Last night's feast..

Verge made Filet Mignon and we had scalloped corn (no green vegetable, Safeway was out of asparagus). The corn is kind of like a baked cheesy corn tabasco custard, so delicious. And Olive loved the meat!

Budget update...

So everyone's been asking us about how we're affording to eat healthier, as it's the obvious more expensive route. I get a high out of coupon shopping and good deals, so it's actually been fun for me to see how cheap we can eat, but still eat good healthy food. One key is shopping at like six different stores, but luckily I like to run errands, and I have incredible kids that do great in the car and in carts. For example, we get raw honey at Morrow Brothers Fruit Market, Agave nectar at Costco, meat at New Seasons, (except shrimp which we get at Grocery Outlet), produce mostly at Winco, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, so far this month we're at $148 which includes eating out and coffee dates. Not too shabby... However we did both open an account at US Bank to get $75 free groceries, and I use a bazillion coupons for everything else (for example tonight I only used three coupons at Kmart but got Huggies for only $2). But I guess my hours of searching money saving blogs and printing coupons pays off! I'm hoping to stay under $200 this month, which seems doable seeing that I transferred a prescription to Safeway and got a $30 gift card, which I'll use with my $10 off $50 coupon and doubles to get over $50 worth of groceries for under $10. Sweetness.

Indulging in a guilty pleasure..

Olive and Lincoln and I were running errands tonight and headed to the gym.. I realized it had been a while since I'd eaten and Olive had finished up all of her "car snacks." So we splurged and got one of our favorite things in the whole world.. snickers :) We shared it, and it was awesome. It has been months since I'd tasted the chewy carmely nutty deliciousness that is the snickers bar.. But then I had a kick butt workout afterward to make up for it.

Stuffed Buns...

Today I made one of Verge's favorites.. stuffed buns. I made home made whole wheat rolls then rolled out the dough and stuffed them with cheese and a cooked combo of onion, ground beef, shredded carrots and cabbage. Yum! Verge dips them in our agave nectar sweetened ketchup, but they're pretty delicious on their own. I'll have to remake them when I perfect my roll makin.. they're supposed to be a bit fluffier.

Homemade Pizza on the grill...

After church sunday Verge and I had homemade pizza, it was whole wheat pizza crust, pesto, mushrooms, spinach, feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, motzerella and parmesean cheese. Then Verge cooked it on the Traeger.. it was delicious!

We had more of the lentil soup for dinner tonight, with salad and home made bread. Then tea for dessert :) It's still going great!

Not too shabby...

Olive helped me make chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight: a delicious combination of free range chicken breast, peas, corn, carrots, onion, celery, whole wheat organic noodles, chicken broth, marjoram, pepper, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley and love :)

If at first you don't succeed.... try try try try try try try try try again

The first picture is Olive helping me make Dad breakfast, an omlette with red peppers and green onions and tomatoes. She loves helping mom cook, and we've been doing a lot more of it lately! We've enjoyed stuffed peppers and chicken salad the last couple of days, and are having home made chicken noodle soup tonight, home made pizza on the Traeger on sunday, and mexican chicken casserole on monday.

Now onto the explanation of my title...I've expanded my horizons from bread to rolls. Maybe they'll be a little nicer to me. Nice thought huh?! I just tossed a batch in the trash and started over again about an hour ago. Round one tasted ok, but the dumb things looked terribly sick and wouldn't stay together and they fell apart into a million pieces the instant you touched them. anyway, this is a picture of round two baking in the oven. I'm like a proud new mom, they're just beautiful! Now let's see if they are edible.... I'm going in....

stupid bread.. who needs rolls with soup anyway?

WARNING!!!

You can still get fat eating healthy food!! I made muffins tonight, with olive oil, flax seed, raw honey, oat bran, spelt flour, etc. and we can't stop eating them! Although they aren't bad for you, thirty two of them isn't great for you either :) Verge is perfecting his bbq skills, yesterday he smoked ribs for like five hours with homemade rib rub and they were to die for. We are having a lot of fun with meals lately, making fancy vegetables and getting creative for desserts. We found if you put frozen cherries, agave nectar and greek yogurt in the magic bullet it makes a delicious sorbet substitute, olive is loving having "ice cream" again. Please enjoy the pictures of our beautiful kids, we sure do... thanks for checking in on us, we're going strong!

PS. the bread picture is to show you that I'm improving and haven't given up the every going battle with my bread making skills..

Still Going Strong

So a lot of people have asked, "Are you still doing that diet thing?" and the answer is yes.

I guess it is about the time when people give up on their New Year's Resolution. I sincerely believe we've started a new habit with food. To think of going back to our old ways seems ludicrous.

However, it was my birthday last week... You can't really turn down birthday food...can you?

Kelsey is growing as a cook. We are trying all kinds of new things.

You know, sometimes you just don't know what else to say so I'll quit now.