Who doesn’t love cookies? I’m a big fan of the cookie and here’s a cookie that’s been around for almost one hundred years: Mother’s brand Oatmeal Cookies. Well the cookie itself hasn’t been around that long, (though with preservatives these days…) I digress. Mother’s brand cookies have been a staple on supermarket shelves for nearly one hundred years, yet their ingredients are anything but wholesome. (more…)
A few nights ago we took our boys to see the holiday light displays on “Candy Cane Lane”. As we rolled our minivan slowly through the streets behind the rest of Los Angeles, we spotted a neighbor selling hot cocoa to benefit the Eagle Scouts. What’s more festive than a cup of hot cocoa, brightly colored light displays and holiday music on the radio, right? We bought each of the boys a cup and as they sat cozy in the back, sipping the warm drink and slurping the marshmallows out one-by-one, I realized that it was probably time to take a deconstructed look at instant hot cocoa. I was pretty sure those drink packets weren’t as innocent and idyllic as they seemed. Turns out I was right.
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What creeps you out the most on Halloween? Goblins and witches? Spiders and ghouls? Or is it the load of processed, corn syrup-laden, artificially flavored “treats” that will fill your children’s smiling plastic jack-o-lanterns? Bet I can scare you even more. Did you know that some of those well known candies they’ll be ingesting contain ingredients like TBHQ (a form of Butane)? TBHQ, believe it or not, is an ingredient in many processed food items ranging from candy to chicken nuggets. The following excerpt from author Michael Pollan discusses TBHQ in regards to it’s placement in a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget: (more…)
You ready for this one? I’m not even sure if I’m ready to write about it, but it is DEFINITELY a food story that needs to be told. Over the summer I took my boys to a popular indoor playground in Los Angeles. You know the ones where your kids climb, swing, slide and basically wreak havoc for several hours in a padded room while you try desperately to tune out the constant drone of screaming? Yup, that’s the one. (more…)
It’s the third week of first grade at our house, and already my children are coming home with processed food requests from their friends lunch boxes. Yesterday it was for “those cups of white and brown pudding that everyone has”. Okay, guess we’re going to push pudding cups up on the list of Out of the Box Food explorations. (more…)
Chocolate has been making a statement in my life a lot lately. No, it’s not by way of Rocky Road in front of The Bachelorette on Monday nights or through Fudge Pops out by the pool in the July heat. Chocolate is continuing to come up both in conversation and in articles I have come across about it’s many health benefits. I have added some articles of interest to the Relevant Reads page which I encourage you to check out. Chocolate in it’s purest form has loads of nutritional benefits. It’s bad rap has been handed to it by impersonators offering hints of chocolate flavor wrapped in corn syrup and sugar.
Last week at Out of the Box Food we discussed easy alternatives to frozen waffles and pancakes. So what can we do this week to top those healthy, delicious waffles and pancakes? Syrup of course! Okay, this is a tricky one. Real, honest-to-goodness maple syrup is great. It’s single ingredient is natural, sweet and even better warm. But if the amount of sugar in maple syrup makes your kids go a bit wacky like it does mine, then what can we top pancakes and waffles with on busy school mornings? How about warm, thick blueberry syrup? Sweet, rich strawberry syrup? We getting somewhere?