Praise God for Those Perfect Homeschool Moms

Don't compare yourself to others. If I had a nickle for every time I heard that phrase I would be able to hire a self-esteem coach to remind me daily of perfect I am.

If you read my blog then you have probably seen a few of my posts about how I feel about how it being ok to do some comparison. Look, I get the heart behind the "do not compare" mantra. Ultimately, the only person I should be measuring myself up against is Jesus.  Here is where I have a hard time though, we homeschooling moms have made a career out of "not comparing ourselves". We have turned it into an excuse not to be better than we are. Not only that, we have made it an occasion to poke fun at moms who have managed to "do it all" or to make broad assumptions about how she must be neglecting other areas of her life.

She feeds her children healthy all the time? Well, she must spend so much time in the kitchen! I would much rather be making real memories with my children.

Her house is way too clean for her children to be enjoying any artsy craftsy time.

Her children must be afraid of her to be that well behaved.

There is no way she could possibly be that joyful all.the.time.

So why are we so jealous of those mothers who have found a way to make it all fit together? Why do we assume that they can't possibly be real? Or that what they have is so unattainable that we shouldn't even try?

When I see a mom who is doing a better job at something than I am, I often have that initial flash of jealousy and envy. Then, after a moment of repentance, I often find myself looking at her and wanting to pick her brain. How do you manage your meal schedule? Talk to me about how you discipline your children. Share your secrets with me!

Instead of tearing down these mothers, why aren't we asking for their "secrets" with an earnest interest in learning how to make our own homes run more smoothly? Why are we not praising God for placing these women in our paths so that we can learn from them? Why are we not telling them how encouraging they are to us? Why instead of looking at them as a rare exception to the rule, are we not looking at them as a rare gem?

My home may never be perfect. I am still very much a work in progress. It will never look exactly like someone else's. I have been blessed with my own unique circumstances, but God forbid that if I should become "that mom", any of my fellow sisters look at the result that God has produced through me, and tell me that it is unrealistic and then proceed to criticize me behind my back for being "too perfect".

Real Food Recipe #1 Flank Steak Fajitas

I am so tired of finding "real food" menu plans that sport a ton of packaged and processed foods! When I think of real food I am thinking properly raised meats like grass-fed beef and pastured chicken, organic veggies, and homemade stocks. That is not to say I don't take the easy route every now and then and used a packaged product, but I like for 90% or more of our meals to be real goodness to be REAL FOOD! I am going to attempt to post a weekly dinner recipe. I will base portions on my family of 5 (2 adults and 3 children) and will also let you know if we have left overs. Please be sure to come back and let me know if you used any of the recipes and also feel free to let me know if I use an ingredient that you don't believe to be healthy. I am learning all the time and sometimes get it wrong!

For every menu you can assume that I use all organic ingredients and properly raised meats. I also always use raw dairy. We do not have allergies, but limit grains to about once or twice a week.

Photo used with permission courtesy of 100 Days of Real Food

This recipe is heavily inspired by the one I found on 100 Days of Real Food. We differ a tad on what we consider to be Real Food so it is tweaked to fit my requirements! If you get a chance head on over and visit. Her recipes tend to be very easy to tweak where I don't agree!

Flank Steak Fajitas

Grocery List:
1.5lbs flank steak
1.5 TSP chili powder
1 TSP coriander (I sometimes use paprika as well)
1 TSP cumin
1/2 TSP sea salt or kosher if you prefer
1/4 TSP black pepper
2 TBS coconut aminos (this is our soy substitute of choice)
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
2-3 bell peppers sliced
1 onion sliced
Fresh tortillas (optional) or use lettuce for a grain free alternative
Traditional fajita fixins

Mix dry spices and rub down meat all over. Be sure to get the bottom and sides!

Slow Cooker as suggested by 100 Days of Real Food: Place steak in slow cooker on high and pour coconut aminos over it. Throw the jalapeno, garlic, bell peppers and onion on top. Cook for 5-6 hours or until can be easily shredded with a fork. If you want to cook on low add about 2 hours to that.  This is a great way to start dinner if you need to be out for the day.

