Yay for me. It is an accomplishment to get past the regular upkeep of laundry and cleaning to actually get around to the big projects.
Thinking of Joplin, and am glad for windows to wash. I hear the weather channel is predicting more outbreaks of tornadoes today and tomorrow in the midwest. Yikes.
Looking forward to swimming season!
I'm still working part-time this summer, but a little more low-key-ish than during the school year... I hope to do what I need to do, but also just enjoy the kids. So therefore, no to-do list-making right now. I loved summer as a kid...
Amost done with Light's Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival. It is fascinating. It contains a lot of information to wade through at times, but it is worth reading. There are a lot of scientific specifics in it, but the main point is we all should sleep more because we kill ourselves in countless ways when we stay up and keep the lights on. It explains how getting the right sleep is necessary for our bodies to fight diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc, etc, etc. When it is dark outside, we should be sleeping (!!!) Seems like a daunting task in this day and age. A warning: if you reject all forms of evolution (evolution being defined as in living things change and adapt over time), you probably won't like this book.
Searching for some more easy paleo/primal recipes...
But I really should go shower and do my Bible study homework, so see ya later.
Two books that were on hold at the library for me came available the time last week:
1. Grace Based Parenting
2. Light's Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival
So I am going to try to get through both, one at a time, in the next two weeks, because I've really been looking forward to reading them both!
I listed some of my baby stuff on craigslist... Sniff. I've loved all our baby stuff. I had so much fun spending hours researching to find the good deals on what I wanted without costing a fortune. A lot of it was given to me as gifts or hand-me-downs. Some of it I am passing on to others... but most of my friends are past the first baby stage, so they don't need much besides clothes. So, I'm going to try to sell some of it, too. I want to get my infant cloth diaper stuff to someone who really wants it and will appreciate it. (We're still using the toddler stuff.)
I went to Costco and Aldi last week, but no pictures.
(l-r: dollar store dry wipe, Imse Vimse liner (washed a couple times), and Up & Up wipe)
Recently, someone left a comment on my previous cloth diaper liner post, asking about the dollar store dry (washable) wipes that I have used for diaper liners. My mother-in-law purchased these for me. While I have a good stash left, I am no longer able to find them at our store. I need to check a few more places.
Along with those dollar store dry wipe liners, I am also continuing to use the Imse Vimse flushable liners. They can usually handle making it through a wash cycle to be reused if not soiled. I still use the infant size on my almost 20 month old.
By chance, I happened to stumble upon a third option that is working well for us, too. Up & Up wipes, washed and dried. While my favorite disposable wipes to use straight out of the box are Huggies, I have found that the Target Up & Up brand baby wipes are great to use, and then wash and reuse as diaper liners. The don't shrink in the laundry cycle, but come out soft and durable. (Note: All other wipes I have tried this with shrink like crazy. Let me know if you find another brand besides the Target ones that work well, too.)
With the wipes as liners, the super messy ones that aren't worth the trouble of rinsing in the toilet go straight into our garage trashcan with the dog stuff. Since they are uber cheap, I don't mind tossing them into the abyss. I realize that it might be better ecologically to rinse them and flush the waste down the toilet to be properly treated at the sewage plant and then launder the liner, but sometimes something's gotta give. At about 2 cents or less per liner (for the Up & Up wipes), it is a lot cheaper than throwing away a disposable diaper! The Imse Vimse liners get flushed of course, waste and all, since that is what they were created for.
Now that we are well into the toddler phase of diapering (past the breastfeeding infant phase), I am no longer making my own cloth wipes. Why? Because I guess I am lazy and some used wipes are so nasty that I just want to toss them in the trash with the liners. So, buying the Up & Up brand wipes to use for faces, hands, and bottoms, and then laundering (when not too nasty) and reusing them again as diaper liners makes me feel a little better. It is a second use for something I was going to buy anyway and throw away. It feels like getting diaper liners for free!
