Real Food Challenge

Well, my idea of not telling my family about the challenge was blown out of the water on Day 1!! Our first challenge was to clean every processed food item out of our house. That did not go over well! We came to a compromise - I will not throw any food away but I will not buy any processed food for the duration of the Challenge. I am planning on donating at church this Sunday for the Super Bowl of Caring food drive.
I was ready to throw in the towel on Day 1. Throw out everything processed with no alternatives given!! We made it through Day 1 without eating any processed foods - and we ate well.
Day 2: Buy some of the whole foods necessary - I didn't do this either because I was heading to town on Thursday.
The rest of this week is a blur. I cheated Tuesday by making spaghetti - it was whole wheat and everything else was homemeade, so not so bad, right?
Last night we had cream of broccoli soup in homemeade bread bowls and hard boiled eggs.
Tonight we ate salmon (caught by a friend who doesn't eat it!) and roasted root vegetables. Yummy!!
Breakfasts and lunches aren't so bad. We are eating homemade yogurt, 7 grain hot cereal (think oatmeal), eggs, milk, homemade bread,etc..
Tomorrow or early next week I plan to try my hand at homemade mozarella cheese! My sister-in-law Julie has a recipe that I would like to try.
I have yet to start a sourdough, but that was also on the challenge this week.
This challenge is, well, challenging! I am learning to think ahead a little more and we are trying some new things. I have never eaten parsnips before! Tonight, we ate parsnips and carrots julienned with maple syrup. I thought it was awesome. Unfortunately, I did hear some gagging at the table. The boys were not overly impressed with it.
Suprisingly, I have 6 main dishes planned out for this week and I bought all of my groceries and then some without going over my grocery budget!!

FOOD CHALLENGE

I have decided to take my family on  a  28 day food challenge. I haven't told them yet!! This household of boys doesn't really like to have their food messed with! We eat fairly healthy, but there is always room for improvement in my opinion. If we are required to buy strange things that are expensive, then we won't do it. However, since this is a real food challenge I think we will be okay with the meat we raise and the food we have canned and frozen from the garden.
If you would like to join us, the challenge is on nourishedkitchen.com

New Driver

Logan has had his license for about 10 days now! Wednesday night on the way home from church he totalled his truck!! Logan is okay, thank God! The truck however is not. He is back to riding the bus or hitching rides from me. I would post pictures, but Logan doesn't want me to. It is quite a sight and maybe someday Logan will let me post a photo so you can see how fortunate he was.