the best pie i've ever made

i ain't lyin'.

i made an apple pie for the 4th of july that was the bomb.com. the fact that it was gluten-free was not even considered. because it was that good. it wasn't good for a gluten-free pie; it was just GOOD.

the only reason i'm tooting my own horn here, is because people still shake their heads a little when we tell them we still eat good food. well, this time the proof is in the pudding...err, uh, pie.

many of you have asked, and i'm finally delivering.

the pie pictured is actually peach. and it was just as good. so i'll give you both recipes, although the pie crust is the same.

gluten-free pie crust:
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (i use Pamela's)
12 Tbsp butter (the real stuff)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ice-cold water

peach filling:
4-5 very ripe peaches (very soft, but not wrinkled or bruised)
1/4 cup natural cane sugar or turbinado
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp cinnamon*

apple filling:
4-5 medium sized granny smith apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup natural cane sugar or turbinado
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp cinnamon*

*i use the pampered chef's cinnamon plus spice blend; if you don't have this or access to it, add a dash of the following to your cinnamon: nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger

directions:

1. cube your butter and place in a bowl in the freezer while you prepare your fruit mixture

2. peel, core, and slice your fruit thinly (into eighths at least). mix in a bowl with the rest of your filling ingredients and refrigerate until needed

3. add all dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse quickly. add in your butter one cube at a time until mixed well (it will still be coarse). add apple cider vinegar, and then slowly add in cold water a little at the time until mixed well. remove mixture and work with your hands until it forms a smooth ball of dough. it should be firm, but not crumbly, and soft enough to work with--similar to clay. you can either roll out your crust right away or refrigerate it for an hour or so. refrigerating it will harden the butter again after it softens in your hands, so i usually refrigerate a bit. (if you make your crust more than an hour in advance, the dough will likely be a little hard to work with. you'll have to let it sit out for a while so it's pliable.)

{note: if you don't have a food processor, you can do this by hand, but just know that it will take a lot more elbow grease to get the butter chopped finely into the mixture. i did it once this way because my toddler was napping and i didn't want to wake her with the food processor noise, and frankly i couldn't make pies without nap time. it still worked fine, but i worked up a sweat!}

4. preheat oven to 350F and lightly butter a standard pie dish

5. with your ready-to-go ball of dough, roll it out evenly on a non-stick surface (you can also flour your surface and rolling pin slightly). it should be about 1/8" thick. it will roll out into a much bigger surface than your pie dish. gently lift your dough and place it in your dish. verrry gently press into your dish and tear off any that hangs over the dish. save your scraps for the top!

6. place your fruit filling in the pie.

note: peaches will "juice" upon baking, so ideally you want your mixture to be about half an inch to an inch lower than the top of the dish to prevent it bubbling over when baking. the apples, on the other hand, will shrink down a little--so fill that puppy up!

7. ball up your dough scraps and mold into a smooth ball again. roll it out thinly. you can choose to either make a full top crust or a lattice crust. if you choose full, just repeat the same process of placing it on top of your dish and trimming off any excess. press the two edges together with the tip of a fork, all the way around. cut small vent holes in the top. with a lattice crust, just cut your strips out and lay accordingly--press your edges in the same manner. you can even use tiny leftovers to create a star or heart or whatever you'd like, if you're feeling crafty.

8. bake for 45min - 1hr, or until crust is golden brown. note: without the gluten, i've noticed with baking that letting things get past the perfect golden brown stage will result in a tougher, chewy crust. with standard wheat flour, it will get a little flaky if it browns on the edges--not so much with gluten-free flours. just food for thought :)

9. if you wanna get real, serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream! mmmmmmm!!!!

here's a pic of my half-eaten apple pie on the 4th of july. i was so anxious to serve it and eat it that i didn't photograph the end result. my husband took this one :)

the juicy syrupy apply goodness that flowed from it got spooned on top of my ice cream. decadent, people. sent from above. 

happy eating, friends!!

the dreaded question

it's no foreign feeling to a mom in my shoes. nearly every woman who has left a career to stay home with a child has gone through it. and more women who have had kids are more understanding than you would expect.

but that still doesn't prevent that deer in headlights, squirming in your chair, momentary speechless moment when you have to answer this question:

"who's your employer?"

"where do you work?"

