TGIT!!!

Thank goodness it's Tuesday!!! I'm not really Monday's biggest fan. I like the fresh start to a new week but Mondays are often just harder for us. We miss my Love like crazy after being spoiled by his presence for two days! :) But it's Tuesday now, so yeah!!!

Lovebug and I started our day off with a bowl of raw yumminess - sprouted oatmeal with blueberries! I haven't talked too much about it lately but the raw journey we started at the beginning of the year is going wonderfully. We eat raw for breakfast, lunch, and snacks...so about 80% or so raw.

What I've really been loving is exploring the raw breakfast world. Sprouted buckwheat groats, coconut cereals, chia cereal, sprouted wheat berry cereal, homemade nut milks, even raw pancakes, and of course the raw oatmeal - YUM!!!! I SO look forward to breakfast!

We also make a daily fresh juice (LOVE!!) using our Vitamix and nut bag so we get lots of goodness in that. And we also tend to make a green smoothie later in the afternoon as well. So to say we create alot of compost in one day is a big understatement :) and our incredible Vitamix gets quite the workout being used 2-3 times every day.

SO raw snacks come pretty easily as well (juice, green smoothie, sprouted seeds, sprouted nut butters, dried fruit, and of course fresh fruit, etc.) but we've had some issues with raw lunches. We typically just have big salads but I'm tiring of those. We've made many raw soups and other types of "salads" but raw lunch recipes tend to be very nut heavy (raw organic nuts = expensive) and overall don't go a long ways. So we're working on expanding/improving that. If you're raw and have some good lunch ideas/recipes, please send them my way!

I also wish I could do more raw lunches here and there that weren't too time-consuming. After making fresh juice, most likely a smoothie, and whatever snacks, I often wish I could just pull out something raw and delicious from the fridge for lunch instead of having to chop/prep much. Of course you can do that with raw soups pre-made beforehand, but like I said, the ones we have made require LOTS of organic produce and nuts but don't last too many lunches for us.

We also got a dehydrator back in May so that's been fun. We've made raw flax chips, wheat berry bread, kale chips, corn tortillas, almond cookies, and much more. Of course the dehydrator is most used when drying our nuts, seeds, and fruit. We've done alot of solar drying of our fruit as well which sure doesn't take too long with this Texas heat. The deyhdrator was a wonderful addition to our raw food journey though.

So although I've been LOVING our raw eating during the day at our nest, I do REALLY look forward to our cooked dinners! It's a good balance I think. Plus we often treat ourselves to cooked breakfasts on the weekend with sprouted wheat waffles, tempeh, sprouted English muffins, and so forth. I must say that my Love has really been cooking up some incredible cooked dinners recently too. He constantly amazes me with what he creates!

Anyway, that's where things our at with meals around our green nest...mostly raw and loving it (despite our lunch rut)!

Hope you're glad it's Tuesday too...

Vegetable gardens at the White House

We just got back yesterday from spring Antique Weekend and had so much fun! More on that later though :). Today, I wanted to share this video I saw on Heather Jane's blog last week that I just loved. It's very interesting to see the history of vegtable gardens at the White House, isn't it? I'm excited and hopeful for the impact the Obama's organic garden will have on the country! Be back soon to share what we found...

How our nest does it...

So I've talked about WHY our nest does 100% organic, but HOW do we do it exactly?

Well, first of all, let's talk about our budget. For 2 adults and 1 breastfeeding/solid eating toddler, we spend an average of $100 a week on 100% organic groceries. Probably about $50 of that is spent on fresh vegetables and fruit. Lately, Lovebug has been eating alot more vegetables, so sometimes it's $125, but most of the time it's right at or around $100.

This amount does not include supplements or personal care products, as we get those from other sources. It also does not include any cleaning or laundry products since we make all of them with supplies mostly from Mountain Rose Herbs. Since we cloth diaper/wipe, this amount also does not include those, which saves us quite a bit of money. Further, that amount does not include any cooking/baking oils, herbs, spices, salt, pepper, and so forth, because we also get them all from Mountain Rose Herbs in bulk.

