Healthy on a Budget

I read an article a while back about how to save $30 on your weekly grocery store bill. I don’t know about you, but a $30 saving would be amazing! When I read the article, the tips … well….left much to be desired. It had tips like, skip the meat and use canned beans (really, if I told my husband we were skipping meat and using canned beans, we would just stare at me). Use frozen produce, dry milk- seeing the pattern here? In other words shop in the middle of the grocery store. Where you can’t pronounce half the ingredients listed on the cans and boxes. To the articles defense, it did have some good suggestions- like buy produce from the grocery store instead of big box stores.

We have all heard to shop the perimeters of the grocery store. This is where you will find the healthier options. But lets me honest, sometimes that can be a little damaging on your pocket book. Here are some ways we buy healthy food on a budget.

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1) Shop Local!
+ Farmers Markets: I love our local market! It’s open every Saturday and has a wide variety of vegetables! Normally, these vegetable are at a much lower price then what you would be at the grocery store. On one of our trips we bought 2 zucchini, 1 squash, 2 bananas, and an orange for $4.50. A word of caution with shopping at farmers markets, a lot of the good stuff goes fast-so get there early!
+ Enroll in Community Supported Agriculture. This is where you get a box of fruits or vegetables (or both) each week. Each farm is different in their prices, box sizes, and produce variety. This is also a great option to go in together and split with friends and family.

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2) Thrive Market
“Thrive Market is the first socially conscious online store offering the world’s best-selling natural and organic products at wholesale prices”. They have a great selection of specialty items: gluten free, dairy free, you know it. For most items their prices come in cheaper than the grocery store and a lot of times they come in cheaper than Amazon. Coconut Secrets Coconut Aminos is my favorite soy sauce alternative however only one grocery store in town sells them and its hit or miss as to when it’s in stock! On Amazon the cheapest I could find it was $11.35. On Thrive Market- $4.45! Thrive Market offers a 30 day free trial- which is a great way to see if you will use it enough to get your money’s worth. Just make sure you cancel the trial membership or they will automatically charge you! {Lesson Learned}

3) Freeze some go to meals!
This works really well for soups, meats, and broths! Pinterest will be your best when it comes to freezer meals. Also, summer is a great time to buy veggies in bulk and freeze them for the winter. {I have no clue how to do that, I’m just throwing that out there for all you people who are gifted in blanching and freezing department}

4) Walmart Neighborhood Market!
Barney’s Almond Butter is Barney’s Almond Butter no matter if I get it at Publix or Walmart. But its about $2 cheaper at Walmart! We save on an average $20-$30 on our grocery bill when we shop at Neighborhood Walmart. They sometimes don’t have everything we need, but we can get about 90% of our grocery shopping done there.

Young Living Cleansing Trio

IMG_0859So, I’ve been wanting to try the Young Living Cleansing Trio for a while now and I finally worked up enough guts to get it! Outside of my Elimination Diet and the supplements I was taking with it, this is my first type of cleanse. I figured that with all the bad eating in November and December (and let’s be honest January), this would be a good time to reset my system.

The Cleanse includes 3 products: Comfortone, ICP and Essentialzyme. The trio didn’t come with any instruction, but I am following the protocol in the book “Inner Transformation Using Essential Oils” by Doctors LeAnne and David Deardeuff. It a pretty simple process to follow:

Step 1: Introduce Comfortone pills one at a time working up to a maximum of 10 pills a day.
   Day ONE: 1 Comfortone in the AM
   Day TWO: 1 Comfortone in the AM and PM
   Day THREE: 2 Comfortones in the AM and one in the PM
   Day FOUR: 2 Comfortones in the AM and two in the PM
   Day FIVE and on: continue on this pattern adding one Comfortone a day until you have reached 5 in the AM and 5 in the PM or until you have a achieves 2-3 good BM’s a day, whichever comes first. (If you aren’t achieving this after a week there are a few tips in the book)

Step 2: Once you are achieving 2-3 BM’s a day you can add in ICP and Essentialymes.
1)Begin with 1 teaspoon of ICP in the AM and PM. Add 1/2 tsp each day working your way up to 1 Tbs in the AM and 1 Tbs in the PM. The best way to do this is to add it to a juice and drink it quickly (There are also some tips in the book for troubleshooting this process)
2)Start taking one Essentialzyme between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. This helps break down all the build up.