Grill: Place dry rubbed meat into a baking dish, top with coconut aminos, jalapeno, garlic, bell pepper and onion. Cover and place in fridge for at least 2 hours but the more the better. I marinaded mine for about 6 hours. Place meat on grill and cook until meat reaches your preferred finish. Place vegetables into a stirfry pan and saute until warm but still crisp.  Slice meat at an angle and fix your fajita with your favorite toppings. I suggest raw cheddar, raw sour cream, avocado and spinach!


Enjoy!

30 Day Pantry Challenge: Unrealistic Goals?

I made my first trip to Walmart post challenge start. If you remember from my first post about our 30 Day Pantry Challenge, I have budgeted $200 for the entire month. Yeah, that was a joke. Needless to say I am a bit discouraged right now. My receipt shows a grand total of *cough* $67.55. Grant it, some of that is not food and I will break it down below to show exactly what I spent, but I don't expect it to be low enough to fit in the budget. So here it is broken down:

Bread-$4.06
Yogurt-$4.00
Chips-$2.18
Sprite-$4.28
Produce-$23.93
Lemonade-$5.00
Cheese-$4.18
Chocolate-$3.87
Food Total:$51.50

Now, to be fair, a few of those things aren't something I need to get every week (cheese and Sprite). And I will be cutting out the lemonade next week (Boo!) to cut back costs. I know some of it looks unnecessary but my DH is a very picky eater and those are his lunch items. They are non-negotiable. We are trying various healthier options, but for now it is what it is. This total also doesn't include our raw dairy which is $24 and again not an option to cut out. That total was not figured into my $200 budget though. What I do still have to figure in is my Azure order. That comes in on the 18th. While I am highly disappointed in how this shop went, I am still pleased that the total was less than 1/2 of what we normally spend so we are saving money. I think I may need to set a more realistic goal though.

30 Day Pantry Challenge: Menu Planning out of the Pantry Stockpile

This seemed like it was going to be the hard part. I have this complete mish-mash of ingredients. Random this and that. Somehow I have to look at my pantry and plan out dinners for the month. On top of this I have to be sure that I am using everything as best as I can so that I don't end up with a pantry with nothing but 22 cans of cream soups. What I need is a program that I can input my stockpile into and it will spit out recipes for me. I need Supercook! Go check it out and play with it! Whether you are looking for appetizers, entrees or deserts, Supercook does it all! Best of all, as far as I can tell it is free!

A few neat features of Super Cook include a suggestion cloud to help you fill in anything you might have missed as well as several thousand recipes to choose from!

Can you believe that this post has no affiliate links, hehe? Nope, really, I just loved the way this site was working and wanted to share it with you!

30 Day Pantry Challenge

Since our 11 day challenge has come and gone (BTW we did OK on it. I realize I never updated it. I am the worst about that.), I decided it was time to get the pantry cleaned out so we are now doing a "30 day eat out of your pantry" challenge. Basically, I am going to do my best to only shop for what is absolutely necessary and instead of stocking more food that will be overlooked, we will be eating from what we have. It won't all be uber healthy, but it will get rid of some things and allow me more space to start stocking up healthier options. This is technically day 3 for this challenge, but I am just now finding the time to post! I will try to post some of the recipes we try as well.

The Challenge: Eat mostly out of our pantry and freezer stockpile. Shop only for fresh fruit/veggies, dairy, bread and the hubs weekly lunch supplies.

The Rules: Besides shopping only for the above each week, we will not be eating out at all the rest of the month except for the two special occasions that happen this month. We went out Sunday for Mother's Day and will go out again next week for our 10 year wedding anniversary.

The Budget: $200 for the entire month. This includes a $50 order to Azure plus gives us a little wiggle room.

The Goal: To not only use up what we have neglected or forgotten in the pantry and the freezer but to also teach the kids good stewardship of the resources we have been blessed with. We will be no doubt be getting creative as the month goes on, so it will be a chance for us to work together to find unique alternatives for the foods we have. We will also be working on a month long menu plan.

