Tips for shopping organic on a budget: Part 1

I'm not going to deny that the way I eat comes at a cost. Buying organic and chemical free produce, superfoods, and all the healthy goodies I have regularly stocked in my household costs me both money and time. But in the long-term, this is an investment I am willing to make for my health, the health of my growing baby,  my husband, and my environment. I believe that investing into top quality produce that is free from additives and pesticides, as well as those extra nutritional boosts through purchasing superfoods is going to pay off in the long run. If you are reluctant to enter the journey of organic living, particularly in the area of food; which lets face it, is a big chunk of money out of our week; then consider some of these tips that can help you prioritise and invest into the best quality food you possibly can within the frame of a tight budget:

1. Plan baby plan!

Having a meal plan for the week, and a matching shopping list is probably one of the most important things you can do for your wallet. Every week I sit down with my favourite recipe books/blogs, a pen and paper, and my schedule for the week ahead, and plan what we will need to buy within the boundaries of our budget. It's so important to look at the bigger picture of your week and ask the question: what nights will I be home this week and need a meal for dinner? What nights do I have time to cook a meal, and if not, what can I whip up quickly that will fill my body with nutrients and satisfy me?

Grant and I focus all our weekly shopping list around breakfasts, dinners, salads and fresh juices. We aren't big snackers, and lunches are usually just some leftovers from dinner the night before with a salad of seasonal raw veg. Breakfast is always a superfood smoothie or porridge, so we know we need to  keep stocked up on our basic smoothie ingredients, as well as oats, and nuts for nut milk. We also know we need to be stocked up on heaps of raw veg for juices, as well as fresh organic greens and salad ingredients like spinach, kale, cabbage and lettuces because we demolish them with lunch and dinner every day.

For dinners, I will always go by a recipe and write the exact ingredients I need to make them. When taking all the food we will need for the week into account, I will then write a specific list, and what shops/markets i'll need to go to in order to find them. Having my lists minimises impulse buys, and saves loads of time wandering aimlessly around the supermarket. It eliminates the need for last minute shopping trips, and it ensures that you actually eat everything you buy. No more waste putrefying at the bottom of the fridge, so its more bang for your buck.

2. Go by the clean fifteen and the dirty dozen

Organic produce can be very expensive. But in my eyes, its totally worth it to avoid pesticide residues wherever possible. The environmental working group has conducted extensive research into the particular fruit and veggies that carry the most pesticide residues and chemicals as a result of modern day, mass scale farming. Through all their research they have published the 'clean fifteen' and the 'dirty dozen'. The dirty dozen are the ones you definitely don't want to buy non-organic as they are going to contain the highest concentration of pesticides, where as the clean fifteen include fruit and veg that are the safest of the non-organic produce in terms of these undesirable toxins. Click here to see the EWGs website and to familiarise yourself with this simple, practical source. I will buy a majority of our produce organic and chemical free wherever I can, but if my wallet is seriously restricting me I'll just purchase non organic produce according to the clean fifteen guidelines. For example; I will never buy potatoes or spinach unless it's organic, because I know through the work of the EWG that it's not worth it for my health. But papaya's and avocados (my favourite food that can often cost a mint) I feel much better purchasing non organic if I don't have the cash.

3. Find your local farmers market 

Farmers markets are the bomb. Unlike supermarkets, you get to deal directly with the farmer. You can ask them questions about their produce and they can tell you the answer straight up, and are often more that happy to be honest about it. For example; my veggie lady Rita sells beautiful, affordable, chemical free produce straight from her farm that's only an hour from my house. It's not certified organic but I know she doesn't use any pesticides or chemicals whatsoever; which is good enough for me. However, some of her produce isn't chemical free, and she is honest with me about that. She knows I like the chemical free stuff and the organic stuff, so she is more than happy to distinguish for me each week what is or isn't chemical free. She has also given me her number and I can pre-order organic veg for her to bring down especially for me if I want something specific. This would never happen at the big supermarket.
Farmers will often throw in little extra freebies as you get to know them and build relationship with them too. The amount of times I've come home with a random giant organic prickly Asian cucumber for my juicer, or an extra bunch of chard for my salads, I can't even count.
Pasture raised eggs often accompany farmers stalls and go for so much cheaper than the ones you can buy in store, and I buy giant wild lemons for 30c each, and bag fulls of wild foraged saffron milk cap mushrooms for pennies. It's awesome! The variety, quality and price at farmers markets will beat the supermarkets every time.

