What Can We Eat?

I feel so overwhelmed right now… about food that is.

It’s hard to define what healthy means. It’s hard to work out a meal plan for my family. It’s hard to know what is the “right” food is for us to eat and what food I should be feeding my husband and my baby.

Here are some of my guidelines/boundaries/limitations/concerns that are running through my head right now:

• I want to make my own baby food for Ari
• I want to continue BLW and allow Ari to eat the same food that we eat (limited/no puree)
• My goal was to breastfeed Ari until he turned one. His birthday is around the corner. Do I continue to feed him breast milk? Do I give him cows milk? Should I be giving him a different type of milk?
• Cow’s milk is for baby cows. But we drink cow’s milk… and I want Ari to eat what we eat, so does that mean I need to stop drinking cows milk?
• We are supposed to be on a Paleo diet. Well… that’s what we did years ago. Do I switch back to that type of lifestyle and choose to avoid dairy all together? What about cheese? I love cheese.
• I am currently writing a Greek cookbook. Most of the recipes contain cheese and gluten and dairy and all things that are not Paleo.
• I don’t like waste. We should never waste food. If I’m going to test recipes for my cookbook then I want my family to eat it. It will not go to waste.
• Right now, we are fasting for Greek Easter. That means no meat.
• My husband is about to start his diet for a bodybuilding competition. I need to plan and cook his meals. It will be chicken and brocoli for a while. How many ways can I cook chicken and brocoli? Can I do that in the thermomix? Should I be eating that too? Does that mean that Ari will have to eat the same?
• Hubby eats oats every morning for breakfast and sometimes boiled eggs. On the weekend he likes to eat an egg white omelet.
• I feed Ari oats for breakfast most mornings. Ari hates eating eggs. That is the only food he will not eat.
• I told my mum not to feed my baby weet bix because of the wheat and gluten. I prefer him to eat oats for breakfast. But we don’t eat gluten-free, so what does it matter?
• Oats are not paleo either.
• I want to be organised and have some food in the freezer prepped and ready to go. But they say fresh is best. Fruit and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and other nasty stuff to keep them fresher for longer so that they look good when they hit our local grocery store. When people say that fresh is best, do they mean the grocery store fruit and vegetables or do they mean that we need to grow it ourselves in our own gardens?
• I’m on a strict budget and I need to be really careful with how I spend money with my grocery bill.
• I am also concerned about the “dirty dozen” and so I really want to feed my baby organic fruit and vegetables. The price of organic fruit and vegetables is so much more expensive.
• I want Ari to eat what we eat. But I also like eating chocolate.
• We should avoid anything that has too much sugar or salt. However, salt brings out the flavour in food. They say that Himalayan salt is better for you. Something to do with the water retention in the body. So, if I’m using salt, I’ll use the pink Himalayan one. But, not for Ari’s food.
• Water is a whole new topic to talk about. Drink lots of water. Don’t drink water from the tap. Make sure it is filtered water. Drink room temperature water not cold. Don’t put water in a plastic bottle.
• Avoid BPA. Tupperware is BPA free. But a lot of people are now using glass lock and avoiding plastic all together. I like Tupperware. I like to keep my frozen fruit food in plastic zip lock bags and glad wrap. How do I avoid using plastic all together? Is it possible? Ari plays with plastic toys. He puts them in his mouth. Should I just buy wooden toys from now on? He also likes to play with my smart phone. Is that wrong too?
• Too much screen time is bad. But Ari loves watching his Greek nursery rhymes. It is the only thing that calms him down plus he is learning Greek at the same time. (I’m learning Greek too!)

So what can we eat?

I’m not really sure.

How do you figure out what is ‘healthy’ for you and your family?