Financial Goal #1 Accomplished

It's been a month now I think since we accomplished the first financial goal we set, we sold the 2013 Dodge Durango and bought a "previously owned" minivan.  We are now the proud owners of two paid-off cars. Yay for no car payments! Our savings took a hit to pay for the minivan but we should make that money back by the end of the year.
The kids absolutely love the minivan.  Liam loves to play with the buttons for the automatic doors.  We love the extra cargo space and overall feel of it.  I definitely love the sliding doors although I'm not sure I love the automatic doors all the time.  The automatic doors are definitely a plus for the car line when I pick up Gavin at school, otherwise I could live without them.
Anyhow- I'll have to post a picture later when I take one.  I still haven't taken a picture of the van. :(
But we are very happy with our minivan!  Never thought I'd be saying that but it's true.

Easter Brunch Menu

I was so excited for Easter morning.  It feels a little bit like Christmas to me again. Perhaps that's why I've been feeling a little homesick.  I was really looking forward to making this Easter brunch for us.  I had an ambitious plan given that I did no prep work ahead of time but everything worked out...except for the vegan french toast.  After making the pancakes, it just seemed kind of pointless to make the french toast so I'll leave those for later this week.
For breakfast: 

• Carrot Cake Pancakes with vegan cream cheese filling  (because the Easter bunny likes carrots ya know).  The recipe was for carrot cake waffles but after seeing how thick the batter turned out, I was afraid of putting it in my waffle maker (which has been a hit or miss lately).  Instead I made pancakes to be safe.  The recipe itself needed a bit of "cleaning up" to make it more real-food approved.  So I made the following substitutions:
• oat flour instead of all purpose flour, 
• coconut sugar instead of white sugar (coconut sugar is considered un-refined)
• coconut milk yogurt instead of reg. yogurt or buttermilk
• flax eggs instead of regular eggs
• vegan butter instead of regular butter
• Added almond milk at the end to thin out the batter 
• They turned out AMAZING!  The kids did not want to spread the cream cheese filling on them so I was the only one that used the "frosting" as Liam called it, and I can tell you that it tasted JUST like carrot cake.  A little too sweet for my breakfast taste but I did eat one later in the day as "dessert".  

• Egg Frittata with mushrooms, spinach, onions/peppers, and tomatoes
• Bacon. For the kids...for those who think I don't fee the kids meat.  They LOVE their bacon.  In fact, it might be Ellie's 6th word, she was so desperate for more today she came close to saying it today.  
• Homemade Hashbrowns- I was so happy I learned how to make these from scratch.  It was not hard at all and now I know there's no need to buy the frozen ones.  

While in cooking mode, I also prepared food for the next couple of days.  I made these:

• Veggie Pasta Stew- Ate this for dinner and it was a big hit with everyone.  Really hearty and delicious.
• Vegan Mac n' Cheese Casserole
• Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole- I made up this recipe.  Cooked brown rice in rice cooker.  Steamed broccoli.  Placed rice in a casserole dish and mixed in cream cheese, salt/pepper. Added broccoli, mixed it all up and topped with some shredded cheddar cheese.

Week of April 12-19

I know I've slacked off.  The past couple of weeks have been out of the ordinary for our work/travel schedules so we had to feed on the fly and there were some non-real food, or a lot of non-real-food options consumed.  For me, once I cheat I go downhill fast because I then just keep cheating until I hit my low-point where I can FEEL my body is not balanced and then I feel like I want to go on a raw vegan diet to get myself back on track (which I don't do...but I do think in extremes).

