Step 2 and Tomato Sauce!

Monday night, I made a delicious Italian meal of Quinoa "meat" balls with tomato sauce and a salad...It was so good!  But step 2 for shopping healthy on a budget comes first!

Step 2:
Recycle the newspaper add and browse the produce section for discount bins.  Sometimes, stores will have a few racks of "old" produce.  This is usually the stuff that doesn't look the greatest, but is still perfectly fine to eat (like spotty bananas, pineapples with no top, etc.)  Sometimes, when I'm lucky, I can find bags of 20+ spotty bananas for $1.50 per bag!  I don't know about you, but I personally like spotty bananas as they are more sweet and easier to digest.  If I can't eat then all, I will freeze some and make banana ice cream with them later!

After you've hit the discount bins, see what is on sale in the produce isle.  Most grocery stores don't advertise all that they have on sale here, so take a look around and buy the things that are the least expensive and look the best (this just so happens to be the most in season produce usually...bonus!!).  Stock up on those items and keep following my post to next week to see the final step, step 3!

My grocery bill this week was $30.54 (sorry, no pictures...)

• raw peanut butter
• organic strawberry jam
• whole wheat pita bread
• 15 lb watermelon
• 15 pluots (cross between a plum and apricot)
• 1 head bok choy
• 1 head cabbage
• 3 bunches bananas
• 1 qt plain rice milk
• 2 bags of grapes
• 9 apples
• I think that's all, but I might be missing 1 or 2 things...threw away my receipt before posting!! But all in all, not too bad!

Recipe(s) of the day:  "Meat" balls, Raw Marinara, Salad

The "meat" balls were made by cooking:

• 1 c dry quinoa until soft and then allowed to cool.  
• To the quinoa, add 1 T flour, 2 T flax meal mixed with 2 T water and allowed to rest 2 min, a splash of almond milk, and seasonings of your choice (I chose oregano, parsley, and basil).  
• Then, form the mixture into balls and bake until warm and lightly golden.

While the "meat" balls were baking, I whipped up a batch of raw vegan marinara sauce to use as a dipping agent!  It was my first time making it, and definitely won't be the last!!

• Soak 1 1/4 c sun dried tomatoes in warm water for at least 30 min, longer if you don't have a high speed mixer (like a Ninja or Vitamix)
• Dump the tomatoes and soaking liquid into your blender/food processor and add the following ingredients:  1 clove garlic, 2 t dried parsley, 1 t dried oregano, 1 t dried basil
• Blend until smooth, add in more water for a thinner consistency if desired.

As for the salad, I just chopped 2 heads of romaine and sliced some onion and bell pepper on top.

To serve, make the salad on your plate and then pile on the "meat" balls and top with the marinara! So good! The sauce gets all over the salad and makes it taste even more wonderful and the "meat"balls add extra texture and flavor.  Enjoy!

I will be going on a yoga retreat this weekend, so be on the lookout for a post on Tuesday about it!  As always, I love to hear your comments so feel free to comment away.  No YouTube videos yet, but am looking to start them by October first!

With love and sweet fruit!  Luana ola!!

Fruit Ninja!! and Step 1

I just had to use that as my title!  But sadly, there is no talk of the game in this post, nor is there any actually ninjas...

But!  There is a great recipe at the end of this post including the Ninja blender!

So here we go, first things first.  Shopping for healthy food on a budget.  I'm thinking about doing a weekly post about what goes into my shopping cart and into our bellies each week.  This will include the cost and health of the cart as well!  What do you think? I'll use this post as a trial run...

Just so you know a bit about my shopping experience, I'll fill you in a bit.  I usually go online the day before or day of my planned grocery shopping day (usually Monday or Tuesday) and look at the sales going on.  From here, I choose which store to go to based on what I've experienced in their quality and what the store's ad says is on sale.  Then, I go to the store with the most sales and best produce.  I do this because I feel that it is a waste of time, resources, and gas to drive all around town just to get a "good deal" when I've probably wasted as much money in time and gas just to get that deal!  But I digress, this is just my opinion.

Step 2 will be next week!

This week's grocery bill was................................$38.78

• Note:  this is for 2 people and 1 week, using staples already in the house (like rice, beans, nuts, etc.)

In this bunch, we have the following from left to right and top to bottom:

Raw agave nectar

Sun dried tomatoes

3 pints raspberries

Peaches

Fuji apples

Young coconut

Romaine lettuce

Ginger

Onion

Lemongrass

and Bananas!

Oh, there was watermelon too, not pictured.

Recipe of the Day:  Smoothie!

       Simply combine the following ingredients in your high speed blender (we used our brand new Ninja) and serve!

• 3 frozen bananas
• 1/2 pineapple, chopped
• 1 c blueberries
• 3 c collard greens, washed and stems removed
• 1 cup water

Luana ola!

Love Life

Love life, eat produce in abundance, and move like you love to!


Spend time with friends...

 ...with the ones you love...

 ...and do your own thing to the beat of your own drum!

But most of all...LUANA OLA!

Back to School

Well friends, it's almost time to go back to school (if you are in school that is).  Even for those of you who are all finished with school and have no children in school, this time of year still probably brings about a sense of anxiety as the seasons change and we move towards the holidays.

To begin this change in season, I went (am going) through a bunch of craziness that I won't bore you with on this blog as it's personal and not uplifting.  But, I have had so many wonderful people in my life who have encouraged me with love and strength to push through and reminded me that it is through though times and challenges in which we become stronger.  It is so so very true!

During this phase of my life, so many new challenges and aspects of life find me practically every day.  It is so interesting to go through because we truly don't know what it's like before it happens to us.  Like every other 18 year old, I thought I was on top of the "real" world when I went to college!  Boy was I wrong!  Although I am back in college, finishing up a RD licensing program, I am finding out more and more about how different the "real" world and college truly are.  In all honesty, college is like day care for young adults.  You have the illusion of being on your own, but you are typically not paying bills, loans, and all other life expenses that hit you hard after college.

I just wanted to write this post today to give a shout out to all of you who sent me love, hugs, and strength and to share with those of you who are going through a rough time; whether it be financial, relationship, moving, etc.  There are people who love you and will never let you fall hard!  Keep on moving and don't let hardships get in your way.  Push through them with all of your strength, and then rest when you get to the other side because it will be so beautiful!

Luana ola!