Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Ultimate Mosquito Protection!

No chemicals here! We're going to protect Marlee on our upcoming trip to Canada with this Mosquito Suit, custom made for us by Bugabear on Etsy.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A New Puff in Town

I've had a few moms ask me about a more natural alternative to Gerber Puffs, which are full of HFCS and ingredients I can't pronounce (not to mention expensive!). I used to recommend organic crisp rice cereal or oat o's (my fave: Joe's Os from Trader Joes). Problem with those is, the rice is tiny and not great for training little fingers, and the Os don't dissolve.

Michael and I have enjoyed snacking on Pirate Booty for years, but I just recently discovered Fruit Booty and Veggie Booty!

Compare ingredients.

PUFFS (sweet potato): Rice Flour , Whole Grain Oat Flour , Wheat Starch , Wheat Flour , Sugar , Sweet Potato Powder , Tri- and Dicalcium Phosphate , Natural Flavor , Annatto Extract Color , Mixed Tocopherols - for Freshness , Zinc Sulfate , Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate - Vitamin E , Electrolytic Iron

VEGGIE BOOTY: Corn Meal, Rice, Soy Flour, Rice Flour, Corn, Sunflower and/or Rice Oil, Salt, Spinach Powder, Evaporated Cane Juice, Broccoli Powder, Kale Powder, Carrot Powder, Cabbage Powder, Parsley Powder, Calcium Carbonate (Baking Soda), and Sea Salt.

FRUITY BOOTY: Corn Meal, Organic Soy Flour, Sunflower, Rice and/or Corn Oil, Evaporated Cane Juice, Peach Juice, Mango Powder, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Safflower Oil, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Paprika Extract. Contains Soybean Ingredients.

SIMPLY BOOTY (VEGAN): Corn Meal, Rice, Contains one of the following: Corn, Rice and/or Sunflower Oil, and Sea Salt.

Simply Booty is sugar free. The Veggie variety has less sugar than puffs. The Fruity Booty has about the same amount of sugar, but it comes from evaporated cane juice rather than HFCS.

All three are bite-sized, yummy, and dissolve quickly. I wish I'd found these when we were in the Puffs stage!

**I've been informed that Gerber Puffs are now sweetened with sugar, not HFCS. This must be new, as the can I bought MJ a few months ago definitely had HFCS. Anyone have a can to check for me?**

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A New Month

It's July first...what eco-friendly/healty life goals are you setting this month?

For the W Family:

One outdoor can of trash (Should be especially easy because we're traveling)
No fast food. This one is easy for me, tougher for Michael.
Michael is going to bike instead of drive to the gym.
We're eating two vegetarian dinners and two fish dinners per week.
We're making a stronger than usual effort to reduce electricity usage. Kind of a game.

Share your goals for July!