I keep looking over my shoulder. Because I have been here before.
When Thing 1 was born I got an epidural, much to my disappointment. He came out groggy and lethargic. He had trouble latching. I had trouble keeping him awake for feedings. He slept so much, but only when I had things to do. Whenever I laid down to rest with him he would wake up and howl.
I made every mistake in the book with Thing 1. I tried keeping him on a schedule, rather than nursing on demand. I introduced the bottle too soon. I gave supplemental bottles too often. Nursing and working and pumping all day were really hard. Like evil awful terrible hard. But to my amazement my kid who was always in the 40th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height ate solids pretty well. And when he transitioned to table foods he would eat broccoli and corn and even spinach in his 'baby soup', just not much at all, sometimes only 3-4 bites.
When I got pregnant with Thing 2, working and caring for my older son became a true challenge. I was wrecked and pulled in a million different directions. I started relying a little more heavily on the hormone free chicken nuggets and the nitrate free hot dogs and the organic frozen pizzas. Thing 1 was never a GREAT eater. But serving him these processed foods made me feel like I was getting something into him. He didn't like soft mashed foods, he didn't like meat if it was too grainy, certain vegetables he flat out refused. Every meal time was a difficulty. He would refuse to feed himself. He cried and thrashed so badly that we kept him strapped into a high chair until he was three. But I blamed myself. 'If I had offered him better foods he would be eating kale and roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. I served him junk and so he eats junk' I told myself. But being a pregnant mommy, working full time and then bringing home another baby two days after Thing 1's second birthday proved too much stress. I didn't have the energy to clean up our food act.
It wasn't until much later, when Thing 2 started table foods, thatI realized we needed to make a change. I didn't want to give my 9 month old processed foods. That is when I started the blog. I didn't (and still don't) plan on getting pregnant again and so I was sure that I could keep Thing 2 on a straight and narrow food path.
I am pleased to say that I delivered Thing 2 without the aid of an epidural. I really got the birth that I had wanted, the birth I was unprepared and uneducated to perform the first time around. Thing 2 came out super fat, 10 days before his due date and 9 pounds 3 ounces. He, naturally, came out hungry and latched on right away in the delivery room. Our time in the hospital together was almost like being at a hotel. The staff was supportive and friendly. And I just nursed around the clock with the confidence of a mom who'd been around the block before.
Thing 2 was a fantastic nurser. He maneuvered between the breast and the bottle effortlessly. Pumping at work proved to be no problem. And unlike when Thing 1 was born I had no supply problems. When he switched to solid foods he ate like a champ. And even the switch to solid foods was easy. He ate everything and in such great quantities! Mashed avocado, bananas, beans and rice, finely chopped poultry, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, all fruits. I never had a shortage of things to feed him. I could always take one or two of the elements of our dinner and put something nutritious together for him. And when he started to feed himself he ate most of the same things, but loved my cumin patties and he never minded when I slipped kale into his smoothies. I noticed early on that he wasn't crazy about vegetables and he flat out refused the baby soup. But his love of fruits and berries was good enough for me. What a good mother I was to my good eater! He had favorites and would stuff himself on those items, Thing 1 was never like that. Even with his favorite foods he would never just eat for the sake of eating.
Then it happened, one day right around the time that Thing 2 was 18 months old. He just stopped eating. Ironically it was around the same time that Thing 1 started eating more rationally. So I had the sense that there would be some difficult times even for my good eater. I gritted my teeth, but did things slightly differently.
1-I didn't force him to eat. I figured that if he was hungry he would eat. Unfortunately our babysitter often fills him up with snacks in the late afternoon, even though I have discussed my concerns with her. She agrees but bad habits die hard. And anyone who works knows that a problem with snacks is no reason to fire or reprimand a long time babysitter who truly loves your kids and whom your kids truly love. Besides, he doesn't eat lunch for her and she has a hard time just letting him go hungry.
2-No time outs for food related offenses. It was obvious (to at least me) that Thing 1's issues were behavior related, not food related. He would get time outs for throwing food or purposefully spilling his glass of milk, for example. He would act out with his food. Thing 2 never did any of those things. He just doesn't eat. Even in my most stressful moments I didn't feel like it was right to punish him for not eating.
3-I didn't force him to stay in the high chair. At a certain point he refused to stay strapped into his chair. And so we just got rid of it. The month afterwards was hard. He ran all over the house and still wouldn't eat. I spent more time out of my chair than in it. But that's getting better now.
4-No special dinners. That one goes without saying. I believe that everyone in the family should have the same dinner, but there should be elements in each meal that appeal to each of the different diners. I try to make sure that there are nutritious things on each person's plate that each one will like and eat, even if it isn't everything that is served.
But even with some of these common sense measures, the kid just doesn't eat. And the list of things he will eat is awfully short. Today he will eat hot dogs (the ones I get are from a biodynamic organic local farm), turkey sausage, all whole fruits except blueberries and honeydew melon for some reason, and wheat in general. He will sometimes tolerate Greek yogurt, hummus, nitrate free deli meat and pasta sauces, but those are hot and cold. Oh! And milk. He would drink milk instead of eating all day if he could. This prompted me to think that maybe he was drinking too much milk. So I moved away from sippy cups to straw cups, now he won't always finish his milk. He doesn't always accept the straw cups. And I started reducing the number of ounces he gets in a day. He drinks between 12-14 ounces of milk in a day, so I highly doubt that he is drowning his appetite.And now it is getting worse. His eating habits now seem preferential and purposeful. It doesn't seem to matter if he is hungry, he simply will not eat what he doesn't care for. Last week he ate breakfast, no lunch and no snack and I caved and made his favorite turkey sausage for dinner. He was ravenous. Had I made something else he would have probably gone to bed hungry.
