Fresh from the Farm

One way we have been able to keep up our whole food eating is the Group CSA basket we receive every week.  I can't believe I have only been receiving this basket for 3 months and now I can't imagine planning and cooking my meals without it.  I already know we are not ordering for November because we will be out of town a lot next month and I am trying to plan how to get most of my meat. Luckily the farm we use sells their meat at a local store here in town (SuperLo in East Memphis) as well, so I guess I will be making some trips there.  

The farm where we receive our Group CSA basket is West Wind Farms.  The offer multiple types of CSA programs but this one fits our family the best.  I only have to make a 1 month at a time commitment and each Saturday I go and pick up our basket.  Each week I get a dozen eggs, 5 different veggies, 3 meats, cheese and either a peanut or almond butter.  They are more than generous with their offerings and do a great job of giving you a good variety throughout the month.  The best thing about everything we get in our basket-it is all organic.  All livestock is grass feed and not given antibiotics and the produce is grown according to organic practices.  I am so comfortable knowing what I am putting into my family's plate is good for them.

 The above and below represent what we got one Saturday.  Told you they were generous!  We got a note saying they were sorry that the summer drought had cause less variety in meat selection so they doubled our meat!  I had a very happy husband!

 Here are a few pictures from August and September.  Let me tell you that corn was some of the best corn I have ever had.  We got corn every week for about a month so I have plenty of it in my freezer.  We will be enjoying that corn all winter long.

You might be wondering what kind of dinners I make during the week using our farm basket.  I do a lot of pinterest searching on Saturdays after I get the basket.  Since I don't know what I am getting until I pick up my basket I don't usually plan my weekly menu until Saturdays 

Monday-Cheesy Beef Pasta-think a hamburger helper box, 40x better tasting and better for you.  I made it with whole wheat pasta and local ground beef. My kids have ate this almost every night since! Score 1 for mom-Emma ate meat!

Tuesday-Braised Chicken with Lemons and Capers.  This was a more labor intensive meal than I thought.  I will cook it again but probably on a weekend.  I used our bone in chicken breast from the farm basket, served it with roasted potatoes (also from the basket) and sauteed squash.  

Wednesday-leftover Cheesy Beef Pasta and Trunk or Treat at Emma's school

Thursday-Breakfast for Dinner-a family favorite and so easy!  We had whole wheat biscuits or whole wheat waffles.  I made both because I just freeze the left overs for during the week.  No more Eggo's for these kiddos!  We also had scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage both from our basket.  I will say we try to eat more eggs these days.  Since we get a dozen a week they can really stack up if you don't use them!

Now it is Friday and time for us to go spend the weekend at the river.  We have a relaxing weekend planned playing with our cousin.  Daddy is staying home to study for a test so I am braving the trip by myself!

Getting ready for the Holidays

Last week we met our photographer to take our Christmas pictures.  We picked the Collierville square and it ended up being a great location.  The girls loved crawling all over the train, it was a nice day and there are plenty of areas in the square for pictures.  The one hang up was that it was all decorated for Thanksgiving!  We did have to dodge some pumpkins and mums every now and then-I think you can see some in a couple of the pictures below.  I just took these pictures with my phone before Ragan got there.  I was pleasantly surprised how well the girls' dresses worked together.  They are both different brands and I got them both at a consignment sale!  

Changing our Ways

A few months ago I stumbled across a site on Facebook-100 Days of Real Food.  I thought it looked interesting, as I am always wanting us to eat healthier options.  For a few weeks I followed the posts and read what the author had to say, it was drawing me in more each time I read.  After looking at the Facebook posts I decided to try the website out.
I thought that what I was reading was really making sense and I liked that there was research to back up the facts.  If I am going to try and change Bradley's eating habits, I have to have some proof that what I am doing is for a good reason!  It was funny that in the middle of all of this research I was doing one of my best friends emailed me a youtube video talking about the same thing-Clean Eating.  Here is the video that Melinda shared with me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA&feature=youtu.be

I decided to give all of this real food eating a try and set off to complete the 100 days of mini pledges.  The pledges are broken down into weeks and each week you change one habit.  You don't have to build the weeks on top of each other but I find that it is pretty easy to do.  Right now I am on Week 5: Try 2 new whole foods.  So it is Tuesday now and so far I have tried one-pomegranate.  I have probably had pomegranate juice before but I have never bought a whole piece of the fruit and tried to eat it-I had to google had to tackle that one!  I bought a new veggie at the Farmer's Market and we got a new veggie in our CSA basket this week as well so I am on track to try three new things.  We will see how I do.  One of the veggies is Japanese radish and I almost ate it last night but didn't-it is a little scary.  So far things haven't been too hard-I haven't had a coke in a month and haven't had fast food in 3 weeks.  The cokes were the hardest thing to give up but after I got through that week without them, I really don't even want them anymore.

So, I had another reason to switch our eating habits.  If you know us at all I have one super picky child and one child who will eat anything, or at least she used to!  I have started noticing that AC was starting to become more picky about her foods.  I had fallen into the short order cook style with Emma and I refused to do it any longer.  So the new rule in our house is that kids eat what the adults eat.  I won't say it has been an easy transition and it hasn't been without tears.  I still like to put something on their plate that I know they like but we are also trying new foods at each meal.  Some of the larger accomplishments in my book of things the girls have tried: summer squash, sweet potatoes, and cushaw squash muffins.  Bonus points if you know what cushaw is!  We got it in our CSA basket-more about that later.

Princess Party

Emma was invited to Darcy's birthday this past Sunday.  We ventured out to our first party at Sweet and Sassy for a princess party.  All the little girls got to get all dolled up-hair, make up, costumes and even got their nails painted.  After all of this was complete there was a show and dancing on a mini runway.  This was right up Emma's alley!  She even said she wanted to have her 6 year old birthday party there.  Yes, that is right-she already has plans for the 5 year old party!

ECS Clown Parade

On Friday evening we went to the carnival and clown parade at my mom's school.  To say it was hot was an understatement!  Anna Claire tried to cool off by enjoying some tea but there really wasn't much that would cool anyone down.  Emma surprised me by wanting to get her hair sprayed-she is usually my child that like to stay clean.  Luckily the rain came through later that night and it is finally starting to feel like fall around here.  

Anna Claire these days

This little one keeps us on our feet at all times!

Anna Claire's 1st Day of School

I am a little behind with posting pictures from Anna Claire's first day of school this year.  Her new year started about two weeks ago.  AC has been in the one's room since March but there were some new friends that came back to school with the new year so that was exciting.