So, when I shared my Tabouli recipe a few weeks ago, I made mention of my master grocery list. It’s evolved over time – I’ve learned more about my own personal nutrition goals, I’ve tasted a lot of different kinds of ice cream (frozen kefir! frozen kefir!), I’ve gotten into celery in a big way.

But another, much more crucial change occurred on my list about 9 months ago…Icelandic Yogurt, or Skyr.

Basically, Greek yogurt can go fuck itself these days for all I care. 1) because that’d be totally weird to watch and 2) because it doesn’t even hold a tart yogurty candle to skyr.

Skyr is a little smoother than Greek yogurt (ever had a Greek yogurt that just sorta tastes almost grainy? I have and I don’t want to talk about it), it’s always got 0g of fat, and a shitload of protein. Like woahmygod a lot of protein. Like 20g of protein per 100 calorie 6 ounce serving.

Molly like.

ah yes, the exact scene of all my skyr-y breakfasts
except I usually eat mine in the middle of a meadow rather than a blank void.

So, imagine my utter (udder? Folks? Hello.) joy when I received an email from Smari, a line of organic Icelandic yogurts, offering me a sampler pack. And I was all like, “DUH YES” because that’s how I talk in real life.

My hand-delivered sample pack of Smari featured their line of 4 flavors: Pure, Blueberry, Vanilla, and Strawberry. It didn’t even matter that I wasn’t hungry when they came. I inhaled the Pure like a wild animal if wild animals ate skyr with passion.

Verdict?

SO GOOD.

what’s cuter than a mountain of skyr?
I don’t know. Ponies? Skyr ponies?
Probably.

In relation to the two pretty popular skyr brands that I’m familiar with, Skyr.is and Siggi’s, Smari tastes most similar to the former. It’s creamy and a little sour – in that perfect subtly sour skyr way.

I’m not much of a flavored yogurt girl myself – I flavor my own with peanut butter, jam, flax, and love – but Smari’s flavors are tasty without adding too many superfluous carbs or calories.

I hope I can find a place to buy Smari near me because I’d be all about making it my new go-to yogurt*. You can check if there’s a retailer in your area that carries Smari on their website and if there isn’t, maybe it’s time to making some threatening requests at your local grocery store.

*I love needing a “go-to yogurt.”

MOLLY’S ERRRYDAY PROTEIN PACKED BREAKFAST BOWL
feeds 1 molly

ingredients:

• 6 oz Smari Skyr – Pure
• 2 oz lowfat cottage cheese
• 1 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter at room temperature
• 1/2 tablespoon plum jam (or jam of your choice – but also, definitely plum)
• 1/2 – 1 tablespoon ground flax (start small, work up to a tablespoon, I believe in you)

Mix it all together.

Eat it.

NUTRITION

Who doesn’t want the extra dollars at the end of the day when it comes to shopping?  Here are a few tips to help you get in control and – as a result – save money:

1. Make a list of all the items that you need — and stick to that list when shopping!

2. On top of your shopping list, jot down a reminder why you need to save money.  This will help you stay motivated to not over spend.

3. Set up a budget (a max amount) of what you are allowed to spend.  Bring cash to avoid the temptation of overloading your credit card.

4. Before going out shopping, look for any good deals at a few area stores.  They may have some of those particular items you are looking for on sale.

5. Do a price comparison for best deals and prices.  I love using the free RedLaser app… try it out, it will save you money and time.

6. If you can, wait for those seasonal sales. They are the best when trying to save money.

7. If you are ever holding something “in question” in your hand; ask yourself: “Do I really need this?”; if the answer is: “no”, then put it down.

Remember that it’s important to reward yourself every once a while for all the hard work you do; so make sure on occasion you leave extra in your budget to get that little something you really want.

Thank you so much for reading and happy shopping!

XOXO

Diana

Here it is…

I released the book this morning on my new site, and I didn’t want anyone still following this blog to miss out! Click the image of the book, or this link to go to the book’s sales page for more info. In addition to over 110 recipes, it features information about the autoimmune protocol, meal plans, shopping lists, tips and tricks, and other resources.

If you are still following me here, make sure you update your rss reader to follow me at autoimmune-paleo.com because I no longer post here!

ecd_grocery_list

Many of you have been asking for a shopping list for healthier eating. I understand everyone won’t like everything on this list, but it is yours to modify! Just click the link below the picture for the enlarged guide. Not only are the ECD shopping lists wonderful, the entire book series and website are amazing! ENJOY!

CHAMPION

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS

COPACABANA

THE FIGHTING SEABEES

MAGIC TOWN

MALDONNE (MISDEAL)

SANTA FE STAMPEDE

THE RED PONY

RICHARD III

WAKE OF THE RED WITCH

WAR OF THE WILDCATS

BLU-RAY TWIN PACK: DEMENTIA 13 & THE TERROR

Warner archive:

Bomba the Jungle Boy: Volume One

A Dangerous Profession

The Fall Guy

Loophole

FBI Code 98

TV/other:

LOONEY TUNES SUPER STARS: SYLVESTER & HIPPETY HOPPER – MARSUPIAL MAYHEM

MAVERICK SEASON 2

FEDERAL AGENTS VS. UNDERWORLD, INC (SERIAL)

THE RESTLESS GUN COMPLETE SERIES

Thanks for watching! I only cook in a rice cooker. Life has it’s challenges but I am having a really good time!

If you want to hear more about why I am in this situation, please check out my “about me” page and please, share my story and video with your friends!

Thanks!

Love,
Gina

So, with just under a week to go until I start my ‘Live Below the Line’ challenge to support UNICEF, I thought I’d keep you all updated about where I’m at with regards to how much I have raised & how the planning is going.

