Dan's brother Dylan and sister-in-law Rebekah have generously given us some of their goodies from the stash of food they get from Natures/Wild Oats/Whole Foods. The food is generally fine, but perhaps a bit ripe or just past the expiration date.So what does one do with all those bananas?
I have been making banana bread like there is no tomorrow!!! We have been making lots of smoothies (we all love that!)...and just last week I made these oat, date bran muffins and added bananas to them. They are sweetened with molasses instead of sugar which gives them a dark color. I have been eating these muffins for breakfast every morning and they're very tasty!
I was getting tired of banana bread, so I made a banana cake with homemade cream cheese frosting!This weekend we got another "shipment" of food:
This time there was lots of milk. I froze some of it, but with three kids there's no doubt we will use this up. There was even chocolate soy milk!!! We also got cottage cheese, soup and apple sauce.
Thanks to Dylan and Rebekah, we have a freezer full of whole grain, very healthy bread and are never in short supply of bagels. Just after Christmas, we got pastries and pie! (I've been good and let the kids and Dan take care of those items!)We've also been able to help some of our friends out. One family in particular is struggling financially. When we found this out, we loaded them up too! God has really blessed us with all this food for free and it has dramatically cut down our grocery bill.
Produce: more bananas, apples, potatos and avacados. I bet this week we will be having smoothies, mashed potatoes, guacamole and applesauce.
This past Sunday, I needed to use up some apples, so I made homemade applesauce with the sieve/strainer thingy I remember my mom using. After cooking the apples for 30 minutes or so, I just run them through until all that's left in the strainer are the seeds and skin. Looky a quart of applesauce with no added sugar or preservatives...another great benefit to all this food it that it's all organic! A couple weeks ago I made applesauce and added pears... it turned out amazing!
5 comments:
When I first read your list of fruit and vegetables I thought that you had made smoothies out of mashed potatoes, guacamole and applesauce, since you had just finished talking about having smoothies.
I was going to ask you how it tasted, but after reading it again I realized that you were talking about the finished produce after listing the bananas, apples, potatoes and avocados as some of the produce that you received.
Congratulations on your healthier eating, just watch out for those bran muffins, even though they are made with healthy ingredients they do contain a fair amount of calories.
Good to see you blogging again once in a while.
Wow! That would be some smoothie...knowing you, I bet you could just throw some tabasco sauce on it and down a glass or two!
I input the ingredients for the bran muffins and they come out to about 160 calories...about as much as a bowl of healthy cereal, so I figure it's not too bad.
I haven't been blogging much, but I have lots of photos for things we've been doing that will be fun to post this week. I've been somewhat busy trying to catch up around here. I spent 3 hours doing laundry Sunday while Dan was out with the kids. I also have been at the gym a bit more. Today I ran 5.25 miles in an hour which burned over 600 calories!!! Whoo Hoo!
Your Mother will verify that I can down just about anything, and hot sauce just gives it a little something extra.
The only reason that I mentioned the calories in bran muffins is that many people do not realize that they do contain calories. The home made ones are not nearly as bad as the ones from Costco or Winco, the calories in them are enough for a couple of meals.
How is the weather out your way. I just got back in from a little walk and the roads here are slightly icy.
I know how much time doing laundry can take, I usually plan things so that I can do something else while doing it; something that I can break into and take care of the laundry when needed.
Keep up the exercising; that will do more than anything else in getting back to shape. Although I have been hearing a lot about how inaccurate the calories burned are on most equipment. So much depends on body mass; two people can weigh the same but the one with a lower BMI will burn many more calories than the person with a higher BMI.
But no matter any exercise is better than none at all. I need to do more than I do, but right now I do not have the energy to do that and the house work around here. Take care of yourself and give the grand children a hug from us.
wow! What a blessing Alyssa! And it's all healthy too! How is it that they are receiving all this wonderful food from them? Wow!
Oh, btw...Zander left his bday present at our house this weekend. But, I think Dan, Zander and Shawn and Hayden are getting together soon for a lunch/playdate soon so I will just send it with them then.
Katie
I'm not exactly sure how they get the food, but I think they get to pick it up for a family they know who needs assistance, but they usually get enough to feed 4-6 families...so they pass it along to more people...like us! It really is a blessing.
Zander had so much fun playing with Hayden the other day. I will tell him about the gift. Thanks!
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