New here and so exceited!

[Marnica]

I just attended my first chapter meeting for the Weston Price Foundation last night.

I have always been keen on eating healthier and WP's work has interested me for some time. I need to get Nourishing Traditions ASAP!

Anyway my concern about all of this (trying to eat a healthier, more traditional diet) is threefold. Time. I am a busy mom of a 2 year old that works full-time. I feel like I have very little time to cook, let alone a quality healthy meal! Cost. The cost of grass fed, beef, raw milk etc is so high. I've been doing my best, but find much to my husband's dismay that I routinely go over budget on groceries. Allergies. My son has multiple food intolerances that we are trying to deal with. It's all so challenging!!! It shouldn't be this hard to eat healthfully. Well maybe it's not that hard, maybe I just haven't learned all the tricks. I'm hoping you all can help guide me. Anyway glad to be here and eager to learn

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by Marnica

I just attended my first chapter meeting for the Weston Price Foundation last night.

I have always been keen on eating healthier and WP's work has interested me for some time. I need to get Nourishing Traditions ASAP!

Anyway my concern about all of this (trying to eat a healthier, more traditional diet) is threefold. Time. I am a busy mom of a 2 year old that works full-time. I feel like I have very little time to cook, let alone a quality healthy meal! Cost. The cost of grass fed, beef, raw milk etc is so high. I've been doing my best, but find much to my husband's dismay that I routinely go over budget on groceries. Allergies. My son has multiple food intolerances that we are trying to deal with. It's all so challenging!!! It shouldn't be this hard to eat healthfully. Well maybe it's not that hard, maybe I just haven't learned all the tricks. I'm hoping you all can help guide me. Anyway glad to be here and eager to learn

Uhhhh I know it shouldn't be this hard to eat healthy! Dh had a hard time at first with what we spent of food but he's coming around. I believe we have egg issues and we don't eat gluten so it can be challenging that way. TF uses alot of eggs. Dairy we use in moderation well we use tons on butter and ghee tho. Kerrygold butter is a good brand for relatively cheap. I can't offer much help but there are ways to cut back on $$ and still eat TF. Perhaps buying a whole chicken that you can get 2-3 meals out of plus a couple quarts of broth made once a week. Also chicken thighs/legs are wayyyyy cheaper than breasts! Hopefully others will post so more help for you!

[my_baby_love]

You may want to look in to buying things in bulk (a half a cow, a whole lamb, etc.) and that may make it cheaper for you. Also, we buy very lightly pasturized milk from a local dairy that is much more reasonably priced than raw milk here.

I have found that once I understood the things I needed to do to make our food more TF, the easier and less time consuming it was to do them. It was just so overwhelming at the start! Eating TF just involves a little advance preparation to soak beans/grains/etc., start a batch of yogurt/kefir/kombucha, etc. There is a mama around here to makes and sells TF menu plans that also include when to defrost things, and start things soaking and such. Very handy if you like things laid out like that! Plus, once you work those things into your routine they are easier and if you take a few minutes here or there to do some of them you don't feel so overwhelmed. Start with just a few things you think are important and then add on from there when that doesn't feel so overwhelming.

I don't know much about working with food intolerances, but there are many mamas around here who do. Welcome to TF!

[mbravebird]

Go slow, convert one meal at a time until you get it under your belt, look for cheap cuts or parts of the pastured meats, and save your money for good fats.

For example, if you can't afford a whole pastured chicken, you can just buy pastured chicken backs (usually about 1.00 a pound) and make a really good broth out of that. And the broth is more nutritious than the meat, anyway.

When buying grass-fed beef, if you stick with ground beef/hamburger, you'll be paying about the same amount per pound as you would if you bought the half cow in bulk. In general with cost issues, it seems like a lot at first, but you learn to stretch it and get the most out of it, and then you start feeling so good that it makes spending that money a priority, not a pain. As you get used to this way of cooking and feel more able to plan, it will get easier and cheaper.

Time-wise, you will be challenged at first. We all were in the beginning. But as you get used to it, you'll find some quick meals for weekdays, save the other ones for weekends, and go with the ebb and flow of your busyness. Be gentle with yourself and go slow. Change one recipe at a time to TF, and just do that change until you've got it under your belt. Feel free to take two steps forward and one step back. Totally normal, especially when you're working full time. You can ask on here for help converting favorite recipes or take-out meals, and you can look on the "cookingtf" forum for great email menu planners, done completely in the WAPF style.

Allergy-wise, I'd suggest doing a separate post about your son's specific intolerances, and asking the wise ladies on here about how to incorporate that into a TF diet.

Welcome!!

[Marnica]

Thanks to all -


I have thought about purchasing in bulk (half a cow) but storage is a major issue so unfortunately buying in bulk is kind of outr of the question right now.

I think I have found an in on a co-op to purchase raw milk from a farm about 1.5 hrs away. We are going to coordinate pick ups and drops offs. The price is $$, but not really much more than the pasturized goat milk I've been buying from WF.

