It is called October Unprocessed and the simple idea is to go a month without eating any processed foods. Re-calibrate your taste buds, as it were.
The definition of "processed foods" is a topic of debate. Andrew at EatingRules.com, the instigator of the challenge, defines it as Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients. But your definition can be whatever YOU are comfortable with.
I don't know. I've been trying it already. I just hate committing to something that I'm most likely going to fail. Really ... go all October without Halloween candy AT ALL? Although, perhaps M&Ms take much more than "reasonable skill in a home kitchen." (I am a bit too good at finding loop holes!)
Anybody up for a challenge? You can read more about it over at EatingRules.
-Cindy
6 comments:
Hmmm...What do you do about pasta and corn chips? These are current staples at our house. Sounds intriguing. You could do what we are doing for Halloween--boycott! Ha ha. Since Nikell is currently sugar-free-ish, we are going to spend a night at a....drumroll please....HOTEL!! And SWIM!! Oh, it's going to be fantastic. Too bad this was the one year I actually had costumes!
I've decided that pasta is beyond reasonable skill level at my house...I'll just keep looking for the whole grain varieties at the store. I've heard making pita chips and such is easy, but I don't know how soon I'll be trying that one, either! :)
Oh, and tsk tsk to your Halloween-Scroogism! :)
ok, maybe I'm over-analyzing, but I just can't quite get the concept here. I've searched through my food storage and figure that my cake and brownie mixes and the kids lunch snacks (capri-sun, sometimes little cookies packets) I could work over. How picky are you getting? I use dry milk in quite a few recepies of mine- easy way to rotate food storage- but obviously processed. Spaghetti - that's next to impossible to make. Though I do make my own sauce. My stove top could go, because home-made is better, but not cheaper or faster when you consider the bread. Which brings me to bread- I make homemade almost weekly, but we use it just to eat, or for french toast, or with jam... not for sandwiches in lunch boxes. Any good alternatives out there? I am searching out my recepie for cream of something soup, but I know it involves corn starch, chicken bullion, italian seasoning, dried onion and dry milk (all processed).
I'm not picky at all ... this challenge (and my own personal attempts) are supposed to be choices made based on what you are comfortable with. I will not be making spaghetti noodles, um ever. And some things are processed, yes, but still pretty natural ... dried milk, seasonings, etc. I won't be making my own olive oil any time soon either! :)
It is whatever you want it to be.
Oh and I've been trying to find a good homemade sandwich bread. So far this is my favorite http://annies-eats.com/2008/07/24/american-sandwich-bread/ I do swap out a lot of the flour for whole wheat flour, but I find it firm enough for peanut butter (another item I'll continue buying from the store) and easy enough to slice thin for sandwiches.
This is just for fun - no over-analyzing allowed! :)
HA HA! I suppose this whole thing interests me because of all of the things I am having to learn how to make gluten free. I don't think I would have ever considered making cream of chicken soup...but now I have to. And, honestly, it makes me feel a little more prepared for the day when I won't be able to buy everything so readily. So, over-analyzing aside, it sounds like a great idea!
And it's not scroogism if you are boycotting Halloween in the name of your 4-year-olds diet. It's just REALLY convenient for me...and I must admit, I am quite excited! Ha ha. Don't worry, though, we make up for it with Christmas around here.
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