Organic meals on a budget

Since my last post, I have been obsessed with finding ways to save money and eat well. Once we made the resolution to change our habits, I've combed through budgeting and organic living sites, reading about how other people save money and eat food that's good for you and the planet.

I should mention here that I understand organic produce and poultry have reached unaffordable levels for many people. It angers me beyond measure that we've screwed up something so basic, so simple as food. It didn't used to be this complicated. It used to be that we bought or grew nutritious food grown in hardy soil, hand-picked our eggs, and let chickens roam around in fresh air. Greed has messed up something vital to our health and well-being by mixing up food with what people can manage to pull out of banks and pockets.

Check out last week's article on MSNBC about how antibiotic resistance in animals is leading to antibiotic-resistant infections in humans.

Or this one about toxic stuff in the regular ol' food we eat (things like canned tomatoes, butter, non-organic potatoes).

The food industry has spent a lot of time and money convincing us that eating a chicken that's spent its entire life in a cage--beakless and footless, being pumped full of antibiotics and food it's not meant to eat--is natural, healthy food for us and our children. It's simply not true.

And studies now show that produce grown with pesticides is less nutritious, not to mention less tasty. In the meantime, to make it easier to produce mass amounts of corn, soy, wheat, and canola, they're genetically engineering the cells of these products to cause pests' stomachs to explode. Coincidentally, there has been a significant rise in allergies to these common foods--especially in young children.

I'm not saying good food guarantees good health; it just helps a great deal. So we've made a priority out of eating well. The thing is, as I mentioned before, we've spent a fair bit of money doing it. I want that money for our student loans and savings.

To get started with our new budgeting goals, I spent some time tagging all our purchases on Wesabe, a third-party money management tool/financial community and looking at our spending trends. I also read financial, budgeting, food, and family blogs, and found families of six who live on $62.50/week. Of course, I am always also reminded the voice of Barbara Kingsolver from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, who ate locally and off their (giant) farm for a year. And finally there are few of my friends' gourmet foodie blogs that inspire me to try to make ingredients count toward something tasty enough to be worthy of all the effort.

Trying to make sense of these resources in a personal way that actually works is turning out to be a fun challenge for me.

So, I suppose some figures would help here. Eventually I would like to spend $400-$600/month on food and general supplies. This is more than some people spend and less than some people spend, but for us this would be a very significant savings over what we've spent on a monthly basis in the past. On average, we spent $750-$1100 on groceries and supplies per month (in December, we spent more). This includes diapers and toilet paper and general household supplies, of which we generally buy very little. It doesn't include going out to eat. Yes, it's true. I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but somehow our food resolution doesn't feel as compelling without sharing the numbers.

I should add the caveat that we spent the most during months when we entertained a lot, made big dinners for friends, and hosted holiday dinners. Wine and beer is included in the grocery purchases. (For large groups this adds quite a cushion of moolah.)

Looking at some of the food budgeting resources out there, I can at least acknowledge that we aren't the only average consumers who dip into the four-figures when it comes to food. At the top of the line, I found a family in London spending the equivalent of $2,000 a month on food. People who live in highly urban settings with higher costs of living tend to spend more. Those with ready access to farmland and big backyards and lower costs of living tend to spend less. This makes sense, of course.

Combined with a renewed sense of being conscious about how much we spend, Brian is also interested in eating less meat for health reasons. Because I'm content eating mainly vegetarian food, his interest makes it easier to cook more healthy, easy, whole foods-based meals. We'll see how long this lasts.

So, the big experiment this month is that I'm only going shopping once, except for a biweekly trip to purchase more eggs and yogurt (and maybe something else, we'll see). To help us accomplish this, I signed up for our local CSA produce delivery system through Full Circle Farm. Coincidentally, Brian's company just signed up to be a community delivery location, so every Tuesday at 1 p.m., Brian will be able to go into his lunchroom and pick up our box of vegetables and fruit.

We used Full Circle Farm for over a year and quit the service when I stopped working, largely because I wanted to go out and pick out all our own fruits and vegetables, and because we were tiring of the winter fare--beets, squash, potatoes, and more beets, squash, and potatoes. Now, Full Circle Farm allows you to substitute every item in your box with something else, making it more flexible and accommodating to our needs. It's a great way to support small--and local--farms. We signed up to receive a standard size box on a weekly basis for $30/week, a total of $120/month of our food budget.

