You know you want to.

If you haven’t seen the photos yet, check them out:

Smart Sweets is available for you now…

Now, use the code VDAYYUM over here for 35% off the book, and have some fun this weekend! (Code expires 2/15 at midnight)

You can read the table of contents to see what these babies are and some happy bakers giving reviews. Smart Sweets is more than a recipe book; it’s a guide to making healthier desserts! Enjoy!

Have you seen this week’s posts on school food and juice? The comments are hopping! I’ve also updated the post on the dangers of artificial sweeteners with the rest of the list…

As early as third grade, my best friend and I wrote and published a “newspaper” for our class, reporting on such scintillating and crucial stories as who was sliding on the ice at recess (complete with illustrations…never a talent of mine, unfortunately!), the size of the new buses the district purchased, and brain teaser games that we wrote ourselves.

I still have a strong memory of getting up at 5:00 in the morning – once – to push out our newspaper on a self-set “deadline,” punching the keys on an ancient typewriter – ancient even then in the mid 1980s, the kind where each keystroke took all my 60-pound bodyweight, the return was via manual lever complete with “ding!”, and each mistake required correction tape to be inserted as the deviant letter was retyped in white. Does anyone even know what correction tape is anymore? That’s one old typewriter…

In sixth grade, then, when some dedicated teacher began an official school newspaper, it was a shoe-in that the two of us would apply. The best story I remember from that year was about school lunch and the waste it generated. I had always had a green consciousness, at least from the time I received 50 Simple Things Kids can do to Save the Earth in fourth or fifth grade.

My friend and I studied lunchtime waste every day for a week, standing by the garbage cans in the cafeteria (our gymnasium with tables) and instructing fellow students to separate their waste into different receptacles for food, liquid, and trash. We weighed the results each day and posted a graph as part of our article. Pizza spins generated the least food waste; and something very forgettable that clearly no one liked, the most.

The final day of the project, we got to spend the entire morning shadowing the elementary school cooks. They made all the rolls and brownies from scratch and served a fairly balanced meal on reusable melamine trays. We even got to help serve lunch to the school, and we were amazed at how much work massive quantity cooking can be. I’m guessing after that I stopped making fun of the way the rolls went back to dough when you squished a piece between your fingers.

What I learned that week is beginning to haunt me as I read Sarah Wu’s Fed Up With Lunch, not because we thought our meals were so terrible in school, but mostly because today’s children have it so very much worse.

One Teacher, One Incredible Brainstorm

Back in 2009, Sarah Wu, a speech pathologist in Chicago Public Schools, forgot her lunch. It would be a fateful day.

She decided to just grab school lunch, a disturbing experience that launched a project in which she ate school lunch every day for the entirety of 2010, took pictures of the food, and blogged about it each night at FedUpWithLunch.com, using the alias "Mrs. Q."

The book of the same name, published last fall, has been such a fun read for me.

I admit, I think I loved it most of all because I’m a blogger, and reading about a blogger doing the blogging thing and seeking balance and dealing with comments and all that stuff that I do too (that no one else in real life understands) was like a guilty pleasure. Besides that, I met Sarah last January in person, so it was like reading an old friend’s story.

She details the behind-the-scenes story of the project and the blog, from that first fateful, cardboard-esque bite, to deciding to blog, to her jitters about being interviewed on national television while she was still anonymous online. Readers are invited into her home to experience family life with her husband and young son, exploring food sensitivities in little Charlie and watching Sarah’s husband learn to cook with amazing passion.

I learned some shocking facts via Fed Up With Lunch:

• Most kids in America have less than 20 minutes for lunch, including lining up time and getting back to the classroom. This translates in reality into about 10 minutes sitting at the table. Our family never gets a meal in our bellies in less than half an hour…
• Chicago Public Schools serves everything in individually packaged portions.
• First graders can’t open the packages, so they have to spend some of their precious 10 minutes waiting for a cafeteria "lunch lady" to come around with a spork and pierce all the plastic coverings.
• Fruit "Icee" popsicle thingys count as a serving of fruit as far as the USDA is concerned. They are made of water, high fructose corn syrup, a bit of apple juice, fake flavorings, and artificial food coloring. Most kids eat this first, prioritizing their 10 minutes.
• Most kids also down their chocolate milk laced with HFCS, quite often at the expense of the rest of the meal.
• The USDA is in charge of school lunch, completely separate from the Department of Education. Apparently, food is not something to learn about. (Sarah Wu and I think it should be part of the curriculum.)
• When kids have recess before lunch instead of after, a study showed that "less food goes to waste and students end up eating more of the healthful offerings on their lunch trays, such as fruit and veggies. Additionally, nurse visits drop 40 percent." Guess when my child goes outside to play? It’s one of the things on my mental list that I want to advocate about…
• CPS offers no recess time to any child.
• Yes, you read that right. No recess. Even in early elementary.
• There are schools being built in our nation with zero playgrounds. Those kids, obviously, will not get recess either.
• Yes, you read that right. I am in shock as well. What will that do to kids’ social development, not to mention their physical fitness, ability to concentrate in school, and their waistlines???

Sarah has become a passionate school food advocate, something this introverted young mom never would have predicted two years ago before starting the project. The end of the book gives lots of advice on how to work for positive change in the school food agenda, starting with parents.

Her advice is to begin by observing: join your child for lunch at school and see what the situation is in your community. I encourage you to do the same.

The only thing I might pick on about the book is that it seemed repetitive. Some of the facts about chocolate milk, time to eat, and food quality were brought up again and again, and because the chronology was linear through the school year, many subjects were revisited.

Perhaps Sarah Wu was simply relying on her teaching knowledge, knowing that people need repetition to really learn, but I started getting just a wee bit "fed up" when I encountered certain subjects for the fifth or sixth time. (Check out Sarah’s top 5 way parents can improve school lunch – you get a good summary of the book’s meat here.)

The anecdotes, research quotes, and news stories about school lunch, however, "filled me up" and got me fired up to study school lunch in our community to see what we can do to clean it up. (I’m sharing some of my thoughts on my goals in a separate post.) The book is an incredibly enjoyable and very enlightening read.

The Fed Up with Lunch project changed Sarah’s life for the better, and I have no doubt that reading her book will change yours, if only for a day.

My hope, and Sarah’s as well, is that if you read about the status of school lunch today, you will be inspired to be an agent of change. She and I want to challenge you to be a school food advocate – to follow in her footsteps and the footsteps of Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolutions (sign the petition!).

Study your child’s school lunch program and see what you can do to enact positive change in the menu offered, the time allowed to eat, and the general conversation about food and nutrition in your district.

Visit Sarah at her blog or grab the book – check your library first, of course! I can’t share her photos of school lunch with you, but they’re definitely worth a look!!!

What is your school lunch like? What would you change if you could? What do you love about it?

I’ve been gabbing about school food this week. Did you miss:

• Juice makes you pee your pants (and other reasons not to drink it)
• Free printable: Juice Decoder
• The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners: Are they Safe for Kids?
• My 6-year-old, the Green Activist (Juice Pouch Recycling)
• My experience with school health class and "healthy" snacks

This is also the last day for the huge healthy snacks giveaway, $350 value!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure: I received a copy of FUWL at no charge for my review, and I’m friends/colleagues with Sarah Wu, but no one can pay for my opinion! I’m also an affiliate with Amazon and will make a small commission if you end up buying anything there…but check the library first, please! See my full disclosure statement here.

(photo source)

I’ve been running off at the mouth (fingers?) a bit this week about juice, and I wanted to distill some of the information down in a bite-sized portion.

I wish I could create a “good/better/best” list for juice.

I made a nice list for you – but unfortunately it’s “best/okay/bad…and worse from there.”

Juice just isn’t good for you, but there are better options and truly evil ones that you want to be aware of if you’re presented with juice or it’s been a part of your family’s habits, and you’re not ready to change yet.

Here’s a small printable that you can post on your fridge, tuck into your purse, and then share the other three with friends (remember Monday’s Mission to share the knowledge?):

If you can’t see the document above, click HERE.

