Ever in my quest for our family to eat healthier, (which goes completely against my spoiled Southern tastebuds which prefer everything deep fried and smothered with either cheese or chocolate), I have learned a thing or two in these last months.
First and foremost, I am only purchasing the freshest, "best" eggs I can find. We've been on the "good eggs" for a year now. No cages, no hormones, no crazy stuff. Eggs laid by happy chickens who get to run around and scratch and eat bugs and have a happy chicken life. Yep. Those are the eggs I want my kids to eat. Same with the milk. I want happy cows that get to romp around and play kiss and chase in the sunshine.... no hormones, no crazy stuff. Just good fresh milk as God intended. If I could find a farm nearby that sold milk and eggs, I'd be overjoyed. :) But in the meantime, I am hitting the hippie stores.
Organic fruit. Or at least fruit from the Clean 15 list if nothing else. This week I bought bananas, pears and oranges. I keep dried fruit such as cranberries, raisins, and prunes. Sometimes I will splurge and get the dried cherries or blueberries. I have my eye on our fig tree. It is covered with little green figs and we are anxiously waiting for them to turn purple. My daughters and I love eating them right off of the tree.
A big favorite around here is organic, steel cut oat groats. We like it with fruit in it. I am not above adding pecans, cinnamon, or anything else that sounds appealing at the moment. I have heard some folks add a spoonful of peanut butter. I LOVE peanut butter. So I tried it. YUCK. No, I won't eat that again. ;) Peanut butter is best on toast! Yum, yum, yum, I love oat groats. We eat them so often I am surprised we haven't began to whinny yet. LOL
Recently I bought Arrowhead Mills Organic Gluten free "Rice & Shine" brown rice cereal. We tried it once. Using only a bit of honey and some cinnamon. Reminded me quite a lot of Cream of Wheat. I was not impressed. My stupid spoiled American taste buds cried for more flavor. I have been doing some reading, and we will try it again with dried fruit and some agave nectar. I am resisting the temptation to dump in good old brown sugar. Which I know would be absolutely delicious.... but I am trying to get us away from eating so much of that stuff.
A big favorite for myself and the girls is granola or muesli with yogurt and fruit. We like it so much we will gladly eat it for any meal. Unfortunately though, we like the packaged, sweet yogurt that everyone eats.. not the 'real' yogurt. I have tried the 'real' yogurt, and I found it to be thick and not sweet. Fruit and honey help it a lot.
I love tea. English Breakfast tea. Barry's Irish Tea. PG Tips. Typhoo. Mmmmm!! I only use American tea (Luzianne, Tetley, Lipton), bags for making iced tea. When I have hot tea, I want the "good stuff". :) Europe makes not only better chocolate, but better tea too. I love how strong it is! That being said, I unfortunately have English taste buds in that sense... milk and sugar please. This is a difficult habit to break, and I am not sure I actually 'want' to break it! I do buy herbal teas, and those are nice for my kids, and hot chocolate too.. especially on our few chilly days we have here.
It's hard to break away from what we were raised on. Pre-sweetened cereals, packaged pancake mixes with sugary fake syrup. "Instant" oatmeal loaded with sugar. Poptarts. Everything so white. So processed. So full of sugar, fillers, preservatives, and garbage. Fat, sugar, and salt. For lunch we always had peanut butter and jelly, or bologna sandwiches, or a grilled cheese with canned tomato soup. All washed down with Koolaid... full of red dye and sugar. Our moms fed us what all the other moms fed their kids, and no one thought anything about it.
I want to do things different. Eating canned veggies... I want that to be "occasionally" and not "usually". My kids love tabbouleh. Hummus. Bulgar. Couscous. Kale. Seaweed. Tofu. Things that, when I was a kid.. I had no idea what those even were! And neither did my parents. But I read, read, ask, and read some more. I worry about what they're eating, or not eating. When they get colds, I ditch the cow milk and go with soymilk and up their raw unfiltered honey intake. I know some people think I'm a wacko. I don't care. I want for us.. our family.. in all areas... just to de-sludge our bodies and minds. To be as healthy (and happy) as possible as we grow in our faith. You've heard that saying, "Garbage in, garbage out"? And "You are what you eat."? It absolutely does matter what we fill our hearts and minds and bodies with. :)
Anyhoodles... Next on my list to weed out is "drum roll please" is the "white stuff". Actually I am pretty sure I've said this before.. and probably more than once. LOL I have GOT to stop buying white flour, white sugar, white bread, white rice, white pasta, and white anything. This garbage is KILLING us and I know it. I do hereby publicly declare..(again).. I "ain't buyin'" no more "white stuff". God give me strength to resist the temptation!
Lord, please be my guide in all things...
You can do it!
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