Future Foodies of America or It's Time to Rethink the Children's Menu

My Mother in Law has been in town (more on that later) and today we had to take her to the airport so she could continue her tour of grand kids in Sacramento. We decided that a trip to Balboa Park on the airport would be a great way to end our week of fun. Our goal was the Reuben H. Fleet Museum, but as we pulled up there were three school buses unloading what looked like thousands of school kids. Much to my boys disappointment, I opted for the "let's just walk around the park and play" approach. (Note to self. Never go to Balboa Park on free Tuesdays, ever.)

We played, walked around and then decided to stop for lunch. At the Prado. Carol and I decided to split some appetizers, and the boys chose Macaroni and Cheese off the kids menu. The boys happily got started on the mac and cheese when it arrived and were eating well. UNTIL...

Our appetizers arrived. Apparently, my kids like

panko crusted jumbo lump crabcakes (Evan)

diced jicama-lime slaw, avocado-serrano chili puree, chipotle aioli

and

crispy calamari fries (Ryan)

tossed in a sweet & spicy korean soy bean chili sauce, napa cabbage slaw

much better than Mac and Cheese.

Carol and I basically shared one crab cake and about ten calamari fries, some garnish and the complementary flat bread.

I love my little foodies.

Just another Meatless Monday

A few weeks ago we watched the movie Food, Inc. and the impact it had on me was profound. If you have not seen this movie you should. It really might change the way you look at your food forever. (We also watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and that is a whole other post!!!!)

I am not someone who is naive to what goes on at chicken and beef farms, or slaughter houses for that matter. I have always enjoyed my proteins and I try to push the yucky stuff out of my mind because of it.

Some of the things mentioned in Food, Inc. made me angry. Cows are fed corn, because corn is cheap, and the government subsidizes it. But corn is bad for cows, and therefore it is bad for us. Because the cows are fed corn, they have a much higher level of bacteria (e coli) in their systems, therefore there is a much higher level of bacteria in our meats. If a cow is fed grass for 7 days prior to slaughter, the level of bacteria decreases by eighty percent. But because of the demand to produce, produce, produce as cheaply as possible, this simple, natural easy step is avoided, and antibiotics and "washes" are used instead. And don't even get me started on how this is all McDonald's fault.

And then there is the soybean...

While I am not totally against genetically engineering a better and stronger seed, I am One Hundred Percent against any soybean that comes from Monsanto seed. Trust me, buy organic soy products with no GMO's. Talk about getting me angry!

Since having the kids, I've wanted to provide them with better. I want them to develop good eating habits now, so they don't have to make any wholesale changes when they get older.

To the best of my ability I've tried to use primarily organics. Milk, number one on my list has always been organic. Chicken, organic. Fruits and Veggies, organic when available. Now, I'm not 100% and I'll admit that they have eaten a few too many goldfish, or other crackers, or hot dogs, (the hot dogs are grass fed, nitrate free, which does make me feel better) but I'm all about balance. I limit sugar, and no high fructose corn syrup, I try to use products with little or no preservatives, I read labels. Still there are limits.

Since watching Food, Inc. we've instituted Meatless Mondays, and we've joined a CSA (thanks Lindsay). I'm really finding Meatless Mondays fun, and challenging. I've had to expand my repertoire, (thanks Meredith, love the cookbook) and I've been able to make a small change in all of our diets. AND, it is making an impression. Today during dinner, Ryan told me "I love meatless Monday" (yea! for my little carnivore that is saying a lot). We even had a meatless dinner on a SATURDAY in ADDITION to the regularly scheduled Monday!

Thanks to the CSA, I've had to really flex my creativity to use all of the ingredients in my weekly box. (I had no idea Swiss Chard was so yummy just sauteed with garlic and olive oil!) So far I've been able to find recipes that include the items in the box and I'm sure that as the weeks go on it will become easier and easier. Sorrel, anyone have something I can do with a ton of Sorrel? It's very bitter but yummy, I may add a little to my lunch salads each day, but I seriously have a ton of Sorrel. It's kind of fun to plan my meals around what came in my box, or to know that I have all the ingredients for a yummy salad.

