I’m going to slowly be working on updating the page, because frankly I’m sick of looking at the pink the page was before. 
Author Archives: Gingham Apron
Bountiful Baskets
I’ve heard of Bountiful Baskets Co-op before, but was always a little suspicious of it. I don’t like wasting my money and getting total crap in return. Since our vacation is right around the corner (another post on that anal retentiveness will be along shortly) I knew I didn’t want to do my normal Costco shopping. So it was the proper time to cave in, and the fact that Bountiful Baskets site had a Tropical pack this week was the final push.
The cost is really not that much, and they call it a “contribution”.
1 Traditional Basket – $15
First time Basket Fee – $3
Transaction Fee – $1.50
Tropical Pack – $10.50
Grand Total – $30
I also admit that I may have Googled to find pictures of the produce others have gotten just to reassure myself. So naturally I snapped a few myself…
Contents of one “contribution”
I got – 1 head of lettuce, 1 head of broccoli, 2 heads of garlic, 3 avocados, 1 pack grape tomatoes, 1 melon, 1 pineapple, 6 bananas, 8 nectarines, 5 oranges, 1 pack strawberries
Tropical Pack
The Tropical Pack contained – 2 vanilla beans, 1 pineapple, 3 lemons, 1 plantain, 1 bag mint, 2 mangoes, 10 lychee, and 2 chunks of ginger
We’ve never had lychee before! The only down side is that one mango is a little bruised, and the vanilla is a little dry (but if I plop it in a jar of sugar I’m not going to care I’m sure). I also would have liked a little more veggies since I got tons of fruit, but for $30 I’m not going to complain. Despite the fact that I have to be up early on a Saturday to go get this I think it’s pretty worth while. Maybe I’ll expand my horizons more next time, and make use of some of the bulk stuff they sell, like the 22 pounds of cauliflower I could have gotten for like $14 this time (but didn’t since I don’t have the time to put it away this week). My BB co-op only runs every other week, but I’ll keep posting the goodies I get. 
I hate to admit it…
My last post was about quality vs. quantity.
Quantity has won this week. 79c per pound for chicken leg quarters this week! Tomorrow boneless skinless chicken breast is on sale for $1.49 per pound. Monday bananas are 39c per pound. Tuesday ground beef is $1.69 per pound.
Stephanie sent me a link to a handy cost per serving calculator for meat.
“At $0.79 per pound, Chicken / Leg quarter costs $0.40 per serving. (2 servings per pound.) “
“At $1.49 per pound, Chicken / Breast, boneless costs $0.37 per serving. (4 servings per pound.)”
“At $1.69 per pound, Other / Ground beef costs $0.42 per serving. (4 servings per pound.)”
With a bi-weekly food and household budget of $250 I needed to make some changes. This pay period I’ll have put more than 50 pounds of meat into my freezer. I’ll use a few pounds of it over the next 2 weeks, but I’ll still have quite a bit stored thus lowering how much I have to spend in weeks to come.
We’re still debating spending the almost $1000 on a 1/4 cow from UNR’s Wolfpack Meats though, but that choice will have to be made before I buy the hamburger next week. I won’t hold my breath (even though some beef tenderloin would be EPIC).
I feel kind of bad, but right now I’m not in a position to drop $9+ a pound for grass fed beef. I’ll just be glad I found the sales right at payday.
Quality vs. Quantity
I struggle with this. I have 2 bottomless pits, err I mean growing kids, and 2 adults to feed. I’m also on a limited budget, $250 every bi-weekly paycheck to be exact. That covers food and most of the household needs (non-food items like paper goods and toiletries). It’s easy to spend more than half of my budget at Costco and not get much to make meals with. I want to make meals that don’t come from a box as to avoid things that I find to be questionable like HFCS and GMOs.
I also go back and forth about meat. A lot. More often than not I’m skeeved out hardcore by traditional meat.
Which of those two would you want to feed your kids? I can tell you that just looking at the CAFO pictures makes me glad I have no beef in my house right now. I am though looking into local ranchers for a 1/2 or 1/4 cow. It may cost us upwards of $1,500 for a half, but I can go see where our food will come from before I even commit to buying.
For $5.10 I can get 2 gallons of milk at Costco. For about $4.50 plus $1.50 refundable bottle deposit I can get 1/2 gallon of organic milk in a glass jar (hence the bottle deposit). The Costco milk goes further, but how are the animals treated? I try and push it out of my head, but it always creeps back in. Do I spend more for quality foods, or “settle” for more food that I find to be lacking in quality?
Last week I had made a menu plan and then I found out my dad had been admitted to the hospital for a potential cardiovascular issue (he has known issues already, and has had multiple procedures). It made me take pause long enough to think about quality vs. quantity of food for my family. I changed my entire menu. I didn’t go to Costco. I shopped at Whole Foods. I payed more than I would have at a normal grocery store, but I got way more veggies than we had been consuming, and the quality is much better as well. Though much to the displeasure of my 4 year old, I did not get a block of cheese the size of her head to munch on. I did get strawberries, grapes, and a little extra milk to make a fresh batch of yogurt with.
