Ok, slowly organic food is becoming my life and shockingly my DH is showing signs as well. I now don't want to buy non organic meat at all even if it's not from Perdue or Tyson. I'm willing to forgo meat at every meal - not sure if DH is though. We, okay I decided we would go to Shop & Stop today since they are known for their extensive organic section. Well the trip overall was a success. Organic black beans $1 for a can, Organic turkey (1lb package) on sale for $2.99. DH bought some Kashi cereal. And we got the normal fruits and veggies. One thing they did not have was organic golden delicious apples, DH's favorite. They were all out. I bought some red peppers for a dish and these were expensive. Two small ones were $5.00. Note to self, said recipe will be made once a month max. Anyway a pretty good shopping trip. We needed to buy beer and buns for dinner with the in-laws so our bill came up to $95. I'm thinking we would have done well if it wasn't for the extra $30 for beer and buns. Dinner this week will be chili, Peruvian chicken and chimichangas. Made the chili and Peruvian chicken yesterday morning. Will make the chimichangas tomorrow - crockpot style. Hope its delicious.
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Well this weekend was a busy one. Unfortunately I did not come up with a shopping list nor a menu plan for this week. On Saturday I came home from work and was out in the garden for three hours. It was a lovely day. Warm in the 80's. I started my vegetable garden. Planted broccoli, onions, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers and carrots. I'm so excited. Last year's garden was a bust. I very determine to grow more of my food this summer. This will go far in our organic diet and hopefully will save money as well. I am currently doing the Square Foot Garden. So far I have one 4 x 4 raise bed and want to construct two more, however one more will make me happy. I also planted 150 summer bulbs. My hands and body are very sore. Who new gardening could be so taxing on a body. On Sunday, DH had softball. We were up bright and early (thanks to DS) at 6:30am. We actually got to sleep in late since DS is usually up by 6am. Well I got up and started cooking. I had no menu and we didn't go grocery shopping the day before so I thought quick on my feet. I took out the night before (impressed huh?) and took out the seasoned chicken legs and a whole chicken. I cooked the chicken legs and made roasted potatoes using rosemary from my garden from last year. I also made brown rice and saute pork chops. I was going to make another chicken dish from the whole chicken but unfortunately it was still frozen. I decided to eat leftovers stuffed shells I made two weeks ago that are frozen. I was done my noon all while watching my DS. I have to say DS tires me out, but I had a ton of fun with him just us two. The only time that its just us is in the evenings when I'm home from work. Unfortunately its after 6pm and he is exhausted, hungry and very cranky. It was a nice change of pace to see him so happy and playful. So as I sit here on Monday I start to think of what I need to accomplish this week. I want to make bread tonight so I will start that and bake it tomorrow. I also want to start my red pepper seeds indoor as well as start my inside herb garden. Let's see how much I can get done.
So onward I continue with my journey of incorporating organic into our lives. One way of doing so is to eat less meat and come up with recipes that incorporate more vegetables and beans. This was my goal for the week. On Thursday I came home to make my own bread. Never thought I could do it, but I did and it came out great. I figure I would use the bread for Panini's as well as with dinner this week. This was not organic, but I will start to make this bread organically once I finish all the flour I have. I probably will still use the regular yeast as I only use 1/4tsp. On Sunday I got up to cook for the week and this is what I prepared. Chili with a half a package of ground turkey (10oz) and a cup of red kidney beans and a can of black beans, turkey meatballs with spinach (1/2 a frozen box) using the second half of the turkey package, and chicken paninis with Risotto Cakes (got the risotto recipes off of the Food thread). I also added the second half of the spinach to the Risotto cakes. Well for dinner we had the panini and the cakes. It was a huge hit. Nothing was organic except the Arborio rice and chives. Tonight we will eat the chili. My mom was over yesterday and apparently loved the chilli. She had two servings of it. I got a feeling this is going to be good to. I used organic red kidney beans and organic black beans as well as organic onions. I will make organic rice tonight to go with this. This will be the most organic meal we have had to date. I only used 20oz ground turkey and I hope to have two meals from the turkey meatballs and one meal and a half (since mome ate a bunch). This can totally be done organically. I would just need to buy 1 1/2lbs for four meals. Organic ground turkey will be on the shopping list for next's month Whole Foods shoping trip. I might also buy some organic flour as well.
