7th Abs. Org. Delivery

Life has been a little hectic lately (parents' move, end-of-school-year chaos), so forgive me for not posting about my last produce delivery.  I'm excited about today's, and I've got some numbers for you - yeah for numbers!
Since my last delivery, I turned another year older (remember the deep freeze?), and my parents were kind enough to gift me this Salter Digital Kitchen Scale.  My Mom never used a kitchen scale while I was growing up, but in the last several months I've felt like it would be handy to have.  A friend said she loved her Salter, so I asked specifically for that one.  I've used it several times (to weigh potatoes in this Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie recipe, for example) and am very happy so far.  Necessary?  Of course not.  Fun?  Absolutely!
Today I put it to good use and weighed my Absolute Organics produce.  Here are the results:

• 1 large and 2 small broccoli crowns (1 lb 9 oz)
• 1 lb 8 ozs bananas (4 ct)
• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 lb strawberries
• 7.75 oz white mushrooms
• 2.75 lbs apples
• 1 avocado
• 2 green bell peppers

weighing in action!

Then, I did my little trick and hit up Harris Teeter Express Lane to check some prices.  Here's what I found:

• Broccoli - $3.29/ea = $6.58
• Bananas - 99¢/lb = $1.50
• Lettuce - $2.99/head = $2.99
• Strawberries - $3.99/lb = $3.99
• *White Mushrooms - $3.49/lb = $1.69
• Apples - $2.49/lb = $6.85
• Avocado - $1.99/ea = $1.99
• Green Peppers - $2.49/ea = $4.98

This means that if I went to Harris Teeter and purchased the SAME amount of stuff, I'd have paid $30.57!  And the mushrooms wouldn't even have been organic (it appears they don't sell fresh organic ones).  WOW!! I was thrilled.  This stuff was brought to my door for only $30.  That means I saved 57¢, the gas to get to the store, and the excuse to not buy produce because it's too expensive.  In case I had any doubts, I'm with AO for good.  Thanks, Vonda and Steve!

Soli Deo Gloria

Spoils of CVS

Saturday, after a quick trip to Winston-Salem for a wedding shower for one of my dear college friends, I swung by CVS in hopes of a few good "scores."  I had been out of the CVS "loop" for a while (no great deals, good stockpile, and higher food spending due to healthier eating are the primary causes), but saw several potential deals and thought I'd try to snag them.  Forgetting that the CVS nearest my house restocks on Friday night/Saturday morning (wow, it has been a long time), I was doubtful that I'd get much... but I ended up with EVERYTHING on my steals-list.

• 2 Right Guard mens' deodorant > $2.49 ea = $5 - $3/2 QP = $2... $2 ea ECB = $2 moneymaker
• Stayfree > $3.79 - $2 QP = $1.79... $2 ECB = 21¢ moneymaker
• U by Kotex > $5 - $1 QP = $4... $4 ECB = free
• Carefree > $1 ea - 3 x $1 QP = free
• Crest ProHealth toothpaste & Rinse (each) > $2.75 - 75¢ QP = $2... $4 ECB = $2 moneymaker ea
• Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Detergent Sheets, 20ct > B1G1 @ $8.99 - 2 x $2 QP = $2.50 ea
• Carmel candy > 33¢
• reuseable bag (mine) to be able to scan Green Bag Tag > $1 ECB = moneymaker

I had no ECBs going in, but I shelled out less than $5.50 cash (which includes all the taxes, of course - I added the carmel candy in order to be able to use another ECB and not spend more OOP) and still have $6 in ECBs left to use next time I go in.  Now THAT'S what I call a great trip to the store :)

Soli Deo Gloria

Ode to the GV house

It's only fitting that it's a rainy evening... that's pretty much how my heart feels right now after taking my last walk through what has been my family's home for the last 7 years. With the official "closing" and key hand-over tomorrow at 9am, obviously it's completely empty now, but the rooms are somehow still terribly full of memories.

