Well, we've survived our first week on mainly real foods. It's been a steep learning curve, but I feel satisfied with our progress so far. In about ten days, we've transitioned to almost all real food. My husband has been wonderfully supportive, and I've been shocked at how well my twins have transitioned as well. My daughter has actually started to request salad for lunch, which is something I never thought I'd see. Now it's figuring out how we can maintain and improve this lifestyle.
Unfortunately, with it still being early spring, most of our local farmers markets haven't yet gotten up to speed, but I was thrilled to find an indoor market this past Saturday. After bypassing the delicious looking baked goods and the local wines, I was able to find some great local foods that fit our real food bill. I left the market with lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, potatoes, eggs, ground beef, salmon, coffee, and goat cheese. On my way home, I made my first-ever stop at Trader Joe's, where I was able to find some great deals on pantry staples, such as white whole wheat flour, raw cashews, and oatmeal.
With our newly restocked kitchen, I got down to cooking. On Saturday, I made a batch of cheesy crackers for my children to take to school for snack. Most of Sunday was spent in the kitchen as well. I started with whole wheat pretzel nuggets, which came out better than I expected. We then tried a new food, baking a batch of kale chips. I took a brief step away from real food to make a vanilla and chocolate cake for my husband in honor of his birthday. After the birthday celebration, I made another batch of granola bars, followed by banana muffins. The night wrapped up with corny salmon cakes, which we divided between dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. I'm wiped out after all that cooking, but I'm looking forward to going into a new week with a batch of healthy, homemade snacks and meals planned out.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Going against the norm
I've never considered myself much of a rebel. You might even look at my life and describe it as boring, mundane, or predictable. And as someone who doesn't really like change, I'm pretty much okay with that. I am quickly discovering, however, that I'm really going out on a limb with this real food diet.
Now I know that I've been blogging for a total of about three days, and it's probably not wise to start stating strong opinions right up front. I'm not really one to hide my feelings, however, and I've gotten quite worked up about something over the past day or so, so please forgive me and indulge me for a moment here.
I don't expect everyone to eat the way my family does, but when did society decide that our children need to be provided with food on a non-stop basis? And why is it that most of the food we offer our youngest children is far from healthy?
My twins are 4, and thus far, they have been real troopers with this diet change. Granted, I have been talking it up every chance I get, but they haven't even blinked an eye at finding altered versions of their favorite dishes on their plates at each meal. Also, considering how much they tend to complain in general, the complaints have really been kept to a minimum. I'm prepared for the hard conversations and the times that I will have to tell them "no", but I honestly didn't expect it to be quite this often.
I had to contact their preschool this week to inform them of our new eating guidelines. Upon doing so, I discovered that my children have been eating 3 snacks a day at school. That is in addition to the lunch we send and the snack I give them on the ride home. So now I have to not only pack lunch every day, but also three varied snack options so they don't rebel when their friends are eating school-provided, packaged food.
In addition, we started t-ball last week. After the first practice, the coach sent us an email with reminders, asking each family to sign up to provide snack following each game. He requested juice and something to eat as well.
Okay, now maybe I'm crazy, but I really don't think my four-year-olds need food every 90 minutes to make it through the day. In the summer, we eat every 2.5-3 hours, three meals and two snacks total in one day, and they seem to do just fine. So why is it that when they have a t-ball game at 6pm, right after they have finished dinner, we feel obligated to feed them an hour later at the end of the game? Or why do they need a snack upon arriving at school at 8am, another one at 10 am, and then lunch at 11:30am? And why are they being offered juice at every opportunity? Whatever happened to the cup of tap water and two orange slices I received as a kid after a soccer game? I can't help but wonder if many of the behavior problems I see in my students might be diminished a bit if they ate slightly healthier snacks with less sugar.
I know part of my complaint is that due to other people's preferences, I now have to justify to my children why they can't have juice and soft pretzels on a daily basis. I also worry, however, that we are setting our children up for a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits by fostering this behavior at such a young age.
Now I know that I've been blogging for a total of about three days, and it's probably not wise to start stating strong opinions right up front. I'm not really one to hide my feelings, however, and I've gotten quite worked up about something over the past day or so, so please forgive me and indulge me for a moment here.
