Clean Living l Homemade whole wheat tortillas

Welcome back to my Clean Living series. Today, I have a treat for you! I hope you all try it out, because once you make the switch you will never want to go back!

A staple in our home since switching over to clean eating has been homemade whole wheat tortillas. They are easy to make, delicious and practically go with anything. Besides, they taste so so so so much better than anything you could buy at the store. 

 I use these for wraps, use as a chip for salsa and even as the bread in homemade pizzas. My hubs even likes it in his soup or with his eggs at breakfast. 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oil (I have used coconut, olive oil or avocado oil)

1 cup warm water

2 pinches of salt

Directions: 

Add all ingredients in a bowl expect warm water. 

Mix together well and gradually add water until the dough is smooth. 

Divide you dough into 10 pieces or if you use it to make pizza it will make 3 pizza crusts. 

Use a glass or rolling pin to flatten out. I have to add flour to my table and glass so the dough will not stick.

In a skillet, turn the heat to medium/high. 

Place you dough in pan and leave for 30 seconds. Turn over and do the same to other side. 

Eat and enjoy. These babies do not last long!

What's your favorite clean eating staple in your house?

Clean Living | Farmer's Market and not breaking the bank

Hellooooooo! I have to admit, Wednesday is my favorite day now because I get to talk about Clean Living with you all. It makes my heart happy to share it with you. 

Last week, I talked about cleaning out the pantry/frig and restocking it with some "necessary" items for clean eating. 

This week, I want to share with you where we normally get all of our other groceries during the week. In Birmingham (where we live), every Saturday is Alabama's largest farmers market - Pepper Place. Stephen and I get up early every Saturday, grab our bag and head to the market. There are over 50 booth of local artisans and farmers selling their produce. 

The farmer's market is a wonderful place to get local, healthy food. I love talking to the farmers I buy from each week. I highly recommend going to your local farmer's market and asking your grower how he/she grows, what they fertilize with, what types of pesticides do they use and so forth. They are very willing to chat with you about their product. Its become a family tradition to go get our foods from Pepper Place each week. Come November, I will actually setting up a booth to sell my Dad's satsumas and lemons. I can't wait to be more involved with our market!

We also discovered some farmers who aren't just fruit and vegetable growers.  We have met several pig, cow and chicken farmers. We actually just bought our first cow last week from a farmer about an hour away from our home. We talked with the supplier about the cows diet, process of slaughter and packaging and were very excited about ordering our own. We ended up splitting the meat with Stephen's parents because it was pretty pricey and we didn't need all the meat.

So,

I know what you're thinking, farmers markets and buying a whole cow is expensive. Yes, it truly is. BUT, we don't buy and junk food or extras and are have a budget in place to keep up on track. We have found that you can eat within your budget with clean eating. I received an email the other day from a girl wanting to know how to not overspend with eating clean. You do have to get creative at times, but it is well worth it. 

For instance, I only take $40 a week to the farmers market. I check out each booth for their prices and always take a list of items we need. I am careful not to get sucked in to overbuying, because it all looks fantastic. If I took more money, I guarantee I would spend it all. I also check out recipes beforehand that can use the same ingredients each week in different meals. I bought a bag of kale for $3.00 and have used it for two weeks now in smoothies, on salads, in soups and made kale chips. It lasts a long time, is in season and there are tons of ways to use it. 

With meats, you really don't want to skimp on quality. Normal meats loaded with extra hormones and GMO's, that you need to be careful. These hormones have fattened the cow up quickly and not allowed for  healthy meat. Did you know that normal meat you purchase at the grocery store has even been colored so that it appears better longer? SICK! You really want to be eating that?

 We bought our cow from a farmer who is USDA certified grass fed beef. We have actually met and spoken with him about his process and know what he does every step of the way. What grocery store do you have a relationship with or knows the answers to your questions?

The meat is expensive (around $7.44lb), so we only eat our meats at dinnertime. During breakfast and lunch, we get our protein in from eggs and almonds. We stay full and feel better about what we place in our bodies. 

Food Babe (a blogger I adore) did a post not long ago on 75 ways to eat organic on a budget. I had already been doing some of these, but there were new ones that have helped out a great deal. Don't let the cost of eating organic and clean freak you out - it really is doable and smarter for you in the long run. Check it out when you get the chance.

