A friend of mine sent me this link to some blog posts by a guy named Hodding that was spotlighted on NPR. He reminds me of Ryan with his weirdness. The reads are short and good and inspiring and funny. Basically, he decided to finally live within his means. Since he was so in debt he had very little means after his have-to bills. His family of six lives on 550.00 a month. Here's the link.
All of these crazy ideas are just up my alley and extremely me. Anyhoo, it's given me some ideas. Our biggest expense is groceries. I have 450.00 budgeted but we always spend more. Always. AndthenRyanbailsmeoutattheendoftheyear. Hodding shops at a discount grocery store and it got me thinking, we have to have one around here somehwere. So I googled my way to three different stores. I like Robin's Nest Ministries in Tempe, but it is a small store. I'd like something bigger where I can stock up. This is what I found on google: Grocery Outlet, Discount Grocery Outlet, and American Discount Foods.
I went to American Discount Foods today. I was a bit diappointed. The prices weren't as fantastic as I was hoping for and the place was a bit ickish. I did find some good steals though that I will list below. It's somewhere I'd go to maybe once a quarter just to see what's available. I hope to hit the rest of the stores within the week. One is on Bell and 43rd Ave and the other is on 27th Ave and Northern, but I figure if I'm just going once a month or less, then the drive would be worth it. So far Grocery Outlet seems to be the best option based on their website and the pictures and FAQ I read. Take a look at the website if you are interested.
American Discount Food Price Frys Sale Price (guessed)
Tropicana orange juice 1.49 2.50
3.06 lbs of white rice 2.11 3.50
Jason face wash .99 8.00 at Whole Foods
lighter 2.99 6.99
4 lbs of potatoes .79 1.50
dozen eggs .89 1.29
dozen red potatoes .79 (.20/lb) 2.50
6 gala apples .53 .33/lb 1.49/lb
agave nectar 2.99 5.99
whole grain bread .79 and .99 4.99/loaf
Total 14.56 Total 38.75
Showing posts with label eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Children and Healthy Eating Habits
I've been thinking about food a lot lately as I have been going through some allergy testing. I've also been around a lot of different people lately with different eating habits than my own, good and bad. Here are some thoughts I have about children and eating.
Justin has always been a good eater. He goes through stages though when he hates certain foods and then he will love them again. It's odd. Lately he has found many of my dinner choices to be gross. We've been trying to teach Justin not to say, "This is nasty!" or "this is de-scusting!" Instead, we would like him to say, "No thank you, I don't think I want this." Honestly, it just hurts my feelings (I already have picky Ryan poking at his plate and moving around beans, so I don't want another one of these on my hands), and he needs to learn how to react when someone puts foods in front of him that he doesn't like. We don't force him to eat food, but I'm trying to teach him to eat around the foods that he doesn't like and just eat the ones he enjoys. I try my best to not change the meal or pick out items that he doesn't like. That is his job.
Over several years Ryan and I have made some changes to our food cupboards and general eating habits. Junk foods such as chips have to have a purpose. We don't purchase them as snacks. We allow ourselves a bag of chips if Ryan is bbqing hamburgers for example. In fact, Justin calls them, "Those chips we have with hamburbers." Then of course we finish them off as snacks and when they are gone they are gone. Now, this is not to say that we never have chips as a snack, on occasion I splurge but I always try to come up with a good excuse, like friends are coming over and we're eating sandwiches, or something.
When it comes to most other junk foods, my personal philosophy is that if you don't have them in your home, or don't offer them to your child they don't even know they exist. We don't do juice, or processed foods or frozen meals, or anything like that. Now, that's not to say that Justin doesn't have the occasional mac and cheese or PBJ, but when he does I buy mac and cheese with real cheese and we use organic pb and fruit preserves on wheat bread. I just try to be choosey.
It's not that I'm against junk food, in fact I love junk food. I always have some chocolate in my home and I enjoy ice cream a lot. But I try to bake most of my own sweets and I buy small pint size ice creams. Again, when they are gone, they're gone. It's pretty simple really. If you don't want your kid to have it, or you don't want to be tempted by it yourself, then don't buy it and don't bring it in your house.
