Looks Are Deceiving

I pinned Breakfast Cookies.  Looks delicious.  Tastes like rubber.  I found the container this a.m. with all 5 chocolate chips picked off each cookie and several with one bite taken out of them.  Unfortunately My Man overheard from the back of the house the general consensus of the cookie taste and opted out of having one for breakfast.

I'm not a good salesman.

I hate waste, so I guess I will be eating these until they are gone.  Slowly chewing and chewing.

Gotta go delete that pin.

Real Food - Real Complaints

It seems like it's been much longer than 10 days since we started eating only real foods.  I will admit that once or twice for the sake of convenience, I had to throw out a few processed things to my family.  This week the $2 Wacky Pack at Sonic sounded pretty good to 2 little Fish Sticks who had been shopping with their Mama all morning.

Here's some of my feedback in bullet points thus far:

** It does require a bit more planning - especially for breakfast.  I've been spending time in the evening throwing together muffins, biscuits, etc.

** Packed lunches are the biggest challenge.  My Fish Sticks say they miss the more snacky things like chips or pretzels.  They miss the variety of items in their lunch boxes also.

** Suppers haven't changed much at all.  Some things have made it better like homemade salad dressing and fresh parmesan instead of processed.

** Breakfast is so much more healthy.  I have been making 1/2 gallon of homemade crockpot yogurt every other day to keep up with their yogurt intake.  We've been making homemade granola and eating them together with berries or fresh fruit. 

** Natural sweeteners taste just as good as processed and in moderation are tons better for us.

So far, no regrets from this Mama.  I can already see some permanent changes that I will make after my challenge is over.  Anyone else doing this and loving or hating it?  Any drop outs?

Pinning It & Making It

My pin that I actually made lately has been homemade flavored coffee creamer.  It comes from Next to Heaven blog and you can find it pinned on my Pinterest boards.

I've made the Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer several times.  It's very yummy but if you don't strain it, the pumpkin settles at the bottom of the coffee cup and makes for a yucky last sip.  The smell and taste is very good though.  I guess I should take the time to strain.  :)

I also tried the Peppermint Mocha.  It was very good and very chocolatey.

Next to try is Cinnamon Strudel and Chocolate Almond.  I'm nuts about almond flavoring.

These creamers are not as sweet as the store bought so some of you might want to add some stevia to yours.  The recipes fall right in line with our "real eating" plan so I suggest you give them a try and see what you think.  Your kids will want to drink them plain if you decide they are not great in your coffee.  :)

Walgreens this Week

No photo this week but I went to Walgreens and got a few good deals.

My Man needs Children's Allegra and they had it for $9.99.  In RP 10/7 coupons, they had $4 off adult Allegra.  The coupon worked and I was able to get 4 boxes for $5.99 each!

Oral B toothbrushes were $2.99 with $2 RR and I had a 50 cent coupon from 10/28 PG making it 49 cents.  Crest mouthwash was $2.99 with $2 back in RR and I had a 75 cent off coupon from the same paper as the toothbrush, making it 24 cents.  They had Nice brand sandwich bags for BOGO making them $1 each.  I stocked up on those and bought 6 boxes for school lunches.  Halloween items were clearanced at 75% off.  I got a pack of 6 candy necklaces for 37 cents, 2 bags of candy corn for 37 cents each and a box of gummy body parts for 99 cents.  Those will be stashed away for special treats.  The candy corn will be for "yours truly" to soothe myself after a rotten day.  :)  Once again I had stocked up 5,000 points so I got $5 off my final purchase.  Not bad.

Oops - A Tad Bit Late

I just remembered that I totally forgot to show you  my weekly deals this week at CVS and Walgreens.  Although it's too late for you to grab them now, I will go ahead and show you what I got.

Walgreens was pretty slow this week but I did get Advil PM (4 count) for free.  They had them for $1 each and I had a $1 off coupon (actually several coupons) from RP 10/28.  I got 4 of them for free.

CVS had some great deals.  Their P&G products were buy $30 and get $10 ECB.  Dawn dish soap was 99 cents and I had a 75 cent off coupon (making it 25 cents each without the ECBs!), Charmin 12 pk was $5.77 with a 25 cent coupon in Sunday's paper and Bounty 6 pack was $5.77 with a 50 cent coupon in Sunday's paper.  For 3 packs of toilet paper, 1 pack of paper towels and 8 dish soaps, I paid $14.

Revlong Beauty Tools were buy 2 and get $7 ECB.  There was a $1 off coupon in 10/14 SS.  I got nail polish for $5.99 and a liner sharpener for $4.99.  The total for both products was $1.98.

Overnight Granola Cereal

I have made many granola recipes over the years and basically all of them are similar to one another and good.  The reason why I like this recipe is because it's simple and I can make it the night before.

It's from TEACH magazine, the Sanity Saving Breakfast Ideas booklets that I love so much.

Lorries Lazy Granola

**Mix 1/2 cup each of brown sugar (I used sucanat), oil (I used coconut oil) and raw honey in microwave safe bowl.  (You can use the same measuring cup if you measure the ingredients in this order since the oil washes out the sugar and slicks the cup down which  makes the honey pour right out.)

**Bring to a low boil in microwave.

**Add 1 ts/ cinnamon and 2 tsp. vanilla (I've tried almond also)

**Add 1 cup pecans (I use whatever I have on hand.  Last night it was half sunflower seeds, half sliced almonds)

**Pour over 7 cups of oats in large pan (like metal lasagna pan)

**Stir until totally coated

**Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, take out and stir well.  Put it back in the oven, which you have turned OFF and go to bed.  Wake up to wonderful, homemade granola for breakfast!

Day 1

The Halloween candy is put up and we are geared up to start Day 1 of our month of "real foods."

For breakfast, I made Lorrie's Lazy Granola the day before.  (Recipe coming tomorrow)

The Fish Sticks ate it over plain yogurt with honey and I had it with some milk with sliced bananas on the top. 

 For snack we had 3 slices of blocked sharp cheddar with 4-5 Triskets.

Lunch was natural peanut butter with fruit spread on whole grain bread, hummus with carrots and grapes.

Side note - I bought these things at Aldi and although the peanut butter and fruit spread have a small amount of sugar, they are free of corn syrup and about 1/4 the price of the 100% natural things I found at Kroger.  It was worth the purchase to save the money.

For supper, I have pintos brewing in the crock pot for my favorite refried beans, ground turkey with taco seasonings, and all the trimmings for a Mexican buffet.

So far so good, if I can get my 5 year old to understand "Mommy said NO HALLOWEEN CANDY!"  :)