Frugal and Green

Summer is winding down and I’m starting to remember why I love the fall. The weather was beautiful yesterday. I think it was in the 60’s and 70’s most of the day. The NFL preseason is under way and I’m looking forward to seeing the leaves turn and watching the wind toss them around (mother nature’s snow globe). The novelty of raking outside on a beautiful fall day wears off quickly, but I love watching the kids jump in the piles of leaves. I take a lot of pictures, and the ones I snap on these days are so earthy and rich with color.

However, I’m already missing the wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The farmer’s market had so much to offer in the spring and early summer. These days, I’m having to buy more produce from the grocery store. But I’m determined to keep things more seasonal than I have in the past. This is the time of year that apples and grapefruits taste their best. I also can’t wait to have my first warm and yummy roasted (or microwaved) chestnuts, mmm… Some other seasonal vegetables and fruits I’m looking forward to are oranges, clementines, pears, avacados, cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, kale, parsnips and cranberries, just to name a few. Most of these are available year round, but this is when their flavors and nutritional value really peak! Buying seasonal also saves you money. You’re buying the produce when it’s most plentiful (supply and demand) and most nutritious, which means you are getting more nutritional bang for your buck.

This is when I get to make soup with little complaint from my family. I love soup and would make it year round if not for their grumbling. How can you not love it? It’s so versatile! As we speak my house is filled with the smell of roasted chicken and vegetable stock. I used the leftover carcass from this weeks chicken dinner. The chicken, by the way, is one of Baucom’s Best premium pastured chickens that I bought from the Matthew’s Farmers Market. It was pricey, about $15 for a 4 pound bird. So saving the carcass for stock is not only frugal, but I get fresh, low sodium stock that tastes better than anything you’ll find in a can or carton. I’ll even use the remaining bits of chicken (about half a cup) as garnish. These bits of chicken don’t have much flavor once they’ve spent a couple hours in stock pot, but I’ve found a way to revive them. I let them marinate in a little salt and pepper, fresh garlic, sometimes soy sauce, or whatever seasoning fits the dish. This also works great with beef. I’m going to make a bean and vegetable soup, so I used salt, pepper, fresh chopped garlic and some Italian seasoning.

The roasted vegetables in the stock are from another frugal tip I’d like to pass on. I collect  vegetable scraps in a bag in my freezer, and when it’s full, I make vegetable stock. I usually toss the frozen veg in olive oil, salt and pepper and them roast them in the oven first, to add flavor. There are certain vegetables and parts you shouldn’t use, either because they make the stock bitter (celery leaves, broccoli stems) or because of possible bacteria (root ends). I also throw things in the freezer that I probably won’t use before they spoil. Typically I have portobello or shiitake stems, outer layer and tops of onions, celery pieces, bits of carrot, tomato and garlic and herb stems… You can save just about anything. And what I don’t save for stock, I compost (along with my fruit scraps)! I even compost the veg from the stock, when I’m done with it. I’ll use this mostly organic compost in my garden in the spring and this frugal cycle will go on.

I’ve also added a bag of seven dried organic beans from HT to my simmering stock (red kidney, black turtle, baby white lima, french green lentils, adzuki, yellow split peas, hulled red lentils and/or navy beans). They only soaked for a few hours this morning, so it’ll take awhile for them to cook. Later I’ll add butternut squash and maybe a little celery, onion, carrots, shiitakes, fresh garlic, thyme and oregano. I haven’t decided if I’ll sweeten it yet with honey, or if I’ll make it creamy with some fat free evaporated milk. This is my first time using butternut squash, so I’ll taste the soup before I decide. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Organic food does cost more, but I’ve found another way to recoup the extra costs by using the scraps to make my own mostly organic stocks and compost. It’s frugal and green!!

WTH is THAT?!

Warning: This post has the potential… to be lengthy… but I will do my best to make it worth reading.

I wasn’t always a label reader. It happened slowly over time, as I became more and more health conscious. At first I was just interested in the fat and the calories. Eventually I started paying attention to the serving size. What. A. Joke. You mean that when I cook a package of ramen noodles, that’s supposed to be two servings. A serving size of cereal ranges from 3/4 cup to 1 cup. Many packages that appear to be a single serving are actually two or more servings. This isn’t news, I know. But have you ever really measured out your cereal in the morning? I would guess that when I pour a bowl of cereal I’m easily getting 2 or 3 times the suggested serving. Occasionally I’d even go back for seconds fourths and fifths.

