Three easy tips to cutting processed food

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

Now that we’ve determined why real food is important, how do we start to make the switch? Here are three easy tips to start cutting processed food:

1.  Plan a week’s worth of meals in produce and protein. Before you go grocery shopping, know what meat and produce you need for the week. It’s when we run out of the good stuff — veggies and protein — that we resort to “easy” frozen or boxed meals that pack a punch of preservatives and other additives. My weekly staples include:

  • salad
  • sweet potatoes
  • other seasonal or on-sale veggies
  • bananas
  • bacon (nitrate and nitrite free)
  • eggs (organic and free-range, although I hear pastured is best)
  • chicken breasts
  • grass-fed ground meat
  • tuna

2.  Season the natural way, with herbs and spices. Instead of supplementing meals with MSG-laden Ranch Dressing or BBQ sauce sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, create your own sauces or marinades with any combination of the following ingredients:

  • raw honey
  • garlic
  • lemon
  • cumin
  • basil
  • cilantro
  • olive oil
  • coconut oil
  • apple cider vinegar
  • thyme
  • dill

3.  Don’t avoid fat. Some fats are good. If you want to read about which ones and why, check out this article. For the sake of simplicity and staying sane, don’t get overwhelmed with the details. Remember, keep your food close to the way God created it. Cold-pressed oils  created from almond, coconut or olives are healthier, because they’re created (basically) just by squeezing. Canola oil, on the other hand, is usually created from a genetically modified hybrid seed that is heated and chemically extracted from a petroleum-derived solvent hexane. If that goes over your head, it shouldn’t go in yo’ mouth!

As for dairy products, before my family went Paleo, we stopped buying non-fat cheese or milk and went for the whole versions. We didn’t gorge ourselves on cream for every meal, but we enjoyed the real deal and got full quicker, so we ate less.

Have you ever noticed that skim milk has a bluish tint? Many companies try to whiten their milk by adding powdered skim, which is produced under heat and high pressure, oxidizing the cholesterol. Read:  processing and altering the natural state. If you aren’t convinced that’s a bad thing, Spanish researchers have said oxidized cholesterols are carcinogenic and mutagenic. That should STEER you away from skim.

So, there you have it. Give yourself some grace as you make these changes. They won’t all come easily and become habit in one shopping trip, and cutting processed foods 100 percent will be difficult.

When you do fall back to some of the old processed staples, don’t get too discouraged. There’s no use crying over spilled milk. You should really cry because the milk is blue and fortified with cancer-causing grossness. Just saying.

Top 5 Reasons to Switch from Processed to Real Food

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

5 reasons to switch from processed to real foodI recently received this e-mail:

Hi, Kirsten,
I’m writing in response to the Food Babe article you posted this morning on Facebook. Well, not actually in response to it, but I suppose as a result of it. Recently I’ve been gaining more interest in health and natural cooking/eating and this type of article just confirms the line of thinking I’ve been entertaining. But the switch (from processed) to natural food seems REALLY overwhelming.

I was wondering if you might be willing to throw a few tips or resources for beginners my way (even if it’s some posts on your blog to read) or even a few staple recipes for starting out. Basically, I don’t feel I have the time and energy right now to throw myself into an entire lifestyle change, but I’d like to start making changes that will improve our health and style of eating.

Thanks again for posting the article. It was a hard truth to swallow (pun intended) but important to consider.

Before I get into some tips and staple recipes, I think it’s important to discuss why natural food is important to consider — even if it is overwhelming.

Here are my top 5 reasons why switching to real food from processed food is a huge priority for me.

  1. My role as mother:  Despite what good marketing will tell you, no one else has the best interests of your family’s health in mind but you. Food companies, pharmaceutical companies and even the government are motivated by one thing:  money. That does not mean whole, quality food.
  2. My worldview:  I believe that our world is broken. It was created perfectly, but due to a few chomps on a piece of fruit, it’s always moving from life to decay and death. Humankind might have keen problem-solving skills, but it still falls short of perfection. So I think eating food closer to the way that God created it — whole foods with real ingredients — is better than any man-made attempts — genetically modified or highly processed grub.
  3. My financial stance:  I couldn’t tell you the difference between a money market account and a hedge fund. The stock market doesn’t interest me, unless you’re talking about livestock. But I am passionate about making an investment in my family’s health now, by purchasing more expensive, more nutritious food. I’d rather pay for it now through cash exchanges at the farmer’s market, than later in medical bills.
  4. My taste buds:  When you fore go MSG for fresh herbs, non-fat and unnatural dairy for full-fat goodness, and succulent veggies for canned goods, you won’t look back. Once you go real, it’s a done deal.
  5. My common sense:  Why would I feed myself or my family something with 50 ingredients, none of which I could grow or find myself? After researching ingredients, reading labels and educating myself, it seems ludicrous that I once bought cheese coated in wood pulp or almonds soaked in jet fuel additive.

