11 days now

Why Vegan? No single choice has a farther-reaching and more profoundly positive impact on our health, the environment, and all of life on Earth than choosing vegan.
- Alternative Baking Company, Inc

Vitamin A Smoothie

If you want it to sound healthy, you can call it that. If you want it to sound delicious, you can call it the Pumpkin Pie Smoothie. Yummy!

Here's the recipe
2 cups pumpkin puree (I used butternut squash actually and it tasted the same)
1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie spice

Blend it all and top with whipped topping.


I thought it would be thicker than it was - more like a milk shake. But it was really thin and so tasty with a bendy straw. I've seen other recipes with apple juice sweetener and bananas as thickener, and I think I may try those in the future. But I really wanted to use one of the half dozen winter squash we have on our kitchen counter, and this was one of my favorite ways so far!

Winter squash is high in Vitamin A and is really good for eyesight, fighting viral infection, and healthy mucosal tissues (to prevent infections from getting in)

Um, this is the best picture I could get....

In search of the perfect breakfast

Here's my criteria for the perfect breakfast:

Can prepare and eat in under 15 minutes
Healthy
Not too expensive
I make it until at least 8 AM until I'm hungry again.


I think my metabolism must be much higher in the morning, because I can go hours and hours in the evening without even thinking about dinner, but every morning is a struggle to make it through work without stopping by the vending machine. (I stopped bringing money with me, but there is an ATM if I get really desperate) Maybe it's the bordom factor also, or just mentally used to sitting at my desk and eating.
I eat breakfast at 3:30 and am finished with work at 9. If I'm hungry when I get home, I can still make it to lunch, but sitting at my desk I can barely stand it 5 minutes.


I have found that the closest thing to a perfect breakfast is homemade granola cereal with soy milk, and then bring a piece of fruit as a snack.
But somedays you just don't feel like granola, and that leftover Pad Thai looks so yummy. And then you're hungry in an hour so you eat your snack which is much smaller than you thought. And then you find out that one of your coworkers is sick and you have to stay late and you have no food and you just waste away in your cubicle and they find you the next day with a half eaten pad of paper next to your skeletal corpse.

Ok. Heh.

Well, what do you eat for breakfast?

End of the grocery store challenge

April's challenge was to not go to the big grocery stores in town. Here are the highlights

Good:
Visited some new grocery stores
Only spent $100 for the month
Found a new brand of crushed red pepper that Brent really likes (burns his mouth off)
Forced to be creative
Tried some new recipes

Bad
I never found a good source of meat. Well, I found one butcher, but they were closed when I stopped by so I didn't really check them out. We get chicken from a farm, but nothing else.
Lack of convenience food. Well, we shouldn't be eating processed convenience food anyway, but there were at least two times when we were too tired to cook anything and we would have gone to the grocery store for a frozen pizza or something. Instead we went to Taco Bell. Much worse.
Not enough fresh fruits and vegetables. I missed these. In the summer it's a nonissue because of the farmer's market, but in the spring they're still scarce.
I also missed bananas very much.

Conclusion:
I probably could not do this forever, but perhaps I could avoid grocery stores during the summer, or only visit them once per month.

Grocery Store Challenge Update

First week we didn't buy anything.
Second week we bought coconut milk, onions, red lentils, oats, milk, and vegetable oil.
Third week we went to a bigger natural food store in Milwaukee (not Trader Joe's) that almost falls under the 'grocery store' description, but it's locally owned and not a chain, so I decided that it was okay. We bought cheese, salsa bread (mmmm), chocolate, green peppers and frozen broccoli.

Stuff we have in excess: spaghetti, tomato soup, quinoa, rice mixes, eggs, chicken, potatoes, and flour. Also we have finally used up almost all of the frozen produce we had leftover from last year's farm share. All we have left is a ton of garlic.

Things I have improvised on: homemade potato chips, homemade tortillas, used tomato soup and pureed veggies for spaghetti sauce, ate refried beans on bread since we ran out of PB (that was kind of gross), made chocolate cupcake cookie things (madeleines?).

