Using what you got.

I have found that with the ongoing issues concerning the food we eat, I am finding it more and more necessary to fork out much more money to buy healthy, fresh, organic, and preferably local foods. This is not a cheap task. It does bite my bank account quite a bit more than my old shopping days at Walmart did. But with information that has been brought out about what exactly is in our foods today, I find I have little, to no choice, in the matter. Health is far more important than almost any other thing we can buy. We are just so used to spending so little on cheap packaged foods, with our coupons, that when we see the price of "organic" or natural/fresh foods, we panic and say "sheesh!! that is double what my -fill--in--the--blank--- cost!

But I digress......

The topic of this post is about saving money by using what you have. OK ladies, just so I don't feel totally alone and guilty, raise your hands if you ever let any good food just sit and go bad and are forced then to throw it away. Or how about, raise your hands if you throw away leftovers because you just don't want o go through the trouble of saving it and trying to re-eat at another time. Well since I cannot see your "hands" I will assume that I am not alone in this. I cannot even count how many times I bought those good veggies only to put off using them because....well....everything always looks more appetizing to cook and eat than healthy stuff. Can I also admit....*gulp*....that I also throw things out on a pretty consistent basis because I refuse to plan my meals? OK now, stop shaking your head in disgust, I am just not that kind of person. Organization is a fun "hobby" for me, but it is not something I like to do on a regular basis. For instance, I love to sit down and organize a messy room. I just don't want to do the work it takes to keep it from getting messy again. Are you getting what I am saying? I love to organize a project, but I just cant seem to organize my life.
Soooo..... it's baby steps for me. Instead of telling myself that I have to organize everything, I have simply challenged myself to do one thing. USE WHAT I GOT!
See this is all going to tie together soon, just watch ;)

So I figure that with the organic and natural foods prices being what they are in Southern California, I have to do something to keep the costs at bay. One way I am doing that is by making sure NOTHING goes to waste. If we make lunch and have something left over, it gets used in an "in-between" snack, put into the freezer for a later date, or put into the next meal. Simple as that. Have I mentioned that I like simple? ha!

I have to say I really really really like how this is turning out. I even get to use my creative side in my cooking! Almost daily I look at my food and say (for example)"what can I make with this ground chicken, my leftover vegetables, that box of crackers that needs to get eaten before they go stale, and all those organic potatoes I bought in bulk from Azure?"
That leads to making a "Shepherds pie/casserole with crackers cooked on top". Was it the best thing ever? Not really. Was it culinary excellence? Ummm not much. Was it a pretty darn good tasting meal that used what I had, filled my family up, and made enough to use for two meals? you betcha!!

Truly though, I challenge you to look in those cupboards, freezers, and pantries, and get busy cooking some yummy and interesting meals.

For more info on the state of our foods, you can watch some of the following documentaries...( I do not agree with all things in any of these movies, but they definitely make an excellent point about nutrition, and what is lacking in our foods at the super market)
1~Food Inc.
2~Corn King
3~Food Matters
4~Fresh
5~The Future of Food


P.S. most of these are available on Netflix.

making bread

I am not a baker. Let's just open this up honestly. My Mom and Sister can attest to that. While I may be able (finally) to whip up a pretty good meal, baking is where I severely lack know how. I read a cook book and the directions make sense. If they don't make sense then I wing it and it usually comes out pretty darn good. A recipe on baking however reads like something in my sisters insane "bio-something-or-other" text books. The funny thing is though in baking, you just can't "wing-it". Things don't come out quite the same if you don't knead the full "20" times, or if you add just a pinch more or less of this or that. However, the other day, was truly a miracle. It took an ice storm penning me up in the house for days and a little bit of begging from my kids, but I did it. I Baked. I Baked lots actually. And they didn't turn out half bad :) Well to be honest the bread was a little on the heavy "dough-y" side, but there were yummy. I wont even attempt to explain how bad the molasses bread turned out, so lets not even go there(I will just say I added a little more or less of this or that). But at least we had fresh baked warm bread and I received bookoo amounts of "mommy brownie points" from the kiddos.

Go girl!

I am loving this new stage!!!!! This is Ireland making herself an egg "McMuffin" for breakfast. We have sort of become health freaks recently so we don't go to McDonalds, but try as we might, we can't let go of the egg McMuffin. So this is Ireland's version of it. Its an organic wheat English muffin, with a farm fresh egg (that we actually pick up from a farm) topped with a little cheddar cheese and some all natural organic strawberry jam. YUMM!
When I posted last week about my girl starting to cook, I thought "Oh how cute, this is going to be fun". Now I realize this is more than fun.
This leads me to another subject. The subject being that of how to we raise good adults? These big girl steps that Ireland is taking are a symbol that I no longer have a kid to "train", I have a young girl to raise into a Woman. Its crazy how that sort of freaks me out. Not because my daughter is getting older (although that does make me sad) but because there is so much more responsibility in raising Godly, sweet, selfless, women, then to teach a little child to obey. To teach my children to obey was a constant battle of being consistent, delving out spankings, and lots of prayer to the Lord for Patience. When it comes to discipline however, I am entering this next faze of "older children" and my thoughts go from "what toy can I take away?" to "how do I handle this situation in a way that will best effect their heart?". I am realizing now, that I must be an example more than ever. I am not saying that you don't need to be a good example when they are young, because obviously you do. It seems though, that at those early stages, their life is more of cause and effect. Toddler hits another child, same toddler gets a spanking for being unkind. Young child steals, same young child gets his/her toys given away to the salvation army :)

Cause and effect.

Now though, things are changing. She is looking more deeply at how "I" handle things. How do I respond when things go wrong? Do I argue when I do not get my way? Am I taking the time to explain the greater reasons of WHY do we not do things? Am I always completely honest, as I train her to be? Am I "training" a child in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it? YIKES! Talk about responsibility. Its hard enough to keep them from being totally spoiled and immoral, which is the way our natures bends. But to train them to be good, and noble, and courageous, to stand for what is right and against injustice. MAN!! who can do such a thing?

I can.

You can too. How do I know this? God says we can. He says He has given everything we need for the challenges in our life. In Acts 17 it states....

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

And again in 2 Peter 1:3

"3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

It also says Deuteronomy several times that we are to train our children, to teach our children, to talk to them, to raise them right (I wrote more on that subject in this post)

Sometimes though, its just plain HARD. I see so many of my failures in how I parent. So many failures in who I am. I can be very impatient and rude. I can easily choose time on the computer over time with my kids if I am not careful. So where do we go for strength when we feel this job is not only hard, but never seems to end! ha ha. Well once again, His Word gives us encouragement in this when it says in Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

We are in it for the long haul ladies, let's do it well.