Sustainable Systems Blog:

What are your goals?

I’m sharing my 5th strategy on shifting focus and this strategy is all about your household routines. That includes cleaning and meal planning routines. The very first thing that you need to-do to shift your focus onto your household routines and figuring out where you should b...

Not too many years ago, when I first became a Crunchy Super Mom, there were very few meal planning services available. The ones that existed relied heavily on cans of cream of everything soups and crunchy onions.

The concept of a meal planning service intrigued me as I didn’t have a repertoire of g...

Overwhelmed by real food?  Help is here!

Real food is defined as those foods that are nearly intact–they are similar to how you would find them in nature. You know, the foods that your great-grandparents probably ate and not the pre-packaged “food-like” items that fill many of our grocery stores. U...

A healthy eating plan for any human, especially little humans, and their families, is one that focuses on ethically, sustainably, and traditionally sourced “real” food that hasn’t been processed or modified.  Regardless of the food philosophy to which you subscribe, the basic underlying principle is...

Turmeric is a root similar to the ginger root. It has a beautiful golden color and a wide variety of health benefits but most of them require you to eat turmeric in large quantities making it quite difficult to accomplish. Here are the ways you can eat turmeric in nearly every meal so you can reap t...

My family is not always a fan of leftovers. I, however, tend to love planning for leftovers! But what if you could have your leftovers and yet make it so different that the family feels like you are having a whole new meal? It is possible with a leftovers soup! There really isn't anything profound a...

Pizza made with easily digestible heirloom grains plus some probiotics?  Yes, please!  Pizza is my absolute favorite food.  It has been my favorite since I can remember and living in Italy for five years only served to intensify my love of this food. My kids and husband love pizza too which makes ou...

Real Food on a Budget – 12 tips

So, you want to eat real food on a budget, but you fear that this is impossible?  This was our automatic response too. But we are here to tell you that it is possible to eat real food for every meal and still not break the bank. It took us some trial and error, and m...

Food spending should equate to anywhere between 10-18% of your total income according to “experts”. Staying in this range and eating high quality, whole foods takes a bit of work but it is possible when you use competitively priced food sources like Thrive Market. Let me show what we buy from Thrive...

Probiotic kefir is a yogurt-like ferment that was consumed thousands of years ago in the Caucasus Mountain region. The people of this area were said to be robust and have lengthy lifespans despite the harsh conditions in that region.  Was it possible that this was due, at least in part, to their con...

This is our staple homemade gummy snacks using gelatin. I have tried many and there are many that turn out...some of the time. This one almost always turns out perfectly and is primarily adapted from Mommypotamus. It is all about the ratios.

3 TB gelatin (Red label Great Lakes gelatin, Vital Protei...