I think it's going okay. I think Brent doesn't like that there are no super easy microwave meals, but he'll only have to suffer for 12 more days. Of course, Taco Bell isn’t a grocery store…...

Self imposed grocery challenge

The challenge is to not go to any chain grocery stores in April.
Locally owned (like ethnic groceries) are allowed.

I'm hoping that I will
- use the stuff in our pantry
- plan meals around what we have
- buy more locally and discover new places to buy food
- really look at what our food needs are
- buy less convenience foods
- try new recipes
- save money

So far I've done well. Today is the first day I really need to shop, and will buy cheese (cheese factory), oats and milk (natural food store). Oh yeah, I bought eggs from a farmer too.

This only really works because our pantry was super overflowing, but it's kind of fun to be creative. I plan to do it again in the summer when we start getting our farm share again.

Well I could have told you that!

Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians

A-MEN!

What the hell happened to Christianity?

Moldy Cabbage is gross

Well, obviously, right? Yet some people eat it and actually like it! Ick.

So our CSA gave us an abundance of cabbage this year, and since we were getting sick of my only cabbage recipe (cole slaw), I decided to venture out and try making sauerkraut. Brent said he liked it, and I had never tried it, so what's the harm?

I found some instructions online, and realized I had to sacrifice my crockpot for 6 weeks. Horror! And we had so much cabbage that I had to borrow my mom's crockpot for 6 weeks too.
Here's how you make sauerkraut...

Make sure everything you use is non metal and sparkly clean.
Shred cabbage and sprinkle with kosher salt. Let it sit for a while and it should start to sweat. If you get impatient, you can just add water and more kosher salt until the water covers the cabbage.
Then you cover the cabbage with plastic wrap to protect it from the mold (which you want to grow - yuck!)
Then you weight it down with a big ziploc bag of water. Make sure everything is under water - no cabbage touching the air.
Cover the crock pot and put forget about it for six weeks.
Actually you're supposed to go every couple of days and clean the mold (erk) off the top, but I was much to afraid to go anywhere near them, for fear that the mold would come alive and attack me. Or that the smell would kill me. Either one wouldn't be very fun.
After six weeks, put on a full hazard suit, complete with air mask, and take off the cover. Skim the mold from the top of the water and remove the ziploc bag and plastic wrap. The cabbage should be an ugly brown color and stink like death. That means it's edible.
My mom was there when I unveiled it and assured me that it tasted like sauerkraut. I then learned that I didn't like sauerkraut. But I put the minimalest amount on a sandwich and Brent and I had reubens for lunch. I tolerated it, and then went around asking everyone I saw if they liked sauerkraut and if they wanted some. So I got rid of most of it. I'm kind of afraid to throw it out - it might eat through the garbage bag....

Small cooking mishap

Brent left some coffee in the pot and it got cold and undrinkable so I decided to try a recipe I saw online for Espresso Jello. Sounds good, right? It's not. Don't try it unless you really really like black coffee.

It turned out, that wasn't the mishap.... The mishap was making it in the evening and eating it at 9 PM and then expecting to go to bed any time soon.....

Weight Watchers is making me unhealthy

Or at least it's making me forget my hard and fast rules of not eating anything processed or unnatural.

Right now I'm drinking a Diet Pepsi. Yeah, that's right, a DIET PEPSI. Icky. But I only have one point left for the day and I haven't eaten dinner yet. (Dinner will be 2 point Boca Chili frozen dinner) And I'm starving and I know that the soda will fill me up for a while. I'm ashamed. This stuff tastes disgusting and it's poison in a can. But I'm drinking it. And I know it's really just my fault because I forgot to order skim milk in my mocha (extra three points) and caved when I saw the egg-free and dairy-free cookie (extra four points). How annoying. And just to clarify, I'm at work so it's not like I have a fridge full of yummy and healthy vegetables at my reach. If I did I wouldn't be crabbing right now. :P

So I really didn't join Weigh Watchers. Brent did, and I figured since he had to be the obsessive point-counter, I might as well too. So I follow the program but don't go to the meetings (the frugal way haha). I really should lose weight, even though I still think I'm pretty healthy the way I am.

