Why Sunday is my Favorite day :)

     I know most people's Sunday consist's of relaxing and preparing for the work week. Well, at our house Sunday is our most productive day. Between laundry, cleaning, taking care of the animals, baking, blogging (of course) and playing with the wee ones. I took lots of pictures so I thought I'd share a few with you :)
  
                  First on our list of things to do is feed the chickens and ducks.... but Scooby can't
                                                           resist the chicken feed either.

                    We spotted a cool looking butterfly on our front porch, it had 4 separate wings.

                                                               A fruity breakfast, yummy!!

                              But our favorite part about Sunday is making lunches for the week, baking
                                                         and trying out new delicious recipes!!

        My husbands works on a construction site and still takes his lunch, this is his usual pictured below. Naked burrito (or sometimes he'll bring a tortilla wrap) which includes lots of chopped fresh veggies, jasmine rice with lime and cilantro, black beans and of course hot sauce and a big ice cold tea. **Note this is 3-4 days  worth. We make a bunch so in the evenings before work he can just put everything into on container and he's ready to go.

     We bake our bread for the week, and this week we tried an artisan style loaf with honey and oats. And of course we had to taste test it and it turned out great!

And for dinner we made a raw buddha bowl, but I decided to switch it up a bit for the kiddos because they love finger foods. So here's the kid version...                                                     

    and the adult version...

 Did I mention they ate every bite? They love their raw veggies!!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week and make sure and check my recipe page. I'll add recipes for everything I mention on my blogs and others. Thanks for stopping by :)

Food for Thought

Gooooood Morning!!! I'm in such a fantastic mood this foggy Saturday morning. I wanted to share and disprove all the people out there that say....I would love to eat healthy but I just can't afford it. I'm sure you've either thought it yourself or heard someone else say it.

     Let me start by telling you last year I received a book from my father-in-law titled "The Vegetarian Handbook". I never talked about becoming a vegetarian, nor did I ever even consider it. I'm one of the lucky ones that never had an issue with weight and no medical conditions to speak of. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure why he had the book seeing how that entire side of the family are huge into hunting (for food, not sport).

     Anyways, needless to say I cracked it open and read the first three chapters and that was it! The book isn't new, it's was actually written back in the 1987. It was full of disgusting and eye opening facts about not only how meat effects your system, but how the FDA goes about checking our food and the biggest was the effect of all this in our children. DONE, how could I go back to eating the way I was after reading all these facts?

      I didn't start by cutting everything out, it was actually a gradual process. First, the red meat HAD to go, a couple months later I no longer felt the need for chicken and I only cut out fish in the last two months. So, It took me and my family a grand total of about 10 months to become a full veggie :) Oh and I forgot to mention the easiest switch was the milk. I first tried soy and ehhh it was alright but then I found Almond milk. Ahhhh Almond milk if you've never had it I highly suggest trying it Vanilla, Original, and Chocolate, Yummy!

      Ok, so before you quit reading this because you expect the rest of this entry to be me trying to convert you over to vegetarianism, I'm not. It's not for everyone I completely understand the only thing I'm an advocate of is if you feel the need to eat meat either cut out red meat at least or buy Organic if you can afford it. And, most importantly PORTION control! So, on that I'll get on with what this post is really about.....Groceries!!!

      I did my weekly shopping yesterday and I hit and all time low on my bill. I have a family of four, and we like to munch all day. And ideally I like to buy Organic everything, but moneys tight and the food prices keep going up and up. So, unfortunately we had to settle for the chemical ridden fruit and veggies that most supermarkets have readily stocked just in till our garden starts coming in!!

Drum-roll please......................total price for an entire week's groceries.......$88.49   Tah dah!

    I would like to add that the only ingredients besides what I purchased from the store I'll be adding in for our meals was 2 bags of dried beans ($1 something each), a 5 pd bag of brown rice ($4-5) and 2 bags of sprouts ($1.49 each). So, if you'd like to save a bit of money on your next grocery bill try my weekly meal plans. I'll be adding a whole section of recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cheap, easy and fast to make!! Oh and did I mention super nutritious???

Lastly, food for thought. Every time you go to take a bit of anything stop and think about what your going to benefit from it. It's not about being full to be full, it's about getting the most from everything you eat. And tell me, what's more important than your health? Just take control and be aware :)