Best Day EVER!!

Well, maybe not ever, but it was definitely a good one, which I needed after yesterday. Yesterday was filled with computer problems at work, kid problems at home and was one of those days where it seemed best to just call it a day and start over tomorrow. Once the house cleared out and calmed down, Lucas and I decided to make an spontaneous "what's in the fridge?" dinner. We decided on some mashed potatoes and veggies, which became an "out of the crust" pot pie. We had some left over chicken from Sunday's cook out, and I mixed up a quick gravy, added the chicken and the Full Circle Organic Mixed Veggies that were left in the freezer and like magic, we had a yummy, hearty dinner that we didn't even know was there!


At the same time, we decided to make our Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickles. We had the watermelon soaking for 2 days, which is 1 day longer than instructed, but I had forgotten to buy sugar the day before.
The recipe was super easy to make, and I just hope that I did it all right! The one thing I had to change was that I didn't have whole cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks. I used the ground spices and mixed it right in with the syrup. I was a little disappointed because it turned the syrup brown, of course, so I added a little red food coloring to the mix....

And to the wine glass...


And to my face.... I made a mess.



In the end, the jars came out pretty great.



After dinner, we made a special recipe given to me by my boss. He calls them Monkeys in a Blanket. It goes like this:
2 slices of white bread
drizzle of honey
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 banana
2 tbsp of butter, melted.

Roll out the bread with a rolling pin until good and flat. Drizzle honey on the bread and place 1/2 a banana on top of that. Roll the bread around the banana. Sprinkle the cinnamon in the melted butter, then roll the bread/banana in the butter to coat. Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and you get sweet, hot, gooey, sticky, toasted bananas.





We finished the night with some tv, which Chuck rather enjoyed, too.




Today started out good enough - got to work, no computer issues, got some stuff done. Then I got a message on Twitter from Lowes Foods. They had read my blog entries about their store (see below)and thanked me and offered to send me a free cookbook! Score!!!! I decided right then that I need to pay more attention to my blog, since it's already paid off and I didn't even try!! That led to my awesome husband creating the new title for me...great job, baby!! Then, this afternoon, my brand new food dehydrator arrived at the office. I had mentioned to my boss that I really wanted one, and he went ordered one for me right away! Best Boss EVER, and I'm not exaggerating that one! Finally, my friend and receptionist, Liz, bought a HUMONGOUS watermelon at Bilo (I swear it weighed at LEAST 50 pounds!) She came and asked me to help her cut it up and that used up the rest of my dragging afternoon. I'm hoping to have a picture to post soon so you can see just how huge it is! I sent her my watermelon pickle recipe so she can use the tons of rind she'll have left over!

So I rushed straight home, put down my bags and broke out the dehydrator immediately! I sliced some bananas, apples and kiwi and got them going.


For dinner, I somehow ended up with 5 kids here to feed, so I made them the old standby of grilled hot dogs and a pan of macaroni and cheese. Lucas and I had stuffed cabbage rolls. We had some leftover Spanish Rice from Saturday. I boiled some cabbage leaves and sauteed some chopped up zucchini, mushrooms, pepper and onion. I added the left over spanish rice and some diced tomatoes to the mix and warmed it all through. The cabbage leaves came out so green and not rubbery like cabbage usually is. I wrapped up the rice stuffing, put them in a little casserole dish, topped them with more tomatoes and baked them. Soooo yummy!!





And that brings us to now. Lucas and I have barricaded ourselves in the bedroom and let the kids have the living room and the Xbox. Time for some tv and the stack of Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living and Cooking Light magazines that are piling up, neglected by me.

Have a great night, everyone!

A Busy Weekend!

Wow, we did A LOT this weekend!! Friday night was spent quietly in front of the tv. Neither of us really felt like cooking, so we ran and got some Chinese and watched a couple of movies. First up was The Soloist. It was a really interesting movie, and in several spots had me inspired to want to do something for the homeless, or just people in general. As a result, on Saturday morning we decided to make sure that the organizers of our favorite local charity, Feed-A-Family, were aware that we want to be completely involved in their work this year and do anything we can. We then watched the new Terminator movie, and I stayed awake through most of it, which is not a small feat for me that late at night!

Saturday morning we got up and planned our shopping trips for the day. We ended up hitting 4 stores - the Farmer's Market, Lowes Foods, Bilo and Food Lion. It was well worth all the stops. We got a GIANT bag of veggies at the farmer's market for $13. At Lowes, we found more reasons to love the store. On top of the great sales that we got again (organic milk for $2.99, down from %5.69!), the clerk we had went out of her way to help us when we had issues with our discount card. Also, they don't ever try to bag the milk there! Seems like a small thing, but I hate always having to tell the bagger not to bag the milk - it's such a waste of a bag. During the trip to Bilo, we learned that if you bring your own bags (which we actually remembered, for once) they give you a 5 cent discount from your bill for each bag. We only had two left once we got there, but I'm just excited that the incentive is offered. Score one for Bilo! Eventually I will get around to reviewing that store, also. I just haven't had time yet!

Saturday afternoon was a cooking marathon! We had family coming in that was very interested in what and how we've been eating, so we wanted to give them a real taste of it all. We made our homemade white bbq sauce to grill with the chicken. We had made hummus earlier in the week, and also made a batch of guacamole, and a batch of dill dip out of sour cream, mayo, dill weed and a few other spices. I think it's our new favorite dip!! After that it was apple coleslaw. I planned to get a lot more done, but my feet were killing me! I threw together some spanish rice for dinner, then we played some trivial pursuit and poker with Katie and Ryan.

