The October Unprocessed Vault: Day 27

Diane Eblin encourages people to eat real food by shopping for “ingredients, not food.” Today she offers some ideas to help if you’re making changes in your diet, whether by choice or necessity.

Sure, it’s grueling, backbreaking, sweaty work, but one day’s effort pays off with a year’s worth of tomatoes.

Once you’ve tasted this Apple Spice Cake with Cinnamon Greek Yogurt Icing, you’ll know that Unprocessed Entertaining is definitely possible!

Many of us are conditioned to having any quantity of prime cuts – usually steaks – that we want, pretty much whenever we want it. Rarely, if ever, do we have to deal with the fact that a single animal has only so many steaks or roasts to give.

This recipe for an Italian Farro Salad with Favas or Soybeans is the perfect combination of an authentic Italian dish with lots of flavor that is both fresh and healthy.

I make no secret of my love for cured meats. In fact, after well over a decade of vegetarianism, the lance that cracked my armor was a single piece of salame.

When you make a food product in small batches to sell at farmers markets or directly to consumers online, you can make it pretty much the same way as in your home kitchen. Keeping things unprocessed is relatively easy. But when you’re making a food product in a manufacturing plant in large quantities, a product that has to stay fresh and consistent for months, you have new considerations.

How often do you stand in front of the vegetable section of your market and have no idea what to do with them? Here are three basic techniques based on a healthier approach to cooking with vegetables — so the task of cooking your veggies isn’t so daunting.

Eating right doesn’t have to be complicated, and more importantly (except for during this challenge, of course) it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. So as you near the end of your own challenge, I encourage you to think about what unprocessed rules will soon become your own “new normal.”

Whenever we’re thinking about putting something on or in our bodies, it’s good to be skeptical and check out all the ingredients and available facts. Sometimes synthetic medications – whether over-the-counter or prescription – are necessary. Other times, we can reach for something more natural that may not have as many side effects.

This is a great starter recipe and a family favorite. Use it as a winning side dish, especially instead of French fries. In fact, when I served these potatoes at a large family dinner, the potatoes created a stir of excitement amongst the guests before I could get them on the table. Everybody loved them, and even the picky eaters had second helpings.

Cooking for your family takes a lot of time and effort, right? It doesn’t have to! Sous vide cooking can take a lot of the effort out of meal prep.

When it comes to smart sugar swaps, it pays to be creative. In the case of this recipe, I wanted something similar to my childhood favorite – chocolate coconut fudge. My secret weapon for this swap? Coconut butter!