I picked up a couple of pounds of ground lamb at the farmer's market this week and couldn't wait to make gyro meat for Greek salads. Unfortunately, when I went in the fridge to get the lettuce, it was rotten already. :( I didn't like the idea of just eating plain gyro with tzatziki either, so I decided to whip up something that I hoped would come out like a flexible flatbread. It worked! I'm not sure what to call these, they can be anything from a thick flatbread to a thin tortilla or crepe depending on how much liquid you use. I made ours medium thickness, a little thicker than a tortilla but still foldable so that they would work for gyros.
Primal Flatbread/Tortillas
1 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 jumbo egg (1 regular plus 1 yolk would probably work)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup milk of choice
Butter/ghee/bacon grease for greasing pan
Whisk together dry ingredients and cheese, and in a separate bowl whisk together wet, starting with 1/4 cup milk. Combine together, batter should be pourable (like pancake batter), add more milk to thin the batter if you want thinner tortillas/crepes. Preheat cast iron or other non-stick frying pan to medium heat and grease, pour in batter, and flip when the edges get dry and you see bubbles in the batter. Re-grease pan as needed (just as you would with pancakes). This recipe is a small batch, it made 4 flatbreads.
If you're interested, this is the absolute best recipe for gyro meat ever. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/traditional-gyro-meat/ I actually baked the gyro loaf in my new Instant Pot and it worked quite well! I put the meat into a 2qt. round glass baking dish, put a cup of water into the pot, and used the metal rack with handles to lower it in. Pushed the meat/stew button, bumped it up to an hour cooking time, and wha-la! Then I just sliced it thinly and threw it in the frying pan (already greased from making flatbreads) to crisp it up. No photos because we inhaled it!
Yesterday was a beautiful day. We spent most of it outside, building another raised bed, fixing the motion activated sprinkler, making a pea trellis, and transplanting the tomatoes.
Another exciting moment was our first harvest of the season--a radish! Miss A did the honors of taste testing and declared it yummy.
When I looked at my phone this morning, I saw the dreaded red triangle on the weather app. I initially thought it was because of the storms today, but it was actually a freeze warning. Of course, a freeze warning right after we transplanted the tomatoes. Time to break out the plastic again.
Spring has been pretty busy, with the birthday party, family visiting, softball, etc. I haven't had much time for blogging. My eldest, Mister X, is home for spring break and we plan to take our first backcountry camping trip once the weather clears up. I'm excited, we all have hammocks now and the Cherokee National Forest is gorgeous in spring.
Miss A had very specific wishes for her birthday this year. She wanted a "What Does the Fox Say" party, a fox carrot cake, and BBQ from a nearby restaurant. I was skeptical that I could pull off a fox party--while there are sellers on Etsy that make printable fox party themes, I didn't want to resort to that unless I had to. The party was a hit, the kids had fun, and the song did not get on our nerves as much as I'd thought.
Here are some of the things that I did:
Pin the Tail on the Fox - This was so cheap and easy! I bought a piece of foam board and chevron wrapping paper at Dollar Tree. Wrapped the foam board with the paper for the background. Found the fox image at SuperColoring, colored the image at the website and saved it, and then used PosteRazor to print it poster sized on multiple standard sheets of paper. Then I cut out the fox image, cut off the tail, laminated the tail for durability, and glued the rest of the fox to the paper. Put a thumbtack through the tail for pinning, and added text printed out from MS Word. It's hard to see, but the speech bubble says "Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow!".
Fox Pinata - this was more difficult. I found the inspiration at Oleander and Palm. Even though the website said it was out of stock, I found the star shaped pinata at our local Target. Miss A and I made a huge mess of the homeschool room ripping off the existing tissue paper, and then painted it with orange paint so that the remaining bits didn't show through. Then I took orange tissue paper and cut it into strips and unlike the inspiration who had fringe scissors, painstakingly cut the paper into fringe and glued them on. We filled it mainly with party favors - things like wedding bubbles, whistles, compasses, bead necklaces, etc. along with some all-natural candy. FYI, I do not recommend the Target star pinata for younger kids. It was virtually indestructible, and the adults ended up having to smash it open because none of the kids could, even with a real softball bat.
