Tortilla! Tortilla! Yum Yum Tortilla!

If you know the tune of the title for this post and now have the song stuck in your head, you are a dork just like me and watch too much Barney, just like me. If you don't know the song, turn on PBS Kids and I'm sure eventually you'll see Barney and friends singing about various bread products, tortillas being one of them. Which brings me to my point: Tortillas.

I wanted to make tacos for dinner about a week or so ago, and so I set out to find some natural, whole-wheat tortillas at my local grocery store. At first glance, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many different choices for whole-wheat tortillas. As I flipped over the first package that I grabbed to read the ingredients, I couldn't believe what I saw was in fact an ingredient list and not a complete written account of the history of the tortilla. There were so many ingredients (and not good ones, either)! I quickly ditched those tortillas and moved on to the next brand. Same thing. Next one. Same thing. Next one. Same thing. Are you kidding me?! I must have read over ingredient lists on about 6 different packages of whole-wheat tortillas before I found one that didn't take 10 minutes to read through. The best choice that I could find for unprocessed (well, least-processed) whole-wheat tortillas was the brand Ole Xtreme Wellness Whole Wheat Tortillas. While these tortillas do still contain bleached flour and other things that I cannot pronounce (or spell), the ingredient list was by far the smallest, and the processed ingredients in the list are apparently less than 2% of the product, so I figured they weren't all that bad. This was the best choice that I could find, but if you have discovered a better product, please let me know!

And that is just 1 more step in my process of going unprocessed.

Snack Attack

In a previous post, I wrote about not knowing what kinds of natural snacks I could give my kids. My 2 year old was quickly getting bored with cheese and assorted fruits and/or veggies. My sister suggested we try Pirate's Booty. It was a bit more expensive than what I would have liked to pay (a running trend in unprocessed foods, I've found), but I think it's going to be one of those snacks we're just going to have to pay more for. I thought it was really good, and my daughter ate almost the whole bag by herself in one sitting! I kid you not...she was going bonkers for Booty! She even asks for it by name now, saying "Boo-ee" when she wants some (which is pretty much non-stop!). It's all-natural, contains no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and it's good so hopefully we'll find a coupon for it at some point because I don't think I will ever be able to leave the grocery store again without buying it because of you-know-who (giving the shifty-eye to 2 year old in the room).

The other snack we tried was Annie's Cheddar Bunnies. They also are all-natural, no artificial ingredients, and all that jazz. The box looks small for the price, but there is actually quite a bit in the box. Think Goldfish crackers au naturale style. My daughter gobbled these up too, and they kept her quiet in the grocery store which was a plus too!

And those are 2 more steps in my process of going unprocessed.

Quinoa and Cake

This week I tried a few new things. The first thing we tried was something called quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I've heard of this grain before, as it has been recommended to me by friends and even doctors, but I have resisted it for quite some time now. Honestly, it never sounded very appetizing and I assumed that it would require a lot of effort to make it. I was wrong! It was actually very easy to make, as the cooking instructions for it are very similar to that of rice. I wasn't quite sure how to eat it, though, and I am going to continue to experiment with it. From what I've heard, it's a very versatile food and it goes well with many different things. I added black beans and a can of tomatoes & green chiles to my pot of quinoa. We also added a little bit of guacamole to the top of it, and it was actually pretty delicious. I think quinoa will be a really good addition to our diet, as it's supposed to be really healthy. In fact, it is high in amino acids and is considered a complete protein. Don't ask me what that means, but it sounds important and like it's probably pretty good for me ;)

This week, I also made home-made chocolate cake. Last weekend I invited some friends over at the last minute, so I had to use what we had on hand to make something to eat. I managed to scrounge together the ingredients to make chocolate cake...and not from the box, either! It was sooo good! This was the first time I've ever deviated from the box cake mix stuff, and it was so much better. However, I did make this cake using my bleached granulated sugar, bleached white flour, and canola oil...all things processed. Well worth it as it was delicious, but also something I wanted to compare by making it with unprocessed ingredients. This weekend we have friends staying with us, so I decided to experiment on them. I used raw sugar, coconut oil in place of the canola oil, and a mix of unbleached all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. The rest of the ingredients were unprocessed, except for the powdered sugar that I needed for the frosting. The cake turned out very good, but honestly not quite as good as the processed version. However, the difference between the two cakes was nothing huge, so I will definitely keep making the unprocessed version, as I know it is much better for me and my family.

