Potty training fun

I wish I could say potty training was going as wonderfully the third time around, but alas my youngest child is by far my most stubborn! We are in the middle of day 2 and we've had 2 successes... I'm celebrating them with lots of fanfare (and doing my best to forget the misses). The second time she went on the potty, she did it on her own without a single suggestion from me :) That was a bright moment in our day!

I am looking forward to being diaper-free... I hate diapers. Changing them, wiping, changing them, and then changing them again! Although the first month or two of potty training does present a whole new set of challenges like knowing where every public bathroom is at every stop we make, making sure I always have a few extra seat liners, convincing my youngest that yes, she too can use the big potty that flushes for no apparent reason (my middle dd was 5 before she was OK with that one!) and other minor inconveniences of a newly potty trained child.

Of course once this milestone is behind us, I'll forget all the trials and tribulations and simply focus on how wonderful my girls are :) But first we must master not urinating on my floors!!

Menus for this week

I'm putting together my shopping lists and finally sat down to make a menu for the week. I'm trying to figure out if we should really stick to shopping every 2 weeks or go back to weekly with TJs every 2 weeks (I think dh would flip if he had to go every week!). Here is what I have for the next week:

Today:
breakfast - toast, yogurt, OJ or milk
lunch - mini bagel pizzas, fruit, water
dinner - pasta, bread and a salad, water

Weds:
breakfast - cereal, fruit, OJ or milk
lunch - sandwiches, chips, vege, water
dinner - chicken enchiladas, fruit, water

Thurs:
breakfast - waffles, fruit, OJ or milk
lunch - cheese, crackers, yogurt, fruit, water
dinner - bbq chicken sandwiches, fries, salad, water

Friday:
breakfast - toast, yogurt, OJ or milk
lunch - sandwiches, chips, fruit, water
dinner - pizza, fruit, soda (actually sparkling fruit juice... Friday night treat)

Saturday:
breakfast - cereal, fruit, OJ or milk
lunch - crackers, cheese, yogurt, veges, water
dinner - burgers, beans, veges

Sunday:
breakfast - pancakes, fruit, OJ or milk
lunch - sandwiches, chips, fruit, water
dinner - grilled chicken, rice dish, salad, water

Monday:
breakfast - toast, yogurt, OJ or milk
lunch - mac & cheese, fruit, water
dinner - mac & beef casserole, bread, veges, water

Tuesday:
breakfast - cereal, fruit, OJ or milk
lunch - sandwiches, chips, veges, water
dinner - eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit and water

I do have water planned with most meals, however the girls may have chocolate milk depending on how much water they've had throughout the day. I have syrup on hand so it isn't really an issue. Planning out breakfast and lunch is new... usually I wing it, but I'm hopeful that if I have it planned out we can avoid eating cereal every day.

I'm planning to go blueberry and plum picking later this week unless the local farmers' market has beautiful berries and plums at a reasonable price... then I'll just stock up there and freeze the blueberries for later use this winter in pancakes, waffles, salads and whatever. I'm simply looking forward to some fresh plums!

How do your menus look for this week?

School lunch boxes

Yes, I just got back from vacation and find myself looking for new lunch boxes for my oldest girls. We have used Lands End lunch boxes for the last 2 years, but I have to say that they rather stunk! The first one was difficult to clean and started falling apart by the end of the year. The second 2 were easier to clean (new design) but started falling apart as well. Now, my girls aren't rough on their lunch boxes and while Lands End does have great customer service I simply don't want another lunch box falling apart!

After some serious searching and reading, here is what I came up with:

http://www.laptoplunches.com/

These look like a great alternative to throw away lunch packaging and with any luck they will be sturdy! They are priced similarly to everything else I saw, but I like the concept of the containers and everything being completely safe. I ordered 2 laptop lunch systems and I'll let you know what I think when I get them!

Had to share this article

As so many of us are trying to squeeze organics into our shrinking household budgets, I saw this article on msnbc:

How to buy organics while on a budget

It is a lot of the same old, same old, but sometimes the same old thing can be a good reminder! They also provided a link to The Organic Center which looks like it could hold some gems of information. I haven't been through it yet... I am on vacation after all!

Happy reading!

Ahhhhh... VACATION!

How I love vacation... beach and/or pool all day, grilled food and no real plan except to have fun :) I hope you're enjoying summer too! I'll be back to trying to figure out our frugally organic life style all too soon!!

See you later :)

Vacation at last!

