Homemade Ketchup and Roasted Carrots

Something I’ve been mulling over this past week is the difference between “made at home” and “homemade.”  It seems as though a lot of the food “made at home” these days is food that has already been prepared in one way or another and then we fix it up at home to be a part of our meal.

For me, I have come to realize my dependence upon certain products (even “health food products”) lately that I simply can’t have now that I’m following a much more limited diet.  I like to believe that I made all my food at home and that nothing was pre-prepared.  But I now see how dependent I was on things like:  almond milk, canned coconut milk, canned organic tomatoes (Muir Glen Fire Roasted is my favorite), breads, tortillas, yogurt, kefir, crackers, snacks, ketchup, mayo and canned beans when I was in a hurry.

Now, I’m grateful for these changes to our diet and that I am preparing much more of our food at home.  If you want to know more about why I’m beginning to make these foods myself, check out the GAPS diet.  There are a lot of limitations on what kinds of food you can eat and how it is made.  Canned food (except fish) is out as is commercial yogurt.  Ketchup doesn’t work because it has sugar in it, etc.

So, this weekend my project was to make homemade ketchup and mayo.  I didn’t get to the mayo yet but I did do the ketchup.  My son loves it and calls it “cheppy” so I’ve been wanting to make it for the past few weeks.  We also can’t have potatoes or sweet potatoes any longer, so I roasted some sliced carrots to go with it.

I could almost believe (with my eyes closed) that I was eating a sweet potato fry with real ketchup.  It really was quite yummy and satisfying.  My son gobbled them up both times I made them this week!

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