Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Your Own Food Revolution

We are big fans of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I love what he is trying to accomplish in the schools, but do you know what I love even more? I love that it challenges me to think about the food I eat and the food I feed my kids.

Cause really, Mac and Cheese 4 times a week isn't impressive to anyone.

So, Mike and I have been inspired. We have started making small, baby steps, in the food department. We didn't go out and start buying all of our food at Whole Wallet (oops, I mean Whole Foods), but we are trying to make healthier decisions. Here are a couple of steps we've taken in our own food revolution.

1. Offer as many food groups as possible at each meal-- Sounds simple right? Yeah, will it also sounds obvious if you want to be healthy, but can I tell you how many times I am guilty of just throwing something on the kids' plate and hoping they'll eat it because it is just way past naptime and they are screaming (and most likely I am stressed cause I have a million things to do and don't want to take time to prepare something thoughtful).

2. I eat lunch with the kids-- For a long while, Lacey and Miles were eating separate foods. (i.e. baby food and solids). Well, we are past the point of that and they eat the same things. But the thing was, I wasn't eating what they were eating. I was waiting until nap time to eat in peace, or skipping lunch all together. I realized however, that when I started to make a meal that we would all eat, it became much more well balanced and colorful. I don't know about you, but soy chicken nuggets from TJ's get really old, really fast.

3. Make it from scratch- We make bread, pizza dough, cookies, and recently chicken nuggets, from scratch. First of all it's cheaper, it's also healthier, and the kids actually prefer it!

4. Talk about fruit and vegetables-- I am not going to let Lacey or Miles be the first grader that doesn't know what a tomato is. Please, I was so embarrassed for our country that day. Since then I have worked a little bit harder with her on learning what everything is. Play food helps make it much easier!

What can you do for your own "food revolution"?

3 comments:

Andrea said...

I love that show! ... totally grossed out by his chicken nugget presentation and totally sad for ALL of those kids in the room who didn't know what the fruits and veggies were :(

Rose said...

I'm making more from scratch and doing more purees, which inspires me to do something with them! Ive been doing some sneaky chef stuff and Im inspired to go to the farmers market more. And I cut open something in the beginning of the day and we just eat on it all day. Inspiring.

Stephanie said...

My "food revolution" was Olivia. I took a good, long, hard look at my life and decided I didn't want her battling weight like I have as an adult due to the way I feed her growing up. I started by breastfeeding, then making her baby food, now making almost all of our food as a family. It's honestly one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, and it remains hard, but worth it. :)