bring joy

5 ways we slashed our grocery budget under $500/month

Original Image Source: Karen Daziel via flickr

Groceries have been my absolute last stand (next to our date money, which you know, I treat as holy sacred ground). I refuse to feed my family cheap, processed food. I also feel strongly about making sure they get a good dose of fresh fruits & veggies each day.

So, as each new month rolls around, I would tell myself, I need this (fair-trade organic chocolate), I need this (sparkling flavored water), I need this (PB2 powder–which I really do need, promise!), my kids need to choose from at least a dozen fruits to choose from each day. My peanut butter needs to be organic. I have to only use ~~liquid gold~~ pure maple syrup to sweeten our foods. You get the idea. Soon, our plant-based “frugal” diet is peppered with all sorts of products &...

Garlic Herb Vegetable Sweet Potato Soup

grain-free, salad & soup, slim + slender

But summer is finally winding down & I’m beginning to like this place again. We’re still swimming (swimming in October, I know, so cool right?), but we’ve had cooler, gently & breezy autumn-ish days. We’ve even had some overcast, rainy days.

Which means one thing, at least in the kitchen–soup!

I wonder why more people don’t eat more soup (& not the canned kind).

I know soup is kinda like porridge. Not sexy or flashy. But it’s easy, & really, so hard to mess up. And, perhaps more important, can feed a lot of people for just a few dollars.

I made this soup yesterday–mostly wanting to use up vegetables before they go bad (in our efforts to reduce food waste & push down the grocery budget even further–which is totally working).

There are so many recipes I just don’t share on the blog or...

Feeding Kids: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff {Guest Post by Jenny Ramsey}

kid's food, motherhood

Today’s post is from Jenny Ramsey. She was last here talking about breastfeeding, & she’s back again to share her thoughts on feeding kids.

In fact, her family’s diet, aside from our mutual love of rice & beans is probably quite different from my own family’s. But despite this difference, I wanted her to share her perspective on what it’s like to feed a small army every day (she has 6 kids).

As a busy, loving & attentive mother who also happens to be an expert at not taking herself too seriously, I think we can all learn a thing or two from her. Namely, I hope her words (I especially love points #2 & #3) will get you to cut yourself some slack & focus more on the principles of good parenting, rather than getting caught up in the unimportant minutia that can so often happen around...