I was that girl!

I have been on a jelly shot creating rampage lately.  I have a plan and this plan is the one to make me lots of money.  I am sure of it!  And it has to do with creating the best jelly shots ever!  For those of you who don't know what jelly shots are, they are Jell-o shots, but I call them jelly shots because I don't use Jell-o brand gelatin.  Anyhoo, I have learned a lot about jelly shots in the past few weeks!
First and foremost, there has been a scientific study on jelly shots and the amount of alcohol one can actually use before the gelatin loses it's gelling ability. http://www.myscienceproject.org/j-shot.html
It is a lot more than one would think! I, of course, found this after I had already done some experimenting.  The second thing I learned, was that just because you could add more alcohol to the shot didn't necessarily mean that you should!  And here is the story of how I learned this very important lesson.
I usually don't go out on Cinco de mayo, but this year was different.  I was going out with some friends and going to listen to a great Salsa band.  I got all gussied up, picked up a couple of my friends and showed them my different jelly shots that were displayed in a pretty little box.  We proceeded to eat them and then share some Hornitos in the car before we went in the bar.  I would have never drank in a car when I was younger, but now that I am older and budget minded, I will so pre-funk in the car!  We met the others and shared some more jelly shots and drank a little more.  Then we shared the jelly shots we had left with other people in the bar.  The good news is people were asking me for my card and where my shop was so they could get more.  The bad news is I didn't realize how much alcohol was in what I was eating and within an hour and a half the walls were spinning and I was that girl in the bathroom throwing up.  I was that 41 year old woman, in the bathroom throwing up.  The one that other random women were bringing water to and making sure that strange men were not trying to cozy up to.  The one who had to leave the bar and didn't even get to see her band play.  Yep!  I haven't been that girl in twenty something years and there I was.  It was awful!
I still do not want to drink.  Hay Dios mio!  And now it is funny.....kind of.  I now look at that night as a very important learning experiment.  Jelly shots are yummy and awesome!  But they don't have to be as strong as possible.  And it is really important after teaching spin, going for a run and working in the yard all day to EAT!  Yes.  That is what I did to myself.  However, this 21 year old in a 41 year old body did not let all go to hell.  I did make it to Dick's Drive In Burgers for the traditional hang over lunch.
So when my jelly shots and tapas recipe book comes out and you buy it....(remember my plan to get rich? This is it.) EAT RESPONSIBLY!

                                                 Coconut Key Lime Pie Jelly Shot

It has been decided!

Okay.  I know it has been a while.  It has been a long while.  The reason being, as a business woman who wants to get rich, I have been following expert advice and trying to brand myself and connecting everything to my Blackett Body Basics blog.  Which is fine and wonderful and most likely sound advice.  But here is the thing.  I have to sound all professional on that blog.  What fun is that!?  I also want to branch out to other ventures.  That being said, Hotmamalolo is back!  If that makes you happy, I don't know.  But it gives me somewhere to put all these random, crazy thoughts swirling in my head.  My adventure of this week; creating unique and yummy gelatin shots.  I will let you know how it is going and if my idea of a gelatin shot recipe and tapas cookbook works.  Who knows?  Maybe this is the one where I get rich!

4th week in a row! $200 grocery budget....all organic! holler!

Holler!  Yes!  I have done it a third week....or is this the 4th week?  No wait it is the fourth!  Holler!  Holler!  Holler!  Yes.  I have fed my family of five all organic food for $200 a week.  And I plan on keeping this budget.  I want to be able to afford gymnastics for Selah and art classes for Zoe and a sitter for me to get the heck out of here!  Whoo hoo!
This organic grocery endeavor has been heavy on fruits and vegetables. It was hard at first, but after a bit, I got the swing of it.  I never bought processed food.  That saves so much money.  And so does my bread maker!  I should have saved my grocery lists for you.  But I can tell you what we ate last week.

Breakfast:  Toast, tea, and fruit and eggs for the girls. (thanks to Meg for the fresh eggs!)or pancakes. For me and Fara:  scrambled eggs with vegies, smoked salmon, and chevre, fruit, green tea, latte. (we always eat later than the girls and I don't play when it comes to breakfast!) Snack: kefir smoothie with frozen fruit.

Lunch: Fruit/ vegetable squeeze, applesauce and sandwich for the girls. Maybe they will take some almond milk. Selah likes to see what she can score of the share table.  If it is a fruit or vegetable, she will take it even if she is not hungry and save it for later. That's my girl! Zoe is too cool to do that now.
For me: leftover dinner.  This week it was chicken vegetable soup, chicken sauteed with kale, red peppers, onions, cauliflower, and chevre, pan seared cod with vegies, or cauliflower faux potatoes, chicken salad with grapes in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Kazak slaw with cabbage and carrots in olive oil and vinegar. Oh! Fara and I made a tuna salad with a balsamic vinaigrette and green beans and put it over spinach.  That was bomb!

