Adventures without processed foods

Well in my last post I said we were going take baby steps with this no highly processed food diet and I guess I decided forget the baby steps let's just do this.
It all started Friday morning. I was doing more reading about all the health benefits, recipes and so much more and decided I would take a look at our food and see just how much was highly processed foods.
We had about 90% of the food in our cabinets, freezer and fridge that were highly processed foods. I was shocked. So I sat down made out a menu with only recipes using whole wheat, organic and or natural products and then I made our grocery list.

Tim went with me the first time as support and to give his expertise in finding the best deal. We were buying for 2 weeks worth of groceries and thankfully we had few (if any) household items to buy too (yes we include that in our grocery budget too). We had a few "higher dollar" items in our basket including: a $18 pork shoulder, $15 bag of dog food, $10 worth of frozen fruit, real butter (and not the cheap margarine stuff), 5 blocks of cheese, 2 whole chickens, 2 ponds of ground beef, flax seed, agave nectar, lots of organic products and TONS of produce. We walked to the checkout just knowing we just spent $400. We had no coupons and had not been calculating our total along the way. We were blown away when our total came to.......$208!!!!! I was shocked we asked the cashier if he got the dog food and the pork and he said yes. Then we double checked our list 100 times. I always thought buying healthier was more expensive but really buying processed prepackaged food are more expensive. We have enough food for more than 2 weeks worth of meals!!! I am still in shock.

 So after we went home and checked our receipt again, we began cooking all our meats so they wouldn't spoil before we used them. We had purchased a new crockpot earlier that day so we took the big crockpot we just bought and cooked the pork shoulder in it.Then we used the crockpot I have borrowed to cook one of our chickens. After they both were done (at 9:00 pm) we shredded them and placed it all in individual freezer bags for future meals. I also made homemade spaghetti sauce (it was more like a garden spaghetti sauce but still very good), and we had spaghetti for dinner that night. It was a very healthy spaghetti with celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes and whole wheat pasta. I figured my boys would hate it but they didn't. They cleaned their plates and asked for more!

For breakfast we are finishing up the left over pancakes and fruit bars that we already had in the pantry and then I will replace that with homemade poptarts, fruit bars, oatmeal and smoothies.
We had smoothies for breakfast this morning and the kids (and me too) LOVED them. I sent the boys cheese and whole wheat crackers for lunch with chips and applesauce. I am not throwing out all our processed food just because it is processed. We will finish it all up but the key is we are not buying any more of them.

Chips are being replaced with oven fried chips, apple chips, raw broccoli ( Scooter loves to eat this), carrots and celery. Snacks are now homemade whole wheat banana bread, cheese on wheat crackers, homemade applesauce, home made goldfish and fresh fruit.

So far we are all pleased with how much easier it is to make the switch. I am daily blown away at what my kids are eating and LOVING too. Grant it my kids are not picky eaters and have always eaten everything that is offered. That helps alot.

So that is where we are at right now on this new adventure with cutting out processed foods. You can find all these recipes I have mentioned in this post, on my recipe blog later today. I highly recommend them all!

Funny story:
While at the grocery store Saturday Tim and Scooter were off getting some things I forgot. Tim wanted to check the prices on food processors so he told Scooter...
Tim: Hey scooter come down here with me real quick I want to check the price on their food processors.
Scooter: Um dad, I think you have it wrong...mom is trying to get rid of the processed foods!

HAHA I thought that was funny. You can tell I have been talking to the kids about our healthier switch in our diets. Have no fear though.... I refuse to call this a diet and have not lead my children to believe we are all dieting. We are simply changing the way we eat to better our selves and our long term health.