Tested

I’ve done a considerable amount of thinking over the last few days.  As much enjoyment and excitement as I feel about my quest to eat real foods…I don’t think I’ll change the name of this blog.

On that long-ago October night, when I was sleep deprived and up (again) with a 7 year old Stephen, when I thought maybe I’d start a blog, the Pink Floyd song that lends its name to this site drifted into my head with its perfect, delicate mix of despair and hope. I’ve always hoped to use these pages to share my honest and oftentimes gut wrenching feelings…to share my inside thoughts with an outside world.

In today’s cultural climate we’re inundated with images, sounds, advertisements, subliminal messages.  We communicate via computer or text message.  We are, as MIT professor Sherry Turkle's book states, Alone Together.  I’m almost as guilty as my teenage son of using these media to “connect” with other human beings.  A case in point: one of Kerry’s friends “texted” him to invite him to a movie.  Kerry is notoriously bad at checking his phone, so he missed out on the fun.  When I said, “I wonder why he didn’t just call our home number?” Kerry told me later that his friend “didn’t even think of that.”  We are alone, together!  The very words streaming from my fingers are destined to be published on the web…a desperate, even pitiable attempt to throw a lifeline out, to see if anyone is out there in a world that seems farther and farther away from my isolated little family unit.  This blog has always been about crying out, about seeking validation, even approval.  Every time I click “publish,” I wait anxiously to see if anyone notices, or better yet, comments.  For a minute or two, I feel…important.  Valued.  I matter.  What I say matters.

I do not mean to imply that over the years of this blog, the thoughts torn loose from a heart sore and heavy with pain are somehow untrue, or embellished in any way…or God forbid a raw bid for pity.  No, like any card-carrying introvert, I simply find it much easier to express myself “on paper.”  But, would I find it nearly excruciating to sit across from any of my readers and express these thoughts?  Undoubtedly I would.  Would I fidget and stammer over my words?  Would I say the same things I say here?  Am I wearing the inside out?  Why is it so hard to look each other in the eye?  I can’t blame it all on my Myers-Briggs personality type. Why do we hide behind the very devices that purport to encourage a sense of community?

For years I’ve been a member of an online bulletin board dedicated to the band Rush.  At first it didn’t really occur to me that it might be important to avoid building an internet persona – a character that I could customize to be whomever I wanted her to be.  Isn’t the internet the perfect playground for branching out, being a little different, creating the person you wish you were?  It can be, and for many people, that’s almost all that it is.  But when I found myself carefully crafting sentences, trying to be extra clever, or meticulously searching for just the right picture of me or my kids (!) to really drive home what a supercool person I was…it hit me.  To borrow from Turkle again: I was experiencing what is called “presentation anxiety” over how best to demonstrate to the internet the image I was unconsciously creating.  It’s like a mask we wear…and as long as we never meet or connect in the outside world, the illusion stays intact, and we pretend to ourselves that we’re involved in each other’s lives.  Does this encourage true community? 

Luckily, early in my years of making “internet friends,” I was able to meet some of them in person – and I knew I wanted to be the same person online or in the flesh.  My point is that the temptation is there, to make yourself seem different in some way…because it’s safe when you pretend to interact but in reality hold others at arm’s length.  I hope the very dear friends to whom I’m referring would agree that we are truly friends in every sense of the word, and I’m grateful for that.  This isn’t just about long-distance friends you’re not likely to see very often, though.  Ever seen someone you know in the store and gone out of your way NOT to run into them?  Be honest…

I must come clean about a few things, while I’m being so transparent – these confessions are part of my self-induced therapy.  I can no longer moan and groan to myself in my journal about the extra weight…and then eat so many Double-Stuf Oreos I lose count.  I can’t complain about feeling friendless when I grab my phone to text someone (keeping that safe buffer zone in place) instead of calling and hearing their voice.  I can’t whine about being miserable at work when I know in my heart I haven’t given it my all each day.  I can’t look myself in the eye in the mirror, pitying myself as a poor dear who has SO much on her shoulders, and then do nothing to take care of myself in the way that I deserve.

