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looks like we are going to slowly transition to TF

post #1 of 26
Thread Starter 
i'm pretty happy about it. i've been wanting to for a while. dh read an article yesterday about omega-3 and omega-6 and was like "you know, we should do this." so now we are. haha

our first big change is that he's giving up country crock butter and i'm going to give up skim milk.

milk and cereal is going to be the hardest to change. we eat SO much cereal. like 3-4 boxes a week. breakfast? cereal. can't find anything for lunch? cereal. late night snack? cereal.

another thing is that our only source of food is the grocery store. we live in a very small town in the desert in an HOA condo. fresh, local anything just isn't available. they do have free-range eggs. i'm still trying to figure out where we are going to get free range meat.

does anyone have any tips on TFing from the grocery store?

we are moving in the next year or two so for now, we just have to make do with what's available.
post #2 of 26
Congratulations! Traditional foods are fantastic. They taste so good and make you feel so good. In terms of shopping at the grocery store, it's totally workable: stick to the perimeter of the store and shop heavily from the the produce aisle, for egg's make sure to get omega-3 eggs if pasture-raised aren't available. Don't be afraid to buy foods online, either. I think grass-fed meat is really important and unless you can find that locally, online is your second best bet. Instead of cereal, try making a huge batch of baked oats and work from there. Soon you won't even miss the cereal.
post #3 of 26
Localharvest.org will help a lot with finding pastured meats & organic produce.

We slowly transitioned off boxed cereal, now there isn't any in the house at all. Breakfast - once a week I make a large batch of pancakes, waffles, baked oatmeal, regular oatmeal or muffins. Most of it goes into the freezer (or in the case of regular oatmeal, just into the fridge) to use during the week, usually there are a couple different things to choose from. Look into Sue Gregg's Blender Batter recipes for an easy way to do them.

Don't get stuck on breakfast foods though, many times you can use something from the night before as a breakfast. I like to do a sort of stir fry with leftover meat chopped and browned and tossed together with a grain if you do grains, and some veggies & a little tamari. Could scramble an egg into it at the end. Or, a bowl of hot bone broth with an egg stirred in. A scrambled egg sandwich? I know there are more experienced mamas here who probably can offer a lot more ideas.

TF from the grocery store - well we use our local grocery mostly for produce and some fresh dairy - they have a pretty good natural/organic selection. I use Azure Standard about every other month to order things I can't get without a lot of driving. And if you have a Costco, you'll know that they do carry some organic things - they even have Kerrygold butter now and then, and Kerrygold cheese too.

But mainly, don't try to change over all at once. Do what most appeals to you first, and when that is integrated into your life so you don't notice it anymore, do something else. I'm a couple years in and still not 100% - there's a lot to learn. Oh, except for cod liver oil - don't wait on that! lol
post #4 of 26
Thread Starter 
according to localharvest, the closest farmer's market is 3 hours away.

do you think just taking the CLO is enough if we can't get grass-fed stuff locally?

we will look into buying it online too.
post #5 of 26
I think a lot of TF is about food preparation methods. If you eat beans or legumes, you can change how you eat them, start to reduce processed/packaged foods with homemade, reduce sugar, those all make a big impact. If you eat bread, learn to make sourdough, like that. IMO there's more impact there, esp with premade vs homemade foods than in conventional vs grassfed meat. Grassfed meat has a lot of benefits, no doubt, but I just think that switching to real foods has a lot of impact. And we do a lot of eggs because they're the highest quality animal product we can get.
post #6 of 26
Thread Starter 
what's good exactly about sourdough bread? i love making bread but i'm not too crazy about sourdough.

my husband and 3 year old love eggs. but they kind of gross me out. they are all slimy and wiggly. bleck. i can eat deviled eggs like crazy though. :P

i bought a pack of dried beans a while ago. when i tried cooking them, it turned into a huge grainy mess. i got kind of discouraged. haha
post #7 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by itsrtimedownhere View Post
what's good exactly about sourdough bread? i love making bread but i'm not too crazy about sourdough.
Sourdough is a particularly good bread for three primary reasons: 1) the souring process renders the bread more digestible overall, 2) the souring process neutralizes anti-nutrients naturally present in whole grain making those vitamins and minerals it contains more easily absorbed and 3) sourdoughs are lower on the glycemic index than other breads.