• The entryway foyer and circular staircase where we took countless family pictures and my sister's prom pics.
• The dining room that was initially painted a hideous Pepto pink until Mom corrected the painters and they made it a much nicer shade of red.  Tons of buffets were served in there, as were huge family/holiday meals.  And more recently, our first non-wedding picture as a family of 7.
• The "powder room" with the sink cabinet that I picked out at Transit Damaged Freight... my one claim-to-fame in the whole building process.
• The hot tub where my boyfriend asked my dad for permission to marry me.
• The "crawl space" that we had to wake up at the dreadfully early hour of 8:30am one holiday (Memorial Day?) morning to paint, and where a few years later we did P90X together as a family.
• The basement guest bedroom that hosted several of my former youth leaders as they were in stages of transition, as well as my fiance when he first moved to the USA.
• The funky angled section of the ceiling in the living room where Mom's friend painted "Soli Deo Gloria" in a beautiful calligraphy - only to later admit that she was dreadfully afraid of heights.
• The amazing stone fireplace that served as family-Christmas-picture setting for us and at least one other family over the years.
• The custom-made "picture frame" out of moulding in the entryway where we deliberated for the whole building process and at least a year after we moved in as to which Bible verse we should have put there (we found another friend/artist to paint it though, since it was even higher up!) and ended up with a sword and shield from Toledo, Spain.
• The closet at the top of the back stairwell that was always full of extra school supplies, random fabric bolts for the curtains mom always wanted to make (and eventually did, mostly) and the pictures and albums that were always in a state of disarray.
• The Media Room that inevitably ended up 10 degrees warmer than you wanted it by the time the movie was over.
• The closets in my sister's and my rooms that were supposed to be square, but then had to be L-shaped because the architect had originally forgotten to include room for the ductwork.
• My room - purple, because I love it - where I was sitting when my cute friend from Spain finally found a program that would work for us to audio-chat (Skype - before the video years), and the intercom system that I used to refuse to come down to dinner immediately that night because I was actually TALKing to him.  
• The built-in bookshelves that still didn't actually hold my entire collection.  
• The huge picture window that looked out onto the street (with no panes or screens, so the view was always crystal-clear), and the side window that overlooked the neighbor's lake.

Clearly there's no sense bemoaning the end of an era - it certainly wasn't perfect, after all - but it is a reminder that we only walk through life once.  Goal: to make sure it was a life worth living, full of love and honoring to the Lord.  My prayer is that the house can continue to be used to minister to others in the future, in the same way it did in the past.

Now, I must look forward to the Lord's "plans to prosper [me] and not to harm [me], plans to give [me] a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11b).   If only those plans included calling in sick to work tomorrow... ;)

Soli Deo Gloria.

Happy Birthday to me!

I've had a hankering for a chest freezer for quite some time now... like 2 years.  I kept suggesting it to Isaac, and his constant response was "what do 2 people need an extra freezer for?"  And, on one hand, he was right.  It definitely wasn't a need, but it most certainly was a want.  I love the idea of "once a month cooking" and pulling stuff out of the freezer 24 hours before eating it with little to no work involved after coming home from a long day at school.  I love the idea of buying items in bulk at Costco (or just when there's a good sale) and having them easily on hand when needed without having to pay full price.  And lately, I love the idea of buying a whole, grass-fed cow (with some friends, of course!).  Since Denise did such a good job of explaining why, I won't bother repeating it.  EatWild goes into a bit more detail and provides information on local farmers, too.  Anyway, point being that I can only do so much OAMC and bulk buying with my one, small freezer... and buying a portion of a cow was completely out of the question!
However, after something akin to pestering for about a year, I finally got into a grocery-shopping rhythm and decided that we could technically survive without one, so I let it go verbally and tucked it away as a future dream.  Thus, you can imagine my awe when he brought me to the Sears Outlet store on South Boulevard while we were out running errands one Saturday, and told me he wanted to get me a freezer for my birthday (which was, at the time, 2 months away).  They didn't have much selection, and I had a basic idea of sizing and pricing, so we left there empty-handed, but determined to keep our eyes and ears open.  We even contact a buddy of ours who works for Electrolux... he ALMOST got us a really good deal on a test dummy or something, but some other employee claimed it first.
Fast-forward to a week ago when Isaac said he wanted to extend our office bookshelves.  I immediately jumped on Ebay to grab some 10% off coupons at Lowes to save moolah on the large-ish purchase.  They arrived on Thursday, and you can bet that Friday evening he was antsy to go get the stair treads and flower pots needed to complete the project.  Off to Lowe's we went.  I figured we could check out the freezers while there, since we ended up with 5 coupons (for $3.25), and somehow we ended up in the clearance aisle.  In God's amazing providence, we found this baby chilling there... without a box.  Apparently, a box is worth 20% - who knew?  After the coupon, we ended up paying $187 for the freezer that was originally sold for $279.  That's a 33% discount - and it was delivered today for free :)  Yes, there is a little dent in the lid (I don't care), and no, it's not Energy Star compliant (bummed, but for the $3/yr in electric savings, it wasn't worth the extra $100+ upfront).

