dye free candy

I made another exciting discovery yesterday. Wonka has dye free candy: sour gummies and regular gummies. I was at Ohio University for a training and found it at the check out line in the cafeteria. My friend, another dye free advocate, was surprised we had never tried it. She said she sees it everywhere, especially gas stations. I guess I stopped looking at candy racks under the assumption there was nothing we could have. This was yet another pleasant surprise: regular candy, in a regular check out, at a regular candy price. I attached a link to their site so you can see what the packaging looks like. http://www.wonka.com/home.aspx/kazoozleandgummies However, only a few products are natural. Most of their other products still have dyes. If they could only get a dye free laffy taffy my son would be in heaven...maybe some day. When I looked more closely at the site, it appears Nestle owns Wonka. Nestle has been changing many of their products, going more natural. They even took the artificial flavor out of their chocolate chips. With that in mind, chocolate chips would be another idea for things to put in Easter eggs. So, Thanks Nestle! We'll be buying your natural products.

Managed a birthday party without contamination

We had a 4 year old party to go to at the Magic Castle complete with rainbow colored princess cake. I thought for sure Lindsey would want a piece of cake and I would be hoping and praying I could scrape enough of the hot pink icing off to avoid problems. It ended up not being an issue. She didn't want any cake and helped me eat another piece of pizza instead. Nice when it's that easy.

We also avoided dyes at my husband's company picnic. I honestly think all the huge spread of food was dye free, except maybe the cheese crackers. That left us with fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, salsa and chips, hot dogs, chicken, beans, pasta salad, etc etc. Two easies in one weekend. How about that.

Maybe that makes up for the temptation with the donuts I got this morning from Tim Hortons. I was getting them for a support group I run at the office so I didn't ask for dye-free (in a hurry). They put in this fabulous looking blueberry one with purple blueberry jelly and crumbles all over it. It smelled so good, but I had to remind myself I'd be a huge grump the rest of the weekend and convinced someone else to eat it.

ups and downs at preschool

This week I found a note from the teacher that had gotten pushed way to the back of our mailbox. She apologized that Lindsey ate their cheese crackers with food dye (either yellow #5 or #6). It was dated 2 weeks ago. I couldn't recall noticing much, but with Lindsey it seems every once in a while whe goes on a steak of worse than usual behavior and I find myself wondering what she's been eating when I'm not around. Maybe it is just being 3, maybe not.

I have to give the preschool credit though. The teacher told me this morning that she had already checked the donuts they were serving for the fall harvest party and they were free of dye. I really appreciate their effort.