So this week, I did not prepare much ahead but I have (had) a plan.  It's spring break for Gavin so I'm thinking that since I don't have to drop him off and pick him up that opens up the daily timeline which will give me time to prepare meals from scratch on the day of.  here's the plan:

Sunday-- Make your own pita pizza day.
These were ALL real-food approved.  I found 100% whole-wheat pitas with no preservatives at all (I think there are only 4 ingredients total) at Earthfare and they were only $2.99 for a pack of 5 pitas which I thought was pretty great so I stocked up on these and put them in the freezer for another time.
I had homemade BBQ sauce in the freezer from when I made BBQ lentils a few weeks ago, so I defrosted that so the boys could make their BBQ pizzas.  I achieved the goal of getting rid of the Trader Joe's BBQ sauce on the pizza!  I also set out an organic pineapple salsa for the option of Mexican pizza....which the boys ended up choosing this time.
Then I chopped up mushrooms, green/red peppers, onions, spinach, tomatoes, cilantro and I also gave them black beans, cut up ham and corn too.  I set all the toppings in the middle of the table, gave each boy a pita and had them create their own pita pizza.  The boys love putting together their own and they ate them all because like Gavin mentioned, "this is my favorite pizza because it has all of my favorite toppings, and it's healthy because you picked out the toppings and you always pick what's healthy for us".  WIN-WIN!

Monday-- White bean/spinach/red quinoa soup or left-over pita pizzas
This is actually left over from Sunday's lunch but turned out really good.  I used garlic, italian seasoning and salt/pepper to season it, used a low sodium vegetable broth as a base.  Tossed in every vegetable I had in the fridge, frozen spinach, broccoli, carrots/celery, mushrooms and I added cannellini beans and red quinoa. Hearty tasty soup.

Tuesday--The plan was for Kung Pao Noodles but instead ended up having "Taco Tuesday" at Qdoba.  This is the result of not cooking ahead of times like I'm supposed to do on Sundays.  I was out doing fun Tuesday stuff with the kids and it got too late for me to come home and cook so we ate out at a semi-decent place, at least they got their serving of vegetables and whole grains for dinner.

Wednesday-- Nick's night- Veggie burger and french fries (at least both are organic)

Thursday-- Stuffed peppers
Quinoa mixed with black beans, tomatoes, corn, salsa, cilantro placed inside the peppers and topped with cheese.

Friday-- Got stuck out late so we ate at Pei Wei.  This was rather disappointing too, it didn't hit the spot for us but the kids ate it up.  Gavin and Liam both eat so well here.  We order them kids' meals with brown rice, teriyaki chicken and a side of stir fry vegetables and they eat them up.

So, this week turned out to be another "bad" week in the realm of real food.  On the one hand I get really upset with myself because I feel uber guilty when I don't cook for my family and myself.  I feel junky myself and so I know that I am not doing the best for the kids.  On the other hand, I can say that eating out this week allowed me to be "with" the kids more and I really enjoyed the memories we made.  I think Gavin in particular really needed the "us" time this week.  Next week is another week....

Menu for Week of March 24-March 29

This week was an out of the ordinary week.  I left town on Thursday to Orlando with Ellie for a friend's bridal shower.  Nick was home with the boys from Thursday-Sunday so I planned to make food for them before I left, not all of it happened but I tried.

Sunday-- BBQ Lentil "sloppy joe" sandwiches
Seriously, 2 years ago I would've gagged at the thought of having a "bean" sandwich but lentils have quickly become meat replacements in our house.  This recipe is SOOOO good.  I LOVE the homemade BBQ sauce.  I didn't use molasses, I used maple syrup instead and I did not use liquid smoke....because that doesn't sound like it's good for you.  I made no other substitutions but I made it all on the stovetop, without using the food processor first.  Instead I used the immersion blender after all had been cooked.
Nick and Gavin loved these.  Liam and Ellie were a little pickier and opted for an alternative dinner.

Monday-- Spaguetti with Meatballs
Yes, "real" meatballs...for the boys.  This is Nick's night with the kids and I prepped Tuesday's meal but nothing for Monday so it's pasta night. :)

Tuesday-- Taco Tuesday
Ever since Gavin watched the Lego Movie he has been wanting to do a Tuesday Taco Night and since I keep mixing up the days on tacos, he keeps requesting tacos on a tuesday night.  Hence, why Nick couldn't use the prepped meal in the fridge for Monday's dinner....because then it would've been Taco Monday and in the words of Liam, "that's not good".

