Cooking With Less Toxins

Old West. Cowboys. Open Fire. These are the things I used to think about when I heard about or saw a cast iron pan. I mean, c'mon, think about where you usually see a cast iron pan being used.....an old western movie, or perhaps in a hit tv show based in Montana, with cowboys sitting around and cooking over an open fire. Right?! Or perhaps you think of your grandmother cooking homemade tortillas on her cast iron skillet? Whatever you relate cast iron with, I want to share with you what cast iron means to me now.

As I have continued on this journey of wellness for my family, especially over the last few years, I started looking at the pots and pans that we were using daily to cook our meals. As a family we almost always eat at home and cook our own food. We don't go out to eat much (this is partially due to me having some dietary restrictions since heading into my forties) so I became more aware of the cookware we had been using and some of the research I did led me to want to find less toxic cookware. As I did my research there, of course, was a lot of differing opinions as to which types of cookware were the least toxic. Some brands were very pricey, and a lot of them had such differing reviews regarding the actual safety of them, that I started to get frustrated. I didn't think that trying to make a switch for my family would be so difficult. Then, I started looking into cast iron and pure ceramic cookware and I was really impressed with what I was learning.

Less toxic.

Naturally non stick for the cast iron.

Won't leach chemicals or metals into your food.

These were some of the things I was looking for, so I decided to buy a couple of pure ceramic pieces from Xtrema and a couple of cast iron pieces from Lodge. As I started to learn how to cook with these pieces- there is definitely a learning curve-

I truly felt like our food tasted different. Better. Richer. More Flavorful.

It has been about 9 months since I started cooking with these pans and I have to admit that the cast iron is my favorite. So much so that I have expanded my collection and they all sit in easy to access racks on my counter. In fact, my homemade mac 'n' cheese has become even more of a favorite for my girls since cooking it in the cast iron.

Some things I have learned when cooking with cast iron: *Heat the pan up for several minutes before adding oil or food

*Use plenty of oil (we use avocado oil which I will blog about later)

*Make sure to clean the pans properly

As for the questions I have gotten about cleaning these pans there are some great tips on Lodge's website for using and cleaning cast iron pans, but we have found this method to work:

*Clean using just hot water and a chainmail scrubber

*Dry the pan with a cloth or lint free towel

*Put back on the stove on low heat for several minutes to get it fully dry

*Finish by wiping pan with a thin layer of oil and allow to cool on the stove I am loving the smokiness that using the cast iron pans brings to our foods, and even more importantly, I love knowing that the cookware we are using to prepare our foods is contributing to our wellness, instead of potentially exposing us to more chemicals (we get enough of that in other areas of our lives that we can't control, which is a whole other rabbit hole!)

So, if you are looking to bring more wellness to your family's cooking I highly suggest giving cast iron a try!