Real Food Challenge Week 1: Day 2

Ahh now onto the good stuff! Stocking the pantry with yummy nourishing goodies! I won't paste the entire looonnggg informative email from Day 2. Go JOIN and you can get them everyday. Honestly I recommend you join even if you can't or don't want to commit right now to doing the entire challenge. Learning some simple steps, trying some new things, and generally just moving towards better health is a good thing.

Pick up some wholesome foods to help round out your pantry, replacing the processed foods you tossed (or were supposed to toss) yesterday. Remember, you needn't purchase every item on this list - this challenge isn't about spending every penny you earn on groceries; rather, pick a few items and there to round out your pantry. Choose organic, local ingredients where possible.

As I glance at this list. I am overwhelmed with how the Lord has truly blessed us in the area of food.

• Natural Sweeteners* such as honey, blackstrap molasses, whole unrefined cane sugar (e.g. Rapadura / Sucanat), sorghum syrup, maple syrup.- have these :) We have probably 2 1/2 gallons of raw honey left, some maple syrup (and soon to be more since Mom has decided she likes the fake stuff better and is giving me hers. What?!), we have a gallon of blackstrap molasses, and a gallon at least of local Amish sorghum. Remember that we have been stocking up on these things slowly over time. Start small and go from there.
  
• Wholesome fats such as unrefined olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, tallow, butter, ghee- Have these. I have a gallon or so tin of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a jug of red palm oil, and loads of butter. I'm going to look into grass fed butter. We use LOTS of butter. I don't know that I can afford healthier butter for now. We'll see. For now we get plain ole Costco butter. And lots of it. I'm out of coconut oil but usually have some.
  
• Whole meal flours such as grain flour, sprouted grain flour, coconut and blanched nut flours - We have hundreds of lbs of whole grains and grind our own. Frankie has tricticale and kamut on her list. Hmm... off to check prices on those to start saving! New fun stuff is a good thing.
• Unrefined Sea Salt such as real salt and celtic sea salt- We needed more of this. I've fallen in the trap of using the refined sea salt we have for salting meat in cooking. So I talked Mom into giving me her gorgeous gray Celtic Sea Salt. I want more. More. More.
  
• Meat (preferably grass-fed or pasture-raised) such as beef, lamb, chicken, pork, bison, elk etc.- Meat. Glorious meat! We have lots of meat. I wish we had more grass-fed beef than we do. But we have enough to eat in once a week for a few more months. We also have some wild deer sausage. I have lots of turkeys. Yes they're not free-ranged but they were cheap and they will be enjoyed here. We're going to talk about some meat goats and chickens this year. There will be posts about it. Oh and we only can afford grass-fed beef buying it in bulk. We bought 100 and something lbs of it this last time. I hope we can save up and buy 400 lbs or so at least next time. If you look at the prices at Whole Foods and faint, start searching for a local source. It's the only way to go.
  
• Fresh vegetables and fruit (preferably organic in season and local)- Eh we don't have loads of these. We have been sure to always have a big bag of organic carrots from Costco cause those are cheap cheap. We do have some of our own organic canned pears from last Fall. I'll have to be sure and start using those as a local yummy fruit source. I love looking at my jars of food so much I forget to actually USE them. Stupid right? But Spring is coming. We are planting the first seeds tomorrow for Spring. In a handful of months we will be brimming with insanely delicious organic produce. Praise God for gardens.
  
• Full fat dairy (preferably raw) such as whole milk, butter, cream, cheese- Don't worry about us. We have more than enough raw yummy milk goodies. There are some things I am beyond thankful for. Raw milk is one. We will be going in with some other families to get a case of cheese making kits for half price so we will be making our first hard cheeses soon. Maybe I'll do some buttermilk, cream cheese, ricotta posts here soon.
  
• Naturally fermented foods and beverages such as kombucha, yogurt, kefir- we do all these already. But I have let them slip some. I have some of the biggest, thickest kombucha mothers you've ever seen due to neglect. Okay. Off to brew the tea to reboot right now!
  

So. This was the easiest part of the challenge I think. For others it will be one of the hardest. Over the next few days we will continue to go through our pantry and get rid of processed foods from Day 1's challenge. I thought at first glance yesterday that I had done it but being honest and looking really at things, we have more than I thought. So more will be going tomorrow when I clean out the fridge and pantry.