Real Food Essentials

When discussing how I feed my family, I hear people say all the time "I don't know how you do it", "Don't you miss (insert any form of processed carbohydrate here)?" and "I'd get so bored eating meat and vegatables".  Today I thought I'd share some real food essentials with you, some tricks to keep food exciting and some shortcuts to make this lifestyle a little easier for you.

First and foremost plan your meals for the week and take a couple of hours on the weekend to partially, if not fully prepare them.  I've written a post of this before, so check that out if you haven't already.  The more you get familiar with eating real food the easier it all becomes.  I will also say that I do not have a large kitchen, which means lack of space to store things, so I really like gadgets that are compact and/or are able to serve multiple purposes.  That being said, here's a few things I believe are great investments.

In the previously mentioned post, I wrote about using a crock pot.  If you need one check out this link: http://amzn.to/1U2yBZl  I use my crockpot all the time!  It runs almost half the week, no joke! You can throw almost anything in a crock pot as you run out the door in the morning.  Just don't forget to turn it on.  That makes for a crying, hangry momma upon returning home from work after a long day, not that I know from experience.  Here are some links for some recipes to try:

• Paleo Pulled Pork Sliders
• •My Natural Family also has a post with links to over 100 Paleo Crock Pot Recipes

Another gadget I recommend is a spiralizer- http://amzn.to/1S8Ibwi I frequently use this to replace any meal that involves noodles, such as pasta.  You can also use it to make ribbon fries or as a fun way to slice apples  Here are a couple of recipes that you may enjoy with your spiralizer. 

• Brittany Angell- Buffalo Chicken Pasta
• Joyful Healthy Eats -Zoodles with Meat Sauce

During the summer when lettuce is fresh from our garden, or from local farms, we enjoy lots of salads.  There is nothing worse that watery lettuce, so a salad spinner is a great tool to have handy.  One summer ours broke, so I bought the first one I found.  It was cheap and a total waste of a whopping $4!  Do yourself a favor, pay more than $4 for a salad spinner.  Here's a nice one from Amazon: http://amzn.to/1LUaw5H

Some other kitchen gadgets that I frequently use are:

• A masher for guacamole, mashing plantains, sweet potatoes or butternut squash: http://amzn.to/1ScKZsd 
• A food processor for making paleo mayonnaise, salad dressing, cauliflower rice, butter (if you dare to make your own), and shredding/slicing vegetables or fruit: http://amzn.to/1LUcAL7 
• A stand mixer.  I have a Kitchenaid and I love it.  I have a few of the attachments including the ice cream maker and slicer.  This is an investment, but I'd say I use it a few times per week.  http://amzn.to/1LQ3Gg3 

Another thing I recommend are some good cookbooks.  Here are a few of my favorites that include some simple meals.

• Paleo Kitchen by Juli Bauer and George Bryant http://amzn.to/1KufW75
• Paleo Takes 5 of Fewer by Cindy Sexton  http://amzn.to/1JqpgHu
• Meals Made Simple by Danielle Walker http://amzn.to/1KudNFE

Now that you're all overwhelmed with amazon links and have a million tabs open, go buy yourself something nice. 

I'd love to answer any questions in upcoming posts, so please leave me some comments.  Thanks, you real food lovin' peeps!


**Disclaimer- All Amazon links listed above are affiliate links. 

above all else, be prepared

If there is one thing I've learned about eating real food it's that you've gotta be prepared. Nothing worse than getting home from work, being hungry and not having anything ready to eat. Worse yet is not even having any meat thawed, which has been known to bring me to tears before-- no joke. Anyhow, I tend to cook on Sundays and/or Mondays depending on how much time I have available. Here are some of my tips:
1.) Plan-- this is first and foremost.  Take some time each week to plan a grocery list and buy everything you need for the week.  It's bad news when you get home after a long day and realize you don't have an ingredient or four that you need for your dinner that evening.

2.) Eat leftovers-- it makes life so much easier. My husband and I both take leftovers for lunch every work day. Sometimes I eat mine cold because I'm getting a little weird about microwaving, but I'll save that new found phobia for another post. 

