100 days of Real Food {The Challenge}

Back in December, I came across a food-blog that has turned my ‘lil world upside down.

It’s called 100 days of Real Food.

My initial thoughts were that this was interesting, but I felt like this lifestyle might be a little extreme. However, the next morning I was making my girl’s lunches and they looked like this…

-White bread with Peanut Butter

-Granola bars

-Applesauce

-100 calorie Snack pack cookies

-100 calorie Snack pack chips

-Capri-suns

I then realized…in our seemingly “healthy” lunch, there was  NOT ONE piece of “Real Food”. And my friends, this is how my girls have eaten lunch almost every.single.day.

My girls, the Processed Food Princess’s.

Feeling a little guilty, I went back to the blog 100 days of Real Food and began doing some more research. I spent hours  reading articles and watching videos on how our food is processed and made.

Where have I been? I had NO CLUE the cruelty that many animals face and the absolutely disgusting ways large companies are manufacturing our food. For a few days, I was in shock.

Then, I really began to think through some changes we needed to make…immediately.

But, here were my concerns:

#1 TIME – Processed food is fast and raising three girls, working, church/ministry and my husband’s business take up pretty much all our time. How would I ever figure out how to make changes with the time we have?

#2 MONEY – I hadn’t shopped organics before but I had heard it was expensive.

#3 THE PROCESSED FOOD PRINCESS’S – They are so picky and skinny already, I was worried this might make it worse. I also need to add my husband into this category because well, he’s difficult to feed too.

Plus, did I really have the energy to deal with their whining about food?

I wasn’t sure.

December ticked away and it was time to make New Year’s goals and plans. After a lot of consideration I decided, we were going to take the challenge. I went to my husband and my girls and told them the news. They cheered, clapped and shouted for joy! [wink] Not so much.

There were tears [no joke], questions and non-supportive opinions.

This was going to be a battle.

While I respect 100 days of Real Food’s commitment to go at it 100% right away, I knew this wasn’t going to work for our family. Plus, I needed to learn more…I’ve been living in a food hole.

So, we are easing into this. We started January 1 and are now on day 16. There’s been some failures along the way but also some victories. 🙂

Immediate changes were:

-Organic meats, and eggs [we haven’t gotten into milk yet…I’m still having a hard time swallowing $6 a gallon for milk.]

-Organic fruits and veggies [I have a post coming up soon on which ones you should buy and which ones you can skip out on.]

-Capri-suns…gone.

-Processed snacks…gone.

Changes in progress:

-Finding breakfast foods that fit, are likable, and don’t take a lot of time to prepare

-Eating out

-Coffee [for me, this week I’ve tried no creamer, just milk…still adjusting]

-Time [this is still the biggest struggle]

-Money [I HAVE to figure out how to do this more cost effectively]

-Learning [still clueless on a lot of things]

Later this week I’ll share some more of what’s working and what isn’t working. Maybe you all can help us work through this. 🙂

Yesterday, I took my first ever attempt at home-made bread and home-made granola bars. They were a success so I wanted to share the recipe’s.

 Homemade Granola Bars

1/2 cup of Crunchy PB [organic]
1/2 cup of Honey or Agave sweetener
Melt them together in a large pan
Stir in 4 tablespoons of Organic Applesauce
Add 3 cups of Organic Oatmeal and 1 cup of Organic granola
I did add a few chocolate chips to make my people happy 🙂

Put the mix into a greased baking dish and bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Let cool and then cut into shape you want.

 Homemade Bread

4 cups of King Arthur Organic Unbleached Bread Flour

2 envelopes RapidRise Yeast

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup of Milk

1/4 cup of Honey or Agave

3 tsp Real Butter

1/2 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran

Mix 2 cups of flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. In the microwave heat water, milk, honey and butter until very warm [about two minutes.] Slowly add to flour mixture while mixer is on slow speed. [NOTE: the mixture started to climb up the mixers so I had to frequently stop and scrap it down :).] Add 1/2 cup of the flour and Oat Bran and continue to beat slowly. Keep adding remaining flour and bran.

Place into a greased bread pan, cover with a paper towel [or is there something else you are supposed to cover it with? LEARNING.] Allow the bread to rise 1 hour. It will double in size…freaked me out at first. 🙂

Preheat oven to 375. Bake 45 minutes on lower rack. Remove and let cool.