Money Management and Real Food: lessons we can learn from both

Some years ago Papa Bear and I attended a Dave Ramsey Money Management course in our Church. It was great, and even though we’re only starting to implement the principles now (#1: emergency fund. Hmm..), we learnt a lot and it certainly affected our attitudes and perspectives.

This week I discovered a clever application of these principles in my research  into SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), so I’m sharing it here. The article comes fromKelly the Kitchen Kop and the full post (and others) can be read here.

Dave Ramsey’s Money Principle #1:

• Implement the Debt Snowball – Attack one debt at a time, the smallest first.  When that’s done, attack the next smallest debt.  Soon you’ll have gained the momentum you need to keep it going.

Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Principle #1:

• Implement the Good Health Snowball – Start with one thing at a time so you’re not overwhelmed.  (You could go through these Rookie Tips.)  Change that one thing in your kitchen or in your diet, and when you’ve got that down, move to the next goal.  Soon you’ll have gained the momentum needed to keep you motivated for each next step!  (My Rookie class could help with this, too!)

Dave Ramsey’s Money Principle #2:

• “Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.” Drive beaters without payments, don’t spend money you don’t have, live within your means, save your money.  Then later when you’ve built up wealth, you can live like no one else.  You won’t be too buried in debt to have peace in your life.

Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Principle #2:

• “Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.” Don’t load up onsugar any old time you feel like it. (A good reminder for myself, too.)  Cook most of your food at home.  Don’t eat out for convenience sake.  Don’t keep processed foods around.  Then later when you’re in your 50’s or 60’s and haven’t been to the doctor in years, or you’re in your 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and still on the floor wrestling with your grand kids or out walking each morning pain-free, you’ll be living like no one else.

Dave Ramsey’s Money Principle #3:

• Don’t be “normal”. Many may mock you for being “weird”, but remember that “normal” is broke and in debt.

Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Principle #3:

• Don’t be “normal”. Many may mock you for being “weird”, but remember that “normal” is sick and tired.

Dave Ramsey’s Money Principle #4:

• Don’t take advice from broke people.

Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Principle #4:

• Don’t take advice from those whose advice has kept us sick.

Dave Ramsey’s Money Principle #5:

• “The Borrower is slave to the lender.” (From the book of Proverbs.) Debt does not create peace in your life.

Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Principle #5:

• “The Truth will set you free.” (From the book of John.) Nutritional advice that makes common sense can free us from health issues that may have weighed on us for years or that could be right around the corner.  Good health can set you free to enjoy the life you’ve been given.

This week I’m starting SCD with my family, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

Gospel Gourmet.

Let me start by admitting that I’m exaggerating with the title here. This is neither Gospel, nor is it Gourmet. But it is food, and it was inspired by the Bible, so that’s got to count, right?  We’ll call it blogger’s license and leave it at that.

As we continue working our way through the unit on Trust, we’re studying the life of Elijah and how he clearly modeled faith in God. Konos recommends using well-written biographies of the characters being studied to help children learn about them in a deeper and more permanent way than a single paragraph on Wikipedia might offer. I’ve struggled to find good biographies that I can read to my girls as Family Reading books. Granted, I’ve only looked in our local library, and that could be the reason behind the struggle. However, I love to write. The girls both would like to write to some degree some day, and certainly need all the practise they can get. So I considered, and decided that if we wrote our own biographies, we’d learn so much:

• Lots about the character in question.


• Lots about the process of writing a story.


• Lots about actually writing: grammar, spelling, sentence construction etc.

And I’d let them illustrate the books, of course, so there’s Art, too.

We’re starting with Elijah. Instead of a quick overview we’re studying his life in depth, making notes, creating spider diagrams … it’s fun! One of the stories we read this week was about Elijah staying with the widow who has only a small jar of oil and a handful of flour left before she and her son would expire. Elijah encouraged her to use that to make a cake – for him! And another for her and her son, of course. And he promised that the flour and oil wouldn’t run out, which it didn’t. I loved how Elijah trusted and obeyed God without question, and how the widow trusted and obeyed Elijah without question. In each case, they did not surrender their ability to reason, nor their autonomy and self-respect. They simply obeyed, and were immensely blessed for it!

