I Said I Was Dead Serious!

I feel so encouraged after my post last night about my general inability to committ to any type of healthy diet/lifestyle. I received many comments on my Facebook link to the post, inbox messages, I even had many dear friends approach me personally at church this morning to encourage me and offer their advice. So if you are reading this and you were one of those people- I am grateful because I have so much more motivation to follow through this time. Your love and prayers are SO appreciated, thank you.

Another reason I feel totally encouraged is that I went grocery shopping tonight. I had planned on hitting Trader Joes this afternoon with both kids after the Packer game, however after talking with many friends today and getting lots of recommendations for Woodman's I decided to check out the new one in Waukesha on HWY 164. The farmer let me go sans the 4-year-old so with princess in tow (wearing her on the Baby Bjorn) I did my weekly shopping at Woodman's. I survived - although that store is GIANT and I'll have to get used to organizing my list appropriately. It was such a great experience! It is open 24/7 which is another plus because here on the farm we run on an anything-but-normal schedule. Princess Elle & I headed out about 9pm and we returned around 11. Shopping with just the baby was so nice...I can't even imagine what it would have been like if I was actually alone!

Yet another encouraging thing, I got EVERYTHING on my list PLUS a couple extra things for only about $3 more than I had planned to spend. I was planning on spending about $70 at Woodman's and price-matching a few things at Wal Mart either later tonight or tomorrow and spending another $15. For $88.07 I got everything on my list and didn't have to go to two stores - totally worth the extra $3! And our grocery budget still has $200 left for the rest of the month.

I thought I would share what I bought for $88.07 since the majority of it was meat and fresh produce - and I'll share with you what I have planned for my meals this week. *Fingers crossed* the farmer doesn't totally hate some/all of them. I bought a few organic things, a few gluten free, mostly just tried going  for fresh over processed this time...I will refine my process as I go along. I figured fresh is better than processed and if I decided to go totally gung-ho organic and all that I might just wear myself out. OK ready, here it goes:

4 28oz Cans of Crushed Tomatoes
1 16oz Jar of *Organic* Peanut Butter
1 container dried Thyme leaves
1 container dried Rosemary
1 Container dried basil
2 6oz cans Tomato Paste
1 box Shur Shine Pancake Mix (NOT for me)
3 cans of pringles (for the farmer)
1 package corn tortillas
1 box *gluten free* pizza crust mix
1 lb bag of dried black beans
1 bottle of pancake syrup (again, NOT for me)
2.5 lbs of Ground Jenni-O turkey
1 lb of salmon filets (frozen)
2 lbs of Just Bare Chicken Breast Filets (Just Bare is my FAVORITE brand of "all natural" chicken)
1 16 oz tub of fresh salsa
1 3.84lb Spaghetti Squash
1 lb Mini Bella Mushrooms
2 avacados
1 lemon
1 lime
1 22oz package of Romaine hearts
1.85 lbs of Honey Crisp apples (which I just noticed on the reciept she rang me up for Pink Lady apples which were $1.00 less per pound - SCORE!)
3/4 lb fresh green beans
1 lb fresh asparagus
2 zucchini
1 10 oz package of matchstick carrots (shredded carrots)
2 Red Bell Peppers
8oz container of fresh mozzarella pearls
1/2 gallon of Chocolate milk (for the farmer & Jack)
1 gallon of 1% milk
2 lbs of salted butter
1 8oz tub of Sour Cream (farmer)
2 boxes of Motts Fruit snacks (for Jack)
2 Fruit leathers (organic fruit roll up type things - for me!)
1 bag Quaker Oats Rice cake snacks (for Jack)

48 items for $88.07

I was proud and impressed. I did not get a case of water as I had intended and we're almost out of the farmer's soda, so I might need to make a Walmart run yet, but I think I did pretty well. The scary thing is we're doing this budget thing all with cash and so when the "food" envelope is out of cash, that's it! So I am probably going to hold off on the soda for a bit, maybe get him some 2L bottles to get him through the next week or so until we see how well I really did with the grocery budget.

I also went through my cabinets (just two of them for starters) and threw away all the cookies and bags of candy that were opened (the unopened ones I did save). That felt good. Now the cabinets look orderly and I did the same with the fridge. Threw things away that have just been in there for too long and made room for all my fresh produce!!

So to close I'll leave you with my menu for the week (my lunches and family dinners). Note that I did make a Sam's Club run last week and picked up lunch meat and bread for the farmer's sandwiches so he's set for his lunches for the week. Also just a weird random side note: Almond Butter is FREAKING expensive. I wanted to get some because I read it on a blog as a yummy snack with apples - NOT FOR $14.99 a JAR. Holy cow. . . ok that's all I want to say about that.

**For breakfast I plan on eating hard cooked eggs (which we have no shortage of here on the farm!), apples with *organic* peanut butter, organic granola with milk, and/or lightly salted avacado**

Menu for 10/7-10/13//2013

Monday:
Lunch - Caesar Salad (bring my greens and shredded parm cheese to work & use the *homemade* parkside caesar dressing) & bring a fruit leather or apple & peanut butter for a snack
Dinner: 2 ingredient clean chicken tacos I got the recipe from Pinterest and it looks both delicious and super easy! And of course the farmer can just have his with cheese, sour cream, and in flour tortillas. Mine will be with corn tortillas & avacado

Tuesday:
Lunch - tuna salad lettuce wraps-not sure yet what/if I am going to substitute the mayo with but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Dinner - Chili (recipe here) - gonna substitute ground turkey and use dry beans (which I've never done before so that'll be interesting) instead of canned

Wednesday:
Lunch - left over chili (barring a catastrophe & the chili is terrible or something)
Dinner - Spaghetti Squash & Paleo Meat Sauce - this is where the farmer is going to need your prayers & some serious coaxing!

Thursday:
Lunch - Salad
Dinner - Sauteed chicken breast & Veggies (bell peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini)

Friday:
Lunch - Variation of leftovers from the week (hoping there's left overs of the chicken tacos from monday)
Dinner - Gluten free homemade pizza (fresh mozzarella, sauteed veggies - simple)

Saturday:
Lunch - Chicken Caesar Salad
Dinner - Date Night?? Hoping for a reward from the farmer for doing my best

Sunday:
Lunch - Friends house for the Packer Game - lunch is usually served (although if I'm feeling super ambitious I'll pack myself a salad)
Dinner - Steamed salmon and sauteed veggies (green beans and carrots)

I hope maybe this was helpful/encouraging to some of you. I have learned a lot over the past 24 hours just from talking to people and reading on Pinterest. I would love to keep learning and know more about how I can make foods that taste good and are good for my body. I am excited to start this journey and as long as people are interested I'll keep posting on my progress. Thanks again for all the encouragement - it meant the world to me!

Good night from the farm -
The Farmer's Wife