Dr. Mom

AGGGH! Between work responsibilities and time off to take care of sick kids, I've been swamped with little time for personal writing!

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things (slowly) in the next few weeks.
Here are abbreviated blog entries; things I've been thinking about but haven't had time to fully write about.
1. It would have been a better idea to start this blog AFTER we got our finances straightened out. We recently have been going through a budget crunch and my grocery budget is SMALL! However, I will say, I have been so proud of myself for the last few weeks and how I have cut back and made do with less. BUT, I haven't fully embraced the "all natural" and/or organic rules, I had hoped to be going by at this point. For instance, last week, with my crazy schedule and lack of funds, I went with Little Debbie cakes for snacks/desserts, rather than my homemade cookies I have been making the last few weeks.
2. I. Am.Gaining.Weight. I weigh 10 pounds more than I did before I got pregnant with my daughter, now 2 years-old. I am out of breath after lugging her across a parking lot and I am just feeling LAZY. Got to get moving! And hopefully our new and improved healthy eating will help too.
3. I have some great cookie recipes to share soon!
4. We have slid back into old habits at breakfast, especially since my morning routine has been shot to hell with sick kids. IF they've even wanted to eat anything, I have been giving them whatever they want, just to get some food into them.
5. I have found some really cool blogs by other women offering lots of information and recipes that I think will be really useful in my quest to get my family healthy. I will share those soon, too.
6. Here's our menu for the week - it's just supper, since I don't want to share what we're eating for breakfast these days (poptarts, sugary cereal and bacon!)
2/7 - Pork chop stir fry with rice and fresh broccoli
2/8 - Homemade frozen pot-pie made a few weeks ago
2/9 - Leftovers
2/10 - Homemade pizza
2/11 - Pancakes/Breakfast supper
2/12 - Beef stew
2/13 - ?

Menu for 1/24 - 1/31

Monday
B - new pumpkin seed/raisin bran cereal (very tasty), cantaloupe, bread and jam
L- leftover bean soup (from Sunday, change in menu plan last week)
S- homemade chicken pot pie with leftover chicken from Saturday

Tuesday
B- honey bran waffle sticks (made over the weekend), cantaloupe
L- leftover potpie
S - spaghetti

Wednesday
B- raisin bran cereal, bananas, toast and jam
L - chicken sandwich
S- out

Thursday
B - boiled eggs, cereal, cantaloupe
L - leftover spaghetti
S - pizza

Friday
B - scrambled eggs, toast and jam, apple slices
S - breakfast supper (pancakes, bacon, eggs)

Saturday -
B- egg/bacon sandwiches
L - cheese toast
S - something in the crockpot (?)

Sunday -  (Emmy's Birthday!!)
B - waffles
L/S - chili (had soup last week instead of chili)

Coming up next week (I hope) - yummy bran/fruit/honey muffins for breakfast next week.











Our test cereal for this week - mom and kids give thumbs up.

Cookie Monsters

Another way I'm trying improve our diets is baking and making more of our "treat" food and not buying store-bought cookies and sweets.

But my God, you guys, the cookies my family is going through! I'm not sure if the ones I'm making are better than the Little Debbie's they were used to or if they WERE REALLY EATING THAT MANY SWEETS A DAY!

I made a large batch of oatmeal raisin cookies on Saturday and a batch of World Peace Chocolate cookies on Monday (because the oatmeal raisins were gone).

Today (Wednesday), there are no more cookies in my house.

People, I am used to making a batch of cookies a month, much less two a week!

This means one of two things:

• We are going to get more healthy because we are going to be eating less sweets (because we run out of them mid-week).
• I am going to have to buy at least one box of something store-bought to mix in with the homemade sweets.

I'll let you know what happens!

Oh, and these cookies - they really could broker a World Peace.....

Getting in the swing of things

This week's breakfasts haven't gone too bad.

I think everyone is agreeable to the menu.

In fact, I didn't even have to address the instant oatmeal question because, Emmy, (my 2-year-old who was eating it every morning prior to our experiment) has decided she wants to eat what her brother is eating and no longer is interested in eating oatmeal. This week she's insisted on the same granola cereal her brother has been eating and even wants her juice in a REAL cup - no more sippy cups for her.

