Bison

This past year, P and I have been eating according to Paleo guidelines probably 80% of the time. Its been just this past year that we have discovered how good Bison meat is. 

While not the cheapest protein we buy, we often justify the cost based upon nutritional value.  We have found this to be a delicious protein. 

Lately, we have been browning the meat, adding onion, garlic, and a bit of cayenne  pepper, served over mashed sweet potatoes with a side salad. We have eaten this meal twice this week already. Its quick, easy, and good for us. 

A few months ago, we really began to make an effort at meal planning, and increasing our vegetable, nut, and fruit intake, while decreasing the volume of protein in order to stretch our grocery dollars a bit more. For 3 weeks out of the month, we try to keep our grocery spending as minimal as possible, so that on the last weekend of the month, we get to shop at Central Market, the fancy grocery store. They have a HUGE butcher case, with nothing but high quality meats. Everything is organic or free range, and the butchers are helpful, knowledgable, patient, and giving. One week, we were given 4 links of chicken sausage for free because we were asking questions, and the female butcher wanted us to try the sausage without having to pay for it. 

Have you found an new proteins worth trying? What is your grocery shopping strategy?

While searching online I found this chart at buffalohillsbisonmeat.com

NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON Per 100 GRAM SERVING – COOKED MEAT
SPECIES	FATGRAMS	CALORIESKCAL	CHOLESTEROLMG	IRONMG	VITAMIN B-12MCG
Bison:	2.42	143	82	3.42	2.86
Beef (choice):	10.15	219	86	2.99	2.65
Beef (Select):	8.09	201	86	2.99	2.64
Pork:	9.66	212	86	1.1	0.75
Chicken (Skinless):	7.41	190	89	1.21	0.33
Sockeye Salmon:	10.97	216	87	0.55	5.80

Natures Bounty

Having a black thumb is not a good thing, especially when you are married to a former farmer. P grew up on a farm, and can grow pretty much anything. Before getting married the only think I ever grew was leg hair. One guess as to who had the better skill set.

Since marrying P however, I have become quite the urban gardner. We decided to make this year's garden the tester. This is our first spring in our home, and we were not sure what the soil would be like, and how the plants would respond to this environment. So far, things have turned out really well.
We currently have squash, broccoli, spinach, bell peppers, jalapenos, several types of tomatoes, onions and tons of herbs growing.

This year's garden. We did a mix of mounds, a small raised bed, and rows.

This is the cauliflower. Its taken this guy a long time to grow, but he is lookin' yummy!

All the onions picked right out of the ground.

Onions after an extreme home makeover.

Lots of different kinds of tomatoes.

Lots of herbs. I cut them, gave 'um a rough chop, and the froze them in oil to have fresh herbs to use in our meals. Thank you Pinterest for the idea.

 

For such a small space, the garden is looking really good. We have been blessed with so much rain this year. We are in a major drought down here, so the rain is much needed and greatly appreciated. I think we have had more rain so far this year than we have had in the past 2 years combined. No joke on that one.

 

My mom told me El Nino moved or started dating La Nina or something. Sometimes she lies to get me off her back. Growing up, I found out about the starving kids in Africa, so I often offered to send them my left overs after dinner, usually when it was something I didn't like. She told me every night that she would pack it up and ship it off, though I don't recall a nightly visit from the UPS man. Strangely enough, I never realized I was eating the same meal 3 nights in a row either. I don't know which is worse, her lying, or my third grade self being super dumb. So you see why I am skeptical of her explanation.

 

Given the rain, our garden is looking great. I decided that I want to make tomato sauce and can it later this summer once the tomatoes are ready for picking. That could turn out really fun, or me sitting in the middle of the kitchen crying while P tries to salvage my project. He is pretty cool like that.

 

Talk to me: How does your garden grow, Mary?

Lets talk trash and a dog picture

I have been experiencing some frustration latley and well, its frustrating. And stinky. And wasteful.

Its our garbage, and it stinks. P and I have been eating well and relativly cleanly for a few years, but we have tightened up since January. We eat organic meats, fresh produce, nuts, and the occassional snacks of course.

One thing that I have noticed since January is that our garbage is smeller than normal. Its bad, really really bad. I think its the organic meats. I think because they are not treated with any chemicals or hormines, the natural odors are more potent. I have noticed that if I throw out the packaging, within a few hours, it stinks up the house so badly that we have to throw the garbage bag much more often.

