Kid Appeal

Food with Kid Appeal wins Titanium Spork Award from Mrs Q

2011-09-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

This week two programs I was involved with in the 2010-2011 school year, Eat to Learn and the lower sugar in school meals pilots have been recognized. Twice! External validation is nice!

Once
Mrs Q from Fed Up with Lunch awarded me a Titanium Spork for my efforts at a Spring Branch ISD elementary school. Thanks for the nod Mrs Q! Thanks to Dana Woldow of PEACHSF, Bettina at The Lunch Tray, Central Restaurant Products and Christina at Spoonfed for the love in the comments of the nomination post!

Twice
In January of 2011 right after the massive success of the Taste Off, I nominated our principal as a Lunch Box hero. I got a response this week! Can you believe that?? The Lunch Box has offered the November Lunch Box hero spot to Sherwood Elementary's principal. Congrats! I'm delighted the Eat to Learn story and the folks who brought the program to life have an opportunity to be showcased on Chef Ann Cooper's blog!

It's important to recognize the educators and administrators who find time in a busy academic school year to get children some much needed education on healthy food and healthy bodies. Educators are uniquely qualified to take a child from can't-do-it to can-do-it. Every won't-eat-vegetables child out there could be brought to vegetable acceptance by a gifted and enthusiastic educator!

To each and every teacher, librarian, and school administrator that educates the whole child, thank you. You are all heros for the part you play in helping a child grow and maintain a healthy body. Like literacy, health is something a child can take with them and enjoy for their entire lives. What a precious gift you give to children!

Do you know a classroom or school house hero? Leave a comment, brag a little about the educators that are helping children claim their health. Who knows, you might just inspire a teacher or three to talk to their students about the importance of eating healthy food.

Kids Konserve Canvas Lunch Sack - Giveaway

2011-08-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

We are on the countdown for back to school. I'm thinking of what to pack in lunch boxes. I'm thinking of how to stay green with lunch gear. I'm thinking of getting my kids all the nutrients they need to power their brain for a day of learning.

Green Your Lunch Gear
Annie’s Homegrown, Stonyfield YoKids, Honest Kids, and Seventh Generation have teamed up to help families toss their brown bags this back-to-school season by offering a free Kids Konserve lunch sack to four Food with Kid Appeal readers.

Winners will get a brown reusable canvas bag similar to the one pictured above. Inside are coupons for four free products from Annie's Homegrown, Stonyfield YoKids and Seventh Generation. It feels very sturdy, I think it would hold up to weekly washing. If your kids are like mine, lunch boxes often comes home messy. It's hard to remember to securely put the lid on the applesauce container every day when you're 5! It's roomier than a paper sack. Plenty of room for a sandwich, veggies, fruit and water bottle.

These re-useable lunch sacks are washable and made of recycled cotton and eliminate a great deal of waste that would otherwise occur from the use of daily paper or plastic lunch bags.

For more re-usable lunch gear including insulated lunch sacks and stainless steel containers, head on over to Kids Konserve.

To win leave a comment on this blog post with the answer to this question and your email address.

What healthy brain boosting food do you add to your child's lunch?

The fine print
The contest closes at midnight August 13th . I will draw 4 winners and notify the winner via email. The winners will have 48 hours to claim their prize by responding to the email. Your email address should be in this format. jenna AT foodwithkidappeal DOT com.

Disclosure
I received a lunch sack to review. The opinions here are my own.

Making Food Preparation Fun for Kids

2011-07-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

[Ed Note: This is a guest post from Angelle of NourishMD.com.]

As a mom there are some things I feel so great about and other things I wish I did much better. You too, I'm sure.

I do a great job feeding my kids REAL food everyday. I am always working on getting better at the planning and prep part, which makes life so much easier when I do it. It also brings my food bill down. So, I'm springing into action (again). I’m back to scheduling the time to plan and prep for the week. I like to involve the whole family in some aspect of prepping the week’s food. My kids love to cook and when I'm organized it's so fun to get them into the kitchen with me. The life lessons are so rich. They learn more about REAL food and about how people who want to be healthy have to think ahead and have REAL food ready to go. They get to apply all the math they learn at school so they can stop asking me, "When am I ever going to need to know about fractions?"!

They also learn how food feeds not only the body, but the spirit. I talk with them about making sure to include the most missing ingredient – vitamin L (Love) - into the meals and snacks they are helping with. It's so funny because often when we are eating together and I try to have them guess what ingredients are in the meal or snack, they always remind me that I added lots of vitamin L too!

Planning and prepping healthy meals and snacks can be stressful at times. Like everything else, 90% of the stress comes from our response to the situation. I’m always working on 'reframing' the planning and prepping and seeing it as a time to involve the kids more (again), and Mike too. We could easily make it a fun family time if we choose too. I recently heard a 14-year old chef on the radio who said he became passionate about cooking because he started cooking with his mom and dad everyday when he was really little and it was fun for the whole family. They chose to make it fun. We can make it fun, right?

My kids are 9, 9 and 11, so they are definitely old enough to do a lot in the kitchen. Some of the prepping they do (when I ask them to do it) includes:

· Making a big batch of trail mix.

· Washing and cutting vegetables.

· Baking whole grain cookies or muffins.

· Scrambling a dozen eggs for egg roll-ups.

· Cooking taco meat.

I would love to know what you have your kids doing in the kitchen? It’s never too early to start them on their own REAL Food journey!
~Angelle

Some of what's on the Batten Family menu this week:
Breakfast: lightly poached eggs on a bed of spinach with avocado; Smoothies (of course); Overnight Pancakes, Taco Salad, Apple Cole Slaw w/ Turkey
Lunch: Taco Salad, Salmon Salad on Greens, Salsa Salad w/ quinoa, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese cubes and salsa, Apple Cole Slaw
Dinner: Roasted Chicken, Layered Bean Dip w/ Chef Jackie's Taco Seasoning, Michigan Chicken Salad
Snacks: Vegetables, Fruit Kabobs, Trail Mix, & Chocolate Coconut Raw Bars, Banana Bon Bons from our REAL Snack eBook

Angelle is a Holistic Health and Parenting Coach who helps parents navigate how to feed their families REAL food and solve health and parenting problems holistically. Along with Dr. Susan McCreadie, a holistic pediatrician, she shares her expertise and her own parenting journey at www.NourishMD.com. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always REAL!

Cow, Bucket, Milk, Farm to Table Game

2011-06-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

[Ed Note: This is a guest post from Angelle Batten, HHC, MEd, of NourishMD.com]

We have a family ritual of giving thanks before each meal. Sometimes it’s rather routine, and other times it feels more alive. During those times, we often talk about the food we’re about to eat (or maybe have all ready started to eat before everyone else if you’re one of my eight-year old sons). We talk about how nature has such a variety of colors – how could there be so many shades of green? Or, about how a particular food was grown – on a vine, in the ground, on a tree? Maybe how an animal was raised – did it get a chance to wander around the farm and eat the kind of food that would have made it healthy and happy, or did it suffer on a farm without seeing the light of day and get force fed grains instead of grass? These feel like some of the most important conversations we have. I want my children to make the connection between their food and their health and the health of the planet. I want them to be grateful for their food. I want them to begin to feel a responsibility to themselves and to our Earth when making choices about what to eat.

A few years ago, I was teaching a group of elementary school children about where different foods come from. When I asked where hamburger comes from, a little boy shouted, “McDonalds!” And he was serious. When I pushed him to think about where McDonalds gets the meat to make the hamburgers, he wasn’t sure. I’ve since realized that lots of children are not aware of where food comes from and it gets even more complicated when so much of the food kids are eating is actually Fake Food – from a science lab or a factory farm.

There are a zillion things we are trying to teach our kids and we each prioritize them differently. One of the things I know though is that you want your child to be healthy. Another thing I know is that what your child eats either contributes to his or her health or to creating illness. So, maybe this season, with the abundance of fresh and local foods, you’ll be inspired to think even more about where your food is coming from and also how to ‘eat a little closer to home’.

One way to teach your child more about where food comes from and how it gets to your table is the Farm-to-Table game.

While sitting around the dinner table, you say a farm-related word such as "cow". The next person says a word connected to the previous one. Continue taking turns until you finally reach the word table. For example: cow, farmer, milk, cheese, store, refrigerator, lunchbox, table. Connect as many words as you can before you reach the final destination of the table. Then go back and fill in some steps. i.e. add grass before cow and bucket before milk, etc. Help your child learn about all the people, equipment, and places involved in getting REAL food from farm to table.

Eating locally – from your own garden, a farmers’ market, a CSA, or a roadside farmer’s stand – gives you so many opportunities to have conversations with your children about where our food comes from, how it affects our health and about how farming practices impact the health of our planet. The more conversations we can have with our kids, about anything, the healthier and happier they will be. Talk, eat, and enjoy each other’s company even more than usual this season.

Angelle is a Holistic Health and Parenting Coach who helps parents navigate how to feed their families REAL food and solve health and parenting problems holistically. Along with Dr. Susan McCreadie, a holistic pediatrician, she shares her expertise and her own parenting journey at www.NourishMD.com. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always REAL!

Kids Need Healthy Bugs in Their Stomach

2011-06-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

photo credit: truth about health

[Ed Note: This is a guest post from Dr. Susan McCreadie of NourishMD.com]

I often feel like a broken record in my office:

a healthy digestive tract is essential for health.

A little background on this topic - then I'll talk about how sugar throws off a healthy balanced gut.

We are living organisms and hosts to billions of microorganisms [bugs]; they are on our skin, in our respiratory tract, and line our gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems.

100,000 billion bacteria live in our digestive tract -

that is 10 times MORE than ALL the cells in your body!

What are all these bugs doing there? They are stimulating a healthy immune system, decreasing inflammation throughout the body, and promoting an effective gut barrier (keeping the disease causing organisms and more out). The beneficial bacteria can also help lower cholesterol, reduce allergy symptoms (eczema, asthma, hay fever, food allergies). But there's MORE - beneficial bacteria also help prevent diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and lactose intolerance.