We do our weekly shopping at Central Market but make a monthly trip or so to Whole Foods as well. From April - November, we go to the local farmer's market every Saturday morning where we stand in the long line at the ONE organic stand. At any of these places, if they don't have it organic, we don't buy it. It's really that simple. Even if that means changing things up that we had intended on doing, we go in another direction or find an organic substitute that will work.

Things that help us buy 100% organic 100% of the time:

-My Love keeps great track of what we are spending. As he is the "top chef" around our nest, he also does our grocery shopping. Sometimes Lovebug and I tag along especially when it's farmer's market season, but alot of times, it's just my Love heading to the store early Saturday morning with the list we carefully made together. He has his ipod and listens to music while he tallys up things as they go into the basket. Somtimes he put things back if we're going to go over what we had intended and sometimes he calls me to say "do we want this or that this week?"...And we make that decision based upon what we really need. We never ever take anything away that is for Lovebug though as her health is our top priority!

-Simply, we don't overbuy. Probably most anyone that would come over to our nest and look in our refrigerator or pantry would probably think both are pretty bare, but to us, they're completely full. We just don't overbuy and keep to our list, which helps tremendously. Actually, come Saturday our refrigerator does look pretty empty! :)

-We buy in bulk. As mentioned above, about every month we load up on organic agave, maple syrup, and other things from Whole Foods. Also every month, I generally take a trip to another grocery store, Market Street, to load up on organic nuts and chocolate chips because they have the best prices on those. Then, every couple of months, we load up on LOTS of beans, lentils and such from Whole Foods. Buying in bulk truly helps! Plus, you're using less packaging (especially if you re-use your own bags).

-We keep our paper products to an absolute minimum at our nest and this helps our budget a great deal. So that means no TP (except for guests), no paper towels, no napkins, no paper plates, no diapers, and so forth. These things can quickly add up...

-As mentioned above, from April to November we go to the local farmer's market every Saturday morning to load up on organic vegetables. This helps our budget a TON because we can go and spend $35 on veggies with the same amount normally costing us $50 at Central Market! Find your local farmer's market here.

-Since we eat by far mostly vegan (with the very rare local eggs and fish we catch), our organic protein sources are much cheaper than meat-eaters. Organic beans cost a great deal less per pound than organic chicken or beef, so that's something to consider. Even if you can't go vegan, vegetarian, or pescetarian, then consider at least making more of your meals meat/chicken free per week than not. You'll end up saving money for sure!

-We drink a ton of water and don't buy bottled beverages hardly ever. We don't buy soda and I know this is kind of crazy to most people, but we just don't drink the stuff. We also don't buy bottled water, but instead have our reusable bottles that we re-fill. This saves us quite a bit! We do buy a carton of orange juice every week that we partake of a little bit every day, but a treat is when we can get an organic beer for my Love and a GT's Kombucha for me! :)

-We don't buy packaged foods - no cookies, crackers, cake mixes, boxed dinners, and so forth. That stuff can easily add up in more ways than one, so we just don't buy them. Plus, fresh is just best...

-This may seem minute, but we compost and recycle like crazy. Thus we don't buy trash bags but once a year. We only put out trash maybe once a month if that, so this is something little but a small money saver.

-We are still breastfeeding and practice baby-led eating/weaning. This also might seem minute, but it has saved us money for sure. However, financial savings is by far NOT the reason we have done either of these things, but rather, an added benefit. We have never done baby food, cereal, formula, bottle-feeding, and so forth, but instead have only breastfed and started to offer cut up fresh vegetables to Lovebug around 10 months once she started to show interest. She has always fed herself and decides how much/little she wants to eat. Her vegetable intake continues to increase although her breastfeeding really hasn't decreased much :), but we have definitely noticed a small difference ($15-25) here and there certain weeks in our grocery bill due to this and know it will only increase from here.

SO these are some things that came to mind in how we save and are able to keep to the 100% organic diet. However, we also have to do away with other things (like cable, etc.) to maintain it. There are certainly ways that we can improve though:

-We would love to get where we always make all of our breads. I make them here and there and always make our pizza dough and baked goods, but would love to make all of our tortillas, and sandwich and pita bread as well. Currently for these things, we buy Ezekial 4:9 which is sprouted and very delicious.

