Should Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Be Banned in Schools?

I was recently told about how a local hot sauce emporium stayed in business, at least for a while. Seems that much of the local trade in hot sauce was done by school-aged children who were looking, not for the next hot thrill but a way to spike their fellow classmate’s food with some of the hottest hot sauce on the planet. The store has since gone out of business (a few prankish kids were not quite enough to keep it in the black) and there are countless hoards of kids looking for another way to bring heat into their dull existence.

Seems there are other ways for kids to get their fix, albeit this is not about pranks as much as it is about a junk food addiction. Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are the latest morsel of junk food under fire. These fiery cheese nuggets, with the crayon-red dye, are just fat, flame, and sodium delivery systems hell-bent on subverting good nutrition everywhere. One bag packs in a whopping amount of fat and salt—”26 grams of fat and a quarter of the amount of salt that’s recommended for the entire day, and because of this schools from California to Chicago are set to start a school-wide ban of the hugely popular snacks.

But as we know, when you take a flamin’ snack away from a child, you get them flamin’ angry. While reports of the Cheetos ban backlash have yet to hit the wire, you can be sure, with fan videos like the one below created by Flamin’ Hot Cheetos enthusiasts, the fiery snacks will be hitting the proverbial fan:

What is your feeling about such bans? Is this a good place to start the massive clean up that is required to improve school nutrition, or is one neon red snack unfairly being picked on? Should we target some other widely consumed food instead?

Related:
Salt: A Child’s Indulgence That Should Be Checked
School Lunch Reform’s Awkward Phase
Peanuts & Coke, Plus Other Odd Food Combinations

Read more: Appetizers & Snacks, Blogs, Children, Family, Healthy Schools, Parenting at the Crossroads, Teens, cheetos, flamin cheetos, healthy snack, junk food, snack ban

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Tomato Sauce With Butter & Onion

I finally jumped on the foodie bandwagon and made this tomato sauce everyone has been raving about for the past couple years. First Deb, then Jaden, then Francis, then Elise — I figured there had to be something to it…

Our new addition does not make cooking easy but this recipe looked just simple enough to attempt between dealing with the two kids in the fuzzy haze of sleep deprivation.

The only change I made was to substitute the last tomatoes from our garden and the ones we received in our CSA pick-up this week for the canned San Marzano tomatoes that Marcella Hazan’s recipe calls for. I figure this can only help though I’m sure the San Marzanos are tasty, too.

Since I was using fresh tomatoes, I blanched them, cooled them in ice water and peeled them.

Then peeled and halved the onion, sliced the butter and combined it all in the pot. Simmered for 45 minutes, stirring regularly and crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot.

Removed the onion, gave it a few licks with the old immersion blender and salted it to taste. I admit it went against the grain to use butter instead of olive oil but it makes the sauce so rich and smooth and, well, buttery, that I have no regrets at all. And I also questioned the removal of the onion but decided just to follow the recipe and was pleased with the end result – a delicate, rich, fresh tasting sauce.

Simple, delicious, comfort food. And a perfect way to use up some end-of-the-season tomatoes, too. Directions on the next page are for the canned tomatoes – but just blanch and peel if you’re using fresh ones.

Next: Get the recipe!

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Read more: All recipes, Basics, Blogs, Entrees, Food, Garden of Eating, Vegan, Vegetarian

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