Thing 2 is not unhealthy. His weight is good, so I am not worried about that. Though he has thinned out alot in the last few months as a result of a growth spurt and eating less. But he eats zero vegetables that haven't been pureed and hidden in something and he seems so picky that I am nervous about building good eating habits. I thought I had done everything right. I didn't get lazy and serve him lousy food. But now my weekly dinner rotation is a painful 4 or 5 dishes that I know he'll eat, so I feel stuck in the same rut I was with Thing 1. I don't think it is fair to serve him summer squash and swiss chard pizza with feta cheese when I know he will just starve for the night.
Fortunately though, he always eats breakfast. He will eat my 'green eggs' even if I load them with kale and onions. He always finishes his overnight pancakes. Oatmeal is a fav too. French toast is also a big hit. Usually even if he hasn't eaten in 18 hours I know I can get some protein and fat into him during breakfast.
So my conclusions? Maybe I wasn't to blame for Thing 1's poor eating habits. I did my best by him and got through a particularly stressful time in our lives. I kept him fed and served him mostly good pastured meats. So even though he had a love affair with turkey Bologna, maybe it is time that I stop blaming myself. And again with Thing 1, he eats veggies really well. Today we have moved forward from his standard broccoli and corn. He eats green beans, celery, cucumbers and carrots. He still likes the 'baby soup', and eats whatever I throw into that. Now though I make the broth with pastured chicken feet and he adores it. Maybe I shouldn't beat myself up over his food transgressions, but perhaps I also cannot take credit for his good eating habits. I am simply the cook. I make the food and he chooses what to eat. Perhaps no parent should pat themselves on the back for having 'good eaters', because it isn't really up to you at all. Besides is such a distinction fair to a parent like me who bore such lousy eaters, even though I cook like mad and model such good behavior for my children?
Thing 2 is so young, it is frustrating to see him struggle with eating. It really upsets me to see him refuse foods that I know he used to love. I worry that this is truly who he is. I worry that he will not follow the same pattern as his brother and just work his way out of this. I worry I will be fighting over vegetable consumption for the next 16 years. I get so irritable that he prefers one plate or cup over another. I get so irritable that his choices seem so random. But perhaps it really has nothing to do with me. Dear Lord, please help me to breathe today.
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays
Tampilkan postingan dengan label The Table of Promise in Review. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label The Table of Promise in Review. Tampilkan semua postingan
22 Agustus 2011
29 Juli 2011
The Table of Promise Featured on kidHaven and Weekly Greens
I am thrilled to say that my post 'I Thought I Knew How to Wash My Vegetables' was featured on the very cool Connecticut based website kidHaven.com. Definitely check it out. At kidHaven.com you will find all kinds of family friendly activites, community activities and daycare and school information galore for the greater New Haven, CT area and beyond. I am thrilled to be a regular contributer to Kim's amazing site.
Also, via kidHaven, the post was featured in Alicia Sokol's Weekly Greens Summer Favorites ironically right above an article from Mark Bittman. I NEVER thought my writing would be on a list next to his.
Anyhow I am tickled pink with the attention and I suggest that you check out these great sites!!
Also, via kidHaven, the post was featured in Alicia Sokol's Weekly Greens Summer Favorites ironically right above an article from Mark Bittman. I NEVER thought my writing would be on a list next to his.
Anyhow I am tickled pink with the attention and I suggest that you check out these great sites!!
5 Mei 2011
Some Goals for the Upcoming Year
1- Make a big pot of beans every week.
2- Get Thing 1 to eat 2 beans at each meal where they are served. Get Thing 1 to eat 1.
3- Get Thing 2 to eat dinner more than twice a week.
4- Pack healthy meals for both the kids when they are in school and daycare this fall.
5- Get a physical and all the blood work that goes with it. I would be curious to see what my Vitamin D level is, or my cholesterol.
6- Stay on a weekly budget. I might tell you what that budget is in a few days/ weeks. Until then you will have to guess amongst yourselves.
7- Research a series about salt. (That is actually underway.)
8- Learn more about soy.
9- Try making dumplings. Like the filled kind. And many of them.
10- Buy a sausage stuffer.
11- Buy a pasta extruder.
12- Make different kinds of tamales. Or really more Mexican food in general.
13- Read up on juicing.
14- Finally make soap. I have had the stuff sitting in my closet for 4 months.
15- Possibly, bread? Sourdough? Could I possibly?
16- Solve the problems in the Middle East. (ha—just kidding)
17- Send out my to-date-unfinished book proposal. Maybe that one should have been Number One…
Did I miss anything? Is there anything you think I should do or read up on? How can I make our family healthier?
2- Get Thing 1 to eat 2 beans at each meal where they are served. Get Thing 1 to eat 1.
3- Get Thing 2 to eat dinner more than twice a week.
4- Pack healthy meals for both the kids when they are in school and daycare this fall.
5- Get a physical and all the blood work that goes with it. I would be curious to see what my Vitamin D level is, or my cholesterol.
6- Stay on a weekly budget. I might tell you what that budget is in a few days/ weeks. Until then you will have to guess amongst yourselves.
7- Research a series about salt. (That is actually underway.)
8- Learn more about soy.
9- Try making dumplings. Like the filled kind. And many of them.
10- Buy a sausage stuffer.
11- Buy a pasta extruder.
12- Make different kinds of tamales. Or really more Mexican food in general.
13- Read up on juicing.
14- Finally make soap. I have had the stuff sitting in my closet for 4 months.
15- Possibly, bread? Sourdough? Could I possibly?
16- Solve the problems in the Middle East. (ha—just kidding)
17- Send out my to-date-unfinished book proposal. Maybe that one should have been Number One…
Did I miss anything? Is there anything you think I should do or read up on? How can I make our family healthier?
