The past few weeks I’ve been reading a book called Real Food, by Nina Planck. If you are interested in moving your family’s eating habits into a more healthy direction, I highly recommend this book! It has been easy to read and VERY eye opening!! It is quite scary to think about some of the foods our country has gotten used to eating…and the fact that we don’t even know WHAT all we are putting into our bodies!!
Over the past few years I have had times of moving towards eating healthier and it usually ends up being a phase and ends up being too hard for whatever reason. Well, this time I’m making some big changes and I hope they are going to last!
You may remember when I got my Nutrimill about 2 years ago, well…since then I think I’ve burned through 2-3 bread machines and have no way to make my bread now, so I’ve gotten out of that habit. I have been still using the soft white flour for things like muffins, pancakes, cookies, etc. But, I’m working on convincing David to let me buy a Bosch very soon so that I can get back to that! (yikes, these things sure are expensive!)
Some other changes that the book Real Food encourages that we hope to be making very soon are:
*buying local grass-fed meat (we just happened upon a very local source this week through some friends of ours! Yay!)
*buying local milk, cheese (haven ‘t found a source for this yet, anyone know?)
*local produce (and eating MORE of it!)
*local eggs that are free-range, no hormones, no anti-biotics (found a source for these and need to call them today!)
*no more High fructose corn syrup (I’ve slowly eliminated this from our diet over the months, but there are still a few convenience foods I need to get rid of, that will be the hardest change!!)
*good fats – not eliminating all fat, as some are good for you…
*real butter, olive oil, coconut oil
*no more white flour or white sugar (I’ve been making muffins/pancakes/cookies with my freshly ground soft white flour for awhile, so this won’t be too new/hard)
So…in looking for ways to cook things, recipes to try and just helpful hints, I have found a blog that is SUPER helpful…she is knowledgable, fun and easy to read and has SO MUCH information on her blog! Kelly the Kitchen Kop is a FABULOUS resource for getting started on this route…look at the top of her blog and you will see categories to link on, I’ve been reading through all of those! Click on the recipes and you can find healthy recipes in every category of meal/food item. VERY helpful!!
So, how many of you are on this journey with me to healthier (and more traditional) eating? Eating real foods the way God intended them to be eaten and made? I’m excited and would love to hear from you…any tips? Any recipes? Any books or websites you love? I hope to share more in the future too, as we learn and try new things.
Yep, you know I’m there with ya.
I’m in the middle of my food coop order right now.
I’m ordering locally made bread, cheese, arugula, green onions, spinach, and kohlrabi… so far.
I’m considering eggs.
Have you check to see if you have a local food cooperative or CSA that you could buy some of those things local and more natural?
Funny you should post this as it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately–and feeling rather overwhelmed by what I keep reading. As much as I’ve tried to instill “healthy” eating it does seem like I’m doing everything wrong. ;o( I’ll be checking out the book you recommended, I’ve also heard of one called Nourishing Tradions, but haven’t looked at it yet.
Thank you for the heads up! ;o) I would agree from your comments that Nourishing Trad. sounds a bit beyond me at this point. I need doable, not an impossible guilt trip. ;o)
You know I need the name/# of that source of local beef, right? 😉
~Shea
As for eggs, I’d like to know where those are too. I used to get some at a little local HFS but they weren’t always so fresh :/
I absolutely love that book! One of my favorite food books ever… I also really enjoyed “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver though she is a little left-leaning for my taste, but a very good and informative read.
I’m on the same journey as you, in a very halting fashion… I try to buy local when I can, and buy the best quality meats, eggs, and dairy that I can afford. Local eggs for sure (I can get them at Whole Foods very reasonably, but a friend is getting chickens soon and I hope to get them from her).
I feel like we are perpetually in a struggle to move *away* from convenience-type foods and *toward* home cooking with better quality ingredients. Another great blog for this is HeavenlyHomemaker.com (think that is it.) I struggle with just the time to do all that I want to do in the kitchen, and still get the laundry & cleaning done, and spend time with my kids like I want to (they are little, 5 and almost 3 yo.)
I am excited that we are going to start getting raw milk through a raw milk coop. I have bought it before, but stopped, but now both girls are really drinking more milk, so that is important to me.
Anyway, you’re not alone, it seems like lots of people are moving in this direction with their family’s diets. I know it can be hard for everyone, because it frankly is more work, and it is more money. I think that God honors our efforts, though, even if we can’t be “purists” or always feed our families exactly what we feel is best ideally.
Oops, the link I shared above was wrong…
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/
I think that most people know about her?
Another good blog to check out…
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/
We are changing our eating habits here, too. We’ve started with cutting out High Fructose Corn Syrup and anything with BHT or TBHQ. We are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. I am learning to make things from scratch. The hard part is going to be switching to whole wheat flour. Yuck. I like white bread!! But I guess I ought to try…
Hi Candace,
Thanks for the sweet comments and the link!!! 🙂
Kelly (p.s. Your kid’s pics are precious!)
This book looks really good. I’m going to get it. Another book I enjoy and I think you might too is called Nourishing Traditions.
Hey Candace,
I love checking in with your blog. I’ve been coming across a lot about food recently. And I think I might be close to trying to stop eating so much junk food. It’s really hard with the donut cart on every street corner. Anyhow, a blog you might be interested in is smallnotebook.org Here’s a link to her food posts. http://smallnotebook.org/category/food/
She’s a Christian mom who writes about living more simply. I love her tips.
I hope your internet fast is going well.
Kasey