I plan on keeping a list of the things we used up so that we can have a visual of all of the things we were letting just sit and expire.

Picture Credit

Zaycon Foods is Back in Town with Ground Beef!

Zaycon is back in town with 93/7 hormone free ground beef for just $2.89/lb!!

There are pick-up locations all over the Dallas/Ft.Worth area so be sure to check the list and I bet you there is one near you!

Picture Credit

11 Day Real Food Challenge Days 4&5 and the Thermomix TM31

It really was the most unfortunate week to try this. I started feeling sick on Monday and besides not being hungry, I have had little energy to cook. I will say that what I have cooked has been great though. Wild Caught Salmon with an organic salad was on the menu for lunch.

So I have been eyeing this fancy looking kitchen gadget, the Thermomix TM31. It claims to do everything but wash the dishes after you eat (though it does claim to wash itself!). Chopping, grinding, milling, pureeing, mixing, kneading, and several other functions are performed in a fraction of the time it would normally take. The catch? This thing is expensive. Not just a little expensive, alot expensive. Think right around the $1500 mark. The counter to this would be that it potentially replaces some other appliances and since a good Kitchen Aid can cost $300-$400 depending on the model, that plus a juicer, blender, and so on, you could possibly be coming out on top. The other catch? The new model is not sold in the US, but it can be imported from Canada. There are also several cookbooks that have recipes specifically created for the Thermomix, and of course blogs such as my friend's over at Quirky Cooking.

I showed Karl the demo thinking he was going to tell me I was out of my mind after he heard the price, but surprisingly he wasn't too critical of it. Obviously, it is still alot of money and I have alot of thinking to do before I invest in it, but I am open to the idea and if it delivers all it promises, it certainly sounds like a dream come true.

Day 3 of Our 11 Day Real Food Challenge

I have a cold courtesy of my son I am sure. Not feeling great so even though I was junk free I was also mostly Real Food free too. I did make sure the family ate good though.

Breakfast was oatmeal and eggs

Lunch was a cold tray with meat, fruits and veggies

Dinner was hand breaded wild caught cod.

Keeping it short tonight since I am not feeling well.

Real Food Challenge Day 1

Do you want me to be honest? Sure you do. I am already struggling. I knew that cutting out the Dr. Pepper was going to be rough for me. I readily admit I am thoroughly addicted to it. I had the worst headache ALL DAY LONG.

I had planned on starting Sunday, but without thinking decided last night to start today. What I forgot was that I was planning to head to Canton, Tx for the 1st Monday Trades Day event they hold and it is like going to the fair; fried fake foods everywhere! What do you know, not being used to carrying water with me, I did not bring any. I did find some fresh squeezed lemonade, which I am sure did not entirely fit the diet, but was better than soda, and of course over priced water bottles were everywhere. Food was an entirely different issue. There was literally nothing so I got Texas Twisters, haha.

My husband did so well at home though! Despite complaining about losing his favorite foods for a few days, he cooked the girls eggs, and made himself some bacon and toast with the bread I bought from Whole Foods (local bakery bread!). He did find a box of Mac and Cheese for lunch though. Now that's gone and no longer a temptation though, so moving on.

When I got home we headed out to a friends house for a house warming party. We don't expect everyone to cater to our diet change, so what was provided was a yummy array of things that we weren't supposed to be eating. We still ate.

Dinner was great. I oven roasted our local organic whole chicken and we had organic corn and raw carrots. The cakes I cooked with the intention of dehydrating into cereal became desert. Not entirely sure how that happened. They will also take the place of our regular Sunday trip to the donut place for breakfast.

I learned alot of lessons today and I still consider it a moderate success. The biggest being that while I prepared hard for eating at home, I did nothing for those times when we would be out. I have now ordered through Amazon a few Organic Snacks. I realize it isn't the perfect solution but it is better than pigging out on food that is 100% refined.

Because today did not quite go as planned, we are now doing an 11 day food challenge.

