Okay, I went for convenience this time. Pamela's may cost quite a bit, but just to be able to open a mix, add a few ingredients like milk (non-dairy of course!), egg (replacer of course!) and butter (coconut oil of course!) and pop some yummy muffins, scones, banana bread or waffles in the oven...it is so worth the price.
Regular price at my local Kroger is $15.99 for the 4 pound bag. But the first time I bought it was because it was on clearance for $7.49! Deal of the week!
Now, I've ordered from Amazon & get 3 bags for a little under $40. That's still cheaper than the cheapest store price and it qualifies for Super-Saver no shipping fees with Amazon.
Is it cheaper to buy all the different gluten-free flours and stir up everything for myself? Of course! But when I'm in a hurry, we have no bread in the house and the kids (or I!) want something yummy for breakfast, you can't beat Pamela's!
**Disclaimer- Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix does include buttermilk powder so it is not Vegan. I'm still having difficulty eliminating all dairy and egg. The only way I can do this affordably, is to make everything from scratch. That's difficult when you're working. So I keep plugging away!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Bottom Line
The numbers are in!
While reviewing our grocery & dining out expenses for the month of December, I discovered something interesting, that actually debunks the strongly held opinion of most people I know. It actually costs less to eat healthy. This was the first full month of my vegan lifestyle, plus I incorporated many more organic, natural, live, raw, thus healthy, foods into our family's lifestyle.
Granted, we're not total organic and we do still eat some things that aren't good for us, but improvement is my goal each month...not perfection. And if you can quantify such a thing, I think a safe estimate would be a 50-60% improvement in how everyone in our family is eating.
When discussing this financial revelation with my husband, he admitted that he's getting less hungry while he's at work. And I know my kids are asking for food less often. But yes, when they ask, they tend to complain that there's nothing here to eat. While that's not true, they think if they can't grab something out of a box or from the fridge already made then we "don't have anything."
Now for the dollar figures. Even with travelling around Christmas, hosting two families during the month, preparation for our family Christmas & taking food for a small group dinner & New Year's Eve party, plus having to eat out here & there because of the extra busyness, we were down over $200 in groceries (Which includes personal products. I don't split them in the budget) and down about $150 in dining out (I know...ridiculously high amount to be down...but dining out has always been our weakness!)
Plus, I actually lost weight during the month of December. Eight pounds to be exact! I'm pretty sure that has never happened to me before. Usually, I'm just content to not gain weight from late November to January.
So who says you can't eat healthy, save money and survive the holidays without gaining weight?? Who knows?? But the more I learn about food and big business, it was probably someone that wanted me to buy his highly-processed, toxic food!
While reviewing our grocery & dining out expenses for the month of December, I discovered something interesting, that actually debunks the strongly held opinion of most people I know. It actually costs less to eat healthy. This was the first full month of my vegan lifestyle, plus I incorporated many more organic, natural, live, raw, thus healthy, foods into our family's lifestyle.
Granted, we're not total organic and we do still eat some things that aren't good for us, but improvement is my goal each month...not perfection. And if you can quantify such a thing, I think a safe estimate would be a 50-60% improvement in how everyone in our family is eating.
When discussing this financial revelation with my husband, he admitted that he's getting less hungry while he's at work. And I know my kids are asking for food less often. But yes, when they ask, they tend to complain that there's nothing here to eat. While that's not true, they think if they can't grab something out of a box or from the fridge already made then we "don't have anything."
Now for the dollar figures. Even with travelling around Christmas, hosting two families during the month, preparation for our family Christmas & taking food for a small group dinner & New Year's Eve party, plus having to eat out here & there because of the extra busyness, we were down over $200 in groceries (Which includes personal products. I don't split them in the budget) and down about $150 in dining out (I know...ridiculously high amount to be down...but dining out has always been our weakness!)
Plus, I actually lost weight during the month of December. Eight pounds to be exact! I'm pretty sure that has never happened to me before. Usually, I'm just content to not gain weight from late November to January.
So who says you can't eat healthy, save money and survive the holidays without gaining weight?? Who knows?? But the more I learn about food and big business, it was probably someone that wanted me to buy his highly-processed, toxic food!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Some Good Eats
You can read about my fasting failure on my other blog. Don't want to rehash it here. But I've recently had a few good, Vegan things that I wanted to share.
I purchased the Skinny Bitch Cookbook and last night tried the Curried Chickpea Fritters and Curried Roasted Cauliflower. Both where delicious! Can't wait to try a few more. The fritters did call for breadcrumbs and what I had on hand where Panko, but gluten-free crumbs could be substituted with no problem.
Also, I'd purchased Bragg's Liquid Aminos a few weeks ago and have hesitated to use it. You can look up the info on this item at their website (register & get FREE samples too!) but essentially, it's a soy sauce substitute (still made from soy, but guaranteed Non-GMO!) that is chock full of aminos every Vegetarian/Vegan needs. But the last 2 times I've used regular soy sauce, I've thought it tasted nasty...I mean nasty! Probably owing in part to it being in my fridge too long because our whole family prefers teriyaki sauce over soy.
Yet, last night I cooked up some veggie stir fry for the kids because I knew the fritters wouldn't go over well and guess what? It was delicious. I did cook in a little extra garlic with the veggies and added sesame seeds at the end to add some flavor, but the Braggs' Aminos was smooth, blended with the other flavors much better than regular soy sauce and was NOT obscenely salty! All to say, I highly recommend Braggs. (I like their nutritional yeast too.) And maybe next time I won't be such a pansy about trying something new.
I purchased the Skinny Bitch Cookbook and last night tried the Curried Chickpea Fritters and Curried Roasted Cauliflower. Both where delicious! Can't wait to try a few more. The fritters did call for breadcrumbs and what I had on hand where Panko, but gluten-free crumbs could be substituted with no problem.
Also, I'd purchased Bragg's Liquid Aminos a few weeks ago and have hesitated to use it. You can look up the info on this item at their website (register & get FREE samples too!) but essentially, it's a soy sauce substitute (still made from soy, but guaranteed Non-GMO!) that is chock full of aminos every Vegetarian/Vegan needs. But the last 2 times I've used regular soy sauce, I've thought it tasted nasty...I mean nasty! Probably owing in part to it being in my fridge too long because our whole family prefers teriyaki sauce over soy.
Yet, last night I cooked up some veggie stir fry for the kids because I knew the fritters wouldn't go over well and guess what? It was delicious. I did cook in a little extra garlic with the veggies and added sesame seeds at the end to add some flavor, but the Braggs' Aminos was smooth, blended with the other flavors much better than regular soy sauce and was NOT obscenely salty! All to say, I highly recommend Braggs. (I like their nutritional yeast too.) And maybe next time I won't be such a pansy about trying something new.
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