You ARE what you EAT

I'm sure by my multiple posts about food have noticed I'm a little overly concerned about food and what Zach and I eat as a family.  As a Family I have begun to move us into organic world.. Trying to purchase as much fresh foods organic as possible but as anyone who has shopped for organic foods knows it cost much more than non organic foods. Shopping for organic foods goes against almost everything i've ever know about grocery shopping.. I have always brought the cheapest item possible of the type with no concern for brands but unless you shop at Harris Teeter ( which is already more expensive then other grocery stores) you can not find off brand organic foods and as you sit there and compare the prices you are met with much anamacity of what to by simply because non organic foods are a dollar or more CHEAPER than organic foods!! So while grocery shopping brings such inner turmoil between organics and non organic i have been trying to purchase as much organic as I can for our family as long as its affordable.

 Along with making my family organic I have decided to personally become vegetarian.  It has been 2 weeks since I ate meat and I am loving it.  It has always been something I wanted to do because I love animals and am bit of an animal activist.  After finishing the book Skinny Bitch I decided to make the decision.  After reading that book I almost can't even look at foods from animals in the same way.. Although the book promotes veganism which is my next step I have only given up meat, milk and eggs at this point.. Cheese and butter will have to come later along with any processed foods with milk in them i still eat.  The funny thing about becoming vegetarian is how much resistance I am met with.. I have in no way forced my decision on anyone it is simply that I choose not to eat meat but was actually shocked at how others have reacted to my decision! A decision that I am so proud of has caused so many odd remarks and has definitely infuriated zach for reasons i still don't understand! But I know my reasonings and i know the decision i have made will improve my health and i will feel much better about my food decisions.. If you just need one of the many reasons i have to not eat meat visit goveg.com and watch the videos, read the chapter entitled You are what you eat from Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouinor simply think of what happens to the poor cows, chickens and pigs before we eat them... You Are what you eat and in the words of Kim and Rory: "you are eating high blood pressure stress, and adrenalin.  You are eating fear, grief, and rage.  You are eating suffering, horror, and murder. You are eating cruelty."  You are what you eat

I leave you with that... not to tell you to be vegetarian, vegan but simply to remember you are what you eat and everything you put in your body becomes a part of you and if you really think about what you eat.. it can get a little disgusting! 

Zach's B-day Cake

When I woke up this morning to decorate Zach's Birthday cakes this is what I found

It looked like a disaster I didn't know what I was going to do! So I whipped up some butter cream to attempt to "glue" the cake back together enough so that I could at least give him some sort of cake As I continued to make the cake I decided to try something new.. I wanted to make a 3-d cake.. So I decided to make Zach a surfing cake.. And about four hours later here is Zach's birthday cake..

I think if the cake hadn't been such a disaster when i first started it would of have a better chance but I really am impressed of how it looks :)

The Art of Grocery Shopping

One thing that has taken me about 3 years to learn is the art of grocery shopping.. I used to think that it was cheapest and easiest to just go to one store (usually walmart) and buy all the grocery's I could afford to buy all at one store in one trip so that I wouldn't spend useless money on random items each week at the store not to mention the amount of time i saved by only going every month or so (with the exception of milk and bread) and just buying everything all at once.. but there was something I always noticed I was throwing away alot of that food before I could ever use it all! Especially veggies... So I have since learned to shop around.. And I have noticed that it's a real art!

It really dawned on me the other day when Zach and I just happened to be at 2 different grocery stores at the same time (weird i know) and We were discussing the items we needed for our home and even though the money cames from the same account we divided who would buy what based solely on the store we were at! So.. For example: Zach was at Harris Teeter who has milk for about $3 a gallon which is very cheap and I was at Lowes foods where eggs were on sale for $.99 a carton and I purchased the eggs and he got the milk.. and we divided it up like that! I found it very amusing! :)

Another thing I've learned is to buy specific food groups from diff rent stores, yes it is inconvenient when you really only need a few items to shop around different stores but usually you will save so much more money and get much better quality food by doing so. What i've learned Buy Fruits and Veggies at Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, or Fresh Market based on whats on sale!
Buy meats at Food Lion for the best deals or Lowes Foods (if you live in Wilmington take a friend with you to food lion b/c they are all a little sketchy) Buy your paper products, cleaning products, boxed goods from Wal mart for the cheapest price! But NEVER buy fresh goods (meats or veggies) they go bad MUCH faster than if you purchase your goods from another store!!

Another awesome saver is coupons! I've become a very avid coupon clipper.. Every Sunday I get the paper from my work and clip all the coupons out that I know I will/could use before they expire. I also have them sent to my email using coupons.com. If you are an avid craft store shopper sign up w/ their websites to have them email you their coupons (they email about 2 or more a week!) i've saved tons of money using coupons.. I used to think they were just a waste of time but alot of stores will actually double your coupons so you can turn .50 coupon into a dollar of savings!!

My final grocery tip is a LIST sounds simple.. but really I keep a magentic shopping list on our fridge and each time an item is finished or we decide we need something it goes on the list and then you can just pick it up without having to think while you are at the store OH dID i need.. It's a hard habit to stick to but if you are dedicated you will save time and money on items you think you need at the store but when you get home you realize you don't need it at all.. Also, if you can stick to the list you won't pick up items you don't need at all (this is my biggest weakness...OH thats on sale.. and we didn't even need it!! )

Use these tips and enjoy your grocery shopping.. I've learned to have fun finding the best deals!

Sports

When I was younger I was very involved in different sports. Every season I played a sport there was never a time that I didn't have a practice to attend or a game. Since I started college I was not involved in any sports. SO over the last 4 years I've been struggling to find interesting ways to exercise which usually involve the gym. As most people who have attended the gym know you have to work pretty hard to make that interesting... But when some of the Psi Chi members said they wanted to participate in an intramural team I was pretty resistant in participating.. I encouraged them to sign up for the team if they could find enough members who were interested but that I didn't want to be too involved because I had too much stuff going on. Well the team proceeded to sign up for softball and because we were a team of both guys and girls they required the same number of girls play every game as guys so the team captain would call me begging to sign up and be on the team and I did.. And now I LOVE IT! I've played in two of the games and I've always been the catcher a position I never had the opportunity to play before because I was bat blind and the goal of softball then was to win and for us it's just for fun so if I mess up no one cares!! I am almost sad that we only have one remaining game because I've enjoyed playing so much.. Zach came out to one of the games and took some pictures so you can enjoy them :) Oh, And I thought I should add we've WON 2 of the 3 games and half of our players have never played softball before in their lives!

What is that in the Kitchen?!

Last night I got to expeience one of the most unsual things to happen in our houshold...

Zach was cooking!! He can be seen seen here caught in action!

This fabulous meal consisted of fresh shrimp and hushpuppies all prepared by Zach. Although I did have to peel the shrimp it was very worth it! Our wonderfully fried goods were not so great for my diet or my attempts at eating healthy or vegitarian BUT it sure was yummy!!!