A busy week

Hello blog readers. I am sorry I wasn't around any this week. I ended up being super busy with various activities and I failed to blog. Some of the things I was busy doing were making whole wheat bread, making homemade ice cream, making granola bars, etc. My new bread maker is amazing!! The loaf turned out wonderfully and popped right out of the pan with no hassle at all. Such a pleasant change from our old breadmaker.

I've been reading up a storm. I finished

Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes and it was a fantastic read. For the past year I've been beating myself up over not going back to work. I used to be a preschool teacher, before I had the girls. However trying to go back to work now that girls are in school full-time has been impossible. I can't find a job that works with the kids school schedule, is part-time, and flexible. My husband keeps telling me that there is no reason for me to hurry back to work, or to even go back at all, but I kept feeling guilty, like I should be bringing in more money. After reading Radical Homemakers, I can finally let my guilt go. I am doing important work here at home, raising our girls, maintaining the home, baking and cooking from scratch, and managing our household. It's totally made my feel at peace about our decision to have me stay home.

 

 

After I read Radical Homemakers I picked up another book called

Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity by Emily Matchar. I am currently reading this book, I am nearly finished with it. This book has been great at showing me that I am not the only one out there choosing to be a Modern Housewife. Maybe in our area this type of lifestyle is rare, but it is actually gaining momentum around the country. It has also helped put my guilty feelings aside for not working outside our home. I can see that the other side is not always greener. I am starting to see that my side of the fence is just fine, in fact it can be great!!

 

This is all just a new process for me. I am using my blog to help me work through my adventures in being  Modern Homemaker. It isn't for everyone, I totally understand that, but I really truly think that it is for me.

Weekend Retreat

Hello blog readers! Our family took a fun little trip to my in-laws cabin in the mountains over the weekend. We went out on my in-laws boat, we relaxed in the cooler weather, and enjoyed each other's company the entire weekend.  We saw some wild life also, a bob cat was sitting in the sun on my in-laws drive-way, and a buck walking along the road on the way home. It was a great trip to end our summer vacation. My hubby starts teaching again tomorrow, and my girls go back to school next Thursday.

In regards to food, we didn't do as good as I had hoped we would over the weekend. I did pack up fresh fruits, vegetables, and didn't buy the usual candy. We did go to Costco right before our trip, and we got some healthy foods like coconut oil, dried fruits, and organic lettuce, however we did get apple strudel bars, which are clearly not real food. We did better than we used to at Costco, but we still need to stay away from the bakery area.

This morning I made a large batch of homemade whole wheat waffles for our freezer, so we will have quick and easy waffles for breakfast once school starts. I also took the fresh strawberries I got at Costco and rinsed them with my water/vinegar solution, I find that when I do this the fruit lasts much longer.

I am thinking about us having steak salad for dinner tonight with some leftover steak we have. I may hard boil up some eggs because the kids have been begging me for more hard boiled eggs. I also need to make some granola bars/lara balls/ or muffins soon so hubby will have something to take to work for breakfast.

Overall as you can see we are still a work in progress. We are trying to balance our new eating habits, with our finances, trying to eat well and healthy, but without our entire paycheck going to our food budget. It's a balance that we are still trying to get the hang of. I am happy with the progress we have made thus far, and will continue to try our best to change our eating habits for the better.

They don't make it easy

Hello blog readers. We just finished up tonight's dinner and I thought I'd pop on here and tell you about my last two days. Monday night I was meeting friends at Starbucks. I did some research beforehand and was worried initially about what I could drink/eat there that was real food. When I arrived it took me less than a minute to find Evolution Fresh fruit smoothies. I flipped one over and read the ingredients and quickly saw that I found what I was looking for. I got the apple berry flavor which had 2 apples, 1/3 Mango, 34 blueberries, 3 1/2 strawberries, 22 raspberries, 1/10 coconut, and 1/4 of a banana. The ingredients were clean and it tasted amazing! I paired that with a real fruit bar and I had a healthy snack to enjoy with my friends. Winner!!

The next night we went over to my in-laws and were out pretty late. I worried what we would do about dinner, and I had a right to be concerned. My husband started looking for real food friendly options in town and then came the shocker. Baja Fresh, which is a Mexican restaurant that I love, serves grass fed meat. They also make everything fresh there, and don't even have a freezer in their store. I had no idea!! I just knew I loved their food. So we drove over to Baja Fresh and got our usual. It was delicious, and I felt even better about dining there knowing that they were trying to serve the best quality of food to their customers.

