From Scratch Challenge

From Scratch Challenge

One day I sat down at lunch and remarked that everything in my lunch had been made from scratch. After talking with co-workers about how often I cook things from scratch, it was suggested that I try cooking everything from scratch for the next month. This was a challenge I accepted with little hesitation and even less thought.

The Rules:

1. All food that I cook and eat must be made from scratch or be raw. The easiest way to think about this is that everything I use in my meals should start off with an ingredient list of one on the package and be uncooked.
2. I can start with ingredients that have been ground, sliced, peeled, chopped, pressed, crushed, frozen, dried, and packaged. For example, I could eat an apple since it's raw. I could also eat frozen apple slices (presumably after thawing them). If I want applesauce I need to make it myself- it's been cooked and mixed with other ingredients.
3. I can eat food cooked by others if it is made from scratch.
4. I need to eat my normal diet- I can't start eating only salads for the month. I really wouldn't want too anyways.
5. There are several exemptions for the sake of my health and sanity. There are a few things that I can't make due to lack of proper equipment and/or the fact that they take longer than a month to make. These include fermented items, like beer, wine, and vinegar; things made with bacteria, like yogurt or cheese, and butter because I don't own a butter churn.
6. I need to document my meals for the duration of the challenge.
7. If I starve to death and die, I lose.

Examples of approved ingredients:

Rice, flour, raw and frozen fruits and vegetables, raw meat and seafood, dried and ground spices.

Things I will be making from scratch:

Bread, pasta, quiche, pierogies, calzones, buffalo wings, cupcakes, crackers, and more.