And those are two steps in my process of going unprocessed.

I've been doing some thinking...

Dangerous...I know! Mix that with a little bit of reading, as well, and watch out! Seriously, though, I think the name of this blog is actually a big misrepresentation of what I am doing. I am trying to eat more unprocessed foods, that is true. However, mostly what I am doing is cutting out unnecessary chemicals and additives from my daily diet. The way I see it, pretty much anything aside from fresh meat or produce is processed in some way or another. Even if it is just plain whole wheat flour, that wheat still went through the process of being ground into flour. See what I'm saying? The true unprocessed foodies in the world would scoff at this blog as they ate their whole, unprocessed, virtually untouched foods. Sounds great, but not so much for me and my family. Like I said, my goal is to try to cut back on all of the unnecessary ingredients found in so many of our foods today. Just wanted to clear that up...

On another note, tonight I ditched the packet of Taco Bell taco seasoning that I usually use to make tacos, and instead I made my own seasoning mixture. I found a great recipe for it at allrecipes.com. It was super easy to put together, all of the ingredients were things that I already had on hand, and best of all, there were no chemicals or additives needed! Yay!

One small step in the world of making tacos, but one large step in the world of unprocessed eating.

Baby Step #2: Grocery shopping, au naturale style

My second step in this process was to do my grocery shopping a little bit differently (ok, a lot differently!). First off, I left the kids at home. Grocery shopping with a 2 year old and a 6 month old is already stressful enough with my usual shopping list. I knew this trip was going to take me longer (having no idea what I was going to buy), so I went on a solo mission. Whew! Thank God for hubbies at home on the weekends!

My plan of attack was to read every label on every food item that went into my cart. First stop was the produce section....easy! Then again, fresh fruits and veggies don't have labels. Alright, moving on...the healthy food section. Our local grocery store actually has a pretty good and diversified section of organic cereals, snacks, yogurts, soups, etc. The only problem with this section of the store, though, is that it's super expensive! Multiple times, I had to put things back on the shelf when I remembered to look at the price. Four dollars for a bag of chips? Eight dollars for cereal? Yeah, not on my budget! I decided this section of healthy foods was definitely not economical and not even practical for my family. After picking up only a box of quinoa (which I've heard amazing things about) and 3 boxes of organic popcorn (buttered, of course, but it's organic and the ingredients are all real! Plus, it was on closeout, so I decided to stock up seeing as though it was only a fraction of the usual price...ok enough justifying my buying 3 boxes of buttered popcorn!), I moved on to the rest of the grocery store.

As I continued throughout the rest of the grocery store, I was quite happy to see that some (not many, but some) things I had previously been buying were actually unprocessed. I picked up some new things like whole wheat tortillas for tacos. (Side note: I learned that just because a package says "Whole Wheat" does not mean that it is only made up of whole wheat. I read ingredient lists on literally 6 different packages of whole wheat tortillas before I found one that didn't have a hundred different ingredients in them!) I was super excited to get some pure cane sugar in the baking section for a really good price, as it was also on closeout. Cha-ching! I was pumped! I also grabbed some whole wheat flour and unbleached all-purpose flour, both of which I am still trying to figure out the uses for ;) I ended getting ingredients to make three different dinners for my family this week (if you're interested in what those dinners will be: tacos, quinoa with black beans and chicken, and salmon with roasted vegetables). The other nights we will eat leftovers or eat more of the "bad" stuff we still have at home.

The total amount of money that I spent on groceries was a little bit more than I usually spend, but only by about $35. I felt ok about this, though, because I bought quite a few things (like flours, sugar, coconut oil, etc.) that I won't have to buy everytime I go to the store. The whole trip did take about a half hour longer than it usually takes me, but it was well worth it! I feel really good about doing something good like this for my family and I'm excited to try out old recipes with new ingredients and new foods altogether. The only thing I am realizing I didn't really buy was snacks. My 2 year old has been asking me for snacks during the past 2 days, and besides fresh fruit & veggies I'm not sure what else to give her. I did pick up some cheese and some unprocessed crackers, but she's already getting sick of that. If anyone knows of any good snacks, please let me know! All in all, I think the shopping trip was a success and I'm looking forward to my next baby step already!