3.) Use some common ingredients in all the meals you are cooking for the week-- this could be meat or veggies or both.  You can brown a couple pounds of ground beef and use one pound for meat sauce with spaghetti squash and season the other pound to make taco meat for salads.  Here's another thing I've learned, sweet potatoes are versatile and delicious with almost anything. They are a great source of nutrients and a healthy source of carbs. You can top them, chop them, bake them, fry them, roast them, spiralize them, I think you get the point by now.
4.) Stick to the basics-- I love consuming a paleo version of comfort food as much as you, but I tend to save those meals for special occasions or the weekend.  Meat and a serving or two of veggies with some healthy fat is definitely the way to go during the week. 
5.) Use your crockpot-- if you don't have one, buy one.  Enough said.
6.) Get over stereotyped meals-- breakfast doesn't have to be cereal, eggs, pancakes, etc.  I recently found out that I do not tolerate eggs, which pretty much turned my world upside down.  However, in the last 3 weeks my breakfasts have consisted of leftovers from dinner the night before, along with some broth and kraut.  Once you can let go of the what you feel like you should be eating at a given meal, it's actually easier.  Put some randomness together if it sounds good to you and eat it up.  I promise it will be good.
Last but certainly not least....
7.) Stock up on safe snacks-- this is vital!  If you're hungry and there are not any safe options for you, you're likely to stuff your face full of your kiddos popcorn or your husband's pretzels. I'm sure we've all been there before, or maybe that's just me.
So, there ya go!  Now go get prepared and eat well!


 

the grocery game....

I have often been asked what I buy and where I buy it.  I'll be honest, I'm not as good as I used to be about finding a good deal.  In my defense it's hard to find a deal on fresh, organic, real food.  There are probably 1-3 coupons (usually store coupons) for things I buy, as opposed to when I was a huge coupon clipper, buying all kinds of processed, GMO filled, chemical crap storms of food. 
Anyhow, here's where I buy what....most of the time.

Meat:  I have several local farmers that I get meat from or have gotten meat from in the past.  They are:

• Probst Family Farm - located in Bluffton, Ohio.  They are my go to for soy free chickens and eggs.  They also have other amazing products, so check them out!
• Luginbill Family Farm - located outside of Pandora, Ohio.  I have gotten beef and pork from them in the past.  They have a variety of pork products that I haven't been able to find other places.
• Yellowbird Foodshed - They are my go to for beef and pork (and produce, but we aren't talking about that right now).  Love, love, love what they are doing!!  Connecting amazing farmers with consumers who care about the food they eat with local and sustainably grown food! #whogrewyourfood
• When I buy fish, I usually buy it from Kroger.  We are not big fish eaters, mostly because somehow I often forget it exists, it's weird.  When we do eat fish we typically eat salmon.  I've experimented with other fish, but it usually is less than delicious.  Fish buying tip-- always buy wild caught fish.

Produce: 

• Yellowbird Foodshed - The CSA boxes this summer were amazing! 
• Grocery Store - I buy organic 98% of the time.  However if I can't find organic produce from the store I will utilize the dirty dozen list. 
• Farmers markets - unfortunately these are seasonal :(

Other groceries: (I apologize in advance for this portion-- no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't organize it, quite to my liking)

• Coconut milk or almond milk, can be a great dairy free replacement.  However, many of them contain additives that are not so hot!  Thickeners such as guar gum or xanthan gum can be bothersome for some people.  Other additives like carrageenan are inflammatory, so you may not be doing your body any good by using these dairy replacements.  When I'm looking for coconut milk for recipes I organic canned coconut milk (I like to buy this one which is BPA free- Natural Value ).  This milk in my opinion would not be good for just plain drinking.  The cream separates to the top and is a not smooth because it does not contain additives.  There are also lots of resources out there with recipes to make your own nut milk or coconut milk.  I personally have not done this, but if you want to try, you totally should!  I'd love to hear about it.  Maybe you'll inspire me!
• My kids love cliff kids fruit snacks, and I'll admit I eat about one a week as a treat.
• I also buy nuts, nut butter, plantain chips, dried fruit, organic applesauce, baking supplies (organic vanilla, nut flours, tapioca starch, coconut, etc.) from various places. If I can't find it locally I will check amazon, or I also order thru a co-op several times per year. 
• I love Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.  Unfortunately, or fortunately for my bank account, there aren't any within an hour and a half from me.  I do visit them when I am near, however it's easy to buy junk food at these stores too.  Sometimes you can get good deals on produce and meats here, and I almost always stock up on things like organic pickles, coconut milk (we use Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk for coffee creamer), nuts and some organic frozen veggies to have on standby at home.    

I sure hope someone reads this.  Sadly it took me a long time to write this post....like 3 months!  Kidding-- I really just started it two days ago, but I've clearly had writers block for quite some time. 
My goal for 2015 is to blog regularly, so let me know what you'd like to read about.  I'll see what I can do!