"what do you do?"

about 45 things run through my brain at this point. because i can't even begin to describe the real answer to that question.

before you jump ahead of me, this isn't going to be one of those things where i go into what a...stay at home mom...actually does, and how it's hard and we wear 29 hats, and that we have value. nope. this isn't one of those blogs. 

this is a let's get real and talk about how we really feel when we have to explain to answer that question kind of post.

because i know what i do. i know what my days are like. and other moms know what my days are like. but that still doesn't give me any kind of confidence when i answer that question. it doesn't instill in me any kind of value when i know what people think about stay at home moms. 

so then i answer the question:

"right now i'm primarily home with our baby"

"i've been taking some freelance work from home"

"i just started an internet interior design company, so that's been keeping me busy"

"well for the time being i'm at home, but i still have some design work on the side"

"i'm self-employed from home"

or. if i don't feel like explaining that complicated situation i just say:

"i'm not employed" or even worse

"i don't work"

that one is a joke. i don't work?? i shouldn't even entertain that as an appropriate response. but i do. because when people ask about me it's always "is dana working?" or "you're not at work right now are you?" 

no. actually, i don't drive to an office and sit at a desk all day long (thank God), but i actually do perform work. sometimes it pays, but most of the time it doesn't. 

so then i think, a more appropriate question would be "do you have a paycheck right now?" but no. no that's almost worse. that insinuates i don't contribute to my household. which would just ad insult to injury. 

so then, let's just add on top of that the culture in which i live right now. the last place i lived, it was generally understood that staying home with your kids was a sacrifice--by most people. i knew a lot of moms that stayed home that were in similar boats as us. but now, i'm in this small, old money, richest county in the state town where most moms stay home because it's what they do. they stay home, they put on yoga pants, drop their kids off at mom's day out, go to the gym, have coffee with friends, go shopping at publix, pick up their kids, and then they put on some cute little outfit and take their seersucker monogrammed romper family out to dinner in their new suv, pretending like they don't have real world problems.

i swear, this town is so beautiful. it's picture perfect. farmland meets coastland. i can take a drive down one of the country roads here and feel so at peace. like truly, this is God's country. like there's nowhere else i'd rather live. 

and then i go back "into town" and look around me and i wonder, "what am i doing here? i am a stranger--i am not like these people." 

and for that very reason, because it's human nature to judge someone's situation just by their looks and public actions, i feel a need to separate myself from them. every time i am out during the day with my kid and have to interact with a working woman, i feel like she's thinking the same things i'd be thinking:

"i guess she doesn't have a job. lucky. she's young. i wonder if she even went to college. her husband must make a lot of money. must be nice to be able to grocery shop in the middle of the day...."

then after you've made it known to someone that you don't have a paying job, you find it necessary to justify why. 

why do i stay home? 

well. it's not because i don't want to work. it's not because we don't need the money. it's not because my husband is trapped in some 1950s idealist world where he thinks a woman's place is in the home. it's not because it's what the women do in my family. it's not because i feel like it's "my calling." it's not because i'm a better mom when i'm not working. it's not because i've given up on my career. 

it's simply because we made a decision based on what we feel is best for our family. 

and i don't know why that's not enough. i wish i could change the fact that we all judge each other's financial situations and socioeconomic statuses. i am just as guilty of it as everyone else. every time i scroll through facebook and see other moms posting pictures getting their hair done, or their nails done, or lying by the pool, or out for dinner with their family, or on vacation, i think, gee, must be nice to have expendable income. and then a little voice chimes in and goes "now, dana, you don't know what their life is like. they probably work hard for that money. plus, those things don't matter in life anyway. your day will come. now, get a move on. you have a delicious home-cooked meal to prepare before nap time is over."

and to make matters worse, on days when i'm too sick to get out of bed (because i've made the decision to breastfeed my child, sacrificing my sleep and energy and body, certainly that's not enough and my boob is now practically dying before my eyes), my child is a complete angel for my husband, allowing him to do a week's worth of my work in one day. as if it's no big deal at all. swoop swoop swoop! happy baby, clean house, dinner cooked! now, wasn't that easy??

oh. my. curse word. curse word. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! what just happened here?! what kind of twilight zone am i living in?! i look like i'm living a lie. i swear to God i'm not home all day parked on the sofa watching entire seasons of netflix-available dramas.

so the truth is, i don't live my stay-at-home life with a smile on my face all the time. just like the working moms out there who wish they would have done it differently, there are days that i wish the same. days when i know that i'd probably be less annoyed with my toddler if we had 9 hours of away time 5 days a week. or days when i think about what we could do (and how many walmart trips i could avoid) with the extra money we would have if i worked. 

and then i snap back to reality. 

certainly there is some justifiable reason to why this is what we've chosen. and certainly God has his reasons for placing us in the situations we are in. rome wasn't built in a day, right? 

i guess so. 

and don't get me wrong. most days i love that i get to spend my days with a crazy-haired jabbering toddler who eats half of my food. it's a blessing. and i mean that in the truest sense of the word. not the southern bible belt sense of the word. this is time i won't get back. time i'll be grateful for when she's packing for college. 

but joyous time period can have hard, gloomy days, where you can forget why you do what you do. all because you can't justify it to someone else, it becomes hard for you to justify it to yourself. as if you need to justify it at all! what a concept. 

what a strange and difficult concept. 

