Columbus Food Truck Fest-Weekend Outing Preparation

We spent this weekend in Columbus at the Food Truck Fest. It was so much fun! We were selling our handmade jewelry, accessories, and pin back buttons. (You can check out some of our stuff here.) We met some awesome people and were lucky enough to have Ghetto Vintage as our neighbor.

This was our first weekend away from home since having Evie. I was surprised at how smoothly everything went. It used to be so stressful for me to leave the house when she was younger... so much to get ready, so many things to forget, and inevitably, spit up on all of us at least twice right before we were ready to walk out the door. Thank goodness, I've either gotten way better at preparation or she is getting easier to take care of as she is growing. Maybe a little of both.

Whenever we are going to be out for awhile, we bring a cooler packed with home-made food for Evie so we don't have to worry about finding something nutritious for her to eat in a restaurant or random grocery store. We keep several gallon jugs of water in the freezer so when we need ice we just throw them in the cooler. They sweat a little but don't melt like ice chips and make everything soggy. When they start to thaw, you can drink the water! The trick is not to fill the jugs all the way before you freeze them or they will burst as the ice expands.

I made a run to the grocery store Friday and prepared some things for her to eat. My arsenal included cooked oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, grapes, a block of cheese, an avocado, some cooked mixed veggies (carrots, peas, corn, broccoli) all packed in recycled glass jelly jars. Of course, we brought lots of bananas. I packed too much food, which is always better than too little.

I steamed the veggies in my double boiler while the eggs were boiling in the water below. This saved time, energy, electricity, and water. If I didn't use the water to boil eggs, I would have saved it to cook the oatmeal. The water under the steamed veggies has lots of nutrients in it. It's usually green!

I also stuffed a jar full of celery sticks and water to keep them crisp and cool. She can't eat the celery yet but it's the best teether in the world. If she is having a really bad teething day I will give her frozen celery to chew on and it always makes her happy, at least for a little while.

Looks like she got a bit of grass on her celery stick!

Here she is, munching away, happy as a clam. She is such a good baby. It was miserably hot all weekend and she never even got fussy.

With our first weekend trip being such a success, I see more in our future, and that makes me a happy mama. 


Follow @FeedingEvie

All Natural is a Joke

The problem: Labels lie!

The solution: Read the ingredients. 

Don't fall for the claims boasted on packaging. Healthy and all natural my fanny! The terms "healthy" and "natural" have absolutely no regulation or definition when it comes to the food industry, so they basically mean nothing. I could produce a completely artificial candy and claim it was all natural with no consequences.

I hate to be Debbie Downer here, but food companies are smart. They keep up on the hot trends and swoop in to profit from them. They know that people are starting to wake up and realize all this crap we are consuming is not good for us. So, they slap the word natural on the label and voila! Sit back and watch the profits sky rocket.

To figure out what's really going on with your corn flakes, all you have to do is flip the box over and read the ingredient list. This is one place where the companies can't lie. (Well, except by using terms like "natural flavoring," but that is a post for another day.)

Did you know that the ingredients are listed in order of quantity? For example, if the first ingredient is corn, the product is mostly corn. The rest are listed in descending quantities, so if the second ingredient is sugar and the last is salt, then you know there is more sugar than salt. You can get specific salt and sugar levels by reading the nutrition label.

Another trick they use is pseudonyms. For example, they know people are trying to cut back on sugar, so they call it something else. Dextrose, Sucrose, Fructose, Cane Syrup, Cane Juice, Maltodextrin, etc. This list goes on and on. One of the worst offenders is corn syrup, especially high fructose corn syrup. See my post on HFCS to find out why.

The easiest way to avoid all this nonsense is to simply not buy anything that has any ingredient your grandma would not have in her kitchen cabinets. We used to say no ingredients you can't pronounce, but the industry caught on and changed the ingredient names to sound less like chemistry class.

This isn't as hard as it sounds. Practice by reading the labels of what you already have in your kitchen. I bet you will be shocked by what is in at least a few of the products you thought you trusted. If you don't know what an ingredient is, Google it. The results might surprise you.

Try to shop in the produce and health food sections only. Avoid the middle aisles all together if you can because this is where most of the processed food is. You need to read ingredients in the health food section too.

