-42 C this morning, Blog Fans

The weather channel doesn't tell me how cold the wind chill is - only that there is an extreme wind chill warning. So that is nice! :-/

Luckily I put the vegetables in the crock pot last night to make stock for soup at lunch. :-) I wanted to get up early and get bread going for lunch, too, but I haven't been out from under a blanket so I don't think it is going to happen. A hearty soup should be enough.

Now- my grocery shopping quandry! I told you all that I was going to spend $500 this month on groceries and I'm on track with that- BUT if I spend $220 this week I get 8000 points. I haven't entirely reconciled to giving up the points. I think I'll just go and get what I need for the rest of the month and not worry about it, though.

I bought one of those step exercise things at the thrift store the other day ($10.00) and the kids and I have all tried it. It is much harder than you would think it would be! Even with out the treadmill we are still losing weight. I am 139.6 lbs (down from 163 lbs) this week and Luc is 294 lbs (down from 310 lbs) He fed himself for a couple weeks and his weightloss slowed down a bit, but that is all over now and he is back to losing 3 lbs/ week. He's only been losing for a couple months, though, so he is doing pretty well.

Last night on the food channel they were talking about roasts for Christmas day. I swivelled my attention that way because we are having roast for Christmas day! Then he said pork and beef. PORK and BEEF? Yuck! What about Venison and bison? We are going to have a lovely and tasty bison roast. Bison is a free range, organic, local meat. Why would I eat anything else?

Oh, and that brings me to veganism. Luc and I are eating mostly vegan meals, but sometimes we have an egg or a little cheese on something. We just keep animal products under 5% of the calories for the day. We aren't starving and we don't miss it. In fact most of the time we don't WANT it. We are getting protein from seeds, nuts and quinoa. So that brings me back to Christmas roast. We are having roast beast for Christmas, but I will have a tiny slice (or maybe none depending how I feel on the day) and Luc will have a small slice. The kids aren't limited, but are encouraged to make healthy choices with regards to portions.

The treadmill

The repair guy came out yesterday and replaced all the buttons. Sadly it wasn't the buttons, but the ground wire that need replacing so they are going to order all new electronics. It will take ten business days. Yes, that IS Christmas eve and no, I don't think they are going to run right over with it so we can get in exercise on Christmas weekend. :-/

No treadmill until the new year, I'm sure.

Money for savings

I want to put more than a thousand dollars into savings this month and I will share as I go.

Everyone can save something and I hope that my ramblings inspire you to save a little, too.

:-)

Busy day

Today we are cleaning up the entry and the coat closet. Honestly- how did it get to be December and this hasn't been done? =8-o

After that we are going to the grocery store for dh's medication then Costco for Brown Bear's medication... and laundry soap. I hope I won't be standing in line for hours because I need to come home and do hours of laundry instead.

I tried to convince the kids to plan a Christmas vacation, but they weren't having it. They told me in September that they weren't having a vacation at Christmas so I should have known... okay... Fair enough. They do need to keep working if they want to meet their goals.

Now... aren't you glad you came today and read this post? Aren't you glad that I'm not one of those perfect people with everything done and reading my posts just makes you feel badly about the state of your own life.

:-) Now go make yourself a hot drink (if you have a clean cup...) and think of one thing that you could do today that would make a difference.

Trying something new at the grocery store.

This month we bought everything that we could on 15% off day. We bought any fruits and vegetables that would keep two weeks or more and anything we could freeze like soy milk. We got enough eggs for two weeks and cheese for the month. I used to only shop once a month and I saved a lot of money doing that so I'm going to try and go back to that.

A person might think why not just buy soymilk weekly. Good question! While we are in the store for soymilk and perishables the cart usually gets filled with other not so necessary things- especially this time of year. Soy milk is $4/ 2 litres, but I had a coupons for 60 cents off and it was 15% off day so that brings it down to $2.89. I was pretty happy with that because I was going to buy my usual 1 litre rice milk 2/$5.00 Just the savings of the 15% off is significant, but I was very happy to get the deal with it.

I'll shop once more for more fruit and vegetables, but I should be set for everything else. I usually spend $250-300 on 15% off day and shop 2 or 3 more times in the month. This is very time consuming and can be more expensive. We didn't really try to keep it low, but we did fill two carts rather quickly with fruit and vegetables so that makes you think twice about what you put into a second cart.

My goal for the month is $500, but I have more and I'm very willing to go over that amount if I need to. I figure it is all a lesson and will help me keep on track in a couple months when I really will need to spend less.

I will let you all know how it goes! :-)

Noel Nog

Noel Nog is a gluten free, dairy free, egg free seasonal soy product. It is pretty tasty and good for calories, too.

Egg nog and fruit cake are my favourite things about Christmas and I did have a moment of sadness when I realized that there is no such thing as gluten free fruit cake. :-( I fondled the bin of glace cherries when I was in the bulk aisle of the grocery store yesterday. Mmmmm.... sickly sweet fruit...

I've come to my senses, though. I'll drink my soy nog and eat an apple and just be glad for the good instead of the sticky fruit. I cheated with some wedge potatoes last week. What was I thinking?? It wasn't worth the side effects at all.

In search of a grain mill...

I've always been deeply interested in making my own flour. I am not going broke buying gluten free flours... but... I'm not getting rich either.

I'm nearly out of egg replacer and it is $8.00 a box. $8.00! It is soy flour and a couple different kinds of starch. I bought soy flour instead, but it was $3.00 for a small bag. It's soy beans that have been turned to powder. That's it.

And this brings me to my search for a grain mill. I went all over the city and talked to some very interesting people. On a tip from the restaurant supply store I did find what I was looking for - a small grinder that will grind anything and it only costs THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. The nice lady in the store is checking for some that don't plug in. I have four teenagers- surely to goodness one of them can grind the grains and do the hard work of making flour!

I got a large electric coffee grinder ($40) and it works really well on buckwheat and quite good on brown rice. It wasn't heavy duty enough for popcorn, but come on! Popcorn is hard!

It only convinced me that I really, really, really want a grain mill because the bread that I made with it was very beautiful and filling whole grains.

The whole grain mill experience was a bit of a snipe hunt, but I'm not giving up! I'm going to get it and I'm not paying $300 for it, either!