Our Family: 10 Day Pledge

I recently found a website/blog (thank you, Pinterest!) that is all about eating real food....nothing processed. I LOVE this idea so I decided that our family would try the 10-day pledge.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

We started today. Actually, I started preparing a few days ago, but the change in the way we eat started today. I'm going to try to document the next 10 days....the good and the bad.

To get started, I followed the advise on the site and made a 10 day menu, bought all the groceries and cleaned out our pantry and fridge. The fridge was easy.....not much processed food in there except for an old box of Velveeta cheese which is probably the most processed food ever made! ;) The pantry was a different story. I boxed up all the food that we will not be eating and placed it on the top shelf of the pantry. Out of sight, out of mind.

I already know that my biggest challenge will be coffee. I can drink coffee but only without sweetener of any kind. I usually drink it with Splenda and cream. : ( So, for 10 days (and maybe longer), I'll be drinking hot tea with honey.

Day 1: For breakfast, Eli and Chase had oatmeal with honey, cinnamon and a little butter. I thought they would complain because I usually put sugar, cinnamon and a lot of butter, but they both ate it all without complaining at all. Reed had a banana. : ) I'm not a big breakfast eater, so I just had a bite of banana and a bite of oatmeal.

I made whole wheat banana bread. I like it, Reed LOVES it, and Eli and Chase are a little iffy; although, Eli asked for a piece tonight, but I had to say no b/c he didn't finish his supper. (not because he didn't like it....it is just an ongoing battle with him)

Lunch was not very different that what we normally eat except for the sandwich bread. For lunch we had peanut butter sandwich squares, cucumbers, cheese, grapes and avocado. Once the kids ate everything, I gave them a few baked kettle potato chips. Eli loved everything except the sandwich. The bread is pretty different than what he is used to eating. He'll get used to it though. ; ) Chase at the grapes, cheese, "pickles" (aka cukes), two bites of the avocado and two bites of the sandwich ("no, thank you bites").

For our first supper, I chose something that I knew the kids would like and eat....Taco Salad. We eat taco salad all the time, but usually use a package of taco seasoning. I added my own seasonings and beans and it was super yummy. Probably the best taco salad I've ever made!!

Obviously Taco Salad is eaten with tortilla chips. The recipe on the website included steps to make your own corn tortillas and then make chips by baking them. Well this part was a total bust!! I had a very difficult time getting the dough to the right consistency and when I did (or thought I did) I pressed them and then they were totally stuck to the wax paper and I couldn't get them off to place them on the skillet to cook. So for me, this part was just a BIG mess!! : ) And, while I was making this mess, Reed was making a mess of his own....pulling everything out of the cabinets! : ) Oh well!! Now I'm on a mission to find a local person that makes corn tortillas with simple ingredients. When we ate the taco salad, I "cheated" and gave the kids a couple of tortilla chips from the top of the pantry. I just had mine on a bed of lettuce rather than tortilla chips! : )