So now I'm apparantly making myself more healthy by drinking poison in a can and eating chemically processed fake foods. Whatever.

Principles of Frugal Cooking - part 2

Copycatting your favorite restaurant meal.

What restaurant do you love the most - you'd go there every week if you could. You mouth is watering right now thinking about it, isn't it?
It may seem like you could never duplicate that yummy food at home, but it probably not as hard as you think. It may take a few tries, but soon you'll be an expert, and never have to eat out again! (okay that maybe is not true, but when you get the craving, but don't have the cash, at least you have an alternative)

The extra nice thing about cooking restaurant food at home, is that you can cater to your own tastes. You can vegetarianize things, or use organic ingredients.

So far I have made Taco Pizza, Southwestern Eggrolls from Chilis (vegan), and Curry Noodles from our favorite Thai place (but I never wrote the recipe down - grrrr)

Here is a site for your inspiration - Copykat.com, or you can just type in your favorite restaurant meal + 'recipe' into Google and see what comes up.

Principles of Frugal Cooking

Frugal cooking is not all about trying for a great bargain and clipping coupons. Stretching your food budget continues into the kitchen, where cooking on a budget becomes an art and a skill. A woman said on her frugal website once, that we spend most of our time eating and sleeping, so she tries to make both experiences as quality as possible, even on a very limited budget.

Presentation is a huge part. When you go to a fancy-pants restaurant, the more the food costs, the prettier it looks on your plate. Even if it’s just spaghetti with red sauce, the chef will make sure that your first impression of his cooking is as pleasing to your eyes, as it will be to your mouth.
When you’re planning your meal, try for an array of different colors, shapes, and textures. Cut your veggies or your sandwiches differently. Make designs with the sauce around the edge of the plate. Grind a little fresh pepper or sprinkle parsley on top to make it look a little more interesting. All of these are very little things you can do to make the food look less like Aldi bargain food and more like a gourmet meal.
At our house I pretty much always plate things before bringing them to the table. I can arrange the food how I want, and Brent sometimes has no idea what we’re about to eat until I set it right in front of him.
“Mmm, this looks awesome” is something every cook wants to hear, even before the first bite.

The Great Vegan Experiment Gone Awry

What I mean by awry is that after the experiment was over, I decided to continue with this lifestyle. I'm a vegan now, I guess, although I hesitate to call myself one because I'm not exactly hard-core. I have not eaten meat for 2.5 years. I no longer will consume dairy, eggs, or honey in their obvious states. However, if I am a guest in someone's home, or at a restaurant, I will not fret over minute hidden ingredients. I will do my best. So I guess I'm a vegetarian with vegan tendencies. And I have been now for one month and six days.

Why, you might ask? Mainly, it goes with my new motto of "Doing the best for me, my family, and the earth". It's better for me and my family because I'm cooking healthier and cheaper. It's better for the earth for many reasons. First, the animals, of course, who even if they are not being eaten directly (laying hens, dairy cows, etc.) are still suffering from the same awful abuse and shortened lifespans. Second, factory farming is an incredibly inefficient system, and that takes toll on the environment. The amount of grain and water would be better used elsewhere, and the amount of waste produced could also be avoided.

There are countless other reasons why people choose to become vegan - I have only listed a few.

Here are a couple of my fave vegan links to close this post with..

Vegan Freaks - Mostly I listen to their podcast, but sometimes I browse their forums. Note, this website contains strong language that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Vegan Lunch Box This kid's lunches look better that what I cook for dinner sometimes.

What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway? Mmmm yummy food pictures....

Almost ripe

Storing Herbs

If you have more fresh herbs than you can use before they wilt and dry out, try this instead. Chop them up into fine pieces, or cut with a kitchen scissors. Mush the herb pieces into an ice cube tray and fill to the top with water, then freeze. The herbs will keep their flavor much better than if you were to dry them.
One bunch of herbs will fill 3 or 4 cubes.
Make sure you label them though - I don't think getting cilantro and mint mixed up would be a very good thing!