The question is: Does your gut have plenty of these healthy bacteria?

The food we eat dictates the type of flora in our intestines. For example, breastfed babies have mostly bifidobacterium (1 type of beneficial bacteria), and after food introduction, the flora changes. By 2 years of age, a child's flora is similar to an adult.

Fruits & veggies are important to keeping beneficial bacteria counts HIGH

You knew it had to be true - yes it all comes down to eating lots of fruits & veggies. The reason why one of the risk factors for colorectal cancer is a diet high in meat and low in fruits & vegetables is because with higher meat consumption, other bacteria such as bacteroides predominate.

It's all about balance. Which brings me back around to sugar. Like meat, sugar isn't bad - it's just too much sugar throws off this healthy balance of beneficial bacteria. Other critters like some forms of yeast and non-beneficial bacteria may become a problem with too much sugar in one's diet.

The goal is to tip the balance in favor of beneficial bacteria/yeast; this makes it difficult for the harmful competitors to survive!

Hip-hip hooray to veggies! In my family I make sure to prep veggies every week so they are always available for snacks and meals. Some of the veggie prep I do regularly includes washing and chopping cucumbers, celery and carrots; steaming broccoli and baking sweet potato fries. Spending a little time each week doing this means my three girls (and I) will be feeding those healthy bugs inside every single day!

Dr. Susan McCreadie is a board certified pediatrician who practices holistically. You can find her along with Angelle Batten, HHC, MEd, at www.NourishMD.com. She shares her expertise and her own parenting journey – not always pretty, but always REAL!

Summer Adventure to Heal Allergies, Asthma and Migraines

2011-06-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

this is what the boys toothbrush drawer looks like

Have you noticed I haven't been posting many recipes or any kind of posts of late? Sorry about that. I've been distracted by all the learning and preparing that goes on before you make a major diet shift.

Today we start an elimination diet, a very restrictive elimination diet. This diet will change the landscape of breakfast, lunch and dinner around here for a while. I'm embracing all the change. Our whole family is doing this elimination diet as an alternative to all the steroids my sons inhale and squirt every day to keep them out of the hospital during the pollen months.

In the 2010 allergy season, big boo woke up abruptly with a deep cough that made it hard to go back to sleep. He missed many days of school, and we spend a good bit of time at the allergist office. One visit the doc said "I'm glad you brought him in this morning, any longer and he'd be in the hospital with a collapsed lung." In the 2011 allergy season, little boo had many nights where he woke up coughing and I thought it was croup. Little boo has has croup ever 4-8 weeks since he was one. I was told he'd grow out of it by 4, but he's 5 now and croup episodes seemed to be getting worse. It wasn't just that seal cough, now his breathing was gurgley. It sounded like he was breathing water. One night was particularly scary, when he woke up he couldn't stop coughing. We tossed our shoes on and ran to urgent care. I was told they'd stabilize his breathing and then transfer him to the hospital where he'd be admitted for more breathing treatments. Luckily, even though his blood pulse oxygen level was low at 87%, he responded well to the nebulizers and oral steroids and he was able to go home home with the directions to head right back to the ER if his breathing began to get labored again. Both boys, narrow miss of hospital. Eek.

The boys and I also suffer with frequent headaches. Mine are actually less frequent, than when I was a kid but more of them are migraines. There don't seem to be too many days when one of the three of us don't have headaches. When little boo was 4 he started getting migraines. That broke my heart. If there is any way for me to give him a life without migraines, I'm doing it. Migraines are a kill joy. I suspect food triggers, so we'll see if we can solve that mystery too while we're on the elimination diet.

Angry about Food
I've spent many months wondering why our clean diet hasn't been enough to keep my kiddos healthy. I've questioned whether or not the resources we've spent both in money and time to prepare food from scratch have been worth it. Why go to the trouble to eat clean food, if you don't benefit with good health? Here we are with asthma, allergies and chronic headaches. If clean food doesn't work, then what does? After reading Dr Bock's book and Dr Natasha Campbell McBride's book, I actually feel overjoyed that my family has invested in food the way we have. I believe now that if I hadn't been so careful about what we eat, my kids health would have deteriorated faster and instead of involving mostly their respiratory system it might have impacted their neurological function more. Thankfully we are not dealing with learning disorders, both boys are at or above school milestones and don't seem to have any trouble functioning in the school environment.

As an asthma parent you hear all the time that kids grow out of their allergies/asthma. Of course I hope that's the case for them. And if they don't? Little boo didn't grow out of croup when he was supposed to. I'm not very hopeful they are going to follow that path. What if they are the kids who don't grow out of asthma/allergies? Like the kids who approach early adult hood and all the sudden the steroids they've been sucking up all their childhood stop working and the fall prey to a virus or pneumonia and end up sick sick sick in the hospital or worse, dead. I can't leave their health in the hands of fate, hope and Rx drugs.

I don't want my kids to maybe grow out of allergies and asthma. I want them to heal from allergies and asthma. Is that possible? I don't know. Some people claim to be healed from allergies/asthma after they remove trigger foods from their diet and/or heal their gut dysbiosis.

I'm placing my faith in the healing powers of the human body, and food to put our allergies and asthma behind us. I honestly don't know if we can heal and get off all the puffers, immunotherapy, steroids and nose squirts. I don't know if it's possible for my kids to enjoy spring instead of spending the cool, blooming months hacking and wheezing and working hard to stay out of the hospital. But I have a lot more hope that their bodies can heal than in the Rx drugs getting us through the 15-20 or more allergy seasons between now and the age where they might grow out of asthma. My dad had mild asthma. It onset in early adolescence and by the time he was in his mid 20s he could leave his puffers behind. Big boo was diagnosed at 3 years old, and Little boo at 4 years old. They have almost a decade on daily meds before they even get to the point where their grandpa started taking medication. The medications don't control symptoms forever.

Blog Posts May Be Spotty
I can't predict what this summer will be like for us. I know I've got a busy business to operate and a lot of learning to do in the kitchen. I know we'll all be busy getting healed. Anything that isn't work or healing related may get shoved to the back burner, including the Food with Kid Appeal Blog. I'm sure I'll eventually write about our experience on the healing diet, but I'm not sure I'll have the time or energy to share as it's happening. If our bodies do a truly amazing thing, and heal from allergies, and headaches I won't be able to keep it a secret. It's hard not to share understanding, especially the kind of understanding that could relieve many families of the fear, anxiety and discomforts of living with a chronic illness.

GAPS program
The elimination diet we're following is the GAPS program which is based on the SCD diet with a few added directives. GAPS and SCD are well written about so if you're curious about our healing diet, you can poke around and read many of the online resources covering these programs.

What are You Cooking?
There is always an open invitation for readers and bloggers alike to share stories of your recipes, your feeding the family challenges and successes. See here for more details on how to submit a guest post, story or article.

Keep Your Promise Kids - Eat What You Asked For

2011-05-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

Usually when you I do reader polls I get a variety of answers because family meal dynamics are so different for each family. I was shocked when I gave moms a chance to complain about their biggest feeding the family obstacle and the vast majority of complaints were along the same vein. Kids complain about much of what is served, even when it's stuff they've requested.

This is a maddening experience for any home cook. You can't please them even when you give them what they want.

To be eligible to win the Meal Makeover Mom's cookbook No Whine With Dinner, I gave moms a chance to whine. I asked them,

What's your number one complaint about cooking for kids?

This entry came in this morning.

My biggest complaint is that my girls (3 and 6) often won't eat meals that they CLAIM to like! We will let them each choose a meal for dinner some weeks, and more often than not, they end up not eating what they requested.

Promises Kept
Dinner requests are a great time to illustrate the value of making and keeping promises to young children. Our brains are fickle. Humans change their minds all the time. It's a tough lesson to learn that each being can't get everything they want all the time. Choices matter. Once you make a choice and it is acted on, that's it. See your choice through. Meals are a perfect window of opportunity to illustrate the power of choice. Because we eat three times a day, if their choice backfires on them it's only a few hours until they get a chance for a redo. How many choices that you make as an adult have that kind of flexibility? Adult decisions often have no opportunity for a redo, or if a redo is possible it is days, weeks, months or years before you can redo your choice. What happens if you change your mind about your major in college? Or your choice of employer? Or your choice of neighborhood?

Kids can have all the desires and preferences they want, they do need to learn that just because they want something doesn't mean it's possible for their care-givers to give it to them. Resources are always constrained. Sometimes there aren't enough hands on deck to pacify each desire, sometimes money is a constraint, and let's not forget time. Who has time to prepare a special order meal for each family member at the table?

Make a Promise, Keep a Promise
If you ask your child what they want for dinner, and you prepare their suggestion, it's on them to keep their promise and eat it. You can do this in a loving way, nurturing, guiding way. You don't have to shove the food in their face and say "you asked for it, now eat it,"

Remind your child that you gave them a chance to choose dinner and you cooked to their request. Tell them you did your part. You promised you'd make what they asked for. Set the expectation that they do what they said they'd do. The child's part is eat what they asked for. Let them know that choosing dinner is a privilege given to kids who keep promises. When mom knows kiddo will keep their promise to eat, then mom is more likely to continue to take suggestions and recommendations from kids on what's for dinner. When kids show mom that they won't keep their promise and eat what they asked for, then mom can go back to being the decision maker about what's for dinner.

When giving this lesson verbally isn't effective and you still get complaints, the next step is to remove the privilege. To the child who complains about the food they asked for say "I understand that you changed your mind about dinner. You asked me to make spaghetti and I kept my promise. Since you are not able to keep your promise and eat it, I will be deciding what we have for dinner for the next X days/meals. I will give you another chance to choose dinner in X days/meals. You can show me that you know how to keep your promise and then you can choose what's for dinner again." For a younger child, do less meals/days. For an older child do more meals/days.