If you’re new to all this and would like a more comprehensive list of “what’s healthy to eat,” I have another printable called What to Eat, What to Avoid, How to Compromise that might come in handy.

You also might enjoy a little help packing a healthy lunch – that post  has tons of ideas, plus time saving tips (my lazy specialty).

Stick around tomorrow for more on school food and a review of Fed Up With Lunch! (Plus a Valentine’s Day weekend sale on Smart Sweets you won’t want to miss!)

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

Not really.

First, let me make clear that I’m talking about the juice you find in bottles or juice boxes in the beverages aisle at a grocery store, not the stuff people make at home with a juicer or the purchased equivalents that have to be kept cold.

We’re tackling Juicy Juice, Welch’s, Capri Sun, and your average everyday apple juice here.

(photo source)

We haven’t had bottled juice in our house for years (well, except for a few jugs that are in the basement right now that you’ll hear about in a minute).

When my first child was getting ready to eat solid food about six years ago, the pediatrician had “the juice talk” with us. She basically said that we can start giving our little guy a sippy, but that the main point is to help him learn to use a cup, not to give nourishment. The sippy really only need water in it.

Did we want to give him juice? (Probably not, I assured her.)

If we did, she recommended cutting it half-and-half with water, which we always did when he was offered juice at family gatherings or if we had orange juice with breakfast, until we couldn’t get away with it anymore. I don’t know that he had full strength juice until he was three years old!

She also detailed the only juices that have any nutritional value: cranberry, grape, and orange. “Juice is really only a delivery system for water,” she told us, and that’s been my juice mantra ever since…which is why our kids drink water, period. Here’s why:

All juice is full of sugar.

Even 100% fruit juice.

True, the sugar in 100% fruit juice is real fruit sugar, called fructose, but it still has an impact in the body and on blood sugar just like sucrose, or white table sugar.

In nature, fruit is a complete package, which always contains fiber. The role of fiber is to slow down the absorption of the sugars. Without fiber – i.e., in juice – the sugars rush through one’s body much faster, causing that “sugar high” feeling and wreaking havoc on one’s blood sugar whether you feel it or not.

Other “juice” that is not 100% fruit juice – the fruit punches and yes, Capri Suns of the world – are water mixed with sugar (usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup), fake flavorings and artificial colors. Sound like Halloween?

Fake juice is liquid candy. Period.

If my kids want to have juice at a party, it counts as their dessert for the day.

Sometimes there’s poison in there.

And I’m not even talking about the arsenic in apple juice ordeal.

To temper the sugar issue, some juice manufacturers offer “less sugar” versions of their products. They do not, however, cut down the sweetness. They simply add some artificial sweetener and market it as health food. I am firmly convinced that artificial sweeteners are poison for any human being, but they are particularly dangerous for children’s developing brains.

You may not agree. You may even regularly drink diet sodas yourself as a way to avoid calories or cut carbs. Personally, the more I read about artificial sweeteners of all kinds, the more fearful I become. They’re even in our water supply, so others’ choices affect me and my children, no matter what I do. Please take a moment and read about the dangers of artificial sweeteners for kids.

The fruit is cooked.

(photo source)

Cooking tomatoes releases lycopene; cooking most fruits diminishes their nutrient value considerably. Heat destroys Vitamin C in particular, so many juice producers add it back into the bottle in the form of ascorbic acid, industrially produced Vitamin C. (It is still “made from natural products” so juice bottlers can keep their “natural” labeling – which basically means nothing. You should see what glucose goes through to become Vitamin C…)

If you really want your kids to get Vitamin C, you might as well just give them a chewable and skip the juice.

Juice is a dead food.

When you eat a steak, you bet you want it dead on the plate. But when you peel a banana, slice an apple, or wash a grape, you’re guaranteeing your family a living food, filled with enzymes that help digestion and general good health. For example:

• The enzyme amylase, present in high quantities in bananas, is the same enzyme in your saliva that begins the process of breaking down food into usable parts.
• Pineapple contains the enzyme bromelain, which helps digest proteins and is anti-inflammatory.
• Grapefruits are packed with various enzymes that positively impact insulin and triglycerides.

Grapefruit juice? Nada.

Pineapple juice? Nothing.

Canned juice that can sit on a shelf has been pasteurized, or cooked at very high temperatures, so all the enzymes are long dead. Drinking orange juice is NOT the same as eating an orange, unless you squeeze it yourself. Even then, you should keep the pulp in for fiber.

What’s in Juice?

The fiber has been taken out.

The vitamins are largely denatured and ineffective.

The enzymes have been killed.

So what’s left?

Water. Sugar. And sometimes chemicals.

It’s just not worth your money or your kids’ health to bother with juice.

If you’ve already built a juice habit, you are not alone in America.

At our house, we offer water or milk for dinner. My son takes a water bottle to school every day for lunch. But I do understand that it’s not easy to make changes.

We all just do our best with the knowledge we have.

Here’s an easy printable to help you remember the best thing to drink, potential compromises, and the worst offenders.

The Day the Juice Hit the Fan

There’s a reason I’m writing this post.

I’m going to tell you this story like I’ve told a few other moms in my “real” life, but I know that someday I’ll probably have to delete it when Leah (and her friends) can read.

Just imagine lots of arm waving, hands-over-heart clutching, eyebrow raising and furrowing, and a fairly shrill “I can’t believe this” voice. Got that image?

Leah (age 3 and a half – this part is very important to her right now), Jonathan (4 mos.) and I went to my first grader’s school to observe the Christmas party. All the parents were invited, and he wanted us to come.

When the Capri Sun juice pouches came around, Leah was offered one, and although I hate the idea of sugar water juice, I also hate to be Mom the Meanie all. the. time. After a quick check to make reasonably sure they weren’t the kind with artificial sweeteners included – those usually say “25% less sugar!” or some such nonsense – I allowed my darling 3-year-old to have her own.

The sweet drink was of course a huge treat for her, and she sucked down the entire thing in no time. (That was about the time I put my juicy foot in my mouth…)

Less than an hour later, in line at the post office – in December, take note – she announced that she had to go potty. Badly.

There’s no bathroom in the post office.

With three kids in tow, I had to walk across the parking lot to Walgreen’s to avoid a puddle-on-the-floor incident, the whole time cursing the juice and my lack of foresight in allowing us to leave the school without visiting the bathroom.

We got through the line at the post office, and then I had the bright idea that we could walk the quarter mile or so over to the grocery store so I wouldn’t have to put a sleeping baby from the Moby Wrap into his cold carseat. I only needed a few things on sale and would carry a reusable bag.

A fateful endcap caught my eye. It was advertising buy one, get one on 100% juice. I thought, “If I bring in this kind of juice to the next party, at least the kids get a step up from Capri Sun.”

I grabbed four 64-ounce jugs.

Add to that the 8 pounds of oranges that caught my eye, the 4.5 pounds of cheese I bought, a carton of ice cream and a few assorted other produce items, and you’ll know why I smacked my own forehead when we got in line and I realized that my van was a quarter mile away across grass!

I am not always a smart lady.

Murphy’s Law kicked in with the person in front of my having trouble with the register, two phone calls coming in (both people I needed to address that second, literally, or mess them up), trying to maneuver one of those “car carts,” that’s extra long with the car on the front, into the next line over, and then:

“Mommy, I have to go potty.”

Again?

It couldn’t be. We just went in Walgreen’s a mere 30 minutes before, and she had peed Lake Michigan. There couldn’t possibly be more. This kid is fibbing.

“Are you sure? Can you hold it?”

“No…I have to go badly!”

I told her she’d have to wait until we at least got through the line, as the bathrooms were at the very back of the store.

Just as I finished ringing everything up and was trying to fit it into my one lousy reusable bag, cursing myself (in my head) the whole time, I heard:

“Mommy? It came out.”

Oh no.

A puddle on the floor incident!

What could I do? I gazed at all my voluminous groceries, which I already couldn’t carry, paid for but not bagged, my baby snuggled on my front, sleeping, and my 3-year-old, soaked through her pants.

