Boss Sanders » Food and Drink

Fat, Sick And Nearly Dead

bosssanders — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:21:07 +0000

Those of you who know me, know I am a committed health freak who NEVER sways.

(Haha, okay take a moment to go change your pants from laughing so hard…)

Anyways, I spotted the film above on Netflix and was admittedly intrigued.

So, I dug my Breville Juicer out from beneath layers of dust and tried Joe’s MEAN GREEN juice…

MEAN GREEN JUICE:

6 Kale Leaves
1 Cucumber
4 Celery Stalks
2 Green Apples
1/2 Lemon
1 piece of ginger

It was… well… GREEN.

Have you tried it? What did you think? Are you going to do the 10-30-or-60-day juice cleanse? Do you have any favorite juice recipes?

Little changes…

bosssanders — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:52:18 +0000

Over the past month or so, my hubby and I have gained a little weight. Not a lot, but enough to give us that kick in the behinds to do something about our less-than-healthy habits. A couple of weeks ago, I began doing some strength exercises 3x a week (Okay, I know some of you are thinking BIG DEAL, but for me it is. I HATE exercising, but have found a routine in this and tomorrow will be the end of 3 weeks and going!) Today, I will add in cardio if my bum leg allows, but baby steps, right?

Along with the exercising, we also decided to give our food a makeover. Food makeovers are kind of scary. They can be even more scary when you’re on a super tight budget and things just don’t fit right (we may have to expand that part of the budget and take off elsewhere.) But, we agreed to go to the store and get what we needed to see how long these things would last us.

Here’s what we bought*:

10 ct Mission whole wheat flour tortillas…. $2.62 (3 packages)
Healthy Life 100% Whole Grain Bread …..$1.77 (we bought one loaf and had one at home)
1 dozen eggs… $1.64 (2)
GV plain nonfat yogurt 32 oz….$2.00 (2)
GV 1 gal 1% milk….$3.48 (2)
GV 1 gal 1% chocolate milk….$3.84
GV medium cheddar block (1 lb)…$4.44 (3)
Brummel and Brown Yogurt Spread (instead of butter) (15 oz)…$2.38
Tyson All-Natural Chicken Breasts (3lb)…$7.98 (2)
Medium Shrimp (14 oz)….$5.48 (2)
Great Value turkey bacon (12 oz)…$2.48 (2)
Sara Lee deli oven roasted turkey breast (6.98/lb)… $7.12
Deli Roast Beef ($6.18/lb)… $6.12
Bunch of asparagus ($2.84/lb, 2 bunches)…$4.48
Marketside sugar snap peas (8 oz)…$2.50
Dole Leafy Romaine (10 oz)…$2.78
Granny Smith Apples (1 lb/ $1.37)….$4.08
Grapefruit …. $.54 ea (2)
GV frozen whole strawberries (1 lb, no sugar added)…$2.36 ea (3)
Bananas (1 lb/$.52)….$2.65 (for about 14 bananas)
GV peach halves in cans (29 oz)…$1.76 (4)
Smucker’s natural chunky peanut butter (16oz)…$2.34 (2)
Light Ragu Tomato and Basil (1lb 10oz)….$1.76 (2)
Rotel-mild (10 oz)…$.98 (2)
GV dry chickpeas (16 oz)…$1.42
GV light red kidney beans (16 oz)…$1.16 (2)
GV black beans (16oz)…$1.12 (2)
Simply Grapefruit juice (59 fl oz)…$3.00
Simply Orange juice (59 fl oz)…$3.00
Quaker 1-minute oats, plain (42 oz)…$3.98 (2)
Fisher Almonds, unsalted (16 oz)…$8.72
Ortega 40% less sodium Taco seasoning (1.25 oz)…$.62(2)
GV whole wheat spaghetti (13.25 oz)…$1.00 (3)
Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth, 33% less sodium (32 oz)…$2.46
Hodgson Mill Milled Flax Seed (12 oz)…$2.08
Whey Protein powder in vanilla and chocolate (2lb)…$14.68 (2)

*These foods correspond to the ABS DIET that we are using as a base for our new “health plan”

The total kind of …no, really scares me. It was about 4x our weekly budget. But, I’m trying to take comfort in the fact that we’ve not eaten all of this food yet and we’ve been following the meals very closely (eating 6 meals each for 4 people). Now, I need to find even cheaper but still just as healthy alternatives for the foods we’re buying (like, mostly cheaper fruits/veggies/deli meats/milk). We won’t have to buy more protein powder or flax seed for a very long time, so that will cut our next grocery bill down by about $32 dollars. And…silly me, having never cooked dried beans before forgot that DUH! THEY SWELL! So, we have lots of beans. I mean, LOTS. Tomorrow is day 7, and I just cleaned out the last of the first jar of all natural peanut butter…so we may need to look at a cheaper (but just as healthy) brand…OR find coupons. And, of course…bananas have already disappeared!

If any of you know of where I can find these things CHEAPER, please let me know! (Especially if it’s the same brand, or a healthier brand…)

Recipe: Yummy Cornbread

bosssanders — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:28:09 +0000

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups milk
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Combine the eggs and milk. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with egg mixture.
Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees F for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares; serve warm.

Pantry Meals

bosssanders — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:27:33 +0000

The snow and general coldness has kept us inside. Which means, our pantry is looking a little slim. Actually, that’s not fair, we have lots of food – most of them just happen to be odd-ball things that we USUALLY use up with other ingredients we don’t have. So, we’ve turned it into a game to try to come up with meals to fix that mostly come out of our pantry/freezer. (Granted, we’re going to have to restock on cheese, eggs, milk, butter, etc.)

Last night, we had Chicken A La King (made previously and frozen) over biscuits made from a biscuit mix that someone gave to us a while back.

Night before? Spaghetti. Only, we didn’t have spaghetti sauce, so we used cream of mushroom soup instead. You just season your meat with basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook. Drain. Add diced tomatoes (rotel would be even better but we didn’t have it). Then, in a separate pot, cook up your spaghetti. Grease a casserole dish (13×9) and layer sauce, spaghetti, cheese, sauce, spaghetti cheese. Mix your cream of mushroom soup with some water (check the back of the can), and pour it over the top. Parmesan cheese goes on last. Stick it in the oven til it’s all melted and VOILA. Pretty good stuff. We used deer meat instead of beef because it’s what we have. (Thanks, Terrell!)

Tonight, we’ll be having a cornbread bar. There’s cornbread and then there’s the “extras” – we have navy beans, chili, cream cheese, ketchup, and hot sauce. We have more beans if we run out of all of that.

Future menu items:

Tuna patties (using mashed potatoes to hold it all together and dipped in cornmeal and cooked)
Potatoes and eggs
Ham and cheese omelets
Tuna sandwiches (without pickles/relish because we don’t have it)
Ham fried rice (frozen slices of ham cut into chunks, eggs, Worcestershire sauce all fried up with brown rice)
And whatever good treats we can come up with for venison using what we already have. Ideas, anyone?

Thanksgiving – A Learning Experience

bosssanders — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:18:58 +0000

We’re studying about Christopher Columbus this month, and I wanted to share with you some of the great links I’ve found so far! (I’m hoping to share pictures of our other studies and activities in a future post – we’ve been busy!)

ENJOY!

Pan Fried Asparagus

bosssanders — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:54:41 +0000

Ingredients:

1/4 c butter
2 T olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed

Directions:

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in th eolive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook garlic in butter for a minute, but do not brown. Add asparagus, and cook for 10 minutes, turning asparagus to ensure even cooking.