I’ve come to the conclusion that being honest on the internet is a true test of one’s integrity and sense of self, regardless of whether you ever come face to face with your target audience, be it friends at a Rush concert, or the neighbor down the street that you’ve “friended” on Facebook but never walk down the street to, you know…talk to…

As I continue to strive toward a better life, I want to commit to myself that I will also make it a more honest life.  I will tell the truth about what I’m feeling.  I will tell the truth about what I’m eating, about how I’m caring for myself.  I will not craft an image.  Like other writers before me, I long to have you, the reader, know me.  I want to tell you on these pages the thoughts that my voice could never fully express.  But on the happy occasion that I do see one of you face to face…I don’t want you to wonder what happened to that person who wrote all that stuff on the internet about autism and real food and finding meaning in the life you lead.

So this blog will continue to be my venting spot, my recipe book, my dream repository – with a renewed sense of truth running throughout, a thread stringing together the beads of my days and my years.
I’m wearing the inside out.

Blogspot Tags: autism, honesty, integrity, living a full life

Summer

Stephen is in his room squealing/shrieking at the pile of videotapes and DVD cases that he feels must be strewn across his floor.  The door’s closed and still, every sound makes my bones hurt.  Summer has only just begun and already I wish I could disappear.

It’s not a coincidence that my prolific writing output stopped right about when school ended.  God, I hate this time of year!  Other families relax into the nothingness, glorying (as they should) in the freedom, the vacations, the trips to the lake.  I crumble into misery, along with my family.  Stephen’s behaviors multiply in intensity.  The easygoing guy of August through May disappears, and along with him any real sense of family harmony.  God, I hate it SO MUCH.  I can’t get a straight answer from anyone about his summer services, and he’s too old or too affected by autism to go to any of the day camps I found.  Unbelievable how families like mine are just dropped like hot potatoes when the school year ends.  And they extended summer, which is clearly an attempt to push me over the edge.  School was going to start August 9.  Now it’s August 20.  Just shoot me.

I have been doing very well with feeding myself and my family with real foods and trying new recipes.  Maybe I’ll get a chance to share more foodie stuff later.  I hope so – those plans and possibilities have been a lot of fun for me.  I’ve found something I’m really interested in, that I enjoy thinking about.

Hopefully I can get back to something fun soon.  Right now I have to go see what I can do to help my son deal with the misery of summer.

Edit to add this...here is what we have to wade through to walk into Stephen's room lately.  It ain't easy.

What we’re eating…

I’m going to run out of titles soon.  How many ways can you say “here’s the food we’re consuming”?  “Here’s the Grub ”?  Umm…no.  “Fancy Fixins’”?  Ewww.  “Food: the Sequel”?

Let’s see.  Last night we had what I thought was a very tasty and satisfying meal.  And, no meat was involved!  I’ve found that buying good quality meats and poultry is what drives up my grocery bill.  So any time I can do a meatless meal that is still hearty and delicious, that’s a great thing.

I cooked Cheesy Vegetable Chowder and Ultimate Cheddar Bay Biscuits (click the names to see the recipes).  The chowder was soooo creamy and good.  It may be my new favorite soup.  I diced the potatoes (Yukon golds, 5 lb. at Organic Harvest on sale, $2.99), the celery, onion and carrots the night before, and stored them in water in the refrigerator overnight.  Once the vegetables were simmering, I made the cheese sauce.  Using whole milk to make the roux really added so much creaminess to the soup.

 

 

Roux thickening on the left, veggies simmering on the right

 

 

 

After the potatoes were tender, but not mushy, the cheese sauce was mixed in.

At first I thought the chowder was a bit thin, but after settling for just a few minutes, it was velvety and just the perfect consistency.

 

Finished product:

The Cheddar Bay Biscuits were also a hit.  Next time I’ll use salted butter (I always keep unsalted on hand because I mostly use it for baking) and I’ll watch to make sure the edges don’t overcook.  This time they went just a minute or two too long.  These are like the biscuits that Red Lobster serves, and I’ve traditionally used this mix to make them:

Oh, they tasted good, these little Betty Crocker biscuits.  Kerry would get all excited when I’d say we were having them.

And just look at all we were getting for the low, low price of $1.49:

Enriched Flour Bleached (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And/Or Cottonseed Oil, Vegetable Oil (Palm, Palm Kernel), Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Corn Syrup Solids, Salt, Dextrose, Garlic, Buttermilk Powder, Modified Corn Starch, Whey, Dried Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Colored With (Artificial Color, Yellows 5&6), Whey Protein Concentrate, Maltodextrin, Reduced Lactose Whey, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Disodium Phosphate, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate. Contains Wheat, Milk And Soy Ingredients.

Gulp.

Now, I’d love to show you my beautiful pan of made-from-scratch Cheddar Bay Biscuits, made with organic wheat flour, and natural ingredients.