Michael's craft stores are a treasure trove of fox themed stuff right now! We scored a fox stamp, notebooks for favor bags, mini-clothespin foxes, a little fox dish, thank you cards (and plain cards, which would be great for invitations, wish I'd found them sooner!) and their Creatology section has a Woodland theme that includes fox stickers and craft projects. They also have plastic fox toys in the toy section, but our store didn't have enough for all of our guests.
Goodie Bags - just paper lunch sacks, stamped with foxes, holes punched and tied with ribbon, and names clipped on with fox clips.
Fox Masks - I found the template on illistyle. Just 3 colors of felt, each piece of felt made at least 4 pieces, plus the black pieces are very small. Cut, glue (I used hot glue), and attach an elastic band or ribbon to tie it on. I had debated on having the kids make these themselves (with regular glue) but worried that they would have trouble waiting for the glue to dry. The foam sticker kits were much easier for the kids to do.
Fox Cake - Miss A insisted on a carrot cake for her birthday, and while I had seen some cute fox cakes using icing, I had the idea of using shredded carrots (mixed with a dusting of sugar) for fox fur instead. She used the small holes on a cheese grater to shred the carrots while I was making the cake. I used Primal Palate's primal carrot cake recipe, and after frosting with cream cheese icing I sprinkled on the carrot fur, and then melted some Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips with a little coconut oil and used a squeeze bottle to make the eyes, nose, and whiskers. The ears are just card stock and marker, I had initially planned to use chocolate for those too (hardened on parchment paper and attached with toothpicks), but at this point it was very late the night before the party and I ran out of time. The cake was a hit - folks at the party couldn't believe that it was gluten (and grain) free.
Ice Cream Ball - Not a Fox related item, but I wanted to include it because it has been well worth the money. We got the YayLabs! Ice Cream Ball a while back for a get-together, and I don't think we'll ever buy ice cream again. Not only does it make great ice cream, you control the ingredients, and most importantly it keeps kids busy and having fun while waiting for the main event! Just add cream (coconut cream works too!), sugar (or stevia/honey/etc.), flavoring, and roll it around on the ground for 30 minutes.
Miss A had a blast and her friends did too, so I think we pulled it off!!
I love it when I wing a recipe (or like this one, combine two) and it turns out amazing. Unfortunately I also have a bad habit of not writing it down and never being able to re-create it. This time, I will document and share it here!
I love lamb shoulder chops--they're a cheap way to get tasty, hormone-free, grass-fed meat. Publix had them on sale this week for $3.99/lb. Their lamb cuts (but not ground lamb) are usually from Australia, where raising lamb on pasture is the norm, so they're typically grass-fed. I realized that I didn't have enough time to cook the chops the way I normally do in the oven. I also was at a loss on what to serve with them when it hit me--lamb goes great with Greek seasonings, and I had tomatoes and green beans. I also had feta cheese but once I got wrapped up in cooking I totally forgot to use it.
Greek Lamb Shoulder Chops
4 lamb shoulder chops
1 tbs. extra virgin olive oil (more if needed)
salt & pepper
1 small sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1.5 cups beef stock
1 bag of frozen fancy green beans
1 large can of diced tomatoes
Feta cheese for garnish/topping (optional, I forgot)
Heat olive oil in a large pan (stock pot, deep frying pan, or dutch oven would also work) on medium high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over lamb chops, then sear for 2-3 minutes per side or until nicely browned. Remove the chops from the pan, lower heat to medium, and saute onions until translucent (add more oil if needed). Add garlic and cook for another minute or two, and then deglaze the pan with the beef stock, letting it reduce and darken for a couple of minutes. Put the chops back in the pan, add frozen green beans, canned tomatoes, and seasonings. Do your best to mix them around a bit. Increase heat to medium high, bring to a boil, and then turn it down to a rapid simmer. I stirred and checked the chops periodically for tenderness, but overall I believe they simmered for around an hour, lid off for the last 20 minutes to help the sauce thicken.