Your first few shopping trips might be a little overwhelming. Leave yourself some extra time and maybe leave your spouse and kids at home so you can concentrate. If you are lucky enough to have a fancy phone, there are food additives apps that can help. It will get easier every time you go shopping.

Try to look at this as empowering instead of as another thing you have to find time for. You can take the power back over what your family eats. Shame on those corporations for trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Fight back. Remember, every dollar you spend is a vote for how you want to see the future.


Follow @FeedingEvie

Food Freak Out

If you are anything like I was 9 months ago, your pantry probably consists of convenience foods like boxed mac and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, and sweetened cereal. You eat some fruit and veggies every day and think you are doing pretty well at this whole healthy eating thing. For me, everything changed when I had my baby girl. Holding this tiny being who was completely dependent on me for her every need made me realize I was going to have to get it together before she started eating solid foods. I was not going to be one of those mothers sweating in the fast food drive-through with a guilty look on my face, hoping no one I knew saw me sneaking french fries and over the back seat to my toddler.

I thought it would be easy. I would start really paying attention to ingredient labels, switch brands if necessary, avoid the deep fryer, and smile smugly as my kiddo munched on some all natural cereal, just like in the glossy parent magazines. I was dead wrong. I was completely overwhelmed and unprepared for the rabbit hole I found myself falling down when I started to research the current state of our food. Red dye 40? Phenylpropionaldehyde Dimethyl Acetal? Genetically modified organisms? What was this crap and why was it in my dinner?

I spent countless hours learning about everything food related. At one point I freaked out and threw nearly everything in our kitchen into the trash. Yes, it's that serious. I know what you are thinking. If it isn't safe, it wouldn't be in our food. That's what the FDA is for. I used to comfort myself with that thought too. The sad truth is that in the United States, we assume things are safe until they are proven harmful. The growing chorus of people raising concerns about our food supply is mostly being ignored by those who have the power to do anything about it.

So what do you do? You take it one step at a time, one meal at a time. Some changes are easy and some are....not so easy. We have been on this journey for about six months and I'm proud of the changes we have made, but I know we have a long way to go. Despite my convictions and my pledge to feed my family real food, you may see me devouring a chocolate bar in the bushes, well hidden from the keen eye of my tiny tot who always wants a bite of whatever mommy is eating. Life is just like that. You do the best you can and you keep trying to do better. Then one day you wake up and admire how far you've come.

There are many excuses people (like me) come up with for leaving healthy eating at the bottom of the priority list. Here are a few of them.

• Healthy food tastes like poo. This is so not true. We are eating better now than we ever have. Some things can take some getting used to, but our overall consensus is that our food tastes way better and is much more satisfying than what we were eating before. Plus, we have expanded our diet to include all kinds of things we had never eaten before...quinoa, millet, rainbow chard...and who knew you could make something other than jack-o-lanterns and pie with pumpkin?!

• It's too expensive. I thought so too, and I have been pleasantly surprised that our food bill has actually gone down. Junk food is expensive, it gets gobbled up right away, and it doesn't keep you full. Whole foods may seem to have a higher price tag, but they fill you up more quickly and help you feel full longer. Strategies like buying in bulk and meal planning also greatly help reduce grocery bills.

• It's too time consuming. Although some Super-Mom bloggers out there would have you think healthy eating happens in a snap, this is one area I have not yet mastered. (I suspect they have secret ties to Samantha the witch and often wonder how I can join the coven too!) I do spend a lot more time thinking about, planning, and preparing food than I used to, but it isn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be and it's totally worth it. There are lots of time-saving tips that can help immensely.

• It's impossible/too hard/overwhelming and I have no idea where to start. I completely understand. I wish someone had been there to guide me when I was having my food melt down. By sharing my family's experiences, both our triumphs and our miserable failures, I hope to help make the transition to healthier eating easier for anyone who wishes to do so. Each week I'll share tips, tricks, and information you can actually use to revamp your diet. No rocket science required.

Share your thoughts and questions with me. What do you find confusing about healthy eating? What roadblocks are in your way? What successes have you had so far?

Follow @FeedingEvie