 

Except I forgot to take a picture of them.

 

They DID look like these, and they were savory and moist and full of flavor. 

I had one small biscuit and a couple ladles full of soup, and enjoyed both tremendously, one smooth and delicious bite at a time.  The biscuits are very filling and buttery and kind of heavy (as they should be in this case) so it’s not likely we’ll have these often, but when we do, we shall enjoy the heck out of ‘em.

Which is the whole point!

Otherwise, what else is going on?  Well, I visited Whole Foods yesterday.  Again. Second time this week.  I just love being there, surrounded by all the beautiful food.  I went to get just an item or two…and you know how that goes.  I found a nice pinot noir on sale, so since that’s part of the Mediterranean way that was really a necessity.  I got some beautiful, soft, non-grainy garlic powder that smelled SO GOOD…enough to fill my spice jar at home, $1.29.  I also bought a basil plant and a rosemary plant ($2.99 each) and put them in a container on my deck.  I’m planning to do a little container gardening – maybe a tomato plant, some lettuces…who knows?  I also got a fresh organic demi-baguette, flavored with rosemary, $1.39, and some heirloom tomato salsa, which was my splurge item…a very small container was $3.50, but the guy who rang up my groceries was raving about it, so I think that’ll be a nice treat, to savor….perhaps I’ll slice up that baguette, toast it, add some salsa, and drizzle with olive oil.  Now my mouth is watering!

So…even though our most dreaded time of the year is here (summer…which should be growled through clenched teeth) I am doing my best to stay positive and enjoy the life that’s opening in front of me.  Mine!

I hope you’re enjoying the ideas and recipes I’m collecting.  I hope, as I learn, that maybe you’ll find something new to try – and also, since I’m trying to include prices when I can remember them, you’ll see that you CAN eat better, even with a budget.  When I found those Yukon potatoes on sale, I snapped them up – THEN found a recipe to use them with…sometimes you have to think on your feet.

A quick “programming” note: I’m considering changing the name of my blog to more accurately reflect what’s happening here.  To borrow a phrase from the same Floyd song I’m using now…what do you think of “Coming Back to Life”?  Let me know in comments.  Thanks for reading and, happy eating!

www.blogspot.com Tags: whole food, nutrition, eating well on a budget, soups, biscuits

On the menu

So…I’m so excited about the foods and combinations of foods I’m discovering that I could probably blog daily.

I won’t subject you to that.

I did want to post an update on Operation Creamer Concoction.  Last night I reheated the cream/milk/syrup/vanilla mixture and added in about 1/4 c. raw sugar.  I thought a little sweetness might improve matters.  And, it did…but I didn’t get that “ah-ha” moment I want.  The search continues…

I had some really good Kashi blueberry waffles this morning, with some maple syrup.  Having occasionally eaten waffles or pancakes with good old Log Cabin “syrup,” I am absolutely delighted with the purer taste and the thinner texture of real maple syrup.  You don’t need nearly as much, the flavor is intense, and it soaks in nicely, flavoring every bite.  The hilarious thing about Log Cabin is this - take a look at the label and see what jumps out at you:

See how proudly it proclaims “NOW! NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP”?

Well, good on ya’, Log Cabin!  Way to provide a healthy syrupy substance!
Except…

INGREDIENTS: Corn Syrup, Sugar Liquid (Sugar Natural, Water), Water, Salt, Flavor(s) Natural & Artificial (Lactic Acid), Cellulose Gum, Preservative (Sorbic Acid, Sodium Benzoate), Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid

That’s right.  None of that nasty high fructose corn syrup.  Just…low fructose corn syrup?  And, I’m sorry, but… “hexametaphosphate”?  How is that not a drain cleaner or windshield de-icer?  Regardless of what it is, it sounds frightening.

I looked it up.  Blech.  Google it if you want to know…

I got hungry mid-morning and had some sesame crackers, a little cube of Alouette soft cheese, and half an apple.  A good combination, I think.  It tasted really good, regardless.  And I keep saying to myself…why did I think trying to eat better food would be so hard, that I would feel so DEPRIVED?

Tonight we’re having a vegetable cheese chowder and some garlic biscuits…both from scratch.  I’ll post a review of both recipes soon.

Happy eating!

