Food Snobbery on a Budget...

this post also appears at "Cooking Green with Lia Jean"

Hi, my name is Lia Jean Green bean-eating-machine Mack, and I'm a food snob.

I blame my parents for having us live in Italy for three years while I was growing up. Every Friday morning, the town we lived in held an open air market - mercato - where you could purchase anything and everything fresh.

Fresh fish from the sea, fresh artichokes picked that morning, homemade pastas that took two seconds to cook...and eat ;) Oh, and let's not forget the cheese wagon. Every Wednesday at the same exact time, a man pulling a cart of cheese wheeled down our street singing, "formaggio... mozzarelli... provelone..."

Now that's a real cheese wagon :)

So I got mega used to eating whole fresh foods...and fell in LOVE! There is no beating the taste of a ripe red tomato mixed with fresh basil, straight from the garden. I think that's why everything tastes so much better in Italy. Everything is fresh and local. So what if I couldn't drink the water or that the heat and electricity went off daily at 3pm because someone had to go home for siesta. I was in food heaven!!!

And then we moved back to the States - God love America - where there is a grocery store open daily on almost every corner. Only thing, most of the food available here comes in a box. Or a plastic bag. Or worse! And it's not fresh. It's not even local!

Oh, the horror!!!

Well, fast forward to 2010. I'm married to super conservation man and together we are raising two amazing little greenies. I've been a stay at home mom for six years and have not one thing in my life to complain about. Nothing, that is, except my food budget. It's tight. Living on one income in a very expensive part of the country and being able to buy good whole food that is fresh, organic, and local is difficult to say the least. But it's doable. And for a while there I was doing pretty good.

For the last two years, however, I've been feeling the pinch. Food prices continue to rise, utilities are still going up, and summer is coming, which can only mean one more thing will be getting more expensive. Gas. Just in time for everyone to want to get out and have fun after being frozen all winter. So nice of them...

Yet, I still want to be able to feed my family well, but wanting to buy and eat only organic, local, fresh foods can be quite costly. I know of one local mom who spent over 15K last year in food alone because they ONLY eat local, organic, fresh meats, cheeses, fruit, vegs, ect.... That's a lot of money.

Of course I could easily manage to buy all sorts of shit food (pardon my language) with my food budget. I could feed my family from the box and dollar menu and have money left over! But I'm a food snob, remember? I cannot eat that stuff. Ingredients I can't pronounce? Food that doesn't even look or taste anything like food? Packaged, frozen, processed, freeze dried disgustingness???

Oh no. Not me, baby. Not after eating REAL food. It's just not possible.

Plus, I don't want my kids eating shit - crap - either. We are what we eat. When we eat crap, we feel like crap and therefore act like crap. And I'm not interested in taking care of kids who act up all the time and get sick all the time because they are being fed crappy food.


So, having very little wiggle room in the budget, but wanting only the best (what mom doesn't?), I've learned how to get most everything we need (aka: I want) on the budget we have. It's fun being a food snob. You just have to find a way to do it when you don't have endless amounts of the green stuff lying around. Below are some of the things I do to get what I want, thus enabling me to eat really yummy good for me food all the time

I don't do all my shopping in one place.
Some things at my main grocery store are too expensive, yet elsewhere they aren't. Took me a while to scout out all the good deals, but now I know that by going to three separate stores on a rotation, I can come home with a lot more of what I want for less $.

I garden.
I grow tomatoes and herbs and carrots and potatoes and all sorts of yumminess :) By doing so, I control what goes in and on my food. The kids have their own garden plots too, and we spend a good deal of time with our beloved Mother Earth to keep it going. After the cost of seeds, what we reap is free. FREE! Best price ever :)

I go to Farmer's Markets.
And stock up. What I find for good deals, I buy bunches of and freeze what we're not eating that week. Frozen blueberries, frozen green beans, frozen anything. Tastes great when picked and stored at peek season. Nothing better than pulling out veggies in the dead of winter that you bought fresh and know where they came from. Tastes great.

