(Clean) Eating Like a Pioneer

(For an update on last week's post, see TV-Free for a week (or more?))

Little House Lifestyle practices and principles attempted, as of this blog post:

Going TV Free

Have you ever noticed how often Laura Ingalls Wilder talks about food in her Little House on the Prairie series?  Food is all over the place in those books!  Every time I read, I am so entranced by her simple and delightful descriptions of the way they grew, harvested, stored, and prepared their food. Take this little excerpt from Little House in the Big Woods, the very first chapter of the very first book, as an example:

"The garden behind the little house had been growing all summer...Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets and turnips and cabbages were gathered and stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had come. 

Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, and then were hung in the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung on threads.  The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellow and green heaps in the attic's corners.

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves." 

Doesn't that sound wonderful?! You may laugh, but to me it sounds like coziness, comfort, and security--especially now that the weather in our Mid-Western state is turning chilly and fall-like.  It makes me wish I knew anything about braiding ropes of onion! Maybe that will be a Little House practice I will try in the next few weeks.  How fulfilling would it be to know you have natural, fresh (or preserved when fresh) ingredients to keep your family well fed all through a cold winter?

I've often paused, after reading an excerpt like the one above, and daydreamed about what it would be like to live off the land.  This year we did start our own backyard garden and have been enjoying varying

numbers of tomatoes, banana peppers, jalapenos, carrots, green onions, corn, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, and zucchini (in order of success).  With all that fresh produce, we've definitely been eating more healthily and living more of a "Little House Lifestyle".  I've even tried some water-bath canning to preserve some of what we're not able to use right away. 

Since so much of the pioneer life revolved around the production and preparation of wonderfully homemade foods, and since my husband and I have also made a joint decision that we need to adopt a more healthy way of eating, I decided that it would be appropriate for our next Little House Lifestyle challenge to be about healthy, fresh foods.  Providentially, about 2 months ago, I was introduced to a concept, called "clean eating."  Have you heard about this way of eating?

Basically, as I understand it, eating clean is a little bit like.eating like a pioneer.  What a perfect fit! The main ideas are:

• Eat as naturally as possible and as unprocessed as possible.  This means avoiding preservatives and long lists of ingredients in canned or packaged foods.  The more natural something is, the better.  
  
• Cut out sugar and alcohol. This means white sugar and brown sugar and all forms of alcohol.   Eating granulated sugar is very processed and without all the great fiber and nutrients it had as sugar cane.  It does little but provide empty calories.  The same for alcohol.
• Eat lean meats, complex carbohydrates, nuts, fruits, and veggies. 
• Drink water.

Sounds so simple, right?! So, our "Little House Lifestyle" adventure we are embarking on this week is "eating clean".

We're enthused and feel like it will be a financial, emotional, and physical benefit to all of the members of our family.  It almost seems silly to have a whole network of people trying to do something that seems so intuitive; nevertheless, I'm glad that there has been a 'label' put to this type of eating.

Funnily enough, if you don't mind me sharing a little of my religious background as a Mormon (if you do, then feel free to skip this paragraph), this type of eating also seems to coincide super easily with the law of health that devout Mormons (or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) follow, called The Word of Wisdom.  Basically, this law of health includes many of the aspects of clean eating--using meat sparingly, eating foods in their seasons, eating grains, and just generally exercising control over your physical appetites, including not drinking alcohol or using tobacco products or drugs. Realizing the similarities helped me get even more excited about eating clean, since I already try to live "The Word of Wisdom".

That personal background aside, a great (and non religious) website on eating clean (and where I have been going to get prepared for this Little House Lifestyle principle) is The Gracious Pantry.  It is informative, very helpful, and encouraging.  If you're thinking about eating clean, definitely check it out.

And I should definitely say, you can eat sweet things and use sweetener in your "clean" food preparation.  Molasses, honey, and pure maple syrup are A-OK because they are in their natural state and still offer nutritional value.

I personally love how using these sweeteners corresponds with The Little House on the Prairie.  Pioneers used granulated sugar when it was available, but they also relied heavily on molasses, honey, and pure maple syrup.  My guess, too, is that granulated sugar may have had more nutritional value then than ours does today due to their, I would assume, less sophisticated ways of processing the sugar cane at that time. Another delightful and delicious excerpt from Little House in the Big Woods: 

"Outdoors the stars were frosty in the sky and the air nipped Laura's cheeks and nose.  Her breath was like smoke. 

 She...and all the other children, scooped up clean snow with their plates.  Then they went back into the crowded kitchen. 

 Grandma stood by the brass kettle and with the big wooden spoon she poured hot syrup on each plate of snow.  It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled, they ate it.  

 They could eat all they wanted, for maple syrup never hurt anybody.  There was plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors.  As soon as they ate one plateful, they filled their plates with snow again, and Grandma poured more syrup on it."

I don't know that we will be eating molasses candy, as above, though I would like to try making some for

one of our Little House Lifestyle practices one of these days.  But I do love that doing so was a special and memorable thing for Laura. I hope that eating more fresh and natural ingredients will help our family to form cherished memories of our own, in the garden, in the kitchen, and at the table.

Our cupboards are filled with good 'clean' things to eat, I have recipe books sitting on our shelves, and the preservative-laden food that was stocking our pantry has been moved into our basement food storage.  We're set and ready for what will hopefully be a positive lifestyle change.  I'll let you know next week what we do and how it goes! Stay tuned for an update at the end of this post!

So How Did We Do?

(Updated October 31, 2013)  We officially started 'clean eating' about two and a half weeks ago! I'm excited to say that so far, so good.  Believe it or not, I have not had a single piece of Halloween candy despite our having a bucket full on top of our fridge.  That's impressive for someone with as big a sweet tooth as I have.  The best part, though, is that I rarely even think about the candy, let alone crave a piece.  Now THAT is REALLY impressive, I think.  So how did we make the transition from normal processed food eaters to clean eaters? Here are the general steps we took:

1. Do some research about what 'clean eating' is before you jump in.  I looked at some websites, like The Gracious Pantry, and checked out some books from the library, like The Eat Clean Diet, by Tosca Reno.  I'm sure there are many more resources, but this is where I started my research.
2. After learning about it, decide IF, and HOW, you want to make the commitment, in whatever way, to transition into eating clean. Some suggestions for transitioning were to substitute each week one unclean ingredient you keep on hand in your pantry for one clean ingredient, such as switching out all-purpose wheat flour for whole wheat pastry flour.  Begin cooking with that ingredient and then switch a new ingredient the next week.  Eventually your pantry will become stocked with clean ingredients and devoid of unclean ones.  Another suggestion is to just make the swap cold turkey.  
3. Once you decide on if you want to eat clean and how you want to get there, discuss your ideas, feelings and plan with your family.  I'm sure you can eat clean going solo, but I would guess it's much easier, and economical to eat clean as a family.
4. Go shopping! You may need to do a little research on this one to find the closest and most affordable places to get clean ingredients.  We made a few runs to Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and our local grocery stores-- we got a little bit in each place.  
5. Get cooking! We are enjoying using different recipes, products, and ingredients than we had hitherto used. It's exciting! Some things have tasted better than others, but we are definitely satisfied that the transition is much easier than we had anticipated!

The plan is to keep on eating clean.  I have lots to learn, and I'm sure I'm not doing it perfectly at this point, but we're trying.  I hope the pioneers would be proud!

Have you done clean eating? What has been your experience?  Comment below!

 © Allison T. and "Little House Lifestyle", 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Allison T. and "Little House Lifestyle" with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.