Mmmm Strawberries

Before

After


Note - that gallon of berries is way more than the jam I made. I just ran out of jars. Although I don't think I will make any more jam - what we have now will probably last about a year.

Veggies on the go

Vegetarian or Vegan going to a new city? Try happycow.net to find out what veg friendly restaurants and stores are in your area.

I, by the way, ate at the most wonderful vegan restaurant yesterday in Fort Worth - the Spiral Diner. Mmmmm. Check it out if you're ever in the area.

Healthy Eating While Away

I know it's easy to throw your healthy eating out the window when you're on vacation, but it's even more important to watch what you eat when you're travelling. You will be driving or flying long distances, sitting for hours one day, and walking miles the next. Buy a juice smoothie and mixed nuts for snacks instead of chips and a soda. Try to avoid high sugar snacks like candy - they will only make you more tired in the long run. Drink tons of water. I'm not suggesting that you don't splurge at that chic French Café down the street, but don't overdo it - and you may come back from your vacation energized instead of more tired than when you left.

Some things I learned yesterday

1. One should not only avoid grocery shopping while hungry, but also when depressed.
2. Chocolate ice cream does not heal all wounds (it helps a little though)
3. The movie theatre has extra-small popcorn and soda sizes on Tuesdays for $2.00
4. You can make Chili's Southwestern Eggrolls at home and bake them instead of frying - they are just as yummy (recipe here )

Wisconsin Hard Rolls Recipe

Oh, man, if you have never had Wisconsin Hard Rolls, you are missing out! I've been making them for the upcoming party and the house smells like a bakery.

Here's a recipe - link

Note - if you are making brat buns instead of hamburger buns, I learned yesterday (the hard way) that the second rise should only be 25 minutes instead of 45.

And don't forget the salt. I learned that the hard way too.

Enjoy!

Unethical way to get organic for cheap

So yesterday I went grocery shopping and saw that organic green peppers were on sale for $1.99/lb so I picked one out.
When I got home I realized that the cashier had charged me for regular green peppers - only $1.49/lb. The pepper I bought wasn't even in a bag, so the cashier could easily see the sticker and number on it, but she still undercharged me.
It only weighed about 1/2 lb, so the price difference was somewhere around a quarter. I'm not about to drive all the way back to the grocery store just to give them their quarter back. Maybe I'll take the receipt with me next time, but I'll probably forget. I feel badly about it though. This has happened to me a couple of times already (cashier charging regular price for organic produce) but I always catch it right away and tell them.

Question of the day is - all of you who watch your reciepts and comment if the store is overcharging you, would you also comment when the store undercharges you?

Ordered our CSA share this week

I was so excited to get this brochure in the mail, and I sent back my order right away.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It works by people buying 'shares' directly from a farm and then each shareholder gets a portion of the harvest. It cuts out the middleman (the grocery store) for the consumer, and it allows small farmers to insure a customer base without getting involved in mass production or having to do farmer's markets and such.

Brent and I ordered a half-share - suitable for 2 people - and every week starting in June we can pick up a box of yummy organic vegetables from a drop site a few miles from our house.

A half share cost $360, and we had the option of paying with three checks dated today, July 1st, and September 1st, so we did that. Or we could work on the farm to save on cost, but we decided against that.

Here's what we'll be getting in our boxes from June to December:
Beets, Bok Choi, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Couliflower, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Garlic, Green Beans, Various Herbs, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Maple Syrup, Melons, Mushrooms, Onions, Peas, Peppers, Potatoes, Scallions, Soybeans, Spinach, Squash, Strawberries, Sweet corn, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, and Watermelons.

You can find out if there are any CSAs near you by going to LocalHarvest.org

We're getting a pig!

Well, half a pig. The farm where we got our eggs (talked about it here) raised pigs this year and we're buying half of one. Poor thing is being killed today. I didn't get to meet it personally, or we may not have gotten it. Oh, now I'm sad....