Now, who wants to go in on a cow with me?

Soli Deo Gloria.

PUR Faucet Filter Giveaway Link

We have a PUR pitcher to filter our water, but I would love to have a faucet filter since the pitcher is always empty when I want to use it!  I guess that means we forget to fill it, right?  Well, anyway.  When I mix up powdered drinks in my 2-qt pitcher, there's not enough water in the filtered pitcher to fill it, so I either have to wait to filter more or mix in some non-filtered water.
However, every time I look at faucet filters, they're pricey, and I'm never sure if they'll be so in-the-way that it will drive me nuts.  As a result, I've never taken the plunge.  When I saw Clair's post and the opportunity to possibly win one, I knew I had to enter.  And I got extra entries for posting this :)  Feel free to enter here, and if you win and don't want it, you can pass it on to me.  Haha.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Look, Gram! It's your pot!

In the last post, I briefly mentioned an unexpected "produce delivery": basically, our Pastor got a call from someone who literally had a truckload of produce to donate.  While this isn't a common occurrence, similar things have happened before, so he did what he always does -- call everyone in our small congregation, several friends, some folks he's met in the community and is reaching out to, and his neighbors, and then have everyone over to "shop" from his driveway.  I ended up with 3 heads of Iceberg lettuce, a 10lb bag of potatoes, 11 small-ish apples, a 1lb bag of kale, and a few handfuls of key limes.
Adding that to Thursday's normal delivery, I've been able bit creative and "adventurous" this week, due to all the produce that came flooding in our doors!  I was excited about the free kale, because I hadn't heard of it until recently and was hesitant to try it, but have had several friends lately say how much they love it.
Wednesday I made Chamberlayne Chicken and Kale Stew, posted by a friend of mine.  I made a few adjustments (like no chicken, and all chicken broth instead of some veggie, as well as less pepper), but it was yummy.  We both decided that, while kale is not our new favorite veggie, it's good for you and certainly doesn't taste bad, so we'd eat it :)
Friday, since I get off work early, I really spent good time in the kitchen and made a batch of applesauce with the apples.  I got the recipe from the book I had just treated myself to: Food to Live By by Myra Goodman (the used copy cost me $4.99, shipping included!)  She's got an affinity for raspberries, but I adjusted it since I didn't have any of those on hand.  The first batch I made was just apples.  When my hubby tried to eat the whole batch in one sitting, I knew I should use the other 1/2 of the apples to make more!  This time, I replaced Myra's raspberries with 1 cup of chopped strawberries.  Yumm!  I can't even tell you how amazing this stuff is :)

apples before cooking, and the finished strawberry applesauce.  nothin' but fruit and sugar.  wow.

While I was chillin' in the kitchen (and avoiding the TV for TV Turnoff Week), I figured I'd try another way to incorporate the kale.  Dear Vonda over Absolute Organics kindly sent me several recipes, one of which hit close to home: Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla.  I had potatoes, kale, eggs (thanks to my co-worker and her chickens) and salt, so I was good to go.  The only hesitation: how would the hubby react when he saw green in the legendary spanish tortilla?

                            

Thankfully, though it seemed to take forever, it was the best of the 5 tortilla attempts I've had in my life, and we both loved it.  I think he was so glad to have a yummy tortilla for dinner that he didn't even complain about the green.  And honestly, the kale didn't seem to change the flavor much either.  Maybe the kale will become standard in my tortillas - adding a few extra antioxidants and vitamins to the otherwise protein-and-starch-heavy meal.

                                 

So there you have them - this week's kitchen experiments with fresh produce.  They all were pretty good, and clearly it was an inexpensive week, grocery-wise, so I'm doubly happy.  

Eating produce... Soli Deo Gloria

Yeah for organic strawberries!

