I'm baaaaaack!

Apologies to my readers for my neglecting the blog. It seems that life on the homefront got very busy the last 4 weeks or so, with all of us being sick at one time or another (each kid missed about a week of school due to fever/illness....kind of cuts into my writing-the-blog thing) and with getting some work done on the house and things going a bit awry... I know it all happens for a reason, and in the meantime I am hoping and praying for life to settle down to some level of normalcy...whatever that is!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and let you know why I've not been around.

I hope to be posting more regularly soon!

Thanks for reading!

February 2012: Menu Plan

Here is my Menu Plan for the first two weeks of February or so. Much, but not all of it, is GF. The rest of the family eats "regular" bread items...but I sub GF ones for my portion.

Breakfasts: 

• We got a lot of bread products from "the cheap food store", and I put them in the freezer. The kids have been eating either a bread item (bagel, toasted bread, mini bagel or bagel thin) with a nut butter(some containing chocolate), or Oatmeal revolution! oatmeal, which we also got from the same store for fairly cheap.  The oatmeals are flavored, but not as processed as, say, the flavored Quaker oatmeal packets are.

• Fried Potatoes with a bit of onion and eggs cooked in at the end have been a hit lately

• Pancakes/waffles have been requested

• Hubby has a big bowl of oatmeal.

• I go with hot tea/raw honey/milk, and maybe a couple scrambled eggs or toasted Udi's bread with Almond Butter.

Lunches:

• Often/usually leftovers

• Sandwich made w/Udi's bread and Almond butter, or Hormel Naturals meat, or homemade tuna/chicken/turkey salad

• Soup--I can make a pot of soup early in the week for me to eat each day.
• Salad-greens and whatever else I scrounge up for protein (lunchmeat, leftover meat, cheese, beans, cottage cheese) and veggies, topped with EVOO, a sprinkling of italian or pizza seasoning, salt and pepper

Dinners:

• Ham sandwiches with apple slices on the side

• Tacos- Fish/Salmon? Hillbilly Housewife's? Pastured Ground Beef? Use corn tortillas for myself, regular for the family

• Homemade Pizza--Homemade non-gf pizza crust for the family, GF tortilla or Namaste Pizza Crust mix as a crust for me (made first to reduce cross-contamination risk)

• Ham&Beans and GF Cornbread

• Chicken (Teriyaki?), Veggies and Rice

• Hamburgers(use bread for buns), homemade coleslaw and raw veggie tray

• Box Macaroni & Cheese (I know, I know, but it's the request of my son and it's his birthday!) and ?

• Ground Beef or Turkey Enchiladas (make tortillas from Masa Mix to avoid extra fillers/additives/etc in regular corn tortillas, plus my Masa is from white corn and less likely to be GMO)
• Homemade burritos- using storebought tortillas and canned beans to make filling, mine will be tostada-style on a corn tortilla made crispy in the cast iron skillet
• Turkey Soup--turkey meat and broth and frozen veggies in freezer, rice shell noodles if desired

• Pork Loin and ???(Cauliflower and some sort of pasta, salad?)

Snacks:

• What's left of the junk food from last month: pudding cups, fruit roll-ups

• Popcorn (butter/salt or butter/nutritional yeast/salt)

• Kefir smoothies (read: Healthier Morning Orange Drink)

• Pretzels and cheese (haven't found a GF pretzel that I love though...they're all so starchy!)

• Apple slices and Cheese (my personal GF favorite)

• Molasses bars (more like cake, though) from the back of the Namaste bag

• Carrots sticks and homemade Hummus

• Yogurt(w/ or w/o frozen berries)

• Handful of nuts/seeds/dried fruit

• Homemade GF Chex Mix

• Nature Valley nut bars (GF)

• Cottage cheese, maybe with a canned fruit(apricots?)

So, looking at how I went over the last calendar month and what I have to work with so far this month, I suppose I didn't do too bad!  Maybe I was just ahead of myself. That's the way it works sometimes.

I do need to go to the store for a few things, namely milk, mayonnaise, apples and some fresh produce. 
(Can you believe we ran out of mayo the other day, yet I have 8 different kinds of mustard? Not saying how many JARS I have in the stash though, lol!)

Can I really feed a family of 5 on $450/month?

As you know, I did not do posts for the month of January pertaining to grocery shopping and menu planning.

And guess what? I went over. Of course, the $40 of pork loin, going to "the cheap grocery store" and stocking up on a lot of miscellaneous food stuff, and taking the kids with me and giving in to junk food didn't really help.

It just goes to show that in order to stay within budget, I cannot lose my focus....and sometimes it's good to go over if it is for a good deal and will help in the next month or two (pork loin I bought this month...turkeys I got a few  months ago, bread and bagels, oatmeal,  etc).

I have had some comments in favor of continuing the grocery posts/menu plans, so I will try to keep that up.  I may not stay within budget every month, but for me, putting my purchases on my blog is a good way to keep me accountable. :)

See you in February!

RECIPE: GF Tortilla Pizza

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought I would share what I am having for lunch today. :)

I generally eat leftovers for lunch, but didn't want that today. I wanted pizza.

So, here's what I did with what I had in the house to make a tasty GF lunch.

GF Tortilla Pizza

• 1 Food for Life Brown Rice Tortilla

I put this in my biggest cast iron skillet and put it in a 425* oven to thaw and crisp up a bit (watch it closely!).


Meanwhile, I put a bit of olive oil in another cast iron pan and added the following:

• 1 sliced onion

• 3 or so sliced mushrooms

• a clove or two of garlic, sliced thin

• Some frozen bell pepper slices

• some leftover cut up pork loin that was seasoned w/garlic, rosemary, etc.

• A bit of salt

I took out 2 basil cubes from the freezer and thawed them in the microwave.


When my tortilla was sufficiently warmed/crisped, I spread the basil on it, then put some shredded cheese, the sauteed veggies (you may not want to put all the oil/liquid from the pan onto the pizza, or it might get too soggy), and topped with a bit more cheese and a sprinkling of salt.


I returned it to the oven and let it cook, checking often, until it looked done enough to eat. Cool, cut, and devour.

Yum!

BioAllergenix Update: January 2012

I made an appointment to go in this week and get a chiro adjustment and test a few things I suspected are bothering me food-wise.  I have suspected having issues with yeast as well (no surprise there with the holidays in the recent past!).

The testing was muscle testing, and the things that did come up for me were Oranges (I'd gotten an itchy throat the last time I ate one) and Yeasts (again, no surprise).  The other suspects (corn, soy, molds, tomatoes...those things I check off and on just to be sure) muscle tested ok.

So, until tomorrow morning I am avoiding oranges, yeast, and sugars/white carbs.


I think that when I have the itchy throat thing, it's often a sign of yeast rearing its ugly head. Not always, but I seem to be making that connection in my food experiences...

My organs seem to be doing great this time around, so I don't think I will be doing any detox-type things that I have been considering doing.

I am going to continue on the Gluten-free diet, but plan to tend towards low-carb/sugar at the same time....it will probably look very much Paleo.