Packing Veggie Kid Lunches

Packing healthy, fresh lunches for Sprout and Bird has become much easier now that I have a few years of practice under my belt. The more I read about the standard school lunch, the happier I am that we send the kids lunches with them every day. Inspired by Vegan Lunchbox, we got Sprout a Laptop Lunchbox and started planning all kinds of fun meals. The boxes work great--the kids love them, and the carriers provide some insulation. Some lunches have gone over better than others with the kids, but what I've ultimately learned as that I need to take my own advice and keep things simple. What I mostly do now is things that the kids can "put together" themselves. Don't overthink it. Use fresh, whole foods. I try to choose nutrient dense foods and always have something fresh. I'll put a big glob of peanut butter or hummus in one of the smaller containers, and then do 2 things they can dip in in the big containers--usually a veggie and something whole grain. The other small container gets some dried fruit or applesauce. Or I'll do whole grain crackers in one, slices of cheese in another, a veggie and a fruit. The kids each have favorites, and as with most things, letting them have a say, or even help with preparation and/or packing, helps a lot. I was surprised to find out that kohlrabi sticks were one of Sprout's favorite veggies, and that they thought that cream cheese cranberry sandwiches sounded good. Here are a few of our favorites to mix and match:

• Whole grain pita wedges
• Whole grain crackers
• Kohlrabi sticks
• Carrot sticks
• Cucumber Slices
  
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Edmame
• Celery
• Dried Cranberries
• Raisins
• Peanut butter
• Hummus
• Cream Lunches
• Almonds
• Cheese

I'll include a knife for spreading or encourage them to make their own sandwiches with the "ingredients" that I pack. They love making their own "ants on a log" (especially with cream cheese and cranberries). I will also occasionally pack a hot lunch for them in a thermos--a baked potato with black beans on top, soup, etc. along with a whole piece of fruit. I will include a square of dark chocolate as a treat every now and then. I've also learned that they actually eat more if I keep portion sizes small. They don't have much time to eat and Bird especially would get overwhelmed by how much food I used to pack, and hardly eat a thing. You'll figure out what works for your kiddo. I used to send an organic juice pouch with them but frugality and packaging concerns have led us to include a bottle of water instead. (Sigg's tiniest bottles will squeeze into the Laptop Lunch carrier with the lunchbox if you really try, trust me!) I hope this helps you with some simple ideas to help make your child's lunch healthier and easier for the whole family.

The Economy v. The Economy

I think it's safe to say at this point that all of us have been affected in some way by that dreaded elephant in the room: The Economy. Maybe you've had your hours cut back at work, or have had a spouse, friend or family member lose their job. Perhaps you've seen your favorite restaurant close its doors, or a local plant shut down. Maybe you've seen an increase in the cost of some of your own expenses. Our household has been lucky thus far in that our own jobs haven't been affected--yet. But with Beo working in retail and myself working for a non-profit, we know that nothing is certain. We've watched friends, colleagues and neighbors lose hours, jobs, and even their houses. Learning that a neighbor packed up and left in the night is sobering (especially when it happens more than once). So months ago, we started tightening our belts and building up savings. We tried to get back to basics with food, stop going out to eat, spend much less on clothes, and cut back on the "extras". I stopped collecting dolls and sold off most of my collection to help pay bills and build up our savings. We're in good company, knowing that likely millions of other families are doing the same thing.

So we're feeling pretty good, though nervous, as we build up our potential "island", even as it's been challenged by medical bills and the like, and then we start looking out in the community and realizing: What is going to happen to the businesses we support if they don't get our dollars? Yes, we can go to the library instead of the local book store, but how many families can do that before the book store has to shut down? What about the local family-run restaurant, or the indy coffee house? Beo is baking bread again, but what about the new local organic bakery we just discovered, that is trying to get off the ground? We have to face that this is a dangerous dichotomy. We can build our own ark, or we can reach out to the community and figure out how to keep the flood waters at bay. Those who know us probably know that we've decided to go for the latter. It is a bit of a balancing act, and we have to be wise, but we believe it's necessary. These small local businesses reflect a model that we know is more sustainable not just for society, but for our environment. If we get through the current economic crisis ourselves and have no local bookstore, no local indy coffeehouse (which buys our produce), no local bakery, then how much have we gained? Futhermore, when these businesses close, business connections are severed, hurting more companies, and jobs are lost. It is in everyone's best interest to keep our local businesses strong.

So we're being smart with our money, but we're making sure to share what we have with the businesses that we most want to support. Baking our own bread may save me $20 a week, but it doesn't save the local bakery, and I can make room for that $20 in our budget. If we all work together, we can get through this as a larger community--not just here in our community, but in yours too, and as a nation. We can't do it alone. Last night when Beo took Sprout to the local bookstore, he questioned the owner about the signs announcing an "Inventory Reduction Sale". She confirmed his suspicions that she will likely be closing her doors soon. It's so difficult to watch a small, family operated business fail, especially when it is an important cultural hotspot for a small community. So please, take care of yourself, and your family, but don't forget to support the web that your strand is a part of, and help to keep that strong as well. Let's all try to do our part and work together to keep our communities strong.

