Trying to Sneak in Some Veggies!

This week I decided to attempt to sneak more veggies in Little Man's diet. Something that can be a little hard to do at times now, it's all a texture thing. I decided that I would finally pull out my cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld.

The first recipe I tried was the Chicken Nuggets. I chose Smart Chicken which has no hormones or antibiotics and pureed some yummy sweet potatoes to use too. Little Man loved it! It was the first time I've heard him say "more," for something I've actually wanted him to eat in awhile. The Hubby loved it too, the consensus was I need to make this one again.

The second recipe I made was Macaroni and Cheese, which I made with both pureed cauliflower and pureed northern beans in the sauce. Surprisingly, Little Man is not a fan of mac and cheese, the only kid I've ever heard of actually. Hubby and I enjoyed it as a way to sneak protein into an otherwise protein-free meal. Little Man ate a little, but maybe he just wasn't that hungry.

I will try more this week and see what passes and what doesn't...

"Food Inc." makes me think...

Last weekend, Hubby and I watched the documentary "Food, Inc." during a precious Little Man naptime. We found it to be very eye-opening and it made us start to think, where does our food come from? Why do we expect our meat, milk and produce to be cheaper and cheaper? How do we think the farmers can produce it for us to buy high quantity so cheaply?

Once I was pregnant with Little Man I started buying organic milk. I found it important that the baby I was about to have was not receiving a high amount of hormones in the womb. This continued after he was born and I was breast-feeding. Of course, after all this thinking about doing this for my child, I now buy organic/hormone free milk and yogurt for all of us. It's funny how having children to care for starts making you think about how healthy you're eating and that if you wouldn't want them to eat it, why should you?

So, after watching "Food, Inc." we are now thinking about meat. Have you ever thought about how unnatural it is that cows get fed cornmeal in order to make them grow faster and larger? Their bodies were meant to eat grass! Picture this, in the film, they show that the farmers have to access the cattle's first stomach in order to remove the cornmeal that can't be digested any further. Disgusting!!! You can't even picture how disgusting until you see it done and the cow is mooing like, "Hey! Who is in my tummy???!!!" It shows that we are getting corn in more places than we realize, and what health benefit do we get from corn? Not enough to be having it be a part of every food item we put in our bodies.

Now I'm researching buying grass-fed beef online, as I haven't found it sold much in our area, even in the more upscale grocery stores. I'm finding farms that sell online, it is quite interesting. Some of the farmers so strongly believe in this cause that they ship for free! Overall the meat is more expensive, but I think this is where the stark reality hits. We are not meant to be consuming as much meat as we have all come to expect. The core of our diet should be vegetables, fruits and grains foremost. The only way to start making this meat more affordable is to show that is what America wants. Therefore, we will most likely be cutting our meat intake in half to make this new lifestyle more affordable. We've already started buying "Smart Chicken" without the antibiotics and hormones, it actually tastes better!

Now back to my search for where I'm going to get ground beef for my next batch of chili...