Dinner: We usually eat dinner together. We had chicken vegetable soup, pan seared cod with cauliflower potatoes and spinach, the kale sautee, baked chicken with vegies and potatoes.  We ate the same thing a couple of times.  Last night, I got them pizza from PCC and still was under my $200 budget.  Holler!

This week's menu is the same for breakfast and lunch but for dinner we will be having stuffed green peppers, chicken caccatoire with spinach, pan seared cod with kale, and chicken lettuce wraps.  yummy! I am going to make some egg salad with flax seed oil mayo just for something extra!  I do have a turkey someone gave me.  Maybe I will bring that out and cook it.  I do cook something every day.  The more labor intensive things, I cook once in a bigger batch and we eat that for lunch and dinner a couple of times.  No big.  I have 3 kids, a husband who is gone all the time, a business, and two part time jobs.  If I can do it, I know anybody can.  And, even though I will never admit it, I am a closet lazy person.  For reals!
Here is what I had for breakfast

Who wants to join me on their endeavor to eat well, eat healthy, eat cheaply, and take life back to the basics so we actually have time to enjoy it?!

Recipe of the week:

Chicken kale saute

You will need baked chicken, shredded kale salad mix, onions, diced red peppers, diced onions, shredded carrots, grated cauliflower, garlic, olive oil.

Saute onion, red pepper, garlic, cauliflower "rice", and carrots until soft.  Add kale. Season with garam masala, turmeric, and salt.  Add chicken.  Cook until chicken is warm.  Top with some chevre.  yummy!

$200 a week all organic grocery bill? Bring it!

Quiet everyone!  Quiet now.  I have an announcement to make.  For the third week in a row, I have stayed within my $200 a week grocery budget and have only bought organic.  I repeat.  I have only spent $200 a week on groceries for my entire family and have only bought organic food.  Yes indeed.  I will pause here for a while as I imagine the applause that is occurring at this moment.

I have only stayed in a budget that tight once and that was last year when I was only spending $100 a week for groceries so I could have more money to spend in Puerto Rico.  (priorities people!) I emptied out my pantry and made some very creative things and going organic was not on my list. But once I came back, I went right back to my old habits and just bought what I felt like eating. Here's my trick.  Get ready!  It is magic!  .......Hold on.....I only buy the food I need.  Yeah.  I know....craziness!  

Okay, it is a little more than that....kind of.  My husband is the kind of man who will eat whatever I make and will never complain.  You will never hear him say, "There ain't no meat in this.  This ain't no meal!  I need meat." So making vegetable based meals isn't an issue.  Which if you have looked at the prices of organic meat, you will see why that matters.  He also is never here, so I really don't include him in my meal planning.  I buy him almond milk and make sure that there is something for him to eat, but I pretty much get to plan the weekly menu without any comments from the peanut gallery.  I have this rule for the girls about food.....suck it up if you don't like it.  I don't care.  Makes my life pretty simple when it comes to meal planning.

I buy for three meals that will be big enough for leftovers for my lunch and dinner the next night. We make a loaf of bread every night. And I do buy those Peter Rabbit Organic fruit and veggie squeezes.  The girls love them.  I don't buy juice boxes.  Why?  Sugar in a box.  They can drink water and eat the fruit.  I have limited the girls to one gallon of milk a week and now buy almond milk and coconut milk.  I never buy cereal.  The girls will make themselves some scrabbled eggs or banana pancakes for breakfast. And we do not have meat with every meal.  

That was the sticker price that shocked me the most.  I buy one thing of chicken and one thing of frozen fish and that is our meat for the week.  I did splurge a little bit this week and got Zoe some ham for her sandwiches.  

I figured that even though the organic peanut butter is almost $10 for a big jar, it will last a little over 2 weeks using it for dips for apples and sandwiches every day.  That is feeding my babies for less that $1 a day.  I can live with that. 

I actually only spent $170 for this week's groceries.  I like to give myself a little wiggle room just in case I forgot or run out of something.  I make it into a game and always ask the checker if they think I will come in under $200.  This serves two purposes.  It makes me accountable and if I go over, I won't feel so stupid asking them to take things off.  I make it into a game.  A couple of the checkers now follow the blog to see how I am doing on my endeavor and ask me if I am in my budget.  

