Natural Health and Beauty Products and a winner announced!

While I started eating whole foods and more natural foods about 3 years ago I have been reluctant to get into natural beauty products just because it is so easy to go to the store and grab them and quite honestly I tried some and they just didn't work well.

I finally decided to get serious about it and I started small.  I still haven't gotten to natural make up yet but that will come eventually.  First I should tell you that I have awful skin.  I have dealt with acne for about 20 years.  And now I am dealing with acne and wrinkles - I mean, come on.  Of course every acne treatment out there is so drying and I went to the dermatologist a lot and asked what I could do and she told me to get on birth control and when I refused because I don't like synthetic hormones - hence you know, the reason I am looking for natural things, she told me to take antibiotics.  I finally got through to her that I wanted something more natural.

She said what she recommended was to switch to organic dairy products.  Well, I hadn't done that yet because organic dairy is expensive.  I finally did although I don't drink milk, that much anyway, or ever actually.  Still I was having lots of flare ups.  I finally decided to just go for it and try some natural face wash.  I chose Kiss My Face and my skin has cleared up tremendously.  It is not perfect by any means and I still have problems but it is far better than it has been in a long time.

I buy it from Vitacost.  I use the face wash, the toner (which does not burn!), the eye cream and the moisturizer (they have a few different ones).  I started with the kit to try it out but that does not come with the toner so I bought that too.   I also have been using their shampoo.  I haven't tried their conditioner but I plan to try that next.


As far as soap, I have just recently purchased bar soap from Goats Milk Stuff.  It is a small, family owned business that I am happy to support.  I have been using the tea tree oil soap on my face since I ran out of my facial cleanser and it has worked wonderfully too.  Check them out!

I have been using Kiss My Face's Castile soap for shaving my legs. It is made with olive oil so it leaves your skin very, very smooth.  Let's just say it is husband-approved.

Moving on (aren't you glad), I wanted to announce my winner from Monday's give-a-way.

Thank you all for entering my give-a-way.  I appreciate all of you who read my blog.  I really, really do.  Now, without further ado the winner is:

Jen
Jen, I will be e-mailing you soon with more details.

If any of you use all natural products, please leave me a comment and let me know what you like because I would like to try more products.  If you have tried natural make up, I would love to hear about that too.  I have tried the mineral make up but I didn't love it.

 

Azure Standard comes to Central Indiana

I have been wanting to order from Azure Standard ever since I started reading about it from other blogs but it never delivered this far east until now!  Many of my friends have not heard of it so I wanted to let you all know a little about it if you haven't.


Laura at Heavenly Homemakers has an explanation about how Azure Standard works.   She explains what Azure Standard is:

Azure Standard is a food delivery service specializing in offering top notch, organic and natural products.  These folks provide my family with amazing organic produce and groceries each month.  I am constanly blown away by their prices, especially for organic produce.  Usually their organic fruits and vegetables are LESS EXPENSIVE than the non-organic produce I can find at my local grocery stores.  They are SUPER easy to work with and incredibly nice.  Read all about Azure Standard and what they stand for here. 

They also have specials each  month.  Go here to read about their January specials.  You do have to sign up on their website to see prices, but it is free to sign up and you don't have to order anything yet.

If you live in central Indiana there are now 3 coordinators in the area.  Just contact them and ask them for the coordinator's information.  Or if you know me personally just e-mail me and I can forward it to you.

Have any of you ordered from Azure Standard before?  Tell me about your experience if you have.

Our Smoothies

My husband purchased a Vitamix a while back and I am so glad he did.  Lately we have been having lots of smoothies.  Because I have been a little nauseous with this pregnancy, cooked vegetables just didn't smell good or taste good so we have been uping our smoothie consumptions.

We have been trying to get in at least two servings of fruits and veggies with each smoothie.  We have been using the peaches and blueberries I froze last summer.  I am going to have to freeze twice as much this summer.  We also buy organic spinach and carrots in big quantities at Sam's Club each week.  I have been adding some coconut oil and whole flax seed as well.  I then use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of filtered water to make it a little less thick.

I started measuring to make sure we are actually getting the servings and I usually split it between me and my husband.  He doesn't want me to put any sweeteners in his so I usually mix it up and then pour his out and then add a little honey (raw, local of course) to mine.  It doesn't taste bad without the honey but it sure does taste better with it.

This is the best way to get our fruits and veggies in.   We really like it and feel a lot better when we have it.  When my husband makes it he will add whole apples or peeled oranges too.  I am just too lazy to peel the oranges.