4 Mei 2011
Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY!!
So no, I am not completely homemade. I have made some cool stuff, but I am a working mom. I can’t make EVERYTHING every week. I try to look for things that come in big batches, huge pots of beans, big sheets of granola, tomato sauce. These are the real time savers for me, the items that either freeze well or are stable on the shelf for three weeks. Breakfast is easy, I keep a bag of granola at my office and that’s it. I like the expression ‘cook once, eat twice’. But I like ‘cook once, eat 5 times’ better. I think this is why preserved recipes suit me so well. A crock of pickles or sauerkraut or cultured mayo keeps in the fridge for weeks or months. I am not turning around every day and having to make mayonnaise for example. I do it once, culture it and then it’s there for me. This year has been as much about getting organized as it has been about understanding food and nutrition.
Sunday is the day that I cook the most. After a busy week I want to spend Saturday decompressing and having a little fun. These are the best days for meeting up with friends, going on a special trip with the kids, doing some shopping. But Sundays I like to spend around the house. I like to spend the morning cleaning. Scratch that. I like to keep the kids busy while DH cleans. But by the time noon rolls around I like to have a pot of something bubbling away on the stove.
Be it sauce or beans on the stove top or a pie or a chicken in the oven. Sunday afternoon was made for cooking. There is usually a quiet hour where Thing 1 is playing quietly, or playing with the kitchen faucet right next to me, and DH and Thing 2 are napping. For me this time is as peaceful as it comes.
My favorite things to make on Sunday:
1) Tomato-Meat Sauce: I have concluded that a good tomato sauce needs to cook for 2-3 hours on the stove top for it to have that settled in flavor. I like a red sauce that is rich and balanced. I also like it to be cooked down, not loose and light like a quickly cooked sauce. That’s just me. You might have a different preference. But getting rid of the jarred sauce was important for our family. Now once a month I make a triple batch and we freeze it in three different containers to pull out on a tight overly stressed night. It is my quick fix meal, and I know where it has been.
2) Granola-This recipe that I got from 100 Days of Real Food is amazing. I have replaced all boxed cereals that we used to buy. My hubs doesn’t even ask for s#!t like Honey Bunches of Oats anymore. This is all good real food. But it takes an hour to cook. So make it one Sunday. The batch is big enough that it will last you for a couple of weeks. Unless that is if you start selling half batches of your granola to your boss. Only then will you find that you turn through the stuff too fast. Not that I am doing that mind you…
3) Bone Broth-Making homemade stock has increased the culinary score of my kitchen by at least a full letter grade. I held off for a long time because I was afraid of the time commitment. I tried in vain to find a good bouillon. And while Better Than Bouillon’s organic varieties offer the best bouillon type product on the market place, it really isn’t a substitute for all the minerals and natural gelatin you will get from homemade bone broth. I like doing chicken broth on the stove top for 4-6 hours, while beef brother should be 18-24 hours and I think the beef is easier in the crock-pot. I encourage you to not to think of this as something you HAVE to do to replace your bouillon, but rather something NEW you should try because it is so different than bouillon. I mean how many crazy recipes did I try while I was avoiding making homemade broth?
4) Pasta-I admit, I need to work on my discipline here. With no pasta maker, making pasta at home with a rolling pin and a knife is a serious upper body workout. But the payoff is a batch of pasta that contains three to four eggs! That is vastly more protein than the boxes you buy from the store which contain only wheat and thus far less protein. And the lack of protein is my biggest issue with pasta in the first place. Having so much wheat with no protein spikes one blood sugar with nothing to slow digestion. It isn’t like drinking a soda, but it doesn’t make me feel good. Including eggs in homemade pasta is a big deal when it comes to more balanced nutrition. Now….maybe it is time for a pasta maker.
5) Fermented anything-I have made everything from mustard and mayonnaise to sauerkraut and preserved lemons by lacto-fermentation. More than just a fad (and it is gaining in popularity), lacto-fermentation allows you to preserve food much better. And add to this the climate controlled refrigerators we all have and now I can make homemade mayo with raw eggs and have it stay good for weeks at a time, just like the stuff from the store. Condiments were the biggest surprise in cooking from scratch. I didn’t enter into the blog expecting to make mustard but it has been one of the more satisfying things I have made. And the fermentation method makes me able to make a regular sized batch and not try and consume it all in the 3 days that it would otherwise be fresh. Fermenting on Sunday is not a necessity. These recipes don’t actually take a lot of active time. But it is nice to have something ‘cooking’ all week on your counter. And Sunday is a nice organized day to start off.
There you go. Those are my favorite things to cook. And you can see that they are all things that are made in big batches so I am more organized for the week. Pasta and sauce and soup are easy week night meals, but only if you have the stuff prepped. Doing more on Sunday has allowed me to spend my mornings getting ready rather than cooking at 5am (which I have been known to do).
If you have been wanting to ditch some food crutch that has been holding you back, think about why you turn to it. If convenience is the answer, consider cooking more on the weekends and looking for preservation techniques like fermenting or deep freezing to keep the ease in your week night routine.
Sunday is the day that I cook the most. After a busy week I want to spend Saturday decompressing and having a little fun. These are the best days for meeting up with friends, going on a special trip with the kids, doing some shopping. But Sundays I like to spend around the house. I like to spend the morning cleaning. Scratch that. I like to keep the kids busy while DH cleans. But by the time noon rolls around I like to have a pot of something bubbling away on the stove.
Be it sauce or beans on the stove top or a pie or a chicken in the oven. Sunday afternoon was made for cooking. There is usually a quiet hour where Thing 1 is playing quietly, or playing with the kitchen faucet right next to me, and DH and Thing 2 are napping. For me this time is as peaceful as it comes.
