I love food related blogs, books, magazines and television.   I can spend hours at sites like 101cookbooks.com, thepioneerwoman.com and sustainableeats.com.  I buy cookbooks with the overwhelming desire to create replicas of the incredible creations pictured and I get giddy at the thought of opening up the latest edition on my Gourmet Live app.   Even now, just writing about them, I want to stop what I’m doing and click over to another food site. But, for the most part they represent a fantasy world.  The gloriously quaint kitchens that couldn’t possibly look messy or have kids running through with a dog in hot pursuit. Chickens that lay eggs for breakfast and meticulously cared for gardens that produce a bounty enough to feed their family daily.  Not to mention that thewriters possess the unwavering ability to either eat only local, sustainable, seasonal, raw and/or organic foods or produce gourmet meals in remarkably short time for little money.

In the real world my kids are running around yelling “play with me” while I try to cook. Instead of eating off found pieces of vintage china they prefer to eat off melamine plates with cartoon characters.  In the real world my husband often only has a 30-minute window between work and school to eat.  And our garden…the garden produces two maybe three cantaloupe and a couple of tomatoes that the birds fight with our dog to eat.

Despite this I diligently work at making my family’s meals at home from scratch, with fresh natural ingredients.  I try to use local foods when I can. The same with organic.  I look for seasonal items and incorporate a few vegetarian or raw meals in the weekly menu when I can. I take all the advice, all the information on making wholesome meals, and use what I can when I can.  Because sometimes I just need to get dinner on the table and fast. Welcome to my Real World Menu.