More Harvest

We harvested a good colander full of green beans, so I thought I'd cook and IQF a couple pans of them so Joy can have "green bean fries" this fall.

I lamented to Judy that we had some tomatoes to eat but wouldn't be canning any this year. She called me and told me she had already canned 54 quarts of tomatoes and was done.  We could come and pick whatever we wanted.  We came home with this awesome bounty!

My hero, who turns the tomatoes into our winter trove!

Aw Nuts!

Paul loves candied nuts, so I thought I'd make an at home version from a recipe Cindy Beattie gave me years ago.  They were really good.  They taste like Christmas.  BUT, the kids ate WAY too many and were nuts the rest of the day.  Pardon the pun.

Eggplant Harvest

Paul was very excited to finally harvest our eggplant (yes, there were only 2 baby ones).  I told him it was in Ratatouille, like the movie, and he wanted to make ratatouille badly.  I didn't know if he'd actually like ratatouille much, so I thought I'd make fried zucchini and eggplant and call it ratatouille.  Shawn and I thought it was delicious, but Joy and Paul wouldn't eat any!  So I ended up eating WAY more deep fried veggies than I ever needed.  

More Culinary Escapades

I can't see you, I have a zucchini in my eye! 

Dana Mayton gave us two GIANT zucchini, so I thought I might as well make some zucchini chocolate chip cookies.  

Eating raw zucchini

Yum!  

Paul's First Day of School

Yesterday was Paul's first day of school.  He did really, really great!  There were no tears at all, he seemed to have some fun, and he liked his teachers.

Today went well too.  He learned some of the kids names and was excited about that.  I know a lot of people have been praying for us to have a good start of school, and it is much appreciated!!

Visit with Grandma and Pappy

Paul and Joy were so excited to visit with Grandma and Pappy on Monday.  They made static electricity wands and had a great time making things float all over the house and outside. Grandma and Pappy helped us make pizza for dinner.

Showing Paul how to throw some dough

Paul gets a try

Grandma and Pappy watched the kids while Shawn and I went to parent orientation at the Montessori school.  

Max's 2nd Birthday Party

More Pictures with WALL-E

Speer Family Unpackaged: We did it!

Our family successfully survived (dare I say enjoyed) our week without chemicals!  

Today, the kids had nuts and fruit for breakfast.  Paul had a bunch of bacon.  The bacon was the only meat they ate at home this week that was not from our farm.  But, it was from our bee friends' at the farmer's market's pig, so that was ok with me.  They had nuts and fruit and Terra chips in the car on the way to Max's birthday party.  

We made garlic and cherry tomato studded baguettes this morning in preparation for our dinner with Carl this evening.  

At Max's party, I let the kids (and myself) eat what they wanted.  We had freeze pops and chicken fingers.  Good stuff too, fruit and veggies.  I felt sort of like we were cheating, but I had really intended this to be about what we did at home anyway.

We had a delicious dinner with Carl when we got home, our baguettes and organic spelt pasta with homemade tomato and sausage sauce.  It was SO good!

Paul had brick cheese slices (deli slices - no anti-molding agent) and dried cherries for bed time snack.

"Exit Interviews"
I asked Shawn to answer some questions about the week to sum things up.  He thought I was crazy at first but it was a nice way to review our week.  I thought I should answer the same questions too.  Here are the results:

What did you like the best?  

Shawn: Eating fresh everything.  Not being able to eat crackers and junk food.  Breaking into our homemade wine.

Cheryl: I liked having an excuse to spend a ridiculous amount of time cooking!  I also began to think in new ways about food and developed a new interest in food and cooking history.  I'm so curious about how people fed their families in different time periods (before there was a Giant Eagle).  I ordered a book on the subject and it just came today.  

What was the worst part? 

Shawn: All the dishes

Cheryl: All the dishes

What surprised you? 

Shawn: That I really didn't miss cheese and crackers and all the other stuff.  Also that I didn't lose any weight

Cheryl:  That it was as easy as it was with the kids.  Except when their routines outside of the home were interrupted (grandma popsicles, farmer's market snow cones), they really didn't complain a bit.  They ate a TON of super healthy food, and I felt great about feeding it to them!  They ate cabbage and noodles and venison casserole and more and I didn't have to cajole them a bit!  