Meal Planning

I have been trying to get back-to-basics with healthy eating and frugal cooking, for the benefit of the whole family. The thing that has kept me on track for a few weeks now has also helped to get the kids eating more of our different meals is to have a weekly schedule. Each night of the week is someone's night, with Friday being pizza night. (I still love Whole Foods' pre-made whole wheat crust On the weekends we can finish up leftovers, make a big pot of soup, or have a family favorite like veggie lasagna or field roast. Other leftovers go to lunches for Beo and I.

To make things simple, I compiled a list of main dish options and options for sides, and each week I have everyone choose their menu for their night, and put together a shopping list. The kids not only are more willing to eat their menu, veggies and all, but seem more willing to eat on other nights as well, as though they have a sense of fairness about it all. The kids have been helping out with dinner more too, setting the table, peeling potatoes (they're pretty good!), breaking cauliflower into florets, etc. As I've said before, I think having the kids partcipate in meal prep really helps them to be more open to eating the meal. So, our menu for the coming week:

Monday (Beo): Cauliflower and Potato Tian (Simple Vegetarian Pleasures) and Spinach Salad

Tuesday (Me): Potato Curry with CousCous and Mixed Greens Salad

Wenesday (Sprout): Homemade Mac&Cheese with Lentils and Steamed Carrots

Thursday (Bird): Cannelini Beans and Lemon Cauliflower (both Emeril Green recipes)

Friday: Pizza

Beo has been making bread again, so we often have fresh bread (or pitas/roti) in addition to what's been planned. We sometimes have a little salad or a second steamed veggie as well, but when it's a dish like the tian or curry, it usually is a meal to itself. This plan has helped take the stress out of planning meals for me, has kept us to a tighter shopping list, made it easier for me to plan my day Weight Watchers point-wise, and has made the dinner table a more relaxed and enjoyable place.

Our Winter Stores

Here I am again, with my thanks to those of you who have checked in over the past few months. It's been a bit of a rough road balancing the two jobs, losing our long-time pup, and battling pneumonia for 6 weeks. There was a myriad of other sore luck, including losing our hard drive along with the past four months of pictures we'd taken. That included a much fuller picture than the one in this post, showing off our winter stores. At this time last year I was pining for having put up more local foods. This year we remembered, and were good little squirrels. We have strawberries in the freezer still, (my dream of our own strawberries in November and December oats has come true), jams from our strawberries and currants, salsa verde from our early tomatoes and peppers, diced tomatoes and sauce from our garden bounties, and applesauce from local orchards. The pickled peppers came from my sister's garden--we canned them together at our grandmother's house. (That was an adventure--believe the part of the recipe that tells you to wear gloves. I'm just sayin'.) We had our own garden peas for dinner tonight, and there's at least one more dinner of those, and also in the freezer we have double the tomatoes pictured. We've supplemented here and there with store-bought sauce and jelly, but I think we should move comfortably into the next harvest season. Supplementing this are the local pumpkins, squash, potatoes, onions, carrots and beets (some from our own garden) that we remembered to stock up on this year. We have certainly learned a lot and come a long way since committing to eating as local and organic as possible.

Looking back at my goals for this year, I can say that I've come closer to meeting them. I wasn't perfect, but I made improvements here and there--I'm moving in the right direction. Our holiday gifts this year will consist of (hey family, skip the rest of this paragraph!) a sampling of our preserves and photo gifts of the kids. We worked hard all summer to make that happen. (If you are doing your own gift shopping, feel free to check out my Guilt-Free Shopping Guide from last year.)

I admit my shortcomings and I can assure you I won't be posting a lot in the next few weeks. Enjoy my posts from last year if you so wish. Much of this month will be reliving the same joys. This year we've adopted a local family to give them a special holiday, which will make our own twice as helpful. Tis the season of giving, and I feel blessed knowing that my blog readers will be taking that to heart, and spreading their good will to all in their own communities. Happy Holidays to all of you, and best wishes for the new year.

Frugal on a Time Budget Meal of the Day

Last week I committed to buckling down on frugality while trying to find time to do everything else. My current duties besides the everyday of keeping up with my paid job, keeping the house within health code standards, and keeping the family fed and clothed, include working on my church's Mother's Day for Peace event (more on that later) and working on Someday Garden's biggest consultation job to date. Not to mention, our own gardens are established and filling out, but the weeds are still competing and there are always things to be moved, pruned, watered, you name it. However busy I might be, I did find time to make a big pot of veggie chili. I made my standard from diced tomatoes, bulk kidney beans, corn, onions and seasonings, and added some bulk barley to fill it out nutritionally and budget-wise. (Saute the onions, then add remaining ingredients. Cook the barley ahead of time or add a goodly amount of veggie broth with the dried barley into the chili, and let it simmer gently until the barley is tender.) It turned out great. The first night, I decided to keep things interesting by serving it over a baked sweet potato, with a dollop of plain yogurt. For some reason I thought some steamed broccoli on top sounded good, and it ended up complimenting the whole thing quite nicely, giving a sweet freshness to the savoriness of the general dish. It may not look like much, but it was absolutely delicious, and very filling. I believe the cost per person was about $1. The kids are currently shunning tomatoes, but gobbled up a Sprout-Friendly chili version with just beans, corn, and (shhh) a little bit of tomato juice mixed in. It helps to find new ways to make old frugal favorites interesting.

