To live in Bountiful and eat Bountifully!

I promised a loooong time ago that I here in the west and are spreading.  It's all volunteer run and you just pay $16.50 (including tax/fees) and in return they pool the money and buy in bulk from the same suppliers as the grocery stores. They try to go as local as possible and cutting out the middle man makes buying produce a whole lot more affordable.  I've been getting them off and on since the beginning of the year in an effort to meet my New Years resolution to go 80% produce.

Which goal was inspired by Green Smoothie Girl, whom I finally got around to looking up after seeing her on a video where she got a Dressing Your Truth Makeover.  I am sooo glad I did look her up and downloaded her 12 Nutrition Myths.  The one about milk has been such a saving grace for us!  Without reading that I never would have figured out why my oldest girl always had a chronic runny nose year round!
So yes, we've cut out milk, and as such we no longer buy cold cereal.  I really don't miss it.  It is sooo expensive to buy something so processed and mostly air, that often contains too much sugar (and when it truly is healthy you can break your teeth on the hard whole grains and seeds *cough*Kashi*cough*.)
Ok, end of rant about cold cereal.  Anyway, cutting out those two things has been a great decision for us.  We've saved money on our groceries and I don't have to wash nearly as many spoons and bowls.  And yes, I think we're all healthier now.

Now for those of your who already know about Green Smoothie Girl, you might be wondering why I said 80 percent produce instead of 80 percent raw, which is what she does.  This is because I know myself, and I know that big changes don't happen over night, especially when they involve more people than just myself. (Namely, the hubby.)
So I figured, listen to the Flylady and take baby steps.  Let's just up our produce intake and then we can see how much cooking we can eliminate next year.

So this brought me round to my previous thoughts on joining Bountiful Baskets.  I had been thinking about it for at least a year off and on, but the idea of that much produce in my house made my head swim because it seemed that whenever I bought fresh stuff, a large amount very often went to waste.  So, once again, baby steps.

We got one and tried it . . . it did take some getting used to, and if I do recall aright, some things did go bad before we used them, but it was overall really good so we did it again a little while later. . . And again.  Then we did have a little regression where we had to get some Charity food from our Church's storehouse and that was frustrating because while they do give a lot of produce, it's only enough to last a month or so, and then all you have left is a years worth of carbs and meats and condiments.  Which, of course, are good things to have on hand, but it doesn't make for very healthy eating when that's all you have in the house.
Okay, so we did get canned fruits and veggies too, and I did the best I could with those for a while, but I have been most happy to see my hubby's work pick up again because I've missed my Bountiful Basket!

I think that time without one really made me appreciate it more.  I also think that I have finally gotten used to eating more produce.  We used to get one every other week at most, but yesterday I bought my third one in a row, so we will have had fresh produce for three weeks in a row next week!  Of course, this is almost all we are spending on groceries (Aside from some occasional cheese from the local grocery store).
So really, because we are all stocked up on meat and carbs, it's kind of nice that we can just focus on buying fresh things and since we are also no longer buying chips or crackers we have slowly learned to snack on fruit, celery, carrots . . . things like that.

The only other thing that can be a bit of a challenge is that one never knows what the basket will hold until they get it.  So, if you've never cooked with or eaten some of the offerings it will take a little extra research and thought to work it into your meals.  And yes, sometimes it takes a little courage too.

I honestly used to be a very picky eater as a child.  (possibly influenced by picky older siblings as the second youngest of seven.)  There was a time when I was heard to say that I wouldn't eat anything green unless it was jello . . . maybe iceburg lettuce.  Lol. Peas were the worst! I have a very vivid memory of being made to choke them down at dinner once! It was awful!
Eventually, I got brave and tried broccoli.  Which I liked, as long as it was fresh.  When I was a young teenager my Mom discovered Reliv.  Which is a pretty great invention (if they only would cut back on the soy, but of course they didn't know better at the time. They should know by now though!)
It is basically a vitamin/mineral supplement that is taken in drink form.  Let me tell you, this is not a very yummy drink.  My Mom really believed in it though and I took them for her.  I really didn't mind too much.  It actually seemed to cure the chronic cough/cold I 'd had for about two years. (Though, now I'm wondering if that was actually due to Milk. I did stop drinking milk at some point, but I'm not sure if those events coincide.)
Anyway, after choking down Reliv (Which I did for about six years or so) I began to say to myself, "If I can handle this, I can handle anything."  I became a much more adventurous eater thereafter.  Which was good because when one moves around socially, it really is not polite or classy to cringe (or whine) at the site of new, untried foods.  I even started to eat peas, though even now I must say they are still not a favorite.

