Huge, but Easy Step Towards a Nourishing Diet: Don’t Change Your Meal, Change Your Ingredients
Previous steps:
- stick with traditional fats, part 1
- stick with traditional fats, part 2
- add cod liver oil
- cut back (or out) sweets
When I first got started on the real food journey I found myself attempting foreign recipes in order to fit in all of the foods I thought we should be eating. What we needed was new ingredients, not new meals. So I sourced out better ingredients and kept meals familiar so that my family could adapt to my crazy ideas.
And over time it worked. My husband kept eating his favorite foods – meats, potatoes, fruits & vegetables, milk, bread, oatmeal. They all were familiar to him, but the meat was now grass-fed, the milk was raw, and the grains were prepared differently.
I was putting together a taco salad the other day and I realized that I’ve been eating taco salad on a regular basis for well over five years. It was a staple during my low-fat calorie obsessed days. When I started eating more along the lines of a traditional diet, the ingredients changed, but it’s still frequently on the menu.
Old Taco Salad:
- Lettuce: iceberg or conventional romaine
- Salsa: bottled, probably with added sugar
- Meat: ground conventional white turkey
- Cheese: low-fat
- Toppings: Tortilla chips, low fat conventional sour cream, canned black beans
New Taco Salad:
- Lettuce: organic romaine or homegrown in spring/late summer
- Salsa: lacto-fermented
- Meat: grass-fed ground beef or 75% beef/25% heart
- Cheese: raw cheddar
- Toppings: skip the chips, add avocado, a cultured full-fat cream for extra enzymes and probiotics, some cilantro, and home-cooked beans
If you made no other changes, just skipping the tortilla chips, which are usually fried in a rancid vegetable oil, would be a big improvement.
It takes the same amount of time to prepare the new salad, but is more nutrient dense. The same goes for other familiar favorites. Beef stew was made with grass-fed beef, vegetables, and herbs instead of a seasoning packet containing who knows what. Scrambled eggs are still there for breakfast, but they are pastured, include all of the yolks, and they are cooked in plenty of butter. Same meals, more nutrient dense ingredients.
And I’ll tell you a little secret… once your body has been fed more nutrient dense foods for a while you eat less of them. I know a lot of people say this, but I watched my husband go through a couple of months of constantly craving butter. Eventually it was as though his body had reached equilibrium and he no longer needed to eat it off of a spoon… literally. Now we both seem to require less food overall.
So you can have your taco salad (or hamburgers or fried eggs) and eat them too. Just change the ingredients, primarily focusing on changing to traditional fats, and you will be well on your way.
Find nutrient dense ingredients:
What do you think… does it seem doable? Do you eat the same old meals with different ingredients?
This is really valuable information. I need to look at our family’s favorites and do some tweaking. Thanks!
this makes total sense. And, I am getting this…finally!!
Denise – yay *smile*
the the white ground turkey – that was so me.
I like the title, and concept of this post. I’ve certainly been the one trying all new recipes in an attempt to be perfect. But I always go back to my ‘tried & true’ recipes, and make adaptations.
I understand the constant cravings. I’ve been craving all things coconut lately, and looking for every opportunity to enjoy more coconut oil.
I love this post! I’ve recently started down the path of more natural living, and learning slowly but surely what’s good for me and what’s bad for me. It was sad giving up all my old recipes (in some regards), but lately I’ve just started changing the ingredients in our favorite meals. It’s been fun to see what can be substituted for what. My favorite so far…using kefir in place of sour cream!
Great post!
What a fantastic concept. And I know what you mean about your body normalizing it’s need for real food. When I discovered homemade sour cream I would eat a pint a week. Then one day, the pint I made just sat there, for a month. I use it regularly now, but no more eating it off a spoon.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who craves butter! Eating and cooking traditional foods has allowed me to enjoy more of the solid meat and potatoes fare that I grew up on Iowa. It seems that lots of recipes start with bacon!
We’ve been eating with “good” ingredients for some time. I love how you underscore the importance of ingredients and, in so doing, make eating healthier seem so easy. Wondering about cultured salsa. I’ll have to check your recipe index to see if you have a recipe posted.
Brynn – Sorry, don’t have a recipe for cultured salsa up yet. Probably this summer!
I couldn’t agree more! I think unless you are dealing with a very life threatening illness/disease as I was, then it really only takes minor changes….although they really are major changes. My changes were much more drastic, but have certainly mellowed out A LOT and I’m so grateful that I can be “normal” again. Living such a rigid life was really hard, although necessary for me. If only everyone would realize what you have, they might make the changes and be grateful that they did. The proof is in the puddin! And oh what yummy pudding we get to eat on this traditional diet!
I found those types of changes tasted alot better. Some other changes were alot bigger, we had to eliminate gluten for me and my son can’t digest grains so we used nut flour for him. I felt better on his food and screwing with all of the different gluten free flour blends was a pain in the butt. I found many of our old recipes did well just using almond flour, which also eliminates me using refined gluten free flours. My biggest challenge was getting the excess sugar out of my diet and getting used to less or natural sweeteners. FYI: Yogurt made from cream or half and half makes a great sub for sour cream.
I am new to your blog and absolutely love it! I can’t wait to read more. I think making changes in ones diet by altering a few of the ingredients is totally doable! Love your new taco salad 😉 My twin sister and I just really got into fermented foods about a few months ago and are now totally hooked!!!!
That’s a great recipe – New Taco Salad.
Thanks, I will give it a try!
hmmm…. rancid vegetable oil… not on the top of my list.
I have started a new carnival “Meatless Mondays.” I would love for you to join in. You can post something new, or dig up a favorite blast from the past. I have enjoyed reading many of your recipes, and I am sure there are others that would love to have you share.
http://teachingmoneytokids.blogspot.com/2010/01/meatless-monday-carnival-kids-in.html
Thanks Staci
Yes, we’re gradually making ingredient changes. Just knowing what it is I’m eating makes me feel better about it. Even if there are still some areas I’d like to change, we’re better off now than we were a year ago.
And my husband rarely notices the leafy greens in his meals anymore.