My Local Publix is Awesome July 21, 2009

A week and a half or so ago, I did my monthly shopping trip into the town about 30 miles away. I live in a very small rural town, which does have a grocery store, but some items are SO expensive, that it’s often worth it for me to shop elsewhere if I need more than just milk and other basics (though their meat sales are awesome). They also don’t have very many gluten-free options, besides what is naturally so (and Chex! yay!). So I take a long drive with a ton of kids in tow, and we make a day out of grocery shopping. Everyone comes back exhausted from all the searching, scanning aisles, the long drive, all the walking, and just brain fogged and the heat!

Part of this is because it’s literally a search in every single aisle of Publix to find something.
So I emailed my local Publix’s manager after our last trip. I didn’t get anything back. Then last night I got a phone call!

The manager wanted to talk to me about a whole bunch of different things, and to also tell me she’d taken at least one of my suggestions to heart and was going to implement it. Plus, adding a few additional foods I’d suggested! We talked for maybe 20 minutes, and she told me she’d been on vacation and didn’t get my letter until last Friday. But she wanted to make sure all her ducks were in a row before she called me. She said that she’d been getting a lot of complaints lately about the fact that you literally had to search the whole store for the GF food. Some is in the diabetic section, some in the baking section. It’s crazy. I’ve gotten so upset, using my months allowance on stuff I wouldn’t have bought if I’d had a better choice (quinoa macaroni noodles) then finding Tinkyada noodles in the diabetic section. The manager told me that even if the food was half eaten, that if I thought it was gross, found a better product at the store, whatever, that she knew I shopped there, and they’d take it back for the full price returned so I could get what I really wanted, but couldn’t find.
The manager told me she’s got a ton more gluten-free food in the warehouse, but they just simply don’t have room for it at the moment. She also said she’s getting the materials together to build an extra 8-10 feet on the Health Food section, to make a single GF section. She said until then, things are going to have to be all mixed in together, but she loved my idea to her about putting out ‘eye grabbers’ I think she called them. You know, the brightly colored signs that stick out and say *75% off* or *On Sale*, but instead, they are going to stay *Gluten-Free* How cool is that?!

So I’ve never met any other Celiacs here, I’ve started a group on Yahoogroups for local Celiacs, but this gives me hope that our Publix is being so cool and accommodating. Maybe I ought to put up a sign advertising the group there! It’d be so lovely to have a potluck where I could eat everything and my kids could play with other kids who ate gluten-free as well. (I’d also love to start a Celiacs club for people who need a support person at the hospital – but that’s another post)

I’m so so happy with the manager at Publix. It’s lovely to know that she really cares about her customers, and will really think about what they said. It’s also nice to know that our GF section is just going to get bigger and better! It may be a longer drive to Publix for me than some other places, but she’s definitely pulling me away from them! She also told me that I didn’t need to go to the Asian food store if I’d just tell her what I wanted. I laughed and told her that she could definitely get ahold of Mochiko, but Cassava flour was probably beyond her (and she wouldn’t want to go to all the trouble for something that wouldn’t give her much return).

Also, if you guys would give me a list of things you just cannot live without as far as GF things go. My list includes Pamela’s bread mix and Tinkyada noodles. Plus Mi-Del Arrowroot and Ginger cookies. But we haven’t had much of a chance to get new GF items and just try them out because of where we live (no trader joes or health food stores) so some suggestions for me, to suggest to the Publix Manager would be great!

Overall, I’m just tickled pink by the whole thing. It’s so nice to see that people really do care.

Meredith

Weekly Menu and Saving Money April 27, 2009

Egads! I’m horrible about posting these!!

First, Let me point you at a few places….And these are not all geared towards the Gluten Free… However, my recipes are…

BOGOfetcher

tells you weekly what all the Buy One Get One sales are. Mine are normally at Publix, with only a couple on Wednesdays at Harveys. However, BOGOfetcher doesn’t send the emails out until Thursday. So, if your local store like mine, does theirs on a specific day. I’d check their website. For instance, this Wed. My Harvey’s had a BOGO on red potatoes, 3.99.  Of course they all went into mashed potatoes and then the next day into potato salad, so they were gone in 2 days LOL, but they were awesome while they lasted.

Another place to get ideas:   A blog called 5DollarDinners.   This is kind of self explanatory.  heh. She talks about how she’s bought the sales, often with coupons as well, and what she makes out of them very cheaply. She’s only got 4 in her family versus my 6-9 depending on whether all the kids are here or not (We’ve added a Katy to the family) So a 5 dollar dinner that would feed all of us is truly an accomplishment. Usually they are around 8 to 10 dollars.