I wanted to shake my fist at the heavens and scream, “Juuuuuuuuuuuuice!” like Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire: “Stellaaaaaaaaaaa!”

There’s more to the story, mostly involving me dragging a very heavy bag a quarter mile and other totally-my-fault antics.

I tried to keep my temper from going through the roof along with my blood pressure by reminding myself that this was not Leah’s fault. It absolutely, positively, had nothing to do with Leah’s attitude, self-control, or choices.

“This is not your fault,” I told her. “Mommy feels angry right now, but not at you.

This…is juice’s fault. This is all juice’s fault. We’ll just never, ever drink juice again. The Kimball family does not like juice. No. More. Juice.”

The bottom line with juice is why drink our sugars anyway? If we’re serving dessert to our kids, it may as well be something delicious like ice cream.

Do you offer drinks other than water or milk? Why or why not?

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

source: Steve Snodgrass

In fashion, which I know absolutely nothing about, believe me, it’s vital to know about the next new thing. As the fashion changes, so must one’s wardrobe.

In food, marketers would like you to believe it’s the same system. Chemists create a new “food” in a lab, advertisers promote it, and once it’s in every box in the supermarket, we all eat it. As food fads changes, so must one’s pantry.

Something about that strikes me as odd.

I strongly feel there’s a danger in eating the next new thing.

In primitive human civilization, the crazy one who tried eating something new was the test dummy. If he died, people wouldn’t eat it anymore. If he survived, party on!

I choose to be the cautious observer, preferably for centuries, to make sure what I put in my mouth is actually food, and brings nourishment to my body. I someone created it in a lab, I question why I should consume it.

As a Christian, I believe that God created a good world with everything we need in it to survive. And while He also gave us humans the sense to make amazing inventions that certainly improve our lives, I am hesitant to jump into actually eating them. I’d rather trust a chef to use God-given food to create a great new recipe than a scientist to make a great new food.

Artificial sweeteners all fall into the category of man-made “foods,” and they’re worth exploring individually so you know what to look out for, and why.

Let’s try not to be the test dummies.

Artificial Sweetener: Aspartame

What is it? A proprietary, patented chemical that has something to do with Phenylalanine. My eyes kind of crossed reading the chemical description, so if you really want to know what aspartame is, Wiki will tell you. (The phenylalanine means that folks with PKU need to avoid it.)

Here’s your first clue something is not a food – you have no idea what it is or how it’s made.

Names to watch for: Nutrasweet, Equal, AminoSweet, phenylalanine, aspartame – be careful in unassuming things like vitamins, medicines, and foods with added fiber.

Discovered: 1965, on accident while trying to create an antiulcer drug. Yep, made by a scientist so sloppy he would lick his finger in a lab. “Hey, that’s sweet! Maybe we can eat it…”

Interesting anecdote on how aspartame got approval here – it may be from a biased source, but it’s fascinating if true!

Used in food since: 1983 (beverages), 1993 (everything else)

A must-read: the first few pages of the statement by Dr. John W Olney, M.D., to the aspartame board of inquiry in 1980, recommending that it not be approved for use in any population. He stand by that opinion still in 1997 after watching the rate of brain tumors increase 10% since aspartame’s approval.

Is it dangerous? Why? Yes! Sources may be split, but I’m not.

Aspartame is a neurotoxin and an excitotoxin, which make it particularly harmful for children, in my opinion, because their brains are so much less protected that adults’ brains. It may be linked to birth defects, cancer, brain tumors, and weight gain. (source)

Recent studies in Europe show that aspartame use can result in an accumulation of formaldehyde in the brain, which can damage your central nervous system and immune system and cause genetic trauma.

Aspartame has had the most complaints of any food additive available to the public. It’s been linked with MS, lupus, fibromyalgia and other central nervous disorders. Possible side effects of aspartame include headaches, migraines, panic attacks, dizziness, irritability, nausea, intestinal discomfort, skin rash, and nervousness. Some researchers have linked aspartame with depression and manic episodes. It may also contribute to male infertility. (source)

Many people drink diet sodas (almost always sweetened with aspartame) to lose weight or stay thin – unfortunately, whenever our bodies eat something sweet, our brains expect calories to follow, AND we crave more sweets. Artificial sweeteners may damage the body chemistry, leading to weight gain, and they definitely increase cravings for sweets, causing many people to overindulge. (source)

One of the things aspartame breaks down into is methanol. Yuck. It doesn’t actually last very long – somewhere between a week and 300 days, depending on what it’s mixed into.

Medicine.net and CNN cite the safety of aspartame (WebMD and Mayo Clinic say it’s just fine, too), but they also point out that the last big study done (in 2007) was funded by a company that makes aspartame. In face, many of the sources claiming aspartame is safe can be traced back to the companies that market aspartame. This article does an amazing job tracing the money and business/political ties of those who promote aspartame and those who approve it for use in food. Scares me.

Other notes: Don’t diabetics need artificial sweeteners, though? No way – if you’re interested in diabetes and real food, you must read Brandy’s thoughts on her 27 years of diabetes management with zero artificial sweeteners!

Kids: I’m particularly concerned about the neurotoxicity of aspartame. Dr. Olney pointed out in 1980 that aspartame killed neurons in lab rats, and that children’s nervous systems aren’t protected by the blood-brain barrier. He told the FDA, “We can be reasonably certain there is no margin of safety for the use of aspartame in the child’s diet.” They didn’t listen.

Artificial Sweetener: Sucralose

What is it? Made from sugar with extra chloride bonded to it. The idea is that sucralose isn’t digested, so you can consume something sweet, then absorb zero calories from the sweetener. However, some studies show that up to 25-30% of sucralose IS absorbed into the body.

Names to watch for: Splenda

Discovered: 1976

Used in food since: 1998/2006

Is it dangerous? Why? Probably. Sucralose gets a much better reputation than many other artificial sweeteners, but my hunch is that the reason is simply that there haven’t been any long term studies yet, since Splenda is so new. One Duke study, which is pegged as unreliable, found that sucralose “reduced the amount of good bacteria in the intestines of rats by up to 50%, increased the pH level in the intestines, [and] contributed to increases in body weight.”

Those adverse effects haven’t been seen in humans, however.

Right. Because no one I know is populated by bad bacteria/weak immune system, suffering from chronic fatigue or pain (high pH symptoms) or gaining weight.

Other notes: If sucralose is passed through without being broken down in the body, guess where it goes? The waste stream, and ultimately back into the environment.

Swedish measurements have proven that wastewater treatment has no effect on sucralose, and while we don’t have proof that it will harm the environment, we do know that the levels of sucralose in the ecosystem will increase since it’s not being broken down. In a U.S. study, sucralose was found in over 75% of drinking water. What the consequences may be, we can only guess.

Kids: Unfortunately, once Splenda was approved for food, it started sneaking into foods that previously did not have artificial sweeteners.  Many products marketed for kids like “lower sugar” juices, ice cream, yogurt, and much more, have Splenda in them. It’s not always clear from the front of the package, like a diet soda vs. a regular soda, when a product contains Splenda (sucralose), and it’s often combined with regular sweeteners like sugar and high fructose corn syrup. This article was the most fascinating I read, and it pointed out that we are absolutely the guinea pigs for the safety of Splenda. I’m not willing to let my children be test dummies:

“Thanks to an agreement between McNeil Nutritionals (makers of Splenda) and PTO Today, which provides marketing and fund-raising aid to parents’ associations, your elementary school’s next bake sale may be sponsored by Splenda — complete with baked goods made with the product.” (source)

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Artificial Sweetener: Neotame

What is it? Modified version of aspartame: “a chemically modified molecule derived from the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid.” (source) It’s stable under heat, whereas aspartame is not, so it can be used in baking. It’s also more potent, 30 times sweeter.

Names to watch for: ??? Here’s the scary part: because it’s so sweet, manufacturers use very little, and labeling laws don’t require ingredients to be listed if they are less than 1% of the total mass. Therefore, neotame could be in foods without being listed on the label or hidden under the ambiguous umbrella term “natural flavors.”

