DAY TEN! WOW… no holding back!

WE DID IT!  We successfully completed the 10 day challenge to eat "real food."  We did not eat fast food or drink any soda or sugared juices/drinks. We ate nitrate free meat, ate nothing processed, had nothing with high fructose corn syrup and ate "whole wheat" foods, unsalted butter and prepared all of our food ourselves. We ate nothing out of a box, bag, can bottle or package that had more than 5 ingredients. We learned more than we ever thought we would in 10 days. 


We were in the kitchen A LOT today.  There were so many recipes we wanted to try in the 10 days and for some reason felt the need to make many of them today. We used a record EIGHT new recipes today alone. I will highlight all the new recipes in BLUE. 


Today instead of breakfast or lunch, we had a brunch! We planned a brunch because we knew we were going to be gone during lunch time today. For our brunch we had whole wheat crepes (100 days of real food recipe), mixed fruit cup, homemade baked matchstick fries (whole foods recipe), and scrambled eggs. The whole wheat crepes had 100% maple syrup on them and were delicious, but nothing has been quite as good as the french toast or whole wheat banana pancakes from the 100 days of real food site. The fruit cup, as usual, was great. The fries tasted much like hash browns and just a little seasoned salt was all they needed. No ketchup!


Today was a long and excessive day in the kitchen. For snacks today we made three batches of granola bars. We plan to share at least one batch with friends.  We also had fun playing with our food today, making cars out of apple slices, sliced grapes and toothpicks (see pictures.) We also enjoyed a simple snack of watermelon on a popsicle stick and a few raisins. A little later we were all thirsty from being outside so we made fresh strawberry-mango smoothies with coconut milk and ice cubes. We froze the extra in the silicone ice pop makers to have for a snack tomorrow. 


From making snacks in the kitchen, it continued on to start the long preparation for the wonderful supper we had tonight. Supper tonight was made for a king! We prepared homemade chicken nuggets (100days recipe), coconut chicken satay (100days recipe), prosciutto wrapped asparagus (whole foods recipe), cobb salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing (100days recipe), and whole wheat biscuits (100days recipe). The coconut chicken satay was not so well liked by everyone (except Sampson the dog who snuck it off the table as we were cleaning up. We were amazed with his ability to carefully eat it off the skewered so we didn't even punish him!) The homemade chicken nuggets were a big hit! They were nearly gone within the first 5 minutes of supper. The prosciutto wrapped asparagus was cooked on the grill. I thought they tasted great as well. The cobb salad tasted well but we didn't care much for the homemade dressing. We are not big fans of bleu cheese anyway, so some of you may like it. The homemade biscuits were good with unsalted butter on them. Overall, it was a lot of work, but a very tasty supper full of variety. 


For a snack tonight we ate a bowl of granola with sliced bananas, and a glass of almond milk. We also prepared Chocolate Mousse (100days recipe) that we will enjoy tomorrow :-)  


I have mixed feelings about today being our last day of the challenge. I would really like to continue eating healthy but I also feel a little lost. Is it really possible to not go to McDonalds? I am really glad that I have learned a lot about our food and I have a lot more interest toward reading labels and I now know that we should never be naive about what we put in our bodies. We will definitely be making some permanent changes in our house. We also plan to continue to use fruits and vegetables as snacks instead of crackers. Tomorrow I plan to hold a family meeting to gather opinions and feedback from my brothers and parents about this challenge and will create a new post with that information. 


I really want to THANK all of you who were so encouraging when you saw me in public, sent me a message or called and offered things from your garden. It's super cool to think about all the people who have followed my blog.  I am overwhelmed with the interest everyone has in this project. My hope is you learned a few things along the way with us. As for tomorrow…. I have no idea what we are going to eat. I would usually sit up this time of night and prepare the menus for the next day. Tonight, I am going to bed! I promise to blog with a summary of our family meeting, high/low lights of the project and things we plan to change tomorrow. 


TARYN 

Brunch…. crepes were good, but nothing like the french toast.

Real fruit smoothies with coconut milk. Froze the extra in the silicone ice pop makers

Needed an extra set of hands.

2 of the pans of granola bars…. one with regular oats, the other with steel cut oats. Like my camera  and arm shadow over the pans? 

Snack time!  Trey says, "oh sweet!" Be careful with younger children and using toothpicks.

My attempt at a monster truck. HA!

Ty made his own creation! 

We were picture happy tonight. This is preparing to make the homemade chicken nuggets. I learned the "wet hand" and "dry hand" technique tonight. 

Homemade whole wheat biscuit… a cinch to make.

Putting the coconut chicken satay in the oven.

mmmmmmm…..homemade chicken nuggets! EASY! 

Cobb salad with lettuce from our own garden! Bacon, avocado, tomatoes, pears, diced eggs and homemade bleu cheese dressing. Very good…liked that we could pick and choose.

Prosciutto wrapped asparagus on the grill….delicious! 

This is what 3 hours in the kitchen making everything from scratch looks like!