Crunchy Momma

Well friends. This has been a LONG time in coming. Three years of living in Florida have made me one crunchy Momma! It really shouldn't come as a surprise to me. I was RAISED by a crunchy momma, before it was cool. My Mom made home made bread, grind-ed (ground??) her own wheat. She and Jimmy had an INCREDIBLE organic garden. We had free range chickens. Horses. She was always trying to get us to take our daily vitamins. She was "amaze-zing" as Ben says. She was super Mom before that became a thing. So really, I owe most of my crunchy ways to Mimsey. By the way, all this talking about my incredible Momma has me watching this HILARIOUS video!! I'm not kidding, I die every time I watch it. It's so southern momma! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yg05svXp98 Okay, now that you've relived my early 20's with me while watching Miranda Lambert mess up her hair... Let's get into the REAL stuff. Trust me, you don't want to wait around to hear me start gushing about Eric Church. It gets a little ridiculous. So...People are always asking me about our crazy lifestyle. No, not the children who run down the street naked with me screaming behind them. The Real Food Lifestyle. Since this is a TON of info, I'm going to break this into four blog post: This first post is introducing you to the basics of WHAT we eat. 2. WHERE we get our fod. 3.HOW we afford it. and 4.How I make the time to make all this crazy stuff. and I'll be posting recipes as well. THIS book pretty much gives you every thing you need to know about REAL food. It is amazing. And it will also blow your mind. Fat is GOOD for you?! You betcha! Raw milk?! Not gross. Downright yummy. So go buy this book if you want healthy babies, a better immune system, and you want to look and feel..nicer? Nicer is good.Trust me. Also- it's got all the science-y stuff in there that I'm too hyper to sit down and type out as to WHY we eat like this. Just read the book. It's wonderful. So without further ado; Here are the basics of the Merrifield fam diet: Grass fed beef Pastured chickens We cook in grassfed butter, coconut oil, and beef tallow or pork lord. (are you jumping out of your chair right now because I said lard?! It's a scary word I know) We drink home made kombucha (flavored with some amazing fruit combos so far. Blackberry strawberry and blueberry cherry have been so yummy! My tummy is pretty happy) iced herb tea sweetend with local raw honey and raw milk. We actually go through THREE gallons of raw milk a week. Christopher Robin has a raw milk problem. Do they have meetings for that?? I think the first step is admitting that you have a problem... I make hot chocolate with the milk for Ben and he drinks a cup every morning. SO YUMMY! We eat about 2 dozen eggs a week. Free Range y'all. Free range eggs are actually preferred over organic. We boil em', scramble em', fry em'..you get the picture! Breakfast is our big meal around here since Chris isn't home for dinner because of work. I make home made chicken broth with left over chicken, and any veggie scraps lying around. It's SO good for you. It seriously heals you! I make home made yogurt in my crockpot with raw milk. And I'm super excited to be making kefir for smoothies soon. We buy our local and organic produce from an amazing place called Market Place Deliveries. they deliver produce to our doorstep every Saturday! If you DO live in our area, I highly recomend these guys, and if you join my virtual co-op we ALL get great discounts! http://marketplacedeliveries.com/user/virtualcoop/joinuser/8f062248-bd22-4cc7-96d1-a16800390bb5 But if you don't live in Orlando, check out your local farmers market OR even craigslist! You'd be surprised what you find. Instead of snack foods, we eat A LOT or organic popcorn. I buy it in bulk and pop it on the stove in butter, bacon fat, or butter with a little sea salt. DELISH. The boys love natural peanut butter. We buy it with two ingrediants. Peanuts. and Salt. Then I mix in local raw honey. We sweeten coffee, granola, oatmeal, yogurt, hot chocolate, home made chocolate bark and chocolate syrup with Grade B Maple syrup. We LOVE grass fed cheese! Cook with it, and I cut it into cheese sticks for snacks for the men. For baked goods, I sweeten with succant. I but it in bulk from amazon. And last but not least, I make home made bread, which is soaked before I bake it. MUCH better four little bellies! I think that sums up the basics! This type of eating is wonderful for our immune systems, it keeps mine and Chris's weight at a normal range, and it's so good for our sweet babies too. Plus, what's nice about eating this way, is you don't starve! You eat when you're hungry! No diets around here. They make me wild and mean. Also, speaking of wild, sometimes when I get hungry and mean Chris says I act like the wife in this vidoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq1CuhcDj8Y