I don't expect everyone to eat the way my family does, but when did society decide that our children need to be provided with food on a non-stop basis? And why is it that most of the food we offer our youngest children is far from healthy?
My twins are 4, and thus far, they have been real troopers with this diet change. Granted, I have been talking it up every chance I get, but they haven't even blinked an eye at finding altered versions of their favorite dishes on their plates at each meal. Also, considering how much they tend to complain in general, the complaints have really been kept to a minimum. I'm prepared for the hard conversations and the times that I will have to tell them "no", but I honestly didn't expect it to be quite this often.
I had to contact their preschool this week to inform them of our new eating guidelines. Upon doing so, I discovered that my children have been eating 3 snacks a day at school. That is in addition to the lunch we send and the snack I give them on the ride home. So now I have to not only pack lunch every day, but also three varied snack options so they don't rebel when their friends are eating school-provided, packaged food.
In addition, we started t-ball last week. After the first practice, the coach sent us an email with reminders, asking each family to sign up to provide snack following each game. He requested juice and something to eat as well.
Okay, now maybe I'm crazy, but I really don't think my four-year-olds need food every 90 minutes to make it through the day. In the summer, we eat every 2.5-3 hours, three meals and two snacks total in one day, and they seem to do just fine. So why is it that when they have a t-ball game at 6pm, right after they have finished dinner, we feel obligated to feed them an hour later at the end of the game? Or why do they need a snack upon arriving at school at 8am, another one at 10 am, and then lunch at 11:30am? And why are they being offered juice at every opportunity? Whatever happened to the cup of tap water and two orange slices I received as a kid after a soccer game? I can't help but wonder if many of the behavior problems I see in my students might be diminished a bit if they ate slightly healthier snacks with less sugar.
I know part of my complaint is that due to other people's preferences, I now have to justify to my children why they can't have juice and soft pretzels on a daily basis. I also worry, however, that we are setting our children up for a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits by fostering this behavior at such a young age.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Charming Cheese
Okay, I need to vent about the food habits in the life of my preschoolers, but I'm putting that aside tonight in favor of a rave review.
Who says real food can't be amazing? My husband has a birthday coming up this weekend. In celebration of the big event, I brought home an artisan cheese plate tonight from Talula's Table, a little market/gourmet food/exclusive restaurant in nearby Kennett Square. This was my first time visiting Talula's which I found online when I was searching for good cheeses in the area. See, I like to think that I am the Banker's first love, but if I ever were to have any real competition, it would probably come from cheese. The man thinks that it is the one ingredient that makes everything better. About a year ago, we spent the weekend in Hershey, and we enjoyed the most amazing cheese plate during one of our dinners out there. We've been talking about going back, for the cheese alone, ever since, and while we couldn't swing a weekend away right now, I figured we could at least enjoy some more cheese.
So a couple of days ago, I called up Talula's and asked if they could make a plate for two using local, organic cheese. They kindly agreed and tonight after work I made a little detour on my way home to pick up the cheese, along with a local red wine to go with it. After a fine, but unremarkable dinner of homemade red clam sauce over whole-grain pasta and a side salad, we poured ourselves two glasses of wine and broke out the cheese plate. What a wonderful treat in the middle of a ho-hum work week!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
A bit more of the backstory
Okay, sorry for the story in snippets here, but life is a bit busy (doesn't everyone say that), so I have to take the opportunities when they arise. Here's a bit of a back story on who you're going to be reading about:
I'm in my early thirties, and could classify myself as a wife, mom, teacher, runner, and amateur baker & photographer. I love reading, the beach, naps, and traveling. My family consists of my husband, who we'll call the Banker, since he's in finance, and my four year old twins. Peanut Butter is my little girl, who's my mini-me in looks and personality. Buggy is my awesome boy who challenges me to no end, but gives the best hugs known to man.
I have an undergraduate degree in exercise science and have been around sports my whole life, so I like to think I've always been aware of nutrition. We ate pretty healthy food when I was growing up, and I've tried to keep my family doing the same as well over the past few years. A couple of years ago, I read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and was inspired by the idea of eating seasonally. While I definitely didn't fully embrace it, we did start making more trips to the local farmers markets. I tried to stick to local produce and even purchase some local meats & eggs when I could. Recently I stumbled onto the website www.100daysofrealfood.com and the ideas presented there just really connected with me. I read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and was convinced that I needed to make a change for myself and my family. Which pretty much leads to where we are now. We are doing our best to embrace the "real food" mindset, as Pollan laid out so well in his book. I had planned to transition us over gradually, as I didn't want to waste the food we already have stocked up, but once I get into a project it's hard for me to pace myself so we dove in a bit faster than I had planned.