My favorite things to make on Sunday:
1) Tomato-Meat Sauce: I have concluded that a good tomato sauce needs to cook for 2-3 hours on the stove top for it to have that settled in flavor. I like a red sauce that is rich and balanced. I also like it to be cooked down, not loose and light like a quickly cooked sauce. That’s just me. You might have a different preference. But getting rid of the jarred sauce was important for our family. Now once a month I make a triple batch and we freeze it in three different containers to pull out on a tight overly stressed night. It is my quick fix meal, and I know where it has been.
2) Granola-This recipe that I got from 100 Days of Real Food is amazing. I have replaced all boxed cereals that we used to buy. My hubs doesn’t even ask for s#!t like Honey Bunches of Oats anymore. This is all good real food. But it takes an hour to cook. So make it one Sunday. The batch is big enough that it will last you for a couple of weeks. Unless that is if you start selling half batches of your granola to your boss. Only then will you find that you turn through the stuff too fast. Not that I am doing that mind you…
3) Bone Broth-Making homemade stock has increased the culinary score of my kitchen by at least a full letter grade. I held off for a long time because I was afraid of the time commitment. I tried in vain to find a good bouillon. And while Better Than Bouillon’s organic varieties offer the best bouillon type product on the market place, it really isn’t a substitute for all the minerals and natural gelatin you will get from homemade bone broth. I like doing chicken broth on the stove top for 4-6 hours, while beef brother should be 18-24 hours and I think the beef is easier in the crock-pot. I encourage you to not to think of this as something you HAVE to do to replace your bouillon, but rather something NEW you should try because it is so different than bouillon. I mean how many crazy recipes did I try while I was avoiding making homemade broth?
4) Pasta-I admit, I need to work on my discipline here. With no pasta maker, making pasta at home with a rolling pin and a knife is a serious upper body workout. But the payoff is a batch of pasta that contains three to four eggs! That is vastly more protein than the boxes you buy from the store which contain only wheat and thus far less protein. And the lack of protein is my biggest issue with pasta in the first place. Having so much wheat with no protein spikes one blood sugar with nothing to slow digestion. It isn’t like drinking a soda, but it doesn’t make me feel good. Including eggs in homemade pasta is a big deal when it comes to more balanced nutrition. Now….maybe it is time for a pasta maker.
5) Fermented anything-I have made everything from mustard and mayonnaise to sauerkraut and preserved lemons by lacto-fermentation. More than just a fad (and it is gaining in popularity), lacto-fermentation allows you to preserve food much better. And add to this the climate controlled refrigerators we all have and now I can make homemade mayo with raw eggs and have it stay good for weeks at a time, just like the stuff from the store. Condiments were the biggest surprise in cooking from scratch. I didn’t enter into the blog expecting to make mustard but it has been one of the more satisfying things I have made. And the fermentation method makes me able to make a regular sized batch and not try and consume it all in the 3 days that it would otherwise be fresh. Fermenting on Sunday is not a necessity. These recipes don’t actually take a lot of active time. But it is nice to have something ‘cooking’ all week on your counter. And Sunday is a nice organized day to start off.
There you go. Those are my favorite things to cook. And you can see that they are all things that are made in big batches so I am more organized for the week. Pasta and sauce and soup are easy week night meals, but only if you have the stuff prepped. Doing more on Sunday has allowed me to spend my mornings getting ready rather than cooking at 5am (which I have been known to do).
If you have been wanting to ditch some food crutch that has been holding you back, think about why you turn to it. If convenience is the answer, consider cooking more on the weekends and looking for preservation techniques like fermenting or deep freezing to keep the ease in your week night routine.
3 Mei 2011
Tomorrow is my Blogger-versary!!
It fills me with much pride to say that Wednesday is my blogger-versary!! That is right. I have been clacking away at the computer for almost a year now. And since the whole point of this blog was to get off processed foods in a year, let’s ask the most important question of them all, are we off of processed foods?
The answer is yes, and no.
What a cop out, huh?
Let me try to explain. First I will give you a small recap. At this time last year I was a passionate CSA member whose heart thumped loudly when I came too close to a carrot. But behind my veggie fervor, many of our calories came from frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, potato chips, paninis, crackers and cookies, packaged cereals, ice cream….well you get the idea. For as much devotion to vegetables as I spouted, I fell into every food trap there was. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was eating and I was buying separate food for the kids thinking that was all they would eat, I didn’t want to deprive them…insert your best excuse here.
My desire to eliminate processed foods came from the rationale that if I made it myself, that I would make food 10 times more healthy and of better quality than the ‘chefs’ in the food industry were doing for me. Plus I could see to it that no icky chemical preservatives, dyes or other non-food ingredients were allowed to come to the party. Through cooking at home I could better nourish myself and my family. My mission was both nutritional and emotional. I was looking not only for a few good recipes, but really how do I regain control of my kitchen from the money-grabbing executives who had convinced me to fill my shelves with overly pasteurized sugar laden adulterated food!
I made a To-Do list of everything in the house that I wanted to examine. I said I would eliminate foods altogether, or attempt to regularly make them myself in my own kitchen or…learn to make peace with them as is. The worst offenders in the kitchen, the ones that had to be completely eliminated: American cheese, Nutella and ice cream, fishy crackers. These are not simple foods to make. They are complicated and require a lot of work to make them. And they contain a lot of yucky ingredients. Out they went. Though I have found a local ice cream that we like, but with it being so high in sugar, it only makes an appearance every 3-4 months instead of every week like the good ole’ days.
Next was another small group: hot dogs and crackers. Both these items I had originally thought I would just eliminate. But I have since found an excellent grass fed hot dog from Hawthorne Valley Farm, whom I have blogged about before. I have started buying them. But instead of having them twice a week, we have them once every other week or so. I feel good about these hot dogs and the people I am buying them from. Same goes with crackers. I didn’t buy crackers for months until I found Ak-Mak crackers. They taste good, they are organic and they are completely whole wheat. So, they are back in the game.