What food did you miss the most? 

Shawn: Chocolate and turkey pepperoni on my grilled cheese
Cheryl:  My Earth Balance buttery spread on my bread.  Neither butter or olive oil really did it for me.

What change do you think you might keep up with after this week? 

Shawn: Having chemical free snacks like watermelon and bananas.  Eating no bake cookies.

Cheryl: Coating my grilled cheese in garlic oil is yummy!  Making a large batch of oatmeal for the week for breakfast is easy and a great alternative to Fruit Loops.

What is one thing you learned?  

Shawn: I'm not as hungry throughout the day.  Our homemade wine served us well.

Cheryl:  The biggest revelation of the week was that I truly realized the cracker addiction was really about convenience on my part and not a preference on their part.  I also learned I was not nearly as hungry through the day.

Trends We Observed

Money:  Eating this way is definitely cheaper for us.  I would say we could eat without chemicals for half to 3/4 the cost of our usual grocery bill.  Even considering we didn't have to buy meat for the week, I can still confidently say it is cheaper.

Weight:  Paul and I lost 1 lb, Shawn gained 2 lbs.  He thinks it was the no bakes:)  Note to self - next time make oatmeal cookies or something with less than a whole stick of butter.

Children's Behavior:  I really don't think it had much of an effect, maybe just a slight effect.  Paul had good days and bad days and Joy was her usual 2 year old self.  

Stress Level:  At the beginning of the week it was very busy trying to get things prepared, but by the end of the week I could really cruise and depend on what I had already made.  I would say the added work was offset by the fun of all the new culinary adventures.  Stress = neutral.  I'll be glad to not feel like I need to blog every night, though.

An Unusual Observation: Paul has had an abscess on his tooth since May; he is having surgery in November to extract the tooth.  This morning Shawn and I both observed that the abscess had decreased substantially in size. I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or whether it is due to the decrease in sugar and the absence of anything gummy or sticky (except for dried fruit).

Thank you for joining us on this adventure!!!  I have really enjoyed the conversations I've had with my friends about our experiment.

Playing the Bongos

Speer Family Unpackaged Day 6

I can't believe this week is almost over.  It is feeling so routine.  For breakfast, I had banana bread and the kids had chicken noodle soup.  They ate frozen fruit with Shawn while he made his smoothie.  

The kids ate a whole bunch of banana bread for a late morning snack before we went to Giant Eagle.  Paul wouldn't eat it before when I told him it was banana bread, but today when I gave him a bite and didn't tell him what it was, he couldn't stop eating it!  

We had to get additional groceries because Shawn's friend Carl is coming for the weekend and we wanted to make a nice dinner for tomorrow.  I spent $120.  I did stock up on some packaged goods for next week.  I felt kind of sad and hypocritical doing so.  In particular I bought chemically ice cream and pepperoni.  And I bought pre-shredded cheese.  

As we were not going to be home for dinner, I made the venison cheeseburger casserole for lunch.  Both kids ate it.  

They had a late afternoon snack of oatmeal while they watched Dora.  We also ate watermelon and a nectarine during the afternoon.

We had dinner at Matt and Jill's house.  I told them at church (after giving my Speer Family Unpackaged children's sermon) that I didn't expect them to follow our special diet for dinner.  Still, I appreciated that they kindly prepared dinner with minimal chemicals.  We had beer can chicken, baked potatoes and corn on the cob.  It was delicious!  I did splurge on some bottled BBQ sauce!  I actually didn't even think about it until the way home.

The kids stayed at Judy's while Shawn and I went to our picnic.  I sent them sliced cheese and mixed nuts with banana chips, raisins, organic dried cranberries and dried cherries (Eden brand, without chemicals).  They had a great time with Judy, which was a relief for me!

?? Weight ??
I wondered what this week would do for our weight.  I weighed Paul and myself this morning.  Since we were having a picnic tonight and going to a birthday party tomorrow, I thought the most accurate weight results would be taken this morning.  Paul and I both lost 1 pound.  I was happy for myself, especially considering all that butter and olive oil!  I was very surprised about Paul.  He seemed to eat very well throughout the week.  I really don't know what to think.  I don't think he needed to lose any weight, but I certainly don't think he was malnourished this past week.  This was an unexpected result.  However, it's only 1 pound, I don't think it's worth worrying about.

