Evolution of Dinner: Part 2 - New Traditions

Yesterday, I blogged about our changes from the Standard American Diet (SAD Diet) to our current healthy way of living... Here is part 2.

Amazingly, we felt better on our new diet opting for more fresh ingredients and less packaged foods. We started new "traditions" for our family to replace the way we had done things before. They started out from our desire to cut costs, so that I could stay at home with our kids, but ended up giving us so much more. The traditions had positive health impacts on us that, frankly, I hadn't even considered as a 25-year-old new mom.

Saturday was special because the kids got "Saturday Cereal" - AKA sugared cereals". It was our one day a week we allowed our boys a single bowl of Cap'n Crunch or CoCo Puffs (off brand of course), and to watch cartoons all morning. This was great for our family's health, but also helped our bottom line at the grocery store. We changed to a box of oats that was much cheaper than processed sugared cereal, and MUCH healthier for us!

We also began making Sunday Night Pizza. That's right- making it! I could tell you many hilarious stories about our first dough making attempts, but I won't bore you. The first few were far from perfect, but over time, the Pizza making became a highlight of our week. It was something Jamie and I did with the boys (when they got old enough, each child was able to make his own personal pizza- start to finish!) We made our sauce and dough from scratch using fresh ingredients and it was the best pizza we ever tasted.

We still, however, relied heavily on mac-n-cheese, canned soups with MSG, cheap peanut butter and other unhealthy choices during the week, but we were making gradual progress on our budget as well as our health.

  Evolution of Dinner: Part 3 - Hunter Gatherer