Planning

Now anyone who knows me will know I’m a little bit of a planning freak & if I’m not organised I get very annoyed with myself. As soon as I decided to do this challenge, I was on supermarket websites looking at prices & getting together a shopping list of what I would be living on for 5 days. I knew my budget wouldn’t go very far, but trying to get 3 meals a day for £1 was incredibly hard. I have now managed (I think) to finalise my shopping list and am in the process of making a strict meal plan & working out the cost of each meal. Here’s the shopping list as it stands:

My biggest spend is the Dairylea spread, but then I’m thinking practically – it’ll go on toast for breakfast & it’ll go in sandwiches for lunch – that cover the whole 5 days. I know some people will argue that the squash is a waste of money, but there are some people (like me) who find drinking water without any flavouring quite hard, and drinking plenty will play a huge part in keeping me going over these days. Dinner is looking very much like two nights of curry sauce with rice & mixed veg, two nights of spaghetti & sauce, one night of a jacket potato with possibly a bit of dairylea & mixed veg…or perhaps any left over pasta sauce. Digestive biscuits will help to keep me going, and also sort of count as some form of pudding & source of energy. The chocolate is to keep me going if I have one of my dizzy spells – any form of sugar in that situation is a god-send.

It’s not a healthy shopping list by any means, but considering something like a red pepper is 80p alone has really opened my eyes to how difficult it must be to keep a healthy diet going with just £1.00 a day. Then again, a huge amount of people living in poverty don’t have access to something like a supermarket, or a choice of food. It’s thoughts like this that really make you feel grateful for what you have.

Fundraising Update

When I started this challenge, I had hoped to raise £200 for UNICEF by the time the challenge had ended. I can’t tell you how happy I am to share that, with still a few days to go before I start the challenge, I have raised £228.00. That is a great amount, but more is still needed. If you’d like to support the cause by sponsoring me, you can do so here - https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/charlylc.

This challenge has already changed my outlook on things in so many ways – I am so much more appreciative of what I have compared to a huge (and quite frankly, unacceptable) number of people in this day & age. If I can be of any help to people who live below the poverty line on a daily basis through my 5 days of giving up eating what I want, when I want, then it makes the whole experience worth it. The learning curves that come with it are all just added bonuses.

Shopping list (third version)

5-day menu – second version

This means that Day 1 will be approx. 1,245 calories.

Live below the line shopping list

What is great is that Waitrose has proved to be as competitive as Asda and Tesco. So, well done Waitrose for maintaining great prices for their quality products.

I am still working on the menus for each day, but have got 8 days to go!

It will be interesting to see how the calories work out and also how it will affect my fitness, energy, etc.

Well…

SUCCESS!

I am the proud owner of not only long pepper, but CUBEBS and GRAINS OF PARADISE too! Admittedly, cubebs weren’t at the top of my list, but I am really excited to now own this trinity of spicy loveliness.

Grains of Paradise are apparently a type of African pepper, and in fact can be marketed as such. They have quite a soft, sweetish scent, which is not very pungent at all and a little like cardamom: if you stick your nose into the packet, there is a distinctly earthy aroma too. However, they do have a fiery, unmistakeably peppery taste to them! They are definitely smaller than our modern day peppercorns and are a lighter brown colour.

Grains of Paradise

Long pepper doesn’t fail to deliver on perhaps being the strangest looking spice ever. It is unmistakably similar to a catkin. However, it definitely doesn’t smell like a catkin – this spice is really very pungeant (I can smell it through the polythene bag it came in!). In a weird way, its not a heavy pungeancy – it’s actually not too overpowering and smells a little clove-y.

Long pepper

Cubebs definitely look similiar to what we know as peppercorns. They have that wrinkly texture to them and are of a similar size to modern peppercorns. The only obvious difference in appearance is these have little ‘tails’ (cute right?). They smell much like the Long pepper, but there is a distinct earthy undertone to the aroma.

Cubebs

Grains of Paradise and Long pepper were both used extensively in TFOC with any number of recipes requiring one or the other or both. Cubebs don’t appear to make an appearance in this recipe collection, however they were recommended as part of the dietary regimen believed to help cure plague epidemics in both the Italian Tractatus de pestilentia and the University of Paris’ Compendium de epydimia, both 1348.

I won’t witter on too much at this point about anything further, as then this post would hop into the portal of perhaps the ‘Alphabetti-spaghetti’ posts.

Now that I’ve gotten these ingredients, it gives me hope that I can get my hands on more! Also, I can now start indulging in some ‘reconstruction for the purpose of academia’ experiments….

This list used to be scribbled in my wallet for quite some time until I felt comfortable knowing the things I will need for the week. After a while, I also got to know certain stores that stock different or better things that would work better for me so I had my local run around where at one grocer, I would get my organic produce, and one where I would get my pantry items and another where I’d get my vegetarian protein items. It takes time but it will come to you and then you’ll have a routine

I would love to know any additional items that have helped you along your way !

Reblogged from budgetdivablog:

The Indestructible Man

Norman Wisdom Double Features  volumes 5  &  6

Our Daily Bread

Parade’s End

Warner archive:

Fast Company/Fast and Loose/Fast and Furious-Triple Feature,  Dr Kildare,   Nick Carter Mysteries & more here

20^th Century Fox Cinema Classics:

Berlin Correspondent, Carnival in Costa Rica,  Thanks a Million, The I Don’t Care Girl, A Royal Scandal, Sitting Pretty, Whispering Ghosts, & many many more rounded up here at Oldies.com

TV:

Stoney Burke, complete series

Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System- The Thick-Walled Room, I Will Buy You, Black River, The Inheritance- -Criterion

Other Regions:

Captured