It's Another Girl!

I just thought I would let everyone know that I had a sonogram this morning and found out that we are expecting another girl. My daughter is so excited. I hope she continues to be excited when she has to start sharing a room. Poor Jack, he will be the only boy. He also has 3 girl cousins.

Pumpkin Cookies The Healthy Way-I Think

I do have more interesting posts started, but I have not had time to sit down and finish them. So for now I will post about the pumpkin cookie recipe that my daughter and I tried to make a little healthier then the original version. I will post pictures as soon as they come out of the oven and let you know how our experiment tastes.

Pumpkin Cookies Lorrie's Way

2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (Next time I may cut it to 2)

2 T ground flax seed

1 t baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch ground cloves

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup pumpkin

1 egg

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.) Mix together butter, maple syrup, honey, pumpkin, and egg with an electric mixer.

3.) Add remaining ingredients.

4.) Place dough on cookie sheet.

5.) Bake for 10-12 minutes

If you are interested in the original recipe you can check it our here.

New Navigation Tools

I spent some time tonight trying to put in some tabs to make it a little easier to navigate this blog. They are not perfect and a couple do not lead anywhere yet, but I am still learning how to work with an html code. Let me know what you think.

Weekly Menu Plan

Last weeks dinners of beans and rice went fairly well. It is something we have tried before so we knew what we were getting into. We managed it all but one day. We finally caved and defrosted some bean and beef burritos that I had pre-made in the freezer. Still beans, but a little meat as well.

Since it is the end of the month I am keeping things simple. As I typed this menu I realized it is very boring and lacking in the health area. Sorry, sometimes you just have to use up what you have and make it work. If you have not already read I gear my lunches toward my to small children and my sweet husband loves to take leftovers from the night before. I am so lucky.

Sunday
Breakfast-Leftover pumpkin pancakes and OJ (We got up late for church so something quick)
Lunch-Leftover chili, salad, and breadsticks from a potluck we hosted Sat
Dinner-Leftover beef and bean burritos

Monday
Breakfast-Organic cereal with fruit (I know not entirely healthy even if it is "all natural")
Lunch-Bean burritos with homemade tortillas, corn, and fruit
Dinner-With my parents, probably mom's homemade chicken and noodle-Yippee!

Tuesday
Breakfast-Yogurt, lazy granola, and fruit
Lunch-Turkey sandwiches and fruit
Dinner-White chicken chili and cornbread

Wednesday
Breakfast-Carrot, banana, apple muffins
Lunch-Spouted grain noodles with Parmesan cheese, peas
Dinner-Pre-made lasagna from the freezer, salad

Thursday
Breakfast-Egg in a hole, fruit
Lunch-PB and J roll ups with carrot sticks
Dinner-Butternut squash potato soup from the freezer stash, homemade rolls

Friday
Breakfast-French toast, fruit
Lunch-Probably free Ted's Montana Grill coupons
Dinner-Homemade pizza with homemade crust. So much healthier then store bought, veggie

Saturday
Breakfast-Vegetable fritata
Lunch-Leftovers
Dinner-Leftovers

Natural Body Care Product Coupons

I noticed on another blog this morning that there are some Kiss My Face brand coupons right now at coupons.com. They were not available for me, but if you go to the coupon bar at the side of my blog and enter your zip maybe you will be lucky enough to get one. The coupons included are for children's items, oral care, and general.

Thanks The Thrifty Mama

I also noticed a coupon for $.75 off of Del Monte pineapple. If your store doubles this will give you $1 off of pineapple. It is not often you find a coupon for fresh produce, so print this one quick. Don't forget that you can print all of these coupons twice.

Where To Buy Healthy Bulk Foods

I thought that I would do a post on some of the places I have found to buy healthy foods in bulk. Some of them I have only heard of, with good reviews, and others I have personally tried out. I will try to keep this short with just a name, items found there, and a link. Hopefully this will be helpful in your search for quality, affordable foods. Later I will try to do a review of the ones I have personally bought from with what I bought and my review.

