Somehow these two things don’t go together very well…But I am reviewing Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure this week, and I know it’s not one we’ll want to watch again (we’re not really much for watching movies over and over; we tend towards shorter shows so that more kids can have their favorite). I’d love for someone else to enjoy it, especially if there are any real Tinkerbell fans out there (full disclosure: the first Tinkerbell movie only lasted five minutes here, as both Wyatt (then 2) and Lily (then 4) found it way too scary.)
I’m reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, and his mantra–Eat food, not too much of it, mostly plants–has really resonated with me. I lost almost fifteen pounds in the three weeks we spent in China this summer by inadvertently following his advice (Cheez-its and Oreos being in short supply  over there, and although I like Pocky as much as the next girl, I’m not going to get fat on it).Â
I know I’m better and healthier if I eat real food–as in, food you can define, food with ingredients you recognize, food that you could imagine cooking yourself. That can include french fries, but it lets Pop Tarts right out of the picture. Â
I’m thinking of starting a month-long household challenge (for a magazine piece) to eat nothing but actual food, but I can see two problems ahead: one, actual food takes time (tonight we had a full-on meal of fish, brussel sprouts and salad, and I swear I spent all afternoon chopping one way or another, then made both applesauce  and applesauce bread for tomorrow–and there you have my day, which would be fine if I didn’t have a job). Two, my kids like things with powdered cheese on them, and there is really no way to finesse powdered cheese into the definition of “food” unless you can imagine yourself somehow powdering it. I think I could sell Sam on the project, but the others just aren’t going to get it.
I will clearly have to settle for “improvement,” for a lot of reasons. anyone have any excellent ideas for replacing the fake foods that fill my pantry with real ones that the kids will still love? Packing lunch, in particular, is looking like a tough one to me.
I’m no fanatic–I let them eat Halloween candy until they got bored with it (even Rory’s forgotten about it, a miracle in and of itself). I just want to see less maltodextrin and Xantham gum in what we eat. Plus as much as I like small crunchy snacks, I think we’re getting a little too dependent on them, and that’s not a good habit in the long run!
For lunch, and snacky stuff, I often give them different kinds of cereals… Yea, cereals are processed, but not too much–especially the ones we eat.
Typical lunch has one food from the main food category, two foods from the snack food category, and one from the fruit/veg category.
“Main food”
Pizza (homemade on whole grain tortilla, no, I don’t make the tortilla myself, but I buy really DAMN healthy ones, without fillers and full of whole grains and I often make the pizza sauce myself and then I top with mozz. cheese)
or
PB sandwich
or cheese stick and Whole Grain tortilla with a little butter
or whole grain tortilla with beans and cheese
or saltines or whole grain crackers with PB
or Whole Grain tortilla
Snack food–usually 2 of the following:
raisins or other dried fruit (with NO additives)
or
cheerios/some other whole grain cereal, but the girls really like cheerios
or
home made muffin/cookie (once a week or less)
or
a fruit roll up with ONLY fruit and a little sugar… I usually buy them because I don’t have time to make them, but you can make them. See http://www.sugarlaws.com/fruit-leather
Fruit/Vegetable
Apple, Banana, grapes, strawberries (depending on season) or Carrots
I’m excited to hear about the project. I kind of chronicled some of our changes to eating only real food on my blog… I started us on this journey a couple of years ago. Hrm… Maybe I’ll do a meta-post about it.
(Isn’t powdered cheese taking cheese forgranted? Heh.)
Ugh… the comment didn’t show with extra line breaks. Hopefully you can read it.
Seeing Ali revel in gluttony and a little chunk too has made me rethink the snacky stuff. We now default to carrots and bananas. The other kids are getting used to it too. No Vitamin A or Potassium deficiencies ’round here of late!
And I have to add that our bottomless snack machine is a bit too into Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. Luckily Larkin will watch it with her every time.
Do you have CSA or farm shares you can purchase? I bought one of those for the spring and summer — boy do your eating habits change when there’s fresh stuff in the fridge. I loved all the greens for salads early on — the kids not so much. But I felt physically better for eating them.
Our share was heavy on the veg side. I’d suggest trying to find one that has more fruit (to keep the kids happier). Now we have lots of homemade tomato sauce and peppers in the freezer, potatoes, onions, and leeks for eating. The sweet corn was divine.
I’m no Suzy Homemaker, but it feels good to have some of that stuff boiled up into sauces in the freezer. It’s not that hard to do.
I recommend Menus4Moms.com – it has led to me cooking more with ingredients than out of boxes. 😉