Trade It Tuesday

One of the things I hear a lot is that eating the way we do must be so much work.  It is true that I bake all the time - but that's mostly because I love to bake.  The way we eat doesn't have to be any harder than the way you cook now, once you get the hang of it and know what to buy.

In order to show you how easy it can be, I'm going to start a new weekly topic called Trade It Tuesday.  Each Tuesday I will show you some common products from the grocery store, and I will show you what brands you can buy instead that don't use artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.  If you commit to changing one or two of your products each week, integrating all natural versions into your diet over time, eventually you will be eating all natural just like us.

Moms, you have all the control over what your family eats in your house as long as you do the grocery shopping.  You can't always control your family outside the home, but you can do your best to keep their diet healthy in the home.  And that's a great start!

Today:  Snacks!

So, instead of this:





















Choose this or this (found in the natural foods section instead of the chips section):

Isn't it funny that the same company will make a natural version and a version with artificial colors and flavors?

Instead of this:

Choose this (found in the regular chip aisle), or the Natural Lays (found in the natural foods aisle):

Instead of this:

Choose this (natural foods aisle):

My suggestions are all things my kids love.  Usually they taste better, although there is always some trial and error involved.  The Natural Cheetos are so much better than the regular ones.  I also love the Natural Lays which are thicker and less greasy than the regular Lays.  There are a million flavors of all natural granola bars - my kids love the Cliff Kids Z Bars and the EnviroKids "Rice Krispy Treat" bars.

In preparation for this new feature, I got caught at Bel Air taking pictures of the different foods.  They grilled me about why I was taking pictures, making sure I wasn't from Safeway and taking pictures of prices.  I assured them that was not the case and told them "I'm nothing more than a mom on a crusade!"

Join my crusade and find at least two things you can buy this week at the grocery store in an all natural version.  If you change one or two things at a time, your family might not even notice that some of their favorite things are missing, and they may love these new things even more!

Stay tuned next Tuesday for more ideas on what you can trade.