This week's box contents include:
1 Broccoli
2 Hass Avocados
3 Fuji Apples
1 pound Roma Tomatoes
1 bunch Green Kale
4 Pinova Apples
0.75 pounds Green Bell Peppers
4 Fairchild Tangerines
0.4 pounds Mushrooms
2 Ruby Grapefruits
1 Green Leaf Lettuce
3 D'anjou Pears

Here's our dinner menu for this week:

Monday:
Apple-butternut squash soup and fresh-baked bread. (I cut up 2 butternut squashes and an apple last week and stuck 'em in the freezer. I'll cook the soup this afternoon.)

Tuesday:
Baked salmon, avocado-tomato-cucumber salad, and pressure-cooked brown rice.

Wednesday:
Dinner with friends at their house.

Thursday:
Black bean and rice Mexican bowl with lettuce, red onion, avocado, and corn. (Optional: ground turkey.)

Friday:
Sauteed broccoli and tofu with rice.

Saturday:
Quinoa with toasted seeds, green salad, and baked chicken.

Sunday:
Red potato (and maybe corn) chowder and salad.

Other options if the mood hits: enchiladas, chili and cornbread. Regardless, I'm cooking the enchiladas and chili this weekend and freezing it for easy lunches and dinners.

With this monthly shopping system, I've already spent about $405, not including four weeks of CSA deliveries. Total including 2 wks of CSA: $525. Over the goal, but it's my first time out of the gate. I'm guessing by the end of the month we'll hit $550. This total includes $85 I spent on a bunch of gluten-free flours and 3 giant bags of Pamela's (very expensive) gluten-free baking mix. I'm splitting the cost over the next 3 months. I like our home-baked gluten-free bread a lot more than what we can find in the store. And Pamela's makes the best cookies, crumbles, sweet breads, and Sunday morning pancakes. Probably not a lot of cost-savings in the end, unless I compare it to buying all the sweets pre-baked and going out for pancakes every Sunday, but worth it to be able to make treats whenever we want.

I think I managed to buy a lot of stuff. A month's worth? I don't know, I guess we'll find out. I think we have enough other staples (nut butters, jams, soy sauce, salt, rice, etc.) to last this month. Want to know what we bought? I'm just going to list everything out, which is going to take awhile but for right now, hey. Once a month. Big deal. Why? Because it'll keep me honest. Also because I like to read this stuff on other people's blogs. I don't know exact measurements for a lot of it, but here goes:

Vegetables:
CSA plus--
*3 bags org frozen corn
*3 bags org frozen green beans
*3 bags org frozen spinach
*3 bags org carrots
*2 bags of frozen artichoke hearts
*2 large cartons org Roma tomatoes
*2 cartons org sugar plum tomatoes
*5 big hass avocados
(I bought the corn, beans, carrots, spinach, and tomatoes from Trader Joe's, but next time I'm going to go to Costco and buy their organic options). I got the artichokes from Trader Joes--Costco doesn't have 'em. Okay, admittedly, they're not organic, but they do happen to be the the most delicious addition to pasta sauce ever. Yum. I'm going to stew the roma tomatoes and freeze them for soups.)

Poultry (bought fresh then individually bagged and frozen):
*5 org free-range chicken breasts
*5 org free-range chicken thighs
*10 org chicken sausages
*2 boxes kosher ground turkey (oops, on reflection, I don't think this was organic)

Fish:
*4 large fillets of wild frozen salmon

Grain/pasta/bread:
*2 lbs org quinoa
*3 lbs org gluten-free oats
*28 ounces Rice sticks (Pad Thai noodles)
*2 lbs org rice pasta
*Multi-grain bread for Brian

Beans:
*2 pounds org black beans
*2 pounds org pinto beans
*2 pounds org kidney beans
*1-1/2 pounds org lentils
*3 packages of org tofu
*4 big containers of org soy milk and 2 small unsweetened containers

Dairy:
*Organic 2% milk
*Cheddar cheese
*Organic jack cheese
*Parmesan
*Organic yogurt (large tub)
*Organic butter
*2 cartons of organic free-range eggs

Baking supplies(this was split b/w Whole Foods and Amazon purchases--Amazon offers wholesale-style quantities and prices on specialty flours):
*Sorghum
*Teff
*Potato starch
*Tapioca starch
*Yeast
*Brown rice flour
*Pamela's baking mix

Fruit:
CSA delivery plus:
*2 pounds org raisins
*Big bottle of org apple juice
*1/2 lb shredded org coconut
*3 bags org frozen blueberries
*4 lemons
*6 limes

Nuts/seeds:
*1/2 lb org sunflower seeds
*1/4 lb org sesame seeds
*1 lb mixed nuts
*1/2 lb slivered almonds

Sweeteners:
*Large bottle org maple syrup
*Large bottle honey

Oil:
*Lg bottle olive oil
*Lg bottle grapeseed oil

Vinegar:
*Organic apple cider vinegar

Misc:
*Pad Thai sauce (I need to start making this from scratch, it'll probably taste better)
*Jar of pineapple salsa
*Jar of regular salsa
*2 bags of 7th Generation pull-ups
*Conditioner
*Liquid multi-vitamins for Cora
*Homeopathic medicine (1) for Brian

Cooking Green

Cora has been healthy for three weeks. Her current spirited vitality has brushed away the cobwebs cast over our lives when we learned about her IgA deficiency. I like to imagine it's because she's been fixed, that the problem doesn't exist and the tests were wrong.

