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.

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.

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.

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…

1) Cloth Diapers.

If you can go old school with prefolds you can spend as much for the entire time your child will be in diapers as you would in the fist 6 months using disposables. It’s not as gross as you might think, and frankly it’s awesome not to have an “oh shit” moment (heehee) when you run out of diapers at midnight or wipes when there’s been an explosive episode.

2) Breastfeeding.

Nola was not breastfed (not for a lack of trying) and it was expensive even using the “Parent’s Choice” brand from Wal-Mart. Aside from nursing pads, nursing bras, lanolin, and a Boppy pillow I did not spend a dime for Sophia to eat pretty much the first year of her life (the items were for my comfort and convenience).

3) Co-sleeping.

Yes, I know this one is controversial, but it worked for us. It made night time nursing so much easier. I was not lacking sleep because combined with breastfeeding I didn’t have to get out of bed to feed Sophia. David did spent the first month sleeping on the couch out of fear. Sophia’s now 4.5 and she does still come into our bed just about every night. I’m over it, but since I know she’s my last I’m trying to enjoy the snuggles before they’re gone for good and replaced with a moody “tween” trying to be like her big sister.

4) Thrift store clothes.

Lets be realistic here. Babies grow, and usually at an astonishing pace. Sophia was 8.5 pounds at birth. By my 6 week postpartum checkup she had doubled her weight. All the cute newborn stuff I got her .. yeah, it got less than 6 weeks of use. Yeah buying baby clothes is so much fun, but when your kid goes from newborn to 2T in the first year it’s just plain crazy to dole out money for new stuff in every size – newborn, 3mo, 6mo, 9mo, 12mo, 18mo, 24mo, and 2T (no, I have no clue what the difference is between 24mo and 2T). Heck I STILL buy clothes from second hand stores for the girls AND myself.

5) The Car Seat.

Buy a Britax. Don’t bother with the bucket seat. Yes, it’s easier for moving a sleeping baby. Nola stayed in her bucket seat until she was almost a year old. She was a peanut. As you already know Sophia was a beast. That 6 week checkup she was 16 pounds (perspective – Nola was 18 pounds on her 1st birthday). Yes I’m also aware that Britax is expensive, but when your baby outgrows the bucket seat you’ll be getting a regular car seat anyhow. You might as well “splurge” and get the safest one you can right from the start. Britax seats usually have a starting weight of 5 pounds. Even Nola at 6.5 pounds would have fit in that (rear facing, of course) at birth.

6) Baby Carriers.

No, I’m not talking about one of the Bjorn ones. I’m talking about a nice Beco or a Connecta (oh how I loved my bright pink Solarweave Connecta!). Yes, they too are a little expensive, but they are HANDY. I kept the stroller I had with Nola until Sophia was 3, and I preferred the carriers to the bulky stroller. I certainly couldn’t wrap the stroller up and stuff it in the diaper bag. I would put Sophia in the carrier on my front, Nola in a shopping cart and I would go about my grocery shopping. Most of the time Sophia would be sound asleep and with the little “hood” up her head was supported, and she was warm snuggled up to me. When she got older I got the Beco and would pop her onto my back. It was great for our family trip to San Francisco (me being paranoid I was able to keep her on my back when we were walking and crossing lots of streets). The carrier is my answer to the bucket car seat as well as the stroller.

Now that I look at it … Nola started me on the path to being “crunchy” (I started cloth with her when she was about a year old), and Sophia made the further transformation pretty much inevitable.

Yes, it's really got a green-ish yellow color like that....

The Beeswax Lotion is insanely easy to make.  I managed to do it despite a long day and glasses induced headache!  The recipe was found at A Sonoma Garden.

Ingredients

1 cup Olive Oil

1/2 cup Coconut Oil

1/2 Beeswax (pastilles for easy melting, 2oz of solid wax)

1/2 teaspoon Vitamin E Oil

20 drops (or so) of any essential oil of choice … totally option of course

Put everything in a pint jar except the vitamin E and essential oils.   Then place the jar in a water bath being careful not to get water into the jar.  Let it get all melty over medium heat, stir occasionally,  and then take it out of the water.  As it’s cooling off mix it up with a fork every 10-15 minutes so it turns out creamy.  Once it’s at room temperature add in the vitamin E and essential oil and you’re done.

A little goes a long way so as tempting as it might seem to drop a good teaspoon size blob in your hand be warned that you do not need to, and if you did you’d be lotioning up your hands, arms, and likely legs too. 

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. 

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

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.

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.

Tuna Noodle Casserole adapted from AllRecipes

1/2 cup butter, divided
1 (8 ounce) package uncooked medium egg noodles
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 carrot shredded
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
2 (6 ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked
1 cup frozen peas
5 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375

Cook noodles per the directions on the package. Add in frozen peas so they can cook along with the noodles. Drain and return to pan.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan and cook the onions and garlic until onions are soft. Add in 4 more tablespoon then add flour and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk in milk, and continue cooking 5 minutes, until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Melt the last of the butter and mix panko bread crumbs in.

Add sauce, carrots, and tuna to the drained noodles and peas. Stir. Pour into a baking dish and top with the cup of cheese and panko mixture.

Ingredients ready to go.

Yep, I'm hungry now.

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.

You only need a few things here.

Food Processor
Heavy Cream
Cheese cloth (or if you’re me and cannot find any you’ll use either a clean cloth with as little fuzzing as possible or paper towels)
Strainer
2 Bowls (or a plate and a cup .. one for the butter, one for the butter milk)
Salt, optional

RIIP Black and Decker Quick and Easy Pro

The best milk comes from Strauss Family Creamery!

Glass milk bottles are love.

In goes the heavy cream.

Start on high or low, your choice. High is faster but louder, and low is slower but less like a jet in your face.

You'll notice it's thickening up.

Then it seems to "fall apart". The milk fat (butter) is separating from the liquid (buttermilk).

Pour out the buttermilk .. but DON'T pour it down the drain!! It's fat free milk for the most part, and tasty.

What’s with the glass of ice water? Pour the cold water into the food processor bowl and give it a whirl again, and then drain. Repeat until there’s no more hazy water coming out. Apparently buttermilk left in will cause the butter to turn faster. Not that it ever lasts long enough around here to find out.

See, there's water still in there that needs to come out and it's still a little milky.

At this point you’ll need to use that cheese cloth and strainer to pour out the butter as not to lose any, and then squish the butter and make sure all the milk and water is out. I pop it in the freezer for a few minutes and then squish it up, pat it off with a paper towel and do that until I’m happy that it’s not loaded with liquid. You can mix in salt if you like, but I never have.

Mmm butter!

What?! That's not butter ... but mmmm it's delicious!

Carbohydrate pr0n!!

Oh yeah!