Don't Forget to Keep Your Promise
If you set a consequence, follow through with it. Kids are learning rules and exceptions every day. If you teach them that mom is making an exception to the consequence by allowing your child to choose food before the consequence time is over, you are showing your child that exceptions to this rule are allowed. They will learn that under certain circumstances it is OK to complain about a requested dinner.

Kids need to understand that dinner resources (time to prepare, ingredient inventory, cost of food) aren't unlimited. The family meal can not reasonably be a buffet each time you sit down. Kids don't always get to eat exactly what they want. They will be OK if they eat something that doesn't match their fickle food wanter. Kids can get nourished by eating what's available, and there's always another meal later that may be more appealing.

To read the whole lot of whining from moms, check out this post. It's not too late to enter for a chance to win the cookbook No Whine with Dinner.

No Whine with Dinner - Cookbook Review and Giveaway

2011-05-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

I think I tweeted across Liz Weiss during my very first week on Twitter a couple years ago. Flash forward a couple years and she and co-author Janice Newell Bissex have released their second cook-book, No Whine With Dinner.

The Meal Makeover Moms involved their readers in the book. Brilliant! They polled readers about the obstacles that come between healthy food and kids and learned that complaints about what's for dinner was the top concern. Then they asked readers how they solved that problems at their kitchen tables. What resulted was 150 make-over recipes featuring the sage advice of a diverse group of home cooks who, after years of serving up dinner had figured out a few tips and tricks to get more dinner down the hatch, and less whining at the table.

Janice and Liz lined up 12 of their favorite mom bloggers to contribute a recipe. Yours truly can be found on page 192 with a recipe for a family favorite One Pot Sausage, Potato and Green Beans.

What I like most about No Whine with Dinner is the inclusion of real world tips from different families. Each mom-kid dynamic is different. What works for one family might crash and burn for another. With lots of sage advice from been-there-done-that moms every parent is sure to walk away with a handful of actionable strategies to get more wholesome food to disappear.

Why does it have to be so hard to get a kid to eat something they don't want to? Kids don't want to clean up. They don't want to go to bed on time. They don't always want to do their homework. That's why they have parents. To make sure they are doing the things they need to do in order to grow up healthy and literate. Growing a good eater is one of the most important gifts you can give your child. No Whine with Dinner can help you accomplish that goal.

The other bonus? Some cookbooks are either too sophisticated for most home-cook's skill level in the kitchen, or they are way far down a path that many home cooks are just beginning. I'm guilty of that myself. I swear by local produce and pastured animals. My recipes feature mostly things I can find locally at the market. I know most people don't cook like I do. The Meal Makeover Moms do plenty of every-day classic cuisine all healthed up a bit by more wholesome ingredients. Their recipes are accessible to parents who haven't been cooking since childhood. They are written out step by step so even a kitchen novice can follow. They are neither fussy, nor needlessly ambitious. They are delicious meals you can reasonably get on your table in betwixt school, work, baseball and playdates. They are meals kids can learn to eat.

I'm bummed I didn't get to write this review as I planned it. I was to pick out three or four recipes, make them with my kids, shoot pictures then publish one recipe, gushing about the results. That's the perfect review and giveaway that may never see the light of day. This is the gettin' 'er done review and giveaway. (Sheepishly, I'm more than six months over-due with publishing!)

You guys still get your chance to win a copy. I just didn't get a chance to share my experience cooking my way through some of the pages of No Whine with Dinner. Boohoo.

I can tell you the recipes that made my short list. When I do find time to play around in the kitchen, these are the ones I want to try. I've never roasted leeks. They are in season in Houston now. Maybe next week!

Piping-Hot Peanut Butter Soup
Coconut Chicken Fingers
Greek Chicken and Chickpea Stew
Roasted Cauliflower with Crispy Leek Rings

For a chance to win the cookbook, No Whine with Dinner, leave a comment with your email address and the answer to this question.

Your turn to whine. What's your number one complaint about cooking for kids?

For an additional chances to win,
1) "like" me on Facebook and tell me you did so in the comment section.
2) like Meal Makeover Moms on Facebook and tell me you did so in the comments.

The fine print
Only separate comment entries will be counted for extra entries. If you want more than one chance, leave more than one comment. The contest closes at midnight CST May 25thm 2011. I will draw a winner and notify the winner via email. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize by responding to the email. Your email address should be in this format. jenna AT foodwithkidappeal DOT com.

I received a free copy of the cookbook No Whine with Dinner in order to perform this review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Eat to Learn - Feed Your Brain Apples, Cucumbers, Grapes and Spinach

2011-05-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is a round up post for all the Eat to Learn morning announcements I've posted thus far on Food with Kid Appeal. During the course of Eat to Learn, 20 different foods found on the Spring Branch ISD school lunch menu were featured. Each week nutrients and micronutrients in these food items were linked to brain function to illustrate to students that food fuels their brain.

Students read the announcements which were broadcast in each classroom most mornings from October 2010-April 2011.

Do Eating Habits Change When Kids Hear Nutrition Education at school?
We have limited data, but the data does indicate that kids are choosing more fruits and vegetables from the cafeteria line. Fresh fruit acceptance rose by 14% and raw broccoli acceptance rose by 80%! From what parents tell me, it's working. I've heard about kids who are now happily munching carrots, celery and spinach at home. Parents claim these are new fruit and vegetable eating habits for their children. One child told his mom "Cucumbers taste a little bit like watermelon." Sometimes kids just need to have a mental barrier lowered to empower them to taste a new food. Once they taste it, most realize it's not so bad, and maybe even, delicious.

Eat to Learn: Apples
Eat to Learn: Spinach
Eat to Learn: Grapes

Eat to Learn : Cucumbers

Day 1 Cucumbers contain Vitamin C. Vitamin C enters into brain cells easily. Once Vitamin C is in your brain it protects brain cells. Vitamin C protects neurotransmitters from bad oxygen (oxidation). Cucumbers are a defense shield for your brain.

Day 2 Eating fiber helps to remove toxins from your body. Your brain doesn’t work well when toxins build up. Cucumbers are a good source of fiber. All fruits and vegetables contain fiber.

Day 3 Magnesium is a mineral in cucumbers. Magnesium is needed in every cell in your body. Magnesium helps your brain in a special way. Magnesium helps your brain focus and pay attention.

Day 4 Cucumbers contain Potassium. Potassium channels are key elements which control and shape electrical activity in the brain and determine memory and learning. To learn and remember a lot of facts, eat sliced cucumbers plain or in your salad so your can get lots of potassium to your brain.

Day 5 Sliced cucumbers are on the menu today. Grab some on your tray and feed your brain.

Here’s the wrap on cucumbers:

Vitamin C in cukes gives your brain a defense shield
Potassium in cukes makes your brain learn and remember facts.
Magnesium in cukes makes your brain focus and pay attention
Fiber in cukes helps move toxins out of your body so your brain doesn't get foggy.

So, what do you think? Will kids eat vegetables when they know veggies make them smart?

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday.

School Food Reform 101

2011-05-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

Chicken patty, bun, chocolate milk and "Sour Chery Natural Cooler." A healthy lunch according to USDA school lunch regulations. Elementary students in SBISD can choose a hot sandwich and chocolate milk every day if they want to.

[Ed Note: Update May 16th, 2011, I have updated this page to include Dana Woldow's new website, PEACHSF.org. If you work in Coordinated School Health or are on your district's Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC), or hope to make a difference in the health of school kids, you'll want to be familiar with Dana's work.]

This is post is for anyone new to school food reform. First let me say warmly,

welcome to the cause.

You are very much needed. Kids in every school district need you to advocate for them. They come to school ready to learn and before they even hit the classroom, breakfast - whether at home or at school is wreaking havoc inside their body. Lunch is often no better. The typical school and home breakfast and lunch made up of processed foods with additives and sugar do not support a student's brain for a day of learning. Processed foods are not the kind of fuel a student who is about to attack literacy or algebra needs floating around in his blood stream.

Before you make "to-be" suggestions, understand the "as-is"
In order to be effective in your efforts to reform school food, you'll need a good understanding of the school food "as-is." You'll need to understand how the school food service group in your district operates, what regulations/contract language it's required to follow, and how the average school food program got to the heat-and-serve model. Once you wrap your brain around the as-is, you can work with other parents to call your campus, district, school board and school food director to action.

I've been focused on school food reform for a year. Most of my "free" time is spent reading studies, research, books on the topic and scouring the web for case studies of schools districts that have successfully implemented meaningful school food reform. You will not learn everything you need to know this week, or this month. Next year, you will still be learning things. There will be times you look in the mirror and think:,

why am I doing this,
why this is so hard,
I wish I was a better negotiator,
a more skilled public speaker,
I'm not even sure better food for kids will ever result.

Keep plodding along. It's true that there might be folks out there with skills that would enable them to influence school board members better than you, but if they aren't on the team, you are better than no one doing the advocating. Keep at it, you'll get better as you learn.

Remember, the kids need you. They deserve an advocate. They deserve a chance to live a fulfilled life as a well adult. I liken wellness through a real food diet to literacy. We would not expect a child to go far without literacy, the basic building blocks for earning a living. Yet we don't expect the same with health. Too many people assume they can feed kids garbage and health won't suffer. Without good health, kids can't learn up to their potential.

Please, become a nation builder. Advocate for more real food for students in your school, district or community. This is a good use of your time.

Where Do I Start?
The subject of school food is complicated. It is not as simple as “change the menu to include healthier items”. Many factors including budget, resources, equipment, feasibility, reimbursement regulations, nutrition standards, commodity items, acceptability (if the kids will eat it) and participation (do kids buy vs brown bag) all make it very challenging to make changes that fit constraints, are implementable, meet regulations and are accepted by kids.

