Warmer weather treats for the lunch box

In response to the last comment, I think it's time to talk about springtime ideas for the lunch box...even if it snowed just yesterday at my house!

Here are a few favorites, from Feeding the Kids, for warmer weather lunch box treats:

• Lunchbox Smoothie Ice Cream is variation #4 on the Super Smoothie Recipe, page 187
• Pack-n-Go Berry Dessert is always a hit, page 202 (I was going to pack this for my kids this morning. But I when I unpacked the groceries yesterday, I put the yogurt in the freezer! Oops.)
• Milk Cubes, page 202 are great. Try them vanilla flavored!
• Also, chunks of watermelon or cantaloupe packed with a spoon are very refreshing.

While I'm on this topic, what about breakfast? When the weather gets really hot and summer vacation looms invitingly, breakfast can seem less appealing on school mornings. Icy cold breakfast concoctions are a good way to add some fun to the meal. So, here are a few ways to wow your kids on hot mornings:

• A Super Smoothie, page 187, is quick and delicious. (And you can use leftovers for the "ice cream" as mentioned above.)
• Sorbet, page 219, is my own children's (and the neighborhood kid's) all time favorite any time of the day.
• Banana Milkshakes, page 222, makes a great breakfast drink.
• And, finally, never forget the option of letting your kids eat frozen berries right out of the bag. Just save time to wash up before you let them leave the house.

I am not going to post each of these recipes...because I am too lazy to type them in. However, they are all in the book! Feeding the Kids is available on Amazon, at most bookstores (ask if you don't see it) and at many libraries (again, ask for help locating it). Happy eating!

Pears from Concentrate

I don't eat those packaged so-called fruit snacks--whether they are rolls, fun-shapes, squirters or strings. They almost always contain copious amounts of corn syrup and other sweeteners--and they don't taste all that great to me. But I do try to take a look at the labels from time to time because people often ask me about them.

Recently, I noticed that the first ingredient listed on many of these snacks is now "pears from concentrate." Now, as we pointed out in Feeding the Kids, "concentrated apple juice" and "concentrated pear juice" are essentially just sugar. Neither contains significant nutrients or fiber. But, to me, a "concentrated pear" sounded like it might be a bit better.

Curious, I called General Mills, who makes many of these snacks. I asked the pleasant woman who answered what "pears from concentrate" means. I was put on hold. When she came back on the line, she explained that it was just like the orange juice concentrate you have in your freezer. I told her that it says "pears"... nothing about juice. She put me back on hold.

When she came back, she had the information I was looking for. Concentrated pears are made from a slurry of ground up fruit, with water removed. I asked why, in that case, the snacks don't contain fiber. (The box I have says 0g fiber.) She said that there must not be enough "of it" to put it on the label. By "it" I am not sure if she meant pears or fiber--but, regardless, their can't be much pear per snack or there would be fiber.

Armed with this information, here's my verdict on products whose first ingredient is "concentrated" fruit. Look for a brand with fiber in it, so you know it contains a significant amount of fruit in the product. But avoid brands containing "partially hydrogenated" oils. (The oils contain very-bad-for-you trans-fats.) One brand that is an okay, In-between choice is Archer Farms Organic Real Fruit Strips (from Target).

But, before you eat any packaged fruit snack...consider just eating a piece of fresh (ie not concentrated!) fruit. That way you won't have to wonder what you are eating.

Getting Kids to Eat Vegetables...at a Party!?!

I have meaning to blog about this since before Christmas. Sorry for the delay...but I just have to tell the story of the vegetable Grinch.

I was assigned to bring a vegetable platter to my 2nd grader's class Christmas party. Coincidence? No, the organizer knows that I wrote Feeding the Kids. And, frankly I was delighted with the challenge. Would my vegetable platter be able to hold its own against holiday cookies and chocolate candy?

Well, that night as I read The Grinch Who Stole Christmas out loud to my kids, I came up with (in the words of Dr. Seuss) my own "wonderful, awful idea." I'd make a Grinch out of vegetables! My son was delighted with the idea. He helped me buy what we needed: guacamole for the face, red peppers for the hat, cauliflower for the white trim, snow peas for the scrawny neck.

The day of the party, I arrived a little late. I set the Grinch right next to some cookies and went to say hi to my son, who was busy with a party activity, then chatted with some other parents. Soon, the party was over. My son came to find me and asked, a bit accusingly, why I hadn't brought the Grinch.

"I did!" I defended myself, "It's right over there."

But it wasn't. It was gone. All that remained of the Grinch was a smudge of guac and a few snow peas. Even the cauliflower was gone. The kids had eaten the Grinch. They had eaten vegetables that were located next to cookies. And eaten them so quickly that my own child hadn't even had a chance to see his Grinch. He was somewhat heartbroken until I promised to help him make another one for dinner that night. And, I have to say, I got a little thrill out of eating the Grinch myself.

Giving away copies of Feeding The Kids

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the readers who have recently written to us about how Feeding the Kids has helped your family or your clients! We wrote the book with an earnest desire to help as many children as possible learn to love eating foods that are good for their bodies.

I am a former teacher and still volunteer in schools regularly. My co-author spent years working with obese adults and children. What the two of us saw daily left us wishing that all kids to grow up with a healthy attitude toward foods, a strong body, and the skills they need to help the next generation (our grand kids) eat well, too. So, we wrote Feeding the Kids.

