Real Food Pledge: Prep & Day 1

Daniel and I have been considering taking the 10-Day Real Food Pledge for a little while now, but weren't quite ready to commit with trips and stress and the fact that I've only barely got my cooking steam back since Miss Lettie's arrival.  We started our planning stages in-between our recent trips with the plan that we'd start as soon as we got back (well, with one day of recovery/grocery shopping first).  I will say, it took a little prep to think through the little things, like "This usually has sugar in it... will honey taste weird as a replacement sweetener?" and "I eat my feelings.  We know this, what can I eat instead of entire bags of chocolate chips?"  You know, the usual. 

So.  (I had a writing teacher in college who hated when we started sentences with "so".  I still do it, but have serious twinges of guilt every time I do so.)

So.

We got home, realized we were all super allergic or coming down with terrible colds (still not sure which wins, we're feeling awful either way), and decided to forge ahead anyway, because something will always be inconvenient... just the way it is.

Now, please keep in mind

1) I am not a good food photographer.  It's just not something I've practiced enough, so, don't expect much there ;-).

2) Just because the meals are real food does not make them perfectly balanced or, by any stretch of the imagination, fancy.  I am still learning to balance work and spending time with two sweet babies, so, I fully expect to struggle with some of the extra work entailed in these meals.

3) I'm not going to get photos of snacks unless it's something super exciting... we'll pretty much be sticking to fruits and veggies.  Also, Daniel's breakfasts and lunches may be what we eat at home, but they'll probably vary some (though they will still be real food).



After I had my over-detailed menu and list ready, Daniel headed to the meat market (locally-sourced meat is one of the rules... probably one of the more expensive ones!) and the bakery (Great Harvest Bread Co. has a honey whole wheat sandwich bread that has very few ingredients and tastes great)  It was a bit expensive, due in part to the meat not being the cheap supermarket stuff and partly because I had him pick up a little more than we need so I can double a couple meals to freeze for later.

Then, I headed to the grocery store and spent extra time reading labels on anything that came in packages, and spent most of my time and money in the produce section, trying to make sure to cover all my bases.  There you have it.

And, without further ado,

Day 1:

Breakfast

I had actually planned a bigger breakfast here, but, as our colds set in with serious fervor, we went with simple (and something I knew Anni would love and eat!)  Plain yogurt (in lieu of my former buy of vanilla yogurt... which unfortunately has sugar in it) with a drizzle of local, raw honey (my first time trying it... so far so good!), nectarine, banana and strawberries and some flax seed (Anni's had way more flax... she is far less picky than I am... I'm working on it). 

Lunch

Oh, man, can it get any simpler?  We'll start off with the chips, because I'm sure you are thinking I already messed up.  We actually discovered these through the 100 Days of Real Food website as they only have three ingredients.  They are definitely still junk food, but real food junk food.  Then we just have some pb (one ingredient: peanuts!  Who knew that would be so hard to find?!) & honey on ww bread and carrots (which Anni requested "big").  I'm pretty sure we shared a nectarine or some other kind of fruit later for a snack, but I don't remember for sure.
  
Dinner

 
Stirfry!  We have brown rice (I had to ditch my usual "Seasoning Salt" and all of it's extra-chemically ingredients and throw in some other fun things), chicken, onions, red pepper and a few cashews.  Yum.  I think I may have made some ww toast with this... but it's possible I just considered it and didn't follow through.  This tired brain doesn't remember.

Daniel and I also made a bit of a treat later that night.  There you have it.  Super simple day of food, but we made it through.