Keeping up with the Eco-Jones's

I love food. I love to cook, and would even consider myself a bit of a foodie. Lately, however, I haven’t felt very adventurous in the kitchen. I used to get excited about a creating a meal, considered it a work of art. Taking a leisurely stroll through the grocery store, spending a few hours preparing, drinking, cooking, then plating. Mmmmmm...can you smell the garlic, leeks, and fennel? Fast forward ten years, only to hear my seven-year old’s disgusted tone: “I don’t like this!” “But how do you know, you haven’t even tried it ?” “I just know.” A ridiculous discussion later, threatening, bargaining, some tears, a few bites eaten; I capitulate only to have him finish dinner with a yogurt. Ugh! Why do I even try? Luckily my youngest will still eat anything....but for how long?

I suspect this behavior is common, but I do wonder... I live in circles where most mommies are making sure their kids have the best, organic, greenest, freshest, local ingredients -- no processed food, nothing canned, frozen, or otherwise altered, converted, or refined. If you can’t pronounce it, it doesn’t belong in your child’s body. They have managed to raise discerning children who refuse Goldfish and love kale and spinach. My oldest never saw a Goldfish he didn’t like, and he would never munch on kale and spinach unless it were hidden in soup, brownies, or otherwise unrecognizable. (Yes, I have perfected a kick-ass spinach brownie recipe.)

I am endlessy concerned about the food my kids put in their mouths. I generally buy organic and/or local -- especially for fruits, vegetables, and meat. This is really very expensive. I am on a new food budget this year and right now I am running close to empty dollars for the next 8 days until a new month will finally liberate me. Being healthy and green is not cheap, and we are an upper middle-class family with lots of resources. How can the rest of America do it? I don’t like giving my kids processed food, but I don’t shun it either. I use it to keep the balance around here....when I am running late, when the kids need a quick bite after school, as a treat, and even when I just don’t feel like cooking.

I was appalled when I heard about Congress approving tomato sauce as vegetable, making pizza easier to serve as a side “vege” in school lunch. Is this a joke? Look, I love pizza, its tasty. I eat it, a lot; but it’s not a health food. I can make it healthier at home by choosing wheat flour, organic tomatoes, cheese from grass-fed cows; but this takes a lot of thought and even more money. I pack lunch for my school-aged son because school lunch, frankly, looks gross. It goes without saying that most of the items are not full of hearty goodness. I believe good nutrition is the baseline for healthy, focused, happy kids; so what is a concerned mommy on a limited budget to do?

I feel like I am always trying to keep up with the Eco-Jones’s and falling far behind. You know who you are. You have spring, summer, and winter vegetable crops in your back yard, raise chickens for eggs, buy food only from the local farmer’s market, make everything from scratch, (even the beer you drink,) compost all biodegradables, power on solar and/or geothermal, and top it off with a car that runs on vegetable grease. I revere you! You are my idols! I recently read an article about a no-waste family whose whole year of land-fill garbage fit in a 32oz. canning jar. Yikes! I can fill that in a minute! These folks do not buy anything that comes in a package. They bring their own sack cloths and jars with them to the store.....and I thought I was doing well by reusing my own recycled grocery bags to shop with, oh well.

Science tells us that nutrition affects behavior, personality, brain-power, attention, and focus. My husband thinks I should corner the market for an organic, slow-cooked, hearty “school lunch” business. Neat idea, but first I need to corner that market at home and figure out how to manage the “organically processed” Goldfish and Oreo-like cookies in my pantry. Maybe that business would go along with the cookbook I’ve thought about doing, something like: Cooking Together: Delicious and Healthy Meals Even Your Kids May Like ??? We’ll see how these brilliant schemes fit in with my dream to become an NPR writer/researcher. Until the next brainstorm.....