Don't hate me for making homemade croutons.

For Easter, I knew I would be responsible for filling up my own Easter basket, so I wandered through Target and tossed things in the buggy that I'd been wanting for awhile but wouldn't buy, like this great brown glass soap pump for my bathroom. I couldn't rationalize spending $14.99 on a soap dispenser when I could just wash my hands with one of Jason's bars of Ivory soap that come 50 to a pack for five bucks. I'd also walked past Julie and Julia about a thousand times but left in the shelf despite really wanting to see it and having received many gleaming reviews from good friends. So that, plus a few gossip rags and a 2-for-1 deal on fish oil supplements, and I had a pretty great candy-free Easter basket.

And as I sat down at my desk to do some work today, I decided to throw J&J on the big screen in the mancave so I could watch while I work (I'm convinced that I have a mild form of ADD when it comes to work bc I can't do it in silence. My brain's gotta focus on work plus something else or I just drift off into daydreamland).

Paused this completely delightful movie to get a water refill and walked past the leftover ciabatta bread we had Friday night, the pieces I'd set aside to use in homemade croutons after reading the ingredients on the store-bought ones we always toss in our salads and I had a thought.

I started reading Jillian Michaels' "Master you Metabolism" book a couple of weeks ago, and the stuff in there has scared me off of processed foods for good. Well, mostly. But she is who put the little voice in my head that says "ick--don't feed THAT to you family!" So between Jillian, the movie Food, Inc., the supersized garden Jason has planted in our backyard, and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, the Truitts are fully committed to eating real food. Food with ingredients you can pronounce and food that has never seen the inside of a box or traveled down a conveyor belt. (An exception to the conveyor belt rule exists for this fun sushi place that actually puts its food on conveyor belts where it scoots past all the folks sitting around the restaurant who then can grab what they want--pretty neat way to eat!).

I have had more than my share of entertaining and enlightening and scary moments since embarking on the real food journey a couple of weeks ago, and I thought that maybe I didn't buy Julie and Julia all those times I walked by it in Target (and I'm in Target A LOT) because it wasn't time.

But now it is, because now I have something to write about other than Gerard Butler--I'm going to document my own personal food revolution right here. Not expecting anyone will follow it, but it's the 2000s, and everyone has a blog, so there you go. If Julie can write about cooking with Julia, I can write about cooking with Jillian (and shopping, and reading labels, and all of Jason's adventures in the backyard vegetable aisle). I don't expect a Hollywood movie deal a book deal, or frankly, even anyone to read it, but it's fun. So here I go.

Today, I made homemade croutons. Out of fresh-baked bread from HEB's bakery (I read the label; not a fake thing in there!), some olive oil, and some fresh garlic. Real food. And they'll be fabulous on top of a big salad tonight at supper. I'm quite proud of them, actually.

But I can hear the voices of my working-mom friends in my head as I type these lines: "Wish I had time to EAT croutons, let alone make them from scratch." Yes, I get it. It seems a bit self-indulgent to blog about taking two and a half hours to grocery shop because I had to read all the labels trying to find real food when most of my friends don't have time to grocery shop PERIOD, but maybe the stars have aligned this way for a reason, and I'm going to use the time I'm so blessed to have as a work-from-home/stay-at-home wife/mom to feed my family real food. So there, working mom friends--don't hate me for making homemade croutons.

Until next time, may your food be real!