We do love the Vitamix though because it pretty much makes everything completely smooth.

What do you like to put into your smoothies?

I Paid $19 for a whole chicken (and I bought 10 of them) - Here's Why!

There are some foods I am lenient with.  I am not perfect at eating 100% organic whole foods, but this year we have switched to buying all of our meat and poultry from local sources that are organic or beyond organic.   When I say "beyond organic" this is a term used by the farmer we buy them from because he is not certified organic because organic certification has lots of hoops to jump through. Here is information about their chickens:

We start our chicks out as day old hatchlings in our brooder where they spend the first three weeks of their life until they are old enough to go outdoors safely.  Once out, they are moved each day in one of our portable “chicken huts” to a fresh spot of pasture where they will obtain about 15% of their food from forage and insects.  The balance of their diet is a custom mix of GMO free and chemical free corn and roasted soybeans grown on local Indiana family farms.  These grains are then blended with certified organic minerals and supplements.  Our chickens never receive antibiotics, vaccinations or growth stimulants.  Lastly, our chickens are carefully transported to a local, hard working Amish family.  Here they are processed with care, by hand, in this State of Indiana inspected facility. - Simpson Family Farm

Is this expensive - YES!  Is it worth it - YES!  We buy in bulk which means we buy a quarter of a cow (and split it) and a half of a hog and 8-10 chickens at a time.  These are chunks of money that we come up with because we think it is very important to have good quality food.   We try to spread it out over the year and buying in bulk actually makes it cheaper overall.

I have gotten beef this way for over 2 years but I was reluctant to buy chickens because they are so expensive.  I stopped buying chicken breasts a long time ago to make myself get used to cooking whole chickens because I knew I would buy organic ones eventually and I knew I could never afford to buy organic chicken breasts.

After reading about arsenic in our chickens I knew I had to stop buying grocery store birds and actually buy organic chickens - local, organic chickens.

This is part of an article from The Whole New Mom:

What the FDA Says is Safe

Arsenic in Chickens, Arsenic in You and Arsenic-Laced Chicken Poop Being Fed to Cows - OK.  I am so done with letting my family eat conventional meat now.  I was being a bit lenient with it at potlucks until now, but no more. 

The basics are that for years the FDA has known that arsenic-laced feed was being given to chickens.  The argument was that the arsenic would all come out in their poop.  Now they have discovered that it is not so. 

The FDA and the National Chicken Council also say that the arsenic present in the tainted chicken is in such a small amount that it is safe to eat even though it is a carcinogen.  Ugh.

To their credit, the company who manufactures the feed has agreed to pull the feed off the market, but there is no telling how much of it is left (still being fed to chickens on a farm near you??).  In addition, according to the AP,:

Scott Brown of Pfizer Animal Health’s Veterinary Medicine Research and Development division said the company also sells the ingredient in about a dozen other countries. He said Pfizer is reaching out to regulatory authorities in those countries and will decide whether to sell it on an individual basis.” (http://www.usatoday.com/money/indus…)

Not good enough for us, but maybe good enough for others??

*     *     *     *     *

Now you see why I do what I do?  I just can't know that and not do it.  I will say that I do a lot with a whole chicken.  I usually cook it up (our favorite is sticky chicken) and then after we have eaten I will take the carcass and make broth with it and pick off the rest of the meat to use for another meal - such as chicken pot pie or bbq chicken quesadillas. 

I know not everyone can afford to do this but it is a priority for us.  We don't buy as much clothes.  We don't upgrade our furniture or buy lots of other things.  Sometimes I wonder how people afford new coffee tables and other things and then I realize - they probably don't buy $19 chickens.

An Update on My New Lunch Experiment

When I posted my menu plan this week I was going to try something new.  I decided to experiment by making all of my kid's lunches for the week on Sunday night.  My inspiration was from Life as a Mom.  I posted a picture of it to Facebook and several of my friends wanted to hear how the sandwiches were towards the end of the week, you know after they had been in the fridge for a while.

First let me tell you what I did.  I bought 12 containers.  They were 6 for $4.59 at Meijer.  I decided on two lunches.  One lunch consisted of half of a peanut butter sandwich (some of my kids like jelly and some don't so I made it easy on myself), grapes and carrot sticks.  The other lunch was a homemade lunchable with Aldi "Ritz" crackers, lunch meat, grapes and carrots.  The crackers were in the separate compartment so they would not get wet and soggy.

