The Jaffrey Family Simplifying and Minimizing Project Part 4 - My Kitchen

We have spend the last few months praying and studying scripture, seeking and imploring God to show us how He wants us to live our lives for Him. One thing He has clearly shown us through our journey has been the lack of focus and passion we have for Him and how we fail to prioritize our daily walk with Him. The fact is that especially in America, we have grown accustomed to a cluttered self obsessed, cultured in the art of pursing bigger and better, materialistic fantasies, more, more, more, and best of the best mindsets. We have our iphones, ipads, video games, movies, cuisine, sports, big houses, striving for the perfect career, perfect home, and perfect family- and overtime, they consume our time, money and heart. 

The question has become: How can we pursue God passionately, restlessly, and obsessively with all this other stuff in our lives and hearts distracting us and pulling our hearts away from Christ. 

So began our project and passionate pursuit of Christ   

(Note: We have had many hiccups, and momentary detours along the way)

  

Read more here: Simplifying-When Less is More

Throughout our journey one of the areas we have felt pulled to work on is where our heart is in the kitchen. 

Food. Yes, we are talking food. Instantly the vultures theme song in Ice Age comes to mind like a comforting lullaby, "Food, glorious food! My favorite diet!"

I hope it is clear- I love food, my husband loves food and pumpalumpkin (baby J.) loves food.

Where does food come into our relationship and purist of Christ? Yes, I've asked this multiple times. The answer is simple. Food was created to provided and sustain our bodies. We receive nutrition, energy, vitamins, and everything we need to function day to day. But food can also effect your body (and budget) negatively.

        Example A. Too much can make you sick or to gain an unhealthy amount of weight (and it costs more)

   Example B. Some food isn't beneficial to your body. Aka. Preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR, and lots of junk that our bodies have a hard time processing. (Even though most of it is super delicious)

    Example C. When we really, really, really, love food it can consume our thoughts, budget, and time

Our goal has become simply:

            Eating wholesome foods, without preservatives, all natural, no high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, or fillers and limited sugars. Our agenda is to get as natural and simple with our eating without sacrificing creativity and flavor, making as much as we can by scratch while limiting our portion sizes and eating more frequently. We need to learn to eat inexpensively and simple whole foods. 

  

While trying to figure out what real changes we are going to make to the way we work and think about our food, I've come up with a list of pantry essentials that we believe will work for us, and we are working on a "clean eating menu".  Since then, we have also cut out all (okay most... at least some) of the foods in our diets that contain a lot of preservatives, and artificial flavors and sweeteners. (We are a work in progress) We have seen a huge difference in the way we feel after we eat now! A few times we did give in and eat foods we really should have avoided, and we got so sick afterwards. Living proof that we way we eat absolutely effects the way we feel!

Another change we have made has been where we go out to eat, how often we go out to eat and why. Coffee is a huge problem for me. I love my lattes and I spend way too much money at our local Wegmans coffee shop. I LOVE YOU WEGMANS COFFEE LADIES! 

But we are working on it. Once a week. I'm cutting it down. I have a long way to go yet. 

I've love to hear your comments and thoughts! I'll share my pantry essentials list in my next post. So keep your eyes peeled. 

Love,

Leah