Also, if you are interested in writing a post about your experience with clean eating or products you love, send me an email at clarasschoen@gmail.com.

Don't forget to enter the MistoBox coffee giveaway!

Clean Living | What's in the pantry

Welcome back to my Clean Living series. This is the third week of my new series about my husband and my transformation from eating processed foods to eating as healthy and unprocessed foods as we can. 

 Once we decided to start clean living a couple months back, I thought it was high time to clean out the pantry and refrigerator.  I knew that  I would be tempted to grab a bag of chips or snack on something unhealthy if I left it in my frig or on the shelf. It was time to purge and man o man did I need to clear out the mess.  I has two bags - a bag for the garbage can and a bag for donations that were unopened and not expired.

About half of our food was expired (!!!!) - I hadn't realized how much money I had been wasting on foods that would go bad before we ever got to it. This seriously made me a little POed. It felt like I had just thrown money right into the trash. This for me was a real eye opener on how wasteful I had been and how careful and smart I planned to be from here on out. Once I was done with the pantry, I had freed up 3 of our 4 shelves. Luckily, I had already gotten a few good items, so it wasn't completely bare, but pretty close to it. 

Next, I  headed to the frig - and this disgusted me even more. My frig was packed with processed foods that were years old AND still looked great. What do I mean by great?  I looked at a bag of opened KRAFT cheese I had that was 9 months old and it smelled and tasted the exact same as a new bag of KRAFT cheese I opened that week. Nothing like chemically processed foods to get your tummy churning. Cheese shouldn't last that long unless it is genetically altered and it made me a little frustrated that we are sold such warped foods. My mind went immediately to that McDonald's hamburger and fries that someone kept for 6 years that hadn't changed a bit - no mold, etc. My cheese hadn't turned and that was a terrible sign to me. I got rid of dressings, BBQ, cheeses, flour wraps, packaged lunch meats, and basically ever condiment we owned. I felt very liberated and excited to get rid of the crap and replace it with some "clean items".

My new favorite cookbook, The Fresh 20 by Melissa Lanz suggested some basic nonperishable items to keep in your pantry, so I stocked up on these - and truly, she suggested some fabulous items. I have used every one of these since clean eating and love them (list below)! They are wonderful not only because they can be used in meals, but some actually have double functions in the clean living lifestyle, like vinegar being used in foods, homemade shampoo and helpful in  removeinb bacteria in laundry.

If you are looking to start clean eating, raid your pantry and see what you can get rid of. Look at labels and see what is in them - if you don't recognize the ingredients on the label, more than likely its time to say bye bye to them. 

My suggestion on restocking your pantry with clean items - keep it simple. Have items that you know you will use and don't be like me when I used to buy so much that eventually majority of it goes to waste.

Here are some kitchen essentials to stock in your pantry. Some of these items can be bought in bulk off Amazon - I highly suggest doing this because some oils and spices can be very expensive from your local grocer.

Olive Oil

Grapeseed Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Vinegar

Chicken or Vegetable Broth (Low sodium and GMO free)

Garlic

Herbs de Provence

Honey

100% Pure Maple Syrup

Soy Sauce (Low Sodium)

Dried Oregano

Kosher Salt

Black Pepper (avoid ground pepper)

Ground Cumin

Paprika

Cayenne Pepper

Whole Wheat Pasta

Brown Rice

Whole Wheat Flour

Dijon Mustard

Tomato Paste (with no added salt and organic)

Good luck cleaning out your pantry!

Oh yea, 

Whats the craziest thing you got rid of in your pantry? 

Conscious Box

So this past month, I won 3 FREE months of Conscious Box off lovely Ashley's Wannabe Green blog. I am so stocked because it goes along with my Clean Living series and I totally had a cow when I won! I seriously ran screaming to our office where my hubs was - I'm sure it was a funny sight for him.

So what is Conscious Box?

Its a monthly subscription full of natural products - the healthiest and best there is out! Any they are serious when they say its packed full - it felt like it weighted 5 pounds. There were a number of products (like the Earthpaste) Ive been itching to try. 

The subscription is $20.00 a month (more than a Birchbox subscription), but honestly I think its way better and are interested in changing over to a healthier living. 