Discovered:

Used in food since: 2002

Is it dangerous? Why? Chemically similar to aspartame, neotame is supposed to be safe for those with PKU, but really, because there aren’t ANY studies available to the public (over 100 have been done, marketers claim…), how can I even entertain the thought of consuming it???

Other notes: Neotame is marketed as “a flavor enhancer that ‘accentuates and lifts the flavors in food.’” Sounds like MSG to me. I don’t trust it, but now at least I know what to watch for in the ingredients labels!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Artificial Sweetener: Acesulfame potassium

What is it? a potassium salt – technically, “the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide.” That doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, either.

Names to watch for: Acesulfame K, Sunett, Sweet One

Discovered: accidentally in 1967

Used in food since: 2003

Is it dangerous? Why? Unknown. The body is unable to break it down, so it passes through undigested. This may interfere with general metabolism. Linked to breast and lung cancer, reactive hypoglycemia, but studies questioned.

As with other artificial sweeteners, Ace K can cause an increased craving for sweets.

What perhaps concern me most about this chemical is the obvious lack of information about it. I feel like there aren’t even enough studies to dispute. It’s definitely a case of “innocent until proven guilty,” which is great for people, created inherently good, but downright dangerous for food products. Even the innocent are in jail until it’s proven.

Other notes: Check your medications for this one, especially chewables and liquids. Acesulfame K is often added to them to make the medicine more palatable.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Artificial Sweetener: Saccharin

What is it? It’s called benzoic sulfilimine, which is made starting with toulene, an ingredient in paint thinner. Chemists then use such things as sodium nitrite (a carcinogen I avoid in bacon and lunchmeat), hydrochloric acid, chlorine, and ammonia…and some other stuff…I am not a chemist!…to then create saccharin. Yummy. And they thought we should eat this WHY?

Names to watch for: Sweet’N Low

Discovered: 1878, on accident while working on coal tar derivatives. Again, yum.

Used in food since: Widely since sugar shortages during World War II.

Is it dangerous? Why? Unclear. Saccharin passes through the system undigested but can cause insulin release because of its sweetness.

It’s the oldest artificial sweetener, and there really isn’t much reputable data to show that it’s harmful. It’s often called the “safest” of all artificial sweeteners. “No study has ever shown a clear causal relationship between saccharin consumption and health risks in humans at normal doses.”

Other notes: Saccharin is put into infant formulas! Gah!

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Are There Any Safe Calorie-free Sweeteners?

I’m a fan of stevia, which has been used for thousands of years in other countries. Some question the processing of the stevia leaf into a liquid, and especially into a white powder.

Worried about stevia dangers? Just make sure you know how to find pure stevia vs. those name brand counterfeits that are mostly made of something other than stevia.

Watch for Sneaky Artificial Sweeteners In:

• chewing gum (try finding one without it for a plane trip)
• yogurt (Light n fit, low cal, added fiber)
• creamer
• “less sugar” juice
• pudding, jello
• snack bars
• lite popcorn
• well, “lite” anything!
• Watch for words like “lite” “less sugar” “low sugar” “sugar free” “diet”

Where else do you see artificial sweeteners when you least expect them?

Certainly many of you don’t really buy food with labels but make your own and focus on real meats, vegetables, fruits and healthy fats. However, especially if you have children, you’re going to be presented with packaged food treats. Unless you swear off everything in a bag or a box, you’re going to want to learn to watch out for these particular evils so you can decide if a food is an acceptable compromise at a party or a never-gonna-let-it-pass-the-lips-of-MY-child kind of thing.

For information on better, more natural sweeteners, check out the Sweet, Sweet Summer series.

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I’d love to see more of you! Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

When I got my copy of Fed Up with Lunch in the mail, he read the title and sighed, "Fed up with lunch? I’m fed up with lunch, too, all that Styrofoam."

I wasn’t sure what he meant, but he explained that hot lunch at his school is served on Styrofoam trays every day, which are of course thrown away. He also had a great quote last week:

“Mom, in our school, kids just take their whole lunch box and dump it all in the garbage. I mean, plastic bags that could be reused (insert eye roll) and everything!"

Did I mention he’s just in first grade?

All this waste hurts his little eco-conscious heart, and he is hoping to get a chance (we’ll make a chance) to teach others good reusing tips for lunches, and we’re brainstorming ways that a passionate 6-year-old could implement district-wide change on the hot lunch trays.

For now, we’ve started making an impact in his school with these:

Read about what we are doing (and how you can do the same) at my juice pouch recycling post at Green Your Way:

Open mouth, insert…juice boxes?

Sometimes I say things without thinking.

We’d been at my son’s new school for about a month when I visited for the Christmas party. (And yes, they did actually call it a Christmas party in a public school. Kind of refreshing, I thought.)

The kids were all starting to clean up and throw away their Capri Sun juice pouches, when my green consciousness kicked in. It was like a no-waste reflex, a gut reaction that couldn’t be stopped.

“Did you know those can be recycled?” I blurted out to the teacher. “I can look into how to do it…I’ll take them home.”

Open mouth, insert foot. Foot tastes like juice.

Catch the rest right HERE…I’m so proud of my kids!

This is just another page in this week’s theme of school food and juice – not the healthy kind of juice that comes from juicers, but the shelf stable kind of juice in the inner aisles at a grocery store.

I’m working on the artificial sweeteners Food for Thought for tomorrow, and I’m telling you – them more I read about Splenda, the more upset I become! Don’t miss it! Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

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If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

Impact Ratings:

Level of Commitment: Baby Steps

(photo source)

If your child goes to school, chances are they’ve ingested some artificial sweetener in their time there.

Got a Valentine’s Day party coming up? Artificial sweeteners might be invading your school, hidden in juice or candy from well-meaning parents.

What’s Wrong with Juice?

I’ve been saying that I’m going on a juice rampage this week as part of a challenge to school food advocacy. Let me tell you how all this got started:

My son, the saver, brought home an empty bottle from a birthday celebration in his first grade room just before Christmas. (He wanted to make something out of it, in case you were wondering.) I knew there was nothing good inside, but I had artificial food colorings on the brain that week after an article at Sorta Crunchy got me sorta thinking.

I absent mindedly read the ingredients and nearly bruised my jaw on the dresser when I got to the end and saw not only Red 40, which I expected, but sucralose. In case you’re not up on evil things one might find on an ingredients label, sucralose is Splenda, one of the newer no-calorie artificial sweeteners to hit the market.

The Line

Although I’m guessing I don’t come across very lenient online, I really let a lot of things slide in real life. I usually just cringe at high fructose corn syrup rather than banning it (when others are serving, not at home!). I look the other way when it comes to fake food coloring (but more on that at the end of the month – stay tuned!). I hate when kids are given juice, but I know it’s a fun treat for a party.

However.

Everyone has to have some un-crossable, non-negotiable, never-compromise-on-them lines. One of mine is artificial sweeteners. They are absolutely never to cross my children’s lips. Ever.

My son knows this very well and would never drink anything labeled “diet,” and after last soccer season, he even recognizes the artificially sweetened version of Gatorade, “G2.” This one wasn’t his fault at all.

I quickly flipped the bottle around to see what it said on the front. I was looking for the telltale signs of artificial sweeteners: “low sugar” “reduced sugar” or “lo-cal.” Nothing. I can’t even figure out why the punch had sucralose in there since the first ingredient was still high fructose corn syrup.

The Birth of a Juice Activist

The bottle was empty.

The line had been crossed.

I had to do something about it.

I realized that education was the only way out of this chemically sweetened mess, so I decided to talk to Paul’s teacher to see if she would let me share information with the classroom parents about how to find artificial sweeteners on labels and why they’re no good for kids.

All of this, plus another story that I’ll share later this week in which someone will pee their pants, was the genesis of the entire week of school food advocacy here at Kitchen Stewardship. I’ll post a “juice decoder” to help people – not most of you, I know, but rookies – determine what juice is perhaps okay to drink and what is totally unacceptable, especially for kids.

