Where have I been?

I do my best to post at least every other day, but you might have noticed that I fell off the face of the Earth this past week.  Well, between cranky, teething day care babies and a lovely stomach bug that has worked its way through all the members of my house, I haven't spent much time in front of the computer.  I'm working on this week's challenge and hope to get back into the kitchen (so sick, no cooking for me, blech).  Hang in there folks, I hope to be back tonight, or tomorrow at the latest with a new challenge.

Baby Steps Updates for weeks 11-19

1. Updates 1-10 found here.
11. Buying in Bulk-Yes, I'm still doing it.  This month I bought another 50 pounds of whole wheat flour and 10 pounds of brown rice.  Next month, I'll be looking into a better alternative to the evaporated cane juice.  By then, I might do away with sugar altogether, who knows.
12. Eliminate cans-I haven't purchased a single canned good since week 12.  I still have a few cans that linger from my former stockpile.  There's 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 can of green chilies and 2 cans of tomato paste.  I have switched to pouches for tuna and salmon and tomato juice in a bottle instead of tomato sauce/juice in cans.  And, fresh tomatoes for diced tomatoes.  The one area that I haven't had to deal with yet is tomato paste.  Pom has strained tomatoes in a Tetra Pak, but I don't think that has the consistency I would be looking for.  This summer, hopefully my tomatoes will do well and I can try making my own.
13. Reduce Food Waste-This week has been an epic failure, but before that I was doing pretty good.  I am switching our portion sizes around a bit and overbought on produce, so I have some lettuce that is going bad and I let a few pieces of bread get moldy on the back of the counter instead of tossing it in the freezer.  Perfect, I'm not, but I'm trying-no leftovers have gone bad (I'm clinging to that!)
14. Healthy oils-I received my gallon bucket of coconut oil a couple weeks ago and now that it is warm in my house, the oil is really easy to use.  The downside of this is that with baking less, I'm not using it as quickly as I was before, so I hope I can use it before it goes bad.  And, we're still using butter, but I've cut my butter consumption by half by not baking as often.
15. Eating Out-We haven't eat out for quite a while (that I've paid for).  We ate out a couple weeks ago, but the in-laws paid (and it was planned because we were out of town all day).  I picked up a drink for the kids at Sam's last week, and against the children's better judgement, we went home to eat lunch.  We will eat out this evening as I have several things to pick up for the Girl Scout lock-in before it starts at 7 pm.  With leaving at 5:30, we won't have time to eat at home since we ate all the leftovers last night.  But, the kids will be eating pizza at 9, so they will have salads and fruit for dinner.  They don't need junk on top of junk.
16. Sleep and drink-8 hours of sleep each night.  You've got to be kidding!  I am miserably failing this one.  I recognize that it needs to be a priority, but it keeps getting bumped.  That goal is on hold until school gets out and I don't have quite so many obligations.  Drinking water?  Now that is going well.  Especially since it has been 80+ degrees in our house, I've been drinking 6 or more big glasses of water every day.  I also think that drinking water is helping me to eat less between meals.
17. Party planning on a budget-I did it reasonably well.  I don't have to host parties very often though, so I don't know how often I'll need to do this.  I'll let you know how it goes next time, if there is one.
18. Portion control and deodorant-We've cut down on the amoung of grain we eat from 5-6 down to 3 each day (cut from snacks mainly).  I've lost 3 pounds, which could be attributed to either the grains or increased water consumption, but I'll take it regardless.  The deodorant is on day 2.  I just sniffed my armpits and no stink.  Yesterday I was super self-conscious about it and felt like I smelled like a chocolate chip all day.  I think that was the cocoa butter (That's the only ingredient the two have in common.  I even went to read the bag because I thought that was an odd thing to smell like.).  I did have stink issues (not sure if they were in my mind or not), but I washed a reapplied in the middle of the day yesterday and had no problems the rest of the day.
19. Exercise-So far, so good.  I walked on Monday with the kids.  Then Wednesday, Hubby gave me some time to power walk around the block.  It's got a couple serious hills, but I finished in 22 minutes.  Hubby thought that it was at least 1.25 miles (maybe more).  And last night, the oldest didn't have an opponent for their volleyball game, so the parents played them.  We had a good time and I can still walk today (without pain).  Tonight is the lock-in and between the dodgeball tournament and volleyball, I think I'll do some moving.  Yea for me!

So there you have it.  I need to sleep more.  Otherwise, we're still plugging along.

