February Home Store Challenge: February 6th

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike graveyard shift!?!  Ugh.  And since we've had some sick kids the last couple weeks, we've spent a lot of days at home.  Eventually my 2 year old (who is very adventurous and energetic) gets stir crazy.  And so do I.  So I decided we need to go find something to do today.  The solution?  The in-laws' house!  They have two cows, 10 chickens, a dog, and a cat; so my little girl loves going there. 

I share this, because it means we were fed lunch at my in-laws' house.  But my mother-in-law is a home store queen indeed.  She taught my husband how to have a home store (and she has lived off her own home store in the past when my father-in-law had been out of work for a time), so she totally understands the ins and outs of it.  So there we had ritz crackers (my baby tried them for the first time there and LOVED them), cheddar cheese, and vegetable beef soup (the baby had carrots and peas from the soup).  My girl also had a peach slice, milk, and a snickerdoodle.

The rest of our meals, though, were from home. 

Breakfast:  Pancakes.  My husband ate breakfast with us when he got home, and he loves his pancakes in a bowl with butter on them and lots of milk in addition to the syrup.  That's why those items are pictured, whereas they weren't before (on Monday, the 1st ;)).

 The baby had applesauce and multi-grain cereal.

 And for dinner we had leftovers.  We have a lot of leftovers from all our good eats this past week ;).  I didn't take a picture of everyone's plate, but this was mine.  Plus the baby's food.

Tomorrow is Sunday, so I won't be posting.  I will post two on Monday, though :).

February Home Store Challenge: February 5th

I totally skipped posting yesterday because I was tired and tired of looking at the computer (after I posted it to my facebook business page).  But I'll rectify that and post two for today.  Here's February 5th's!

Breakfast:  yogurt parfaits with the home-made granola from the 4th!  After mentioning parfaits, they just sounded too good not to have for breakfast!  I chose raspberries for my fruit while my little girl chose blueberries.

 Lunch:  Ramen with THRIVE Peas thrown in.  I had water and my girl had milk.  And a little lemon-zucchini cupcake for a sweet treat at the end ;).

 Dinner was a new recipe:  cheddar broccoli soup.  It came together easily, but it wasn't my favorite.  Nor was it my daughter's favorite.  My husband did say it was filling, though!

 I served it with a loaf of French Bread I'd made last month and froze.  I have an awesome recipe for home-made French Bread, and it makes 3 loaves, so I always freeze two to have for later!  Score!

 Baby boy's dinner.

 And we have this margarine I bought for an event in December that we are trying to use up.  We don't usually buy margarine, but it was requested for the event.  Thinking there would be a lot of people there, I bought the big one...  And came home with a lot leftover.  So, we're working through it ;).

February Home Store Challenge: February 4th

When your kids shock you and sleep in, it's kind of a blessing and a punishment at the same time.  Haha.  I thoroughly enjoyed my extra hour of sleep.  However, it also threw off the plans I had with my mom.  So it was a rush to get ready, once we were all awake!  I chose one of the easier and quicker things for breakfast:  cream of wheat.  I flavored it with brown sugar and maple syrup (that's my favorite flavor in the instant packets!).  Except for the baby...  He got cream of wheat mixed with apple sauce.  I don't think he's ready for too much sugar ;). 

 

My girl requested Peanut butter and jelly for lunch (which isn't surprising).  We both had that and chocolate milk.  Plus THRIVE Carrot Fruit Crisps, and she had fishy crackers.

The baby just had squash and peas ;).  And a couple of the fruit crisps!

I'd thawed some zucchini from our 2014 garden a couple days ago, so I had to make something with it.  I was tired of zucchini brownies and zucchini bread, not because they aren't good, but because those are what I always make when I thaw zucchini!  So I hit up pinterest for a new idea and found Lemon-Zucchini Cupcakes.  Oh man... These are awesome.  I'll be making them in the future.  It's not like we don't have plenty of 2014 zucchini to use up!

Seriously so good.  And packed with zucchini!

I also decided to make some home-made granola.  It was something I'd been meaning to do for a while now.  And since I want to do yogurt parfaits for breakfast one day shortly (I have yogurt in the fridge to use!), this was a good time to get it done!

Seriously good granola!  And I even messed up the recipe a little bit! 

We ate leftovers for dinner (we had lots in the fridge from the last 3 days... and frankly, we still do!).  But I did add one thing (sort of a way to get vegetables -- even if they aren't the healthiest ones ;))...  Fried Okra!

The baby ate squash and mashed potatoes, but I got lazy and didn't take a picture.  Sorry!

February Home Store Challenge: Day 3

Well, today didn't go entirely as planned.  That happens a lot.  But since my husband actually went to Costco with me (for a good cause!  Read on!), we called it a date and bought a pizza for dinner.  I feel a little bit guilty for already buying a meal when I actually didn't plan to go out to eat at all this month, because we usually don't.  But life happens, and sometimes a good deal presents itself and is too good to pass up.  I'll tell you all about it.

