I’ve been eating healthier these days, cutting out processed foods and nasty chemicals where I can. I know I have a long way to go, but I am trying. Since I have made these changes I have been thinking more about what I feed my kids. Hudson has the diet of a typical 5 year old… peanut butter & jelly, mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, etc. Mila is one so she is just starting to eat more foods. I have slowly been switching out our kids staples with more health-conscious options. I get organic fruit when I can. I have always bought organic milk and chicken nuggets, so that didn’t need to change. Our waffles, pancakes, and breakfast cereals are now organic and GMO-free. Is this really a BETTER choice? I honestly don’t know. I read as much as I can about it, and at this point I figure, if I can easily make the change to something with less chemicals and fillers, then I will do it.
Which brings me to the mac & cheese debate. I have read a lot of things about the little blue box that my son adores oh-so-much. Thanks to healthy food advocates like The Food Babe I know they are taking the controversial yellow #5 food coloring out of certain types, but I still decided to give organic mac & cheese a try. I bought a bunch of different varieties at Whole Foods. We started with Back to Nature they were bug shaped, so already they were already a winner with my 5 year old. I tried it before serving it up and it tasted the same to me. (in fact the ingredients are basically the same, as far as I can tell except the coloring part) Hudson and Mila ate it right up. I asked Hudson if it tasted any different and he said, “No, its really good.”
It was a different story however, with the Annie’s brand. It DID taste different, and not in a good way. The Whole Foods 365 brand was in-between, better than Annie’s, but not as good as the Back to Nature brand. So for now, I will be replacing the blue box staple with this organic brand. However, if my son sees the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shaped mac & cheese… I am in trouble.
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