I hope this is helpful to some of you out there... feel free to share any other diapering tips or suggestions you have!
Just some scatter-brained musings. Because these past few weeks have been a little crazy. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of winter. Things are always busier at our house when the weather is warm. But don't get me wrong, I don't want to trade it :)
I think we are getting into a groove with the Paleo thing. It took me about 3 days to get into it, to get over cravings and not feel like I was totally dragging. It took my husband about 5. My daughter still asks for granola, or a sandwich, or pizza now and then, but I just tell her we don't have any right now, and she gets over it. It is not as hard as I thought it would be (as long as there is enough food around). I have been reading some new blogs to go along with this to get inspiration for cooking and such.
I am setting a new (obviously higher) goal for the grocery budget. But, I think it will all even out when we take into consideration that my husband is now spending very little money (compared to before) on eating out while on the job.
I am tired. As I mentioned, for no particular reason, these past few weeks have been packed and I have not been getting to bed as early as I need to. Like I am 2 hours short every night. And I'm still not getting everything done. Guess I should work on that this coming week, huh?
Here's something... I had my blood drawn to check my cholesterol, etc. this morning. Last fall when I had it done, even though my numbers were better than ever, my LDL remained in the high range. (You can read more about why I was not that worried about it here.) Well, as of this morning, my LDL is still slightly high, but ALL my numbers (including LDL) are even better than before. Everything was a PR, so to speak. (That means personal record for you non-running folks.) I've had my bloodwork done for the past 7 years, I think. This new PR is on a diet that includes lots of meat, eggs, nuts, raw whole milk, butter, and coconut oil, folks. (We have to go get our bloodwork done for a discount on our insurance.)
I also went shopping today at Aldi and Costco. Here is a picture. I spent $81 altogether. A couple pieces of chicken, some apples, bananas, a bag of carrots, and a container of guac are missing because my husband took them. I wanted different eggs, but had to go with what Costco had. Yes, that is 4 lbs. of regular bacon. No, we will not eat it all in one week. Good deals on produce at Aldi, once again. Overall, I was pretty happy with the shopping trip.
I am so thankful for Jillian Michaels. That sounds silly, but it is true. She has just about the only workout DVD I can handle doing without hating or being annoyed. I'm happy to say I've gotten 4 coworkers into doing her workouts, too. The 30 Day Shred got me through the winter when I couldn't run outside. I just learned she has a new Shred DVD out. I will have to remember that for next winter, because in a sense, I think I have worn out the one I have. I've been getting interested in CrossFit lately. My husband does their workouts sometimes. Some I can not even attempt, but I am still interested.
Ok, gotta go. Thanks for humoring me. Have a great weekend! Cloth diaper tip coming sometime soon. And hopefully a crafty project, too.
For any of you who are interested in how the Paleo lifestyle is going for us after 3 days, here are a few tidbits...
The kids are doing better with it than I thought. Before starting, I decided that I would let them eat ketchup and other such condiments with their meat, so that helps them with the meat-eating. Two recipe hits with them have been the paleo pancakes (we tried them on Tuesday) made of almond butter, unsweetened applesauce, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon, and of course the spaghetti (with spaghetti squash). I used the Pioneer Woman's sauce recipe for that. It is pretty easy as long as you allow enough time for it to simmer. The only changes I made include subbing a teaspoon of raw honey for the sugar, and I used some diced tomatoes + juice in place of the 15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, because that's what I had on hand. It makes a lot of sauce - enough to make 1 lb. of meat last for at least two meals for our family of 4. And the bonus was that there was enough spaghetti squash leftover to go with it for another meal, too.
Eeeeek! I am over the food budget, as of course I knew would happen. Since my last grocery update, I have had 2 orders from the farm (milk and eggs) for a total of $40, a $25 trip to Whole Foods on who knows what, an $89 trip to Costco (purely meat, fish, and produce), the $24 trip to Price Chopper (pictured below)....
