Still Eating and Still Here!

Hello Whole Foods Blogging Friends! Sorry I haven't updated my blog in quite sometime.... Life has been busy! We are still eating in and eating good and loving it.... though I have to admit, it's starting to strain my budget a little. Christmas food shopping was a killer - our grocery budget was over $500 this last weeks, but everything was delicious!
Which brings me to a few things... I want to continue to feed our family awesome whole foods, but I need to start cutting a few financial corners. I would like to start the New Year with a better budget and more money to save for other things (retirement, vacations, etc...). So, I am in the process of finding new ways to save on our groceries, health and beauty items, pet foods, household cleaning items, etc.... I have done this before a couple of years ago when I had a huge stockpile! A friend came to visit me and ask me if I was a Mormon based on my stockpile I had amassed. We actually just finished off a few items from that stockpile that I set up more than three years ago.
So, I am hoping that I can find some balance with our budget,eating and living to be honest. So, continue with me whenever you get the chance and I will see where it takes us! Until next time! Oh and here is a picture of my homecooked (from raw with soaking, boiling and baking) Country Ham that I fixed for 25 to enjoy! I used a wonderful recipe from when we lived in England in 2004 - worth the two days of cooking and prep!

On a Plateau of sorts....

Yes, even eating whole foods, I find myself on a plateau of sorts. Sigh.... I think sometimes I get so busy with other daily chores, that I stop making time to find new recipes and make new and interesting meals. As soon as I logged into my blog - I felt sooo much better! Just scrolling through and looking at the pictures renewing my motivation and inspired me a little!
We have been eating well and eating in - though one night a couple of weeks ago, we ate out and boy was it expensive and not sooo filling! We chose the Golden Rule for some BBQ that I don't quite have the skills to make. It was good - but none of family really enjoyed it and walked away with that wonderfully satisfied feeling. Instead, we kind of felt grossed out by the fried stuff (onion rings and fries) and kind of let down by the salads and buffalo wings... The BBQ was great - but not as tasty as the wonderful meat I have in my freezer - just saying ;)
Some of you may wonder what I am feeding Thalia. Sometimes I mash up whatever we are eating and offer it to her - but other times I serve her organic pre-made baby food. I go by the same rule as I do our food - no preservatives, additives, or things we can't pronounce. So - she gets the chunkier vegetables, fruits and meats. She is still nursing, so she gets a belly full of Momma's milk first thing before the day even starts - LOL! If nothing else, by putting whole, natural foods on our table - I am instilling good eating habits for them and that is priceless!! Just ask my salad eating 4 year old that asked for a salad specifically the other night with dinner! And you know what - I don't miss the junk toys that come with the Happy (Hell) Meals! Until next time...

Straight From The Source!!

Greeting my readers and followers! Sorry I have yet again been MIA from even weekly updates :( I have been busy, but somewhat productive!
Today, I went out to the Amish Country Pantry to get some more milk, butter, cheese and eggs. I got the first three items on my list, but they were out of eggs. So I asked if there was somewhere I could get them locally from a farm. The sweet Amish girl (young woman) picked up her land-line phone and called someone else to inquire about eggs for me. Well, it turned out that the farm had some available and I could pick them shortly! YAY for farm fresh eggs! So, I drove the mile down the road and picked them up from the farm. A sweet Mennonite girl hopped out of the tractor after I pulled up and had 2 dozen in hand for me - straight from the source! They weren't still warm - but still, I was able to buy them straight from the farm for $2 a dozen - a bargain at double the price in my opinion. And yes she accepted this silly woman's check for $4 - LOL!
I really wanted to take some pictures of their farm, but I didn't have my camera on me and I am sure I would look like an absolute city girl/tourist and a moron.... But they had a nice farm to include an entire pen of deer that they raise for breeding purposes and to repopulate parks as needed (I am sure this is a business venture). But she did stress to me that they did not raise those for fresh venison. I was a country girl that loved to hunt deer growing up, but I guess it would be like eating a pet, she even said so....
Anyway - yay for farm fresh eggs - not factory eggs laid by hens that don't even have a square foot of space :( Plus they are great tasting eggs and there is nothing like eating delicious, local, whole foods!
Until next time!

Milk and Cookies Anyone??