When I first realized that sweetened cereal wasn’t good for me, I ditched the Fruit Loops and Cocoa Pebbles for Frosted Mini Wheats and Raisin Bran. Yay me! It felt like a healthy choice at the time. Clearly my standards were very low. Aside from a dozen other things wrong with those “healthier” cereals, the sugar content is nearly the same in my old favorites. There are 12 grams of sugar in 3/4 cup of Fruit Loops, 11 grams in 3/4 cup of Cocoa Pebbles, compared with 11 grams in 1 cup of my store brand of frosted shredded wheat (which, by the way, claims to be “lightly sweetened”) and a heaping 17.6 grams (!) in a cup of Raisin Bran. If you add a cup of milk to your cereal, your adding about 12 ADDITIONAL grams of sugar. (Oh yes, lactose is sugar!!) That’s about 23 to nearly 30 grams of sugar in a bowls of cereal, assuming of course that you’re only eating the one, meager serving. Just to give you a frame of reference, there are purportedly 10 grams of sugar in a Kripsy Kreme glazed doughnut. I wonder if Krispy Kreme knows their doughnuts are only lightly sweetened. Now don’t go and trade all your cereal in for doughnuts! They have problems of their own and should be considered a treat along with the lightly sweetened cereal.

Food manufacturers and package designers are working really hard to make sure we don’t notice the ingredient list, usually because it’s not pretty. Which must be why I barely even noticed them until recently. It’s usually inconspicuously listed under the nutritional information, but sometimes it’s more difficult to find. However you can easily see, from several feet away if something is “MADE WITH WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT” or has “NO ADDED SUGAR” or even that it contains “NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP”. I’ve also noticed that the better the ingredients are, the more prominently the list is displayed.

So when you finally do find the list… what? Who the heck really knows what all that stuff is: xanthan gum (thickener), TBHQ (preservative), maltodextrin (food additive, starch) paprika oleoresin, cochineal, carmine or carminic acid (artifical coloring, these last three are made from ground bugs, seriously), sorbitol and maltitol (aka sugar – click here for a long list of these), sucralose and acesulfame potassium (artificial sweeteners), “enzymes”…? Sometimes they don’t even tell us exactly what the ingredient is. We just know it’s “artificial flavoring or coloring.”

The fear mongering (that I am ashamed to have been a victim of) regarding high fructose corn syrup, is misleading people even further. I’d be willing to bet that even if they ban it, the way they have in Europe, the health of this country will be no better off. Processed food will still have plenty of sugar, just by a different name. Every product that I’ve seen boasting “NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP” still contains sugar, and usually – lots of it. Sorbitol, a sugar substitute, is the third ingredient behind whole grain wheat and sugar in that “lightly sweetened cereal”. I’m inclined to believe that it may contain the same amount of sugar as wheat (if not more)!

Take a look at this extensive list of ingredients on one of my old favorite snacks, Cheez-It Snack Mix:

“CHEESE CRACKERS (ENRICHED FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID], SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, CHEESE MADE WITH SKIM MILK [SKIM MILK, WHEY PROTEIN, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES, ANNATTO EXTRACT FOR COLOR], SALT, PAPRIKA, YEAST, PAPRIKA OLEORESIN FOR COLOR, CHEESE CULTURES), PRETZELS (ENRICHED FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID], SALT, VEGETABLE OIL [CORN, CANOLA AND / OR SOYBEAN OIL], CORN SYRUP, YEAST, BAKING SODA), BREAD SLICES (ENRICHED FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID], VEGETABLE OIL [CORN, CANOLA, AND /OR SOYBEAN OIL], CORN SYRUP, SALT, WHEY, NONFAT MILK, YEAST), WHEAT SQUARES (WHOLE WHEAT, SUGAR, SALT), CHEESE-FLAVORED RICE BALLS (RICE FLOUR, VEGETABLE OIL [SUNFLOWER, SAFFLOWER, RICE AND /OR CANOLA OIL], MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, WHEY, CHEDDAR CHEESE [MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES], REDUCED LACTOSE WHEY, BUTTERMILK, NATURAL FLAVOR, ONION, SUGAR, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, GARLIC, AUTOLYZED YEAST, CITRIC ACID, BLUE CHEESE [MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT ENZYMES], LACTIC ACID), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF SOYBEAN OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, SALT, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE POWDER (MOLASSES, VINEGAR, CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, SUGAR, TAMARIND, NATURAL FLAVORS), GARLIC, TORULA YEAST, MALTODEXTRIN, SUGAR, ONION, SPICES, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CARAMEL COLOR, WHEAT STARCH, MOLASSES, VINEGAR, SOY FLOUR.