Today is my day to pack :) I can't wait for everyone to get up so we can get it going... well after we make waffles! I wanted to share my rough food cost breakdown for this week of fun in the sun. I've broken it down by meal (estimating in some places when needed). All meals will serve 2 adults, 1 teenager, and 3 kids:

Meal 1 - sloppy joes
2 pounds grass-fed ground beef (from local farm): roughly $8 (from my freezer)
2 boxes of Annie's mac and cheese: $4.78
Rolls: $3.19
Fresh fruit: ? I'll purchase this at the local farmer's stand en route
Estimated total: $20

Meal 2 - burgers and dogs
2 pounds grass-fed ground beef: roughly $8
Organic hot dogs: $5.81
Chips: $3
Buns: $1.50
Raw veges: ? I'll purchase this at the local farmer's stand too
Estimated total: $20

Meal 3 - Chicken
2 packs of organic chicken: roughly $14 (DH will purchase today at TJs)
2 boxes of alfredo risotto: $5.02
Corn-on-the-cob: ? I'll purchase this at the local farmer's stand
Estimated total: $23

Meal 4 - Steak
Steak: roughly $20 (DH will purchase today at TJs)
Organic potatoes: $3.91
Salad: roughly $4
Estimated total: $30

Meal 5 - Ribs
3 large racks of ribs: $30
2 cans of organic green beans: $3.46
Salad: roughly $4
Estimated total: $38

Meal 6 - Meatball subs (this is for arrival night... instead of take-out pizza)
Leftover frozen meatballs: no cost since I bore initial cost in my monthly budget
Chips: $3
Raw veges: ? I will purchase this from local stand
Estimated total: $7

Lunches will be leftovers, lunch meat, pb&j, cheese and crackers and what not. At most I have spent $20 on items to bring for lunches.

Breakfasts will be frozen waffles that I made with my iron. I mixed up 2 batches of pancake mix... just need to add wet ingredients. I purchased 1 large box of "vacation cereal" - in this case Lucky Charms - for $4. We will also have bagels on hand that was part of my monthly budget but we haven't eaten them yet.

Snacks will be plentiful! I won't list my purchases but I will say my total food purchase bill thus far is $123.55 (not including chicken and steak). This is for a week of food (including new condiments to bring so we aren't traveling with large open bottles) for 6 of us! Wahoo! My average dinner cost is an estimated total of $23 or $3.83/person. I realize that will go up slightly once I make the vege and fruit purchases and we go out to eat for our one cook-free night, but overall I feel like I'm providing my family (and niece) with healthy food options during vacation. And the best part is most of the food is already prepped... it just needs to thaw and cook!

Happy vacation to me!

Preping and cooking day

I'm busy preping and cooking some of our vacation food. I mixed up 2 batches of pancake mix (dry half of it) with instructions on the bag for what else I need. I also took that opportunity to cook up a 3rd batch for breakfast today and bonus! There are enough leftovers to have them for breakfast Saturday morning too.

I'll make up one last batch of waffles for breakfast tomorrow morning and freeze what we don't eat (that should bring me up to 9 huge waffles for vacation).

I have meatballs going for dinner (in grape jelly and chili sauce... these make yummy subs) and I will have enough left to freeze and take for dinner our first night at the beach. I also have sloppy joes going in my other crockpot that I will freeze and use for dinner. This is my favorite sloppy joe recipe:

1 pound of ground beef
1 onion (and/or green pepper) chopped
3/4 C ketchup
2 Tbsp. chili sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. mustard
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar

- Brown beef and onion in saucepan. Drain.
- Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 4-5 hours.
- Serve on buns (whole wheat work great!)

I have cookies to bake Saturday night for the drive (so they are wonderfully fresh!) and I will possibly make granola bars too. That leaves me with making sandwiches for lunch so we don't have to pay to eat junk :)

We did our shopping today... dh will hit TJs on his way home from work completing all of our vacation food purchases. I'll update tomorrow with my final analysis of how we did.

10 tips for going green

I found this article at MSNBC and thought I'd share their 10 tips for going green.

1. Clean green - Scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom with synthetic cleansers is counterintuitive (why would you want to breathe in harsh chemicals or leave a toxic residue on your tub or tiles?). From counter sprays to toilet scrubs, there are green cleansers for every part of the house.

2. Invest in a new candle - Opt out of out regular scented candles (synthetically-fragranced candles often contain phthalates, compounds that are thought to disrupt hormone functioning) and go for a naturally-scented soy candles instead.

3. Flush efficiently - The EPA estimates that flushing makes up 30 percent of a household’s water use (about three to six gallons per flush). Placing a brick in your toilet tank will help to conserve the amount of water used during each flush.

4. Trade your bulbs - Switch from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, which use about 75 percent less energy.

5. Furnish wisely - Think about how those chairs or sofa or throw pillows were made. Whenever possible seek out furniture and home accessories that are constructed from certified sustainable wood — look for the FSC label (Forest Stewardship Counsel), reclaimed materials, bamboo, organic cotton and so on.

6. Eat right - Support regional farmers by seeking out fresh, locally grown food and whenever possible buy organic.

7. Become a biker - Biking is an excellent form of eco-friendly transportation — good for both you and the planet. If you have to drive, keep other cars off the road by carpooling.