4. Work with the seasons

When you understand whats in season, you'll save a lot of cash. Learning to buy what is seasonal allows you to meal plan and experiment with what your local area has on offer at specific times of the year; making food a much more enjoyable and cheaper experience.When I go to farmers markets, there are always some items that were $5 a kilo a few months ago, and are now $10 a kilo; because they are coming out of season. Load up on the seasonal veg, and avoid the stuff that's out of season and you will find that you will be able to buy much more with your money. Plan your meals based around the cheapest seasonal stuff and you have a recipe for both health, and money saving. Here is a great resource to see what is in season in the NSW area for each month. For the coming month of June; I'll be loading up and planning my meals on root vegetables like pumpkin, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes and kohlrabi! Yum! Sustainable Table is another brilliant group working to promote seasonal and ethical eating. This resource covers fruit, veg, and seafood.

5. Buy in bulk

While my husband Grant has a stable full time job, I'm a casual teacher and freelance writer; so the nature of my work means that some weeks we have extra cash, and some weeks we don't. In the weeks that I have extra money I will often prepare for the weeks ahead that I know I wont. I invest into a few specific superfoods for smoothies and wholefood supplements. My organic green powder, colloidal minerals, Inca Inchi oil (for essential fatty acids) and probiotic powders cost me a fair amount of money. So to save shipping costs, and prepare for the fact that I'm going to be out of work when my baby comes along in 7 weeks; I've invested into a hefty supply of these things that are important to me and my health; while I have extra money. Buying superfoods in bulk online will often save you money through shipping (often they will get rid of shipping costs if you spend a certain amount), and they are just cheaper in larger quantities. Keep your eyes out for sales on your favourite healthy (but expensive) staples. Loving earth is a website that I purchase many of my organic smoothie ingredients from, and they sell things in bulk, and often have sales during different months; so I'll stock up when things are cheapest.

When you have extra money it's also good to stock up on non-perishable organic staples like lentils, beans, brown rice, raw honey, oats, nuts, seeds and cold pressed plant oils that you know you can use to form a range of meals. This saves lots of time and money, as it influences future meal planning and takes that extra load off the grocery bill during weeks when things are tight.



These are just a few things I do to minimise the cost of buying quality foods. There are hundreds of other pieces of advice I could add, but I don't want this blog post to become a novel! I will have to do a follow up post in future. If you want to know more, or have any specific questions, please ask in the comments section and I'll be more than happy to help!

Smoothies and veggie juices. Get em intaya!

image from Pinterest via redbookmag.com

Smoothies and juices. I flippin LOVE em. They have completely revolutionised the way I approach my health and wellbeing. 

I used to be an avid juice lover, but in the last year I've jumped on the smoothie bandwagon and wont go back. In fact, the cheapo blender Grant and I got when we were first married almost two years ago has copped such a thrashing in the past year that the bottom of it has disintegrated, and yesterday we made our last smoothie in it (with liquid pouring out the sides during the blending process!). Now we have a brand spanker. Unfortunately I couldn't afford the Vitamix, but our new Breville is better than our last piece of junk we had. Yay!

