Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I am passionate about teaching children about healthy, natural food. I may not always succeed when it comes to my own children, but I do my best to give them good options and hope that someday they will be able to make the right choice on their own.


There are times that I allow them to have junk food because it is not always possible to shield them. I also do not want them to have to go to a party and be the only kid not allowed to have cake. I just explain to them that this is a special treat. It would also not be fair to ask a teacher at school or church to not be the mean one and not give them the same snack all the other kids are having.


It is important to teach your kids moderation and be a good example with your own food choices. If I ever go back to school once my kids are in school full time I would love to find some career that involves teaching children how to make good food choices.


I was very excited to see that Jamie Oliver is hosting a new show called Food Revolution. I watched the first episode with my husband. We were both in shock at the foods that are considered healthy and well balanced in the school system. I realize that cost is a factor, but surely we can do better. If you missed the episode make sure to check it our here and see what you think.

Free Sample of Little Ducks Organic Snacks

Grab your digital cameras and take a picture of your little cutie eating a snack. Then upload it to Little Ducks Facebook of Flickr site to receive a free sample of their organic snacks. Who knows maybe it will be a full size bag. You never know. Check it out here.

Thanks The Thrifty Mama

Henry's & Sun Harvest March 24-31

Here are my favorite deals at Henry's and Sun Harvest this week. I really wish I had some of these stores in my area. I am thankful for bloggers who are able to cover stores that I can not get ads for.

Honest Tea Organic Tea or Juice $1.25
-$.50 here or here
$.75 each

Organic Granny Smith or Red Delicious Apples $2.97

Double Ad Wednesday Wednesday Only

Hass Avocados $.88 each

Cascadian Farms Frozen Vegetables $3.69
-BOGO sale
Use $1/1 here or here (use 2 coupons)
Total $.85 each

Kettle Potato Chips $2.49 each
- BOGO sale
-$1/1 here or from 3/1 Smart Source (use 2 coupons)
Total $.25 each when you buy 2

Thanks Organic Deals for putting these together.

Sprouts Farmer's Market March 24-31

Here are my favorite deals from Sprouts this week.

Wednesday only sale...

Cascadian Farms Frozen Vegetables $2.50

-$1/1 Here or here

Total $1.50 each

Muir Glen canned tomatoes $1.25

-$1/1 here

Total $.25 each

Nature's Path Waffles $2.00

You can go to Organic Deals to check out the full list of sale items.

New Health E-Saver Coupons

The new health e-saver coupons are out. You can go here to print them. If I remember right you can print them as many times as you want. I will keep an eye out for some sales to go along with them.

Here is a list of what you can print...

$1.50 off 1 quart Good Belly probiotic drink

$3.00 off Country Life bone supplement

$2.00 off any Carlson ACES product

$2.00 off any Carlson vitamin E product

I am a little disappointed. There are not as many this time around.

Free Sample Of Organic Baby Body Wash And Lotion

You can go here and sign up to receive a sample of organic Baby Barn body lotion and wash. I think I will sign up for this one since they have an unscented sample. The other 2 scent they have are lavender avocado and honeysuckle orange.

Thanks Money Saving Mom

Mother's Market Deals

Here are my favorite deals at Mother's Market this week.

Organic Healthy Greens $1.49

Organic Tangerines $.99 lb

Organic Blueberries $2.99 (My son's favorite)

They also have a number of great monthly deals right now.

You can go here to check out the rest of the great sales at Mother's market.

Thanks Organic Deals

Health Food Store And Co-op Locator

I was doing a little research this afternoon trying to find out how many health food stores there are nationally and I stumbled across allstays.com. They have a very large list of natural food stores and co-ops listed by city and state.

If you are looking for something in your are you might give this site a try. It had many national chains as well as local stores listed.

Earth Fare Email List= Free Food!

If you have an Earth Fare store near you be sure to sign up for their email list. They seem to be sending out a lot of coupons for free food lately. I sure wish I had one near me so I could get in on the deals!

Go here to check it out.

You can also go here to see their current sales. They do not have coupon match ups. I will try to posr those later.

Whole Foods Market Deals

I am planning to try and post the best deals I find around the internet for health food stores each week. A couple of my local stores only send out ads once a month so I will be posting those at the first of each month (Green Acres, Food For Thought).

If anyone would like me to look into a certain store for you let me know and I will see what I can find out. For today I will be starting with my favorite sales at Whole Foods Markets.

Organic Romaine Lettuce $.99 each

Stoneyfield Organic Yogurt Singles $.60

-$.50/3 Here

Total $.43 each when you buy 3

Cascadian Farms Granola Bars $3.50

-$1/1 from Whole Deals coupon book

-$1/1 from Cascadian Farms website

Total $1.50 each

If you would like to take a look at all the sales going on at Whole Foods this week head on over to Organic Coupons and Deals to see the rest.

Thanks to Organic Deals for compiling these deals.