What worked/what didn’t

So, last night’s bean burritos?  Fantastic.  The beans were full of flavor from the garlic that had slow-cooked along with the beans all day, and the chipotle chili powder.  This is a bit smokier in taste than “regular” chili powder and I’m glad I used it in these beans.  We also had some basmati rice cooked in vegetable broth (I got a four-pack of 1-cup cartons of Pacific Foods Organic at Whole Foods for about 3 bucks), some cumin and a chopped jalapeno.  Note: I washed my hands SIX times after chopping the jalapeno.  Six.  This morning if I touched my finger to my tongue, it still burned.  Anyway, I also roasted and chopped a medium sized poblano pepper that went really nicely in the burritos.  Lastly, some regular (not light) sour cream and some white cheddar cheese – very sharp and it only took a sprinkling to add to the creaminess.  The guys added some ground beef (grassfed – one pound at Publix – $7.99…more on this in a minute) that I browned, drained, and added back to the pan with some of the homemade taco seasoning I mixed up over the weekend because I had the spices on hand.  Delicious and no MSG!  I was able to make enough seasoning for at least three total meals.  Recipe here: Homemade taco seasoning.  I tripled that recipe and stored the mix in a small airtight container.

So the beans were absolutely a success, and we’ll have this meal again in the near future.

Now, on to an item that I use daily and really feel I can’t be without.  Coffee creamer.  I love good, strong coffee liberally laced with French Vanilla creamer, like this International Delight stuff. Not so bad, right?  The problem comes when you study the label.

Non-Dairy Product Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Palm Oil, Corn Syrup, Contains 2% Or Less Of The Following: Sodium Caseinate* (A Milk Derivative), Dipotassium Phosphate, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Mono And Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Carrageenan, Salt. *Sodium Caseinate Is Not A Source Of Lactose.

Yum!  Have you had YOUR sodium steroyl lactylate today?  And don’t you wonder what “natural and artificial flavors” really are?  I can think of a lot of “natural” substances that I don’t want in my food.

So I decided I’d study and concoct my own creamer.  Last night I simmered a cup of cream, a cup of whole milk (both organic), 4 tablespoons of pure maple syrup, and a tablespoon of pure vanilla extract (note: next time I plan to use vanilla beans).  It smelled so great bubbling away on the stove.  This morning I eagerly poured a healthy dollop into my waiting cup…but no.  It was not to be.  It wasn’t BAD, but it wasn’t what I wanted, either.  I’m going to keep researching and tweaking the recipe.  Or, my tastes will change and I’ll be happy with just real cream.  Either way, I’m done buying this junk from the store.

Today David and I ate lunch at Organic Harvest, which is a great little store.  Link here: Organic Harvest Market and Café.  We both had sandwiches – he had a chicken pesto on whole wheat, I had a roast chicken with tomatoes and feta and a spicy sauce.  Very very good.  Then we did a bit of shopping and found some good deals.

We got a gallon of organic milk from Alabama cows that eat grass.  And at $6.89/gal. it’s cheaper than the milk we buy at Publix (which works out to over $8/gal).

We also found another one pound package of grassfed beef, on sale for $7.99.

Okay, about this meat: yes, it’s expensive.  But I feel strongly about buying this for a couple of reasons.  I need to know, to the farthest extent possible, that the animals providing food for me lived a decent life, eating what they were intended to eat.  Also, my plan is to cut way down on red meat consumption (especially ground meat), to certainly no more often than once per week – and then less frequently as I add other recipes to my collection.  So I can afford to buy the better quality meat since I won’t be serving it very often.

We bought two boxes of cereal, both Cascadian Farms brand. Neither was over $3.00/box, and one had a coupon on it for a dollar off two boxes.  Publix would have a hard time beating that price.  And finally, we picked up a couple of pears, a couple of apples, some lemons…and a little over a pound of demerara sugar, a natural brown sugar, for my iced tea experiments.  I want to cut out refined, processed white sugar, and I use the overwhelming majority of that in sweet tea, which I do not want to give up.  I drink one glass per night, shot through with the juice from a big lemon wedge.  So, I’ll try to improve upon it.

More and more, this whole concept clicks with me.  Instead of spending my precious money on a bunch of junk that sits in my stomach like a rock, I’ll spend it on higher quality real food that is full of flavor – so full of flavor that I want to enjoy every bite.  And I’m taking fewer bites now – significantly fewer.  The pants I put on today buttoned easily, with room to spare.  A month ago I had to work to make those fasteners meet.

That’s it for now.  I’ll keep updating here as I make new discoveries.