I buy in bulk.
When I can, I save up and buy staples in bulk. Flour, sugar, pasta, rice... This year I'm buying 1/4th of a bison and a neighbor of ours who likes to hunt is getting us a deer. Who knows how long this supply of meat will last, especially since we only eat meat two to three times a week. (Meat is pricey) This, of course, will happen after I find an inexpensive deep freezer on Craigslist (anyone have one they don't want?)

I do without.
Yes, you heard it. We don't buy pop (soda). The kids drink juice once a day and that's it. Instead we drink water, H2O, aqua fresca...you get the picture. Same thing with junk food. Since we don't eat it, we don't buy it, thus we save big bucks. And if it's not on sale and it's not in the budget, oh well. Better luck next time, right?

I stretch it.
I can make five meals out of one chicken. And that doesn't include the amount of chicken stock I make and use from the bones. So I might spend a little more buying an organic chicken - or A LOT more buying an organic local chicken - but I'll make that dollar stretch as much as possible. With a little ingenuity, you can think of ways to make anything stretch more than one meal.

Of course, all of this takes time, energy, and knowledge, something that most of us are hard pressed to find. But it CAN be done if you put in the work. The biggest benefit from all of this? You won't have to compromise. I don't. Just know that there will be times when you can't get the big ticket items, but that's fine. You don't have to have exactly what you want ALL the time, do you? My goal is to have good for us food only, and don't concern myself with specifics.

Everyone can be a food snob on a budget. All you have to do is learn to go with the flow, enjoy what's in season, and make the most of what you've got.

:)

Baby food...doesn't have to be PUREE

When you think of baby food, a few words come to mind, bland, dull colored, puree, mush, all around YUCK! As my 6 month daughter is venturing into the world of food I have realized how many options there are. First, let me start by saying that I had already decided that I would be making my own baby food. For a few reasons, first and foremost because I want to be able to expose my daughter to a variety of different flavors, textures, colors, fruits and vegetables. If I was to buy her food at the store I would be limited in what I could expose her to, if I make it myself the sky is the limit, well actually the produce section at the grocery store but you get the idea.

I want to be able to control what goes into her food, if I make it myself I know EXACTLY what went into her food and I could add things like leeks, basil, vanilla bean, nutmeg...of course not yet she has to get introduced slowly but the options are limitless. I can make kale for her, how many times have you seen kale on the baby food aisle at the grocery store? The future for her and her palate are as big as my imagination.

I think the biggest revelation I have had is that baby food doesn't have to be PUREE. Of course I'm not saying that I can just cut up and apple and gave it to my daughter. What I'm saying is that we start our babies off on food that is a consistency that unless you're eating pudding everyday for the rest of your life isn't a natural consistency. Not that pudding everyday would be a bad thing, but I think one of the greatest things about food (other than the taste) is the different textures everything has in your mouth. How a pear feels when you bite into it compared to an apple, of course you can tell an apple from a pear by the taste of it, but if they both had the exact same flavor you would still be able to distinguish the two by texture.

Anella's first food was avocado, I was really excited to start with avocado because when I feed it to her it will be the exact same texture as when I eat it myself. After avocado, we moved onto peas, now we had a rainy weekend and I decided to puree some peas and freeze them for her. So we heated up the puree fed it to her and she enjoyed it. At dinner that night my husband and I had peas as well, and I realized that if I just pop them out of their little shell she would be able to eat the small pieces that were left. And so it goes, pea after pea. I placed them very carefully on her highchair table and she would slowly pick it up, look at it and stick it in her mouth. Once she got it in her mouth she would make a "chewing" motion and it would be gone. And so it goes, pea after pea. Every once in a while I'd take a peek into her toothless mouth to make sure she wasn't storing them all for later, but after much searching I found that her mouth was empty and she was just enjoying her new ability to feed herself. So this got me to thinking. baby food doesn't have to be puree, and why should it be!

