Lots to celebrate!

Today we picked up our first CSA share!  It was filled with many great veggies - carrots, spinach, spring onions, potatoes, mixed salad greens, and 2 bunches of broccoli!  We aren't huge potato eaters, so I'll have to find some recipes.  The rest of the ingredients are either daily staples or can easily be pureed and frozen for use later on.  Hopefully it will be a good season - they did decide to supplement the carrots, broccoli, and potatoes from another organic farm.  It's just been so rainy and cloudy in our area the last several weeks that the plants aren't quite as mature as they normally would be this time of year!

 

More exciting news - earlier today I weighed myself at school.  I've been doing this once a week just to keep track of how I'm doing.  My official weight loss to this point is 15 lbs!!!  I was ecstatic to see that number.  Our meals are consistently clean, but my snacking still goes back and forth.  I'm glad to see it hasn't had a negative impact!  Ideally I'd like to lose 5 more pounds to make it to a healthy BMI, but I am very comfortable with the changes I've seen already.  This has been a complete lifestyle change, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing!

Clean Cooking = Second Nature

We still have some not-so-clean habits, but preparing clean meals is becoming so much easier!  I don't need to think so much, and cleaning up an existing recipe is becoming a breeze!  Today I took a recipe for banana bread out of my Deceptively Delicious cookbook and cleaned it up with whole wheat pastry flour, agave nectar, and olive oil.  This is my first time baking with agave nectar, so I'm anxious to see how it turned out.  I know one thing - it made the house smell FANTASTIC!!!!  I would post a picture of it, but I can't find my camera :( 

Our grocery bill has leveled out a lot now that most of our pantry and freezer has been restocked with cleaner options.  Last week was a record low - $90!  That is $30 less than our typical bill was PRE-clean eating.  Most weeks I am able to stay about where our food budget used to be.  I'm hoping it will drop a little more when the CSA kicks in.

I've been so excited to start picking up our share.  Sadly it was pushed back because the growing season was delayed because of unseasonably cool temps, tons of rain, and very little sunshine.  We pick up our first 1/2 bushel May 24.  Here's hoping it is a great growing season!  They have such a variety on their harvest schedule - plus some new foods I've never cooked with!  My co-worker said they include a recipe card each week to help you prepare the foods in your share.  I may even get some new clean recipes out of the deal :)