Yes, I do splurge a little!

A funny little thing happened today…
We had our cute little neighbor boy who is best friends with Ethan stop by about 30 minutes before dinner time and his parents were doing church activities and so we invited him to join us for dinner. We dished him up the “tiniest” serving of baked salmon and the "tiniest" helping of baked sweet potatoes. (he kept on asking for “tartar sauce” for his fish and said he really liked fried fish the best).
Anyway, he was a trooper and hesitantly ate it and ended up “kind of” enjoying it (mostly because he wanted to be like Ethan and he knew we had frosted graham crackers waiting in our fridge)
I kept on saying…Dr. Seuss always says:
“Try it you will like it you see”
and he would laugh as he told us that they had
real “green eggs and ham”
last week for school lunch!
It was a funny moment and a great moment for me
as a mother to see how my sons just eat and enjoy
whatever we are having for dinner.
I’m very much savoring the youth of my kids!!

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Well, we may be very frugal in the majority of areas of our life, but there are a few things that I SPLURGE on, no matter what the cost or time of the year.
(I’m not too mean of a mother) (wink)
Because “health is wealth” and I believe strongly in nourishing our bodies so we can have optimum health. By keeping ourselves healthy we keep the risk of getting sick to a minimum and also have very few visits to the doctor. I have to express my gratitude to my wonderful kids and hubby who aren’t picky eaters and are appreciative of the majority of everything we eat!

Here are my splurges…..
SALMON…
A great source of Omega 3's (click here) and just plain yummy!
I cook up 1 of these each week and sometimes we have it 2 times each week.
I usually bake up sweet potatoes to go with it in the winter and in the summer we usually have a salad, OR, lightly steamed spinach from our garden .
I purchase this Salmon at Winco it is WILD Salmon and it is all filleted out and it usually $5 to $6 a package, however, this past week they had all of the packages a set price for $4.98 and so we bought 8 of them.
Whatever the price it is worth it to be eating fatty, healthy fish each week.
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APPLES...
An apple a day keeps the doctor away!
I buy 35 apples each week so we can each have 1 apple a day…by buying 7 extra it means that my teenage son can enjoy an apple after he has gone on his daily run or bike ride. Even when apples are .99 pound it doesn’t cost me more than $8 to $10 a week to provide us all with a daily apple. It is money well spent.
(of course I also buy bananas each week, in the winter we buy lots of oranges, "Cuties" and pomegranates and in the summer we buy plenty of grapes and watermelon, but apples are something we always have no matter what)
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STRING CHEESE…
Okay, so I know that this isn’t the most thrifty thing, but these are convenient and great to throw in with lunches when we are having sandwiches or muffins in our lunches, plus since we don’t drink a lot of milk it is another great way for my kids to get some calcium in their diet. I buy 1 package of these each month for about $11.00 and it means we can each have 9 pieces of string cheese to enjoy during the month. These are also quick to grab for a little protein boost
when we are heading out on a bike ride.
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YOGURT…
I buy yogurt to give our morning breakfasts a little break and so usually on Wednesday or Thursday we have a yogurt OR smoothie breakfast instead of our “Steel Cut Oats”. Ethan also enjoys this every once in awhile for an afternoon snack. These flavors of Western Family yogurt are the only yogurt that I have found that don’t have “High Fructose Corn Syrup” as the Sweetener….these are only sweetened with sugar and the Nancy’s Yogurt is sweetened with Agave Nectar.
So, I spend $10.00 each month on Yogurt.
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FROZEN FRUIT and FLAX SEED...
My children LOVE Fruit smoothies and so I buy pounds of frozen blueberries, strawberries and other berries when they have them on sale in the fall each year. I also buy a few pineapples when you can get them for $2.98 a pineapple and cut the pineapple into chunks and put it in freezer bags, so we have fresh pineapple to quickly throw in our smoothies as well.
(I've even thrown in carrots and cabbage and squash
before and the kids haven't realized it)
This is a deliciously, nutritiously economical way
to get your kids to eat fruit and veggies and it is FULL of lots of Vitamin C. Add a whole grain muffin and you’ve got a complete meal..
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To boost the protein in the smoothies I add in FLAX SEED.
I throw in a 1/3 cup of flax seed in my Vita Mix
and turn it on high for 20-30 seconds.
I then add in 4 cups of various frozen fruit and
1 cup of Nancy’s yogurt
(may need to add 1/4 cup liquid or juice if it's too thick)
(sometimes add in a little honey if it is a little tart)
and blend it for 1 to 2 minutes on high to make sure it is all blended up nicely.
My kids would have to say that smoothies of all kinds are some of their favorites.
We drink these almost daily in the summer!
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Health is Wealth!!
I’m feeling very grateful that at the moment
we all have our health and are doing well!
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PS....And I do buy BIG bags of chocolate chips
so we can make plenty of cookies during the month as well.
I buy one package of the 72 oz. chips at Sam's Club for $7.88
and this lasts us about 2-3 months.
My kids are thrilled when it has been a good day for their mom and she had time to bake up a batch of cookies waiting for them to come home and enjoy after school. (Sad to say, this doesn't happen as often as I would like it to).