We’ve been hoodwinked! This isn’t food. These “ingredients” are components of a concoction that we’ve been told is food. Might as well add a little eye of newt, toe of frog. (Ooooh… wait… that might be actual food.) This stuff should be moved to the shelf with the pesticides. Sounds like poison to me. On second thought, just leave it there with the rest of the processed junk. That way I know which aisles to avoid when shopping for real food.

So my point is (yes, I do have one), don’t pay much attention to the front of the package, especially health claims and buzz words, look at the ingredient list first. If you don’t recognize AND approve of them, don’t even bother looking at the nutrition information. Are these unknown ingredients even safe to eat? I’m not sure, but I’m skeptical. Some of them may be, but many of them probably aren’t. I’m not implying that processed foods are the smoking gun to be blamed solely for the decline of health in America. However I do believe it plays a major role, and I think eliminating it, or even reducing it significantly, would be a great jumping off point to improve health. Even if processed foods were safe, they’re addictive and eating them often will rob your body of nutrients, leaving it ill-equipped to battle the other elements that contribute to our ailing health.

Healthy Vacation?

Vacations are for relaxing and breaking the rules of everyday life. They are meant to rejuvenate us and allow us to take time for ourselves. (A little bit tricky if the kids are with you.) But why did that used to mean I could gorge on all the junk food I wanted and sit around “relaxing” all day on the beach or in front of the t.v.? Going out for ice cream used to be an evening ritual when vacationing. No wonder I always felt so lousy and drained when I came home.

Not this time. This time I tried something different. I didn’t want to come home with more “junk” than I left with. I don’t mean the cheap towels that we had to buy from a dollar store because we left ours at home. (The ones that leave a trail of tiny, white, fuzzy balls behind on the floor and in your hair.) And I don’t mean the comfy pair of flops I found in a little shop at the Cotton Exchange. I’m talking about those extra pounds. Maybe three to five pounds of ice cream, cake, pie, fried this or that. The extra special lunch that would have been acceptable, had I not eaten an equally disturbing amount of food at dinner. I was not going to bring that home with me.

I did indulge once or twice, just as I would have at home. I ate a slice of the most decadent lemon meringue pie that I never knew existed. Sincere thanks to my brother-in-law for buying this pricey pie ($20). This pie, with it’s doughnut-fried-in-butter-like-crust and it’s delicious lemony-cream filling and fluffy meringue, raises the bar for sinful desserts. It was better than any cheesecake I’ve ever had. It’s a good thing the restaurant that bakes these tasty pies, is a good four and half hours away. If you’re ever in the area, you must go to Riverview Cafe in Sneads Ferry and order a slice. Better yet, order the whole pie and share it. They also make key lime pie, which they were out of, probably due to high demand. I’m willing to bet that the key lime is even better. (If that’s possible.)

I was surprised at how easy it was to say no. No to the late night ice cream run. No to the Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the fridge and the potato chips and goldfish stashed in the cabinet. No to ice cream or fudge from Kilwin’s. Instead I had their fresh squeezed lemonade, which Lolo and I preferred over ice cream anyway. No to the fried seafood (yummy broiled scallops instead). No to the burger and yes to the turkey panini with cranberry chutney.

I cooked dinner several nights. We had Almond Crusted Chicken Fingers with broccoli and a Fig, Walnut, Spinach Salad with homemade dressing. Another night I made Asian Lettuce Wraps using a homemade Hoisin Sauce and served it with brown rice. The last night we were there I made Chicken Lemon Pepper Linguini. The linquini recipe actually calls for shrimp, but I substituted with chicken because a few family members don’t eat seafood. I like it better with shrimp. If you make the recipe with chicken, I recommend cutting it in tiny pieces or using cooked chicken. I also made pico de gallo, guacamole and zucchini corn cakes for lunch and snacking. (Thanks for the recipe Carrie!!) Half of the mornings my father-in-law made stone ground grits, eggs and bacon. One morning I made whole wheat pancakes with sausage and eggs. The other mornings we ate cereal or yogurt. (Edited to add that there was always fresh fruit served with breakfast.) Lunch was usually sandwiches or leftovers. We ate out a few times, but made healthy choices.

Aside from eating well, I wanted to be active. Nearly every morning I woke up early and walked a quarter mile to the beach, where I usually continued strolling along the beach, watching the sunrise and searching for pretty shells or pebbles. Sometimes I’d just sit and watch the sunrise while sipping coffee or snapping photos in the warm, salty air, with only the sound of the waves in the back ground. I miss those quiescent moments already. Then I’d walk the quarter mile back to the beach house.

