Wrapping up the Real Food Challenge

This week Jenny from Nourished Kitchen shared her knowledge of the importance of incorporating meat into our diets, and what to look for to make sure the meat we eat is nutrient dense and safe.

Meat is a tough one for us (and I imagine most other city-dwellers). $6.00/lb for good beef, lamb, or bison uses up my food budget a lot faster than my frugal mind can handle sometimes. Knowing how dangerous the hormones and antibiotics we consume second-hand from conventional meats are has encouraged our family to eat less meat - we eat vegetarian dinners about a 1/3 of the time and incorporate meat into a dish rather than serving it as the main course on the other nights.

Downside: I've struggled with anemia both of my pregnancies so far. I had to have a blood transfusion after my last, and have been keeping track of and trying to improve my iron levels this time with hopes for a different outcome. I have never dealt with obvious signs of anemia outside of pregnancy, and this could just be what my body does when I'm pregnant, but I would wager that all but eliminating red meats from our diet hasn't helped.

Purchased some yummy meats this week and made lamb meatballs and bison chili! Both super-delicious!

Read my post on Thinking Outside the Grocer if you are struggling to find a source for quality meats.

The other topics this week were all great as well. If you missed them, check out the archives.

To wrap this challenge up, I'm going to list the changes we've made as a direct result of the knowledge and/or encouragement Jenny has shared. Thanks so much for helping us take steps to better nourish ourselves and families this month!

We have...

Started soaking our flour, rice and other grains, and beans before cooking them.

Purchased coconut oil and ghee in bulk.

Made (and LOVED) milk kefir for the first time.

Made bone-broth half a dozen times and used it in even more ways!

Stopped eating dried pasta (for the most part - and this is a HUGE sacrifice for us!).

Tried new-to-us foods like arrowroot and sucanat.

Learned a TON that we haven't had a chance to implement.

Had our thoughts on food challenged in too many ways to count.

Found about a hundred topics to research further (never ends, does it?). :)

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Love the great summary Jenny shared on the final day of the challenge:

Stay Natural & Unrefined. Eat only natural, whole foods in their unrefined state.

Avoid Modern, Processed Foods. Avoid processed, packaged, refined foods even those sold as "natural" foods. If you're great-great-great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it.

Sour, sprout or soak. If you eat grain, beans, legumes, nuts or seeds, make sure that you properly prepare them to maximize your body's ability to assimilate their nutrients.

Love healthy fats. Enjoy wholesome, healthy, unrefined natural fats liberally - and especially on your vegetables.

Brew mineral-rich stock. Make homemade, mineral-rich broth and stock weekly, and consume it daily.

Eat grass-fed, pasture-raised and wild-caught.Eat meat, including offal, and make sure it's from a trusted source that relies on traditional methods of raising their animals: on fresh pasture.

Keep dairy raw and fresh. If you eat dairy, keep it raw or, at the very least, make sure it comes from grass-fed animals and is not subject to ultra-high-temperature pasteurization.

Get Your Good Bacteria. Consume naturally fermented, probiotic foods and beverages daily.

Get involved. Grow your foodshed and give back to the community. Fight for farmers and consumers rights and against the industrialization of our food supply.

Maximize nutrient density of your foods by preparing and consuming them with time-honored tradition.

I hope those of you who have participated in this challenge, or followed along in any way, are interested in learning more! I'll be posting on some real-food topics in the near future and Nourished Kitchen is going to be posting video tutorials this month!!!

Also, you should check out the Recipe Cards that Nourished Kitchen puts out by mail each month. I received a month's worth and they are GORGEOUS and wonderful! Jenny is offering a discount of $28 on a year's subscription if you order using the code 28DAYS through March 28th.

List post is linked to Nourished Kitchen. You should stop by to read the week 4 reports of other bloggers!

Real Food Challenge Week 3 Report

This week will be the final week! We're going to learn about organ meats! I'm excited! :)

The focus during week 3 was on ferments and cultured foods. I'm a big fan of bacteria - funny as it is to say! I'm just amazed at the design of our Creator - He made colonies of beneficial microscopic organisms that work to help us digest our food, make our food more nurturing, protect us from hostile little bugs, and so much more!