For a frugalista like me, this becomes so annoying because I am throwing out a 1/2 used bag. Argh. I buy the flex bags because I really like to pack them full of trash, almost to the point they are going to burst.

We have even gone to the point of buying a new trash can with a lid to keep the smell from perminating through our house. On a side note, has anyone been in the market for a new trash can latley? Those suckers can cost over $100.00 bones.....seriously, to hold my trash? Needless to say, we certainly did not buy one of those space age, gold lined, purchse from Sky Mall cans.

We have also started composting, but our compost pile is very small, and we are throwing out a good amount of our produce roots into the pile, but our compost pile is not yet ready to get so much.
Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do? I really do hate throwing out a 1/2 bag of trash.

And on a random note, I have been wanting to show you something.

I know this picture is hard to see, but a few weeks ago, I pulled up to the house after work and noticed our gate was wide open. I have no idea how long it was open, or how it was opened, but look at those dogs. I was so proud. They know they are not allowed to go in the front yard without us, and our dogs sat right by the gate and waited for us to be home!

Yard Update

This past weekend was glorious. Saturday morning P and I looked at each other, and I think we just knew it was going to be one of those weekends that we turned off the t.v. and basically lived outside.
We tended the garden, planted some roses, added some pavers, and tended the grass. At 6pm on Sunday, I realized I had not gone to the store, I had not cleaned the house, and I still had a ton of laundry to do, but friends, I didn't even care.

Grow grow grow!!

                                                                 This is the herb garden I
                                                                 planted a few months ago,
                                                                 and it is exploding!!!

                                                          This is the grass we planted back
                                                          in February, and it is growing
                                                          so well. I love that we replaced the
                                                          dirt and pebbles with this grass.

                                                        P wanted to start a rose garden
                                                        and I think they look beautiful!

                                                        Tomatoes for canning

                                                         Looking good, just grow grow grow

                                                         Veggies to eat!!

                                                         Another herb garden

A panoramic view of the yard.

 

How is your garden doing this year? 

Clean Eating, week 3

Clean Eating—Week 3

This has been the easiest week by far. I feel like P and I have really gotten into a rhythm with our eating, shopping, and preparing our foods.

One thing that is new is that P and I menu plan together, and rather than simply planning our main course, we have taken the time to plan the entire meal. Before this, I used to simply plan our dinners during the week, and as a result, we were really in a pinch for breakfast and lunch during the week, and ate out most of our meals on the weekend. Yikes! Talk about unhealthy and a budget buster. Now, doing it together is much easier and works so much better for us.

We have found that we really like shopping on Saturday morning’s. Normally we hit up 1 or 2 stores depending upon pricing, and it goes so much faster when the two of us shop together.

I have also found that we are wasting much less food than before. Rather than throwing away a ton of food every week, we have only thrown out one or two items this entire month.

We do have to do a mid- week shop to restock up on fresh fruits (bananas and grapes), but that is usually a quick trip to the store that does not take too much time.

One thing that has really helped me is P has made my breakfast every single morning, and I could not be more thankful. I work out before work, and I am usually flying around the house like a mad woman to leave on time. Every morning P scrambles me eggs with pesto, and puts it in my Tupperware container for me to grab and go on my way out the door. I don’t know that P realizes how much I appreciate this and need this.

Cutting out the refined sugar has been harder than I expected, (hello week 2) but coming out on the other side of detoxing, I can say that I never want to have to go through that again. I never want to feel like I did. I never want to be that tired, that achy, and that grumpy. It was horrible.

We have cut out, grains, refined sugar, legumes, dairy, and gluten. Because we don’t have a scale, we don’t know what our starting weight was, but I can tell that P has lost quite a bit of weight. He seems to be feeling better, and has more energy naturally rather than relying on sugar. P was a big Coke drinker, and when he went to buy a Coke, I always drank some, and requested treats when he went to the store.

We have had a few cheats and treat nights, but nothing compared to what we used to do.

All in all, it has been a great experience so far, and I think we are going to continue to eat like this for a while. We are following the Paleo plan, and have found it to be a good fit for our lifestyle.

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Clean Eating, Week 2

Week 2 of our eating cleanse is done. 

If I thought week one was hard, week 2 was rough. I really struggled this week with sugar cravings, and side effects.

