The family that cooks together...

If you have been following my blog for awhile you know that I have been enlisting my kids help in the kitchen lately. From meal planning, to grocery shopping to cooking the actual meal. It has been such a positive experience in our house that I think I could go on and on about the benefits. I will say that what I love the most is that I get to spend some quality time with my boys.

Tonight it was Nathan's turn to be my sous chef again so we prepared oven-fried chicken strips. I thought this would be a great meal for him to make because he absolutely LOVES chicken strips. I was uncertain whether or not he would participate in handling the raw chicken in order to bread it (you remember how the spaghetti and meatball dinner went!), but he dove right in and did a great job. The best part was that I had the opportunity to talk to him about the value of making our own favorite foods at home from scratch. I explained that when we make it at home we get to choose exactly what goes in our food so that we know it is healthy. I went on to tell him that while having these things once in awhile when out to eat or prepackaged from the store is okay, it is so much better to make it yourself. And it saves us money which is a bonus!

Alongside the little lessons that are being taught in the kitchen I feel we are also creating the opportunity for natural conversations to take place. I think some of the most important life lessons we teach are children are in these moments when we are just doing life together. I can only hope this transfers into their teenage years when I know it will be impossible more difficult to get them to open up. I like to envision a time later on where my tall, sweaty, squeaky-voiced boys are in the kitchen preparing something hearty and big enough to feed an army, all the while filling me in on what's new in school and sports and life. Maybe it won't happen that way (a mom can dream, right?) but I would like to believe that we are making it a possibility by being available.

What everyday moments are you finding yourself including your kids in? Do you feel like it helps set the stage for you to continue a close relationship down the road? I would love to hear what it looks like in your house so feel free to share a story.

Good food, Great price

In the ongoing effort to feed my family good food at a low price, I have stumbled upon some amazing opportunities that I wanted to share with the rest of you. I love a good deal and most of what I find is passed on from some other wise person so I thought it only fair to continue passing this along.

I wrote awhile back how we had taken part in a CSA where we had a share in a farm and did weekly produce pick-ups. This ended last week and while the idea was nice, it didn't quite meet our standards. Since then we have been turned on to a program called Bountiful Baskets (thank you Kira and Dani!). I can honestly say since the first time we participated, we were hooked. What this is is a co-op of people who pool their money to get produce at reduced prices. You pay $15 (or $25 for organic) for approximately $50 worth of produce. This is what our first weeks pick-up looked like:

2 lb bag potatoes, 2 honeydew, cauliflower, lettuce, 6 ears of corn, 2 cucumbers, 3 pears, several apples and oranges and nectarines, bananas, broccoli

They also have occasional extra offers that you can take part in. For instance, we just added an order of 7 dozen tortillas for $10 to our next weeks pick-up. I would definitely recommend checking out the website and seeing if this is taking place where you live. You check the site Tuesday to place your order and pay and then pick up at a specific date and time later in the week. This has worked better than the CSA for us because we can choose week by week whether or not to participate. The food was also high quality and all things that we would use on a regular basis. I foresee us using being a part of this for a long time.

The second thing I have come across (just today actually) is a similar concept but with meat. This is through Zaycon Foods and right now they are doing there fall chicken sale event where you can get a 40 lb box of boneless chicken breasts for $59.20 ($1.48 a lb). That is a pretty amazing price. They currently are only doing drop offs in Washington, Idaho and Oregon but if you register with your city and state and your area generates enough interest, they may expand. Like the bountiful baskets, there are specific locations and pick-up times and dates depending on where you live. We decided to go in on a box with my in-laws since we have an extra freezer and there are a million things I can do with chicken (posts about this to come I am sure:).

I will keep you posted as I continue to find these bargains. I believe that feeding our families healthy foods shouldn't cost an arm and a leg so I am constantly looking for cheaper ways to get what we use the most of. Feel free to share any of the amazing finds you have come to love. 

Double duty

Two of the things that I like to focus on when planning my grocery list is my budget and buying healthy items when possible. Now I have slipped some in the healthy area. For awhile we were really trying to cut down on our processed food, trying to avoid things with HFCS and extra preservatives. But as life has gotten hectic we seem to have slipped back into old habits of buying more for convenience. Not only that, but it seems that when money is tight it is easy to buy less healthy. I would like to get back to healthier shopping while still saving money where I can. So I have decided to start making small changes that I hope will add up in the long run.

The first change I am making (and I told you I was starting out small) is to stop buying jarred spaghetti sauce. I have read a zillion times from Rachel Ray that all you need is some crushed tomatoes, olive oil and seasonings to make your own sauce that is more cost effective and has less salt than the jarred version. So the other day I finally did this and realized how it is just as easy to prepare and really is cheaper. Plus you cut out any unnecessary preservatives or extra sodium. I also like that you can add whatever ingredients you like to make it your own.

Here is to small changes!!