Not Supermom or even Superwomen, feeling the sting of failure. Or I like to call it - learning.

So after almost 2 months of living like this, no processed food, no bread, ect. There have been some trials we have gotten through. We have leaned quite hard on the No processed food bit. Thats what this whole thing was about and Im keeping to that! Ive dropped a few things and came up with a few new ideas.
Biking my kids everywhere where I live right now??? Isnt really going to work. There are hills galore! Plus its very cold... :)
The only eating meat and veggies/fruit thing, is GREAT! but for us right now, the kids eating constantly, Deacon and Joes tummys not really being full, isnt really working for me. :) So Ive decided to bring back home-made bread! Maybe later, we can try again. Or we can try a different flour! :) For right now, Im making bread.
We have also decided to buy more frozen veggies for right now, because thats what we will be eating next winter, we should get used to it!
We have decided to buy another deep freeze, with the 100 chickens, plus frozen fruit and veggies, we will DEF need more room! I have thought about canning, and we will do a bit of it, but canning adds more sugar and less fiber. So instead if you freeze them, you will get more fiber and you can use them for more uses!
That brings me to my latest obsession.

Freezer bags.

So Im trying to live more GREEN, and Im going to go out, buy a bunch of zip-loc bags and use them? OR Im going to spend lots of $ on Tupperware containers that dont always keep out the freezer burn and take up too much space???

How does that make sense?

I now dream of a sewing machine....

I am going to make a few things:

A double velcroed freezer bag, (think of those old sandwich bags with the double flaps - now imagine them with velcro on those flaps...)

A laundry bag, To hang in my bathroom, kitchen, kids rooms, ect. A wet-bag (With PUL) to put dirty clothes in! Also going to make one for my diaper bag!

Snack bags!, to put the kids snacks in, anything you would put in a ziploc bag. :)

So Im thinking, where do I get cheap fabric???

Then it came to me,

Why dont I buy from VV and UPCYCLE!?!?!?

So turn that old T-shirt into a bag! Or old sweater, ect!

After 1 month the status IS....

Well There is still a huge inward battle going on within me. :( Its so hard to go from one way to the complete opposite. And not go crazy at the same time. My brain is too full, and its trying to muddle through all this information sometimes I think when I touch my head, its going to feel like one of those burnt out motors - VERY HOT! But at the same time, the differences I see in my kids everyday, make it all worth it.

So its been 1 month:

Ive lost 10lbs
sleeping better
more energy
less tired
I FEEL better about the future
Deacon's poops are SOOO much better!!
Joe is feeling alot better too!


and to tell the truth, its less expensive and a little bit more time. Thats it.

It takes me once a week about 1 hour to make milk and cheese. (thats actual work)
Instead of taking me 15-20min to make lunch (or toxic chemicals that seem like lunch) it takes me 30min
breakfast is always either: eggs, apple 'porridge', or oatmeal (10min)
cutting up veggies is probably the most time consuming, (30min a day) thats for lunch and dinner put together. But I do have my Pampered chef chopper thing and soon to switch to Tupperwares new choppy thing.
More dishes! (plus for some reason I have decided that I dont like buying dish washing detergent, so I hand-wash them all)

When I tell other moms what Im doing, there 1st reaction is to feel 'guilty'?? and try and tell me a number of excuses as to why they arnt doing it too.. which to me is weird. I have felt a calling to make my family and my own lives better by spending MORe tiem prepping. Instead of buying everything packaged and just cooking it (like I used to). If you dont think thats something for you or your family, thats cool. Whatever its not my business. :) But I think God has had me do this, maybe to show people that this crazy, (INSANELY) busy young mom, who has her own booming business from home and REALLY isnt a good housewife, can do it, then ANYBODY can do it, WITH EASE! lol...

1st excuse:

Im too busy.
ok. This is the thing. Im doing things the most inefficient EVER. By cutting and prepping before each meal, total waste of time. If I was more efficient, I would spend an hour or two one day a week, PREPPING! Even making all the lunches for the week. It would be SOO easy! Plus dinner planning?? Oh wow....
So lets say your making Kraft Dinner, takes 5min for water to boil. You mix it all together taking a total of 15-20min (if you throw in hot dogs... lol) Instead, you COULD make a huge casserole on Sunday, with like potatoes, almond milk, VEGGIES, chicken even, and Almond cheese on top. MMMmmmmm!! Soooo good. Takes EVEN less time!!

Its too expensive.
ok, buying processed food, is WAY expensive. We used to spend $150-$200 a week on food. BASICS! So now we are spending $75-$100 a week on only fruits, veggies and meat. (including almonds, oats and eggs!) The only thing its expensive with is your time.

What good am I really doing?

