Jacob's words have stuck with me. I told Jacob there was nothing I could do to change the food situation in his school. I felt because I'm not Jamie Oliver and don't have his fame and the TV cameras behind me I could not have the impact he has had. Jacob wanted to know why. Out of the mouths of babes...
Last night we were out and we were talking about Jamie Oliver. It was mentioned by another parent that they could not give their kids at home food of the nutritional value and quality that the schools give their kids. Really??? French Toast with Wonder Bread (not sure what the bread is, but it's white and has no nutritional value) covered with corn syrup instead of maple syrup? Or, nachos with processed fake cheese melted on top? What are people eating?
I am going to Jacob's school this week to have lunch with him some day. I want to see exactly what is being served in his school. The good thing is he does not want to eat food served at school anymore. The problem I've noticed this week - being vacation week - is he has not made the relation that all processed food is bad for him. He would live on Coke and crap pizza if he could. I have to make him realize that all that food is bad for him.
Why has it become ok for us to eat this way? How do I change it? I wish Jamie would come to EG and get people here fired up. I am tired of being the "weird wacky" mom who drives to CT to get milk and buys meat direct from the farmer. That should be normal.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
It Changed My Life Mom...
I have been a "Naked Chef" fan since the "Naked Chef" days. I loved watching Jamie Oliver get excited about cooking his food for his friends. Years went by, we moved to Quebec and I noticed all of my friends had Jamie Oliver books lining their cookbook shelves. I used to sit at my friend Ginny's kitchen table and look through his books. What I really liked was that the recipes are like stories. It was not
1. Do blah, blah
2. do blah, blah
and so on.
Recipes start with a story about how he first tasted this dish, or thought of it, and then would go on to describe to you how to make it. Like there was someone standing next to you telling you how to do it. In my opinion, anyone who tells you to measure olive oil by the "glug" is awesome.
This renewed my interest in Jamie Oliver and I googled him and found his website. This was when I found that he was changing school lunches in schools in England. I was so happy he was doing that, and I so wondered how I could do the same. Jacob was in preschool at the time and so I had control over what he was eating, but school time was rapidly approaching and I was concerned about what they were feeding in the schools. At this time also, I was on weight watchers and lost about 50 pounds and really started taking interest in eating as much local, organic good food as I could. This was pretty easy in Quebec where people take eating good food seriously. Not a lot of quantity, but quality was a must.
Time goes on and we move to Rhode Island. I really like Rhode Island, but I have found that food wise there is (in general, not everywhere) a lot more emphasis on quantity not quality. Ads on tv for lots of restauraunts show how much you get for your dollar value, not how good the food is.
I love to cook, but the house we lived in when we first moved here had a terrible kitchen and I was not doing as much cooking as I used to. We have sinced moved again and I have an awesome kitchen and I'm doing so much more cooking. I bake our bread, and make as many meals as I can from scratch.
One area I have been struggling with with Jacob is school lunches. The lunches here are terrible. Nachos, French toast, chicken nuggets. No nutritional value, processed foods. I was in the school at 10:30 one morning and there was nothing going on in the kitchen. If they were doing anything besides reheating food, they should have been cooking lunch!
Jacob's friends buy lunch. Do they buy every day? I don't know. According to Jacob they do - but it's more in the argument - Mom, everyone buys lunch. I want to too. So, I was letting him buy one day a week. And then I would get lazy and let him buy other days becausee we didn't have lunch stuff, or I just didn't feel like it, or Jacob wanted to buy.
I was so excited when I saw the Food Revolution coming to TV. Jacob and I (and Brad and Jenna too) watched it as a family. Jacob watched Jamie Oliver have the truck back up and dump out all the fat that goes through the school, and watched him grind up a whole chicken to make chicken nuggets. Jacob looked at me and Brad and said "I am never buying lunch at school again". And he has stuck to it. One time he forgot his lunch at home and he bought and was very upset about it. I told him next time just call me and I'll bring your lunch and he was so grateful. He seriously does not want to eat school food again.