Wednesday-- Vegetable Pot Pies topped with homemade vegan biscuits  (Yeah...the individual pot pies did NOT happen but I did make the biscuits and they were GOOD! We just ended up using them with the curried soup below)

Thursday-- Curried Vegetables and Chickpea Stew  (this was delish)

Friday-- Leftovers

Saturday-- Ate out....Boys went to the zoo.

Weekly Snacks

I realized that I have only posted the dinners for each week but in addition to those I typically arrange for some snacks to be pre-made and ready for the week.  I haven't been as good about making these from scratch lately (except the granola) but this week I made these:

GRANOLA- In our house, homemade granola is a MUST.  I think it's been a year and a half since I made my first batch of granola and I have been making it every week since without fail.  Nick and I eat a bowl of granola pretty much every night as 4th meal around 9pm.  The kids all love to snack on it and Liam just learned to eat it with milk "just like daddy" so now he eats it that way too.  Gavin prefers to snack on it dry.
I use the recipe from 100 days of real food  but I modified it to make it vegan and infant friendly for our Ellie. It's the same recipe as the one in the link BUT I use 6 TBSP of coconut oil instead of butter to make it vegan and I use maple syrup instead of honey.  I substituted maple syrup at first because of Ellie, since infants should not consume honey, but I made a batch with honey a few months ago and it turns out that we find the taste of the maple version MUCH better.  I still cannot believe we never get tired of this but it's just so darn good.

NO BAKE PROTEIN BITES-  The My Whole Food Life blog has awesome no bake bites recipes.  I love them because they don't require baking and the kids devour them.  They're full of protein and make for a quick snack.  Our family favorites are the ones in the link, the high protein energy bites made with almond meal, coconut oil, ground flax meal, chia seeds, almond butter and maple syrup....mix it all up and put in the fridge.  I add about a TBSP of unsweetened cocoa powder to them and they also fulfill any sweet craving I may have and they're good for after a workout snack too.  I usually double this recipe so that it lasts us all week.  All 5 of us love these little bites.

CHIA PUDDING- I made this chia pudding for the first time and it was delicious.  It's a coconut vanilla chia pudding and while it does not look pretty, it tastes really good.  It was SO easy to make, I'll definitely add this to the rotation of snacks/desserts.

These are of course in addition to fresh fruits and vegetables that we snack on.  I just like to have a little something extra for the kids.


 

Financial Goal #1: Get rid of car payment

One of our household goals this year is to save as much money as we can so that we're able to put down 20% when we buy a house.  Looking over our budget, we already operate under a pretty lean budget.  We rarely go out to eat.  We cut cable in January. I don't get manicures/pedicures. We don't have gym memberships. We don't pay for childcare. Overall, we just don't spend much on non-essentials.  However, there is ONE dagger on our budget and that is the car payment for our "kidmobile", the 2013 Dodge Durango.  We bought this car only 14 months ago and we love it BUT once I see our budget and the projected savings if we didn't have this car payment, then the love for the car decreases rapidly.
On top of the car payments, because we live in SC we have to pay property taxes each year on the car based on the current value of the car.  Last year, we paid $480.  So, we got to thinking and we are now searching for a "new" car (to us) that we can just buy outright and eliminate this line item from our budget.

We are looking into minivans because frankly after really thinking about it, it just makes sense with 3 kids. The vans sit lower on the ground so the kids can all load themselves and I am looking forward to having sliding doors.  I like the 90 degree doors on our Dodge but when one of the kids opens the door, I'm always nervous they'll slam into the car next to us.  So, we finally got there...the point where we look forward to a minivan.

We're searching for our perfect fit and we hope to have this done within the next couple of weeks so we don't have to pay property taxes on the Dodge again (they're due in April).  Wish us luck!