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one chicken: three meals (plus broth!)

first let me start off by saying how humbled and inspired i am that my last post has helped so many people. i constructed it weeks prior to actually posting it, contemplating not posting it at all, because i thought people would just roll their eyes and brush it off. like "there goes that crunchy dana again, telling us all about how we should do this and do that..." and that's certainly not how i mean it or want it to sound. but, judging by the responses, that's not how the majority of you took it. so i'm glad :) and appreciative of the support!

on my previous post, i mentioned that using whole chickens has helped us on our mission to eat clean on a budget. here is an example of how i use a roasted whole chicken for three different meals, on three different nights, recipes included! (sorry that i have no photos of the process--i didn't anticipate needing any until now!)

note: we are a family of two adults and one toddler. if you have a larger family, a roasted chicken may only get you two meals, or if you have a really large family, perhaps one. but it is still a money-saver!

1. the roasted chicken
just your basic, run-of-the-mill roasted chicken recipe; there are many more like it and i've just adapted them to what i like best

ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (i buy antibiotic-free, free-range but you can get whatever you'd like)
• 1/2 stick softened real butter or 3-4 tbs healthy oil of your choice (margarine is not acceptable)
• 1 lemon
• approx 2 tbs herb medley of your choice (i like thyme, fresh minced garlic, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and whatever else i'm in the mood for--rosemary, basil, oregano, or sage)

directions:

1. heat oven to 400F
2. make sure to remove the bag of "innerds" if your chicken contains it
3. place chicken in a broiling pan or whatever will best hold it (there will be juices so make sure it's a couple inches deep) and pat that puppy dry
4. mix your butter/oil and herb blend in a dish with some lemon zest (just grate your lemon peel with a fine cheese grater if you don't have a special "zester") and then rub it all over the outside of your chicken; if you don't like "chicken hands" a spatula will do
5. cut your lemon in half and stuff it inside your chicken...and then apologize to your chicken, like i always do
6. bake for 1hr - 1hr 20 min until the outside of your chicken looks like it's been vacationing in the bahamas, or until the inner most meat is well-cooked and not pink

serve your chicken to your family and enjoy with a squash/zucchini stir-fry and some rice!


2. making your broth (looks complicated, but isn't!)

you'll need:

• leftover whole chicken
• a mason jar with lid
• small strainer

1. after you've eaten and are satisfied, remove the rest of your chicken from the bones, cover and refrigerate
2. place the bones/unwanted parts in a pot with the pan drippings; cover the discarded parts with water and bring to a low boil (don't cover it too much or your broth will be watery, unless you boil it forever to get all that extra water out--your choice)
3. boil for at least 30 mins (the longer you boil, the richer the flavor)
4. turn off the eye, and let the contents cool 
5. remove and discard large pieces with a slotted spoon
6. cover your pot and refrigerate overnight
7. the next day, remove your pot and you will notice a thick, opaque layer of fat at the top; you can break this apart and remove it from the broth below (which will probably have congealed); discard it...safely...so that your dogs cannot get to it ;)
8. put the pot back on the stove and warm it just enough so that the mixture is liquid again
9. strain the liquid over a mason jar to collect your broth and separate out any lingering chicken bits
10. put a lid on that baby, mark the date somewhere, and refrigerate it! typically i open my broth within a week of jarring it...so i don't know how long it lasts unopened. but once opened, it usually stays good about 2 weeks.

3. gluten-free chicken and spinach enchiladas 

*for those who asked on facebook, i followed this recipe last night except i used a package of ground turkey in place of the chicken

the cast:
(*i use organic where i can afford/find--you can use more or less, but this is just what works for me)

• 2 cups shredded chicken (or 1 pack ground turkey, antibiotic-free and free range is what i use)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced 
• 1 small can diced green chiles
• 1 pack small white corn tortillas--do not refrigerate before use
• 1 block monterrey jack cheese, shredded 
• 1 small can of organic tomato paste
• 1 package of organic baby spinach
• 1-1.5 cups of your own chicken broth (see above), or you can find organic chicken broth pretty easily
• chile powder
• cumin
• oregano
• cayenne pepper
• chipotle powder
• sea salt 
• paprika
• cracked black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• fresh cilantro for garnish

*i use spices on a "shake and taste" method, so i'm estimating a bit here...rarely do i actually measure 
**if you don't have these spices, they are all part of my regular cooking staff, a big upfront purchase but i highly recommend the investment!!

directions:

for the meat (which can be prepared in advance!):

1. drizzle some olive oil in a sauce pan on medium heat; add onions and 1 clove minced garlic and cook until onions are translucent 
2. add in your meat (*if turkey, cook thoroughly and drain if necessary)
3. add in the following spices: 1 Tbs cumin; 1 tsp chipotle powder, 1 tsp paprika, salt and pepper to taste
4. pour in about 1/4 cup of chicken broth (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)
5. add in your bag of spinach, one handful at a time--it will seem like a lot, but spinach cooks down to a fraction of it's size...plus think of all the greens you'll be eating!
6. when all the spinach is soft, add in your can of diced green chiles, stir, and set your meat mixture aside

*if you have more meat mixture than you do tortillas down below, you can save it for nachos :)

for the enchilada sauce (also can be prepared in advance--you can even double the batch, jar it, and save it for a night in the near future):

