Shop Locally- Shop Famers Markets

Who else would like to discover a Healthy diet that is actually good for you and your community?


MOM, I’m hungry!!!! What’s there to eat? How often do you hear these words? Are you prepared?

There are so many areas of our life that we grudgingly fulfill everyday without any thought, grocery shopping and cooking are two such areas. How many times have you shown up at the grocery store with a vague idea of what you will fix? You choose the ingredients and a few other things and off you go home with no more thought to the food you are using to cook. Cooking and eating can be so much more. What you fix for your family can have an effect that expands past the stove top.

Let us begin with the food itself. Where does the food come from? The very food we use to nourish our lives has a history. What is the history? Where does it come from? How was it harvested? The fruits, vegetables and meats we consume are just energy, like everything else around us. What type of energy are we purchasing? Was it alowd to mature and ripen to its fullest potential or was it picked green and shipped across the United States or across the oceans?

Fruits and vegetable are energy. They absorb more energy from the world around them. The longer they have been picked the more vibrant the energy in these items is. The more life they carry. But once they are severed from their roots their energy tends to fade. If you pick fruits and vegetable and meats from your local farmer’s market you have the unique opportunity to actually meet the people who grew or raised your food. You also guarantee that you reduced your carbon footprint. These farmers live about 1-2 hours from the market, hence “Local” farmer’s market. In talking to the farmers you can decide for yourself, who raised their vegetable with the most love. You can tell by talking to them, asking them about how they raised their vegetables.

Plus when you shop at the farmer’s market you can guarantee that the fruits and vegetable are in season.  Often I have found that the prices are equal or better than the local supermarket.

If you can't go to the supermarket the Austin Round Rock area has a great resource- Greenling.com.  This is a great resource for local Organic fresh food.

What about snacks?

Snacks and school lunches kids can be a challenge.  Often, my snacks that are similar to everyone else.  They want cookies and cake treats like their class mates.

I often place cut up vegetables or pieces of fruit in the snack bag.  Another easy treat is larabars

Larabar, Bar Key Lime Pie, 1.8-Ounce (16 Pack)
Larabar Original Fruit and Nut Bars 18 Bar Variety Pack
Larabar, Bar Key Lime Pie, 1.8-Ounce (16 Pack)


These are my children's favorite Larabars.  The combination pack are often is great to have on hand.  These bars come to about $1.50 to $1.60 a piece.  This is an inexpensive snack that packs easily and doesn't spoil.
 

Another tasty treat is a sweet bread.  This week, I made Crandberry Bread.
It was adapeted from the La Leche League Cookbook
Hemps seed were added to increase the protein content of the bread.  By increasing the protein content, I delayed the next time I hear, "Mommy, I am hungry."

Crandberry Bread

2 cups crandberries chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 T oil
1/4 cup water
2 cups Wheat free Flour blend ( I used Pamela's Product Baking mix)
1/2t baking soda
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 cup nuts chopped
1/4 cup hemp seeds

Add the lemon juice, water and oil to the flour mix, baking soda and powder.  Blend in honey and eggs.  Flod in crandberries, nuts and hemp seeds.

Bake in several greased 5.5 x 2 x 4 inch loaf pans.  Breads cook better in the smaller loaf pans.  In the larger pans it takes a very long time to cook and often it is still raw in the middle and dry on the outside.  Cook for 45 minutes.  Cool inthe pan 15 minutes, invert onto wire rack.  This bread freezes well.


Organic Hemp Protein 50%
Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, 4-Pound Bags (Pack of 3)

My children loved this bread.  It didn't make it to the  freezer.

Garlic Sirloin Steak

I am on a quest to feed my family only Organic food. The added challenge of my family is that all of my children are wheat, soy and cane sugar sensitive. Plus, I am having to work with a perpetually declining food budget. So the big question is how can I feed my family of 6 for $100-$200 a week.







Tonight we have had a fantastic dinner made from an inexpensive cut of meat, Sirloin steak


1 sirloin steak cut into cubes.
1 cup onion
10 garlic cloves
2 T grape seed oil
1/4 cup Coconut Secret raw Coconut aminos
2 tsp black pepper
8 olives, green
1/4 cup water
1 cup rice

Make your rice as indicated on your package. Mine says 1 cup rice and 2 1/4 cup water or broth. Boil and simmer.

Cube sirloin steak and trim the fat. Chop 6 garlic cloves and brown in 1 T grape seed oil. Pull the roasted garlic out of the pan and put aside. Chop all but one slice of the onion and brown in 1 T oil. Add the chopped steak, coconut aminos, the sliced onion cut in half, black pepper and sliced olives and cover and simmer. When the meat is cooked, taste to see if it is seasoned to your preference. You may need to add more pepper of aminos. Right before serving, add the roasted garlic.

Serve over the rice and add some steamed vegetables or a salad.
I am have been trying a new product called Raw Coconut Aminos. Information on its health benefits can be found here. http://coconutsecret.com/coconuthealthsecrets2.html
I have cooked with it twice and have found it very tasty both times.