DealSeekingMom – another blog that is also self explanatory. She and a hoard of other deal seekers post their local prices, coupons etc. For instance, today I was alerted that KFC is unveiling their new grilled chicken and for today only they are giving away a piece FREE to any ol’ person who walks in! Hey, free bit o’ lunch if I’ve got to drive to town today!

So onto the menu. We were going to have Thai Chicken Soup today for dinner,  Only I totally spaced putting it AWAY after I made it (my kids came back from Florida so I was distracted) and I woke up this morning to find it on the stove *sigh*

Luckily it was just 1/4 of a bag of garbonzo beans (about 20 cents) Left over chicken bones, skin and drippings, simmered into soup, frozen, so really, I’d already used the chicken, so we’ll call it free. One head of cabbage – 38 cents and half a bottle of Thai sweet chili sauce (1.50) So all in all, it was a mistake that cost me a little over 2 bucks and a couple of hours in time. But I haven’t been feeling all that well lately and weirdly enough, that sweet chili sauce has been settling my stomach… Plus I just HATE wasting food.

So anyways. Now I have to come up with other things to eat…

Some of the things on sale this week include pork picnic roast at 99 cents a lb, I’ve already mentioned the BOGO potatoes, plus frozen broccoli, sausage and BOGO salad.

I’m seeing…

1. Bangers and Mash (mashed potatoes with sausages and gravy – comfort food from my childhood and Welsh Grams) I’ll post that recipe Tuesday, since my grandmothers seems to be ‘not normal’ LOL

2. Grilled Smoked Sausage plus grilled squash, and baked potatoes

3. Chicken soup with Rice (whole fryers are on sale) (all 9 of us will be here for this dinner and the other 2 are PICKY)

4. Salad with bacon vinagrette (since the salad’s that are on sale also include various other veggies) I’ll probably add some kidney beans from my pantry for extra protein.

5. Taquitos (baked, not fried) mexican rice (with pollo y tomate and cumin) and refried beans (from the freezer, homemade)

6. It’s Ian’s birthday and he’s requested Shepards Pie (basically a thick beef stew with a crust) and ‘pumpkin juice’ (it’s my honeys’ birthday as well and he says he looooves my Shepards Pie, so that will do)

7. Oldest Daughters birthday, she’s at school, so I’ll ask later today.

Looking at all this, besides the two birthday dinners, for which we have a ‘free rein’ type thing. Most dinners are going to cost about 8 dollars for all of us. Not bad huh?

Oh and I’ve got to recreate these two cakes for my children’s birthdays.  LOL

mandrake cake

We are figuring, mini terra cotta pots, ice cream innards, oreo toppings, and some sort of gooey candy for the mandrakes, maybe tootsie rolls, maybe that stuff that I can’t remember the name of now, or maybe some fondant to sculpt..

The 2nd cake is for my 14 yo.

Potter Puppet Pals Cake

Puppet Pals were invented by Neil Cicierega, see here
(so of course, I’m putting Wizard Swears on the Cake LOL her favorite is Voldemorts Nipples)

Of course, as a mother, I think they are REALLY dumb. However, he also does stuff like this next one, which I think is hilarious and very catchy (just see me grocery shopping when I run across Hamburger Helper)

Then, there is the teenage answer to this video that my birthday girl made with a Katy and a Noelle

Ok, on that note, it’s time to head to the grocery store!

Sculpey Clay on New Years Day January 2, 2009

Over on LiveJournal.com they have a group called 52_crafts.
Last year Sew, Mama, Sew had a quilting month, during which time I learned a WHOLE lot, created a whole lot, and my boys and I had a lot of fun making patchwork blocks. They have a flickr pool for the patchwork blocks and quilts created during that month, and it was all very very helpful in encouraging me to work on things I saw in my head. But what I really need is to be surrounded by other people like me. People who have the drive and talent, but just get sidetracked occasionally.
So doing a craft a week is perfect! I can do that! Sometimes It’ll probably be 3-5 things a day and other times it’ll be a bare bones, can’t believe I almost missed a deadline barely one! LOL.
However, this week is off to a good start.
I have a few things that make me grateful for the awesomeness that is sitting on a plate waiting to be fired right now.
First, my 14 yo Morgan wanted a poupu fruit best friend necklace, like what she saw for sale somewhere, however, she wants one that’s for 3 best friends. So she needed to make her own. I bought her sculpey and she just hasn’t gotten around to it.
Second, Pyramid Collection has some really cute stuff. But I *hate* it that I look at a lot of their stuff and say FIFTY DOLLARS! I could make that!! But of course, I never DO make em. But this one in particular has been sitting in my head for a while and I’ve always intended to make it, for oh, the past 3 years….