Regardless, I think we're out of the woods for awhile and it feels great.

I feel like myself again. For one thing, we've slept a lot more these past few weeks. Rather than thinking about sniffles and coughs and diarrhea (and tending to such ailments several times a night), I am thinking again about writing, and food, and fun things to do with a toddler during a rainy spring season in Seattle--more difficult to do than one might imagine considering that we've sworn off indoor play areas. No more public petri dishes like the Zoomazium or the Children's Museum or kid-friendly coffee shops filled with cute but dingy toys handed from one hand and mouth to another.

That is one big frustration of late: I never, ever wanted to be one of those moms that cleans things all the time, and now I carry hand sanitizer and wipes wherever I go.

I am also much more focused on food now than I ever thought possible. As a vegan macrobiotic, homeschooled child who grew up on an island alfalfa sprout farm while listening to my mom talk incessantly about yin and yang, and as a gluten-free person since the age of 12, I feel steeped in food lore to the point of ridiculousness. But there is always more to learn, and I am enjoying the independent process of discovery--searching food blogs, thumbing through books, seeking recommendations from friends, and tinkering around in our kitchen whenever Cora will allow.

My sister recently told me that I am a better cook now that I am a mom. She also told me, years ago, that I am a better person when I am with Brian.

I've always teased my sister that she has a way with words. She used to tell me that, no offense, but my hair really looked quite awful. Or a few months ago on our way to a therapeutic spa day together, she confided in serious tones that my streak of gray hair aged me at least 10 years and advised me to go to a professional to get it fixed.

Of course the cooking reference was a compliment, but I went to bed grumbling; why was it that just because I talk more about food these days I'm a better cook than I once was...because I was pretty okay before, wasn't I? Think of the tortellini salads, for goodness sake!

(Your guess is as good as mine as to why on earth I thought of tortellini salads. Was that really one of my most creative ventures? Surely not. I finally conjured up my years of invested shopping and cooking--chopping a million different ingredients into gigantic salads, grilling salmon and potatoes, rolling homemade sushi, baking baguettes and serving them hot with melted brie and sauteed mushrooms, frying kale in sesame oil and soy sauce.)

But as with many of the things my sister says, the meaning lingers and I have to pause and consider. Has my hair ever really resembled a little dog atop my head? (She really did say that once.) Before she convinced me to get layers, is it possible that I did, in fact, look like a lampshade and a pair of legs wandering down the street? (She actually said that, too.) Does the grey really age me beyond an age I am comfortable representing in my early thirties?

I can agree that I have had a few more bad hair days than the average lady. And as far as being a better person because of Brian, I have to agree. One thing I know for sure is that it is useful to feel so much love, and to feel so loved. It feeds a nice cycle of give and take, making me more likely to smile magnanimously at the grocery clerk than if I were stuck in my head thinking about my latest thwarted attempt at something.

I have to admit that my sister has done the sisterly duty of helping me look a little bit more presentable--no more lampshade 'do, no more little dogs, no more college fare of parmesan cheese quesadillas heated up in the microwave.

So maybe she's right; I can certainly credit my daughter for being a more conscious cook. But am I a better cook because of that?

Several meals I made this week would pretty much convince anyone I was clearly on crack if I thought I was versed in the art of culinary adventures.

After having Cora, I suppose I did have a bit of a coming-out party about my love of food, and I certainly read more recipes these days than I ever have. Before Cora, I felt uncomfortable trumpeting my interest in the food-health connection. Now, because there is a small person's health at stake, I seem to feel more invested in discussing what I am sure is an intrinsic link. Still, I'm not really a better cook, I'm just more aware of food in general. I think about it differently, and I am more focused on whether it's useful--good for our bodies, good for our planet, good for Cora's future.

And lately, I have become far more interested in the iron and vitamin B content of foods than ever before. But I also have to be conscious of how to serve foods in such a way as to convince Cora to love them. And, of course, I want the food to taste good, too.

