Day 36: Trying to Eliminate Processed Food

This is a Good Human Act that will take me ages to get good at and will be nearly impossible to do all the time, especially with 3 kids but, today I made a small start towards it. Some of our good friends spent the night last night and the 6 hungry kids this morning decided they wanted waffles for breakfast when they woke up. When I went out to our freezer to grab the easy Eggo version and realized we were out I decided to make some real Belgian Waffles. I made a double batch in case the kids were super hungry, but because they were way too busy having fun they each only pounded 1 or 2 waffles and rushed back to playing, which left me with a lot of extras. I tried to convince my friend, Kristy, to take some home and she suggested I just freeze them and toast them up instead of  the Eggos...DUH! What a great idea, an idea that I can be doing with so many things! Now, when my kids are craving waffles I will be able to pull out some homemade ones instead of the processed, store bought kind and help their bodies and the planet a little.

A bit of info from a website called Mother Nature Network on why processed foods harm the environment:

Packaged and processed food

The majority of the food you’ll find in the grocery store is processed and packaged, which is bad news for the planet. Processed food contains multiple chemicals and often involves energy-intensive production processes. Plus, all that packaging typically ends up in a landfill, where plastic poisons the environment and can take thousands of years to break down. In fact, in 2006 the U.S. generated 14 million tons of plastic through packages and containers alone, according to the EPA. Unfortunately, even those eco-friendly packaged items made from cardboard are coated in a thin layer of plastic. The solution? Buy local, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and buy foods like rice, oats and pasta from the bulk bins.

Our Gallon of Waffles!