I was floored by how good this was, and even my food critic Miss A kept raving about how she loved it. I would have a picture of it plated, but we inhaled it and went for seconds! I imagine this recipe would work wonderfully in a slow cooker, which I don't have right now. My trusty Hamilton Beach cracked (leaving my counter steeped in chicken stock...) and I am anxiously awaiting it's backordered replacement--an Instant Pot Duo60. It does everything--pressure cooking, slow cooking, searing, steaming, rice cooking, yogurt making, etc. I've wanted one for a couple of years now but vowed to use my crock pot until it died. Guess I got my wish!
I'm back on Facebook, I was away for 3 weeks though which was a pretty good run. I've been paring down all the liked pages and junk on my feed which is helping a lot with the time wasting factor. Our TV viewing has been greatly reduced as well, we will watch Walking Dead on Amazon tonight (trying my best to avoid spoilers) but the TV isn't on all evening like it used to be. Miss A has been sticking to educational fare, like the Magic School Bus.
This weekend was fun, I took miss A to softball practice Saturday morning and stopped by a nearby farm for grass-fed meat and eggs on our way home. The farmer and his family were headed out canoeing that afternoon, we had wanted to go ourselves but thought it was supposed to rain all day. I checked the weather and the rain had been pushed back until late, so I called my husband and he got our canoe and fishing gear loaded up on the truck. After a quick lunch we headed to Parksville Lake (Lake Ocoee) to test the plastic weld patch on the boat and do a little fishing. Didn't catch any fish aside from a teeny bass, Miss A was disappointed that we didn't catch dinner. She got a lot of practice casting though and is doing a lot better. Now if she can just learn to be patient and watch the bobber instead... The sun even came out and warmed us up, and we got a good workout paddling back to the boat ramp when the trolling motor ran out of juice. Now that we know the patch is holding, I think our next trip out will be either the lower Ocoee or Hiwassee. Sunday wasn't as exciting, just catching up on chores and preparing the garden for the freeze. We had a big sheet of plastic leftover from the moving supplies that was the perfect size to staple over the beds. I also repurposed a small step-lid trashcan from our RV into a compost bin for the kitchen. The inner bucket has a handle that makes it easy to tote out to the compost pile. Now I just need to stop accidentally putting things into the trash that can go into the compost! Our tomato seedlings really took off this weekend, and to my surprise some of the Cherokee Purple seeds have finally sprouted. Miss A is thrilled that her favorite tomatoes (Amana Orange) are the biggest and strongest of the bunch.
Busy week ahead, after school today we'll pick up the night guard my dentist made for the jaw pain and stop by the dairy for some milk. Tomorrow is our library day and a softball scrimmage. Wednesday Aldi is having another sale on organic grass-fed ground beef, it's good timing because the farm we usually get ours from had a processing mishap. While I'd rather buy local, stocking up on the rare sales like this helps stretch the budget. Then Thursday and Friday we'll be cleaning and preparing for Miss A's 6th birthday party on Saturday! She wanted a "What Does the Fox Say?" themed party, I've collected lots of ideas and inspiration and will do a post on it next week.
Who would have thought that the worst enemies of our garden so far are our very own cats?
These two may look innocent, but they have been digging in the raised beds. The main culprit is Needles, the grey kitten. I know this because she was kept indoors for a week after being spayed, and we had no incidents during that time. We installed a motion activated sprinkler and chalked it up to that, but nooooo, the very day after we let her back out, I see one of the beds has been dug in, despite the sprinkler. Thankfully it was one I haven't planted anything in yet. She thought that the chicken wire I put over top of the other one was a comfy kitty hammock too. Mr. Moo has only been guilty of jumping in the bed once because he wanted me to pet him instead of planting seeds.
