Mom diets, child becomes obese – Which is more dangerous?

drinks, health, kids, obesity, soda | March 6, 2011 | By

Maybe the title is exaggerating a bit, but this is something I see all the time. This was at a grade school classroom event where parents and siblings were invited. And yes, I took a picture in between chairs. That’s not normal?

Anyway, the root beer is for the toddler on the right (young enough that she isn’t in school yet or she wouldn’t have been able to attend). The water bottle is for the mom on the left.

I won’t climb up on a soapbox or dive into any in depth post here, especially not at the risk of coming off as too judgmental. After all, it’s just a single picture of a single set of drinks at a single time here. It does make me do a double take to see such big issues so clearly laid out sometimes, though.

There is absolutely nothing negative about water and it’s what I drink 99% of the time even, but I happen to know that this particular mom is very weight-conscious, has low self-esteem, etc, and that choice of drink is more likely sparked by a fear of calories than it is an actual choice for health. And on the flip side, if the kid is anything like half of her peers, that probably isn’t the first or last soda she had that day.

I wonder what their health will be like in 10 years. And if she’ll still own those polka dotted shoes by then. ;)

That time B was jealous of the dog’s dinner…

dog, funny, humor, pets, stories | February 6, 2015 | By

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For about a year, I was pretty hardcore into cooking healthy for the entire family. We tried no dairy to isolate allergies; we tried bento boxes for a healthy twist on brown bagging’; we focused on homegrown produce and local meats; we cut out MSG, certain yellow preservatives, and white sugar; we replaced soy with things like amino acid sauce…

I didn’t go nuts with it all, but if you had my brownies during this time, you better believe they had pumpkin puree in them and you had no idea.

This also means that I made all of the dog’s food from scratch, too. If you aren’t familiar with how spoiled this dog was before we adopted him, it’s worth a few tear-jerking moments here.

I fully recognize that this isn’t really the norm, but it’s what worked for us and I didn’t think much of it. It was simply part of the routine and what needed to be done in order to keep everyone healthy and happy, so it’s what I did.

Well… that is… until one day, the girls came home from school and B saw me mixing the weekly batch of dog food in the kitchen sink.

(Yes, you read that correctly, by the way. Using the sink is a whole lot easier to mix a large batch in than trying to find an appropriate mixing bowl that will happily slop it all over the counter or table while you’re mixing and scooping. Just toss it all in the sink, do your thing, and when you’re done, run some watch to clean up. Voila!)

Anyway, so they come in and B is clearly excited, “Is that supper?!?” To which I could only reply that no, no that is not their supper, and that the food she is so obviously drooling over is indeed the family pet’s dinner instead.

She was noticeably disappointed at that point and announced, “I wish I could eat Buddy’s dinner… ” which is the same point where I realized that I had unknowingly created jealousy over a dog’s food. Oops!

I made up for it immediately by changing our dinner plans to something extra yummy, but it was the first time I had ever seen someone wish s/he were eating an animal’s food instead. I’m not sure if that means the food I was feeding the dog was particularly delicious or if I was failing in the excitement factor for the human food being produced.

Either way, the dog was certainly being fed well, eh?12

About Jessi

January 27, 2015 | By

Silly, goofy, crazy….quirky, if you will. I know they’re overused, cliché descriptors, but hey, that’s me.

I started the original Quirky Jessi site several years ago and then eventually realized there was so much cooking-related stuff I wanted to post, that I needed a whole cooking site.

Playing with food makes me giggle and yes, yes, I realize that many mothers out there spend years teaching their kids to stop it. But why? It’s fun! And if you’re not having fun, then really, what’s the point?

As for stuff about me (‘cause oh right, this is an “about me” page, oops), I don’t know what people would want to know. I’m a youngin’, but the bunny ears make me look younger than I really am. I have my Bachelor’s in Journalism, with a few unrelated minors, including the safe one in business as a backup for when I became a starving writer/artist.

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Oh right, that’s where I am now, hehe. Maybe I should check out a real job sometime? Instead, I spend much of my time goofing off in the kitchen and online….usually both actually, considering I keep my laptop on the kitchen table.  Yes, I’m serious. Mostly.

What else would you want to know? I’m from the U.S….mostly the midwest….Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, etc. I’m currently in Vancouver, Canada, so you’ll see both my love of the city….and how much I like to make fun of some of their strange eating habits.

Then again, I have my fair share of them, too.

Other names you might see on the site? The camera hounds or as I call them here “my girls,” in order of age they’ll be by end of 2011, are L (12), N (10), B (9).

Then there’s my little sister, 15, who I got permission to show her picture from, so now there’ll be no more black bars across her face.

And occasionally you’ll see me talk about my mom as inspiration or the creator of all those awesome birthday cakes.

Can I be done now? I really don’t like talking about myself. I want to talk about the food. Wanna come play?