Lesson Learned Today
For some crazy reason I'm missing this week already before it's even over.  I guess I just really enjoy being obsessed with food!

Fairy Garden

After visiting Michelle's fairy garden last week, we finally got around to working on one of our own.  It might look like a jumble of haphazard items, but we worked hard on it and most everything had a purpose.  They had fun playing with their toy fairies in it later.  

Speer Family Unpackaged Day 5

The kids started their day with a giant breakfast, they must have been starving!  They had "chicken" noodle soup (2 bowls for Paul!), brick cheese cubes and 2 kinds of nuts.  I had banana bread.

They took bunny crackers and a granola bar on our walk.  They didn't eat much on our walk because they were full from breakfast!  

Shawn and I had grilled cheese for lunch, the kids didn't really eat much lunch.  Maybe they were still full.  Joy did have some mac and cheese, and they snacked on blueberries and pears. Later in the afternoon they ate some cheese and Terra chips.  I was happy to discover the Frigio string cheese I had in the fridge was ok to have this week.  

We worked hard battling cabbage worms this summer, and it was finally time to harvest some cabbage!   We watched a YouTube video on how to harvest cabbage as this was our first time.   We found five slugs in the outer leaves!  The kids had fun playing with them.

The inner leaves were quite clean, though, and I was excited to shred up a whole bunch of it. We got our mis en place ready for dinner and then headed to the Farmer's Market.

 This was the biggest battle I had about not eating chemicals with the kids all week.  EVERY week they love getting snow cones at the Farmer's Market.  I told them this week they could have them plain, without the syrup.  Paul was NOT happy!  Finally, I placated him by telling him when we got home he could have the rest of the homemade ice cream and a no-bake.  When we got there, they were fine with their plain snow cones.  I did let them have a free sample of chocolate bar at the FM.  It was organic chocolate at least!

When we got home, the kids had their promised snack and we made our dinner - cabbage and noodles with ham.  I figured Shawn and I would eat it and I'd end up making something else for the kids, but I made them up small plates of it anyways.  They happily ate it up!  I couldn't believe it!

They had their usual cheese, nuts and banana chips for bed time snack.

Lessons Learned Today

1. Don't start habits you don't want to continue!  These kids love their Grandma-popsicle habit and their Farmer's Market snow cone habit.  I don't really care if they eat these things, it's usually only once a week.  But in the future, I should pay close attention to what food rituals I begin.

2.  Besides the Farmer's Market incident today, I'm really starting to feel like this is the new normal.  It no longer feels like a special event (except for all the picture taking and extra blogging).  

Remains of the Sunflower Clubhouse

Our lone remaining mammoth sunflower began to bloom today, which was an exciting event.  I had such high hopes for the sunflower clubhouse, but one by one they fell to heavy rain, tractors getting too close and deer trampling around (I think).   Lesson learned on that one. I hope we can get some sunflower seeds out of it, because Paul's been asking about them all summer!

Paul's First Trip to the Movies

Today was Paul's first time at the movie theater.  We saw Planes.  He was excited to go on a date with mommy.   He held my hand through the whole movie.  It was a good movie.  I think he had fun but it was a little overwhelming - so dark and loud.

Mystery Dog

For the last three days, we have been observing but unsure what to do about the Mystery Dog.  Shawn saw a dog outside the front window and it went under the front porch.  We went out look at it and it was all the way under the far side of the porch, it was hard to get a good look.  We called for it but it didn't budge.  We put food and water out, but it didn't do anything.  

Paul was VERY concerned about this dog.  He had 1000 plans of everything we should do, from finding it's owner to trying to play football with it to bringing it inside to keeping it forever.  He has talked on and on about this dog.  He keeps asking me what the Bible says we should do, which is very sweet.  I told him all we can do at this point is give it food and water and see if it learns to trust us.  We're not going to go under the porch and drag it out.  I did see it outside last night and snapped a couple pictures from the window.  Joy and I went right outside to find it, and it had disappeared.  Cana seems neutral about it.  Neither disturbed nor excited.  I'm not sure what the result of all this will be.