(the soap and detergent was per my husband's request... I try to use more eco-friendly stuff on myself and the kids and our clothes)
... and then there was another trip to Costco for $12 because my husband called me from work while I was on my way home and asked me to bring him more food :) so I stopped and got a rotisserie chicken and 5 lbs. of organic apples (took most of the apples home with me). So, that brings the monthly total up to $450 (past my typical limit of $400), and the month is not over, yet. Looks like there are some good produce deals at Aldi this week, so I think that is where I will be heading in a few days.
I felt like I almost had grocery shopping down to a science, but now it feels like I have to learn frugality all over again as I try to adapt it to this new lifestyle...
On a different note, one thing I already learned is that this family does not like curry dishes, so I won't be making any of those again anytime in the near future. I think I am going to give away my jar of curry to a friend at work.
How do we feel? Hungry :) We do want to eat frequently, so I very quickly learned to be armed for that, or things get ugly fast. I have to plan for one or two snacks a day for all of us. And snack planning takes more prep. BUT, the desire to overeat is gone. Ya just don't feel like stuffing yourself with meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts.
We are eating SO many more fruits and vegetables! I expected to be grossed out by how much more meat we would be eating (and I even like meat), but I've hardly noticed that. I am more amazed by how easy it is to eat a ton of produce... and I thought we ate a lot of produce before!
I couldn't do this on my own. I am so glad my husband is doing it with me. And there is no way I could do it if there were non-paleo items staring me down in my pantry. I do miss the cheese.
Ok, I think my husband is on board with eating "paleo" for 30 days. 30 days of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, fats, and seasonings... no grains or legumes (how am I going to live without my peanut butter?!) And no dairy... but we are going to drink our milk :) I know, it is cheating.... I'm a cheater, I guess. But no cheese. Grassfed butter is permissable, though. We are not trying to cure any diseases here or add years to our life. Just add life to our years. I am not planning on this being a permanent thing... We will see how we feel after 30 days and go from there. Perhap we will tweak it to our liking after the first 30 days and end up healthier in the long run. That is my hope. It should at least give me some new challenges in the kitchen :) Actually, it might simplify things a ton!
We are going to try to finish up all the bread items in the house this next week and ease into and and start hard-core next Monday. I hope I don't chicken-out!
I am a little uneasy about how much meat we will have to eat... it seems selfish and unsustainable (as in the world's resources probably couldn't handle it if we all ate this way)... and right now I can't afford (or rather, I choose not to afford) to purchase all this additional meat locally from humanely raised animals. I figure I am going to have to buy 7 (!) times more meat than currently. BUT, there will be things I am NOT buying that will hopefully help offset that cost. I plan to definitely continue with what meat we already purchase locally, perhaps increase the amount a bit, and buy the rest from the regular grocery store.
Although I do have to say, I was totally grossed out buying a gigantic 8 lb. pork loin today. All I could think about was the slaughterhouse in Food, Inc. But, my husband will like it, and at $1.99/lb. it will help offset the $5-8/lb. grass-fed beef we buy.
I've never done anything like this before!! I'll try to keep you posted without being obsessed.
The fact that I haven't blogged lately (aside from menu plans) is probably due to the fact that I moved my computer to a rather inconvenient location, so that it is difficult to use when the kids are around. And I am not moving it around anymore, at least for now. This is good for us. I don't want to miss any of these years due to my eyes being glued to a screen. And thanks to my hubs dragging me into the 21st century, I can now reference recipes on my phone, which I have to admit, I kinda like...
Also, I was reading a book. A real, non-fiction (sort of) book. And I was determined to finish it before it was due at the library, even if that did mean keeping it a couple extra days and getting fined since I was out of renewals. I know, such a rebel. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I liked it and am surprised I hadn't read it before since I like historical books like that. I had put it on my "want to read someday" list after reading Amy's review.
And now, it is the Lenten season... and Spring Break here.
Of course I have some projects to tackle and some dietary experiments to begin.
