Clean and simple

The closer to the way God made it, the better food tastes.  Sure, grape jelly is good in a PB&J, but there is nothing like the taste of cold fresh grapes.  And chicken nuggets are ok, but baked whole chicken...simply delicious.  I've been thinking a lot about food lately, and I have noticed that as a family we were eating and buying a LOT of processed food.  Six years ago a lady I worked with told me, "Only eat food that would go bad if you left it out on the counter."  I kind of got what she meant, but didn't pay much attention to her.  Now, I understand, I think of the things I eat and about their shelf life, fruit, vegetables, eggs, meats, cheeses...they would all go bad if the refrigerator went out.  THOSE are the things we should be eating.  And not just the foods that would spoil, but the things that are closest to their original form.  Lunch meat with the fillers and preservatives don't count.  Ice cream with the crazy amounts of sugar and fat don't count.  Milk counts.  Sliced turkey breast counts.  Canned fruits, vegetables, and beans are great for food drives and survival kits, but that isn't what we should be eating every day.  And food in its purest state is the most scrumptious!  How can jellybeans ever hope to compete with fruit salad?

Now when I fill my grocery cart I try to be aware of the things that go in it, rather than buying the simple boxed or canned items, I buy the whole food and find ways to make it different ways.  Tonight Mike and I discussed a better way to make apple cinnamon oatmeal, rather than buying instant oatmeal I am doing an over night crock pot recipe I found.  Chopped apples, cinnamon, homemade vanilla extract, honey, and oats...we will see tomorrow morning how it turned out.  My goal is to get us eating as clean as possible.  I am not naive enough to believe that we will ever go 100% clean foods, I'd be happy with 70% though.  I won't deny my kids the occasional bowl of ice cream or handful of M&M's, but I want them to prefer the taste of a banana over a pack of fruit snacks and the taste of fresh squeezed orange juice to kool-aid. Clean and simple.