8. Reuse your lunch box - Pack your sandwich in a reusable container and if you must use plastic bags, wash and reuse them for tomorrow’s lunch.

9. Print properly - At work, think twice about printing, but if you absolutely must hold that document in your hand, fill your printer with recycled paper and print on both sides of the sheet.

10. Hit the power button - Turn your computer, printer, fax and copy machine off when you’re finished for the day.

We do a little more than half of these... I'm not sure I can convince hubby to put a brick in the toilet tank though. That may be too much for him for now. All in all, these are excellent suggestions and most are relatively easy to incorporate into our lives.

Vacation food

We are going to the beach this month and we can not wait! However, this does mean that I need to plan, purchase and prep meals and food for the trip. Everyone is always amazed that we bring our food to the beach and don't wait to purchase it there. I prefer to bring it for many reasons, but the top 2 reasons are:

1. I prefer to have organic and/or locally grown food. We do stop at a farmer's stand on the way to buy fruit and veges knowing that they are local.

2. I have no real desire to shop at Food Lion :) This is my own personal thing!

So, I will be busy prepping 5 meals this week. Here is my menu:

Ribs - already bought and frozen. I simply need to bring a few bottles of bbq sauce and foil for these bad boys and yummmmmmmmmmmm!

Sloppy Joes - already have the ground beef for these. I need to prep and cook them so I can freeze them. This is one of my beach favorites because all we do is thaw and heat!

Burgers and hot dogs - already have the ground beef and need to buy the dogs. I may also buy a small package of brats to keep dh happy.

Steak - need to buy the steak this week and mix up marinade. I will freeze this one in the marinade so when it is thawing it is soaking it all up - mmmmmmmm.

Bbq chicken - I'm experimenting with a new bbq sauce today. If we like it I may freeze the chicken in the sauce... I'll know more later.

Side dishes are always easy... Annie's mac and cheese, risotto, lots of fresh fruit and veges, chips or anything else that may strike my fancy when I go shopping. We usually have dessert too... ice cream, pudding or something else that is really easy :) You can never have too much ice cream at the beach!

I will be cooking up a few batches of waffles this week and freezing them to take. We are all looking forward to these. The girls get to choose one horribly sugary cereal to take... this is a vacation-only treat. I'll also cook up a batch or two of pancakes to take for breakfasts too. Other than that we'll have eggs and hash browns and maybe even some bacon. I love vacation!

Lunch is almost always leftovers or sandwiches and chips. Easy and quick!

We'll probably pick up pizza for our first night there since we'll get there somewhere between 4-6pm. And we'll go out to eat dinner once while we are there. We have found that our kids can handle it once... generally they are too tired to sit through a dinner in a restaurant where we expect them to behave like angels :) After a full day in the sun, ocean and pool they usually just want to hang out and play games! Me too :)

I'll post my shopping list and my spending goals tomorrow. Until then I'll be dreaming about the ribs and steak.....

Food processor to the rescue!

I've been playing with my food processor (fp) this week after DH had a minor meltdown about the economy and our budget. Here is what I've discovered - this is based on organic produce but I have no doubt there are savings across the board:

Hash browns: a bag of hash browns is $2.69 (I think that was on sale) for one pound and a 5 pound bag of potatoes is $5. If I shred the entire 5 pound bag I'm still only spending $5 for 5 pounds of hash browns. If I buy 5 bags of hash browns I'm spending $13.45. Total potential savings - $8.45! This will also hold true for homemade french fries instead of frozen fries.

Carrots: a 1 pound bag of baby carrots is $2.99. A 5 pound bag of regular carrots is $5. I can use my fp to slice or shred the carrots. I can then use the prepared carrots for a side dish or to enhance our salads or I can freeze them for later use. I can also peel and cut the carrots into sticks to eat. Potential savings: $9.95!

So, just by changing my potato and carrot buying habits we can save $18.40/month or roughly $220.80/year!

I also discovered that I can use my fp to make pizza dough! This is huge for us because we use our breadmaker to make pizza dough weekly, but we're learning that 1 pizza isn't enough for the 5 of us. Now I can make 2 crusts at the same time which solves our problem and keeps us from ordering out or buying a frozen pizza to go with our homemade pizza. I haven't calculated the monetary savings for this, but frozen organic pizzas aren't cheap so I'm thinking it is significant!

My fp came with tons of recipes... from coleslaw to mayo! I plan on trying out a lot of these simply to see where I can save money. Hmmmm... I may have to try slicing hard-boiled eggs since my egg slicer has died!

What do you use your fp to make? Apparently I'm a little green to this kitchen-wonder (no pun intended LOL)!

Two stores in under $100!

