Staples of Our Pantry

Before this diet, some things that I had to have in the pantry or fridge were cereal, macaroni and cheese,  whole wheat spaghetti, juice, lunch meat, cheese, bags of chips for school lunches, etc.  Now all of those are out.  As in donated or thrown out, not in the house (or someone would eat them....possibly me!).

Things that I have to have in the house now for snacks (four growing kids and two adults means we MUST have snacks at all times!) and back up for meals are:

                       rice cakes, preferrably organic brown rice
                       Mott's applesauce cups (no sugar added, possibly sweetened with fruit)
                       green olives
                       Beanitos (rice and bean chips)
                       fruit leathers
                       eggs
                       beans (pinto, lentils, black)
                       whole fruit (apples, kiwi, cantaloupe, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pears, peaches)
                       Bob's Mill hot rice cereal or
                       oatmeal (really should be organic so as not to be cross-contaminated with gluten)
                       almond milk or coconut milk
                       olive oil
                       raw baby carrots
                       fresh broccoli
                       cherry tomatoes
                       Chex rice cereal (my daughter loves cereal)
                       Nuts (like cashews, walnuts or pumpkin seeds, although not everyone will eat walnuts    
                                or pumpkin seeds....)
                       Laura Scudder's natural peanut butter (nothing but peanuts and salt)
                       Smucker's Naturals Jam (all fruit) or some similar jam
                       Some sort of rice pasta and low sugar spaghetti sauce
                             (now we have this in a pinch instead of mac and cheese)

I know that I still have a long way to go.  We have eliminated so much and added a lot, but I'd like to add more veggies.  For now, however, this is what we've got.  I know that I can't rush my family (or me) or this won't stick.  And this really isn't a diet in the usual sense of the word.  We can't ever go back to the way we were eating.  Our lives depend on it.