First - greetings! I am sorry it has taken me sooo long to get a new post written :( I have had a lot going on and it's been all I can do to get the cooking done and meet my other obligations. So I have decide to update one saved sentence at time - LOL!
Sweets have been one of my down falls for most of my life - LOL! It's not until I hit my 30's did the my sweet tooth start to catch up with me. You have heard me rail against high fructose corn syrup and this is not another rant against it, though I did see another MANIPULATIVE tv ad the other day......
Most everyone has made cookies before - it's a right of passage in the kitchen whether you are a child, baker, Mom, Dad, etc... But how about really good all natural cookies?? Homemade is better than store bought in terms of knowing what is going in your cookies. But what about knowing what is going into the ingredients that is going into your cookies?? LOL - if you don't care, don't bother to read further, it's no big deal. But I do have a good recipe at the end ;)
Instead of white granulated (over processed) sugar, I use either raw sugar (the coarse variety) or evaporated cane juice (organic cane sugar). ECJ had us going one time when we were reading a recipe! We couldn't figure out what exotic ingredient it was - LOL! It was sugar cane, but not the white processed stuff! I use also organic brown sugar, whole wheat flour, grass fed chicken eggs, real grass fed cow butter instead of margarine, organic chocolate chips, organic rolled oats and coconut oil instead of shortening. The end result - a delicious chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that is good for you! Well, good for you in terms of not using preprocessed or artificial and good for your sweet tooth soul! These are awesome cookies and paired with a glass of cold fresh low pasteurized, non homogenized milk and you have a delicious "traditional" (for the last century or so) snack! It's not full of vegetables kind of good for you - but it's an enjoyable good for that allows you to feel good about what you and your family are eating. Below is the recipe:

1/2 cup of organic evaporated cane juice
1/2 cup of organic brown sugar
1/4 cup of sweet cream butter
1/4 of coconut oil (a little more if you find your mix is too dry)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cup of natural rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of organic chocolate chips or raisins

Heat oven to 375, drop cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until done. You can bake longer for crisper cookies or less for chewy.

Enjoy!

I promise to update my blog!

I have been a little busy with a few projects (one of them pictured below)! But rest assured, we are still eating whole foods, cooking at home and I am still taking notes and pictures! So look for an update soon!

I am Baaaaaaacccckkkk!

Hello All! I am back after a week long trip that took me to Idaho to visit my lovely Mother in Law and then on to Seattle, WA to visit my Sister in Law and her husband and boys. It was a great trip and I am pleased to report that I only ate out 4 (four) times!! That was once in the airport between Denver and Boise, twice in Boise and once in Seattle. Not tooo bad!
I visited an awesome Co-Op in Boise! http://www.boisecoop.com/ I loved it! If we had a super nice Co-Op like that close to us - it would be on! Yes, we do have Whole Foods in Nashville, but there is so much to be said about clever Co-Op. In Seattle - well you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a natural foods, whole foods, co-op or organic store! It was awesome! I shopped at a PCC Natural Market and it was a great experience too! http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/ The folks at these stores are super nice and so are the customers!
I have been reading more in Nina Planck's Book - Real Food http://www.ninaplanck.com/books.html I am learning so much about why margarine is so bad (trans fat) and why real fats (beef, coconut, olive oil) are so good for you! I am truly enjoying our Whole Foods Journey thus far! Hopefully this week, I can get back into the kitchen and try some new recipes and get back to my yogurt and bread making. I did cook for my MIL and SIL this past week (which seemed to work for everyone) and I felt so much better than what I do when I normally travel! Hooray for home cooking!!

Local Meat Rocks!!

Have you ever taken a loooonnnngggg road trip and felt awful at the end? Imagine how much traveling your food does just to make it to your dinner table? How many folks have handle your chicken, vegetables, steaks, or fruits? Granted most of us wash our meats and veggies before we eat them - but they likely are kind of tired by the time they end up on fork!
I am not going to go into the horrors of chicken, beef or pork factory farms - you can look that up yourself. It really depends on who you want to believe and many folks end up vegetarians once they start really researching everything. But that's not my point - being a vegetarian or vegan has it's own issues and I am not a subject matter expert. I do know that meat is good for you though - it has tons of amino acids, fatty acids, and the good vitamins that our bodies and brains need. However, I really don't want to eat meat that has not been treated well, fed animal by products, hormones, antibiotics, and trucked thousands of miles. So, I have started buying my meat, eggs, milks, butter and chicken locally! It is more expensive? Yes, but so is eating out!
I purchased some sirloins from a vendor at the Clarksville Farmers Market one Saturday and they were awesome! More than what I would pay at the grocery store, but much better cooked on our grill! We loved Persimmon Creek Farms beef sooo much, that we ordered the family pack (pic above is of two NY strips from family pack) and have placed a deposit for a 1/4 of a steer cut in bulk! This should be enough beef to holds us for a year! Oh and did I mention that it was delicious?? Check them out at http://www.persimmoncreekfarms.com/