**This post is part of the Get Real series. Please remember that this is meant as a learning community. We know that many of you are passionate about what you do and we want you to express that, just please do so in a way that will be an encouragement and aid to others making a transition. We want this to be a “safe space” for participants to learn. For that reason, we reserve the right to delete any comments that are not handled in this manner.
Experts say that it takes up to six weeks to create a new habit. Here we are eight weeks into Get Real. How are you feeling with your new habit? I know it’s been challenging for me simply because I am just making my way back to reality from having our new baby boy! I tried three different yeast bread recipes including a “real food” twist on Tricia’s Grandmother’s Custard Bread, but they all failed. They either failed to rise, failed to bake or were just bricks! Luckily this past week I FINALLY had success with Jo-Lynne Shane’s Honey Whole Wheat bread. I’ve tried many whole wheat recipes, and my husband has disliked them all. This one was an out of the park HIT!!
I don’t have a grain mill but it’s in my wants and needs, and hopefully I’ll get one this year. However, I am very tempted to get a cheap coffee grinder in the meantime to try it out Angela’s way. I did recently make a bulk purchase with Azure Standard and bought some Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix and some bulk quinoa, so I could try out a few more recipes that I’ve been pinning lately in our Get Real journey. I’ll post my results on our Facebook page as I go!
We thought it would be nice for us to ask someone in the Get Real community to share with you their experience each month with the challenge! Someone different than our blog partners, who is in the trenches with you! Reader Alyssa Stanley of Musings from a SAHM walks us through her February! She is a stay at home mom with a hard working husband, and three beautiful daughters living in Rifle, Colorado.
Hi everyone! Here’s how my family did this month:
Week 1 Challenge: My husband and kids really wanted pizza, but in my effort to eat better and minimize processed foods, we decided to make pizza at home rather than have the local pizza place deliver. I had made homemade pizza in the past, but had gotten lazy about it in the last few months of my pregnancy and had been resorting to ordering it in.
I have a really easy pizza dough recipe that makes just enough dough for two thin crust pizzas. We actually prefer our crust to be on the thinner side. By taking just a few minutes to mix up the crust in my mixer, we had a healthy, homemade pizza that my kids and husband loved, and I didn’t feel guilty feeding it to them. Now we just have to work on the favorite toppings, but that is another week’s challenge.
The other thing that we made and loved was whole wheat tortillas. I sent them to school for my daughter’s pre-school class snack, and the teacher said the kids loved them. I was excited to share some real food with the class after the past few months of holiday cakes, cookies and candy.
Week 2 Challenge: Try a yeast bread recipe and making my own bread has been something I wanted to do for a long time, and this was just the push I needed to do it. I don’t have a bread maker, so I kept putting it off thinking that I couldn’t do it without one. Then I saw that Tricia had made bread in her mixer and oven. I put on my apron and got to work. And now I am addicted. I tried the recipe from Jo-Lynne Shane. This recipe is great because it makes 4 loaves, and when your family tastes homemade bread fresh out of the oven those 4 loaves won’t last long.
A few days later I tried the Honey Whole Wheat recipe from 100 Days of Real food. Her recipe is for the bread maker, but I just made it in my mixer and followed the steps that Jo-Lynne has in her recipe. I think I prefer the second recipe just a little bit more. It had a slightly more chewy texture and a little more sweet. Overall, both recipes are good and my sandwich loving hubby approved. I think he would be ok if I never bought conventional bread again! 
For me breakfast is not my favorite meal of the day to make. It typically takes me a cup or two of coffee before I can get going, but my kids are usually famished or “starving” the moment they wake up. Having some easy breakfast stuff prepared ahead of time is the best way for us to avoid processed breakfast foods and cereals with little to no nutrition.
We love to make big batches of waffles or pancakes on the weekend and reheat leftovers a few times during the week. We are also loving crock pot granola that is easy to make and eat it with milk or yogurt.
Week 3 Challenge: This challenge was also appropriate as we are exploring some possible gluten related issues with my daughter. We tried a breakfast “cereal” with quinoa a friend posted on Pinterest. I really enjoyed it, and my daughter (with possible gluten intolerance) ate almost all of her portion. It was a lot like oatmeal.
We also tried some quinoa with some sautéed spinach and garlic as a side dish. My kids didn’t gobble it up because of the suspect green stuff, but I enjoyed it as a filling and easier to cook alternative to rice. We’re looking forward to the months ahead in this journey!
Please comment a recap of yours or link up a blog post recap if you have one! We want to hear about YOURS too! And make sure you are pledged as you will be getting an email on March first to find out if you are continuing on the this journey with us.
February Week Four Action Item:
Each week we will try to give you some simple action steps to put this journey into practice. It is important that you start this journey by understanding yourself, your goals and perhaps your obstacles.
- Write a summary of how you are doing with the challenge thus far (post in comments, link to a blog post, or post on the FB Fan Page). You can cover any of all of our focus areas for the month:
February Get Real:
Please take a moment to thank our guest authors and sponsors by clicking over to their sites and/or liking them on Facebook and/or Twitter.
Sponsor: Bread Beckers – One pledged Get Real participant will be winning a grain mill OR a mixer, winners choice! ***This giveaway is now closed.***
Guest Author: Jo-Lynne Shane