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!

The juicy part

Conversation between me and my 11-year-old, T:

Me: Hey, we're going to be having different stuff for breakfast this week. We're going HEALTHY!

T: Are we going to have more of that good orange juice?

M: Well, we were, until you drank the whole bottle this weekend. That stuff is expensive and you have to save some for school mornings.

T: But isn't it good for me?

M: Well, yes....but you can't drink so MUCH of it, at one time. And it's for breakfast.......

T: So you got something different, that's good for me, but you don't want me to drink TOO much.....?

M: That's right.

T: That's wack. Why don't you just go back to the yucky OJ - then I won't want to drink it so much.

Sometimes, this whole new diet-healthy-eating-thing seems like a wacky (wack) idea.

Getting Started

This year, I'm going to try and feed my family better food.

No, I'm not taking cooking classes.

I'm going to try to replace a lot of the processed food we eat with more natural choices - and in turn - more healthy food.

Though I totally believe Jamie Oliver, Jillian Michaels and Dr. Oz, when they tell me I should go in my pantry and refrigerator and throw out all food that didn't come from the ground and have a mother - I am not a complete idiot.

I am only one person that cooks in 30 minute increments with about $100 to buy groceries this week.

Unless one of those guys is going to come in with a personal chef and about $1,000 to restock my kitchen with "healthy" food (given we've just thrown 90 percent of it in the trash) - not going to happen.

I'm starting out slow - one mealtime at a time.

First up is breakfast.

Out with the instant oatmeal, frozen HT brand waffles, frozen french toast sticks, pre-cooked bacon, cheap OJ, non-organic fruit and Cheerios and Wheaties. I'm keeping the organic milk, I was already buying.

I'm going to try:

• Organic granola cereal (I've tried the cereal by Cascadia, and we all like it) and organic milk. 
• Toast (from homemade bread I've been making this winter and will continue to make) with butter and jam. 
• Scrambled or hard-boiled eggs (The expensive eggs from chickens that were free on the range, eating only good things, or something like that)
• Simply Orange OJ (I think this is organic and natural, have to check)
• Organic fruit

Yes - they eat a lot at breakfast.

Here's what I'm worried about:

• I'm not sure what to do about Emmy's instant oatmeal. There's no way I could get up 30 minutes earlier and stir oats for 30 minutes in the morning, and I think that what you have to do with the natural oats. I hate to stop giving her oatmeal - some days its the healthiest thing she eats all day! 
• I guess we'll just stop with the bacon. I was giving Thomas pre-cooked, packaged bacon, warmed in the microwave, but the eggs will make up for it. He doesn't like eggs as much, but that doesn't really matter, right? And anyway, is there a healthy bacon? I don't think so.
• My kids are BIG fruit eaters. Organic fruit costs more, so I'm assuming I'll be buying less fruit. I guess I'm doing the right thing, giving them less fruit, that's better for them?
• Also, have you seen how much organic coffee is? Wouldn't the caffeine kill any pesticides in the beans?

I've done the math, and eating healthier for breakfast is going to cost me about $10 more a week. (This is not taking into account any oatmeal for Emmy, because I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Nor did I factor in coffee, for either breakfast menu). I figured we were spending about $25 a week on breakfasts and now it will be about $34.50. I upped the fruit category by $5 when going organic - we'll see how far that goes.

Next up is lunch - what in the world am I going to give Thomas, my 11-year-old, for chips and dessert in his bag lunch? He's addicted to Twinkies! And his chicken wraps - I'm pretty sure those packages of cooked chicken strips in the deli aisle are processed somehow .....

If you have any insight or advice on this, please leave a comment below! 

Emmy (almost 2) and Thomas (11): We'd like our high fructose corn syrup back, please!