Just a quick rant...I get irritated when I hear women say, "All my kid will eat is a pbj and juice!" or whatever their story is. I want to roll my eyes and walk away. Are you kidding me? Who is in charge here? As mothers it is our job to grocery shop, make meals and provide them to our children. If your child is only eating pbjs and juice, that's because you are giving it to him. Arg!
Just a silly story. Well, first off, since I've been on my Glairegg free diet I've been making a lot of new recipes. Lots of beans and different types on grains and legumes. I love quinoa, barley and lentils. I recently bought some millet after attending chef Brad's class. One evening, Justin was helping me cook. While I was pulling out the brown rice he got so excited and screamed, "Yay! millet! I like millet. We have it at school with that sweet soy sauce. That dif'rent kind of soy sauce that's sweet. When can we get that dif'rent sauce?" I was laughing so hard. What five year old busts a gut in excitement over millet? What a nerd my boy is. He has also been requesting salad specifically with spinach for his school lunches and he loves mango and likes to mix them. Weird yes, healthy too? Yes! I'm proud of his eating habits. I feel like I am offering him a variety of healthy food choices and he is growing into some great food tastes.
Justin has always been a good eater. He goes through stages though when he hates certain foods and then he will love them again. It's odd. Lately he has found many of my dinner choices to be gross. We've been trying to teach Justin not to say, "This is nasty!" or "this is de-scusting!" Instead, we would like him to say, "No thank you, I don't think I want this." Honestly, it just hurts my feelings (I already have picky Ryan poking at his plate and moving around beans, so I don't want another one of these on my hands), and he needs to learn how to react when someone puts foods in front of him that he doesn't like. We don't force him to eat food, but I'm trying to teach him to eat around the foods that he doesn't like and just eat the ones he enjoys. I try my best to not change the meal or pick out items that he doesn't like. That is his job.
Over several years Ryan and I have made some changes to our food cupboards and general eating habits. Junk foods such as chips have to have a purpose. We don't purchase them as snacks. We allow ourselves a bag of chips if Ryan is bbqing hamburgers for example. In fact, Justin calls them, "Those chips we have with hamburbers." Then of course we finish them off as snacks and when they are gone they are gone. Now, this is not to say that we never have chips as a snack, on occasion I splurge but I always try to come up with a good excuse, like friends are coming over and we're eating sandwiches, or something.
When it comes to most other junk foods, my personal philosophy is that if you don't have them in your home, or don't offer them to your child they don't even know they exist. We don't do juice, or processed foods or frozen meals, or anything like that. Now, that's not to say that Justin doesn't have the occasional mac and cheese or PBJ, but when he does I buy mac and cheese with real cheese and we use organic pb and fruit preserves on wheat bread. I just try to be choosey.
It's not that I'm against junk food, in fact I love junk food. I always have some chocolate in my home and I enjoy ice cream a lot. But I try to bake most of my own sweets and I buy small pint size ice creams. Again, when they are gone, they're gone. It's pretty simple really. If you don't want your kid to have it, or you don't want to be tempted by it yourself, then don't buy it and don't bring it in your house.
Just a quick rant...I get irritated when I hear women say, "All my kid will eat is a pbj and juice!" or whatever their story is. I want to roll my eyes and walk away. Are you kidding me? Who is in charge here? As mothers it is our job to grocery shop, make meals and provide them to our children. If your child is only eating pbjs and juice, that's because you are giving it to him. Arg!
Just a silly story. Well, first off, since I've been on my Glairegg free diet I've been making a lot of new recipes. Lots of beans and different types on grains and legumes. I love quinoa, barley and lentils. I recently bought some millet after attending chef Brad's class. One evening, Justin was helping me cook. While I was pulling out the brown rice he got so excited and screamed, "Yay! millet! I like millet. We have it at school with that sweet soy sauce. That dif'rent kind of soy sauce that's sweet. When can we get that dif'rent sauce?" I was laughing so hard. What five year old busts a gut in excitement over millet? What a nerd my boy is. He has also been requesting salad specifically with spinach for his school lunches and he loves mango and likes to mix them. Weird yes, healthy too? Yes! I'm proud of his eating habits. I feel like I am offering him a variety of healthy food choices and he is growing into some great food tastes.
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