Eat Well, Save Time and Money

I am often told that I have a gift with food. I can make something from nothing. Today, with the encouragement of a great friend, this may turn into another branch of Leaf and Loaf, LLC.

 My days are busy, just like everyone else’s. I work 45 hours per week, have my own small granola business, two young kids and a wonderful husband. He is a professor and teaches during dinner two nights a week- the same nights as soccer practice.(!) In order to stay balanced, keep life simple, healthy and within our budget, I put together a little plan that I am quite proud of. So I'm sharing it. 

Yesterday I revamped my monthly budget. I now have a weekly budget for groceries for the house, lunch money for the kids for 2 days, food out for our soccer nights and a menu for the nights we eat dinner together at home. I know just what we’re eating on what days and I’ve purchased just the right amount of food for the week. This is sort of a personal plan, but I’m going to toss it out there so you can see how I made it work for my family. You’ll also see my receipt so you can see what I bought and how much it costs. This feels a little like I’ve exposed myself, but I’m not sure why. I’d love to only buy local and organic, but the truth is I can’t afford to do that all the time. I do avoid processed sugars, high fructose corn syrup and processed foods.

We eat a healthy breakfast at home every morning. I do not work on Mondays, so I get to make the kids breakfast before school. Today they had peanut butter, banana and golden raisins in a whole wheat tortilla with a glass of milk. They ate every crumb and got out the door on time to catch the bus. The other days of the week they usually have some high protein organic cereal, Kashi waffles, yogurt, eggs, OJ, milk and/or fruit.

Weekly food budget 
$100 for groceries
$25 soccer nights (odwalla smoothies, sandwiches)
$8.60 for school lunches

I have color-coded my receipt to give you a quick glance.

Produce (fresh and frozen) = Green
Protein = Blue
Drinks (milk, oj, juice boxes) = Yellow
Cereals and Nuts = Brown
Sweets (Immaculate Cookie Dough and Edy’s fruit bars) = Pink
Miscellaneous = Gray

Here is this week’s plan. Now some of these items I already had in the house. Some that I bought yesterday won’t be used until next week or the week after. The key is that I stay within my food budget for the week. Buy One Get One Free items are my friend. But I have to be careful that they are items that are healthy and we’ll use them. Pasta sauce and cereals are a biggie for me.

Sunday Dinner: Salmon burger, Asian sweet rice and blanched broccoli
Monday Lunch: Ham, string cheese, cucumbers, crackers, applesauce
Dinner: Roasted chicken breast, angel hair pasta, broccoli and carrots
Tuesday Lunch: Morningstar farms chick’n nuggets, peas and carrots, peach
Dinner: Odwalla drink before soccer, Publix sub sandwich after soccer
Wednesday Lunch: kids buy lunch at school
Dinner: Frozen lasagna and fresh green salad
ThursdayLunch: Ham, cream cheese and lettuce in a whole wheat wrap, baby carrots, apple
Dinner: Chicken Nachos Salad with Blue corn tortilla chips, Cheese, Lettuce, Salsa
FridayLunch: kids buy lunch at school
Dinner: Homemade pizza or leftovers

What I’ve discovered is that we can have two or three fruits and veges for the week and we’ll eat them a few times. Nobody gets tired of them during the week, and then next week we’ll have different produce. This helps me from buying too much produce that doesn’t get eaten, goes bad and gets composted. There is a balance here between making as many healthy meals as I can, buying lunch at school and grabbing something while we’re out at soccer twice a week. We’re only on week two, so we’ll see how well this works out. I’m quite confident that it will be even smoother than last week.

KEEP AN EYE OUT. I am thinking about turning this into a subscription-based consulting service. How often do you have food in your fridge and you don’t know what to do with it? Leftovers that just get thrown away? Another dinner that needs to be made and you’re just out of steam? Want to save food, money and time? Let me help you make the most with what you already have. Avoid throwing away food. Send me a list of the foods that you have in your refrigerator/pantry and I will let you know what quick and easy meal can be made from them. Would you like me to put together a weekly dinner planner together for you?

Feedback and comments are welcome.
yummy@leafandloaf.com
What would you pay for this weekly service?
Is a 24 hour email response fast enough?
Will recipes need to be included?

Eat Well, Save Time and Money

I am often told that I have a gift with food. I can make something from nothing. Today, with the encouragement of a great friend, this may turn into another branch of Leaf and Loaf, LLC.

