Do your kids have an Easy Bake Oven? It was one of those items I wanted very badly as a child (along with a trampoline), but never got. Of course, before my oldest daughter was even old enough to play with one, my mom bought her one. hmmm, what's up with that? Anyway, not going to delve to deeply into that. And no, this is not a sponsored post for Hasbro or Easy Bake. This is an FYI. I was a little shocked when my kids were playing over Spring Break with their little oven. I thought it was great b/c they were playing away (not fighting!) and I love that they have so much fun cooking, but my oldest daughter - who reads nutrition labels religiously!- said "Mama!! This has TRANS fat in it!!" (said with much disgust, outrage and surprise - since I'm always preaching how we should never eat anything with the evil trans fat in it) I had to admit, I was pretty surprised. I mean, here is this little baking kit - specifically designed to be prepared and consumed by children, and it contains trans fat. Yuck.
It looks innocent and fun right?! But look at this -
The frosting and nacho cheese mixes to dip the pretzels in were horrible! And - not allergy safe, so the little man had to stay away from it. Now, this is only for the pretzel kit, b/c it's the only we had left, so I can't speak to the rest of the product line. And I'm NOT saying 'don't let your kids play with Easy Bake', b/c my kids love it...
What I am saying is be aware of what your kids are consuming, and teach them how to read nutrition labels, so that they, too, can be aware of what to look for and how to make better choices. We just threw the frosting mix away, and were going to use our own mix of confectioner's sugar and milk, but they ended up with other plans for the rest of the day. So they quickly abandoned the Easy Bake (leaving all the mess for me to clean up). So anyway, just thought I would share that little tidbit of information with anyone reading. I know I'll be paying closer attention the the mixes next time. I guess we could make up our own mixes....but they would have to be in super small quantities so they could cook under the light bulb! I'll have to google that, see if anyone has tried it before!
Okay, so I Googled it...and yes, there are several "recipes" online for making your own mixes for the Easy Bake oven! Awesome. (They aren't cheap ya know!) That way, you can control the quality of ingredients used! My kids will love making up their own mixes, then baking them! And I love the small individual portions, so that we don't have a big cake laying around tempting me. I have NO will power!
I won't be around this weekend, b/c (for some unknown reason) I'm taking my girls camping (in a tent!) with Girl Scouts. How do I get myself into these things? Camping? In a tent? As in sleeping on the ground?! With NO SHOWERS. That's the worst part. Well, besides what the bathroom accommodations may be. And the mosquitoes. And the ground. And no electricity. ohhh. emm. geee.
My kids also got an easy baker from grandma. They loved it! We mostly used store bought muffin mixes. One time, however, I let them do a little too much on their own. The inside got covered with batter and one of the doors broke.
ReplyDeleteThe easy bake is, surprisingly, still in the cupboard, but non-functional.
I will have to teach my kids about nutrition labels. That never occurred to me before.
I hope you survived your camp out. You are a good momma to go. :)