For example, I want her to eat more green things. Green vegetables are high in vitamin C, iron, B vitamins, and the simple component of chlorophyll, which helps speed oxygen through the bloodstream. She loves broccoli and green beans, and she likes peas because they are so fun to pick up and pop into her mouth. We've tried kale and nori seaweed with some success. Other green stuff? Not so much.

So, what I guess I'm trying to say, as I sit here writing after trying to entice Cora to eat a kale and broccoli grilled cheese sandwich with omega 3 mayonnaise (ha, not a success), is that I plan to adventure into the world of green food a great deal in the coming weeks. And I can't guarantee it'll be a delicious journey, but I'm hopeful that at least it will be an educational one.

And I'll have to convince my sister to come over for dinner so I can try out some of my new wares on her exacting taste. I know she'll let me know what she thinks. :)

Gluten-free Teff Almond Butter Cookies

Cora's doctor recommended that we put her on a gluten-free diet. Because celiac disease is diagnosed through unusually high levels of IgA, her absence of IgA makes it impossible to know if her body can process gluten. Added to the fact that I am allergic to wheat, Cora's tests also showed that she's slightly anemic, which can be another potential sign of food sensitivities. Gluten intolerance could interrupt her body's ability to absorb nutrients. She's been on a totally gluten-free diet for over a week. Combined with daily doses of multivitamins and probiotics, we've also added more dairy to her diet. It seems to be agreeing with her very well.

I wanted to share a nutritious, easy recipe with you, adapted from Leslie Cerier's teff peanut butter cookie recipe (the Organic Gourmet). Leslie's original recipe can also be found on the back of Bob's Red Mill whole grain teff flour, which is in stock at Whole Foods and many other natural foods stores. Try not to choke too much when you see the price tag of nearly $9 for a pound of flour. With 13% iron, 4 grams protein, and 4 grams fiber in a 1/4-cup serving, teff flour offers a unique flavor with hints of cocoa.

I modified Leslie's recipe to include olive oil and dark molasses. Molasses is high in iron and B vitamins, something I am working to sneak into Cora's diet whenever possible. The combination of a super nutritious flour with high-iron, high-calcium, high-flavor almond butter means that you don't have to be gluten-free to appreciate these hardy cookies.

Cora enjoyed helping me make these, making it an activity that now ranks pretty high on my list of "fun things to do with a toddler." She measured and stirred and incorporated the wet and dry ingredients. Her favorite part was making the cookie balls. We made these on the kitchen floor, and she crouched over the cookie sheet with greasy hands, forming funny shapes before sneaking a few bites and reluctantly pressing the dough haphazardly onto the cookie sheet.

TEFF ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES
Makes about 24 cookies

1-1/2 cups teff flour
1/2 tsp. ground sea salt
1/2 cup molasses filled nearly to the top, then topped off with a drizzle of maple syrup
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup smooth almond butter

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In a food processor, blend syrup, oil, vanilla, and almond butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend well. Shape dough into walnut size balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatted gently with your fingers, shaping the cookie edges to form an even circle. Bake about 13-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Keeps up to a week in a sealed container. Once cooled, the cookies are delicious dipped in yogurt or topped with a layer of vanilla ice cream or non-dairy frozen topping.

IgA and ABCs

As much as I've missed writing here, I've been feeling lost about where to begin.

I'll start with the fact that Cora's test results came back over a week ago. She was diagnosed with an immunodeficiency called Selective IgA Deficiency. According to our doctor, about 1 in 700 people have immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency, making it the most common immunodeficiency. Her tests weren't able to detect IgA, the antibody produced by B cells to ward off infection at mucousal sites throughout the body. Basically it means that Cora's nose, eyes, ears, throat, GI and urogenital systems are more susceptible to disease than in people with normal levels of IgA. IgA plays an important role in fighting infection because it is the first antibody to "rise to the occasion" and start battling an invader. It reaches peak levels before IgM and IgG (blood components) take over. Cora's IgG and IgM counts appear to be normal.

(Note: If you're reading this entry, you might be interested in reading this post as well.)

Research shows that 25-50% of IgA deficient people develop an autoimmune disorder (I've read 40% as the average in other sources). Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other immune disorders seem to be more common in IgA deficient people over time. They are also more susceptible to pneumonia and HIV, can't receive live viral immunizations because they could actually contract the disease, might not produce appropriate antibodies to "take" a vaccination properly, and are susceptible to anaphylactic death from blood transfusions due to a violent reaction to IgA in donor blood. (If necessary, they are often able to receive "cleaned" blood from which IgA has been removed.) Although many people spend most of their lives asymptomatic, they generally just get a lot more runny noses, colds, sinus infections, ear infections, etc., than the common person. Currently, there is no treatment for this deficiency. Antibiotics have been shown to reduce IgA levels.