Here's what I learned this week:

*SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeasts - like water kefir grains, milk kefir grains, Kombucha mothers, and ginger beer plant. They help to ferment foods and beverages.

*The kombucha we learned about is *not* the same as the Japanese kelp tea (Konbu=kelp, cha=tea) that a friend and I thought it might be (random trivia fact - I have a BA in Japanese language and culture!)

*There are a ton of cultured dairy foods other than yogurt and kefir. Read about them here.

*We should think of cheese as a seasonal food. This really struck me as I've begun to see the value in God's perfect timing and the consequences of insisting on eating outside of the seasonal schedule He has set (shipping foods in from far away places and cooping chickens up with space heaters to keep them laying, etc). Cheese should keep dairy in our diets when the cows stop lactating and fresh milk become unavailable for a season. What a different way of life! I really need a farm...

*Seeds and nuts require preparation too! The skins contain enzyme inhibitors.

*Beans need soaking in warmth and acid to decrease the phytic acids. I soaked our lentils Sunday! :)

Real food goals I'm setting for myself:

*I purchased a milk kefir starter - now I need to use it!

*I'm going to make yogurt cheese this week (wasn't in the budget last week)

*Going to sit down and read through this article from the Weston A. Price Foundation on Curds and Whey, as well as this post on foods that contain the most vitamins and minerals.

*When the raw almonds I ordered come in, I'm going to soak them!

If you'd like to get caught up on all of the awesome emails that have been sent out to participants, check out the challenge archives at Nourished Kitchen.

I also really appreciated another blog post I read this week at Live Renewed about ditching anti-bacterial products that fit right in to the challenge this week!

See how everyone else is doing over at Nourished Kitchen.

Real Food Challenge Week 2 Report

Lots of good info this week on my favorite food: FAT! :D

I really do love fatty - as opposed to fattening - foods. Being pregnant and breastfeeding is liberating in that even people eating the standard American diet realize that mommies (and babies) need more fat. The best thing that came from the research I did while pregnant last time was that I learned that EVERYONE needs fat! yay! I highly recommend Real Food or Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck (these are Amazon Associate links) for an easy-to-read explanation of all of the benefits of fat.

Unfortunately, I learned this week that I didn't have it all figured out (darn, hate when that happens!). I had floating around in the back of my mind that some fats cook better than others, but had attributed it only to the lower smoke points of some fats like butter.

Currently we only have three cooking fats in our home: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, butter, and coconut oil. We have a *lot* of each.

I generally divide them up by the flavor they impart - I use olive oil for most everything but Asian dishes and baked goods, coconut oil for sweets and as an add-in to oatmeal, and butter is for our bread, baked goods, an occasional veggie, and sometimes eggs.

This week I learned:

*Of the fats I use, only coconut oil is suitable for high heat.

*The antioxidants in Olive Oil (like Vitamin E) are heat sensitive

*The milk solids in butter are what make it more sensitive to heat, so ghee (solids removed) is a better choice

*I need to read up more on tallow, lard, suet, palm oil, and ghee. I have recently seen lard and ghee on the shelves at my grocer.

Read more about fats at Nourished Kitchen.

Other highlights from this week:

*Fight against GMO's

*Drink raw milk (we're still working on this - we currently drink cream-top VAT pasteurized whole milk from a great dairy)

*Get your good bacteria by eating yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir, and kombucha (have to admit I have no real idea what this is!)

See how everyone else is doing over at Nourished Kitchen.

Real Food Challenge Progress Report

One week down, 3 to go!

If you aren't following the Real Food Challenge at Nourished Kitchen, read my post on week one to see see what it is all about. Then read her post on week one to sign up to receive daily emails this month and check out the archive of past emails.

I wasn't able to read each email on the day they were sent, but I printed them out to go over as I was able. Here's my progress report:

Things I already knew - White flour, processed foods, and artificial sweeteners are bad for you. We should eat whole fat diets (especially dairy) instead of skim or low fat. I love the series about fat over at Kitchen Stewardship.