1. add 1 can of tomato paste, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 cup (or more) of chicken broth to a pot on low heat, no more than a simmer (if you like your enchiladas soupy, add more broth, but my husband likes his sticky)
2. stir in the following spices: 1 tsp oregano; 1 tsp chipotle powder; 1 tsp chile powder; 1 tsp cayenne pepper (or less, even none, if you want a mild flavor); salt and pepper to taste
3. simmer for 10-15 minutes and set aside

the grand production:

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. set out a 9x12 casserole dish and coat the bottom lightly with enchilada sauce
3. heat a small non-stick skillet on low-medium heat and coat very, very lightly with olive oil; allow oil to heat but not burn (olive oil burns quickly, so keep an eye on it; adjust your temp if it starts smoking)
4. place your tortillas on the skillet, about 1-2 minutes on each side; they should become firm but not brittle; you may need to re-oil the pan after a few
5. place about 2 spoonfuls of meat mixture in each tortilla, sprinkle with monterrey jack cheese, roll that puppy up, and line them like soldiers in your pan (i was able to fit 12 in mine, but it depends on how fat you make them)
6. spoon the remaining sauce onto your enchilada soldiers, coating each one thoroughly
7. top with more monterrey jack cheese, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes

serve with sour cream (if you like) and a garnish of cilantro. enjoy!!


4. avocado curry chicken salad

the cast:

• 1.5 - 2 cups shredded chicken (adjust accordingly based on what you have left from your chicken)
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 1/4 cup mayo (i do not claim any recipes made that sub miracle whip)
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt--full fat; none of this 0% bologna (but beware, in fat-free america it's hard to find...you can use 2% if you must)
• 1 green apple, cored and diced
• 1 celery stalk, minced
• 1 green onion stalk, thinly sliced 
• 2 tsp curry powder (if you don't like curry, you can certainly omit this)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs flax seed
• 3 Tbs sliced almonds (or nut of your choice)
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

directions:
mix all ingredients well and serve as desired: on a sandwich, as a melt with cheddar jack or gouda (we do this a lot and then make a lettuce wrap). it's also very useful when you are traveling--a very nutritious meal to keep you away from a drive-thru when you get the munchies--just put it in a cooler with some forks! we normally get anywhere from 2-4 servings out of a batch

here's where i served it atop a fried green tomato with a slice of melted gouda (i was feeling extra rebellious this day, and it was worth every bite):

so. there you have it. now you know how you can get a lot of food for 2 1/2 people from one $8 chicken! and if the ingredients for the other recipes sound daunting, i totally understand. but, over time, as we've traveled down this healthier path, i find that most of these ingredients are regulars in my household so it's usually something easy for me to throw together. for the enchiladas, all i had to buy was the tortillas and the cheese. i always have ingredients for chicken salad. and for those of you who are dairy-free clean-eaters, you could omit the cheese in the recipes and i'm sure it would be just as good. ok that's a total lie. cheese makes everything better (even though we try to use it sparingly). it would be good. not as good.

happy eating everyone! let me know if you make any of these and how it turns out :)

clean eating and meal planning on a budget

"do the best that you can until you know better. and when you know better, do better. "

this quote from maya angelou hit me pretty hard when i first read it (yes, on pinterest). like all humans, i tend to fall short of putting good knowledge into practice, for whatever excuse. but it's so much easier to keep doing good when you see the fruits of your labor showing. one thing that has shown very quick results for us is a change in our nutritional lifestyle.

a lot of you have heard the term "clean eating" and maybe are fuzzy on exactly what is "clean". basically, it all boils down to eating foods that are in the closest form of how they occur in nature. if it's ingredients don't occur in nature, don't eat it. if it can't break down and decay sitting on your counter within a few days, don't put it in your body. we live by these standards probably 95% of the time.

for us, we've taken it a step further to include eliminating gluten. i did some research on the matter last fall when i had some crazy hormones being mean to me. i tried it, but it didn't stick. especially when people think it's just a diet and you can cheat when you're not at home. then when my husband's migraines started increasing to a weekly occurrence, something had to change. for a while i had been telling him maybe he was gluten intolerant (he showed other signs as well). within a week of going gluten-free (for real, hardcore) his headaches stopped. since sometime in february he has been migraine free.

i often find that people treat nutrition exactly the way i did for a long time. they know how to eat properly, but they don't. either because it's not an instant gratification, it requires too much time/money, or they just plain don't know where to start. i come from a background of italians and deep south farmers. to say i love food is an understatement. cheesy carbs are my favorite thing on the planet. fried green tomatoes, sweet tea, pies--all that good stuff. i could literally eat pasta every day. so i get it. i really do.

but i can also say with 100% truth that i have not felt deprived since we started this lifestyle change. and the longer you go, the more enjoyable it becomes. it's like second nature. like all things there are sacrifices, but  nothing good came from something easy.