Frugal on a Time Budget

Oh how crazy life becomes. While I'm thrilled with the success of our garden business, its meant that Beo is away for many hours. We did get to work on a project together this week, which was great, but there's much to do at home too, and we're finding ourselves constantly in a time crunch. Housekeeping, paid-work, cooking, shopping, time with the kids--how do I balance it all? Lately I've found myself withdrawing from all of it because it feels so overwhelming. With all the crazy scheduling, we've found ourselves eating out more and cooking far less. After a week and a half of it, we both were downright sick of it. Beo and I sat down (okay, we had the conversation while we were both getting ready to go somewhere else) and came up with a plan: Back off from the gourmet, 10-step, dirt-cheap meals, but find a way to still cook inexpensively and simply. So I've tried to take what I've learned about frugality, and combine it with my favorite simple cooking. Time to take a step back.

So I went to Whole Foods Market, with only a basic idea of a plan, and here are a few things I came up with.

1. Bulk beans, rice, steel cut oats and nuts still work time-wise, and save us money. Beans and SCO may be more time intensive, but there's little labor involved, I just need to think ahead. Money and packaging saved.

2. Sweet potatoes still work over frozen potatoes. I can nuke one for lunch or throw them into the oven while something else bakes.

3. It may be warmer weather, but nothing stretches the budget and fills in menu holes like a big pot of veggie chili or soup.

4. Homemade bread is out until further notice. I found a bakery variety on sale and *gasp* had it sliced.

5. Time to go back to big batches, leaving leftovers for lunches. If I'm going to do Mollie Katzen, I'll do the full batch and we'll live with a little less variety.

6. While we wait for our favorite veggies to come into season, let's stick with frozen. A bag of mixed organic veggies is $2. That's two sides or one great stir fry. Speaking of...

Our first frugal meal this week was a stir fry, which we haven't done in ages. I made some rice from bulk (25 cents), browned some tofu in marinade ($1.50) and combined it with stir fried veggies ($2) and onion (10 cents). Total cost for the meal: $3.85. It was delicious, and even the kids ate it. It gave us each a generous portion, with enough left over for lunch for Beo today. Total time spent? I was in the kitchen for about half an hour, but I easily could have cut 10 minutes off of that by remembering to thaw the tofu beforehand. What's more, I was able to spend time putting away dishes and cleaning while things cooked up. I'll keep you updated as we try to make our frugal food more time-friendly. Now if I could just get as efficient with the other things on my proverbial plate...

Chickpeas and Spinach Stew

'Tis the season for spinach recipes! I picked up a beautiful two pound bag of big green leaves at the Farmer's Market this weekend. It was gone before we knew it. Spinach is so incredibly versatile and nutritious, and it's one of the easiest foods for us to get local and organic. I received this recipe in my "Green Guide" e-mail yesterday and decided to give it a try. This is modified only very slightly. This is a quick and easy dinner that plates nicely and is very satisfying. Made with bulk rice and beans, it's also inexpensive--especially if you don't burn the first batch of rice. Not that I did.

Chickpeas and Spinach Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 cup veggie stock
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
12 ounces fresh greenmarket spinach
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 cups cooked brown rice
Plain Yogurt

Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and spices and cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. Cover pot, lower heat and simmer 7 to 10 minutes. Add chicken stock, canned chickpeas and tomato; cover and cook 10 minutes at medium-high. Add spinach, cover for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve over brown rice, Top with a dollop of plain yogurt, and a sprinkle of spices.

I originally followed the directions to cook for another 10 minutes after adding the spinach, but I think it would have been nicer to let the spinach retain more of it's natural brightness and bite. The chicklets ate a modified version--brown rice, chickpeas, yogurt, and cumin. They had baby carrots on the side for their veggie. It was a big hit. Leftovers were great too. Enjoy cooking local as more variety becomes available!