10 Day Real Food Challenge

We have been slowly but surely making the change from processed foods over to what is known as REAL food. When I stumbled across 100 Days of Real Food, I was impressed with her commitment to change and decided that my family would do a similar challenge, only much shorter. Since we go into "shock" every time I make a diet change we will be doing a mini-challenge of just 10 days. Starting Sunday (as that is my grocery day), we will be elliminating the following for 10 days:

1. Refined Grains-Bye bye soft and fluffy white bread. Hello dense whole wheat. Maybe I will use this week to go grain free as well ugh.
2. Refined Sugars-I was already pushing these out the door but both my husband and I still have a minor soda addiction. Not sure this is going to go over well with him.
3. Pre-packaged Foods-Again another thing that we haven't really been eating, except for at breakfast. Guess I will be getting up earlier next week! Might even surprise hubby by getting up and making him a proper breakfast at the crack of dawn.
4. Fast Foods- Since they undoubtedly fall under at least one of the above, any and all fast food will be a no. Another one that shouldn't be too hard though as we don't eat out that often.

Those are the rules! In 100 Days of Real Food's rules, they also eliminated deep fried foods. We are not big eaters of deep fried, but I believe that animal fats are healthy for you so as long as the item being fried is done in an animal fat I am ok with it.

I am hoping that the 10 days will turn into a 20 day and then into 30 days which leads to a lifetime of changes, but I am willing to take baby steps!

Picture Credit

Organic Amazon Grocery Deals

Some of these deals require Subscribe and Save to get the lowest price. Subscribe and Save can be immediately canceled after order is placed. Amazon Prime, Amazon Mom, and those who spend over $25 get free 2 day shipping!

4 boxes of Annie's Homegrown Fruit Snacks(5ct per box)-$13.45

Stretch Island Fruit Leather 30ct-$11.86

2 Boxes of Brothers-ALL-Natural Fruit Crisps(12ct per box)-$19.16

Annie's Homegrown Organic Cheddar Bunnies, Family Size , 11 Ounce Boxes (Pack of 4)-$14.13

Cascadian Farms Organic Chewy Granola Bar, Chocolate Chip, 6-Count Boxes (Pack of 6)-$21.22
6 boxes of Annie's Homegrown Bunny Graham Mix (70z each)-$15.55

Revolution Foods Organic Jammy Sammy Snack Size Sandwich Bar, Strawberry Jam & Peanut Butter, 5-Count Boxes (Pack of 5) -$13.99

Terra Sweet Potato Chips 24ct (1.2oz)-$16.63

Muir Glen Organic Tomato Ketchup, 24-Ounce Plastic Bottles (Pack of 12)-$33.83


For more great deals visit Amazon Grocery Deals!

Baked Donut Recipe

A friend of mine posted some pictures on facebook of some donuts she had made using canned biscuits. I thought, since we are cooped up inside due to the weather, that it would be fun to to make a slightly healthier version with the girls!

The recipe I found bakes the donuts instead of frying them and I swapped the processed ingredients for natural raw ones. Well, except for the butter. I went to put that in and realized I was out of raw butter so had to use my husband's country crock. I also used whole white wheat flour as I just can not get myself to like the texture of whole wheat.

Dough:
1 1/3 cups warm raw milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons raw butter
2/3 cup rapadura is best but anything is better than white sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose whole wheat white flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Topping:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.
Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (I turn on the oven at this point and set the bowl on top), and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Most people (like myself) don't have a doughnut cutter, instead I use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.
Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.
Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner.
Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts.

Be sure to visit 101 Cookbooks for some great recipes. A lot of which use whole food ingredients!

What to do with all that Chicken?

40lbs of chicken is ALOT of chicken and I was surprised when I was asked to review and giveaway some from Zaycon Foods. Thankfully I had purchased a Food Saver around Christmas when they were running some sales, but I still had to decide what to do with it all!

After a bit of thought this is what I did with our chicken:

10lbs was frozen whole. We used some of it at our Campfire Cookout with grandpa and grandma and the rest we probably end up grilling it or using it for soup. I think next time I will do something more exciting with it though.