to complicate things more, we also have a very tight budget. i'm just gonna get real with you. our total food budget each month is $300 for 2 1/2 people (the 1/2 being a toddler, who i feel like sometimes should be counted as a third person for how much she eats). total. that includes eating out. so, we basically don't. i can count on my hand the number of times we've eaten out since we started this thing. we don't always stick to our budget but we don't go over by a lot either.

so you can do it, too. and i've had a lot of questions lately on what we do. so maybe i can help! here's how we've done it:

1. do your research; find what works for your family. i'm a stickler for research. i check my sources and i check multiple ones. the internet is great, but don't believe someone just because they have a blog (ahem, case in point: i am not a registered dietician or nutrition expert). find published articles, studies, clinical research, and trained professionals with experience. if you think that the way we live is weird or you don't believe that drinking whole milk is better than skim or 2% (just throwing out one example), then look it up. and don't just make that a broad action. use research for all kinds of things. if you want to know what BHT is and why it's in your cereal, look it up. there are also some great documentaries for free on netflix if you hate reading. my favorite one so far is "hungry for change." it completely reshaped how i think about food and my body--i stopped hating my body and started trying to understand it.

2. plan and budget. i was cleaning up after dinner one night this week and told my husband "i love the way our refrigerator looks." an odd statement, sure. but you know why? because it doesn't look like a toy chest. it's full of meat, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, a lot of produce, a lot of leftovers, and condiments (mostly marinades, hot sauces--thanks to my husband--and salad dressings). if i sound proud it's because i am. i just hope i don't sound pretentious :) but it's because it's taken a lot of work and planning to get to this point. it didn't come easy. this is how we got there:

a) i keep a meal idea list on the side of our fridge with ideas for cheap, healthy, and easy dinners that can make enough for leftovers (i almost always make enough for leftovers, even if just enough for lunch the next day). we sat down one sunday afternoon and just started naming things. and you can make notes on your list as you go along in a trial and error fashion, like "lots of prep work" or "makes lots of leftovers"
b) my grocery list is kept in my phone and contains ingredients only for the things we need to make meals for the week--i do not stray from the list (except sometimes ice cream just jumps into my cart somehow)
c) we took "eating out" almost entirely off the table. even sunday after church, when it seems to be the hardest. something about church makes me ravenous. and everyone eats out after church.
d) we have a phone app called mint and i highly recommend it--it keeps track of how much money you spend in different categories; it's really helped keep us on track
e) we always have ingredients around for nachos :) they're not super healthy but none of the ingredients are highly processed either--a good saver for bad days or botched meals. and CHEAP!

3. shop at different grocery stores/markets. i know, i know--don't freak out on me. some of you are like "i barely make it to once store a week, much less two or more." but hear me out: how many times have you had to run to the store, mid-week because you didn't prepare for the week? or how many times did you spend way too much on a restaurant dinner because you had nothing planned at home? unplanned grocery trips usually take more time from you in the long run. it doesn't take a lot of research to know that you can get some things cheaper/better at different stores. trust me, it's not easy for me either. i have a toddler. doing anything with her is impossible these days. so i have to wait until 9pm to do my shopping. and for the things that aren't open that late, i just have to suck it up and take her and have everyone stare at me while she has a melt-down because i won't let her run up and down the aisles or cause a flash-flood of apples in the farmer's market. i have a routine of about 3-4 different stores/markets: a big-name retailer for big-name organics/gluten-free and non-groceries; a local farmer's market for produce and eggs; a local grocery for meats, dairy, and various other items; a specialty health food store for hard-to-find items or non-local produce. when you have a list, and you stick to the list, it is much more efficient. my longest trip takes me less than an hour, and i don't do it all in one week. it's usually spread out over two weeks. so i go to the store twice a week on average. not so bad, huh?

4. buy in wholes. not to be confused with bulk (unless you have a deep freeze or you practice canning). the switch to whole chickens has completely saved us. i usually get 2-4 days worth of meals from one chicken, depending on what i make. if i make chicken salad and use a lot of healthy filler like apples, grapes, celery, avocado, flax or chia seeds, i get a lot more bang for my buck. or i use it in a healthy casserole, that, for the love of pete, does not contain any cream cheese or canned soup. i swear if i see one more pinterest recipe.....i digress. whole chickens also produce your own chicken broth. just in broth alone you can save $6 per chicken, assuming everyone goes through chicken broth like i do. the rule of wholes also applies to produce like carrots, lettuce, pineapple, etc. you get the picture. a flimsy bag of lettuce that will get you 2 salads costs MORE than two heads of lettuce that will feed you for a week. an individual sauce or spice packet that will only get you through one meal (and probably contains msg) can be much less expensive if you make your own spice blends. if you're less creative with spices, just read the back of a spice packet or marinade and buy the main ingredients. large upfront investment that will go a long way. you get the point.

5. read labels and choose your battles. this is self-explanatory. sometimes the organic or less-processed versions of your every day foods are not all that more expensive. if you can spare a dollar or two to be able to pronounce the ingredients, then i'd say it's worth it.

