Still More Thoughts on Food

I've still been thinking about food, particularly about the idea, taken as gospel in some corners of the internet, that processed food is a bad thing.

Two questions are floating around in my head:

1. Do you suppose that when humans first learned how to turn wheat into flour and then into bread, a group of traditionalists went around grousing about this new, unnatural processed food?

2. Why is it that when Native Americans or a tribe in some remote corner of the world use all parts of an animal it is considered noble, but when a food company does something similar and fashions chicken nuggets out of less-favored bits of chicken meat it is considered bad, even evil?

I suspect the answer to the first question is a resounding "no", because that technological innovation increased the food calories that could be extracted from a plot of land, and enabled those calories to be stored for delayed use. These were good things. But who knows, maybe some people at the time were suspicious of the new-fangled bread.

The answer to the second question is harder to fathom. I suspect it has something to do with our deep-seated ideas about how homes should be run and what women should do with their lives, mixed with a healthy dose of knee-jerk "if a big corporation does it, it must be evil".

Personally, I think we should evaluate our food based on whether its production is sustainable and whether it is good for us, not on what technology was used to produce it or who produced it. I think we should be rational about this, instead of dogmatic. I don't think high-fructose corn syrup is a problem- I think the problem is our overuse of refined sugar. So I don't search for juices cookies made with "real sugar". I limit our use of juices cookies*. Similarly, I don't think the problem is that we are using foods that are made by a company and not baked from scratch at home. I think the problem is that some of those foods use too much fat, sugar, and salt as a shortcut to good taste. So I try to chose these foods carefully and use them in moderation.

It is not that I am a huge fan of "processed" food. We don't eat fast food very often at all. We cook most of our meals in our house, and I try to find recipes that I think are healthy. The vast majority of the recipes in heavy rotation come from Cooking Light, actually. However, I do make use of "convenience" foods, such as pre-shredded cheese, store bought tortellini, and frozen sweet potato fries (which I bake, not fry). And once every week or so, we eat a frozen pizza. I read the ingredients, and I decide if I think the product is a good mix of nutrition and convenience. I balance those things against the limited time I have in the evenings, and my desire to spend some of that time with my children, not in the kitchen.

I suspect that as my children get older, dinner time will move a little later and I will get them to help me make dinner- or at least hang out at the dining table while I make dinner. Hubby will make dinner more often, too, once we don't have to try to eat between 6 and 6:30. When these things happen, we will use fewer convenience foods, because we will have more time to cook and the work will be shared among all the family members.

In the meantime, I will continue on as I am going now- evaluating recipes and ingredients one at a time, with an eye to both nutrition and easing my hectic after work routine. And I will continue to refuse to feel guilty about it.

*Thanks to Petunia's decision to let me get some uninterrupted sleep last night, I'm thinking a little more clearly, and I realize that juice is a bad example. What I actually do with juice is look for products with NO added sugars and less added "sweetener juice" (e.g., grape juice). And then I still limit its consumption- Pumpkin gets juice at home only rarely.

Also, more on HFCS, food safety, and additives in the comments!

A Blinding Flash of Insight

A couple of hours ago, I was sitting at my desk, engrossed in an interesting user interface design problem. I realized that I was fidgeting in my chair because I had to go to the bathroom, but wanted to finish designing the screen I was working on.

And then I flashed back to last night, when Pumpkin was sitting at her little desk, engrossed in a picture she was coloring. She was fidgeting around, clearly in need of a potty break, but wouldn't stop to take one until she finished coloring in the sun she'd drawn on her page.

One of the most humbling things about parenting is seeing your own bad habits and personality quirks echoed back at you.

