smooth tasty treat

Make a tasty healthy treat today.

Strawberry banana smoothies...Ingredients needed:

• 6 fresh or frozen strawberries
• 2 bananas
• 2 heaping spoonfuls of organic yogurt
• 1-2 Tablespoons maple sugar (natural sweetener)
• 2 Tablespoons Wheat Germ
• 1/2 cup of juice (apple, orange, or tropical fruit)
• 1 cup crushed ice

few fresh blueberry's for topping

Add fruit juice, bananas, yogurt to the blender
next add wheat germ, and maple syrup

then strawberries. Blend until smooth and then add in 1 cup of ice (adding more to thicken as needed.)

Top with berries and enjoy. My children love these, and I love the healthy vitamins in the fruit and Wheat Germ.

Fresh market day

This weeks shopping trip looks much different than the past. Today, I shopped the local produce market that is supplied by local farmers. If you read my last post, you know why the turn around in the way I feed my family. The documentary about food has changed the way we look at our food.

Even, my little boy is on board with the changes, and he used to ask for a Happy meal if we went anywhere near town. Now, he is informing everybody to stay away from fast food period. For snack time today I made smoothies. I will post the recipe a little later. They where delicious and healthy.

Here in Florida, it is just about planting season, and farmer husband is itching to get started. The land is tilled and turned. The seeds are being gathered. The fun is about to begin.

I am seeking all the information that I can find right now on clean/organic eating. Food that is raised and prepared the way the Creator created it to be. Cows should be pastured and eat grass, chickens should be pastured behind the cows for them to be healthy and clean, hogs should not be processed in filth. None of the animals we eat should need to be pumped with antibiotics. Eating animals that have been treated with antibiotics, can cause a human to become allergic to antibiotics. What about the growth hormone(rbst) given to milk cows to increase milk production and growth hormone to chickens to make them grow bigger faster. What have these hormones done to our bodies after so many years of consumption? Could this be contributing to the epidemic of obesity in our country? If it works on the cows and chickens, why would it not be effecting us? Just my thoughts...

I have become passionate about eating cleaner. Hope you are giving a second thought to your foods as well.

God bless and happy eats!

Do you know where your food comes from???

Last night we watched the documentary "Food, Inc." Basically, it is a film that was made to inform the American people where our food originates. From the raising of the animal to the grocery store. It was VERY eye opening.

Most people (myself) have absolutely no idea of the filth we have been eating and serving to our most precious. The meat! The meat is the biggest nightmare! Cows, chickens, and pigs that are injected with tons of antibiotics, steroids, and animal byproducts. They stand around in their own droppings all day. Chickens should normally take 79 days to mature before processing are injected with hormones to grow faster (about a month) and to grow very large breast (because the people like to eat white meat). Many die because the internal organs cannot keep up with the rapid growth (it is unnatural growth). Then the processing plants wash the chickens in ammonia.




Can you imagine the effect that these chemicals are having on our bodies when we eat these products day after day. America is saturated with cancer, diabetes, and obesity. It seems to me, that our food is the problem. Not just the over eating, it is WHAT we are eating.



Cows, did you know that cows should only be eating grass. When a cow eats a diet of grass, the grass in the stomach kills the bacteria e-coli. But these mass producing beef farms are feeding the cows corn (makes the cow larger than a normal grass fed cow) and more prone to e-coli. In the film, there is a heartbreaking story about the death of a child because he ate a e-coli contaminated fast food hamburger. The beef company knew the meat was contaminated and didn't recall it for seventeen days. The little boy died in eleven. Cows should be pastured and fed a grass and hay diet. Not raised in mud and manure and fed a diet of corn and chemicals.



Fast food, you really don't want to know what you have eaten if you've ever gone through a drive through. Animal meat fillers.....I'll just leave it at that. (It sickens me to know how many times I have fed this to my children.)




What can we do???? First, get informed. Rent this film. Shop local produce markets and farmer's markets. SUPPORT your local organic farmers. Yes, it is going to cost you a little more to eat cleaner. Eat less meat and when you eat meat, buy organic or Greenwise meat. I started this a week ago. Publix Greenwise meat is more expensive but I would rather know what my family is eating is clean and NOT filled with poison. Buy organic in season produce. Much of the out of season produce in grocery stores has been sprayed with a gas to make it look fresh.


Grow a backyard garden. This is inexpensive and very rewarding in many ways. Good healthy grown fruits and veggies! Plus the added bonus of family time working together. Make it a family mission to work the earth. God will provide and reward your efforts. Our family began gardening years ago, and we love it so much. Every year our garden gets bigger and bigger.


Listen, until last week, I had never purchased an ORGANIC product. I thought organic was a marketing label to justify the mark-up price of produce. My eyes have been opened to the importance of eating clean food. This has really derailed my coupon/frugal way of shopping. I will be reworking my menus and grocery list with little to no processed foods and more of the good stuff. I figure by not eating out because restaurants use large quantities of these mass produced meat products (scary) we will be saving about forty dollars a week. Adding that to the grocery budget, we should probably come out about the same budget wise.