If you don't care for sourdough, there's a variety of starters available that you can order online. Some are milder than others. You can also do sprouted grain bread too.
post #8 of 26
I agree that it sounds like right now, improving other things before meat might be more important, unless you are ok with ordering online. In terms of omega 3's, sardines and anchovies are SUPER high in omega 3's. If you haven't already had them, they aren't as gross as you think. Well they can be to handle, but in the right amount they add a lovely depth to food (anchovies in particular).

In terms of shopping the grocery shopping, I strongly recomend getting your hands on a copy of the weston a price shopping guide. It will help you identify which brands use which meathods and thus what is healthier than others. (they're 1 dollar each including shipping and handling). I have an old copy, but for instance, without the shopping guide, I would never have imagined that organic valley butter is from grassfed cows without the guide. I would be totally lost when buying the few condiments I do buy without it. For instance San-J soy sauce and muir glen ketchup are available in the supermarket here, and are on the good list (it is best, good, avoid, both national (and a few local) brands, a lot of mail order brands, and also a description " good: pastureized naturally fermnted soy sauce; naturally sweetened ketchup; sauces with natural ingrediants and without MSG; pasturized vinegar" There are definitely a lot of small good brands that aren't on it (particularly some dairy and many cheese), but I find it helpful.

Definitely shopping the outside of the store helps. Mostly, I'd say its slowly changing your habits. Make soaked oatmeal, or coconut rice pudding or something weekly. (Cook some dried fruit in it, and serve with a fat (butter, cream, etc) and a natural sweetner such as molasses, maple syrup, honey, until you get used to it being less sweet.) Find something you would like your family to snack on, eat up the last of the cereal and don't buy more. Try not having any in the house and redirecting people to fruit, veggies, cheese, crispy nuts or some other snack. I'm trying keeping a bowl of blanched broccolli in the fridge for lunch and snacks and its great. Broccolli is cheap, it seems to keep for a good 3-4 days (longer than broccolli keeps in my fridge!), its tasty with some fat and salt, and I remember to eat lunch because I have something to eat) It would be even better if I had a container of aoili right next to it, but I haven't mastered making mayo and don't have the money to spring for a coconut oil one. (Mayo keeps longer if you add whey or yogurt cream I think, I might try making some and adding some yogurt).

Maybe if you have the time, money and gas, you could take a family day trip to the farmer's market (they're very fun) and buy a case or two of some stuff, and freeze or ferment it. A case of canned applesauce, a case of frozen peaches and a case of pickles? Otherwise, just do your best. Obviously, you can't do better than your best, and it will be good. In my opinion, striving to improve (in anything) is more important than trying to do it perfectly. So your only produce isn't super fresh and comes from far away. Cabbage will still make good sourkraut if it sat in a truck for 4 days, and it will still have lots of available vitamins and good enzymes and taste good.

Soaked beans are healthy, traditional and inexpensive (and thus a good way to help set off the fact that other parts of TF are more expensive). Try soaking them for 12-24 hours, (with a little baking soda. this helps keep the beans from seizing, or getting tough). Then make them sort of like pasta (in the sense of bring a lot of water to a boil with your beans but then let it simmer, you aren't waiting for all the water to absorb.) Taste them and you should be able to tell by the texture when they are done. Then serve them in various ways with fat (lentil salad, refried beans, a pat of butter on top....). It also depends on what kind of beans you use. I like french green lentils for lentil salad because they hold they're shape and don't turn to mush (many lentils do turn to mush). I also like navy beans for the same reason, and I like their mild taste.