I can definitely say that this week, I began to detox from sugar. I have never gone this long without sugar before and my body was fighting back, hard. Saturday through Wednesday was pretty rough for me. I had a low grade headache, I was exhausted, I was getting aches in my joints, and I was freezing all the time. I thought I was getting sick with the flu, but, after some research and consulting with a friend who has been off sugar for years, I discovered that I was in detox.  On Saturday and Sunday I ended up having to lay down for about an hour both days. I came home from work and was in bed by 8:00 each night.  I woke up about 5:00 every morning, and I just laid in bed or on the couch and watched t.v. rather than go to the gym. Finally, I started to feel better about Thursday, but still listened to my body and rested.

My sugar cravings have decreased significantly. I am not jonesing nearly as hard. P and I have cheated twice though. On Friday night we decided to pop some popcorn, and I put a small bag of M&M's in the mix for a hint of sweetness. I was surprised to find they tasted almost sickeningly sweet to me.

I don't want to get too graphic, but things in the restroom have started to change as well. Again, thanks to some research, I found out that I was suffering from something called "leaky gut." Lets just say, things have normalized.

Because we have cut out the heavy foods, and are focusing on quality meats, veggies, and fruit, I am finding that I am getting full much more quickly, and the fullness is not a heavy feeling, more of a satisfied feeling.

There have been other side effects as well. Our meals take much longer to prep, but P and I have been working as a team.  P has made me breakfast every single morning before I go to work. It is so nice to have a hot meal, made by my loving husband before I walk out the door each day.

During this challenge, we have also decided to refrain from eating out. We are spending a lot more money on food this month for several reasons. First, we are buying higher quality foods. Second, we are not eating out an cheap restaurants during the week (Chipolte, Jason's Deli, Freebirds, etc.). 

The last side effect, DISHES. We are cooking all of our meals, so we are going through so many dishes. We are both using Tupperware to take our food to work, and we are cooking all of our meals at home, and as a result, we are running the dishwasher every other day.

So far, this cleanse has been great. I am feeling better, P has lost quite a bit of weight, and I think I have dropped a pound or two as well. I feel my energy returning, and I feel healthier.

Vegan Pie in the Sky

A while back I bought this awesome book! Vegan Pie in the Sky!!!
 I made this beauty, an Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, and it was deeelish! Its a vegan pie, and it was super easy to make, and actually really really good! Everyone liked it. It was chocolaty, creamy, delishishness!
Part of my new years resolution is to try at least one new recipe a month, and this was my one for the month. 

What new recipes have you tried?

There is a such thing as a free lunch, and breakfast

We have not eaten out much this month because we are participating in Carla's no spend month. There have been a few times we have gone out to eat, but was paid for with my fun money, or P's fun money. We have been really careful with our spending this month, and our bank account is thanking us by growing slowly, but still growing!

I did get two awesome treats this weekend! On Friday there was a new pizza place opening up called Pie 5 and they were offering free personal pizza's and a drink! Score. I stopped by for lunch on Friday, and got the Tree Hugger. It was great! P stopped by for dinner and got his own, and really liked it too!

We also got a free breakfast from Cornerbakery on Sunday morning. All I had to do was sign us up to get a free Panini, and badda bing, badda boom, free breakfast for two.
Have you gotten any freebies latley?

Needing Normalcy

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was Awesome!

We had a ton of fun, spent lots of time with family, and ate great food.

We arrived back home to find our fridge in a pretty bare state. There is bread, eggs, an onion, some old jalapenos, and butter. Yummy! Needless to say, we don't have much food, and I need to hit the store soon.

While at the store I am only going to be loading up on fruits, grains, and veggies. I need to detox from all the food I ate. Basically, I spent the last few days opening presents in between moments of ecstasy with some M&M's. I was pretty hard core, pouring handful after handful into my mouth for 4 days straight. I went in single handidly, I double fisted it, and then I poured the container into my mouth, classy I know. My mom figures I went through 3 large family size bags of M&M's this week. Uhh, Houston, I have a problem.

When I took a break from the M&M's, I hit up my grandmas chocolate cake hard core also. I ate 50% of a chocolate cake, while the rest of the family shared the other half. I promise, I am not exaggerating.

Starting tomorrow, I am getting back on the wagon, and returning to my normal eating patterns.

Like any good addict, it felt great in the moment, but once I stopped binging for about 5 minutes, I felt guilty, sad, and embarrassed at my consumption. My running felt like crap because I was fueled by crap.

Will I ever learn?