Haleigh came with me the first morning. We walked for 30 minute, speed walking the quarter mile of road to get to the beach, then strolled along the beach for awhile. We challenged ourselves to get back to the house in less time. We actually ran a good part of the way back, and I realized I need to do it more often. I could almost keep up with her. She was really into the challenge and kept us going. We were back in 20 minutes. Pretty good, we thought.

We spent a lot of time out doors, wading in the ocean, riding waves on boogie boards, chasing Lolo on the beach and building sand castles. We also spent some time each day crabbing and fishing. Okay, I actually only watched my in-laws fish off of our private dock. B went kayaking several times. We spent one day in downtown Wilmington, walking in and out of really cool (and some odd) shops… for hours. I got more exercise on this vacation than I do at home, and this was exactly the way I’d hoped to spend my time. I wish I had that kind of leisurely time at home. Maybe when the kids are back in school? Okay… probably not.

By the time we got home, I felt rested and relaxed and had actually lost a couple pounds. I didn’t feel tired and sluggish the way I normally do. It usually takes us the better part of a week to fully unpack and put everything in it’s place. This time, it only took a day and half. It was a near-perfect vacation. Good, mostly healthy food and good times shared with some of our dearest relatives. What more can I say?

The Healthiest Variety

Last night for dinner we had Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Portobellos. This is not B’s favorite meal, but I like it, and eating vegetarian is something I like to do at least once or twice a week. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used homemade spaghetti sauce that I had in the freezer. I served it with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower. (I used the other half of the bag, leftover from my Honey Stir Fry Chicken from the night before. The one I got on the reduced cart at HT for $1.00 – savings!)* If you like mushrooms, you’ll like this recipe. Although I have to say that it wasn’t very good leftover. The mushroom had a slightly gamey taste today. Since B doesn’t really care for portobellos (texture thing), he wanted to know what the health benefits of mushrooms were. We’ve found that knowing the health benefits can actually make things taste better! So I got my Worlds Healthiest Foods book out and we discussed it. According to what I read, crimini (which are just baby portobellos) are one of the healthiest varieties. However, in my past research I remember that maitakes and shiitakes were higher on the list.

I have this sometimes annoying, but usually beneficial habit of wanting to find the healthiest variety of everything, and then wanting to know the best way to prepare it in order to get the most nutrition from it. For instance, most vegetables and fruits are best eaten raw or lightly steamed. The longer you cook them and the higher the temperature, like in a hot oven, on the grill or in a pan with searing hot oil, the more nutrients are lost. However, tomatoes and garlic are better for you when they are lightly cooked. They still shouldn’t be cooked at high temps or for a long time.

Let me get back on topic. If I’m going to eat something, it might as well be the most nutritious. If I’m going to eat an apple it might as well be Red Delicious. (Edited to add: Red apples contain more antioxidants. However, if you are diabetic or prediabetic, you might want to eat a green apple instead. They convert less sugar.) And if I’m going to eat yogurt it might as well be Greek yogurt. (I like 2% Fage.) And if I’m going to eat nuts, I might as well eat raw, unsalted walnuts, almonds, pistachios or cashews (in that order, no more than 1/4 cup a day).

Well the problem is when you’re searching for the best of something, you’ll also find the worst. And when one of your favorite things, is the least healthy variety, it can be a bit disappointing. I love fish because it yummy and it’s good for you. It’s the best source of Omega 3’s. A couple years ago, I decided we should eat more fish. I hadn’t cooked fish at home much and wanted to learn. So I found that tilapia is really mild and tasty and therefore, difficult for me to screw up. The best part was that it was cheap! I can usually get it on sale at HT for around $2.99-$4.99/lb. Great! We ate tilapia at least once a week, and (at that time) I thought it was good for us.

A few months ago, I was researching to find the healthiest fish. Guess what? Tilapia is not one of them. Not even close. It’s pretty much near the bottom of the list. I remember reading somewhere that it was actually one of the worst types of fish you can eat. Incidentally, Salmon is the best. Too bad I don’t like it. In my research I also found that wild caught fish is the best because the natural habitat creates a leaner, healthier and tastier fish. Farm raised fish aren’t that great. Disease is also more prevalent in farm raised seafood. Basically it’s fat and lazy couch potato fish. (Just like our fat and lazy chickens, pigs and cows. If you haven’t watched Food Inc, you should. Also check out episodes of Dirty Jobs about turkeys, chickens and pigs.) Although farm raised tilapia are an ecologically better sustainable seafood choice. I also remember reading something about fish from China being, unreliable. The guidelines and standards in their fishing industry are questionable. Fish in general may be in danger due to our over consumption and water pollution. Well guess what. My $2.99-$4.99 a pound tilapia was farm raised fish from (you guessed it) China! Oh and my convenient-to-have-in-the-freezer-for-a-quick-meal, buy one get two free, easy peel shrimp… is also farm raised from China. Gah!!

