Milk is HOW MUCH???

Sick of the price of milk?

With the way Dave & Dominic drink it, we are too! So, we decided to 'make' our own. We now pay half of what we paid buying it prepared off of the shelf in the dairy section of our stores.

Check out your local food club store (Sam's, Costco, BJ's, etc.) and see if they have dry powdered milk.

We get the fat free powdered milk at our local club and pay HALF the price of milk that is in your dairy section now. Just follow the directions for mixing on the package & refrigerate overnight before use. We can't tell the difference in taste.



Don't drink cow's milk?

You can make your own rice and almond milk if you are so inclined.

Vanilla Almond Milk

Makes 1-2 quarts depending on how thick or thin you like it

1 Cup Raw Almonds
Water

Soak the Almonds overnight in water. Once soaked, rinse them, throw them in the blender/food processor with 4 cups of water & let it go about a minute or two. Strain the mixture into a pitcher, add a pinch of salt, vanilla & some sweetener (1/4 cup organic unrefined sugar is suggested)

Leave some milk without vanilla and unsweetened for cooking.


Rice Milk

4 cups water

1 1/ 2 cups cooked brown rice (or white rice)

1 tsp vanilla or omit if using for cooking

sweetener, as desired

add Kirkman's powdered calcium, if desired

In a blender, combine ingredients and process until smooth.

Refrigerate.

For smoother results, refrigerate for 1 hour and then strain milk.
Store unused rice milk in refrigerator for up 3 days.

Stuff It, Cram It, Pack It, Fill It

Tortillas are a beautiful thing, you can do just about anything with them. I could probably go on for days about what I have packed a tortilla with.

First off, you need to have the whole wheat tortilla recipe. It's fat free and delicious:

Don't be overwhelmed - it is SUPER simple & takes me now only about 15 minutes from start to finish.

3 cups whole wheat flour
1-1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix ingredients, starting with the lesser amount of water first then add as it's needed.

Once mixed, roll with hands into a long rope and cut dough into desired amount of tortillas wanted. (Obviously bigger pieces for larger tortillas).

Once cut, roll into balls then...

Flour your work surface lightly & roll the tortillas out with a rolling pin.

Heat up a non-stick skillet until it is screaming hot & add tortillas in one by one. Once it starts to bubble & turn brown (about 1 minute) turn over & do the same for about 30 seconds careful not to overcook it as it will harden.


My new favorite thing to do with a tortilla?

PB & Banana Breakfast Wrap

1 banana
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons peanut butter

Spread peanut butter over tortilla, slice banana lengthwise and place over peanut butter. Drizzle with honey & roll up.

YUM YUM YUM

Stay tuned for other ideas for tortillas...

Roasted Red Skins

These are easy to make and the fam loves them. They are also a great crowd pleaser.

6-8 medium sized red skin potatoes, washed & chopped into bite size pieces
1 small red onion, chopped (any onion is fine; use 1/4 of a large if you can't find a small one)
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped (add more if you like - we love our garlic!)
Fresh Rosemary - a handful, chopped fine (you can use any herb: chives, thyme, oregano, etc..., fresh is better, but dried is OK, just be sure to use less if you decide on dried herbs)
Olive oil, a few good glugs
Salt & Pepper to taste (Always use freshly ground pepper!)
Red Pepper Flakes, A pinch, or more if you like it hot

Preheat oven to 450*.

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. After ingredients are incorporated mix in the olive oil too.

Spray non-stick spray onto a 8x13 baking dish. Pour potato mixture into baking dish & sprinkle with salt & freshly ground pepper. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Bake for 20 minutes (add more time if you like them crispier)

Need to Boil Pasta?

If you have an electric stove-top, you are most likely prone to boil-overs.

Here's a great tip: once your water comes to a rolling boil, dump your pasta in. Bring the pasta back up to a boil and shut the burner off.

The heating elements on electric stoves take much longer to cool down than gas, so your water will continue to boil for a little while and also remain hot for much longer.

Just 'cook' your pasta for it's regular time noted on the box and it will be done when the timer goes off.

The perk? Not only will you not have a messy boil over to clean, but you are saving some pennies too.

You Can Do It!

Well, Mia is on her way to crawling! She just took 3 'steps' this morning to get where she wanted to go.

She's getting up on her hands & knees very easily now then she rocks back and forth until she can build up enough force to go forward for a few steps.

Dominic is such a great big brother, he urges her on and commends her when she goes forward. "Great job Mia! YAY!". Then he claps and she smiles a great big smile.

She has been getting around to where she wants for a little while now though. She does an army man crawl. You know the kind: your legs are dead weight and you only use your arms/elbows to scoot. She's a master at that.

Fabulous Fungus - A.K.A Sauteed Mushrooms

These mushrooms are delish. If you don't like mushrooms, I'm sorry for you because you are missing out.

