Could you go 31 days without using processed food?

In other words, could you make almost every single food you ate from scratch for every meal? Such a challenge sounds like a great one for my family for October because…I will finally come up with homemade healthy snacks, my biggest challenge/failure right now.

This #Unprocessed food challenge is actually bigger than me. Andrew Wilder of Eating Rules started the challenge 2 years ago this October. Last year, 415 people took the pledge; this year, 854 have as of September 27th.

How to Join

1. First of all, here’s Andrew’s definition of unprocessed food: Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients.
2. Andrew has a wonderful discussion on his definition page clarifying what this means for #Unprocessed Food challenge participants.
3. Sign the petition. Pledge participants are listed at Eating Rules. You can also follow the challenge on Twitter using the #Unprocessed hashtag and on .
4. Sit down with your family and decide what the challenge looks like for you based on the definition. Make sure your choices are made consciously not by habit.
5. Make a meal plan using the ideas posted in October at Eating Rules. I’m going with a monthly meal plan that I’ll tweak each week.

My Family’s Plan

1. Write a monthly menu plan at the end of September and put it into Springpad, my online menu planner.
2. Write a list of snacks to make and schedule them in Springpad.
3. Clean out processed foods from the pantry and freezer except for ketchup, mustard, peanut butter, and mayonnaise.
4. The Exceptions for Processed Food: school birthday parties, school Halloween parties, and granola bars for my teenager.

Because I love meeting new people and sharing, this post is linked to:

Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Your Green Resource, and Healthy2Day Wednesday

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