Day 4: Pros and cons

I am not a person of extremes. I am a Libra (or at least I used to be, so they tell me), and I like balance. For me, a little dessert, a few packaged foods once and a while will not make me fat and not derail my health. So, taking on an “extreme” eating style is a major challenge! But, as it is supposed to be, it is eye-opening and provides an opportunity to learn.

Here are the pros and cons we’ve noticed so far about eating entirely whole foods:

Pros:

• When you have the munchies and feel like eating something (but aren’t actually hungry), you just don’t eat. Who wants to munch on grape nuts or triscuits? This might help a lot of people to keep from consuming unnecessary calories and gain weight.


• Teaching your children good eating habits. This is priceless to me. I know my kids will not be junk-food addicted, will be much less likely to have discipline and concentration problems in school, will feel good about their bodies since they will be healthy weights, and will pass on the same habits to their children.


• Whole food is more filling. I can eat ½ cup of granola with milk and feel satisfied for hours, or eat several Dunkin Donuts and feel hungry (and fat) within an hour. White flour just is not as filling as whole wheat / whole grains. It’s that simple!


• Eating a diet rich in real foods, you’ll never be any of these things: overweight, diabetic (type II), constipated, have acid reflux, and you will likely never have high cholesterol (with a few genetic exceptions).


• I’ve come across some great recipes that I otherwise would never have tried. Both the granola and the smoothies are delicious and we will certainly continue to eat them after this challenge (in place of junkier options, I hope). The recipes are at the end of this post if you want them.

Cons:

• The dishes mount up quickly! It involves a lot more cooking to produce meals of entirely whole foods. Staring at the mound of dishes in the sink makes me a little angry at our diet, to be honest! (And this is coming from someone who is already accustomed to cooking ALL of our meals – we almost never eat out and don’t eat frozen or packaged dinners.)
• It is more expensive than buying cheap processed foods with a coupon. Whole foods almost never go on sale, and there are no coupons for things that aren’t packaged! (However, this cost saving is nothing when you look at your significantly reduced health care costs of maintaining a healthy body and avoiding diseases like Type II diabetes, for example. Not to mention cheaper life and health insurance premiums).
• There are fewer choices for snacks (for kids). Fruit (dried or fresh), nuts, popcorn, a few crackers. What else? Seriously, I need some ideas for the next six days!!!
• Most condiments are NOT whole foods! Ketchup (national brands) are made with high fructose corn syrup, and the Trader Joes brand we buy has sugar. Almost all salad dressings have sugar (and a lot of strange ingredients). It takes more creativity and work to flavor your meals when avoiding these.

So here is what we got with our remaining $80 at Trader Joes. I blew through $160 really fast this week! Good thing we aren’t out of toilet paper or paper towels, because there’s no money left! (I did put aside $10 for 2 gallons of organic milk, which we’ll need soon.)

Here is what we’ve been eating:
Day 3:
Breakfast:
Brett & Claire – homemade granola (heaping ½ cup with 2% organic milk), OJ
Sydney & Pierce – whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter (one ingredient: peanuts), OJ, milk – they didn’t like the granola!

Lunch:
Brett & Claire – leftover cabbage & venison lasagna
Sydney & Pierce – whole wheat tortillas with cheese and black beans, cucumbers with hummus, fruit sauce, organic blue corn tortilla chips (3 ingredients)

Dinner:
Brett & Claire – Fritatta with potatoes, broccoli, onion and cheese, salad (with homemade dressing), whole wheat toast
Kids – disassembled frittata – scrambled eggs with cheese, broccoli, potatoes, whole wheat toast
Smoothies for dessert again! YUM!

Day 4:
Breakfast:
Claire – homemade granola (heaping ½ cup with 2% organic milk), OJ
Brett & Sydney – grapenuts with organic milk, OJ
Pierce – Cheerios with organic milk, OJ (yes, we cheated here. I tried to make him oatmeal, but it exploded in the mircrowave and I didn’t have the 30 minutes it takes to make him steel-cut oats and he wouldn’t eat the granola. And he’s skinny and I always worry about him not eating enough, so I broke down and got him some plain Cheerios).

Lunch – various real food combos.

Dinner: whole wheat pasta macaroni and cheese with salad (with homemade dressing again). I took a Martha Stewart Mac & Cheese recipe I love and substituted whole wheat pasta for enriched and whole wheat flour for white flour. I couldn’t find whole wheat macaroni noodles at the store, so we had to use spirals. It tasted pretty good, but I really prefer the macaroni noodles.

