Okay, now that you got to see our first week’s menu for the month let’s go back to how we started slowly moving away from processed foods.

1.  Eliminate white flour, sugar, bread and pasta

We have already replaced our white flours and sugars.  I do buy white buns for hamburgers and hot dogs.  I will be making my own buns for hamburgers the next time we have them.  Hot dogs are a food we used to eat much of, but I limit it to once per month this year.  I don’t feel too bad about feeding my children white hot dog buns for the once a month treat.

One of our next goals will be to switch to whole wheat pasta. I am not sure how that will go, as we have tried it before and thought it was a “gummy” texture.  Hopefully this next time around it will be better.  I still have much pasta on our shelf, as we used to eat ALOT of it, but have since not been eating it as much, we will get there.

2.  Replace sugary drinks and sodas with water

My husband really likes to drink pop.  It was a staple in our household each week.  I don’t drink it, so it doesn’t concern me, but I know if there was some open in the house, my children would drink it.  We have since stopped buying it and save it for special occasions.    We don’t drink flavored sugary drinks except for special occasions.  I buy apple juice for the little ones and water it down 1 part juice to 2 parts water.  They only get a cup in the morning for breakfast and then we drink water the rest of the day.

I myself like to put a peppermint teabag in my water bottle and let it flavor my water.  I change it out every 2 days.  My only other “guilty pleasure” is coffee. I LOVE it and would prefer to stop drinking so much of it.  We use instant coffee and creamer.  I would love to find a homemade version of creamer, but grew tired of trying new recipes and wasting them.  I need one that is fat free and not so heavy.  I don’t want it to taste like milk.  Any suggestions???

I just acquired my first kombucha starter.  I am excited about this, as I have learned about the health benefits and can’t wait to try it.  Only a few more days.  (I will do a post on it!)

3.  Avoid packaged foods with more than 5 ingredients  with lots of ingredients.

There are some things that we just can not make.  Well, we could make them but we don’t want to traumatize our family with our version of homemade mustard.  I originally thought no more than 5 ingredients but I started looking at some of the stuff that we still buy like mustard, ketchup,  and mild pepper rings.  Some have like 6 ingredients, so I didn’t want to be lying when I said I cut those out, we are just looking to simplify and get rid of the bad ones, if I can make it, I will do that.

4.  Replace fake margarine’s and vegetable oils with real butter and olive/coconut oils.

This wasn’t too hard, as we have been doing this for a long time.

5.  Replace table salt with sea salt

We already do this.  I buy the iodized salt and use it for cleaning purposes only.

6.  Replace snack foods with fresh fruits and veges

This has been a harder one for my children.  We do baking once per week, usually and I USED to always make a big batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, energy bites,or Monster cookies.  I would then freeze them and each day at snack time, pull them out to eat them.  But we have NOT been making this for the last few months.  I decided to have plenty of veges and fruit cut up to eat.

I also made a homemade trail mix and kids snack mix to help with the snacky needs.  This stuff they haven’t taken a liking to as easily.  I offer a few pieces each day and they will learn to like it eventually.

We used to have snack time each morning but have since dropped it.  When you feed your children good, quality meals, there is no need to snack.  They can last till lunch time.  Sometimes in the afternoon, I know they are hungry and will allow whatever we have on hand.  Sometimes it is bread and jam, frozen grapes, celery and peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, or hummus and veges.  All of those  choices are from a homemade source, nothing processed.

Each evening, popcorn is a good, healthy snack to air pop for everyone.

This doesn’t mean that we will NEVER make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins again, we will just make them more of a treat instead of a regular monthly thing.

7.  Stop eating out and start making meals.

This one, we got figured out over the last few years.  Taking a large family out to dinner is expensive.  We did many weekends at our local pizza buffet during the winter months, when they were little, just to get me out of the house, but those “needed” days are gone.  Seems we reserve this for about once per month.  Not a problem in our family.

We did buy the $5 pizzas A LOT when we would be out and about driving and needed to feed the children as it was cheap and easy.  But I am getting better at grabbing foods to fill our bellies while we do a day outing.  My husband says “let’s go!” and my girls and I can have a cooler packed and ready to go in about 5 minutes.  We usually make peanut butter and honey sandwiches or wraps with lunchmeat.  I grab whatever fruit or vegetables we have on hand, cut up.  If we have a treat like cookies in the freezer or even a box of graham crackers leftover in the pantry,  we grab those as well.   That makes the temptation for grabbing treats less by just bringing my own. We ALWAYS grab our water bottles as well.  Making sure everyone has a drink.

continued…...part 5