I thought it was time to give you an update on the #NoProOcto #Unprocessed food challenge. Quick answer: so far, so good!
Long answer: This isn’t that hard! During the first week, I made a bunch of delicious dinners, including my favorite bibb lettuce salad with goat cheese toasts and a smattering of honey. Seriously, if all natural food were this finger-licking amazing, unprocessed food wouldn’t have had to be created in the first place. Love it!
I did scale back to a soda every other day which was a big challenge met. My secret is to only have Diet Dr. Peppers at home and keep the Diet Cokes for meals out. Sparking juice drinks give me the same satisfaction as a Dr. Pepper. I plan on keeping up this every-other-day thing for another week and then maybe try to go 2 days off. Warning – you may want to stay out of this grump’s path next week.
I had lunch at the Westown Farmer’s Market last Wednesday. I chose the soup and sandwich combo from the Soup Market. They listed the ingredients for their soups, which were chemical and fake food-free, so I’m hoping the sandwich was, too. I craved a burger Saturday night (possibly because meat had been completely unappetizing to me all week?) and explored online menus to find a restaurant that could give me an unprocessed meal. Stack’d was the winner! They locally source a good number of their products, including 100% Tallgrass beef and Miller’s Bakery pretzel rolls, which I take to equal “no additives.” The onion rings and fries were proclaimed to be hand-cut, so I think the only things I might have to worry about were the ketchup and ranch sauce.
As this week’s life lesson, my definition of “unprocessed” changed thanks to a conversation with Randy. So many products that I enjoy, like my Dannon Low-Fat Greek Yogurt, which sound perfectly healthy, have extra ingredients added in. They are added in for my health, not to extend shelf life, but still they are additives. Which is technically more healthy?? In the spirit of the challenge, I will go the rest of the month without them and their ilk. I have cheese and hard-boiled eggs to replace my go-to morning protein. My Ronzoni Healthy Harvest pasta has been traded in for Roundy’s organic pasta (ingredients: durum flour. The end.) After my week with the bunnies, I’m having a tough time coming up with snacks. I guess I’ll start with dried cranberries and almonds, but I’m worried they won’t give me the same satisfaction and keep me from the office candy jar. I have these crackers I want to try. Do you have any other recipe suggestions for me?
Stay tuned to see how this develops in week two as interest begins to wane!
One Comment