Concurrent with Cora's test results, we were pretty affected by the H1N1 flu headlines during its initial outbreak. Some people have commented that they didn't pay any attention to the news because it just seemed like a bunch of hype about the typical flu, but I think that if they had read any of the articles they might have felt differently. Avian flu, which is one of the viruses in this strain, has a 60% mortality rate, and the WHO currently predicts that if the H1N1 virus continues to mutate, we might see two billion people get sick, and a number of them die.

These scary statistics unravelled me for a few days. I worried intensely about Cora on several levels; not just about her health, but about her development and childhood happiness, too. It doesn't seem fair to be relegated to a life of careful hand washing and hand sanitizer, to a stream of colds and flus or missed school days, sled days, or sunny adventures.

After a tense week of trying to hold myself together, I took a cue from my daughter: I had a good, long cry. I felt so much better afterward. After it's all out there, it's easier to turn to a more reasonable perspective, to see how tiny our diagnosis is in comparison to what it could have been.

The good news is that Cora is only 16 months old, and the immune system isn't fully developed until age 2, which means there's a chance her body will still develop IgA. Every night as we put Cora to bed, we imagine her whole body lit up with B cells busily creating IgA. We are hoping that she will have a dramatic turnaround and will produce IgA in beautiful amounts in time to retest her after her 2nd birthday.

(If you'd like to imagine Cora's immune system totally intact, feel free to send your wonderfully positive thoughts her way.)

This news has left me frankly bewildered about a few things. I was not familiar with the components of an immune system until I began researching it and talking with Cora's doctor. One major question is why don't doctors regularly test immune system components at an earlier age? If Cora can't tolerate a live vaccine, then why is every child instructed to have the MMR vaccine at 12 months? Or the live polio virus at an even younger age? Or even the live flu vaccine? Why is it OK to proceed with one set protocol when all children are not created equal? I am thankful that we took a slower approach to vaccinations and weren't planning to vaccinate with MMR until 5 years or even older, and chose not to immunize against polio yet, but it's not a universally-accepted approach. Even though vaccinations in general have certainly gained a lot more attention in the past few years, it's a lot easier to feel fine about the whole thing if your kid gets through their vaccinations without any issues, but if you take a good hard look at the possible complications, the vaccine injury hotline, and the potential that your child might have an immune disorder (or, according to some sources, might develop one after an immunization), it starts to feel very clearly like something that should generally be approached with more caution that it currently is.

Update: The US Dept of Health and Human Services's Vaccine Injury Table lists polio and measles infection due to administration of certain vaccinations to an immune-compromised person. See 5B and 6A and 6B. I asked Cora's former doctor to look into the effects of MMR on an immune-compromised (in this case, IgA deficient) child. She followed up with a top immunologist at Seattle Children's Hospital who said that while there isn't any data to show that an IgA deficient person shouldn't receive the MMR vaccine, he said to 'proceed with great caution'. I said to Cora's doctor, "So don't get it." She responded, "right."

I don't care if it's costly, or even unnecessary to test 699 kids, it's the 700th one that I worry about. (Some sources say IgA deficiency is as common as 1 in every 400, making it even more alarming to consider the number of kids who shouldn't receive a live vaccine.)

I am a huge proponent of public health initiatives that protect vulnerable populations, reduce deadly diseases, and result in a healthier population over time. I understand the herd mentality of vaccinations, and in general I believe in their stated benefits. What I have a hard time with is learning about the fact that my child can't tolerate live vaccines, or viral vaccines very well in general, after the age when she normally would have received such an injection. We got lucky. I feel that there is a lot more study and thought that should go into the administration of vaccinations. Who should receive them? Who shouldn't?

How on earth do parents deal with a diagnosis of leukemia? Brain cancer? AIDS? It must feel as if the earth comes to a complete halt, that you are fighting through fog, that all you want to do is run to the highest mountain and hide your child away in a meadow feeding her nothing but the purest air and water and whole foods while searching for the absolute best medical care in the world. I send those parents my heart.

Cora is doing really well, she hasn't been sick for over two weeks and she runs (never walks) full-tilt through the hallways, pitter-pattering her way laughingly through her days. She is obsessed with a big ABC book that we read everyday, and she points to labels now and says "ABCs" in recognition of the words there. She's back to her animated, lively little self.

The summer is ahead of us. We can't wait. We're looking forward to beach combing, swimming in outdoor saltwater pools, having picnics, going hiking, running through the sprinkler, and exploring other classic summer joys.