Things I learned - Whole grains have high amounts of phytic acid in them, causing them in inhibit the absorption of things like zinc and iron. Most need to be prepared by soaking, fermenting, or sprouting to be useful and digestible. Stevia has contraceptive properties (see the comments here)

Changes I made - I soaked my brown rice for the first time and we all enjoyed it a lot. i avoided buying any processed foods this week. I bought some bulk items (coconut oil, 10lbs. of oats, wh. wheat flour) as well as a kefir starter from my friend's co-op. The same friend gave me a bag of sucanat to try.

Goals I am setting - I want to implement the advice on how to prepare grains - especially flour. I think our digestion has been suffering b/c of all of the whole grains we eat, honestly. I think fermenting will be the last one I try b/c I know my husband isn't a fan of sourdough. I'm very interested in sprouting, however, and soaking is an easy adjustment if I just think ahead. I am also going to look seriously into buying raw milk.

Related links that might interest you:

Nourished Kitchen's Recipe Archives

Good, Better, Best: Traditional Foods for Every Budget

10 Healthy Treats for Kids

To read how everyone else participating is doing, check out all of the bloggers who have linked up at Nourished Kitchen today.

Real Food Challenge

I learned so much during the Eat From the Pantry Challenge that I jumped at the opportunity to join another! Especially since this new challenge will help direct the posts I already have planned to write here about how we are changing our diet to consist of more real food!

Over 500 people are participating in the 28 Day Real Food Challenge over at Nourished Kitchen! You can still sign up! Participants will receive a daily "assignment" via email with tips and tasks to baby-step your way into a "wholesome, natural diet." You can then discuss your take on the day's assignment over on Facebook. Each Monday there will be an opportunity to blog about and link up your progress at Nourished Kitchen, and everyone who links up every week will be entered to win some awesome prizes as a reward for "completing" the challenge!

Today is day#1! The assignment is "Clean Your Cupboards." We're challenged to take stock of what is in our kitchen and get rid of unwholesome ingredients.

The Eat From the Pantry Challenge certainly helps me with this since I have very little stockpiled! However, as I mentioned yesterday in my introduction, I want to make sure to emphasize frugality here on this blog. I am finding that this is not only feasible on a good diet, but in some ways, it's a natural by-product of eating "from scratch" and cutting out empty foods. Still, there is a learning curve and I'm still plodding through all of the amazing information about the best ways to go about eating a healthy, frugal diet, so I'm going to be a bit lenient on myself at first.

I won't be throwing anything out this week. Instead, I am going to use her suggestions to make a plan to phase out the things in my kitchen that we shouldn't be consuming, and replace them with more nutritious alternative.

You'll have to sign up to get the full extent of the challenge, but here is the check-list of "foods" to toss:

Day #1 Check List:

For today's assignment make sure to clear your cupboards of the following processed foods as well as anything containing these ingredients: Vegetable Oils: Soybean, Cottonseed, Canola, Corn Sugar: White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Turbinado, Agave Nectar (including "raw"), Sugar in the raw Stevia: white stevia powder, stevia liquid Margarine Shortening (excluding palm shortening) White flour: all-purpose flour, unbleached all-purpose flour, white rice flour, Cornstarch Soy foods: soy sauce, soy flour, soy milk, soy lecithin, isoflavone-enriched foods and supplements Dried Pastas and Noodles Iodized Salt Refined Sea Salt Meat & Dairy Replacements: TVP, veggie burgers, vegan cheeses, sour creams, rice and nut milks, vegan sausages Processed cheeses Skim and Low-fat Dairy: cheese, milk, yogurts etc. Boxed cereals, crackers and cookies Extra Credit for those with clean pantries, remove any item from your cupboard that boasts more than one ingredient.

WOW! I am looking forward to her thoughts on why some of these have no place in our kitchen. Every day she will be going into more detail. Check out the comments on today's blog post to read the answers to some of the questions that are already pouring in! This is going to be quite a ride! :)

Check back tomorrow for a recap of this weekend's freezer cooking exploits! What an ordeal! Preview: How many things can *you* think of that can't be done without running water?

Eat From the Pantry - Final Week!

I feel like the best shopper in the world after my weekly trip to the grocer! :)

I had only $48 left for the month and didn't see any awesome sales in the store ad. I spent a good hour printing and clipping coupons as well as looking up coupon matches before I left and boy did it pay off! I got this:
for $41.16!! That left nearly $7 in our budget!

