Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Fast food for Foodies

So lately, I have been talking a lot about the move. Of course. lol... it is my world. And the house is turning out to be more wonderful than I could possibly imagine. But along with doing all of these things to the house, I have had to make food. Lots of food, as fast as possible, because you will not believe how you loose track of time when I am painting, or putting up pictures, or planning shelves. Hours can be lost in what feels like minutes when one is so absorbed in something like this.

Enter Fast Food For Foodies. I love food. Well, I love good food. Real fast food (the 'real' being completely subjective) makes me sick. And most of the time I am glad, but sometimes I wish I could survive on Whoppers... No I don't. Never mind. YUCK! But you know what I mean. The drive through convinces can't be beat when you are harried for time. Luckily for me, it is summer. And that makes finding decent good and fresh food relatively easy.

My main staples for quick and easy meals are as follows:

Fruit salad. Fruit salad is easy to make (esp if you have a melon baller) and I keep some in the fridge right now at all times. We don't have local melons yet, but a watermelon added to some local strawberries and some frozen blueberries from last year make a great salad and keeps for about two days in the fridge.

Crackers and cheese. Oh how I love thee... but I usually have a spin on it. Like the dish above. Brie, crackers, and cherry tomatoes from the store, and basil from my garden (*glee*). A wonderful spin on the old stand by for a quick meal that will please just about anybody (except my toddler, who spits it out and makes horrid faces that make it seem like eating brie is torture).


For toddler fast food (which means every one including the toddler love it) around here we have;

~ Frozen blueberries - right out of the bag. We used to have frozen strawberries too, but Logan is allergic.

~ Frozen grapes. Organic grapes are EXPENSIVE! I paid up to $9 for a bag of them before I stopped buying them altogether. So when these babies go on sale, I want them to last a while. Enter my freezer. Who knew? Frozen grapes are delicious. I actually like green grapes this way and I am a die hard red grape fan. ;)

~ Frozen organic yogurt squeezes and organic apple sauces squeezes. Ever wanted an healthy alternative to Otter Pops? Here they are! Find them on sale and buy a bunch! Frozen they keep for months and months.

~ Baked potatoes - Any potatoes... yams esp. Our local farm right here in town always has yams and small red potatoes. And all locally grown. Butter and salt is all he eats on yams. Regular potatoes and he will have a whole meal with cheese, sometimes sauteed onions, sometimes bacon, and usually chives from my garden (MY garden!!!).

~ Cold rice - I make up a big pot of fried rice or comfort rice and usually don't even have to heat it up... just add spoon.

There has never been a better time to get into a good food habit than now. I'll be frank... avoiding fast food takes more work. It just does. There is no if, and, or but about it. Packing food, remembering to bring food, keeping it cold and stored well... it adds up to a bit more work. And if you want to go organic, it takes a bit more money too. But you can find coupons for these things pretty easily, and as the market starts to expand, it will get even easier. The benefits far outweigh the pitfalls. Consider it health insurance for your children. It is more than worth it.

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4 comments

Sarah said...

Apple Sauce Squeezers?! Brilliant! Where do I get those?

THis is an excellent post= thank you!

Val in the Rose Garden said...

I found them for the first time at Fred Meyers the other day... so they are around.

This is the where to find us page on the Walnut Acres website. :)

http://www.walnutacres.com/store_listing.php

Val

Katie said...

Val,
Great post....fast food is poison in my opinion. Even though JH is small when ever we pass a fast food place we always say "that is bad for our bodies", it is easier I am sure, especially when you have more than one child, but it is such a gift to make home fast food like you mentioned!

Shari said...

Seeing Logan eating sweet potatoes is a kick. It shows that he is your kid. Your favorate food for years was yams!

Love it. Life goes on!

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