 Mind you, I still love my veggie juices as well, and drink them regularly. But for breakky, its a power packed smoothie 5 out of 7 days. Incorporating both juices and smoothies into your routine is the perfect way to pack shiploads of amazing nutrients into your day. If you use the right ingredients, you'll notice that over time you'll have significantly more energy, your immune system will be boosted, your skin will glow, your pimples or wounds will heal faster, you'll be more resilient to the effects of stress, you'll sleep better, and your digestion will improve. These are some of the things that I personally noticed when I swapped my regular gluten filled, heavy breakfast with a superfood packed smoothie, as well as drinking fresh veggie juices throughout the afternoon whenever I have the chance.

So whats the difference between juices and smoothies?

Raw juicing

Raw juicing is incredibly important to me to maintain optimum health. It's something that pretty much saved me during a time when my body was so completely depleted of nutrients and exhausted during my years working late nights in bars, pushing myself at uni and dealing with insomnia and anxiety.

Juicing veggies is wonderful because it removes the fibre, and allows you to consume the goodness of huge amounts of veg in seconds. Some people hate on this 'fibre removing' truth of juicing, because fibre is good, right? Yes. fibre is brilliant! But it also blocks the potential for the maximum amount of vitamins to be absorbed from the veggies. When you juice, the indigestible fibre is removed, allowing the body to recieve a potent hit of nutrients, with very little digestive effort. The amount of bio available nutrients is significantly increased compared to eating the veggies whole. Drinking a glass of green juice will give you a potent, quickly absorbed hit of goodness. It's natures perfect energy drink; quickly making its way into the bloodstream. 

image from Pinterest via http://www.staceyspaleokitchen.com

I love the way a juice can make me feel instantly uplifted. I volunteer as a youth leader every Friday night. I'm also a high school teacher. After a big long day teaching teenagers, sometimes making my way to a 5 hour stint at youth is hard, to say the least. When I'm feeling especially tired, I'll smash a big veggie juice, and it gives me instant energy. Juicing helps my physical energy levels and improves my mood, and I find my capacity to do those weekly volunteer hours is much easier when I fill my body with goodness through juicing.

When I juice; because the nutrients are so available to the body through the removal of fibre, unfortunately pesticide residues are also made more available to your bloodstream. If pesticides are designed to kill and deter bugs, I figure they aren't doing my body much good either, so I make sure to invest into fresh, chemical free farmers market produce, or certified organic produce wherever possible. I never juice non organic supermarket veg. My fave juice combinations are either kale, celery, cucumber, Swiss chard, parsley, coriander, lemon and ginger for a green juice (green juices are great at the end of the day and are very calming on the nervous system); or beetroot, carrot, celery, ginger and lemon. If the flavour is too intense for you, add more lemon, or add a little organic apple to take the edge off.

Smoothies

Smoothies, on the other hand, are a fab way to get a 'meal in a glass'. Depending on the type of smoothie you make, it can be packed full of quality protein, fats, fibre, carbs and nutrients to fill you up, boost your energy and get you through your morning. Blending allows bulky ingredients like nuts to be liquefied; making the whole thing easier on your digestive system. When I started consuming smoothies, I found I could go for a run or a swim very soon after, whereas eating my normal giant porridge with nuts would require more digestion time. The result of having smoothies instead of toast and eggs, or porridge every day has meant that I have less bloating, less of that 'sluggish' or tired feeling that comes with eating gluten-y meals, and I just feel much more pepped up. 

The mistake people often make with smoothies is that they fill them with 'energy sapping' ingredients. To me, 'energy sappers' include anything that is processed (hello protein powders), high in sugar (too much fruit), or anything that is labelled as 'low fat'; because from what I've observed; 'low fat' foods are often nutritionally void and are often loaded with additives, cheap salt and sugar to make up for the removal of the fat. Instead, I like to fill my smoothies with good saturated fats for energy; like cold pressed organic coconut oil which is high in lauric acid, is anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and although it's a 'saturated fat', it's plant based, and high in unique medium-chain triglycerides which supply the body with a powerful, well utilised source of energy. 