The verdict:
I made them on Sunday night.  As of Thursday the sandwiches were still good.  By Friday they were slightly dry but my kids did not notice and ate them anyway.  The grapes and carrots of course stayed fresh.  The crackers will still crispy and the lunchmeat was still good.

Now, first off I have small children so they don't eat a lot.  If you have bigger kids you would want a whole sandwich and maybe you might fill a plastic bag with extras like chips or something, but you could still do that on Sunday night and keep those in the cabinet.  And have your kids help you.  My daughter did the grapes for me.

I will tell you this is by far my best experiment.  Lunches were way too easy.  I only fixed drinks and had the children grab their lunches from the fridge.  Now, I do have an extra fridge in my garage so it was convenient for me.  If you only have one fridge and lots of kids this might not work as well for you but it is honestly worth clearing out a little space in your fridge for it!

I just always dreaded lunches.   Now I don't!  Another benefit that my husband pointed out is that if they don't eat all of their food we just put the lid back on and when they are hungry again we just tell them to eat the rest of their lunch.  Another bonus - when it came time to pack a lunch for my son's school day (he only goes 2 days a week), I just threw it in his lunchbox.  Yet another bonus, when we had to go somewhere I just grabbed the containers and we either ate on the go or at whatever place we were planning to be - saving money by not eating out!  I had no excuses because the lunches were already done.

Now I do think if you made your kids lunchmeat sandwiches they would get soggy pretty quickly but they  might hold out (anyone try that?).  I may try to think up other things I could put in these containers but for now, this works pretty well and I haven't had any complaints yet.

If you have any ideas as to what other easy lunches would work for me I would love to hear them!

Why I Buy Grassfed Beef

The fat from regular grocery store beef

 I have purchased grassfed beef for over 2 years now and it is pretty much the only kind of beef I will buy.  I honestly don't eat beef when we go out to restaurants.  I am picky about my meat, that is for sure.  The above picture is taken when my husband bought some ground beef from the grocery (*gasp*) because he really wanted nachos and we were out of our meat.  This meat was labeled product of Canada and USA.  So therefore it had I don't know how many cows in it.

 

The above picture is of me frying up some of our grassfed beef and no I did not strain it at all it has almost no fat in it.  It tastes amazing.  It is from a farm just a little north of here.  I know where it is from.

If you want to know more about why grassfed is best, check this out.

And if you don't think you can afford a one time big purchase, then go in with a couple of friends and split the cost.  This is how we started and we still do it this way.

The meat truly is delicious.  The steaks and roasts are unbelievable and the price is hard to beat - $3/lb after processing!  You can't buy steak in the grocery store for $3/lb.

Next week I will try to share what I do with all the different cuts of meat I get including soup bones and ox tail.  I know you won't want to miss it (ha).

My Real Food Budget, Part 2 . . . Make Room

Part I

Many of you out there think that your budgets are so tight that you could not possibly buy organic products.  They are much too expensive and that can be true.  I find that we have money for things that we want.  Even tight budgets include some unnecessary extras.  If you looked closely at your budget you could maybe find $20-$60 a month extra without much effort (cut some cable channels, forgo Starbucks, stop the weekly McDonalds run).

You may say that you actually have money to buy organic but you think it is just "trendy" and not really worthwhile.

First off, I would ask you to just try watching Food, Inc..  Once you watch this you will probably at least be a little more convinced to only eat organic (or grassfed) beef.  This is one of the first changes I made when I started this and it is one that I will not go back on.  Let me show you why.  First off, in Food Inc. they talk about how your hamburger that you are eating could be made up of literally hundreds (if not thousands) of different cows from any number of different countries  - tasty right?  Let me show you a box of hamburgers you can purchase at Sam's Club.

Notice the type at the top - Product of US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Costa Rica.  Really!  Seriously, I am so glad that they now make them list the country of origin on everything.  I absolutely check it and you should too.  Before you get too excited, know that organic products must list their product of origin as well.  I recently joined Costco because I heard they had a lot of organic products.  I started to buy their organic broccoli (frozen) and then turned it over and guess what?  "Product of China" - can they not get broccoli from the US and freeze it?  Yet another reason I try to garden and go to the farmers market.

Anyway, I told you all this to say that the above reasons should make you WANT to find room in your budget to purchase products locally and/or organically.  As I said before, I am not a purist.  I don't buy all products organically.  I work towards that but I haven't made that plunge.

Lets talk numbers.  I do have a certain amount that I don't go over, but since I am currently trying a few new and different ideas I don't have an exact budget amount.