This is a ton of overload though, and you'll probably do better going slowly. buy real butter instead of the country crock (grassfed if you can get it but if you can't, any real butter with no additives, organic or hormone free is good, but anything is an improvement), and any whole milk that isn't ultra-pasturized. horizon organics is, as are anything labeled UHT, or with a sell by date way in the future. (these milks are shelf stable but no good for you). Once this is normal for you, then you can try something else. Change your cereal habit, search out better animal foods.

Little things like trying recipes that uses fatty fish or sardines or anchovies can be done whenever it doesn't feel intimidating. (Canned salmon is perfectly acceptable, and good as salmon cakes.)

good luck. hth and doesn't overwhelm you. congrats on deciding to improve your families health and eating.
post #9 of 26
My DH was also a boxed cereal addict (also eating it as a late night snack). I now make soaked granola (I posted the recipe on another thread here yesterday I think). He loves it. He also loves eggs, so we eat eggs almost everyday for breakfast now. This has gone down easier than trying to convert him to soaked pancakes etc.
post #10 of 26
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRobinsons View Post
My DH was also a boxed cereal addict (also eating it as a late night snack). I now make soaked granola (I posted the recipe on another thread here yesterday I think). He loves it. He also loves eggs, so we eat eggs almost everyday for breakfast now. This has gone down easier than trying to convert him to soaked pancakes etc.
so do you just eat it like regular cereal with milk? and can i put it in the dehydrator instead of the oven? it gets really hot here and i don't like to have the oven on for too long. i can set up the dehydrator in the garage where it doesn't matter as much.
post #11 of 26
Thread Starter 
Quote:
In terms of shopping the grocery shopping, I strongly recomend getting your hands on a copy of the weston a price shopping guide.
i'll def look in to this. thanks!
post #12 of 26
I've just started out on the TF path, too I found this link to be really helpful when I was feeling overwhelmed.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/eating-r...d-on-a-budget/


Hope it helps
post #13 of 26
Soaked granola is best done in a dehydrator. It is tasty with milk, with yogurt, or just dry. (thats the ways I've eaten it)
post #14 of 26
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magelet View Post
Soaked granola is best done in a dehydrator. It is tasty with milk, with yogurt, or just dry. (thats the ways I've eaten it)
great! thanks!

Quote:
I've just started out on the TF path, too I found this link to be really helpful when I was feeling overwhelmed.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/eating-r...d-on-a-budget/
oooo, good link.

we can make our journey together!
post #15 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by itsrtimedownhere View Post
milk and cereal is going to be the hardest to change. we eat SO much cereal. like 3-4 boxes a week. breakfast? cereal. can't find anything for lunch? cereal. late night snack? cereal.
I haven't read this whole thread, but there is a company called go raw that sells a couple of raw, sprouted granolas. They are quite pricey, but available at my local grocery store and my ds loves to snack on the chocolate kind straight from the bag or eat it as cereal w/ some diluted coconut milk. You can buy it on amazon if it's not local for you here.

Might be a helpful sub for cereal when your making your transition? If I were going to eat lots of this, I would probably make my own--sprouting is not very difficult, but one bag will last at my house for a couple of weeks, so currently I'm buying it for the convenience!
post #16 of 26
Thread Starter 
ooo looks yummy. but $10 a bag? yikes.

how do you sprout? actually, WHAT do you sprout? and can you get it from the grocery store?
post #17 of 26
http://www.sproutpeople.com/

That's my fave resource on how to sprout--there are directions for all sorts of nuts/seeds/grains etc.

Nuts, seeds and grains can be sprouted. A lot of nuts/seeds you can find in bulk bins--maybe grains as well. Oh, and (dried) beans of all kinds. (I only buy gluten free grains online or at the HFS in dedicated packages b/c of cross contamination issues.
post #18 of 26
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post #19 of 26
Thread Starter 
Quote:
SOY SAUCE SUB

2 cups beef broth

2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp molassas
1/8 tsp ground ginger
dash of pepper/onoin powder/garlic powder

Combine all in saucepan. Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup. Store in fridge.
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/in...howtopic=24769
post #20 of 26
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