And then there is pasta. I have made pasta several times. It is easy. Well…relatively. I have the best of intentions but I don’t always get to it. I like my homemade version because it is far higher in protein than store bought. But I do keep a box of store bought around for those nights when my train runs late. Sometimes the best laid plans fail and you have to cook a 5 minute dinner.
There is one item that has stuck around in spite of itself, pretzels. The pretzels I buy are the Utz Organic variety. I believe they are 50% whole wheat and 50% regular white flour (oh for shame). But the kids really love them. And I buy one bag a month. I have no intention of making homemade pretzels (yet). And I am happy with them. I can put it into perspective. I am not trying to win any awards in food perfection, so the pretzels stay. We do not eat enough of them for me to consider them a problem food.
However when I wrote that post I never imagined all the things in my cabinet that were highly processed and potentially problematic that I ended up adding to that list: conventional mayonnaise, soybean and other vegetable oils, bouillon. This year has been about discovery for me. And finding alternatives to some of these foods, especially making my own broths at home, has been a deeply enriching experience.
The answer is yes, and no.
What a cop out, huh?
Let me try to explain. First I will give you a small recap. At this time last year I was a passionate CSA member whose heart thumped loudly when I came too close to a carrot. But behind my veggie fervor, many of our calories came from frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, potato chips, paninis, crackers and cookies, packaged cereals, ice cream….well you get the idea. For as much devotion to vegetables as I spouted, I fell into every food trap there was. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was eating and I was buying separate food for the kids thinking that was all they would eat, I didn’t want to deprive them…insert your best excuse here.
My desire to eliminate processed foods came from the rationale that if I made it myself, that I would make food 10 times more healthy and of better quality than the ‘chefs’ in the food industry were doing for me. Plus I could see to it that no icky chemical preservatives, dyes or other non-food ingredients were allowed to come to the party. Through cooking at home I could better nourish myself and my family. My mission was both nutritional and emotional. I was looking not only for a few good recipes, but really how do I regain control of my kitchen from the money-grabbing executives who had convinced me to fill my shelves with overly pasteurized sugar laden adulterated food!
I made a To-Do list of everything in the house that I wanted to examine. I said I would eliminate foods altogether, or attempt to regularly make them myself in my own kitchen or…learn to make peace with them as is. The worst offenders in the kitchen, the ones that had to be completely eliminated: American cheese, Nutella and ice cream, fishy crackers. These are not simple foods to make. They are complicated and require a lot of work to make them. And they contain a lot of yucky ingredients. Out they went. Though I have found a local ice cream that we like, but with it being so high in sugar, it only makes an appearance every 3-4 months instead of every week like the good ole’ days.
Next was another small group: hot dogs and crackers. Both these items I had originally thought I would just eliminate. But I have since found an excellent grass fed hot dog from Hawthorne Valley Farm, whom I have blogged about before. I have started buying them. But instead of having them twice a week, we have them once every other week or so. I feel good about these hot dogs and the people I am buying them from. Same goes with crackers. I didn’t buy crackers for months until I found Ak-Mak crackers. They taste good, they are organic and they are completely whole wheat. So, they are back in the game.
And then there is pasta. I have made pasta several times. It is easy. Well…relatively. I have the best of intentions but I don’t always get to it. I like my homemade version because it is far higher in protein than store bought. But I do keep a box of store bought around for those nights when my train runs late. Sometimes the best laid plans fail and you have to cook a 5 minute dinner.
There is one item that has stuck around in spite of itself, pretzels. The pretzels I buy are the Utz Organic variety. I believe they are 50% whole wheat and 50% regular white flour (oh for shame). But the kids really love them. And I buy one bag a month. I have no intention of making homemade pretzels (yet). And I am happy with them. I can put it into perspective. I am not trying to win any awards in food perfection, so the pretzels stay. We do not eat enough of them for me to consider them a problem food.
However when I wrote that post I never imagined all the things in my cabinet that were highly processed and potentially problematic that I ended up adding to that list: conventional mayonnaise, soybean and other vegetable oils, bouillon. This year has been about discovery for me. And finding alternatives to some of these foods, especially making my own broths at home, has been a deeply enriching experience.
2 November 2010
Day 182
On Thursday it will be 6 months since I started this blog. When I began I had a readership of 1 (me) and a lofty goal: No more processed foods.
I have likened this year of my blog to pregnancy and the various trimesters you go through. In the first trimester of pregnancy, you make big changes like getting used to the idea of being a mother, and you give up wine and unpasteurized cheese and the like. The changes are big picture changes and they change who you are, but you still don't fully understand what the future will be like. In the second trimester you start feeling more confident about telling people your big news, you read and understand more about what is happening to you. Also it becomes more real to you. In the third trimester you are a pregnancy pro, you have altered your life and become as ready as you possibly can for the arrival of your baby. You are busy doing the actionable things like buying diapers and preparing for birth. In the fourth trimester (yes there really is a fourth trimester-look it up), you have delivered your baby and you have become a mother. You are learning to care for this being who has now begun its own life outside of your womb. All the planning and reading and preparation have come to fruition, but the final transition can still be rocky and stressful.
A few months ago I wrote a recap of my first trimester. I included all the things that we had done to make some big changes in what we ate. The second trimester, I said, I wanted to get better and more refined at what we were doing. I wanted to build habits that could be continued for life. I wanted to have more knowledge about the impact food has on us. How did I do with my goals?