What are your reasons for making natural food a priority?

Natural “Chick-fil-A” Nuggets

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in case you don’t follow 100 Days of Real Food, Chick-fil-A is laden with MSG, preservatives and TBHQ. Sad day.

I always assumed (you know what they say about assuming …) it was healthy, because it was supposedly fried in peanut oil, instead of canola or something else. And also, I justified that it was healthier because it’s closed on Sundays, so I thought they don’t cut corners on quality if they’re willing to take off for a day of rest. I should have questioned their integrity when I saw a child fearfully running from the giant hug-giving cow who can’t spell (true story).

Anyway, no more lamenting. On to a positive note. Behold, real food, homemade and easy “Chick-fil-A” nuggets.

Natural Chick-fil-A nuggetsNatural ”Chick-fil-A” nuggets

2 tablespoons almond flour (or unbleached or whole-wheat flour if you’re not gluten-free)

2 tablespoons non-GMO cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

2 tablespoons water

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon coconut or olive oil

2 tablespoons coconut or olive oil for frying

1 pound organic skinless, boneless chicken breast meat – cubed

  1. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Pour in water, 1 tsp coconut or olive oil, and stir until smooth. Stir in chicken until coated with the batter, then cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
  2. Heat coconut or olive oil in a deep fryer or large saucepan at medium-high heat. Drop in the battered chicken pieces, a few at a time, and fry until they turn golden brown and float to the top of the oil, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
  3. Eat these bad boys like you would scarf down chicken samples on toothpicks at the mall, just without the toxins or having to donn a hat or new jacket to apear to be a new customer to the sample lady.
  4. Consider adding soy sauce (if you’re not eating gluten-free) to the batter and sesame oil, and then top with sesame seeds to create a Sesame Chicken dish.

This is part of Fight Back Friday!

Postpartum blues and thriving as a mama

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

I had a baby eight months ago. My new role as stay-at-home mom hasn’t been easy. For the first several months of my daughter’s life, I was overwhelmed by my shifting hormones and my new role as constant milk dispenser and baby bouncer. The postpartum blues got me good.

Now, while the fog has lifted a bit, I’m still not back to normal. The laundry is piled up, the fridge is bare, I have chronic mama stink – resembling spit up with undertones of BO – and I use our regular feeding appointment as an excuse to watch other housewives on reality TV.

Every morning during the only consistent nap of the day, I have a choice between taking a shower, spending some time with God or learning the dance to “Party Rock Anthem” on Youtube. I can pray while changing diapers, but I can’t really spare some physical activity. You understand.

The transition has been rough. I’ve got some serious junk in my trunk. We’re talking a stroller, a car seat adapter for the stroller, a diaper bag. Oh, and I have a spare tire too. My love handles the dirty diapers when he’s not working, but I do everything else the rest of the time.

And also, I’m a little preoccupied with the changes to my body.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all worth it. Every new challenge and struggle is completely worth the afternoon snuggles, precious giggles, sweet tootsies and overall miracle of parenthood. Becoming a mother has reminded me of how much I need my Father.

I need grace. I can’t live up to my own expectations. I can’t work hard enough to be the picture I have in my mind of a good mom and wife – cooking, cleaning, working and organizing life so beautifully that I earn a spot on Pinterest. For awhile, this realization smelled like defeat – and that mama stink I mentioned.

Until I noticed I was on the brink of freedom. Whether I realize it or not, I can never work my way into perfection, or even contentment. But Jesus offers an abundance of peace and joy that comes when I turn from that fleshy legalism of do, do, do and surrender to what he’s done:  offered me life.

So thriving during this stage in my life means fully admitting my need for Jesus and for others. No more trying to look like I have my shit together. (Do I have to say poopoo now?)  It’s letting other people serve me and love me like Jesus.

I like to think I’m a walking example of grace. I’m a tired mama, donning jersey material and elastic (the adult’s version of a onesie), undeserving and yet showered in a Father’s love. And showered in drool. Thanks be to God.

A Paleo Mom Comes Clean

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So, we’re still eating Paleo. My breastmilk is as plentiful as it’s ever been. And I feel great, even if not all of our meals are exciting (see the husband’s Paleo passion to the left). However, it’s time I come clean on a few things.