Speer Family Unpackaged Day 4

Today was a relatively easy day food-wise.  The only thing I had to make from scratch was more no-bake cookies.  They don't seem to last long!
The kids had "chicken" noodle soup for breakfast and I had banana bread.  They ate some bunny crackers while we did laundry.

No, this is not moonshine:)  It's garlic oil.  The butter was starting to gross me out even on my grilled cheese, so I made some garlic oil.  (For the record, the butter started grossing Shawn out too; it's not just me!)  I used it yesterday to saute the veggies for our pasta, and used it today to coat the bread for the grilled cheese.  It was so yummy!  I think that is something that will persist after this week is over!

Shawn, Paul and I had grilled cheese for lunch and Paul and Joy had blueberry oatmeal.  They all had no-bakes for dessert.  

We all got haircuts today.  After our haircuts, the kids always get candy out of the machine by the door.  Paul did not even whine when I told him he couldn't have it this week.

Today was Paul's first trip to the movie theater. I was in a real predicament about what to take to eat.  I decided to smuggle in water and some homemade granola bars.  He was so into the movie, he didn't even ask for a snack.  We did eat them on the way to go pick up  Joy.

Joy was at my grandma's.  The kids ALWAYS eat popsicles, store-bought cookies and crackers at my grandma's, all of which are NOT on the list.  I sent some homemade mac and cheese with Joy and she did have her popsicle.  Oh well.  I can't expect a 2 year old to refuse a popsicle!  When we got back to pick her up, Paul wanted all his usual Grandma snacks.  I did have to remind him twice that he could only choose fruit.  Somewhat grudgingly, he chose an apple and a peach.  The peach was so good, though, that he stopped grumbling.  

We had leftover pasta and watermelon for dinner.  That was easy!  For bedtime snack, the kids had brick cheese cubes, pecans, peanuts, banana chips and raisins.  They must have been hungry, because they finished two plates of it!

$$ Money Matters $$

I was curious about how eating clean food would compare in cost to our usual fare.  It seems to be turning out to be WAY cheaper.  Usually we spend about $200-$250 per week on groceries (not including Joy's diapers).  Last week when I was preparing, I spent $196 at Giant Eagle and $40 at the Farmer's Market, so that was about normal.  This week, when I went to Giant Eagle, I only spent $89!!!  I couldn't believe it!  Boy do those packaged goods add up!!  I'll spend more at the Farmer's Market tomorrow, but not that much more.  

Lessons Learned  Today

1.  This project is making me very curious about how and what people ate in the past.  I ordered one book about the history of cooking and dining, and I can't wait to read it!

2.  This has also made me more cognizant of how I have taken breakfast and lunch for granted in the past.  Breakfast was cereal or yogurt and lunch was sandwich (with store bought bread and lunchmeat), packaged frozen meal, or salad with chemically salad dressing.  Dinner was the only meal I really put thought into planning for.  I realized when I make things ahead, like giant batches of oatmeal and bread dough, these meals can still be relatively easy and still homemade.

Speer Family Unpackaged Day 3

I sort of can't believe it's only been 3 days, I feel like we've been at this for a while.  I guess it's because I spent so much time in preparation.  

The composition of my refrigerator has certainly changed.  Now there are tons of containers of dough and food to store for the week (mac and cheese, "chicken" noodle soup, cookies) and fruits and veggies.  There are still some packaged things that will last beyond the week, of course.  I feel like I'm starting to run out of containers.  

We had oatmeal and blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning.  The kids had bunny crackers and homemade granola bars on our walk.  We had cucumbers and grilled cheese for lunch, and Joy had mac and cheese.  

This afternoon we had our homemade vanilla gelato.  It was AWESOME!

Tonight we made Harvest Vegetable Venison Spelt Pasta.  It took 2 hours to make, from digging the veggies out of the ground to getting it on the table.  The kids did watch TV for part of it, and then they helped clean the fennel and carrots.  They mostly played in the carrot scrubbing water.Shawn made tomato sauce from my mom's tomatoes.  I made garlic oil and cooked the venison and veggies (onions, fennel, carrots and herbs from the garden; pattypan squash from the FM) up in that. I bought some organic spelt pasta.  We topped it all off with parmesan and it was so, so good. The kids did a great job eating it.  I was surprised I liked the venison so well, and they did too.  

