October Unprocessed Challenge

My regular readers may remember that my family did a month of "real foods" back in May. We're joining a similar challenge this month of October (see that handy little badge in the right hand margin of the blog?) with Eating Rules. Andrew, of Eating Rules, has a very similar definition for "unprocessed" that we used back in May for "real food." He calls it The Kitchen Rule, and I like it:

Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with whole-food ingredients.

Check out his FAQ on this definition for more specifics. Essentially, we'll be cooking from scratch. Here are my exceptions, given my current CRAZY schedule with kids/school/etc. (and from my memories of our May experience)

• condiments: I've made my own ketchup and Ranch dressing and the like before--totally from scratch. Ain't happenin' this time. 
• bread: it is possible to buy sandwich bread that fits The Kitchen Test, but it's usually more expensive. I'm going to keep an open mind on this one.
• *I* will be doing the challenge and bringing my family in as much as possible. The biggest exception here will be the occasional breakfast of boxed cereal for the kiddos.
• and I include "flour," "sugar," and similar ingredients in my at-home cooking but I'll be skipping most of those chemicals and preservatives!

 We do a lot of whole foods in this household, but it's easy to slip back into quick, easy, and junky when life gets busy. I'm hopeful this will help us get back in the groove before the holidays and extra food hit!