My Walking Infomercials

Spicin' up Saturdays with Joni

In a perfect world with a perfect me, my children would not watch TV. I would be supermom and would be able to get all the demands on me accomplished without using the TV as my babysitter/entertainer. But this isn't a perfect world and I am not the perfect mom (though I try) and so my children watch TV. Luckily most of the children shows on PBS are very educational and my children have learned many things from these shows. Sometimes they need a break from PBS so we switch to Qubo, another free channel we get. These shows are a little more entertainment base, so we don't watch them too often. For about 25 minutes of the segment there is a cartoon. Then for five minutes there are infomercials. If anyone in the advertisement business is wondering if there commercials work, just ask my children. At any moment I hear, "Mom, come quick! You can buy this blender that blends in 5 seconds!" My children want to get life insurance, retirement funds, identity theft protection...the list goes on. I was on the phone the other day and Clark was yelling at me, "It's only $14.99! $14.99!" Once Vienna asked me, "How many hours is the sun up?" I made it easy and said 12. She asked how many hours is the moon up and I said 12. She asked if that made 24. I was so impressed and said it did. I asked her how she knew that and she said, "In just 24 hours, you can have a thousand dollars in your checking account!" An infomercial had taught her how many hours are in a day while scamming us to take out a quick loan! My favorite is this little square vacuum that runs on its own. You just turn it on and all day long it drives around vacuuming. One lady said, "It saves me so much time, now I have more time to be with my children." My kids were so excited about this. "Mom! Now you can have time for us!" My reply was, "Oh goody since I never spend time with you - just the entire day!" Yesterday I bundled my kids up to go play in the snow. Vienna asked if I would come and help them make a snowman. I should have said, "I am sorry honey. I have to spend so much time vacuuming, I don't have time to play!" Luckily, I answered that plea with an OK and we now have a very nice looking snowman out our door.

Little minds are so impressionable. They really can be swayed by a commercial or what is on TV. I try really hard to teach them that commercials aren't always what they seem. I also make sure what they watch is putting the correct information in their little minds because if they are watching, they are learning. For family night, Jaron wanted to talk about work. So he started the little Red Hen story. Both kids quickly expressed that they knew the story. He asked how and they both said, "It's on Super Why!" (a kid show if you aren't up to date on kid's cartoons.) I am often reminded to be careful what my children are watching and hearing, because they are like a sponge. They are soaking it all up and I only want good things going in!

Recipe for the Week: Creamy Italian Chicken with Rice (Gluten Free and inspired by Judi)

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts (I buy all natural, nothing added chicken to make sure it is Gluten free. If it has chicken broth in it, it could have gluten. I like the 100% natural chicken from Costco.)

1/2 cup Italian Dressing (Wishbone brand is Gluten Free and very tasty)

1 cup Sour Cream (Great Value brand Gluten Free or you can substitute this with plain yogurt or Judi uses cream cheese.)

2 cups prepared Rice

Instructions:

Start the rice cooking.

Cube the chicken and cook until cooked all the way through.

A few minutes before serving, add the Italian dressing and sour cream with the chicken. Continue cooking until the mixture is warmed up.

Serve over Rice

Variations: In the summer, when vegetables are in harvest and plentiful, I add zucchini and yellow squash with the chicken. Also, I serve this mixture over noodles.