Ok- here comes the gross part– you’ve been warned. You are suppose to stay on this process until you have passed the lining coating the bowel- this is long and black and is held together in a long tube shape and contains the gross stuff in the bowels. It can take a few months to pass this. (For a more scientific description see by 31 in Inner Transformation Using Essential Oils)

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So far I am on the first week, still working on adding Comfortones each day. Here are the observations I’ve made so far
1) Adding one pill a day really makes for easy transition into the cleanse
2) Taking the Comfortone at night will cause a BM within the first 30 minutes of waking- so just be warned if you are a wake up at the last possible minute to get to work type person.
3) Drinking A LOT of water is really the key to helping everything process. I felt much better on the days that I have been drinking a lot of water.
4) I haven’t had to watch what I’m eating or change my diet any and everything has still been fine. I think this really helps with not having headaches. When I was on my elimination diet, I had to cut out so much food and start supplements all at the same time and I was very weak and sick the first few days. Not so with this one!
5) You can take whatever supplements you normally take on this cleanse! I’m still taking my Vitamin B,C and D, Mindwise, Ningxia and Pro Plus!

I’ll be back next week to let you now how adding the ICP and Essentialzyme goes!

Disney and Food Allergies: Part Two

We just got back from Disney for my 32nd birthday! 32!!! Because Scott and I have only been married two years and have no kids, a lot of times I feel a lot younger than I really am.

Anyway…. Onto what the post is about…Food and Disney. If you missed my last post on Disney and Food Allergies from our visit in July you can find it HERE! This time we tried out some new places! Some where hits and some where complete misses!

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Animal Kingdom Quick Service:
Harambre Market
Harambre Market is inspired by the street foods of Africa. They had an allergy menu to choose from, but it wasn’t one of our favorites! Scott and I both had the Grilled Chicken Skewer which is gluten and dairy free. It is served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea, Corn and Tomato Salad. The Salad was very good, but the Slaw had too much vinegar for my taste. We didn’t order dessert, but I think they had a Gluten Free Cookie- probably from the brand Enjoy Life.

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Animal Kingdom Lodge
Boma-Flavors of Africa
Scott really wanted to try out Boma. It’s a family-friendly buffet that has flavors from over 50 African countries. Like with any table service, when we made the reservation we listed that I couldn’t have gluten or dairy. The waiter showed us to our seat and then the chef came out and walked us through the buffet, explaining the ingredients in every dish and letting me know what was safe and what wasn’t. The chef is extremely thorough and if you forget anything or have any other questions during your meal he will come back! There were a lot of things I couldn’t have, but what I could was WONDERFUL. Some of the highlights: Seafood Gumbo over Rice, Salad Bar with the Apple Dressing, and Steak with a dipping sauce that I can’t remember the name of now. I couldn’t have anything on the dessert buffet, so the chef made me my own special gluten/dairy free dessert plate. It had a cupcake, two chocolate cookies, a chocolate chip and sugar cookies and I think some DF ice cream. The menu for the buffet changes slightly from night to night, but I’m sure all the food is equally as great!

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Magic Kingdom Quick Service
Columbia Harbour House
The Columbia Harbour House is in the Liberty Square section of Magic Kingdom. They have a great Allergen menu! Complete with gluten free, dairy free chicken fingers and fries! I am a chicken finger and fries addict, so I looked no further on the menu than that! Here a little tip- There isn’t a chicken finger plate on the regular menu. It’s Chicken Breast Nuggets and Fish Fingers. So if you are more of a chicken finger fan vs nugget fan than order off the allergy menu. Here is what I really like about the Columbia Harbour House that is different than most quick service restaurants. When you order off the allergen menu, they prepare that food to order. They give you a pager and tell you to sit down and when your food is ready they will page you. Once it’s ready, one of the cast members will escort you through the line to the counter to retrieve your food. They also put the food that is ordered off the allergy menu on a separate tray, away from all the other food!