I began my second trimester of food change (and blogging) focused on actual things that we were changing in our life, moving even further away from refined, pre-packaged and convenience foods, toward local organic ingredients,more whole foods. Overall we began eating more simply and healthfully. What also happened was that I defined who I was. I declared myself a Practical Real Food Person, meaning that I delved into the Real Food Movement, but reconciled with that movement where I am today as a working woman and modern eater. I strongly feel that the Real Food People have gotten it right about nutrition. They are eating a healthful diet that is kind to the environment and the healthiest thing we can possibly eat, as well as being delicious. Their science is right on the money. The only problem I see, is availability and the over arching zeal of those in the movement.
Many Real Food Devotees know that their approach is the right one. But the message of the importance of organics, grass fed meats, fermentation as well as enzymes derived from raw foods has not gotten picked up in the widespread media just yet. While the following is growing, It is not one that has jumped out of the fringe foodie world and into Self Magazine. The average American is just starting to hear about organics and their importance, but home fermentation is still met with doubt. That being said I am a hard critic of the Real Food Movement in their insistence that they are right about everything food related; even though they are. I bet that alot of people who read about Real Food are so overwhelmed about how poor their Standard American Diet is in comparison, that they just shut off and won't listen. Any kind of overly zealous selling tends to backfire. I am a big proponent of the soft sell technique. And those of us preaching Real Food should do better with meeting people where they are today. We need to get build the demand for 100% grass fed meats and natural saturated fats and organic small scale produce so that they are available in every grocery store across the country. That is why I stood up and said I am a Practical Real Food Person. I want everyone who reads this blog to feel encouraged to continue reading and begin making changes in their life. Small changes today lead to big changes tomorrow. I don't want anyone to read in this blog and feel the changes are too overwhelming to even try. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Availability is another major issue. In New York, organics are EVERYWHERE. But elsewhere in the country people don't even have basic access to organics at their local grocery store. And if you can't buy it then you can't eat it. Part of what I preach is to try and help folks make the best choices within the choices that they have. Most people in the media talk about the cost of organic food as being prohibitive. And while that is the root cause of why organics don't appear on every store shelf in the US, the truth is there are people out there who could afford organics or would bend their budget to do so. But because the grocery stores don't stock organic foods, people simply don't have access to then. I don't want these people to be left out of the Real Food movement. I want them to be so angry that they talk to their stores and demand special beef orders, or even organize their own farmer's markets. We have to take action.
In terms of the foods I have been focusing on this trimester...We switched all our oils over to unrefined saturated fats, and still use some mono-unsaturated oils like sunflower. All the highly processed corn and canola and soybean oils got the boot, as did products that contained them. (Can someone start a company that fries potato chips in coconut oil?? Please??) I also did an attack on refined sugar. I am using it less and less in my home kitchen and we are buying less and less products that contain it. I have begun to replace it with natural sweeteners like dried fruits and the like. Overall I really feel like I have kicked the sugar monster, not everyone in my family is there quite yet, but we have made tremendous strides. I also have my eye on fall and winter fruits and vegetables. I am committing to eating seasonally as much as is possible throughout the winter. So far it is going well. We have eaten sweet potatoes and squash every week for the last couple week, and the Things are getting used to the new heavier flavors and textures. One day at a time, one day at a time.
For my Third Trimester...I am happy with where I am with food. And I will continue to write about individual foods and post simple recipes. But I would like to spend my third trimester discussing some things of historical significance. I want to know how our food evolved to a place where virtually everyone in my age group is overweight or obese. How did we become a nation that describes Doritos as delicious? Why do we accept cheese in a can with a nozzle? Where did it start? Why did it go wrong? How did lousy processed food evolve? And how can we get out of this mess before everyone comes down with diabetes and heart disease?
Any suggestions on where to begin? What do you want me to write about?
I have likened this year of my blog to pregnancy and the various trimesters you go through. In the first trimester of pregnancy, you make big changes like getting used to the idea of being a mother, and you give up wine and unpasteurized cheese and the like. The changes are big picture changes and they change who you are, but you still don't fully understand what the future will be like. In the second trimester you start feeling more confident about telling people your big news, you read and understand more about what is happening to you. Also it becomes more real to you. In the third trimester you are a pregnancy pro, you have altered your life and become as ready as you possibly can for the arrival of your baby. You are busy doing the actionable things like buying diapers and preparing for birth. In the fourth trimester (yes there really is a fourth trimester-look it up), you have delivered your baby and you have become a mother. You are learning to care for this being who has now begun its own life outside of your womb. All the planning and reading and preparation have come to fruition, but the final transition can still be rocky and stressful.
A few months ago I wrote a recap of my first trimester. I included all the things that we had done to make some big changes in what we ate. The second trimester, I said, I wanted to get better and more refined at what we were doing. I wanted to build habits that could be continued for life. I wanted to have more knowledge about the impact food has on us. How did I do with my goals?
I began my second trimester of food change (and blogging) focused on actual things that we were changing in our life, moving even further away from refined, pre-packaged and convenience foods, toward local organic ingredients,more whole foods. Overall we began eating more simply and healthfully. What also happened was that I defined who I was. I declared myself a Practical Real Food Person, meaning that I delved into the Real Food Movement, but reconciled with that movement where I am today as a working woman and modern eater. I strongly feel that the Real Food People have gotten it right about nutrition. They are eating a healthful diet that is kind to the environment and the healthiest thing we can possibly eat, as well as being delicious. Their science is right on the money. The only problem I see, is availability and the over arching zeal of those in the movement.