I read the Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf, on the recommendation of one of my husbands coworkers, whom I respect. I had it on hold at the library forever, and it was finally my turn to check it out. I started the book last night and finished it this morning. 30 days, he says, try it for 30 days. Shall we do it for the remainder of Lent to see what happens since it just happens to just about fit that time frame? What is there to lose besides some money in groceries?
Speaking of groceries, a shopping trip is planned for tomorrow.
Maybe I can work some spring clothes shopping into the budget, too... that would be fun.
As I have mentioned before, we like bread. We like bread that isn't brittle or dry. We eat bread for sandwiches or toast. I am not making bread (or buying it from the bakery) each and every day. (The bakery even claims it should be eaten fresh, not day-old.) There is a problem. Bread that "keeps" is typically loaded with preservatives and stuff.
I have always thought wheat bread was healthier, but now my thinking is shifting. You hear about all the gluten-intolerances? Kinda like the dairy intolerances? Some seem to develop with time... One theory is that they develop due to overexposure. The push for whole-wheat and whole-grain bread has overloaded our bread with extra gluten to keep it soft and squishy, as so many of us like it. And our bodies can't take it anymore; they are revolting in various formats.
I have minor joint issues that flare up from time to time. Not enough to interfere with anything, but enough to be extremely annoying for a very short period of time. I suspect, but do not know, that it they are diet-related. The symptoms and the duration of them have improved over the past few years since shifting towards a more whole foods diet. Almost anything can be blamed on gluten issues, so it is something to consider.
Now, in addition to scanning the ingredient labels on bread packages for HFCS, I also look to see if vital wheat gluten is in the top handful of ingredients. Go ahead and look yourself. Almost all "appealing" whole wheat bread found in they typical grocery store contains additional gluten as one of it's top ingredients. My goal is to look for it after the "contains 2% or less of the following" part.
The other slightly unfortunate thing is that nearly all store-bought bread contains soy, in one form or another. Why do we want soy in our bread?! Soy jacks with your hormones. Sheesh. Anyways, that was a sidenote. Investigate if you wish.
I know, I know, I should just make my own bread. Or give it up altogether. Seriously, it would be good for me to! I am trying to move our family towards less reliance on grains, but that is slow going.
So, ya wanna know the reason I bought white, non-whole-wheat bread at the store the other day (when I wasn't at Costco to get my typical kind)? Because the ingredient label read as such: wheat flour, water, buttermilk, sugar, butter, yeast, soybean oil. I'll take 6 out of 7. Then came the "contains 2% or less of" part: wheat gluten, barley malt, honey, salt, vinegar, cultured corn solids, cultured wheat flour, yeast extract, soy flour, soy lecithin, whey. Mosty of those items I know, which is more than I can say for many other breads on the shelf. Trust me, I checked. It is higher in calories that other bread, but perhaps that will encourage us to eat less of it!
Obsessive? Yes. I just like learning about food. I just don't always like what I learn :)
Coffee has been on my mind ever since I read this post called 30 Reasons to Quit Coffee by Cheeseslave. If you are a daily coffee drinker, you may not want to read it. Or maybe you do.
I am not a habitual coffee drinker. But I could easily become one if I am not careful. It is in my genes :)
Lately, probably due to the cold weather, I have been having a cup of coffee every week or so, always with milk and sugar. I have always felt guilty about the sugar part, but now that's not my only concern. Reading the post by Cheeseslave has scared me away from that slippery slope of habitual coffee drinking I was getting close to sliding down. Thank you, Cheeseslave. Her list contains a lot of information that pertains to caffeine in general, not just coffee. Stuff I probably had an inkling about, just didn't want to face.
What's ironic is I started writing this post over the weekend, and on Monday, I read two more blog posts on coffee, one in favor of, and one against. I am surrounded by coffee drinkers in real life; most of those who are near and dear to me are coffee drinkers. One even makes a living via coffee. So I really don't know what I think. I just know that for me personally, coffee could become an addictive "drug", and I don't want to put myself in a position to become addicted.