Amazon Grocery-Lots of organic and natural foods as well as health care products. Monthly specials can make for a great deal. You can also use your Swagbuck gift cards if you have them for an even better deal. I will try to list these deals as I run across them.

Azure Standard-This is a place that I have considered ordering my bulk items from. They have fairly reasonable prices on almost everything you need. They only seem to have drop points in certain areas of the country. I have heard tons of great things about this company.

Mountain Rose Herb- I think the name says it all. This company specializes in bulk herbs and spices.

Real Milk-This website has listings of where you can find sources of raw milk in your area. If you are curious about drinking raw milk you can check out my post here.

Local Harvest- A website that will help direct you to local CSAs and organic farms on your area.

Eat Wild- This website helps direct you to local farmers who raise healthy meat.

I will add to this list as I come across new websites.

Hopefully An E-book Soon

I am in the process of putting together my first e-book. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. Hopefully it will all come together the way I have planned. My idea is to put together a recipe book full of beans and rice recipes. I have not decided if I will add other frugal recipes or if I will make a separate book for them.

I am always on the hunt for good, cheap meals. Beans and rice seems to come up a lot. I could not help thinking how incredibly boring this type of diet must be. This week we have been testing out this theory. We have found so far that there are many different ways to cook bean/lentils and rice to keep some variety in the diet. I have even noticed that I am staying full longer and I am not snacking as much. Which is a lot to say for someone almost 5 months pregnant. Due to being pregnant I am being careful to eat some meat at either breakfast or lunch for now.

So what do you think? Could you handle a week of beans and rice.

Lunchbox Limbo

I have been searching for ways to get my picky 4 year old to eat healthier foods without a fight. I am sure this is something that most moms go through. I was so excited when I stumbled onto the blog Lunchbox Limbo. Amanda has some really good ideas for helping ease your kids into healthier eating habits. I love all the cute ways that she presents the food to her children so that even healthy foods can be fun.

This is an example of one of the creative lunches you will find at Lunchbox Limbo. It is called"Pinkalicious". Pinkalicious just happens to be one of my daughters favorite books. I will have to give this one a try. For many more inspiration and seasonal ideas on making your kids lunch boxes healthy and fun make sure to check out Lunchbox Limbo.

Food Storage Analyzer

Yesterday I discovered a website through Money Saving Mom called Preparedness Pantry. They are an emergency preparedness website based in Utah. I have been thinking a lot lately about what I would do if we had a natural disaster in our area. What would I feed my family, how would we stay warm, where would we find clean water?This website was excellent for helping me answer some of these questions.

They have a free food storage analyzer to help you find out how long you can feed your family with the food you have on hand if you had to. I gave the analyzer a try and found it to be easy to use. The only problem I had was that I did not have the exact items they recommended, but I decided that I would approximate with what I had that would be comparable. After just adding in all my grains I discovered that I could feed my family for 7 days. Interesting.

If you would like to give this analyzer a try click on the button below and try it for yourself. You might be surprised at the results.

Menu Plan-Better Late Then Never

I thought that since I have not been active on this blog for so long I would start with a menu plan to give me some place to get started. We are having a beans and rice week for dinners. A friend of mine, Crystal, from Money Saving Mom posted about this last week which is where I got my inspiration.

Breakfast
Sunday-Homemade scones, peaches
Monday-Lazy Granola
Tuesday-Cereal and yogurt
Wednesday-Toast and eggs
Thursday-Baked oatmeal
Friday-Pancakes and fruit
Saturday-Leftovers

Lunch (Kids friendly) My husband tends to take dinner leftovers
Sunday-My parent's house
Monday-Chicken nuggets, peas, and fruit
Tuesday-Turkey sandwiches with fresh cut veggies
Wednesday- Free Ted's Montana Grill coupons
Thursday-Peanut butter and jelly rollups with fresh pears.
Friday-Bean burritos, carrots
Saturday- Salad