So at 4am on Dec 31,  my honey hopped the bus to Witchita, Kansas to help his mother pack up her house and move.
I’m bored, and I’m lonely, and I’ve read all the books that are here (honey took the books that I got for him for Christmas to entertain him on the 1.5 day Bus ride there) So I go start looking for stuff to watch on the internet and decide to catch up on some tv shows I haven’t seen since we don’t have cable anymore (financial decision).
CSI, yup, I saw the one where Warrick died, but nothing since. So about 15 minutes in, my hands start twitching for something to do… My family didn’t get a tv until I was 14, so I just never learned the trick of sitting still and just staring at something. I have to be DOING something.
Ok, well thinking about it, I gave away all my yarn since I haven’t finished a thing in about 3 years, I can’t embroider right now, I wouldn’t be able to actually watch the show since all the embroidery is pretty detail oriented right now.  I don’t feel like patching my blanket…  I know!  Sculpey Clay!
I go get it and proceed to making a fairy door. In ONE HOUR. I have STILL got it.  I should be teaching classes!
It is SO full of awesomeness!
Seriously.
I need to fire it, and get pictures of it (no camera *sigh*)
But it’s going in the etsy shop…

Now onto making other stuff!

Green Pondering over 2008 January 1, 2009

A *lot* of things have changed over 2008.

I think the two things that stand out most in my mind is my huge change in relationship status (from a military wife to single mom) and the change my house has undergone.

I’ve always been a firm believer in turning off the lights when you leave the room. Turning off the water when you brush your teeth, using dishpans in the sink, instead of wasting tons of water (and then using the water to water plants). But I’ve never really had children old enough to help, or husband who stood behind me on it (and most of the time we lived on base which really isn’t conducive to much but staying in your house and not making waves)

But this past year and a half saw us:

• putting up a clothes line and using cloth diapers (back to my roots like I’d done with my first child)
• Using cloth wipes  in the bathroom and on the baby,
• using all natural soaps made by my friend/sister Holly, that’s including in the laundry room (and adding pennyroyal and teatree oil to the detergent which in turn keeps off the mosquito’s outside).
• Making and using cloth market bags.
• Making a lot more of our clothing,
• putting greener light bulbs in every single light socket we have.
• Putting in a garden,
• saving our own seeds,
• canning,
• making my own vinegar,
• making my own bread, tortilla’s, muffins, cookies etc from scratch.
• The only pre-made snacks we buy now are crackers and popcorn.
• Catching rainwater (in my pitiful system of 5 five gallon buckets placed strategically, but it’s what we can afford) to water my porch plants
• if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down….
• replacing things around the house as we can afford it that save energy (dishwasher that does actually save us gallons of water, messing about with the toilets and adding new insides until they saved gallons of water, new light fixtures in places where the lights tend to stay on a lot or were really dim, so we used 3 or 4 lights on instead of one)
• freecycling things as we came across them and realized we didn’t use them, or hadn’t used them in at least a year.
• composting all our non-meat food waste and putting in a burn barrel (with ashes going to the composter)
• Planning grocery trips for once a month (using less gas) and planning them for the most efficient use of gas/time.
• Got started cleaning out the forest behind my house, so far almost an entire car has come out of there, not to mention literal bags of broken glass (wrapped in plastic bags seriously) old washers and dryers, whole bottles, string like you wouldn’t believe, an old fence laying down on the ground and lots and lots of rusty cans. (yes, my tetnus is up to date)
• actually USING my fabric stash instead of buying new fabric. I only bought things that I actually used right away with the exception of my Halloween dress (which I didn’t end up with time to sew) and I probably spent about 30 dollars total on fabric, and that includes PUL for cloth diaper making!

