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.

Mommy, I HATE oatmeal.

I have two kids. One loves almost everything I cook, even experiments that come out looking odd, lightly burned food and new foods he's never seen before. If he was my only child, I would think that feeding kids is easy, fun, simple and satisfying.

But I don't think that. Because I have another child. She keeps me very, very humble. She grumbles, she cries, she refuses food, she begs for junk food at the store. And, worst of all, she has a habit of suddenly proclaiming that she now hates foods that she used to like.

Just yesterday, she walked into the kitchen, dressed in wildly mismatched clothes, and ready for a tough day in 1st grade. She glared at the saucepan bubbling on the stove.

"I hope that's not oatmeal because you know that I hate oatmeal now."

I said the stupidest thing possible, having not had any coffee yet: "You don't hate oatmeal!"

"I do," she sighed, shaking her head at my lack of maternal mind-reading skills, "but don't worry about it. I'll make myself an English Muffin."

For just a moment, I stopped packing lunches/making coffee/feeding the cat/unloading the dishwasher. I thought to myself about the section in Feeding the Kids on not making separate meals for kids. I though about how hard it is on kids (and parents) when they let kids decide what to eat and then the kid's diet becomes restricted.

But then I thought about her going to 1st grade hungry, about the crying fit she'd have if I gave her oatmeal, about how a whole-wheat English muffin is healthy after all. I opened my mouth to say go ahead and make the muffin. Then I closed it and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry you don't like oatmeal anymore. But that's what we are having. You don't have to eat it, of course, but it just doesn't work to have everyone having different things for breakfast."

She cried. She pleaded. She used the "I'll starve" technique. She stormed out of the kitchen. I felt terrible. I doubted myself. Was she really going to skip breakfast before school?

But then, to my relief and amazement, my daughter trudged--frowning-- back to the kitchen. She added huge amounts of milk, walnuts and dried fruit to her bowl of oatmeal. She topped it off with some brown sugar.

And then she ate the oatmeal. And the next day? Well, we all had English Muffins.

Yikes! The Doctor Says No Dairy for My Daughter

If you've read Feeding the Kids, you know my take on dairy foods for children. I agree with those who claim that dairy isn't vital to survival: your children could get their calcium from beans, greens, almonds, tofu, salmon with bones, and/or calcium supplements/fortified foods. However, for kids without dairy intolerances and allergies, lower-fat dairy foods provide both calcium and protein in an easy, healthy and kid-friendly package. Also, for those people worried about pesticides and hormones in milk, organic or hormone-free milk is now widely available.
That's why, usually, my kids get three servings of dairy each day. It's the easiest and most natural way for me to insure that they get the calcium they need.

Until this week, that is. One of my kids has been feeling sick for a couple of weeks. So, the doctor told me to avoid all dairy foods for her for at least a week. She explained that dairy foods are hard to digest when you are feeling sick and eating them might not start the problems... but diary foods can keep them going. So, we stopped all dairy. Like magic, her problems cleared up. Mine, however, had just started.

It's really hard to avoid dairy foods! So many kid-foods have dairy: pasta with Parmesan cheese, pizza, pudding, pancakes...the list goes on. So, I enlisted some "expert" help from a 14 year old expert who hasn't had dairy in over a year--and her mom! Here are her top 8 suggestions if one of your kids ever has to avoid dairy foods.

1. Eat greens, canned salmon, almonds and tofu for calcium. Or try calcium supplements as recommended by the doctor. Beware of giving a child lots of calcium-enriched orange juice, though. You don't want them to fill up on juice and not want other foods.
2. Serve lean meats to add in extra protein. Skinless white poultry, extra-lean hamburgers, and pork loin are a few great choices.
3. Beans are also a great replacement for the protein and some of the calcium. Hummus, baked beans, and chili are good ways to incorporate beans.
   