Body After Baby Challenge: Green Mama Lia, week 1

Ok, so I joined the challenge...I'm motivated...but do I have any goals that I'm hoping to reach? Hmm, I don't know...do I?

I should, because having goals keeps up the motivation. So, ok, goals. Think, Green Mama Lia, think...

Alright, I got it!

I don't have a goal weight in mind and I already fit into my pre-baby jeans, so I think my goals are going to go beyond the norm. That's ok with me, I enjoy my freedom outside the box ;)

I think I'll organize my Body After Baby Challenge goals into two separate parts:

Goal #1: Eat Healthy Choices Only
My main goal is to eat only organic, local, fresh, whole foods all week, no matter what meal/snack, so finding it within my budget...it'll be a challenge in and of itself! But I believe eating whole healthy foods without pesticides, growth hormones, and toxic chemicals is the way to go if you want to be healthy, not just look nice.

Goal # 2: Increase Activity Level Daily
Ha! Ha! This one's going to be hard. I am a runner and usually run 2-3 times a week, 3 miles as the norm. But I haven't run since November because of some weird health issues I've been having, and they've also been keeping me from my usual active lifestyle. Sooooo.... My goal is to add either some easy activity to every day, either yoga, walking, or dancing in the living room... :) I hope to get myself back into my normal swing of things, as I love being outdoors hiking and running and just being active! I think that's one of the best things about being alive.

I'll post updates too, because I think it's important to check in and make sure what you're doing is actually working.

My main goal is to feel as good - health wise - as I did before I had kids. Having kids is really hard on your body, and I want to get back in shape so I can keep up with everything and everyone I love. Every week I'll keep track of how I feel in general and decide if the food/exercise choices I've made are working or need to be tweaked a bit.

My starting point right now?
Activity level = zero
Healthy Food Choices = so far, so good
weight = I'll tell if you tell!
pre-baby jeans = still fit, don't hate me!

Ok, so you asked for goals, you got goals...I'll post weekly and see how this challenge pans out for me.

;)

Body After Baby Challenge: Let's Get Motivated!

Alright green mamas, are you ready for a challenge? I know I am, so that's why I'm signing us up for the "Body After Baby Challenge"!

Oh, don't look at me like that...this is going to be fun, I promise ;)

This weeks question from the challenge's host MamaNotes is simple:

what motivates you?

Do you want to fit in your pre-baby jeans again? Be fit and trim in time for bikini season? Or just plain ol'feel good?

As for me, what motivates me the most is whether of not I feel healthy after my meals. I don't particularly care what I look like - fit, thin, trim. Yes, I do enjoy fitting into my pre-baby jeans, but I'm not obsessed about how I look at this point of my journey. I'm not posing for any centerfold anytime in the near future.

But what I do care, really care about, is how I feel.

If I eat pre-packaged, processed foods that contain wonderful ingredients such as HFCS, MSG, and the like, I feel like I've been hit by a Mack Truck the following day. No joke, and no pun intended (my last name is Mack ;). So my constant challenge is to find good healthy food choices for every meal, every snack, every day.

And this is no easy challenge since I'm a stay at home mom, make no extra income, and live in a high dollar area. And while I've chosen this lifestyle of frugalness with pleasure - as I love consignment shops and being thrifty in general - when it comes to food...there isn't much wiggle room when you want the good stuff.

But in order to feel the best I can feel, I need to eat whole foods, preferably organic, and totally fresh. This motivates me to find local markets, even in the winter time, where I can buy fresh produce, eggs, breads, and grass-fed meats and dairy. To find local markets near you, check out LocalHarvest.org. They've got a listing for everything.

Joining the challenge? What's your motivation?

:)

Pumpkin Soup with Sausage

My kids loved Green Mama Amanda's Pumpkin Pancakes so much that I thought I'd try adding pumpkin into another meal: dinner!

I was totally skeptical at first. I don't know why. I guess I've just never had pumpkin in a savory dish before. But the end result was not only a good for you soup - with all the nutritional ingredients that help you stay healthy and strong as Mother Earth puts on the chill - it was also very delicious!