But it will be freezer ready in about a week. We have to pay the farm $1 per pound (probably around $100) and about $60 for the butchering and processing. I try to spend less than $2 per lb. for regualar grocery store meat, and this is hormone free, almost organic pork. That makes me happy, at least.

I'm thinking that this will last at least a year - with only one meat eater in the house. We may have to fire up the big freezer again - which is a real energy hog (haha). But I think it will be worth it.

Meatout 2006 - March 20th

"Meatout is an international observance helping individuals evolve to a wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains. The purpose is to expose the public to the joys and benefits of a plant-based diet, while promoting the availability and selection of meat and dairy alternatives in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering operations."


Meatout this year just happens to fall on Monday, March 20th - My birthday! Yay! I've been a vegetarian for over two years now, so I will of course be participating in this year's veggie festivities. You may not be a vegetarian, but maybe just for one day you could choose salad instead of steak. Pretty please? For me? It would be the best birthday present in the world! :)

Meatout.org

March - Third thing you can do to improve your health

On a message board I frequent, some ladies and I are going on a health journey based on this article - 10 Things you can do to Improve Your Diet We're taking one thing each month and making it a habit.

March is cutting out High Fructose Corn Syrup - good timing for the first day of Lent

Oh CocaCola, may it be as if I never knew you
May my lips forget your sweet taste
May my mind never think of you again
I must be strong when I pass the soda machine
I must only order water at restaurants, even though I hear you calling me
I wish I had never become addicted to you, CocaCola
But it is better to have tasted and lost, then to have never tasted at all

*sigh*

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is an artificial sweetner made from corn. It's basically a highly concentrated sweetner, and it's cheaper for food companies to use than sugar, so it's in everything.
Since it's an artificial sweetner, your body wil metabolize it differently from sugar. HFCS does not stimulate insulin production (which will help your body convert sugar into energy), nor does it stimulate lepitin production (which tells your body that you are full). So basically, it will make you fat. Plus, since it's so highly concentrated, your body will keep craving it more and more until you almost have an addiction to the stuff. There's also a whole host of theories that say it causes type II diabetes among other things.

If you really want to give up HFCS, you will have to read the labels on everything. Like last month's Partially Hydrogenated Oils, HFCS is in almost every processed food. Mainly it's in soda, but also breads, cookies, crackers, cereal, yogurt, juice, candy, salad dressing, catsup, jam, spaghetti sauce, and all kinds of things you wouldn't expect. It may take a while to find the products that don't have this, but then you can just stick to that brand and be safe. You may have to read a lot of labels, but more natural products are out there. Just forget the WonderBread and CocaCola.

About a year ago, I gave up all sweets (I lasted for two months), and it really was beneficial. I was having almost constant headaches and had massive mood swings (especially around 'that time'). I avoided all sugar, but I really think it was the HFCS that was affecting me. I felt so much better for those couple of months. Even now, I have the occasional soda, I feel dizzy and have a headache for the rest of the day, sometimes into the next. So, I really recommend trying to give HFCS up - even if it is just for Lent.

I'm going to try and put together a list of products without HFCS, so I'll let you all know on that.

Organic Soy Milk at Aldi

Aldi now carries Organic Soy Milk (vanilla and chocolate) in their Fit & Healthy Line. The cost is $1.29 per quart. It was very yummy on my cereal this morning.

February - Second thing you can do to improve your diet

On a message board I frequent, some ladies and I are going on a health journey based on this article - 10 Things you can do to Improve Your Diet We're taking one thing each month and making it a habit.