4. Earth Balance brand spread makes a good replacement for butter in recipes and for toast.
5. Rice milk (plain not vanilla) works in many recipes (but see #6 below)--soy milk has a stronger flavor that many kids don't like if they aren't used to it.
6. Non-dairy baked goods, such as muffins, pancakes or quick breads, can be tricky. Substituting rice or soy milk for regular milk often results in odd textures or strange flavors. You are better off finding non-dairy recipes on the internet or in cookbooks.
   
7. Don't bother with non-dairy cheese. Most of it tastes (and I quote) "funny."
   
8. For treats, many brands of non-dairy ice cream and pudding tastes great. However, even soy and rice ice cream sometimes contains whey--so read the ingredients if you are avoiding all dairy foods!

Why Do You Always Have Vegetables in Your Lunch?

That's what a kid at school asked my son the other day. He answered "Cause I like them!"

Then, after practicing at home, he went up the little heckler the next day, looked him in the eye, and said "From now on, don't say anything about my lunch."

It worked. But, still. So far this year, my kids have been teased for vegetables, avocado on a sandwich, cheese (!), salad and even yogurt. They don't really seem to care that much. But isn't it amazing that our little kids are so convinced that real food is weird when brightly colored, nutritionally-depleted, chemical-tasting food is normal.

It's just something to think about.

Berry Picking with Kids

Day before yesterday, my family did one of our favorite activities. We went to "The Farm." That's what we call Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, Colorado, a you-pick place with strawberries, raspberries and all kinds of vegetables. It's the kind of place where there really is a red barn, roasters crow and they take you out to the berry picking patch on a tractor pulled wagon traveling through fields of broccoli, spinach, squash and sunflowers. It's so idyllic that I always feel like I am exaggerating when I describe it.

When we are there together, the world makes sense. Even my six-year-old can feel it--in fact I think she, especially, feels it. And I am trying to put my finger on why. Here's what I do know: Picking food is an instinctively satisfying experience, something humans are meant to do, but few Americans have the opportunity to do. And working together as a family to get food for the winter allows the children to participate in an adult activity, rather than common modern construct of adults participating in children's activities. Last, there is the insanely wonderful, incredibly flavorful food. But as dramatic as I am being...the sum is still more than the exact parts that I can list.

All I can say is: yeah for berry picking!

And, by the way, yesterday I packed fresh raspberries and tiny fresh carrots from the farm in the kid's lunches. Nobody teased them--and when I asked my son about them, his eyes got big and he just said "Oh, man, they tasted great!"

Healthy Packed Lunches and Teasing in the Lunchroom

Today was the first day of school for my kids. I cried. I always cry the first day they go back. But this year, I didn't cry in front of them. They were nervous and excited--but they didn't cry because they, unlike their mom, are very grown-up.

So, early this morning, I snipped the tags off the new lunch boxes and peered inside. Empty. Could fill them with something that showed the kids how much I love them...something that says I'm thinking of them when they aren't here? Could I make this lunch stand in for me since I can't be there? Hum, I'd need a curly haired, somewhat neurotic lunch with a tendency toward disorganization. Nothing in the kitchen, besides myself, would work. And I can't fit into the lunch box, even if I use the secret-hidden-zipper that expands the lunch box to almost suitcase size.

I had to settle for packing a healthy lunch instead. But healthy isn't good enough either- the lunch must also not invite teasing from fellow students. Last year, some kids teased my son for having hummus. He said the teasers were eating junk food and he briefly considered telling them about the trans fat and piles of sugar they were eating. But, in the end, he just shrugged, told them they were "stupid," and went back to eating his hummus. Apparently, calling them "stupid" worked, as it so often does, and that was the end of it. Even though I usually discourage name calling, I was glad he stood up for himself--and his healthy lunch.

But this year, he's more self-conscious and he's going to a new school. And my daughter definitely cares if other's make fun of her for anything at all, lunch included. Of course, all kids have to learn to ignore other people's opinions sometimes and find ways to handle teasing. But I hate the think that the lunches I pack would cause them to suffer in any way.