Now I know that these are my opinions and standards here, and that this information might be arguable. (In case you couldn’t tell, I was smiling and shrugging as I typed “might” in that sentence, but my opinions are never set in stone and the minute I learn better, like the tilapia, I reform my opinion.) But It took me days of sifting through information to form an opinion, and it is my opinion that wild caught, cold water fish (they’re more oily), not from China are the best. Trout is my personal favorite because it’s milder than Salmon, but still high in Omega 3’s. Haddock and cod are also okay.

My dilemma now is that fish, by these standards, are hard to come by and are not cheap. They usually costs somewhere between $10 (if your lucky) and $20 per pound. Right now I buy most of my fish from HT, but the pickings are slim. Haddock and cod are less expensive and easier to find. The few times HT had something good on sale, they either ran out, or it was icky-looking. (Fresh seafood should be fleshy and clear and have a very light odor. Stay away from any seafood that smells funky, looks opaque or has juice that looks milky.) If anyone out there knows where I can find fresh fish in the Charlotte area, that meet these standards PLEASE (I beg you) email me or comment below.

*A foodie might recognize the hypocrisy of this statement in a post about choosing the healthiest variety. Fresh foods have more nutrients. The fresher the better… but a dollar?? Sometimes the bargain hunter in me wins!

I love food!

I love to cook. I knew this even before we started eating healthy and probably since I was kid. But I didn’t realize how much I love it. I just wish I had more time to do it. If I had time, I would make everything from scratch… fresh bread, condiments. I would like to try making my own bread soon.  Maybe I will. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I also recently discovered that I love to grow my own food. I would like to have my own sustainable garden with seasonal vegetables, some fruit trees, herbs. I do have a small container garden with tomatoes, peppers and a few herbs. The pumpkins are the only thing that are actually in the ground, which are where the “real” garden will be next year. Oh and I did plant some blueberry bushes. We have some wild blackberries growing, but they aren’t very good, and we may have ruined them when we cleared off the fence. So I got my feet wet anyway.

Our new diet allows me to practice my favorite hobby. (By diet I mean: “1 a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason” and not “d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight.”) My favorite things right now are my set of stainless steel pots and pans and Corelle dinnerware. This is the first time I’ve owned a decent set of either. Before I had a mishmash of pots and pans and dinnerware sets. The pots make cooking so much easier and much more fun. The dinnerware makes everything look so good. I can’t believe what I was missing all these years!! Invest in good cookware and dinnerware. It’s worth it, and they don’t have to be expensive. Mine weren’t. I also have a few new cooking utensils that have a come in handy. I don’t want to over do it though, and have my kitchen cluttered with stuff I don’t use often. A good set of knives can do most of the work in the kitchen. A dull knife makes prepping meals twice as hard, not to mention dangerous.

Mise en place is my new favorite cooking term. Although I say it mostly in my head, for fear of sounding like a dope out loud. “Mise en place, mise en place…” (Click here for pronunciation.) Sounds cool, right? And I love the meaning –  everything in it’s place. This is the part that seems to take the most time when cooking. A lot of recipes provide an estimated prep time. I think the estimates must assume (surely) that your “1/2 c. diced onions” or “1 tsp. chopped garlic” are peeled, washed, chopped, measured and ready to go. Otherwise, I’m just really slow. Of course that is a very real possibility.

I like to see a lot of variety and a lot of color on my plate. Last night we had Honey Chicken Stir-Fry, but I modified the recipe to make it healthier and use what I had on hand. I didn’t have any frozen veg, so I cut up some red onion, red pepper, celery (yum) and mushrooms and used a bag of ready-to-eat broccoli and cauliflower. I think using fresh veg made it better. I used regular soy sauce and just skipped the salt. Why the poster of this recipe bothered using low sodium soy sauce, just to add salt later is beyond me. I also skipped the cornstarch and cut the honey down to 2 tbs. It took a little longer to cook because the vegetables were cut a little larger than you would usually find in the freezer section. And of course I served it with brown rice, instead of my old staple, Korean white sticky rice. It was so good and so easy. I could eat it a couple times a week. I wish I’d taken a picture of it to insert here. I probably would have gotten some strange looks from the family for that one. But it was beautiful.