Breakfast was delicious.  Blueberries and Cream oatmeal!  And, it even fed my husband today.  He usually eats his sandwich, as I stated before.  But right now he is on graveyard shift (yuck, yuck, yuck!) and he actually got home early this morning (he's usually walking in the door around 9, but today was home around 7:30!).  So he joined us for breakfast :).

 So yum.  My little miss asked for seconds and thirds.  She chose to do blueberries today.

 The baby ate plain cereal today.  And though it's not pictured, he also had squash with dinner.  He is finally really started to have an appetite again.  This bug really threw him for a loop.

 Lunch was cheese quesadillas and green beans.  Milk for my girl and water for me, as usual.  Those are the best tortillas ever, by the way.

Which brings us to dinner.  Okay, so yesterday I finally went and upgraded my phone to a Smartphone.  Yeah, yeah...  About time, right?  I wasn't originally going to do it yesterday, but my husband lost his phone Monday.  And for all we know it's in the Atlanta airport.  So we aren't hoping to find it.  It was another dinosaur phone anyway, so no big loss.  So we were going to just have him keep my old phone (he never uses his phone and can't take it to work anyway, because he can't take any phone with a camera on it to his job).  And I was going to upgrade, since I was going to anyway.  I need a GPS app ;).  So anyway, the losing the phone thing just pushed me into doing it.  Well, while there upgrading, I learned that, by getting the particular phone I got (and because it took me forever to upgrade, so my cell phone company wanted to entice me to upgrade by offering some awesome rebates that were only good for 2 days....), I stood to get $125 in rebates.  And I only paid a total of $37 after taxes and cost of phone.  Seriously!?!  I was going to get paid $90-something bucks for upgrading my phone!?!  I like those numbers!  So when I got home and told my husband about it, he got all excited and decided he wanted to upgrade his phone too.  So we went back today and did just that.  And he got the same sweet deal. 

But because he is on graveyard shift, and because he had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep, and because we have young children who nap well into the afternoon...  Well, we finally got to Costco at 4:30.  Left around 5:30.  Decided a Costco pizza would be a great end to our phone buying (and money-saving!) date.  And plus he needed to get home and eat fast so he could go back to sleep to squeeze in a few more zzz's.  Which is where he is right now ;).

So that's why I spent money (date night fund money) on a pizza on only day 3.  It seems like a cheat in some ways, but oh well.  I still haven't bought any new groceries for our home :).

February Home Store Challenge: February 2nd

After a rough night last night, things were off to a rocky start this morning.  But here's what we ate from our home store today!

Breakfast was Raisin Bran with milk.  Only my bowl is pictured, but my little miss had the same.  I used THRIVE Milk in mine; she had regular.

 She requested a banana for morning snack.  We don't have "fresh" bananas.  But we have THRIVE Bananas!  And she loves them too!  THRIVE saves snack time!

 Lunch was chicken nuggets for both of us (two different types, since I'm not partial to the dino shapes ;)...) and pea crisps.  She had chocolate milk, while I had water.

 This was dessert for after dinner and after Family Night.  Easy-fix treat with the cake mix.  I know I'm not going to be going shopping for butter and eggs anytime soon, and I know THRIVE Butter Powder and THRIVE Whole Egg Powder work great in baking!  So I decided to use them in today's baking and save the fresh for if I want scrambled eggs or poached egg or something later in the month! 

 All of these ingredients were used in our dinner.

 Dinner was Chicken Bunwiches (a staple in our family...), raw carrots and broccoli, kiwi.  Milk for my big girl and water for me and the hubby.

My baby boy is sick.  He caught whatever nasty respiratory bug that's been going around.  So he mostly ate formula today, as he wasn't feeling particularly hungry.  Finally, at dinner time, he was more interested in food.  So he ate what he had last night:  squash (we roasted, pureed, and froze a huge winter squash in ice cube trays several months ago and are still working on that squash) with mashed potatoes and peas.

February Challenge: February 1st

It's definitely been a while since I've posted here!  Life has been super busy with two little ones, and I have been mostly keeping up with my facebook page THRIVEing With Hila. 

However, I have decided to do a little challenge in the month of February. 

A little background:  My husband and I keep a budget for all of our expenditures.  One of our categories is groceries.  In our family, this consists of food we buy to bring home and prepare.  So it doesn't include eating out (that usually comes out of our discretionary funds or our date night budget ;)).  Well, our grocery budget started 2016 in the red.  No bueno.  This is mostly because we purchased 1/4 of a whole steer toward the end of last year, and that was quite a chunk of money.  However, the idea is to have created a buffer so that we wouldn't go in the hole!  Now I'm trying to fix that and get out of the hole...