And so I packed crackers (whole-wheat), cheese (2% cheddar), squares of turkey meat, some grapes and some orange pepper sticks (the most risky addition). I added a few kalamata olives for a treat--they're small and I think the kids can eat them without attracting unwelcome attention. After the first few weeks of school go by, and the kids have more friends at their new school, I'll talk to them about adding some of their favorite "strange" items, like salmon salad or smoothie ice cream. Who knows? Maybe we'll even go for hummus again...

Yogurts with Fiber...Watch out!

The other day my kids and I had smoothies while staying with relatives. Later in the day, we were all in terrible pain with horrible stomach aches. I asked if I could peek at the yogurt she'd used in the smoothie. And, sure enough, it was Stonyfield Farms brand yogurt.

About a year ago, my whole family started suffering from terrible tummy aches several days a week. I couldn't figure out what was happening. We weren't sick or eating any strange foods. It didn't occur to me that yogurt could cause these problems--yogurt is good for tummy aches, after all. But, one day we happened to have nothing but big bowls of yogurt for a snack and were in pain a couple hours later. So, I checked the label and saw, to my surprise, that the yogurt contained fiber.

So, I called the Stonyfield Farms consumer info line. The fiber in their yogurt comes from something called "inulin" which is listed on the ingredients list. It's made from chicory root fibers and is added for the fiber, and fiber increases calcium absorption among other healthy benefits. The inulin is also a "prebiotic" food for the yogurt cultures, though it's very possible to make yogurt with non-fibrous prebiotics. The person I talked to wouldn't comment on the stomach-ache issue.

But Stonyfield is not alone. Other brands are jumping on the fiber bandwagon. For example, Horizon brand organic yogurt contains something called "NutraFlora®" which also seems to cause tummy aches in kids. It's benefits are similar to the inulin, but I couldn't find out what it's made out of...that's proprietary!

I get that most people need more fiber in their diets. But, I'd bet that most people who eat organic nonfat yogurts are the types of healthy-conscious people who get plenty of fiber from fruits, veggies, whole grains and nuts. These artificial fiber additions to yogurt are totally unnecessary for a healthy diet!

Of course, these fibrous yogurts may not bother everyone. But, if you or your family members are suffering from mysterious stomach aches... take a look at your yogurt.

Healthy Snow Cones!

While on vacation, my always-on-top-of-the-trends niece brought her snow-cone maker. Turns out, snow cones are all the rage this summer for the older elementary set.

Needless to say, my kids were smitten with the icy concoctions. So, after we got home, we bought ourselves a $15 snow cone maker. Standing there in Target, the kids and I had visions all the snow cones we'd make. We'd impress their friends. We'd cool ourselves after bike rides in the summer sun. We'd use all the ice that our lame ice maker could generate. But then we turned to the syrup selection and our happy imaginings came to an abrupt halt.

I could not buy the brightly colored, artificially flavored corn-syrup called "Snow Cone Syrup."

"Kids," I told them, "We'll invent our our syrup. It won't be easy-- it will involve a lot of ice, a dose of creativity and the courage to taste."

They nodded. And we set to work. Here are the results of weeks of study:

• Orange juice: Not too good. Too bland and the pulp gets caught on the ice. Plus, the color is unappealing.
• Fresh squeezed lemon or lime with honey: Delicious, but too much work. The bottles lemon and lime juice tasted funny.
  
• Olive juice: I refused to taste this one. The kids claim it was good, but then again they didn't actually eat much of it between hysterical bouts of laughter.
• Juicy juice: So-so, but not very great.
• Limeade concentrate, melted: Really good, but not very healthy. (Though better than the Snow Cone syrup.)
• And finally, the winner: 100% fruit juice concentrate, melted: Fantastically good! We used cranberry-raspberry juice blend. But there's lots of flavors. You can keep the can of concentrate in the frig, ready to go. The juice plus the ice is basically the equivalent of a cup of juice. Not as healthy as a piece of real fruit of course, but still fairly healthy.

Hurray for snow cones.

