Update on the "Nightmare"

So we have been trying our little experiment for almost four weeks. I thought I'd update you on how we've been doing.

Em asked me the first week "how long are we doing this?" expecting that it would a month, or 100 days (like another blogger did). She was astonished and a little dismayed when I said forever. So we made some alterations, concessions, to make this a livable lifestyle with four children

In the spirit of full-disclosure . . .
I would love to be able to be 100% processed-free but I happen to live in the real world so there are some things that are still a part of our lives.

• Whole Wheat Hoagie rolls from Sam's club, for lunches. My kids have actually been pretty good sports and since I have been limited on my time for trying new recipes, I haven't switched that part, yet. I did a very exciting comment this week from Tenille with some delicious looking recipes. I plan to try them this week.

• Yogurt. I have bought the Dannon Pure yogurt that only has ingredients that we can pronounce and recognize. Chris doesn't love the texture as it isn't as thick as he is used to. I tried the Greek Yogurt and that was much too thick and tangy for all our liking.

• String cheese was a concession for lunches as well. The kids have really been enjoying the fruits and veggies, but they needed a little more protien for what I call "staying power." I need Em and Jo to make it through sports practice after school. I feel ok about the concession since there are only four ingredients and the only thing sketchy is "enzymes"--I'm not sure what that means, I might be afraid to know what that means.

• Treat Night once a week. That way a treat is a treat, not a regular part of every day, every meal. We usually have movie night on Fridays, so that is our planned night, although the second week of our adventure was Valentine's Day, so we moved treat night to Tuesday that week. The first week I bought three little tubs of Breyers ice cream--we decided last minute that we would do it, so there wasn't time to make something. It was the perfect amount, everyone had a small scoop of each flavor and then it was gone. Since then, I have made a treat from scratch and only made enough to enjoy for the evening, or I have taken the rest to others.

We also took a trip a few weeks ago. Despite my best efforts to pack good snacks, traveling process-free is REALLY HARD! So we did the best we could to make good choices. (except when I was feeling really tired and driving over a mountain pass in the snow with muddy wipers and no wiper fluid, I bought a Vitamin Water--it was NASTY, but helped--and a Big Hunk for the sugar and the chewing--it gave a terrible stomach ache!) My friend also felt badly for my poor punished children and bought all kinds of delicious cereal for them, but she is an excellent cook with very healthy tastes so all in all we didn't fall off the wagon too far. We also ate many things that were gluten free because her daughter is celiac. I found that my stomach didn't hurt at all while we were there, even though I had forgotten my Cambuche at home. Definitely a bit of information worth experimenting on.

Em took a school trip this weekend and ate mostly fast food. She was able to find a few apples on a concession cart, but that was the extent of her options for good food choices. She said she really felt sick most of the trip.

The upsides

Dinner every night is very tasty. I have had to plan better, but the result has been worth it.  I have made pitas, flour tortillas, and corn tortillas from scratch--along with the rolls, biscuits and muffins that I already make from scratch. I think that I also have found a good recipe for Quick Butter Croissants that come in the can that are used in a lot of fun apetizer recipes. Don't let the name fool you--they need to refrigerate for at least four hours. I didn't let them raise after shaping like the recipe calls for, but I don't think it's necessary when using it for veggie pizza or artichocke bread or chicken packets or any of those fun recipes that use the canned dough.

I'm actually spending less on groceries. Surprise! That is not something I expected. I am having to go to the store more often--we go through the fruits and veggies pretty fast--but I'm not spending as much as I used to overall. I have just had to adjust my thinking and my schedule on things. I used to to a big shop every two weeks and then do a little trip for milk and produce if I needed it/  I now need to plan a small trip every week and I'm learning how much produce to buy. I didn't want things to spoil but for a few weeks I was at the store every three days.

All in all I think we are enjoying the changes and feeling better for them. Cereal and chips have been the most missed items, but even Chris has learned to find a different bedtime snack. Consequently I'm only using half the milk I was before--contributing to the money saving for sure.

I haven't lost much weight--it really wasn't about that--but interestingly enough one of my adult tap students commented that I was looking really good, whatever I was doing was working. That felt really good to hear.