Our garden, that Jon planned, planted and tended all summer/fall, end of May/June '10
I officially am a good spinach sausage pie maker- both kids loved it last night, as well as hubby, and Liv wanted a third helping, while super Jman, I couldn't believe it, just enjoyed two helpings of cauliflower with olive oil and salt. I am doing my best to keep up with cooking our own meals and making most of our food from scratch if needed, as well as making it healthy as often as I can. That's time consuming and hard, and I knowI probably will have to buy pie crusts more often than not. And that is okay. As well as bread. But I am going to attempt and start making my own bread and such. We shall see how it goes. My financial goal right now is to bring down the grocery bill as much as I can, and still not go crazy, eat out or eat unhealthy. But I am not going to be able to buy organic or even cage free eggs, or my organic milk and meat. Unless somehow I can eliminate some other things and make room for that. But the good thing is that this is not the end of the world, as it might be for some. And it might be just for a period of time. Or maybe until the kids move out of the house and we can afford it. And it is okay. I want to eat healthy and teach my kids good nutrition, but I don't want to make it an idol. I never have seen it that way, truthfully. I grew up on good, preservative and additive free food in Italy, and no, we did not make our own pasta and tomato sauce! It's just easier to eat fresher fruit and vegetables and buy healthier meals. The food industry is not like it is here. For now at least. And even now that I am an American resident, we eat whatever is shared with us and I won't turn up my nose at anything that has refined grain (hey, we still use white flour often!) or anything that might have grown with pesticides, because we are still there baby- and food is food, something we should always appreciate and be thankful for. We have it in such an abundance you can't even compare it to the rest of the world without wanting to cry.
I was recently encouraged to know there are others out there, like the author at Passionate Homemaking making a conscientious effort to diminish the negative aspects 'eating healthy, sustainably, etc" can have with our personal relationships. In her latest post about this subject (follow the link above) she talks about why it's better to make exceptions with 'healthier' food if your husband won't eat it or doesn't like it- it's sounded like a given, but then I talked about it with Jon and come to find out, he doesn't like when I add cabbage or spinach to my meatloaf (which is what I usually do to make it more 'nutritious' and get some veggies in the kids systems!)
We learned how to garden last year (or my hubby did, because he did most if not all of the work! And he did great btw) I have my "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" my dad bought us this past summer to read now. Lord willing we will attempt it again this year, and I plan to go at it with more foreknowledge. I will do the reading/research for hubby since with the bambino or bambina (there is some Italian for you) coming beginning of the summer, I am going to once again leave the bulk of the work (that is everything probably!) to him!
(in case you are wondering: why is she posting everyday? Well, two reasons, one is that I am trying to get into the habit of blogging again, and second because my friend Amy asked other's to join the '21 day challenge' where we try and blog everyday.)