We went this past Saturday for our once a month Wholes Food outing. Again I wanted to keep within the budget of $75. Unfortunately I went above my budget but nothing crazy. I would have been closer if DH wasn't there, but since he's with me every time we go shopping I need to account for this in future outings. We stocked up on some fruit and veggies, most were well priced. Organic Salad - 2 packs of Romaine Lettuce for $3.99 ea. Organic Apples @ $1.49/lb (Awesome deal since Waldbaums offer them at $1.99 on sale)Organic Onions 5lb bag for $2.88Organic Red Potatoes - This was expensive $4.99Bananas - We got organic because there were no green non organic ones (okay to buy non organic since you don't eat the skin) - $.99/lbOrganic Berries - 2pints for $4. Organic Grapes - $1.99/lb awesome deal especially since we were both craving it. We skipped on the broccoli as it was expensive $2.99/lbThen we got to the meat department. I have decided we would do 1lb pork chops that were on sale for $3.99/lb. DH asked for 2lbs. So this was a budget buster. The butcher weighted out 2.5lbs for a total of $9.69 I could of cried, but we took it. We did better on the chicken - Breast on sale for 1.99 and seasoned chicken legs with a $1. off tag bringing it to just $.99/lb. This was a serious deal. We got frozen shrimp 1lb for $6.99 - the same price as in the supermarkets. Some other deals we got was the Yo Baby fruit and veggie yogurt. 3 four packs for $7. I had (3) 1.00 off coupons bringing the 3 packs to just $4. This was awesome. I bought some bulk brown rice and some red kidney beans. We got a lot of stuff and surprisingly walked away spending $91. Busted the budget a bit, but really it wasn't awful. My goal for the month is to come up with some budget friendly receives using beans and spinach. If we are going to go organic, we will need to buy meat sparingly and start incorporating beans and veggie dishes. I need to start looking for some ideas. Some food for thought. I read this earlier today, makes going organic a little bit easier. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/food-safety----drugs-pois_b_537686.html
Well this is my first post. Since I found out I was pregnant, I switched to organic milk for baby. When DS was born and started to eat, I made sure he ate mostly organic. I really felt it was important that my DS not be exposed to any harmful chemicals, perservatives, ecoli, etc. Well I recently decided that we as a family not just by DS will add organic to our lifestyles. My DH needless to say was less than thrilled. "Organic is way too expensive, we can barely afford it for DS who is 13 months." Well I thought about how I could incorporate organic for the entire family without blowing our budget. Not an easy task. We generally budget about $300 for food. With an additional $60 for food for DS. Okay that sounds like a lot for DS, to be honest, its $30 twice a month to go shop at Trader Joes. I tend to bring food home not just for DS but for me and DH as well. So about $20 goes to DS and $10 goes to me and DH. One day I came up with an amazing idea. What if one week, we shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes and the other three weeks shop at our local supermarket. I would keep to the same $75 budget. It was awesome and I was sure DH couldn't argue this. So I told DH and like I though he didn't really have an argument. On March 15, we as a family went to the newly opened Whole Foods. I can't tell you how excited I was to go to the store. Even thought I had two babies whinny the entire time, they couldn't put a damper on my joy. I walked in and instantly so the produce. I don't even like vegetables but let me tell you I wanted to try all of them. The store was absolutely amazing. DH picked up some blackberries 2 for $4. "This is cheaper than the non organic ones at Waldbaums." I agreed and we bought some. Come to notice a lot of the produce was surprisingly competitively priced. I couldn't believe it. Well we grab a bunch of produce and continued on our way. I got yogurt for baby and chicken nuggets. The nuggets were expensive. $4 for about four servings. Trader Joe's was definetely cheaper. Than I got him some frozen vegetables and fruit. Oh my gosh, the selection was to die for and the prices were awesome. I thought to myself, I can do this. Came down the bulk isle and decided to try Quinoe. Not a fan, but it was nice I paid only $1.84 to try it. Having all said and done, we got to the register and I had two $5 off $25 that was mailed to me for the grand opening. We spend $60 and after coupons $50 is all we spent. We did not get any meats, seafood or prepared foods. We did not get milk or juice either. But I knew I would be able to do this again in a month. Well that time is tomorrow. My second try to sucessfully feed my family for at least a week. I much better prepared now. I was able to see some of the brands they sold and was able to secure some coupons. There were also coupons on their site. And lo and behold two days ago I received another 2 coupons for $5 off $25. God is definetely smiling on me. Wish me luck.
