I’ve been feeling a higher-than-normal level of anxiety about our daily bread.
1) The Healthy Food Challenge. I have never read so many labels in my whole entire life. Corn syrup solids, high-fructose corn syrup and all kinds of hydrogenated oils are disturbing my peace of mind.
2) Related: I have spent so much time at the grocery store it isn’t even funny. Do you know what’s been taking me so long? Picking out new products, reading the labels (see above) and pondering whether or not my family will eat the product I hold in my hands.
3) I biked to the Superstore yesterday (yay!) and forgot my produce bags (boo!)
4) I spent a week going through a mile-high pile of old Canadian Living magazines this past week. I’ve been ever-so-carefully skimming and and exacto-knifing good healthy recipes and filing them away into clear 8 x 10 sleeves in an effort to improve my culinary repertoire. I’m finally done.
5) I have spent more time and energy thinking/prepping/cooking dinners than ever before. It is exhausting.
It hasn’t been in vain, because yesterday, something happened that make it worthwhile:
I discovered my children liked vegetarian hot dogs.
I used to pooh-pooh things like tofurky, veggie ”ham” slices and veggie dogs – you know, traditional MEAT products that were made to look like meat but weren’t actually made of meat? But after awhile it made sense to me.
I mean let’s face it, kids love hot dogs. I love hot dogs! What red-blooded carnivore doesn’t? People would look at you funny if you said you didn’t like hot dogs – it would be as if you said you didn’t like watermelon or ice cream or kitty cats. TOTAL KOO KOO CRAZYNESS.
My favourite hot dog, in fact, is dressed with grated cheddar, Dijon mustard, chopped onions, and crispy bacon.
*wipes drool*
If it was up to my kids, we’d be eating hot dogs every day. Sadly, hot dogs are not a fabulous food choice. It’s probably the most processed food you can pick up in the meat department. Each Schneider’s Red Hot for example, (a traditional brand on Canadian BBQs) contains 10 grams of fat, and 410 mg of sodium per dog … that’s 17% of your daily value. Their chicken wieners aren’t that much better. They contain less fat per serving and higher sodium than the regular ones.
Yesterday I found myself combing my local Superstore for their PC brand of veggie dogs. They are lower calorie, slightly lower sodium (390 mg/dog), and higher in protein than the alternative. There are no preservatives in them, and no artificial flavours. (fyi – The Schneider’s website does not list the ingredients of their hot dog products, so we can’t see what goes into them.)
So there I was, at the store, with a package of faux wieners in my hand. Would my kids go for it? I took a deep breath and decided to try it.
Mark was not optimistic.
In fact, as I was making dinner he regaled me with a “humorous” anecdote about a co-worker who served veggie dogs at a family barbeque and – guess what – haha – the kid spit it out as quickly as it passed her lips! Ha ha! Thanks Mark.
Mark also announced there was no way he was going to try a soy hot dog. I’m not even going to comment further about that, but I WILL say that I wasn’t too happy about his lack of support in this area. (FEEL FREE TO DEFEND YOURSELF IN THE COMMENTS HONEY BUN.)
Here’s what I’m thinking: if there is a food your child likes to eat and there is a healthier alternative to that food, why wouldn’t you serve the healthier version of that food? i.e. multigrain pasta over the enriched white stuff? Or multigrain bread? Or higher-fibre/lower sugar cookies over regular ones?
Anyway, Mark barbequed the dogs, one of them which was a PC Blue Menu Frankfurter for himself (see, I knew he wouldn’t go for the veggie version.)
I should also add that we tried these new buns. Strangely enough I didn’t like them with a hot dog as much as I liked them with the hamburger. It was a little too chewy for my liking.
Anyway, I waited with baited breath as Emma took a bite of her soy hot dog, all wrapped and cosy in a new bun, lined with PC Organic ketchup.
”I LOVE THESE!” she exclaimed happily. In fact, there was some gushing about how much she liked them.
I debated whether or not to let the cat out of the bag, but I did tell her they weren’t made out of meat. She wrinkled her nose at the explanation of it all, but I’ll tell ya, she got over that pretty quickly and both her and Sarah wondered if there were more. More! More Soy!
I am satisfied. I’d say that was a worthwhile purchase, wouldn’t you?