My food Philosophy

The other day, I was emailing with an accountant who works in my company. She offices in another state, and we work together daily, and through our emailing, we have struck up a friendship. It is funny, because I only know her name, I have no idea what she looks like, and I have only spoken to her on the phone maybe 5 times. We do all of our work via email. And we email a lot. The past 3 weeks, we have been emailing more than usual. It has been fun to get to know her, but it is also funny how different she is from me. We somehow got on the subject of food, and she told me for dinner she had 3 packs of string cheese, and some oreos. Her boyfriend came over, saw all the wrappers, and made her eat some cereal. Then she told me how much she loved Taco Bell. I decided right then and there she needed help. I ended up typing a really long email, and after I read it, I realized that is was my food philosophy. This is my view of food:


First, if I eat meat, it will be organic.



Second, I am trying to cut out the processed foods from my diet. For example, I like mashed potatoes. I used to go to the store, buy the box of potato flakes, put it on the stove, add some milk, and enjoy. Now, I buy 2 potatoes from the produce section, boil them, and make them from scratch. I does take a bit longer, but I am eating fewer chemicals, it is cheaper, and I feel better knowing exactly what is in my food.


Third, I am trying to cut out meat. I currently go 2 or 3 days a week without meat. I like how I feel and I like that I am doing something good for my body, and my budget.


Fourth, 80% of the food in my basket is fresh produce rather than boxes. That makes me feel good.


Fifth, when I look at the food I eat, I try to figure out if that piece of food could somehow reproduce. If I dug a hole, and put in a powdered donut or some mentos, would they grow into a plant? No. But, if I dug a hole and put the seeds from my apple into the ground, it would (technically) grow into a tree that could produce more apples.


Finally, I realized that food is fuel, and I want to feel good. I don't want to eat food that weighs me down, or makes me tired. I want the food I eat to give me energy to do all the things I love to do.



I fail at this all the time. As I wrote here, I ate way too much junk food. I do not have any training in food. I am not a master in the kitchen like Denise. But, I am learning and trying, and I like where this discovery is taking me.

Hot Mess

I realized something the other day as I was checking out at the grocery store....during check out, I am a hot mess.
Let me replay the checkout from last week.

-place green bags on belt
-place groceries on belt
-my grocery store price matches- so I pull out the ad from an organic grocery store that is just too far away and the clerk has to price match my food.
-opportunity 1 for clerk to get annoyed with me
-as the clerk is bagging, I realize my cold stuff did not get put into the bag I put on the counter that is insulated to keep my groceries cold, so I say something to the clerk and start transferring the goods.
-second opportunity for clerk to get annoyed with me
- i start chatting with clerk. ask about day, how they are doing
-not sure but think this might annoy clerk....third opportunity for clerk to get annoyed with me
-everything has been scanned, and I hand over all my coupons
-fourth opportunity for clerk to get mad at me
-as the clerk scans coupons, I point out when they are scanned for the incorrect amount and ask the clerk to fix it.
-remind the clerk that she did not take off 5c per bag for my green bags---at this point she is ready to spit in my face.
-fifth opportunity for clerk and all the people in line behind me to get annoyed with me
-total pops up on screen
-i whip out my envelope system (holla holla Dave Ramsey!) and pull out my cash and fish around the coin section for the exact change
-sixth opportunity for everyone to get annoyed as I count out my change
-Finally done with check out, i swear i feel clerk and all other grocery shoppers roll their eyes as I walk away.

Yes, I am a hot mess at the check out line, but in my defense, it is really hard to buy mostly organic food, and high quality produce on a tight budget--so I have to pull out all of my tricks.

Food Inc.

We watched Food Inc. this weekend. WOW. I was floored by what we saw. Some of the things revealed in that movie blew my mind. The chemicals they use in our foods and the processes they use to grow our meat, I was horrified by what we saw. When it was over we immediatly walked out the door and went to Whole Foods. It was a nice, cleansing experience, and made me feel better.

I did walk away from the movie a bit confused on where to start. We eat pretty healthfully around here, but we don't buy organic foods because of the price, we honestly cannot afford to buy everything organic. However, we did decide that we are going to start small, and we are going to start with our meat. I go meatless 2 days a week, and this past weekend, the hubs and I talked about it, and he said he would give up meat 2 days a week also so that we can buy organic meat!!!!

While we were at Whole Foods we ended up talking to the butcher, his name is Tom. He was so helpful and very informative. We ended up buying some organic steaks(they are huge and cost a ton, they better be worth it!) and because the most common type of meat we eat is chicken, Tom the butcher gave us some raw chicken for free. He even explained how the organic chicken actually tasts different because of the way it was raised. We decided that we are going to make the organic chicken and the normal chicken we buy in the exact same way in different pans and have a little taste test. I will let you know how it goes.