Last week, we ate like royalty.  We had baked chicken thighs with rice, red bell peppers, and asparagus cooked in a dutch oven, (that I love almost as much as my steam cleaner) That meal fed me, my daughters, my eldest daughter's 3 overnight guests, and gave me a nice little meal to soak up last night's vodka.  I made this amazing soup with orzo, spinach, garlic, ginger, and avocados.  Fed myself and my husband two servings each that night and I had a nice little lunch.  And of course the butternut squash coconut curry with rice.  We still have some of that leftover.  That went nicely with some pan seared halibut. Oh and I cannot forget the bananas in sweet coconut milk for dessert.  Yummy!

This week our meal plan is Nicoise Salad, chicken salad lettuce wraps, chicken vegetable soup, pan seared dover sole with rice and vegies.  I made the Nicoise Salad tonite and will sever it over spinach for my lunches for the next two days.  I baked all the chicken breast tonight and that will make the chicken salad and chicken vegetable soup.  I splurged and got some smoked salmon too and feta cheese for our eggs in the morning or a salad I may be craving.  And if we need more food, I do still have $30 to spend for the week.  If all else fails, we can have banana pancakes for dinner.  Who doesn't like breakfast for dinner?

I like eating all the food I buy.  I like feeding my family food that is good for them and kind to the environment.  And I really like my grocery bill.  Buy simple.  Buy basic.  Be healthy.  Save money.  Holler!

Recipe of the week

The orzo soup I made last week was so delicious.  I looked in the pot and was surprised to see that what was in my pot looked just like the picture from the recipe.  Because I am on a budget, I used ginger for a jar I already had and I didn't use the mustard seeds or any of the fresh herbs.  It was still fabulous.  Try it this week.  http://marcussamuelsson.com/news/recipe-my-veggie-soup

Going Organic on $200 a week....WTH?!!!!

Okay, I have a confession to make.  I go organic when there is a sale.  I have never made the intentional effort to go completely organic.  When people use economics as the reason not to eat more healthily, I guffaw!  Puhleeezzze!  It costs less than buying all that processed and fast food.  So I didn't really consider how going organic was going to change the way I buy groceries.  This is my first week in and I see my approach to meal planning and shopping already changing.
First, organic does go bad faster.  Which is fine and even comforting.  How can I trust chicken that lasts for two weeks?  There must be something in it.....like ammonia! (which I found to be a true statement upon further investigation) So I can only buy what I need and go shopping twice a week.  Okay I can handle that.  That usually happens anyway, even to the most prepared of us. I also only buy what I need because it is a little more expensive.  Americans throw away 40% of their food anyway.  What if we bought only what we needed and actually ate what we bought?  Now there is a new concept.  Our grocery bill would be the same or less.  We would be healthier and it would be better for the environment.  Sounds like a win/win to me.
So after taking a survey of what I already had in stock, I planned our week's menu; Curry Squash with rice, Chicken  breast with sweet potato salad and greens, and pasta with Cauliflower and pancetta. Then of course bread, which I make, fruit for snacks and lunches, eggs, milk, almond milk, coconut milk to make yogurt, and organic Mac and cheese for when I feel lazy.  (Okay, sometimes there is prepared food in my house.  Sue me.) I only planned for 3 full meals. If anyone complains in my house about eating leftovers, they can just suck it!
I went shopping last night and spent $158 for the week.  I didn't go to PCC which kind of made it harder for me.  They didn't have any organic sweetened condensed milk for my coffee.  But I didn't give in.  I am going to use my organic cane sugar instead.  And resisting the sales was a little hard for me.  But I stuck to my list and got out of there for under my $200 weekly budget.  I left myself a little wiggle room for later on in the week.  (PCC has organic sweetened condensed milk, which I will be getting.  Hello!  Don't mess with my morning coffee routine.) My refrigerator is a little empty but I know I will use all that food.  I even got myself a little treat of coconut water! I saved a little money and bought frozen organic squash.  Who wants to slice and cube a fresh butternut squash anyway.
We will see how I do this week and if my minimalist approach is going to work and feed a family of five.  I do know that when there is nothing else to munch on, my girls will slice up a red bell pepper and think they hit the jack pot of snacks.  I am also trying to use up all the stuff in the pantry.  I want an empty pantry by the end of this month.  I think it is possible to eat all organic on a budget.  We just have to be more conscientious about the choices we make.  If it costs a lot, it makes it a little more painful to be wasteful.  If I will spend over $4 for a latte, why wouldn't I spend that much on some apples that would last me a few days.  Speaking of which, organic Fuji apples are only $1.49 per pound at Metropolitan Market and they are crispy yummy!