I have been waiting for this day since I signed up for Absolute Organics a few months ago - the berries have arrived!  Since finding out that strawberries are in the "dirty dozen" due to high amounts of pesticide residue, I cringe just a little every time I bite into one that's not organic... yet I love them!  So I was thrilled to find that they were going to show up in my box today.  A whole pound!  Yippee!  The Lord unexpectedly provided a few handfuls of non-organic key limes (as well as potatoes, kale, apples and lettuce) this week, so this batch of strawbs may end up in a Strawberry Key Lime Pie that I found a recipe for.
While on the topic of organic strawberries, want to see my sprouts?  I thought you would!

If you look very closely you can see one little sprout with 2 little leaves!  Unless my pots got mixed up, those are strawberry leaves!  They took 3 weeks and 1 day to sprout, and they are now about 11 days old.  Whether I'll actually get any strawberries out of them I have no earthly idea (haha... no pun intended), but it's a fun experiment anyway!  I have pretty much given up hope on the bell pepper seeds that were planted at the same time and have yet to show any signs of sprouting, but we shall see.  Perhaps more patience is needed.  Goodness knows if the Lord gave up on me after looking for evidence of change after only 4.5 weeks, I would be in a sad place!

P.S.  Thanks to Vonda and Steve for the free pineapple in honor of AO's 5th birthday... may they continue sharing organic goodness for many more years!

Soli Deo Gloria

"New" Curtains

My parents just sold their house here in CLT, after having it on the marker for 8 months or so, as they're in the process of moving to Orlando, FL.  They got a contract 2 or 3 weeks ago, and they’ll be closing in mid-May.  The whole family spent a 3-day weekend in ORL over Easter, so we got to see some of the houses they were looking at (I think they put an offer on one this week, so we’ll see what happens) and overall just got to scope out their new stomping grounds.  

One of the added benefits of them selling the house is that I got some "new" (i.e. repurposed) curtains from my room at their house.  Conveniently enough, they match in my bedroom here, so now that the house is sold, Isaac and I got them and hung them this week.

Master bedroom

Extra room

Guest room

The guest curtains were hanging already, but had been hung too high up, so while we had out the tools to hang curtain rods, Isaac went ahead and lowered these so they look better :)

Hanging curtains... Soli Deo Gloria.

Seventh Generation Giveaway Link

In my desire to become more conscious of how I spend my money - and lately, of the health factor of my food and environment - I've been reading several blogs on a regular basis over the last year.  One of the ones that I discovered more recently is The Suburban Jungle.
She's got a Giveaway going on that I like... Seventh Generation Disinfecting Kit!  I've tried several of the Seventh Generation cleaning products, and really like them.  And when I can get them on sale and/or with a coupon, the prices aren't bad either!  Anything that will help me save money AND have fewer potentially negative effects on my health is a double-plus for me, so this kit would be perfect.  Head on over and enter by commenting on her post, here.

AO is back :)

Since we were out of town for Easter weekend, and have been a bit behind in consuming our bi-weekly produce, I opted to skip last week and start back this week.  Despite the fact that I still haven't used the red potatoes they brought me 3 weeks ago (yes, they've started to sprout, but I don't mind), I was excited for my next delivery.  And since I'm home on Spring Break this week, I actually got to meet the kind gentlemen who brought it to me :)

Above you can see the following bits of organic goodness:

• 5 Navel oranges 
• 5 Fuji apples
• 3 Bartlett pears
• 3 HUGE Russet potatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 2 cucumbers
• 4 bananas
• 1 head of lettuce
• approx 6 Rainbow carrots (which is where a lot of the leafy green comes from - they said to cut that off for better storage)

The varied colors of carrots might require an explanation for my somewhat skeptical hubby, but thankfully a snazzy article was posted to the Absolute Organics Facebook page not too long ago, which you can read here.  And the zucchini is already slated for dinner tonight with the red potatoes, as suggested in this Rosemary Red Potatoes recipe.

That is, if I can pick out the zucchini from the cukes...

Soli Deo Gloria

Handyman

One of the most frugal things I have ever done, whether I realized it or not, is to marry my sweet husband.  While I love my Daddy dearly, he is seriously lacking in some handyman skills, which means he gets stuck hiring out a bunch of stuff that I don't have to pay for, because my husband can do it!  In the last year, he installed ceiling fans/lights in both of our extra bedrooms.  Granted, my Dad maybe could have done that, but he could never have figured out how to run the wires such that the switch (which originally operated a randomly-placed outlet) actually works the new fixture!  Yahoo!  Here are a few pics of the most recent installation - in the guest bedroom.

