Exchange Your Recalled Bumbo for a FREE bébéPOD

In light of the recent Bumbo recall, bebePOD is offering a FREE bebePOD replacement for your used Bumbo chair. Package must be postmarked by Jan 31,2012. You can see the details of the offer here.

San Antonio Book of FREE $24 on Groupon

This is better than the Entertainment Book, it's the BOOK OF FREE for $24 (normally $55.99) on Groupon. Includes a $20 Dave & Buster's card. "Owners can redeem for up to $1,500 worth of food, entertainment, and services around San Antonio. Covers conceal vouchers that users can redeem without making any additional purchases or dissecting fine print in a high-school biology class. Patrons can enjoy treats such as a trio of free movie tickets at Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, dinners at restaurants such as Silo and Aldo's, lunch at Rudy's BBQ and La Hacienda, dry cleaning at Slater-White, and free rounds of golf at Silverhorn Golf Club and The Quarry Golf Club. Guests can contribute to live laugh tracks at Laugh Out Loud! Comedy Club, take overworked vehicles on a date to Express Lube, or enjoy UTSA football at the Alamodome."

Burrito Casserole Leftover Surprise

What's the surprise? It was actually delicious! I modified it from this recipe. I had leftover home fries and quinoa (food purists would probably cringe at this) but the quinoa gave the casserole a nice texture. I managed to add more beans into our diet ('resolution for 2012), and used up leftovers - including FRIES! Total cost for this hearty meal was about $0.60 for the tortillas and beans (cost of leftovers were not included since they would otherwise have gone to the chickens).

Ingredients
Leftover fries cut into cube (or about 2 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and cubed)
1 c cooked quinoa (or rice or other grain you might have, optional)
1 c black beans, soaked overnight and cooked until soft (or use canned black beans)
2-3 tortilla skins, cut into 1" squares
2-3 c green chili sauce (you can use salsa but I has green chili)
6-8 oz (more if desired) Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 c yogurt (or sour cream)


Method
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a casserole, mix all the ingredients together except about 1/4 of the cheese together. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake for about 20-25 min or until cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Fighting the BIG FAT LIE and Choosing Organic Food on a Budget

Like many concerned parents, we too are concerned about what we feed our kids. We try to go organic as much as we can but as everyone knows, it gets EXPENSIVE. Here's our list of changes we have made/are in the process of making, all while bearing cost in mind.

The easiest thing we first did was cut the junk food - the resulting cost to our budget was a big negative!

• Before even tackling our grocery, we have cut junk food 100% from our diet. We started this late last year. It requires a bit of pre-planning before we leave the door but not only do we cut the garbage, we reduce our food cost by $12-$18 per meal by packing our own. At just 5 meals a month, that's $100 savings!

• We avoid ALL commercially prepared foods containing honey. Since a majority Chinese honey, which can contain lead and illegal DNA-altering antibiotics ends up on commerical products, we are careful to avoid all such products, including Honey Bunches of Oats which we used to enjoy. Chinese/Indian honey has been banned in the EU but our dear fox-in-the-hen-house FDA is doing little to stop it from flooding our food. We purchase locally produced honey.

• We have 100% switched to organic apples. Cost wise, it's a little more, but it's #1 on the list of dirtiest foods on EWG's worst food list. We are able to get 3lb bags of Safeway's O Organics apples for about $4.99/lb

• 100% switched to organic celery (#2 dirtiest on the list). It costs a little more than conventional and sometimes, at Sunflower Market, I can get them as low as $0.99/lb - cheaper than conventional. Celery is on our garden list. 

• 100% switched to organic peaches and strawberries (#3 & #4 on the list). We only buy organic strawberries when in season. That's when it's cheapest, as low as $1.50/lb at Sunflower. We buy organic peaches pitted and frozen from Costco at $1.89/lb)

• 0% organic on tomatoes, peppers, potatoes (all on our gardening list), onions, garlic (both planted last fall), avocados, asparagus, bananas, oranges, rice, Asian groceries (I try to avoid China products but for certain Chinese ingredients, it is difficult to do so. Instead, I try to opt for Taiwanese, Hong Kong or even Thai products as a substitute).

• 100% organic flour for baking. I was lucky to find a wholesaler in the greater Denver area that sells unbleached organic flour at $0.51/lb (50 lb bag). If you can't find one in your area, the next best thing that I found was unbleached flour by High Altitude Hungarian Flour at Walmart, which was priced at about $0.50/lb (25 lb bag).

