Monday, January 25, 2010

The "Good" Stuff

I am one of "those moms". Denying my children the finer aspects of childhood. Sugar cereals are a treat for the weekend. There is never soda in the house unless it's a party. I put 100% juice or water in their Klean Kanteen. Lunchboxes have rules - protein, fruit and/or veggie, starch and A treat. I make cookies and only occasionally buy a box of Trader Joe's Jo-Jo's. Well, perhaps the Jo-Jo thing is just for my own waistline preservation. If you've ever eaten a Jo-Jo, you understand.

Last week Max and Jake were bemoaning the fact that they never get the "good" stuff. So I offered this idea. We'll buy all the "good" stuff for 5 days worth of meals. Fun cereal not quinoa muffins. Doritos not whole wheat pretzels. Fruit and veggie optional. Jake can even pack a can of soda. Perhaps naively, I thought after a few days, they'd be tired of the fun food and crave carrots. Oatmeal cookies WITH raisins would be welcome. Orange would be the clementines, not the Doritos.

I love to cook and feed people and for me meal prep is a pleasure. In today's busy world though, sometimes homemade meals can't be a priority all the time. For some lengthy meal prep is purgatory. Today, we embark upon the Processed Food Project. We'll see if my cookies are better than Twinkies. My hope is that they will be and they'll sing my praises. Then again, they are kids and it's hard to compete with a booty like this....

We are all going to share thoughts on this new approach to food and I'll post them here. My hope is that it will be a lesson for all of us. Perhaps we (ahem...I) need to learn moderation goes both ways and the humble carrot can be "good" stuff, too.

In the meantime, what can I cook for whom?

2 comments:

Georgine said...

You are so funny. I am anxious to know how it works. B would eat chewy granola bars and mango pops at every meal if she could. And don't start me on her obsession with Jello. She eats it every time we visit my Mom, who eats Jello almost every day.

B watched the movie WALLE and wanted to know about Twinkies. WALLE's cock roach friend eats and sleeps in one. I told B they were bad food. So she tells me she wants one. "Mom, what's the bad food from WALLE?" A twinkie I say. And she says, "Yes, I want one of those!" Are they born with it?

Nathan said...

Oh MY WORD. That photo is making me all twitchy.

Carol