Penny Pinching Peach

For the semi crunchy, homeschool friendly and totally frugal!

Tag Archives: diet


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Stress Cooking

Stress Cooking

Stress Cooking

Does anyone else stress cook???

Today has been an all out booger of a day.  I spent hours on the phone making frustrating phone calls to fun places like health insurance companies, doctors and human resources hither and yonder while my children ran around the house terrorizing because I couldn’t deal with them properly right then. My outdoor loving children somehow hate going outside once Mommy gets on an important phone call. They’d rather stand at my feet shouting things like “I’m hungry”, “I went potty” and “She took my toy ’cause I hit her with it”. This ended up in my three year old scattering crayons from one end of the living room through the kitchen and den, not to mention his toy trucks and legos. All sorts of other things have been going wrong and bumming me out, plus I am physically something of a wreck, but this is not meant to be a whine fest.

Chopping That Okra Into Submission

Chopping That Okra Into Submission

Any stress eaters out there?

I know we’ve all heard of stress eating. I do that some, too, but sometimes stress just triggers me into a massive cooking frenzy. I can whip my frustration in to batter, chop some veggies into submission, beat the snot out of some eggs, and bake the bad away while filling my home with a deliciousness. It’s something fairly mindless and soothing because I can control the outcome and see almost guaranteed pleasant results from my efforts. It makes also makes my family happy, even whiny little boogers who like to pester the living daylights out of their mommy when she just CAN’T. A great stress reliever for me is the simple act of cooking….ALOT!

If there are, you would love to join me at my house when I’m super duper agitated! You’ll certainly have plenty to chow down on! Today’s stress cooking fest resulted in the goodies in the photos. I threw my baby girl in our trusty Moby wrap and went to sweating out my frustrations over the stove. Dark chocolate coconut brownies to satisfy my stress induced craving for dark chocolate. Oven fried okra because I had a batch left needing cooked from okra our neighbor gave us, and can’t fry for real while the baby is on me. Two casseroles of ground deer, green beans, rice, tomatoes and other goodies- one for tonight and another for the day after tomorrow. Mexican cornbread to go with our crockpot ham and beans tomorrow. Plenty of food, y’all! 🙂

Stress Cook and Eating

Stress Cook and Eating

What do you do when you are stressed?

You know, I think my stress cooking not only is about working those frustrations out in a constructive way, but also ties into wanting comfort food, which for me is usually something homemade. Whatever it may be, my husband and children seem to enjoy this particular way I cope with frustration and aggravation! 🙂

What is comfort food for you?

Want to make one of my family favorite comfort foods, passed on for several generations? Try my recipe for Grandma’s Sunday Special Ritz Cracker Chicken!


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My Kids’ Favorite Oatmeal

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Oatmeal

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Oatmeal

If you are one of those moms who just wants to quickly throw something together to feed the ravenous hordes in your house, but would prefer that something be healthy as well as faster as a wink and kid approved….this is the post for you!

My five year old long ago declared that she hated oatmeal, it was disgusting and slimy, and she would never, ever like it, no matter what. Challenge me, do ya, kiddo? Alrighty then! Challenge accepted! 😉 Guess what? She likes oatmeal. “But only the good kind you make, Mommy, not that other stuff, so I still hate that!” The following concoctions are the few approved by my resident oatmeal snob and the rest of the family.

This is my kids’ favorite oatmeal- and one of their most requested breakfasts. It’s Mommy and Daddy approved, too! My husband has me pack the ingredients for him at the fire station sometimes, because it sticks with him pretty well.

Take 1-2 packs of plain instant oatmeal and prepare according to package. Chop

Strawberries and Cream

Strawberries and Cream

up 1-2 bananas, according to taste and the number of people eating (2 packs and 1 banana is okay for just me and my two small children). Mash it into the oatmeal, along with a generous dollop of peanut butter and a sprinkling of chocolate chips. Stir and serve. Delicious!! The bowl in the

photo was immediately prepared and dished out for my munchkins and I, who were quite annoyed when I paused to take a photo of their breakfast while I was making it. 🙂

Another winner is one I call strawberries and cream. You can use chopped strawberries with milk and strawberry jam or chopped strawberries with cream and honey or chopped strawberries and strawberry yogurt. All of them give a yummy effect, so use whatever works in that category. Just strawberries and milk wasn’t nearly sweet enough, and the same with the cream, so the jam and honey helped with that. If you can’t tell, I’m the queen of kitchen improvisation.

Lastly, we have another super simple selection that is kiddo approved. Simply mix in a scoop of peanut butter and a dash of cinnamon, with or without honey or a smattering of chocolate chips. Similar, but mentionably different, from the first flavor.

Simply Sweet

Simply Sweet

I love meals that can be made quickly, cheaply and healthily from ingredients I normally have hanging around the house, anyway. These definitely fit that description, so I hope y’all enjoy them, too.