Resources and Recommended Reading
Here are some resources I recommended to my district's newly formed School Food Reform subcommittee to our District Student Health Advisory Council.

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to learn all this today, this week, this year. Bookmark this page and come back to it when you have time to dig in. I’ve been focused on school food reform for eighteen months and I’m still learning!

Parents Educators and Advocates Connection For Healthy School Food (aka PEACHSF)

Dana Woldow of San Francisco USD's Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee has documented her journey to better school food on the committee's website. In the spring of 2011 Dana released a new website, which for is a roadmap for parents, educators and advocates to guide folks helping students get healthier to get some much needed changes on campus. Follow Dana's advice and you'll learn how to stir the pot productively with as few set-backs as possible. Follow PEACHSF on Facebook, you can like their page by following this link.

She has been generous with her time to direct me via email on how to initiate programs both at a campus level, with our Child Nutrition Services group, as well as advice on how to get the attention of our School Board. In the future, I will share her counsel on this blog for your reference. I appreciate her "continuum" perspective. She has a good "as-is" and "to-be" frame of reference, is a realist, and knows that the journey from A to B takes time. She celebrates the milestones toward the to-be, while taking the next step along the continuum. Here is a power point she uses to demonstrate accomplishments and upcoming initiatives to tackle. For a good chuckle, see how Dana hold schools accountable for adhering to the wellness policy. See her Shame On You report.

Dana's how-to guide to "Making Friends With Your Nutrition Services Director" is a must read for anyone who expects to do anything but make noise about how bad school food is.

Better School Food
Better School Food is a non-profit organization of parents, educators and health professionals that bring awareness to the connection between good food, good health, and a student's ability learn effectively. Founder Dr. Susan Rubin (of Two Angry Moms) has been advocating for better school food for more than a decade. She's learned some lessons and is a leader and authority when it comes to overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of school food improvements.

Dr. SuRu has an Action Plan for parents who want to get involved. I particularly like her counsel to "improve food IQ" as a starting point in the journey of better school food for kids. Although her counsel that improvements could take 10 years or longer are very sobering, it may in fact be reality. Doesn't that suck for students just entering grade school? They will be almost done with school before they have decent food that doesn't harm their health at school. Why must it take 10 years to get more real food and less chemical additives in school food? Why must another generation of kids suffer potential life-long ill health?

Parents who send brown bags need a higher Food IQ too.

The Lunch Tray

The Lunch Tray is a School Food Blog written by a Houston ISD parent, Parent Advisory Committee

and Student Health Advisory Council member, Bettina Elias Siegel. Their management of their school

food program is outsourced to Aramark.

This link has a collection of articles and a book list for those “new to school food reform.”

Here is a TLT interview with a school food consultant providing an answer to the question “can self operated schools really serve scratch made meals on the same tiny budget for processed food”

If you are active in your school's PTA/PTO, Student Health Advisory Committee or a member of school food reform initiatives, you should subscribe to her blog. Bettina publishes 1-2 articles daily, and saves me a bundle of time having to go chase down relevant information about new legislation, studies, and case-studies of schools who are making school food improvements.

The Slow Cook

Ed Burske is a journalist. On his blog, The Slow Cook, he has written reports on three districts that have

successfully made meaningful school food reform (at least two of these schools used Kate, the expert in

the lunch tray interview). In addition to the case studies for Boulder, Berkeley and DC, he also

publishes articles relevant to school food reform legislation, and student health. I also recommend

subscribing to his blog to keep school food reform issues on your radar.

Boulder’s story here

Berkeley’s story here

DC’s story here

Myth-Busting; Elementary Students Do Like Vegetables
Sherwood Elementary offered 9 vegetables and fruits to 400 students. Guess what? 82% of them tasted all 9 kinds of produce. 48% preferred a vegetable over a fruit. 25% preferred a green vegetable over carrots, oranges and pears. This is a great way to raise the food IQ at your school. Hold a campus wide tasting event, and let students prove school food service folks wrong about the "acceptability" of fruits and vegetables. It didn't cost that much either. $400 will buy enough produce and supplies to feed 400 kids 9 kinds of produce. Read about Sherwood's Taste-Off competition here.

More Resources?
If you blog about school food reform, or are a member of a council or committee who has been working on school food reform and been successful with meaningful school food reform and I have left you out of my resource list, please leave a comment and details. I'd be happy to include more resources and success stories on this page.

Share Your Story
Guest articles on the topic of school food reform are always welcome here on Food with Kid Appeal. Contact me at jenna@foodwithkidappeal dot com with your story. Let's tell stories of how kids do get healthier in the public school system. Let's bolster everyone's confidence that when you give a kid an apple, he will eat it.

Best wishes in your journey towards school food reform. Keep me posted on your progress. Nothing steels the resolve of a school food reformer like hearing about another school's success.

Smiley Star Omelet Recipe

2011-05-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

[Ed Note: This is a guest post recipe from Food with Kid Appeal Facebook fan Karen. See how she turned around her daugther's sudden refusal of eggs.]

I'm Karen... I've followed your Facebook page and blog for 2 months now (or maybe more) and I love them! I also live in Houston. I have a 4 year old daughter. She goes to preschool and I prepare her lunch every day. Thank God she's not a picky eater!

I admit it can be difficult to find the inspiration to cook everyday.

Smiley Star Omelet Recipe
ingredients
one beaten egg (salt and pepper to taste)
one slice of tomato
green beans sauteed in olive oil with onions
a sheet of nori seaweed, cut into heart shapes.
ketchup

directions
Heat a skillet over medium heat. Place pancake mold in pan. Add beaten egg to the mold and cook until the egg sets. Remove mold and place star omelet on a plate Using a craft punch out, make heart shaped seaweed eyes. Place eyes on star omelet and draw a smile with ketchup. Serve with sliced tomato and sauteed green beans.

Kid Appeal Tip One day my daughter decided she didn't like eggs anymore, except in cakes and crepes "because they are in the batter." I found this idea online and it did the trick.(stay tuned for link to inspiration recipe).

Check an international or asian market for the seaweed. It's called Nori or sushi wrappers and looks like this.

Do you have a simple fun way to plate food that gets real healthy food down the hatch? Share with the Food with Kid Appeal gang. Send your photo and recipe to me at jenna@foodwithkidappeal.com.

This post is participating in Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.

Real Food for Dummies - Getting Started (Q & A)

2011-05-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

I get questions on my Facebook wall from fans on a regular basis. If you're not new to Food with Kid Appeal, you know I often have major problems keeping my commentary short and sweet. I could get an advanced degree in the priciples of being concise, and I would probably still suck at it, sigh. My propensity to ramble is an issue on Facebook where status updates have a word limit (I hit them at least once a week!) When that happens I move the question/answer to the Food with Kid Appeal Facebook discussion tab.

Often the question bears repeating on the blog, so here is Jaci's question, and my answer. I know I didn't think of everything, so if you have tips to share on how you get your transition to healthier, real food started, share some advice in the comments.

Question: I'm a working mom of 2 boys (5 and 2) on a tight budget. Our eating habits aren't out of control but they definitely are not where I want them to be. I just don't know where to start... it all seems so daunting. Can you point me to the 'healthy eating for dummies' section ?? :)

Jenna's Answer:
1. Take a deep breath. Implementing a change from the standard american diet to a real food diet involves a lot of moving parts. There is much work to be done, but you will do the work one step at a time. Don't focus on what you haven't gotten to yet. Take one step at a time. In one year you will have made a lot of progress.

2. Make a list of the changes you want to make. Put them in priority order. Determine how frequently you can implement a new change. If you work and have young children, you might be able to manage one change per 1-2 months. If your kids are older and you work inside the home, you might be able to take on three changes a week. Be kind to yourself. You will make progress in the time you have available. You can't go faster than is humanly possible. There is a list of some of my kitchen goals in this post (scroll to the bottom).

3. Be committed to the process. It will require effort. It will have a huge payoff. There will be complaints and obstacles along the way. Just remember, you are doing the right thing. Convenience food will damage your family's health. They are used to eating their current diet, but they will in time appreciate the way real food tastes. Education and nutrition (wellness) are the two biggest gifts parents can give to their kids. It makes a whole lot of sense to spend time in these two areas, even if you often don't think you know what you're doing! You have plenty of time to learn. In other words, don't give up on your family's wellness when you hit an obstacle. Dig deeper, get over the obstacle and move forward. Set backs are temporary if you get up and continue.

4. Where to start? Proteins, fats, grains, fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds oh my.
Fats and proteins are very important nutrients for your family. Most of the fats and proteins you can find at the conventional grocery store are tainted with hormones, antibiotics and come from animals who eat a diet that makes them sick (animal meat, dairy) or are overly processed and essentially dead by the time you consume them (fat, conventional milk). These two food groups support normal brain function (education, mood, behavior) and support all the major organs in the body. Get fats and protein straight first. Farm eggs top my list. They are relatively affordable, usually accepted by kids and quick to prepare. They are very nutrient dense and easy to digest. We eat eggs almost every day. Next would be milk. Buy organic to avoid hormones, antibiotics and GMO feed. If you can find low temp pasteurized go for that.
Clean water is key. It should be toxin free and contain minerals. Invest in a water filter when it fits in your budget.
Do produce next. Herbicides and pesticides are used to grow mass produced fruits and veggies you can find in a big box grocery store. On top of that, the soil these crops are grown in are stripped of many of the vital minerals your cells need to function. Buying organic is good, but getting produce from a farmer's market, from a farmer that uses sustainable or organic farming principals is best. Here's a thread on FB more about what to buy at a farmer's market .