Will I still drink coffee? Yes. I will just be even more careful to treat it as a special treat, just like a decadent chocolate dessert.
My husband? He doesn't get a racing heart, sleep problems, or the craving to chug as much as he can (unlike myself). He will probably still drink it nearly every day. There are worse things. In fact, according to this WebMD article, it may make him the healthier one....
Major nerd alert. You have been warned.
Here we go...
A sample of my personal a-typical dietary evolution:
Switching from skim milk to whole raw milk
Eating more red grassfed meat than white meat
Avoiding vegetable/canola oil in favor of unrefined coconut oil
Shunning HFCS in most situations
Consuming butter, not margarine
Eating cheese in abundance, and eggs, too
Paying NO attention to calories or "points"
In addition to these changes, after having a newborn, I got back on track with a regular workout - either strength training at home, or running or biking.
Ok, I got the results of my health screening this past week.
The good news: In one year, my LDL dropped more than 60 points with no medication.
The bad news: My LDL is still high on the charts.
The bad news: My high cholesterol is hereditary, and has always been high, so there is likely only so much I can do.
The good news: I don't care.
The good news: My HDL rose 20 points!
The good news: My cholesterol ratio is now decently normal.
The good news: My fasting glucose and triglyceride levels are normal.
The good news: My bodyfat percentage is in the healthy range (on the upper end, but still there). My waist circumference is healthy, too.
The good news: My blood pressure is normal. (This improved when I changed jobs when I had kids.)
The good news: I don't have metabolic syndrome.
I am not the picture of perfect health; there are lots of things I can do better. There are lots of things that are already deteriorating and will continue to deteriorate as I age (a little depressing, huh?) Also, I realize that ulitmately, our health and lives are not in our own hands. This stuff just fascinates me at times, so I'm sharing. Humor me.
Back to the cholesterol issue - the main issue of mine...
My curiosity makes me wish I knew whether the majority of my LDL was the fluffy (harmless) kind, or the dense (harmful) kind, but the screening I had didn't test for that.
I think I shared this before, but this video pairing is quick and informative, and worth watching if you have cholesterol concerns, so here it is again. I highly recommend it.
Part I
Part II
What do you think??
Here's what I have to say...
I love you, saturated fat! :)
I will get screened again in the spring. Hoping for good results, again.
Quick FYI. I'm doing it again. Starting tomorrow. No desserts or chocolate or anything that I have trouble using self control when eating. For two weeks, at least. Right now, I have a stomach ache from eating candy. And I have a cold. This is not good. I don't like this feeling. My body needs good food, not junk. The end.
PS - I don't want to go wash the dishes in my sink.
By big kids, I mean adults...We're talking about for snacks for the parents here...
I need some ideas - since I am giving up dessert/sweet treats for the rest of the month... Only for 3 days? Just kidding. What I really mean is that I am not eating them for the month of October. Gonna flex some self-control before the holidays. The rule is I cannot have anything "sweet" that will increase cravings.
Last spring when a friend and I gave up sugar for Lent, I found that the hardest time of the day was when I needed something to dull the 3pm hunger until dinnertime. So that's why I am making a go-to list of non-sweet snack ideas. Late afternoon is when I tend to eat desserts that are sitting in the kitchen. I have little self-control. That's why I have to banish the desserts altogether and tell myself they are not even an option. I am not doing it to lose weight. I simply want to feel the empowering feeling again of not being captive to cravings.
The one exception is that for doing well, I will treat myself to a once-a-week treat at Starbucks. I have a giftcard :)
Ok, as for the "big kid snacks", here's what I've come up with so far. This is stuff that worked for me the last time I did this.
the old stand-by of chips and salsa (I get the organic corn chips from Costco and the organic salsa.)
a pb&j sandwich and milk
almonds and raisins
crackers and cheese
banana or apple with peanut butter
freshly popped stovetop popcorn in coconut oil sprinkled with salt and parmesan
leftovers from the fridge (sometimes I just ate my dinner early if we were planning on having leftovers, and then had a piece of fruit or side salad when I sat down to eat with the family)
Help!
