Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner and Some Enchiladas

As the primary grocery shopper and cook in our family, I get to make the choices about the foods we eat for the most part (yay me).  I've taken on the responsibility of educating myself about real food and why it's important to eat this way and finding recipes that will work for our family.  I often feel overwhelmed by all the information about chemicals, GMOs, and artificial additives in our foods and other personal and household products; I read and digest what I can and improve things little by little in our home.  I really enjoy the recipe search and the satisfaction it gives when we find a winner.  I started the blog to record the winners, warn you of the losers, and encourage other families to take the plunge into real food even though it's not the easiest way (but probably a healthier way).

This was all my idea; Bryan didn't encourage it, but he's going along for the ride (he's a keeper).  There are a few things that I'm not willing to demand he stop eating/drinking: diet soda and cereal.  Neither is a beneficial food to his diet, but he will choose to stop when he wants.  Many of my experimental dinners come with a questioning look upon his face, but he's a trooper and tries everything.  There have even been a few dinners that make me feel like Super Wife; he eats seconds and tells me how delish the food is - except he doesn't say delish.  I think Bryan knew I was a keeper when I made him cookies.  It's easy to love cookies, it's easy to praise sugar.  It's something special to love and praise real food. 

Bryan's new favorites:

Open on Sunday Chicken Sandwich 

from: Food Babe

Food Babe is hardcore about real food.  I feel like I don't even have a drop in the bucket on my real food journey when I start reading her posts, but I know I do - some change is better than no change.  Don't be discouraged if you realize you are breaking a lot (all) of her rules; keep pressing on making the changes you can, and then make her sandwich.  

Read this blog post for information on the badness of the yummiest fast food chicken.  It's sad; it's one of our favorites too.  Does it mean that I'm not going to eat fast food anymore?  No, but maybe it will be less frequently.  The bottom of the post has a recipe for Open on Sunday Sandwich.  It takes a little time to prepare, but it was worth it!  I would only cook the chicken for 20 minutes next time because I thought it was a little dry, but Bryan loved this sandwich. 

Black Bean Enchiladas with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

from: Cookie and Kate

Kate's site is one of my favorites!  I've found a bunch of recipes to try; some are better than others.  This enchilada recipe is one of the best we've had.  These were easy to make, and Bryan couldn't get enough; he even loved the chopped avocado on top (cheer for small new food victory).  These were a little on the sweet side, so don't be afraid to add a spicy pepper, hot sauce, or other spices to jazz it up a little.  We said we would probably add some cumin and a little chipotle pepper spice next time.  We had leftover enchiladas and left over bean mixture, so I will just plan on freezing half of the sauce and half of the bean mixture next time. 

Cook on Super Wives or Husbands - whatever.