Barefoot Contessa Brownie Mix

I bought this brownie mix last week because it was the only one I could find at the store that had no artificial flavors or colors (for Isaac's new food regulations). I made it last night. I was going to save them for today. But when Nate asked me (at 10pm) if I wanted some I agreed. Well, they are fabulous tasting brownies. They should be with 1/4 pound of real butter and real very dark chocolate chunks! They were so good, in fact, that I had two.
Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Suddenly I had a really bad case of the jitters. Apparently all that really dark chocolate had more caffeine than my body could take so late at night. I was up until 1:30 am.

But they were good brownies.

Don't eat it if you don't know what it is

Nate and I started the ingredients game when we were first married. Someone would get the container of food and ask the other to guess the ingredients in the food. It was always fun to actually be able to guess them all or remember from the last time we played. Food has some pretty weird stuff in it. Take vanillin (artificial vanilla) for example. It is derived from a waste product from paper mills! Gross. Artificial vanilla is in so many things too. Artificial colors are in even white foods (like marshmallows).

Well, now we look at the ingredient label for another reason. Isaac. Isaac has ADHD. He takes medication to help him control his impulsiveness and to be able to focus enough to do even basic things like tie his shoes, button his shirt, or write legibly. Well, we have tried every medication out there. And eventually they all stop working after a few months. So now, in addition to the medication, we are trying to tweak his diet to see if that will make a difference.

The first things we are taking out are artificial colors and flavors. Also really heinous chemicals like BHT and MSG. Now, this is so much easier than it would have been a few years ago. With stores like Whole Foods and organic food/brands available at even our local grocery stores, there are many choices. Still it has been a little be of a challenge. There are foods that I didn't think would be a problem, that I thought were pretty wholesome. Even fruit cocktail has artificially colored maraschino cherries.

So I've concluded that I won't eat it if I don't know what it is. I hope that this will help Isaac. I think our whole family will be healthier. The doctor says that it takes 6-8 weeks to really see the difference (I guess it takes a while to get all the nastiness out of your body). Meanwhile, I'm trying to use up all the fake stuff and/or replace it. I'm also going to have to be a little better about menu planning. Buying organic and shopping whole foods puts a much bigger dent in my wallet than the way I used to shop. I hope it works. The next step is to take out items with salicylates in them (even in good stuff like apples, grapes and oranges). There aren't apple substitutes out there, it would be goodbye forever. We'll see...

Summertime

and the living is easy. Grilling is one of my favorite easy ways to cook dinner. The kids love to light the grill. Shish kebabs are one of our family's faves too. Put it on a stick and kids will eat just about anything, well, maybe not anything, but a lot of things. This time we had teriyaki shrimp kebabs and some chicken satay. What's your favorite?