When I first started switching over to a healthier, more natural lifestyle, one of the first questions I had was where to find the best options for real food ingredients and natural products?
Over the past several years, I’ve tried many different natural options and it took me awhile to find the brands and products that worked well for me and that met my standards for being real, simple, and natural.
I’ve put together a collection of my favorite sources all in one place to share with you, whether you’re just starting the transition to living a more natural lifestyle or whether you’ve been eating “real” for a while now and are looking for something new to try that might suit your needs even better.
These are all online sources, so if you like to shop at home in your jammies like I do, then these sources have the convenience of online shopping but still have the quality we’re looking for in natural and “real” foods.
Note: Some of these links may be affiliate links. This means that I receive a small commission if you decide to buy any of these items after clicking on my link. The cost for you remains the same, though. And you have my old-fashioned word of honor that I only link to items that I personally love and feel good about recommending to you!
Thrive Market:
Shopping online at Thrive Market is a convenient way to get foods from your favorite natural and organic brands at discounted prices.
Thrive Market carries over 4,000 products from the top organic and non-GMO brands, so you can find all of the same popular healthy food staples that you would buy at a health food store but for a 20-25% savings, plus you can have them delivered right to your door.
Thrive Market is a little bit like a Costco where you join their membership program and pay a small fee (it’s less than $5 a month), but you get such a good discount on the products you buy that you end up saving a whole lot more than the cost of the membership.
You can learn more about Thrive Market, plus get a free 30-day trial and 15% off your first order by clicking the link below:
Learn more about shopping with Thrive Market here:
Natural Whole Food Supplements:
Perfect Supplements is a great source for organic, high-quality, whole food supplements from a variety of natural brands.
These supplements are whole food supplements, so they are the kind that are essentially like eating healthy foods but in a form that is easier and more convenient to take.
Pantry Staples:
Real Salt comes from a mineral-rich salt deposit in central Utah, and it’s naturally speckled pinkish color is because of the trace minerals that are part of the salt. It has a really nice flavor, and I use it for both cooking and baking.
Enjoy Life Semi Sweet Chocolate Mini Chips
These chocolate chips are dairy, nut, and soy free so they’re perfect if you’re avoiding any one of those common allergens but still want to be able to eat chocolate chips or bake chocolate-chip cookies for your kids (or yourself!)
In the past, people who ate soups and stews prepared with traditional collagen-rich broths and stock had a lot more gelatin in their diets than many of us do today. Great Lakes gelatin is made from healthy, humanely-raised animals, and there are a couple of different options to choose from. My favorite is the collagen hydrolysate (green canister) because it’s cold-water soluble and won’t clump up if you want to use it in cold water. The kosher beef gelatin (red canister) is a good option if you want to make something like jello that needs to gel and solidify.
Real Food Snacks:
Jovial Organic Einkorn Cookies – Ginger Spice
I love these cookies for times when I want something a little bit sweet to have with a nice cup of tea in the evening but don’t have the time to actually make a batch of cookies myself. These have only a few simple and organic ingredients, so they’re basically like homemade but without the work 🙂
Equipment:
VICTORIO Hand Operated Grain Mill
This grain mill is the one I’ve been using for the past few years. It’s a great option if you’re not quite ready to spend the money yet on an electric one but still want something that will work well and be sturdy enough to last for awhile. I’ve been very pleased with the quality of this one and with the flour that I’ve been able to make using it.
Cast iron cookware is a staple in any old-fashioned, real food kitchen. Cast iron was the cookware of choice for centuries and a well-seasoned skillet is the original “non-stick” pan. The best type of cast iron are the skillets that have been well-used and handed down for decades, but if you don’t have a hand-me-down skillet like that, there are modern skillets that are good quality too. I like to having a variety of sizes so I can have a larger skillet for cooking meals or making skillet cornbread, a medium one for re-heating smaller portions of food, and a mini one for cooking a single-serving egg.
Find Cast Iron Cookware Online Here:
When you start cooking real food the old-fashioned way, you end up with a kitchen that’s overflowing with Mason jars! I use Mason jars for just about everything – making jam, storing pantry ingredients, keeping single-serving portions of soup in the freezer, packing snacks or lunches, etc. The sizes that I use the most often are the 4 oz. jelly jars, the 1/2 pint, pint, and quart sizes. I also like getting the 4 oz. and 1/2 pint jars that are freezer-safe so I can store food in the freezer if I want to.
Sandra M. Jones
Wednesday 11th of April 2018
Hi! I want to say thank you, for all the information you gave me. It was most needed. Many blessings and have a beautiful day. Aloha, Sandra
Lori Elliott
Monday 16th of April 2018
You're very welcome, Sandra, and I'm so glad to hear that the information was helpful to you. Many blessings for a wonderful day to you too!