In the beginning

So, I thought I’d start by just going over a few of the initial changes I’ve made in my kitchen.

Once I finally wrapped my head around the whole “good fats in moderation are good for you” concept, the first thing I did was buy whole milk instead of 2%.  I can hear some of you gasping.  I felt completely BAD buying those first couple of containers, like a food cop was going to jump out of the dairy case and cuff me for trying to clog my family’s arteries.  Obviously, some folks don’t do milk or dairy, and that’s great, but in my family we do like milk, so…why whole milk?  Well, it tastes really good.  The idea behind this whole food concept is to up the quality of your food, enjoy it slowly and thoroughly, and you eat less.  It’s true.

So change #1: whole milk.
I’ve been buying organic milk for several years now, either this brand or Horizon.  But I always bought 2%, occasionally forcing myself to buy skim for my own consumption.  Blech.

Last night before bed my stomach was a bit empty.  I poured maybe 4 ounces of milk into my Bama jelly glass and sipped it over the next 15 minutes.  It tasted amazingly good, and it filled my stomach just enough to let me go to sleep feeling comfortable.

I suppose the next change is really more of a series of smaller changes.  I took a few of the recipes I found in the books I’ve mentioned (French Woman Don’t Get Fat, The Fat Fallacy) and tried them.  We had some pasta with leeks and parmesan cheese, drizzled with plenty of olive oil.  Delicious!  And along with that I prepared some pork loin chops.  I still have some work to do if we want to have those again because to say they were a bit tough is being generous.  But, we also had another pasta dish another day, this one with lots of zucchini and diced tomatoes, again with a good amount of olive oil and some basil.  We had some whole wheat bakery bread toasted with a slathering of the new butter I’m buying: Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter.  Ingredient list? “Pasteurized Cream, Salt.”  Yes, it has to be left out for a few minutes to be truly spreadable.  This is not hard to accomplish.  You set it out, you do some of the other stuff that needs doing, and when you check it again, it’s ready.  It is a beautiful creamy yellow and tastes so good.  It even says “milk from grassfed cows” on the package.  Yes!  That’s exactly the kind of REAL FOOD I’m looking for…

So change #2: try new recipes that are heavy on the vegetables, and don’t skimp on the good fats to increase their palatability.  (Just learned that new word from yet ANOTHER new book: Low-Fat Lies, High-Fat Fraud).  Tonight we’re having bean burritos.  In the past, when we wanted burritos, I’d buy a couple of cans of store beans, plop ‘em in a saucepan, and voila!  But today, I put a bag of rinsed and sorted pintos in the crockpot with a good amount of salted water (and I used coarse sea salt), two whole garlic cloves, a tablespoon or so of chipotle chili powder, about a teaspoon of cumin, and some bay leaves.  When I get home I expect them to be tender and ready to eat along with some monterey jack cheese that I’ll grate right before we eat.  We’ll have some of the fresh salsa that Publix sells in the deli (all natural, lots of veggies, no weird ingredients). I’ll let you know how they turn out.

The last change that I’ll list for today is more of a behavior than a food choice, per se.  I am slowly learning to savor the food I eat.  It took me by surprise when I started consciously putting down my fork between bites – because I realized that I usually shove food in like I’m being timed.  Also, I’m simply chewing my food.  Tasting it.  Enjoying it.  I’m not saying I’m trying to chew a certain number of times, but I’m actually using my teeth, consciously noticing the flavors and textures.  Another surprise: when I took note not to put more food in my mouth while there was still the bite I had just taken in there.  Seems crazy, I know, but when I began to pay attention, I came to see that I was eating too fast and not even coming close to appreciating what I’m putting into my body.

Change #3: slow down and savor it.

As far as finding some substitutes for the store bought things we’ve been buying for years, I have two things to share today.  Stephen loves Chunky Chips Ahoy cookies.  Kerry does too.  I’ve been known to indulge, as has David.  So, I figured I’d find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I could and make it with the best ingredients I could afford.  So, I made these: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies from the wonderful blog 100 Days of Real Food.  I recommend the recipe heartily.  Next time I’ll be doubling it so that we have a treat that isn’t packed with chemicals.I used organic whole wheat pastry flour, good unsalted butter, and pure vanilla extract.  I used Nestle semi-sweet morsels because I had them on hand already.  And these turned out beautifully!  David and Kerry thought they were great.  The only drawback was that when Stephen asked for “Chis Ahoy” and I smiled brightly and brought over one of these beauties, he picked one up, sniffed it delicately, and said, “No.  Chis Ahoy peas.”  Ah well.

