Real food

Our family has recently started 100 days of real food, and I've had some questions about it, so I decided to make a blog post! We've been concerned about what we eat and basically what we put into our bodies for a while now. Documentaries like Food, Inc opened our eyes, as well as lots of reading on the Internet. We'd already made the switch to organic meats, sandwich meat without nitrates, real sugar instead of artificial, milk without hormones, real butter, real cheese, etc. I feel like it's been lots of little steps at a time.

A little over a week ago, I got on the 100daysofrealfood.com website to see what that was all about. It's basically a family's experience eating real food for 100 days, including recipes. Real food defined on there include all the whole foods.. meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, things like real butter and cheese, 100% whole wheat items, water of course, tea, coffee, 100% juice, and anything with five or less ingredients in it (including cottage cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, jelly, peanut butter).

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen at first. I've made a couple of versions of coffee creamer and have now found one I'm happy with. I posted the link on facebook yesterday. I tried homemade whole wheat cheese crackers and we didn't care for those and whole wheat banana bread which I liked but the kids wouldn't try. We've made homemade popsicles which the kids have loved every time. All the recipes are from this website!

Grocery shopping took a while longer, checking ingredients in everything. I was surprised at things you would think wouldn't have many ingredients that did.. and the things that you can have like plain potato chips that only have potatoes, salt, and oil as ingredients. I was also amazed at the fact that sugar was listed as an ingredient in nearly everything!

The main point in this is to stay away from processed foods and the ultimate goal is health, not weight loss or anything like that (although this family says they did lose some pounds, and I can imagine you would if you were used to eating more "junky" food).

Our meals haven't been that difficult.. We were used to eating meats and veggies, we love eggs, and we all love whole wheat bread items. The problem has been time.. It takes a lot more time and planning to make a real meal, instead of something you can just pop in the microwave or oven straight out of the bag or whatever. My kids also ate lots of frozen waffles, and I have yet to try the homemade ones (plan to this weekend!). We eat eggs or toast most of the time for breakfast, I bought plain shredded wheat (the only cereal allowed)- well, and organic granola, which is really yummy too. We're all eating more fruits and vegetables, as we have lots in the house and no other less healthy choices to pick. Lunches we do sandwiches a lot or leftovers from the night before. For dinners, we've had homemade soups, chicken, burgers, I make pastas with 100% whole wheat, veggies of course (we LOVE roasted broccoli from pinterest!), meatloaf, we've even found organic bacon without nitrates.. the ideas are really just endless.

My struggle at first was snacks for the kids other than fruits. Once I went to the store and really searched through things, though, I found some more things they could have. They also love to snack on cheese. I made the maple syrup cookies from the website too that we all liked. As far as condiments, 100% maple syrup is something you can have, and we use that or honey to sweeten things. I also bought coconut sugar, which is apparently a better for you, unrefined alternative to cane sugar. The kids have still used ketchup and ranch, because I really just haven't had time to try to make those. There is a really simple recipe for ranch on the website, though.

So far, we're all liking it! It makes me feel better to know we're eating healthier. We don't feel like we're missing out on anything, and the kids haven't even asked for the junk they'd sometimes have before. The things we were used to eating that we had to cut out included coffee creamer, sugar, cookies, other chips, cereal sometimes, frozen pizza, macaroni and cheese, pepperoni, and boxed/bagged snacks. We've found organic tortilla chips and salsa with few ingredients (another thing I could make but just haven't had the time) and we found 100% whole wheat pizza crust that everyone liked. One thing that we really probably shouldn't use is shredded cheese because it has an anti-caking agent in it (yum, huh?), but we still do. I also make the peanut butter/honey balls on that website (and I had before), and they're super yummy. It's actually seemed like I'm full longer and haven't noticed the blood sugar drops as often as before (I have hypoglycemic episodes and usually have to eat every 2-3 hours to stop the drops).

I'm hoping we can keep this up with school starting! It's really not as difficult as I thought it might be at first. I feel better just knowing I'm providing healthier foods for my family & myself!

Christmas break

Another break almost over! In nursing school, we don't get a real "break" anyway.. We have several things that are recommended to do over break, and we always have several tests and skills proficiencies the first days back to make sure we retain the material. Not only that, but we are getting SO close to graduation and having to take the NCLEX. I feel like I need to study all the time... There is just SO much material in nursing!

Anyway, we've had a good but busy break. We all had a great Christmas. Aubryn oooh'd and ahh'd over all her gifts this year. She's been putting three words together for a while now, but my favorite was last night when she said, "Love you, Mom." She's so sweet! She's still obsessed with Minnie. We have lots of episodes DVR'd, and she has all of them memorized, so she'll ask for which one she wants to watch! We also have several Minnie dolls that often have to go places with us. I think her favorite toy for Christmas was a little Minnie that you can dress up. She also got a set of Minnie books that she loves. And Minnie socks, and Minnie clothes, the list goes on and on! She loves to put diapers on her Minnie's and her baby dolls. She also pretends to nurse them. :) She's such a good, sweet girl. I'm always amazed by how different she is as a girl. I used to think kids were socialized into the boy and girl roles, but she does all these girly things without anyone showing her. She's very different from the boys!

Aeson is loving preschool. He writes his name and likes to get himself dressed and put his coat/shoes on. Lately he's been adding numbers all the time, telling me what they equal. I think he's going to be very smart! Westen is smart as well, but he was never "into" learning. It was always a struggle! Aeson also loves to sing, and did a great job in his Christmas program. He played the shepherd and was so cute! While he sometimes gets annoyed with his sister, he's also very protective of her. The other night, we were watching my nephew, who's the same age as Aubryn & will sometimes hit her when he gets frustrated.. He got upset at one point, and Aeson said, "Do not hit her, Easton! I'm watching you!" and continued to say, "I'm watching you" a few times. :)

Westen is growing up! He's almost 8. We had a couple of sleepovers over break. He loves spending time with his friends and still loves drawing. In fact, he made his own birthday invitations for his friends. :) Eric and I both got to be special readers in his class this fall/winter, and he loved that. As costly as private school is, I am so happy to have a school they both love and feel comfortable at.

I hope I can write more often, because there are always so many things I want to remember about the babies! Just hard to find the time with school! Luckily, as long as all goes well, this will be my last semester.. Hopefully by summer, I will be working! Yay!