Stir-frying it Up!!

So last night was our first "clean" dinner and I cant wait to share it with you! Our family loves some oriental food, so I wanted our first meal to be something not too far off of the normal. Again the site www.100daysofrealfood.com is to get most of the credit. I did add a few other things to it.

Ingredients:
2 c of brown rice
1lb of chicken breasts cut up
2 bell peppers
1 onion
1/2 c peas
1/2 c carrots
1 c broccoli
2 teaspoons of fresh ginger or to taste
sesame seed oil (to taste)
honey (to taste)
low sodium soy sauce (to taste)

Directions:
1. Heat up the Wok and add about a tablespoon of sesame seed oil and then add your veggies. Add soy sauce and honey to taste. Then add your ginger. Cook until veggies are tender.
2. While veggies are cooking heat up another tablespoon of sesame seed oil in a skillet and add chicken. Add soy sauce and honey to taste. Cook until no longer pink.
3. Cook rice.
4. Once everything is done, combine rice and chicken to the veggies and serve!

At our house this is considered a cheap meal; very little ingredients that go a long way!

Guess what this momma is having for lunch today!! I cant wait!

Here is what I am cooking the rest of the week:

Tuesday-homemade pizzas

Wednesday-cranberry pork roast

Thursday- chicken enchiladas

Friday- grilled pork tenderloin

Hoping to start my little project tomorrow! Cant wait to share with all of you.

Not Throwing in This Towel!

Yay the time has come for me to share about my "clean" shopping trip with all of you! I could barely contain my excitement and almost blogged over the weekend! I had such an amazing time on Saturday. I dragged my mom along with me and I think she enjoyed herself too. I was kinda on a time crunch Saturday afternoon but we were able to fit in four grocery stores!

So our first stop was Trader Joe's!

I fell in love with this place when I walked in the door and saw these...

This picture doesn't even begin to describe the amount of beautiful flowers there! Next time I will be grabbing some of those hydrangeas! Absolutely gorgeous! The flowers weren't even the best part, I just loved being in a store full of healthy choices. I was in heaven! Oh and it made this going clean thing seem a little bit easier. Once we walked in I made my way over to the meat section. I wasn't planning on purchasing any meat there but I just wanted to talk a look...

Oh boy! My husband would have been in love too. I actually purchased a pork tenderloin and I cant wait to throw that baby on the grill this week! I also purchased some bread, juice, yogurt, greens, and a few other items that were on my list. So after walking around the store for about 45 minutes, I knew it was time to check out and head across the street to Whole Foods. I seriously could have stayed in Trader Joe's all. day. long!

Total at Trader Joe's: $48.55

Next stop was Whole Foods!

They also had an awesome display of fresh flowers! 

I didn't snap any pictures inside because the place was super packed! I think that is why I was a little turned off. I will be making my next trip during the week, so maybe it will be a bit better. I did love this store though. Definitely a lot more options than Trader Joe's! I purchased some snacks and organic tomato sauce (haven't perfected my own just yet).

Total spent at Whole Foods: $29.94

So after we walked around TJ and WF, we stopped into Kroger, which is literally right behind WF. The only time I ever go into Kroger is when we are visiting my Uncle and Aunt up in Richmond. But I have heard great things about them, so I decided to stop by. I was immediately floored by the produce section. It was amazing! They had a huge organic section and the prices were very nice. The only thing that didn't stand out was the meat section. I am so used to Harris Teeter and Kroger, to me, came no where near HT.

To be perfectly honest I felt like crying in Kroger. I definitely think I overwhelmed myself and being in a strange grocery store and not knowing where anything was, I about broke down. Thank goodness my momma was there! It was an exciting day and a whole lot of new stuff to process and by that point I was ready to throw in the towel, but I just decided to finish my list off at Harris Teeter. Don't get me wrong, I will definitely go back. They really did have a killer produce section! 

Total spent at Kroger: $47.74

Total spent at Harris Teeter: $65.29

It doesn't surprise me that I spent the most at HT. I love love love that store but they are pricey! Oh but they do have an awesome meat section!

So my total for the day was $191.52. That is about $70 above my normal shopping trip but with a total life style change I expect it to be a bit high in the beginning. Its back to stage one when it comes to the grocery store. I now realize that my weekly trip to Harris Teeter will change and my usual one hour trip may turn into three but I am okay with that. I am okay with investing a little bit more time when it comes to my family's health. I am willing to spend a little bit more to know that what my family is eating, is going to be good for them and not something full of preservatives. 