Camping Food Compromises

We are, quite possibly, the only family in Colorado who goes camping in a sedan. We balance a bike rack filled with 4 bikes on the back with another bike perched on top next to the rocket top. The kids have sleeping bags packed all around their feet and stuffed animals piled between them. The trunk is completely filled with food, of course. When we get out at rest stops I always wonder if the whole car might tip backwards, like a stroller with too many shopping bags hanging from the handlebars. When we go up mountain passes, we are the slowest vehicle in the slow lane at around 6 miles per hour, holding up even giant campers and loaded tractor trailers.

But we do eventually get there and start camping.

Camping, it seems, is considered a vacation. A vacation full of grime, extra work to accomplish the most basic tasks (such as washing dishes) and difficulty sleeping, but still a vacation. And I know many people subscribe to the idea that you should eat anything on vacation. I don't. I think you should eat anything that you really like on vacation. So, for me, marshmallows are in, as are s'mores. Fruit roll-ups, out. Hot chocolate, in. Sugary granola bars, out. Salt and vinegar chips, in. Boxed mac n' cheese and spaghetti-Os, definitely out. It sounds like an obvious point--but it's easy to overlook: don't eat junk food you don't love, even while camping.

That brings up the question: what can you eat while camping, besides junk food? Dehydrated food packets? No kid will eat those. And grown-ups only eat them so they can feel hard-core. They taste terrible. Gourmet fresh foods sauteed in your portable outdoor kitchen complete with spice rack and wine cooler? Not if you are traveling in a sedan. No, I go with easy to pack, easy to cook foods:

• Kashi brand granola bars
• Beef jerky (I get the kind w/out nitrates.)
• Turkey jerky (Hey, that rhymes!)
• Packets of instant grits
• Packets of instant unflavored oatmeal, with a bit of sugar on top
  
• Barbara's Bakery Saltine-style crackers
• 2% cheese sticks or string cheese
• Little containers of unsweetened applesauce, pineapple bits, or fruit cocktail
  
• Hebrew brand Low fat hot dogs (These do contain nitrates...it's a compromise.)
• Whole grain hot dog buns
• Unsweetened dried fruit
• 100% fruit chews
• 100% fruit juice boxes
• Apples
• Canned lower-sodium soup (Open the tops half way and set the whole can on the grill until hot.)
• Whole grain pasta, sauce and Parmesan cheese
• Baby carrots, pepper slices, cucumber slices and celery sticks
• Trail mix made with whole grain cereal

Pop Tarts versus Granola Bars.

Recently, there has been a great deal of press coverage regarding Kellogg's commendable decision to stop marketing their least nutritious offerings to children. Under the company's self-imposed new guidelines, one of the products that will either have to be advertised to adults only or be reformulated is the classic Pop Tart. The guidelines specify that only products with 12 grams or less sugar, per serving, be marketed to children.

That's very good news.

But, most moms and dads already knew that Pop Tarts aren't healthy. Kellogg has always had the decency to be reasonable honest in it's marketing. The message always was that this is junk food for breakfast...enjoy!

What makes me mad is "stHealthy" junk food. Empty foods cleverly marketed, disguised as healthy foods.

Today, as I heaved my overfull buggie through King Sooper , I passed the Pop Tarts and pondered their future. Seconds later I pulled up at the granola bars. I picked up a box of Barbara's Bakery Nature's Choice Apple Cinnamon Cereal Bars and looked at the label. 14 grams of sugar and 1 gram of fiber. Wow! That wouldn't pass Kellogg's new test. I looked at box after box of granola bars. With the exception of the Kashi brand bars, I couldn't find any that would pass the test. Few had more than a gram or two of fiber. And several even contained partially hydrogenated oils.

The granola bars were really no better than the Pop Tarts. The only nutritional difference I could find was that the Pop Tarts contained some artificial colors and other additives. Still, granola bars aren't under attack.

Could that be because of clever granola bar marketing?

Natural sugar is still Sugar

This is the promised rant about sugar. But first, I'd just like to say that the Chocolate Rabbit is gone. Eaten. Whew.