So if you know all this stuff, and you’d never touch artificial sweetener with a 10-foot pole anyway, I offer a challenge to you this week to do some real food evangelizing. Teach someone else how to read a label and avoid fake sweeteners, or better yet, teach someone how to buy food without labels.

Welcome to My House…

As for me, I’m inviting the parents from the entire class over to my virtual home tomorrow, and we’re talking about juice.

I want to teach all parents how to help their kids be healthier, and avoiding artificial sweeteners is such an easy place to start. I was telling some blog colleagues about how I was getting my undies in a bunch about juice at school, rolling my eyes and saying, “Yep, I’ll make a name for myself quickly as the crazy food lady, yikes.” (Remember that we’ve only lived here two months!)

They seemed to want to counsel me to simply teach my own kids how to avoid the junk rather than to try to change school policy so that they’re not presented with the junk. As much as I appreciate and agree with the idea of kids having knowledge and agency to take care of themselves – and I do that sort of education, too – I just can’t get over the fact that I might have the opportunity to help other families improve their health! I can’t help it. I just have to be a teacher wherever I go.

My “voice” tomorrow might be a little odd for those of you who are always around, however, since I’ll be talking to a different audience, some of whom certainly drink diet sodas and think nothing of it. I’ll tread lightly and focus on the kids.

Who are YOU going to teach this week?

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.

This giveaway is going to help one lucky winner (and some bonus stragglers) have nothing to worry about for snacks on the go for a very long time!

I’ve gathered companies for this little snacks party to give you pre-made snack foods, the kind of rare finds with packages and bar codes that are actually real food; ingredients for your own kitchen snack-making; and even supplies to bake them in and pack up your goodies for on the go. These companies provide a balance between your nutrition, time, environment and budget – just like the mission of Kitchen Stewardship.

Check out this HUGE Grand Prize:

• Healthy Snacks to Go, 2nd Edition
• Large box a month’s worth of snacks from Healthy Surprise
• 8 buffalo snacks from Tanka Bar
• Box of apple chips from Bare Fruit Snacks
• Yogurt or kefir starter from Cultures for Health
• Soaked granola or nuts from JoshEWEa’s Garden
• 1 lb. organic garbanzo beans + $10 from Shiloh Farms
• 4 cans freeze-dried fruit and vegetables from Thrive & Jennifer Ginther
• Unbleached parchment paper, muffin cup liners and sandwich bags from If You Care
• Kefir drinks and frozen snacks from Lifeway
• 80 honey stix from Glory Bee Foods
• Glass container with stainless steel lid from Life Without Plastic
• Reusable snack bag from Mom4Life

See below for entry form…

TWO Bonus Prizes:

To win a copy of the Healthy Snacks to Go eBook plus your choice of a yogurt or kefir starter from Cultures for Health, click HERE to enter (separately from the main giveaway).

TWO Consolation Prizes:

Two more copies of HSTG #2 will be sent to extra winners chosen at random from the main giveaway survey.

Breaking it Down

What is all that stuff? Read the description and my thoughts on each item below – if you do visit any of the sponsors, you’ll get an extra entry in the giveaway form, so click away!

Large Box of a Month’s Worth of Healthy Snacks

from Healthy Surprise
$99

from the company:

Each box comes with a variety of snacks. You can expect to get products made with fruits (dried, dehydrated, freeze dried & “fruit leathers”), nuts (clusters, trail mixes), bars (all kinds), crackers, chocolates (raw, things covered like espresso beans, cacao nibs), kale chips (plain, salt and vinegar, etc) and other new innovative products like Skinny Crisps! The large box contains 50-60 servings, good for 3-9 people for the month.

from Katie:

This box was so. much. fun. to get! Healthy Surprise is a snacks subscription service, and each month you get gluten-free, vegan snacks of all kinds. I found them to be about 80-90% in line with things I would buy anyway (and the other 10% were pretty doggone good compromise foods!).

We’ve enjoyed the gluten-free Skinny Crisps immensely (I prefer the cinnamon sugar version), dried fruit is always a hit, and the packet of freeze-dried strawberries saved our yogurt once when we were traveling to a relative’s house. There were some cinnamon cayenne-spiced almonds that made everyone say, “Oh, yum…*eyes wide*…what’s that bite at the end?!” Seriously yummy.

It was refreshing to have all gluten-free options, well-sourced, and easy to grab and go. Caveman cookies (grain-free), cheesy kale chips and a few bars rounded out our box.

The one thing I didn’t have time to do was go to each website and add up all the product values to see if the box really was a good deal (they say you’d spend more buying individually). ???

This is the kind of thing I’d love to be able to gift to a new mom, someone moving, or that person who “has everything” for Christmas or a birthday. To receive it myself was just plain fun – and practical, of course. I hoarded the snacks for real emergencies when we had no other treats to grab!

**coupon code: use the code KITCHENSTEW through the end of February for 20% off just for KS readers!

4 cans Freeze-Dried Fruit and Veggies

from Shelf Reliance and Jennifer Ginther (Thrive Foods)
$58.65

from the company:

The THRIVE food line consists of the same foods you would purchase at the market—fruits, veggies, meats, beans, grains, dairy, and the basics – THRIVE has an extended shelf life, so you can store it in your own kitchen or pantry for a long time without worrying about spoilage.

They all have a shelf life of 25 years if kept in a 75 degree or below environment.  The lucky winner will receive a 4 pack which has strawberry yogurt bites, freeze-dried pineapple, freeze-dried peach slices and sweet corn, which are approximately 12-15 quarter-cup servings per can.

There is detailed nutritional information as well as customer reviews on each product along with the discounted pricing HERE. If you’re in Florida, Jennifer can hold a tasting party with you.

from Katie:

When we talked emergency preparedness here at KS, I learned a lot about the world of keeping food (and other things) on hand in case of any kind of emergency. Freeze-dried food is one of the great ways to have real food that lasts a long time, especially things like meats, which often are tainted with preservatives and chemicals when purchased canned, and fruits, which lose many nutrients when heated for canning.

I love freeze-dried fruit as a finger food for little ones and can’t wait until John is old enough to prove me right.

We also tested a big can of one of Thrive’s ready-made meals (left), and I was skeptical (typical, right?)…but when we were moving into our house, it saved dinner. All I had to do was add hot water, and in 15 minutes we could eat a whole dinner of pepper steak and vegetables over rice on our paper plates (we had nothing there and ate on a card table!). I kept reading the ingredients looking for the problem, but it’s really all real food! (This reminds me, I need to use up that can now that it’s open in a month or two…looks like I’ll have a quick easy meal sometime this week!!!)

I was pretty excited about the yogurt bites, because as a healthy snack to go, yogurt gets tricky. Imagine my disappointment when the first ingredient was sugar and the second, yogurt. My son put it best: “Mom, these taste like those yogurts in the tube!”

They’re fun and delicious…but the yogurt bites are sadly a “healthier candy” rather than being a way to save your family from hunger in an emergency or feed your brood on a long car trip.

Don’t get me started on how delicious the freeze-dried raspberries are, though. I had others try them just to say, “Can you believe that’s dried? It tasted like a real raspberry right off the bush?” But I’d only let them have one! We used them in homemade yogurt when we didn’t have access to frozen fruit. I highly recommend having some freeze-dried fruit on hand to be prepared for emergencies from snowstorms to quick snacks!

**coupon code: no coupon necessary – shop here and you’ll automatically be getting anywhere from a 5-30% discount, no expiration date.

Organic Cinnamon Apple Chips

from Bare Fruit Snacks
$36

from the company:

Bare Fruit is a healthy snack you and your family
will love. Low in calories, high in fiber and naturally
sweet, Bare Fruit is the perfect in-between snack or lunch
time addition.

Our ingredients list is simple: Fruit. No other chip bares it
all in the name of health and no other chip tastes as good.