Baby Step Updates for Steps 1-10

1. Soda-While I have one occasionally, the 3-5 can a day soda habit is a thing of the past.  I did buy 2 2-liter bottles for Baby Girl's First Communion party a week ago and dumped about half of one bottle and a third of the other on Sunday.  It seems that if it's out of sight, it's out of mind for my kids too.  We drink water, tea and occasionally juice and milk.
2. Salad upgrades-I am still buying organic lettuce when I can.  There have been a couple weeks when the organic lettuce just looked yucky, but for the most part I've been diligent.  I have found good 1000 Island and Caesar recipes and I make those.  Hubby likes the ranch dressing, but I can't get the girls to eat it and since they had stopped eating salad altogether to avoid it, I'm conceding a bit and I'm buying Marzetti's Simply Dressing Ranch Dressing.  I am reasonably confident there are GMO's in it, but they won't eat any of the organic dressings I've purchased and I'm tired of wasting money.  Normally, I'm not terribly accommodating to my children's food whims, but they have gone along with most of the changes without too much complaint.  I'll indulge them on this one.
3. Crackers-I am still making most of our crackers.  I have a snack type cracker recipe that I need to try.  It has rave reviews, but since we are cutting down on the number of grains we're eating, I haven't had a reason to make them.
4. Sugar-I'm using evaporated cane juice.  I am not buying brown sugar.  If a recipe calls for it, I am using the ECJ and adding a bit of molasses.  I do have some C&H powdered sugar for icings.  When I run out, I will try breaking down the ECJ in the blender to "make my own" powdered sugar.
5. Apples-Still buying those.  I'm really lucky that a local grocery store has been having one type of apple on sale for $1.28/pound every month, so the cost has been reasonable.  I just hope they keep it up through the summer months.
6. Limit MSG and sodium-nitrite foods-We have drastically cut down our consumption of processed meats.  We used to eat 1-2 pounds of deli meat a week and at least 2 pounds of bacon each month.  I would also cook a whole ham and we would eat that throughout the month as well.  Now we each 1-2 pounds of deli meat per month and 1 twelve ounce package of bacon.  I am buying sausage, made in-store, at our local grocery, which claims to be MSG free.  I lost interest in tweaking my homemade version.  I was spending money for a product I didn't really care for.  Maybe I'll come back to it later.  Right now I'm satisfied with what we have.
7. Superfoods-With the exception of soy, I feel like we have been eating the superfoods, albeit not as often as the book recommends.   Also, since we are in the process of cutting back the total amount of grains we eat, we aren't eating as many oats as we were, but for breakfast, I'm still keeping some of those recipes in my rotation.  I feel like whole grains also provide protein, so they have value.  I just don't feel that we need to eat 6-11 servings per day of them.
8. Meal Planning-I have one.  And, I'm really trying to do my best to follow it.  There are always stumbling blocks in the road, but I'm tyring to make sure we have enough easy meals that we can always find something without hitting the drive-thru (even if it means eating fried chicken at 8 pm-sorry kids).
9. Whole Wheat Flour-Yep!  We're using it, although not as often right now.  It's nearly the only flour we have in the house-the exception being a bag of all-purpose flour that I use for making playdough.
10. Farm eggs-I actually haven't had to buy these in a while because my father-in-law is bringing me 2-3 dozen each week.  But, I should have 4 dozen floating around somewhere that my friend was going to pick up for me.  We can never have enough eggs in this house.

So, ladies and gentlemen that's where we're at so far.  There have been some back steps, but overall, I feel good about the changes my family has made (other than the ranch refusal).  There's always room for improvement, and I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more improvement needed.  I just received my copy of Nourishing Traditions today in the mail.  Happy reading to me! :)

Life update

Just a quick update-Hubby's surgery yesterday went well.  For the first time in over 20 years (as he recalls) he can breathe out of the left side of his nose.  Thumbs up to that!  He has some pain, but it is much less than we expected (me mainly), so that is nice.  He rested most of yesterday, but already this morning he's been up and around, going to the doctor with me and taking the van to fill it with gas.

My eye doctor appointment went well also.  I do have several places on both eyes where the retina in thinning, but it is typical with someone as nearsighted as I am.  I just have to watch for changes in vision and call them immediately.  If they catch it quick enough they can use a laser to tack the retina back to where it should be (Hubby equated it with spot welding.).  The longer I would wait, the more damage that would be done and they would have to go in and do a much more invasive surgery, so I'll be sure to watch for any changes.  Although, the way the doctor described it, the changes wouldn't be subtle, so not likely to be ignored.  That's good for me because sometimes I'm completely oblivious! =)

My family definitely has many things to be thankful for.  My prayers have definitely included praise and thanksgiving!

As for not eating out, we didn't do bad.  I picked up a sausage, egg and cheese burrito for little man at Sonic after dropping the girls off at school Thursday morning.  The rest of the time (over 6 hours) we ate cashews, craisins and pretzels.  On the way home from volleyball, I stopped at the store to pick up a 4 pound flat of strawberries that was on sale and while I was there I realized that since we had just snacked throughout the day, there was no "meatless" meal for my girls to take to school for lunch on Friday.  I caved and got 2 nacho Lunchables.  Not that it helps much, but I added grapes and whole wheat chocolate chip mini muffins.  We weren't perfect, but I could've eaten out 3-4 times yesterday, so at least we avoided that.

Hubby and I are without kids until Sunday morning.  I'm not sure what is on the agenda, but I hope to do some baking ahead since it will be very cool (overnight frost warnings) this weekend.

What do you hope to get accomplished this weekend?