I am just trying to share more what we are eating and how we keep costs down.

I have to be clear that dh and I are not so much into hype and diet. WE are, as with anything, just into moderateness and reasonableness.

For one, I Am not going to stock up on organic produce to be healthy. Mostly I am very suspicious of how organic anything with an "organic" label is. So I am not one to rush out and pay double for the privelege of organic. If it meant that much to me I'd grow my own veggies.

Likewise, dh and I Are more likely to home cook our meals, and eat smaller portions. My dh is a stick and since we switched to primarily dining in since I became pregnant with our first child I think he lost a good 10 pounds+. (Not like he had any weight to lose).

Eating home is both healthier and cheaper than eating out. & it is quite simple. SO that is the extent we go to be healthy. We try to avoid junk food and prepackaged foods as much as possible. BUT we don't put a lot of thought into how healthy our food is. We don't count calories or only buy whole grains or go extreme in any direction.

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So with that said, last night dh made a beef/pasta casserole for dinner. IT was actually a briefly forgotten recipe that he had found. Hamburger pasta or something - is what it was called. Not the healthiest meal ever, but yummy and made LOTS of leftovers.

Dh ran out of penne pasta so he threw in some egg noodles to round out the pasta portion. Was fine with us.

We also had salad (prepackaged) with dinner. We really love those expensive salads that you mix together (like mexican salad is our favorite - you mix up the salad, chips, and salsa and dressing - yummy - divine). But dh only stocks up on those when they are on sale. Otherwise he just buys a giant bag of plain salad that we go through slowly.

Our kids LOVE salad. Don't ask me why -kind of weird. LOL. But one of the few veggies I can really stomach - lettuce. So we try to eat salad regularly. But yeah okay - we go prepackage there. IF food prices rise dramatically that is certainly one area we can change up a bit to save money - make our own salad. FOr now, call us lazy.

For dessert (Rare) we actually had some ice cream. We had some left over from the weekend. IT was the first night since Saturday the kids had really eaten their dinner and I had promised BM ice cream on Monday. But no dessert unless they eat most of their dinner.

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Today as I left for work the kids were eating granola bars for breakfast. (LOVE the nature valley granola bars - buy them on sale whenever/wherever. USually Walgreens or Target).

Dh doesn't do breakfast so probably saves us money there.

I just have my apple sauce, which is plenty for me.

For lunch dh will probably have leftovers, and the kids will have PBJ. That is just standard lucnch fare. They will probably have apples or grapes to round it out. They also both get one cup of juice a day. BM drinks whole juice but LM's we still water down.

With lunch they will drink water or milk. & they get a small cup of milk before nap time.

I am actually going out to lunch today, though we would have PLENTY leftovers otherwise. Meeting a friend at the buffet.

I assume dinner will be leftovers just because we have so much food.

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Oh yeah, with the rush of busy season over I Feel I have much more time.

Anyway, Tuesday I did go to aerobics (& got my butt kicked as usual). Last night we went for a walk around the lake. The walk was an hour with a leisurely stroll and a stop at the playground. I had guessed 1 mile, but I think it may be a little longer than that. Maybe something like 1.25. I need to re-measure one of these days. I have a pedometer I think which will give me an idea.

Tonight I will go by the gym on the way home. I think I have only been once or twice since I was so sick in February. Mostly just sick or little time, though with the nice weather have been doing much more outdoors. The gym is more for winter and summer when the outside is so extreme.

The thing that struck me when we joined the gym, and I hadn't thought of, was how plopping the kids in the gym daycare while we worked out was little help to them. Dh and I could maybe work out more efficiently, but then they would be less involved. So we try to do much more activity with the kids outdoors when the weather allows it.

I am going to aerobics Saturday and gym Sunday (ideally). We were going to do a small hike this weekend also if it is not too hot.

An active Monkey Mama is a happy Monkey Mama.

Plus I need to get in shape for Disneyland. !!! Will be LOTS of walking.