The other new recipe I worked on this week was a homemade granola.  Since I’ve been eating more yogurt (whole milk with cream top) I remembered how good granola goes with yogurt.  So I studied some recipes and kind of cobbled together my own.  To make about 4 1/2 cups total, I used 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats, 1 cup of sliced almonds, 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, a 1/2 cup of walnuts, about 1/4 cup each of flax seed and sunflower seeds, a scant 1/8 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, a drizzle of honey, and about 1/8 cup of coconut oil, warmed slightly to liquefy.  I mixed all that together, spread it on a foil-lined cookie sheet, and baked it for 1 hour, 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes so it browned evenly.  The house began to smell SO GOOD after about 30 minutes.  The end product was golden, crispy, and smelled delicious.

I tried about 1/2 a cup of this for breakfast, with a generous amount of whole milk.  And let me tell you…it beat any cereal I’ve tried.  It was so very good!

Well, this has grown very long.  I guess I’m still pretty excited.  I’ve always loved to cook and this feels like such an adventure.  Thanks for coming along!  More to come!

The weight of the world…

It’s on my shoulders.

And by “weight” I mean literal pounds.  While at times I’ve certainly felt the figurative weight of the world (stress, worries, more stress) from time to time, for the last few weeks I’ve become very interested in the way people eat.  Most specifically the way my family eats.

This interest began years ago when I ran across a book called French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guillano.  It’s a native Frenchwoman’s take on the so-called “French Paradox.”  The media has predictably taken this idea and spouted such nonsense as “The French Paradox is a myth,” or “So these people eat ALL THE BUTTER and croissants and red wine as they want and don’t get fat?  Sure they do.”  Well, that’s not the paradox at all.  Traditional French eating is about celebration, about savoring the BEST food you can afford – slowly, and not stuffing one’s face with a bunch of chemical compounds masquerading as food.

And these mysterious food-like products are what many Americans typically ingest.  Go to the grocery store and take note of all the “healthy” foods you see: low-fat, fat-free, high protein, sugar-free.  Then look at the list of ingredients.  Chances are it’s a paragraph that’s chock full of words requiring a consultation with chemistry textbooks.

I’m about to finish another book called The Fat Fallacy that examines the “healthy” food-like substances that Americans have consumed in ever-increasing quantities in the last 30 years, all the while the obesity rates in the U. S. climb steadily upward.  The author, Dr. Will Clower, is a neurophysiologist (and a native Alabamian) who spent two years living and working in France – and who came home healthier and lighter (as did his family) than when they left America…all from eating real food: whole milk instead of watery skim, cream instead of low-fat Cool Whip, fresh vegetables instead of canned everything…

So, my personal goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate non-foods, while increasing our consumption of real, honest, and hopefully local foods.  To quote Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma): “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  It just makes sense.  Is it going to be easy?  I can readily admit that it is not.  I spent nearly double my normal amount of time (but not double the money, which is interesting) at Publix recently, reading package labels and searching for the best products I could find.  It took me a full 10 minutes to find a box of crackers to go with my organic hummus (same price as the regular) that had fewer than 25 ingredients.  I hope to be able to find better food not only at my normal store, but discover other sources along the way.  The little Organic Harvest store in Hoover, even Whole Foods (if I’m selective).  The point is – there IS better food out there, and I’m going to find it without going bankrupt.

I plan to take this blog in a decidedly different direction, focusing on my “real food” goals and discoveries.  While I have grown tired of repeating myself about the problems that autism presents, you will still find mentions of autism here – because how could I not talk about the elephant in the room?  And the greatest challenge by FAR is going to be trying (and perhaps failing) to find healthier alternatives for Stephen’s extremely limited selection of menu items.

I’ve already tried a few new recipes and ideas, and soon I’ll share those, with some reviews and pictures of the finished products.  My goal is to eat BETTER foods – not to be a vegetarian, not to give up sugar or sweets completely, but to eat whole foods along with occasional treats that also happen to be real foods…to savor my food, to eat wonderful things that are good for me, and to stop when I’m full.

Today, we started watching the HBO documentary “The Weight of the Nation.”  Very eye-opening.  I wish every Alabamian could watch it.  Or, would watch it.  It has reinforced my resolve to just do BETTER.

I’m excited about this.  It feels good to do something so positive.