Getting real

It has been something I have been toying with since the summer, then I got sidetracked with the pregnancy and feeling not so great...so I pushed it aside, but I figure what better time than the new year to start something new - totally new.  Getting real - with food that is, eating Real Food.  I got a great new cookbook for my birthday that I asked for along with a great bottle to make your own salad dressing.  And I had a few days off to shop and get a few groceries.  And I had some time to find some recipes and cook and I decided it's going to happen.  Now, I know it won't be a 100% of the time kind of thing, and I also know that in addition to keeping the food we eat real, I also have to be realistic about what I can and can't do.  There are many websites out about it, 100 Days of Real Food is the one I have read the most - and somethings seem hard for now, some things turn me off, some things make it easy to make excuses - for now.

So I have to adapt, to make it work for me.  I might not be able to ensure my meat is within 100 miles of my hometown at this point, but I can ensure that it is as good for me as it can be.  I also know that we can meals at night that are whole and real, perhaps not perfect, but not processed, not chemical, not terrible for us.  Sean is sort of on board, I'll be impressed if my wanting to make this change will get him off his Mountain Dew and junk food snacks, but I can do the best I can to get him on board.  I can work with him to make ice cream that is more natural than what the ice cream he has.  I also am completely aware that this will be more work, but to be honest, the last few days haven't been so hard.  I made some peanut butter from nuts I got.  I made some caesar dressing for salads we had the other nice, I even made some croutons - again, not big deals, but still something.  I made a great more natural version of hamburger helper that Sean was impressed with and it wasn't even that much harder than opening a box.  Tonight we had a great little tossed together, nice and easy and super tasty rice and beans.  It got me excited to have easy meals on hand, meals I know how to make so I'm not looking for a recipe ever night for dinner.  It made me realize that we have sort of tried to be more real with our food over the last few days and the majority of our meals met the standards I have been shooting for.

Sure, we have a long way to go.  I'd love to make my own bread, get meat from closer sources, always have two fruits or vegetables at dinner, but I'll take the strides we have made so far, in just a few days.  I'm excited to get more quality ingredients to make more good food.  I have a great recipe for some cinnamon raisin bread that I'm excited to try - just thinking about that toasted with some melted butter, yum...a perfect addition to my smoothie for breakfast.  The "goldfish" crackers I made a few times were quite tasty and I'm hoping with a little more practice, Liam will decide to eat them.  I found a great brown rice pasta at Costco that I plan on getting when we are low on pasta again.  I found a great recipe for homemade Gatorade, tasty and good, but no dyes.  It is exciting, the more and more we do, the better I feel about what we are eating, the more I want to find things that are good, easy and natural, not processed.

I guess in a way, I've always thought about things like this, wanted to eat better, and by better, I think the less processed road is the way to go at this point.  There is so much out there about eating real - there are at least 3 or 4 easy to find documentaries on Netflix all about it, and yes, I'm watching one now.  I can't know that Liam or Sean or even me at times will follow all the rules, but I feel that I owe it to myself, to my family to do what I can to teach them and me about the best way to live.  I know, I know, there are always so many new things going around, new fad diets, etc.  And I'm on this band-wagon so to speak.  But my plan is never to diet again, I have been through them, did weight watchers for a while, looked for the food with the lowest points, didn't care about the ingredients and while I dropped pounds at times, so it worked.  But to be honest, I don't want to teach my kids to deprive themselves of things.  It makes sense to eat food that is natural and not processed.  It makes sense to have fresh food and cook that food for myself - not just heat it up, not just buy it pre-made.  I want to teach them to taste food, like it, have fun with it and enjoy it.  I want Sean to learn to like food and want to choose good food - I want to make good choices and not make it be hard, I want to make it a habit.  That's my plan....and maybe starting slow-ish will backfire on me, perhaps I should just overhaul the kitchen, throw out all the food that's processed and start from scratch.  But the reality of that isn't going to happen and work for us.  It'll be a slow process and I'll never totally get rid of Oreos in the house (although we haven't had them for a while), I'll never make my kids not enjoy what they want to eat at a birthday party and such, but I will do my best to keep this house as real as can be - and food is only the beginning!