Annie's Organic Mac And Cheese $.50 Each

OK, so I realize that mac and cheese is not exactly the healthiest thing to feed your family, but at this stage in my life I am giving it to my kids once in a while just to survive. I decided that if I was going to give on this it would have to at least be a decent quality brand since I definitely do not have time for yummy homemade right now. I was excited when I found this deal at Dillons (Kroger) last night.

Annie's Mac and Cheese is on sale for $1 each.

Sale buy 8 get $4 off total.

Total price $.50 each.

Has anyone seen any other good whole foods deals at Kroger lately?

Naturally Maintaining Milk Supply While Sick

This past week has been a bit challenging for me due to having a new baby as well as 2 children and myself fighting colds. I was having some trouble with milk supply anyone so being sick has really not helped. Add on top of that the added stress of a still very sick father and trying to figure out how to care for him and trying to get a house ready for sale. Needless to say I am a bit stressed right now. I asked my husband this morning what it is like to sleep more then 1-2 hours in a row. I know I should not complain because this is just a season and it will pass, but for now I am exhausted.

I decided to start looking into some ways to help increase my milk supply naturally and frugally. Here is what I came up with. Hopefully it works.

1.) Lactation cookies- I originally tried these when I was nursing my son 2 years ago. I seem to remember them working ok. Even if they don't work they are really yummy and filled with healthy ingredients. The recipe I linked to calls for a lot more sugar then I am willing to use. I will probably half it this time or use a natural sweetener such as honey. I may also try using coconut oil or applesauce instead of butter.

2.) Fenugreek- This has been used for years by women trying to increase milk supply. It is safe and not very expensive. I found mine at a local health food store.

3.) "Try" to nap

4.) Vitamin C to fight my cold. I have been taking my kids chewable immune defense vitamins from our healthy food store. As an added bonus they have whole food concentrates in them as well.

5.) Lots of water and a healthy diet- It is amazing how much more milk I have when I remember to drink water. A well balanced diet is very important for quality milk.

6) Nurse or pump more often.

Hopefully these things will work. I will keep you posted.

$1/1 Olivia's Organics

I have never seen this product in any of my stores, but I have found a couple of coupons for it so I thought I would pass them along. Has anyone tried Olivias before?

There is a list of states that carry Olivia's here.

Here are 2 places to find coupons...

On the Olivias organic website

Coupons.com (Also on my left side bar)

Great Deals On Natural Sweeteners

I was reading through Money Saving Mom's blog this morning and noticed that she had two great deals for natural sweeteners posted.

The first is a $2/1 coupon for Wholesome Sweeteners that can be used for honey, molasses, or sugar.

The second is a deal for agave nectar on Amazon. This is a sweetener I have not tried yet. I am a bit hesitant because I have seen some mixed reviews in its safety lately. Does anyone have any more information on this?

Here is the way to get 2 44oz bottles for $13.78. If you have Amazon Prime you could get these shipped for free.

1.) Add wholesome sweetener blue agave to your cart. Make sure to use the subscribe and save method when adding to your cart to get the discount.

2.) Continue to check out. That's it.

3.) If you do not want to continue receiving shipments through subscribe and save you can immediatly go into your account and cancel your subscription. I have done this before and it is very easy to do.

This could be very cheap if not free if you use any swagbuck gift cards you might have.

Cloth Diapers for $8.33 each!

I have been using cloth diapers for awhile now and I love them! They are so much better for my son who has eczema. Not to mention how much money they save me.

If you are interested in finding out how to get Bumpkin cloth diapers for $8.33 each check out this post by The Thrifty Mama. Hurry these will sell out fast!

Free Coconut Oil

Tropical Traditions is offering a FREE 16oz organic gold label virgin coconut oil until midnight Wednesday March 17. You do have to make a $16 minimum purchase, but I think this is completely worth it considering this is a $25 value as well as all the incredible benefits of this oil.

Make sure to check out their weekly specials to get the most out of this deal. They have some great products on sale. I am planning to try out some new ones.

I found out about this deal from Heavenly Homemakers. Make sure to stop by her blog to get a referral code so that you can add a free coconut oil uses and recipe book to your order.

Baby Steps To Healthy Living: Whole Grains

When most people start their journey to healthy eating they immediately think about dry, cardboard tasting whole wheat bread, brown rice, and other supposedly tasteless foods. If not cooked correctly this can be true, but there are so many ways to use whole grains as well as tons of different varieties.

Today I would like to focus on a few well known varieties as well as a couple new ones that you may or may not have heard of or tried before. Eating a wide variety of whole grains in your diet is important.

There are many different topics you can focus on when it comes to grains such as soaking, spouting, and sourdoughs. To keep things simple today I will try to stick with just the basics of what whole grains are, how to cook them, and how to ease your family into eating them.

Getting your family to eat whole grains:

The first thing I would recommend to help ease your family into this transition is to start slowly eliminating white flour from your diet. I started by using 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat flour in recipes and then slowly using more wheat as we became accustomed to the flavor and texture.