What about you and your family, do yall eat organics? Do you see a difference?

(A special thanks goes out to Denise at Capturing the Days. She gave me some guidance on my food journey. Thanks Denise!)

The Best Show on T.V.

The Real Housewives of Uvalde, TX? Nope

Pregnant at 85? Nope

Surviving on this random island? Nope

BEST SHOW ON T.V. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Want to see a grown man dressed as a tomato talking to parents dropping off their kids at school? Watch this show.

Want to see a grown man passionate about food, and feeding kids well? Watch this show.

Want to see a grown man take on the establishment? Watch this show.

Want to be motivated to eat whole delicious foods? Watch this show.

Jamie Oliver is amazing on this show. I cannot get enough of it. He is trying to get into the LA school system and change the food offerings to the kids of the city, and the school board has locked him out. He turns to some guerrilla style campaigning and it is awesome!!!

I can't wait to find out if he can transform the school.

The show is on ABC but you can also find it on HULU.

Check it out.

Project 2: The Big Eat Through

A few weeks ago, I wrote about us moving--again.
I have about 6 weeks before the moving day, so I have started to find projects that need to get done around the house.
I cleaned out and organized our storage unit, which makes storing stuff much easier.
Now, I have started to try and eat through most of our food. I have been going to the store and trying to only buy fresh produce, and I want to get creative with my meals the next few weeks. I want to be able to eat through as much of the food I have on hand as much as possible. There will be some pretty "creative" (read, random junk thrown together) in the next few weeks.
Off to pack even more stuff.

Meatless times Deux!

I wrote a while ago (I have no idea when)that I wanted to go meatless once a week. I have been doing that for a while, and it is surprisingly easy. That is a big deal for me, because for about 25 years, I didn't consider it dinner if I didn't have a piece of meat, a starch, and a veggie from a can (corn or green beans???) on my dinner plate.

I started learning more about meat, what it does to your health, and how it affects you, and I have made a conscious effort to eat less meat. It has been going really well, and I decided that I can do more than just one time a week. I am upping my meatless days to 2 days a week, Monday and Friday. For the next year, I am going to go meatless on these 2 days. I want to systematically continue to cut out the meat. I have learned to enjoy Quinoa, veggies (roasted is my fav!!!) and more fruit.

I have even been eating more Whole Foods,and have cut out quite a bit of the processed stuff. Yes, I still eat wheat thins (best crackers ever!!!) but I really have changed my diet, and I like the effects. I have lost some weight, and my running is getting better and better. I like what I have done, and where this is leading!!

It is going to be a good day

yep, that is a green smoothie. That is how I am starting the day. Yum-o!

Check out My Loaves

Yep I made these bad boys from scratch! I did it!! We have made bread many many times in our house, but P is the one who makes it. Last weekend, I set out to make homeade bread and this is the final result. Well, to be honest there is a loaf not shown because I consumed half of it in less than 30 minutes. Yea, so no comments needed. I made these cinnamon and sugar with honey. I gave them all away to friends and they were a huge sucess. I was so excited about it, because these are not from a bread machine. These loaves are made by my hands. It took about 6 1/2 hours to do, but in the end, it was totally worth it.

Meatless? Me???

I have been looking more and more at what I eat. I am learning so much, and I have really realized that you are what you eat. You will get out of your body what you put in. I keep hearing so much about how many hormones are injected in our meat and all they junk that is in it. Honestly, P and I cannot afford to eat all organic. But, I have realized that I can eat less meat. Being a true Southerner, I have eat meat at almost every single meal most of my life. Growing up, we had meat, a starch, and a vegetable at every single dinner. We could not afford to eat out, but my mom made sure we had some well balanced meals. A few weeks ago I spoke with a friend who has been doing some research and she was telling me that in countries that don't consume much meat, and have a diet higher in veggies and grains have a much lower rate of cancer and obesity. After talking with my friend, I started going meatless on Mondays, which is not something that I had ever done. I have been so used to having meat so much that if there was no meat on the plate, it just seemed like a snack to me. But I have been feeling great, so I have decided to go meatless on Monday's and Friday's. Plus, I have been much more discerning about the meat that I do it.
I know that going meatless is not the answer to all the food questions I have, but I feel like this a major step in the right direction for me.