Grains are hardest for most people to digest and for some people they cause more harm than good. I would work on reducing the frequency of grains, but when you do serve grains, make sure the majority of them are as whole, organic, and unrefined as possible. At dinner I focus more on organic, non-gluten grains like rice than gluten grains like wheat. Wheat is so easy to consume in our food culture. Things like breads, pizza, crackers, pasta, baked goods etc, are hard to avoid at a party or restaurant. Why repeat that nutrient at dinner, especially when it doesn't add that much value to your overall health?
5. Find a reliable source of recipes. I have over 100 free real food recipes on Food with Kid Appeal. My cooking style may not suit your fancy. No worries, there are tons of good real food recipe sources online. Find a blog or site you like and subscribe via email so you don't miss newly published recipes. To subscribe to Food with Kid Appeal recipes, click here. That link will get you an RSS or email subscription.

Hope this helps! Come back if you hit an obstacle. That's what the Food with Kid Appeal community is for. Support for you during your transition to serving your family more real food. Leave a question on the Facebook wall or leave a comment on a blog post. I'll answer as soon as I can.

Alright peanut gallery, it's your turn to chime in. How did you kick off your transition to real food? What advice would you give to someone about to start that journey? What's one thing a newbie with time and budget constraints should do, and one thing they shouldn't do? Leave a comment, help a fellow home cook.

Chewing Gum - Dye Free, Chemical Free

2011-05-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

After my Natural Easter post, I got several inquiries about the artificial dye free, chemical free, additive free gum the Easter Bunny brought for the boys.

Here are the deets. I bought two kinds from the online Natural Candy Store. Wee Glee Gum and Tree Hugger Gum Natural Bubble Gumballs. The boys liked them both, neither had a preference for one over the other.

I confess. I was a Chiclets Gum addict as a child. At least part of every dollar I was given or earned as a child went towards a Chicklet Gum purchase. Tiny size Chiclets were my favorite. I would dump out the packages. Sort by color. Experiment with flavors. Do they taste better all mixed up, or a mouthful of pink together? I had an old margarine tub I used to keep my opened uneaten gum in.

It was funny to watch the boys do the same thing at 6a on Easter morning. Must be some kind of childhood instinct. Dump out the little pieces. Organize by color. Ascertain flavor of colors. Taste colors separately and together. They didn't do that with the Smarties (european M&Ms made without artficial dyes) I bought. The dump, sort, taste is only appropriate for gum. Mysteries of the young brain.

Check out the ingredient list for Chiclets. No mention of chicle included, even though it is the namesake ingredient. Head scratcher that one is. List doesn't specify what is in the "gum" base.

A word of warning. Natural gum is stickier than modern gum. I taught both my boys how to chew gum without swallowing and playing with it before their second birthday. Until this year, they have never created a gum mess. Not a single gum in the hair, gum on the clothes, gum in the car incident. But with this gum, little boo has gotten it all over his clothes and skin twice! You'll have to teach your kids to take it out of their mouth using a tissue. If they touch it with their hands, or pull it out like a string and pop it back in their mouth, it will be a mess. Tip, rub oil on their skin to wipe it off. Hubby did the gum laundry, so I don't know how he resolved that mess.

If you end up buying from Natural Candy Store, would you be so kind as to use this link to execute your purchase? When you do so, I earn a referral coupon for sending you their way. If you like, set up a friend plan of your own, then you can share the link on your FB page and earn referral coupons too. It's helps to put a dent in the price of natural candy and shipping costs. I only buy 2x a year, Easter and Christmas, but still. If you'd asked me two years ago if I would pay $50 on candy annually, I would have said never, ever, ever.

Non-toxic gum and candy : $50. Keeping toxins out of kids bloodstream and brain, priceless.

My local natural foods store, Georgia's, sells a brand of gum called Spry. It is sweetened with Xylitol. I'm still on the fence about Xylitol. I don't use it in beverages or baking, and this is the only product I buy that contains it. It may be safe, I just haven't done my due diligence on it, so I'm (mostly) avoiding it for now. I like to keep a pack of Spry with me so I have something to offer the boys when they see other people chewing chemicalized gum. Most parents wouldn't serve their kids diet soda, because they know that artificial sweeteners aren't recommended for kids. But most people don't think twice before sharing their gum junked up with artificial sweeteners and phenylalanine with kids. I'm just as guilty as everyone else. Before this year, I too served chemicalized gum to my kids. Now I know better so I'm doing better.

I'm working on another post that answers the question : What's the big deal? It's just a little artificial sweetener, why is that so bad for my child? Stay tuned. Disclaimer, I have a "post topic" list a few pages long, and an insane work and family schedule at present. No promises when I can have it ready, but I will get to it.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

We Grew Our Own Vegetable! Sugar Snap Peas

2011-05-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

Pea plants are sneaky. They grow and unfurl and attach to themselves and pieces of string. For weeks they don't get much taller. They don't blossom when you expect them to. You expect them to die before they blossom and fruit, and plan how to deliver the sad news to the kids. But then, they surprise you. They double their height.

While you weren't looking they blossom.

Baby peas begin.

Even a big one with a hat!

Thanks boys for caring about the life-cycle of a plant and remembering to water the herbs and veg! Thanks Science Night at SBISD! Thanks Auntie and Uncle for the pea plant survival 101 course! Thanks hubby for procurement of supplies and repotting! The Peppers just grew their first veggie ever. Yum. Crunch. Happy day.

Mom Congress on Education and Learning Talks School Lunches

2011-05-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

[Ed. Note] This is a guest post from Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup. Melissa reached out to me after she read my post Better School Food - Every child, lunch box or lunch tray, deserves it. It's encouraging to see that in the education community a conversation about the link between food and learning is underway. Melissa is a former elementary classroom teacher. Good stuff. Check out her report on school food talk at Mom Congress.

Mom Congress on Education and Learning hosted by Parenting Magazine and Georgetown University invited one mom-advocate delegate from each of the states and D.C. to talk about educational issues. The conference surprised me with it’s rigor – most meals included speakers even. One of my biggest take-aways was what’s happening with school lunches – from Mrs. Q. and Jamie Oliver.

Mrs. Q.

Do you know about Mrs. Q? She’s the teacher who ate school lunches for a year and blogged about it. We got to meet her at Mom Congress and listen to her story of average mom to leader-activist. She explained that as a busy mom and teacher, she never had time to make her lunch. So, she ate at school, then decided to blog about it, and as a result, became an activist for improving school lunch in our country.

“It’s actually not just food – it’s everything. It’s the basis of learning,” she told us.

And, the scary thing, that if it’s the majority of what many low-income children eat, their basis for learning sucks. Instead of building brain function on whole-grains, fresh produce, lean proteins, the kids and Mrs. Q. are eating processed, high-sugar, high-saturated fat foods. Not much of a building block for learning.

Mrs. Q.’s Call to Action

1. Educate yourself.

2. Get others to join you.

Eat your school lunch. Invite others to join you for lunch. That will convince other parents more than talking or blogging. Just try it. Watch the kids and what they’re eating and what they’re throwing out.

3. Take a stand for better school lunches.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

I’m sure you know about Jamie Oliver and his passion for improving school lunches across America. We were treated with lunch and some words of wisdom from Oliver's staff.

dishing up $.66 per head lunch, photo: Parenting Magazine

Oliver’s chef cooked us a "school lunch" for $.66 a person – and it was delicious. Barbequed chicken thighs or drumsticks, rice and veggies. The point was that it can be done – you can feed large amounts of children fresh, healthy foods without a huge expense.

Personally, I love Oliver for what he’s doing to make changes in school lunch. What never ceases to amaze me is the resistance he’s up against – and not just by the school lunch ladies, but by the parents of students. Really?

But, on his latest episode, he shows parents what the ingredients are in the lunches their kids are eating. Doing so convinces the parents and they join him in rallying for change. You can see it all on his reality show, The Food Revolution, Tuesday’s on ABC.

You can find out more about Oliver and The Food Revolution on his website.

Jamie Oliver’s Call to Action

Get the facts. Resources here. Tool Kits here.
Support the staff.
Mobilize a team.
Start with the basics.

School lunches aren’t going to change. Not unless we change them. We as parents must advocate on behalf of all children, children who don’t have a voice, who don’t have lobbyists, who are depending on YOU, ME, US.

The Mom Congress Resource Center

More from my experience at Mom Congress at http://imaginationsoup.net. Search for "mom congress."

Bio: Melissa Taylor writes about education-related topics at her award-winning playful learning blog, Imagination Soup, and for publications such as Scholastic Parent and Child, Babble.com, Colorado Parent Magazine and others. She's the Book Editor-at-Large for Colorado Parent Magazine, writing their book review blog, Bookmarkable and is a certified teacher with a M.A. in Education.

Recovering Picky Eater Challenge - April 2011

2011-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading for a while, you know that a few months ago, a nutrition instructor used the recovering picky eater challenge with her students as a class project. I was honored. My work, as a project in a college class?!? You just never know what will happen when you evangelize about the benefits of a real food diet and develop tools to help more people get hooked on real food. To read more about Sally Kuzemchack MS, RD check out her blog, Real Mom Nutrition.

Sally plans to use the challenge at the start of each course. The intent is to show students the power of a the mind when it comes to food preferences/tolerances. After all, "food isn't nutritious if it isn't eaten," says Brian Wansink in this article.

What a recovering picky eater pledge needs to do
1. Think about all the foods you've hated forever.
2. Pick one. A nutritious one (no, bagels don't count as nutritious). You will be using your brain and the way you think about food to change your mindset about that food, it's texture, smell, taste. You will be digging into the "why" it is repulsive to you, and replace the negative thoughts you have about the food with positive ones.
3. Eat your challenge food at least once a week. Keep trying new recipes, preparations until you find one that isn't repulsive. Mindset shifts take time. If it doesn't work on the first try, keep trying. Here is some reading that will help you make the mindshift.

Find A Way to Like Food You Hate - Actionable Steps to Take
Bend your Mind, Like a New Food - Create new positive thoughts about a food you hate

4. "Like" the Food with Kid Appeal FB fan page and look for the RPEC status update every Sunday. You can share your experiences, success, failures and see how others managed to overcome their food aversions.