Refreshing Veggies

We're not talking about a crisp cucumber in the summer's heat. Nope, this is about revitalizing limp, tired veggies that were formerly destined to the compost heap (or your veggie broth scrap bag)! It doesn't happen as often now that we cook so much from scratch, but perhaps you understand my occasional celery bunch that's discovered wilting in the very back of the bottom shelf, or those floppy carrots you discover under a bag of potatoes in the crisper. I've read before that dunking these sad little veggies in ice water can perk them right up, but I didn't believe it. Then during a recent round of pantry cleaning, it was perk up those veggies or eat a soggy veggie stir-fry, so I went for it. I was pleasantly suprised to find out that it worked just fine! I don't know if there are any nutritional drawbacks, obviously veggies are best eaten fresh, but it certainly works on the texture. So far I've just tried carrots, and celery. With celery, I just stick them in the fridge in a container of cold water. (Remember the experiments in elementary school with food coloring that left you with blue celery leaves?) These pictures were taken after an overnight in the refrigerator, but even after 30 minutes they've perked quite a bit. (No doctoring was done to these photos, it just works!) I hope this saves the next droopy veggie in your crisper.

Resolution Check-In

It's March 1st-2007 is racing right along. Did you make any resolutions? Have they survived the first couple months of the year? I am reasonably happy with how my focus areas for 2007 are going. My main goals were to be more frugal, especially with food; to buy 50% of the kids clothes used, to be more resourceful, and to eliminate credit card spending. This is all about simplicity and sustainability.

Frugality and Food is going well. Our grocery budget for this year is already $100 less a month than 2006, and we've finished January and February with $100+ left in those budgets. We've done this sticking to local, organic, and low packaging. Make sure to check out my posts on frugality if you haven't already. I'm really amazed at how much further we've been able to cut back, even being 99% organic.

Things with the kids clothes are overall going well. Right now both kids have a solid half of their clothes second-hand. I confess that it has still been a real struggle for me to regulate my buying habits, however I have done much better than in the past. I have also been vindicated in my belief that quality counts. Sprout recently wore clean through a pair of pants and is on his way through another--his last 2 pair of, let's face it, sweatshop eco-disaster pants from a big chain. The ones from quality eco-friendly and socially conscious places are still going strong with barely a sign of wear, even though they've been through just as much.

In keeping with working with what we have-talents and skill included, I'm knitting an Easter cardigan for Bird rather than purchasing one. I don't do dainty, but it will be fun and cozy for one of my favorite celebrations of Spring. She may only be 3, but she already seems very excited about the fact that I'm making something for her to wear. I've been making decent progress, knitting as I watch documentaries (a recent habit), and should have it done on time.

Our credit card spending has improved dramatically. We are down a very decent amount for the year. We have used the cards a couple of times but they have so far all gotten paid off quickly and we've stayed far ahead of the game, enough so that Beo and I have decided to use a bit of our tax refund so that he can accompany me to a meeting I'm going to in warmer climes. It will be a much needed vacation for him, and we'll have a bit more time than usual to spend together.

It hasn't been all sunshine and roses, there have been slip-ups along the way, but we've kept working towards our goals and I feel proud to keep moving in the right direction and holding to the values I want to stick with this year. If you've fallen off your own bandwagon, don't forget that it's yours to stop when you need to. Pick yourself up, brush off, and climb right back on. If I hadn't done the same, I'd be in a cloud of dust myself.

Our Frugal Pantry

Next up, the frugal pantry! Our pantry is a lot less cluttered these days than it used to be, thanks mostly to our cutting back on convenience and prepared foods. I have always wanted a pantry, so I was very excited that our new house had one, and quickly set to work filling it up. It took me a while to get it organized, but we have a good system. I keep bulk spices and other seldom-used items on the top shelf. The next shelf has snacky things: applesauce (mostly used for baking), apple butter, and convenience foods for the kids. We keep stocked up on Clif Z Bars. These are great organic whole grain bars that can even substitute for a meal if you have to rush out the door. (All you Weight Watchers folks, they're also a filling treat for 2-3 points!) We also keep Archer Farms (Target) organic fruit leather on hand for the same purpose. (Again, these were nice when I was counting points-just one point for a chewy snack.)

Next comes the grains shelf. Here we have a few bags of whole wheat pasta for quick meals, brown and white rice, whole wheat couscous, oats, and other grains that don't fit in our fridge drawer. The protein shelf is next. I used to keep loads of canned beans on hand: Kidney, black, cannelini, garbanzo, lentils. Now we keep mostly dried on hand, but I keep a few cans in case I've forgotten to plan ahead. I also keep the miscellaneous extra condiments like tamari and tahini on this shelf, just because there's room. (I'm slowly collecting enough containers that I can keep all of our bulk items in sealed glass, to avoid pest problems. A rogue mouse was once deleriously happy in our pantry before we found him out.)