6. you don't always have to buy "organic." a lot of times organic is just an approval stamp. there are some items that use mostly organic principles but don't have the label. unfortunately, because we have gotten so far away from knowing where our food comes from, we have to use our best judgement. for those of you who can afford to buy local, this is usually your best bet. there is a great place in our town that carries produce, meat, and dairy from local farms, and notifies you of new arrivals via email. a lot of these farms let you visit, and if not, the buyer has a personal relationship with the farmers and can tell you what the conditions are like. if you don't have the money or resource for a place like that, here's a few things to look for: "no antibiotics", "no preservatives", "no artificial flavors/dyes", "free-range", "no pesticides", "no hormones", "fed a diet of [insert appropriate diet here]". i also look where the product comes from geographically, if it comes down to that. if i don't have the option of an organic potato, i usually buy the one that came from the city or state closest to me, knowing that the travel time was less and therefore the produce is probably fresher. but like i said, we can only use our best judgement. ALSO, "all natural" doesn't mean anything. ALL of our food should be all natural. it's mind-blowingly ridiculous that we have to use labels like that to attract buyers.

7. eat cheap proteins: beans, quinoa, chia seeds, dairy, legumes, eggs. get creative. did you know that eating rice and beans together makes up a complete protein? yep. that's why it's such a worldwide staple. it provides great nutrition and it's very inexpensive--especially if you buy dry beans. just remember to plan your meals so you have time to soak them!

8. be realistic about time. take note of how long it takes you to prepare a meal; jot it on your meal list. can you prepare anything in advance? even the night before? can something pan-fried/boiled be roasted or baked in the oven instead, so you can just set a timer and walk away? i make my husband and myself (and even our daughter drinks some) a green smoothie every morning. it's a little more time consuming (although i've gotten a good system down and it takes me about 5-10 minutes from prep to clean-up, so really not that bad), but it power-packs a ton of nutrients into one shake that we may not otherwise get during the day. it's much easier than finding a creative way to make leafy greens delicious at each meal. trust me. there is not a leafy green out there that i'm just dying to eat. making it taste like fruit is my favorite way to eat them.

9. take it one step at a time; enjoy your food! trust me, there is a lot to get bogged down with. but part of what has made this so easy for me is the fact that i love food and cooking so much. and i have a husband that is willing to try anything i set before him. anything. i definitely have a lot of advantages that makes this work. but i've also overcome a lot of hurdles to get here. the good news is, it's totally doable! you may have advantages that i don't. AND don't beat yourself up for failures: bad recipes, teething toddlers, forgetting to go to the store, or burning 5 batches of sweet potato chips in a row....

10. drink water. it's cheap and it's the best for you.

and you'll reap the benefits! not only are we healthier and feeling better, we're looking better, too. ;) i have put on jeans that i haven't worn since early college. i wear shorts in public. my husbands pants are literally falling off. most of this is due to eliminating gluten, but i have a feeling a portion of it has been because we've been spending less time in a restaurant booth and more time at our own table, which i can honestly say i've enjoyed. and unlike all the other times i've "dieted," this is totally different. it's not a diet. it's a lifestyle change. my goal is not weight-loss. never was. it's health. brain health, energy-levels, skin health, mental health, hormone balance, the health of my children (which is really the main reason i started all this), and disease prevention. the benefits far outweigh the fact that i can't have a krispy kreme donut (which is not to say i haven't enjoyed healthier modifications of "sinful" treats).

{and side note: both my sister and her husband have also been following this lifestyle, and if you know them and know how they are, then you would believe me even more! budget sticklers, taco bell-lovers, and both working full-time with a baby and real city commutes. and they make it work!}

if you made it to the end, congratulations! i hope you've learned something new. and please know, that by no means am i a pro. i just thought by sharing what we've learned, it might help someone else on a similar journey, especially since i get questions often on "how i do it." i may even share some recipes ;)

happy eating, friends!!

a month with no shampoo

right about now, you're thinking "she's finally done it. she's gone off the deep end."

be that as it may, there's actually a growing movement out there called the "no 'poo" movement (no shampoo). it started, like most things, when someone out there with a brain read the back of a shampoo bottle, researched the ingredients, and then started telling everyone they knew, like "you guys. do you know what's in a bottle of shampoo? and do you know what it can do to our bodies? and we put it on our head every day!" and then those people started going home and reading their shampoo bottles and decided, something has to be done.

and there's a second wave that joined the no 'poo movement that was generated by people that just wanted to wash their hair less often. i mean really, it's quite tiresome. and most hair experts agree that every day washing isn't optimal for hair health.