This Year, there are more things I’d like to do

• buy a pressure canner and canning a LOT more
• sell my creative endeavors in my etsy shop, versus leaving them laying about.
• put in raised garden beds
• composting all kitchen waste
• having a LOT larger garden
• planting bamboo as a living fence around my property line
• Finding a way to store my laundry water and use it for garden water
• Getting a pump hooked up on my shallow well to use for the garden and the kids pool (and maybe laundry) (this will be difficult since it’s against city code even though the well has been there forever, but I live next door to the city water guy)
• Finish cleaning out the forest behind my house and using that area for random woodland flowers, a place to hang out, and hanging lots of ‘fairy’ ornaments, mostly wind chimes and various glittery hanging things according to the kids.
• Put up an addition on the house
• fix the back porch
• getting the chicken tractor built and getting chickens
• researching whether goats are ok in town or not and getting 2 if it’s ok with town codes. Wanting a milking goat.
• most likely raising rabbits for meat
• growing my own grains for MY gluten-free flour (on my way with amaranth and beans, however rice will be a bit of a kicker LOL)
• Getting a grain mill

I’m sure there’s a LOT more that I’ve forgotten in each list, but with my 17 month old heading into nap time (we’ve been awake since almost 6am) she’s getting a bit toooo bandit like to comfortably think and stay on the internet anymore! LOL

Gluten Free Grocery Shopping August 28, 2008

I keep a master list of what I buy I call it ‘Pantry Stocked’

I don’t live in an area where I can buy all my groceries at one place. Or even two places. Some things are SO much cheaper at Walmart, some things are much much cheaper at the commissary (like a dollar less for milk). So basically, on my master pantry list, I color code the items I buy according to where I buy them from (where it’s cheapest, I figured that out by keeping all of my receipts for 3 months, which you should do anyways if you are diagnosed Celiac as you can claim them on your taxes). Then when it’s time to buy groceries (I buy twice a month usually every two weeks) I look over my master pantry list. Add extra items that are not normal stuff (like ice cream or popsicles). I Delete the stuff on the list that I don’t need, print it out, then close the program (not saving the deletes)

I also have my route planned out, for maximum gas efficiency since I usually need to visit at least 3 stores. Sometimes 4-5. I also utilize my local butcher store. You can buy 70lbs of meat for $80 there, and they allow substitutions. I usually end up with 10lbs of their homemade sausage, 10 lbs of chicken, 10 lbs of beef roast, 10 lbs of pork roast and 20 lbs of hamburger! I also menu plan. I’ve got a list of all our favorite dishes, which adds up to about 20 items depending on the season. Then we’ll pick out another 6-10 that are interesting sounding for new dishes to try (a lot of them hit our regular rotation and we’ve gotten rid of some stuff, like fried chicken). Leaving room in our rotation of dishes for leftover night.

I usually also make a couple of big pots of stew, and then freeze them into individual portions (usually Thai Chicken/cabbage and 20 bean ham soup). Same for rice pudding so the boys can have it for breakfast when they aren’t feeling like cereal. So all the ingredients for the menu need to be on the grocery list.

The things that aren’t available locally (sweet sorghum flour for instance) or are VERY expensive locally (Mi-del gluten-free cookies are 5 dollars a bag ack!) I buy online, either from an online retailer (see links at the bottom of the page) or in bulk from amazon.com (free shipping after a certain amount of money and LOTS cheaper if you need to buy lots of one particular item, say bread mix, cereal, or crackers that you use a lot of in one month, we are talking probably a savings of about 20 dollars total for each bulk item ordered for me)

For those of you who read this and are gluten free, what are some of your family staples?

I’ll be bringing that list here later (it’s on a different computer that I can’t get on right now)

Just as a note, these are all places that I’ve ordered from in the past, gotten prompt, good service, and had good prices. This is not in any way shape or form a complete list of places to buy from ok? For a better list of links I’d join the Silly Yaks yahoo group

Allergy Grocer

Gluten Free Mall

Gluten Solutions

Gluten Free Beer

Gluten Free Pantry

Money, Chores, and Children August 21, 2008

So I’m considering two things.

First, ‘allowance’

I would like to start an allowance type thing starting the 1st of the October. There was a really really good post here about it.

I’m figuring I’m going to do 2 dollars per year a month (that’d be 28 dollars a month for Morgan and 18 a month for Ian) It’ll teach them saving, spending, etc. I’m going to go ahead and get Morgan a bank account online (probably have her dad set it up for her and have him be the executor, since he’s more likely to put a ton of money in it than I)

The other thing. I’m not really big on paying my kids for chores. They have things they are expected to do around the house simply because we are a family, we all live here, and we all contribute to the mess and we all contribute to the peace and serenity that the house can be when we keep it picked up regularly.

