Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Fit Mama

Ann Marie Michaels -

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week, we travel to Santa Monica, California to tour the kitchen of Julie de Lagarde of the blog Real Fit Mama.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Fit Mama

Hi, I’m Julie de Lagarde of Real Fit Mama. Becoming a mom has taught me so much about nourishing myself and my family.

After I had my daughter after nearly 3 years ago I opened up my world to Real Food, and the results in our family’s health have been truly amazing. By adding more saturated fats, raising my daughter on raw milk, and incorporating more of the whole animal into our cooking, my workouts have become fueled by real food.

Fermented foods and slow cooking with lots of fresh flavors have nearly eradicated my food allergies as well as my anxiety. My energy is great, my brain is clear, and I’m excited about life both in and out of my kitchen!

Blog name: Real Fit Mama
Blog author: Julie de Lagarde
Location: Santa Monica, California
How long blogging: 3 months
House or apartment: House
Size of Kitchen: 7 ft. x 14 ft. – this explains so much about why we’re always all on top of each other in here!
Things I love about my kitchen: Two years ago we moved into my Mother’s house, meaning for it to be temporary. My grandmother bought this house in 1954, and when she passed in 1997 at the age of 97 years old, my Mom moved back in. It has nourished my heart and soul to feed my daughter in the kitchen where my grandmother used to feed me and to watch her play in the yard where my Grandma & I planted carrots when I was small. Watching Z and my own Mom bond is also a dream come true. We are now setting down roots here and planning our back yard garden. From the kitchen I can look out the window and watch my daughter play in the yard. I can also see the white peach tree, magnolia tree and orange tree that have been here since my Mom was a kid.
Things I would change: I dream daily about renovating and creating more space. I would definitely love to have bigger counter tops, more counter space, and much more storage space as well. 7′ x 14′ for 3 adults, 1 kid, and a dog is pretty tight, but we make it work! We also need more outlets. Apparently they weren’t using so many electrical items to cook back in the 1940’s when the house was built.
Favorite tools & gadgets: Recently I opened a drawer in our stove (my grandmother’s original stove from the early ’50’s) and discovered a collection of covered cast-iron pans that belonged to her. Such treasures! My slow cooker – it has revolutionized our lives. I love my cold-brew coffee maker. My mortar & pestle is also a stand-by favorite tool. We used our Beaba baby cooker as our blender for awhile (shhhh) before we went out and got ourselves a real one. I love my 5 gallon stainless stock pot – have made many amazing batches of bone broth in it. My paring knife and cutting board are near the top of my list – we love fresh fruits, veggies & salads. We have a whole collection of glass jars, mason jars and bottles that we could not live without! We also have my grandmother’s original table as our kitchen table; it has a weathered beauty that speaks of the generations of eating it has supported.
Biggest challenges cooking real food: One of my biggest challenges cooking real food is also one of my biggest challenges anywhere in my life – willingness to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. Especially if it’s something I don’t associate my identity with it. I always think of myself as a workout girl, and more and more this workout girl has loved balancing her time with tapping into the generations of women (especially on my italian side) who have spent their lives in the kitchen. My italian grandma is 93 and so peppy! She cooks amazing food in her own kitchen and is totally my role model & inspiration. The more I get out of my own way and adventure out of the box, the more fun and exciting my life is! Simpler challenges: committing to the time and limited counter space.
Current favorite family meal: Slow cooked short ribs are a huge hit. Bacon is almost a daily eat around here. Summer breakfasts are often bacon and fruit with a side of homemade gel-lo. Everyone enjoys my light summer soups made with chicken stock and the veggies in our farm box. We make delicious fresh salads with fruits and greens to accompany our heavier meats. My husband is the smoothie master – coconut oil, raw milk and fresh fruits go in every time. We’re on a streak of summer-flavored gel-lo’s made with items from our farm box as well. Last week was white peach. This week is watermellon. Pastured eggs are a staple on evenings I don’t feel like to cooking a lot – scrambled with basil, tomatoes, fresh cheese, and summer squash, and served with soup or fresh salad.
Favorite cookbooks: My go-to for recipes is the internet. I love looking up what I feel like cooking and then adapting it to real food guidelines. [easyazon-link asin=”0967089735″ locale=”us”]Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”0393020436″ locale=”us”]The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant by Judi Rogers[/easyazon-link], and magazines like [easyazon-link asin=”B002PXVZO0″ locale=”us”]Food & Wine[/easyazon-link] and [easyazon-link asin=”B001U5SPHY” locale=”us”]Bon Appetit[/easyazon-link]. Like I said – I love getting excited about ideas and flavors and adapting the recipes to more traditional foodie guidelines. I also cherish oral recipes from any cultures I can get them from – my grandma is italian, my husband is caribbean, and I have friends from all over the world.

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT cheeseslave dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

  • Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
  • Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
  • Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
  • How about a lovely herb garden?
  • Kids or pets are always cute!
  • Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.