starting fresh, part 2

So my plan to feed my family more fresh foods and fewer prepackaged, preservative-filled foods has been going pretty well. I have managed to stay on budget and not lose my mind for all of the extra time and effort my new plan requires.

Some of the positive things about our new style of eating are that:
1) The food tastes better, much better.
2) We are all trying new things (just the other day the girls gobbled up hummus and pita bread for an after school snack).
3) Our digestive systems have adjusted accordingly and we can no longer tolerate fast-food, which means we avoid it big-time.
4) Our menus are more spontaneous and that is fun.

Some of the drawbacks are:
1) It takes a lot of time, lots of time cooking and lots of time running to the store.
2) It takes a lot of creativity to come up with our meals, as opposed to opening a box of Hamburger Helper and calling it good.
3) Our digestive systems have adjusted accordingly and we can no longer tolerate fast-food, which means that I pretty much always have to cook.
4) It takes a lot of work to learn about nutrition, cooking and meal-planning.

We are far from perfect. Just today we drove thru McDonald's to get ice cream and milkshakes as an after-school snack. But, my kids absolutely eat way more good than bad. Budget-wise I have learned that pre-packaged, all-natural, organic snacks are more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts. But, fresh produce is pretty darn cheap. With regard to cooking, I have learned to stockpile a few things that I know I use in recipes so that I don't have to worry about having the basics on hand (flour, chicken stock, olive oil, etc). I am still learning. I read things that tell me I should roast a chicken every week and then use the chicken in various recipes and the juices to make my own chicken stock. I don't know why, but that idea intimidates me. Maybe I'll come around but for now my chicken comes frozen, from Sam's. I have yet to pinpoint the criteria that makes one olive oil better than another and I'm really unsure of the pros and cons of bleached vs. unbleached flour.

Overall, all is well but I'm still doing a bit of fine-tuning...