Camp-Counselor Mom

Completing four days of the 10-day Real Food Pledge feels like we’re really going to succeed! Breakfast was our usual oatmeal with apples or bananas and cinnamon. Lunch was left-overs (finally!)

Patrick's lunch: red beans over brown rice, carrots, corn

I’m so glad that Patrick enjoys vegetables:

Happy to have steamed carrots

I finished off the flounder Continue reading →

Patrick goes to preschool 2 mornings a week, and I pack his lunch. He also has a morning snack, provided by a different parent each day. I assumed that his snack would not be Real Food, but I did not want to impose extra work on his wonderful teachers without checking with them in advance. I think they would be willing to give Patrick a special snack if I sent one (they already do this for another boy with a food allergy), but I wonder how Patrick would handle eating fruit while all of his buddies ate Goldfish? I don’t want to cause extra drama in the toddler class if it’s only for two snacks a week.

I saw the snack when I dropped him off, and it was Nutri-grain bars.  You can see from that link that the bars contain a hefty dose of high fructose corn syrup (first ingredient in the “fruit” filling) along with Continue reading →

We started “day 2” of the 10-day Real Food Pledge with oatmeal. Patrick already eats oatmeal for breakfast most days. We like to make the “old fashioned” oats in a 1-to-1 oats to milk ratio, microwaved for one minute. We add cinnamon and either bananas or apple chunks, and it’s delicious.

Patrick and I had a playdate with his buddies at the park. Food is always an important part of playdates, so I loaded up on real food snacks before we went. I brought apple chunks, drinkable 1-ingredient apple sauce, my homemade granola, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The sandwich was 1-ingredient creamy peanut butter, organic strawberry jelly sweetened only with apple juice, and whole-wheat bread from Great Harvest Bread Company. (I need to write a whole post soon about how much we love Great Harvest Bread Company.)

Patrick had a great lunch picnic with his buddies and scarfed down a surprising amount of all of that food!

While Patrick napped, I enjoyed Continue reading →

Last night we shared a delicious chocolate chess pie and ice cream with friends. That was the last refined sugar we’ll eat for a while. Today was our first day of the 10-day Real Food Pledge, and I’m happy to report that it went really well. I never felt deprived or inconvenienced… probably because we spent most of the DAY in the kitchen! It’s a good thing that we started on the weekend.

Breakfast was coffee without sweetener, whole-wheat pancakes with real maple syrup, and North Carolina apples. Don’t worry… this stack wasn’t for one person. They’re very filling!

Whole-wheat pancakes, unsweetened coffee, real maple syrup

Whole wheat pancakes from $5 Dinners blog are easy to make and not Continue reading →

Although my husband and I have watched Food Inc. together and talked about nutrition, I was the one who read several books, found the 100 Days of Real Food blog, and suggested we try the 10-day Pledge. We’ve been shopping at the farmers markets for a few months, but this was going to be a much bigger step. I mentioned the idea of eating only “real food” to Jim weeks ago and set a start date a month in the future… because I expected him to need a lot of convincing.

It’s not that Jim doesn’t understand the importance of good health and nutrition. I mean, he’s a scientist after all. But he has a tough time with the textures of vegetables and fruits. He doesn’t like to eat them except for potatoes and corn (which has to be ON the cob). He’s actually come a long way to be able Continue reading →

Several friends have heard me promoting the 10-day Real Food Pledge we’re starting this weekend as a family. Several of you have decided to “take the challenge” with us and give it a try with your families. Your interest has motivated me to go out to local sources of real food and invite them to support us in this pledge. Their responses have been overwhelmingly positive… and generous! So now I need an accurate head count of how many households plan to participate in the 10-day Real Food Pledge.

Would you like to join us? You can choose to start the pledge Continue reading →

I’ve been learning more about food and thinking carefully about the meals I serve my family. Everything I read about good farming practices reminds me of the working farm and fields of crops at my summer camp. Campers who go blueberry picking before breakfast can tell you that nothing compares to walking among the rows of bushes, popping a sweet blueberry into your mouth for every few that you toss into the bucket. Camp meals consisted of fresh vegetables from the garden with help from campers snapping green beans and shelling peas. We even ate watermelon from the farm while playing in the river’s rapids. At the camp farm, I gained an overall respect for the land, the bounty it provides, and an appreciation for a sustainable, healthy food source.

I’ve recently read Michael Polan’s In Defense of Food and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, and I realize Continue reading →