Dinner
Sunday-Grilled cheese with soup and veggies
Monday-My parent's house
Tuesday- Taco Salad
Wednesday-Brown rice and lentil casserole, broccoli
Thursday- Black bean soup over rice
Friday- Red beans and rice
Saturday- White chicken chili and cornbread, fresh veggies (Some meat for me and baby)

Hopefully next week I can do a post on how I am using all the pumpkins I have. I cooked some last week, but I did not take pictures. We are hoping to have lots of frozen pureed pumpkin for winter. It is cheaper and healthier then canned. The cheapest cans I can find are at Aldi's for $.75. The pumpkins I bought are $.50/lb. I cooked 4 and got 17 cups of puree.

New Start

Ok so I have not put up a new post since June. Between finding out we are expecting again, morning sickness, trying to decide if we should move, and just life in general I have not had much time to put toward my blog. I am planning to try and post new things at least a couple of times a week. I am not sure I still have anyone reading, but that's ok.

More Beans and Rice Recipes

PINTOS AND V8

Cook pintos with v8 and other mexican spices. Serve with rice, corn, and chips

LENTIL SOUP AND POTATO BAKE (Think lentil shepherds pie)

Use leftover lentil soup and add it to a pot.
Mix together some water and cornstarch or arrow root powder and add to the soup until it is very thick.
Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan
Place mashed potatoes on top of soup mixture
Top with cheese
Bake at 350 for 1 hour

Inspired by MSM comment

CARMELIZED ONION AND BLACK BEANS OVER RICE

onions
garlic
black beans
red wine vinegar
salt
rice

Cook onions in a skillet with garlic, vinegar, and salt until carmelized. Add beans and salt and pepper to taste.

inspired by MSM comment

SIMPLE PINTOS AND RICE

Pintos cooked with onions and lime juice over rice and topped with tomatoes.

PINTOS WITH FRESH VEGGIES

Cook pinto beans in bacon grease or lard
Serve with homemade cornbread and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes


LENTIL CURRY SNACK

1 cup lentils
fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
crushed red pepper to taste
salt to taste

1. Soak lentils for 2 hours.
2. Add lentils and remaining ingredients to a food processor and grind coursely.
3. Bake 20 minutes.
4. Serve crispy with sour cream.

LENTIL CURRY DIP

Blend lentil curry in a food processor and serve with chips or pita.

Bean Pasta and Veggie Salad

This is something I made up one day and turned out really good. The measurements are not precise. You can just eyeball it.

Beans (Any kind)
Cooked pasta
Mixed fresh veggies (broccoli, shredded carrots, onion...)
Cheese (shredded cheddar or Parmesan)
Italian dressing
Salt and pepper to taste

Some Beans and Rice Recipes

CHICKPEAS AND SWEET POTATOES WITH SUMMER VEGGIES

1 can chickpeas
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1/2 onion
For the pepper and onions I usally use the frozen pepper and onion mix from the grocery store. It is much cheaper and easier to use.
1 c sliced zuchini
1 c sliced yellow squash
2 sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
2 cloves minced garlic

Place beans and vegetables on a cookie sheet
Drizzle with olive oil
Sprinkle with rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Top with minced garlic (Garlic powder in a pinch)
Turn the veggies with hands to coat them completely with oil and spices

Place in 350 degree oven and bake appoximately 30 minutes or until veggies are tender

Serve over rice, couscous, quinoa, or desired grain.

FALAFEL

15 oz cooked chickpeas
2 large handfuls parsley
1/2 cup onion
1 carrot
1 slice bread
1 egg
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1-2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ceyenne pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
olive oil

Place all ingredients into a food processor and blend until a they form a ball. Add olive oil or water it needed.

Take small handfuls of dough and roll into balls. Flatten each ball and place onto a cookie sheet.

Brush with olive oil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with Cucumber dip, pita, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber

CUCUMBER DIP

1/2 cucumber
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice