So far most of my posts have been about food. This will probably be a theme because (a) I love food, (b) I love cooking, and now most importantly (c) I want my adorable daughter and beloved family to grow on nourishing and delicious foods. They deserve it! That is why we joined a CSA this year. That is why we started a garden this year. And that is why, even with all that, we're still going to enjoy veggies from my dad's garden, too! I'm staying home to raise my daughter the best I can, and that means I get to sneak in some homemade foods and beverages that I might not have time for if I were working.
I'm not very good at getting pictures for the blog, but I'm trying to fix that!
I've done a few things to help me make sure I'm keeping up on providing the kind of food I want for my family on a regular basis.
This may sound silly, but joining a Facebook group of other people committed to giving their families whole, Real Food, has been very important. Everyone is such an inspiration and a great resource of information for when I try out something new (homemade bean sprouts!).
I have committed to making all the sliced bread my family eats. It's 100% whole wheat and pretty good, especially toasted with butter and honey! I still buy burger buns, but maybe I'll conquer that someday.
Almost all our beverages are homemade. I make kombucha, almond milk, cold brew [decaf] coffee (we also have a fabulous set up for hot coffee too, upon which Jeremy insisted), and iced chamomile infusion (this is naturally sweet and light and no caffeine so good for PomPom all the time and everyone in the evenings). My dad makes beer and wine, which we're sometimes privileged to have in our fridge. Other than that, we're only buying alcohol (yeah, not totally ascetic). The upshot of making your beverages, which I admit involves a bit of time, but not too much, is that you control the ingredients and their quality. There's no excess sugar, and you can substitute other sweeteners if you want. Hello maple syrup! There's absolutely NO high fructose corn syrup. No one needs that , HFCS is not your friend. And no shady ingredients like colorings and hydrogenated oils (yeah, those are in store bought beverages all the time!).
Joining the CSA has forced us to integrate more and better quality veggies into our diet. They just keep coming, so we have to use them!
Meal planning a week at a time not only ensures that we use up the CSA veggies, but also ensures that I'm not staring into the fridge scratching my head at dinner time, or berating myself for not starting those dry beans yesterday.
We joined a drop for Azure Standard. It's an online bulk foods company that allows you to get some amazing deals on flours, nuts, seeds, dry fruits, tomato products in GLASS (because cans are lined in BPA, a suspected endochrine disruptor; unless you get Eden Organic, but they don't support the kind of social policies I do within their company, so I'm boycotting them), etc. You have to check to make sure you're getting a good deal, but what I've found is that if Costco has it, it's cheaper at Costco, otherwise get it from Azure Standard.
I'm trying to get more fermented foods into our lives. They are brimming with naturally occurring probiotics and those little bugs keep you healthy! Kombucha is fermented and that's the only regular so far, but I'm looking forward to making more fermented veggies like sauerkraut, traditional ketchup, and chutneys. It's mostly condiments, as you can see, so you get a little probiotics in at all your meals.
I'm sure there are a bunch of other little things that make our whole foods journey possible, but those are the big ones!
Joining the CSA has forced us to integrate more and better quality veggies into our diet. They just keep coming, so we have to use them!
Meal planning a week at a time not only ensures that we use up the CSA veggies, but also ensures that I'm not staring into the fridge scratching my head at dinner time, or berating myself for not starting those dry beans yesterday.
We joined a drop for Azure Standard. It's an online bulk foods company that allows you to get some amazing deals on flours, nuts, seeds, dry fruits, tomato products in GLASS (because cans are lined in BPA, a suspected endochrine disruptor; unless you get Eden Organic, but they don't support the kind of social policies I do within their company, so I'm boycotting them), etc. You have to check to make sure you're getting a good deal, but what I've found is that if Costco has it, it's cheaper at Costco, otherwise get it from Azure Standard.
I'm trying to get more fermented foods into our lives. They are brimming with naturally occurring probiotics and those little bugs keep you healthy! Kombucha is fermented and that's the only regular so far, but I'm looking forward to making more fermented veggies like sauerkraut, traditional ketchup, and chutneys. It's mostly condiments, as you can see, so you get a little probiotics in at all your meals.
I'm sure there are a bunch of other little things that make our whole foods journey possible, but those are the big ones!
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