Is it Possible? Here? In Red Deer Alberta?

      Change is a brewing here in the Stewart household this week. I am excited and have been acting like a person with bi-polar disorder during a manic phase, my husband is unsure, and my daughter is unaware. Something happened this week to our relatively quiet, average household. As CEO of this family, I decided to completely revamp how we eat, and I mean COMPLETELY. From this day forward, my home will no longer house any processed food.
      It started with a little harmless thought, and then snowballed from there. As a migraine sufferer since the age of 21, I had a bad week a little while ago and suffered 4 migraines in one week. If you suffer from migraines, you know how debilitating they can be. The thing is, I had changed so much over the last 10 years that it was really frustrating me that I was still getting them. I don't smoke, eat a vegetarian diet, I even cut out red wine and coffee (coffee was the hardest!). Hubby had bought me some bags of sugary candies for valentines day, which I happily scarfed down (he knows the way to my heart!). Sure enough, the 4 migraines followed. I began to wonder if I had been missing something, maybe its food dye that had been the culprit all along? I wondered, and inevitably found myself perusing the internet to see if maybe there could be something else in what I eat that could be causing my migraines. I stumbled upon a great blog (full of resources) http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ and it was like I was in the Matrix. The more I read, the more I felt like I was about to swallow the red pill. Then I read (in one hour while hubby watched Escape from New York) a great little book, Food Rules by Michael Pollan (I highly suggest it, as it is such an easy, straight forward read http://michaelpollan.com/books/food-rules/). That was it, I swallowed the red pill and fell down the rabbit hole.
      What followed next was the manic phase. After finishing Food Rules I told my husband that we needed to change how we eat, that I wanted to cut out processed food. He commented that he thought it would be too expensive, I assured him that I thought it was possible. He silently finished watching his movie and I took it as a green light (maybe not the best decision on my part). The next day I completely overhauled our kitchen. Virtually all processed items were removed. If it came in any kind of packaging and had any "weird ingredients" out it went. I decided that "weird" was anything that I couldn't go to the grocery store and buy (excuse me, what isle can I find the Potassium Chloride in?) or anything that I wouldn't keep in my fridge, freezer or pantry (honey, where did you put the Sodium Citrate?). Upon cleaning out my kitchen, I discovered a few things:

1. My fridge was filthy
2. My pantry and freezer were mostly full of expired items
3. Virtually every condiment I had in my fridge had food dye in it
4. I had been eating things that I couldn't even pronounce
5. I had been feeding the people I love all kinds of ingredients that I have no clue what they are
6. Just because it is "vegetarian" or "vegan-friendly" doesn't make it healthy.
7. I was going to have to start cooking and baking more.... a LOT more...

As you can imagine, most of the food in my kitchen went. My husband came home at the end of the day and freaked out. I included some before and after photos so you can see why.

My "baking cupboard" before and after. I decided that the things like the baking soda, vanilla, coco, etc could be used up and then bought organic as I go. (as a way to help lessen the financial blow that such a big change makes!) The main concern for me was getting rid of packaged stuff full of chemicals, refined flour and refined sugar.

As you can see, a lot got hucked!

I had condiments that had expired last year and didn't even know it. 

I left Hubby's beer, because I value my life. 

So much of this was expired.... 

I kept a few jars of the homemade jam even though it is made with refined sugar. The lids have my late grandfather's handwritting on them and honestly, I just like looking at them when I open the door. 

I had a helper for this part :)

And now you know why my husband freaked out... this isn't even that bare because I had already gone to Costco and bought some Lara bars, organic peanut butter, Organic tortilla chips and coconut oil!

      After getting the silent treatment for a day, he eventually came around. But he did bring up a good point. Is it possible to eat a mostly organic, whole foods diet here in Red Deer without spending a fortune every month?  Sure its all well and good to read blogs and books about people living in the States who have loads of money to spend every month at places like Earth Fare and Trader Joe's (both of which WE DON'T HAVE HERE). Yes the girl in the blog lives in a climate that has a year round farmers market and gets local milk delivered to her door every week. Yes, they can do it. The question is, can we? Can we, an average family living in Red Deer, Alberta, eat like this without spending more than about 400$ a month? (what I currently spend on groceries) I want to find out. Thus, this blog was born. I want to be accountable for every penny spent. I want to see what eating REAL FOOD costs in a world of processed food. In a few days I will post what I have learned so far about making the switch, how much it has cost so far, and how things are going. Wish me luck!