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Epcot Table Service
Coral Reef Restaurant
This is a restaurant you go to for the atmosphere. It sits next to the The Seas with Nemo & Friends and has panoramic windows so you get a great view of the coral reef and the 4,000 sea creatures! There allergen menu wasn’t extensive and it looks like they serve their diner menu at lunch, so the food was kind of heavy. Scott and I ended up splitting the Grilled New York Strip Steak. We ordered if off the allergen menu, so it came with steamed green beans and roasted whole potatoes. I also ordered the Frisee and Endive Salad with was very good! If goat cheese is a form of cheese you can have, make sure to tell them or they will leave it off.

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Disney Springs Table Service
The BOATHOUSE
If you followed along on my elimination diet, you may remember that dairy (specifically casein) was the only thing that showed up on my blood work that I was sensitive too. However, because of my autoimmune disorder, I was strongly encouraged to go gluten free as well. Because of this, I eat gluten every now and then and for the most part have a fine reaction. I just try to limit the amount. So, fair warning, the food I ate at The BOATHOUSE was not gluten free…. But it was delicious! I had the Coconut-fried Wild Pacific White Shrimp, with Orange- Chili Sauce and French Fries! It was soooo good! If you get a chance to eat here you need to and you need to ask for a table outside on the dock. The boats outside are owned by the restaurant and they are beautiful.

Disney and Food Allergies

Ok, so first off, If you have food allergies or restrictions Disney World is THE PLACE to go. I haven’t gotten this whole “food restriction ordering” thing down yet and feel like I’m being so bothersome sometimes. But the staff at Disney was AMAZING!

First, whenever we made reservations for table service meals we added my food restrictions to the reservation. We also called the Disney Dining line and talked to the nicest lady and she was able to add my specific restrictions that weren’t on the main page for us to choose.

I will say the table service meals were so easy. The quick service meals on the other hand were much harder to find something to eat. I pretty much stuck to a hotdog with a gluten free bun, fries and water. After a few days that can get old.

AllergyEats Disney World was such a great resource as we were picking out restaurants!

Here is a breakdown of all the places we ate!

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Epcot Quick Service:
Lotus Blossom Cafe
There were only two things on the menu I could have, Shrimp Fried Rice with no Egg Roll and Vegetable Stir Fry. I went with the Shrimp Fried Rice. Because I had to order it without the Egg Roll and Cabbage they subbed a bottle water. This is great if you aren’t on the meal plan because you can save $3.00 on a drink! They only have ice cream for dessert so I didn’t get any of that 🙁

Epcot Table Service:
Le Cellier Steakhouse
I was very impressed with our waitress at Le Cellier! When we sat down I was given the allergen menu and the waitress was able to show me what I could and could not have and even had suggestions on how to change meals to fit my restrictions. I ended up having gluten free bread with diary free butter, the Le Cellier Filet Mignon with green beans since I couldn’t have the mushroom risotto and for dessert I had the Strawberry-Basic Float. I am not a float type of girl, but I would go back for that float. It was delicious. (It could also be the fact that I hadn’t had anything creamy like a milkshake in 2 months so my judgement may have been a tiny bit impaired by that, but not much because it was still amazing)

Teppan Edo
This was a last minute decision one night and it paid off. Before our orders were taken, the manager came out to discuss with me what I could have. Dairy is used a lot in their dishes so he really made sure he understood that i couldn’t have dairy at all, not just milk. I ended up not being able to have their salad dressing or any of the sauces for the meats. So I had a plain salad (they brought me Red Wine Vinegar but I didn’t use it) and Asakusa (steak and shrimp) with steamed rice and vegetables for my meal. The steak was very good. The chef prepared my food first so there wouldn’t be any cross contamination. The only thing they had for dessert that I could eat was a fruit bowl. Not the best, so I would skip dessert next time.

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Animal Kingdom Quick Service
Yak& Yeti Local Food Cafes
This was the only place we ate in Animal Kingdom. They didn’t have a large selection of gluten free meals. I ended up having the American Kobe Beef Hog Dog with a gluten free bun, fries and a lemonade. For dessert I ordered the Minute Maid Frozen Lemonade Cup, but once I looked at the ingredients it had high fructose corn syrup so i didn’t have that.

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Magic Kingdom Table Service
Be our Guest Restaurant
What’s great about Be our Guest Restaurant is when you eat there for lunch it’s only considered a quick service! But you are inside at a table which is nice during the summer. And each part of the dining room is themed for a different part of the Beast’s castle. For lunch I had a quinoa salad with vinaigrette. The salad included mixed greens, tomatoes, green beans, roasted red peppers, olives and beets and then had a side of quinoa. There was nothing on the dessert menu I could have, so they let me sub an appetizer. I had the French Onion Soup without cheese and croutons.