Menu for March 9-15

One would think that this being our spring break week, I would have had time to prep everything ahead of time and had a perfect week but it didn't happen like that.  We actually kept the same work routine as usual to allow us to "get ahead" on work stuff so here's what we put together for this week.

Sunday-- "Almost all" Homemade BBQ pizza.  
It's "almost" because we didn't make the crust ourselves nor the bbq sauce.  We used Trader Joe's whole wheat dough and TJ BBQ sauce, which at least has no high fructose corn syrup or artificial food dyes BUT still contains "natural flavors" so who knows what's in that.  We topped it with organic fresh spinach, red onions and peppers.  We did half of it cheese-less so Ellie (our youngest who is allergic to dairy) could have some too.  This is a family favorite in our house.  My goal is to one day have it all homemade including the sauce.

Monday--Crockpot kale & quinoa minestrone soup.
I don't have a recipe for this.  This is why I love soups so much, I just toss what I have with spices and voila, tasty meal.  I used organic low-sodium vegetable broth (Trader Joe's brand) and organic diced tomatoes as a base then added kale, canned red kidney beans, carrots, celery, and quinoa with like 2 TBSP of minced garlic, oregano, 4 bay leaves (love them!), a little chili powder and salt/pepper.  Crockpot on high for 8 hours.

Tuesday--Crockpot Smoky Corn Chowder
I used the recipe from the link but instead put it all in the crockpot.  I didn't use canned corn, I used frozen instead and didn't puree it before hand.  I waited until it all cooked and then used an immersion blender to blend 1/2 of it or so.  My kids loved this soup and Liam has had it for 3 days straight.

Wednesday--Taco Night (I meant to have "Taco Tuesday" but I needed a crockpot meal given our hectic Tues afternoon schedule with extracurricular activities
We do vegetarian taco/burritos at our house.  I use store-bought whole wheat tortillas (again from Trader Joe's- not the best but better than the ones at other supermarkets), quinoa, black beans, sauteed onions and peppers with salsa, avocado slices, and cheese or sour cream.
For the black beans, I sauteed onions, added black beans and homemade taco seasoning (LOTS) and I use a strange ingredient....I make 2 "flax eggs" (2 TBSP flax meal, 6 TBSP water) and add it to the beans so that the seasoning sticks to the beans and makes it "saucier" if that makes sense.  The flax meal doesn't change the taste of the beans but it does add nutrition (Omega 3's).

Thursday--Diet Killer....Ate at Cracker Barrel 
It was a hectic errands day and I didn't have time nor inspiration to put together a meal.  Don't you hate when nothing at home sounds good?  My last errand put me next to a Cracker Barrel and since our kids love cracker barrel, we just gave in.  The boys had the shrimp plate, Liam with Mac n Cheese and Gavin with dumplins.  Ellie ate off my veggie plate and she ate quite a bit of the fried okra (because she liked to dip it in the boys' cocktail sauce for the shrimp).  Anyhow-- Nick and I were both quite disappointed though.  It didn't "hit the spot" like it normally does.  I walked out thinking that it was a waste of calories. :(

Friday--Salmon Patties and Veggies, Salad
I was able to do salmon patties for dinner because Nick and Gavin were at a school event for the evening so it was just Ellie, Liam and I for dinner.  I only cook fish when Nick is out of the house since he doesn't care for the smell or taste.  I used canned, wild-caught, boneless/skinless salmon for this recipe.
Here's the recipe to what I call the "poor man's salmon patty":

1 small onion
1 stalk celery (I actually used 2 b/c I love it)
2 TBSP fresh parsley
2 cans of salmon
1 flax egg (you can use real egg but I prefer flax eggs)
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
1 C whole wheat bread crumbs
1/2 tsp pepper

I sauteed the onion and celery before I put it in the mix with all the other ingredients.  Mix everything up and form the patties.  I cooked mine on my cast iron skillet although I think the recipe called for putting them on the skillet and then cooking them in the oven until golden.  The first time I did it that way and it was good, the second time I just did them in the skillet and it tasted comparable to me so now I don't bother to do the oven part.
The kids ate their patties with mixed veggies on the side.  I placed my patties on top of a salad.

