Wherein we find a healthy alternative to fruit leather
Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Mamakaze must confess that we’ve been a bit smug about what we feed our little ones. Most nights, it’s lean meat and veggies, with homemade, hand-mashed natural foods for the tiny one. Even on the rare occasions we give Kidakaze fast food, it’s apple slices rather than fries, and milk instead of pop. And nary a french fry nor a cookie has touched the lips of young Totakaze!

Thus, when we read a recent article on Parents.com listing the 10 worst kids’ foods, we weren’t reading it so much for our personal enlightenment as we were out of eagerness to discover with which horrible foods today’s bad, neglectful parents are fueling the obesity epidemic. We weren’t surprised to see hot dogs, chips, fries, and juice-flavored drinks on the list. But they say pride comes before a fall, and wouldn’t you know it; we tripped mightily over No. 5. Did you know that most fruit leather contains very little fruit and a whole lot of sugar? We certainly didn’t. Grammakaze was a bit of a health nut in the ’80s, but while corn chips and Pop Tarts were strictly forbidden, we did have some fruit leather now and again. If only she’d known it was right up there with donuts!

Now, as much as we would like to offer the little ones fresh fruit all the time, we’re certainly not going to do let our preschooler and toddler munch on ripe strawberries or peaches in the car. And like Hansel and Gretel, our wee nibblers leave a trail of crumbs where e’er they wander if they are given granola bars. And despite her fruit-leather fallibility, we still lean on Grammakaze for healthy snack ideas.

Long before we were a mama, our own mama used her trusty dehydrator to make such healthful delicacies as dried bananas (basted in tangy lemon juice) and homemade, low-sodium turkey jerky. With a Deni(r) Food Dehydrator, we can give the kids healthy, fiber-loaded snacks all year ’round for a small investment. Mamakaze is lucky to have an abundance of fruit stands in our area selling dirt-cheap apples, peaches and cherries, not to mention the just-ending season for tasty Pacific salmon that, with a bit of marinade, will make some fantastic jerky.

Now, with the fruit leather issue under control, we can resume being just a little bit smug in the knowledge that our kids aren’t eating cheese puffs and toaster pastries. At least not while we’re looking.