Design Your World: Food Priorities

In yesterday's post I talked about putting your labors where your love is--spending time and effort in an amount appropriate to the occasion.  This really is an important concept in eating well.  In everyday life, we only have so much time, energy, and interest in cooking.  A lot of people will look at health changes and feel very overwhelmed, thinking it will take a massive amount of time or money.  I have had times in my life where I did spend nearly all day cooking everything from scratch--because I loved it!  It was my passion, and what I did for fun with my kids!  But I spend less time cooking today than I have in my whole married life, and we eat better than we ever have.  Eating well does not have to take a lot of time, but it does take some serious prioritization.  We want to show that "everyday type" of love to our family, through our food, in a healthy way every single day and it is possible.

One of my mother mentors, Julie Beck defines her priorities in this way, and I think it applies well to food as well. There are three orders of food: essential for life, necessary for living, and nice food.  Essential food is the staff of life, the staple, the one food your family simply cannot live without.  They satisfy us, both in mind and body.  To our family, it is our whole wheat bread.  Next in line are brown rice and beans.  When these foods are sitting in the cupboard and fridge, I walk into the kitchen to prepare a meal, and life is easy.  Our family doesn't eat these foods every meal, but when we're busy we rely on them--our staff of life literally being what we lean on as we walk through life.  If we go more than a day or two without bread, everyone in the house feels like we need to go grocery shopping, even though the ingredients are right there in the cupboard.  You are the expert in your own home.  What are your family's essential foods?

Next we have foods that are necessary for living.  These are foods that our body really does need for health and our soul for enjoyment, but we could technically survive without for some time.  I define these as vegetables, whole grains, fruit, nuts, seeds.  I see high quality meat, eggs, and dairy in this category as well, especially when vegetables and fruits are out of season.  Other ingredients give food flavor and variety or help me use these other ingredients well.   I would include herbs, spices, Real Salt, vinegars, olive oil, coconut oil,  yeast (especially sourdough), baking soda, moderate amounts of honey and maple syrup, and many others.  Necessary foods are the best of every variety of healthy food in its simple and minimally processed form.   

Finally, we have nice foods.  Nice is defined with words like polite, socially acceptable, and appropriate.  These are our special treats for every day, holidays, or other special occasions.  These are what we buy for convenience and to serve company.  In our society today these are not typically foods (or should I say "foods") that are also nourishing, but that is a recent societal change, and not something we must subscribe to.

When we know what foods are essential in our home, we can put our time into making sure they are there.  The essentials can be ready to go so when little people are hungry, those items are ready.  These items prepare us to make good food choices, because we won't be tempted to run to Little Ceasars when every is hungry and we are tired.  We do this first, before baking cookies or even cutting up vegetables.  We have a time set aside for this preparation so that we can do it in a manner that is as whole and healthy as we want and don't feel the rush of an impending meal.  Your family really will feel the love you put into your food and you can do that best when you put it first into your essential foods, even if it is just brown rice. When your staple is already in preparation, you approach mealtime with enough energy to focus on necessities for a beautiful, enjoyable, and healthy meal without knocking yourself out.  I find that I have much more energy for whipping up a chocolate banana smoothie, a nice food, when I know I've taken care of our basic meals.