Food is a big thing around here.

It really is a big thing for everyone to some degree – everyone has to eat!

But I enjoy making food.

Trying new things.

Baking.

Cooking.

Especially when the children are at my side.

It is just a FAVORITE part of our days here!!

I think it was God’s intention for us to enjoy food.

He was SO very creative in giving us such beautiful and delicious food!

I am not talking about the stuff that comes from factories!

I am talking about whole foods – grown and then eaten.

It was when I was newly pregnant with Chad that I learned about the power of food.

That was twenty years ago now!

I still remember the class that I went to back then about healthy eating.

Another homeschool mom taught it.

One of the first things she said was “Food is either medicine or poison for your body!”

She also taught us to only shop the perimeter of the grocery store – the produce department, the meat/dairy department, and finally the frozen food department.

Another thing that stuck with me from that class is that if you cannot pronounce the words in the ingredient list of a package food, you shouldn’t eat it.

It was a GREAT couple of hours that instantly changed the way we ate back then and still eat to this day!

I have always praised the Lord for His timing in that class and my intentional research afterwards to eat healthier.

It was just a few years later that I found out I had celiac disease.

We had already quit going to fast food restaurants, eating packaged foods, and had learned how to read labels before buying things!

How kind is it that God allowed that??

It made the transition to the medical need for gluten-free and whole foods SO MUCH EASIER!

Here is the great thing about celiac disease – ANYTHING you buy in the produce department that is in it’s original state is already gluten-free!

I still enjoy walking into the coop and standing in the middle of all the beauty of the produce.

It is so colorful and beautiful!

We make a lot of our meals with the base of whole foods.

You can make SUCH delicious food with so few ingredients!

God has allowed an incredible amount of healing for my body over these years.

Food truly can be medicine!!

I am humbled that He has trusted me with so much – celiac disease is not a quick fix!!

We have had a lot of fun in our kitchen over the years coming up with delicious favorites that everyone enjoys.

I know that you first experience the food that you eat with your eyes – so how wonderful that whole foods are so beautiful.

We have enjoyed growing our own food as well!

When we lived on the farm we had over an acre of gardens, our own meat chickens, laying hens, fruit trees, and beef cattle.

There is SO much joy in filling your dinner table with the labor of your own hands!

Here at Twin Oaks we have a small garden, and now we have laying hens.

Don’t worry – there is an expansion project swirling around in my head – just don’t tell my hubby yet!

Of course, most of our food has to be shopped for.

That is a BIG JOB.

I could never visit a grocery store ever again and be perfectly happy, ha, ha!

But if I am truly honest, I think some day I will miss the challenge of feeding all of these precious people three times a day.

We do still buy a lot of our food in bulk, but not as much as we used to when we lived on the farm and all the children were at home.

We have our meat chickens raised for us now.

We buy our beef 50 pounds or more at a time.

We buy our honey and maple syrup a gallon at a time.

We buy our main gluten-free flours in 25 pound bags, as well as our rice and oats.

I still head to the grocery store every two weeks to get the things that we need!

I make a menu plan and shop the plan.

I also have a master list of everything that we buy, and I make sure we have it all in stock in our pantry and freezers.

It is a two cart job!!

And I most often make more than one stop as well, because only certain stores carry our gluten-free needs.

So, does this mean that we are rigid and eat perfectly with every single bite?

Oh my goodness, no!

I still LOVE to bake cookies and cakes!

We still eat packaged foods – just ones with better ingredients in them!

We still like to go out and get ice cream!

There are ingredients in some of our dairy-free items that I wish were not there – but we still use them.

I wish we could drink raw milk still and use all the delicious cream from it, but we can’t!

There is always room for improvement in everything, and I do continue to make changes as the Lord leads!

It all is a balance, like everything in life.

I share photos and videos of our life on Instagram stories all day long almost everyday.

A big part of life here is our meals – and cooking and baking them – so I share that too.

I get the most questions and response about my posts about food.

Which I love!!

I have never really studied personality types much – but I just know that I am the one who needs to have a creative outlet in my life daily.

Sometimes hourly!

Isn’t it great that being in the kitchen allows that?

My hubby sure thinks so – because otherwise he knows I would be redecorating the house every three months, ha, ha!

I sure hope that you all enjoy eating too.

Bon Appetit, friends!!!