Our indoor cats are in on the action as well. Nora, the 16 year old grumpy kitty, thinks that broccoli sprouts are delicious. She normally can't jump very high, but my daughter uses a step stool to reach the upper shelves to water them, and guess who used it to have a sprout snack... See the green on her lip? Busted.
Callie hasn't been that destructive (yet...) but she seems to think that we are not going to need this tray for the marigolds and herbs I need to start this week. She is going to be disappointed when I show her otherwise.
I don't know how many years I have had homemade laundry detergent recipes bookmarked but never actually tried to make any. I even lost a bar of Fels-Naptha that traveled with us through 2 moves, and the box of Borax that was intended to go with it was used on bugs in the camper instead.
I was puzzling over what I would use to store it when I realized I had a big #10 can of banana chips in storage that I had promised to open for my daughter. I even found a printable label here to make it all fancy. I based it on the recipe from One Good Thing by Jillee, which is a "trial size" batch. I typically use liquid detergent, but was willing to give this a whirl because liquid recipes are more difficult and make huge 5 gallon buckets full. I didn't have OxyClean, but a commenter said that it wasn't necessary so I just left it out. I also used plain epsom salts in place of the crystals. This isn't a super natural recipe unfortunately because of the fragrance in Biz, but I am still searching for a fragrance free enzyme booster.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
1 bar grated Fels-Naptha soap
3 cups Borax
2 cups Super Washing Soda
3/4 cup baking soda
1 cup epsom salt
1/2 cup Biz enzyme booster
All of the ingredients should be easy to find, I got mine in the laundry section of my local Publix. I used a rotary cheese grater to grate the soap, it took no time at all. Combine all the ingredients and shake to mix. That's it! Based on comments from the original recipe, I use 1 tablespoon per load in my HE washer, it would be 2 in a regular top loader.
I tested it out on a load of towels, putting the powder directly in the washer rather than the dispenser. It worked amazingly well! I didn't use any softener (usually I do vinegar), and they came out fluffy, soft, no static (!!!), and yet still absorbent! WIN. I'll update later once we've used it on clothes for a couple of weeks, but I'm already impressed.
Yesterday we had fun with food coloring. I don't use it in actual food (petroleum based dyes that are banned in some countries, yum) but bought some for a couple of art/science experiments. First we made swirly art with milk. She put a few drops of food coloring into a bowl with a shallow layer of milk (will not work with skim, needs to be whole or at least 2%). Then she dragged a q-tip dipped in dish soap across the surface to make swirls, which I explained was a reaction between the soap and the fats in the milk. It was really cool to watch, however I strongly suggest covering your workspace in newspaper, as we now have some rather bright colored stains on our unfinished butcher block island to remind us of this project...
Then we moved on to making gluten free play dough from a recipe I found here. She was quite thrilled to be using the stove on her own for the first time, which reminds me that I keep meaning to do a kitchen skills day soon...
The dough did not turn out quite as well as we'd hoped, probably because I had to substitute tapioca starch for cornstarch. Still, it was fun to make and she enjoyed playing with it, even though it wasn't quite as doughy as it should have been.
I think our next food coloring project will be Borax Bouncy Balls. And this time I will buy some corn starch just for the project, and resist the urge to use it for a quick gravy. :P
We started the milk fast on Monday. We haven't been perfect, both my husband and I gave in to a snack in the late afternoon, but most of our intake was from raw milk, along with a kefir and berry smoothie at dinner time. I actually felt somewhat ill after the snack (a teeny slice of leftover gluten free pizza) so I guess that was a good reminder. I went back and read newsletters from when Free The Animal did his raw milk/kefir intervention, and he had good success with it even with easing into it and having food occasionally, so I don't feel so bad. I felt fine for most of the day, a bit hungry but much less than I expected. I did get a headache in the early evening, we were working in the garden and I suspect it was from dehydration. I haven't been thirsty because of all of the fluids from the milk, but I've also been going to the bathroom a lot so I'll have to make sure I get more water in along with the milk.
