the one where you are what you eat.
Posted on October 27, 2009
Yesterday I watched Dispatches on Channel 4. The program was about what is in your breakfast, but it also went into product labeling and how misleading they are. To say that I was shocked by the program would be an understatement. As a stay at home mom we live a very 1950’s life, or so I like to think! I cook all our meals from scratch (or almost from scratch), I clean *coughbullshit* and take care of Squidge. Wal works and brings home the bacon. I would like to say he always has a freshly laundered and iron shirt each morning but that would be a total lie! I’m working out again after 4 yrs and hopefully setting a good example for Squidge. I try to make healthy food choices and try to limit the amount of sugar we all consume. I do give Squidge treats but I like to believe that the only sugar she is getting is from the chocolate button I’m giving her and not from her Cheerios! Yesterdays program just brought home to me the need to be vigilant. I don’t want to set Squidge up to make bad choices. We eat a lot of fruit and veg and I want to keep it that way. I think the part of the program that concerned me the most was the Heart UK labeling and the Omega 3 labeling. I didn’t know that the omega 3 in margarine is from plants and not fish. Did you know that it is only Omega 3 from fish that is beneficial to your brain?!?! Are you swayed by the Omega 3 label on the package when you purchase your margarine? We’re a split family here, I use butter and Wal uses margarine as he feels it is better than butter. I have always maintained that butter is a more natural and therefor healthier option. After finding out that the healthy claims on the packaging may or may not be total and complete fabrications, £25k and I can get one of those labels stuck on my fat ass, I am even more certain of my choice. I will no longer be buying margarine for Wal he’s just going to have to suck it up and use butter!
Now let me switch to cakes. I was born and raised in the US. I think I mentioned before that I never baked a cake from scratch until I moved here. I LOVED Betty Crocker and didn’t know what to do when I moved here. Baking here is soo different, everything needs to be weighed on a scale and I had never done that before. In the US butter comes in sticks and recipes that use butter use sticks not grams. I didn’t know how many grams in a stick and I had to turn to the interwebz for help. Imagine my surprise and joy when I went into a Waitrose and found Betty Crocker on the shelves! Oh i could go back to adding oil and an egg and calling it homemade! I didn’t buy any BC mix as I didn’t need any, but let me tell you the first time I did I hightailed it back to Waitrose and clutched my box of cake mix lovingly in my arms. I got home, made my cake and waiting impatiently for it to bake and cool. I frosted it with some Betty Crocker frosting and took a big forkful– nom nom BLECH!!! Oh interwebz I have been corrupted!! Betty Crocker cake mixes are awful!! Ooooh the horror! LOL, I have found that I much prefer my from scratch chocolate cake. How could this have happened?!?!? After 4+ years of living in a Betty Crockerless society and surviving nicely, thank you very much, I’ve noticed that I can now find Betty Crocker mixes in more and more shops, this makes me sad. I also heard that all you can eat buffet restaurants are taking hold here. Ooooh of the one thing to be exported from the US to my adopted country why all you can eat buffets?!?! Nothing good can come of it. They’re nasty vile disgusting placing, troughs to overfeed the masses!
I think that being a SAHM I have more time and freedom to cook from scratch but also think that with a little foresight and planning anyone can have a nice home cooked meal. Spend a few hours and cook and freeze for the coming week. We need to spend a little less time in from of the tv/computer/xbox and take care of ourselves, the Betty Crockers of the world are not going to do it for us. If we don’t the future will not be pretty.
Cookies!
Posted on May 28, 2008
Betty Crocker I luvre you! Since moving to England I usually make all my baked goods from scratch. The lack of an aisle dedicated to all things Betty was a bit of a shock when I first arrived. They do have a couple of packaged baked goods here but nothing that’s familiar. The other day I noticed a package of BC chocolate chip cookies– WOO HOO!! Yesterday Squidge and I tried it out.





As you can see a pretty successful foray into baking cookies.
This afternoon we had some friends by for lunch and a bit of a play. Squidge had a fantabulous time!



Busy busy bee
Posted on March 4, 2008
I’m still here. I’m just a bit busy. Wal and I spent the last couple of days making sure we have everything we need for out trip on Saturday. Wal’s away until Friday night and we fly out EARLY Saturday morning. So lets do a quick recap.
On Thursday Squidge and I went swimming. She’s been bumped up a level and is now learning how to swim properly. It’s all very exciting and I’m happy to report she still LOVES swimming.
On Friday I decided I wanted to make banana bread. I had some bananas that were getting very soft.

It was DISGUSTINGLY bad. It was too moist and raw in the middle– even after I baked it for about 30 minutes longer than suggested.
Although Squidge didn’t appear to mind and ate a slice– yuck. If anyone has a tried and true banana bread recipe feel free to email it to me!!
Friday was also last Friday of the month– I had a good time and it was sooo needed. On Saturday we went to Middlewich to spend time with a new friend. We had a great time– one day I’ll invite people over. When I have the space. I also played Wii for the first time. Man I can see how people get addicted to this game.

On the way home we got stuck in traffic–

for over an hour we were dead stopped on the motorway. A motorcyclist hit the divider was thrown over and was hit by a couple of cars. We didn’t know this at the time all we knew was that the motorway was closed both directions.
On Sunday I finally found some snow boots. Squidge LOVES hers. She’s been running around the house wearing just her nappy for days now.



Doesn’t she have the best grin ever?!??!!

The real reason I’ve been MIA these last few days is that rightmove.co.uk is sucking all my time. I’ve spent hours looking at amazing houses we can’t afford. Now all I have to do is convince Wal that we need to move and not remodel!!
Oh and I finally used my apple peeler. Man oh man was it fun to use! It slices the apples in a long curly string. I just cut the apple in half and you end up with perfect half moons. The pie was a little too sweet but that didn’t stop me from eating it!

And I made jerk chicken and coconut rice– can we say YUMMY?!!!? I used this recipe.
(sorry for the bad picture but I was halfway through it when I decided I NEEDED to take a photo)