Many Real Food Devotees know that their approach is the right one. But the message of the importance of organics, grass fed meats, fermentation as well as enzymes derived from raw foods has not gotten picked up in the widespread media just yet. While the following is growing, It is not one that has jumped out of the fringe foodie world and into Self Magazine. The average American is just starting to hear about organics and their importance, but home fermentation is still met with doubt. That being said I am a hard critic of the Real Food Movement in their insistence that they are right about everything food related; even though they are. I bet that alot of people who read about Real Food are so overwhelmed about how poor their Standard American Diet is in comparison, that they just shut off and won't listen. Any kind of overly zealous selling tends to backfire. I am a big proponent of the soft sell technique. And those of us preaching Real Food should do better with meeting people where they are today. We need to get build the demand for 100% grass fed meats and natural saturated fats and organic small scale produce so that they are available in every grocery store across the country. That is why I stood up and said I am a Practical Real Food Person. I want everyone who reads this blog to feel encouraged to continue reading and begin making changes in their life. Small changes today lead to big changes tomorrow. I don't want anyone to read in this blog and feel the changes are too overwhelming to even try. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Availability is another major issue. In New York, organics are EVERYWHERE. But elsewhere in the country people don't even have basic access to organics at their local grocery store. And if you can't buy it then you can't eat it. Part of what I preach is to try and help folks make the best choices within the choices that they have. Most people in the media talk about the cost of organic food as being prohibitive. And while that is the root cause of why organics don't appear on every store shelf in the US, the truth is there are people out there who could afford organics or would bend their budget to do so. But because the grocery stores don't stock organic foods, people simply don't have access to then. I don't want these people to be left out of the Real Food movement. I want them to be so angry that they talk to their stores and demand special beef orders, or even organize their own farmer's markets. We have to take action.
In terms of the foods I have been focusing on this trimester...We switched all our oils over to unrefined saturated fats, and still use some mono-unsaturated oils like sunflower. All the highly processed corn and canola and soybean oils got the boot, as did products that contained them. (Can someone start a company that fries potato chips in coconut oil?? Please??) I also did an attack on refined sugar. I am using it less and less in my home kitchen and we are buying less and less products that contain it. I have begun to replace it with natural sweeteners like dried fruits and the like. Overall I really feel like I have kicked the sugar monster, not everyone in my family is there quite yet, but we have made tremendous strides. I also have my eye on fall and winter fruits and vegetables. I am committing to eating seasonally as much as is possible throughout the winter. So far it is going well. We have eaten sweet potatoes and squash every week for the last couple week, and the Things are getting used to the new heavier flavors and textures. One day at a time, one day at a time.
For my Third Trimester...I am happy with where I am with food. And I will continue to write about individual foods and post simple recipes. But I would like to spend my third trimester discussing some things of historical significance. I want to know how our food evolved to a place where virtually everyone in my age group is overweight or obese. How did we become a nation that describes Doritos as delicious? Why do we accept cheese in a can with a nozzle? Where did it start? Why did it go wrong? How did lousy processed food evolve? And how can we get out of this mess before everyone comes down with diabetes and heart disease?
Any suggestions on where to begin? What do you want me to write about?
26 Juli 2010
Day 84
It is now Day 84 of my blog project. I started this task on May4th, so today would be day 84. Why is this significant?
I have been wanting to do a recap post, but 30 days whizzed by and not much had really happened. 60 days seemed kind of arbitrary and unimportant. And 90 days is smack dab in the middle of next week, I couldn't wait any longer. Also Day 84 is the last day of the first 12 weeks. I think this is fitting since my desire to clean up my food act started with being pregnant and giving birth to my children. 12 weeks is most universally considered to be one trimester of pregnancy, and as many know, 12 weeks is what you most often get from your employer in the form of maternity leave. It is actually the maximum that you can take under the Family Medical Leave Act before your employer doesn't have to give you the exact same job back (It might be 3 months for that...but two weeks more or not, it is a pretty short time).
So now that it is the ending of my first trimester here at The Table of Promise, let me look back at some of the things I have accomplished in my time.
* I am still buying lots of local and/ or organic produce in addition to being in my CSA, no extra points there, but it is the cornerstone of my commitment to fresh whole foods.
*Instead of buying premade pasta sauces, I started making big batches of sauce from scratch and freezing it. The cost is about the same for conventional store brand sauce and my homemade variety from organic tomatoes. My family is pretty psyched too.
* I switched to organic pasta. The boxes are only 12 oz instead of 16 oz and do you know what, we are not going hungry. We probably didn't need the bigger box to begin with. There is a lovely place at my farmer's market that makes uncertified but still organic fresh pastas. I have been recently buying most of our pastas from them. And they have a very good whole wheat variety as well.
* I stopped buying juice for my kids. The truth--they just don't need it. Thing 1 would stay jacked up on sugar all day if he could and Thing 2 has a preference for sweets, so I do not want to go down the same road with him. That is not to say that they will never have juice again. At a restaurant or a birthday party, we will drink juice. But I feel that much more confident about it, because I know it is no longer a daily battle I have to fight. And for anyone who perhaps thought I was buying "juice drinks', nope, I equally dislike 100% whole juice. I would much rather the kids eat real fruit. Which they do by the bucketful. No juice needed.
* I have switched to whole wheat everything. Not only am I making many of our baked goods and eating less flour based foods in general, I am in the habit now of looking for the label 100% whole wheat on everything. I know that anything labeled "whole wheat bread" could be as little as 25-40% whole wheat flour and the rest white flour. I am on a crusade to eliminate as much white flour as I can from our family kitchen. We will encounter it outside the walls of our home, but as a treat I am not as worried about it.
* I am trying not to buy plastic tupperware any more. So far I am doing really well with this. But it takes a very wealthy person to read an article on plastic residue in our food and then the next day throw out everything in their kitchen and replace it with glass. I am throwing old plastic containers away as they wear out and I am replacing them with glass. So Far it is going well. They are alot easier to clean. Who knew?
* I have stopped buying crackers. They are still getting into the house through some well intentioned child caregivers. But most of the overdose is gone.