We were at the dinner table the other day and Jacob (who is only 8) said "That show changed my life. Now I really look at the food I eat". It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I work hard to try and have the kids (and Brad and I) appreciate our food. I drive 45 minutes each way to CT to a dairy farm to buy raw milk. From these people we bought half a pig which was raised on their farm, we buy eggs from their chickens who Jenna and I go and watch run around outside!! We bought part of a side of beef from a local RI farmer - one time we went to the butcher and participated in that, and this last time we went to the farm to pick it up and we got to see how the cows live. I try so hard to have us all know where our food comes from.
I was really sad to see this Friday is the last episode of the Food Revolution. I don't think the Food Revolution has really started yet. I am starting my own food revolution!!!
1. Do blah, blah
2. do blah, blah
and so on.
Recipes start with a story about how he first tasted this dish, or thought of it, and then would go on to describe to you how to make it. Like there was someone standing next to you telling you how to do it. In my opinion, anyone who tells you to measure olive oil by the "glug" is awesome.
This renewed my interest in Jamie Oliver and I googled him and found his website. This was when I found that he was changing school lunches in schools in England. I was so happy he was doing that, and I so wondered how I could do the same. Jacob was in preschool at the time and so I had control over what he was eating, but school time was rapidly approaching and I was concerned about what they were feeding in the schools. At this time also, I was on weight watchers and lost about 50 pounds and really started taking interest in eating as much local, organic good food as I could. This was pretty easy in Quebec where people take eating good food seriously. Not a lot of quantity, but quality was a must.
Time goes on and we move to Rhode Island. I really like Rhode Island, but I have found that food wise there is (in general, not everywhere) a lot more emphasis on quantity not quality. Ads on tv for lots of restauraunts show how much you get for your dollar value, not how good the food is.
I love to cook, but the house we lived in when we first moved here had a terrible kitchen and I was not doing as much cooking as I used to. We have sinced moved again and I have an awesome kitchen and I'm doing so much more cooking. I bake our bread, and make as many meals as I can from scratch.
One area I have been struggling with with Jacob is school lunches. The lunches here are terrible. Nachos, French toast, chicken nuggets. No nutritional value, processed foods. I was in the school at 10:30 one morning and there was nothing going on in the kitchen. If they were doing anything besides reheating food, they should have been cooking lunch!
Jacob's friends buy lunch. Do they buy every day? I don't know. According to Jacob they do - but it's more in the argument - Mom, everyone buys lunch. I want to too. So, I was letting him buy one day a week. And then I would get lazy and let him buy other days becausee we didn't have lunch stuff, or I just didn't feel like it, or Jacob wanted to buy.
I was so excited when I saw the Food Revolution coming to TV. Jacob and I (and Brad and Jenna too) watched it as a family. Jacob watched Jamie Oliver have the truck back up and dump out all the fat that goes through the school, and watched him grind up a whole chicken to make chicken nuggets. Jacob looked at me and Brad and said "I am never buying lunch at school again". And he has stuck to it. One time he forgot his lunch at home and he bought and was very upset about it. I told him next time just call me and I'll bring your lunch and he was so grateful. He seriously does not want to eat school food again.
We were at the dinner table the other day and Jacob (who is only 8) said "That show changed my life. Now I really look at the food I eat". It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I work hard to try and have the kids (and Brad and I) appreciate our food. I drive 45 minutes each way to CT to a dairy farm to buy raw milk. From these people we bought half a pig which was raised on their farm, we buy eggs from their chickens who Jenna and I go and watch run around outside!! We bought part of a side of beef from a local RI farmer - one time we went to the butcher and participated in that, and this last time we went to the farm to pick it up and we got to see how the cows live. I try so hard to have us all know where our food comes from.
I was really sad to see this Friday is the last episode of the Food Revolution. I don't think the Food Revolution has really started yet. I am starting my own food revolution!!!
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