Our next shelf is the tomato shelf. Next year I hope that this will be filled with home grown jars. We use a lot of tomato products in our cooking: marinara for pasta, pizza sauce for Beo's famous homemade pies, diced for soups and curries, etc. I love Muir Glen products, especially their fireroasted tomatoes. Whole Foods now has 365 organic canned tomatoes which are much cheaper, so we always stock up on those unless Muir Glen is on sale. I used to keep 5-6 boxes of veggie broth on hand, now I just keep 1 or 2 for the occasion that we run out of homemade. I also used to have a whole row of Annie's organic mac and cheese. I don't put much stock in all of the hype Annie's recently generated. The kids love it, and it's a relatively healthy alternative. That said, we have moved away from it a bit just for frugal purposes. The kids love white bean soup so that has taken a large part of the Annie's market away in my house. We've also discovered that the kids are pretty happy with some whole wheat pasta mixed with some beans and sprinkled with a little parmesan and Earth Balance. So while you'll still find Annie's in my pantry, it's no longer a staple due to price and our move to less packaging. Voila, our frugal, whole foods, vegetarian friendly pantry. The great majority of what I cook is easily made from the contents of this pantry and our fridge. Extra ingredients are a rarity. It's nice to be able to pull together a wide variety of meals once you've staked out your basic needs.

Frugal Filled Fridge

I figured that since I showed you my frugalfied, pared down fridge, I'd show you it stocked up with frugal friendly foods too. It's taken me a year of healthy cooking, but I've come up with what I think is a good stock list. We'll start with the fridge, move to the pantry, and then check out my spice rack. Today, let's look at the fridge. There are a number of things I try to always have. They include:

• Milk and Soymilk
• Eggs
• Juice or Herbal Tea
• Cheese-Mozzarella, Cheddar, Parmesan, Feta
• Tempeh or Tofu
• Earth Balance Spread
• Butter for Baking
• Yogurt-Plain and Flavored
• Vegetable Broth
• Cooked Beans
• Prepared Steel Cut Oats (Cooked+Fruit)
• Oodles of Fresh Produce
• Nuts and Grains
• Peanut Butter
• Tahini
• Jam
• Raisins
• Condiments Galore

The must-have produce items I keep on hand are carrots (full-size for cooking, baby for snacking), onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green, garlic, and mushrooms. I usually have celery and an easy side veggie like broccoli, cauliflower, or beets. I try to have a good stock of fruit to choose from-usually apples and citrus is the only thing we can get organic and US grown these days. Our nuts and grains drawer usually has steel cut oats, barley or millet (or another filler-type grain), almonds, walnuts, flax seeds and meal, and homemade bread crumbs. We also have various specialty flours and grains like wheat berries for Beo's breadmaking. Condiments include peanut butter, jam, salad dressing (a creamy one for dipping and a homemade vinaigrette), salsa, asian marinades/tamari, Bragg's, lemon and lime juices, ketchup, and mustard. Of course there's always a variety of leftovers as well, and beer and white wine-when it's too cold to keep it in the garage! Each week I try to plan at least 2 or 3 recipes outside of our standards, and make sure I have the necessary ingredients for those in addition to our basics. With these things in my fridge, I'm able to prepare a healthy frugal meal at the drop of a hat.

Soup Week, Part 4

What's that? Enough beans already? Well beans are a wonder food, but okay. I'm not going far though, just traveling to an underloved grain: barley. I recently discovered barley and have found it to be a wonderful tool for frugal and healthy vegetarian cooking. When it comes to barley's nutrition, think whole wheat on all natural steroids. Barley is high in protein, fiber, and iron, and rich in fatty acids which make it a good complete protein. Hurrah! Barley, where have you been all my life? I have been using organic pearl barley, which is less nutritious than whole barley, but has a delightful texture and still retains some of the nutritional values previously mentioned. It can be purchased on the cheap in the bulk section. The stuff really expands when cooked. It's a great filler when you have the bare essentials for a soup.

Making a soup with barley is simple. Cook the barley ahead of time. Pearled barley does take a while. Cook it for about 35 minutes with a ration of 2 parts liquid to one part barley. It takes on flavors well, so consider cooking it in a good veggie broth. I think you could theoretically throw some barley in to a soup uncooked, but you'd need to make sure there was plenty of liquid for it to soak up. I make my barley soup with potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery, and whatever seasonings I'm in the mood for. Rosemary, thyme, the basics-all work well, but you can certainly get more exotic. Salt and pepper round things out. Bring to a boil and simmer until the veggies are as tender as you'd like them.

You can also use barley as a filler for leftover soups. Recently Beo threw a couple scoops of cooked barley into some leftover baked bean soup to stretch it for a hearty lunch. He served it in fresh baked bread bowls! They were his first attempt at bread bowls, and they were wonderful. Enjoy exploring the wonderful world of barley!

Frugal is the New Green

There has been a lot of talk lately on how being Green can be so frugal. Daily Kos, Ethicuran, and Groovy Green along with others have been touting all of the penny pinching that comes along with greening up a lifestlye. Beo has discussed on his blog how we have found that we can afford organic by making more things from scratch and cutting down on packaging. Over the past few months we've been trying to make more out of less, both for the environment and for our budget. I've been surprised at what a difference some of the little things really make.