I’ve made so many new dishes in the last few months that I feel like I’ve been on a food adventure. I love food! I’ve used ingredients I’d never thought of and some I’d never heard of. I’ve been to the farmers market and found things on the shelves of grocery stores that I never knew were there. I discovered Earth Fare and finally shopped at Trader Joe’s. I’ve learned to appreciate Harris Teeter for offering healthier selections to it’s customers, that the other local food chains do not. I’ve also learned that there’s more to food than just taste. There’s so much to learn about the health benefits and power of food and herbs. Not to mention finding the healthiest ways to prepare and select them in order to get the most nutritional value from them. Even the best way to grow and harvest them. I’m just a sponge… soaking it all up. It’s as if I’ve opened Pandora’s food box. I’m just in awe…

Five months ago…

I mentioned that I started a blog back in March, but only made the initial entry. Five months have passed, so I’ve decided to repost that entry and assess our efforts since then.

March 04, 2010: “Well I’ve decided to start keeping a journal regarding the healthy lifestyle changes that my family and I are making. Okay, okay… the kids didn’t really choose it. They are innocent bystanders who will benefit, but probably not appreciate it until they’re much older. Or maybe they’ll always resent the fact that they couldn’t eat candy and junk food the way all of their friends did. “Nobody else’s mom makes them eat healthy food!” “So and so’s mom lets them have potato chips for lunch”… or cupcakes or chocolate sundaes with candy and nuts and sprinkles and fudge… I know there are people (including my husband) who believe eating these things are a child’s right of passage. I was one of them. But I don’t believe I’m the only mom that is trying to get her kids to eat healthier.

Let me get back to the idea that kids are supposed to eat candy and junk food. I disagree, sort of. I think EVERYONE should eat a little junk food every now and then. But I think we need to reform our idea of what junk food really is. I want my kids to learn it now and not when they are 30-ish. I’ve set the bar so low for junk food. To me junk food used to mean potato chips and soda and things filled with saturated fat and high fructose corn syrup and a list of ingredients that make even a well read adult feel like they’re back in kindergarten. “Mono…sodium…glu-ta-mate…and guan-yl-ate”? If those are junk foods then things like chocolate chip cookies made with real sugar and applesauce instead of high fructose corn syrup and saturated fat are “healthy”. And by those standards, almond butter cookies made with honey, whole wheat flour and flax seed meal are the tofu of deserts. What I used to think were junk foods, I now think of as toxic. Yes they are yummy. I know my kids will eat them (against my better judgment) when I’m not around and occasionally when I am. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to avoid them forever, but I am going to set the bar high. I’m going to attempt it. If I do fall off the wagon, I’m going to jump back on. I’m not going to make excuses anymore and I’m not going to give up.”

We didn’t give up!! Yay us! B not only jumped on board, but encouraged me to continue making more and more healthy changes. I doubt this challenge would have been possible without that kind of support. Especially when it comes to the kids! Lulu has also embraced this lifestyle. Maybe it’s because she just really wants to please Mom and Dad. Doesn’t matter. She eats nearly every vegetable we put on her plate and will try nearly any new food I dish up. Lele and Lolo, on the other hand, are still my picky eaters. Unless it resembles one of about ten of her favorite foods, Lolo won’t even touch it. But she’s young and I’m somewhat more experienced with picky eaters, thanks to Lele, so I don’t push her… yet.

Now, as for Lele, she absolutely hates to try new things and isn’t afraid to tell you how gross something looks or tastes (in detail and sometimes with inappropriate descriptions for the dinner table). However, within the last month, she has turned a corner. Though she’s sick and tired of all this healthy eating, she’s growing up. Her tastes are slowly maturing. She’s gradually eating more and more healthily. And even though she would rather we go back to our former eating habits, she gets it. She understands that this is a good thing that we’re doing. A “thank you bite” has gone from a small nibble to regular sized bite, and she’ll actually eat a reasonable sized portion of some vegetables now. The other day, while eating a lightly sauteed red pepper, she said “Mom, I think making me eat vegetables is working. I can actually eat these now and it’s okay.” She quickly followed that with, “BUT I’m not saying I like it. I just don’t mind eating it.” In my head I did a little victory dance. It may have been small step, but it was in the right direction!!