The weather is so strange, it was sunny and 72 on Monday, got up around 80 yesterday, and yet it's going to turn bitter cold tonight. I really hope this is winter's last gasp. I continued to have a headache all day yesterday, not sure if it's detoxing from the fast, dehydration (I am drinking water too), or a potential tooth issue seeing as I've had an achy jaw for several days. I don't think it's caffeine withdrawal because I am still having a shot of cold espresso in my morning and mid-afternoon cups of milk. I put down the chicken wire and weed barrier in the new raised bed, took my daughter to softball practice, and ran a few errands, and that really wiped me out. I kinda see why the original medical milk diet called for bedrest... Unfortunately, all the working outside has caused me to neglect indoor chores and I have to play catch up on those.
My husband and I have decided that once we finish the milk that's in the fridge we are going to switch over to a strict Paleo style diet for the rest of the month. It's been difficult to drink enough milk (or carry enough with us) to sustain our current level of physical activity, and that isn't negotiable because we have to get the garden going in time for spring. Still, it's been an interesting experiment, and I might try it again during a more suitable time when I'm able to incorporate more rest.
I know that I announced our raw milk fast earlier this week, but it's been a rough start. We ran out of milk and had the dairy's milk schedule wrong, so that pushed things back until Wednesday. Then Aunt Flo and Uncle GI trouble showed up (they tend to come together) and the latter made keeping myself satisfied and hydrated difficult. My husband forgot his thermos too, so all in all it's been a fail week. We're going to start back up with it Sunday, with the hopes that starting on a weekend will help us get a better hold on it. Saturday is super busy and involves a lot of running around, but Sunday we'll have a day where we can just get into the hang of drinking just milk, enjoy the warm weather, and work on building the second raised bed and a compost system. I'm looking forward to it, especially right this minute because I made a bad choice for lunch (GF fish sticks) and I'm suffering from the "food funk". Racing heart, dizzy, etc. as my body struggles to digest it. I didn't have this trouble at all when I was just drinking milk.
We have still been limiting TV, not entirely but a definite reduction, and I'm still off of Facebook. Finished the Divergent book series ::sobs:: and now need to find something else to read, maybe I'll finally crack open the books about backyard chickens, composting, etc. that I've amassed in recent months. My daughter just finished school for the day, now it's time to re-pot our tomato seedlings! I'll have to take special care with the Cherokee Purple, only a few seeds sprouted and those are the ones I'm looking forward to most. The sun is out and she is begging to go outside and finish planting peas in the garden. C'mon food funk, go away, I have too much I want to do today!
Hi, I'm Meesha. I've been posting to this blog for a couple of months now, but haven't had the courage to announce to anyone that it exists...until now.
The main point of Traditionally Primal is to document and share our journey into living a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle. Traditionally = eating local pastured meats/eggs/dairy, gardening, canning, raising chickens, fermented foods, natural cleaning and health, homeschooling, etc. Primal = Primal Blueprint, the book that inspired me two years ago to ditch grains, drastically clean up my diet, and discover the source of several health issues. Prescription bottles as a daily fact of life are a thing of the past.
We've had many false starts, but for some reason I am feeling a serious push to truly get where we want to be. Spring is just around the corner, and I don't want to waste a minute of it. We're settled into the new house, hello acreage! My kombucha and kefir are doing their thing, the first raised bed garden is in the front yard, the seeds are sprouting indoors, we have a chicken tractor lined up and just need to go get it...
We are doing something crazy this week. We are going on a raw milk fast, along with limiting technology (phones, computers, TV) to a bare minimum. We haven't had cable for more than 2 years, but Netflix and Amazon Prime can still suck us in. Between TV, social media, computer games, etc. we find ourselves wasting hours that we had planned to use doing something constructive. We had actually planned to start this last week but delayed it. I had deleted Facebook from my phone/Kindle though, so I kept going with that hiatus and have already found myself more productive. We built the first of our raised bed gardens this weekend, just in time for freezing rain...
