Junk food galore
February 27, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
My parents are here visiting. Mom being mom, within an hour of her arrival she pointed out that my kids seemed to be less enthusiastic about eating their vegetables than junk food, say, Annie’s bunny crackers (yeah, I am kind of a sucker for these crackers, though I know that they are not much better than gold fish crackers).
Naturally I defended myself, “mom, that was a brilliant observation. But show me a kid that does not like junk food.” Mom snapped back, “uh, you and you sister when you were kids.” Hmmm, she must have selective memory. Not so, she explained that she almost never brought home any junk food. Come to think of it, she was right. Boy, was I deprived as a child.
My mom never hesitates to enlighten me that I am responsible for my children’s eating habit. Sadly she is right. Since I am totally gaga over my local farmer’s market, my kids get a whole lot of vegetables and fruit. But they do have a taste for junk food. As Green Bean has mentioned in one of her posts, organic junk food is still junk food.
Opening the pantry, I have to admit that there are quite a few bags of junk food – cheese puffs (but baked), cheese crackers, rice crisps, and Annie’s bunny crackers. The common theme clearly is crunchy, salty and cheesy
Hmmm, maybe she’s got a point. I am the one that brought junk food into our house and into my children’s lives.
It’s my fault? Wait, it’s my fault?
After much hand wringing, I have decided to cut out most of them, except the cheese crackers. I LOVE cheese crackers. No, no, I cannot participate (well, not yet) in Crunchy Chicken’s Project No Waste. Gimme back my box of cheese crackers.
I will only get cheese crackers from now on, no other junk allowed. Whew, that was a really hard decision! Hate when my mom is right.
On a second thought, perhaps I can make my own cheese crackers. The other day, I heard an interview with Michael Pollan (I love his rational and calm disposition). One of the things he said about junk food rang true. He said that eating junk food once in a while was not that big of a deal. Just make sure that you make it out of scratch. Now how many of us would make French fries from fresh potatoes every day? Not many, because it is a lot of work.
So perhaps I can learn to make my own cheese crackers. It would save the packaging as well. Cheesy, salty and crunchy recipes, anyone?
CindyW
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Comments»
Oh, you can eat all the organic cheese crackers you want for Project Nowaste. You just have to eat the whole box. Which shouldn’t be too hard, it seems.
I saw a really good recipe for homemade crackers recently in Cook’s Illustrated. Or Cook’s Country. One of the two.
If you make homemade crackers, will you blog about it and post the recipe? I made kale chips for the first time a few weeks ago and they tasted just like potato chips!! It was AMAZING.
I used to make crackers all the time. My oldest was allergic to everything under the sun for a year to 18 mos. We were able to slowly add stuff back into his diet as he grew older and his stomach healed. You wouldn’t want any of my cracker recipes - they are all made with nasty stuff like garfava and millet flour. A little of that stuff is ok but an entire cracker, bleh!
In any event, it wasn’t all that much work to make them and they seemed to keep for ever. I have a whole stash of cookie cutters from the time including ones that resemble the goldfish crackers. I may have to pull them out and bake some crackers.
I have been buying into the, it’s okay if you make your own junk food thing, and I do believe it to be mostly true. You can make your own with more wholesome ingredients (no HFCS!) that are local, etc. but don’t expect to lose any weight. I indulged in a whole vat of homemade rice pudding last week when the kids begged for it and then wouldn’t eat it. I will say that it WAS delicious.
When I was growing up the only “junk food” my mom allowed was sweets. Every once in awhile she would bring a little sheet cake home from the grocery store and we would set it on the table and dig in with our forks. I never had chips, soda, candy etc and I don’t really any of that stuff now. I do still indulge my sweet tooth and I think we should all indulge ourselves and our family every once in awhile.
N.
http://badhuman.wordpress.com
Crunch: Woohoo! Count me in for Project No Waste then. Eating a box of cheese crackers at one sitting is not a problem for me at all
arduous: kale chips? Sounds intriguing. Would love to get your recipe for that.
Greenbean: garfava?! never heard of it. and millet flour? Poor kid. You are right. Junk food, store bought or homemade, does not facilitate weight control
Fortunately running, walking or hiking can do wonders.
N: I so agree, we should all be able to indulge every so often, just not every day. Then it would not be indulgence, but a part of one’s diet.
BTW, I found a cheese cracker recipe on epicurious. Will give it a try and report back:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/13043
Cindy, here’s my recipe. It is super easy:
http://freshkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/10/non-fat-chips-no-really.html