Real Food Inspiration

Food Revolution July Challenge #3: “Why do you eat real food? What inspires you to eat real?”

When I read the last Food Revolution challenge for July, I immediately knew what I wanted to write about. Before I started my Food Revolution in 2010, I was in a book club and we read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. I loved it. I immediately wanted to read more of his books. My favorite is Food Rules. One of his rules rings so true and I think of it very often. “Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” I was lucky enough to live close by and grow up with two of my great grandmothers. I think of them often when I’m in the store looking at go-gurts, fruit snacks and blue anything. It makes me giggle. What would my great grandmother think of blue go-gurt? 

My oldest was only eight when I started cooking my way through Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook but she is almost 12 now. She has been a big help this month with my food revolution challenges. She helped make the stuffed zucchini for the first challenge and she helped pick a good Maryland crab recipe for the second. She asked what the third challenge was tonight while the two of us were on a walk. She said, “Real food is when you take the time and put in some love to make food for your family.”  Wow. I was super proud. Memories of all the meals I struggled through to learn to cook during my Food Revolution came flooding back. She was there watching. We had never talked about it but there it was. While Michael’s book is why I eat real food and Jamie is the one that taught me to make it, they aren't what inspires me. She does.