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Hollywood Studios Quick Service
Backlot Express
As I’ve said, quick service meals were the hardest and it was no different at Hollywood Studios. The food lines were super long the day we went to Hollywood Studios, but they are doing massive changes to the park so that may have made if feel a little more cramped. We ended eating lunch at Backlot Express. For Lunch I had the Hot Dog with a gluten free bun and fries. The day we went, they only had one allergen menu that was being passed around to all the registers, so just know it can be a long wait.

Hollywood Studios Table Service
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
This is such a cute little place and so accommodating. We were done with everything at the part by 4:30 and our reservation wasn’t until 8:30. Scott went and asked if we could move up our reservations and since our reservation was for a party of 2 they were able to movie it without any problem. I was given an allergen menu but the waiter still insisted that the chef come out and speak with me. Am I’m glad he did! There were only a couple things on the menu I could have so he made me something not even on the menu! I had vegetable pasta and it was very good. It was a mix of asparagus, peas, diced tomatoes in a chunky tomato sauce with gluten free pasta. I read online that they have dairy free milkshakes, but since it was so early we decided against dessert. (I was Scott’s birthday so they brought him out a cupcake with a candle on it!)

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Disney Polynesian Resort
‘Ohana
By far our favorite place we ate was ‘Ohana! This was hands down the best meal we had. ‘Ohana is a churrascaria style restaurant where they serve unlimited meat skewers for a fixed price. Both the host and the waiters said they wouldn’t bring anything to our table until the chef came out. He was great to talk to and to my surprise I could eat almost everything. They brought me gluten free bread with dairy free butter. For the appetizers, they cooked me special chicken wings (Which I couldn’t have because I can’t have chicken right now 🙁 ) and brought out steamed rice and veggies. The salad was probably the highlight of the meal! They had to leave off some things that contained gluten but it wasn’t a big deal. The dressing is fantastic and I could have made a whole meal out of the salad! (And I’m not one who gets really excited about salads) I could have all the meat with no special requirements made to it! For dessert I was able to have dairy free ice cream with Enjoy Life chocolate cookies! Seriously, food restrictions or not, you’ve got to get to this place!

Whoo, I think that covers all the places we ate! Have you been eating at Disney with food restrictions? I’d love to hear your suggestions!

Summer Pasta Salad with Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette

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I wish I were a really good food photographer. You’ve seen those pictures- the ones where your mouth waters and you just want run and go make whatever it is your looking at! Well, I don’t have that talent, but this recipe was too good not to share! It’s adapted from a Young Living recipe that they used during the 2016 International Grand Convention Product Expo. Enjoy!

Salad Ingredients:
* 3 cups of Gluten Free Brown Rice Rotini Pasta cooked Al Dente (or gluten free pasta of your choice)
* Diced Peppers (I used Yellow, Red and Green and did half of each one)
* Pint of Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
* Gluten Free Pepperonis
* Any other raw veggies you would like to add
* Goat’s Milk Cheese (the kind with no milk added)

Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette:
* 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar ( I’ve read online that there is debate on which vinegar are gluten free, so just make sure to look up the brand you are buying)
* 1/2 cup Olive Oil
* 1/4 Cup Sundried Tomatoes (Not a must for the recipe. I left these out and it tasted fine)
* 1 Roma Tomato, cut into 5 medium- think slices
* 1/2 – 1 seeded Jalapeno Pepper
* 1 tsp salt
* 2-3 drops Young Living Basil Vitality essential oil
* Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Blend all Vinaigrette ingredients except Basil Vitality on high until smooth and creamy.
2) Place in a small mixing bowl and whisk in Basil Vitality essential oil.
3) Pour Vinaigrette and Salad ingredients over pasta and mix thoroughly
4) Top with Goat’s Milk Cheese
5) Can be served warm, room temp or chilled

{This was made for a party so adapt the pasta amount as needed. I don’t have different measurements for the Vinaigrette, but you an store it in the fridge in a glass container or mason jar}

{For more information on Young Living Essential Oils and how you can buy any of the oils listed click here}