Our kitchen is right in the heart of our home. As I type this, I have a pizza casserole in the oven, lasagna noodles and quinoa cooking on the stovetop (in separate pots), and some butter sitting out to reach room temperature to make cookies later. I can hear my husband working in the garage, and watch my kids darting back and forth from bedrooms to living room as they play. Since moving to Texas, I have been able to spend so much more time in the kitchen, and I love it. Besides just enjoying cooking and baking, more time in the kitchen is translating into feeding my family healthier food and dramatically reducing our food budget.
About a year and a half ago, I came across this website: 100daysofrealfood.com. I already knew that our eating habits weren't the best, but I began to realize just how many chemicals and artificial foods were in things that were even promoted as healthy. I love 100 Days of Real Food because they are not critical, but very encouraging that every small change starts to add up and can make a big difference.
I keep it simple and prevent it from becoming overwhelming by focusing on one small area to change at a time. For example, the very first thing I did was start buying whole grain pasta. The kids didn't even notice the change. Very slowly (remember this started a year and a half ago, and we aren't done yet!), we are changing our diet to healthier, less processed foods, mainly by cooking from scratch and eating more fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it just means reading labels: if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't eat it!
I'm pretty happy with where we are now. We are not 100% "real food," and I don't think we ever will be, but we are eating so much better than we used to. I've been making our own bread for a couple of months now. It's not completely whole wheat, but better than almost all store bought bread that has a gazillion ingredients I can't pronounce. I never thought I would be the kind of person who keeps two kinds of flour in my pantry. We have recently stopped buying cereal, and I make a homemade granola that we all love for breakfast and snacking. Sometimes the kids like it with milk (like cereal), sometimes with plain yogurt sweetened with a touch of honey. We go through fresh fruit faster than I can buy it. The kids are even getting better about eating vegetables; Joy is like a rabbit the way she gobbles up salads.
I've even made some personal sacrifices for the cause! I've given up my artificially sweetened restaurant espressos. Omar got me an espresso machine for my birthday, and I make my own lattes with just espresso and milk. Sometimes for a treat I add honey and cocoa powder or pumpkin pie spice. I've also given up microwave popcorn, and I really prefer our air-popped popcorn with a little butter and salt, or a little ranch seasoning (on my to-do list: make my own ranch mix instead of store bought packets).
But all this real food and cooking from scratch means I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I make bread about every other week (two loaves at a time, one goes in the freezer), and I make granola at least twice a week. I usually try to make muffins or some similar grab and go breakfast for Sunday mornings in case we are running late and need to eat in the car on the way to church. I keep lunches simple: usually sandwiches with fresh fruit and veggies. And then there's dinner (and other miscellaneous baking and cooking). And I still need time to teach the kids and do chart audits. So to save time, I finally got into freezer cooking.
I wish I had figured this out a year ago when I was working full time; we would have eaten so much better and would have had so much less stress in the evenings trying to figure out dinner! If you have not heard of this before, the basic idea is that you spend a few hours prepping a bunch of meals at once, then put them in the freezer, and when it's time to cook, just pull out a meal! I have mostly done crockpot meals. The night before, I move the bag from freezer to fridge, then in the morning, just dump in the crockpot. In the evening, I usually just need to cook some pasta or warm some veggies. So easy, and we have discovered some really delicious recipes. This month, I am doing a couple casseroles, too.
Not only has this saved time, it has saved us money, too. For one, we have meals planned and ready, so we don't eat out nearly as much as we used to. Almost not at all. Two, shopping in bulk and planning our meals has helped us save on our grocery bill. We have cut our grocery budget in half since moving to Texas.
Simplify, plan, and save. This may sound a little hokey, but the changes happening in our kitchen really reflect the changes we are making in our lives as a whole. We are simplifying our lifestyle by focusing on what's important, planning for the future, and working hard to save money, pay off debt, and be good stewards. So the kitchen really is the heart of our home.
