Chattin' with Ms. Kitchen Stewardship

I could not be more honored to host an interview with Katie Kimball from Kitchen Stewardship!  If you are familiar with Katie’s blog, you know she has an amazing way of presenting complex nutrition issues in a straightforward, clear and unbiased way.

I love how Katie will seek information from all angles of the topic in attempt to get down to the truth of the matter.  Wrap that in with a killer personality and a focus on letting your faith find it’s way into how you feed and care for your family…well she is just my type of gal!

Katie also has some wonderful ebooks (aff) available.   Healthy Snacks To Go is one I come back to time and time again, I love how Katie tackled the one area that seems to be a huge struggle for most of us– finding ways to bring in nourishing healthy snacks into our family’s lives.

Here are a few questions I asked her…read along and get to know Katie a little more with me!

Katie, tell me a little about yourself, your family, your blog…

I’m a former teacher and mother of two young children, ages five and two, who cooks real food and dabbles in mad scientist kitchen experiments from time to time.

I believe everything is a gift from God and that we are called to be good stewards of those gifts.

At Kitchen Stewardship, I strive to help others balance their family’s nutrition, care for the environment, a crunched budget and realistically limited time while working to honor God in the kitchen.

You have a category on your blog, Mary and Martha Moments.  It is so refreshing to read many of your faith reflections in relation to the work you do in your kitchen and feeding your family.

Can you tell me a little more about how you view the connection between faith and food?

Since the first bite of the apple, our relationship with God has been impacted by our relationship with food.

I believe God wants us to be nourished well by our food, and also as a mother, I feel strongly that it’s part of my vocational call to care for my children’s bodies, along with their minds and souls. What they eat is a massive part of their health, and I’m responsible to teach them good habits.

I incorporate prayer into my cooking, both by praying about the food choices I’m making, for direction, and by praying while I cook, especially mundane things like chopping vegetables and doing dishes. I like to choose a repetitive prayer to get stuck in my head instead of the ABCs.

When I discovered the traditional foods movement, something resonated in me that it all made sense to try to eat foods as they were created.

God has basically written instructions for a healthy lifestyle into the natural world and into our bodies, and if we would stop stubbornly fighting against Him, I think we’d be better off as a global society, fighting against hunger. I don’t think God wants anyone to go hungry!

On the other hand, limiting my own food in a fast (especially during Lent) is a powerful way to pray constantly and to hone my self-discipline for other needs.

The basics? God made the food. God made us. He not only knows how they all should go together, but He expects us to be kind to the earth in our consumption and listen to our bodies as we strive for the best nourishment we can find.

For me, I wasn’t prepared for how difficult it was to maintain my prayer life once I began having children.

What nourishes your spiritual life right now and how do you make time for that?

I wasn’t prepared for how difficult it was to pray once I began blogging!

I had a few successful prayer practices after my first child was born, but I did fall off the boat a bit after baby number two. Currently, I admit I’m struggling with my personal prayer life beyond being nourished at weekend Mass, through family prayer before bed, and by striving to appreciate the moment and send up a silent thank you to God.

Here are my successful prayer strategies when I had one child:

I made prayer part of my routine. The first 5 minutes after my son went down for a nap were always set aside as prayer time for me. I also used the first 5 minutes after he went down for the night to pray. It’s important to have your prayer list handy so you don’t waste three of your five minutes deciding what/who you want to pray for!
I prayed while I worked.
I found a mother’s Bible study once a week
Once my son was sleeping more or less through the night, I signed up for a very early morning hour for Eucharistic adoration. From 6-7 a.m. each Thursday, I had an entire hour of silence and aloneness with God.

I really, really need to make a regular prayer list of those people for whom I’ve promised to pray, who really need my prayers. Then I absolutely must make a regular time for prayer. It would be best if I prayed each night before I sat down to work at the computer, but I don’t know if I’d stick to it. I worry that if I try the naptime routine again, I’d have extra frustration when my dear, dear daughter skips her nap (grrrr) because I’d feel as if my prayer time was stolen.

Then again, a good friend once counseled me to have the children pray with/next to me to set a good example. Why am I not (duh!) doing that? Thanks for this question…it’s been convicting!

Oh, I can really relate to those, “Why am I not doing that??” feelings…it’s that bridge between knowing and doing what is best for us!!

That’s one of the things I really appreciate about your “baby steps” perspective on moving toward a real food diet for you and your family.  I believe it is the only sustainable way to change.

Can you tell me a little about your own food journey– where you’ve come from in terms of diet, where you are now and what things you still hope to incorporate in the future?

I’ve always been a conservative person, “green” at heart if you will, and I’ve always had a strong faith, so I think understanding that God calls us to be good stewards of all our resources just came naturally and was part of my person as I matured and gained more adult responsibilities.

The term “Kitchen Stewardship” happened in my mind sometime after my son was born.

Pregnancy and parenthood are impressive motivators to suddenly become an amateur nutritionist. However, my ideas about nutrition have evolved as the years have gone by, and I’ve slowly grown more eco-conscious as well.  

I really made big changes after reading Real Food by Nina Planck and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell a little over a year ago. I only read them to prepare to write a book called Kitchen Stewardship, but I had stumbled across a field of totally new information for me.

At first, I was totally overwhelmed. I stood in front of the milk at the grocery store and didn’t know what to buy!  Then I realized that my own philosophy of baby steps was the only way to go, and I made one change at a time. Sometimes my husband still thinks I’m crazy, and my son asks, “Where is all the cereal?” every so often, but overall we’re so much healthier than before “the big shift” and I feel good about what I’m putting on the table.

Homemade yogurt was the first major item that I made homemade that other people don’t. Yogurt isn’t like cookies: you’re growing bacteria on purpose, and that freaks some people out. I started making it for reasons of pure frugality when my son was just a toddler/ Now I make almost a gallon a week for our little family because it’s our favorite health food.

When I decided to explore some of the bigger commitment ways to participate, I was lucky enough to have a friend who got raw milk, and she helped me get hooked into a group of moms with similar ideals. We have gone in with each other to order everything from frozen organic cherries to sea salt, coconut oil or bulk spices. It’s good to have that kind of support so I don’t feel as though I’m an island, all alone eating weird food.

As for where I’d like to go from here, I need to learn more basic side dishes to help us all eat more veggies, and I’d really like to tackle the water filter issue.

I’ve really enjoyed your ebook about healthy snacks.  Can you tell me a little about what inspired you to write it?

Healthy Snacks To Go was inspired after the Real Food Face-Off. I was struck by how many people said the most challenging part of Real Food was eating away from home. I get the same sentiment quite often from my readers, so I decided the audience was ripe for some not-terribly difficult, yummy, whole foods grab-n-go snacks.

There are 20 recipes, but the knock-off Larabar variations number at 14, so you get over 30 options total for something you can store in a desk drawer or toss in the diaper bag for those munchie moments.

So, didn’t I tell you she was wonderful?? If you haven’t explored Katie’s website– you will NOT want to miss it.  And you can read more about her ebooks here (aff).

Now, I’d love to hear from  you – Do you have healthy snacks that are your go-to choices for hungry kiddos throughout the day??