My Paleo confessions:

1.  While we have a freezer stocked with grass-fed beef products from a local ranch, I treat that protein like gold and want to hoard it. Many of our meals use eggs and bacon, because it seems more affordable. But at $6.50 for 8 slices of nitrate/nitrite free bacon, that’s hardly a steal.

2.  I don’t quite understand why peanuts are off limits. I just tell people it’s because they’re a legume, and then I change the subject.

3.  If I don’t change the subject quick enough, and I’m asked why legumes are a problem, I start mumbling about seeds and self-protection and animals pooping them out. It gets awkward.

4.  We eat frozen sweet potato fries like they’re going out of style, and I choose to ignore the long list of ingredients that would convict me to make them from scratch.

5.  Sometimes when we’re at a restaurant, I “forget” to ask for my omelette without cheese. I might soon forget to not buy some goat cheese and then spruce up a salad.

6.  Our salads have become so depressing. Mixed greens, pine nuts, salt, pepper and olive oil. Usually eaten with our hands, because spearing pine nuts and arugula is just too much work. But we include greens at nearly every meal, so we give ourselves an oily pat on the back.

7.  Back to legumes, I miss hummus. And peanut butter.

8.  I cheat once every few days. A cookie here, an omelette with cheese there. But in most cases, the cheating isn’t really worth it. Cookies aren’t as good as the dark chocolate I’ve been eating every night. But check back in with me when it’s ice cream season.

9.  When my baby turns one year old in four months, I have no idea if we’ll keep her Paleo. Why give her cow’s milk, if we’re not drinking it? But I don’t want to make her the weird toddler who has to have almond milk in her sippy cup and prefers spaghetti squash over mac ‘n’ cheese.

10.  Organic chicken breasts are just so expensive. I eat way more dark meat now because of it. But sometimes the dark meat looks bloody, and that’s just so gross.

 

Cry it out? Don’t mind if I do.

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

The Cry It Out (CIO) method is polarizing.  Attachment Parenting at one end of the spectrum says CIO is harmful and creates insecure, fearful people. And Baby Wise followers at the other end say babies need structure and to learn to self-soothe by crying themselves to sleep when the parents say so.

No matter where you land on the spectrum, I think we can all agree that no method is ever perfect. Unless you’re a strict Baby Wise-r whose baby eerily sleeps through the night at 6 weeks — down the hall, in a crib, behind a closed door — or one of those African women who wear their babies 24/7 and have never heard a lick of colic. (These must be the same women who inexplicably stop working in the field to squat and push out a baby and then resume working.)

As mamas, the last thing we need is division among the ranks; self-doubt, pointing fingers and competitive comparisons do nothing to help us nurture and raise our babies. So let’s take a minute and settle this whole CIO debate.

Sometimes a mama’s just gotta cry it out.

Babies cry when they’re hungry, tired or wet. So do their mamas. I’ve spent many afternoons staring into the sweet face of my nursing baby, realizing I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was downright hangry. And sleepless nights have left me groggy and weepy. Plus the whole incontinence thing after birth was not an empty threat. Dang it.

But we also cry because our hormones are raging, our identity has shifted to emcompass motherhood, and questions buzz around our heads as we pray for wisdom and patience to raise our children:

If I demand feed or nurse my baby to comfort her, will she one day be wiping the milk off of her chin and staring at an empty milk carton, wondering why she always guzzles milk after a breakup or hard day at work?

And if so, there could be worse ways to self-soothe, right?

Will bed sharing now result in a 10-year-old who can’t sleep, if not in our bed … and is consequently an only child?

Will my baby ever be OK away from me for more than a few hours at a time. … Will I ever be OK with that too?

Motherhood is a glorious bundle of challenges and special moments and gifts that we don’t know to treasure until they’re just memories, like pursed lips’ first taste of applesauce. Of course we need to cry it out.

After all, a baby cries and the mama can offer a dry diaper or some snuggle time to dry the tears. A mama cries and the possible culprits are endless. Sometimes she just needs to cry it out.

Keeping up with life

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

I used to be great at lists. Productivity. Efficiency. Feeling like a contributing member of my little community.

Then I had a baby. And got a little depressed and a lot overwhelmed. Nearly eight months later, I still have to put “take a shower” on my to-do list and hope I get to mark it off in the next few days. On that note, I’ve tentatively found a good deoderant that actually deoderizes the mama stink I can’t seem to shake:  1 part baking soda, 6 parts corn starch.