Saturday- Frittatas with Fruit (sort of like breakfast for dinner)
Sauteed veggies (onions, spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers with garlic/salt/pepper) and placed the beaten eggs on top.  Cooked on the cast iron skillet for about 5 minutes untouched and then placed in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes to cook through.   

Weekly Prep Tip

One thing that I have found to be a great time saver during the week is to pre-chop all the veggies.  This past week, having the produce already cut and ready to go were a lifesaver when making the stir-fry noodles and the veggie fried rice.  

I highly recommend allotting some time after grocery shopping to clean, chop and store all the veggies and meat that you'll use for the week.  I also cut every vegetable the same regardless of the recipe and that allows me to just cut all the onions, carrots, celery, peppers or what have you and store in containers ready to go for any recipe.  This tip also applies for meat, especially if you buy in bulk.  After coming home from the grocery store, open up the meat packages and separate them out by the portions that you'll use at a time while the meat is still defrosted from the store.  

It is so easy to put a healthy meal together quickly when all the prep is already done.  

Do any of you do this already?

This coming week I'm thinking of having a week of soups menu because all the kids and Nick eat soup like crazy.  I'm probably not going to be able to cook all the soups ahead of time so I'll definitely be chopping up all the veggies ahead so I can just throw them in the crockpot during the week to make the soup of the day.  

Menu for the week of March 3-8

This week I am getting back on a plan.  I still didn't prepare all the meals ahead of time but on Sunday I made 2 dinners for the week.  I figured it's best to post the menu ahead of time rather than a week behind so here's the menu plan for this week.  I'll post if it didn't work out as planned.

Menu:

Sunday- Brown rice pasta with marinara sauce (lazy dinner).  The kids all had giant fruit bowls after too.

Monday- Vegetable Pot Pie (prepared ahead on Sunday)

Tuesday- Vegetable/Cabbage Stir-Fry Noodles

Wednesday- Lentil "Shepherd's Pie" with sweet potatoes (prepared ahead on Sunday)

Thursday- Vegetable Fried Rice

Friday- Left-overs?

Saturday- Kids' Choice

Recipe Success

I have tried to make homemade refried beans in a crock pot 3 times now and every time they were ok, but still not like the ones from the can or our favorite....the ones from Taco Bell.

Well, this time instead of following a recipe I adjusted the spices to what I thought we'd like.  I used the "100 days of real food" refried beans recipe as a start so I knew the proportions of beans to water to use in the crockpot.  Then I looked at the Mywholefoodlife blog that I use regularly for her refried beans recipe and sort of combined them together.

I soaked the dried pinto beans overnight on Sunday. I didn't get a chance to put them in the crockpot before I left on Monday morning for work so I just drained them and put them in the fridge until Tuesday when I could cook them.
Here's the recipe that I ended up with:

2 cups dried pinto beans (soaked and drained)
1 onion, cut in half
2 TBSP of minced garlic (because I love garlic)
2 TBSP of homemade fajita seasoning (recipe here)
maybe around 2 tsp of salt....I didn't measure this.

I cooked on high for 6 hours.  Then drained the beans and mashed them all up.  I reserved a bit of the liquid from the crockpot just in case I needed it but ended up not using it.  I wanted to save it to use as a broth for a tortilla soup because it was tasty but ended up discarding it because I was running late to pick up Gavin from school and wanted to clean up.  Next time though I will make the soup with it.    

The extra seasoning really did the trick and Nick said, "when I made a burrito with the beans you made before, they were just beans in a tortilla, but these are like a real bean burrito" so he approved and the kids ate them really well (but they ate the bland ones too so they're easy to please).