I was all for the exiled sippy cups, until one night she wanted juice instead of milk with supper and thought the solution was to just pour the milk out ON THE FLOOR and hold her cup up for "juice pweese." I quickly welcomed the sippy cups back to the family.

Anyway, the hardest part of this week, was on my budget. My week to really ramp up our healthy eating didn't fall on a week when I was too flush with grocery money. I didn't get the free-range, organic happy eggs (just regular eggs instead) or a cantaloupe. They've been eating bananas and raisens instead of the cantaloupe. And in fact, starting today (Thursday) they're just down to raisens.

I've recently made a new monthly budget for the new year and we're cutting down on our grocery budget, so this is adding a new layer of challenge to the healthy eating thing. Once we get on track - I'll be spending about $425 a month on groceries (pure groceries, not including toiletries and stuff). I was spending about $550, but we had to cut somewhere!

I had always suspected, but last week, with my paltry $50 for groceries, it was apparent that it's much cheaper to eat yucky than healthy.

I got my organic milk, stuff to make cookies, granola cereal, stuff to make bread, some non-organic fruit, veggies and eggs, some bacon, lunchbox stuff (it really pained me to buy bologna and not deli meat), some chips and some non-food necessities like dish-washing soap and toilet paper and I was done.
Hopefully in February, as I start fresh with a full grocery budget, I can begin to find my way to the healthier choices in our local grocery store, as well as start checking out the Whole Foods in Cary (where my folks live).

Considering that I haven't had (too much) pouting and complaining in the morning, before I've had my coffee, I will consider this week's breakfast menu a SUCCESS!

Out of the oven

My husband and son have started to appreciate the nights I make bread, usually twice a week.

When it comes out of the oven, slathered in real butter, you can't beat it.

And frankly, I love that I have SOMETHING, that I cook, that impresses them so much.

I wish I could somehow convey the smell to you, over the Internet.........mmmmmmm.

Chewy ginger cookies

I started making these cookies last year, when I found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's website. Everyone in my house loves them and they are my FAVORITES!

If you have always loved gingersnap cookies, but would love them even more if they were chewy - this is the cookie for you.

I have always made this recipe with the Crisco, but I will experiment using butter next time and report back to you. Crisco is definitely not on the "healthy" cooking staples list. It's a trans-fat, the worst kind of fat. And not natural at all - Crisco is definitely a man-made food.

The first time I made these, I did have to go out and buy the cardamom. It's a very strong spice, seemingly from the ginger and/or cinnamon family. I'm still using the same bottle of cardamom and I have even put it in some other things too, like homemade applesauce and apple pie.

• 1 cup Sugar
• ¾ cups Crisco (vegetable Shortening)
• ¼ cups Molasses
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 cups Flour
• 2-½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
• ½ teaspoons Ground Cloves
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Cardamom
• ¼ teaspoons Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg together until well combined. Dump in dry ingredients, stirring dry ingredients together lightly. Mix together until dough is combined.

In your hands roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then generously coat each ball with sugar. Place balls on a baking sheet and bake for 9 to 11 minutes, allowing to bake for about a minute after cookies begin to crack.

Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool…though these are delicious while still warm.

I ate about half of the cookies in this picture - right out of the oven!

Menu for 1/16 - 1/23

Menu ideas for this week include:

Monday -
B: cold cereal and milk, toast and jam, bananas, OJ
S: homemade mac and cheese, collards, drop biscuits

Tuesday
B: boiled eggs, toast and jam, cantaloupe
S: steak hoagies, roasted potatoes, cukes

Wednesday -
B: cold cereal and milk, homemade waffle sticks
S: out

Thursday -
B: cold cereal and milk, cantaloupe, toast and jam
S: frozen pizza, cukes

Friday -
B: cold cereal and milk, homemade waffle sticks, raisens
S: leftovers

Saturday-
B: cereal, scrambled eggs, bacon
S: roast, potatoes, carrots, celery

Sunday -
B: bacon, eggs, toast
S: chili, bread

My husband fried fish for us on Sunday for lunch - it was DELISH!! I hope he'll make the chili on Sunday - it's his specialty.

This weekend I made two kinds of cookies, spicy molasses cookies and oatmeal raisens - I'll share recipes later in the week. Between the cookies and the bread - I'm constantly fighting temptations. Why can't vegetables and lentils taste as good as carbs?