Our Week.

Despite the heat we've managed to entertain ourselves with a little outside play, messy faces, swimming, and making banana ice cream.  We shall prevail!

Okay, so this was from Pinterest, too...

This was a breakfast for Harper, by Harper.  This child of mine loves cheese, eggs, butter, and chocolate milk.  So what better breakfast than one that involves most of her favorite things? (I excluded cheese from this, only because if given a choice, that would be all Harper would eat.  She loves it so!)

So I taught her how to use cookie cutters.  I gave her her own piece of bread and let her select what size cutter she wanted to use.  I let her help me scramble the eggs.  She helped to butter the bread.  

And then, of course, she helped me to gobble it all up.

Slowly Transitioning

As I stated before, we're slowly transitioning to a more whole foods diet.  I read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food last weekend (so much good information and a quick read = excellent book) and reevaluated what we were eating.  This lead me to purge almost all of our processed foods by giving them to people who wanted them (my brother and cousin took some, the rest I donated which I'm not exactly happy that I gave my processed food to other people, but they were content with it I guess).  I say almost all of it because Wade kept his soups, tuna fish, and some crackers that he likes and can finish up on his next work rotation.  We also kept some bread, self-rising, all-purpose, and cake flour, white and brown just because you never know.  We might really be craving something not-so healthy, but in moderation (like serious moderation) I think that's just fine.  So here are some pictures to show you what's been going on:

The food that we got rid of.  A lot of food (obviously not what we gave away) had just been sitting in our kitchen for a long time.

The food that I bought at Trader Joe's

Our pantry after shopping and cleaning it out.

Our fridge after shopping and cleaning.

Our cabinet after cleaning.  The top shelf has the non-whole foods items, the second shelf has a mixture (the mac n cheeses to the left are a bit questionable, but okay in a pinch.  The bread crumbs actually have homemade ones in it and the oatmeal can on the right has homemade granola in it.)

No knead whole wheat bread with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and orange zest dipping sauce

After I made smoothies for breakfast one morning, I froze the left overs to make popsicles.

We are by no means perfect at this.  We are just beginning.  Each day is a new day at this and some days we struggle more than others.  But the more processed foods we cut out and the more real foods we eat is better than before!

Getting a Little Real

I have been reading this blog about trying to incorporate more "real foods" into our diet and eliminating processed foods.  I have been working on this for awhile, especially when it comes to organic foods, but the information she provides on her blog have helped to expand my knowledge on the subject even more.  I don't want to change the atmosphere and topic of this blog.  Afterall, this is something that I do for Harper.  But I would like to share some of the recipes I try and the things I buy.  We are starting a new budget next week and I am going to attempt to do our own little challenge; hopefully one that will become habit for us.  I would like to include this on my blog because what I am doing affects Harper and I do this kind of thing out of love for her.  Plus, if there is anyone else out there that is interested or is doing the same thing, perhaps this might be informative or it might spur them to make similar changes.  I'm reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food right now since that is where the "100 Days of Real Food" challenge came about.  I think my including this in my blog I will be able to write more frequently as well.  I do take pictures of Harper, but not as often as I used to.  I take videos more now since she doesn't sit still for very long!  I'll have to update you all on what she has been up to.  Let me just say that even though I may be biased, I think she could win a "Cutest Kid" contest with her pigtails and her singing her ABCs!

Here are some pictures of our groceries and food as of late:

The items on the left(apple sauce, PB, nuts, unsweetened coconut, and yeast) were not local items, but the items on the right (milk, eggs, chicken, and honey) were all from Indiana.  Unfortunately I didn't have my frequent shopper's card, but it broke down like this:
Organic Applesauce: $3.55
Almonds: $ 1.56
Walnuts: $1.99
Yeast: $2.55
Chicken: $5.74
Natural PB: $4.75
Unsweetened shredded coconut: $4.49
Organic eggs: $3.99
Organic milk: $4.49
Local honey: $5.75
Total: (after a $.55 discount on the nuts) $38.31

Delicious homemade eggsalad, organic stone wheat crackers, and organic celery

Homemade chewy granola bars.  Seriously people, these are ridiculously easy to make and really good!
 (recipe here)