But, honestly, some days writing, and especially so-called "book promotion," seems more like drudgery than the pursuit of what I hope is a noble cause. Then I hear from a mom who no longer fights with her kids at the dinner table or whose kids now like veggies...and it is all worth it again.

Still, I often daydream about ways reach more families. So, with the full support of all the authors and Mancala Publishing, we are going to try something crazy. (I am very excited about this!) We have decided to start GIVING AWAY copies of Feeding the Kids to parents who desperately need (and want!) this information. To start with, we are going to donate one book for every book sold direct from the publisher (i.e. through our website). We have also set up a way for people who already have a copy to help. For every one copy you donate, we are going to give away 2 more. Please join us in this effort by visiting www.feedingthekids.com/donateabook.html.

And one more thing...if you have other ideas about how we can help kids, please comment below!

Love Sugar But Hate Veggies? Think Again!

I went to the National Stock Show, in Denver, over the weekend. We saw cows, chickens, more cows and some horses. But I saw one thing I just can't stop thinking about: a sugar beet.

Here are some fun facts about sugar beets:

• 30% of the world's refined sugar comes from sugar beets
• A sugar beet is a vegetable. In fact, I found out, sugar beets are related to chard!
• You have to do a lot of work to turn the veggie into sugar. Look it up on Wikipedia if you are curious.

So, if you have a child who believes he HATES vegetables, but loves candy, maybe it's time for him to learn that at least some of our sugar comes from...vegetables. (And this is not to say that sugar is healthy or should "count" as a vegetable.)

The lesson, really, is that many foods that start out as pretty healthy, can be processed into foods that are devoid of nutritional value. Corn becomes corn syrup, wheat becomes refined flour, vegetable oils are hydrogenated.

Sardines for Snacks

Yesterday, my 1st grader came home from school and immediately stuck her head way back into the kitchen cabinet where I keep snacks, canned food and cereal. Now, as I have mentioned before, she can be a bit picky about what she eats. So I wasn't sure what she was up to. Normally she asks me what's for snack and then either enjoys it or complains about it.

From deep in the back of the cupboard, she called "Can I have sardines for snack?"

"Oh, sure." I started. "Oh, wait. But you absolutely have to sit at the table, and use a fork, and try not to drip or touch anything until after you've washed your hands. And we are having fish for dinner, so don't eat sardines now if that will make you not want fish later."

She ate the whole can, washed up and then she went off to play. She ate a huge portion of fish for dinner, too.

This is just another example of why I believe so strongly in letting kids make some food decisions themselves--and trying not to overly influence them with our ideas about what isn't good. Would I have ever offers sardines as a snack? No, I'm just not a fan of sardines. But she must have needed fish yesterday. Other days, she's gone vegetable crazy, and still other days she's wanted nothing but citrus fruits. Kids, and human bodies, are just amazing, aren't they?

Is sneaking healthy food to your picky eater a good idea?

My kids have a new game they call "The Sneaky Chef." My daughter starts the game by preparing something in her play kitchen. Say, wooden fish with a side of ice cream. My son "eats" the meal. Then my daughter says "Ha! I put blueberries in that fish and mashed avocado in your ice cream." Then they laugh and laugh. I get it. It's funny to create outlandish food combinations and then trick others into eating them.

But, it's also an increasingly popular technique for parents dealing with kids who refuse to eat certain foods. Two books on the topic, The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious, are bestsellers this month. From Oprah to Amazon.com, from Chow.com to the New York Times, everyone is discussing which book is better--and if Deceptively Delicious (which came out 2nd and is written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica Seinfeld) is just a rip off of the Sneaky Chef idea.

The media storm is all very interesting, but I am quite surprised that more people aren't asking a more to-the-point question: Is sneaky healthy food to your selective/picky eater a good idea?

It all depends on how it’s done! Here are some great pointers from Eleanor Taylor, a nurse, wellness consultant, and co-author of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family. According to Taylor, adding vegetables and fruits to other foods, even if they are cooked and pulverized, can add extra fiber, vitamins and nutrients. However, that doesn’t make every food-sneaking recipe healthy—and it doesn’t make misleading your children a good idea. Taylor suggests five ideas for adding veggies and fruits to the family diet in a healthy, honest way:

1. Tell the truth! Tricking kids into eating healthy food disguised as junk food will ingrain junk-food eating habits. Instead, allow kids to taste vegetable or fruit fortified foods, then explain that they are enjoying a healthier version of a favorite. That way your kids will learn that eating healthy foods—even vegetables—can be enjoyable.
2. Don’t make sneaky recipes your child’s only source of vegetables and fruit. Many popular stealthy recipes incorporate only a teaspoon or two of the added vegetable or fruit per serving—not enough to impact a child’s daily nutritional profile.
3. Serve vegetables and fruits undisguised at every meal and snack. Your kids might not eat them, but repeated exposure is the only proven method for increasing the number and type of foods a child eats.
4. Don’t assume that a recipe is healthy just because it contains some vegetables or fruit. A recipe that contains a bit of nutrition along with large amounts saturated fat, trans fat, refined (white) grains and sweeteners is a treat—not a health food.
5. Whether you sneak or not, help your family enjoy mealtime! Serve the kids, then let them decide what and how much to eat. Mealtime arguments will only result in associating healthy foods with unpleasantness.