I know that my almost breakdown in Kroger will not be my last and I am okay with that as well! 

I did have a great day!!

I will share with you guys tomorrow a few recipes for our dinners this week. I am also starting a little project on Wednesday, so maybe my Thursday I will fill everyone in! 

Lists to Live By!

So today marks day two of slowly ridding this house of processed foods and we are doing pretty good! I have one small confession though. Yesterday I mentioned that I wasn't going to throw anything out because I didn't want to have to rebuild my pantry in one shopping trip, but once I started going through some things, I threw a few things straight in the trash! The very first thing I threw out was a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. My kids didn't eat them all the time but I had them for a quickie lunch if we were going to have a busy day. Well after looking at the label I was seriously sick to my stomach! I also trashed a box of pop tarts (another quickie breakfast). I have never really paid any mind to labels before but just being in this second day, I am disgusted at what is in our food. 

It really feels good knowing that we are making this life style change and I know that it will benefit my babies in the long run. And hopefully these new eating habits will be something that they can carrier on to their families as well! That would be in the far off future! I mean my kids are already growing up way too fast, lets not fast forward any time soon! 

So now I am trying to decide things to make for my babies for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Dinner is totally under control! After talking with a few friends, smoothies seem to be the way to go for a quickie breakfast, which is awesome, because my kiddos love them a good smoothie! We aren't big breakfast people, but I know if I mentioned the word smoothie or pancake, they go crazy! 

So the point of this post was to share with you the three most important lists for me as of now. These three lists are definitely gonna help me get through these first few weeks in the grocery store! 

Here are the first two lists to live by! These are both from www.motherearthliving.com.

Clean 15 List: Foods okay to buy non-organic

1. onions

2. sweet corn

3. pineapples

4. avocado

5. cabbage

6. sweet peas

7. asparagus

8. mangoes

9. eggplant

10. kiwi

11. cantaloupe

12. sweet potatoes

13. grapefruit

14. watermelon

15. mushrooms

Dirty Dozen List: Foods to buy organic

1. apples

2. celery

3. sweet bell peppers

4. peaches

5. strawberries

6. nectarines

7. grapes

8. spinach

9. lettuce

10. cucumbers

11. blueberries

12. potatoes

Here is another list that shows all the food dyes that are in certain foods. You can use this list when in the grocery store so you know what to look for!

Like I said yesterday, I will making my first "clean" shopping trip tomorrow and on Monday I will give you all the budget breakdown! My goal is not to break the bank! 

Hope you all have a blessed weekend! Also, I will be back next week for the next chapter of Crazy Love!

Processed Food Begone!

So over this past weekend we had my family over and I started chatting with my Uncle Todd and my Aunt Emily about their recent diet change. I am not talking about "being" on a diet, but totally changing your entire eating habits. I saw how amazing they looked and how they had the will power to not dive into all the desserts and snack foods that were over flowing. Since Sunday, I have been texting my aunt and realizing how simple it is to make a huge lifestyle change and how inexpensive it can be. I mean because when I think of an all natural/organic diet, all I see is $$$. I know I am not the only one out there!

Well after searching the web and getting advice from Emily, I found a website that is amazing!!! Its called www.100daysofrealfood.com. This website has all the information that you need to succeed at eating only "real" foods. 

So here we are starting our day one of ridding this house of processed foods! No, we are not drastically throwing out everything processed right now. But this momma is not buying anymore. So as things run out, they will be replaced with real foods. I mean we aren't the worst eaters in the world but there are a lot of changes that need to be made. 

Oh and yes, I will be documenting this journey on here!!! I am nervous, scared and everything in between, so be prepared to see the best and worst of me. I know this will be extremely hard for the first couple of weeks, but I know once we get rid of all the crap, we will feel better and not want to go back to the dark side! 

So on Sunday, this momma will be heading to the grocery store to begin my first trip of eating healthy! I will be back Monday to let you know how it goes! And of course I will let you know how much $$ I spent. Hopefully I wont put my family in the poor house while on this journey! But I know it can be done without breaking the bank! 

Heres to a new and healthy life for me and my family!!! Hope you tag along for the journey and maybe even decided to join the ride. 

Bring on the Deals.

