Guest Posting From My Wife - Where Can I Find Kosher Grape Seed Oil?

I was inspired at the beginning of the month to turn over a new leaf with regard to diet and exercise. I've always been relatively fit and exercise on a regular basis, but I have always laughed off the idea of turning towards eating more naturally and choosing to make meals that have less refined sugar, whole grain ingredients and no processed ingredients. This is explains why I initially put aside the Naturally Breslov cookbook A Simple Jew bought for me about 6 months ago. I read through it, but at the time decided I was not particularly interested in visiting local grocery stores hunting for kosher grape seed oil and organic spelt flour.

It all changed about two weeks ago, after I spoke with my husband's aunt who happens to be a professional trainer and nutrition guru. She referred me to an article in the NY Times written my Michael Pollan called, "Unhappy Meals". The lengthy article goes into great depth explaining how most of America has gone wrong in following fad diets and media hype telling us to eat more vitamins and minerals. Instead, the essence of his article is that we should approach eating the way our grandmother's did. He suggests buying only those raw ingredients at the grocery store that our grandmother would have recognized. For example, would our grandmothers recognize Fruit roll-up, gushers or mini pizza bagels. Instead, he encourages us to focus on eating a plant based diet, supplemented with fish, chicken and meat.

So, I decided to venture down this road. I began eating a bowl of oatmeal with unprocessed brain added to in the morning, eating fresh veggies and hummus throughout the day for a snack, high protein fruit smoothies for lunch and for dinner, a variety of high protein, whole grain sides and lots of fresh vegetables and salad.

In addition to this, I've been running on the treadmill 3 times a week with intermittent bursts of sprinting. All of the changes have made a phenomenal impact on my overall energy levels and abilities to cook, clean, run errands and shuttle kids to school each day.

In an attempt to enter a third week of this routine, I woke up this morning thinking of meals for the upcoming week. Ironically, I said to my husband, get me that Breslov cookbook off the shelf that I thought was so silly just a few months ago. I diligently went though the cookbook and took copious notes and copied recipes that I vowed to try this week. Grocery list in hand, I set off to Trader Joe's with our oldest daughter on a scavenger hunt for all the healthy things I never buy like, grape seed oil, spelt flour and brown rice syrup. Whereas I could not find all of the ingredients for the recipes that I want to make, I was able to find all the ingredients for the Easy Tofu Lasagna. So, this is what I made for dinner tonight. And, it was delicious and it must be half the fat and calories of my regular lasagna. A Simple Jew himself helped himself to thirds.

So, I owe everyone out there who cooks naturally with whole grain and unprocessed ingredients a heartfelt apology. I am now signing up to be among your ranks to help bring healthier eating habits to my entire family. Stay tuned for recipe reviews on the rest of the things I have on my listing including: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Curry Chicken, Easy Vegetable Soup and Apricot Cake.