If you are a meat eater - top your steak or burger with them, or serve them as a side with some chicken topped with cheese.

Here is a quick great way to eat these yummy fungi:

1-2 cloves of garlic (go ahead add more if you like - I do)
1/2 small white or yellow onion
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 - 8oz package of mushrooms (any type)
1/4-1/2 cup dry white wine (chardonnay will do, if you are concerned about budget you can find some cheap good chardonnay in your grocery store - and don't use the cooking wine - that stuff is nasty!)

Heat a nonstick skillet on medium-high. Once hot add first 4 ingredients.
Saute' those babies up until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are darker and completely soft.

Add the white wine & let it simmer (near boiling point) until it completely evaporates. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve up & enjoy!

The Fall

Kids - boy oh boy! Are they a trip or what? Literally, Dominic just went flying across the floor as I write this and it was hilarious. I think the best part is that as he was flying a big fart came out from the exertion. Ahhh - he's gonna really love me when he gets older, huh? (Of course, he's fine - otherwise would I be laughing? No.)

You ever watch America's Funniest Home Videos? That audience's laughter thrives off of people getting hurt. I swear to you, if I had hidden cameras in my house we would be millionaires. I trip and half fall and seriously slam fall into the floor periodically. I'm such a a klutz. Not only the falling thing, but the walking into walls thing. Now that gets annoying! I might even need shoulder surgery eventually because of it - well, maybe that's exaggerating a little, but it really hurts when your shoulder slams itself into a door frame! You'd think by now since I've used my feet for over a quarter of a century that I'd have it down. Not so, not so.

One Week Down

Well, I thought it would be hard - it was actually easy.

Maybe the hard part comes later, I'll have to wait and see I guess.

I'm actually having fun with new ways to eat, and I am feeling so much better already in many ways:

In just a week I have more energy than I previously did and things are going smoothly, if you know what I mean. Ha! I bet that's what you really came here to read, wasn't it?

As far as my sweet hubby goes - No, he didn't have to eat tofu. What a relief for him, huh?

Seriously, people, it's not that bad! It's actually tasty if you know how to prepare it.

Maybe one day I'll get Dave on the bandwagon and see if he'll just try the tofu, but for now I'm just easing into things here, I don't want to overwhelm the man.

Where does the $$$$ go????

Can't figure out where your hard earned cash is going?

Make a commitment to yourself to write down every dollar spent for at least one month. Two or three months is preferable.

It doesn't have to be complicated, if you aren't an Excel spreadsheet whiz, just used regular old lined paper with two columns: Necessities & Optionals.

Track EVERY SINGLE expenditure.

You will probably find that during the first month much of your outgoing cash is defined under the necessity column. Most likely, however, going into your second and third month, you will realize that many of the items that you spend your dough on aren't really necessities at all.

This is a great way to analyze your spending habits and put them in check if need be.

Is it hot in here?

Did you know that you can save 10% on your cooling bill this summer if you adjust your thermostat by just 1 degree?

I mean, come on - that is SO doable!

An even sweeter way to save more is to USE your programmable thermostat! Set the system to a higher temp while you are out of the house this summer.

If you don't have a programmable thermostat, install one, it's well worth the cost.

How Did I Get Here??

I don't exactly know how it happened, but it just did. I started eating meat less and less. Initially it wasn't really on purpose, but then I started to develop a slight aversion to it. And lately, for the past couple months or so I've only ever touched it when I've made it for dinner.

I've never had a problem with eating meat, I've always loved it - then suddenly, WHAM! The sight of it is not very pleasant. I haven't decided how I quite feel about it yet. I'm just kind of going with the flow.

I'm sure it didn't help the fact that I love watching, "You Are What You Eat" on BBC America. A holistic nutritionist basically shapes up these people on her show that are horrible eaters. It's really unbelievable what these people eat on a weekly basis, you'd have to see it to really even believe me so I won't even get into it. Gillian (the nutritionist) puts them in perspective as far as their diets go, and her tactics for doing so are very interesting. You need to watch it - you wouldn't believe what you see.

Anyway...I started looking up some vegetarian recipes several days ago and I stumbled across PETA's site. I saw this video called "Meet Your Meat" and was intrigued.

Let me just warn you now:

If you like meat, and you want to continue to eat it, don't watch this video.

If you want to be educated and informed about the treatment of factory farmed animals for human consumption, then I suggest you watch it. It was enlightening, to say the least. Not to mention unspeakable and awful - so make sure you really do want to watch it before you attempt because once you start, you won't be able to turn it off. And just so you know, yes, I cried through the whole thing.

I was already teetering, but that clinched it for me. No more meat.

I told my dear husband, "Dave, I think I want to go vegetarian."

His response?....a big SIGH.

No, I don't think he's super excited about it.I honestly can't blame him, can I?

If I were in his position, I'd be wondering, what the heck are we gonna eat for dinner....tofu? He hates tofu.