Menu for the week of Feb 24-March 1

I promised that I would share my weekly menus to keep myself accountable to a "real food" plan.

So, here's the first week which is not a typical week in the sense that I did not prep ANYTHING ahead of time.  Typically, I prepare meals on Sunday for the week but this weekend we had a birthday party to go to and that threw us off.  

Sunday- Garlic pasta (brown rice noodles) with spinach and shrimp (for the kids).  This meal was vegan and gluten-free.

Monday- Harris Teeter Pizza night....NOT "real food".  This is one of the nights where Nick is home with the kids by himself through bedtime and he has a routine of picking up pizza with the kids.  He does this whether I leave food prepped or not so it's become "his thing".  I also believe this is the reason why Gavin told me a couple of weeks ago that I was a much better cook than daddy. :)  

Tuesday- Homemade refried pinto beans on the crock pot.  Gavin made a taco, Liam ate a burrito and Ellie a "mexican bowl".  All included the refried beans, quinoa, mashed avocados w/lime and salt, organic store bought salsa and the boys added cheese to theirs.

Wednesday- This is the other "Nick alone night" so he made (or heated I should say) organic veggie burgers and organic baked fries (neither were homemade, these are one of the few already made frozen foods that we've been buying at BJ's for these kinds of nights).  

Thursday- Brown rice and red kidney beans with avocado slices.  This was Liam's request all day long and he ate NONE of it. :(  

Friday-  Left overs....clear the fridge night!

Saturday- Not a typical Saturday since it was Gavin's birthday.  We went out to lunch after his birthday party to a pizza place and we ate leftovers for dinner.  Today was not a "real food rules" day....cupcakes and pizza for everyone! 

Why this blog?

First of all, I am obsessed with blogs--not writing them, but reading them.  I subscribe to a number of blogs that provide me with endless information and inspiration every week.  I don't consider myself a writer but I do love to document the story of our lives for our kids.  I blog about our life's adventures on another blog but I have been wanting to start a blog to document the other side--the behind the scenes of sorts--of our lives. If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked us, "how do you do it?", we'd be able to afford a vacation!  Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert on anything but I do think I have some knowledge worth sharing.  So, I also hope that this blog will help our family and friends learn a few things and perhaps provide some motivation to make changes to be healthier and feel better overall. This blog will focus on the many goals that I set out for our family and are centered around these topics:

1.  REAL FOOD!

Food is the center of my life.  I am constantly thinking about food (in a good way).  On February 2012, I made a commitment to change the way we eat and eliminate processed foods from our house.  I started making things from scratch, looking up recipes on "real food" blogs and Pinterest.  Two years later, I'm as committed as ever but looking back I haven't achieved my ultimate goal yet. There's still much room for improvement and I wanted to have a space for me to write about the recipes I have tried so I can keep track myself of the hits and misses. I also want to share my "method" for providing healthy food every day for ourselves.  

2.  GREEN HOUSE

I consider myself a "green" person even though I still have habits that are not so environmentally friendly (e.g., we drive gas guzzling SUV's).  But I do dream about having an "off the grid" house with edible gardens, rain barrels, compost piles- worms and all.  I am constantly trying to decrease our consumption, conserve, reuse and recycle as much as we can.  As part of this goal, I have also started looking at all the products that we use on a regular basis for personal care and household cleaning and slowly started switching over to natural, non-toxic alternatives.  

3.  FRUGAL LIVING

This aligns with the "green" house goal since decreasing consumption and reusing things do save money.  But I also have an ambitious savings goal for our family this year as we're making plans to buy a house.  I look up to Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey so the goal here is to live a debt-free life.  We have made substantial progress and have no revolving debt but we still have a large car payment and a small mortgage for student loan payments so this is a LONG-term goal for our family.  

In this blog, I will share my successes and setbacks in the process of achieving these goals.  I'm excited to share and hope that you will follow along for the ride.