Going Organic

January 21, 2013 at 3:19 pm (Cooking)
Tags: projects

(or at least as organic as we can go right about now)

I finally got Jonathan to watch Food, Inc. about a month ago. He FINALLY saw why I wanted to do all organic foods for our family. He got all gung-ho about it. I like that about him- when he commits, he commits.

Anyway, it is rather difficult to find organic food at a relatively-not-going-to-kill-your-budget-or-force-you-to-lose-15-pounds-because-you-can’t-afford-much-of-it cost where we live. Colorado isn’t exactly known for its thriving vegetation in the middle of January, you know? So, we’re taking small steps to get there and making (even better) choices until we’re 100% organic. (We already eat hardly anything processed, even less with GMOs, and so on. My one vice- Halloween pumpkins- the Brachs mellowcreme ones. You know that phrase, “to die for”? Well, if I die because I’ve been eating too many of those delicious cavity-enhancers, it will have been worth it. They are simply to die for. Ahem.)

I’m also REALLY excited about the idea of me actually cooking most of what we eat from raw ingredients. Sure, you can go buy a can of soup that’s organic… but them you’re eating a ton of BPA. Plus my cookin’ skillz need work, so why not start practicing now? Maybe by the time my kids are old enough to remember my cooking, it’ll actually be something they remember in a positive way! 🙂

So last week was our first trial with 100% organic ingredients, and 75% home-cooked-from-raw-ingredients meals.

I baked a loaf of bread on Monday to start the week off right. That day I also cooked a whole chicken in my crock pot (thank you, Kirbi, for the recipe!) and used the dark meat, veggies and stock plus some wild rice to make… chicken and wild rice soup (so creative, I KNOW!). Then I made MORE broth from all the chicken bones plus some more veggies that I cooked in the crock pot overnight.

Tuesday night we ate turkey chili and cornbread. I did not make the cornbread from raw ingredients.

Wednesday night was a leftovers night. We all have ’em.

Thursday night we had shredded chicken tacos. I took the chicken breasts (from the crock pot chicken), shredded the meat, added some spices, and there was the meat. We had tomatoes, avocados, rice, black beans, and spinach to accompany the chicken.

Friday we went to my parents’ house, so that is as far as I got. 🙂

This week I have a LOT of fresh veggies (and other ingredients) to use. I went shopping when we were at my parents’ house, so there was actually a good selection and it was decently priced. We’ll be eating red kale, green kale, acorn squash, pears, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage celery, carrots, chicken, onions, apples, oranges, rainbow chard (Hula Girl loves to eat the hot pink ones!), 10-bean soup, black rice, and lots and lots of spinach.

Anyway, it makes me feel great to feed my family wholesome and delicious foods. I am so glad I can! If you have good recipes involving lots of vegetables and grains, let me know!