The Rules

Do you remember that book The Rules? I bought it. I read it. I don't remember any of it, but I'm married now, so maybe it worked? When I typed the title of this post, I just remembered that book. Sorry, back to the task at han ~ hey look! Something Shiny!!

Ahem. Ok, back to the challenge. The rules of the original challenge, while fabulous and no doubt extremely healthy were a little too extreme for my family. At least for our first go 'round. After discussing it with my husband and my oldest son (my youngest doesn't know about it yet, but he'd live off of melon & tomatoes alone if he could, so I'm not too worried about him) we decided on the following rule:

~*~Basically only eat things that my grandmother could have made at home~*~

Ok, so it's not exactly that simple, but it's pretty close. Here's the thing: If I didn't allow any prepared foods into the house two things would happen: My children would stage a coup and I'd be stuck in the kitchen all day. I'm looking for health, not insanity.

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  Dairy: We will continue to consume our raw milk, all other dairy will be organic (when possible) and absolutely rBST/rBGH free. There will be no stabilizers, preservatives or other unknowns in any of it. We typically buy Tillamook Cheese and we'll continue to do so. In my opinion, yogurt is no place for "modified corn starch" (GMO), Gelatin, Artificial Flavors, HFCS or atificial sweeteners, so I'll either be making my own or buying locally made, small batch yogurt for this challenge. I read somewhere that most commercial yogurt is only "cultured" for a just a few hours, but I can't find the article now. To truly get the benefit of probiotics, yogurt needs to be cultured for quite some time. I simply don't trust most commercially made yogurts.


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  Fruits & Veggies: fresh is best, organic frozen is tolerable.


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  Grains: I'll make pretty much all of our bread products (I can't think of any off the top of my head that I won't make).


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  Fats: You will not find any vegetable oils or canola oils in my kitchen. Haven't for years. I use olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, animal fats & I'm learning to use palm oil.


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  Meat: all meat will be organic and pastured/grassfed and free of nitrates, preservatives and other nasty junk


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  Sweeteners: No HFCS, no artificial sweeteners. Maple Syrup, raw honey & organic evaporated cane juice in moderation.


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  Prepared/Packaged Foods: Ok, I know I said there would be zilch ~ but then I started to really think about that and well, at least right now, that's not possible in my house. So here's the standard ~ if the ingredient list is all recognizable and indicates that I could theoretically make the item in my own kitchen, it's a go.


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  Beverages: We'll drink milk, water and a very very small amount of 100% fruit juice.

This challenge isn't going to be about losing weight. I'm going to use sugar, I'm going to use flour (freshly milled), I'm going to cook (for the most part) the way the Amish still do today. This challenge is about breaking the addiction to preservatives & snythetic 'food'. It's about getting back to the basics. I'll deal with weight issues afterwards.....

I'll blog our food, my recipes, our moods, our medications, everything. By the end of the two weeks, you'll know more about my family than you'd ever wish to! My goal is to teach my children about real food and the connection nutrition has to our health. Ok, who's with me?!