The answer is a resounding YES!!! I was very pleased with my family as we did a great job maintaining our real food plan. Dinner was awesome: grilled chicken (brined for about 8 hours in water with honey, a tablespoon of salt, some Mrs. Dash and some sliced lemons -- it was AWESOME.), roasted squash & zucchini, corn on the cob and fresh strawberries/grapes. After dinner we splurged on a mid-week dessert of real homemade strawberry ice cream, which was, of course, delicious.
After dark, we went into our backyard and were able to see all of the fireworks for a 30-mile radius and it was amazing! The kids loved it and enjoyed playing with sparklers, too. I was overcome by the "holiday-ness" of it all and decided to splurge on an extra-special treat for the family: S'MORES. We each made one and the kids gobbled them up in mere seconds! It was so much fun and was a very special memory for us (me).
Today we got back on track and stuck with our whole foods focus. And I have to tell you that I've been introduced to a beautiful, amazing breakfast treat:
Oh.Em.Gee!!! This cereal is flippin' EPIC! And check out the list of ingredients:
- Organic Whole Wheat
- Organic Evaporated Cane Juice
- Organic Cinnamon
- Natural Cinnamon Flavor
Less than 5 ingredients? That means it doesn't break Michael Pollan's food rules! I'm not sure how I feel about "organic evaporated cane juice" but all of the other ingredients are fine by me! And you guys... this cereal is to die for. Like, as in "I-just-signed-up-for-Amazon's-Subscribe-and-Save-program-to-receive-4-boxes-of-this-cereal-every-2-months" to die for. SO glad to have another breakfast idea in my arsenal. And I'm happy to tell you the kids truly loved this cereal, too. It makes a great snack food (in lieu of goldfish or Cheerios, for example) and is just as amazing in a bowl with some milk! YUM!
I'm afraid dinner tonight wasn't a huge score. I was at work (in a super awesome store... in a mall), so my dining choices were quite limited. I made the best decision I could given the options (trust me, there were no good choices... only the "least worst") and ended up with this:
A grilled chicken wrap from Chick-Fil-A. I didn't really think about it until just now, but I guess I could've taken the chicken and veggies out of the wrap and eat them (not the wrap) to lower the amount of processed food I ate. I'm not a fan of chicken from Chick-Fil-A after reading this, but again, it was the lesser of all the other evils.
I've had a busy few days but tomorrow and Saturday are WIDE OPEN so I'm looking forward to trying out some new healthy recipes and stocking the freezer for next week.
I just have to say: this transition to real food has not been nearly as scary or impossible as I thought it'd be. And I just don't miss the old processed junk as much as I thought I would. Don't get me wrong, now, we are NOT eating 100% real food 100% of the time, but we HAVE increased the QUANTITY of real food we're eating (and enjoying!) more than ever before, and are definitely trying to make better choices with every meal/snack. I can't believe we've gone well over a week without a chip, a cookie or sugary cereal. This is unheard of in my home!
Yay for steps in the right direction!!!
