Dinner tonight

One of my favorite blogs that I follow is about food. We've been, for the last 2 months or so, trying to eat all natural, or real or whole, foods. This means no preservatives, no additives, no fillers. It's made food become a very focal point in our lives. Grocery shopping becomes a game, and cooking and creating new meals is a great way for us to spend time together.

So, after 2 months of this, with small slip-ups here and there, I've thrown it all out the window the last couple of days. You'd be SO surprised to find what little tolerance you have for "junk" food once you've been eating this way. The other night, Nathan, my 10 year old, requested tuna casserole for dinner. I'm not a fan even before this new diet, but now I'm even less. I make the casserole out of canned tuna (good), egg noogles (not as good) and canned cream of mushroom and chicken soups (full of crap). Now, I could probably find better versions of all of the above, but haven't had a chance to yet. So, I mixed it all up, and we ate it. It did taste good, and there are worse things...you'll see...so I didn't get too down on myself.

Lunch was Friendly's. I did the best I could with a tuna melt on rye, with a side of fries. I have no idea what's in the tuna there, or the bread, or the fries for that matter, but that's what I had...

Last night we made patty melts. Now, we've been trying to stay away from red meat and pork, but will allow ourselves to have some a couple of times a month. These particular burgers were probably not the best meat we could eat. I sauteed some fresh mushrooms and a white onion. We put the pattys and veggies on grilled Nature's Own honey wheat bread (all natural!). Lucas did well by adding some monterey jack cheese, but I put on my weakness - american PROCESSED cheese. We had this with a side of fried potatoes. All natural but covered in greasy butter. We topped it off with a mix of canned peas and frozen corn, both leftovers. Ok, so looking back at it, it wasn't TOO much of a stray from what we're trying to do. I guess all the grease made me feel worse, especially on top of the Friendly's earlier in the day!

Today for lunch it was Zaxby's. My friend, Tara, who I haven't talked with in months said "let's go to Zaxby's! It will be free!" I thought I'd get a salad or something acceptable....no, the "free" thing was some fried chicken parmesan on greasy texas toast sandwich, with a sauce that claimed to be cheese. It was AWFUL. I immediately went back to work and ate an orange, just to taste something fresh!

So, I've failed this week. But it has made me realize how much I appreciate the changes we've made. Tonight for dinner, we had stuffed peppers - made with FRESH green, red and orange peppers, red onion, jalapeno, chayote squash and garlic, ground turkey (no artificial additives or preservatives, minimally processed), brown rice and organic tomato sauce. It was AMAZING!

I'm trying to plan my lunch menu for tomorrow, and I'm excited about trying to eat ALL fresh food!