I have a bit of a pet peeve about "healthy" recipes using tons of honey, maple syrup or natural sugar. It especially bugs me when these recipes claim to contain "no sugar" as though the recipe is some type of magical creation that is sweet without being bad for you.

It bugs me because all types of sweeteners contain lots of calories and very little nutrition. (The exceptions are the low-cal artificial ones--but that's a whole other rant about a whole other pet peeve.) Honey, turbino sugar and maple syrup are more natural and less processed, but not more nutritious, than sugar. But they still fill kids up, making them less hungry for foods that do contain lots of nutrition.

Having said that, a bit of sugar--or any other sweetener your family enjoys--in an otherwise healthy diet is just fine!

(In case you are wondering, I personally use "evaporated cane juice" because it is less processed and because I like the flavor.)

No-sugar Pumkin Pie

No, this is not a recipe! This is a story. But just in case you do want a recipe, I normally start with a great frozen whole-wheat crust (from the health food store). Then I just use the recipe on the back of Libby's Pumpkin (plain, not the pre-mixed pie filling). Only, I use non-fat evaporated milk and cut the sugar in half. ***Rant about types of sugar in the next post.***

So here is the story: I decided to bake a pumpkin pie for dinner the other night. I whipped up the filling, poured it in the crust, then baked it while we ate dinner. Finally, the timer beeped and my kids, my husband, and our ever hopeful dog all rushed into the kitchen all excited about the pie. I sliced the pie and put it on plates. A bit of pie fell off one piece and I popped it in my mouth.

Ugg! The pie was weird. I had left out the sugar.

I confessed to my family, I explained to them that it was very bad pie, and I apologized sorrowfully as I trudged to the trash can. The kids blocked my way. They still wanted pie. They were going to eat the pie: sugar or no sugar. And they told me not to "bad mouth the food." (That's a rule from Feeding the Kids.)

So, we put some low-fat vanilla ice-cream (get the brand) on top, and tasted.

My son said it was a "strong pie" and gobbled it up. My husband said he liked it better than regular pie. My daughter said she didn't like it, and yet she ate it. I was blown away. It tasted really terrible to me. Just goes to show that you can't always know what your kids will or won't eat!

Update on the Headless Chocolate Rabbit

The chocolate bunny from Easter is still with us. About a week ago, my daughter ate the neck and upper torso after lunch one day. Then, she left the bunny belly on the kitchen counter. I found it much less disturbing in this state, since it's less bunny-ish.

Then, yesterday, we saw a real bunny on the way to school. I am not sure if that triggered it or not. But when she got home from school, she ate some more. Now there is just a foot and leg section left.

Meanwhile, as I was cleaning under the bunny-box, I happened to take a look at the label. It hadn't occurred to me to do that before. I knew, after all, that a chocolate bunny has to be an Empty, right? Well, yes. It's an Empty. But I was surprised to see that the old (and I do mean old) bunny contained a surprising amount of calcium (8% DV) and iron (6% DV) per 1/5 bunny serving. It even contains 3 grams of protein. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, it is "milk" chocolate, after all.

That got me to thinking. I dug through my food label collection. (Yes, I have a food label collection. And what's so strange about that?) I found my pudding cups label. (By pudding cups, I am talking about those single serving cups of pudding often packed in lunches.)

And guess what? This is really unbelievable... per serving, the pudding actually contains less calcium (4% DV), iron (0% DV) and protein (1g) than the rabbit! Plus, the pudding contains partially hydrogenated oil. (Eww.) Granted, the pudding cup contains 100 fewer calories than a serving of bunny. But half a serving of bunny (that would be, let's see, 1/10th of a bunny) contains fewer calories than the pudding cup... and still has more nutrition. Next, time I am going to compare yogurt tubes to the bunny.

And that gives me an excuse to treat myself to a new label for my collection.

(Note: please don't send me angry e-mails! I am NOT recommending that you serve your kids chocolate bunny as a dairy serving. No. I am recommending that you NOT serve them pudding packs as a dairy serving... except as treats if they love them. And, you know, you could make your own pudding using the easy recipe in Feeding the Kids!)