Real Food Challenge - Week #7

For 14 weeks, the family and I are undertaking a Real Food Challenge (put forth by the awesome 100 Days of Real Food blog). I'm hoping to check in about any struggles and successes along the way each week. Our ultimate goal is to cut down on our dependence on processed foods and start using some cleaner fuels to energize our bodies. And stuff.

So, here's how it works. I'll get an email every Thursday for the next 14 weeks (the actual eating challenge will start on Sunday or Monday for 7 days, so there are a couple of days of grocery prep built in). Each email outlines the "rules" for that particular week. It's up to each participant as to whether or not they'd like to try each week independently or build on top of the prior week. In other words, continuing doing the prior weeks while attempting the new weeks, if that makes sense. There's also a very active Facebook group (I've actually joined an offshoot that's super supportive and far more focused) that's there to share, answer and support.

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Happy Valentine's Day, guys! I hope you have wonderfulness planned for the day, be it on your own or with a sweetie. Here's our challenge update...

Review of Week #6: Since this past week was just about avoiding low-fat stuff (which we do anyway), it was pretty much an easy week. We've been maintaining our heightened consumption of fruits/veggies (not as strictly as two per meal, but we're doing well nonetheless), so things are continuing quite smoothly, I think. Oh, and I made a skillet meal with lentils (cooked on the side), kale, spinach and apple chicken sausage last Saturday with our "trying new foods" challenge. Dave and I liked it quite a lot. H couldn't get past the grittiness of the lentils. Totally expected.

Random Observation: So, I mentioned this to Dave and he said, "have you told your readers?" I was planning on adding my "this is what I learned" thoughts at the end of all of the challenges, but I figured I'd just mention it briefly here (for his sake). We all know that eating healthier is more expensive, but this has definitely been a bigger issue than usual. The fact that we've been grocery shopping weekly rather than bi-weekly, it has upped the cost quite a bit. I'm hoping to try planning bi-weekly for meals rather than weekly when I'm able to again, but in the meantime...ka-ching.

Week #7 Challenge: Halfway point! This week is all about consuming 100% whole-grain stuff. This is what I would call more of a "challenge." The bread we use is usually a locally-made, no-artificial-ingredients-or-preservatives peasant bread, but it's not whole wheat. Plus, our pastas are usually organic but "traditional" durum variety, simply because we don't like the taste of the whole wheat stuff. However, I'm hoping to try at least one whole-wheat bread recipe this week just to see if I'm capable, and maybe make some pizza dough while I'm at it. Our diets will definitely shift back into the "let's eat more fruits 'n vegetables" since we won't be filling up with as much starchy stuff. ;-) At least, that's my prediction.

Here's an attempt at our meal ideas for the week: