Eating food...

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"  This is what Michael Pollan says in his In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.  I think we are all guilty of eating stuff that looks like food AND tastes great, but is not good for us at all and is probably not really food.  We are defintely guily of this here at our house.  So this week we started a new eating plan.  We are vowing to not buy any food that has more then 5 ingredients, particularly if those ingredients are unrecognizable.  So today was the first grocery list.  We will continue to eat what we already have in the house even if it does not follow the rule (no need to waste), but we will not buy any other food that breaks the rule with the exception of a splurge item per person.  Myles has to have his peanut butter/cheese crackers to grab on the go for lunch on busy days around the farm after all (I don't know what my splurge item will be yet).  I decided this week to plan our meals like I would every other week, because I was pretty sure most of what we eat does follow these rules.  So the menu for the week is as follows:

(Monday mom is making ham and potato casserole so I did not have to plan for tomorrow)

TUESDAY- Spicy pork tacos (ingredients- boston butt, garlic, onion, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, olive oil, coke, limes, corn torillas, cheese, veggies for topping, salsa and sour cream)

WEDNESDAY- BBQ chicken pizza (left-over bbq chicken, pizza crust, BBQ sauce, mozarella)

THURSDAY- blackened chicken salad (chicken, cajun seasoning, oil, salad veggies, ranch)

FRIDAY- garlic lime shrimp pasta (limes, garlic, olive oil, shrimp, salt, pepper, pasta)

So off to the grocery store we went.  I was right, we pretty much do buy stuff that fits the rule, but there were a few food items we did not put in the cart. 

• The coke for the pork (it cooks in the slow cooker, so coke is the liquid we usually add) does not fit the rule, so I will be substituting water and a little sugar.
• Some tortillas would be a no, but we have a tortilla factory in town, so I will have to pick up fresh tortillas on my way home Tuesday (though there are brands at the grocery store that fit the rule)
• The pizza was a problem (my hope for that night was that Myles could make the pizza because I have a lot of studying to do for a big test Saturday).  I planned on picking up a refridgerated pizza dough, but alas too many ingredients and a few unrecongnizable ones at that.  Myles has never made his own pizza dough before, but he has seen me do it and I think he is up to the challenge.  Also the BBQ sauce we have was a gift and has only a few ingredients so it meets the rule.
• The blackened chicken salad ingredients all went in the cart, until we got to the dressing.  I always make ranch from a packet...and the ranch packet had A LOT of ingredients and some really hard to pronounce ones.  So, though I have never made my own ranch dressing before from scratch, the time has come.  We still have some made in the refridgerator (from the packet) left from this weekend so I will use that for our salads this week, but then it will be time to learn to make my own.
• All the pasta ingredients were good to go (will be using the pasta maker to make my noodles).

The only other food we needed was bread.  It was a no go.  I have made bread before, but with the time constraints of our busy lives it was never a regular practice.  Today I made a loaf in the bread machine, I love the bread machine.  It is so easy and fast.

Thus chronicles the beginning of our path to eating real food.  I'm sure we will have to let go of other things we love that we have not thought of yet, but in an effort to eat food that makes us healthier, I believe it will be worth it.