And the kids loved it! Very important ;)

As always with my recipes, this is cooking...NOT baking. Therefore both the ingredients and the amounts can vary. That's why I love cooking...it's all about plus-n-minus ;)

What you need...in the order you need them

• olive oil - enough to cover the bottom of your soup pot, and then some
• 2 Tbsp butter
  
• 1 onion chopped (your choice - yellow, white, red)
• pinch of salt
• 3 carrots chopped
  
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 5 garlic cloves (more if you like, less if you want)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  
• 6 cups water (or chicken stock if you have it)
  
• 10 baby red potatoes quartered (I bet sweet potato would be good too!)
• 4 sweet Italian sausage links sliced or crumbled
  
• black pepper to taste
  
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste
  
• 2 tsp cumin
  
• 1 tsp thyme
  
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp black strap molasses (very good for you, adds depth of color and flavor)
  
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup (high in iron & calcium, my super most secret ingredient ever!)
  
• pinch of salt to taste
  
• yes, it's a lot...it's soup!!
  

What to do...

1. Saute onion, carrots, celery in olive oil and butter for 5 minutes
   
2. add pumpkin puree and allow to mix-n-mingle for 5 minutes
   
3. add water, potatoes, sausage...and everything else into the pot
4. bring to a high boil for 20 minutes
5. lower to a low boil for 30 minutes
6. serve with Parmesan cheese, buttered bread, anything you like ;)

As always, have the kids help out in the kitchen and out back dumping the kitchen scraps into the compost.

Hope you have some chilly weather your way to try out this wonderful fall soup...enjoy!

:)

Pumpkin patches popping up all over the place!

I'm sure you've noticed the pumpkin patches starting to open up around your town. This is just yet another reminder that soon the weather will start to cool, the evenings will be darker and best of all we get to enjoy the fabulous flavor of pumpkin! So to get you started here's two of my favorite recipes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

In a bowl combine:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

In a separate bowl mix:

1 cup organic milk

1 egg

1/3 cup organic pumpkin (I typically add more and adjust the flour for consistency)

Now mix wet and dry ingredients together, let stand for 5-10 minutes. Cook pancakes.

We like to add extra garnishes as we cook them some of our favorites are chopped walnuts, bananas, dried cranberries, pecans...etc.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup molasses

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup organic pumpkin

1.) Combine flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder, nutmeg, baking soda & salt. Stir in crystallized ginger

2.) Whisk eggs, egg white, oil, molasses & sugar. Whisk in pumpkin. Fold into dry ingredients until just combined.

3.) Pour into bread pan and cook @ 350degrees for 35-40minutes.

Quick Summer Favorites: Quinoa Salad

Quinoa, gold of the Incas, is a wonderfully light tasty grain that again is increasing in popularity among those of us who want to eat a whole healthy diet.

High in protein - complete protein, meaning it has all 9 essential amino acids, including amino acid lysine - quinoa is a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus.

A wonderful addition to every cook's pantry, there are endless uses for quinoa. Cooked warm with sauteed veggies, tossed cool with beans in summer salad, and even ground into quinoa flour.

Quinoa Salad
recipe from NDNcookingandhomemaking yahoo group

What you need...

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons cilantro, minced
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed well
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 3 tablespoons red onion, minced
  

How to make it...

1. Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, bring 1-1/2 cups water to a boil and add corn. Reduce heat and let corn simmer until tender. Drain corn, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid.
3. Bring cooking liquid to a boil and add quinoa and cumin. Cover, reducing heat, and let simmer until liquid is absorbed (about 10 minutes).
4. Remove pan from heat and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.
5. Fluff quinoa with a fork and allow to cool slightly.
6. In a bowl, combine cooled quinoa, corn, black beans, tomato and onion.
7. Pour dressing over and toss gently to mix.
8. Refrigerate salad until ready to serve.
   

Makes 4 servings.