One item we've swtiched to is bulk beans. I've had people telling me for a while that my canned beans were a convenience food, and I've scoffed and kept on stocking my pantry. Do you seriously think I have time to cook my own beans? We eat beans like they're going out of style. Sure, some organic beans are $1.79 and up per can, but at 99 cents a can, Whole Foods was making it easy for me to think canned beans are frugal in and of themselves. I decided to try a batch or two of bulk beans, and they were so easy that I gradually started switching over to all of our beans in bulk. Today I took the last step and bought bulk dried garbanzos instead of canned. I decided to do some weighing and measuring and seeing how much I was saving not just in packaging but also in cost. It turns out I'm paying an average of 25 cents for the same amount of beans that I used to pay 99 cents for in a can. No can, no sealing, no label, and I'm saving a whopping 75 percent. Not bad at all. In this veggie household that's saving us a bundle on soups, chilis, casseroles, and hummus.

Another switch we've made is a bit less about Green and more about frugality. When I read Kos's article about Kossacks being Frugal, I skimmed the list of reader submitted ideas on saving money. One was "Give up Coffee". Behind it, Kos had written "(You first.)" I laughed hysterically. But guess what? Yesterday I finished packing up our $100 coffee pot and stowing it away. We are coffee lovers extrodinaire, but we decided it was time to give up our daily 6-cup each habit. Neither of us is sure how we came to this conclusion. I had a splitting headache one day when sharing our coffee with visitors meant I didn't get as much as usual. The next day I was late in getting my coffee and the headache worsened. It was so severe that I decided that I didn't want to have something messing that much with my body chemistry, and I've only had a cup or two now and then since then. I started drinking a lot more tea, and soon Beo was on board as well. I ran the math, and I figure that we were paying almost 50 cents a cup for the shade-grown, fair trade, organic coffee that we brewed at home. The cost of a cup of tea? 15 cents. It varies a bit with the varieties we choose, but that's the average-and this is high end tea. What's more, that cost doesn't take into account re-using your tea leaves, which we do, so you can cut that in half again. We're still working on balancing out the smaller choice of organic varieties in the Tea world, but we've ordered a variety and are buying from Republic of Tea, which is a fair trade certified company. (Some of their teas have an additional Fair Trade premium on top of the already fair trade price.) We're not giving up the bean entirely, we've ordered a french press for an occasional brew now and then, but in the long run the switch from coffee to tea is saving us anywhere from $500-$1000 this year (depending on how much we'd have brewed day to day.)

I'm also happy to report that I finished the first month of 2007 within my budget limitations for kids clothes spending, and hit my goal for buying 50% of it second hand. Green = Frugal. The great thing is that like my diet-diet last year, the success of my financial-diet this year is motivating me to keep on track and see how much farther we can go. Stay tuned for frugal meal ideas. I've declared next week "Soup Week" on EcoMama Musings, and will share some of our favorite recipes.

Crackers

We're having friends over for lunch today, which means I get to splurge just a wee bit on the food budget. I'm serving a frugal muffin and soup main course, but the big to-do is the feta walnut pate I'll serve beforehand. I picked up the feta and fresh parsley, then headed for the cracker aisle. I've been trying to avoid buying snacky things, so it's been awhile since I've perused there. I was shocked at how expensive organic crackers were. There were a few conventional brands that were $3-$4 a box, but the organic crackers were $6 and up. With our frugal cooking lately, even $3 seems like a lot to spend on one item. My neighbor gave us some crackers a while back. She had made them while experimenting with different recipes to accomodate her daughters many allergies. I decided to give it a try myself.

I found a simple recipe on Allrecipes.com. This is a nice recipe website because you can read reviews by other users and see what modifications they made to the recipe. It's a very simple starter, and I decided to make them straight up this first time around. The dough is made from:

• 1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

It's a very easy dough to work with. Once the dough is formed you roll it to approximately 1/8" thick. For the first batch, I laid a piece of parchment paper over my rolled out dough, and used a pizza cutter to make straight edges and trim the dough to fit the baking sheet. (The recipe instructions call for an ungreased cookie sheet, but I love my parchment paper!) I also used the pizza cutter to mark the lines for the crackers. You score the dough, but don't cut all the way through. Next use a fork to pierce a few vents into each cracker. Bake the crackers at 350 for 15-20 minutes. (About 18 minutes worked for me.) While my first batch was baking, I collected and rolled out the trimmings from my first batch to make a second batch. For this one I left the edges ragged so as not to waste any of the dough. My second batch turned out crispier. I think I may have gotten them a bit thinner with less dough to work with, so next time I'll probably seperate the dough into two before rolling it out. These are a very basic cracker, perfect for highlighting the intense flavor of the pate. They are also a great springboard for making any variety of crackers. You could try adding dried herbs, parmesan, cracked pepper, paprika, or any number of flavors. This box-worth of crackers probably cost less than $1 to make, and was quite simple. I may never buy crackers again!

