Nourishing Beginnings: Part 2

Okay, now that you have a idea of how I feel about food, what do we really eat around here? Well, as much as I try to avoid "diets" with lists of dos and don'ts, sometimes it is easier to explain things in that way. So here is what we try to do:

• Lots of fruits and vegetables. Local and in season if possible (I wish we were better about this but I really do love bananas). We don't really do organic. Often I get it from the farmer's market and it is practically if not "certified" organic. For things we get from the store, I just buy the general stuff.
• Variety of whole grains, mostly soaked or sprouted. I don't typically make our sandwich bread but I do make bread for dinner with soaked whole wheat (and sometimes rye). Our sandwich bread is normally any basic 100% whole wheat bread (I try to find one without high fructose corn syrup) but lately I've been getting Ezekiel 4:9 bread which is made with wheat, barley, spelt, lentils and millet. It's expensive but I love it. We also eat a lot of oats, brown rice and sometimes quinoa.
• Variety of protein sources. I think meats are a great source of proteins and nutrients and shouldn't be avoided for fear of fat. I try to have one chicken, one pork/beef and one fish meal each week but we also get a lot of protein from eggs (pastured when possible), beans (soaked) and dairy.
• Lots of healthy fats. But my idea of healthy fats is not what commercials and packaging would say it is. I don't mind saturated fats. We eat lots of butter, full fat (and raw if budget allows) milk, sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, etc. I cook with coconut oil and olive oil and avoid vegetable oils and low-fat items.
  
• Lots of probiotics and fermented food. Yogurt, kefir and lacto-fermented foods are all fairly regular parts of my diet now.
• Few processed foods/snacks. Yes, we occasionally buy crackers or cookies and I don't turn down sweets when they are offered by others but I try to avoid buying them and for most of my baked goods I try and use less processed sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.
  

Things I wish we did (or did better):

• Organic/local fruit and veggies. It would be nice to buy all our fruits and vegetables organically and locally. But right now, I think our food budget is better off spent on other things. Quantity over quality is our produce motto at this moment.
• Organic/grass-fed/pastured meat. I do buy a lot of our meat locally from the university but it isn't definitely isn't organic or pasture raised. I wish we could do pastured chickens and I would love to have a big freezer so I could buy half a beef but it isn't practical right now. Oh well, maybe someday.
• Less sugar and sweets. Getting sugar out of our diet is one of the hardest changes we have been making. I often feel like it is two steps forward and one step back but we try our best.
• Less processed pantry items and condiments - like mayo and ketchup, cheese, cream cheese, spaghetti. I don't buy low fat versions but many are still loaded with sugar and preservatives that I would prefer to avoid.