We have alluded to this year-long series several times, but until now have not revealed many details. Well, wait no more!
Get Real is a year long series dedicated to helping you make the transition to become a whole, real food and non processed household.
This choice is not made overnight, nor is it made without dedication and effort. We are committed to helping you every step along the way, and we’re even going to do the challenge with you! So many people I know have shared a desire to transition their families to more healthy food choices but are often overwhelmed by the research, decisions, process and time needed for that transition. They often start only to quit soon thereafter out of frustration. Does that sound like you?
Get Real will take a month by month approach to helping you transition your eating habits gradually hopefully resulting in greater success. Each month we will focus on a different aspect of the transition. From cleaning out your pantry, reading and interpreting labels, organic versus conventional, meats, fruit and vegetables, grains and much more. Here is an outline of the topics we will be covering:
- January – Pantry/Freezer Cleaning
- February – Grains – Breads
- March – Grains – Pasta
- April – Vegetables/Fruits – Gardening
- May – Beef/Pork
- June – Dairy
- July – Fats – Coupons/Shopping
- August – Vegetables/Fruits – Canning/Freezing
- September – Meat – Poultry
- October – Household Items & Life Transitions
- November – Grains – Rice/Beans
- December – Wrap Up
It takes a village. This is most often mentioned in reference to raising children, but I would argue that it is essential to any new lifestyle change. We want to provide you with that village and help you create it. We hope that going through this journey with fellow readers will bolster your confidence.
We also have lined up some fabulously knowledgeable and encouraging bloggers to assist us on this journey. Along the way they will be providing us with topical information and helping you get your questions answered. I am so excited that the following have committed to helping us in this journey. Feel free to go check out their blogs and welcome them!
- Lisa of 100 Days of Real Food
- Rachel of Harmonious Homestead
- Vanessa of Chefdruck
- Kristen of Dine and Dish
- Katie of Kitchen Stewardship
- Stephanie of Keeper of the Home
- Gudrun of Kitchen Gadget Girl
- Jo-Lynne Shane
- Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
- Donielle of Natural Fertility and Wellness
Once A Month Meals is not going all whole foods; however, it is our desire to continue to provide tools to educate families in the kitchen. We hope this series will be one of the tools that your family might use in 2012. So mark you calendars for January when this series kicks off. And don’t forget to add this to your New Year’s Resolutions as well! We will have details about our journey starting the first of the year as well as our acquired sponsors. Join the Facebook Fan Page – Get Real 2012
22 Comments
Join the discussionLOVE LOVE LOVE. Can’t wait 🙂
I am interested to see how you plan to cover couponing as a part of transitioning to a whole food lifestyle. One of my biggest issues about trying to use more coupons is that rarely, do I find one for things that I buy. They all seem to be for boxed and canned goods not fresh fruits or veggies, un-marinaded or frozen meats, plain dairy, etc. Neither my CSA nor farmers market vendors seem to have a lot of coupons available either. Good luck!
Megan when I switched to cooking more homemade real food from stratch I actually cut my grocery budget by $200 – $300 a month. All without coupons. I actually was not expecting this at all because I went into to it with just wanting to eat healthier and lose weight. Well I ended up losing 40 pounds and as a bonus reducing my food costs. It was a welcomed surprise for sure. Freezer cooking is an invaluable resource when it comes to providing your family with these foods for much less because you can buy foods in bulk (along with other tricks) and really get a handle on menu planning and keeping grocery cost down.I look forward to this series. I think it will be very eye opening and helpful for busy parents looking to move more towards real foods.
I like that you have provided an outline of topics for all of next year! I’m going to use this idea for plotting out some goals and projects I have. I definitely looking forward to the August canning information!
Awesome! We will be so glad to have you join us and a great idea of setting your own goals up with the schedule.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see this! Over the last year I’ve been trying to eliminate as many processed foods from our diet as I can. The additives, preservatives and food colorings give me migraines. Now that we are as close as I can get us to no MSG/glutamates, etc, I have very few migraines unless I eat out! I’m really looking forward to this series, thank you soo much!
Excited for this! My husband and I recently watched the documentary Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and did the 5 day Reboot. We definitely learned a lot in just 5 days and it doing the Reboot made us feel better. Since we our “Reboot” we’ve been trying to clean up our eating habits. Unfortunately it is difficult to know where to start. I am so glad OAMM is going to go through this journey with detail so my family and I can follow along.
I’m so excited for this as we’ve made huge strides this year but still have a ways to go. It will be great to make the changes with others at the same time.
I cannot wait to get started!! Thanks for all you do!!!!
thank you!!! I have been trying to go this direction and can’t wait for more encouragement and reinforcements. Looking forward to it all!
Great job Tricia! This is our family’s goal in 2012 as well. Looking forward to the journey.
I am so in!!
I can’t wait for this. Just pinned it in two places. I’m going to do like commenter Beckie said above and tie some goals to it regarding canning, cheese-making, and especially gardening.Hooray for you!
Great idea! We would love for you to share those plans come January when we really start rolling.
I can’t wait for this to start. Very excited about making some changes in our eating for 2012.
Thank you!
I LOVE that you’re taking on this project. I’ve been doing the same thing and would love more motivation. I currently make my own sandwich bread, mac & cheese, soups, tortillas, pinto beans, and pizza. I have a small garden that we mostly eat out of but I would like to grow more in order to can and preserve for the non-growing season. I love that my son will not touch canned pinto beans from the store. I recently made a couple dinner-sized batches of applesauce from locally grown organic apples (yum!) and the kids just about licked their bowls! Need to add that to my list. My goal is to get away from the commercial additives that are so pervasive in our foods.
Awesome! Can’t wait this is amazing!
We already eat healthy most of the time, but I’m on board. Never can have too much support behind ya!
I am excited to learn more about eating whole foods and incorporating freezer cooking into that!
yay excited to start just feel so overwhelmed and lost – so if there is anything artificial we toss it or use it up? We are a bus family really pressed for time, FT working parents, 1 child in school another at home all day what do we feed them?!?! LOL Breakfasts typically consist of (dont cringe) waffles, pancakes, pop tarts, yogurt typically the greek ones I do good there LOLHELP ME!!!!
Welcome Danielle! Yes just take an inventory of what you have and what you feel are real foods and what aren’t. Then on Sunday Lisa Leake from 100 Days of Real Food is going to help you weed through what you have and start you on a path of what to look for when you are buying from now on. Use this month to use the foods that are most processed. Or you can give them to friends, family that will use them or donate!As for meals, we have so many options here on our site for easy and quick breakfasts for families especially those on the go. You can search our recipe database. Here’s what I pulled for breakfasts http://onceamonthmom.com/oamm_… Not all of those recipes are whole foods but you can search by whole foods too!
Excited to start, though I am a little late. I am 8 weeks postpartum (baby girl) with a picky 3 year old and a soda addict for a husband. I’m so glad I came across this through Keeper of The Home. I look forward to the journey, thanks so much!
I go back to work FT next week so I hope planning time will be offset by the time I save not having to cook every day?