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Real Food: What to Eat, What to Avoid, & How to Compromise (Yes, all in one place)

September 10, 2015 (UPDATED: May 10, 2020) by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship® 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Make Real Food Possible comprehensive list of what to eat what to avoid how to compromise to kWhat do you eat?

How do you remember it all?

Are there some things I can still buy in the store that are still ok to eat on a real food diet?

What do you compromise on so you don’t go totally insane?

When people start on the real food journey, it can be SO overwhelming to even fathom what the cupboards and fridge are going to look like without a bunch of processed foods. What dinner will feel like without ordering pizza or grabbing a frozen one once a week.

Shoot, even in the midst of my real food journey, I’m still overwhelmed sometimes!

The research is constantly changing, what works for my family and my time frame shifts as the years pass, and even the sources I trust ebb and flow.

What’s a gal to do when she just wants to eat healthy, real food?

I’ve often received reader requests for me to update an old post from 2010 in which I offered a printable guide to “What to Eat and Why.” People feared it might be outdated, and rightfully so!

It’s a pretty comprehensive document as it turns out <<<understatement

…and it’s taken me the better part of a week to update it. Phew!

Now I see why I put it off for so many years, even though people wanted it. (Sorry, friends) Winking smile

It deserves the capital letters on

“The List”

But now it’s ready, fully updated, a dozen pages of a simple to read 3-column list:

  1. No Way! for the foods I try hard to avoid completely (or at least fully understand I’m eating junk if I eat them)
  2. Okay for the semi-compromise foods – mostly whole foods that are decent options.
  3. Hey Hey! for the best and most optimal choice in a given category.

Here’s an example so you can get an idea of how it works:

No Way! Okay Hey Hey!
Margarine and “spreads” in tubs Conventional butter Organic, grassfed butter

Click here to print The List

And why did I finally make the time and space to recreate this document and offer it as a free printable again after all these years and reader requests?

You have Plan to Eat to thank. They offered to sponsor the post so I’d finally have a real deadline – even though my readers are always the most important for me to serve, my sponsors tend to have louder deadlines, so I’m grateful PTE was willing to help me serve my readers!

Make Real Food Possible comprehensive list of what to eat what to avoid how to compromise to k 1

Why did a meal planning site sponsor a printable that doesn’t talk about meal planning?

You can’t accomplish a real food lifestyle, or even a semi-compromise-real-food lifestyle, without meal planning.

Meal planning may not fit on the 3-column list but it can’t be left out of any basic guide for healthy living – and Plan to Eat can help even the most rookie of rookies.

The software allows you to plan your own meals from recipes on the web, in your own cookbooks, or wherever – you drag and drop recipes into the recipes box, and then PTE can generate your grocery and pantry lists and put prep notes into your digital calendar for things you might need to do before the meal, like thaw meat, soak dry beans, or prep a component of the meal.

I like that it’s fully customizable and you don’t have to use someone else’s recipes for your meal plan. Try it out for 30 days free and if you want a jump start on getting recipes into your box, join the KS group by clicking HERE. You’ll automatically have access to almost 200K recipes the KSers have inputted into PTE! Search for your favorite ingredient and you’ll be on your way to technological meal planning in minutes.

How have your food buying decisions changed over the years? What role does meal planning play in making a real food kitchen possible?

Need More Baby Steps?

Sign up for weekly missions to take baby steps to real food!

Here at Kitchen Stewardship®, we’ve always been all about the baby steps. But if you’re just starting your real food and natural living journey, sifting through all that we’ve shared here over the years can be totally overwhelming.

That’s why we took the best 10 rookie “Monday Missions” that used to post once a week and got them all spruced up to send to your inbox – once a week on Mondays, so you can learn to be a kitchen steward one baby step at a time, in a doable sequence.

Sign up to get weekly challenges and teaching on key topics like meal planning, homemade foods that save the budget (and don’t take too much time), what to cut out of your pantry, and more.

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You've probably seen 1000s of products recommended by bloggers you follow...but what would you ACTUALLY use?

Filed Under: Finding Real Food, Mid Range Making Strides, Monday Missions, Real Food Roadmap, Research, Understanding Your Food Tagged With: evergreen, grocery shopping, nopostad, real food

« Previous Post How I Slashed $400 off my Real Food Grocery Budget in One Month
Next Post » I’m Not Afraid to Use Essential Oils with my Kids Anymore

About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship®

Katie Kimball, CSME is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network.

See more of Katie Kimball, CSME in the Media.

Over the last 10 years, Katie has spoken prolifically at conferences, online summits and podcasts and become a trusted authority and advocate for children’s health.

Busy moms look to this certified educator for honest, in-depth natural product reviews and thorough research. She often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to deliver the most current information to the Kitchen Stewardship® community.

In 2016 she created the #1 bestselling online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook.

Certified Stress Mastery Educator BadgeA mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Certified Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.

See all blog posts by Katie Kimball.

5 Bites of Conversation So Far

  1. Carrie says

    September 14, 2015 at 10:25 am

    Thanks! Katie. Awesome Job in saving me a lot of time! Do you have any articles on fighting breast cancer? My sister was just diagnosed :(.
    Thanks and blessings for all you do. Carrie

    Reply
    • Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says

      September 14, 2015 at 10:51 am

      You’re very welcome, Carrie! My dad fought bladder cancer last year (and won!) so everything I wrote about cancer and foods would be here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/tag/cancer God bless your sister and you as you help her on this journey. A positive attitude is number one!!!

      Reply
  2. MaryBeth says

    September 13, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    THANKS!!! This is great to have this all in one place and know it is from someone I trust, not just someone promoting THEIR program. You’re the BEST!

    Reply
  3. April says

    September 11, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    So why not peanuts/natural peanut butter?

    Reply
    • Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says

      September 12, 2015 at 9:10 pm

      Good question April! Peanuts have a mold issue (aflatoxin, I think it’s called). They’re a legume rather than a nut, so diets like Paleo don’t allow them. We still eat peanut butter, honestly, but I wish it were less expensive (and better tasting) to switch to almond butter! I just don’t like it all that much, so I try not to overdo the peanuts. ? Hope that helps! 🙂 Katie

      Reply

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Please remember that I’m just a gal who reads a lot and spends way too much time in her kitchen. We at Kitchen Stewardship® are not doctors, nurses, scientists, or even real chefs, and certainly the FDA hasn't evaluated anything on this blog. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please talk to your health professional (or at least your spouse) before doing anything you might think is questionable. Trust your own judgment…We can’t be liable for problems that occur from bad decisions you make based on content found here. Here's the full legal disclaimer.

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