I did it! I made it in and out of Costco and my market for under $100 - yay me! $94.15 to be exact. That total does include diapers (will this child ever be potty trained?!), wipes and ribs for vacation. It means I have to really watch what I buy next week for here and vacation - can't go wild at the stores!

Today we are off to visit a local farm that doubles as a doggie day care and boarding facility. I'm not sure if it will be less expensive than our current option, but the dogs would certainly be happier! They are not crated or put in a run at the farm. They are free to play, swim and romp about all day and then they sleep in the house at night - how perfect is that?! We'll see when I find out the price LOL

After the farm we are scheduled to go to the pool - I'm not sure we'll go. It would cost us $12 to get in plus gas to get there - I'm not convinced it is really worth it. Of course my kids think it is worth it but when I see that we spend close to $450-500 on gas each month it is a little hard to believe the pool is worth it. Besides how can I reduce our carbon footprint if we are out driving around every day when we don't really NEED to do it? ~sigh~ Being a responsible grown-up isn't always easy.

Coming tomorrow... how a food processor has possibly saved our organic food budget.

My first shopping trip analysis for July

Yesterday I shopped at Trader Joes. I'm comparing prices with an organic coop (CM) that I shop at regularly.

-Organic Pulp-free and calcium-added OJ: $3.99 ($5.69 at CM) – I saved $13.60
-Chicken breast: $4.69/pound ($6.19/pound at CM) – this is All natural with no antibiotics or hormones. It is also never fed animal by-products – I saved $6.22 today.
-Whole organic chicken: $2.69/pound ($2.39/pound for Natural whole fryer at CM – I saw the natural ones at TJ but didn’t note the price because I already had mine bagged and was on the move)
-Organic bananas were $0.29/pound! ($0.69/pound at CM) – we stocked up knowing we can use some for baking.
-Organic romaine hearts $2.79 ($3.99 at CM) – I’m guessing most of their lettuce was cheaper – saved $2.40 today
-Organic frozen corn $1.69 ($2.69 at CM) – saved $2 today

I also got snack foods and some frozen convenience meals (for Ron to use in his lunches when there aren’t leftovers) and those are all free of high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils – this included some mini bagels and pita pockets to use for sandwiches). They have a small cereal selection, but I think we’re going to try moving away from cereal for breakfast for a bit to see how that impacts the budget so that worked for me. My total savings today was $26.22 over CM. I’m not sure how that would stand up to MOMS but I think overall it would still be worth a monthly trip J It was roughly 40 miles round trip – so about $6 in gas. Not bad!

My total spent was $183.14 and with any luck this will be the biggest amount spent this month since I stocked up on OJ and chicken. I will be hitting my market, Costco and one other store later today to stock up on a few things that TJs didn't have that I will need this month. I'll also start my vacation shopping (a small curve ball for July!). My goal is to keep all of my shopping today under $100 (I am buying ribs for vacation). I can do it!

I'm back and feeling inspired once again!

Hi to anyone who is actually reading this blog :) It's been roughly 3 months since I blogged and I've missed it. I was feeling rather uninspired about organic eating and living - frugally that is. The price of food and gas has really hit us hard and while we haven't made any large, sweeping changes to our budget and life - it is scary to see the real numbers! Regardless, here is what we've been up to:

Our basement project is chugging along. Drywall is complete, tile will go into the bathroom this weekend, doors will be hung and then we paint and paint and paint. From there we'll see how fast it goes LOL We are doing the painting and trim-work ourselves to save money. DH will also install the bamboo flooring around the wet bar to save money there. Overall, we are thrilled with this project - it has drained our savings so it is a little scary, but we planned it so really it is fine.

Food - ACK! We finally took a long, hard look at our budget last night and here is our plan of attack - track every penny for the month of July to figure out where it is all going! I budget a large amount for food each month and we are going to work together to try and cut that budget a bit. For instance, we have rediscovered our food processor. I spent the morning cutting up carrots (and not baby carrots - expensive!) and making shredded hash browns from potatoes that needed to be used. I LOVE my food processor! I will be going to the market later today to do some price comparisons for real savings, but I'm guessing it will be significant. My quest in the food budget for the month of July is to figure out how to make more of our favorite things from scratch (and yes, cutting my own hash browns counts LOL) to see if it saves money. We also discovered Trader Joes - OMG can you say SAVINGS?! And the best part is there is one not far from DH's job and he has volunteered to do that shopping! Not only does that mean we aren't spending anything on gas to get there, but DH will stick to a list and not deviate - that is HUGE :)

Gas is another scary line item on our budget. We aren't sure how to lower it considering DH works an hour or so away and his job isn't supportive of working from home. So, this will fall primarily on me and my driving. I feel like I've cut it back as much as possible, so it really means we'll be home most weekends :)

Hopefully I can stay inspired to help us get our budget and savings back on track... and hopefully we can be inspired together! Let me know that you're reading this... it is lonely to think I'm writing it all for myself :)