I am appalled and horrified to see I haven't done any blogging in almost three years. Oh. My. Goodness. - as my almost 3 year old would say.  I have been busy.  Two children (one almost 3 and one almost 7 months), a huge move from NYC to the country of Massachusetts (hello home ownership -- I'm not sure why everyone doesn't rent -- maintenance is not cool).  And many glasses of wine later -- here I am.  While I have not been documenting my cooking I have been doing it.

I will say not much has changed since 2012. We have made very few changes to our diet since having children.  I will admit when my son started pre-school I felt pressure to send him with the type of food other kids had in their lunch bags (hot dogs (you can get grass fed), mac and cheese (home made), goldfish (child crack) and gogurt (sugar).  I slapped myself in the face and got back to our normal eating habits.  That is not to say I don't have some snacks around that have less than ideal ingredients but for the most part he eats very well.

Since having children we do always having grass fed whole milk and apple cider (my kid is an addict) in the refrigerator.  I have become even more conscious of having as much organic produce and fruit as possible because I don't want to be giving my children or myself GMO products and also because of the connection between pesticides and illness (including the hot topic of Autism). My oldest son went from being vegetarian on his own volition to loving meat.  My husband and I are not big meat eaters but now we try and make sure to have grass-fed beef or lamb once a week as well as pasture raised chicken.  All of it is hopefully is humanely raised and killed (thanks, humane certification). It seems that people get overwhelmed with the labels "organic" "grass-fed" "grass-finished" etc... and that is understandable.  My feeling is: I choose "grass-fed and finished" above organic for meat, dairy and butter. Wallaby makes a delicious greek grass fed yogurt and Whole Foods sells different brands of Grass-Fed Milk and butter. Poultry, I think pasture raised is ideal as well as humanely certified.  The nice thing about Whole Foods is that they visit their farms and rate everything accordingly so you really get a nice sense of the animal product you are eating.  It may seem more expensive (and it can be) but whole foods actually has really lovely sales on meat.  We buy a bunch and throw it in the freezer.  Further if you are buying less pre-made food, then everything is significantly more reasonable.

I spend about $150/week on produce for 3.5 people.  I've found actually menu-planning as I would for a client really keeps costs down.  I purchase organic nuts (Emmett is obsessed) at Trader Joes as well as many of their cheeses (most of their cheese is RbST free) we eat. Other than that we shop at Whole Foods and get our fish at a local fish market (I'm totally unimpressed with Whole Food's Fish). and Costco where we get our toilet paper, etc... actually has a great selection of GMO free Organic Gluten-Free Crackers and Chips. Done.

A general outline of our meals:
For breakfast generally I have an egg omelet with a side salad. Joe and Emmett have Fresh Fruit and grass-fed cow Yogurt.  Joe with a bit of home made granola, Emmett with a piece of rosemary toast. And we have coffee. Lots of delicious Coffee.

For lunch Joe and I both have salad and Emmett usually has leftovers from the day before or a hummus, cheese, cracker and fruit plate.

And dinner is my favorite. I have been less adventurous with my own recipes mostly because I don't have time and have been enjoying going through my cookbooks.  The dinner recipes are what you will find on this blog predominantly.   My current obsession is anything by Ottolenghi.  I have veered from his recipes this week and regret it.

So Enjoy! If you have any questions please email me: purenaturalkitchen@gmail.com.

Happy Reading!

xo Alexis