Here are the guidelines we are attempting to follow:
1) Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, local and organic when possible
2) Stick to 100% whole grains for all of our grain products
3) Eat pasture-raised meat from local farms
4) Eliminate any preservatives, artificial dyes, and unnatural ingredients in our foods
5) Stick to less-refined forms of sugar (honey & maple syrup)
6) Avoid any store-bought items with more than 5 ingredients
Pollan does a lot better job of laying this out in his book, and they explain it real well on the "100 Days" site as well, but that should give you enough of an idea. We've been dabbling in this for less than a week, so I'm still doing a ton of learning myself, but hopefully I can teach you a bit along the way, even if it's just how we are making this transition in our own small family.
I'm in my early thirties, and could classify myself as a wife, mom, teacher, runner, and amateur baker & photographer. I love reading, the beach, naps, and traveling. My family consists of my husband, who we'll call the Banker, since he's in finance, and my four year old twins. Peanut Butter is my little girl, who's my mini-me in looks and personality. Buggy is my awesome boy who challenges me to no end, but gives the best hugs known to man.
I have an undergraduate degree in exercise science and have been around sports my whole life, so I like to think I've always been aware of nutrition. We ate pretty healthy food when I was growing up, and I've tried to keep my family doing the same as well over the past few years. A couple of years ago, I read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and was inspired by the idea of eating seasonally. While I definitely didn't fully embrace it, we did start making more trips to the local farmers markets. I tried to stick to local produce and even purchase some local meats & eggs when I could. Recently I stumbled onto the website www.100daysofrealfood.com and the ideas presented there just really connected with me. I read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and was convinced that I needed to make a change for myself and my family. Which pretty much leads to where we are now. We are doing our best to embrace the "real food" mindset, as Pollan laid out so well in his book. I had planned to transition us over gradually, as I didn't want to waste the food we already have stocked up, but once I get into a project it's hard for me to pace myself so we dove in a bit faster than I had planned.
Here are the guidelines we are attempting to follow:
1) Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, local and organic when possible
2) Stick to 100% whole grains for all of our grain products
3) Eat pasture-raised meat from local farms
4) Eliminate any preservatives, artificial dyes, and unnatural ingredients in our foods
5) Stick to less-refined forms of sugar (honey & maple syrup)
6) Avoid any store-bought items with more than 5 ingredients
Pollan does a lot better job of laying this out in his book, and they explain it real well on the "100 Days" site as well, but that should give you enough of an idea. We've been dabbling in this for less than a week, so I'm still doing a ton of learning myself, but hopefully I can teach you a bit along the way, even if it's just how we are making this transition in our own small family.
A brief intro
Hi everyone! Forgive me. I'm fairly young (at least, I like to think so) but still live in a past-age where technology is concerned, so this is my first attempt at blogging. Until now, I've never really thought I had anything important enough to blog about it. Plus, I don't really relish the thought of baring my whole life online for the world to see. I'm trying something new, however (besides blogging) and a friend of mine suggested I blog about it. I'm a bit skeptical, but figure it will hold me accountable, so I'm willing to give it a try. So here goes. Please be forgiving and bear with me as I try to make some sense.
My family is currently in the process of switching to real foods. By real foods, I mean that we are basically trying to eliminate anything with preservatives, artificial colors, etc. It's an interesting challenge, and one that in many ways, is even more daunting than I had anticipated. Right now we're less than a week in, so we're definitely novices here. So lucky you, you're joining us right at the start. Over the next few days, I'll try to catch you up with a bit of the backstory and then share how we are doing. I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you!
My family is currently in the process of switching to real foods. By real foods, I mean that we are basically trying to eliminate anything with preservatives, artificial colors, etc. It's an interesting challenge, and one that in many ways, is even more daunting than I had anticipated. Right now we're less than a week in, so we're definitely novices here. So lucky you, you're joining us right at the start. Over the next few days, I'll try to catch you up with a bit of the backstory and then share how we are doing. I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you!
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