Friday, April 15, 2011

Lunch, and food in general

Had lunch at my sister-in-law’s yesterday. This is what she served up. YUM. She’s the designated salad maker in the family. Pork tenderloin and fresh greens.  April 139




She even has a garden. Well she just started it, but its a real garden.  She was trying to water it and this Monkey was pulling on the hose. April 150

So she handed the hose to him and put him to work. April 154

The Littles went to work in the compost pile. (YUCK.)  But good for the environment, right?April 144 April 145

Farmers crack?April 146

And speaking of food.

Last week I took snack for Monkey’s class, so I bought a rather large size of applesauce from a rather well known applesauce maker. Afterwards I was looking at the ingredients; Can you read them below?

They say apples, high fructose corn syrup, water, ascorbic acid (vitamin c.)March 567

The applesauce we normally buy says: Whole peeled, cored apples and well water.March 566   

I’d rather serve my kids smashed up apples with well water than (most likely) apple pieces and high fructose corn syrup. But I hadn’t really noticed before what went into each jar. I just like the consistency of of that healthier one. Who knew?  Makes me think twice about what is in the applesauce served at restaurants in kids meals. Especially since the brand named applesauce jar was twice the size of the other jar, but cost the same.Why are the healthier foods always more expensive? Why?

Have you found any other food traps that look healthy but really aren’t? With all of the fancy packaging and marketing going on, we moms have to be really careful. Do you have any good, but cheap, health foods?  I’ve got four men to feed on a budget, peeps!

Our grocery bill has moved up a notch in the past few months. Monkey now eats like a boy and not a toddler and the Bogster, well, he’s a tank, he eats like a man. So I am on the look out for some easy-on-the-budget healthy foods.

And just in case you were wondering here’s what my plate looked like at the end of lunch.

I know, I’m a little piggy. April 141

Have a good weekend.

 

~mrs. dunbar

Oh and since this is the year of the Popeye. Here’s a pic or two…April 095

Okay, lets try that again…

April 094

The foot picture thing continues.April 101Still no smile for the camera.April 096

But we are discovering hands.April 098

8 comments:

Lori said...

that salad looked super yummy. yes healthier foods tend to be more expensive, just have to get creative I guess. you could always make your own apple sauce, simple!

Nicolle said...

That salad and pork looks really good! That is scary about the applesauce. It's amazing how much sugar is in some foods. One that shocked me is spaghetti sauces like Ragu or Prego. I can't get over how much sugar and sodium are in those. For about a year now, I've made my own. I just use store brand canned tomato products now, like crushed tomatoes and no salt added tomato sauce, and italian seasonings. Plus it's really inexpensive to make a large batch. My husband thinks mine is better than the name brands! :))

Genn said...

That salad looks so good. And I love a good pork tenderloin.

I am so envious of her garden. We were just about to start building raised beds around here when we realized that we just don't get enough sun in our backyard. So we are going to Home Depot this weekend to get some pots for tomatoes and strawberries. Ya gotta start somewhere right?

The applesauce... YUCK on the HFCS. Seriously the stuff I've been learning about food lately is unbelievable. You have to read the labels of everything.

Megan said...

I know, it's terrible and the costs are staggering. I was at Target one day and a lady with her son had a produce bag of apples. When the checker scanned them, they rang up over $5. So the lady told her to put them back. I watched and thought about the choices some people have to make when feeding their children.

I also look at where the food is packaged, because that can be scary too. Although now where I am living, I don't have much of a choice and there is no FDA to protect me at the grocery!

Cathy said...

yummy on that salad! and a garden--i'm impressed! yep, ingredients can be scary sometimes. like nicholle, i've been making my own spaghetti sauce for a few years. i make big batches and freeze. we eat a lot of nasty stuff (ingredient wise), so i have been trying to buy more fresh stuff...but it's a new way of thinking for me so i'm such a work in progress! i will say that i finally connected the dots and realized a lot of my bad headaches began by eating MSG...and guess what? it's in practically everything non-fresh! {what a blessing i figured it out though!} i also bought a vitamix (high end blender) which makes having natural smoothies a snap.

Mrs. C... said...

Wow on the salad!!! I only wish it was at my house, and in my backyard. Along, with the raised garden bin. Compost - well, a necissity, but stinky! Miss you........I truly, truly do.

Ashley@The Vanilla Tulip said...

Ugh...gross about the applesauce. Im with you...stinks the good stuff has to be so much more expensive!
And your little babe is getting so big!! He's precious :)

Seizing My Day said...

Oh my goodness,... I took a bloggy break for a few weeks and a few of you had babies!! ha ha! I kid... new baby is SO sweet... What a beautiful baby!! Amazing how you instantly love them so... can't wait to see his smile on camera!! and yep... that food thing drives me nuts... when you realize how unhealthy things are!! one of the things I am finding is when I try to buy some "health" foods there is SO much salt!! crazy!! I started reading labels a few years ago... sometimes convenience wins... but I try to go low sugar low salt... i hate that healthy = expensive~! that is so wrong!