10lbs was made into homemade chicken nuggets, baked not fried. This is a wonderful alternative to that mechanically separated chicken that is in your store bought bags.

10lbs was marinated in fajita marinade.

10lbs was done as Rosemary Garlic Chicken.

That was it! So tell me what you would do with your 40lbs of chicken if you won and then head over to my Zaycon Foods Giveaway for a chance to win 40lbs of farm fresh hormone and additive free chicken or a $35 gift card to your local grocer!

Zaycon Foods Chicken Review and Giveaway

Most of us are looking for a way to save some money. You have probably done couponing and bulk stores like Costco or Sams, but meat is still expensive! Especially, natural and organic meats. At Costco, I would pay $2.99 per pound for natural hormone free chicken!

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try a company new to the Dallas area, Zaycon Foods. Zaycon foods works directly with farmers to bring you fresh from the farm (the chicken I tried was only 24 hours old!)never been frozen, hormone free, all natural chicken at a discounted price. How do they do this? Well, they buy and sell in bulk. 40lbs per case to be specific. How discounted is the meat? This really depends on a myriad of circumstances from how many participate in the events to the price of grain and so on but during the run that I participated in meat was $1.65/lb and this time it will be $1.49 per pound! What about quality? My experience was incredible. The meat was delicious and no matter if it was eaten fresh or if I had frozen it, it was great. The hardest part has been deciding how to use it all! Zaycon has also started offering ground beef to certain areas and is working on getting a beef event set up near Dallas!

The next question is how to participate. Zaycon Foods does events in 6 different states right now. To find out if they do one near you, visit the locations tab, but even if you do not see an event near you, you can register and Zaycon Foods may schedule one near you if there is enough interest, so be sure to pass the site along! Once you sign up, you will receive an email any time there is an event in your area. Don't worry, Zaycon doesn't send spam. The only emails I have received were directly related to upcoming events and locations. You will then get an email letting you know when you are able to order. Ordering is done online and you can even make small payments into your account so that you can spread out the cost!

The N. Texas chicken event will be held on Jan 29th, 2011. I have a little "inside" information and can tell you that the pick up locations for the Jan 29th event will be: Prosper, Plano, Mesquite. You will be able to reserve and pay for your order within the next two days. Price per pound is $1.49 and quantities are sold in 40lb cases.

Now here is the fun part! I have 2 40lb cases of chicken to give away! I know sounds a bit strange, but let me tell you how it works. If you visit the Zaycon Foods website and register you will receive 1 (ONE) entry. If you LIKE Zaycon Foods on Facebook you will receive 1 (ONE) entry. If you Like Molding Minds Homeschool on Facebook you will receive 1 (ONE) entry. If you Follow My Blog you will receive 1 (ONE) entry. And last but not least if you Follow Me on Twitter you will receive 1(ONE) entry. That is a total of 5 possible entries! Please post a separate comment for each entry. Remember I have 2 cases to give away so I will be drawing twice so that is actually 10 chances to win! I will draw the 2 winners on January 21st at 3pm. Winners will be contacted by email and will need to respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be drawn.

If you win and are near a pick up location you must be willing to drive to one of those pickup locations on the day of the event to collect your prize. I can not store the chicken at my house (4olbs of chicken takes up alot of space!) so you will have to pick it up. Please do not enter unless you can agree to these rules. Chicken is not something I can hold on to until the next person is picked and I would hate for anyone to miss out on something like this!

I was paid in the form of one 40lb case of chicken for this review and giveaway. The review is my honest assement and oppinion of the chicken.

UPDATE: Zaycon has generously offered $35 gift card to your favorite grocery store for anyone who registers and wins but isnt within range of the pick up locations! Entry is the same as above!!!

Fruit Gobbler Healthy Thanksgiving Recipe

Because we homeschool we wouldn't usually have holiday parties, but because of the in home school I run we did this year!

I wanted to do something super fun that we could also eat and fell into the healthy category and I was so excited when I came across this Fruit Gobbler Recipe.