Which is why I decided to do this challenge.  There is another reason (possibly), but I'll talk about that later.  For now, the budget one is reason enough. 

So what's the challenge?  Well, I'm going the whole month of February without going to the grocery store.  Our family believes in being prepared for whatever life might throw our way.  As such, we have worked hard to have a lot of food in our home for whatever emergency might arise.  Well, what's the best way to find out if we're really on the right track?  Well, testing it!  So that's what February is going to do for me!  My husband got paid this past weekend and will get paid again in 2 weeks.  I did not go grocery shopping this past weekend, and I won't go again until after February 29.  That means I am going to be using only my home store to come up with 3 meals a day for my family!

This won't all be THRIVE Life products, of course.  We have a lot of other foods in our home store.  And I think that is how it should be.  But a lot of my ingredients will come from my THRIVE Life stuff, so I think this is a great place to document and share :). 

A couple "disclaimers" (for lack of a better term):  1.  I will still buy milk for my daughter.  My husband and I drink nonfat powdered milk on a regular basis, and we're fine with it.  But I will buy her regular milk, just because I love her ;).  That's less than $5 for 2 gallons here.  2.  Formula for the baby is not included in this experiment (though I do have a stock-pile of it).  We purchase baby formula out of a different budget, because it is quite costly and would demolish our grocery budget.  3.  My husband makes his own breakfast and lunch on work days.  But it's always the same, and it always comes from our home store:  peanut butter and jam sandwiches on his home-made bread.  So even though there will not be pictures of that included with this, you can rest assured we didn't spend any extra money on his meals for work ;).  4.  My THRIVE Life Q will still come.  I like to earn my commission from THRIVE Life, so I keep my Q active.  Plus, my commission pays for my Q, so I'm not technically using our grocery budget.  Also, though I will be receiving some new THRIVE Life items, I am committing that I will not use those items in the month of February for the purposes of this challenge :).

So I am excited to see how this is going to go!  I think it will be a good exercise for me -- and it will help me get my grocery budget back where it should be!  So, without further ado, here are pictures from our first day of eating from our home store!

Breakfast:  (for me and the 2 year old) Buttermilk pancakes with some THRIVE 9 Grain Cracked Cereal thrown in.  (for the baby): applesauce with multi-grain cereal (and formula)

Lunch:  Macaroni and cheese.

Dinner:  Roast with carrots and mashed potatoes  (the baby had squash with mashed potatoes and peas -- only he has come down with an upper respiratory bug, and he didn't eat much of it.  Poor little guy has had a rough day.)

THRIVE Instant Black Beans

Over the last couple of months, I have been using the THRIVE Instant Beans more and more!  And I have raved about how much I love them to my husband as well as a few friends.  Which made me think maybe I should do a little product high-light! 

Because, seriously, these beans are so awesome.

When I first heard about the instant beans, I was really skeptical.  I only bought some (they were the Pinto beans), because they were the Q-Pon item, and I wanted to cook with the Q-Pon.  Plus, I'd also had a friend ask me what they were like, and I didn't know.  So the best way to find out was to use them!  And now I plan to pretty much change from keeping regular dry beans to having the THRIVE Instant Beans.  And here's why:

1.  They are just like canned beans in how quickly and easily they can be used.  You scoop them out of the can and throw them into the soup or whatever is cooking, and they are ready-to-eat in 15 to 20 minutes. 
2.  I don't have to soak them, rinse them, or simmer them for 4 hours before using (this is obviously linked to #1).
3.  They are just as convenient as canned beans with non of the sodium!  Check out the label here.
4.  They do not taste different (this was my main concern before I tried them) and don't have a different texture or anything like that.  You'd never know they were instant beans.
5.  As with pretty much all the other THRIVE Life products, they have an amazing shelf-life!  Sealed, they will last for 25 years.  Once opened, it's recommended they be used within 1 year.  

The truth is, now that I know the awesomeness of these beans, I look at my huge bucket of 25 pounds of regular black beans and give a big sigh.  Because in order to use them, I'm going to have to go through the rinsing and soaking and boiling process.  I'm not saying I'm not grateful to have them.  I just wish I'd have realized how wonderful THRIVE Instant Beans were back when I bought them.  Because I would surely have opted for the instant!

The one difference I noted was the amount of Calcium and Iron in the dry versus the instant.  In both cases, the dry beans have more.  I do not know if they will lose that nutritional value in the cooking process, though, since they pretty much have to be cooked to be consumed.

This is what the Instant Black Beans look like inside the can, before being rehydrated. 

I have used these beans in soups and even used them for Black Bean Burgers!  I just think they are amazing :).  And even better?  The Instant Black Beans are on sale this month!  If you're interested in learning more or placing an order to have these in your home store, you can contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com or visit my website:  www.thrivelife.com/THRIVEingNilla.

Happy THRIVEing!