• 0% organic milk and cheese. At $5+/gal vs $1.99/gal for conventional, the increase in cost is too much for us at this time. One concession we make is we NEVER buy milk that's not labeled as rBST-free. Thankfully, these days, most major store brand milk including Walmart's Great Value, Target's Market Pantry, Safeway's Lucerne and Korger are all rBST-free.
  We do NOT buy the USDA's claim that there is no significant difference between treated and un-treated milk. "Significant" is a subject term and let's face it, the USDA's job is to sell US 'food' not to protect us. The fact that the EU bans all US dairy from being imported because of the use of rBST, I think is a cause for concern for all of us. 

• 15% organic beans. I was able to get organic dried garbanzo beans from our wholesaler at $1.69/lb. All other beans I buy are not organic.

• 25% organic dried pasta. I recently found this Garofalo organic pasta variety pack from Costco. It costs about $8+ for six 1lb packs, so about $1.50/lb vs free (after coupons)-$1/lb for regular pasta. But it is DELICIOUS totally worth the extra $$! I never knew dried pasta could taste different! Once I finish my stock of pasta, I will move to this brand (unless I find more free-after coupon pasta deals!)

• 100% organic tofu. That ensures that we don't get GMO soy. $1.50 per pack vs $0.99 for conventional tofu at Sunflower.

• 30% pastured hormone-free chicken. Walmart (of all places) actually has very reasonally priced chicken. Here, their pastured, hormone-free whole fryer chicken is $1.49/lb. Organic whole chicken is about $2.59/lb. I buy the pastured one when I can since (1), I'm about 1/2 hr away from the nearest Super Walmart and (2), I have to go to Walmart. When I'm less inclined, I just get conventional chicken thighs from the King Soopers down the road ($0.59-$0.79/lb).

• 100% wild/organic red meat. Since we successfully hunted a deer, we have no need to buy red meat, organic or otherwise. Ours was a mountain-ranging deer, so we assume it's organic. Deer that live in farm areas and feed on non-organic crop will not be organic.

• 100% home-grown eggs. My eggs are rarely pastured because we live on the side of a mountain, we can't use a chicken tracter. We are also in fox country and have a long winter. Most of the time, sadly, they have to be in their run (with lots of access to the enclosed outside). I feed them conventional feed. Still, our eggs are so much more beautiful and delicious than commerical eggs! There's definitely more to eggs when the chickens are not in a stressful environment. If you can't have your own hens, opt for pastured eggs rather than organic. Pastured means the chickens have access to grass and the outside which makes for better eggs. Organic hens do get outside time but it only means they are fed organic (ie non-GMO feed). Pastured hens may be fed GMOs etc.

• 50% organic butter. Currently, the cheapest price I've found on organic butter is at $3.50/lb at Costco. I was buying that until I got a deal on Challenge butter at $1.79/lb after sale & coupon at King Soopers. Challege is rBST-free so I think it's a little less evil than conventional butter. Once I run out, I'll go back to the organic. 

• To remove from our pantry: any 'foods' that our grandparents would not have recognized as food in their youth. Get rid of corn/canola oil (both GMO frankenfoods). Stop buying any commerically prepared food using canola (GMO), corn (GMO) or soy (GMO). We have replaced most pan-frying oil with butter. I still use corn oil for Asian cooking and am looking into using lard as a substitute. I'm also looking for palm oil as a corn oil substitute for deep frying. The reason is, what we've been told for the past 30 years about saturated fats is WRONG. Saturated fat is good. Butter is good. Cholesterol isn't bad but processed vegetable oils are. 

For those who are interested, I have included the video on this topic hosted by a medical doctor.

Free 8 oz Enfamil Formula at Walmart with Coupon

Walmart currently has their 8 oz cans of Enfamil formula for $4.97. Use this coupon to get it for FREE!

Le Creuset 4.5 qt Enameled Oval Cast Iron Ovens $99 at Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's has Le Creuset 4.5 qt oval ovens on sale for $99. Shipping is $11 or free for orders over $150. This is a good deal for Le Creuset ovens. You might be able to get them for less at stores like TJ Maxx but those are usually retail seconds.

For those who were wondering, the higher price on these vs other brands like Lodge is because (except for their frying pans,) these are made in France and not in China.

I have a 7 qt version and it makes great stews. It's also good for going from stove to oven.

Shoprunner 1 Year Membership for $1 ($79 value)

Shoprunner is offering their 1 year membership for $1 right now. Regularly priced at $79. $1 charge goes to charity.

Make sure you set your account to DO NOT AUTO RENEW. Otherwise, you'll be charged $79 for the subsequent year. To do that, go to Account Settings -> Manage/Cancel Membership -> Set my account to Do Not Renew