Today I got it into my head to go to the local Farmer's Market. I needed a few things, namely meat and honey. When we arrived the girls got to taste test some fresh blackberry and strawberry kiwi jam. Both kinds were good but we bought the blackberry kind. I can't wait to make my own jam. I just need my garden up and running again, oh and some blackberry plants.

Then we grabbed some organic white peaches, some cherry tomatoes, and lastly some honey. I spent more money than normal, but we also got some really good quality stuff. I couldn't find the meat guy. Maybe we were too early for him. I need meat for this weekend so I am kind of between a rock and a hard place. But otherwise I am glad I went.

However I will say that this new lifestyle is much harder than the normal just buy everything at the grocery store. I have been to one place for my eggs. Another place for fruits and still I need to go somewhere else for meat. Everything is more expensive, and it takes longer. I can see why people turn a blind eye to trying to eat organic/healthy/local. I am not ready to give up. This is something I made my mind up about. It's just going to take a bit to get in the groove of things.

A deeper look into where our food comes from

Hello blog readers. Still reeling from the disturbing facts I read in the book The Omnivore's Dilemma  I started to search for more information about where our food comes from. This brought me to another book called Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat. After reading a brief synopsis of the book I decided that I am not sure I can stomach to read it yet. What I did find was a book I could handle  Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World       by Joel Salatin I'm about half way through the book, and Joel makes the book easy to read. His conversational tone makes you feel like he's right in front of you, sharing about his farm, his family, and most importantly food grown and made the right way. 

I also watched the documentary Food, Inc. today and there was Michael Pollan talking about some of the things he touched upon in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma. There was also Joel Salatin and his Polyface Farm. There were definitely some disturbing information given, and show, but nothing too graphic. I'll admit it I cried during part of it. It was another wake up call to me about how I should use my money to show big business what kind of food I want in my home, and that means local, healthy, and respected. 

We looked into a Meat CSA last night. My husband fully supports this, although it will be a lot more expensive to get our meat from a local source, rather than the grocery store where I usually get it. It will mean some changes to how we eat, less meat for every meal, but at least the meat we do eat will be meat I can enjoy, and feel good about. 

Lastly since I need to start dinner soon, I wanted to say that we drove into the next town and I picked up a dozen fresh farm raised chicken eggs. They were four dollars for the dozen, more than we usually spend for the big pack at Costco but I am excited about giving them to my family. Just opening the carton and seeing the rainbow of different colored eggs showed my girls that something was different about these eggs, and I am sure they are going to taste different too. Taste like happy eggs, and happy chickens, taste like we are eating something wholesome and good. 

                         

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Hello blog people. Last night I ended up downloading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I have read a couple of his other books previously, but I shied away from this book because I thought it might be too technical for me. I was wrong. I not only found the book to be very down-to-earth and easy to understand, but I learned so much from it. Too much in some ways because I am not sure I can ever look at eggs the same again. The atrocities that Michael uncovers in the book are heartbreaking. I had no idea that chickens were treated so poorly. I guess I had my head in the metaphorical sand before, but now my eyes are open wide. If you haven't read the book yet, I highly recommend it, but be aware that you may never look at your food the same again. I bawled my eyes out after I finished it. And now my mind is reeling as to how to change the way our family eats and where can I find a place to get our meats that the animals are treated with some respect and humanely. It's a big task on top of already trying to change the way we eat, but I can't let these things I've read be unread, or ignored.

The first step is getting eggs elsewhere. This is the one thing that I know I can change immediately because where we live their is a store that sells local, organic, free range happy chicken eggs. I have never before felt the need to buy these eggs, until now. It may be a little out of my way, and a little more expensive, but it is worth the effort and the price. So this week it's on my to-do list.

Let me fill you in on the other stuff. My ice cream maker arrived, and it is the last of my birthday appliances. Now I just need to get on the ball and make some homemade bread, homemade ice cream, and some homemade Lara Balls. My week is pretty empty, finally, so I should be able to get one or two of those things accomplished.

This morning I made whole wheat waffles for the family and I served it with butter and real maple syrup. I froze the extras so we'll have easy breakfasts for the upcoming week. I am slowly but surely changing our pantry from a junk filled one, to a real food one. Bye-bye bisquick, hello whole wheat flour. I also need to get some coconut oil, for baking, and cooking.

Well it's the weekend and I have things to do. Enjoy your night and have a fresh and fruity day tomorrow!