Our Summer Experiment

Some of you may not know, but as this year has passed, Riley's teacher and I have witnessed a decline in his ability to focus on tasks (especially those of little interest to him).  He can sit and work on building things with Legos easily for a hour, but if I ask him to upstairs and get a pair of socks, it will take him 3 attempts to successfully accomplish that simple task.  I have been asking him to repeat instructions back to me and when he does, the success rate goes through the roof.  He struggles to stay focused, forgets to complete parts of worksheets, etc.

I also know from past history with my brother, that certain foods can make it more difficult for some kids with attention issues to focus.  I was reading an article last night that I posted on FB and got lots of comments regarding the issue of ingredients in our foods.  The article can be found HERE.  It's from NPR and it's about a possible FDA study of the link of food dyes to the behavior of children.  Red dye has always been in question in relationship to kids' behavior.  I know there were certain food triggers that would set my brother off and if by chance he consumed all of those triggers in one day, the fire would be ablaze in no time.

So I'm going to experiment with some different types of foods this summer.  I typically buy organic or healthier versions of things when possible.  Kendall is going to go into withdraw when I stop buying fruit snacks.  They things have little to no nutritional value and are loaded with color!  I try to comfort myself with the fact that I buy the kind with no hydrogenated oil, which means no princesses, Nemo, etc. for my kids.  Wonder if there is a homemade alternative?

I am going to try to make as much of the snacks that the kids eat as possible.  I am baking some granola bars right now.  My hope is to find a recipe that will replace the need to purchase them.  We buy organic bars, which of course is more expensive, but if I can make them myself, they will still be organic and be a cheaper option.  I used the following recipe and they were well received by my kids.  They don't "look" the same as regular granola bars and were lacking the sweetness of the chocolate chips that their Cascadian Farms ones usually have, but a nice alternative.

Homemade granola bars

2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup wheat germ

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup raisins (optional)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup honey

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 9x13 pan.  Mix oats, brown sugar, wheat germ (I used part wheat bran and flax seed meal because I didn't have wheat germ on hand), cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt into a large bowl.  Make a well and add remaining ingredients and mix with hands. Pat flat into baking dish and bake for 30-36 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes then cut or they will be too hard to cut if you let them cool entirely.

My guess is that these may freeze well so potentially you could make a huge batch and freeze them so you would have enough for lunches or snacks at school.

The biggest item to replace will be the Goldfish crackers.  Riley would live on them if he could.  I found a cheese cracker recipe online that I may attempt this week since our goldfish box is now empty.

I want to try to reduce the amount of processed, pre-made, pre-packaged food that we consume.  If I am making most of it from scratch and the rest is as much organic as I can find, the artificial colors and flavorings should be greatly reduced in our diets.  I can my own jelly every summer and buy organic peanut butter for lunches.  We even make our own popsicles over the summer too.

The kids don't get juice unless it's packed in a lunch to go somewhere.  I have been giving the kids flavored water so there is less sugar, but now I'm rethinking that since I discovered there was Splenda in it.  I think a reusable water bottle will be going into lunch boxes next year.

The plan is to try this over the summer and see how it goes...will it help Riley to focus better?  Who knows?  But it certainly won't hurt any of us to consume less processed foods and watch how much sugar and artificial color/flavor is in our diet.  My new, big Kitchen Aide food processor just arrived today so I dug out my Deceptively Delicious cookbook and can't wait to try some of the recipes.  Sneaking extra veggies into their food won't hurt them (or me) one bit!  Side Note:  Riley thinks the Deceptively Delicious idea is great!  He can't wait to "trick" his sister into eating more veggies!