I am feeling much less hungry than on day 1 and 2. Much less cranky, Fewer chocolate cravings! In fact, I'm not even angry about not having chocolate tonight. Wow. And, after eating my heaping ½ cup of granola this morning I was very satisfied until after 12:30 pm. Usually I am starving by 11:30 am.

Here are the recipes we’ve enjoyed so far:

Smoothies:
1 ½ cups of organic PLAIN yogurt (with no sugar)
1 cup of frozen berries
2 bananas
Squeeze of honey (to taste)
Splash of OJ (this makes a big difference in the flavor)
Blend and enjoy! Serves 4.

Homemade granola:
See link to “100 days of real food”: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/04/04/recipe-granola-bars-cereal/

Day 2: Wow, 10 days is a really long time!

Man, I want some chocolate! Seriously, this is much harder than I thought it would be.

I must be addicted to sugar, even though we don't really eat all that much of it, because I am feeling a little cranky and very unsatisfied after dinner. I'm full, but not satisfied if that makes any sense. I have a sweet tooth saying, where is my little dessert?

So, we shopped today and here is what we got at the Farmer's Market and Harris Teeter to help feed us for the week. I'll have to make another trip out to Trader Joes tomorrow, but this is the first half. $80 worth of whole foods:



I could only find one cereal with no sugar: grape nuts. We actually like grape nuts, so that is good news. I also have a batch of granola in the oven right now for cereal for the week (sweetened with honey, no sugar).

For dinner tonight we made a dish I saw in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It's like a lasagna, but instead of noodles you use cooked cabbage. We had ground venison in the freezer that my parents had given us (which of course is ALWAYS organic, "free-range," chemical and hormone free!), so we used that instead of beef. I could only find ONE type of pasta sauce at the store with no sugar in it! Thankfully I found one because I was not up for making my own tonight. The kids ate whole wheat pasta, carrots, and milk. Neither of them went for the cabbage lasagna!



After dinner we decided to make a smoothie for "dessert." We used plain yogurt, frozen berries, 2 bananas, a splash of OJ and a tablespoon or so of honey. It was a big hit! Everyone seemed ravenous for something sweet. We were all huddled around the blender like a campfire or something! The kids got it all over their faces. Too cute!



Surprisingly, the kids did not seem to complain about missing their usual snacks and after-dinner treats. They were both extremely disappointed to not be able to make the usual Saturday morning visit to La Farm bakery (where everything has both white flour and sugar, but is so so good). But, they got over it, and frankly I think I'm the crankiest of all and this was my idea! In fact, today Sydney had a friend over to play and she came in to get them a snack and water (I had told her I would make popcorn, but she was tired of waiting). She opened the pantry, looked around, presumably saw nothing, grabbed the grape nuts and ran outside without complaining. I started cracking up and ran after her to get the grape nuts so we could offer her friend something a little more appealing!

For breakfast we had steel-cut oats with honey and fruit. Lunch was tomato and hummus sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread with sweet potato chips (only two ingredients!) and fruit. Snack this afternoon was homemade popcorn - no bag, no microwave, just corn, oil and salt. It was actually really good and a fraction of the price of microwave popcorn. Good to know!

I am starting to feel like 10 days is a LONG time. Wish us luck. Maybe I'll detox quickly?

Follow me on my "10 Days of Real Food" Pledge!

I have been reading the "100 days of Real Food" blog (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/) written by a NC mom for several months now, and have enjoyed following her as she learns to eat only "real" foods. She and her family have experienced a lot of health benefits from the changes they've made and she swears she'll never go back to eating like they used to. She invites her readers to join her with a shorter 10-day pledge. I have made a lot of changes in our family's eating habits while reading her blog (and beforehand) and have learned a few great new recipes, but have not yet tried to eat ONLY "real" foods for 10 days. So, here we go.

I am posting the rules from her website so you can see what we (Brett, the kids, and me) will and won't be eating for the next 10 days.

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What you CAN eat:

1. Whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables (we recommend that you shop for these at your local farmers’ market)
3. Dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and cheese
4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains
5. Seafood (wild caught is the more optimal choice over farm-raised)
6. Snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn
7. All natural sweeteners including honey, 100% maple syrup, and fruit juice concentrates are acceptable in moderation

What you CANNOT eat:

1. No refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat…not just “wheat”)
2. No refined sweeteners such as sugar, any form of corn syrup, cane juice, or the artificial stuff like Splenda
3. Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label
4. No deep fried foods
5. No “fast foods”
6. Only locally raised meats such as pork, beef, and chicken

Beverages will be limited to water, milk, all natural juices, naturally sweetened coffee & tea, and, to help the adults keep their sanity, wine and beer!