Recipe of the week

Bread machine bread

1 cup milk with 2 tbsp vinegar (let it sit for 10 min.)
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp oil
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt

Put all ingredients in bread maker and select white bread option.  Perfection every time.

Going back to the basics, step 2

I recently met a woman who told me she has no canned food in her house and that she makes everything from scratch, including her coconut milk.  That astounded me.  I consider myself a fairly back to the basics kind of girl.  I bake our bread.  I don't have processed food in the house.  I try to make everything from scratch.  But I do buy tortillas, canned beans and tomatoes and jam.  And being that we are on a fairly tight budget..front porch rotted, was not expecting that expense......I buy organic sometimes, but am not consistent about it.
Looking at her life and how she prepares food for her family seemed overwhelming to me.  Another friend of mine and fellow blogger, http://growandresist.com/ Meg Brown's life seems so busy and so unattainable, it wears me out to read her posts.  She grows her food.  She has chickens and her own business.  She is a mom and she makes everything.   Then I started thinking about people who always make prepared foods and have packaged snacks in their house.  My life style may seem a little overwhelming to them, even though it is actually very simple. I began thinking that maybe the key to success to simplifying life, eating and cooking healthy is baby steps.
Back to the basics, Step 1 is using natural skin, hair, and cleaning products.  Steam cleaning is my favorite activity in the world!  Step 1 is also not buying prepared foods.  No more Marie Calender.  No more Stouffers.  (Notice that I know the brand names.  Marie Calender Pot Pies...yum!) No more frozen pizza.  Buy nothing with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, or any ingredient that you don't know.  Make meals from scratch. It takes just as much time to make a chocolate cake from scratch as it does from the box.  We have just been duped into thinking a box cake takes less time.  All natural bread can still have high fructose corn syrup in it.  I don't know how, but it does.  So read the labels.   My kids get a sandwich and a piece of fruit, maybe string cheese for lunch.  They can drink water.  Juice is a waste of money.  And what nutritional value do those fish crackers have anyway?  They get 15 minutes to eat.  Give them what they need to be nourished and be done.  And if they don't like it.....tough.  And so I have a little more time to make all that food, my kids clean up their own stuff and as soon as they get home from school, one does the dishes, the other the laundry.  They have been doing that since they were five.  Get it done.  Do it simply.  Do it naturally.  That is my basic philosophy for Step One.
Then I started thinking, what if I took it a step further?  I am mad that my chicken is soaked in ammonia rather than the company taking simple steps to make sure the chickens are healthy.  I am mad that instead of giving cows a diet of grass for just a week that would eliminate most illnesses, they are pumped full of antibiotics and walk around with a hole on their side so we can have access to their stomachs.  It seems ludacris to me.  So I decided to stick it to the man and go entirely organic.  If I am making everything from scratch, then my ingredients need to be actually good for my family. That is my Back to the Basics, step 2.  Going organic....for everything including my make up. My skin care is already taken care of.
After my first trip to PCC, I began realizing that this going organic on a budget was going to take a bit of adjusting.  $7.99 for a pound of grapes!!!  Guess who didn't buy grapes.  My weekly budget for everything is $200.  For the entire month of March, I am going organic on a budget.  My strategy so far is buy only at PCC or the farmer's market.  I do this not because Safeway doesn't have good deals on organic, but because I am a weak person and if I see strawberries for sale for $2.99, I want to buy them.  If I see that there is a manager's special on pot roast, I am going to buy it.  I am a sucker for a deal.  So I need to eliminate the temptations.  Also, PCC takes great care in the selection of what they decide to sell.  They take out the ethical guess work for me and each one of my 3 kids gets a free piece of fruit.  They go shopping with me!
I am also buying what is on sale.  They have mangoes 2 for $4 right now.  Yummy!  And until I get this shopping organic thing under my belt, I am going to make very simple meals.  The meals that seem to cost the most is dinner so I am going to shake it up a bit and eat like a queen for breakfast, a princess for lunch, and a pauper for dinner.  It is worth a shot.  Who wants to watch this month's adventure unfold.  Remember last year's $100 a week for groceries?  That was fun!

Zoe and Selah with fresh coconut for a snack.

recipe of the post

1 can organic tropical fruit
coconut
sweetened condensed milk
pecans

spoon fruit into bowls. Sprinkle with coconut (organic) and pecan pieces (organic) and drizzle with (organic) sweetened condensed milk.  It make a nice little dessert or snack.