I made bread

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.  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 chili. 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 mom 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 months Whole Foods shopping 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 (dear husband) 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 $2.88
Organic Red Potatoes - This was expensive $4.99
Bananas - We got organic because there were no green non organic ones (okay to buy non organic since you don't eat the skin) - $.99/lb
Organic 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/lb

Then 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

How it all began

Well this is my first post. Since I found out I was pregnant, I switched to organic milk for baby. When DS (dear son) 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 (dear husband) 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.