Please see this film and make an informed decision about what you eat. America needs a food revolution! If Americans change our eating/buying habits the food producers will have to change their ways. Somewhere, they LOST their way. BIG TIME! We have a say. Three meals a day!

Job suffers........Day 29 of 365

In the Chronological Bible, we are on day 29, and poor Job is in a world of hurt. This man has been through the worst imaginable suffering. He had it all....Family, land, livestock, and the respect of being an elder. Among his people, he was considered a great man. In the eyes of God, Job was a fine man.

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. "Where have you come from?" the Lord asked Satan.
Satan answered the Lord, " I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going on."
Then the Lord asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless-a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil."

Like I said before, poor Job. That's all the evil one needed. A praise from God on His servant Job. To the evil one, it was a taunt.

Satan replied to the Lord, "Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!"

Well there you have it! Satan on the attack. Doing what he does ...attack. God allowed Satan to test Job. He took everything but Job's Life.

I feel so bad for Job. He experienced such anguish and grief that his friends didn't even recognize him. When three friends came upon Job on the road.

When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to show their grief. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.

Such suffering! After seven days, Job finds his words. A LOT of words. Then his friends chastise him for a while. And finally God speaks to Job...I can't wait to read what God says to Job, but that is tomorrow's reading. I know ultimately God restores Job's life and blesses him again, but I have never completely read Job's story for myself.

Devoting this time to God's Word has truly blessed my life beyond words. I feel like so much of God is being revealed to me for the very first time. What I want most in my life, is the strongest closest relationship with the Lord and to share it with my children. To reflect the Lord to others. Most days I stumble, but He is always there to dust me off and put me back on my path.

Eating from the pantry review

We are nearing the end of the month. I had intended to post more of my menu plans for the month, but my mind was a little pre-occupied the past couple weeks. I still managed to stick to my goal of eating from the pantry and freezer for January.

I just went over my $100 goal for the month. I found center cut chops for 1.79lb. and stocked up. The meats in the freezer were getting low, and I don't want to pay full price when the week is over. I managed to cook the turkey and a large roast over the weekend. These have made several meals.


The turkey.....sliced turkey and gravy with mash potatoes and veg.
turkey sandwiches
dark meat for turkey noodle soup (frozen for Friday dinner)
white meat for turkey potpie (frozen for Saturday dinner)
turkied (made up word) out after that.....


The chuck roast was served sliced with rice and veg.
open pot roast sandwiches w/gravy
and tonight beef quesadillas


Breakfast this week
cereal
blueberry muffins
waffles
oatmeal (for me everyday)
fruit


Lunch
sandwiches
tuna salad
grilled cheese and soup
bagel bite pizza's (kiddos favorite)
fruit cup



I will be continuing with the pantry challenge, but I am looking forward to shopping for deals again soon. I plan to continue using up everything in the pantry even into February. The new items will be rotated to the back.


Did you eat from the pantry this month? Did you save a bundle?



God has been SO good to us.....In every way! We have received so many blessings recently. Our house payment reduced due to a recalculation of our escrow account. We had been over paying. They sent us a payout check and we applied it to our loan balance. Trying to payoff this house ASAP. Some of my husband's guest gave him belated Christmas gifts in the form of restaurant gift cards. Those have come in nice during the month on days I just didn't want to cook. We are expecting a little tax refund this year and we are adding it into our savings.

Last January, we started the "Total Money Makeover" with Dave Ramsey. This past year we paid off all credit card debt, student loan debt, any other little sums we had out there. We are trying to attack our mortgage and balance of our one vehicle (one paid off). How wonderful it will be to be totally debt free one day. Personal income is the number one wealth building tool. Imagine having your whole salary with no monthly payments (except utilities). You could really build some wealth.


If you haven't read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, you should consider finding a copy. He really helps put your financial vision in perspective.


Having a vision and working toward the vision is key.

GOD IS SO GOOD AND FAITHFUL!

Praise report

Thank you to friends that have prayed on my behalf. I found out the lump is not cancer, praise God. I will spare you the yucky details, but it was actually a blocked pore. The lump is now gone, and my mind is at peace.

By the Grace of God go I!

Love to you,
Brandi

Blessings from the farm

She tends her birds and gathers her eggs.

Thankful for His provision. Our very first egg.



My kitchen....
It's the heart of our home.
The room I spend most of my day...cooking and cleaning.
Providing sustenance for the ones I love.

The labor of dough is my simple pleasure.
The smell of fresh bread baking is the scent of home.
Love lives here!





An afternoon at the pond with a hook and a pole.
This is life being lived.






My Love.
My Heartbeat.
My Treasure.



Thank you Father in Heaven, for this life.
Most importantly, Thank you for
your Son and His gift
of Eternal Life.