And that is one step in my process of going unprocessed.

Follow-Through: Getting rid of processed foods

When I first set out on the "challenge" of eating our way to the end of our processed foods, I was very excited. Afterall, I always love a good excuse to eat! Our cabinets and freezer have a lot more space now, but I gotta say...this challenge was not as much fun as I thought it would be. I ended up feeling really gross as I was eating my way through boxes of Nilla Wafers, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and a bag of white Wonder bread. I read many of the ingredient lists on the foods I was eating and that alone made me feel a little queasy. Why are these chemicals and additives in our food anyway? What is the point?! From what I've been reading, many of the added ingredients in our food are there to increase the shelf life of products. Do we really need a box of cereal to last 2 years or a granola bar to stay "fresh" for 6 months? I expected to feel a little sad at the end of this challenge, having to say goodbye to all of my favorite foods. In the end, though, I became even more motivated to start eating more natural, unprocessed foods and I was more than happy to say goodbye to the others. Good riddance, I say!

Baby Step #1: Rid the house of processed foods

The first baby step that I will take in this process is to purge my refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets of processed foods. When I say purge, what I really mean is to binge on exactly those foods that I want to get rid of. Yes, you read that right. I'm not into throwing away perfectly fine food (even if it is not exactly "fine" due to being completely processed). You see, I decided to actually start making these changes just one day after I had gone grocery shopping with my usual list of what to buy for the week. Included on said list were things like frozen beef stir-fry, alfredo sauce, and a bag of some kind of Jimmy Dean skillet thing (which really doesn't sound appealing but anything that contains the words Jimmy Dean in the name is probably going to be pretty delicious...just sayin'). I also considered not starting this process until I went on my next grocery shopping trip, but I didn't want to be one of those people that says "Oh, I'll start next week," because I usually am one of those people that says that and then I never actually do it. So I am starting today with this very step and I am going to enjoy every moment of every bite of the highly-processed foods that are currently infesting my food storage space.

And that is one step in my process of going unprocessed.

What This Is All About

A few days ago, I attended a meeting of the mom's group at my church. The topic of discussion on that day was gardening with a huge dose of what-you're-feeding-your-family-is-killing-them thrown in. What I thought was going to be a relaxing morning of Veggie Gardens for Dummies turned out to be an assault on bleached flour, canola oil, and pesticide-laden produce. Now don't misunderstand me here, the ladies in charge had very good intentions, very good hearts, and very good information. When it was all said and done, though, I couldn't help but feeling completely overwhelmed with information. I'm slowly killing my family with what I am feeding them: got it. We shouldn't be eating highly-processed foods because they are in reality very dangerous: got it. These highly-processed foods are making my family sick and I should make some changes: got it! BUT HOW?!?!

That's where this blog comes in to play...

After I got home from that mom's group meeting and had some time to process (no pun intended) the information I had received earlier, I decided that maybe I should try to change a thing or two. Afterall, I want what is best for my family and if that means making the switch from my beloved Country Crock to real butter, well, I suppose I can make that sacrifice. And, my hope is that along the way, I will begin to see the benefit of the changes we are making and will continue to make even more changes for the better. For now, though, my goal is to make one change in our eating/food buying habits per week. If I end up being a little more motivated one week, well then maybe I'll initiate two changes. However, I don't want this to be too stressful, too expensive, or too time-consuming. I am just going to take one little baby step at a time in the direction of eating more nature-intended food.

I must admit, the motivation behind this blog is quite selfish. It most likely will not be the go-to blog for directions for home-made yogurt-making, completely organic grocery lists, or even recipes for all-natural cleaners. I am hoping that this blog will serve as something to hold me accountable to my goals: making small changes on a regular basis that will lead myself and my family into a more natural way of eating. Hopefully along the way, though, I might inspire someone else to make 1 change in their eating habits, enlighten someone's way of thinking about the foods they eat, or maybe even evoke a chuckle now again while watching an ordinary gal like me try to pry my grips from the Country Crock container.

And that is the beginning of my process of going unprocessed.