It Just Seems Natural

This week my clothes told me I needed to jump back on the "healthier choices" wagon. I'm not into dieting. Diet is a four letter word and insinuates an activity that is to start and then finish. I do, however, believe in the "healthy lifestyle." I am living proof, though, that believing in and acting on can be two different things.

Anyway, my jeans whispered sweet nothings in my ear this week and said, "Better. Choices. When. Eating."

I've heard that the healthiest foods are those which are close to their original state. You know, no processing. No additives. No words on the ingredients label that are over seven letters long and you can't pronounce. So, I've been trying to think about what I eat this week. It's been hard. I've done a fair job.

Tonight I was excited to eat. I had just visited my cousin who lives in Smalltown, USA and is having the time of her life with her cow, Mickie, and the chickens. Mickie gives milk. From that, my cousin makes cheese, cream cheese, and butter. The chickens, of course hand over their eggs to anxiously awaiting farm-fresh-egg-lovers.

Tonight's dinner menu was farm-fresh egg sandwiches on 100% whole wheat bread, several slices of no-preservatives-fresh-homemade cheese, and corn on the cob I had bought earlier in the week. (And, no, I didn't slather the corn in butter; ate it au naturale.)





This meal contains more fat grams than I  normally care to consume, but it sure was FRESH! And considerably close to natural ingredients.

Hmmm....now what about dessert? I had on hand fresh pineapple, bananas, and oranges.

But, with farm-fresh milk and eggs in the house, it was too tempting. Yep, creamy milk and eggs remind me of . . . ice cream! Not the kind you buy in the store with ingredient labels a mile long. Oh no. I have the historical don't-mess-with-Granny-Morerod's-ice-cream recipe that includes only four ingredients: creamy milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

OK - I had to fudge a little on the all natural issue with the sugar and vanilla because I didn't have any sugar canes or vanilla beans. But I beat it all together . . .

. . . and hubby churned the ice cream.

And this produced a reasonably natural product. Doesn't it look good?

But, as temptation would have it, my close-to-natural, farm fresh creamy confection turned to:

If only I'd had some cocoa beans . . . .