What counts as "nutritious"?
Fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, animal proteins, dairy, healthy fats (coconut oil, olive oil, fats from animal products if the animals eat their natural diet and are raised organically) are all nutritious. The average American already over consumes soy, corn, wheat, grains, so do your health a favor and don't challenge with one of those items. Do your health a favor and get organic animal products if budget allows. If you're not sure if your challenge food is nutritious leave a comment and I'll advise.

Try not to challenge a "reactive" food. Sometimes we avoid reactive food in childhood because they make us feel bad. Your brain is smart. It will protect you even in childhood, if you listen. Eating reactive foods (also called food in tolerances) causes inflammation in the gut. You don't want to inflame your gut. Your gut is the only vehicle you have to nourish your cells, when it's inflamed you can't get nutrients to your cells and organs and they start malfunctioning. The malfunction may seen benign at first but over time it builds up can cause some annoying disorders like migraines, allergies, asthma, learning/attention disorders, mental health deficiencies, constipation, IBS, diarrhea and more. So listen to your body. If your eczema gets itchier, your throat feels scratchy, your nose gets congested or your notice your tummy is roiling after you eat your challenge item, that's a good sign to discontinue it, at least temporarily. For example, I recently discovered that conventional strawberries are reactive for me. Organic berries don't make me react, but conventional ones do. I'm guessing the pesticides used during their cultivation are irritants to my immune system and cause nasal congestion and a flare up of eczema.

Most hated foods are not reactive foods
More often than not you have avoided a food in childhood for other reasons that to avoid inflammation and tummy distress. You avoided a food because you couldn't tolerate the texture, smell or taste. Or it was introduced to you during some time of distress (health or emotional). Your brain linked the food with the distress, when really there is no link. Or you didn't have a real food advocate in your life and so no one ever taught you that yes, indeed you really do need to eat real nutrients to fuel your body or your body can perform and function optimally. If your parents took the "they'll eat it if they want it" route and never really expected you to eat protein, fat, fruits and vegetables you may have grown up eating on the foods you wanted to eat, instead of the foods that would fuel your body for a well life. Don't worry, it's never too late to learn to like real food. Even the pickiest eaters can reform. I did. You can too. The good news is, you can say good bye to annoying conditions like IBS and trouble maintaining weight, just by eating more real food and less processed food.

Will you Pledge to become a Recovering Picky Eater?
Are you with me? Are you tired of saying "no tomatoes" to the waiter when ordering a side salad at a restaurant? Are you ready to leave the hypocrisy bag behind when you serve veggies to your kids but won't eat them yourself? Are you ready to stop avoiding baked chicken because the bones creep you out? Are you ready to embrace the mouth feel of raw crunchy carrots or nuts? Is there a dish your spouse loves that you can stand because it contains onions or a feared vegetable from childhood? If you are ready to leave your picky eater label behind, leave a comment on this blog post in this format:

Hi, I'm (your name). I pledge to learn to like (disliked food item) in the recovering picky eater challenge.

To leave a comment, scroll down to the bottom of this article, click the comment link that looks like this

Posted by jenna at 5:20 PM 0 comments

Disclaimer : Forgive typos, kids are ravenous, gotta get started on breakfast, I'm already a week late on this deadline, it's publish now or drop the ball.

Growing A Good Eater - Ask Your Question

2011-04-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Come out, come out wherever you are! There is a place you can ask questions about how to grow a good eater. The Food with Kid Appeal Facebook fan page. How many times have you read a picky eater article, employed the tactics and had them fail? How many times have you given up on getting your kids off the kids menu and onto an adult palate? How many times have you vowed to rid your pantry of meal helpers and cook from scratch until the logistics got the better of you and you went back to convenience? How many times have you found yourself in a menu rut and need new ideas for dinner? There is hope. You can get over the obstacles. You just need a community to support you. You need to know how other families are doing it, and you need to know what works and what won't work for your unique situation. You need atta-girls (guys?) to keep you going. You need a group of 2685 other parents trying to solve the same problems to get you back on your feet and on track.

I started the Food with Kid Appeal Facebook page a year ago with less than 50 fans. These 50 fans were my personal FB friends who wanted to "like" my fan page and a few blog readers who liked the page. The reach of FB is astounding. Just by conversing on FB every day for a year, the community has grown from less than a 100 to nearly 3000 people. I'm honored to have the opportunity to have such a reach with the real food for real health for every child message.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I first started my Facebook fan page, and I was hesitant to do it. I was already having enough problems keeping up with how to leverage Twitter, and spending far too much time online. 2685 fans later, I'm glad I did. I discovered that I could get a better conversation going on Facebook than I'd ever been able to do in the comment section of my blog, or the forum that I had to shut down because it got over-spammed and required too much maintenance.

I cherish the FwKA facebook community. It's a place for me to rant about articles I read, and draft future blog posts. It's a chance to hear from other parents who are facing the same challenges as I am, how to grow good eaters in this world where factory food is thrown at kids right from the baby food aisle to kindergarten.

Have you liked FwKA on facebook yet? I hope you come interact with me and 2,685 other like minded parents there. Whether you're just getting started with feeding a toddler (bless you) or you're trying to convert your mac-and-cheese loving child to food that isn't sold in a box or shiny wrapper, you'll find a support group of parents who are all trying to do the same thing, and hitting some of the same obstacles as you.

On the Food with Kid Appeal Facebook Fan page you can:

Answer the WFD aka What's For Dinner thread. Every night between 4:30-5p CST I let the gang know what I'm fixing for dinner, and fans share their dinner plans. The WFD thread makes me salivate and gives me plenty of ideas for what to make when I'm in a rut.
Answer the QOTD aka Question of the Day thread. Every morning around 8a CST I ask a question to the group. Sometimes it's about a particular ingredient, or feeding the family practice. Often I poll readers for their best piece of advice on feeding toddlers or teenagers.
Ask a Question on the Wall. You can leave me a question about a problem you stumbled across while feeding the family. Fickle toddlers, picky preschoolers and stubborn gradeschoolers can throw parents a plethora of curve balls.
Request recipe or ingredient help on the Wall. You can request help with a recipe or ingredient on the wall. I often put an APB out to the gang to see what the other ideas come up. I don't always have the best answer.
Post a picture of your kiddos in the kitchen. I love to see what your kids are cooking and eating with you.
Help me reach more families. When you interact with me on FB your friends see what we're talking about. They may get curious and come check out the dialog. They may like the page. They may lurk for months, or click through on an advice post or real food recipe. I know in my heart that every kid needs better food in order to become healthy adults. I don't want a single child left off the real food train. Most people just don't know what is in the food they're eating and serving to their kids. Even when they do know what's in it, they don't understand the serious health ramifications of a routine processed food diet. I want every parent to know their child is capable of learning to eat and be nourished by real unprocessed food.
Share an article with me and get my reaction. The FwKA community often wants to know what I think of school food reform news, food dye news and other real food issues.
Hear from me more frequently. I post on FB almost every day often several times. I do unplug on some weekend days when I just need a break or have a lot going on with family. With my two contracts and busy volunteer schedule I'm lucky if I can get one or two blog posts published each week.

Interact by leaving a comment on the blog
Of course you can always interact with me here on the blog by leaving a comment. The best thing about leaving a comment on the blog is that your words get attached to the blog post for all future readers to see. That makes the blog post a much richer source of information when readers hear my two cents, and the experience and perspective from my readers.

If you've ever felt isolated in this world of feeding real food to kids among all the cereal box marketing, kids menus, ginormous chemically dyed cupcakes at birthday parties; come out, come out where-ever you are. Come talk with us over on the Food with Kid Appeal Facebook fan page. We don't bite. We love to help.

Want tips on how to grow your FB fan page? Heather of Freebies 4 Mom has created a PDF called Fabulous Facebook Fan Page with plenty of How-Tos. Thanks for all the tips Heather!

Natural Easter

2011-04-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

A natural Easter; it's too much to expect, I know. Family gatherings are usually pot-luck which usually means only some of the menu is real, nourishing food. I'm on hyper-alert this year because now instead of one kiddo with allergies and asthma, I have two. Little boo had what appears to be his third "asthma attack" over spring break. We ended up in urgent care and narrowly missed a hospitalization.

The more I peel back the onion of why kids get allergies, the more I realize that diet is one key factor. I want to have fun at family gatherings, relax and enjoy a meal with the family. But more than that I don't want overindulgence of sugar, refined grains and yet unknown reactive foods to further compromise my sons' already compromised immune systems. Nor do I want their brains bombarded with toxins from chemical food additives and dyes found in junky candy or convenience food. Even in moderation.

Easter, the egg holiday
I've proposed to my sisters we eggsperiment with dying eggs using different foods like red wine, fruit juices, onion skins and chlorophyll. I think it will be fun. Thanks to Christina at Spoonfed and this food science how to round-up of turning eggs from white to colors, I have instructions for a fun-filled natural kid activity at my fingertips.

Speaking of eggs, where do yours come from? I feed my family local farm eggs from pastured hens when at all possible. If I'm doing a large amount of baking I buy organic eggs from the grocery store since I rarely have enough farm egg supply to feed the masses. If you're unschooled on the difference between grocery store eggs and farm eggs, here's a post with the many reasons why I go to all the trouble to source and procure farm eggs for my kids' brains. Eggs = brain food. I want only the best brain food available for my kids. Hint: animals are what they eat, ingredient list for "conventional" hen feed included. Only click through if you seek the truth about what's in an egg. You might not like what you read.

I hope to get another batch of real homemade organic chocolates made before we head over for Easter celebrations with the family. Hubby nearly passed out when he thought I intended to put these chocolates in the boys' Easter baskets. I assured him it was a recipe for the family to enjoy, made lovingly by me, not a treat from the Easter bunny.