-Currently we buy a big thing of purified water every week, but really hope in the near future to install a whole house water filtration system so we don't have to do this. We had Eco Water Texas come out not long ago and test our water - eewwwww! Disgusting what's in it!! Really. I highly recommend getting your water tested and not drinking tap water!

So, maybe some of this will help a few of you. It IS really hard, especially with today's economy to stay within budget and make things work...but I truly believe if it's a priority, everyone's diet can be 100% or at least mainly organic.

The above is what currently works for our nest, but I would love to hear any tips of how you make it work for you and your families as well, so please share!

Oh and the photo is a little box I've been working on by making use of all of the organic produce stickers we go through :)...

The importance of eating organic

In my last post I talked a bit about organic and local food. Everyone probably knows by now the importance of eating organic, but I thought it might be helpful to be a tad more specific. Not only is your food going to be better for you as organic fruits and vegetables retain more nutrients, but it's healthier because you're NOT ingesting all the pesticides and nasties that non-organic food is sprayed, grown, or produced with. PLUS, you're helping the environment as you're supporting organic farming methods that do not pollute the soil and wildlife. Further, you're NOT supporting or contributing to the negative health effects that farmers, their families, and workers can experience by breathing in all of the pesticides and chemicals that conventional farms use.


So, the benefits of eating organic go beyond you and your family's health, which is something really important to remember! It's especially important for anything babies and children eat to be organic because they are more sensitive to pesticides and their developing organs are less able to get rid of the toxins and chemicals. This very much applies to pregnant women or anyone with a decreased immune system as well, but we strongly believe it's best for everyone! Plus, it just tastes better! :)

Now in regard to local, I LOVE grocery stores like Central Market and Whole Foods that list where the produce is from as it's something very important to also consider. Do your local stores do this? There are alot of opinions out there about organic vs. locally grown in regards to the environment. Many say, and I would have to agree, that locally grown is better for the EARTH than organic produce shipped to the U.S. all the way from South America, because your carbon footprint is MUCH less. BUT, organic is better for YOU and your health, so it's a toss-up. Organic AND locally-grown would be IDEAL, but that's not always available, but certainly check places like your local farmer's market for this perfect combination.


Ok and obviously, if you can just walk out your door and pick your organic vegetables from your own garden then that is the absolute healthiest and most green option! We do this with herbs and arugula currently and it's such a joy. We have plans for some more vegetables this season and then big plans for the future, which we'll share with you along the way whenever we're able to make it happen. With the pictured arugula gathered recently from our yard my Love made a delicious pesto - YUM!

Also, keep in mind, it is ideal for all of this to apply to non-produce food as well...it's always best to buy organic beans, meat, dairy, nuts, grains, breads, oils, condiments, and so on and on. By buying organic everything, you're ensuring to the best of your ability that you and your family's bodies are not ingesting chemicals, hormones, preservatives, dyes, and so forth, not to mention the positive environmental effects.


If you're not able to make your diet 100% organic just yet, then I would urge you to try to buy at least all of these things organic, which is a great list I ran across awhile back. These are especially important to buy organic because they retain more of the pesticides and whatnot than other food. If you can't buy them organic, I would suggest not buying them at all and getting something else. I felt it was going to be too long and overwhelming to include HOW we do 100% organic within this post as well, so I'll save that for next time...Until then! Have a great Monday.

UPDATE: Michelle Obama broke ground last Friday on a White House kitchen garden!!!! YEA!!! What a dream. The garden is going to have greens, vegetables, fruit, and herbs...and two beehives as well! Pretty cool. Mrs. Obama talks about how her family has had plans for such a garden since they first moved in and notes that her girls are more likely to try something if they have been involved in the planting, caring, and picking of it. Alice Waters is quoted a little bit at the end of the article and I'm sure she is just ecstatic...as am I!! According to this article, the organic seedlings to be planted are from the Executive Mansion greenhouses and the raised beds will be fertilized with White House compost, crab meal, lime, and green sand! The total cost of the seeds, mulch, and everything was just $200. I really look forward to seeing more on this, the impact it has, and the importance of organic and local food from the Obama's. Thank you Heather Jane for sharing the first article!

