This seems to be cropping up more and more. It started with a fruit bread based snack for DD#1 - and for once it had an icing - white of course - no food colourings allowed... And there it was 'solvent'. yuck. I have been trying to find out what it is of course and so far as I can tell it will be propylene glycol . There are some interesting findings about this stuff. Now I understand that like all chemicals they can be quite hazardous in large amounts - or at 100% concentrations. However I don't want to eat solvent. Thanks. I also don't want it near me - and why? Well my mother-in-law suffered a bad reaction to our babies wipes - and perfumes and air fresheners -anything with this stuff in it. And if she could have such a bad reaction and need an inhaler from just walking into a room where I had changed a nappy - WHAT IS IT DOING TO ME AND MY BABY?
So read the labels. As for me - I am throwing out the wipes and will buy some flannels - we'll go back to doing things the old-fashioned way. And as for DD#1 - we won't be buying any more fruit bread 'treats'.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Bread
I love bread. Fresh baked, golden, crispy. It fills the home with its unmistakeable aroma. Mmmmmmm. So when I make soup, I make fresh bread - yeast, strong flour, sugar, salt and water. Sometimes I even add rosemary or garlic or something a bit special. What I don't add are improvers. Or emulsifiers. Or other such garbage. But it amazes me how common they are in shop-bought bread. I don't really want a loaf to last several days. I want it to taste nice. I want it to have a great texture and be wonderful spread with butter or whatever I fancy.
Anyway, things have been busy at home and I had the ends of 3 shop bought loafs on the counter top- ready to feed the ducks actually. Looking through the ingredients aside from the ingredients I mentioned previously I found:
soya flour
vegetable oil
vinegar
canola oil
263
471
472e
481
170
300
516
I don't want vinegar in my bread. My husband can't stand vinegar and when you try and toast this sort of bread the kitchen is filled with a strong acidic waft. Yuck! I don't actually want oil in my bread either. And I like my flour to be normal from wheat rather than soya - or am I just a purist? I will happily exchange honey for sugar on occasions as the loaf demands - or add grains or fruit, or malt extract. But it makes me annoyed that I have to stand in the supermarket with two kids as I try to work out which is the best loaf - that is to say - the one that most closely resembles real bread.
Anyway, things have been busy at home and I had the ends of 3 shop bought loafs on the counter top- ready to feed the ducks actually. Looking through the ingredients aside from the ingredients I mentioned previously I found:
soya flour
vegetable oil
vinegar
canola oil
263
471
472e
481
170
300
516
I don't want vinegar in my bread. My husband can't stand vinegar and when you try and toast this sort of bread the kitchen is filled with a strong acidic waft. Yuck! I don't actually want oil in my bread either. And I like my flour to be normal from wheat rather than soya - or am I just a purist? I will happily exchange honey for sugar on occasions as the loaf demands - or add grains or fruit, or malt extract. But it makes me annoyed that I have to stand in the supermarket with two kids as I try to work out which is the best loaf - that is to say - the one that most closely resembles real bread.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
normal service will be resumed shortly...
Well baby has kept me up a lot recently hence the lack of postings! But I've also had food poisoning. It seems that when we go out not only am I more aware of what is in my food but that some standards aren't exactly as good as my own!
Seriously - going out for food is getting hard. Burger places are loaded with additives and trans fats, Chinese has MSG usually. Family places have too many to list. It makes going out for food rather hard.
We have discovered going out with kids is really hard. First we have to please everyone - now baby is 10 months and has gone right off baby food, we have to find somewhere that does high chairs and food that she will eat. And that DD#1 will eat - without additives. And the food has to be ready right now. Or in no more than 5 minutes. Or there's trouble.
Doesn't leave many options does it? Recently I've being trying to explain why we 'don't eat things that are brightly(luridly) coloured' in our family. Ever tried to explain to a three year old why she doesn't get lollies? Or bought biscuits, or gingerbread men with hundreds and thousands on them? Or bread with pink icing or doughnuts with blue? Or flavoured chippies? And the list goes on and on. I don't think we do too badly all things considered. She seems to have grasped that it makes us 'poorly' - not that it turns her into a unreasonable, defiant monster. So maybe that's okay for now.
We made gingerbread men the other day. I wondered what we would do for decoration. I needn't have been concerned: they got eaten before the cookies were cool.
Seriously - going out for food is getting hard. Burger places are loaded with additives and trans fats, Chinese has MSG usually. Family places have too many to list. It makes going out for food rather hard.
We have discovered going out with kids is really hard. First we have to please everyone - now baby is 10 months and has gone right off baby food, we have to find somewhere that does high chairs and food that she will eat. And that DD#1 will eat - without additives. And the food has to be ready right now. Or in no more than 5 minutes. Or there's trouble.
Doesn't leave many options does it? Recently I've being trying to explain why we 'don't eat things that are brightly(luridly) coloured' in our family. Ever tried to explain to a three year old why she doesn't get lollies? Or bought biscuits, or gingerbread men with hundreds and thousands on them? Or bread with pink icing or doughnuts with blue? Or flavoured chippies? And the list goes on and on. I don't think we do too badly all things considered. She seems to have grasped that it makes us 'poorly' - not that it turns her into a unreasonable, defiant monster. So maybe that's okay for now.
We made gingerbread men the other day. I wondered what we would do for decoration. I needn't have been concerned: they got eaten before the cookies were cool.
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