Let's be honest

Let's be honest here. Eating real food is hard. You have to plan ahead. You have to figure out what you're going to cook every day and not only that but finding recipes for food that isn't full of preservatives and junk isn't easy. Then you head to the grocery store and there are hundreds and hundreds of easy prepackaged foods ready to go, but no you don't want that. So you stop and scrutinize, and put things back once you realize that the Prego sauce you wanted is full of crap food, as well as the "real fruit" popsicles. It can get downright discouraging. Some days you want to say "Screw all this work, I'm going back to the easy way of doing dinner". But then you'll have a moment that makes you remember why you started down this path in the first place. I had one of those moments tonight with my nine year old.

I did the grocery shopping thing today and it was long and arduous. Gone are the days when I can just breeze down the aisles and put anything I want into my cart with no regard to what it's made of. I came home and put our food away, mainly vegetables, meat, and dairy. Tonight my hubby works late so I planned to make whole wheat pancakes for the kids. and we were going to try out the brand new, expensive as hell, real maple syrup.

I made a ton of whole wheat pancakes and I asked  the girls what they'd like on them. My nine year old asked for chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Now I am trying to get rid of the chocolate syrup because I just got a good recipe for homemade chocolate syrup that I want to try, but we are not so rich that I can just throw the old stuff away, so the kids are using it up, and then it won't be bought again.

Anyways I fix her pancake and she eats it with gusto and then she asks for another pancake. I ask her what she wants on this pancake and she says she'd like to try it with butter and the real maple syrup. So I fix it up as she requested and hand it over to her. I expected her to grumble and complain that it doesn't taste like the normal syrup. We've had issues with this in the past in regards to macaroni and cheese, and shells and cheddar. However to my surprise she tells me that she LOVES it. She scarfs it down in no time flat. I was amazed by how quickly she ate it, and before I knew it she was asking for another because butter and real syrup has suddenly become her new favorite way to top her pancakes. WOO HOO! Small steps people, small steps.

Yeah some days are going to suck and you'll feel like your busting your ass making everything by scratch for very little praise or acknowledgement. But sometimes you get a winner and you realize that even a small step in the right direction is a victory!