organic wanna-be

This morning as I was trying to drink my green breakfast smoothie, Sawyer was pulling on my leg, making it impossible to walk. He screeched loudly, indicating he would like a sip. Somewhat resentfully, OK, really resentfully, I allowed him to have some, then he shrieked until I gave him more. Although he is a great communicator- in that he gets his point across- we are working on him using *actual words*. We sat down and he proceeded to drink about a 1/4 of my drink. When he crawled off on his merry way, I realized how stupid my being greedy was. I mean, most moms would be thrilled if their kid ate as good as him.

I was talking to Ben the other day and told him what my idea of “being rich” was: BEING ABLE TO BUY WHATEVER TYPE OF FOOD I WANT, i.e. organic. Before he lost his middle class salary I was able to buy close to what I wanted to eat. Now, on my lower income budget I have to cheat. It’s hard to lower my food standards, but I had to realize that paying the mortgage is justalittle more important. I don’t have time or ability to till up my yard and plant my own fruit and veggies either, just come and check out my hardy, barely surviving potted plants in the front yard. Luckily I bought an older home with “mature” landscape, it’s survived the last few decades so I think it can survive me.

My breakfast smoothie is a perfect example of how I’ve changed what I do to be more budget conscious but still focus on health. Now, I buy most of my ingredients in bulk from Sam’s Club instead of the local health food store. The added bonus is that Ben and my boys love the smoothie too so it’s an easy to give them raw veggies blended with fruit… and they have NO IDEA. Well, the boys don’t. Ben isn’t blind, he just intentionally looks the other way so he’ll WANT to eat it. Often he asks me not to tell me what I put in my recipes so he’ll enjoy them… no lie.

So, that being said, my quick blender full of nutrition contains enough for 2 adults and 2 kids and it’s DELICOUS.

Green Breakfast Smoothie
2 bananas
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 cups assorted mixed fruit
2 LARGE handfuls of organic baby spinach
enough carrot juice to cover the frozen fruit
splash of juicy juice to give it a sweet flavor
(sometimes I’ll add some Truvia if I’m really craving somethings sweet….)

blend until smooth and serve with straws. I don’t know why. Straws just make it taste better. Try it!

———————————————-

I’ve posted on the FDA’s Dirty Dozen before, but here’s a quick reminder of what you should buy organic if you can! apples, celery, strawberries peaches, spinach, imported nectarines, imported grapes, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, domestic blueberries, lettuce and kale (collard greens).

The “clean fifteen” are foods that have the least contaminates and pesticides and are ok to buy non-organic: onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, asparagus, sweet peas, mangoes, eggplants, domestic cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit and mushrooms.

  • http://www.carpediembeth.blogspot.com Beth

    Great post, Heidi!

    The best move I ever made was stopping the short stint where I made “special” food for my daughter’s dinner – like chicken nuggets or pizza pockets. Gross. I’m conscientious about what my husband and I eat, and I started reading the ingredients and remembered that I should be even more careful with her. She eats what we eat for dinner, period. :) Side benefit: I’m not raising a picky eater who thinks she can only eat certain things.

    You’re a great mom – keep on keeping on! :)

  • http://kellyspinkbicycle.blogspot.com Kelly

    Thanks so much for this recipe and for the tips about what foods are okay to buy non-organic. I would LOVE to hear more about how you manage to balance organic food and a budget, because we’re in the same boat. I want to cook healthier, but it’s not always easy when the “good” foods are more expensive.

  • http://TheBusyNothings.com Heidi

    It’s so easy to do what is easy and I’ll be totally honest- if I didn’t HAVE to cook so healthy I probably wouldn’t have ever started! It’s hard sometimes, but like you said, I should be more careful with my kiddos and what I fee them! and my kids aren’t picky either- a HUGE PLUS!

  • http://TheBusyNothings.com Heidi

    I am still working on it! I think every time I go to the store it’s a new learning experience for me! It’s a very fine balance! One thing that helped me a bunch was to get a really good produce wash that I use to clean (especially non-organic produce) my fruits and veggies. It was like $8 but I felt like removing the waxes and pesticides that I could was a first budget friendly step!
    Remember – Lentil and quinoa education day is coming! ha ha!

  • http://www.hillbillywisdom.com Hillbilly Wisdom

    Heidi,

    Thank you so much for posting this recipe! My daughter only likes spinach with Annie’s Sesame dressing, but sometimes I would like for her to eat spinach without the dressing. This recipe is perfect for my smoothie lovin’, non-spinach eater. The baby…he’s like Mickey, he’ll eat anything:)

    Shannon

  • http://TheBusyNothings.com Heidi

    thanks for the comment! :) I don’t really love raw spinach so it when my kiddos didn’t like it either it made sense, but I wanted them still to eat it raw so smoothies were our best option! I used Kale today in mine! mmmmmmmm oh and I LOVE Annie’s!