That’s why I haven’t blogged in awhile. I have a killer new Paleo banana bread recipe and more musings on baby sleeping plans and tips for working out when you’re a new mama, leaking from multiple body parts. But I also have a pile of laundry that includes a precious ruffled baby swimsuit from our recent getaway to Mexico. And hairy corners (of our house, although that aptly describes me too) thanks to our dog who is molting.

So hopefully as I chip away at my to-do list, I’ll also be able to be more active here and among my crunchy/mom/faithful/foodie online community. Thanks for reading and your support!

Paleo Swedish Meatballs

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

Paleo Swedish MeatballsIt’s amazing I didn’t come out of adolescence with an extra limb or a missing eyeball. The processed foods I ate — not to the fault of my parents – were the rule, and an occasional vegetable or “real food” item was the exception.

During summer, I ate a Totinos pizza for lunch and got a Butterfinger and Dr Pepper at the pool for a snack. During the school year, we girls were watching our figures, so I purchased a roll, a cookie and a slushie for lunch. I came home to eat Oreos and milk or a TV dinner while I watched Saved by the Bell.

TV dinners. How convenient. How clever. How … tasty? I thought so. Especially the Swedish meatballs with egg noodles.

Alas! I’ve created a Paleo answer to the TV dinner of yore. You could serve this with a spaghetti squash or make zucchini noodles by roasting a zucchini and slivering it into thin, noodle-like pieces.

Paleo Swedish Meatballs

1 lb. grass-fed beef

1/2 cup pine nuts, chopped to a gritty consistency (I used a Magic Bullet)

1 egg

1/2 yellow onion

5 basil leaves, chopped

1/2 t salt

1 T coconut flour

2 cups chicken stock (beef stock would be good too, we just had chicken on hand)

20 mini-portabello mushrooms, sliced (check Costco for a big package of them)

swig of red cooking wine

Preheat oven to 350. Chop up the onion half, and reserve half of it. In a bowl, combine beef, half of your chopped onion, the pine nuts, egg, basil and salt. If the mixture is too runny to form meatballs, add some coconut flour ( I added nearly 1 T), making sure to break up the lumps. Roll the meat mixture into balls and place in one layer in a casserole dish. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

While the meat is cooking, heat the chicken stock over medium-high heat in a big pan. Add the reserved onion and the sliced mushrooms. Lower heat to simmering. Stir regularly. Add a swig of red cooking wine if it strikes your fancy. Mushrooms and onions will be done when they’re dark and droopy.

The meatballs will be sitting in fat that has cooked out of them, but if you use grass-fed beef, it will be minimal. Serve meatballs with the sauce on top. So good, your TV-dinner-loving innerchild will thank me.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday!

Baby Sign Language

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

Babies communicate with their facial expressions, moods, cries and body language. Long before they can form words and sentences, they communicate what they think or need. Parents — especially in the millennial generation – often use American Sign Language as a way to interact with their babes.

But you can’t control everything. And babies have a mind of their own.

Baby Sign LanguageHere’s our baby’s take on sign language. I interpret this as, “Stop taking my picture and somebody get me a drink.”

Anyone else have experiences communicating with babies?

 

Paleo Green Curry

Posted on by Naturally Confused Mom

Paleo Green CurryWe finished our 30-day Paleo challenge and feel great! I’ve got tons of recipes that I still want to try, and we’ve made buying lots of fresh produce and (usually) grass-fed or organic meats fit our budget.

So looks like we’re in it for the long haul! With some allowances for cheese every now and then, and wine, of course.

Here’s a recipe that was totally fab. Easy, delish and healthy. And I made it up (after checking out a similar recipe at everydaypaleo.com)!

Paleo Green Curry

Frozen shrimp (as much as you want!)

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 package of mushrooms

1 head of broccoli

1 can of bamboo shoots

2 cans coconut milk (I used full-fat)

1 cup chicken stock

4 T Thai curry paste

1-2 splashes of fish sauce

Cilantro

Lime

Wash and cut up all the veggies. Thaw the shrimp, if it’s frozen. In a large pot add the coconut milk and curry paste, mix until blended and bring to a boil.  Simmer on low for 5 minutes.  Add all the veggies — minus the cilantro and lime – and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the shrimp is heated through. Don’t overcook once the shrimp is in — it will get rubbery.  Top with cilantro and squeeze some lime.

Enjoy and pat your primal self on the back!

This is part of Traditional Tuesdays!