The winner gets a box of 12 bags!

from Katie:

Holy cow. I can’t stop eating these things, and the only ingredients are apples and cinnamon. They came in a bag like potato chips, and they’re probably the only healthy thing as addictive as chips! My daughter keeps asking if we can take them for a snack, and it’s nice to be able to say “yes!” without compromise. Then I have to cut her off because I want to save some for myself, too…

The Bare Fruit Company is sponsoring the US Water Polo Team at the Olympics, and they’re taking one of their Facebook Fans along. If that winner is a KS reader, s/he gets an extra $500 in spending money! Seriously, there are only about 500-600 fans there, so it’s way worth signing up HERE.

You can find Bare Fruit chips (other flavors, too) at Whole Foods, Costco, local health foods stores, and on Amazon.

**coupon code: Click the coupon tab on the left hand side of the Facebook wall.

Yogurt or Kefir Starter

from Cultures for Health
$$6.99-17.99

from the company:

There are many varieties of yogurt to choose from. All of them contain probiotic bacteria, and all of them will work with dairy milk or alternative milks. Yogurt has been developed in many places throughout the world, and as a result there can be variations in taste, consistency, and types of bacteria. The type of yogurt culture you choose depends entirely on your personal preferences. They differ in source, taste, consistency, process, and bacteria.

You can make probiotic milk kefir or dairy-free water kefir from live, reusable, heirloom-variety starter cultures. Use Water Kefir Grains as a starter culture with sugar water or juice to create a carbonated fermented beverage.

from Katie:

Many of you enjoyed my how to make water kefir video a few weeks back, so you know I regularly make it. I have also tried the countertop yogurt culture, and it wasn’t the right thing for my family, but someday perhaps I’ll try another culture, as I understand they’re all different. If you’re still afraid to make homemade yogurt or think you don’t have time, this stuff is uber-simple: mix into milk, leave on the counter. Done.

If you win, you get to choose your starter!

Wild Buffalo Bars and Sticks

from Tanka Bar
$25

from the company:

The 70-calorie Tanka Bar delivers a slow, powerful protein punch by mixing two primary ingredients: low-fat, high-energy American buffalo meat and tasty cranberries. This combination is no accident, and now our Tanka Bar Traditional has been joined by our Tanka Bar SPICY PEPPER BLEND. Gluten-free, hormone-free and low-fat, the Tanka Bars are deliciously perfect for every diet lifestyle.

Tanka Bars are guaranteed shelf-stable for up to 18 months. The Tanka Bar SPICY PEPPER BLEND has the same tender and slightly sweet texture you have come to love in the Tanka Bar Traditional with the addition of a nice spiciness that brings just the right amount of heat. We bring the heat without all the chemicals you’re likely to find in many other products — just pure, delicious jalapenos and habaneros.

Winner receives:

• 2 Tanka Bars (one traditional and one spicy)
• 2 Tanka Bites (one traditional and one spicy)
• 4 Tanka Wild Sticks (2 traditional and 2 spicy)

from Katie:

It’s not always easy to bring protein on the go, and these bars offer real nutrition that you don’t have to make, if you don’t have time. My kids and I enjoy the Tanka Bars, although my husband will quickly warn you that if you don’t like sweet with meat, you won’t like these.

**coupon code: KITCHENSTEWARDSHIP12 for 15% off!

Snack Happened Itzy Ritzy Reusable Snack Bag

from Mom4Life
$8.95

from the company:

• FDA approved
• Ideal for little hands
• Lead free YKK zipper top keeps crumbs, drips and contents inside
• 100% cotton designer fabric exterior
• PVC-Free waterproof lining inside
• 7 inches x 7 inches
• Machine washable

Use Snack Happened Reusable & Washable Snack Bags for all kinds of purposes

from Katie:

I’ve used a number of reusable sandwich bags, and my one major problem with them is that most of them allow bread to dry out overnight. I’m not a morning person, so I definitely have to pack lunches the night before. This bag is waterproof (the website says you can even put an ipod in it for safekeeping), so I’m thinking it would keep bread just great (I didn’t have any around to test it lately).

The zipper is another new feature that I haven’t see before – much quieter than Velcro for church!

My daughter loves the princess print (definitely some of the most fun we’ve seen), although she was pretty ticked when I wouldn’t let her take it for her dolls and play kitchen.

**coupon code: 10% off until the end of February using the code “Kitchen”

Honey Stix

from Glory Bee Foods
$31.95

from the company:

“Since their introduction in 1986, GloryBee has added many new flavors to its HoneyStix, all 100% natural. Today there are 28 flavors of HoneyStix, available at grocery stores, natural foods stores, farmers’ markets, country fairs, candy stores, coffee and tea shops, and convenience stores. They are also available through UNFI, Nature’s Best, and direct from GloryBee Foods.

Choose 1 of our 5-pack boxes which contain 16 x 5-packs. Our organic classic mix includes the classic flavors of lemon, cinnamon, mint, strawberry, and natural honey. The organic natural honey contains natural pure tasting honey. Orchard blend honeystix includes tongue tickling flavors of peach, cherry, grape, apple, and raspberry. Our citrus sunrise has the favorite citrus flavors of orange, lemon, line, pink lemonade, and mango. All delicious choices.”

from Katie:

I got to try Glory Bee’s honey in a jar (not the stix), and it’s good stuff. I enjoyed reading about the company’s mission and connectedness to the environment. Sustainable beekeeping, all the natural products they sell, a commitment to being a family company and a foundation on the belief in God simply made them a company with whom I was excited to work.

32 oz. Kefir, Pint of frozen Kefir, and 4-pack of ProBugs

from Lifeway
$12

from the company:

With seven to ten billion CFU’s of 10 strains of bacteria, plus ProBoost, our exclusive pair of clinically proven probiotics, Lifeway Original Kefir balances your body’s ecosystem and supports digestive health and immunity – that’s 12 live and active cultures per cup. Plus, it’s an excellent source of calcium, protein and it’s 99% lactose free. Lifeway Kefir is a creamy and delicious yogurt-like smoothie the whole family will enjoy.

You can never have too many bugs. Lifeway Probugs™, that is. It’s our Organic Whole Milk Kefir for kids with fun characters and flavors even the pickiest eaters will like. Not only is it high in protein and calcium, it has added Inulin for optimum calcium absorption. As with all Lifeway Products, this kefir is made with milk from grass fed cows that is free of rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormones) and antibiotics. And its easy-to-grip shape and patented no-spill spout make it a perfect no-mess snack – even in the car.

Lifeway Probugs™ Organic Whole Milk Kefir. They’ll love everything about it. Especially the bug part.

from Katie:

Our family has really enjoyed the raspberry and pomegranate kefir, and my kids seem to get a kick out of differentiating between the water kefir they have every day and this special “dairy kefir” that was served as a dessert first. My 3yo even serves her dollies “dairy kefir” now! The plain version goes great in smoothies, found in the Healthy Snacks to Go eBook.

Unfortunately Helios organic kefir, by the same company, was the least favorite in our house.

**coupon code: Find printable coupons HERE for use at a local store.

$12 Certificate for Soaked Granola or Nuts

from JoshEWEa’s Garden

from Katie: I’ve lauded JoshEWEa’s Garden products before, and they really helped us through breakfasts for those sticky times right after John was born and as we were moving when we just needed something fast. Soaked granola and raw milk is one of my kids’ FAVORITE breakfasts. We’re fans of the coconut flavor around here.

I also just tried a bag of her NEW sprouted snack mix, which could be eaten as a munchy snack OR with milk like a grain-free granola. It’s good. Really, really good. I bet if you asked my husband where the bag is right now, he wouldn’t know (that’s because I hid it, tee hee!).

And seriously, if you don’t own a dehydrator to soak for crispy nuts, where else can you buy them? Nobody does this kind of Nourishing Traditions food preparation, and JoshEWEa’s makes it taste great, too!

