If I Lived In Colonial Times...

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After my recent posts on American food culture you might be wondering why and how we should change. Let me just say that this food thing has been a process, one that has taken months for us to even make the first move.

Now, let's start with the why. Why does it even matter how much meat we eat? Well, I'm a moderation kind of gal. I believe I can eat anything I want in moderation, and I do! But here's the thing, it all goes back to our responsibility to God, nature and each other. We are responsible for taking care of the earth and all of it's goodness and if we turn a blind eye to how our food gets to our table we are abdicating that responsibility to strangers in industry. We are telling the food industry and our government that we don't care where our food comes from, as long as we can get it on the table by 6pm, cheap, hot and medium rare. We are saying that it's okay that our beef comes from CAFO's in the middle of Iowa where they lie around in their own feces and have to get shots of antibiotics just so they can tolerate a corn diet.

How can we change? By pretending we live in colonial times. Granted, we have access to so much more variety than they did but it doesn't mean that is an advantage. In fact, so many choices are the exact reasons we have this food conundrum in the first place. Colonists ate locally (duh), seasonally (they ate what they could grow, when they could grow it) and organically (no pesticides invented yet! They fought pests naturally!!). When we let go of the idea of eating whatever we want, when we want it we can move forward in our journey towards clean eating. We can simplify our eating, enjoy the food in it's purest form enhanced by the simple flavors of salt (not too much!) and butter (organic!). Shut out the noise of our food culture and simplify your menu. Get back to the basics and focus on real, whole foods.

For instance, we might have homemade biscuits and eggs for dinner one night. Or organic brown rice (we just tried a new one from costco, it's amazing!) with roasted winter vegetables. The other day I used meat as a condiment instead of a main dish by cooking ground beef (again, organic grassfed meat from costco, are you tired of reading the word organic?) with some of my "special italiane" seasoning from the Sarlat spice lady and added that to the roast veggies and brown rice. It was amazing and a total hit with the kids.

So next time you are shopping for food, ask yourself- would a pilgrim recognize this and how closely to my home was this food grown? Those two questions alone will clean up any diet...Think of all of the yucky chemicals, dyes, and xenoestrogens you won't be eating and you will feel better already!