Again facebook and food is leading me here!

I am currently in 2 or 3 conversations on facebook about food!  And I love food!  I like to cook it, bake it, grill it, make it ahead and freeze it, and last but certainly not least, eat it!  But that statement should be qualified because although I am not a picky eater (I will literally try nearly anything once) I am selective about what goes into my (and my children's) body(ies).  We eat FOOD!  Not chemicals that have been processed in a lab and then dyed and flavored to resemble food.  This has effected nearly everything about our lives.  We are happier, healthier, and much better off (in my humble opinion) for it.  But it is not without difficulty.   One of my facebook conversations on facebook was prompted by an article listing 13 (THIRTEEN) substances found in "food" in American that are banned in food in other countries.  In order to eat healthy, we must be continually vigilant.  And this is annoying and overwhelming and frustrating to so many.  That makes me sad and not just a little angry. 

Without getting political, I think that if we got REAL FOOD to put in our bodies there would be less of a health care issue in our country.  (I will say no more on this subject).  It should be easy to put REAL FOOD in our bodies.  But the fact of the matter is that it isn't...we have to pay attention and buy and prepare food intentionally to eat real food. 

Also, in the interest of full disclosure or "keeping it real" - we occasionally eat at Wendy's or McDonalds....we buy chips as a treat and we eat sweets (although usually homemade) and we buy junky cereal (Cocoa Roos anyone) sometimes.  We like take out pizza.  But we try to follow a whole food, REAL food diet as often as possible.  "Cheating" (for lack of a better word) is not such a big deal when it isn't a steady diet.  

Today I am going to share a few blogs that have helped with our real food journey.  I am doing this from the top of my head while my kids do school so this is no means the entire list.  I will share more later. 

http://www.feingold.org/  This website (and we joined the organization) was the start of our real food journey.  We followed their diet strictly for over a year.  We have now become more relaxed but this really helped me learn what to look for and avoid. 

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/  This blog is AWESOME!  Simple kid friendly things that are all real food.  I love getting ideas from her!  She also talks about how to pack real food to go which is something that is so hard to do sometimes....

www.pinterest.com  OK- I can't imagine that you all haven't heard of this one but it is a great place to find recipes.  I have found some great ones for homemade "mixes" and seasonings among other things too numerous to list.  Of course, you can also find a lot of junk food on there too.  :) 

So I am going to try to blog on this "regularly."  Of course, we'll just have to see how that goes.  :)

My last tip for today is to buy food as near to the way God made it as possible.  Instead of buying strawberries n cream oatmeal buy quick oats (or rolled or steel cut) and frozen strawberries.....cook it in milk and Voila!! real strawberry n cream oatmeal that is actually strawberries instead of whatever the company is trying to pass of as strawberries.