The Road to Real Food....

Anyone else caught wind of this "real food" movement? As an avid blogger who gathers recipes, cooking information and getting the low-down on the newest diet craze, I've recently discovered the "real food movement" sweeping the nation. This movement is making people, just like you and me, toss processed foods and going for meals made from fresh fruits, vegetables, local meat, dairy and bread. It's also referred to as "slow", "green" or "local", where people are enjoying things in season and organic, if possible.

So what's this got to do with our blog? Pretty much everything. Since we first started Adventures in Our Kitchens, we originally were doing a combo of Julia Child and Paula Deen recipes. The one main thing these two ladies had in common is their love of butter. Not margarine, but BUTTER. Anyone else ever read that email telling people the difference between butter and margarine? Not all of it is entirely true, but margarine is about as processed as you can get in the culinary world.

Aside from all of this, what lead me on this quest was just looking for ways to shrink our food budget. My husband & I will be graduating from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University -Military Edition on Saturday. We've learned so much in the last 12 weeks of class, but are still looking for ways to cut costs and stay healthy. I reverted back to some old things I did when we started our youngest on a GF/CF diet almost a year and a half ago. We went back to eating potatoes or rice, veggies and a protein for dinner. Super simple and wholesome. I admittedly tried the same thing back in March of this year with starting Meatless Mondays and shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, but lapsed back into bad habits and food cravings.

What's that old saying? If you don't succeed at first, try again. Well, I'm trying again.

We enjoyed another Meatless Monday last night with the return of my legendary black bean burgers*. There are very few ingredients in this recipe and it comes together in minutes. The longest thing to cook were the fries served with dinner. The jalapeno cheese adds a bit of zing to the burgers too. As an added bonus we had a local homegrown tomato to slice and pile on our burgers. * Check the 03/14/2011 post for the recipe.

These burgers fool even the pickiest of eaters while looking like real burgers.

Last week, I had a request from a friend to make a first birthday cake for her daughter, who is obsessed with ice cream sandwiches. I guess they ease the pain from teething. So, I made a test run cake and came up with a Strawberry & Vanilla Ice Cream Cake. I made it with a box of Strawberry cake mix, the only changes were that I subbed the oil for a 4 oz container of strawberry flavored applesauce and baked as directed. Then I used Breyer's All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream for the layers. Bake the cake in a 11x14 sheet pan, cool and then cut the cake to fit the inside of a spring-form pan and freeze for 30 minutes. Layer ice cream that has sat in the fridge for a few hours and freeze for 30 minutes. Repeat with cut pieces of cake, freeze and layer ice cream again and end with cake on the bottom. Wrap in plastic and freeze for several hours. Remove from freezer 5-10 minutes before serving, then cut and enjoy.

Now, we're by no means 100% free of processed foods, but we're off to a good start. If you moved our potato basket on the bottom shelf of the pantry, you'd see our love of Duke's Mayonnaise. We have juice, cereals and assorted odds and ends, but we're getting rid of it slowly. I'm still incorporating these processed goods into our current meals. I don't believe in wasting money, so we'll have another Spongebob taco night courtesy of Ortega and Friday night pizza a few more times. More importantly, our pantry is in a better state than a month or two ago. Yes, we still have fruit snacks and animal crackers for our boys, but fresh fruit or a few carrots have always been an option. This topic on real food has peaked my interest and I've picked up a few books from the local library. Soon I will be sharing my thoughts on what the authors suggest for a real food lifestyle. So, join me on a slow movement towards real food.