Cost of food per person per day: $2.90 Wow, that’s MUCH more like it. That figure includes my raw milk CSA for March. Also included is a one-gallon purchase of coconut oil, and a $120 deposit on the veggie CSA, expenses that will reap benefits over several months.

Of my food expenditures, the total breaks down as follows:

Cost of produce 24% of budget, (of which 25% was conventionally grown 25% and 75% was organic and or local produce)
Cost of dairy (including local pastured eggs, raw milk and pastured butter) 15% of budget
Cost of meat (includes all meat, fish, poultry whether grassfed, organic or conventional) 15% of budget
Cost of bread 3% of budget
Cost of staples (sweeteners, grains for milling, leaven, salt, coconut flour, coconut oil, coconut milk, peanut butter, etc.) 32% of budget
Cost of non-food food (treats, ice cream, cookies, son’s crackers, soy milk, coffee, boxed cereal) 10% of budget

I’m really relieved. I always try to buy local and organic, but I didn’t know I was doing that well. I also like how the “percentage of budget” worked out. I feel I’m spending money on the right things. I wouldn’t have known this information unless I had done a spreadsheet, and my estimates were way off and very subject to my “feelings” about how I am doing.

Relevant books read or re-read: Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife, Savoring the Day by Judith B. Hurley, Keeping Food Fresh

Energy Level: Very much improved over last month. I’m finally past the cold and cough and able to go all day without a caffeine pick-me-up in midafternoon. Weaning off coffee is a long-term goal of mine. I’m down to two cups in the morning now, and my short-term goal for April is to get down to one.

Visible health improvements: I’m no longer achy in the mornings at all. I can roll out of bed and get right on the treadmill if I want, without careful, painful movement. This is a huge relief for me. Last year in March, my journal says I was feeling 100 years old, aching and hurting for a half-hour in the morning, walking stooped and limping until my “blood gets flowing.” I haven’t had any twinges of arthritis in my right hand this month. Last March, I noticed rheumatoid lumps on three fingers which are now gone. I walked 15 miles this month, still not up to my first-level goal of a mile a day, but I did spend the first week of the month unable to exercise without setting off paroxysms of coughing. The girls’ allergies are subsiding but I do notice a setback for a day or two after we have a snack full of refined sugar or chocolate. There were fewer of those this month, too.

Other notes: Here’s a shocker for you: John got up in the middle of the night one night (he has insomnia) and was cruising the kitchen for something to eat. He found leftover tuna from a previous meal and ate it. He said during the meal that he really liked it, but that he would choose to eat it when there were other things in the house was a jaw-dropping miracle! Contrary to my original fears, there might be hope for this boy yet!

I’m on the waiting list at the library for Wild Fermentation. They only have one copy and I was the sixth request. Popular book! I spoke to the librarian about perhaps getting another copy.

We took one step backward this month. My mother-in-law sent Blair a recipe for “Chocolate Cake in a Coffee Cup” that is cooked in the microwave. Of course, she had to try it several times until she got it “right.” She was forced to make some healthier substitutions because we don’t keep white flour, white sugar and canola oil in the house. I guess I need to just not keep a microwave in the house, too. Blair does not need this kind of non-food. She has hypoglycemia and gets very ill from eating sugar. One experiment with the cake was eaten on an empty stomach. The “crash” she had to live through afterward was a great object lesson on the evils of sugar! Hard for Mommy to watch, though.

I want to try some of the recipes in Keeping Food Fresh. This will be a huge leap of faith for me. Freezers and refrigerators have dominated my kitchen landscape for so long that the thought of preserving food in my (year-round cool) garage is a little daunting. But it’s not really the season for the foods I’ll need to preserve yet, so I’ll have to wait and be patient.

I am compiling a cookbook for Blair. She turns 19 this year and is thinking about leaving home to either go to college or to live with a friend’s family several states away. She would look after her friend’s children part of the day, work part time and pursue her education as an author there. I am writing up all our family recipes for her as well as a lengthy introduction on cooking methods, food and nutrients, tools and techniques, everything I’ve tried to teach her in 19 years in the kitchen. This would normally take about two weeks to finish, because I have been keeping notes for the last several years for just this purpose. But since changing our foodstyle this year, I want to make sure I adjust recipes toward healthy fats and include sections in the intro on raw dairy and the dangers of low-fat diets. I also want to include in her “going away package” a copy of Nourishing Traditions. I think one of the children in the hosting family might be on a gluten-free diet. If so, I will also include a copy of Cooking with Coconut Flour, some coconut flour and coconut oil. I want to get her off on the right foot nutritionally, especially since the first few years away from home can wreck havoc on a young woman’s body.

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