Meat
Beef (Grassfed but not certified Organic) - $3/lb. - We get 1/4 at a time which is roughly 180 lbs.  Total - $540  - This lasts us 6 months or more.
Pork - I don't buy a lot of pork but I have bought it from Trader Joe's at about $4.58/lb.
Hot dogs - I am not a fan of hot dogs but I now only buy Trader Joe's - All Beef, Nitrate Free - and they are $3.99 per package.  I only buy one a month and my husband says they are the best hot dogs.  I don't eat them so I don't know.
Lunch meat - Nitrate free ham or turkey - $3.69 to $4.99 per package.  I buy this twice a month as well.
Pepperoni - Nitrate free $2.96/pkg.  I find that one pkg will be good for 2-3 pizzas.  I freeze the leftover ones.  I buy one package about twice a month.

Dairy and Eggs
Milk - This is a hot topic and I just can't yet bring myself to drink raw milk.  (I don't drink milk myself but my kids do).  I get organic when I can or whatever is on sale, but as of last month and because my dermatologist said it will help my skin I am only buying organic because it does not have the hormones.  If I do buy raw I use it to make yogurt or buttermilk.  Raw Milk is $5.99 at my local dairy.  Organic is $5.99 at Kroger or most grocery stores around me.  Trader Joe's milk is $2.99 but it is not organic.
Yogurt - I haven't made my own lately but I do buy it and it is around $3.99 for a large tub (organic that is).
Cheese - I buy sliced colby jack from Trader Joe's at $3.49/pkg.  I sometimes buy string cheese at $3.49/pkg.  I recently have started buying actual, real Parmesan and it is yummy.  This price varies.  I do buy shredded sometimes or block cheese (from Aldi or Meijer) and shred it myself.  If I am in desperate need of it, I will buy pre-shredded cheese (Trader Joe's has it for $3.29/pkg).  I have tried raw colby jack cheese from a farm and we did not like the taste.  I may have to experiment more and see if there are some we do like.  For now I buy it at Trader Joe's and it works.
Cream - I do buy raw cream (or I do when I need it) and make ice cream with it.  It is the same price as regular cream at the stores.  I buy this from that local organic dairy as well.
Eggs - I buy my eggs from the local organic dairy and they are $2.75 per dozen.  I know I can find them cheaper but this is super convenient and the farmers are so nice.

Poultry
Chicken - I need to work on this because it is hard for me to buy whole organic chicken at $12-$14 per chicken.  I recently bought Trader Joe's (not organic) for $4-$6 per chicken.  I used to buy a lot of chicken breasts (we love them) but since they are $4-$5 per pound organic I changed up my menus to not include as much recipes requiring chicken breasts.  I bought a bag of frozen ones from Trader Joe's last time and they were $6.99 per bag.  I do mostly whole chickens now and I make broth and then freeze the meat.
Turkey - I just buy Butterball but I will work on that before this Thanksgiving.

Condiments
I buy organic from Trader Joe's because the prices are so reasonable.  I do sometimes make my own.  Again, even your salad dressing and BBQ sauce have high fructose corn syrup in it so this is a great place to make a small change and start getting them organically or making them yourself.

Produce
My favorite thing!  As I said last time, I try to buy mostly organic produce.  I buy it at Trader Joe's or Meijer.  In the summer I garden and I freeze and can a lot of my own stuff.  If I don't grow it, I buy it from a few local farmers.  They do not always grow organically but at least it is local.

Staples
I am picky on my whole wheat flour and only buy King Arthur's because I want my family to eat the whole wheat baked goods I make.  I have tried other whole wheat flour and you just can't beat King Arthurs.  I don't buy the organic but I buy the white whole wheat for $3.49/5 lbs.  I just tried Trader Joe's white whole wheat last month because it is only $2.99/5 lbs., but it is not as good (sorry Trader Joe's).
I buy Coconut Oil wherever it is on sale.  I buy Olive Oil from Sam's Club but I will be changing that soon.
I am still searching for places and prices to buy some of my staples.  I don't do organic for a lot of my staples.
Honey - I do buy this raw from my local organic dairy.

This post is getting long so I will stop here for now.  I will say that I have been spending roughly $115-$175 at Trader Joe's per month.  I count this as my major monthly shopping trip and any other shopping trips I do will not be as much.

If we ever move back to Springfield, Missouri I am not sure how I will buy organic on a budget.  I know there are no Trader Joe's there and it is hard to find good prices at your local health food store.

Please, please, please share with me how and what you buy in the comments.  I would love to know.