Interestingly, we were in a similarly frugal state as I was reading that so I was inspired to try my hand at a similar kind of “cake” for the kids’ lunch. I cheated a it by adding a little milk, some water (there was a drought in the story, remember?), some herbs, salt, and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese on top. (Yes, I do see the irony of having Parmesan in the fridge when we’ve used up the bread, but there were Extenuating Circumstances). I am hopeless at pancakes so I crafted some herby crumpets and the girls loved them! They really enjoyed seeing what the food could have been like, as well as just really enjoying the taste, too.

It actually led me to another train of thought about Bible food, but I’ll cover that somewhere else, I think.

The recipe is here.

Cost-cutting cuisine

For as long as I can remember I have loved healthy food and been fanatical about nutrition. I think two key things contributed to this in my formative years. The first was that my brother has cystic fibrosis and so a lot of our early years revolved around what he could or couldn’t do or eat, where he could or couldn’t go, and so on. We knew a lot more about healthy nutrition at that age than any of our peers.

Secondly, our family has a colourful and diverse range of allergies and intolerances, so growing up involved a lot of careful juggling around what would fill us, taste good and not kill us! (That’s an exaggeration, you understand).

In my adult years I have become heavily dependent on truly brilliant supplementsthat keep us healthy and well (not just “not sick”). So much so, in fact, that I even share these great supplements with anyone who wants them, and after seeing the phenomenal turn around in our family’s health, that list includes pretty much most of the people we know.

Even so, however, good nutrition is about more than just popping pills. It’s also about what we do put into our bodies, and what we don’t. That’s why I try so hard to feed my family good, balanced, nutritious, low GI meals and healthy snacks as much as possible. We usually have masses of fruit in the house, and if there are biscuits I try to keep them low GI, gluten free, dairy free ones. Where possible I replace sugar with xylitol or honey.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like it would be a good idea to share some of my adventures here, on my blog. I am no Nigella, and not even much of a run-of-the-mill domestic goddess. Most of my meals fail on presentation, but at least they’re USUALLY delicious and almost always nutritious. Not to mention being super-affordable, which is key right now.

Here’s tonight’s offering:

Pasta with Lentil Mush (title needs work; suggestions welcome).

Slowly heat red lentils with salt and Italian herbs until very soft. Drain.
Cook gluten-free pasta to taste.
Roast some vegetables in the oven. Broccoli and courgettes work very well for this, as do carrots and beans.
Finely chop a large onion and braise until soft and transparent/golden, then add 2 chopped tomatoes, a coupe of peeled and chopped carrots, some ginger and some garlic (to taste).Add the lentils and mix well. Mix in the roasted veggies (try to get some of their “veggie juice”, too – yummy!).
When this mixture is thoroughly smooshy, add some good quality tomato sauce (rich in lycopene, an essential antioxidant).
You may want a little more tomato sauce for the colour.
Serve the lentil mixture on the pasta – hot!

We added Nando’s hot chilli sauce for the grown ups because a) Chillis are a good source of capsaicin, which is good for nasal and chest problems, and induces feelings of happiness as a result of the release of endorphines, and b) We love it! The girls had their’s neat.

Everyone said it tasted great. DH even had seconds … I don’t know if he actuallyrealised he was eating lentils!

I’d share a picture but we ate it all, sorry about that  .

The great thing about this meal is that it is full of goodness and low on cost. Seriously, we all have onions and lentils in the cupboard right? You can make anything with those two items alone. Kinda …

On a side note, don’t stint on tomato sauce. I know we’re all on budgets here, but a good tomato sauce is an awesome and worthwhile investment. The antioxidants are great for the whole family and many kids eat anything when it’s disguised in a tomato sauce super-hero cloak. The problem is that a cheap, synthetic tomato sauce is so bad for your family it would be better to feed the kids fries than to disguise broccoli in that swill.  I’m just saying.