Extended Interlude

I'm too tired to write any of the "real" posts I have in mind. It was a busy weekend. Pumpkin's birthday party was on Saturday. I baked her a cake on Friday night- chocolate, as requested. Then, Saturday morning, I made the frosting (also chocolate, as requested) and frosted the cake. Pumpkin and I decorated it with sprinkles and dinosaurs. She wanted a spiderman on her cake, just like one of her day care friends had. I told her I didn't think I could do that, and she chose dinosaurs as her second choice. Luckily, our local grocery store had some candy dinosaurs. Here is the finished product:


It was a lot more impressive than it looks. It is two sheet cakes stacked on top of each other. Only people who have baked cakes will appreciate what a miracle it was to that both sheet cakes were cooked through but not over done, and came out of their pans (and then onto the serving platter) without mishap. I'm not a big cake eater (I prefer cookies), but I'm told it tasted good. Anyway, Pumpkin was happy with it, and that's what matters.

Pumpkin had a great time at her birthday party. I think the other kids did, too. My favorite part was when they started singing into the karaoke machine the party place had in their "disco room". They were rocking the ABCs song, let me tell you.

Today, we went to a birthday party for one of Pumpkin's day care friends. It was at a park, and again, all the kids had fun. So did the adults. Our day care crowd is a good crowd to hang out with. But I think the adults were all fairly wiped out by the end of it- two kids parties in one weekend is pretty intense. I am particularly wiped out because Hubby's work had their annual party last night. My saint of a sister agreed to babysit (after helping out with the party, too!) and we went to the party. I tried to get into it, but frankly, I didn't really want to be there. I wanted to be at home, asleep.

Petunia held up well through all the partying, but was clearly tired by the end of the weekend. We still haven't figured out how to get her the naps she needs on the weekends. She really needs to be held for one of her naps each day, so that she can get a good long nap, but Pumpkin doesn't make it easy for us to do that. She is just a ball of energy.

However, she is a ball of energy that is starting to display some impressive deductive reasoning skills. What she deduces isn't always quite right, but you can always follow her logic. For instance, today she told us that Mommy had to nurse Petunia. Daddy can't do it because he has hair under his shirt.

We just smiled and tried not to laugh. Because really, it isn't a bad explanation.

Birthday Interlude

I have even more to say about food, but before I do that, I thought I'd take a little break to gush about my children. Yesterday was Pumpkin's 3rd birthday. We've been having an extended celebration. She got her first gift on Sunday, because we wanted her to have time to play with it. My parents bought her a little tricycle.

We had her open her gifts from Hubby's parents on Sunday, too, just to space out the gift bonanza a bit. Besides, it was her birthday in New Zealand (they're on the other side of the international date line). And we needed some new books to read at bedtime, and they can always be counted on to send us some fun New Zealand kids books. They did not disappoint.

Pumpkin told us (several times) that she wanted an umbrella and a computer for her birthday. So, her baby sister got her an umbrella, and we got her a computer.



(That is the a little toddler computer. The screen is a little old-school, but Pumpkin loves the computer. It is going to stretch her skills a bit- the games are little advanced for her. She has already learned how to use the mouse, though, and is getting the hang of a couple of the games.)

We had a family-only party for her last night. My Mom made her cupcakes (yellow cake with yellow frosting, as requested) and hung a "Happy Birthday" banner with dinosaurs- Pumpkin is currently fond of the T rex. Whenever she sees one, she says "that's a T rex!" So the birthday banner was a hit.

We opened the rest of her gifts after dinner. She liked everything she got. Several people gave her money for her college fund. She had a lot of fun putting that in her piggy bank- it is full now. We need to pull some out and deposit it in her actual college fund! She solemnly rolled up the bills to stuff into the piggy bank. Her GiGi and Great-Boppa (my grandparents) sent quarters, which are always a favorite. Unprompted, she decided she wanted to share some with her little sister. Don't be too impressed with her generosity, though- she still got to put them in a piggy bank, which is her favorite part.

My favorite part of the evening came when we sang her happy birthday. She was so happy that it erased any worries or annoyances that were in my mind from the day. I just looked at her big smile and smiled, too.