So all that said. *I* think that the chores my kids have right now are fairly easy chores. Morgan and the boys have some friends that do WAY more work than they do, and they have some friends that don’t do a darn thing (and Morgan says those are the friends that get bad grades, are fairly irresponsible, and selfish to boot, I see what she’s talking about when she points out their names)

I also remember working in fast food (crew trainer at McD’s) back when Ian and Owyn were babies I got SO sick of teens coming in and not even knowing how to wipe counters down, sweep or mop. Let alone clean bathrooms or wash their hands regularly. When I’ve got to train a 17 yo how to wipe a counter, that’s just  wrong ok? What’s wrong with their parents?

Morgan vacuums when I ask her too (usually a couple of times a week)
She does the dishes every night, along with that, she’s supposed to do ALL of the dishes, the ones that don’t fit in the dishwasher, are supposed to get hand washed and put in the drainer, she’s supposed to wash the counters and stove. Put away dinner food and take out the garbage. Also she’s supposed to wash Kaia’s high chair tray (I wash it about 3-4 times a day before that)
Oh and she does her own laundry, when she runs out, like maybe 2 times a month. (It’s supposed to be every weekend)
Of all of these, she does the dishes. Most of them.
‘Forgetting’ to look around the house for dishes, ‘forgetting’ to wash stuff that is clearly visible and by the sink, ‘forgets’ to wash a couple of the counters, ‘forgets’ to wash Kaia’s high chair tray, ‘forgets’ to put the food away a lot of the time (3 times just last week, ruining a lot of food, the dogs knocked the stove over to get to the chicken on top of the stove and broke pieces off of the stove) She whines badly when I ask her to vacuum (which I expect, she’s a young teenager) and doesn’t always do it when asked.

The boys take out all of the houses dirty clothes about every other day, putting them in the appropriate dirty clothes separators. They take out the bathroom trashes, they help pick up the living room a couple of times a day (for me to vacuum and just because the mess gets on my nerves). They put dishes away every night (sometimes nicely, sometimes badly) They do some yardwork, help me keep an eye on Kaia while *I’m* cleaning or gardening, they clean their room a couple of times a week, they pick up yard trash that blows into our yard, and pick up sticks and stuff so Gary or I can mow the lawn. They also change out the litter box a couple of times a week and they are in charge of feeding and watering the animals (2 very large dogs and a cat) twice a day. We make our own dog food, plus the dogs need to be separated to eat so it’s a bit more involved than the normal dog feeding…
Ian whines a LOT, Owyn helps gladly 99% of the time.

I honestly feel that the boys are doing more work weekly than Morgan.

I’d also like to come up with some sort of regular schedule, check off list etc for Morgan and the boys.

What is your guy’s opinions on kids and chores? (since you already read my soapbox on that stuff) What about kids and allowances?
If you have kids, what are some of the jobs that they do around the house if any?

My other thought on this, brought to my attention a couple of days ago by a homeschooling friend of mine in OK is what kind of skills am I teaching my children as they grow to adult hood? Witness those poor teens when I worked at McD’s! What kind of skills did their parents give them? Little to none I bet. I believe mine are ahead of the other kids their age for two simple reasons. They know how to get along with people of all ages, rather than just people of their age groups. Their social skills amaze me sometimes (then there’s the times Owyn spots someone not quite ‘normal’ in his world at the store and is quite vocal about it LOL), then there is the chores. Ian can cook quite a few things, pancakes, asian soups, mac n cheese, muffins, cookies, grilled sandwiches, baked potatoes, and lots of other things. My brother had to be taught to cook after he moved out. I had to teach my ex-husband how to cook when we got married (he took to it like a fish to water honestly, he’s a credit to me LOL)

The kids and I regularly grocery shop together and we make up monthly menu’s with a budget, we comparison shop at the stores, we got to different stores for different things and talk about why. We comparison price at our local stores for Gluten-free stuff versus ordering online (even with shipping, it’s often cheaper to buy packaged stuff online) but we’ve found it’s cheaper to buy our flours from the local Asian food store. Yep. WE figured it out. Not ME.

So yeah, they are learning life skills with their chores and their homeschooling. They are learning to do laundry, cook and clean. They are learning how to do outside chores. I’m teaching them budgeting and leading by example in what we NEED versus what we WANT. And that hard work to get what you REALLY want is needed a lot of the time. That taking care of the things you have properly is nesessary if you want to have nice things when you don’t have a disposible income. But my discussion with Kit (homeschooling friend) really got me thinking about what I AM teaching them.  Is it enough? Do I go to far? Did I go far enough? Morgan needs to learn how to use tools, how to balance a checkbook and properly use a bank account. How to pay bills, shop for insurance, how to care for a vehicle. And so do the boys.. So I’ve thought of things I haven’t taught them. Yet. *grin*