I have been thinking a lot about food (nothing new there) and have been wondering at what point did it become the norm to offer treats as a reward to children for good behaviour? When I say that, I don’t mean, a once a year on your birthday you get a cake or at Christmas you get a bag of chocolate coins in your stocking. But literally every day children are getting offered sweets, or chocolates, or crisps, or something as a treat….surely, if you get it every day it stops becoming such and is just a normal part of your diet?
My son does generally have something sweet after dinner, it might be a square of properly dark chocolate (85% up is what we aim for) or it might be a banana or an apple. Sometimes he just asks for cashew nuts or oatcakes and that is fine by me.
I think ever busier lives lead people to reach for the quick, easy alternative. I can bang on about these things I make only taking 10 – 20 minutes to knock up, but what if you feel like you have not got 20 minutes? It only takes 30 seconds to open a pack of jaffa cakes…right?
As true as that is, I worry more and more about our children’s health. Even my child, who eats raw vegetables every day, has no processed food (other than the occasional thing that slips through the net while he is at school), and who eats practically no dairy or meat, has grains, pulses and whole foods. I still worry. I look at my fridge full of vegetables and wish I could afford to buy all organic. I worry about the oils I am using in my cooking. (predominantly the super oil that is coconut, but even I get a bit twitchy about coconut roast potatoes!).
So I get really scared for kids who eat mostly processed foods and who have little in the way of fruit and vegetables in their diets. I really worry. Maybe they seem fine now, they are happy and growing – but – cancer rates are the highest they have ever been, and are going up at an astonishing rate. Just today in the news it is reported that breast cancer is affecting more younger women that ever before. Not just that, but obesity, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, the rates of these are all dramatically on the rise.
We have to accept responsibility that this is in some part (maybe a huge part) down to what we are putting in our bodies.
As we (finally) get some warmer weather, you may want to treat the kids, or yourself, to an ice cream. Well just take a moment and look at the ingredients on the pack of what you are eating….take “Tesco Milk Choc Ices” for example. 19 ingredients. The first one must be milk/cream right, because it is ice cream? Wrong. The first ingredient is “Partially Reconstituted Lactose Reduced Whey Protein”. Mmm Appetising! But don’t worry, the 2nd ingredient is the chocolate coating, 26% of the product, but wait, it is listed as “Milk Chocolate Flavoured Coating” which when you look further down the line you will see is mostly vegetable oil and sugar not “proper” milk chocolate at all. It is not just the cheaper supermarket brands that are like this either, sure they might have “reconstituted skimmed milk” as their main ingredient but look at the ever expanding lists of additives, flavourings and preservatives that are added. I bet you can’t even pronounce some of them!
I could go on and on, but what I am getting at is, with a little planning, and a little more caring about what is going in your body you can easily do away with most of this processed rubbish and eat meals from scratch with wholesome ingredients. Products where you know exactly what has gone in them. Now, before you say, “ah well it is more expensive to eat that way” – I disagree, we live on a budget, I know people who eat similarly to how we do on a very, very tight budget, and in my opinion it is cheaper to eat this way. Yes you can go a bit mad like me and fill your cupboards with chia seeds and hemp oil, but chickpeas, lentils, rice, spices, herbs, nuts and seeds can all be bought from Indian/ethnic shops for pennies and last for months. Soups, stews, salads and curries are cheap as chips (pardon the pun) if you want them to be, as well as being infinitely better for you than crispy pancakes or “meat” pies.
I know we all like a treat, but make it that, a treat. Something once in a while on a special occasion, not an every day way of life.
Try it, you might like it 
(I have added a picture of our “choc ices” which went down amazingly well after a sunny afternoon walking round Mote Park in Maidstone. Take a banana, cut in half and push a stick into it. Melt a few squares of good quality dark chocolate, dip in as much of the banana as you like, dip that in some crushed nuts and freeze. I promise, once frozen it is just like ice cream (in fact better!).
Also, for one blog reader (well for you all but she asked specifically), here is the recipe for the no wheat, no dairy, no refined sugar, crispy chocolate bars as featured in the blog about Easter Sunday lunch. Adapted from a recipe from “Oh She Glows” (I know I have said before but her food is always amazing) (http://ohsheglows.com/about/)
Crispy chocolate bars:
Line a rectangular pan with non stick paper.
For the crispy bottom:
1 & 1/4 cup puffed rice (I use the Rude Health brand, just rice nothing else)
1/4 cup agave, date or maple syrup
2 tbsp peanut butter
Pinch of fine grain sea salt
Melt the syrup, peanut butter and salt together until combined, add to the rice and pat down well into the pan. Put in the freezer while you make the “caramel”
Date Caramel:
210 grams de stoned Medjool or Halawi dates
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 – 2 tbsp almond milk
Pinch of fine grain sea salt
If the dates are not really soft then soak them in water for a while and then drain and add to a food processor along with the peanut butter, 1 tbsp of the milk and the salt, process until smooth (you may need slightly more milk).
When smooth, remove the crispy bottom from the freezer and spread this over, covering well. Put back in the freezer while you prepare the topping.
Chocolate topping:
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 tsp coconut oil
Melt the chocolate and coconut oil until combined and then spread this over the caramel.
Freeze for a while longer(20 mins or so), then remove and cut into portions.
Store in fridge or freezer.
(You can eat this straight from the freezer but we like it best if you leave it out at room temp for 20 mins before tucking in.)
