Junes Challenge - Unprocessing!

I am so excited to start June with unprocessing.  What is unprocessing? 30 days of eating no processed foods.  On one hand, its a little scary, on the other hand I'm excited to see what changes I will make to my family's meals and snack options.

Before I get into June's challenge, I want to explain my absence.  I'll write a recap on my March's reading challenge, but both April and May were heavy event days at work and while I had ideas, I wasn't able to plan for them.  

Lesson learned?  You bet!  I have to take time to plan all of my 30 day challenges and anything I want to incorporate into lasting changes or turn into habits.  For me, Intentional change takes time to plan.  

Ok..so onto unprocessing....

As a single adult living on my own and making my own meals I rarely utilized quick and easy meals.  No Hamburger Helper, no Kraft macaroni and cheese, no spaghetti and meat balls.  I just didn't see the appeal.  I would much rather make spaghetti and meat sauce before I pulled out a can of Chef Boyardee.  

This didn't translate so easily once I had three kids.  While I didn't resort to quick meals, it took lots of trial and error (and Chick Fil A) before I figured out that meal planning was the key. 

Now I want to take it to the next level. I want to minimize the amount of processed foods in our house.  No Honey Maid Graham Crackers (the kids 1st of 3 or 4 breakfasts), no Classico Marinara Sauce, no Lay's Potato Chips.  Mind you, we really don't have a lot of foods in the house that are processed, but I really want to further decrease what we do have.  So June's Challenge is a 30 Day kick starter.  

The rules - we will use perishable items that are in the house, i.e. I have a loaf of bread that needs to be eaten.  If we are unable to go completely unprocessed we will choose foods that are minimally processed and use natural and organic ingredients.  No more yellows 5 & 6. :)  As with all my rules, these are rules that my family and I are choosing to live with this month, but we will allow for special occasions or dining outside of the home.  

SO JUNE - Here we go!

Picking up goodies for this weeks unprocessed meals at the
Farmer's Market.

Going back to lessons learned, the first thing I did was plan.  I planned this week's meals with unprocessing in mind.  Then I took inventory of what weekly items we buy that are processed (remember those Graham Crackers?).  Pinned a few things on Pinterest and built a shopping list for the gorcery store and for the farmers market.  I am armed an ready to be unprocessed.