Tough Talk-Shopping Addictions

I've mentioned my love of kids clothes in the past. I probably haven't been real candid about how out of control that "love" has gotten in the past. It's not real fun to talk about, but here goes.
A couple of years ago, I truly became a shopping addict, going way out my comfort zone in terms of what I was buying and how much I was spending. I spent a couple thousand dollars on a big name brand clothing company, buying clothes that didn't fit our lifestyle from a company I didn't want to support. This wasn't "me" at all. I always swore that my kids would wear plain t-shirts, hand tie-dyed of course, and hand-me-down jeans. By the time I realized how bad I'd gotten, Bird had over 30 outfits. Halfway through my "recovery", Beo walked into Bird's closet, saw her nine pairs of shoes, and got more serious about my problem. I know he worried about me, but with me being in control of the finances, and having all sorts of great justifications, I'm sure he felt reluctant to get too wrapped up in it.

What is it that made me so crazy about these clothes? It was so out of control. Sometimes when there was a big sale rumored, I'd drive over 100 miles to hit both store in our area. I would buy something, then end up feeling terrible about it, and sell it in a storm of guilt. For a while, I made myself feel better by looking at how I wasn't as bad as "the others". In one of my online recovery groups there were women hiding huge boxes of clothes in their attics, lying to their husbands, secretly spending savings and maxing out credit cards, and even going into bankrupcy, all for these clothes. We talked about how having our kids so well dressed somehow validated our lives as Stay-at-Home-Moms. There were work-for-pay Moms too though, and I think they thought the same thing-that having well dressed kids meant that they were good Moms even though they couldn't stay-at-home. There may have been some of that "Good Mom" validation for me, but I think a big part of it was that I just plain loved the clothes, and how good the kids looked in them. I loved getting something lovely and new in the mail, washing it, hanging it in the closet. I loved going through the many outfits. At the core though, it wasn't healthy. I think it's okay to have a guilty pleasure, but when it starts making you compromise your values, live outside your means, and make questionable judgements, it's time to step back. A lot of times I'd catch myself shopping when I was going through a depressed period, or stress. Buying something made me feel better. Finally, about this time last year, I got fed up with myself and called it quits. I've only made one purchase from "them" since. That doesn't mean it's been smooth sailing though.

I switched my loyalty to a company I believed in, which was a good start. Hanna Andersson is a wonderful company-dedicated to social responsiblity. They believe in being environmentally conscious, and offer organic clothing options as well as Eco-Tex clothing. It's been tough for me not to let the allure of supporting a company I believe in get me back into my old buying habits. I'm definitely improving, in 2006 spending about 1/3 of what I did the previous year, but I'd like to do even better. I've vowed to get half of this years clothes second-hand, returning to my environmental values. I've set a strict budget for myself, allowing myself $40 a month for kids clothes, plus whatever I can get for resale values on last years clothes. To you, it might sound like plenty. To me, I feel like it's barely enough. Today when I noticed that Sprout had outgrown yet another pair of shoes, I immediately thought to order another pair. I had to stop myself to remind myself that one pair of shoes could be enough. As I go through the kids clothes for Spring, I have to ask Beo for help in decision making at every turn, because I'm so scared of making a wrong turn. So far though, I've done well. We're getting ahead instead of behind on our budget goals, and I've resisted many a siren call.

The whole shebang is so unlike me. Some of our friends laughed when I told them about it, back when I decided to get control of the worst of the habits. It's not just that it seemed ridiculous to them that someone like me would get actually "addicted" to something like this. To people who have never felt the compulsion, or the rush of shopping, it's virtually impossible to understand. It's hard for me to admit to all of this. I feel downright ashamed to have let myself get sucked in to something that is so contrary to my values, that feels so superficial. Ultimately though, I have to face my issues to deal with them, so here I am coming out of the closet. I took this picture of Bird's closet to show my recovery board how far I'd come, and how proud I was of how much I had "purged". A year later, the closet is about half as full. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking that they have to have dozens of outfits to be happy. I don't want them to think that that's normal. I want them to feel blessed that they have enough, but I don't want them to feel entitled to more than they need.

Homemade Veggie Broth

For a year now I've been making my own veggie broth. Not from any recipe, mind you, but in the most frugal way possible. We are composters here at the EcoMama-Beo household, but our veggie trimmings get another life before worm food. It's all quite simple. All of my veggies get a quick rinse before I start peeling, chopping, dicing, or shredding. (Yes, even good organic produce needs washing, folks!) Any good bits that are left over get thrown into a Ziploc bag that I keep in the freezer. Garlic bulb ends, onion trimmings, the outer leaves of cabbage, the ends of mushrooms, carrot peelings, root vegetable greens, celery leaves- it all goes in. Nothing moldy or particularly icky, but I will throw in the occasional handful of spinach that's become a bit too wilted for salad, or a few pieces of limp celery. When the bag gets full, I dump it all into a pot. I use my pasta pot that has a built-in, removable collander. This makes the end stage particularly easy. The veggies get covered with filtered water, and you bring the lot to a healthy simmer. I add in whatever herbs we have in plenty. Today it was a big handful of frostbitten thyme and a few bay leaves. Now I've had some parsnipy or cabbageful batches that didn't smell too pretty, but today I had a great mix. After simmering for about an hour, the house smelled heavenly. I turned off the burner and let it steep a bit longer. Then I pulled out the collander of veggies, and poured the resulting broth through a strainer and into bowls to cool. The remaining veggie trimmings can of course be composted. You can add salt if you wish, but I choose not to since I can add it later in the cooking process if need be.

