Some dietary changes we have recently made:
1) Started buying whole milk from a small herd of Jersey cows. It comes in glass bottles and has a layer of lovely cream on the top - we were people who drank only skim milk. link
2) I already made our breads (whole wheat and sourdough) and seed crackers but I started making cheese crackers for J too (to replace cheese sandwich crackers from Trader Joes). cheese crackers
3) Started buying full-fat yogurt. We love the Fage Greek yogurt, I'm received a yogurt maker for Christmas and will have fun experimenting with trying to replicate the Fage. By making our yogurt, I'll know exactly the quality of milk being used. I love that idea.
4) Started eating a LOT more butter and without guilt. I've been doing a lot of reading about how the fats that we have been told are bad for us, are actually good and the ones 'they' said were good are actually horrible. Go figure, the real ones certainly taste better.
5) I need to look into the cheeses we eat. I've read how raw cheese is good for you, but the ones I've found are crazy expensive. We go through a lot of cheese in this family and I want to be sure what we're eating is good for us.
6) I've started serving a cheese course after dinner. In part because we LOVE cheese and in part because I want J to have the pleasure of learning about new cheeses. I'm going to pick up new ones each week or so and we will all enjoy the new tradition of a cheese course. French Foodie Baby served as a pretty strong inspiration for this. http://frenchfoodiebaby.blogspot.com/
7) Cut down our sugar consumption in a very large way. In fact the only candy/sweets in the house are some organic lollipops I bought ages ago for my toddler. I'm the type of person who won't stop eating if it's in the house so the best thing is to go cold turkey. I have maple sugar for baking and will buy chocolate without soy lethicin when I need to bake something (I rarely need to make a dessert).
8) Buying only locally raised grass-fed beef and pastured pork. The beef is actually cheaper than anything from Trader Joes or Whole Foods but the pork is quite a bit more. The flavor however is incomparable. We are looking into splitting half a pig with family. That way it becomes much more reasonable. Beef Pork
9) Stopped buying almost anything with fake ingredients in it and started making my own versions of snacks, etc. Still looking for a kids cliff bars substitute.
10) Became very aware of the oils we use as well as the oils in the items we buy. This blog has been very helpful in choosing oils oils
11) We are eating a lot more saturated fats. Instead of thinking they're evil, a lot of things I've been reading from people I trust leads me to believe that we're being fed a load of bunk Homemade Mommy
Re: kids Clif bars. I make a date but ball that was reverse engineered from Lara Bars. They are delicious and easy. And chocolate! I added nutritional yeast and flax meal to make a lactation boosting snack, but you can just as easily leave that out. http://blog.bernat.net/2012/09/01/more-milk-less-baking/
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