Pumpkin's day care party was delayed to today, due to a miscommunication between Hubby and the teacher who was in the room when he dropped her off yesterday. She was sad when she realized the party hadn't happened yesterday (we'd taken some cookies and party hats in), but was easily mollified with a promise of a party today- and today, she was bouncing around telling me about eating cookies when I got to day care to pick her up. So I think the adults all felt worse about the mix-up than she did.

Her final birthday party is Saturday, when we're hosting a bunch of her friends at an indoor playground. (The idea that it is easier to have a birthday party at the park and that it is silly to hire a place like this for a party is one of those little misconceptions I had before I had kids- this is actually FAR easier.) I am making a cake for that party. I have been instructed to make a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, with a fishy on top.

Petunia's half-birthday was last Friday. She didn't get a party- she got a trip to the doctor's office for her 6 month check up. She is about average height (25.5 inches, 43 %), a bit chubby (18.2 lbs, 88 %), and has a gigantic head (18 inches, 99 %). The doctor checked a few milestones- the fact that she's rolled over was duly noted, even if she's done it exactly one time. She uses both hands to grab at items, which is good (it means the two sides of her brain are talking). And just recently, she's gotten really into sitting up. She even likes to sit upright in her bouncy chair, which has got to be an awesome abs workout. She sat like this for about 20 minutes after we got home today, while I cooked dinner.


So she may have chubby thighs (oh my, does she have chubby thighs!) but she's going to have abs of steel!

More on Food

As an answer to anyone who might have read my last post and thought that I just need to offer Pumpkin more vegetables, here is a list, probably incomplete, of the vegetables she has been offered but refused to eat. Each thing on this list has been offered multiple times. Some things, such as carrots, have probably been offered close to 100 times by now.

• zucchini (sliced and shredded, steamed, fried, and grilled)
• broccoli (a.k.a "little trees", raw and cooked with cheese sauce)
• carrots (raw and cooked, with and without sauces, ad infinitum... she'll nibble them, but spits them out)
• corn (on the cob and off)
• asparagus (steamed and grilled)
• green beans
• red, yellow, and green peppers (raw and cooked)
  
• spinach (raw and cooked)
• tomatoes (raw and cooked, chopped, as a soup, and in sauces)
• butternut squash (in soup and cooked in pasta dishes)
• potatoes (mashed or baked)
• peas (frozen or cooked)
• hummus
  

And here is the sadly complete list of vegetable-like things she will actually eat:

• sweet potato fries (this took about 10 tries, but now she'll eat them >75% of the time)
• carrots when shredded and cooked into carrot cake pancakes (but not always)
• ketchup
• french fries
• refried beans, but only at day care
  

Hubby and I try to eat a vegetable with every dinner. I am building quite a collection of ideas about how to quickly prepare vegetables in a way that I can stand to eat (remember, most green veggies taste bitter to me). One of my current "go to" recipes is to put a bunch of green beans in a microwave-safe dish, plop a little bit of butter on them, pour on some orange juice, and sprinkle on some thyme, salt, and pepper. Then I microwave them for 3-5 minutes (depending on the number of beans), stirring once.

We've had better luck with fruit- Pumpkin likes grapes, strawberries, bananas, pineapples, applesauce (but not whole apples or apple slices!), raspberries, and sometimes tangerines ("tangeringes") and mandarin oranges. We've also tried pears, blueberries, kiwifruit and several different stone fruits, but those have yet to meet with success. We can get away with just about any fruit when it is blended up into a smoothie, though, particularly, if we add strawberries to the smoothie.

It is just like sleep, in my opinion- you can do everything "right" and still not have great success. However, I think it is interesting that the article I found on supertasters says that most kids can taste the bitter compound, even if they will eventually become "non-tasters". So maybe we're all just fated to have to struggle to get our kids to eat their vegetables.

Anyone have any suggestions for more vegetables we should try?