The Easter Bunny spent entirely too much money on confections from The Natural Candy store. I intend to let them gorge on however much sweets they want, as long it's from their Easter Basket stash instead of the junk they may get from everyone else. I found some additive free gum. The boys now have a small stash of gum that doesn't contain artificial sweeteners, phenylalanine, chemical food dyes and who knows what else. Don't people read ingredient lists?? Please, if you know my kids, don't offer them your chemicalized gum. Their brains thank you.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter and Life As Mom's ultimate recipe swap for Easter.

Got a home made candy recipe using real ingredients and free of additives and chemicals? Share your link in the comments. It will probably end up in a future natural candy recipe roundup!

How will you celebrate Easter naturally?

Better School Food - Every child, lunch box or lunch tray, deserves it

2011-04-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

My brain is busy trying to keep up with the state of the union of food in schools in our country. My brain hurts. My heart is heavy. I am livid. I am distraught. I am worn out. I've been numb for two days. Good thing emotions are temporary, and I'll have my sea legs back before too long.

It is hard for me to understand how our great nation could harm human health with food additives, genetically modified foods, and government sponsored nutrition education that is based on profits versus nourishment. Many people don't know where their food comes from, because it is so unfathomable that food would be anything but nourishing. Sure we know desserts and fried foods aren't healthy, but food? You wouldn't expect food like your ground beef or your whole grain breakfast cereal to be health damaging.

It just doesn't make sense. How did we end up here where we soak meat in ammonia and make brown food browner with food dyes? What are the consequences? Is it too late for us to clean up the food supply and get healthy? Are food industry practices contributing to the decline in health of our children in the past 2 decades?

Unless your food came from a farm, you better double check what's in it, where it came from, what it ate or where it grew, and how it was transformed from a plant/animal to something boxed or shrink-wrapped before it ended up on your plate. Then decide whether or not it's fit for human consumption.

Here's where I'm at today, two days following the season premier of Jamie Oliver's 2nd season of Food Revolution. Here's where I'm at more than one year into my efforts at my local elementary and district to get kids better food at school.

If you feed kids, its on YOU
No one, parents, school staff or government staff has the right to trash a child's health or intelligence by feeding them factory food as a rule. Children shouldn't eat food made in a factory for every breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner. Children rely on adults to get their nourishment. Every adult, whether they are school staff, govt member, parent or someone who feeds kids on occasion, should be educated about the truth of what's in that factory food and how it can damage a child's health and brain.

Big Kids Big Brains?
I'm not talking about oversized kids here. I'm talking about kids whose brains can't learn and stay focused long enough to accomplish a task. Those kids will eventually be employees and parents. Imagine trying to keep a toddler safe when you can stay focused long enough to finish a task.

I'm talking about kids who have allergies, asthma, ADHD and GI disorders like GERD, IBS, constipation. Those condition aren't normal. Your child should not be suffering from any of those conditions. If you don't fix the food they eat, they will most certainly suffer from those conditions long term, and possibly much worse as they get older. Is that OK with you? That is not OK with me. Not for my kids. I want them well and their brains to become huge complex thinking orbs that can solve hairy problems and get stuff done. If I give my kids those two things, a well body and a big brain, then I've done my job. They can become anything.

It doesn't matter what the child wants to eat, or likes to eat. Children want all kinds of things that are not in their best interest. That is why they have parents and teachers and community outreach centers to protect them. You are the adult. You figure out what fuels a child's body for health and wellness and what does not.   You do some research on the internet about what macronutrients a young body and mind need to learn and grow (right-sized). Don't know what an excitotoxin is? Do some digging. Decide if these food additives are safe for your family, students or customers to eat. Don't know about the link between artificial food dyes and attention and mood disorders? Read up on it. Decide whether or not your family, customers and students should be consuming dyes that the FDA now agrees are harmful for some kids. They still won't warn you that you should think before feeding to your kids everyday in the form of colorful yogurt, breakfast cereal, cupcakes and flavored medicines and multivitamins.

Do you think your child or student wants to be so distracted he can't sit still and learn? Don't you think your child wants to use her big powerful brain to learn lots of fascinating things? What if you could make a huge change in the way a child's brain works by feeding him mostly real food with food made in a factory as sometimes food? Would you stop buying convenience foods except for special occasions?

It's on you as a citizen
If you feed children, you need to get it right. Children are our future. Children are our ticket to continued prosperity. Our country needs children to be well because they are the guardians of our government, economy, and earth when we leave. Our children deserve to have brains that function properly and bodies that are right-sized and well.

Want to take action?
Head on over to PEACHSF for some of the best "how to change school food" road map tools I've found. Parents Educators & Advocates Connection for Health School Food can help you get started on doing your part to help our kids get the food they deserve.

How do you feel when you read a food industry story or learn of something in food that shouldn't be there? What do you do about it?

Real Easter Chocolates - Simple Anyone-Can-Do-It Organic Recipe

2011-04-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

easter chocolates

This was supposed to be a real chocolate for valentines day recipe. My first recipe was a flop, not suitable for the camera. Life intervened and I didn't have time for a do-over. Thankfully there are two chocolate holidays in the first third of the year. Behold the Easter Chocolates.

I stumbled on this recipe when I was looking for a yoga video from Kathryn Budig. I ended up watching Kathyrn make chocolates instead of doing yoga that morning. Thanks YouTube.

She doesn't list any amounts in her video, so I had to guess. I guessed wrong on the oil. The chocolates actually tasted great, they just didn't look great, and they had an oily flavorless layer at the top.

You must plan a trip to Whole Food or Trader Joes or wherever you find your coconut products and pick up a stash so you can make these simple, delish treats suitable for any ~~night~~ holiday. If you don't have molds you can pour the chocolate mixture into a shallow pan (think fudge).

don't look too close, you can see my finger prints..

Real Chocolates - home-made, pure yum Recipe
based on Kathyrn Budig's video recipe
Ingredients
4oz Coconut butter (I used Artisana found at WF)
2 TBSP coconut oil
2 TBSP + 2 TSP raw honey (more if you like sweeter chocolate)
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup cacao powder ( I used Dagoba found at WF)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 dashes cayenne pepper (it won't taste spicy, it will taste, um, more chocolaty)
1/8 tsp of ancient sea salt (it won't taste salty, it will taste more chocolaty)
2 plastic chocolate molds (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)

directions
In a double boiler (or in a metal bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water) melt the coconut butter, coconut oil and almond butter. Add the cacao powder, cinnamon, cayenne and salt. Stir to combine. Do not let mixture get too hot, just hot enough to stir. It will be a bit thick like a batter. Spoon chocolate mixture into molds. Flatten mixture so it is even with mold. Place molds in freezer for 15 minutes to set. Pop chocolates out (use a knife if necessary) and store in air-tight container in fridge. They melt at room temp, keep them chilled until serving.

brainy chocolates

According to Kathyrn the recipe is forgiving. Leave the almond butter or cinnamon out. Put dried fruit in. I have a bag of walnuts I'll be making into chocolates next week. I haven't tried too many variations yet, but I can tell I will always want to have a batch of these for an after dinner guilt free dessert. I think the recipe could take a little more oil, I'll add 4 TBS next time and see if that works.

Kid Appeal Tip If you've been trying to find a way to sneak more raw coconut/ coconut oil in your child's diet, this is the perfect vehicle. Why not give kids a chemical dye-free treat that will help their brain instead of harm their brain as is the case for some kids when they eat candy with artificial food dyes?

Do you make your own chocolates? I'm new to this, what's your recipe?

Baked Apple Puff Recipe The Whole Family Cookbook Review and Giveaway

2011-04-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

Just out of the oven, puff already deflating a bit

Read on for a chance to win Michelle Stern's new cookbook, The Whole Family Cookbook. Also included in this post is her Baked Apple Puff recipe that can go either a breakfast, brunch or dinner direction.

The Whole Family Cookbook Review
I appreciate cookbooks written for me. By that I mean, written for a real food eating, environmentally conscious, growing good eaters family cook. That's who Michelle is too, so that's what you'll find in her book. Recipes you can make with your family, for your family. Recipes kids enjoy making with their family and don't mind eating. Recipes that meet the requirement of being both nourishing and earth friendly.

Michelle teaches cooking classes for kids. In her book, she teaches parents how to bring kids into the kitchen as a strategy to get kids hooked on locally grown foods. Each recipe instruction bears a colored triangle that indicates the recommended age a child can be to manage the task. This is a great cheat sheet for parents who haven't yet let kids into the kitchen. I know there are dangerous things like knives and heat in the kitchen and precaution should be taken, but that's no excuse to make the kitchen a no kid zone. Riding bikes can lead to scraped knees and broken bones, but I don't know many parents that avoid bike-riding because an accident may happen.

Ranging from age 2 on up to over 11 years, Michelle guides you to which recipe tasks are appropriate getting kids involved in the food they're eating before it shows up on the plate.

The Book is Beautiful and Delicious
The photography and recipes are compelling. I rarely find so many recipes in one cookbook I want to try. The book has a way of saying "this should be on your table. Soon."

The Book is a Guide
One of my favorite parts of the book are the "teachable moments" content in the green boxes peppered throughout the book. Michelle has included dozens of tips to get kids engaged in the role of food for the the family as well as insight into why eating locally and thinking about the environment are important concepts for kids to learn.

Baked Apple Puff Recipe
Serves 4

5 TBS butter, divided
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3 TBSP sugar,divided
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
2 small crisp apples, peeled, sliced thinly

Directions (I have condensed the steps, in the book they are broken down into kid sized instructions. Perfect for early readers and beginning cooks.)

Preheat oven to 450. Melt butter in a 10" oven proof skillet, remove skillet from heat. Whisk eggs in a bowl. To the eggs add milk, 1 TBS sugar, vanilla, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, salt and flour. Mix the ingredients until well blended and set aside. Peel the apples, core and slice thinly.

