This week my friend Alex and I are embarking on a food adventure: we are going to try to eat completely unprocessed foods for an entire week, starting today. I am all about eating natural, whole foods, but "unprocessed" takes it to a new level. Most surprising things I need to cut out this week? Bread, veggie burgers, Ciao Bella sorbet, and cereal. All sounds "healthy", right?
Alex and I are being pretty lax about this, but still trying to maintain some legitimacy. For example, technically milk is a no-no, because it's pasteurized, but we are going to allow milk and milk products like real cheese and yogurt, as long as they have no weird additives and no sugar. Alcohol is on our no-no list, but in light of a party this weekend, we are making an exception for organic wine without sulfites. A girl's gotta let loose sometimes! (And obviously nothing screams party like organic no-sulfite wine.)
Day 1 proved to be a challenge. Luckily my morning usual is permitted: OATMEAL. Yum! I usually like to sprinkle a little granola on top, but not this week. Today I added natural peanut butter (peanuts, salt), half a banana, and some raisins. Plus coffee with soymilk (permitted). Voila! Unprocessed bfast!
After breakfast I hung around with my dad while we both read the NY Times and discussed how lame it was the top Sunday Styles story was about whether or not Harvard should endorse a preppy line of clothing. I had the other half of the banana mid-morning, and then got online to do some research about processed vs unprocessed foods, looking for inspiration.
Information, let alone inspiration, was very hard to come by. Since there aren't really "rules" about what is considered processed, a lot of it is up to interpretation. Most people seem to favor fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and there is a lot of overlap with a raw diet, which does not interest me at all. But it seems like "processed" could mean anything. And something like bread, which is such a healthy, hearty staple in my diet (my friends know, I love toast!), seems silly to eliminate. Alex and I actually said bread would be ok if it came fresh from a bakery and was WHOLE WHEAT. No enriched wheat flour or anything like that.
Rice cakes? Just brown rice and salt. If I had a rice popping machine I would do it myself, but I don't... so are my rice cakes processed? I don't know, but I ate one.
Anyway, I'm curious what other people think.
Being new to blogging, I forgot to take pictures after breakfast. So, here's what I managed to eat:
Lunch:
- scrambled eggs with red onions, salt, and pepper
- diced tomatoes instead of ketchup
- a rice cake with PB
- an orange
Dinner:
- salad with mixed greens, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, pine nuts, and chicken* grilled in olive oil and an herb mix
- olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing
- homemade sweet potato "fries", baked with olive oil, cumin, chili powder, and salt
- 3 fresh figs and a few bites of watermelon
*I would like to note that my chicken was happy chicken. No antibiotics, vegetable-based diet, and room on the farm to do whatever chickens do.
Clearly dessert is going to be the biggest issue. Any sweet, unprocessed ideas? I read about this banana soft serve on a raw foods website... I will probably have to break that one out soon. It really does taste like ice cream! And I looove using my food processor.
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