How unhealthy are my kids?

[Anonymous]

Okay-so in my fantasy world of serenely juggling being a full time attorney and mom of 2 kids under 4, here is what I envision for my family: wonderful farmers market produce, grass fed meats and cheeses, fresh eggs straight from the chicken's ass. Of course, I would make these wonderful homemade incredibly delicious and healthy meals that my kids would just devour. All sorts of things bubbling in the kitchen, making the house smell good. (also in this fantasy, the kids are peacefully playing quietly together in the kitchen, my husband and I have quiet time to have a cup of coffee and read the paper cover to cover). So, flash to reality: I'm not that person! I'm frazzled, harried and a very unimaginative and uninspired cook. I just gotta accept it-Barefoot Contessa I'm not! Weekends I do manage to make one home cooked meal, but that's about it. Its not that I lack time management skills. It's just not who I am, no matter what I tell myself. Dont even get me started on my lack of craftiness. I'm sure that guilt will come later when my kids get older.

However, I don't like to give my kids too much processed foods, but I don't know how healthy I'm feeding them. For example, I find heating up frozen veggies so much easier than cutting, streaming, etc. So, we have those steam in a bag veggies. We also have canned beans. And, cheese already shredded. And, frozen meatballs. And rice that you nuke for 90 seconds. Today we had chicken tacos. I browned the meat. Microwaved brown rice in those little packets, already shredded cheese and added some steamed frozen veggies. So, it wasn't actually processed, but other than browning the chicken, all I did was open packages and heat things up. Tomorrow, it will be pasta with cheese/butter and raw carrots. Maybe one of those pureed fruit pouch snacks. Another night will be peanut butter toast with applesauce. So, while part of me feels that I'm doing okay, another part of me feels like I might as well be feeding them spam on toast, for all the nutritional benefit.

Advice? Thoughts? Snarky comments?

[Anonymous]

Tonight, I used canned beans, pre-shredded cheese, packaged tortillas (should I have made them by hand?), and frozen veggies. No snark from me!

[Anonymous]

I slaughtered the pig today to get the lard to use for my handmade tortillas. If you don't love your DCs enough to slaughter your own pig, well, I just don't know what to say to you.

[Anonymous]

Frozen vegetables are often times healthier than fresh -- the vitamins and minerals disappear the longer they sit on the shelf.

Processed foods aren't great, sorry, they aren't. It's fine to use them some, but you should really try and keep it to a minimum if at all possible. When I say processed, I'm talking about the meatballs and anything that has ingredients you can't understand or pronounce.

You should check out the Six O'Clock Scramble -- it is really designed for working women with little time and who are tired and don't want to have to think or do a lot of work at dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I slaughtered the pig today to get the lard to use for my handmade tortillas. If you don't love your DCs enough to slaughter your own pig, well, I just don't know what to say to you.

Thanks for the laugh, I've had a crappy day and needed it.

[Anonymous]

If your kids eat what your fixing (which looks like pure health food compared to what my kids eat) AND they are of normal height/weight/development.... then I would not stress ONE MINUTE about this. They are fine. You will be fine. It's all good.

I hate to tell you what my kids eat and how DH and I have gone toward truly processed foods since the kids came and have complained that they don't like anything I make! Seriously. My kids eat pretty much ALL processed foods every day (except for carrots, apples, and milk --- but I'm sure there are many who would find fault with those too b/c they are not organic). My kids are at the 10th and 40th percentiles for weight. Anything that has a calorie in it I encourage them to eat (I do require that they make a solid attempt to eat their processed dinner before they get the sugary desserts). What can you do? Obesity is not a problem... pickiness is our problem.

Do not stress over what you are doing.... you're doing GREAT!

[Anonymous]

Two words: slow cooker. It will change your life. Throw in meat, spices, broth, and some of those prechopped veggies you can get at whole foods, let it cook on low all day while you're at work, and buy some boil in the bag brown rice and you have a good meal. allrecipes.com has really good slow cooker recipes.

And there's nothing wrong with steam in bag veggies!

