I noticed something about our meals that has changed since we started avoiding food dyes. Rather than try and replace an unhealthy dye with a healthy one; I’ve started moving towards using color differently all together.

Instead of making our food a color it wasn’t meant to be, I have started placing flowers on the table more often.

I want my kids to know that the natural color of food is beautiful; not neon or shocking or glaring. Although they pick through the peppers and and cast aside the cilantro for now; I know that they are learning to appreciate the real look of real food.

I recently tried Slow Cooker Fajitas from 100 Days of Real Food and they were perfect.  Those of us in the family that like a little spice added more as we assembled our fajitas, and those of us that like things a little more mild were happy with the flavor.

• 1 ½ lbs flank steak
• ½ teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Bragg’s Amino Acid
• 3 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded with membranes cut out
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• Orange, yellow and red bell peppers (one of each) sliced into long strips
• Tortillas
• Your favorite fajita toppings (ours are cheese, cilantro, lime, sour cream, and hot sauce)

1. Place the steak in the bottom of the crock pot.  Put the chili powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper on top, followed with the Amino Acid.
2. On top of the steak and spices, put the garlic, then the onions and peppers.
3. Cook on high for 6 hours, until the steak is falling apart.  Shred the meat with the fork, and scoop out of crock pot with slotted spoon onto fajita.  Top with your choice of toppings.