I am back to tell you about my amazing deals from this past Monday's shopping trip. Usually about twice a year my husband and I will go shopping together to grab stuff for the upcoming season and this past Monday was our first trip of the year. Oh and yes we had all the babies. It actually didn't go too bad. The babies were in pretty good moods and as long as we kept promising them ice cream at the end, they behaved. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

So anyway back to my deals. I didn't snap pictures of everything I got but the deals were spectacular! Our first stop was American Eagle. I am not as fond of that store as I used to be but it still is my husbands favorite. I guess the older I get, I just cant see myself in some cut-off booty shorts! Well the store had a 40% off sale on every. single. item. If you know AE, this does not happen often, so we took advantage. My husband walked away with two pairs of shorts for less than the price of one and I walked away with a shirt for $10. Yes I said $10. I mentioned this shirt in yesterdays post! It is pretty awesome. I am sure you will see it in an "outfit of the day" pic soon.

After American Eagle my husband was done, but not this momma! I moved onto the next store, which was Forever 21. I know, I know...another booty shorts store, but you have to search and search in this store. They have some really cute stuff. I got a yellow cardigan and lace topped t-shirt. Total money spent there: $20. Not too shabby!

Then I made a stop at Cotton On. If you have never been in this store, you are missing out. I located this little piece of heaven last year and have loved it ever since. They are an Australia based store and just came to the States a few years ago. They have amazing clothes for cheap, but not cheaply made. I got three shirts there, with one of them being only $5. Love it! I walked out of there paying $25

Okay to recap on how many tops I got: AE-1, Forever 21-2, and Cotton On-3. So that equals 6 tops for $55. I call that a successful shopping trip! But I did purchase one more thing...

No I didn't purchase both of these, just the light brown ones on the left. My oldies but still goodies on the right now have a new best friend. I normally do not like to spend $45 on a pair of shoes but when buying Toms, I know that it is helping children that do not have anything. For those of you that are not familiar with Toms shoes, every time you purchase a pair, Toms gives a pair to a child who does not have shoes. It really is an awesome thing! I got my first pair of Toms last year and fell in love. So I decided to grab another pair this year. Check out the website if you want to learn more:  http://www.toms.com. 

Hope you all are enjoying this spring-like weather! We sure are!

Steal of the Day!

So yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day!! The temperature actually got into the 70s and we definitely enjoyed every minute of it! I was also pretty excited because I got to break out a shirt that I got at the Gap Outlet a few months ago. When I saw it, I knew I had to have it. Oh and did I mention it was only $5. That's right!!! I love me some Gap, but I refuse to pay full price when we have an outlet store less than an hour away. Trust me, I will drive there to get the deals! So here I am sporting my $5 dollar shirt...

And can I mention that yesterday the family and I went out to do some spring clothes shopping and these button up shirts were every where! I mean in every store that I went into! I guess it was a $5 well spent and I must say I got another one of these shirts from American Eagle as well. I will post more on that tomorrow because I got some pretty sweet deals yesterday! Stay tuned!!

Truly Blessed!

Today I am taking a few minutes to share how unbelievably thankful I am for my wonderful family. Everyone, including the Wrights from Richmond, came over yesterday to celebrate Easter and my birthday. Words cannot begin to describe how much my family means to me. Even though we all live pretty close to one another, we rarely get the entire crew together, but yesterday we did!!

It was a day full of some craziness and fun! My cheeks always hurt the following day because we love to crack each other up :). Oh and we always end the day complaining that we ate to much and couldn't possibly eat birthday cake, but of course we do! You can never say no to a table that looks like this...

That very colorful pan of goodness is called a peeps casserole made my our friend Charlotte. The kids absolutely loved it. Then that beautiful chocolate cake is my absolute favorite cake ever! Its from a little bakery out in Virginia Beach called The Sugar Plum Bakery. They are amazing!!! Then I decided to make some festive cupcakes for the children. The little bunny and chick paper toppings were found at Target in the $1 section. If you have never shopped those three aisle of goodness, you are definitely missing out!!

Ok back to what this post is really about...

It truly was a wonderful day and I miss having everyone altogether already. I cant wait until the next time we get together! And every once in a while we manage to get a picture of everyone!!!

It was an amazing day surrounded by some awesome people! I am truly blessed. Thank you to my family for making this girl feel pretty special. I love you all!!