[Anonymous]

If this wasn't an anonymous forum, I would immediately call CPS.

Please take a moment to google recipes for homemade phyllo dough, hand-churned ricotta, and organic, farm-raised sage infused chicken and hand-picked apple sausage.

If you're not snipping home-grown herbs, juicing oranges from your personal orchard and millking your own goats for cheese, I simply weep for you.

For shame, madam, for shame.

[Anonymous]

I find the six o clock scramble recipes entirely too complicated and long--cannot have that many steps/ingredients while trying to keep a baby, toddler, and little kid alive and happy solo.

And half the time when I do go to the trouble of lovingly cooking something home made, no one likes it. Then you have all the wasted effort of cooking plus all the clean up for nothing! Demoralizing.

OP, you sound like you are doing pretty great to me.

[Anonymous]

After several months of the Six O'Clock Scramble, there is exactly one recipe that I will pull out occasionally, and as the PP noted, it's not exactly quick. I found her recipes to be, frankly, bland and not very tasty. I'd rather find a couple good recipes that I can repeat often instead of doing 5 new recipes a week! Too much.

[Anonymous]

OP I love your self-depricating writing style! You are hilarious! I want to be your friend! We have the same sense of humor! Yes, organic eggs right out of the chickens ass would be great .

First off-kudos. You give them brown rice, beans, raw carrots, etc. Cheese is a great source of protein and calcium. I would say you are doing well. Lots of good stuff there!!!!!!

Some ideas/food for thought/annoying advice or whatever you want to call it..

*Eden brand organic beans come in BPA free cans or as I call them reduced guilt cans.

*If you can afford it, try to go organic with foods that have a high pesticide level-get organic frozen veggies instead of regular.

*If you have the time-making brown rice in a rice cooker is easy, but it takes an hour. If not, pat yourself on the back for giving brown instead of white rice no matter how it is packaged and cooked.

*Buy organic milk, cheese and eggs at least from time to time. Seriously the crap that is in non-organic milk is horrifying. It's not the same milk you and I grew up with. I can't recall why I stopped buying regular eggs, but I know there was a reason-maybe because I saw the movie FOOD INC or something and those ill chickens cramped up in poop filled pens scared me.

*Try to get grass fed beef when you can afford it. Once again FOOD INC freaked me out.

*Get an all natural peanut butter if possible and within your bidget.

[Anonymous]

trader joes is your answer, trust me
all natural mac and cheese, gluten-free cookies, preseasoned meat...

[Anonymous]

OP, there's nothing wrong with your meals. What's wrong with pre-shredded cheese? It doesn't make you a better cook to buy a big hunk of cheese and shred it by hand. It's cheaper that way, but if the extra cost is worth the convenience to you, then go for it. Steam in the bag veggies? Veggies are veggies, right? As long as you're not drowning them in ranch dressing or something, it's all good. The only problem with canned beans is the salt. Buy low-salt and rinse well.

Basically what I'm trying to say is: don't be so hard on yourself. Sounds like you're doing fine to me. For what it's worth.

[Anonymous]

I'm a SAHM and frozen veggies and frozen/prepared foods (all natural, organic, but frozen/prepared, nonetheless) is pretty much what I feed my kid. I could cook and clean and decorate my house, but I didn't quit working to do that -- I really just wanted to spend more time with my daughter, so that is what I do instead of cooking and menu planning.

So, no judgment here! Rock on, sister.

[Anonymous]

Op here: thanks for the replies. I think this Post stems, in part, from feeling guilty about yesterday. I had these great plans to make some dinnersin advance. The kids (and my husband!) slept almost 2 hours, which is unprecedented for weekend naps. I used that time, not to make homemade meatloaf with hidden puréed spinach (it was on my list), but to read People magazine, drink a cup of tea, and watch What Not to Wear. It was so nice. But, I feel like I'm "paying" for it, if that makes sense. Anyway, enough guilt and thanks for the comments. And, for the PP-I definately got skeeved out by Food Inc. And Fast Food Nation. And Onmivores Dilemma and do try to buy either farmers market meat or grass-fed from the store.