A Playdate and an Investigation

Yesterday as Natalia and her little friend clanked on the piano and ukuele, spinning dreamily on the carpet, we sat on the back porch- me and the neighbors. Got into an interesting discussion. I assume my neighbor knows nothing of this blog, so it was even more interesting to me. She gets to talking about our and her garden. They make the most terrificly tall tomato plants on metal poles that shoot over 10 feet into the air. Not joking. Anyhow, she continues to tell me that her 6 year old daughter and 50+ year old husband will not eat a single vegetable. Maybe a cup of bagged frozen corn here and there, she said. Then she begins to tell me that their house is filled with processed food. Her husband did not realize this until they went line by line through their stock. Half of the boxed items, seasoned items, and pre-cooked items, he did not feel were processed foods and continued to insist that they eat fresh- and this is from a gardener. So I got to thinking. We do pretty good, not great, pretty good avoiding industrialized food over here at Chez Brick-e. I have done a good job of making at least one meal a day from the garden, non industrialized. But, I thought I would go through what was in our freezer and cabinets to find out what we had. Much of it had been donated to us to get us off the rice and beans kick but, nonetheless, the items were still here. Reading my book today, I came across a list of food processed items that were not so obvious to the usual consumer. As a result, our pantry and freezer hit the motherload. Here goes a checklist through their list of processed food items. Food science has given us vacuum sealed canned food. Check. Two cans of beans and one can of artichoke hearts. Frozen food. Check. Frozen peas, peppers, and berries. Mock meats made from soy. Check. Noah's Tofurkey and tofu. Baby formula. Checked from years back. Energy bars- nope. Powdered Jell-o. Check. Donated from Grandma's pantry for Natalia to make and enjoy. Lime flavored. Fortified cereal. Check. Cheerioes, at least they are not too colored. Cyrovacked foods. Check. DOnated from my mom and dad- fish filets. They have been in there for at least 2 years. Do I throw those puppies out? Noartificial sweetners or artificial sweetners with added fiber. No margarine. High fructose corn syrup. Nope, and proud of this in my suprise! Low fat chesse or yogurt. Check. Interesting.