I won't lie, I am nervous. But on the same page, I understand exactly why we need to do this. All of us have become extremely lazy in the past year. Our intake of junk is much higher than it should be, and our health has suffered for it. We are sitting down at the TV much more than we should. Despite being strictly gluten free for over a year (and mostly Primal for two years) I should feel better than I do. We both have a good deal of weight to lose as well. This all has crept up on us in the year and 1/2 since we left the RV life and went back to living in a house.
I am looking forward to this, as strange as it sounds. This will be our opportunity to get out from under terrible habits, get more active and in shape, and lose a good chunk of weight in the process. I can't wait to take advantage of the wonderful trails, rivers, lakes, etc. that are just out our back door, and I know I would be pushing myself in the shape I'm in now. I want our garden to be big and productive, and feel well enough that tending it is a joy, not a chore. I want to get chickens and a chicken tractor. I have several books about backyard chickens that have been sitting on the Kindle for months, waiting to be read. We have a million projects with the new house--building a compost bin, painting, etc. and I can see us completing those once we've gotten rid of the petty distraction habits and have more energy.
The raw milk fast/detox is negotiable--we are giving it a shot because I've heard amazing things and it was used in the past to cure diseases. Most people who have tried it are shocked that they aren't hungry (and when they are, they just drink more milk). Basically it gives the digestive system a chance to rest and detox while still providing complete nourishment. One of the best testimonials I've read is from Your Family Farmer. Another good one here: Our raw milk fast experience - TheSweetPlantain. I am somewhat lactose intolerant, but haven't had a problem with raw milk, only pasteurized. I have homemade kefir and kombucha on the counter, which we will also drink in addition to the milk. If the raw milk diet doesn't work out, we'll switch over to a Whole30 or 21-day Sugar Detox style diet for the rest of the month. Obviously we won't be subjecting our daughter to the raw milk fast, though I do plan on serving fewer processed gluten free treats.
I am going to document this here (part of the bare minimum of technology--email, blog, home school, Kindle books and educational apps) periodically. Wish us luck!
We had what some called an unexpected winter storm here in SE Tennessee. I expected it, but I am a bit of a weather nut and had been watching the models for days. I did my grocery run the day before, but didn't take into account that my husband would be working from home, and his lunch appetite is a bit heartier than myself and my daughter. Speaking of him working from home, his co-workers looked at him like he had two heads when he left work early. "It's just a dusting, why are you going home? They haven't even called off school!" He said "It's going to get worse." They called off school shortly after he left, and his co-workers left early--their usual commutes turned into hours long journeys with traffic jams, wrecks, and kids stuck at school or on stranded buses. I think they believe he's psychic.
After playing outside in the snow, a fire, hot cocoa, creamy tomato soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches were non-negotiable. The tiny loaf of gluten free bread I had bought for my daughter's lunches this week was gone within the first day. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I needed to come up with some sort of savory, sturdy bread-like product to please my family. I remembered making almond flour cheese biscuits a while back that turned out rather flat, and thought that the recipe could be adapted to make sandwich thins, you know--those round little sandwich breads favored by "healthy whole wheat" dieters. The only flours I had on hand were coconut, almond, and tapioca. I am not a fan of coconut flour in breads, so I worked with almond and tapioca. I've made Brazilian cheese bread, and tapioca flour pizza crusts before, so I knew cheese was pretty key to getting the elastic qualities I needed. Thankfully, there was half a wedge of Manchego forgotten at the back of the fridge. ::whew::
This was a kind-of "wing it" recipe, so you may need to tweak it.
Snow Day Sandwich Rounds
2 cups almond flour
1 cup tapioca flour/starch
1 tablespoon golden flaxseed meal (optional)
1 cup (not packed) coursely shredded cheese - I used manchego, but only because that's all we had left. Cheddar, parmesan, low moisture mozzarella would all work fine.