February is eliminating Partially Hydrogenated Oils

Fats are good for you. They help you have healthy skin and hair, regulate your metabolism, and support your nervous system. However, oils and fats are difficult to transport because they go bad quickly. So someone devised a way to chemically alter oil so it would last much longer. Thus, making vegetable oil in to Crisco. The problem is, that while regular oils and fats do good things for your body, Partially Hydrogenated Oil does nothing for you, and your body can not use it for anything (execept more padding on your bum, I guess). Plus, it has been linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Unfortunately, this stuff is so hard to avoid. I went grocery shopping and had to read every label. It was in every cookie, snack cracker, baked good, bag of chips, and frozen convenience food that I picked up. Also I found it in macaroni and cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and cake mix. After lots of reading and putting stuff back on the shelves, I was able to leave with a PHO-free cart.
Here is a link to a list of foods that commonly have Partially Hydrogenated Oils and foods that don't.

It's going to be a long month...

Field to Fork

There is a new restaurant in Sheboygan - Field to Fork. It has a local and organic food, fair trade coffee, and a specialty shop with all kinds of natural foods. I just heard about it last Thursday and already we've eaten there twice. Yummmmm.

If you're ever in Sheboygan, make sure to stop by - and bring me along :)
511 South 8th Street, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Broke out the bread machine yesterday

Because Aldi does not have any bread without High Fructose Corn Syrup. They used to, and I'm very sad they don't any more. So, I'm making bread at home again.

Shopping at Aldi is kind of disheartening in general for me right now. I'm really missing being able to buy free range eggs, organic milk, and whole wheat flour at the normal grocery store. This $25 grocery budget requires creativity, and I think I'm going to have to bring in even more creativity so I can bring some whole foods back into our home.
Aldi does have organic tortilla chips, at least.

Getting that CSA is going to be a lifesaver, and I can't wait until June.

January - First thing you can do to improve your health

On a message board I frequent, some ladies and I are going on a health journey based on this article - 10 Things you can do to Improve Your Diet We're taking one thing each month and making it a habit.

January is eliminating artificial sweeteners.

Primarily one finds artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, but also in any other diet foods - low calorie or sugar-free. There are no artificial sweeteners that are good - None. Splenda is sometimes marketed as made from sugar, which it is, but it's chlorinated sugar. C'mon - adding chlorine to sugar makes it better? No. Sugar in it's pure form is always best - not chemically altered, not concentrated, just plain the way God made it.

This month is easy for me. I was kind of on a diet soda kick, because corn syrup (in regular soda) makes me a little nutty, but I quit cold turkey at 12:05 on January first. I accidentally bought some yogurt with Aspertame, but I could taste it right away and didn't finish it.

So, January is going well. February may be a bit more difficult, and later the year will be a definate challenge. Baby steps, baby steps.

What the heck do you eat?

I get quite a few people ask how we eat on only $25 per week. I also get people ask how I cook when one of us is a meat eater and one is not. So, here's the rundown.

Meal planning is essential. I just started faithfully doing this, and I am completely amazed at how much this helps with sanity and money savings. I don't do coupons, but instead shop at Aldi where everything is a consistantly low price. Occasionally I go to the dented can store and stock up on things, but that trip still falls within my $25/week budget.

Here's the meal plan for this coming week.

Monday
Lunch - Pancakes with baked apples
Dinner - Clean out the fridge and eat leftovers (I shop on Tuesday)

Tuesday
Lunch - Sandwiches and fruit or veggies
Dinner - Potato soup with rolls (I'll make the potato soup with a ham bone for Brent, and then make me a seperate pot)

Wednesday
Lunch - Enchiladas (I make this in two seperate bread pans - one with meat and one without)
Dinner - Church has a meal plan for $2 per meal, so we eat there

Thursday
Lunch - Brent goes out with the guys some Thursdays, otherwise I'll make soup from a can
Dinner - Curry noodles (easy to add chicken on the side)

Friday
Lunch - Quesadillas
Dinner - Shepherd's pie (leftover meat from Wednesday, leftover potatos from Tuesday, and whatever else is in the fridge) I'll probably make green bean casserole for myself, or make a small meat free version of the shepherd's pie

Saturday
Lunch - egg sandwiches on english muffins and hash browns
Dinner - homemade pizza

Sunday
Lunch - the only time we really go out to eat
Dinner - Spaghetti and meatballs

-------------------------

Breakfasts - Brent does not eat breakfast. He usually gets up around 10AM and then he just waits until lunch. He does however, eat a late night snack/meal which usually is leftovers or a sandwich. I buy a package of Lean Pockets every week for him. I eat a bagel with jam for breakfast, or whatever leftovers are calling to me.

