Going Halves - Food Thoughts, Part 2

To follow up with my previous food thoughts, I am buying milk from what was a local dairy, but has been acquired by a large dairy.  It is still run by the same management, so I think it is good for a while.  Eggs I am purchasing at our local farmer's market, and my grocery store has started carrying Panorama ground beef.  Their cattle never see a feed lot.  I hope this trend will continue, and that I will see this kind of product in the other cuts of beef, chicken, and cheese.  

When the economy got very shaky, I began to look for ways to be more frugal.  Being a single income family with several children, I had always been on the look out for ways to make our dollars stretch, but I have been more relaxed in that regard in recent years.  Now my motivation is not just economic, but also the desire to be less wasteful, so I have been looking for ways to reuse and re-purpose.  This train of thought led me to find a way to use less sugar.  I like sugar and the particular sweetness it gives, and I am not a big fan of other kinds of sweeteners with artificial sweeteners being totally out.  Though I don't eat a lot of sugar, I knew it would be helpful health-wise to reduce it where I could.  Recently I tried agave nectar, and while it was okay, I still much preferred sugar.  Even so, I liked that is has a low glycemic index, so thought I could perhaps use it in combination with sugar.  That has worked out very well--about half and half agave and sugar in my tea and in my oatmeal still gives me sugar's flavor. 

With so many changes in my diet--no gluten, a lot more veggies and fruit, and less sugar--I will be interested in seeing how this affects my next wellness check.  It will still be a while until I am where I want to be in regards to being gluten free, but I am continuing to make progress.  The recipes are slow in coming because I want to tweak them, but I need to eat up one batch before making another.  Hopefully, once I get them posted, they will be worth the wait.