My Whole Food Lifestyle...Step by Step, Waste Not Want Not, & Today's School Lunches

Good afternoon!

It truly is.  I am a survivor...of first grade field trips!  Woo hoo!  

Here is what we had for lunch today...

 My kindergartner... 

Greek yogurt tube, strawberries, organic pumpkin seeds/raisins, all natural nonGMO tortilla chips, & 1/2 a sandwich (GH Dakota bread, organic spinach, homemade organic hummus, & colby cheese)

My first grader & I (everything disposable, field trip lunches)...Sorry, I didn't have time to take a pic of it this morning, as we were too busy running around like mad people to get out the door on time, but here is a pic from when we sat down to eat.

Organic pear, LaraBar ( I had Ginger Snap, he had Coconut Cream Pie, which he did not care for), packet of Justin's Maple Almond Butter (Which he also did not care for...Oh well, you can't win 'em all.), sandwich (I had lightly grilled organic yellow squash, homemade organic hummus, colby, & organic spinach.  He had organic spinach & tomato.  Both were on GH Dakota.), & bottled water.  Mine has organic black chia seeds in it. 

I have to say, I had a great group of boys today.  :)  I enjoyed every moment with them.  

Mine was especially funny last night.  Check out this conversation we had...

Him: Mom, if we have questions and we raise our hands, can you always call on me first because I'm your son?

Me: Hmm...I'm not sure that is fair.  You know, we need to be fair to everyone.  

Him: No, it's fair.  You're still gonna answer everyone's questions, but you'll just answer mine first.

Who can argue with that logic?  Let's just say that I answered all questions as they came at me.  :)

Really quickly, I wanted to share with you what we had for dinner last night.  I call this type of meal "Waste Not Want Not".

You know those days when you're just chugging along, no problems, and then it hits you...I have a family to feed!  That was yesterday.  I was cruising along through my day, and I realized that I had no dinner planned.  This is the beauty of whole foods.  I can always figure something out.  

I entered the pantry...this is what I call a "dead zone".  Every time I go in there, I have no clue why I'm there.  So, I grabbed a bag of dry kidney beans, thinking I could do a quick soak.  I decided on beans, salad, & the leftover baguette. After soaking the beans, I began to cook them, trying to figure out just what I wanted to do with these.  Just beans?  Beans and onions?  Bean soup?  My meal began evolving in my mind based on what I was pulling out of the fridge...odds and ends of this and that.  Here is what I threw in the pot...an organic yellow squash end that I chopped up, some frozen organic corn, leftover frozen organic chick pea/black bean blend, leftover red onion, 2 organic carrots that I chopped up, some dried herbs, some frozen red/green/yellow/orange pepper strips, about 1/2 cup leftover 13 bean soup, & salt.  

Everyone loved it!  It helped me clean out the fridge, and fed my family...a win win! What you see with it is roasted organic yellow squash.  This was the result of an earlier failed attempt at making squash chips...I sliced them too thin.  I had this whole bowl of VERY thinly sliced squash, so I decided to roast it.  I layered it on an oiled baking sheet, drizzled with nonGMO canola, & sprinkled with salt.  I roasted it at 350 degrees, until slightly browned and soft.  I just kept an eye on it.  This was so delicious!  A keeper, for sure. 

And last, but not least, a good friend of mine asked me to detail the steps that I have taken, in order, toward a whole food, chemical free, lifestyle.  I'm going to attempt to do that in the greatest detail possible.  So, here goes...

*Juicing...We were juicing every day.  You can find out more about our juicing here.  This definitely made a difference in how we felt. 

*Drastically reduced meat consumption to MAYBE once a week.

*Eliminated artificial flavors and colors.  This cut out nearly all processed foods.

*"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."~Hippocrates   I began treating all of our illnesses with what I called "healing foods".

*Began purchasing pure cane sugar...no more white sugar.

*Cut out all meat, and moved to a plant based diet. 

*Chemicals, antibiotics, & hormones...I did my research, used apps to help, and slowly began eliminating these from our diet. This eliminated nearly all eating out.

*Flour...buying only whole wheat and UNBLEACHED white (used sparingly, and always combined with wheat flour).