At any rate I am super excited to try new things now, and I feel adventurous and motivated and so, so, so blessed that we have the opportunity in this day and age to try so many amazing foods from all over the world and that we have the knowledge and resources to find out what each food does for us so that we can choose to be healthier and happier!

~Julie :}

Eat Cleaner All Natural Food Wash

Another great find thanks to Daily Grommet!

This is a food wash that can come as a spray, or as wipes.  It is safe, biodegradable, non-toxic etc . . . All you do is spray your produce, let it sit for two minutes and then rinse it off.

The spray will remove all wax and pesticide residue from your food, and because it removes bacteria the shelf life of your produce is increased!
I'm really excited about this!  Apparently they even sell to restaurants, and they offer a poultry and seafood spray as well, that will ensure you don't  have things like salmonella or e-coli in your food.

Check out the Eat Cleaner website for yourself!
Happy eating!

Convert to Skirt Tutorial

I've really been wanting a white skirt for a while, and conveniently, they are in style this season!  The only problem is that I haven't been able to find one that I like, that meets my needs.  The other day I was telling my sister about my search for the perfect white skirt and she in return told me about this old Jody dress that she has that she's been wondering if it's a bit outdated. I started to tell her that I had been wondering the same thing about my Jody dress of that style, and suddenly it hit me! The dress I was speaking of is white!  Ereka! I can turn my outdated white dress into a skirt!  It's eyelet lace, and both white and lace are 'in' right now so it will be perfect!  So last Friday I spent a few hours and made it happen.  Here is a little tutorial. I highly suggest you read the whole thing before starting as dresses will vary.  Enjoy!

The dress.  Try it on inside out and decide where you want the waist of your skirt to be.
If the dress has a zipper you'll need to decide if it goes low enough down the back to work for your skirt. If not you'll want to remove the zipper before you do any cutting so you can re-insert it a bit lower. (Here's a video for installing an invisible zipper.)

Mark it where you want to cut it. Be sure to unzip the zipper if you're planning to keep it.  Otherwise you'll cut the tongue of the zipper off when you cut your dress.

First cut a little notch on one side just to get through the seam.
Following your marking, continue cutting but this time only cut through the front layer(s) of the dress, this will help you keep your cut straighter.

Turn the dress over and carefully cut through the back layer.

Until your dress is in two pieces. Note: the zipper is unzipped so I don't lose the tongue.

Whip stitch the ends of the zipper to keep the tongue from zipping off.

If your dress is lined or can fray easily, stay stitch around the top edge of the skirt to keep the lining and overlay together. This will also work the same for your zipper as the whip stich, so if your are going to stay stitch you can probably skip the whip stitching.

Try on your skirt. If it needs to be more fitted around the waist, add some darts. Using a seam gauge measure from the side seam in to ensure the darts are the same on both sides.

Make sure the darts also have the same amount of material cinched in. 

You can figure out how big your darts need to be by pinching the extra when you try it on, then measure how much too big the waist is, divide that number into four.  Say it's 4 inches, you would make four darts that are all 1 inch.
To learn more about sewing darts check out this video tutorial.

Once darts are sewn, press them toward the center  . . .

On both sides. Try on your skirt again to see if you really can get into it with the darts in place.  If not, you maybe need to replace the old zipper with a new one so you can open the skirt a bit more.

To finish the top edge of the skirt, you can surge the edge and fold it under and hem, but I prefer to use binding in situations like this.  It is less bulky, and I like the look of it.  I usually make my own binding by using a long length of ribbon which I have pressed exactly in half.  Then pin the folded ribbon along the edge you are finishing, making sure the raw edge is tucked as far in to the crease as possible. Once pinned, stitch along the bottom of the binding. 

There will probably places where you stay stitching shows underneath the edge of your binding.  You can unpick this now as the top edge is finished and no longer needs the stay stitch.

You can either trim the ends of the binding, fold the edges in and stitch, or you can leave them long like this and tie them like a sash. I chose this later method because one detail I liked about the top of the dress was the white satin bow.  The sash recreates that same type of detail for me in a functional and fun way.
To keep the edges of the ribbon from fraying I melted them carefully with a lighter. Be sure to test this method on a scrap first in case the ribbon is quite flammable. Or you can apply some fray check to prevent fraying.

 Tada!

Convert a dress to a skirt?  Converted!