Real Food Wednesdays
Every other Wednesday on Cheeseslave.com, I host a blog carnival called Real Food Wednesdays. On alternating weeks, it’s hosted at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
We started this carnival to exchange ideas and recipes for real food. We’d love for you to join us!
You probably have some questions right now… like:
What’s The Heck Is A Blog Carnival?
If you don’t know what a blog carnival is or why you’d want to participate in one (I didn’t know until a couple of months ago), please read this excellent article on 5 Minutes for Mom: “About Blogging: Carnivals, Memes and Mr. Linky”.
What’s Real Food?
Real food is whole, natural, and nutrient-dense.
* Organic
* Humanely raised (animals on pasture, not in factories)
* Grown locally when possible
* Whole and unrefined (real maple syrup instead of high-fructose corn syrup)
* Processed as little as possible (raw milk instead of pasteurized and homogenized)
* Nutrient-dense (enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics)
* Free of additives and preservatives
* Free of synthetic and chemical ingredients
* Not genetically modified
* Traditionally produced and prepared
In other words, butter or lard instead of shortening or vegetable oil. Real milk from a cow instead of soy milk. Real sprouted flour (ground fresh or purchased) instead of refined white flour. Real, natural sweeteners like honey or unrefined cane sugar (rapadura or sucanat) instead of white sugar.
If it’s highly processed and/or doesn’t come from nature, it’s not real food!
We’re not saying you have to be perfect (nobody is) but try to feature real foods in your recipes and minimize the junk like vegetable oil and refined sugar and additives.
OK, are you ready to join us?
Here are the Real Food Wednesdays guidelines:
1. Real Food Wednesdays (RFW) is open to anyone with a blog who wants to join us by linking up to a post about real food on his or her blog.
2. We will have different themes each week. Please post according to the theme (i.e., Low-Carb Real Food, Gluten Free Real Food, Real Food on a Budget, etc.)
3. Please link to your individual RFW post instead of to your home page.
4. Please let us know if you are new to RFW (so we can come visit your site and welcome you) by adding “I’m new” after your name in Mr. Linky.
5. Although you are not required to use the RFW badge above, you are more than welcome to do so by right clicking, saving to your hard drive and uploading to your post (just like you would do with any image). Please do not create your own badge.
6. Please mention Real Food Wednesdays in your post and link back to my weekly RFW post here at Cheeseslave (or at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, if she’s hosting that week).
7. Please do not host your own RFW “Mr. Linky” at your site.
8. I will be putting up my RFW post and the Mr. Linky every other week on Tuesday evenings usually by 10 PM PST. (You’ll have to talk to Kelly about when she posts hers on the alternating weeks — should be around the same time — Tuesdays nights.)
Still have questions? Please comment below.
See you on Real Food Wednesdays!
11/01/2009 at 4:40 am Permalink
Hey, can you post a list of the themes for the up coming weeks so I can plan?
Thanks.
11/01/2009 at 9:26 am Permalink
Hi, Katie, yes I think we can do that! Actually that is a great idea!
I will speak to Kelly and see what we can come up with.
Thanks, as always for your great ideas and all-around smartitude. You are a gem.
14/01/2009 at 5:39 pm Permalink
Hi! Great idea you have here and it looks like it will be a great blog. I heard one of my lenses was on this blog but I don’t see it. Of course, it is entirely possible that it is here and I just don’t see it!
I’ve subscribed to this wonderful blog. Keep up the great work!
22/01/2009 at 5:50 am Permalink
everything you say is correct and appreciated, but how do you determine that your real foods are nutrient dense? just because some thing is organinc doesn’t mean it’s loaded with vitamins minerals amino acids etc. i have been testing foods for 20 plus years and have a rough time finding anything worth a hoot. i due believe organic is good because they don’t use gmo’s, other than that they are still lacking. this is where we need to educate, how to grow and determine nutrient dense foods. thanks timmy
22/01/2009 at 6:17 am Permalink
Hi, Timmy, thanks for your comment.
It’s a good question. I have 3 answers:
1. Some foods are naturally more nutrient dense. Liver (and other organ meats) and shellfish are two of the most nutrient-dense foods. Maca is a tuber grown in Peru that is considered a super food.
2. The way food is grown and produced affects the nutrient density. If you don’t amend your soil with nutrients (like kelp and compost) the soil becomes depleted and the fruits and vegetables are lower in vitamins.
Likewise, if you keep your cows and chickens and pigs in factories and deprive them from sunlight and green grass, the meat they produce is much lower in vitamins (animals get vitamin D from the sun).
3. The way a food is processed and prepared affects the nutrient density. For example, bread made with white flour has almost no nutrient value. On the other hand, using sprouted whole grain flours really increases the nutrients. It is also important not to eat too much white flour because the phytic acid actually blocks the mineral absorption.
As far as enzymes are concerned, raw living foods that still have their enzymes — like raw milk, raw butter, raw nuts and seeds, sprouted grains — are preferable. Fermenting food — making cabbage into sauerkraut and milk into kefir and tea into kombucha — adds probiotics, enzymes and B vitamins. Sauerkraut is much higher in vitamin K and vitamin C — after fermentation.
There are lots of other things you can do to make meals more nutritious. Like using bone broth to cook rice and beans with, and using it to make reduction sauces and soups and stews.
You can read more about all of the above in Sally Fallon’s excellent book “Nourishing Traditions”. You can also find a lot of info here:
Weston A. Price Foundation
10/02/2009 at 5:46 pm Permalink
so sorry… I’m new and i posted my recipe in your comments instead of my site. oops! I will go post on my site. man… us rookies… you gotta spell it all out for us! sheesh!
10/03/2009 at 6:58 pm Permalink
http://www.lafianzoo.com/hennypenne/?p=368
19/04/2009 at 3:12 pm Permalink
Hi,
I would love to participate in RFW. I’m unclear as to how (I’m new at this too).
Do I just post on my blog on Wed and then add the link to RFW?
07/05/2009 at 4:44 am Permalink
I’m really not sure if I did all of that posting right. This is really my first time to participate and I am really new at this sort of thing. Please let me know if I need to do something else.
20/05/2009 at 3:41 pm Permalink
Hello Cheese Slave!
What a generous and thoughtful idea. I am a real food junkie myself as well as a blogger and writer and would love to join in. Thanks!
Love your posts.
Amber Share
27/05/2009 at 4:20 pm Permalink
ok here is what I am trying, tell me what you think. I would like to lose about 5-10 lbs so I am incorporating a glycemic index diet with the traditional diet. I will see how it goes. I am using all of my healthy fats and real foods but using the glycemic index veges and recipes. I made a vege muffin for my breakfast that was in the book that I got. I soaked my whole wheat flour in my homemade raw milk buttermilk, used pastured eggs instead of liquid eggs from the grocery and fresh steamed broccoli, leeks and peppers and raw feta cheese. they baked up like little muffins and that will be a good breakfast food. I would love to hear from you to see what you think and if you think it will work.
17/07/2009 at 9:33 am Permalink
I have searched the internet far and wide for a good raw milk yogurt recipe that doesn’t require special equipment. I tried most all of them with varying success, and than developed my own way…
This is such a great idea, I know this is late, but I thought I would tag it on! Thanks for your Carnival!
21/10/2009 at 12:25 am Permalink
Actually I think Timmy in the comments above was asking a rhetorical question and wanted to see how you would answer, given that he has been testing food for 20 years (including organic food). I think what he is getting at in terms of truly knowing you are eating nutrient dense food can be found here:
The Revolution in Nutrition: How To Identify Good Food
31/10/2009 at 4:35 am Permalink
I love this! I’m in.