that's kind of where i started out. my sister washes her hair probably 2-3 times a week. me? every day. by day two, i look nasty. my hair is very fine and my skin is oily. so when i was pregnant and had, like seriously, the best hair ever, i started going every other day. my hair had so much volume i got away with it. and it was long so i could braid it or put it in a bun and it looked totally fine (and on day 2 your hair is much more manageable with a little more oil to help it stay in place). i kept this going post-partum (and then some, thanks to shifting priorities) until those wonderful post-partum hormones kick in around 3 months and you break out like a teenager, sweat constantly, and your hair starts falling out. it really is a wonderful time. so enjoyable. then i cut all my hair off and started washing every day again. i experimented with "hair training" and dry shampoo, but it really only bought me an extra half a day.

then i saw the author of this blog on tv, who hadn't washed her hair in 3 years. like literally, hadn't done anything to it. rinsed it with water. how can this be possible??? do you ever watch movies that are set in older times (revolutionary war or victorian era) and think "well one thing that's totally inaccurate about this is it doesn't portray the greasy hair everyone must have had from only showering once a month." no? just me. well anyway, that thought is totally wrong.

turns out our hair isn't meant to be washed that much. greasy hair is just an overreaction of oil glands in our scalp to the harshness of shampoo ingredients.

but i thought (like most), i can't do that. the transition period would be terrible for me. i would be SO greasy. and i look terrible in hats.

but after some research i did start using baking soda as a cleanser on my hair during my normal shampoo routine. even with the more "natural" shampoos, i couldn't get rid of my persistent "scalp funk." you know what i mean? when you scratch your head and you are left with a sticky white goop under your nails? and the baking soda helped a lot with that.

then i saw the above blogger again on another tv network and so i read her blog. and she mentioned a baking soda/apple cider vinegar routine that she tried before she went water-only. i thought, hey, i know people who have done that! i've heard of that! so maybe i can try it!

and so i did. and i told very few people until now. and yesterday when i got my hair cut was the first time i had shampoo on my hair in 30 something days. i've only been using baking soda and apple cider vinegar (acv).

here's some things that i've observed. keep reading. some of them might surprise you:

1. my oily hair does better with a higher concentration of baking soda. at first i was only using a couple of teaspoons per cup of water in a solution. but my hair kind of had a dull clumpiness to it, so i upped it to a tablespoon. and i only use the acv once a week. if i use it every day it gets too greasy. you can experiment to find a good balance. some people find they need to use both every day with thicker, less oily hair.

2. my hair has become straighter. naturally i've considered my hair curly/wavy for the majority of my life. i guess with all the shampoo residue gone, i'm discovering my real natural hair? or it could be that it just reacts differently with different ingredients. it's still wavy, but less so. it looks like "beach hair" when i wash-n-go.

3. my hair has more dimension, and looks a little more strawberry. i dyed my hair blonde, and then red for a lonnnngggg time (for 10 years i never saw my natural hair color). when i went natural during pregnancy, i was disappointed with my natural mouse brown. but now, i'm getting a little excitement back. some blondes in the front and hints of strawberry. and that's not just because of sunnier weather. have you seen my skin? this pale girl is not "laying out" in her "spare time" (i joke because our new neighborhood's "pool committee president"--haha--stopped by our house to offer me a pool pass in case i want to "lay out in my spare time"). i like my shaded porch just fine.

4. volume! not something this fine haired girl experiences too much! but i've also cut it short so that helps take some weight off of it.

5. you could spend a lot of time at night doing wild hair styles to laugh about and show your husband after your toddler is asleep. my hair is much more manageable (is this kind of a broad term? i feel like it is), and what i mean by that is, it does more of what i tell it to do. fine hair usually just slips around on itself and falls out of whatever hair style you put it in. but now, i'm the boss.

6. my hair does not stink! baking soda and acv are both anti-stink compounds. they absorb and expel odors. now, my hair doesn't smell like a tropical passionfruit coconut flower when i breeze by you, but it doesn't smell like a 5 year old boy who has been outside all day. so just because i don't use shampoo on my hair, don't hold your nose around me like i'm going to offend you. because i ain't! mmkay?

7. i'm slowly going longer between washes. i started out using my routine every day. and now i can comfortably go every other day, and sometimes stretch it another half day after that. and i still rinse it in the shower so i can re-style it if i have bedhead.

8. no one has noticed. ha! in fact, i've had compliments on my hair. and when i tell (very few) people my secret they automatically put their hands in it and go "oh my gosh! but it feels so good and soft!" um, yeah it does!

these are two photos of me taken in the last month (thank goodness some exist, because i normally hate having my photo taken). i had not washed my hair on either of these days. you can tell it's not greasy or dull. it looks pretty good!

is it so weird that not putting 25 different chemicals on your hair can be better than just two very simple things?

it shouldn't be!

so now you know. crunchier by the day, folks :)

{i realize this post would have been a whole lot better with photos along the way, but i didn't intend for i to be a documented experiment to blog about. i just started doing it, and when i got my hair washed, i thought "when's the last time i had shampoo on my hair?" and i was amazed. but since i had it washed yesterday and i'm starting all over, maybe i'll do it this round and post them for you to see. stay tuned!}

my crunchy mom evolution

well. i've come to terms with it.

