Food Woes.

Overwhelmed is a good descriptor for me. I'm overwhelmed. God knows that, I tell him often. He's working on that with me. I can name a handful of things in life that overwhelm me.

One of those things today is eating healthy. And by healthy, I mean using less processed foods and more whole foods and changing the way I know how to cook and eat.

I always thought we ate decently but do a little blog or profile stalking and BAM! I'm seriously questioning ever using cream of mushroom soup again.

Kidding, gosh, I am still a Midwesterner at heart and I'll always make tator tot hotdish. Come on.

But seriously. The way Americans eat, the way our habits are... it's not good. I really thought tator tot hotdish was pretty healthy. I mean it's a good home cooked meal, right? But then I start thinking... it's not really that good for you. Processed tator tots, "cream of" soups, ground beef that's not organic... canned beans aren't even that awesome. Of course, everything in moderation. But if most of our meals fall along these lines, then that's not really stellar, is it?

Sigh.

I don't have the energy or the money or the time to completely revamp the way we eat. I can take little steps, I know. I am. But I have a long way to go. I mean last week I bought an eggplant at our Farmer's Market and I thought I was a freaking genius for making something tasty with it. 

Seriously. Mainstay vegetables I get. Hello Mr. Broccoli! But anything eggplant-on just confounds me. And I know we need to eat more veggies and I need to get more creative with it... like pureeing cauliflower and adding it to pasta. I could do that.

Do you want to come for a week and teach me how to be awesome healthy Heather?

Because I'm just going to start a list here of things that I do not understand, that freak me out, the things that when I see them in the list of ingredients, I gaze past that recipe and move on to something more at my level.

Kale, flaxseed, weird vegetables like brussel sprouts, omega-3s, whey, quinoa, steel-cut oats, odd cheeses from odd animals, coconut oil, homemade yogurt, agave, weird cuts of meat, gluten-free whatever, and basically any fish (besides walleye which I love but don't know how to cook and can't get it here anyway).

Wait. In our defense, I do make decent meals and I do buy whatever fruits and vegetables that are on sale at Publix each week and we don't eat out too often. I felt like I needed that to be said so you'd stop judging. And we have the luxury of no food allergies or concerns at this point.

Maybe I'll learn to use a few of these foods that scare me. I want to. I would love to eat more whole foods,  buy more fresh ingredients each week. If I had loads of money, the decision to buy all organic and eat healthier would be super easy. I'd do it. Hands down. I'd hire a cook or a nutritionist, too. And let me just say here how much of a bummer it is that it's (not always, but usually) way more expensive to eat healthier. I know I could make sacrifices in other areas to eat all organic but I'm not there yet. And gardening was not our strong suit, it's too blasted hot. Lord knows how the people back in the day did this. 

This doesn't even cover the arguments about what's really in our food, genetically modified foods, eating organic, eating local and on and on...

Add this to the desire to only feed Eli the best, to teach him early about good nutrition and what an amazing gift food is, to have him crave green leafy vegetables yet still have the rare enjoyment of an oreo...

So now you see why I am overwhelmed?

-Heather