October Unprocessed Week 1: Out of the Starting Gates, and Menu

This week has brought more than a few changes to our household: we started the October Unprocessed challenge, of course. I went back to work after 10 months’ maternity leave. Popcorn got sick, then she got me sick, meaning neither of us has slept more than two hours in a row since Tuesday. On top of all this, the weather broke and while last Saturday saw us in t-shirts at the Blue Jays game (go Jays!), this Saturday brought a high of 10 degrees Celsius (that’s 50 Fahrenheit for my American visitors) and cold, overcast wind. This morning, we turned the heat on because the indoor temp had dropped to 16.

Anyway, my point as it relates to food is that I’m so, so glad we planned out at least a few days’ worth of unprocessed food before October 1 (jump to the list below to see what we’re eating this week). And secretly (not so secretly now) I’m glad Mike was home to do the meal preparation. Even though I like juggling baby, dog, home and meals, I don’t tend to be all that good at it.

So on Thursday after I walked to work in the chilly breeze and proceeded to mostly sit at a desk all day, Mike set about becoming a homemaker. He made steel-cut oats for himself and the baby. After breakfast, child locks were installed. He met me at work for lunch so I could nurse P if needed, then returned home to start the whole-wheat bread in the bread machine. After a run with the dog and P in her jogging stroller, he picked peppers from the garden and put them in the dehydrator. At some point he also picked tomatoes from our dying tomato plants and hung laundry out to dry. In other words, totally put me to shame.

With fresh garden tomatoes and peppers, the plan was to have chili and still-warm bread for dinner. When I got home from work I snuggled with P while he set about cooking. Turns out Mr. Homemaker forgot to soak the kidney beans. In fact, we didn’t even have dried kidney beans. Oops. Being October Unprocessed, we (Mike) didn’t buy many canned goods on our last shopping trip, and canned beans without preservatives are hard to find. So, we settled for grilled cheese and the next day, went grocery shopping.

October Unprocessed Menu Week 1

Breakfast

For breakfast we’ve been eating steel-cut oats with natural peanut butter and fruit (organic bananas or organic dried tropical fruit mix) and flaxseed.

Lunch

Lunch is usually leftovers, fried eggs, or toast and hummus with salad.October 1 I attended a potluck lunch at work and brought these tasty Thai lettuce wraps from Cookie + Kate. Luckily I already had gluten-free natural tamari (as opposed to regular old soy sauce) in my fridge for the sauce.

Snacks

For snacks, we’ve had yogurt with fruit/flaxseed, RyVita crackers with cheese, lattes, fruit, and apple cider. I also keep “emergency Lara bars” in the diaper bag and in my drawer at work.

Dinner

October 1: For dinner we had the aforementioned grilled cheese (Balderson 2-Year Old Cheddar, which doesn’t have added colours or modified milk ingredients, and homemade bread). P had her homemade special stir-fry from the freezer.

October 2: Chili with black beans and tomatoes from the garden; homemade bread. P had lentils and sweet potatoes, with yogurt and banana for dessert.

October 3: Nachos on organic corn tortilla chips (old cheddar, green onion, cilantro, avocado, salsa [watch for additives – we found Newman’s Own to be the most acceptable] and leftover black beans cooked for the chili). P had beans, yogurt, and a squeeze pouch of beet/apple/sweet potatoes with cinnamon and quinoa (lucky girl).

October 4: Pancakes for breakfast this morning (sans vanilla extract because our bottle has sugar in it! Can you believe it?) For dinner, cheese platter with homemade whole-wheat baguette and homemade sun-dried tomatoes. Mike went to the fancy cheese shop only to discover even some fancy cheeses have preservatives…but most don’t. P had plums and lentils for lunch and black beans, cheese, and a jar of green bean/brown rice for dinner.

October 5: Mike made the rest of our home-cooked black beans into refried beans, which we’ll use to make burritos. We’re definitely on a Mexican kick this week. We have whole wheat tortillas in our freezer that come from the farmers market – all tortillas I’ve seen at the grocery store have preservatives added. P had lentils (from the freezer), cheese, and kale sautéed with onions and garlic that I cooked tonight. For dessert, pears.

October 6: All three of us will eat leek and potato soup with leftover homemade baguette.

October 7: Some kind of pasta, to be determined. Likely whole wheat spaghetti with sun-dried tomato and olive oil sauce. Salad with homemade dressing.

So that’s our first week. Pretty basic, which I’m okay with since we have so much else going on. How’s yours going?