They send everything from bath and beauty, to food and household living. Defiantly go check them out! 

Below are some pictures of the awesomeness I received this month!

What subscription boxes do you do each month?

Clean Living | How to Research

Welcome back to the second week of my new series called Clean Living. This series is about the importance of clean eating and ways to make the switch from processed foods to more natural foods. I hope you begin to feel as passionate about taking care of our bodies and making a better future for the next generations as I do. 

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Eating smart can be hard to do. It takes preparation, discipline, and money. 

When we started eating clean a couple months back, I did a TON of research. I began talking to people I know who follow the clean living lifestyle, I consulted published books, websites, spent countless hours reading article after article. I found myself scrutinizing every food label and what the words meant too. 

Finally, after about 3 weeks, I started to get a handle on it all. I'm not saying that I have it all figured out (not even close!) - but I love learning about the importance of placing healthy all natural foods into our body and what it does for us. 

I want to share some information I follow that helped me get a better grip on clean living. Each site has taught me a great deal and I've learned to stop, read labels, ask questions and think before placing something full of GMO's/toxic chemicals/pestisides in my mouth. This list is by no means all encompassing, but I wanted to save you the time and trouble of where to begin. I also hope you conduct some research on your own to see if you and your family make the switch, even if its a little bit at a time. 

I want to point out that even though I love living clean, its nearly impossible for Stephen and I to do it 100% of the time - we still enjoy eating out with friends and family and not freaking ourselves out that we ate a roll at a friends house. I have tried not allow it to consume my life but it can be very addicting and frightening at times.

 I never want to put this as my idol - I serve only 1 God. :) 

Books 

The Honest Life - by Jessica Alba

Eating for Beauty - by David Wolfe

Cooked - by Michael Pollan 

Salt, Sugar, Fat - by Michael Moss

Foods 

100 Days of Real Food

Food Babe

Center for Food Safety

Environmental Working Group

Food Facts 

Institute for Responsible Technology 

Products

The Honest Company

Juice Beauty

Molly's Suds

Primal Pit Paste

Please make sure to link up your stories of clean living here. 

Clean Living

Guess what? I'm starting a new series and I am so very excited to share it with you!

The past couple of month's Stephen and I have been looking into "Clean Eating". Have you heard of it? Basically, its getting back to eating things as natural as they come. No processed foods - getting rid of anything that has GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms), plenty of fruits and veggies, 100% whole grains and whole wheat, locally raised (grass-fed) meats, limited beverages (basically water, all natural juices and milk), and real natural sweeteners like honey and 100% maple syrup.

Stephen and my good friends started months before we had and talked about the benefits of eating well. I hadn't really thought about it too much (besides already changing to Norwex cleaning products) until I started reading article after article about the junk processed ingredients  in food and personal care products. I started finding (not just off Google searches, hearsay or random sites but legit sites like www.ewg.com) how awful our foods and body products we use daily are for us.

For example, 

Did you know that there are over 80,000 chemical in the United States and only a tiny amount (around 200) have been tested for human safety? Seriously?! A lot of our products have been banned in other countries (Canada and Europe) for being toxic to people. Again, SERIOUSLY???? What on earth are we allowing to go in and on our bodies?

Or that your skin absorbs over 64% of what you place on it?

Think about it, if doctors prescribe patches that absorb medication into your skin, what about your lotion, shampoo, soap, deodorant, makeup and everything else - do you have a clue what are in those items? It's ok, most don't know or don't care. I was in the same boat until recently. 

Have you ever looked at the back of your food package and read the label of ingredients and not recognized 1 word? I recently picked up a box of Eggo Waffles out of curiosity to see what was in it. What I found, artificial dyes, flavors and a whole lot of other ingredients that are harmful to the body.

So, with that I decided I wanted to start a series about Clean Living. I feel very passionate about going clean and green in your household/family and hope to shed some light on the stuff you are using that can truly harm you. I also want to introduce you to foods and products we have started eating and using in our lives that have already made a major difference in how we feel and what it means to us for future health of us and children.

I would love you to join me weekly on ideas on how you are clean living in your home and family. So come link up starting next week on how you keep your home "clean". :)

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***Don't forget to check out the $200+ giveaway of goodies!!!***