We (me and the girls) took everything out of the pantry and laid it on the kitchen table (and floor). I showed the girls what an ingredient list was on packaging. I told them that whatever foods they could read every single ingredient they could keep. And they tried. But then they realized that they didn't even know what some of the things were in their food and they realized that fruit snacks doesn't really have fruit and mac and cheese doesn't really have cheese. One girl exclaimed, "my life is over!!" And I sort of thought the same in my head as I was panicking inside over what I will actually feed my family! But I then explained that eating real food is not depriving ourselves of the things we love, it is making the food in a different way.
I called my best friend and offered her all the food that we were not going to be keeping from the pantry and being a mom of four she gladly took me up on the offer! Cleaned off the shelves and sat down with the cookbook.
We walked through the recipes and pictures. I asked the girls what they wanted on the list for the week and we headed to the store for our first adventure.
This week has been crazy schedule wise. So I knew that planning ahead was important. But I was surprised at how simple all of it really is. I made homemade granola for our cereal. The prep for that was 5 minutes, then stick it in the oven, then let cool and store. Pretty much the easiest and yummiest thing ever. Homemade pizza was fun and simple as well. The crust is like 4 ingredients. Pancakes. Salmon with fresh veggies and a fresh salad. It's not rocket science. And the best part? Being in the kitchen with my girls.
Maren loves to cook with me and has been all in with us! She saw the recipe for the carrot cake and that was what she wanted to make most. So we did. And one of my favorite summer staffers from church came over and joined us in the kitchen fun as well. It brought people together in my kitchen. We made a big mess, talked, laughed, and made something together.
This real food thing made me begin to think about real in general. I was so surprised by how non-inconvenient it really was and how much we enjoyed it. How much it brought us together. How much time we had. How we really knew how to stretch our food because we had most everything we needed right on hand since our pantry was longer full of food but of ingredients to make things.
Then I thought about how convenient we have become in general. I was challenged on how I lean into convenience with most things rather than the real. And as I look at my facebook feed these last few weeks I began to wonder how necessary real is for our society now.
I wonder as opposed to posting a facebook status with an attached article regarding marriage equality or planned parenthood or politics or.....what if we sat down for a real conversation. What if we took into consideration that reading that status on the other side of the screen is a real person. With real feelings. With a real past. With real tenderness. With real wrestling. And what if we decided that we would have a real conversation and hold those feelings, those tender places with integrity and love all while wrestling together? Knowing that in the end we may not see it the same way, and that that doesn't need to be our goal. But maybe the goal might be to actually see each other. See each other as....well.....real.
I want to live more authentically in this life and the truth is, I don't really think being vulnerable on social media is the same thing as authentic. I think we are just fooling ourselves into community. Because community is lived out. It is messy. It is not simple. And it is not convenient. And I have seen myself desire simple and convenient far too often while in the end missing the richness of community. I also realize that I say all of this all while writing a blog post. Haha. Rest assured, that this post that I am writing, I have fleshed out with a real person first.
So this first week of real food obviously brought more to the table then food for our tummies but food for our souls. It was a rounding to the table our people. Who do you need to round to your table? Join me in the fight for real! Make a phone call. Round people to your table. Cook. Talk. Laugh. I'm wanting more real in my life.
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