I appreciate the advice to go slow and be easy on myslef. I tend to want to do things 100% the right way from the start and that perfectionistic tendancy has led me to abandon things that have been important to me in the past out of frustration....I'm working on it!! I think the start for me is getting Nourishing traditions. I will be ordering it early next month and ill go from there and be lurking on here and asking questions I'm sure.

Here is my first question!! I recently bought a yolife yougurt maker. I thought I could buy store bought plain yogurt (perhaps from a grassfed cow...I can get that at WF) and use that as a starter, but in the instructions that came with the make it says to use yogurt as a starter only from the batches you make and that store bought usually doesn't have enough cultures to start. Has anyone used store bought to start? or am I better off buying active cultures online to begin this process?? (will have to wait for next month as Im already over budget )

As for the allergies - I am active over in the allergy forum but not sure if those ladies are into TF.

[farmerjess]

We eat allergy free and TF (primal style). We are in the process of trialing eggs now so we're eating them on 4 day rotation. We cant do dairy so we use alot of coconut stuff. We are allergic to all non-animal protein (inc dairy, nuts, seeds, beans, etc) so we eat a lot of meat. I try to include bone broth in our diet everyday. Either as a part of dinner or as an afternoon soup snack.

What are your food restrictions?

When we ate dairy, using store bought yogurt as a starter worked for us everytime.

[mom61508]

http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/20...easants-feast/

Thought you might find this helpful!

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by farmerjess

We eat allergy free and TF (primal style). We are in the process of trialing eggs now so we're eating them on 4 day rotation. We cant do dairy so we use alot of coconut stuff. We are allergic to all non-animal protein (inc dairy, nuts, seeds, beans, etc) so we eat a lot of meat. I try to include bone broth in our diet everyday. Either as a part of dinner or as an afternoon soup snack.

What are your food restrictions?

When we ate dairy, using store bought yogurt as a starter worked for us everytime.

We are gluten, soy, yeast and egg free and have a number of other milder intolerances which we do a rotation for (coconut being one of them!) Good to hear about the store yogurt. I'll give it a whirl

mom61508 - Thanks for the link I will check it out!

[FireWithin]

Originally Posted by Marnica

As for the allergies - I am active over in the allergy forum but not sure if those ladies are into TF.

a lot of us are, realizing that it is the best way to optimize the food that we can eat. We come and go about discussing it. A while ago we talked a lot about soaking grains, and then a big discussion about going grain free, etc.

btw - I haven't forgotten your pendulum question.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo

a lot of us are, realizing that it is the best way to optimize the food that we can eat. We come and go about discussing it. A while ago we talked a lot about soaking grains, and then a big discussion about going grain free, etc.

btw - I haven't forgotten your pendulum question.

great. i look forward to your resposne....you didn't respond in another thread and I missed it did you?

[farmerjess]

Originally Posted by Marnica

We are gluten, soy, yeast and egg free and have a number of other milder intolerances which we do a rotation for (coconut being one of them!) Good to hear about the store yogurt. I'll give it a whirl

mom61508 - Thanks for the link I will check it out!

I think with the whole allergy diet and eating TF thing in regards to cost we just do the best we can. We have now accepted that we will be spending a lot more on our food than we ever did in the past and have cut down on spending in other areas. We are living on my husband's grad school stipend, so we are going into debt to eat this way now, but he will be graduating and getting a real job in the near future.

We buy the cheapest cuts of local, pastured meat...a lot of ground stuff and then we'll get bones separately to make bone broth. I portion out meat gingerly...a lb of meat will last us two dinners. As far as veggies, we are saving a lot by having our own garden. We'll also eat cheaper stuff like cabbage and carrots pretty often.

As far as time, I shouldnt really be talking because I SAH, but a weekly meal plan has done wonders for my efficiency in the kitchen. You can include things to soak on there and when to pull the meats out of the freezer etc. The crockpot is my friend.

[FireWithin]

Originally Posted by Marnica

great. i look forward to your resposne....you didn't respond in another thread and I missed it did you?

nah - honestly sometimes it feels kind of hard to explain and I feel a bit silly, but I will write it up on the acute homeopathy spot, since I talk about it there the most.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by Marnica

Here is my first question!! I recently bought a yolife yougurt maker. I thought I could buy store bought plain yogurt (perhaps from a grassfed cow...I can get that at WF) and use that as a starter, but in the instructions that came with the make it says to use yogurt as a starter only from the batches you make and that store bought usually doesn't have enough cultures to start. Has anyone used store bought to start? or am I better off buying active cultures online to begin this process?? (will have to wait for next month as Im already over budget )

I used Stonyfield Cream Top yogurt as my starter and I had good luck. I would try to make sure that it's as fresh as possible - not close to the expiration date.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by LauraLoo

I used Stonyfield Cream Top yogurt as my starter and I had good luck. I would try to make sure that it's as fresh as possible - not close to the expiration date.

will give it a try...how much do you need to use? The entire pot?

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by Marnica

will give it a try...how much do you need to use? The entire pot?

It depends on how much milk you are using. I used about 6 oz. of starter yogurt for 2 qts. of milk.

I do know some people that do not have success doing it this way.