In addition, I hope that helping me collect our box each week, and looking at and tasting all of the new things we get from "our farm" the boys will be more inclined to try some of these new things.

While these are just small steps to a healthier lifestyle, they are steps.
(if I could just get Scott to eat seafood, so many more steps could be taken!!!)

Believe what they tell you

...those pediatricians, nutritionists, GI doctors, OTs, parents, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, other parents, and perfect strangers.

Keep trying. Keep offering. It takes 20 tries.

Seriously? 20 tries? try 20,000 attempts.

Last week Ryan decided he wanted to eat some of my home made croutons. Of course I told him he had to eat salad to have croutons, and to my shock and surprise, he ate a whole bowl. The next day he asked if he could have salad, and although I had no croutons, he had two bowls.

Today I had some pepperoni in my salad (Italian chopped salad) and it happens to be one of Ryan's favorite things, he had already finished one bowl of salad and was attempting to snitch my pepperoni. I then suggested that he try some of the veggies I had in my salad. Ryan tried red and yellow peppers, avocado, cucumber, and tomatoes! He was a big fan of the peppers! Shocking since just last night he would not eat the red peppers in his fajitas. Evan also got into the act, and ate a three or four rounds of cucumbers.

All that vegetable eating lead to Ryan saying : "From now on, I love vegetables."

Did you hear that? That was me doing a happy dance, screaming from the table top!

If I needed confirmation...

Yes, these kids are mine.

They love Taco Night as much as I do...

Top Chef or Fear Factor?

The boys have some play food, some of which includes this cool sushi set from Melissa and Doug. (Not that I'm trying to influence their food choices or anything, but eventually, these boys, my boys will HAVE to like sushi. It's their heritage. It's been decided.)

I found this masterpiece the other day after the boys went down for naps.

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but I believe that it is banana sushi. It's either brilliant, or something on the eating challenge of Fear Factor or Survivor. I'm going to go with brilliant, since I believe my resident chef Ryan created this culinary creation, but please, don't make me try it.

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I had a moment early this week, I guess that means yesterday, where I realized I had left the boys alone for too long. It had gotten silent. Any mom knows the sound of silence strikes terror in the heart of even the most battle worn parent.

This is what I found...


Sigh...does this mean they are growing up?

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Today Ryan was sitting on the potty, and he wasn't positioned right...let's just say if he had peed, he would have gotten it all over the floor. I used my finger and "positioned" him. This is what he told me.

"No Mommy, please don't touch my penis, it isn't nice."

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on that note, don't forget to donate, sign up your own team, or support the March of Dimes

Don't Jinx It!

Knock on wood. and all the other superstitious things I can think of.

Evan swallowed today, TWICE.

He had some veggie stick at OT and some (a tiny, tiny bite) of pasta at lunch!

He told me, and my two witnesses that he swallowed! He was pretty proud of himself.
and we of him.

YEA EVAN!!!

and tomorrow is another day.

Not my Mother's fried rice

I think all Asian families have fried rice as a staple. For my family we usually had fried rice on Sunday mornings, it was either that, or omelets over rice. My Mom would make it with left over rice, bacon, bologna, and onions. Although it is called 'fried' rice, my Mom never used oil, (who needs oil when you are frying bacon!) so the 'fried' in our fried rice was always the frying pan it was cooked in. My favorite part of the meal was the crispy bottom. My Mom would let it cook at a low heat until the rice got nice and brown, it had to be scraped off the bottom of the pan, yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Ryan has found a obsessive love of rice. He loved to eat it off of my chopsticks. Now that he is asserting his independence, he eats it with his hands and a fork. Almost every day he asks for rice. I've taken to making HUGE batches of fried rice and freezing it just so I have some on hand. (I took a picture of the two frying pans full, but it doesn't look that appetizing so just imagine two large frying pans full of rice.)

Every time I make fried rice for Ryan, I think about just how different my version is from my Mother's.

I use chicken breasts, organic green beans, organic carrots, and any other organic vegetables I can throw in there. I would never consider nitrate laden processed lunch meat! I do however make sure there is a nice crispy layer, and it is Ryan's favorite part too.