 My days are busy, just like everyone else’s. I work 45 hours per week, have my own small granola business, two young kids and a wonderful husband. He is a professor and teaches during dinner two nights a week- the same nights as soccer practice.(!) In order to stay balanced, keep life simple, healthy and within our budget, I put together a little plan that I am quite proud of. So I'm sharing it. 

Yesterday I revamped my monthly budget. I now have a weekly budget for groceries for the house, lunch money for the kids for 2 days, food out for our soccer nights and a menu for the nights we eat dinner together at home. I know just what we’re eating on what days and I’ve purchased just the right amount of food for the week. This is sort of a personal plan, but I’m going to toss it out there so you can see how I made it work for my family. You’ll also see my receipt so you can see what I bought and how much it costs. This feels a little like I’ve exposed myself, but I’m not sure why. I’d love to only buy local and organic, but the truth is I can’t afford to do that all the time. I do avoid processed sugars, high fructose corn syrup and processed foods.

We eat a healthy breakfast at home every morning. I do not work on Mondays, so I get to make the kids breakfast before school. Today they had peanut butter, banana and golden raisins in a whole wheat tortilla with a glass of milk. They ate every crumb and got out the door on time to catch the bus. The other days of the week they usually have some high protein organic cereal, Kashi waffles, yogurt, eggs, OJ, milk and/or fruit.

Weekly food budget 
$100 for groceries
$25 soccer nights (odwalla smoothies, sandwiches)
$8.60 for school lunches

I have color-coded my receipt to give you a quick glance.

Produce (fresh and frozen) = Green
Protein = Blue
Drinks (milk, oj, juice boxes) = Yellow
Cereals and Nuts = Brown
Sweets (Immaculate Cookie Dough and Edy’s fruit bars) = Pink
Miscellaneous = Gray

Here is this week’s plan. Now some of these items I already had in the house. Some that I bought yesterday won’t be used until next week or the week after. The key is that I stay within my food budget for the week. Buy One Get One Free items are my friend. But I have to be careful that they are items that are healthy and we’ll use them. Pasta sauce and cereals are a biggie for me.

Sunday Dinner: Salmon burger, Asian sweet rice and blanched broccoli
Monday Lunch: Ham, string cheese, cucumbers, crackers, applesauce
Dinner: Roasted chicken breast, angel hair pasta, broccoli and carrots
Tuesday Lunch: Morningstar farms chick’n nuggets, peas and carrots, peach
Dinner: Odwalla drink before soccer, Publix sub sandwich after soccer
Wednesday Lunch: kids buy lunch at school
Dinner: Frozen lasagna and fresh green salad
Thursday Lunch: Ham, cream cheese and lettuce in a whole wheat wrap, baby carrots, apple
Dinner: Chicken Nachos Salad with Blue corn tortilla chips, Cheese, Lettuce, Salsa
Friday Lunch: kids buy lunch at school
Dinner: Homemade pizza or leftovers

What I’ve discovered is that we can have two or three fruits and veges for the week and we’ll eat them a few times. Nobody gets tired of them during the week, and then next week we’ll have different produce. This helps me from buying too much produce that doesn’t get eaten, goes bad and gets composted. There is a balance here between making as many healthy meals as I can, buying lunch at school and grabbing something while we’re out at soccer twice a week. We’re only on week two, so we’ll see how well this works out. I’m quite confident that it will be even smoother than last week.

KEEP AN EYE OUT. I am thinking about turning this into a subscription-based consulting service. How often do you have food in your fridge and you don’t know what to do with it? Leftovers that just get thrown away? Another dinner that needs to be made and you’re just out of steam? Want to save food, money and time? Let me help you make the most with what you already have. Avoid throwing away food. Send me a list of the foods that you have in your refrigerator/pantry and I will let you know what quick and easy meal can be made from them. Would you like me to put together a weekly dinner planner together for you?

Feedback and comments are welcome.
yummy@leafandloaf.com
What would you pay for this weekly service?
Is a 24 hour email response fast enough?
Will recipes need to be included?

What do we really need?

I'm a very simple person. Anyone that knows me can tell you it doesn't take much to make me happy. How much stuff do we really need? I'm not big on stuff, that's for sure, but I do manage to clutter up my desk and my dresser with junk. Receipts, photos, hair clips, jewelry and lots of JUNK. Due to a behavior issue in our house, I literally put everything from one of my kids' rooms into a large plastic container, from which, the "stuff" could be earned back with acceptable behavior. (This would be a story for another post.) I asked her to make a list of the top five things she wanted to earn back, and she could only think of three. Three items out of a TON OF JUNK. That made me realize how much stuff we have and don't even know we have it. It's been two weeks now and the bucket of stuff is still taking up residence in my bedroom. Taking this to an adult level, I'd like to just swipe my arm across my desk and dresser and through my entire house and put everything in a box. If I don't need it in a few months, it can just be donated or given away or recycled. While this is easier said than done..... What would you keep if you could only keep five things from each of your rooms? Why? This is not a test for a home evacuation due to Mother Nature, either. It is a question worth asking- why do we have this "stuff" lying around our house? Can someone else make better use of it? Would someone else appreciate it more than I/we do?

