1. For my New Year's Resolution this January, I decided to give up fast food. Thus the introduction of Crock Pot Mondays. So far this year I have only skipped one Crock Pot Monday and that's because Lily didn't have dance and Bj was out of town. Otherwise, I think that is a pretty good success rate. All in all I think the kids have had fast food maybe three or four times with Bj, I have gotten Panera (but we aren't going to count that) and we have gotten Subway maybe twice. I even packed our lunch the day we went outlet shopping to avoid the bad outlet food. Tonight I turned our crock pot chicken into a Chicken Corn Chowder which I adapted from two different recipes. It was my first time making soup from scratch and my first time really making up my own recipe. And if I do say so myself, it was amazing :)
2. My next hurdle was the grocery store. After much thought and much research, I decided to go organic with our meat. Yes, it adds some extra expense, but I find myself using it wiser and (I hate to admit this but I am going to bet it has to have happened to someone out there somewhere) I have only tossed one package of unopened meat during a particularly bad fail week on my part. We eat a little less meat so I can ration for a few different meals more, but this has also started me concentrating more on interesting sides including lots and lots of roasted veggies. And an added bonus, good gracious it tastes so much better.
3. I switched to cage free eggs. Again, yes more expensive, but we really don't eat that many and I feel much better about them.
4. Organic here and there. There are definitely many products I will continue to buy non-organic. Have to say I am probably not going to find Diet Dr Pepper in any organic section. That being said, if there is a special or if it is not that much of a difference, I will buy the organic version.
5. Juice Boxes. Once a week Lily gets a juice box in her lunch. Until recently, she got a Mots for Tots juice box which is supposedly less sugar than regular juice. Little did I know that not only does it really just taste like watered down juice (knew that part, but my kids still drink watered down juice around the house too) but it had two more grams of sugar than the organic high fructose corn syrup free juice I now buy. She is a fan and so am I.
6. Treats. The other day Charlie had his two year check-up and I finally got him the MMR shot. I thought as I was driving home, maybe I will stop and get him fast food as a treat for having to go through the appointment. But then I thought really? Is that really a treat? So we went home and I made him organic chicken nuggets (or CHICKEN NUT! as he calls them) with strawberries and yogurt. I felt much better about this treat.
7. Recycling. Oh don't get me started on our terrible lack of recycling around here. Back in Ohio they recycled every week and took plastic 1-5, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum. We never filled our trash can and instead were always overflowing with our recycling. Here they recycle once a month and only take plastic 1-2, glass and aluminum. Pain in the you know what. Our garage is constantly filled with recycling and we have to take our cardboard ourselves to the recycling center. Thus I have switched from all those oh so convenient individual containers of apple sauce and yogurt to large containers and glass jars. Although they don't recycle the yogurt containers, I can ration the portions out better so Charlie doesn't fill up on yogurt or applesauce alone at lunch. But really, it is still so annoying to not have the ability to recycle everything.
8. I just found out last week on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution that chocolate milk has more sugar in it than a regular soda. And speaking of milk, the price of organic milk is coming down. Not so much that we can switch totally because goodness we go through a lot of milk, but I am going to start buying one gallon a week of Organic Milk. At least it's a start.
9. It has been a really long time since I have done Muffin Tin Monday because when we moved here my special muffin tins got ruined, but this week I replaced them and we resumed this special treat. Every Monday I am going to try to add one thing the kids wouldn't normally want to try-this week was hummus. Although Lily didn't eat a lot of it, she did try it and said she liked it. We have had WAY too many days of pb&j in a row.
10. So this is my food revolution. I don't mean this to be preachy. I don't want this to seem judgmental at all. I just want to keep a record of what I'm doing. And if anyone has any hints or advice, let me know. Next on my baby steps organic overhaul, fruit.
Eat well, friends!