About three weeks ago, I spent a Saturday with my friend, Holly. Holly and I talk alot while Alora is taking gymnastics, and lately we have been talking about saving money and eating foods that are good for you. Holly is amazing and makes alot of things from scratch. The woman even makes her own noodles! Uh-mazing! and sooo beyond my skills. Well, on the Saturday I spent with her, she taught me some cooking. It was so great. I have a ton of new recipes that I came home and tried out immediately- granola (the family loved this one), wheat rolls (needed a bit more salt), hot chocolate that is also a great formula for chocolate milk (it goes either way), homemade refried beans (I made the yummiest burritos ever!), apple bran muffins (AMAZING!-my personal fave). Needless to say--I was a cooking mad woman for about a week, freezing breads, homemade chicken and dressing, spaghetti sauces, muffins and all kinds of stuff. It was alot of work in the beginning but I have just been pulling stuff out of the freezer all month- thaw and presto! It has made life so much easier!
The awesomeness of all this homemade cooking is two fold: 1) We are eating things that are better for us and 2) I have cut my grocery bill from $700.00 dollars for the month to $565.00, a difference of $135.00 that we can use for something else! Now the even cooler part about that is that even though the budget says $700.00 dollars a month we have never really even gotten it down that low. The actual numbers for November and December (which I realize are crazy months with parties and holidays and such but still--we spent $900.00 each month! So, the difference really is $335.00 a month! Amazing!
Holly also recommended a cookbook for me. Now I have a ton of cookbooks but this one is a bit different and my mom and I got a copy asap. It is pictured above- More-with-Less. A great cookbook teaching you how to cook without using so much excess of the world's precious resources. It is written by a Mennonite woman and she really spends some time in the introduction putting things into perspective. There are some startling statistics about Americans and about the rest of the world. Things I already know but it was the final push into really putting feet to my thoughts. If God is to have all of my life then He must have this area of my life too-Food has such mastery over us as Americans, and it is time to put that stronghold to death in my house. I love food, and there is nothing wrong with that but we must begin to look at the world with a Biblical worldview, realizing that the rest of the world doesn't live like us. I do not want my children to grow up wasteful and selfish and it starts in this house. I have so many thoughts on this matter that it is hard to put them all down. It has been about a year long progression to get me to this point but it has been worthwhile and it has moved from a physical matter to a spiritual one. How I use our resources speaks volumes about my Christ. Oh God, open my eyes and heart to you and take control of my life.
Do we eat a bunch of tasteless food? No. Are we eating only beans and rice? No. I actually asked the kids if they have been starving. Of course, they said, No! We just dont have some of the things we used to have around here and we are not missing them. I am so thankful for friends who I can just share my heart with and I am so thankful for Holly, spending a Saturday to be a mentor to me and share life.
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