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2001/1/2001_1_8.shtml

This is an article on Cheese and Mr. Kraft himself. What did he do TO cheese to go from 1 person consuming 3lbs of cheese to 30lbs of cheese?

So I urge you to go into your cupboards, look at the ingredients on your food, and GOOGLE it. You will see what you are really feeding your kids and eating yourself. Oh, and by the way... the Europeans are WAY ahead of us, look at what THEY are banning....

OH WOW!!! :)

So I tried again and made Almond Cheese. This time it actually worked!!

2C of almonds

Put them in water overnight. Blanch them (throw them in a boiling pot of water for 30 seconds, then pop their skin off).

Put 2C of water and almonds in blender. Blend smooth. Place in dish with cheesecloth covering (or a stocking).

wait 12Hrs

Put cheese mixture into cheesecloth, hang dripping into bowl.

wait 12 hrs.

Put into fridge.

Now I took it and divided it up into 3 containers.

Roasted garlic Almond Cheese


4 garlic cloves
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Take the garlic cloves, slice. Throw into pan with oil. Add salt and pepper. Roast until just brown. Put mixture into moater and use pedistal to mash. Add into cheese.


Hot Chili Almond Cheese

4 TBSP Crushed Chili
2 TBSP Paprika
Salt
Pepper
2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Put everything in pan, roast. Put it in moater and use pedistal to mash. Mix into cheese.

ENJOY!!

I thinkIve decided to bring some food to taste at my MOMS meeting Im talking at. :)

Im making Ratatouille tonite!!!!!

So abit disappointed today. :( I tried to make a certain almond yogurt and cheese from this recipe... totally didn't work. Booo... so I am trying a different one today, maybe this one will.. :)

Last week when I did my once a week shop I spent $200, $45 on meat, $65 on veggies and fruit, and $80 on extras (like WW flour, and honey). So this week I was quite excited that I was going to be going to Organic World for my meat and the local produce market for veggies and fruit. I spent $30 on meat and $50 on fruit and veggies!!!! I was SO pleased with myself!! Then I went to Bibles For Missions and bought a dehydrator, a food steamer, a thermos, an ice cream maker and some VHS's all for $30! :) So I got home, started right away making dehydrated apples and chocolate ice cream (with almond milk). Apples are delish, but ice cream not so much.. :( Its a really old machine and the recipes all call for evaporated milk or gelato. ERmmm.. No. So I just put Almond milk, unsweetened chocolate, sugar and vanilla. Going to try another recipe today... maybe use up the last of the cows milk. :)

I am having lots of fun trying making things from scratch though. The only difference is a little bit more time and effort. I DO need to start making a HUGE batch of some stuff, so I can just reheat. I haven't made bread since Sun, So doing pretty good there. :) When we eat we eat mostly veggies and then some meat. Last night we made ribs with sweet potato shredded and then made into patties... MMMMmmmmm!! Soooo good!! I gotta say, our plates look a little funny... :) Its really working quite well for us, and we really enjoy it!!

Typical meal plan:

Breakfast:

porridge with cocoa powder and vanilla in it. Mmmm

Snack:

cucumbers/apples/beans

Lunch:

Soup (homemade from scratch)
leftover dinner
sweet potato fries
green bean salad with chicken and sauce

Dinner:

any kind of meat
sweet potatoe
cauliflower
potatoes

ect...

I'm making ratatouille tonite!!!! :)

Tapped, the bottled water battle. Human concerns part1

So the problem with saying, 'Ok, ok ok, I was wrong, this is really bad___' . Is that all of a sudden you must now challenge all of your former ideas, thoughts and beliefs. Like, Hmmmmm.. I remember someone once saying this to me, I wonder if its true??
So I have been using my trusted NetFlicks to watch documentary after documentary. A few of them have been unbelieveable!!

The education of Shelby Knox (about sexual education in the school systems)
www.netflicks.ca/wimovie/the-education-of-shelby-knox

Frontline: The Vaccine War (obviously about vaccines)
www.netflicks.ca/wimovie/frontline-the-vaccine-war

Maxed Out (about credit card debt and the big companies)
www.netflicks.ca/wimovie/maxed-out

Tapped (about bottled water)
www.netflicks.ca/wimovie/tapped

I am still watching more, So I am going to do a few blogs on these issues. :) I will add more as I go

Tapped:

So I have spent maybe 10min total before my conversion thinking about plastic containers. I had to spend SOME time, cause my kids did drink out of bottles. So I switched to BPA free bottles and moved on.

I saw this movie and thought - Why not? Little did I know that this little movie would change the way I looked at several things. Forever.

It looked at about 6 different reasons why bottled water is lunacy. The sneaky way that information is given to us, like we are stupid. Stealing the water from hick towns and selling our own water to us, for a 1900% profit margin. LOL! Plus the litter is insane!