I also love to include different superfoods in my smoothies, to maximise and supercharge my breakfast. These foods and powders contain significant quantities of vital nutrients that aren't otherwise found in the standard Aussie diet. Here's the smoothie my husband and I have every morning at the moment:

Grant and Jess's superfood smoothie!

Ingredients (always opt for organic and local ingredients wherever possible):

- 1 large handful of cashew nuts
- 3 dessert spoons of chia seeds soaked in triple the amount of water for 5-10 mins ( I do this in a cup and make sure i stir them regularly to stop them clumping)
- 1 big dessert spoon of virgin cold pressed coconut oil (get a good quality one without the yucky rancid aftertaste. My fave brands are Indah and Absolute Organic).
- 1 Tsp Camu Camu powder
- 2 Tsp Bee Pollen
- 2 Tsp Maca
- 2 big dessert spoons of raw organic Cacao powder
- 1 big dessert spoon of raw unpasteurised organic honey (you can find this at farmers markets, and is more expensive in organic shops. My parents ship it to me from Crescent Head, as its the honey I've been eating since I was a kid and we get it straight from the bee keeper for $6 a kilo)
- 1- 1.5 cups of purified water or homemade almond/ nut milk
- 2 good hand fulls of frozen mixed berries
- half a tray of ice cubes.

Method:

add all ingredients minus the ice and berries to the blender. blend until completely liquefied. Then add your berries and blend until liquefied. Last, add your ice and blend until crushed. Add more liquid if needed, or to your desired consistency.


Keep in mind, we have worked our way up to accumulating all these superfoods. They are a little expensive, but I consider them an investment into my health; particularly while I'm pregnant as my body is in need of many more nutrients than normal. For me, buying high quality foods such as these is a form of health insurance. However you can just base your smoothies on the cacao and berries, and add some extras in. Acai Berry is another of my favourites and tastes delicious!

Another way I pack nutrients into my day is to consume a mixture of 1tsp raw organic green powder, 1tsp colloidal minerals and 1tsp whole food sourced probiotic powder in a big  glass of filtered water. I do this every single day instead of taking a multi vitamin; as it all comes from real food sources. I buy these products from Cyndi O'Meara's website 'changing habits' as I trust her standards for creating health 'supplements' and have noticed an amazing increase in energy, as well as an improvement in my digestive health since taking them. You can also use these to increase the nutrition of your smoothies or juices.

Are you into juices, smoothies or superfoods? How do you cram nutrients into your day?

Four faves: Things that are exciting me right now.

Image from Pinterest

This little segment of my blog is something I plan to continue and repeat. It's a brief collaboration of a few of my favourite things at any given time of my life.... all the things that I'm particularly excited about.

For those of you who don't know me very well, you will need to be informed about my incredible fascination with different foodie trends, superfoods, recipes, books, styles of exercise, as well as a heap of other random stuff. I'm quite a 'phasey' person, I guess you could say. This is how my hubby Grant describes me, and he knows me better than anyone else. When I get excited about something I'll take hold of it with both hands and run with it at full speed.... for a period of time. I'll scream my periodic fascinations from the rooftops. Then I get excited about something else, and I repeat the process with a new found mini-passion.

This is partly why I started the blog. Because, much to my delight, I've found people to be blessed and educated through this seemingly psychotic practice of mine. I used to think of this "phasey-ness" as a negative personality trait, but I don't view it that way any more ( I might just qualify that when it comes to the big important stuff; like relationships and values, I am not so "phasey" and like to think that I'm significantly more solid in those areas). With the birth of this blog I now have a space to rave about all the new things I'm learning about and particular foods, or healthy lifestyle choices I'm incorporating into my life, and everyone else can have the opportunity to share in my enthusiasm. As it has been the case in my experience, perhaps my little passions can impart some kind of puzzle piece into the big picture of your life; making it sweeter.