What do we really need?

I'm a very simple person. Anyone that knows me can tell you it doesn't take much to make me happy. How much stuff do we really need? I'm not big on stuff, that's for sure, but I do manage to clutter up my desk and my dresser with junk. Receipts, photos, hair clips, jewelry and lots of JUNK. Due to a behavior issue in our house, I literally put everything from one of my kids' rooms into a large plastic container, from which, the "stuff" could be earned back with acceptable behavior. (This would be a story for another post.) I asked her to make a list of the top five things she wanted to earn back, and she could only think of three. Three items out of a TON OF JUNK. That made me realize how much stuff we have and don't even know we have it. It's been two weeks now and the bucket of stuff is still taking up residence in my bedroom. Taking this to an adult level, I'd like to just swipe my arm across my desk and dresser and through my entire house and put everything in a box. If I don't need it in a few months, it can just be donated or given away or recycled. While this is easier said than done..... What would you keep if you could only keep five things from each of your rooms? Why? This is not a test for a home evacuation due to Mother Nature, either. It is a question worth asking- why do we have this "stuff" lying around our house? Can someone else make better use of it? Would someone else appreciate it more than I/we do?

The Challenge

There is a woman who comes to the Cafe almost every morning for breakfast. She always takes it to go. Today she told me she worked all weekend, as she normally does, and could she please have her fried egg to go- in a box. I asked her if she might take 5 minutes to eat it off of a plate with a fork. She said she had too much work to do and she normally doesn't eat until around 10 anyway. (It was 8:00). So I said, "you mean to tell me you get it to go and then eat it cold at 10?" After more conversation, I discovered that she makes a lot of money, she's got a very good job, but she's not happy. She's always wanted to do something else. Every once in a while I get the sense that Sharon has sent someone to me to help pass along what she taught me. This was another one of those times. So I challenged my Cafe friend to come 10 minutes earlier tomorrow and to sit and eat a hot egg with a fork, on a plate. I also asked why she doesn't just follow what she wants to do- a path with animals. She said she makes really good money where she is. My comment- "you make such great money, but you can't eat an egg off a plate and can't enjoy your money because you are always at work. I shared the Stephen Levine book with her and she said she'd get it. Many people should. http://www.amazon.com/Year-Live-This-Were-Your/dp/0609801945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342566271&sr=1-1&keywords=stephen+levine+a+year+to+live We'll see what tomorrow brings. Will she get an egg in a box?

The Challenge

There is a woman who comes to the Cafe almost every morning for breakfast. She always takes it to go. Today she told me she worked all weekend, as she normally does, and could she please have her fried egg to go- in a box. I asked her if she might take 5 minutes to eat it off of a plate with a fork. She said she had too much work to do and she normally doesn't eat until around 10 anyway. (It was 8:00). So I said, "you mean to tell me you get it to go and then eat it cold at 10?" After more conversation, I discovered that she makes a lot of money, she's got a very good job, but she's not happy. She's always wanted to do something else. Every once in a while I get the sense that Sharon has sent someone to me to help pass along what she taught me. This was another one of those times. So I challenged my Cafe friend to come 10 minutes earlier tomorrow and to sit and eat a hot egg with a fork, on a plate. I also asked why she doesn't just follow what she wants to do- a path with animals. She said she makes really good money where she is. My comment- "you make such great money, but you can't eat an egg off a plate and can't enjoy your money because you are always at work. I shared the Stephen Levine book with her and she said she'd get it. Many people should. http://www.amazon.com/Year-Live-This-Were-Your/dp/0609801945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342566271&sr=1-1&keywords=stephen+levine+a+year+to+live We'll see what tomorrow brings. Will she get an egg in a box?

Someone found me!!!

An events person saw my booth at the SSFM and contacted me through my web site to invite me to be at this market. There are only eight vendors and 3,000 employees in the complex. So excited!!! Wednesday, August 8, 2012Turner at Techwood (Cartoon Network Building) Farmer’s Market 11am-2pm Outdoors on the green!