This gives me 6 quarts of fabulously rich, tasty organic veggie broth. We go through a lot between soup, rice, etc. in our veggie household. The equivalent Whole Foods 365 Organic Vegetable Broth is about $2/quart. With this home method, I rarely have to purchase any broth at all--a big improvement over the 3 quarts I used to buy on each grocery trip. Every little bit counts!

Frugalfied Fridge

Leftovers for lunch, ravioli for dinner with the last of the roasted squash, roasted root vegetables with the rest of the baby taters and half of the remaining beets. That pretty well cleaned us out. I have some milk, soymilk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, apples, and a bit of leftover stir fry, hummus, and lentil soup. My only veggies are about 2 cups of fresh spinach, 2 onions, and 2 bulbs of garlic. I don't think I've had that few veggies in my fridge since we moved here. Other than that it's just our drawer full of nuts and grains, and some condiments. Tomorrow will be a grocery run, but I'll be much more mindful in my choices after these few days of lessons.

Creative Pantry Cleaning

Well, the Beo-EcoMama household is recovering, slowly but surely. Many thanks to all who sent well-wishes. When we first started getting sick, Beo headed off to Whole Foods to stock up before the plague struck him down as well. I was flabbergasted by how much food he brought home. He doesn't often do such big stock ups on his own. We're talking over 40 pounds of flour, over a dozen huge carrots, three bags of apples--you get the picture. Earlier this week I realized that we hadn't been on a real grocery run in over 10 days. Beo had picked up a few things here and there on his way home from work, but just bare minimum stuff. My knee jerk reaction was to summon up the energy to do a big shop. Realizing that I couldn't possibly summon enough, I decided to get creative with what was left. I turned to the Veggie Board and was thrilled with the ideas they came up with, which ended up inspiring me to do something entirely different. Last night I started with tortillas, rice, tomato sauce, onions, a wilted pepper, frozen corn and some frozen tofu. By the time I was done we had veggie fajitas and spanish rice--a meal we haven't had in ages. I really enjoyed the challenge to break out of the recipe ruts I fall into, and to use up the last bits of what we have around. So, I decided to see how far we could go. Tonight I took a half package of wonton wrappers (left over from ravioli) two carrots that needed to be used up, some ginger, onion, and a package of cream cheese left over from the cream cheese frosting and made "Carrot Rangoon". I used leftover rice, eggs, a bit of onion, and frozen peas to do a veggie fried rice. It made a fabulous meal. None of this was from recipes, it was all improv. A lot of this stuff would have gone to waste because it would have gotten stuck in the back of the fridge until it went bad. It feels good to be creative, frugal, and foodie at the same time. We're getting down to the last of the veggies and fruit, but I think I can make one more meal out of it, making it two full weeks since we did any grocery shopping. Even with the gigantic nature of our last trip, this is still pretty astounding for our family. I'm hoping to stock up only on fruit, veggies, eggs, and milk/soymilk on our next trip, and see just how far I can stretch the pantry next week.

To The New Year!

2006 has been a good year. I feel like I'm starting the New Year of Light and of 2007 with a new lease on life. I'm starting 2007 Thirty pounds lighter, having learned how to cook better, making our lifestyle even more sustainable and ethical in partnership with Beo, with two happy, healthy kids, with my Dad having survived his stroke and taking care of his health, with two good jobs in the family, three great dogs and a warm house surrounded by beautiful gardens of our own design.

So what's next? In 2007 I hope to focus on continuing to be the change I wish to see in the world, while improving my family's wellbeing. I plan to stay healthy with smart eating and exercise, and keep my family healthy through activity and good organic food. I will continue to support local farms and try to find even more ways to buy local. I'd like to keep up with the gardens more and spend more time knitting. I hope to start a film screening program to help spread the message of some of the wonderful documentaries out there.

My biggest focus will be cutting back on our consumerism, making our impact by spending less money and spending the money we do have in an even more responsible way. My goal is to put nothing on the credit cards this year, barring any unforseen emergencies, and cut back on spending a bit in every area to start getting ahead. I hope to get more use out of our vegetable gardens to cut back on our food spending, and cut back on our gift buying by creating gifts with the talents and resources we have available to us. Instead of just focusing on recycling Sprout and Bird's used clothes, I'm going to expand that angle to trying to buy at least half of their clothing used. When all is said and done, my focus is going to be on working with the many Blessings we have, rather than always looking for The Next Best Thing. 2007 will be about Living Simply so that our lives are more sustainable and our family is carried closer to our dreams. May 2007 inspire you to follow your dreams!