We were sitting at home yesterday, Leenah and I, drinking our kale smoothies, and I began to feel better. You see, hubby wanted to meet for lunch, because he forgot something at home, and it was convenient to meet up and just do lunch together. Little did I realize, forgot actually, that doing so broke our "Unprocessed October" eating rules! The funny thing is, we haven't been keeping TO close to the Unprocessed October eating rules since we have spent the last year eating quite strictly unprocessed anyhow, by making our own condiments (mayo, barbque sauce, using tomatoes instead of tomato sauce) and avoiding restaurants who don't serve local and organic foods...until this October! Of course! Perhaps it is the changing season? Well, after lunch, getting a stomach ache, headache AND feeling a tad guilty about breaking the rules, thought I would share! The main reason I felt so guilty about it, is because the food tasted SO bad! The hamburger was a salt bomb, and I started to freak out that there was MSG in it (because I instantly began to get a headache after my first bite) and Leenah was LOVING the sugar bomb strawberry shake...and after a few sips myself, I realized they had used strawberry JAM and sugar instead of nice fresh strawberries...I almost threw up, well I did a little in my mouth anyhow. I hadn't had such gross food in over a year!! The best part of the entire unbalanced meal were the fries, which any real taste of potato was masked by the frying oil, of course! What really amazed me is how awake my taste buds were, to my dis-comfortable realization, hehe. I was only able to take two more bites of the hamburger before I coached Leenah to hand over the shake (she had slurped an 1/8 of it down, and I didn't want a sick girl on my hands, since mama was feeling quite gross already!). So, I threw it all away, the majority of the burger and fries and shake. NEVER AGAIN. The last time we had eaten at Mama Burger was WHEN I was prego with Leenah, how in the world did I enjoy the burger then? OH ya, we weren't eating unprocessed whole foods the majority of the time! Lol. Oh well. I drove us home with a pounding headache and was determined to reverse my headache, hoping Leenah wasn't starting a horrible headache as well. As I drove home, I daydreamed about the lovely kale growing in the garden, and Food Babe's green kale smoothie recipes I couldn't wait to make, convinced it would reverse my growing nausea and headache. I also was amazed at how sensitive my taste buds have become. Besides sounding like a snobby self-proclaimed foodie, WHICH Beau and I are, (anyone becomes this once they start eating whole foods, as well as local and organic foods, because anything other than that just tastes crappy! Lol...this is WHY the majority of chefs in this world are for Proposition 37 in California, and against ALL fast food, GMOs and yes, even Wal-Mart...any self proclaimed health guru or foodie who is ok with Wal-Mart is either a sell-out, a liar, or just plain ignorant because Wal-Mart has been openly selling the new GMO corn grown with Agent Orange, btw...have you been eating it:?)
I AM amazed at how these fast food restaurants STAY in business with their overly sugared and salted foods...Beau had thought about taking his co-workers to Diablo Burger instead of Mama Burger, but because Diablo Burger requires cash, he knew it would be easier to do Mama Burger. I wished he had made the sacrifice and taken everyone to Diablo burger for the local (Lake Mary pasture raised) beef burgers and their in-house made sauerkraut... It MAKES all the difference and IS totally worth the "cash only" sacrifice;] hehe OH WELL. I am at least able now to tell everyone, it TOTALLY matters to consider switching your diet and eating-out habits, because once you do, your taste buds and BODY will thank you. You will be able to deCIFIer whether or not a place is truly caring about their food (aka, does their meat contain antibiotics or was the animal grown without ever seeing the sun? Was it fed on its own kind, because factory chicken and beef is...in fact all grocery store meat IS unless is otherwise proudly stated ) because you will TASTE the difference, and when you WANT to go out to eat, but all your favorite options are not available or not meeting your budget, making a nice meal at home will be preferable to BK's or McDonalds, or even Oreganos! (Yes, we can't even stand Oreganos anymore on a regular basis, less than once a year, because their produce and bread tastes OFF-ful, lol). Not to mention, when you start eating WHOLE foods and unprocessed foods (whole foods are unprocessed foods), the weight stays OFF of the body, and the more veggies we eat, the fuller we feel, and the more energy we have throughout the day!
NOTHing against meat, mind you, we choose to eat less of it SO we can afford the yummy "happy raised" meat!
SO, after having that kale smoothie, which Leenah LOVED, my headache and tummy ache went away within half an hour, and Leenah was a ball of energy, lol.
Not to mention, I felt SO much better!
Here are the smoothie Ingredients:
4-8 Kale leaves, torn off the stems
2 apples (or an apple and a pear)
Juice of an orange, lemon, or other citrus!
1/2 cup of whole fat yogurt:]
And the fun part is, as long as you have the kale base, you can totally play with the ingredients, depending on what you have on hand, to make it sweet enough...two apples and fresh squeezed orange juice was enough to keep Leenah happy (and away from that gross strawberry shake! hehe)
I tell you, once you start eating more whole foods, and stay away from ALL processed "treats" for your kiddos, (whether they say organic or gluten free, or NOT) your kiddos will NOT be constipated if the majority of their snacks are fruits and veggies, while the rest are full fat yogurts, cheeses, nuts, dried fruits and granolas:] Remember, kiddos need WHOLE foods probably MORE than you do, and not only that, but they NEED good sources of natural and organic saturated fats!! Would you believe that some of Leenah's FAVORITE snack foods are sauerkraut, cream from our cream top Strauss milk, provolone cheese, and raisins:}
So even though we have broken the rules of Unprocessed October, we will continue on, just as we have for the last year, and continue to find our favorite recipes to replace all the store bought processed options!
BTW, I'm going to include our favorite Mayonnaise recipe, but update it with a link to a new, possibly healthier mayo recipe that doesn't use safflower/sunflower oil! Here you go, it is SO super easy and fast to make, and OH so yummy, and now I hardly use it unless I have a RECIPE or a random craving for mayo! So AWESOME!
My go-to Mayo Recipe:
1 pastured egg, 1 pastured egg yolk
1 TBSP organic dijon mustard
dash of sea salt
1 cup of Sunflower or Safflower oil
Combine all ingredients except for oil, in a blender or food processor. Start processing/blending, then slowly add the oil, and continue to blend while adding the oil for 3 minutes. The mixture will turn into recognizable mayo within that 3 minutes and you will have some YUM for your sandwhiches:]
now here is the next recipe I am going to try that has the oils I MUCH prefer, coconut and olive. I don't like the sunflower or safflower oils because they are not as naturally occurring in the history of our ancestors, Bibically especially;]
Here is the link!
http://wellnessmama.com/1739/healthy-homemade-mayonnaise/
ENJOY:]