Anyways... just dont drink bottled water. buy a nice bottle and fill it up yourself at your tap. :)

Day 6 and counting...

So I went shopping, got all this stuff, have been making bread everyday and not eating anything processed. And so far its been pretty easy. I still enjoy it and want to continue. LOL. But a few things I have noticed so far:

1. Im not as tired.

2. Im more energetic.

3. Im more ... ehm... regular.

4. I never realized how 'easy' we had it. lol

5. Im not as bloated.

6. My evening carb cravings have gone into double overtime!!

7. My kids LOVE this food way better than the old stuff. :)


My brain is kinda in a battle with itself. Its trying to push itself over a great big GRanola hill!! Im trying to get over the Granola Mom syndrome I was so afraid of. But its hard, I keep getting flashbacks of my friends's mom's FREAKING out over a bag of chips, or milk, or chocolate! And remembering how CRAZY I thought she was. Plus im remembering how uncaring I was about this VERY subject just a few years ago. Im Reformed!! I promise!! Its like this huge light switch Im trying to throw but with only little men in my brain... 'This is the best thing for your kids', 'BUT I DONT WANT TO BE CRAZY!!!!' ' Oh come on, you ALREADY ARE!' 'I DONT WANT TO BE CRAZY CRAZY like her!!' 'No body will notice' ' But its supposted to be sooo hard, and your sooo busy already!' ' We can do it' ..... ect ect ect.... over and over again. Plus its quite hard for me to accept compliments, so everybody and their dog is telling me how awesome I am, and I dont know what to say???

Im just doing what I assume every mom would do. If they were in my shoes. (Or I hope they would do)

and it begins...

Hey!

So I went out grocery shopping today. :) No processed food! I just bought veggies, fruit, meat and bits and pieces for baking bread, and ALMONDS!

Got home and went to0 work.

Almond milk:

Take 1 C Almonds (blanched - drop them in boiling water for 30 seconds, pop the skin off)

and 4 cups water, put in a blender. Blend for 3-4 minutes. Until smooth. Strain through cheese cloth or like me stockings. :) I put the 'Almond paste' in a dish, added salt and its like Almond butter (like margarine and butter, not peanut butter). DONE!

I am going to start making cheese tomorrow and yogurt. :)

I have been asked by our local M.O.M.S group to talk about these things that Im doing and why. This is very exciting for me and its fast becoming one of my passions. :)

Its one of those things that I find myself thinking about when Im driving and trying to sleep. :) Which is funny because those time slots have been only filled with BeautiControl thinking for the past 2 years, so now its like this big debate, which love do I think of for the next hour?? Which is REALLY funny cause I NEVER thought I would be one of those irritating mothers who is a 'granola'.... which I guess I am now. :( Ok ok... get over it.. lol!

I keep going back to the fundamental fact that this is best for my kids. Someone asked me the other day if we were going to refuse to eat processed food, like at other peoples houses, and that's not what I am trying to do. Its not ALL about saving money and its not ALL about processed food being 'bad'. Its a part of each and the whole idea of it being a lifestyle. :) So a part of all 3! Plus I kinda like a challenge. :)... ok ok, I really like a challenge!!

So Im not speaking at MOMS until April, but Ive already figured out kinda what Im going to talk about. Ive asked Julie Olson to talk abit about Norwex, I think Im going to ask Karen Warner to talk a little about our overuse of Complex Carbs, I would LOVE to ask Janelle Hildebrant to talk about her Greenhouses and how much they are and such, but then how much time will I have??? lol.. Im going to do an outline about the biggest facts in this lifestyle that I love and the reasons we chose it. Im also going to talk a little bit about some enviromental concerns I have and such and such. You all will def get a bigger picture a little later on.

On other news, Joe has decided to get 40 chickens.... ummm.. what??? 20 layers for eggs and 20 broilers for meat. My dad is kinda helping with the master minding in the background a bit, I was speaking to him last night about this matter and brought up the fact that we were thinking of getting people to 'speak' for a certain number of chicken for a low cost. They would bring 'Ruffage' over once a week to feed them and then pay us a cost for keeping them for them. Then after 3 or so months we would kill them all. :( I said, 'Dad, how do you suppose we go about killing 20(or he said you are actually supposte to do them in 50 -100 at a time) or 100 chickens??? Without taking them to the butcher (because that expensive)??' He suggested we have a slaughter party... groan. We have a few kinks to work out, but Im sure with my Dad being part of the 'big plan' we will have 50 chickens to slaughter in the next few months... joy. The thought makes my stomache turn. Me and my children will be away for that weekend, I will tell you. Gesh. But he seems to think that the people responsible for thier chicken send an individual to the 'party'.... Anyway.. we have some kinks to work out, as I said.

Well, til next time.