Showing all posts tagged pantry:

A full embrace of integrated pest management

Here I am, a year later, battling another round of pantry moths. 😔 I tried not to let it overwhelm me. Yes, it is a big job, but just break it down into chunks, and try to be mindful and present for each one. It could be like a meditation! Sure, ok. But what a lot of work! I did manage to get through the emptying, vacuuming, washing and vinegar-rinsing of the food-containing cabinets, as well as the inspection, cleaning and sometimes disposal of all of the food, and the re-stocking and org...

Corn, corn, everywhere!!!

When I first started eliminating corn from my kids’ diets, to help solve their persistent health issues, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I figured I had already done most of the work by focusing on whole, fresh, home-cooked foods and cutting out most of the “processed stuff". I thought, “This isn’t so bad. I would rather they did not eat that processed junk anyway." And then, I really dug deep, and found out I was in trouble. Corn is practically free! So of course it gets used EVER...

Processed food challenge, part 2 (going shopping)

I keep trying to write this post, and get lost in it. This is partly because there is so much to say, and partly because my own understanding and strategies continue to evolve. So, what I am trying to offer here is a general but still useful overview, to follow up my previous “Processed food challenge" post. Are you trying to cut processed foods out of your grocery list? It is not going to be easy at first. It’s like going to a new grocery store and learning the layout, only worse. Give your...

Processed food challenge, part 1 (cleaning out the pantry)

Happy New Year! Thinking about how to eat healthier? Join the club. :) Seriously, what can you do to improve your diet? A great start is to look in your cabinets and start [re-]reading product labels. How many ingredients do they contain? How may can you pronounce? How much violence have they likely suffered before they reached you? Even if it is “organic", how much does the product resemble something you have seen in nature? The industrial processing of food not only frequently adds junk ...

What’s in the pantry? (Sweeteners)

As with oils, sugars and other sweeteners were an important target in cleaning up my pantry. I had been using Florida Crystals and Turbinado sugar, thinking they were better than plain white sugar. Unfortunately, it turns out they are not quite the improvement I was looking for. I wanted something that had not had all possible goodness processed out of it. Something that would not be toxic! In general, sugar is really just not good for us. Even natural “healthy" sweeteners are not good if yo...

What's in the pantry? (Oils)

Overhauling the pantry meant tossing a lot of things out, and making major updates to my grocery list. One of the first things I did was toss out oils that quickly turn rancid, and therefore include bleaching and deodorizing in their processing (yuck!), and which are also high in unsaturated fats, which turn out NOT to be so good for us. Preferred Oils Butter, cultured and pastured Coconut Oil, expeller-pressed Sesame Seed Oil, expeller-pressed Olive Oil, extra virgin Pork Leaf Lard, past...