The biggest unprocessed challenge: Snack time!

We knew going in to this month of unprocessed eating that snacks would be the hardest part. We are accustomed to having snacks when we get home from school, after the kids go to bed, all day long on the weekends. :) But all of these snack foods: crackers, pretzels, chips, nachos, candy are now forbidden. The only one of our usual snacks that we could still have is nuts - almonds, pistachios - and dried fruits.

Because of this, hubby and I have both been snacking a lot less, which I know is good for us. But still, there are those afternoons when lunch was too small or too long ago, or it's just been one of those days, and you need a little something.

I have experimented with several different crackers:
Wheat thins - they were okay, better with cheese. We ate them all, but I wouldn't make the recipe again.

Then I tried homemade ritz crackers. Hubby thought the flavor was spot on; I thought they were okay. After a night in a covered container, they were really soft, which I didn't like. Again, we finished them, but I wouldn't make them again.

Finally, today, I had homemade cracker success. I made whole wheat calzones last night using one of KAF's whole wheat pizza dough recipes. The calzones were delicious: leftover spinach-homemade ricotta mixture from the cannelloni, plus organic chicken sausage sauteed with onion and sweet peppers, and fresh mozzarella.

I made 9 or 10 calzones, but still had a little pizza dough left. So following this KAF recipe for pizza crackers, I rolled the leftover pizza dough really thin and let it rest while I preheated the oven. While that was happening, I heated up some olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper (since I was already making garlic bread for tonight's dinner). I brushed the garlic olive oil on the pizza crust and baked the crackers for 12 minutes. Unfortunately, that was too long, and most of the sheet got too dark. However, the pieces that didn't burn were absolutely delicious. I will definitely make these again!

I also tried this recipe for buttermilk-whole wheat crackers (can you tell that I've been in a cracker mood?). I did vary the ingredients a bit, based on what I had on hand: 250 g white whole wheat flour, 70 g ground golden flax seed, 1 tbsp sugar, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 5 tbsp EVOO, 3/4 c buttermilk. I followed the same process as in the recipe, but again I brushed the crackers with the garlic olive oil and then sprinkled sesame seeds over the top.

The other winning after-school snack is popcorn - either regular, with butter and garlic salt, or this recipe for kettle corn. The recipe is absolutely delicious and really quite easy, although it does contain some regular granulated sugar; I'm curious to try one of the honey or maple syrup-sweetened popcorn recipes that's floating around out there.

The kids, unfortunately, don't really like to snack on dried fruits or nuts much. The little guy's favorite food is a giant sugar-laden blueberry muffin from the grocery store. A while before we went on this challenge, I banned those muffins, and we've gone back to mommy-made muffins. His favorite when he was a toddler were muffins based off of this garden harvest cake from Cooking Light. I use all white whole wheat flour, reduce the sugar by a bit, and eliminate the nuts (he hates them); I bake them in a muffin tin for 24 minutes. He loves these muffins: for breakfast, for lunch, for snack.

I also made mini-whole wheat banana mini-chocolate chip muffins for a breakfast snack this past weekend; they were a huge hit. I used my favorite banana bread recipe, subbing in all white whole wheat flour, reducing the sugar, eliminating the bourbon and the nuts, and adding a few mini-chocolate chips.

We also tried these healthy cookies, disbelieving that a cookie with no sweetener and no flour could really be good. With the exception of grinding up the almonds, the kids did it all. The cookies were...okay. We ended up eating them all, but no one could eat more than one in a sitting. We won't make the recipe again, but it was fun.

Lastly, we bought these smoothie pops and are experimenting with them. Our first try was vanilla yogurt plus a little orange juice concentrate: a big success!

Totally unprocessed dinner: Donna Hay's cannelloni

Every Wednesday, I am struck by how delicious my friends Kayte and Margaret's Donna Hay meals look. Every Wednesday, I think, "I really need to try that." But I never have. Until two weeks ago, when they posted these cannelloni and I knew that I really had to try these.




Being in the middle of our unprocessed month, I decided to see if I could make the whole thing from scratch, using all whole and unprocessed ingredients.




I think I did pretty well. I used: whole milk, lemons, vinegar, salt, pepper, spinach, whole wheat flour, eggs, tomatoes, onion, garlic, fresh basil, parsley, oats (ground into oat flour to replace the bread crumbs), Parmesan, olive oil...oh, and I guess I did use a pinch of white sugar.




