Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Down Memory Lane: Back to the Beginning

Link to Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy

Posted: 13 Aug 2012 07:46 PM PDT

I’ve been doing a little house-keeping, if you will, on my blog lately, in preparation for its transformation into Authentic Simplicity. It’s kind of like going through old scrapbooks or photo albums, taking a pleasant walk down through Memory Lane, remembering the old days with all the nostalgia 5 years can muster.

I enjoyed my little walk down Memory Lane so much that I simply had to invite you all to join me. After all, you are all a part of this ~~hobby~~ ~~pastime~~ passion of mine, but many of you joined me fairly recently on the journey, and missed out on all the early years. And while I certainly deleted plenty of posts that have not stood the test of time, there are plenty of posts that deserve much more than the dusty corner of my bloggy attic.

So from now until Authentic Simplicity is fully revealed, I’m going to revel in all the fun that was Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy. And I invite you to join me: come back every week for a fresh selection of QECH memories and worthwhile posts.

Oh, and just for the fun of it, I wanted to show you the original picture that I used as a header when I first started my blog, but I can’t find it anywhere in my files. Sadness! Just imagine a large (think 1000 pixels or more) square picture that’s kind of sepia-toned and a little blurry of a meal (poorly) plated in a semi-fancy setting. Yup. That was my first header. My next one promises to be a LOT better.

Back to the Very Beginning: August 2007

all at once - My very first post ever, wherein I introduce myself and my bloggy mission. Nothing changes; nothing stays the same. Through all the various renditions my blog has undergone… this post remains true!

farmer’s market – Another post I could have written in August 2012 instead of August 2007, except perhaps the slight difference in farmers’ market prices (inflation, dontchaknow?!). I have always been passionate about local food sources!

health vs. weight – This was a pet peeve of mine 5 years ago, and guess what? Still a major pet peeve. The vast majority of Americans equate weight with health, and “diet food” with healthy food. The resulting perspective is a seriously skewed idea of what is healthy food and what is not.

something from nothing: bread crumbs – So the logo wasn’t created until last year, but the concept was there from the beginning. Taking what seems like trash and turning it into a treasure is one of my favorite pastimes.

Better than Fruit Salad (woot! I finally started using capital letters in my titles) – This was one of the first recipes I ever posted here on the blog, and I still make a modified version of it all. the. time. (Oh, and this post is unique because it contains one of few – or perhaps the only – emoticons. At some point along the way, I decided those were unprofessional. Enjoy the lonely smiley face!)

After one more post in September of 2007, I actually gave up on my little bloggy project for almost 2 years. I got really busy commuting an hour or more (depending on traffic) to and from work, so the blog went by the wayside until I found myself a SAHM with a desire to create and communicate with people outside the walls of my apartment. Next week, I’ll tell you all about the REAL beginning of Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy.

Thank you for subscribing to Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy! Here's your free copy of Spring Into Smoothies All Summer Long. Enjoy!

I Need Your Help!

Posted: 13 Aug 2012 07:02 PM PDT

A while back, I promised my blogging friends that they could have a chance to win $100 in groceries simply by reading my new eBook, “Your Grocery Budget Toolbox”, and writing a review about it.

I narrowed the field down to 3 finalists, I simply cannot bring myself, however, to choose the final winner, so I need your help! All you have to do is vote in the little poll below for your favorite. One vote only, please.

Here’s a snippet from each review to help you make your choice:

Steph @ The Cheapskate Cook: “Several years ago, I started doing this thing called being a responsible adult. Part of that responsibility was living within my means and not spending more money than my husband and I were making at the time. Since we made less than $20,000 that first year, to say it was a challenge is an understatement.

Somewhere between getting in a fight with my husband over a missing quarter and drying the herb clippings the nursery where I worked let me take home, we discovered how flexible the grocery budget was.

We could make big changes in how our budget fit or didn't fit our income just by taking control of the grocery budget. So we did. We cut it down to $25/week, and I spent every waking hour trying to learn how to do it without making us eat Ramen Noodles every day. We needed to eat healthy, but we needed to eat cheap too. There had to be a way to do both.

I learned the tools to savvy shopping over the next few years, finding them on blogs, in books, talking to frugal foodies, pulling resources from everywhere I could.

It took a long time.

I wish I had had this book.”

Shannon @ Stories from the Shoe: ”Try not to hate me when I tell you my husband not only folds laundry, changes diapers, and does most of the dishes (and we don’t have a dish washer) but he also handles most of the finances. Yup I’m just your typical trophy wife. You know how it is when you’re a pastor’s wife. All the fame and fortune and such. Despite my cushy life devoid of financial concerns I try not to spend too much at the grocery store. I also try and feed my family as healthfully and organically as possible but I fail big time. I switch from grocery store, to farmers markets, to Whole Foods and find myself in an endless cycle of trying to eat well and spend wisely but flopping majorly.

Anne wrote the ebook Your Grocery Budget Toolbox. I have to admit I started reading it a little less than enthusiastically thinking, “Here we go, another person telling me that if I buy coupons off of ebay and stack them with the deals at 18 different stores across 3 states I can save money.” I’m so thrilled to tell you that this book is not that!!! I read over the book in one sitting and then went back through it just taking notes. There is so much to be gleaned from this book but I think the main thing I learned (thus far, I’m still going through it with a fine tooth comb!) are these words from Anne: ”It is more important to live within your means than to stress yourself out trying to make food stretch farther than it should, or digging into savings (or worse, going into debt) to cover the exorbitant cost of what you have been told is the "healthiest" food.Purchase as much healthy food as you can.”

Wait! What? It’s not an all or nothing deal?!?!? Seriously I realize this should be really obvious but somehow it had never occurred to me that I could buy some organic meat each month but not every bite had to be organic if we couldn’t afford it. I can buy some raw milk or cheese but the rest can be “regular”.

Annemarie @ Real Food Real Deals:

“Ten years ago, I ate a Nutri-Grain bar every day. I am someone who is hungry all day long (thus the food blog), and Nutri-Grain bars were my mid-morning snack. Sometimes I would have another one later in the afternoon if I just couldn't make it until dinner. I was vaguely trying to be healthy, and I thought these bars fit the bill. "Nutri" is short for nutrition, and "grain" is good, right? Those marketing folks knew how to get my attention. I bought several boxes at a time when they were on sale, although I wasn't a coupon clipper back them. I shudder to think how many hundreds of dollars I spent on those bars over the years. I will never forget the moment, after years of this daily habit, when I looked at the ingredient list and I realized that I was actually eating the equivalent of a Pop-Tart. Every day. For years. And I was trying to be healthy. That realization was the start of my critical look at my grocery cart.

Over the past few years, I've swapped out highly processed foods for the homemade versions. I'm always looking for ways to make healthy eating more affordable, so I was happy to have the opportunity to read and review fellow blogger Anne Simpson's e-book, Your Grocery Budget Toolbox. If you're interested in striking the balance between staying within a reasonable grocery budget and eating the healthiest food possible, then this is the book for you. I enjoyed the book very much, and even though I've been focusing on this topic for years, I learned quite a few things from it.”