**coupon code: Get $5 off an order of $30 with 5on30.

Unbleached Paper Baking Products

from If You Care
$13

from the company:

These premium quality FSC certified unbleached, greaseproof papers are perfect for a wide variety of baking and cooking needs. While some baking papers are coated with Quilon, which contains heavy metals like chromium that can be toxic when incinerated, If You Care Parchment Paper uses Silicone, derived from a natural element. It’s a much more expensive process, but one we feel is worth it for everyone. But perhaps most importantly, our baking papers use no chlorine in their production. And that means no chlorine is dumped into our lakes and streams. (Baking cups are made from same material)

Made in Sweden from the unbleached pulp of Scandinavian spruce trees – a natural, renewable resource – If You Care Snack and Sandwich Bags are greaseproof, and provide a natural barrier which prevents grease or fat from penetrating. They are not treated with petroleum based paraffin wax or any other wax. Like all of our If You Care paper products, these snack and sandwich bags are totally chlorine-free, as a result of which, no chlorine is dumped into our lakes, rivers and streams. Perfect for snacks, cookies, muffins, nuts, chips, sandwiches and much more.

The big winner gets:

• If You Care FSC Certified Unbleached Parchment Paper
• If You Care FSC Certified Unbleached Baking Cups
• If You Care Unbleached Snack and Sandwich Bags (soon to be FSC Certified)

from Katie:

These grain-free muffins stick to regular cheap-o muffin cups but pop right out of If You Care cups, so I reuse them. It was this photo that prompted a reader to introduce me to the company! I was already using the parchment paper but didn’t know about the cups…

Many of the recipes in Healthy Snacks to Go require parchment paper, and I use muffin cups whenever I bake muffins, because let’s face it, we have plenty of dishes! When I use If You Care unbleached products, not only am I being safer and less toxic, but I’ve found that I can reuse them quite a few times. It was a natural for me to approach If You Care to help out with this giveaway.

A local health foods store just opened this month a block from my house (cool coincidence, right!?!), and I noticed If You Care products on the shelf. Glad to know if I run out of parchment paper in the middle of a project that I can get the good stuff quickly!

1-lb. Organic Garbanzo Beans + $10 to spend

from Shiloh Farms
$14

from Katie:

If you’re going to make delicious Crispy Roasted Chickpeas from the second edition, you’ll need lots of dry Organic Garbanzo Beans! Yum. (coupon below)

Wait until you see what else you can get for your $10 at Shiloh Farms – sprouted flour, maple or date sugar, amazing alfalfa raw honey, and more! Shiloh is one of those companies that does things properly and sells proper food.  You know you want to make these:

**coupon code: $5.00 off any online purchase over $30.00. One per person, good until March 17 – Just enter the word garbanzo in the coupon box.

Round Airtight Glass Container with Stainless Steel Lid – Small

from Life Without Plastic
$18.95

from the company:

This round glass food container features an ingenious stainless steel lid that creates a airtight seal when its silicone button is pushed. To release the vacuum, the button simply needs to be pulled. The silicone seal inside the lid guarantees a perfect seal. The container part is made of heat resistant high quality borosilicate glass and the lid is made of 18-8 food grade stainless steel. Great for freezing leftovers!  It can be re-heated in a toaster oven or microwave without the lid. Capacity: 400 ml (13.5 fl. oz).

The container without the lid can be washed in the dishwasher . Freezer-safe.

from Katie:

I have mixed feelings about this product.

First, it’s cool because it’s a glass container that my 6yo can easily get the lid off of. Not so cool that it took six tries for me to get it to seal the other day.

Cool to avoid plastic. Weird that silicone is plastic (right?) and covers much of the inside of the lid anyway. UPDATE: Oops, I should have known better. Silicone is not plastic. So mostly, these are pretty cool…I’d just cry so hard if I broke one though!

VERY cool that they’re actually water-tight (no leaks!), and you really can’t get the lid off without breaking the seal on the blue button there.

So although when I first reviewed Life Without Plastic’s stainless steel containers, I listed as a drawback not being able to see what’s in there, I would still go with the stainless containers over the glass ones for on-the-go. My son takes his yogurt in one every day and loves that he can open it without hassle.

**coupon code: 10% off code good until Feb. 29th:  SNACK10

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ENTER HERE

Giveaways at Kitchen Stewardship are run via a survey, which means comments on this post do not count (and will be deleted). In the long run, this is quicker for you if you go for extra entries.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER GIVEAWAY CONTEST.

There are 15 possible entries! Here’s what you can do to win:

1. *Mandatory entry: What is your all time favorite grab and go snack?
2. Subscribe in a reader or via email to Kitchen Stewardship (or tell me if you already do)
3. Follow @kitchenstew on Twitter AND tweet this:
   Hoping I win a whole bunch of #realfood from @kitchenstew! $350 value! [ENTER URL HERE]

For up to 12 more entries, visit each sponsor and tell me your favorite product or most interesting piece of information you found there (in the survey, remember!) A tip: you might want to have the survey open in a separate tab or window and open the sponsors’ sites that interest you from here:

1. Visit Healthy Surprise
2. Visit Shelf Reliance
3. Visit Bare Fruit Snacks (don’t forget that Olympics trip!)
4. Visit Cultures for Health
5. Visit Tanka Bar
6. Visit Mom4Life
7. Visit Glory Bee Foods
8. Visit Lifeway
9. Visit JoshEWEa’s Garden
10. Visit If You Care
11. Visit Shiloh Farms
12. Visit Life Without Plastic

Remember, comments here DO NOT COUNT. You must use the survey form.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER GIVEAWAY CONTEST.

I will use random.org’s integer generator to choose the winner, who will be announced on the blog and will receive an email.  The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, Feburary 10 and I’ll post the winners the following week.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure:  From some, I received products for my review at no charge, which of course did not affect my opinion in the least.  For some, I am an affiliate, which means I’ll receive commission if you purchase. See my full advertising disclosure here.

Official rules and small print stuff: 1) No purchase necessary to win 2) must be 13 or older to enter and have a mailing address within the sponsors’ boundaries (see above) 3) only one survey entry per person 4) odds of winning depend on number of entries 5) employees of Kitchen Stewardship, LLC or sponsoring companies not eligible for participation 7) prizes must be accepted as is and are not redeemable for cash 8 ) Kitchen Stewardship, LLC and sponsoring companies are not liable for any injury or damage to persons and/or things as a result of the acceptance of the prize offered. 9) This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

What’s the hardest part about eating real, unprocessed foods?

Betcha at least one of your top answers is "eating on the go."

It’s all well and good to make your own food while you’re at home, but sometimes the challenge of leaving home, especially in a  hurry, can cripple the best of real food intentions.

The first edition of Healthy Snacks to Go has been helping people cope with "running out the door hungry" syndrome for nearly two years, and it’s time to upgrade the system.

Our Story

Since the first edition of this book, which was my first eBook, I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I’ve cooked many meals and made many snacks.

Life has also changed a lot: we’ve added a child, discovered a gluten sensitivity, gone grain-free for a few periods of time, and moved to a new house.

My oldest child is now in school all day, so I have first-hand knowledge of the drudgery of packing lunches and managing snacks on the go daily. (For the record, I don’t like it. It’s a pain. But it did make me realize even more the value of a book of snacks!)

I’ve also taken more steps along the real food journey: I have a grain mill and a dehydrator, I’ve delved into natural sweeteners, and we’ve cut even more processed foods from our cupboards.

I regularly make power bars, granola, crackers, muffins, and a whole bunch of other recipes from this book. I have food-stained printed copies of certain favorites and often open it on the computer for others.

The updates and new recipes in the second edition will reflect all of this: more grain-free options (9 of the 11 new recipes), much less white sugar, dehydrator variations on some old favorites, and some handy fixes to problems with the old recipes. Don’t worry though – this book and nearly all the recipes it contains are still very applicable for a real food rookie or novice chef.

Note on Free Download for Previous Purchasers

Thanks for your patience, everybody! I was able to upgrade my shopping cart to handle 1000 free downloads per day, so hopefully that is enough. I don’t know when it will officially “kick in” – it’s 4:20 EST right now, so if you get the error and are within a few hours of this time, the account just hasn’t reconciled yet. Keep trying, and thanks so VERY much for all the excitement and kind words!

