First and foremost, Happy New Year to you all! We are on to a new year, new resolutions, and new conversations and I for one am ready to once again start conversations about Real Food for our families. (more…)
The answer is NO. Repeat after me, No nitrites, no nitrites, NO NITRITES!!! Okay, I just had a flash back to my old cheerleading days.
Turkey deli meat is one of those things that I never really thought too much about. It’s always been the lean deli protein that came sliced, smoked, honeyed or roasted and when piled on whole wheat bread with mustard and veggies became my healthy lunch. Or was it? During this Out of the Box Food journey I’ve been looking more carefully at everything, and that needed to include turkey. I tended to choose turkey over ham because it was supposed to be healthier, right? Well, I’m learning that it’s not just about the product itself, but how the product is cured and what might be added to it that makes the difference. (more…)
An article came out this week in the Chicago Tribune telling the story of drastic changes made to the Chicago Public Schools’ hot lunch program and the less than stellar response to the changes. The article entitled, “You can lead kids to broccoli, but you can’t make them eat“, reaffirmed the importance of what we do at Out of the Box Food: make fresh food palatable to kids. Now, I am a believer of kids eating real food, not just kid food like macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets (even if they are made from scratch or without added chemicals). But realistically, as this Chicago Tribune article states, we need a middle ground. A transition. We have to reach those kids who think they only like macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets. Since the goal is to get them to actually learn to like fresh, I’d rather see a child tuck into a bowl of fresh macaroni and cheese made with fiber-full macaroni, fresh cheese and milk then have them stare blankly into a bowl of Quinoa and Kale. At least to begin with. Let them first learn to like fresh. (more…)
Granola bars stir up quite the controversy at our house. My kids want to bring them to school for snack, but a nut-free school means no granola bars with nuts of any sort. That rules out a lot of the granola bars on the market. Then when we look at what’s left and examine what ingredients are actually in the remaining granola bars things really start to get interesting. Let’s just say we’re left with…well, not much. (more…)
Granola. What image does the word “Granola” evoke for you? I’ve always felt the word “Granola” was synonymous with “health”. For me growing up, the word Granola evoked images of health food markets where you could barely fit down the aisle but you could find things like Wheat Grass and Hemp seed. But now Granola is common, good food and chances are you can find a healthy, minimally processed granola at the average supermarket. But not all Granola is the same and this is a perfect opportunity to discuss the importance (and ease) of reading labels.