Snacks - I usually buy a bag of tortilla chips and a bag of cookies every week. I make muffins sometimes and popcorn often.

Drinks - Only water, occassionally iced tea. Coffee at the office.

Linking of the day - Vegan Lunchbox

Vegan Lunchbox

I'm not a vegan, and maybe you aren't either, but you have to admit that some of these lunches look pretty yummy.

This blog is about a vegan mom who packs healthy vegan lunches for her grade-school age son and then rates them by how much is eaten and how well he likes them. I really like the creative ideas she has - especially since it is mostly homemade and not prepackaged expensive stuff.

Her main blog is a great read also.

Product Review - Imagine Foods Creamy Tomato Soup

This stuff is the best freakin' tomato soup I've ever had in my life. I don't even really like tomato soup but this stuff I could eat on a regular basis. Pair it with a grilled cheese sandwich and it's a meal fit for a king (or Brent).

The cost is about $3 for a box and it will serve 2-3 people. And it's organic. You may be able to find it at your regular grocer, or surely at a natural foods store. I have also had the knock off Trader Joe's brand and it is just as good.

Mmmm, making me hungry.

Carnivals 1-16-06

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Debt Reductions

Carnival of the Green

Carnival of the Recipes

Excuse me, I have much reading to do...

Menu of Hope

Chez Pim started the second annual Menu for Hope just a few days ago, and already raised over $4000. Menu for Hope is a chance for all her readers to donate money towards a good cause (last year was the Tsunami victims; this year is the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan and India), and for every $5 you donate, you are entered a ticket in a raffle with prizes donated by herself and other food bloggers.
This is no ordinary raffle, either. Some of the prizes are making my mouth water already. Chez Pim has donated a $200 gift certificate to Manresa in Los Gatos, California. Other generous bloggers have given a variety of food gormet food baskets, books and gift certificates.

I'm definitely entering.

A Month of Reducing - Reduce restaurant eating

Reduce your restaurant purchases. I'm a big proponent of cooking from scratch and eating at home, but sometimes even I get tired and don't want to cook. (surprising, I know!) It has taken me a long time to get past this, but now I buy convenience foods set aside for those nights. If we don't have any convenience food in the house, we go to the grocery store and buy a frozen pizza instead of ordering in. It is so much cheaper this way. Our eating out expenses went down by over $100 a month when I started doing this. If you usually go out to restaurants with friends, try only going out for dessert and coffee. Or you could stay in and play games. Even going to McD's is more expensive than making a burger and fries at home.

Happy Discovery at a Local Farm

Once a month or so I go out to a neighboring town to stock up at their salvage grocery store, and also go to a small hobby farm where they raise chickens. I picked up three dozen free-range eggs for $5 (store price would be $8.37). I know buying the cheap eggs at the store would be more frugal, but looking at the whole picture, I'd rather give my money to a local farmer and get a superior product. Also, I know too much about factory egg farms and never want to buy store eggs again, but that's a different post.

Anyway, I was chatting with the lady who lived there and I offhandedly asked her if she knew anyone who sold organic chickens. She said that she sold chickens that were 'natural' (no anti-biotics or hormones) and free-range, but she couldn't guarauntee that they were organic. For only $2 per pound! That's the price I try to stay under for regular meat. Orgainic chicken breasts are $8 per pound, so this was a super deal. So I ordered 6 chickens. She said they were butchering in the next two or three weeks so she would give me a call when they're ready. I'm super excited about this, and I'll let y'all know when I get them.

A Month of Reducing - Reduce Meat

Reduce the meat you eat. And increase the vegetables. Not only is it cheaper, but it is more healthy too. One or two vegetarian meals a week is not as difficult as you think.

Okay, so I'm only a little bias on this one..... :)