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs - I use farm eggs, if yours are rather large, 3 may be enough. I used 3 medium and 1 pullet.
1/2 cup+ milk of your choice - I used raw cow's milk, and did have to add a splash
Seasonings of your choice - I find for a savory bread, onion powder is key. I used roughly a 1/2 tsp. each of onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and a pinch of cayenne. Italian seasonings would work if you were making Italian style sandwiches.
Toppings - I put toasted sesame seeds on mine just for fun.
Preheat oven to 350. Dump dry ingredients and cheese in a bowl and sift with a whisk. Add eggs, it should turn into a stiff, gloopy dough. This is where you can tell if you need another egg--the flour should mostly be clumped up into the mix. Then add milk, I added 1/4c at a time until the consistency was thicker than pancake batter, but thinner than a drop biscuit. Plop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a baking mat. Spread drops with the back of a spoon into a circle roughly the size of a sandwich round. They spread, but not much, so leave about an inch between rounds. Bake for 15-20 minutes, check to see if they look done, mine needed a few minutes under the broiler at this point, but my oven is weird.
Cool on a wire rack. Mine were too thin to slice, so we used two pieces for sandwiches. I haven't tried it, but I'm guessing that if you had a muffin top style baking pan, you could make these thicker and slice them.
We used ours for sausage and egg "muffins".
Please forgive my photography (and lack thereof), I am currently stuck with a cell phone camera that doesn't even have a flash. Eventually I'd like to start taking step-by-step photos, but this will do for now.
Sometimes I wish that we had an unlimited grocery budget (who doesn't?) or even the ability to buy in bulk, but sadly that is not the case. I do try to prioritize our meat, eggs, and dairy (we buy from local farms) but have to buy conventional lean meat and produce to fill in the gaps. We live 45 minutes away from places like Whole Foods, Earth Fare, or Costco, so I don't usually go there unless there is a tremendous deal.
This is one of our extremely lean weeks (c'mon payday!) but thankfully we have some local pastured meat in the freezer. Otherwise, the cabinets and fridge are bare...time to head to Aldi! In January they announced that some of the organic products that used to be occasional "Special Buys" are now regular items. Hooray! http://mypbrand.com/2014/01/06/aldi-launches-simply-nature/
Here are some of the items I've found:
Organic chicken and beef broth - I like to keep this on hand for times (like now) that I run out of homemade bone broth.
Organic string cheese
Uncured luncheon meats - turkey and black forest ham
Organic produce - recently the organic salads (spinach and spring mix) have become a regular item, as have organic apples, baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes.
Organic canned tomatoes - not sure if these are BPA free, but ok in a pinch.
Organic spaghetti sauces - these do have soybean oil, ok in a pinch.
Organic salsa
Re-branded (SimplyNature), gluten free KIND bars - my daughter loves these
Organic EVOO - not sure if it's 100% but does solidify in the fridge and tastes real.
Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets - a treat for our daughter
Organic, uncured applewood smoked thick sliced bacon
SimplyNature Exotic Vegetable Chips - these are re-branded Terra chips.
Organic wildflower honey - I try to buy raw local honey, but this is handy for baking.
They have had organic, grass fed ground beef on special buy ($4.49/lb) a couple of times in recent months, but I always seem to miss it. I need to check their circulars more often! Not organic/new but of note:
Frozen "fancy" green beans - really nice quality for the price.
Frozen asparagus and broccoli (as far as I know, these are not dirty dozen)
Conventional, but clean 15 fresh produce - Avocados, cabbage (sometimes organic, even if not advertised as such), onions, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, etc. I also buy zucchini there, mainly because theirs is usually the perfect size/shape for making noodles with the spiral slicer.
Millville GF Rice Squares - basically Rice Chex, again a treat for my kiddo.
Stuff I wish they'd bring back:
Organic, raw milk sharp cheddar - they had this during an organic "Special Buy" last year
Organic butter - they did not have this at our store, but it was available at others during a special buy.
