I jumped into this challenge a bit late and, as a result, was unprepared for how difficult and limiting it was actually challenging going to be. I already eat pretty “clean”; I’m already working towards an all-natural diet, how hard could it be?
Plenty hard, actually. Whine-inducing.
A reader left a comment on the Natural Disaster Facebook page saying “It sure took me a long time to grocery shop!” during week one. Strangely, I found the opposite: we skipped many of the aisles we usually go down because we knew there’d be nothing we could buy. As a result, I am going to be doing some large-batch cooking and baking this week. And because this week’s meals turned out to be largely leftovers, nachos (all-natural corn chips!) and other such culinary delights, I promise to actually do some menu-planning tomorrow.
So this week I have a plan. I’ve recruited my hubby, who impressed me by asking all the market vendors and cheese-shop owners he visited Saturday morning how their goods were made. Were they processed? Did they have preservatives? He found some that weren’t, and didn’t. Success!
Armed with a week’s worth of bounty (supplemented by our meagre finds from the grocery store), behold our raw materials and Week Two menus below. (Note: I promise to try a breakfast that isn’t oatmeal this week.)
The raw materials
Market:
- Whole wheat (!) sourdough bread
- Whole wheat, preservative-free tortillas made by a local company
- Sweet potatoes
- Cauliflower
- New potatoes
- A “peck” of Courtland apples
- Red shepherd peppers
- Celery
- Purple and orange carrots
- British cheese (free from wonky ingredients, unless you consider horseradish wonky)
Grocery store:
- Large-flake oats for baking
- A new flavour of sprouted Manna bread (banana!) and Jordan’s muesli cereal
- Tofu (though this might be out-of-bounds…I had been reading how to make your own tofu with natural nigari, but the store-bought brands I found only listed calcium/magnesium chloride, which I need to dig into more before eating)
- Sesame-garlic tempeh (sadly, the store was out of the naturally marinated smoky bacon-flavoured tempeh I love)
- Plain yogurt, organic coffee cream, and full-fat sour cream
- Natural peanut butter (crunchy and smooth)
- Organic corn chips (corn, oil, lime) and two kinds of Ryvita crispbread
- Quinoa and brown rice
- Parmesan cheese
Menu plan
Breakfasts: Manna bread or oatmeal
Lunches: Leftovers or wraps (using market-fresh tortillas and avocado sitting on my counter)
Dinners:
- Sunday: Cheese platter with fresh vegetables and bread
- Monday: Roasted vegetables (seasoned with rosemary and spicy pepper blend) served with either tofu or tempeh and quinoa
- Tuesday: Sweet potato black bean chili (inspired by this three-bean version) with whole-wheat toast
- Wednesday: Stir-fry or, if we can find a brand of our favourite Korean pepper paste that doesn’t have corn syrup in it, a dish called dak galbi (cabbage, carrots, tofu, Korean rice noodles [note to self: are these allowed?], mozzarella cheese in a spicy sauce)
- Thursday: Hungarian peppers stuffed with spicy lentils, brown rice, and tomato sauce
- Friday: Homemade whole-wheat pasta with homemade roasted red peppers and homemade sun-dried tomatoes (Mike volunteered to make all of these ingredients from scratch. Ambitious, yes. Rubbish? We’ll find out if he keeps his promise.)
What are you eating this week?
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