i'm becoming a crunchy mom. i can't avoid the label any longer. it's true.

this transformation didn't happen overnight, obviously. but it's been rather snowball-like. the more crunchy things i do, the more i want to do. this has been fueled by several factors, not because i'm a hippie. and they are:

1. we need to save money. we just moved and bought a house to accommodate my husband's job and career. and in the long run, where we are now is better. but. we could have been more financially prepared, and probably a little smarter (hey, you live and you learn). if we were perfectly honest, we've been living above our means. not a lot--but enough that we're a little out of breath. we didn't buy a new car we couldn't afford, or a house we couldn't afford, or rack up credit cards by eating out every meal... but we also didn't expect my income to take such a hit when we moved. and by take a hit, i mean totally flatline. it quickly became obvious we had to make some changes. and can i tell you a secret??

it's kind of exciting. it's a challenge to meet. every time i think of some new way to save money, i wanna give myself a high five.

-also-

it's been good for our marriage. i'm not kidding. some couples argue over money, but we've come together on it. we're a partnership. a frugal team. he makes the money. and i research and incorporate ways to save it.

which leads me to...

2. we have a future to plan for. this isn't the end of the road for us. we're barely 30. our dreams don't die here. we want better things for our lives. and we'll keep reaching for them. the hubs and i have a legit, in-the-works design for a passive house. it's not a dream, it's not a "maybe some day"--it's going to happen. we want to be the first in alabama, but even if we aren't (because more and more are being built across the country all the time), we'll still have a passive home. and that is freaking cool.

but we're not just planning for our architectural future, we also have a growing family. not making any announcements here (no i'm not pregnant), but we want more children. and if there is one thing i want to provide for them, it's a college education. student loans are the devil. they make our financial life hell.

and with a growing family comes growing responsibility--the responsibility to pass along real world smarts. they don't teach budgeting in school. we want to be smart with money so that we can show our kids how to be smart with money. and we don't want to have to rely on them once they start earning their own money.

3. we value our health, physically and mentally.  as more women started taking up full-time careers, it became harder for them to fulfill roles as moms. so the food and cleaning (and kid products) industry took advantage of that--producing things that were designed to be easy, convenient, and most importantly, make the companies that produced them extremely rich. (but in all fairness--can you blame them? we all want to come up with ideas that make us money while making life easier.) how did they do that? chemicals, preservatives, petroleum-based products, artificial hormones, artificial sweeteners and colors and flavors. oh, and also drugs. it seems like almost weekly, some scientific research team comes out with a study that links a chemical to a health problem. and while sometimes they are only linked and not proven, it still raises the question: what are all those chemicals doing to us??

i don't want to be the science experiment that finds out. no one out there--no matter how crazy you think my crunchiness may sound--can look me in the face and tell me with certainty that those chemicals are "probably ok" or "completely harmless." because we don't know.

now there's a fine line between living in fear of chemicals and doing what you can to live healthier. we can't avoid chemicals. but we can educate ourselves and make better choices.

jumping around a little, here's where i tell you that living a crunchy lifestyle isn't easy. i'm in the process of switching to cloth diapers for my toddler. and while most tell you that it's easy, it's certainly not easier. it takes more time. just like it takes more time to shop at 3 different grocery stores every week to get the food that is both healthiest and the least expensive. and it takes time to plan a healthy (gluten-free) meal every night so that we don't spend money eating out. if i still worked a full-time job, i don't know that i could pull all of this off while maintaining my sanity.

last week i had a slight panic attack because we were nearing the end of the month and quickly running out of money. "this is the lowest of lows!" i thought. and immediately i hopped online, bound and determined to find a job. i had to help bring in some extra income. but then, after i calmed down, i started thinking about all the reasons why me being at home is beneficial to my family. like spending time with my daughter, cooking mind-blowingly good meals (seriously, i've discovered my inner chef since being at home), not bringing work stress home, practicing how to live on one income, and having time to research and plan new crunchy ways to live :) and so we make sacrifices. it's not easy, but it's worth it.

and lastly

4. if it ain't broke, don't fix it. call me old-fashioned, but a lot of the old ways of doing things (like my grandparents' generation) just seem better. growing your own food/knowing where your food comes from, cooking your own meals, cooking with real butter (seriously), nursing babies, spending time with your family, making your own things in stead of buying them--you know what i mean--the simple life. somehow we got away from all that and i think we're actually worse off as a culture. now, don't get me wrong. i'm a product of modern culture. there are some modern conveniences i'd have a hard time giving up. and i'm certainly not suggesting we all go live on a compound somewhere or move out into the forest. technology can be good. if it weren't for technology i probably wouldn't be learning all the things i'm learning to help us live smarter and healthier. but some things were just better before technology got involved.

so there you have it.

if you're interested in learning about the money-saving "greener" methods we are starting to incorporate, please let me know! there are lots of good blogs out there that discuss these things, but i'd be happy to share as well.