Does your family like oatmeal? What are their favorite flavors? If not, do you think any of these could possibly convert your own personal oatmeal snobs? It’s worth a try! it worked on my little princess picky pants, so it might work on yours, too. 🙂

Want another great recipe using oatmeal? Try my family approved Completely Healthy Cookies for an easy peasy snack that is both healthy and delicious.


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Safely Flavored Drinks for Pregnant Mommies

Decaf green tea

Decaf green tea

If you’re like me, you need to drink a lot of water even when you aren’t pregnant!

The amount of water I need to prevent dehydration during pregnancy feels like enough to float a boat on! Sometimes when I try just going with plain water all the time, I find myself dehydrated from forgetting to drink. I don’t want to drink a lot of unhealthy and/or fattening sodas, teas, fruit drinks and such, but flavoring my drinks periodically definitely helps me to drink more. I thought I’d share a few of my tricks for tasty sipping drinks for pregnancy while trying to stay safe. 🙂

Strongly flavored juices like cranberry grape juice, regular grape juice or any cranberry mixed real fruit juices make some terrific flavored waters! You can put about just a splash up to about 1/4, then filling your cup with juice, add a few cubes of ice, fill it up with water and you have a very refreshing drink to sip.

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Some herbal teas are safe during pregnancy, such as Earth Mama Angel Baby Organic Mama-To-Be Tea Sampler 16 bag, Celebration Herbals Organic Red Raspberry Leaf Tea Caffeine Free — 24 Herbal Tea Bags
and Twinings Pure Peppermint Herbal Tea, 1.41 Ounce Box, but it may be wise to consult your physician before drinking anything out of the ordinary. Personally, I’m on a peppermint tea kick, or sometimes Lipton Green Tea, Decaffeinated, 20 count, (Pack of 6). I like it warm with just a bit of honey, or I make it like iced tea with a little sugar. Either way, it’s very refreshing! The iced tea version is my favorite, because it’s a great alternative to that Southern sweet tea for this Georgia girl, and keeps me from giving in to the temptation to pour a tall glass of the traditional sweet tea I keep in the fridge for my hubby.

I love Barefut Essential Oils and the Kid Friendly line! They  run some amazing specials on top of the usual super affordable prices! https://barefut.com/product-category/kid-friendly/?afmc=Kg

Something I recently discovered is to let the frozen lemonade concentrate thaw and put it in a water bottle in the fridge!

I don’t like to keep a huge pitcher in the fridge, but love the lemony flavor it can add to my water when I start slowing down on my intake of H2O. I just shake the bottle, add it a little at a time to a glass of ice water and stir until it has the desired taste. You can mix it lightly so it tastes more like lemon water or more heavily if you want actual lemonade. I’m sure this would work with other juice concentrates, as well.

 

Blackberry Infused Water

Blackberry Infused Water

Infused waters are a perfect option for upping that water intake in a completely healthy way! I love them, and have tried lots of different fruits and even some veggies. Need some inspiration? Here is a link to a post I did about some of the flavors I’ve experimented with This and That Infused Water!

I have no medical training, obviously, but these are all things I’ve deemed safe for my own pregnancy after checking them out. What are some of your favorite pregnancy friendly drinks to sip?


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Let’s Celebrate Food Day!!!

Garden Fresh Jalapenos

Garden Fresh Jalapenos

You love food, I love food, we all love food! I mean, who can help it? We’ve all gotta eat! October 24th is an extra special day in the world of food. It’s not only the official celebration of Food Day, but also the birthday of one of my all-time favorite food lovers- my dear ol’ Dad! It’s only fitting that he was born on the day we celebrate one of his most beloved things (other than his darling children, of course! 😉 ). He sure loves himself some good vittles! Love you and a big happy birthday holler, Daddy!

Food Day isn’t just about any food. It’s about making an effort to eat real, healthy food and about the people who work hard to make sure these choices are readily available. It’s about encouraging families to choose more natural and less processed. According to http://www.foodday.org : In 2014, Food Day will have a special focus on food access and justice for food and farm workers.

Jalapeno Poppers

Jalapeno Poppers

I just finally got my late autumn garden of kale, broccoli and butter lettuce planted a couple of days ago to give us a continued supply of some fresh healthy green veggies for a couple more months while produce is getting more and more expensive. I wanted to plant spinach, too, but I waited too long to start the seeds and couldn’t find the plants anywhere locally. I’d love to have more in, but life interfered with my larger plans for this year. The only thing still producing well from my summer garden is the jalapenos you see pictured. They are doing amazingly well! 🙂 If you want to know how I made those yummy unfried poppers in the picture, just click the photo for instructions.

What are you doing to make healthy food choices for your family? How knowledgeable do you think you are about things related to the growth and production of the food we eat? Take this quiz, and let me know how you did! http://www.foodday.org/food_literacy_quiz I took it, and got 12 out of 15 right. A couple of my wrong answers surprised me! Can you outdo me?

The friendly face of Food Day. Happy birthday, Dad! :)

The friendly face of Food Day. Happy birthday, Dad! 🙂