It feels spectacular to stay withing (under!) budget - and I felt super cool when they had to call the manager on me again to approve my purchase because I had saved more than their system allows automatically:

I saved $14.50 with my coupons and another fill a sack for 10% off promotion, a 26% savings! My store doesn't print out what you save off of the retail price with their in-store promotions, and I ended up buying more sale items than full price items - so my savings was even more than that! So happy that we were able to sneak a couple of snack items in there too!

I made the best ever ramen stir-fry on Sunday (will post soon). The rest of my week should look like this:

Monday: Stuffed Chicken Parmesan (Eat Better America)
Tuesday: Creamy Penne Pasta
Wednesday: Salmon, rice, & veggies
Thursday: "Cream of" broccoli bean soup
Friday: Spaghetti
Saturday: Freezer Cooking Day!!

I was so inspired by my shopping trip on Saturday that I sat down and organized all of the recipes I have printed and clipped from magazines. The dinner we are eating tonight came from a booklet from Eat Better America. The photo is too good not to share:

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Be sure to stop by Money Saving Mom to see what others are planning for the challenge this week.
This post is also linked to I'm an Organizing Junky's Menu Plan Monday post!

Eat From The Pantry Week 3

Well, we're half way through the challenge and we're all still alive! Woot! :) A review of my goals:

1. Reduce weekly grocery spending to $80 from $100. I forgot to mention that my father-in-law lives with us now, too. He will be out of town for the first half of January though, so this should happen anyway - but may not if I don't commit to it.

2. Use up odds and ends. Like that can of almond paste, frozen bag of pureed cauliflower, and the lonely package of soba noodles shoved in the back of the cabinet.

3. Schedule and plan for monthly freezer cooking days for the 3 months before our little one arrives. I want to have plenty of food on hand that is easy when she comes, and in the meantime I want some freedom to work through the time I'd normally be cooking so that I can check off some of the projects (kids room) that need to be completed.

4. Blog about it! :)

How am I doing?

1. So far... okay. I'll tell you in a minute why I have $45 left for this month. lol! I do think we will make it under $320 this month though - which is a savings of $80! That's worth it!
2. Used my random udon noodles in my Chicken Stir-fry but haven't used the soba noodles yet. Decided the can of almond paste really had been in there too long to use... haha! And definitely used up the pureed cauliflower in an awesome curried soup last week!
3. I just posted about how I postponed my freezer cooking day - but it is still on for the end of this month! I'm super excited and have it pretty well planned out.
4. Um... check. ;)

I wasn't exactly running on empty by the end of last week, but I was close enough that I needed some of the basics like flour and sugar. Here's what my "pantry" looked like, cupboard, shelf, fridge, and freezer (oh, and toddler):

PLUS my fave grocery store was having a Hot Deals sale this weekend! CRAZY deals like bananas for $.28/lb, ziplock bags 2/$1, avocados for $.98, bags of dried cranberries at 3/$5, and ramen 5/$1. The best was the bags of Kraft cheese on sale 5/$6 - with a $5 off your next purchase coupon printed at the check out! I bought kind of a lot:

My total ended up at $106.52 (YIKES! I hate big numbers!) but I saved $7.35 with my coupons (see my post on where I get printable coupons) on top of the great sales and then there's that $5 off my next purchase. I guess I'm officially re-stocking my pantry now - but I feel so accomplished having emptied it for the most part and getting back into the habit of meal planning has been awesome!

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My meal plan for the week:

Monday - Cook whole chicken, use some of it in spaghetti.

Tuesday - Frittata with chicken, spinach, and potatoes.

Wednesday - Chicken rice casserole of some kind

Thursday - Homemade pizza!!!!

Friday - Pork chops, homemade noodles in alfredo sauce

Saturday - SHOP! Ramen w/shrimp & veggies.

Snacks - yogurt, granola, fruit smoothies, kashi cookies

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I've been trying to find an excuse to make these yummy looking bread machine rolls from Money Saving Mom, but all of my meals already have carbs/starches in them. Maybe next week?

