10 Days of Real Food Pledge = Nutritional Overhaul

When I recently saw a link on Yahoo to the 100 Days of Real Food site, I thought, great - another challenge to get myself involved in.  As some of you know, I am wildly successful at signing up for challenges, but not so much on actually following through and completing said challenges.  After exploring Lisa's site and seeing the impact that cutting processed foods has made on her family's health & wellness, I determined that my own children (as well as Josh & I) could use a bit of a nutritional overhaul.

I am committing us to the 10-Day Pledge.  We can totally do this for 10 days, right?  So, what's involved with this 10 Day Real Food Pledge?  Good question!!  In short - we will be eating whole foods such as fruits, veggies, dairy (kids), local meat (Josh & kids) & wild caught seafood, whole wheat and whole grains, seeds, nuts and some all natural sweeteners.  What we will be avoiding are: refined grains & sweeteners, fried & fast foods, and boxed/bottled/jarred/canned food items with more than 5 ingredients.  Will this be easy?  HECK NO - not for this sugar addicted family.  Will my girls embrace this?  Most likely not.  However, I'm going to stick to it and I am going to keep offering them as many clean, whole food options as I can.  I am going to set the example here.

To help me prepare for these 10 days, I started a binder and printed some of the important info regarding the 10 Day Pledge rules and tips.  Next, I sat with some great cookbooks, such as Happy Herbivore and Peas and Thank You and I planned a weekly menu.

The menu above is mine for the week.  Of course Josh's will vary due to his work & travel schedule, and the girls will have a slightly different menu as well (I'll post one of theirs soon).  Their menu will consist of more single-ingredient foods and baked items.  I will offer them some of our dinners though.  They will at least be introduced to foods like quinoa & chick peas.

Now, it's a matter of sticking to it - and to be less wasteful.  I plan to finish all leftovers and/or make them into different meals to keep it fun & fresh.  I will do my best to take some pictures during the week and post every few days, or do a weekly recap.

I encourage you to try this 10 Day Pledge as well!  Click HERE for the challenge rules and HERE to sign up for the pledge.  Join me!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Banana Oat Muffins - Oh My!!

On my quest to introduce my girls to more homemade whole foods, I decided to try another recipe from Happy Herbivore this morning for breakfast.  Last week I made the HH chocolate zucchini muffins and they were outstanding.  All three girls loved them.  Today, I opted for Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins, with a few slight changes based on what I had in my fridge & pantry.  Another WIN!!
This recipe makes 12 muffins.

We are HUGE fans of Happy Herbivore!

While at Wegman's yesterday I picked up two pints of Organic wild Maine blueberries based on the produce manager's recommendation.  Apparently these blueberries are only available for about 2 weeks during the year.  They are tiny, sweet and loaded with antioxidants.

Here's the recipe per the Happy Herbivore book.  Below that are my alterations.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup frozen wild blueberries
  
  *I omitted the ginger, ground the oats in the blender to make them finer, added 2 whole over-ripe bananas, used only 1/2 cup applesauce, used Turbinado instead of brown sugar.

My girls LOVE to help cook & bake.  I have found that they are more apt to eat the healthier foods presented to them when they help to create those foods.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & ginger until well combined.  Add applesauce, sugar & maple syrup and stir until almost combined.  Add blueberries and stir until just combined (don't overmix!)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease or spray muffin pan.  

 

 Spoon into muffin tins, filling until about 3/4 full.  Optional: sprinkle oats & brown sugar on top of the muffins.  Bake for 18-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  I used a dark coated muffin pan and baked for 20 minutes - they were perfect!  Transfer to a wire cooling rack...then ENJOY!

Blueberry goodness!

Korinne loved her muffin!

Lexi was also a fan!

Ashelyn asked for a second one!