Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Chicken Dinos

Yesterday, my son had his favorite entrée, peanut butter
bread, for breakfast and lunch. He
wanted it for dinner but I had to talk him into our only acceptable alternative
protein source: chicken dinos. For those of you unfamiliar with this
product, chicken dinos are battered chicken nuggets in the shape of
dinosaurs. They are, of course, all
natural and very good for my growing boy. 





Chicken_dinos
I feel VERY good about the choices he makes when it comes to
food. For example, the last time my son
had a vegetable was when he was about 18 months old when, out of desperation, I
fed him baby food peas. It was the only
vegetable he would touch. They were
pureed and a lovely shade of green and he ate them up like they were ice
cream. Thankfully, he does like
fruit. He likes strawberries sometimes,
bananas sometimes, apples, grapes, and applesauce. I try to give him at least one of these options at every
meal. I find myself constantly worried
about what goes into his mouth. Are
those processed chicken nuggets going to encourage him to make poor food
choices as an adult? Will the excessive
amounts of peanut butter he consumes cause a problem when he goes off to school
and cannot bring peanut butter because of the prevalence of peanut allergies
among children? Will his lack of
vegetables stunt his growth? Will his
love of milk lead to him hitting puberty at the ripe old age of nine because of
all of the hormones? These are the
questions that plague me. 





If I had my choice, both of my children would eat an all-organic
diet. Their meats and dairy products
would be hormone and antibiotic free. Their vegetables (if there were any) and fruits would be free of
pesticides. If I had the means, they
would certainly eat only the best but being a responsible consumer is cost-prohibitive
for the average American family. How
can I justify spending $4.00 on a half-gallon of milk that will last two days
when I can buy a whole gallon for 25 cents less? How can I possibly afford to spend $7.50 a pound on ground beef
when I can get it for $2.00 at my local Wal-Mart? Am I actually supposed to purchase a whole chicken for $10.00
(they are $3.75 at Wal-Mart), cut it up and make chicken nuggets for my
son? How would I go about shaping them
like T-Rexes and Stegosauruses? Would I
use a cookie cutter? 





Until organic products become more mainstream and, thus,
less expensive or my husband and I happen upon a significant income increase, I
will continue to buy regular meat, dairy products and run of the mill,
non-organic produce (except for spinach and any type of lettuce of
course). That, or my husband’s love of
gardening needs to expand to include livestock. Our neighbors would be so pleased.







10 comments:

  1. Yum!! Chicken dinos!! sounds a lot better than Dwight Yokum Chicken Fingers. And you think my grandson isn't expanding his diet? Just wait until he gets to our house for Thanksgivng, we'll have him turned into a Turkey Junkie in no time!! then the next logical step is candied sweet potato and pecan casserole, followed by noodles and mashed potatoes with lots of Grandma's lump free gravy!!! You might want to re-visit the idea of a fresh produce stand in the front yard, it'll help supplement the family income AND you can get a couple of pigs, (pretend they are Vietnamese Pot-Belly,) and feed them the left overs, there you have it! now you can get closer to your neighbors and have them help you process those little porkers, just tell Truman they taste just like chicken. OK, not to worry, I'll have Grandma go to the store tommorrow and stock up on peanut-butter, white bread, applesause, and chicken dinos, think he might go for cranberry sauce?

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  2. I think there is potential here for money to be made. We should start a business where we market fruits and vegetables in shapes. You know, like Dino carrots or Dora apples...the possibilities are endless.

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  3. Papa Dale-
    Funny that you remember Dwight Yoakam's Chicken Fries (yes, people, these DO exist). We weened him of those a while ago. I like Dwight Yoakam's music and all but I'm not convinced that his chicken production is up to snuff.
    As far as the cranberry sauce goes, I have my doubts but you are welcome to try it. He does eat whole wheat bread. The boy's got to get his fiber from somewhere :)

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  4. Jacquelyn-
    Great idea. If only we knew someone with a fairly large sum of money to bankroll the business. Hmmm...

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  5. I posted my opinion under "Christmas Traditions" oops.

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  6. I cut and pasted it, computers are amazing, haha.
    I have made some small changes in our foods as I can afford them. I READ EVERY LABEL. I mean Every label- right down to your vitamins and hemroid creme, they might contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. That is the one thing I am trying to cut out of our diet (at home at least). I have switched our bread to whole grain, be careful the labels are misleading in some, I have switched the jelly we use to an all natural type like Polonar. Smuckers and most have the HFCS too. I would like to buy organic apples and grapes, but that can get expensive. You must ask the produce people at a local stand too- just b/c they grow it, doesn't mean they didn't use pesticides. Also, I use half organic milk/half reg. milk for the boys.
    I do still buy Oreos, which have things I don't like, but if I can switch out the good w/ the bad, maybe it will even out some. It scares me to think some countries have banned the use of some of this stuff, America uses it soooo readily and everywhere. I believe it has been since the 80-90's that our sugar products have change, of course to save a buck and the use of hormones, to save a buck.
    I am pleased to say, some of my favorite cookies and treats, I am now turning away from them b/c of their ingrediants. It is a nice feeling. Just trying to find a candy bar that doesn't have CS/HFCS in is hard enough, I think the Twix doesn't have the combo??? Oh, my friend and I were talking about food, she said she has noticed that MSG is making its way back into foods, so another thing we have to watch for.
    SOmetimes I think Americans are guinne (sp) pigs, let's try this, see what happens to them, haha.
    Posted by: Katb | November 16, 2006 at 03:26 PM

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  7. Ok, see, I swear you can't win with food, if you eat this, something will live, but another will die. I recently tried out the "full circle" brand of Peanut butter it uses Palm oil instead of the "bad" hydrogenerated (sp) oils. SO I researched it, here is one thing I found:
    http://www.cspinet.org/new/200506021.html

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  8. Wow Katb. You are a much more conscious consumer than me. Kudos!

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  9. Ok, I did some more researching and since I can't find your email J- I am sending via blog. This is very eye opening and bothersome, but glad to have read it.
    http://www.earthsave.org/health/milkletter.htm

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  10. Also, if we stopped drinking milk, think about how much money we could put through veggies, and the organic/raw foods that are good for us!!

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