How are you doing with the pantry challenge? Make sure to link up and read other's progress at Life As Mom.

Pantry Challenge Week 2

We had a wonderful pantry meal yesterday with friends over to help us enjoy it! The Tomato, White Bean, and Bacon Soup from Simply Recipes has become a go-to dish for us when company is coming over because it is so easy and flavorful! We had sourdough bread and salad along side it and Cranberry Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting for dessert. I used whole wheat pastry flour to make the bars and used just cream cheese and honey for the frosting.

I have loved this challenge so far! It has been just what we needed to trim our budget a bit, and I've found a ton of inspiration from the other bloggers participating! It's wonderful to see others encouraged to be good stewards of the food we've been blessed with!

Some bloggers took an inventory of their pantry and freezer before beginning the challenge. I didn't bother because I knew that we were most certainly not overflowing with unused items. My goal has mostly been to use the food that we have and that we purchase in a way that makes the most of it and forces me to add the ingredients that I've been avoiding or procrastinating to use. We were, after a week of hardly shopping, at bare-bones stage. The shelves were empty, the freezer had half a dozen things in it, and Saturday came just at the right time!

I decided to plan this week's menu around the few things we have left and whatever was on sale. After my $10 splurge on macaroni, I had $70 to spend for this week. Thanks to some coupons (more on those soon!) and some good deals, I spent $75.07 and purchased:

I went a little over because (here comes justification!) there was a fill-a-sack promotion in the Health Market (organic and natural foods) that gave me 10% off everything in the bag, so I picked up a few items that I buy regularly but never have coupons for. I saved $13.59 after that promotion and coupons! :D

In addition to finding yummy uses for these things I'm looking forward to research and planning for my first official freezer cooking day! This Saturday the 16th - after my weekly shopping trip - I plan to start stocking the freezer up for next month to save time and money. I'll post my plans when they are made. For now, here is my tentative list of meals for this week:

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Today: See that frozen pizza up there? Snagged it for hubby at $2 off so that he can eat while I'm at Bible Study. I won't be able to stop back by here after my orientation this afternoon at the hospital I'll deliver at.

Tuesday: Cream Cheese Wontons and Fried Rice w/shrimp

Wednesday: Dinner with friends (yay!)

Thursday: Curried Cauliflower Soup

Friday: Beef Stew

Saturday: Cous Cous and Veggies (and I get to shop again!)

Breakfasts: eggs & toast, oatmeal, and buckwheat banana pancakes w/pb & honey (last Sat. bfast too!)

Snacks: Crock-pot Yogurt with granola, popcorn, fruit

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This week is going to be a breeze compared the the first week! And I'm hoping that all of the food that I purchased that we won't get to eat this week allow us to buy some great stuff for our freezer cooking adventures! Check in on how everyone else is doing over at Money Saving Mom.

TBD Soup Determined!

Thanks to The Happy Housewife and her post on Beef Soup in a Bread Bowl, I remembered that I had some beef broth left over from the roast I cooked at the beginning of the week and a small amount of barley left to use. Also, providentially, we were given some bread bowls from Panera yesterday! What a blessing and such a great Winter meal!

Pantry Challenge Week One!

As I mentioned in my last post, we usually spend $100/week on groceries to feed our family of 4 (three adults, one of us pregnant and nursing). We've cut that back to $80/week this month. Unfortunately, we didn't do an amazing job of sticking to our $400/month limit in December (quite a few special dinners out and some holiday treats) so we started January with $50 less in our food budget. We have the money to start over at 0 and "eat" (haha) that $50, but we decided that we should challenge ourselves.

If you are doing the math, that means we had just $30 for this week and we are considering the week "end" as Jan. 8th so that we can split the month up more evenly. I'll be doing my food shopping each Saturday this month. We also entertained a family of 6 on Saturday evening and had to factor those ingredients in! Here was my purchase (totaling $27) on Saturday, Jan. 2nd:

When you are buying organic, $30 doesn't usually go very far. I do try to take advantage of coupons that I find around the internet at sites like MamboSprouts whenever possible.

