The Great Breakfast Experiment and Tulips

A week ago, I told my kids they were no longer allowed to have cereal for breakfast.  Since they have cereal every.single.day, I was expecting a pretty big push back.  However, they have done amazingly well with this change, and I've been very proud of them.  The biggest reason they have cereal every day is that it's easy!  No prep work, just dump and serve.  It's not terribly healthy though, and full of a lot of refined "food."

We've been experimenting with different things - lots of smoothies, apple-banana and zucchini bread, omelets, strawberries, bananas, grapes, and toast.  I've managed to completely eliminate white flour from my breads (both yeast and quick)!  Nobody even seems to notice.  My next project is eliminating granulated white sugar.  Adjusting recipes to substitute applesauce and honey is tricky and I don't really understand exactly how to alter the liquids to make it work - trial and error I guess.  

I'm not trying to go insane with all of this.  My friend Kathleen shared this article with me and it made me laugh (The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater).  We aren't going to exist on kale.  We are trying to move even farther toward whole foods and more of a dependence on vegetables and fruits.  I signed up for a CSA which I'm really excited about.

This week I also realized how ridiculously easy it is to make sour cream.  One cup of half and half, a glug (yes, that's an official measurement) so maybe 2 Tbsp of cultured buttermilk, mix, sit on the counter for 24 hours and voila!

My next project is cottage cheese - mostly because it's apparently very easy to make as well and what is available at the store has a lot of weird things in it I'd like the kids to avoid.  I promise we won't just be eating kale.  

Here's a picture of one of the tulip beds, this is my favorite!