I used my new DIY cookbook from ATK to make my first ever ricotta. It was amazing. And not very hard or even very time consuming. I can see why people say they'll never go back to store-bought again.




Then I used Donna Hay's recipe for tomato sauce.




I made my usual whole wheat egg pasta, rolling it out into long sheets for my lasagna noodles.




And then I assembled and baked it. It was amazing: the ricotta was lemony and bright, the basil and spinach were so fresh, the noodles were flavorful and perfectly textured...it was one of the best meals I've ever had, and one of the first times I can remember where I could taste each individual ingredient. And, in addition to the whole family gobbling it up (once the kiddos had scraped out some of the ricotta), I was so proud of myself for the meal I created. :-)

Chicken stock & chicken noodle soup

We used to have a favorite chicken noodle soup (a recipe from Cooking Light that used canned chicken broth, boneless chicken thighs, and dumplings instead of noodles), until the day I happened upon Deb's recipe for homemade chicken soup...and then we had a new favorite. I posted the recipe I used here.

I make this soup at least once per week, no longer following a recipe, varying the amounts depending on whether or not I want ingredients to freeze or if I have another recipe during the week ahead that needs broth or chicken. And now that we've gone unprocessed, I've incorporated homemade whole wheat noodles, too.

Chicken stock
2 T oil (safflower or olive)
6 pounds chicken pieces (3 breasts, 3 leg pieces)
1 onion, cut into four or six large pieces
1 carrot, cut into three or four chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into three or four chunks
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
a few turns of freshly ground pepper
12 cups water

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook for a few minutes until browned; then flip. Remove to a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and chicken.
2. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the veggies. Cook for a few minutes until browned.
3. Add chicken back into the pot.
4. Add spices and water, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, partially cover the pot, and simmer the stock, for 60 - 90 minutes, skimming off the yucky stuff that appears on the surface.
5. Remove the chicken. Let it cool, and then pull the meat off the bones.
6. Strain the stock over a large glass measuring cup or a pitcher. Press on the vegetables to get out all of the flavor.

Egg pasta
4 eggs
3 c flour (2 c white whole wheat, 1 c all-purpose) ~ 14 ounces

1. Combine eggs and flour in a food processor until they form a ball.
2. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
3. Roll the pasta thinly, dust with flour, roll up, and use a pizza cutter to slice into 1/4 inch strips.

Chicken noodle soup
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 - 4 carrots, chopped
3 - 4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
a few turns of freshly ground pepper
8 c homemade chicken stock
2 - 3 c cooked chicken
5 - 6 ounces fresh pasta
1 cup frozen vegetables (1/2 c corn, 1/2 c peas)

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Sauté the veggies until softened, five minutes or so.
2. Add the broth, thyme, and salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 or 15 minutes.
3. About four minutes before you want to eat, add the chicken and pasta; two minutes later, add the frozen veggies.

A new way to grocery shop

Although I made a meal plan and went grocery shopping before we began this challenge a week and a half ago, I feel like I had my first *real* unprocessed grocery trip this past weekend. During the week, I did a lot more research on this whole real food/unprocessed thing (shocking, I know), and I discovered that many things that I assumed were fine, really weren't: dairy products, oils, canned beans.

This week's grocery trip took the same amount of time and we spent about the same amount of money, but we bought less food and were so much more thoughtful about what we put in the cart.

In the dairy section, I read the labels of every mini-yogurt container for the kiddos, finally choosing Stonyfield baby (the little girl likes vanilla best) and a Chobani for the little guy (he likes strawberry). I checked out all of the cream cheeses, realizing that I couldn't buy any. I made sure that our cheddar only included milk and cheese culture (and annato for coloring, which stresses some people out, but it's a spice that I have in my cupboard and use so I have no problem with cheeses that use it). Hubby's usual half-and-half has some added stuff, but I found an organic brand with nothing but milk and cream; same thing with sour cream.

Unfortunately, there were no unrefined oils in the baking aisle, but I did find cold pressed EVOO. After my discovery that the canned beans have added crap, I bypassed them and picked up a couple of bags of dried.

The meats I chose (ground chicken, ground turkey, and boneless chicken breast) were minimally processed and had no added preservatives, the best I could do at the grocery store.

