Herrington Happenings: Food

While I'm still grieving the loss of my friend, I am rejoicing that my dad found out that he is CANCER FREE. For the first time in awhile, I don't feel like I have the dreaded "C Word" in the forefront of my mind 24/7, which makes it easier to blog. And what better way to start back to blogging than by blogging about one of my favorite things: FOOD!
When we first moved here, one of my goals was to become a better cook, to expand my family's palette so to speak. I'm not a bad cook per se but I make the same things continuously with very little variation. One of my neighbors has helped me with this dilemma but providing me new recipes that my family loves. I've also had the help of lots of fresh produce! Since we are renting we could not plant a garden but we have not had a shortage of produce in any way. Neighbors generously donate from their gardens. Rob's co-workers bring in eggs, peppers, tomatoes, jams. I have found one of my favorite local places- the produce stand. The boys and I go there a few times every week, spending about $5-$15 each time. Since produce is cheap, you can imagine all the goodies we come home with! Since so many wonderful fruits and vegetables are currently in season I decided to take advantage of it. I learned how to can things. To date I have canned tomatoes, pears, pickles (bread n butter as well as dill) and banana peppers. My favorite by far are the pickles and peppers. Pears were tedious and tomatoes require too much time and scientific thought. I've also frozen bananas, peaches, bell peppers and tomatoes to use at a later date. I get a lot of enjoyment out of canning/freezing stuff, knowing that I'm providing healthy and cheap options for food.
Speaking of healthy, I love healthy food. (Let's face it...I love junk food as well which is why I still have NOT lost all my baby weight!!). As P's first year of school draws closer, I've become more conscience of the food I'm feeding my boys. Like most kids, it's very obvious when P has consumed a lot of sugar and/or processed food. I can handle it (most days) but that's not fair for his teacher to deal with him and 20 some odd other 5 year olds strung out on a sugar high every day. So I've started transitioning him to healthier eating. The biggest step was cutting back how much juice he drinks. I buy sugar free apple juice and he's allowed one cup of it a day. The rest of the day he drinks milk or water. On special occasions (Like at birthday parties) he'll get a little more and I don't worry about it. We always have a lot of fruit in our house and I make it a point to let him choose fruit when we go to the produce stand. He's proud of his choices and it's the first fruit he wants to eat when we get home. I've also started doing A LOT more shopping at Costco, which has made my life easier in two ways. It significantly cuts down on how many trips I make to Walmart and Albertsons during the week and it helps me with healthier choices. Each parent is different and chooses what's best for their children. I am not one that typically chooses organic food because it's a lot more expensive. Unless you shop at Costco. I enjoy buying snacks for the boys, knowing I'm getting them healthier food. I've also started making healthier snacks at home. A couple times a week I make smoothies for lunch. But now I make extra so I can make the boys smoothie popsicles. The boys get a healthy treat without a lot of sugar and I don't have to deal with the repercussions of a sugar high. It's a win-win.
I'm still working on getting more veggies into their day. I'm not one of those parents who loses sleep over my boys' diets or read labels when grocery shopping (Not that there's anything wrong with that in the least!!). But there are certain things I've slowly changed in their diets and I'm feeling good about the healthier eating that's taking place in our home. Now to lose the last of that baby weight...