March 29, 2010
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It’s All About Food
Although I spend a lot of time blogging about general family life and anything else that gets me fired up lately, the real reason I started this thing was to document our family’s efforts to go green. So much of what we are doing has become rote, so it is hard to even single it out and acknowledge as something we are consciously doing anymore.
I was trying to think what we’re up to that’s new and different….and it’s really all about food these days. Of course, we have always tried to eat healthy and to feed our kids well. Although I never thought I would do it, I nursed the kiddies first, because we felt that would give them the best nutrition possible up front. (No pun intended.
) When it came time for baby food, we made most of it ourselves. We did use jarred baby meat back then, but I can still picture the little cubes of pureed sweet potato, carrots, squash, etc. that we made weekly and froze in batches.Over the last few years, we have tried to eat more natural and organic foods. We’ve read the Michael Pollan books, and others on the topic, so we know that “organic” isn’t always better and doesn’t always mean what you think it means. But still, we’ve been more conscious of the food that we buy.
Lately, we have become very wary of processed foods. Sure, we still eat them – because it’s pretty hard to give up convenience in full – but we are trying to limit the amount that we eat. It seems like most of the processed food we use is of the snack food variety. In order to cut down on those types of snacks in our pantry, all of our baked goods (mostly of the muffin/quick bread variety) are homemade so we know what’s in them. We’re making homemade granola bars and experimenting with different natural sweeteners. A friend recently introduced me to brown rice syrup, which is a good substitute for honey (and processed sugar) when baking.
We watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution this past weekend and were not really that shocked at what we saw. Our own kids rarely buy lunch at school, but I still feel very strongly that the school lunch program in this country needs a serious overhaul.
One thing that struck a chord with us during Jamie Oliver’s show was when he suggested that the children be given knives to cut their food — and all the American adults were absolutely horrified at the concept! Our children (now 6 and 8) have been using knives for some time, and are quite skilled with using even adult-sized knives. Table manners are serious business in our house — just ask our niece and nephew, who come here for “manners boot camp” a few times a year.
Jamie made some really good points about the importance of mastering this skill as a way of showing respect for the food that you eat and the way that you eat it.Part of Jamie Oliver’s struggle in the West Virginia school he’s working with is that the kids want to eat what they know. If kids are only being exposed to chicken nuggets, pizza and mac-n-cheese…..they will not be likely to choose to eat colorful and textured fresh foods. We have always been really big on the concept that kids should be exposed to a wide variety of foods from a young age.
We determined that our daughter was allergic to avocado when she was about a year old. It was announced at a preschool meeting years later that one of the students had an avocado allergy. The other moms were all abuzz about “What kid eats avocado?” and “How on earth would a parent know that?” Since I was in the room, I spoke up and was really surprised at how these people seemed to think it was so bizarre to feed this soft, healthy, delicious food to a baby! (By the way, she outgrew that allergy – so bring on the guacamole!) Now, our daughter loves vegetables of every variety – but her favorite is asparagus. Our son has some seriously expensive taste buds – you should see him with foie gras or smoked salmon.
Anyway, that’s the latest for the Turningreen family. We’re eating less meat (homemade black bean burgers are a new favorite), less processed food, more natural ingredients and hopefully more local food as the weather warms up and we get back to the farmer’s markets and maybe even buy a share in a local cooperative farm. More to come….
Comments (7)
I hear you! We always tried to expose the boys to a wide variety of foods and cuisines. They were the only ones in Kindergarten that had had pomegranates, star fruit, lobster, etc. Reminds me of the time they nearly made themselves sick at daycare eating everyones portion of beets and stewed plums!! And yes they too have expensive tastes! Right now the favorite snacks are dried banana chips, dates, and yogurt (at 21 & 22 yrs they do snarf down the food – but it is healthier than most of their peers’ choices).
Inspiring! And so inline with many of my thoughts about feeding Fig. We have a friend who loves to grocery shop with her kindergartner bc of the looks they get in the produce section. He says things like “Ooooooo, Mom, Look! Pomegranates, can I have one pleaseeeeeeee? And look at that, it’s squash, I haveeeeeeeee to have one!”. Of course he gets just as excited in the ice cream section, but that’s not quite as newsworthy.
Avocado is the perfect baby food! We were all vegetarians until my kids were ages 8 and 4, so we never did the baby food meat. Actually, we used to buy those jars of meat as a treat for our cats – at least it was pure meat and not mystery pet food
As with your avocado example, it’s sad how so much of the problem is created by adults in kids’ lives. Adults either pass along their own bad eating habits or, worse, they *assume* to know what kids will like and not like. I’m convinced that the whole “kids will only eat crustless white Wonder bread” thing is adult-created. If kids have only known whole grain bread, THAT is what they prefer!
@DrTiff - Well, of course you’d say that about avocado – you’re from California!
But seriously – every time I hear a parent say, “Little So and So will only eat XYZ,” I get so frustrated. Expose them to different things, make them try, and they will like it. As the great Dr. Seuss said, “Try it, try it, and you’ll see!”
@draco1531 - @murisopsis - My kids LOVE pomegranates, and so do I….but man are they a lot of work!! And as for the tagalong grocery shopper – it can be a great thing in the produce department. I told my daughter that I heard kale is really good and healthy – we found it on the shelf and she encouraged me to buy it so she could try it!! Now having the kids in the innards of the grocery store, where all the processed crap is, requires some serious control. Otherwise, they will take over and fill your cart with sugary stuff. Remember, draco — you are the boss of the cart, not Fig.
@turningreen -haha, I did sound like an advertisement for the State Avocado Board (I just made that up – not sure if there is a SAB or not)… but the really funny part is that I am NOT a fan of avocadoes myself. In fact, they make me gag. But I always served them to my babies because we were vegetarian & I needed good protein sources. Now both kids love them… but I still gag
The whole thing you pronounce interferes with my point of view, I consider therefore
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