Hubby did the hard stuff.

My job was to attach the fan blades to the arms.

Finish product in action!

Installing ceiling fans... Soli Deo Gloria.

Swag

Since there's already a picture here, just a few posts below, of me looking ridiculous and "eating" my homemade yogurt, I figured I might as well post the picture I just emailed The Swag Guy after receiving my first, official, tangible Swag prize.

Here I am "drinking" out of my Ecousable purple (yeah!) water bottle!  At 16oz, it's a bit smaller than I had envisioned, but I think that will be good, because my other one was almost too big to carry around (maybe it was 24 oz?  not sure).  Plus, not having a straw should be nice.  Notice how I am talking about the other one in the past tense, as if it no longer existed.  It does, I just don't like it.  So there.  Just don't tell my sister... she gifted it to me for my birthday just under a year ago -- oops.
To get your own free stuff through Swagbucks, sign up using my referral link on the left sidebar.  I think I've earned $15 dollars in Paypal, $10 in Amazon, and this neat-o water bottle.  Just from searching via their site over time.  Not bad, huh?

Soli Deo Gloria

Nacho Bake

Toni, otherwise known as Happy, has become one of my heroes over the last 6mos? year?  however long it's been since I started reading her blog.  Whether she knows it or not, she's taught me a lot about saving money and raising lots of kids, though of course the former skills are getting more practice currently than the latter.  Oh yeah, and she always has great, easy, inexpensive recipes.  I recently made one that she posted not long ago and - surprise, surprise - it was a hit!  You can find her Nacho Bake recipe here.  I used black beans (couldn't find a can of kidneys lying around... haha), and added a can each of diced tomatoes and corn to the meat/bean mix.  The hardest part was spreading the refried beans around, but this is not a recipe that has to be perfect - which is why I like it!!  As she suggested, I served it with sour cream.  It probably would be good with guacamole too, but I didn't think to take a package out of the freezer soon enough.  The 9"x13" served the 2 of us with enough left for at least one more meal, if not two - and I didn't put any sides or extras with it.  Well, unless you count the cupcake and cookie that we shared for dessert... courtesy of the St. Patrick's Day party put on by the 6th grade cooking class at school.
Are you salivating yet?  If not, this should get you started:

Soli Deo Gloria

3rd Fruit/Veggie Delivery

Need I say more?  Pears (12 or so), Cameo Apples (about 9), bananas (6 or 7), lettuce (2 bunches), red potatoes (counted, but forgot how many while I walked up the stairs to the computer) and green onions -- all ORGANIC and all left AT MY DOORSTEP by Absolute Organics, LLC!  That's 13.5 lbs of God-created yumminess.  Broccoli was supposed to be in the mix, but since it's not my hubby's favorite and I still haven't cooked what they brought me last time, I asked them to bring more pears and/or lettuce instead.  Since my next delivery is schedule to come right before Easter weekend, I think I'm going to have them "postpone" it until the following week as we'll be out of town for the long weekend and aren't quite eating everything in the two weeks anyway.
When my very basic photography makes you drool so much you just can't wait to get your hands on some produce of your very own, just be sure to tell them I sent you :)

Soli Deo Gloria

Windowed surprise

I had a GREAT time at the church women's retreat this weekend.  It's the second time I've gone, and I'm already looking forward to next year!  I truly enjoy the opportunity to meet women from church and to get to know others better.  We don't have a huge church, but since my husband and I work with the Hispanic church plant, there are plenty of gals that I don't get the opportunity to meet on a normal Sunday.  There were about 40 women at the retreat, and together we enjoyed some great worship time, a few testimonies, some Bible study, free time (which for me included a walk around the beautiful Bonclarken grounds, tea and chocolate cake with some great conversation, a brief nap and some reading time), lots of chatting and games - which is almost the best part, since my hubby is not quite as much a fan as I am, so we don't play many at home.
Anyway, the official topic of this post is the surprise I stumbled upon when I arrived home on Sunday afternoon:

My dear mom did my dining room curtains and my living room curtains (I helped with the latter set) and these kitchen ones were on her To-Do list forEVER!  Since she's moving, she finally gave up and hired someone to actually make them (since we had already picked out and purchased the fabric), and surprised me by installing them while I was gone (technically, she and hubs were still putting on the finishing touches when I showed up, but who cares).  I was totally used to the no-curtain look, since it's been that way for 2.5 years since we moved in, so it's still a bit odd... but I love them!  Aren't the colors perfect?  Don't worry, the chip clip won't stay there forever, haha :)

Soli Deo Gloria

Another produce delivery!