More suggestions??
Anyone want to join me? C'mon! What is there to lose?
PS - My husband was a little bummed when I told him I was going to do this. So I agreed to still make all those yummy fall desserts as long as I don't eat any and he takes the entire thing/batch to work with him immediately!
For those who are interested, I happened to see on Whole Foods' website that all their U.S. stores are having a one day grass-fed beef sale on Friday, 9/3. Looks like the ground beef will be $3.99/lb. If this is 100% grass-fed, this is a pretty good price.
(I don't know if you can get the typical additional 50 cents/lb. off for purchasing a family pack of 3 lbs. or more, but it is worth asking about at the butcher counter...)
1. Is Your Favorite Ice Cream Made with Monsanto's Artificial Hormones?
Grr, because I used to think Breyer's or Haagen Daz was good. Breyer's was the only kind of ice cream that I prefer (preferrED) to buy... tsk, tsk. Sneaky, sneaky. Is homemade ice cream the only wholesome option in our household's future? Or shall we continue the unintended tradition from this summer, which was very little ice cream at all, except for the occasional DQ run?
(Thanks to Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife for sharing this!)
In order to get back on track and know where our money is going again, we are going old school. Cash budget. We have never done that. It is for the line items of groceries, pets, medical (if possible), gift-giving, entertainment, and allowances (discretionary spending, a small amount, for my husband and I).
When starting out with a cash budget (aka envelope system) there is no wiggle room. That means I can no longer view the grocery budget as a goal. It is a hard and fast rule, starting September 1.
Of course I still plan to give my family real, healthy food. But I will have to prioritize more. I really want to continue our raw milk, yogurt, grass-fed beef, and pastured chicken and eggs. Since these are higher up the food chain, I am going to focus on fitting these into the budget over and ahead of organic fruits and vegetables. I have read that you should give the high-on-the-food-chain items more priority in being raised naturally since they have the most chance to have accumulated bad things along the way, if that makes sense.
I will still seek out organic fruits and vegetables, but I will only buy them when they are the same or close in price to conventional. Since my goal price for produce is $1/lb., I think it is best to suspend our produce box for now, as much as it saddens me. Although it might not always be organic, I can find just as much or more produce for a better price.
The bummer of suspending the produce box delivery, is it means I will have to go to the grocery store more frequently. Which besides being a pain, also means I will have more temptation to spend money. I will have to be good about sticking to a list. I can do that. And as far as the hassle, if it doesn't cost me any extra fuel, and if it puts more money in our savings account, I am willing to do it.
I am starting to learn more about grains. I would like to give sprouted bread a try. Hmm. I don't know if that is going to fit into the hard and fast budget :)
More to come on all this in September. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. I think it is about time to catalogue the grocery shopping excursions once again.
I was excited to get two new things at Costco yesterday. I had been hearing about these things, but had yet to find them at one of our local stores until now.
I really don't know that these items are any better for you than the conventional items, but here are my reasons for trying them: Nitrates are on lists of food additives to avoid. These tortillas have 5 ingredients and no hydrogenated oils. So I feel pretty good about giving these new goodies a shot.
Confession:
I am not an animal lover or animal rights activist. Call me cold hearted, but that is not the reason I care about animals that we eat and the animals that produce the eggs and milk we consume. Well, I do a little. But my main reason is selfish. It is because when animals are treated better, when they eat what they were biologically created to eat, they are more nutritious for us to eat and the products they produce for us to eat more nutritious, too. I am no scientist, but from what I understand, it makes a big difference. If you are curious, check into it, and I bet you will be surprised with what you find.
Little Home is a place to learn and share ideas for the good and simple life. I enjoy writing about all things natural, babies & children, cooking, and faith. I hope you'll jump in and have fun! -Emily
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