Processed Food: To Eat or Not To Eat......

Ever since we watched the Food Revolution with Jamie Oliver, our family has been trying to eat out less and we have minimized how much processed food we eat. That also means less fried foods and soft drinks! I don't know why I've never questioned what I eat but watching that show (we actually bought the book too!) has really inspired me to cook with all natural items. I don't mean organic, I just mean using items that are fresh! I have always cooked with "convenient" food items so it's been really fun to be creative with our meals. I remember that when Guy and I were newlyweds (I guess we're still pretty new!), I was going to make pancakes one morning when Guy said, why don't we make them from scratch? I thought- you can't make pancakes from scratch! Silly boy! You have to buy it in a box! Guy-very lovingly mind you-told me that you can make pancakes from scratch along with most processed foods. WHAT???? Like I said, I don't know why I never thought of that before, but here I am ready to conquer the cooking world.

Last night I made my first homemade marinade for chicken! It was teriyaki chicken-I used 1/4 cup of water, 1 tbsp of light soy sauce, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of packed brown sugar, 1 tsp of veg oil, 1 clove of garlic chopped, and S&P to taste. Mix it all together and marinade chicken (or other meat) for at least one hour and no longer than 24 hours. My super cool husband grilled the chicken along with sliced pineapple! If you've never grilled pineapple before, DO IT RIGHT NOW! IT'S SO GOOD! We had brown rice and zucchini as our other sides. Braylen ate like a champ too! I hate to pat myself on the back, but I was pretty pleased with how things turned out. I'm still pretty new to cooking but I have enjoyed finding new meals to make.

I never realized how bad processed food is for you! I've been looking at nutrition labels and have no idea how to pronounce some of the stuff that is in certain foods. Crazy! I've been really mindful of this while shopping at the grocery store. Although there are some things that I'm not ready to give up. Like tortilla chips, frozen waffles, juice drinks, fruit snacks, to name a few.

On another note, Braylen has been so much fun lately. He has come up with this super funny fake laugh. And he does it all the time. Especially if he feels shy or if a stranger says hello. It is so cute. He is so friendly to people. He is saying his ABC's too. Well.....kind of. He sings "a, b, c, d, e, e, e,...a, b, c, d, e, e, e,.... over and over. And then sometimes he'll say "p" or "v" or "me" like it's the end of the song. so cute!

On Tuesday while we were meeting for bible study, Bray was looking out the window and waving to cars. We had the window open, so when our friend Rick showed up for study, Braylen said "Hi! Hi baby! Hi baby!" It was so funny. Sometimes when he's playing by himself I can hear him say "hi mommy, hi daddy, hi baby." He just brings so much joy to people. I am so blessed to be his mom.