Today was an AWESOME day!  The sun was shining and though it was chilly, it wasn't deceptively cold, like several days last week.  It was Teacher Appreciation Day at school, so I didn't have to pack a lunch and we got a wonderful, homemade meal and 45 minutes to just chill with co-workers while volunteers supervised lunch/recess with the kids.  I got some cheap Kashi cereal at CVS & Target (went to both places so I could use ECBs/gift card, and actually paid only 6¢ out of pocket for 4 boxes!).  And last but not least, my second Absolute Organics delivery arrived!  Who knew produce could be so exciting?
First thing I did was head to the bathroom scale to weigh myself with the full cooler, and then I reweighed after emptying the cooler.  What you see on the picture below is 13 pounds of fresh, delivered, organic produce!  That's $2.30/lb average, which seems pretty good to me.  Did I mention it was DELIVERED?!?!  :)

 

I'll give you a list, just so you know what you're lookin' at:

• 6 seedless, Gold Nugget oranges
• 7 Braeburn apples
• 2 Haas avocados
• 1 mango
• 1 lg. head of lettuce
• white mushrooms
• 3 averaged-sized broccoli crowns
• 6 bananas

If I've convinced you, just be sure to give them my name when you order so I can get some free produce for referring you!

On another note, here's a picture of my homemade yogurt served over that granola-type cereal I had in the stockpile.  Since mine turned out a bit thinner than I prefer for yogurt, it works great when mixed in with something like this!

Soli Deo Gloria...

Homemade Yogurt!

I am pleased to report that my first-ever yogurt-making experiment went fairly well!  I found the directions here. I read Alyssa's blog regularly, and when I saw this, I decided to try it, just for a challenge.  And, since we do eat a fair amount of yogurt, I figured if it worked I could use it more often to save us some money and to be healthier (there are a fair amount of random ingredients in store-bought yogurt, if you actually read the list).
The directions are really detailed (especially if you click-thru to the more thorough version here), so I felt pretty confident.  Worst-case scenario, I was out a few bucks for the milk and yogurt cup (starter), and would have a damaged ego; best-case scenario I could feel really cool (and save $$, be healthy, cut down on production of plastic yogurt cups, etc... but mostly just feel cool)!
I borrowed a candy thermometer from a friend/co-worker, since I wanted to be sure I was doing it right.  The whole process took me about 8 hours, though most of that was just letting it "incubate" and didn't require much work.  I did discover that my cooler probably isn't the most insulated one ever and when I went to take the yogurt out the temp had dropped, so I added some more boiling water and let it sit for another 1-2 hours instead.  Here are some pics I took:

 

We had some of it for dessert tonight (yeah, I know... it's generally strange for Americans to eat non-frozen yogurt for dessert, but it's normal in Spain and now I'm used to it!) with a little sugar and honey - natural/plain yogurt all by itself is kinda icky if you ask me.  It was pretty good, though if I do it again, I think I'll try to let it incubate longer (and add the extra boiling water sooner to keep the temp up) as it was a bit runnier than I'm used to, and I can only assume it's due to an incubation faux pas. 

Overall, I'm just glad I have an edible result and didn't have to dump it out completely.  I got some free Post Trail Mix Crunch a while back, and I'm thinking this yogurt will probably be a great substitute for milk with that, since the cereal has a granola-y texture.

Making yogurt, Soli Deo Gloria...

Oh, the irony!