* The Yellow Box Oat Circles have been replaced with a lower sugar organic version.
* No more Cliff Bars--I am all about Larabars now and I prefer nuts and dried fruit to those.
* I have made a bigger commitment to brown rice. We still keep white rice in the house, but I am really working on it.
* I have started using most dried beans. At our Farmer's Market the folks who sell my organic flours also grow beans. The summer was so wet last year that they have a limited selection this year. But they said everything is amazing this year. So next year? 14 different varieties of beans! Woohoo!
* I have bought Ice Cream only a couple of times since the project began. I keep meaning to make ice cream more often, but it is a hassle. I like the idea of eating it less as a trade off. At least it is still Breyer's, real ingredients.
* I continue to make homemade yogurt most weeks. And I am REALLY REALLY PROUD to say the my kids have had nothing but plain yogurt for months. I have bought plain yogurt a couple times when I ran out of time to make it. But even our baby sitter is giving them bowls of plain yogurt now and we have left the other crappy sugary stuff behind. This is maybe my favorite.
I am sure there are other things. But I can't think of them now. Suffice it to say, I am committed to change and I still have many other things to change. There are so many other things that I haven't been able to research yet. I feel better, I am happier about our food. But most of all we are finding a balance in this, I am not losing my life in this project. However, now that we have settled into a routine, I want to work harder about closing some of the loopholes we have allowed in this. I really want to push myself to see how far we can go to be 100% homemade. I would like to find my breaking point.
I have been wanting to do a recap post, but 30 days whizzed by and not much had really happened. 60 days seemed kind of arbitrary and unimportant. And 90 days is smack dab in the middle of next week, I couldn't wait any longer. Also Day 84 is the last day of the first 12 weeks. I think this is fitting since my desire to clean up my food act started with being pregnant and giving birth to my children. 12 weeks is most universally considered to be one trimester of pregnancy, and as many know, 12 weeks is what you most often get from your employer in the form of maternity leave. It is actually the maximum that you can take under the Family Medical Leave Act before your employer doesn't have to give you the exact same job back (It might be 3 months for that...but two weeks more or not, it is a pretty short time).
So now that it is the ending of my first trimester here at The Table of Promise, let me look back at some of the things I have accomplished in my time.
* I am still buying lots of local and/ or organic produce in addition to being in my CSA, no extra points there, but it is the cornerstone of my commitment to fresh whole foods.
*Instead of buying premade pasta sauces, I started making big batches of sauce from scratch and freezing it. The cost is about the same for conventional store brand sauce and my homemade variety from organic tomatoes. My family is pretty psyched too.
* I switched to organic pasta. The boxes are only 12 oz instead of 16 oz and do you know what, we are not going hungry. We probably didn't need the bigger box to begin with. There is a lovely place at my farmer's market that makes uncertified but still organic fresh pastas. I have been recently buying most of our pastas from them. And they have a very good whole wheat variety as well.
* I stopped buying juice for my kids. The truth--they just don't need it. Thing 1 would stay jacked up on sugar all day if he could and Thing 2 has a preference for sweets, so I do not want to go down the same road with him. That is not to say that they will never have juice again. At a restaurant or a birthday party, we will drink juice. But I feel that much more confident about it, because I know it is no longer a daily battle I have to fight. And for anyone who perhaps thought I was buying "juice drinks', nope, I equally dislike 100% whole juice. I would much rather the kids eat real fruit. Which they do by the bucketful. No juice needed.
* I have switched to whole wheat everything. Not only am I making many of our baked goods and eating less flour based foods in general, I am in the habit now of looking for the label 100% whole wheat on everything. I know that anything labeled "whole wheat bread" could be as little as 25-40% whole wheat flour and the rest white flour. I am on a crusade to eliminate as much white flour as I can from our family kitchen. We will encounter it outside the walls of our home, but as a treat I am not as worried about it.
* I am trying not to buy plastic tupperware any more. So far I am doing really well with this. But it takes a very wealthy person to read an article on plastic residue in our food and then the next day throw out everything in their kitchen and replace it with glass. I am throwing old plastic containers away as they wear out and I am replacing them with glass. So Far it is going well. They are alot easier to clean. Who knew?
* I have stopped buying crackers. They are still getting into the house through some well intentioned child caregivers. But most of the overdose is gone.
* The Yellow Box Oat Circles have been replaced with a lower sugar organic version.
* No more Cliff Bars--I am all about Larabars now and I prefer nuts and dried fruit to those.
* I have made a bigger commitment to brown rice. We still keep white rice in the house, but I am really working on it.
* I have started using most dried beans. At our Farmer's Market the folks who sell my organic flours also grow beans. The summer was so wet last year that they have a limited selection this year. But they said everything is amazing this year. So next year? 14 different varieties of beans! Woohoo!
* I have bought Ice Cream only a couple of times since the project began. I keep meaning to make ice cream more often, but it is a hassle. I like the idea of eating it less as a trade off. At least it is still Breyer's, real ingredients.
* I continue to make homemade yogurt most weeks. And I am REALLY REALLY PROUD to say the my kids have had nothing but plain yogurt for months. I have bought plain yogurt a couple times when I ran out of time to make it. But even our baby sitter is giving them bowls of plain yogurt now and we have left the other crappy sugary stuff behind. This is maybe my favorite.
I am sure there are other things. But I can't think of them now. Suffice it to say, I am committed to change and I still have many other things to change. There are so many other things that I haven't been able to research yet. I feel better, I am happier about our food. But most of all we are finding a balance in this, I am not losing my life in this project. However, now that we have settled into a routine, I want to work harder about closing some of the loopholes we have allowed in this. I really want to push myself to see how far we can go to be 100% homemade. I would like to find my breaking point.
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