We spent the most amount of time in the produce aisles, and it's nice to put all of those fruits and veggies in the cart without reading ingredient labels; we bought organic where we could.
There wasn't a thing in the cart that didn't meet the kitchen test, and it was nice to feel good about the conveyer belt full of healthy food for my family. I'm looking forward to an improved weather forecast so we can go to the Farmer's Market and see what they have to offer.

Unprocessed parenting, week one reflections

We decided to tackle the unprocessed/real food challenge to improve our family's health, but to be honest, it was mainly about refocusing our (the grownups') crappy eating habits. But the more I read, the more I become convinced that eating this way is better for all of us. We are not being super strict with the kids: obviously their dinners are unprocessed because they're eating with us (with the exception of their mini-yogurts), and they're eating more unprocessed snacks and breakfasts at home. The little guy's lunch box has been mostly unprocessed, with the exception of an occasional "jammy sammy" to round out his lunch. But during the week, when they're at their grandpa's or at preschool or kindergarten, they're still eating the way they always have. It has been interesting to watch their response to these conversations.

My friend Rebecca pointed out this article to me; in it, Mark Bittman writes about the excessively over-processed nature of most of the foods we eat. One of the biggest processed foods is store-bought cereal; it made me feel guilty that my kids eat so much of it. We use cereal for breakfast, for after-school snacks, and even for after-dinner snacks. I mentioned it at dinner the other day, and my kids both got a panicked look on their faces: Was I going to take away their cereal?! But I reminded them that their daddy and I were not going to *make* them do anything...I just wanted them to be aware of what they were eating. I'm trying to figure out other, more "real," snacks that I can offer instead of cereal.

Another of the kids' favorite foods, mini Yoplait or Dannon yogurts, were on a list of the least healthy/most added crap children's food. Again, the kids looked panicked when I brought it up. Instead of replacing their mini-yogurts with the suggested plain yogurt flavored with fruit syrup (we've tried in the past, and it hasn't gone over well), we purchased a couple of the "best" versions (most healthy/least added crap) for them to try: they both responded positively to the new brands.

Some of the unprocessed versions of food are taking some getting used to. My little girl, whose favorite dinner food in the whole world is noodles, decided that she didn't like Mommy-made noodles the first time we had them. I explained that that was fine, but that those were the only noodles we were going to have this month. She finally started to eat them. The next time they were on the menu, she pitched a complete fit; then she headed to the table, where she took one bite and said, "I LOVE these!" and has since requested Mommy-made noodles twice. The same could not be said of Mommy-made tortillas, which neither kid liked, although they both did give it a good try.

At the grocery store, the kids asked for their usual kids'-cookie that many stores now give out to make the shopping experience more pleasant for kids and parents. When I explained that the store-bought cookies weren't unprocessed, we had two very upset kiddos on our hands. I comforted them with the idea of a mommy-made treat when we got home, and they were super excited to have some of the birthday cake and whipped cream that I was making for a friend. Not exactly a healthy treat, but at least one where I knew what all of the ingredients were.

Even after a week, eating real, unprocessed foods has definitely become the norm. On Sunday night, we had chili, and the little guy asked if there were any tortilla chips. I explained that no, store-bought chips were some of the worst foods for our bodies. Without skipping a beat, he said, "Well, Mom, can't you go make us some tortilla chips?!" I'm working on it.....

A final sign that this has become the new norm for the kids: While walking to the car after kindergarten the other day, the little guy said, "Let's catch rain drops on our tongues...they're unprocessed!" :)

Unprocessed: Week one reflections

We made it through week one! Here are some reflections, challenges and positives:

Challenges:

• Illness: A stomach virus hit our house last Monday (the second day of our unprocessed challenge)...of course that throws a wrench in everything. Meal plans had to get adjusted, the little guy wasn't eating anything, everyone was exhausted. But we still stuck to it, rearranging our meal plan, but not falling back on any processed foods.
• Snacks: This was an expected challenge: lunches for school when we ran out of leftovers, lunches for the weekends, after-school snacks, dinners when I had parent-teacher conferences late at school. I've come to rely on egg salad on homemade bread with fruit and veggies. The hubby's lunch on Friday was pretty scant: homemade wheat thins with cheese and fruit. We've been doing well with skipping our after school snacks, and when we were desperate, I've made kettle corn. We definitely need to continue to work on this area.
• Related to my egg salad sandwiches...I used my homemade mayo, but wasn't a huge fan, so by the end of the week, I did use a tiny bit of store-bought mayo and mustard. I need to try another mayo recipe this week.
• Canned foods: Wow, I really had not realized all of the crap they put into canned foods. I think of our meals as healthy when they use canned beans. Checking out the can this weekend, I saw corn syrup (why?!), salt, chemical preservatives, and other stuff. Ew. Luckily, my canned tomatoes, while including salt, don't include anything else except tomatoes.
• Weekend events: We had some fun activities planned for this weekend, and weren't sure how we'd handle the whole unprocessed thing. On Friday night, the little guy's school hosted a family pizza/popcorn/movie night in the gym. We weren't sure what to do about dinner. In the end, the hubby decided to "cheat," and he and the kids ate the pizza; I brought some plain yogurt, fruit, and homemade granola. Worked pretty well. On Saturday, we went to a pow wow. We all ate a little lunch before we left so we wouldn't be starving when we got there. But we couldn't pass up the fry bread food truck, so hubby and I hoped/pretended that the fry bread was made with all unprocessed ingredients. ;-)
• Snow! We timed this challenge with the spring so we would have more energy and also could rely on grilling. Instead, winter came back with a vengeance. So much for our meal plans of grilling chicken (Wednesday) and chef salad (Tuesday). These were replaced by pancakes and a spaghetti freezer meal. This upcoming week, too, is going to be too cold and snowy for grilling or spring-time food.

Happy news:

• In many ways, this hasn't been nearly as challenging as I feared. I've realized that our dinners were already pretty unprocessed, so there haven't been that many adjustments. In our soup dinner, the only thing I had to make that I haven't always made was the noodles; in our spaghetti meal, it was the noodles and the salad dressing. But I'm in the habit of making so many other things from scratch, so it wasn't that bad.
• I am so glad that I keep back-ups and make extras for the freezer. Some things have really caught me off-guard: on Sunday, I was making chili. I had already purchased dried beans to replace the canned, but had completely forgotten that the recipe calls for two cups of chicken broth. I always use the jarred stuff. Luckily I had a baggie with two cups of stock in the freezer!
• I have been so impressed by my hubby's commitment. This has been my project from the beginning: my idea, my planning, my organization. But on Monday morning when the little guy was sick, and I was staying home, and no one was really up for making a meal, my hubby could have easily decided to cheat and grab a bowl of processed cereal; instead, I looked up, and there he was, pulling out the frying pan and making some scrambled eggs for himself.
• So far, I've had two Sundays of being at home, which I think is completely necessary to working full-time and being successful at this challenge. Yesterday, after grocery shopping, I made a huge batch of noodles and whole wheat rolls for the week, in addition to our chili dinner and a birthday cake for my friend. I was in the kitchen for most of the day. Not sure I could do this otherwise.
• My first several experiences making homemade pasta were not good, and I kind of regretted asking the hubby to buy me a pasta maker for Christmas several years ago; it felt like a waste of money. But happily, I have found a great egg noodle recipe, easily adapted to whole wheat flour, and it only took me 50 minutes to roll out, cut, and freeze a pound and a half of pasta for the week (not including the 5 minutes to mix up the dough and the 30 minute rest time).
• Giving up candy has not been nearly as traumatic as I expected. I actually started a week early, so I wouldn't be trying to keep the family on track while battling my own food demon. But I haven't really had any cravings.
• My hubby seems to have had an easy transition to giving up pop, too; he's been having a cup of coffee during his normal afternoon pop time, and he hasn't complained at all or been crabby.
• I was worried about losing desserts because we're accustomed to having it almost every night, but we've just kind of naturally drifted out of the habit.
• I'm glad that we're having conversations about food as a family: where food comes from, what companies do to it, what's healthy for our bodies, why companies use things that aren't good for us to make food taste "better." More about the kids in tomorrow's post.
• Finally, I have found a lot of resources to give me ideas about adapting recipes and making things from scratch. In addition to Eating Rules, I have found 100 days of real food, and I've also found that just searching for a recipe plus "unprocessed October" gives me a lot of links to other people who have tried to do this same thing.

Well, there you have it: far more happy things than challenges. In general, week one went really well, and hubby and I are already talking about which changes we want to make permanent....On to week two!

Wordlessish Wednesday: Unprocessed freezer to the rescue

Too tired to cook = homemade pasta, homemade marinara, and homemade garlic bread from the freezer. Plus a quick homemade ranch dressing made with my first ever homemade mayo. Wahoo!