Ingredients
Bosc pear (head)
Melon (body)
Cheese (beak and tail feathers)
Red pepper (snood, feet and side feathers)
Raisins (eyes)
Grapes (tail feathers)
Bamboo skewers
Toothpicks
X
Instructions
Stabilize the melon body by cutting a shallow slice off the rind to form a flat base. Using a section of bamboo skewer, attach a Bosc pear head to the melon, as shown.

Cut a cheese triangle beak and red pepper snood. Attach both, along with raisin eyes, to the head with sections of toothpick.

Cut red pepper feet and set them in place. For tail feathers, skewer cheese cubes and red grapes, then insert the skewers as shown. Pin pepper side feathers in place with toothpicks.


I changed a few things so that I could use up some food I already had and I used a cantaloupe for the body and I couldn't get him to sit up so had to stuff some tissue paper "grass" around him. We had a lot of fun making him and he was a big hit at our party.

Menu Plan Monday HFCF

Be sure to check out http://www.orgjunkie.com/ for more great menu plan ideas!

Boy has this been a challenge. My dearest hubby is already very picky so when we decided to cut out the high fructose corn syrup, it really put me in a hard spot to find things he likes. I would eventually like to cut out all modified food, but decided to take some baby steps. I have had to start planning out all of our meals to be able to avoid just the high fructose corn syrup! Here is our menu for this week!

Monday:

Breakfast: Breakfast Cookies I added chocolate chips, granola and oats, raisins and some flax seed. The great thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much add whatever you want after you mix the base recipe.

Lunch: PB&J on whole wheat, sliced cucumber, and fruit

Dinner: Tacos

Tuesday:

Breakfast:Sugar Free Waffles fresh from the iron.

Lunch: Pizza with homemade wheat crust

Dinner: Dinner Out!

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Breakfast Cookies

Lunch: Baked Turkey with fresh veggies and fruit

Dinner: Chicken Kiev with steamed veggies

Thursday:

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce

Friday:

Breakfast: Not sure yet. Probably something with Eggs.

Lunch: Chicken Nuggets (hand battered chicken)

Dinner:Grilled Steaks with veggies

Freezer Meal Fridays

Getting rid of most packaged and processed food has also meant the death of the easy meal. No more grabbing a packaged lasagna (guaranteed to be done in 30 minutes!) and sticking it in the oven and forgetting about it until the timer goes off. I love easy meals. So Freezer Meal Fridays are my solution to losing my convenience meals. Every Friday I will be making a meal that can be easily doubled and frozen. I will also take that morning to whip up a double batch of pancakes or waffles for the freezer. I will be posting a link-up on Friday morning!

Getting Rid of High Fructose Corn Syrup

And let me tell you, it is in everything. Everything from our bread to our snacks and of course my vice, Dr Pepper. After reading around on the internet, Karl and I decided that we can't in good conscience allow our children to ingest it any more. Even if we don't believe in the mercury findings, there are just too many links to other health issues for us to ignore.

So, since we just went grocery shopping, my first decision is how to start the process. I did think about just donating what I could to a food pantry and tossing the rest, but like most families, we just can't afford to do that. Since we can't just start from scratch, we are going to finish off what we have and replace it with healthier options. I actually think that this will make it so much easier on me as I can work on gradually learning how to shop and fix meals that are HFCS free, instead of just being thrown into it full force.

This week we will be replacing our ketchup (which according to any British citizen HAS to be Heinz) with Heinz Organic Ketchup, 15-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 12) and our old granola bars with Cascadian Farms Organic Chewy Granola Bar, Chocolate Chip, 6-Count Boxes (Pack of 6).

I might eventually start making our granola bars, but for now I am taking the easy route while I am learning so as not to overwhelm myself.

Somethings I am learning right now: Organic doesn't always mean better! Sometimes the organics are packed with other things that aren't healthy so just because it says organic doesn't mean you shouldn't check the label. Healthy food is more expensive. I am definitely going to have to be more consistant and more creative with my menu planning. We may go bankrupt, but we will be healthy when we do!

If you have any tips for me I would love to hear them!