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A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

It’s a day for miscellany.

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I’m loving that Aldi has the least-packaged organic bananas I’ve ever come across. Most of the time, organic bananas come in bags (as do Aldi’s non-organic bananas), but these just have some tape around them.

aldi organic bananas

Often, organic produce has more packaging than conventional produce, which is annoying and sort of contradictory. Why use fewer chemicals in growing the food and then put it in packaging that required lots of chemicals to produce?

So. Yay for less-packaged organic produce.

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Speaking of Aldi, I’ve found almond butter and organic honey at my store recently.

aldi organics

And I also really like the organic marinara sauce they’ve been carrying of late.

(For the record, I am aware that organic honey is a little bit controversial, and I think the healthiest way to buy honey is from a small, local beekeeper. But I prefer not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and so I’d say that organic commercial honey is probably preferable to conventional commercial honey. Also, I am just generally happy to see more organic items showing up at Aldi.)
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I made a batch of chicken tacos the other night, to use up some cilantro.

Cilantro stems have a lot of good cilantro flavor, by the way, and for an application like this, where it’s all getting blended up, it woks great to add them along with the leaves.

cilantro pesto

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Speaking of dinner, I also made some fish cakes last week, except we ate them as sandwiches this time around.

fish cake sandwich

Which is not really as healthy as eating them without buns, but it’s nice to do something a little different every now and then.

If you don’t generally like fish, you should really give this recipe a try…I don’t usually like eating fish, but I really honestly do love fish cakes.
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On a non-food note: I really, really enjoyed The Winter of Our Disconnect.

the winter of our disconnect

Maushart is hilarious in an understated sort of way, and it was fascinating to read about what it was like for her and her three teenagers to go for six months with no technology at home (no internet, cell phone, TV, Ipod, etc.) The benefits and changes she and her kids experienced were pretty amazing, and the book wasn’t preachy at all.

We’re quite careful about limiting our kids’ screen time here at Chez FG, and reading this book made me feel really confident that we’re making the right choice.

And it inspired me to be more mindful of my own screen time, so I’ve implemented some changes to help me be less wired.

Oh, and this also made me positive (again!) that a smart phone is not for me.
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I haven’t spent tons of time on the computer of late, simply because I’ve been bonding with my paintbrushes.

In the kitchen, I’ve been busy painting all of the trim (underneath the cabinets, around the doorways), because once the new white cabinets went in, the trim suddenly looked very dingy.

See?

unpainted trim

The trim is all done now, and the dings and gouges in the kitchen walls have been spackled, so now all that’s left is to paint the kitchen walls. I think I’ll be done within 24 hours. Woo!

I’ve also been working on picking out a color for Lisey’s room. Thank goodness for the teeny cans of paint you can buy…it’s so lovely to be able to try out a color on a wall for only a few dollars.

behr paint sample

Our first try (Behr Prelude) was a little too gray for her taste, so we’re going to give a slightly more blue shade a shot now.

behr prelude on wall

(the paint in this photo is the Prelude shade.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a giveaway from Third Day Naturals, so don’t forget to stop by.

Have a lovely Monday!
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Joshua’s 365 post: Swerve and Skid

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Kani

Monday 12th of August 2013

I loved that book (The Winter of Our Disconnect)! It was fascinating to see how the teens adapted (eventually) to "analog" life. Maushart came home to find her teens playing board games and singing around the piano, when prior to this, they would stay in their rooms texting and on Facebook much of the time.

Kalyn Brooke | Creative Savings

Monday 12th of August 2013

I would love to read/implement that book, but it's so hard when online work is your full-time job. I'd love to know how you manage to keep a successful blog going, but still find time off-screen as well. :)

Amie

Monday 12th of August 2013

I haven't tried my Aldi's yet(I've been meaning to. My grandma said they weren't that great, but it's been yrs and a friend of mine swears by them). My schedule is quite hectic at times. The Meijer by me has organic bananas just banded. Kroger's has a lot of their organic produce loose.

Angeline

Monday 12th of August 2013

Really love this post and your blog. I think Aldi is a great shop and its always great value for money. I also like to shop in LIDL and I don't know why people don't use these stores more often. I'm going to have a good look around your blog, I'm on maternity leave and I just want to look at ways of saving money and most importantly, being more green!.

Andy Mooers

Monday 12th of August 2013

You are so right about over kill packaging and organic food being contradictory. Enjoy your posts and makes me recall the Frugal Zealot news letter . To stretch the dollar to the max.

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