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Don’t you love taking a peek into the life of someone else? If you said yes, I’d say you are not alone. Just take a look at all of the ‘reality’ shows on TV (okay, I have to say I don’t really think those are ‘reality’ but hey, that is how they are marketed).
At Real Food for Less Money we’ve been trying to have our own peeks into other’s lives. My family has what we call experience week in which we live in Someone Else’s Shoes for a week or two. The first experience was Working Full Time and Real Foods. The second experience was based on the monetary guidelines of USDA Thrifty Food Plan but with real food. The current experience is Money v. Time (however, the Time part is a total bust). Next month we’ll have another completely different experience that I’m very excited about– more details on that in the near future. I think you will really like it!
As a partner piece to my families experience weeks with Someone Else’s Shoes, I’ll have periodic interviews with real people. We’ll learn about these people in their actual shoes! Real food enthusiasts on their own journey. These journey’s will look very different from each other but have many similarities (I suspect).
This week we are meeting Merissa of Little House on the Prairie Living.
Life in Merissa’s Shoes
Millie (Real Food for Less Money): Describe your ‘typical’ day. (What time to you rise? Do you work outside the home, from home, etc?)
Merissa:I get up at about 5:30 – 6:30 right now, depending on what time baby gets up. The next 10-12 hours consist of taking care of baby in between working full time from home. By the time supper rolls around I’m pretty much ready to fall over but I try to do freezer cooking on the weekends so we have something to eat! I work/relax the rest of the evening (unless it’s gardening season!) and we fall into bed around 10 or 11.
Millie: What is your biggest obstacle to a real/whole/traditional foods diet?
Merissa: Being able to afford to get what we really need in our area. We don’t have a lot of options here for natural health stores so we rely heavily on what we can once a month from a co-op. Also, I don’t always have the time to make the best meal ever so even though we aren’t eating anything “bad” for us, I know it could have been better.
Millie: How do you overcome this obstacle?
Merissa: By trying to create more time to cook and set limits and schedules for myself for working. I’d work 24 hours a day if hubby would let me but in a “perfect” day I try to be done working at 4 so I can focus on better preparing more healthful foods.
Millie: My family strives for a ratio of 85% real/whole/traditional foods. Do you have a ratio (or other method) that you strive for in your family? Do you have any dietary limitations (allergies, intolerances, etc) that you are working around?
Merissa: We don’t have a percentage we strive for. We do ONLY eat pure foods (aka I know what every single ingredient is on a product) and we stick with basics: fruit, vegetables, grains, ect. Boxed or processed foods won’t make it into my house. I have multiple food intolerances that create a need for me to have all real food.
Millie: What is your one Standard food? The “must have” that you always keep on hand?
Merissa: Hormone free natural cream cheese. I’m cream cheese crazy! I use it for so many different dishes.
Millie: Would you share a 1 day food journal with us?
Breakfast: Smoothie! We like to mix frozen strawberries, fresh squeezed orange juice, raw milk, and a little bit of raw sugar.
Lunch: Leftovers from the night before. Cheese Quesadilla with homemade tortillas.
Supper: Breakfast for supper, homemade hash browns, homemade beef sausage, and fluffy pancakes topped with strawberry sauce.
Snacks during the day are homemade crackers and cheese and apples.
Thank you Merissa! It is great to get to know you and see how real food works in your life!
Would you like to be featured in this series of interviews for Someone Else’s Shoes? You do not need a blog or website. You can be brand spanking new to this journey or an ‘old hat’ (I’m not calling you old…), I’d love to interview you! Email me at realfoodforlessmoney at gmail dot com.
Before we go, how about a round of applause for Merissa? And stop by and tell her hello! Merissa blogs at Little House on the Prairie Living or find her on facebook or Twitter.
See all posts in this interview series.
Photos: All compliments of Merissa, don’t you love the one where she is kicking back with her fishing pole?!
