Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews and food chatter

I felt that these Yummy Earth organic lollipops deserved a shout-out from me.  First of all, they are a lifesaver when I go anywhere with my two-year old.  Here’s the thing: before I had O, I was slightly more superior than I actually am now.  Don’t follow?  Okay, “my kid is going to love his vegetables and not eat fried foods and won’t have a pacifier after he’s one, blah blah blah.”  Ha!  It’s not like my child is influenced by other children since he’s mostly home all the time.  Now, I can’t really complain too much since he’s a wonderful fruit eater, he’ll have some of my green shakes (lots of good veggies in there), he drinks juice with vegetables, and he will snack on lots of purple veggies and thinks corn on the cob is fun.  But still, I do think that kids are born with sensitive palates and learn slowly what foods are okay to eat and taste good to them.  I put quite a lot of effort into making sure he gets a balanced diet and plenty of nutrients.  However, when we go out in public, there is no way I’m going to be nutty about everything he eats and not allow him to have what other kids are eating or the restaurant menu items.  I had some friends growing up whose parents did that and they rebelled afterwards.  Not a good idea in my opinion!  Most of us ate plenty not-so healthy foods growing up and we’re all fine! 

Anyway, back to those lollipops.  They are such a lifesaver.  First I’ll tell you why I like them.  There are no artificial colors, flavors, or corn syrup; they’re organic, gluten free, peanut free and nut free.  They’re roughly 23 calories a pop.  I don’t usually eat lollipops, but my son likes to share, he’s very sweet.  So, I have tried all the flavors and to be honest, they’re excellent!  Fantastic taste for every flavor I’ve tried except one: Pomegranate Pucker - that’s the only one that I think tastes like medicine.  It takes O a little longer to finish that flavor and it brings to mind that last year I noticed a big container of these lollipops by a receptionist for the taking for any client.  The only flavor left was the Pomegranate Pucker…Hmmm, I am aware there must be plenty of people that love this flavor, but I have noticed it’s not just me that feels less than enthused with this particular flavor!  Oh well, O eats it eventually and so I don’t feel like I’m wasting money.  Note: the blueberry flavor is strong and the scent fills up small spaces.  I like the scent though so it’s okay.

I only allow O one per day if we go out-  if we stay home, he doesn’t get any.  Not sure if this is really a good idea because now he thinks every time we go anywhere he gets one.  This is a vicious cycle amongst many moms I’ve noticed.  Look around at the kids at your grocery store or mall.  Many of them will have suckers in their mouth because it’s a cheap and fairly long-lasting way to keep your kid behaving in public via parents’ bribing.  Other kids walking around innocently and behaving well then notice kid with lollipop and start whining.  Life is not fair.  Why does that kid have a sucker and I don’t?  No fair.  My mom is mean.  I feel the unfairness escalating.  Waaaahhhhh!!!  No worries though!  Mom has a secret stash of lollipops in purse, here you go.  Ahhh, peace and quiet.  See, I did not start the cycle, but O caught on and started it up himself and I found bribery to be the easiest solution, which I don’t feel too badly about since I think these lollipops are a fantastic solution!  Eventually I’ll figure out a new plan, which will be much easier when he can communicate better with words.  As of now, I usually wait until we actually get into a store to give it to him.  They keep him occupied and happy until he decides to chomp into them.  At which point he usually spits it out in my hand and I have to get the Wet One out and wash our hands and my arm where it at some point touched and is now sticky, and his face and find a trash bin somewhere.  Then, he is well aware that is his only one and is satisfied with the snacks I brought for him (I’ll have to share those at another time!).

Well, there are many other flavors and types of candy that Yummy Earth offers, but I haven’t tried them.  I’m most interested in trying the blood orange flavor.  If you have tried them or have any stories about these, I’d love to hear!