Real Food Challenge Week 2 Recap

Well, this week has been difficult. I have had project deadlines out the wazoo and a touch of some sort of spring yuck. It never developed to a full-blown flu like I get each spring; but it was enough to slow me down. The combination of deadlines and yuck knocked me off my game a little bit. I did really well at sticking with the program for dinners. And I did a pretty good job of planning ahead for them as well. But lunches kicked my butt this week. We ate out several times because there either wasn't anything to prepare quickly for lunch in the kitchen,or because we were out when we were overcome by hunger. The Boy was loving it. But I was not. Yesterday I picked up stuff for lunches, so hopefully week 3 will not be as disappointing in this regard.

There is good news too. I picked up my first order from the new buying club. I am happy with the quality of the food. The eggs are better than those I have been buying a little more locally, and the chicken is half the price with a higher confidence level on my part with regard to the way it was raised.

Also, I finally got my seed starting shelf set up in the basement with the help of The Boy. I have to hide it in the basement because otherwise the naughty kitties who live here will curl up on top of my seedlings. Apparently, seedlings are tres comfy.

And last, but certainly not least, I lost four pounds since cutting back on processed foods. This is a minor miracle considering that the last several years have been filled with me doing exactly what the doctors said to do and steadily continuing to gain weight. Huh.

My goals for the coming week include continuing to work on meal planning and continuing the garden prep work if the rain lets up. I'd really like to get some seeds in the ground! I'll also start more seeds inside to transplant later. I'd like to try something new in the kitchen, but with so many deadlines looming it isn't likely to happen.

Real Food Challenge Week 1 Recap

I've gotten off to a slow start in the Real Food Challenge running this month at Not Dabbling In Normal. I find myself missing a few aspects of last month's challenge at Nourished Kitchen. One of the things I find myself missing is the structure. So I've decided to adopt some of last month's structure for my personal challenge this month. Among the things I'll incorporate is the Monday Recap post. I thought I would enjoy the flexibility of NDIN's challenge more than I actually do. I think the reason for this is simply that, at any given moment, I am trying to juggle too many responsibilities. It gets overwhelming. I am serious about making changes in my family's diet. But I am also seriously time-restricted. It was nice to get a daily assignment last month, and know that every Monday I would have to fess up how I did during the week. NDIN is doing a "link party" today. But they also did a Friday recap. I'm not really sure if there is a regular check-in planned or not, so unless I figure out otherwise, I'll just plan to post a recap on Mondays.

That being said, I slacked more than I'm happy about this week. I also had tons and tons of schoolwork to turn in (I'm taking 15 credits this semester). On the upside, I did a better job about planning meals ahead of time and the meals I did plan were in line with our new diet. There were no disasters in the kitchen this week (woot!) and I'm getting into the swing of things with my new way of shopping. On the downside, the meals I didn't plan ended up not being great choices. They could have been worse; but they could have been a lot better.

In one respect, however, I got a "kitchen bonus" of sorts. This week was bulk trash week in my neighborhood. I scored an old-school 12 inch cast iron dutch oven that a neighbor was tossing. I'll post a picture when I've finished cleaning it up. I'm looking forward to trying sourdough bread in it.

I think my big lesson this week was my personal need for kitchen structure in order to stick to a healthy plan. I do a lot of winging it in life, with generally decent results. But the kitchen does not seem to be an area in which I can afford to wing it. That's useful information that, hopefully, I can translate into more success next week.

Also, FYI, the folks at Not Dabbling In Normal have posted a bunch of recipes this week, as well as some awesome photos. Go check them out. It's worth the click.