Good-bye Kraft Canada, Hello Whole Foods!

When I was learning to cook, I turned to those free Kraft Canada magazines for inspiration. I was desperate to learn (we had to eat after all) and my mother was in no position at that time to teach me. So I read the recipe and made numerous dishes that we survived on for months, perhaps even years. It was so easy to adapt recipes for the meat or vegetable I had on hand, with their handy "choose this meat/veggie" and add this boxes.

But I have turned over a new page in the cookbook. Or perhaps just removed a few pages from my repertoire. You see, Kraft Canada has this insatiable need to use its own brands to make meals. Which means that cream cheese, salad dressing and any other Kraft product often stars in the meal. But they really aren't that healthy or tasty. They were good for that stage of my life, but its time to say good-bye Kraft Canada and hello whole foods.

I have learnt to adapt recipes and make them healthier by adding spices and broth, instead of salad dressing. I have learnt to exchange cream cheese for a healthier white sauce. I have slowly over the years learnt to bake bread, starting with a complete white loaf and then transitioned to a whole wheat mix with flax and oat bran. And just recently I have grown my own sourdough starter and made sourdough bread.

I have changed from throwing cream cheese into everything to making my own ricotta cheese and yogurt. Perhaps in the coming future, I will try my hand at making my own cream cheese. I have changed from opening a can of high-salt chicken broth, to simmering chicken bones and making my own homemade stock. Meals take a lot longer to prepare. But they are definitely better for me. Perhaps because I can usually pronounce all the ingredients that I'm putting into the meal. Or perhaps its because I know what I'm putting into my mouth.

Now don't get me wrong and think that we are some hippie folk who eat crunchy granola all the time. Because that is definitely NOT true. We both have a sweet tooth and enjoy baking delicious goodies. But we also have those special "conveinience" foods that we still enjoy. In fact, one lady at Dan's work often comments that "it must be slim pickings in the McCrimmon household" when Dan takes a can of Chef Boyardee to work. But oddly, we do enjoy that barf in can. We enjoy Cheese Whiz and the occasional laminated cheese slices.  We still enjoy a good mushroom/tomato soup straight from the can. My pasta sauce is a mix of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, rather than made from fresh tomatoes (probably because fresh tomatoes are rather expensive). We still have a lot to give up if we were to be considered complete hippies. But that doesn't change the fact that we one day dream of having our own chickens and being able to buy a half cow at a time. 

We are constantly learning of more things every day that we can make ourselves. Some of them have significant cost savings and taste good. Those stay in our lineup (like chocolate syrup for example). Others, just take too much time to make, like homemade pasta and are reserved for special occasions.  Other things, like refried beans, didn't quite taste the same homemade and we have reverted to buying it canned (although, we will try a new recipe in the future and see if that changes things). Its been this slow journey to refining our tastes and eating habits.

But just a short time ago, I went through my cookbook and ripped out all those Kraft Canada recipes that we never make. It was liberating. I replaced them with recipes for whole foods, like sourdough bread, yogurt, and ricotta cheese. Dan and I have felt that this has been a slow transition, taking almost 6 years so far. And every few months, another thing changes and we refine our lives again. This has been a good change for us and we've enjoyed the journey and process its taken. Plus, we now eat much healthier food....or at least food with ingredients I can pronounce.