One reader pointed out that if you add anything else to your cart, say, the Smart Sweets with the fancy discount, you can get all the items…

Healthy Snacks To Go eBook Second Edition by Katie Kimball Over 45 recipes to get you on your way with real food, fast (85 pages) $8.95

You can see all KS eBooks HERE.

What’s New?

Healthy Snacks to Go has grown from 44 pages to 85, and it’s not from eating junk food! A steady diet of wholesome ingredients helped the text to blossom to maturity, and believe me, it’s better for it.

Here’s the new table of contents:

If I’m known for anything, it’s being thorough. Every recipe has multiple variations, flavor options, different ways to prepare or cook it, and FAQs that ought to answer any question you come up with. I have the benefit of nearly two years of dialogue with readers and emails from Healthy Snacks to Go owners helping me plug holes and refine the goodness it contains.

$8.95

New Recipes Include:

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas (Cool Ranch shown above)

Apple Flax Muffins (grain-free)

Cardamom Spiced Grain-free Granola

Grain-free Coconut Muffins

Chocomole (a pudding)

Also…

• a new No-Bake Granola Bar
• an Apple Pie version of the famous power bars
• Butternut Spice Bars
• Whole Wheat Graham Crackers
• Grain-free Pumpkin Muffins
• Kid-friendly Beef Jerky
• Easy Vanilla Pudding
• my Snack Bar Manifesto
• "Big Batch" Conversion Chart for Power Bars

You’ll find minor revisions on every page and major revisions on Soaked Coconut Granola, KS Granola Bars, Honey Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins, Whole Wheat Banana Flax Muffins, and dried fruit rolls.

$8.95

See more about the first edition HERE.

I’m Throwing a Snacks Party!

Want it for free? Check out this huge snacks giveaway with a grand prize worth over $350 for a snacker who won’t go hungry this month, plus FIVE copies of the 2nd edition of Healthy Snacks to Go. If you already own it, I’ll give  you a different eBook. (Through February 10th)

Spend Money to Save Money

The price of Healthy Snacks to Go has increased with its recipe and page count. Some people might wonder why you’d bother to pay for recipes when there are so many free on the Internet.

I’d sure like to think that I can save you money. In fact, if you make just a few batches of the famous power bars, packed with expensive ingredients like dried fruit and nuts, you’ll save the purchase price of the book vs. buying individual Larabars. A couple batches of homemade Wheat Thins, and you’ll not only have a much healthier end product, but a few bucks still in your pocket as well.

I won’t hide the fact that about a third of the recipes are posted right here at Kitchen Stewardship, including the FREE download of the No-Bake (Soaked) Granola Bars, also revised and updated. Another handful have been adapted from other recipes on the web. You could trawl the Internet to find good snacks…but they won’t be as thorough or easily accessible and printable as an eBook. I take great pains to make my eBooks user-friendly and practical, even putting all the photos on three pages so you can save printer ink.

$8.95

Speaking of photos…

I’m Getting Better…

I thought I was hot stuff three years ago when I posted this image of the granola and granola bars:

But now look:

And this one:

And of course I went from this:

to these:

Okay, those are both pretty cute. Are you ready for FIFTEEN different flavor options for these simple power bars, with zero sweetener and no need to turn on your oven?! I’m sending some to my brother, serving in Afghanistan, and I guarantee they’ll still be good when they get there in two weeks.

See more about the first edition HERE.

$8.95

New and Improved Granola Bars

Since the first eBook, I’ve also started using recipe testers to make sure everything makes sense. They improve the format and final results SO much! When I asked readers to test the new granola bar improvements, I had no shortage of volunteers. We tweaked the instructions a bit, but the recipe held fast…literally.

See what they have to say:

We also worked on Crispy Roasted Chickpeas together, with great feedback:

How About Food Sensitivities?

It seems like more and more people are having to cut foods from their diets these days. Healthy Snacks to Go has always had helpful icons so you can see at a glance whether a recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free or grain-free.

Here’s the breakdown, out of 45 recipes:

• grain-free: 33
• gluten-free: 38
• dairy-free: all but 4 have CF (casein free) adaptations
• nut-free: 24 have the option
• I even added a new section on how to substitute coconut, if you’re one of those people who just don’t like it.  

BUY HERE

Healthy Snacks To Go eBook Second Edition by Katie Kimball Over 45 recipes to get you on your way with real food, fast (85 pages) $8.95

You can see all KS eBooks HERE.

Business Stuff

If you already purchased Healthy Snacks to Go, the first edition, watch your Paypal email this weekend for instructions on how to download the updated version at no cost to you, as well as a 55% off coupon code for Smart Sweets.

If you own HSTG from another source, perhaps the Family Life eBook sale or as a giveaway winner, OR if your Paypal email has changed, please follow these directions exactly to get the update for free:

1. Email kitchenstew at gmail.com with the subject line "HSTG 2nd Edition, please" [copy it exactly so I can automatically put your request into a folder].
2. Within the email, tell me what the first word on page 38 is. That will be easier than trying to track down how and why you have the book already.
3. Wait 7-10 days – please don’t email again to check in – and after that time you’ll get an email in your box!

Satisfaction Guaranteed

If you are disappointed in the book for any reason, including that you can’t find enough recipes to fit a dietary restriction, I will refund your money without hesitation. Just email me!

Other KS eBooks include:

• Smart Sweets
• The Everything Beans Book
• The Family Camping Handbook

If you’re a blogger and interested in the affiliate program, click here.

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More books are in the works that you won’t want to miss, so sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter or get KS for Kindle.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Last week I got an email from my first grader’s health teacher announcing that they’d be tasting healthy snacks that Friday, and parents were invited to send in some food for the class to share.

Healthy snacks?

Oh, now you’re speaking my language!

Examples of healthy snacks included carrots, cheese, fruits, whole-grain crackers, pretzels, low-fat yogurt, and a few others. Hmmmm…

I pondered whether I should share the news that low-fat is no good for kids (or other human beings), but instead I immediately responded with a passionate note about how much I’d love to bring something, and in fact I have this ebook and blog thing going on, and could I please even come in and observe the kids eating the snacks for a little market research for the update to my book?

I probably scared her a little, but she graciously let me come anyway. 

I whipped up three flavors of the power bars from Healthy Snacks to Go and three flavors of the new Crispy Roasted Chickpeas (coming tomorrow in the 2nd edition).

I had to hide my grin as my son struggled with the work that day, to separate pictures of foods into "healthy snacks for school" and "tasty foods to leave at home," the euphemism for junk food like donuts, cookies, and chips. Poor kid kept getting too many images on the junk food list, since crackers, pretzels, and cereal land squarely in that category at our house.

The plates of healthy snacks to try, intended to broaden their horizons and help the kids try some new foods they may not have had before, included half a string cheese, a big slice of orange, two baby carrots, and my contributions here:

Those are Cinnamix, Sunny Vacation (nut-free), and Cherry Almond Power Bars with Cool Ranch, Mexican, and Cinnasweet chickpeas in the back. Mexican was a mistake, because kids were too scared of all things spicy, so they didn’t eat any chickpeas by and large. Oops.

I have to say I was surprised that any of the foods the teacher brought would have been new to kids, but at least they were all real food.

Some of the kids had started eating and tasted the chickpeas or power bars before the incident, or they probably would have all been thrown away.

I could have cried.

The teacher walked around the room with a bag of pretzels, dumping a handful on each plate, right on top of all the healthy goodness we had already served them!

In a fight between pretzels and chickpeas with 6-year-olds as judges, the pretzels are victorious every time.

That was the lesson I learned at school last week.

Stay tuned next week when I go on a juice rampage, challenge you to advocate for school food change, review Fed Up with Lunch, tell you what my son and I are already doing to help his new school get green, AND talk about the food pyramid and what’s wrong with school lunch these days. It’s going to be a week you don’t want to miss (and I’m inviting the parents from my son’s class to visit me here at KS, too).

Even better, TOMORROW watch for the 2nd edition of Healthy Snacks to go, now with over 45 recipes. It goes out free this weekend to everyone who purchased the first edition…or manages to sneak in a purchase today, just under the wire! (Buy here.)

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

See my full disclosure statement here.