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Parts of the pledge will be easy for us because we never eat fast food or deep fried food and for the last year or so we have eaten MOSTLY local, "free-range" meat. We don't drink soda. And we eat whole wheat bread.

However... the trouble spots for us will be avoiding all sugar and all white flour. All of our breakfast cereals contain sugar (even plain Cheerios!), so those are out! I also love to eat a little piece of 70% dark Lindt chocolate at night after dinner to satisfy my sweet tooth, and that will not be an option this week. (I am really craving some chocolate right now, but we officially started at dinner tonight, so it's a no go.) The most difficult part will be rethinking the children's snacks. At least once a day they eat some sort of factory processed, refined white flour or sugar snack like the seemingly harmless Whole Grain Goldfish or Cheezits or graham crackers, etc. I'm going to have to get creative.

The goal of this type of endeavor is partly to get people used to reading labels more carefully and understanding what they are putting in their bodies (and in their children's bodies). And ideally, the exercise should convince you that the best foods don't have lables!

The basis for the original "100 Days of Real Food" blog are all of Michael Pollan's excellent books. I have read them all and strongly support his vision of our food industry and our diets. If you are curious, check out his very well-written and easy-to-read "In Defense of Food," and if you are really curious about what is really being marketed to you in the grocery store and the dangers of eating highly processed and unhealthy "food-like substances," check out "The Omnivore's Dilemma" (a tougher read, but well -worth it).

I'll post lists of things we've eaten this week and some photos and possibly some recipe ideas if you want to follow along. We always shop on a cash-only budget for groceries, so we will stick to that even though we will be avoiding all the "cheap" stuff and eating only organic produce (which we mostly do anyway).

So, for dinner tonight, we had black bean burritos, brown rice with cilantro and cheese, and fruit. Water for the parents (as usual) and organic milk for the kiddos (as usual).

My challenge to you: read the labels of some of the foods in you pantry. If you need a chemistry degree to decipher them, you should be very suspicious!

Ok, wish us luck! Man, I'm hungry already!

Accidental Green Dinner!

As I was quickly assembling the kids' dinner the other night (before I took my Valentine out to dinner at Fearrington House - YUM!), I realized that their entire dinner was (accidentally) green. I had even grabbed a green cup for Pierce. Sydney thought it was pretty funny when I pointed it out to her. I'll have to remember this one for St. Patrick's day! Green menu: pasta with pesto, edamame, kiwi, pistachios!

Play Doh!

Both of my kids are really into Play Doh lately, which I love because it's a great little activity to keep them busy while I fix dinner. Our supply of Play Doh, which at one time felt endless, has recently dwindled to a few hard brownish balls of formerly squishy dough. So we decided to make a batch ourselves the other day. I like the idea of knowing exactly what's in it (in case it makes it into someone's mouth) and being able to choose our colors. We bought some plastic containers to store the dough and with one batch were able to fill 8 containers, 4 for each kid. I decided to separate their play dough so each child could pick his/her colors and so that Sydney wouldn't ruin all of Pierce's dough by letting it all dry out! They loved making it and to be honest it is a lot softer and easier to use (especially for those little hands) than the store-bought stuff.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

4 tsp cream of tartar

2 T. cooking oil

food coloring

Mix dry ingredients in a large sauce pan. Add oil, water and food coloring (if you want to make just one color - otherwise you can add the coloring to the finished dough and knead it in with your hands). Cook on medium heat until the mixture pulls away from the pan. Knead slightly on wax paper. Keep in an airtight container.

The only ingredient you may not have on hand and that costs more than a few pennies is the cream of tartar, so check your spice rack before you get started! We forgot to check first and got everything in the pan and realized we were one teaspoon short on cream of tartar, so we had to hit the store.

A spot to read

Brett and I have been SLOWLY furnishing our house and we have been wanting (especially me) some reading chairs in our master bedroom. We picked these chairs and the fabric out on our last trip to the Hickory Furniture Mart (which we LOVE for a bargain on quality NC-made furniture - http://www.hickoryfurniture.com/). We also got the table in Hickory for a deal. The lamp and footstool were a nice gift from Santa this year. I love my reading nook! Once my dissertation is finished and I have more time for pleasure reading I'll be using it a lot more often! I have a stack of books waiting for me along with two unread novels on my Kindle. Can't wait for some free time - hopefully beginning in May!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Sydney had her fifth birthday this weekend and it was a LOT of fun from start to finish! Some of the highlights were:

Smashing open the very stubborn pinata that mommy made for Sydney and Pierce!

Icing and decorating her birthday cake exactly the way she wanted it - purple icing with sprinkles!

Having all her friends to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh for a really fun party and play time!

Thank you to everyone who came and who made her birthday so special!