*Milk...began purchasing only Hartzler's, and only whole milk.

*Chia seeds...I began drinking organic black chias in either water or green drink, daily.

*Honey...began purchasing honey to use as our main sweetener, reducing our dependence on the cane sugar.  I use honey in everything.  

*Bought water filtration pitcher, using it in everything that isn't cooked, including our green drink.  This, or our green drink, is nearly all that we drink. Other than the occasional coffee or unsweetened organic green tea. 

*Microwave...we stopped using it for anything other than popcorn. We could easily get rid of it. 

*Kid's lunches...bought all the supplies that I needed to make the kids lunches that met my standards, never planning on buying the school's lunches again.

*GMOs...more research.  I began to seriously avoid GMOs.  Find out more about GMOs here.

*Added sugars...if it has more than 5g per serving, it was most likely not going into my cart, or our bodies.  This was a major change...probably the biggest.  No more sweets, donuts, etc.  Though I didn't realize it, I was definitely addicted to sugar.  We went cold turkey.  We didn't ignore our cravings.  We recognized them, tried to pinpoint exactly what it was that we were wanting, and figured out the best way to satisfy them.  Something sweet?  Fruit could do that.  Chocolate?  A small amount of yogurt w/dark chocolate shavings could satisfy that.  If we have a dessert now, it is either yogurt, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, or a combination.

*Body care...I began choosing natural body products.  Soaps, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, & sunscreen are some of the body care products that I now buy natural.  This is still a work in progress.  Check out what is in your toothpaste.  I was shocked!  I use peroxide as a mouth wash.  It's great for whitening teeth, too.  

*Juice...I cut out all juice other than what we make.  Juice has too much sugar.  It takes quite a few oranges to make a cup of oj...I'd never give my children that many oranges at one sitting!  So, instead of juice, you get the whole orange, apple, etc.  This way, they get all of the vitamins, nutrients & fiber.    

*Maple syrup...began purchasing organic maple syrup, always keeping some on hand to use as one of our 2 main sweeteners.  We typically only use the pure cane sugar for baking.

*30% raw...I began serving at least 30% of every meal raw.  That would be fresh or frozen fruit, uncooked or very lightly steamed veggies, etc. This ensures that we get the maximum nutrition from that portion of our meal.

*Unhealthy treat/snack buy back...If the kids are offered/given a treat or snack at school that isn't beneficial for their bodies, they can bring it home to me, and I will "buy" it back.    I may "buy" it with a special movie night of their choice, money, video game time, outside time, etc.  They get to choose.  Of course, they can always choose to eat the item offered to them, but they tend not to.  They like being able to negotiate for something more rewarding with mom.  I'm so proud of them when they bring those items home.  :)

*12 hour rule...I began waiting 12 hours from the time of my last meal of the day to my first meal of the next.  This has really helped my digestion, eliminating that backed up, over-full feeling.  

**Organics...throughout this whole process we were slowly incorporating more organic into our diets.  Once we buy an organic item, we tend not to go back to conventional.  The items that now only buy organic are butter, cows milk that isn't Hartzler's, carrots, lemons, kiwi, bananas, apples, oranges, pasta, pasta sauce, corn (all varieties), spinach, salad greens, oats, eggs, lacinato kale, plain yogurt, peanut butter, brown rice, quinoa, many of our dry beans, dry herbs & spices (bulk),chia seeds, & popcorn.  There may be others, but that's all I can think of right now.  We add in more organic items all the time. 

**Toss it...I slowly cleaned out the pantry, freezers, & fridge, throwing away the things that didn't meet the above guidelines.  

**Say "no thank you"...it's ok to say "no thanks" to something that doesn't fit the whole food lifestyle.  

**Make it yourself...if someone else made it, so can you!  

**Add in the good, it will crowd out the bad.

**I don't eat anything masquerading as something else.  

**If you can't pronounce it, or wouldn't be able to cook with it in your own kitchen...don't eat it! 

**If it isn't helping your body, it's harming it.  

Well, there they are...all the steps I have taken so far on our lifestyle journey.  I really hope these help you figure out where to start, and where to go from there. 

 This is just the path that I took on my family's journey...your path may be different.  :)