Take from it what you like of course. Some of it you may desire to incorporate certain things into your own lifestyle, and some of it you may find to be genuine lunacy. Some of it may be helpful to a friend or family member and you may want to forward it onto them. I've personally found these kind of blog posts from other bloggers to set me off on a journey of self education, and I think that's the stuff that is incredibly life changing. I'm simply planting seeds for you. You can water them or not.

Please leave comments on these posts. I really want to make this space interactive, and would love to discuss, respond, encourage, and help anyone who has any questions regarding my content!

Anyway. Into the blogpost we go. 5 of my fave things at the moment are...

1. Cyndi O'Meara

This woman is a legend. She is a highly educated Australian nutritionist and researcher who tackles a range of controversial health topics; particularly the ones that are drummed into us through the mainstream media. She debunks the myths, and supplies solid evidence and easy-to-understand scientific explanations as to why many of the common 'health' practices we are blindly following are actually causing us harm.

Because of Cyndi's amazing information I have changed my views on saturated fats. I eat butter with a smile, and steer clear of margarine at all costs. I also understand that the idea that heart disease is caused by saturated fats is incredibly limited, as is the cholesterol-saturated fat link. I see the value of high quality saturated fats in my diet and have reaped the benefits of this change.

I have also learnt a lot about supplements, medicines, food additives, and all the loopholes that the food industry takes in regards to food labelling, and how this affects my health.

Listen to her podcasts on itunes or podbay if you have an android. Just type in 'Up for a chat', or click here and you will find heaps of them!

Read her book "Changing Habits Changing Lives". It's full of life changing health info that is easy to understand and highly practical.

You can also visit her website, or facebook page to learn more about her and what she's up to.

2. Spicy beetroot dip

I cant get enough of homemade dips. I make a batch every week in my food processor. Right now I'm especially enjoying homemade guacamole, salsa, pesto and this bloomin' brilliant beetroot dip!

Ingredients:

-4 medium sized beetroot; peeled, shopped into cubes and roasted at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 mins or until soft. (use organic, extra virgin coconut oil as the oil if possible)
-3 TBSP EV olive oil
-A few big dessert spoons of organic full fat, good quality yogurt.
-2-3 cloves garlic
-2 TBSP lemon juice
-1/2 tsp of cumin, or cumin seeds
-1/2 tsp ground coriander
-1/2 tsp paprika
-Celtic/Himalayan sea salt to taste

Method: 

throw it all in the food processor and blend well, or to your desired chunkiness. Serve with raw veggie sticks, on homemade bread, or just eat it with a spoon! Its amazing!

3. TED

I'm in love with TED talks. I listen to them weekly and feel that they enlarge my thinking, my perspective and my view of the world tremendously. I think everyone would benefit by listening to all the different conference talks that TED share. Even though many of them aren't directly relevant to my live, I find myself excited, refreshed, creatively stirred and challenged by many of the things I hear. They're great conversation starters! I listen to them on my phone while I do boring housework, or when I'm exercising.

Here's one of my favourites! Its by 'guerilla gardener' Ron Finley from LA. His work in the community is inspiring and he's seriously hilarious.

4. Bee Pollen

My hubby bought me some of this stuff after hearing me talk about wanting to buy it for months. Every few weeks I like to invest into a new superfood that I haven't tried before. I'm not a huge fan of supplements (listen to Cyndi O'Meara's 'Up for a chat' podcast on supplements and you'll know why) and prefer to get my nutrients from food sources wherever possible. Including foods like bee pollen, camu camu, maqui, spirulina, chlorella, chia, maca, cacao, amongst others is how I like to get my supercharged nutritional hit in a way that is easily recognised by the body; in real food form.

Bee pollen is a highly absorbable protein that is rich in vitamins, amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, enzymes and several micronutrients that are important for vibrant health. It's pretty much a complete food. It's really high in B complex vitamins that are required during times of stress, and for promoting energy. I like to add a teaspoon or two to smoothies, and its also great sprinkled on your morning porridge or muesli.