I went to Costco yesterday after a short day at work and lunch with a friend, to investigate their organic/natural/healthy options and get an idea of what kind of prices they had. I had no intention of buying anything because I was completely out of grocery money (literally ran out at the checkout at EarthFare on Wednesday... had to put something back and the guy still had to waive about a dollar for me -- oops! how embarrassing! but I digress...). I wandered around for almost an hour I'd guess, jotting down notes of what I was finding - perhaps I'll put them in another post later. Anyway, as I wrapping up, my hubby called to say he was on his way home from work, and requested that I buy him some bags of chips to take to work with him - he was even willing to pay for them with his "allowance"! I used my "allowance" money that I happened to have with me. The total was $10.70 and I bought 1 box of 50 Frito-Lay brand chip bags.

Today, while his car was being inspected, we went to Harris Teeter to get in on some Super Doubles. The pickin's are often slim on these weeks (harder-core couponers than I were already out to get the best deals first-thing Wednesday morning!), but I found most of what I wanted. I ended up with:

• 1 box of Quaker Quick Oats
• 2 bags of Quaker Mini Rice Cakes
• 1 Polaner All-Fruit Spread (Black Cherry - to mix things up) 
• 2 small boxes of Kotex Pantiliners
• 1 pound of Tilapia (2 filets)
• 2 half gallons of Edy's ice cream (Spumoni and Mint Choc. Chip!)
• 1 half gallon of Tropicana OJ
• 2 8 oz bricks of Organic Valley Cream Cheese
• 2 4-packs of Dannon Light & Fit yogurt cups
• 6 Yoplait Whips yogurt cups
• 1 Chobani yogurt cup
• 1 half pint of Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream
• 2 Blistex chapsticks

A fairly random selection, I know,  but that's what you do when you use coupons.  Get what's on sale, and use it in the upcoming weeks.  Anyway, wanna know the best part?  My total was $10.80.

Now, which purchase is more likely to provide sustenance for a family of two for a week?  See the irony?

Soli Deo Gloria

Organic Coupon Giveaway

One of the only sites I've found that does Earth Fare coupon match-ups is Frugally Farming Family.  I'm still adjusting myself to the "deals" at EF, which don't seem much like deals to me, compared to the amazing ones I've gotten in the last year on so-called conventional foods.  I went ahead and entered their Organic Coupon Giveaway in hopes of some more deals/savings on healthier options for my small family.  Go ahead... if you sneak it in today, you've still got time to possibly get in on the action!

Soli Deo Gloria...

Absolute Organics!

Yeah!  I'm so excited!  My first delivery with Absolute Organics, LLC came today.  Although they came highly recommended from some folks that I used to teach for (that's how I heard about them), I have to admit that I was a little hesitant of exactly what my hard-earned $30 was going to get me.  I'm thrilled to report that I was pleasantly surprised!  I don't have a picture for you, but I'll list off what came:

• 8 "Gold Nugget" oranges (supposedly seedless... wahoo!)
• 9 small-ish Braeburn apples
• 2 heads of Romaine lettuce
• 4 very green bananas
• 1 Haas avocado
• 2 medium-sized yellow onions
• 1 bunch of celery
• 1 large-ish head of cauliflower

Being as I'm not very used to buying organic produce just yet, nor do I know exact weights for the above items, I can't exactly quantify the value.  However, a quick check on Harris Teeter's "Express Lane" shows that the non-organic value of all this is probably somewhere between $20-25.  And the extra $5-10 is TOTALLY worth it, in my opinion, to have ORGANIC produce DELIVERED to my house.  Additionally, some of these items (particularly the celery, cauliflower and probably avocado) I would not have bought on my own, so now I get to be creative with how to use them, thus incorporating more fresh produce into our diet!  When I signed up, they had me select any dislikes from their complete list of produce, so while Chard and Grapefruit could have been on this week's menu, they substituted them for more of other items since I had told them we don't generally eat those.  They'll deliver again in 2 weeks, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what that delivery will be (though there aren't any contracts, so if I needed to cancel, I could just let them know a week in advance and no problem)!
Summary... while $30 is quite a chunk out of my $70-every-two-week grocery budget, especially since I'm trying to go more organic in other areas too, I think I'll be able to make it work.  It will definitely be good for us to eat more fruits/veggies, and will avoid the temptation to purchase all the nasty pesticide-ridden counterparts since I should be able to almost skip the produce section entirely when I go to the store.
Shameless plug... if you live in the Charlotte area and want to try them out, let them know you heard about them from me, and I'll get some free produce after your second box arrives!  Come on... help a girl out!

Soli Deo Gloria...