February food trials and... errors.

Just in case you don't read til the end, I'm asking my questions first. I really really REALLY would love some input...

Question 1: How, when, and where do you like to grocery shop?
Question 2: Do you have any easy healthy snack ideas?
Question 3: Does anyone have an easy whole wheat bread recipe they love?

Thanks family and friends! Sorry about the backward post, now on to the story telling...

(btw, I decided I can insert random pictures that have nothing to do with my post as long as they include cute babies!)

So, here's the scoop on my healthy food change goals for last month. The goal was to refine my grocery shopping, label reading, and meal planning. Thanks for reading my journal/blog about this stuff. It helps me feel accountable, all you invisible people who may or may not be reading this... Oooo, mysterious.

Grocery shopping:

The first week of the month I went shopping for the ENTIRE month including staples and our freezer meals. I have done this for a few months and I'm hating it more all the time. It's nice to get it done and out of the way but I have a couple qualms: the expirience stresses me out, i'm in too much of a hurry to care about quality or cost, i always miss something and have to go back, i'm too small to push all that food, and I almost throw up every time I see the cost at checkout. Bleh!

So this week I just got enough groceries for this weeks meals, produce, and staples. *sigh of relief* Much better. I tried to focus on getting foods that didn't contain ingredients I couldn't pronounce or know what they were. I got organic as often as I had that option. It makes me feel really good to look at my winnings!

Bryce on the other hand was not so happy. Not mad, I don't think that emotion has ever crossed Bryce's sweet countenance, but not very happy. While discussing the cost differences of these two shopping methods, this conversation ensued.

Bryce-"but we can't eat anything you bought. You got garbanzo beans, a bunch of zucchini and kale and other green stuff."
Jenn-"that's cilantro. They're all part of meals, we'll eat just fine."
Bryce-"what meals are we having?"
Jenn-"tomorrow we're having mini Shepard pies."
Bryce-"Does that have meat in it?"

Apparently by "eat" he meant he can't eat any of this plant based stuff. Lol! Poor Bryce... This adjusting thing to a new kind of eating is hard on him. But good for him, right?!

Meal planning:

So, I want to say outright that there are many things I hate, but on the top of that list would have to be:
1-shopping 2-cooking. The only thing I may hate more then these things is baking. Bleh. If you want to see someone run in and out of a store, or avoid them all together, it's me. Yet, I really value home cooked meals and eating at home as a family. So... I have found the most wonderful way to cook as little as possible with the most benefits. Freezer cooking!

I love freezer cooking! This month I have figured out I just CANNOT cook a months worth of food in one day. Instead, I still use the recipes from onceamonthmom.com but I only cook them one at a time. I make the meal in massive bulk, producing four meals, freezing three, then eating one portion the night I make it. Doing this, I only cook twice a week. You heard me right, twice. We have diner at home six days a week, two I actually cook and four I grab from the freezer. Since I'm freezing 6 meals a week, I now have a nice stash of about 28 meals ready to go. They last 3-6 months so we don't repeat a meal for about a month.

The picture above was yummy zucchini burgers which were served with cheese and marinara on a seseme seed bun...mmmm

I love the labels once a month provides for prep instructions. I use gallon freezer bags or aluminum dishes I get 3/$1 at dollar tree. Yay for dollar tree!

I also spend one day, about 45 minutes, to cook, blend, and freeze baby food. I'm trying to do one new fruit and one new veggie a week. My baby food cookbook makes it so easy because the recipes are divided by months. Together, my boys go through about an ice cube tray a day.

(Another random photo. It took us a while to get it, but Bryce and I still laugh about this one)

Next month!
Goal: figure out how and where I really want to groccery shop, healthy snacks, and make a few bulk mixes from this AWESOME cookbook my mother-in-law let me borrow! (thanks Susan!) Wish us luck!

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