Julie & Julia... of course

Well, dear friends, I'm certain that I'm not the first to be inspired by the story of Julie Powell, as told in the recent movie Julie & Julia, who took on a rather monumental task (the entirety of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year) and chronicled her adventures with a lovely, albeit rather sour-mouthed, blog (the Julie/Julie Project). 

BUT, in my own defense, it was not merely the viewing of this movie that inspired me, but a visit to a wonderful little farm in southwest Michigan, the Nothing but Nature Farm, coupled with the rather lengthy list of dietary rules that I've formulated over the past three years for our family, and a recent revisiting of our slim budget.  I've determined to write a blog that focuses on feeding the family a healthy diet on a rather un-healthy budget.  It can be done!  And YOU can do it!

SO, dear readers, here is my mission:  to cook whole, healthy, tasty organic food, to eat said food, and to tell you about it.  Hooray!

Of course, there are rather a few caveats:

• First of all, I have $100 a week to spend on ORGANIC groceries for a family of four.  
• Secondly, we have not a few dietary restrictions - no gluten & no cane sugar being the biggest - but also no yeast, low-dairy (except butter, which is wonderful), no chocolate (except for daddy), etc.  So bread is out, which is tasty & cheap.
• Thirdly, I am going to try this seasonally - so we will be trying to limit our consumption to those things which are local and in season.  I think that bananas will have to be an exception, because everyone in my family loves them.  Except me.  Except in bread.  But that is another story.
  

We are starting with a pretty bare pantry as it is - we've been eating up what we have in an effort to save money - so the only thing that I've got are a huge cache of spices, some non-hydrogenated shortening and some quinoa flour, which is so strong-tasting that I've yet to find something I can hide it in...

So, I'm off to the grocery.  I'll be sharing some tricks for the "organic or non-organic?" question, as well as some other health tips that I've dug up along the way.  Good food should be accessible, not elitist.  This is  grass-roots food revolution, and everyone can be involved!