The same rule can apply to brown rice. Start mixing it with regular white rice and then slowly add more brown rice.

Types of whole grains:

Wheat flour-

There are 2 types of wheat flour that are typically used in baking: Hard red winter wheat and hard white spring wheat. Winter wheat is what you will usually find in the grocery store when you are buying wheat flour.
Spring wheat is best for baking because it yields a lighter texture and color when baked. You can usually find this in a grocery store or health foods store. You may have to look a little harder for it though.
Another option would be to grind your own wheat for flour. Grinding your own flour is much healthier as well as giving you fresher flour. This is something I would love to start doing as soon as I am able to get a grain mill. The cost of grinding your own flour is actually cheaper in the long run once you purchase your mill.

Brown Rice-

Brown rice is a great whole grain. It does have a different texture then white rice, but it is so much better for you.

Oats-

Oats can be used in so many different ways. Most people think just about a bowl of oatmeal, which can be really yummy, but there are other ways to incorporate them into your diet. I will often toss some in when I am baking bread or muffins. Another way I get oats into our diet is to grind them up and add them to meatloaf instead of bread crumbs. I have even used them ground up as a flour in oat and nanner drops (yummy!)
One of our favorite ways to eat a bowl of oatmeal is to either soak it overnight and cook it in the morning or to cook it in a crock pot over night. I will then add some cinnamon, salt, milk, butter, and honey. You can then top it with fruit for some extra nutrition.

Millet-

Millet has a great nutty flavor to it. These tiny seeds can be used in a couple of ways. I will typically add them to baked goods for an extra crunchy texture or cook them like you would rice and serve as a side dish. Instead of using water when cooking millet try chicken broth for extra flavor.

Quinoa-

This is one of my husband's favorite grains. He is a runner and quinoa is very high in protein. If you eat very little meat like my family and you are looking for another way to add some protein to your diet quinoa is a great alternative. I usually cook it the same way you would rice. It has a cute little "tail" that sticks out of the grain when it is cooked. Quinoa can be a bit pricey so make sure to look for it in the bulk food section where it is usually cheaper.

Popcorn-

Believe it or not popcorn is a whole grain. Make sure to buy organic corn. I will cook popcorn for my kids on the stove with some coconut oil or butter and sea salt. Sometimes we add some Parmesan cheese. They absolutely love popcorn as a snack. It is filling and low in calories.
Making your own popcorn is FAR superior to microwave popcorn. We avoid microwave popcorn when we can. It has lots of added preservatives as well as genetically modified corn.

How to store whole grains-

Whole grains will keep a long time if stored correctly. I often buy grains in bulk to save money. I am planning to get some large 5 gallon buckets to keep them in. I then transfer smaller amounts to glass jars as needed. I love to display my glass jars full of grains, beans, and other baking ingredients. They are so pretty.

Cheap Organic Juice At Kroger Stores

I was in Dillons (Kroger) this week and noticed that several varieties of RW Knudsen juice is BOGO. They are around $4 each. There are several $1/1 coupons out right now that when you use 2 and combine with the sale makes them around $1 each! This is for organic, 100% juice.

The coupons can be found in most health food stores that carry the Healthy Clippings or Mambo Sprouts coupon book.

There was also a $1/1 coupon in the 12/13 Red Plum that expires 6/10.

I also noticed on the RW Knudsen website that they have a $1/1 coupon for Just Juice that can be printed once daily.

Great Post On Lowering Your Grocery Budget

Catherine at A Spirited Mind wrote an excellent article on how you can buy natural foods and still stay on a budget. Since that is the topic of this blog and I have been so swamped the last several months I thought you might be interested in reading it. It is always nice to see someone elses's perspective on a subject.

Cheap Kashi Cereal At Target

Target has a new coupon out for B2G1 on Kashi cereal. If you recieved the Vocal Point mailing last week for a FREE box of Kashi heart to heart cereal along with some $1.50/1 coupons you could turn this into a really good deal. I think this cereal runs about $4 a box. If that is right here is the break down of cost.

Buy 3 boxes heart to heart cereal $12

-Target B2G1 coupon -$4

-Free coupon -$4

- 2 $1.50/1 coupon -$3

Out of pocket cost $1 for 3 boxes of organic cereal!

Even if you don't use your free coupon and just use 3 $1.50 off coupons this will still make a really HOT deal on cereal.

Thanks Organic Deals

Sometimes Life Makes You Take A Break

I can not believe that it has been 2 months since my last post. Things have been so crazy around here lately. My dad is still in rehab, I finally have a new computer (for FREE! God is so good), and we have added a new little girl to our family. Charlotte Rose was born February 26. She is such a good baby.

After praying and urging from my husband I have decided that it is time to start back up. It seems like I have started and stopped so many times, but I feel it is important to take care of family first. Hopefully things have calmed down enough that I can slowly ease my way back into the swing of things around here.

Thank you so much to all of you for your words of encouragement and patience as my family has worked through some difficult times.