Sunday morning we got up and started all over again. Watermelon rind was sliced and soaked to start the watermelon rind pickles. I meant to get them canned tonight, but forgot to stop and get the sugar. I mixed up some egg salad for the week, to get rid of the boiled eggs in the fridge. I threw together a pistachio pudding pie, with graham cracker crust (all sugar-free) for Lucas. The pudding isn't the most ideal dessert, but I wasn't up for making anything too involved after the rest of the cooking. Friends and family came, we ate the appetizers and dips and eventually it was time to cook the dinner. Lucas grilled the chicken, while I made the zucchini cakes - which were a HIT with everyone! Sunday night ended with True Blood and some Full Circle All Natural potato chips, with the sour cream dip, and one exhausted me.

So, not a lot of pictures, sorry for that! I'm really going to try to be better this week and get back into the groove of blogging! I have a couple of good posts to write, I just need time to form the thoughts.

Headed to sleep now, have a great night!

Lowes Foods Shopping Trip

We made our shopping trip on Saturday to Lowes, and really had a chance to check out the whole store. I really liked it, and we'll definitely be going back!

The first thing I want to mention is the HUGE selection of organic/natural products that they offer. Every single section of the store had Full Circle products, from produce, to pasta, to frozen vegetables and even diapers (not that we needed any!!) The produce section had the normal organic produce that every store has, but then they also had another section with some organic produce you don't usually see. We didn't get any, since we had just left the farmer's market - but we definitely made a mental note. In the deli, they offer Boar's Head meats and cheeses, which are all natural. Throughout the rest of the store, the Full Circle products were abundant and comparable in price to the non-organic foods, if not cheaper in some cases! We bought all we could!

The Instasave section of the website was definitely worth the time it takes to point and click. We got eggs for 39 cents, and lots of other deals that shoppers off the street didn't get. The sales in the store were pretty good, too. At the end of the day, almost every single thing we bought was on sale!

On top of the savings at the register, at Lowes you earn S&H greenpoints for every trip. Right now, we only have about 900, which gets us a sale on bananas and lettuce. 3600 points will get you free milk, 3800 will get you free butter, and there are loads of other deals. You can also donate your points to charity, like the local food banks or schools, if they participate.

The store was very clean, and very well organized. The people who work there are friendly and the best part - the bag boy offered paper bags!! No plastic if you don't want it!!

We'll definitely be making Lowes one of our regular shopping stops!!

You can do it, too!! Organic shopping at Lowes Foods

I haven't had too much to say this week, since the kids are home and that kind of limits what yummy food we get to experiment with. We try to appease Dalton, the picky one, with foods he'll eat while he's home, so it gets a bit repetitive. Yesterday was a good day for me, foodwise. I had some of my microwaved eggs and cheese with a toasted slice of my homemade bread machine bread for breakfast. For lunch I had a cucumber (from the garden) and turkey sandwich on the yummy Earthgrains bread we got for FREE at Bilo last week. If you bought 2lbs of produce (duh, of course we did) you get a loaf for free. We opted for the Wheatberry, and it may the best bread I've had, ever. Not sure how much it is to buy, but I'll be checking into it! I finished off lunch with an apple and some grapes. All that held me over until dinner, where we grilled chicken with our White Alabama Sauce, grilled potatoes and sauteed fresh spinach and portobello mushrooms. YUM!! I actually only ate the veggies!

Anyway, since I haven't had a lot to say about what we're eating, I decided I'm going to do a little learning. We spend so much time focused on shopping, and sales, and buying new foods, that I thought I needed to learn a bit about the stores we go to. A normal weekend shopping trip for us has become going to the farmer's market, Lowes Foods, BiLo and Food Lion, to hit all the sales. We get the fliers, plan menus for the week, make our lists and hit the road. I'm very surprised at how much I LOVE to grocery shop, when it used to be such a chore!!

Yesterday I spent A LOT of time on the Lowes Foods website, and learned a lot. The thing I love most about Lowes Foods,is that they carry an inexpensive line of natural and organic products, called Full Circle Foods. Most of this stuff is only 10 cents or so more expensive than the regular products, and is sold right along side of the regular ones, so you don't have to shop in that exclusive, expensive organic section. I was really surprised at the huge selection they offer, and I'm so glad that people like me can benefit from lower priced products that are so good for us! Other grocery stores are also beginning to offer this, so don't be afraid to try it out when you see the organic label!

We haven't spent much time actually browsing in this store, and at first glance, it seems pricier than the others we go to. However, the website offers up tons of sales that you don't get in the store. They have a page on their site called Instasave. You log in with your member card, click on the sales you want to take part of, and they automatically get applied to your card. When you get to the store, the savings are automatically there, and not available for the general public. I've got my list for this week, and am saving nearly $20 that other people won't be saving!

I was also impressed with the Lowes Foods Community/Charity work section of the web page. They seem to do a lot with the communities that they do business with, so that's a little more incentive for me to want to shop with them.

Ok, I feel like a Lowes Foods commercial!! We'll be doing our primary shopping at this store this week, just to check it out a little more in person. I will report back! Expect some "reviews" of the other stores we shop at - coming soon - including the farmer's market!

Going along with some of the theme of today's blog, take a minute to read this article. It's about not being afraid of your "diet". By diet I don't mean - way to lose weight - but just the daily foods you eat and the lifestyle that goes with it. This article talks about eating healthy, but that it's ok to stray from your "plan". It's a good one, written by Kath Eats blogger, Kath, who I read every day!

Ok, I think I've made up for the last few days of not blogging much! I'm leaving work now (yes, I posted this at work..oops) and headed home to RELAX, I hope!! Spaghetti on the menu tonight...boring!