My Food Philosophy: A Balanced Approach to Nut Free Eating

One of the reasons I stopped writing my last food blog was because my food philosophy was no longer in line with my website. When I first started blogging I was in my “healthy-eating” phase. My recipes were all tied to being “healthy.” Every dessert or muffin recipe I posted was tweaked for maximum nutrition. (And some of the swaps were just plain silly).

My kids still joke about those days when Goldfish were a rare treat.

I had my reasons. Or, at least I thought I did. But then my attitude toward food, and life, changed. And sometimes I just wanted to make a muffin without wondering whether it lived up to the blog’s expectations. As if a blog could have expectations.

It’s important to me to be totally transparent about my food philosophy from the beginning of Nut Free Pantry..

Born into diet culture

I am a child of the eighties. I remember my mom and aunts obsessing over calories. When they needed to lose weight (which was always), they went to “Fat School.” No joke . . . that’s what it was called. There was “blast off” meal plan and a series of ten “exercises” they did from the comfort of the couch.

It’s no surprise that when I turned 13 and put on a little weight, I put myself on a diet. My food philosophy was simply to eat as little as possible.

That first summer it was the peanut butter and jelly and Pepsi diet. I ate one-half of a peanut butter and sugar-free jelly sandwich and one can of Pepsi per day. If that was all I ate in a day, it was a good day. If not, say I also ate a Popsicle or handful of popcorn or some cheese, it was not a good day.

I was pretty crabby that summer . . .

At the end of the summer, I cut out the peanut butter and moved on to the low-fat trend. We lived on Snackwells, Crystal Light, and Skinny Cow. Gosh–even those names make my cringe. Looking back, I wonder how we ever had any energy. We weren’t ingesting nutrients, only chemicals.

My weight yo-yoed over the next fifteen years–the freshman fifteen, aerobics obsessed, law school , the bar exam, pregnancy, and more. The one constant was that I was always on a diet, whichever one was in fashion.

Food really was the enemy

Then my son Kevin was diagnosed with food allergies and my entire relationship with food changed. For years, I thought food was the enemy–something to be managed and controlled.

Suddenly, it really was. The simple act of eating now had the potential to kill my son.

In those early years, I didn’t have a food philosophy. There was only one criteria for a food to make it into my shopping cart. It had to be “safe”. As long is there were no nuts, it was good to go. Not surprisingly, my son quickly developed an affinity for fruit snacks, Oreos, and GoGurts.

But that was okay with me. He was a picky eater (aren’t most pre-schoolers?). And there were so many “fun foods” he couldn’t eat. I felt bad that so many of the foods he wanted weren’t safe. I felt like I was saying no all the time. So at home, I tried to say yes. I baked a lot. And loaded my cart with pre-school favorites that were nut-free. I didn’t give a thought to preservative, artificial colors, or nutrition.

My kids still joke about when breakfast was “Chex Mix” – rice Chex, marshmallows, yogurt-covered raisins, and chocolate chips. I’d tell them they had to eat the Chex if they wanted more marshmallows. My standards were pretty low.

But as they got older, my food philosophy began to change. I became focused on nutrition. Too focused, to be honest.

Obsessed with healthy eating

I spent hours researching “healthy eating”–paleo, GAPS, vegan, DASH . . . I listened to podcasts and read books and scoured the Internet. All the while taking copious notes. I tossed all the bad ingredients in my pantry spent a fortune on “healthy” alternatives. My food philosophy was everything from scratch. No carbs. Only grass fed dairy.

Farmers market, local grass-fed beef, homemade salad dressing and fruit snacks. I obsessed over grains and breads. I worried about the quality of our dairy. I drove 60 miles for farm-fresh eggs. I mage yogurt from scratch. (I really have no idea why–even store-bought yogurt only has one ingredient if you buy the right kind). It was fun for awhile, but not sustainable for a full time working mom (or anyone). 

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the food I made was delicious. I became a much better cook and created lots of family friendly recipes that we still enjoy to this day. Like my homemade barbecue sauce-I make it whenever possible.

But any health benefits I might have derived from eating better quality foods were deluded by exhaustion. I was working full time as a college professor and administrator, I had three small kids, and I cooked everything from scratch. There was no time for sleep. I was constantly cooking or cleaning the kitchen, or worried about what I as going to cook tomorrow.

I judged my value as a mom not only by what I purchased and prepared for my family. My worth as human being was no longer determined only by what I ate myself, but what I fed my family. Food became a moral question.

A shifting food philosophy

I didn’t abandon this food philosophy overnight. There were a lot fo factors that contributed to me making different choices. For one, I increased my running mileage and I needed to change my nutrition to support the miles. Not eating carbs wasn’t cutting it anymore.

And my kids were getting older. This meant that they took a lot more meals away from home and I had less control over what they were eating. It seemed silly to beat myself up about using conventional milk and non-organic vegetables when they were eating macaroni and cheese bites from the gas station. (I have no judgment about Mac and Cheese bites these days. My kids are free to eat them whenever they want).

We were also getting busier as a family. I could choose to attend baseball tournaments and dance competitions and buy something from the concession stand (gasp!), or stay home and prepare healthy meals for everyone else to enjoy when they got home. That was really no choice at all.

Over time, I gradually relaxed a bit about what I cooked and ate.

COVID changed everything

Then the pandemic happened and my food philosophy changed again. Grocery trips were limited and fraught with tension. Grocery shelves were sparse. I focused on buying shelf stable and frozen foods that could be combined into a variety of dishes.

Every meal was prepared at home. Which was fun for awhile–I mean there was nothing else to do anyway. We made fancy desserts (with indulgent ingredients) twice a week. But it got old real fast! When take out became an option, I didn’t even care what it was. We ordered in. It was our civic duty to support small businesses.

When we emerged from the pandemic I felt like I had a new relationship with food.

My food philosophy 

Today my food philosophy is one of balance.

I do still try to make healthy choices. Most of the time. But my reasons for doing so are totally different. I just feel better when I eat better. And in my late forties I want to feel good.

We don’t have a lot of great restaurants where we live. Fast food options are abundant, but as a general rule I don’t eat fast food (except the occasional Chick-Fil-A) because it makes me sick. So, many of my favorite dishes come from home. When you cook at home you can always make healthier choices, but I don’t skimp on rich or heavy ingredients.

The recipes on this site reflect balance. There are lots of veggie recipes (my daughter is a vegetarian) and lots of made from scratch sauces (because they just taste better). But you’ll also find my favorite nut-free bottled barbecue sauce and salad dressings. I cook with meat and we all love cheese. #sorrynotsorry

There’s also lots of treats, because I love sweets. I believe that homemade treats are better than store bought treats because they are made with real ingredients. I’m not going to get into a real food debate. We eat packaged food with preservative. But if all things are equal I’m gong to pick the option with fewer ingredients.

But, I’m a food snob when it comes to cookies, chocolate, and bread. Check out some of my favorites.

The One Non-Negotiable

You can rest east knowing that every recipe I share has passed the family taste-test and is always nut-free! That’s non-negotiable. No nuts in the ingredient list. And no cross contamination.

Happy eating!