For more frugal ideas, please visit Frugal Friday at Life as a Mom.

My Real Food Story . . . Part I

I feel like I am the last person that should be talking about this.  I want to talk about it, but I wanted to wait until I feel like I perfected it.  I have tried so MANY ways of grocery shopping and menu planning over the years.  It was actually about 2 years ago that I changed a lot of things.  I started reading blogs.  It opened up my world, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the not-so-good.

I began by reading Crystal's blog, Money Saving Mom.  I am thankful for her blog.  She has saved me some money and brought great deals to light.  I do have to respectfully disagree with her regarding coupons.  I do a few coupons, but for the food I buy, there just aren't many coupons.  I tried buying and making a coupon folder/binder thing.  I spent hours organizing my coupons and my grocery store deals.  I just don't do that anymore.

About this time I started reading other blogs, like Passionate Homemaking and Heavenly Homemakers.  I read a post from Lindsay regarding their Real Foods Budget and this is how I started doing my shopping.  I even wrote to Laura at Heavenly Homemakers and asked her a question, and guess what, she answered it on her blog.  You can read that here.  I would highly recommend reading her "Getting Real with Food" series as well.

Well, I did what I usually do, I changed everything at once.  I also joined a wholesale buying club.  All of this while I was about 7 months pregnant with my second child.  In retrospect, I shouldn't have joined that buying club because I did not know enough and it was such a process.  I have learned a lot since then including backing off a little.

I do not buy everything organic. 

Here is what I do:

1.  I use real butter.  It is rarely organic but it is real, actual, unsalted butter.  Organic butter runs $4.99/lb. and I can't quite wrap my head around that right now (probably because I use too much butter).
2.  I stopped using white sugar and white flour several months ago.  I still use it but only occasionally and usually if I am making food for other people.
3.  I read labels on everything.  I look to see if it has high fructose corn syrup.  I check the country of origin.  I check to see what additives and preservatives a food has.
4.  I buy grassfed beef from a local farmer.  It is about $3/lb. and I order a quarter of a beef at the same time. 
5.  I do make a lot of stuff from scratch.
6.  I do buy in bulk from Sam's or Costco (we are trying Costco this year).
7.  I have recently started buying my main groceries at Trader Joe's.  Trader Joe's is a 45 minute drive for me, but I have to go to my job 2 days a month so I always have my list ready and I go to Trader Joe's then because I am there anyway.  It works for me. 
8.  I use whole wheat flour and I sometimes soak my baked goods.  There is a lot of discussion about soaking your grains and you can go here for more information than you ever wanted to know.
9.  I buy organic fruits and veggies as often as possible and try to always buy organic from the dirty dozen list.
10.  I buy several items from a local organic dairy including eggs, honey, buttermilk and sometimes milk.


Now, how do I do it and not spend a lot of money?  Come back next time and we will talk numbers!

For more frugal ideas, please visit Frugal Friday at Life as a Mom.

Organic sales June 19-25

Muir Glen diced tomatoes are $1.22 at Wal-mart (could be $1.32 at some stores. Use this coupon and get them for $0.22 (or $0.32 each).

This is for Organic products sold at Meijer.

4 for $5 Save at least 1.68 on 4 Organic Green Onions 2 ct. pkg. or Baby Cut Carrots1 lb. bag.

1.29 LB. Save 40¢ LB. Organic Peaches or Nectarines

4 for $5 Save $3 on 4 Meijer Organics Whole or Mini Bella Mushrooms 8 oz. pkg.

2 for $11 Save 4.98 on 2 Meijer Organics Coffee 10 oz. Select Varieties

2 for $3 Save 1.38 on 2 Meijer Organics Salad Dressing 12 oz. French, Italian or 1000 Island.

2 for $5 Save 1.58 on 2 Meijer Organics Bread 28 oz. loaf. 100% Whole Wheat, Multigrain or Flaxseed

10 for $6 Save 1.90 on 10 Meijer Organics Yogurt Single serve 6 oz. cups. All varieties.

2 for $5 Save 1.58 on 2 Meijer Organics Milk 1/2 gallon carton. All varieties.

2 for $4 Save at least 58¢ on 2 Meijer Organics Fruit or Organics Vegetables 10-16 oz. Assorted varieties. Excludes Meijer Organic Blueberries.

25% off Meijer Organics Pan SprayCanola or olive oil 5 oz. or Extra Virgin Olive Oil 17 oz.

Sam's Club organics

Amazon Organics