A Little Backstory

Drinking right now: Ceylon Breakfast Black Tea, origin: Sri Lanka. $16.99/lb

I realized about two months ago that my kids would eat nothing but junk food; the closest "real" foods they consumed were pop-tarts and cheap chicken nuggets.

It was about the time I found myself screaming at my oldest, "NO POPSICLES! NO FRUIT SNACKS! FFS SIT DOWN AND EAT YOUR LUNCH!" that I began to wonder what kind of habits I'd instilled in my kids already.

You see, if there's one thing I hate, it's schedules. I don't like being told when to wake up, or what to do with my day. Discipline has never--and I mean never--been my strong suit. That would probably be why I've been starting at the screen for three hours instead of writing this; only inspiration (read: flattery) from Lesley is wringing these sentences out from my fingertips.

Anyways, that applies to my nutrition as well. Rather than four square meals a day, I was in the habit of eating as I felt like it: no breakfast, a small lunch, three or four snacks, and a massive dinner (because I was horribly hungry by that point.)

The second event to worry me was spending over $300 on groceries one day, then coming home to realize that I had not bought a single food item for a meal. I'm not even talking about that "Oh, I have nothing to cook!" feeling you get even after you've spent hours in the store; I had bought nothing but snack foods, and bad ones at that.

So, I've been trying to set better habits for all of us. I'm to the point where I'm basically re-learning how to cook.

Taking stock of the recipes I still remembered, were simple to cook with two toddlers underfoot, and produced food I could stomach the taste of yet still pleased the rest of the family, I found...squat. Well that's not completely true, there were maybe two things I could cook that everyone might eat. The problem then was I never learned to cook for more than two people, at most. With four finicky mouths to feed, I was clueless; thankfully, wild experimentation is exactly what I love to do when it comes to cooking.

I began tearing into my cookbooks, most of which are rather dated, and eventually took to the internet. I bombarded my friends with questions on their eating habits--I wanted suggestions from the vegans, the vegetarians, and the omnivores all. I had to find a way to create food with little money (that's a whole 'nother can of worms, and a story for another time), enough for four people, and that everyone would enjoy enough to finish.

I wanted dishes that would give us nutrients from fresh veggies and balance the protein and fat necessities of growing children. I don't think I'd had fresh vegetables and fruit in this house for at least 8 months, if even then.

The research I was doing into new and exciting foods brought me to a lot of nutrition information. Some of it was expected, but most was pretty shocking. I learned why some things I'd thought were bad really are bad, and why some things I'd thought were bad really aren't a problem at all. (I'm not going to go into that, if you're wondering. That's for you to find out and decide on your own what's right for your family.)

I've also found I have the ability to save a great deal of money by making many types of basic foods on my own instead of buying pre-made.

Probably the best side-effect of all this was finding that healthier habits actually cost less. Cooking fresh can be completely cheaper:

• I buy less because the shelf life is shorter; I don't get more than we need, or know I can cook.
• I control the exact amount I'm buying and cooking; I choose it and weigh it myself, so there's no waste.
• Eating well-spaced, whole meals means eating less--period! There's not any nibbling going on because of unsatisfied tummies.
• The more I cook and bake, the more I realize what a ripoff pre-made food is. You're paying a whole lot for the convenience of something that's going to hurt your body, and that's just considering the short-term.

Going over my spreadsheets of grocery items, prices, and meal lists, I found some astonishing things. For example, a loaf of cheap bread costs nearly $3.00, while 5 pounds of good flour is only $0.30 more. The more I dug around, I found that the bread was just the tip of the iceberg (thanks, Jessy, for reminding me that I love to bake!)

I know baking your own bread is not a viable option for everyone, but it is for me. So why not take advantage of that? Then I tried making my own cheese, which cost less than the 8 oz of cream cheese I normally get that it replaced. I have the whey left over from that, and I found a recipe to make my own mayonnaise with that! Once I got started, one thing fed into another and I now have people asking me if I'm starting a culinary business.

No, I'm just trying to teach my children that the world will not end when we run out of pop-tarts.*

*we totally ran out, and I refuse to buy more--for the kids or for us.