The mother of slow food

I personally love Alice Waters and think she is amazing. She truly is a visionary and has done incredible things for this country! Thankfully, she isn't done yet and has many more things planned, such as the vegetable gardens at schools across the country and at the White House, which are both genius ideas. It would be so significant for the Obama's to decide to do away with the rose garden in lieu of a vegetable one and see their cute girls out there learning about compost and organic gardening. It would set quite a precedence, wouldn't it?

Some of my favorite parts of the interview are when they are at the incredible Slow Food Festival and they show the beautiful vegetable garden in front of city hall. How amazing! Then, this response from Alice when the interviewer talks about the high price of organics:

"We make decisions every day, about what we want to eat. Some people buy Nike shoes…2 pairs! And other people eat Brock's grapes and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I wanna do."

That is so very true. When we talk to people about organics, many of them say "it's too expensive" or "we can't afford them", but it really does come down to choices with what you choose to buy and what you don't, and within the vast majority of situations it's ALL about priorities. One of our top priorities is our health and the health of the environment. Thus, we do without other things so we can buy 100% organic all the time because we know it's worth it! Next post I think I'll share some things we do to maintain our 100% organic diet within a set budget...

The other part of the interview I enjoyed was when the interviewer was shocked that Alice didn't have a microwave in her kitchen. Well, we have one sitting unplugged in our laundry room but never use it (except as a resting place for rising dough:), so yes, it can be done! OH and the farmer's market footage had me so excited for ours to open here in the next month...I can hardly wait! What about you?

Anyway, I found the video inpiring and wanted to share it! I sure would love to someday eat at Chez Panisse that's for sure, and what an amazing thing it would be to sit down and chat with Alice. She's on my list...as is Jane Goodall. Alice truly is the mother of the slow local organic food movement and I cannot wait to see the further impact she has on this country!

Thank you Tiny Morsels for sharing the video.

Thanksgiving

Next Thursday is quickly approaching, isn't it? Thanksgiving is always a beautiful fun day! Ours starts with the traditional 5K Trot around downtown "D" followed by a day of giving thanks with both of our families.


Here are some things we can all do to make our Thanksgiving healthier for our families and the environment:

*Use LOCAL ORGANIC ingredients...hit up your farmer's market (find yours here) this weekend and use whatever they have to make some delicious entree and/or side dishes. They may not be the dishes you usually make for Thanksgiving, but why not change things up to keep them interesting?! Support those local hard-working farmers and their harvest!

*If you can't buy local AND organic, then at least go ORGANIC (some would disagree and say go local in lieu of non-local organic, but we always go organic). Your food will be healthier for your family, plus benefit the environment as well by supporting sustainable non-destructive farming methods.

*Healthy up your ingredients in your traditional dishes in whatever other ways possible! I'm no expert, but if any of you have any questions on how to do this, I'll certainly give it a shot with a suggestion of what we would do!

*Don't use anything disposable. Ensure less waste ends up in our landfills by using cloth napkins, your pretty plates, and real glasses and silverware!

*Create a Thanksgiving tablescape with beautiful items gathered from nature and/or organic seasonal squash and whatnot that you can end up eating afterwards.


I know it's incredibly wishful to think that many Amerians would forego the traditional turkey in lieu of a vegetarian entree, as I know to many of you (and it was the same for me before going veg) that it's not really Thanksgiving without turkey. However, even your turkey choice can be healthier (and more humane). Search LocalHarvest.org to find a local farm within driving distance for an organic one. You might be surprised by what is right around you! However, if you cannot find one, then you can buy organic heritage turkeys (and so many other organic ingredients) from Local Harvest's Thanksgiving Specials page.

Or give your local health food store a try and see what they have - you want certified ORGANIC, PASTURED/FREE RANGE, and HERITAGE - those (3) things. "Organic", which means no hormones, antibiotics, steroids, and other nasties were used in raising them. "Pastured"/"Free Range" meaning they weren't stuffed in a cage with who knows how many other turkeys. Instead, they roamed around with 24 hour access to fresh air and ate native grasses and other natural vegetation. Lastly, you want to buy "Heritage", which are the ancestors of the broad-breasted White breed that most people buy. The Heritage turkeys have a longer life-span, eat a very diverse diet, and are making a comeback within the market which is a great thing.


Next week, I'll share the dish we're making for Thanksgving this year...Here's to a healthier and greener Thanksgiving for all of us!