I have planned out all of our dinners until Sunday the 10th and have scheduled the 16th as my first monthly freezer cooking day! We usually eat leftovers for lunch (I cook larger portions). Here's how our meals look this first week:

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Friday the 1st: Roast, potatoes, carrots, onions

Saturday: Pasta for 8 (plus toddler)! salad, pumpkin pie

Sunday: Family Feast (monthly potluck) at church - brought red beans and rice, brownies

Tonight: egg noodles with ground turkey, peas, onions, and shredded cheese

Tomorrow: Honey-baked lentils w/bacon (will post recipe on Wed!)

Wednesday: Grilled Asian Chicken and Udon Noodles w/soup (will post recipe on Thurs!)

Thursday: chili w/ground turkey

Friday: soup of some kind - want to use frozen pureed cauliflower, have any suggestions??

Saturday: SHOP! Banana buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, burgers for dinner

Sunday: Entertaining again. Will most likely be soup, salad, bread, cranberry bars (will share recipe!!), and chips and guacamole.

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Share your progress report if you are joining this challenge or read how others are doing over at Life As Mom.

Come back tomorrow for a roundup of some great Eat From Your Pantry Resources!

2010 preview

2009 brought so many changes and challenges that I had to let this blog fall off of my list of priorities. I'm sure that 2010 will be just as eventful, but the thought of beginning a new DECADE has me motivated to finally create and stick to a more efficient daily schedule. Naptime for the little guy has always been computer time, but my goal for this year is to make it a much more focused time than it has been. Bring on the blogging! :)

One of the changes coming in 2010 is going to be a HUGE blessing in a very little package. This belly did *not* come from eating too much from my pantry! :)

Becoming a mommy the first time changed everything. Becoming a mommy the second time (she is due in March!) has reinforced those changes, and I have had enough time in this role to feel more confident in my ability to fulfill it. When I began blogging here at EFYP I already had a good grasp of how to cook, how to prepare healthy meals, and how to budget for food. However, I was much more willing to make compromises with our health for the sake of our wallet when there were just two of us and neither of us seemed very vulnerable. Pregnancy, nursing, and pregnancy again have sent me reeling as I've attempted to find a good balance and if there's one thing I learned that I will keep from the year 2009, it's every family has different needs and every individual situation calls for specific discernment. I have stopped trying to figure out the best model for eating for every person or the "right" ways to live as good stewards of all that God has given us. I've learned that I'm not an expert and never will be, and it has been liberating.

As you can imagine, I will be blogging this year from a slightly different perspective. The name of this blog will not change and neither will the mission; I still want to provide information for families doing their best to make ends meet in all different circumstances. I will, however, be attempting to also share with all of you some of the ways I have learned to make our dollar stretch in the most beneficial (to our health, our realtionship, etc.) ways possible.

Just in time for me to officially push restart here at Eat From Your Pantry, I've become aware of a pantry challenge that couldn't be more appropriate!

The ladies over at Money Saving Mom and Life as a Mom are teaming up to host this one. You can read all about it here or by clicking the image above.

Some guidelines for the challenge are:

• Reduce grocery spending. We're talking about reducing grocery spending this month, not eliminating it. Set a goal that is lower than your regular food budget and shoot for not exceeding it.
• Take stock. Take an afternoon and empty your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. Ditch what's gone bad and make a list of what's left. Knowing what you have will make you less likely to buy more.
• Use what you have. Check your pantry before you meal plan or head off to the store. Develop meals based on what you have rather than buying new.

The challenge will last through January and the rules are completely flexible! No two pantries are the same and neither do any two challenge plans have to be. Here are my challenge goals:

1. Reduce weekly grocery spending to $80 from $100. I forgot to mention that my father-in-law lives with us now, too. He will be out of town for the first half of January though, so this should happen anyway - but may not if I don't commit to it.

2. Use up odds and ends. Like that can of almond paste, frozen bag of pureed cauliflower, and the lonely package of soba noodles shoved in the back of the cabinet.

3. Schedule and plan for monthly freezer cooking days for the 3 months before our little one arrives. I want to have plenty of food on hand that is easy when she comes, and in the meantime I want some freedom to work through the time I'd normally be cooking so that I can check off some of the projects (kids room) that need to be completed.

4. Blog about it! :)

So there you have it! I hope you join me for 2010!