October Unprocessed

Well I have found my challenge for October - or possibly it found me. Jennifer from Always in Wonder tweeted about eating Unprocessed for October and I have decided to sign up.

Limiting processed foods as much as possible is ideally how I'd eat anyway, but it has slipped rather a lot over the last few months as I've dealt with redundancy, freelancing and then adjusting to a new job. So this seems a good time to kickstart me into eating more healthily again.

I know that it is so much better for my ME if I avoid processed foods. My theory is that my liver etc. is not having to work so hard to breakdown and deal with things if I'm eating more fresh stuff/food made from scratch without added hydrolysed this or sulphidated that. The problem is I get into a cycle where I don't have the energy to cook from scratch and grab something quick and easy, which of course isn't so good for me, so I have less energy so I grab something ...

So I am taking part in October Unprocessed. I made a start this morning by walking down to the greengrocers and coming back laden with fruit and veg. I also baked some bread this morning and have put a load of rolls in the freezer for later in the week - after I'd had some for lunch.

Exceptions are allowed and should be decided upon at the beginning of the month, so here are mine (that I've thought of - others may occur to me as I go along, but I'm not going to make exceptions as an excuse to eat processed foods):

• Meals provided by others - for example when I am away with friends next weekend, when we go to the in-laws for dinner and when work provides meals.
• Chocolate - but I'm limiting it to fairtrade with a high cocoa content
• Food that will spoil if not used up over the next few weeks as I can't afford to waste food
• Food that needs to be used up to make space for the unprocessed alternative (as I have limited kitchen space) 
• Homemade jam and chutney 

My menu for dinner tonight is ratatouille (I'm going to make enough to put some in the freezer for those days when I'm tired and need something easy) and then I'm going to make some strawberry fake ice cream (fake in terms of made with banana rather than cream, not fake as in fake cream stuff made from chemicals of course).