All that harvesting made for lots of compost to take out!

Now, for their bedtime snack, the kids are having brick cheese cubes, peanuts, raisins and banana chips.

Lessons Learned Today:
1. I really did over plan with the food.  We could have made do with less.  Some things will end up going to waste.  For some reason, we seem to need way less food.
2.  When we eat real food, we are not nearly as hungry for snacks.  I'm really starting to believe that chemical food truly does make you really hungry.  I don't understand why.  Real food is way more satisfying.
3.  This is not difficult for the kids at all, really.  It's only a lot of work.  They haven't whined or complained or begged for anything.  I can't blame our chemical dependency on them!

New Barn Game

I tied a rope over one of the beams in the barn and the kids have been having fun pretending to swing on vines like Diego.  Joy climbs up on the rock and says "Help me Paul!"  Paul throws her the rope and she catches it and swings down.  This persists peacefully for a few minutes then they start squabbling over the rope.

Sunset Beach

We thought we'd better get to Sunset Beach one last time for the year.  The kids were thrilled when we got out of the car and Camille, Alina and Chloe got out of their cars right across from us.  Paul had a blast playing with Camille!!  It was a good farewell since she'll be heading to college Thursday.  It was also nice because there weren't many people there.  I even got to go down the slide while Camille watched the kids.  And it was FUN!

Wagon Rides

I had to supervise this one closely to make sure they didn't end up in the red barn or on the road!  They sure had fun, though.

Speer Family Unpackaged Day 2

Things went well again today.  We had stovetop oatmeal for breakfast with homemade nectarine-honey topping; we all gobbled it up.  The kids ate Terra chips, Tostitos and homemade granola bars on our walk.  Shawn and I had grilled cheese for lunch. Paul had a roll up sandwich with homemade bread and just cheese (no lunch meat).  He ate  it and didn't complain a bit.  Joy had a banana and a slice of cheese.  

We went to the grocery store today.  The kids could have their usual free slice of cheese from the deli, but not their usual cookie.  I brought no-bakes from home and they ate them while we checked out, as usual.  No one complained, and no one threw any fits about not being able to buy something that wasn't approved.  I thought I'd look for some natural ice cream.  I figured it wouldn't be too hard; it's frozen after all, you wouldn't think it would require preservatives.  I scoured the entire ice cream section and found NO acceptable ice cream!  I couldn't believe it.  So, tomorrow I think we'll make our own ice cream.  In preparation for that, I knew I'd better buy some heavy cream.  Even the organic heavy cream has suspicious ingredients!  I had to buy organic half and half; it had all normal-sounding ingredients.  

I baked the banana bread today.  It was fabulous!  Paul wouldn't even try it, though.  I think it's because when we pureed the bananas I just happened to mention that it was like making Joy baby food. Oh well, the rest of us enjoyed it.  Instead, Paul had the candy coated nuts from Giant Eagle that he loves so much.  And I love that 2 of the 4 or 5 varieties have only acceptable ingredients.  

I made some mac and cheese this afternoon with 4 different kinds of shredded cheese and whole wheat elbow noodles (the only kind I could find that wasn't enriched.)  It was delicious, and Joy ate a good bit of it.  For dinner, we had corn on the cob, watermelon, apple slices and mac and cheese.  

Joy helped me make a loaf of bread for tomorrow.  By that I mean she smeared dough all over the counter.

Now the kids just polished off a bedtime snack of brick cheese cubes, peanuts and raisins.  

Things I learned today:

1.  Once again I was surprised how easy it was with the kids.  They really didn't miss anything.  

2. It continues to be a lot of work, but I'm getting stuff stored up so the rest of the week should be easier, hopefully.

3.  I don't know if it is having any effect behavior wise on the kids.  Paul was very well behaved but Joy whined and screamed and cried the usual amount I'd say.  And then some.

4.  After yesterday I learned to use butter much more sparingly.  So I had a neutral relationship with butter today.

P.S.  Last night for a bed time snack, we had 4 cheese whole wheat mac and cheese with pork and homemade bread and homemade wine on the side.  Way better than crackers!!!!!!!