Spinach Lasagna
Spaghetti
Roasted Veggies with Quinoa
Egg Salad Sandwiches
Curried Cauliflower & Potatoes
Baked Chicken and Broccoli
Cabbage and Potato Soup
Curry Chickpeas with Rice
Split Pea Soup
This is part of my new menu plan. One day of chicken in 9 days. It’s to use one of the 2 packages I have left in the freezer. Meat Monday, as opposed to “meatless Monday”. Nothing from a box save for the pasta (but that’s not boxed food like Hamburger Helper or anything).
Quality is currently winning over quantity, and I hope I can keep it that way. My girls, and David, deserve the best.
Money and Babies…
I’m done having them, so don’t go getting ideas. I went looking for a cake recipe and of course loving Smitten Kitchen I clicked on the “Best Birthday Cake” link I saw. I started reading the blog post and inside was tucked a link about $200 toys, which led to a now nearly 3 year old New York Times article.
It talked about how due to the recession parents had wised up about their spending. Things were purchased second hand, clothes included. The baby product industry is HUGE. I mean think about all the baby showers and things that parents feel they need. New babies are expensive when you look at it that way.
Sophia came along and taught me a lesson as a parent and a consumer…
Beeswax Lotion
I mentioned in my last post that I had an incoming order from BrambleBerry. With shipping my order was almost $40, which seems asinine to me to be honest, but I still think it’s worth it. Thus far I’ve whipped out 2 pint jars of beeswax lotion, a half pint jar of deodorant, and 7 tubes of lip balm (the deodorant and lip balm will be different posts). Despite all that I still have a decent amount of stuff left so I can make myself a perfume solid, or homemade vapor rub if the need arises (Sophia has been sick and congested quite a bit since Nola started at the charter school).
Yes, it's really got a green-ish yellow color like that....
I think I’ve mentioned it …
I’m bad at blogging.
Horrible.
okay I downright suck at it.
Lots has changed since August. If I thought the middle of the month was fun the 2 weeks that followed included a move and the decision to give up our house. We’ve since completed a short sale on it, and frankly we were amazed that it sold as fast as it did, and that we didn’t end up in foreclosure.
Nola is in a public charter school, and struggling. Homeschooling a strong willed child is not easy for the strong willed mother. We’re just biding time until we get in to the charter Montessori school (next school year) that both of the girls have fallen in love with.
I’ve been working more on my photography. I helped at a wedding and have done a couple large scale model shoots as well as two private shoots. I’ve also booked my first wedding! Baby steps, but they are steps. 
With all the changes our focuses have had to change when it comes to money. Of course this means my once happy little organic lifestyle – when I never took into consideration that I was spending $200 a week easy – has had to come to a screeching halt. Even the nice organic milk is a treat. My bi-weekly household budget is $250. I’ve got to get back to making as much as I can at home.
I have slashed the amount of meat we eat so I can still buy organic grass fed meat though. I can’t give up the organic meat because traditional meat skeeves me out to the point of preferring vegetarianism over meat eating. I’m hoping to set aside income tax return to put towards a quarter or half cow from a local rancher.
Tomorrow I have an order coming in from Bramble Berry and I’ll soon be posting my adventures in lip balm and lotion making as well as a second adventure in deodorant making.
Long week…
It’s been a long week around my house. Nola started first grade last Monday, and since I’m attempting homeschooling this year it’s been a battle of wills as she wants to go back to public school. The household acquired a traffic ticket. I checked my bank account to find unauthorized transactions in progress. The end of the week graced me with some GI issues that left me with lasting issues through even part of today. So a blog post has been in the very very back of my mind most of the last week.
In my downtime I’ve been looking at two different photo hosting type pages. SmugMug and Zenfolio. I’m pretty sure that my “about me” states that I have a love of photography. What I did not mention is that I’m in the process of starting up doing photography on more than just a hobby level.
White Wave Photography is the start of what I hope will be enough of a source of income that I can stay with the kids, but still get to do something I have loved for years. I like other arts and crafts, but have found that I enjoy doing them for fun at my own leisure. I will continue to do things like dye yarn, but just for friends, family, and myself. I have yet to find myself bored behind a camera because the focus through the lens is always changing.
My photography site will not be just portraits and candid shots. I love sunsets, storms, structures, lakes, rivers, the ocean, mountains, wildlife, flowers, fires .. anything and everything that can be photographed. I’m forever saying “I wish I had my camera with me” when I see something that I think would be a good picture. David fully expects me to take my camera with me just about everywhere I go, and he knows me well because I do take it with my just about everywhere (obviously not grocery shopping because that’s just boring).
This last week I’ve also been getting started with freezer meals, which I will talk about more in my next post I’m sure.
Tuna Casserole
Roux scares me.
I’ve not had the proverbial testicular fortitude to try to make it until this tuna casserole. I do not claim that it’s anything similar to what someone who makes cajun dishes would make, but it did made a thickened sauce that I needed for the casserole. I’m actually going to be using the same method tonight for dinner to make another type of casserole.
Mmmm I want more now that I'm looking at the pictures.
Homemade Butter
In my honey wheat bread post a few days ago I made mention of homemade butter. I love homemade butter. My kids love homemade butter. Nola asks for it with homemade bread. It’s like .. well .. bread and butter together.
When I was back in Texas I found a page showing how to make homemade butter with pure muscle by shaking the hell out of a container. I admit I used that method up until a few weeks ago. I stumbled upon a much easier method. Yes, Pinterest was involved, how did you know? Since then homemade butter has been a staple.
This is why here Meg, this is why were here.