If the apples are organic hand the peelings to kids and let them munch, my boys love to eat apple peelings!
Place apples in skillet with 3 TBSP butter over medium heat and cook the apples until they brown a bit, about 5-10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour the batter over the cooked apples. Sprinkle a mixture of 2 TBSP sugar and 1 TSP cinnamon on top of the batter. Place the skillet in the oven for 15-25 minutes until gently browned and puffed. (Do not open the oven during the first 15 minutes or you will lose the puff.) Call kids to kitchen before removing the pan. Let them observe the puff and watch as you slice to serve.

Look in the oven, it's puffy!

The puff will deflate a minute or two out of the oven.

Cooks Note: I made a gluten-free version of this recipe but the puff didn't puff and I had equipment error, so we won't talk about that foible. The pancake portion tasted great, but totally different than the white flour version. If I nail the recipe adaptions I'll report back. My first batch burned at 18 minutes, so watch carefully!

Win a Copy of The Whole Family Cookbook
To win a copy of the Whole Family Cookbook answer this question in the comment field and include your email address.

Tell us one reason why you cook (or don't cook) with your kids.

For an additional chances to win,
1) like What's Cooking on Facebook and tell me you do/did so in the comments.
2) like me on Facebook and tell me you do/did so in the comment section.
3) subscribe to my email or become a reader and tell me you do/did so in the comment section.
4) follow me on twitter and tell me you do/did so in the comments.
5) share the What's Cooking's blog URL or the URL to this review on your FB page and tell me you did so in the comments.

The fine print
Only separate comment entries will be counted for extra entries. If you want more than one chance, leave more than one comment. The contest closes at midnight April 20th at midnight CST. I will draw a winner and notify the winner via email. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize by responding to the email. Your email address should be in this format: jenna AT foodwithkidappeal DOT com.

Disclosure
I received a copy of the The Whole Family cookbook in order to conduct this review. The opinions here are my own. I think Michelle's work is amazing, admittedly, I am biased.

High Protein Potato Pancake Recipe

2011-04-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised this recipe made it to my breakfast table. I remember a year back, when fellow blogger Kelly the Kitchen Kop said her kids were getting tired of eggs for breakfast, she whipped up potato pancakes. I naively commented on her post, "how could you ever get tired of a fried egg, over medium on a piece of butter toast?" That was back when we had breakfast cereal in a regular morning rotation. Breakfast cereal has been off the menu for a while, and guess what?? We got tired of egg toast.

I've never read a recipe for potato pancakes, much less eaten one. I have no idea if my potato pancakes are what "real" potato pancakes are supposed to taste like. This is just how 1.5 cups of leftover mashed potatoes and 5 eggs turned into a change-of-pace breakfast for us. I will repeat this recipe with every cupful of left over potato mash I have.

High Protein Potato Pancake Recipe
1.5 cups left over mashed potato
5 eggs, beaten slightly
Salt, pepper to taste
Butter to grease the pan

Directions: Beat the eggs. Mix in the mashed potatoes. Stir to combine. Over medium heat in a generously buttered pan, pour egg-potato mixture into the pan making circles about 3 inches in diameter. (I don't think they would flip easily if they were much bigger). When egg starts to set, flip. After 1-2 minutes on side two, remove potato pancake to a plate.

They tasted like scrambled eggs and hash browns. Not quite as good as egg toast. Now that there's been a little separation between me and egg toast, it is going to taste darn good tomorrow morning. Big boo liked them a lot. Little boo was in a funk this morning and sat in front of his plate saying "don't look at me" instead of eating. I think he ate a total of two tiny bites. Boy does it irk me when he decides to go to school with an empty stomach and hungry brain. It was partly my fault. I'd snapped at him for taking too long trying to find something warm to come to the table in and missing his breakfast window. When he comes to the table chagrined, his appetite goes from sluggish to comatose. Me on the other hand, I'm hungry before the alarm goes off.

Kid Appeal Tip Don't be afraid to enforce a small breakfast even if your child is not usually hungry before school. Just like you wouldn't let your child skip teeth brushing every night because he wasn't ready to brush, condoning breakfast skipping can be a learning disaster. Students really need their brain to be nourished with protein, fat and water. Complex carbs help power the brain until lunch time. Don't expect your child to eat a lot at breakfast, but make sure they understand their brain needs fuel to learn and think. Tell them to put as many bites in their mouth as they can, even if their tummy isn't awake yet. By the time their hunger arises, they will be in class, still hours away from lunch. Avoid snack or liquid breakfasts that entice your breakfast loathing child to eat something. Their brains don't need juice or sugary cereal bars for fuel. These foods may take hunger pangs away, but they don't give your child's brain the energy and nutrients it needs for learning. In time your child will, on most days, eat a little real food for breakfast, as well as learn a valuable lesson that food = fuel and good fuel = good learning and health. You will never worry when they're off to college whether or not they remembered to eat something before taking a big test.

This post is participating in LifeAsMom's URS (simple recipes) and Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

This recipe is grain free, gluten free. Enlighten me. What is a true potato pancake supposed to taste like? Have in the recipe?

Get More Vegetables Down the Hatch - Healthy Recipes with Kid Appeal

2011-04-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

sweet potato chips - perfect for movie night

One thing that often stands in the way is getting more veggies down the hatch is the way veggies are prepared. Here are 5 veggie preparation techniques and 11 kid tested vegetable recipes to help move the veggies from the plate and into the tummy of your kiddo.

Over-cooked mushy, flavorless veggies are not very appetizing. So, what to do if you're not a veggie cooking expert? Learn a few veggie prep tricks that will take veggie appeal up a notch or three for your family.

Hop on over to my contributing post at Zisboombah, How to Cook Vegetables The Way Kids Love Them to learn 5 vegetable preparation techniques.

Vegetable Recipes links in the Zisboombah post include:

Sweet Potato Chips
Red Cauliflower
Oven Fries
Purple Cabbage and Pork Stir Fry
Bok Choy and Chicken Asian Pasta
Vegetable Fried Rice
Lettuce Wraps
French Rice Salad
Purple Cabbage and Carrot Slaw
Chickpea salad with Tomatoes and Cucumbers
Mediterranean Beans and Greens Salad

Kid Appeal Tip Let the question to your kids be "how do you want to eat your veggies today" vs. "do you want veggies with that?" Just like teeth brushing and bed time, kids don't always want to do what's best for their health. When kids know that veggie eating is normal for kids, and expected they will generally comply. When they complain, give them options: "The steamed broccoli looks unappealing to you? Would you rather help yourself to some raw broccoli in the fridge or and extra serving of salad?" Short of chronic gag reflex when serving veggies (which can indicate a medical issue or super-taster status) you should maintain that vegetable eating is normal, expected and necessary for your child's health and development.

This post is participating in Cooking Thursday and Pennywise Platter.

What tips do you have for getting veggies down the hatch?

School Kids Should Have Cholesterol, Fat & Produce

2011-03-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is a response to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's post on Weston Price Foundation's Healthy 4 Life press release and the 8 minute video of Sally Fallon Morell presenting the WPF response to USDA's new dietary guidelines. My comments will make more sense if you read Kelly's short post first and watch the 8 minute video. I promise, it won't be a waste of your time. It may be the best thing you can do this year to give the gift of physical health, and incredible brain function to your family.

The video has a good explanation of why cholesterol and saturated fats are necessary for health, especially for kids who have developing brains. Please, go watch the video, even if you don't want to read me opine about school food reform! If the health benefits of saturated fats and cholesterol are news to you, I suggest you sleep on what you hear, and follow your heart. If you feel like Sally's nutrition education may be valid, do your own research, get more information so you can decide for yourself if saturated fats and cholesterol can bring wellness to your family.

___________________ My response to Kelly's post, it's a bit informal, but I don't have time to edit....

First I'll say that I'm am 100% on board with dietary cholesterol and saturated fat as nutrient dense foods, necessary for hormone function, proper brain nourishment, weight maintenance and overall good health.

BUT. As a school food reform advocate I have to say that given the "as-is" of the current dietary guidelines upon which the school lunch program develops meal plans, the recent recommendation to eat nutrient dense foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, and for produce to make up 1/2 your plate is a good direction for the school lunch program to go. If the cafeteria tray went from 90% low fat flavored milk, processed factory food and a couple sides of refined grains to 50% fruits and veggies and 50% low fat, factory made crap, that would be a big improvement.

Fruits and vegetables may not be as valuable as bone in meat, saturated fats, organ meat and pastured animal products, however they are not health damaging like the processed and packaged food that most school kids are subjected to every day.

Real Estate on the Plate
If kids took an apple instead of a whole wheat roll to go with their slice of pizza, chicken sandwich, or chicken teriyaki over white rice this would be an improvement right? We are agreed that it's not as good as an improvement as liver with onions with sourdough toast and pastured butter.

Because fruits and vegetables are already accepted as healthy by our mainstream medical and nutrition community, there is much less resistance to adding or increasing the availability of produce in the national school lunch program machine. Simply put, veggies are already on the menu, and putting more of them on the cafeteria line is an easy win compared to getting organ meat, saturated fat or full fat dairy on the serving line.

Kids need relief TODAY. Not in 10 years which is what it would take (if not 50) to make a paradigm shift in the food pyramid. Students simply can not wait another decade or 4 before they have better food at school. Their health is already in the toilet. Sadly, most kids, parents and health professionals won't know until the child is an adolescent, teenager or young adult that their health was damaged from the food pyramid and processed food. As a product of the packaged food and picky eater diet, I was in my early 20s before dealing with IBS pain nearly caused me a semester of bad grades at college. Luckily I quickly learned the role of food and my health and I'm healed now. For some it happens sooner. For others later. For many, they never learn that diet is the culprit of health problems, and never experience healing. They never experience wellness.

Antioxidants
The other benefit to more students and Americans increasing their produce intake is their high level of antioxidants. Our modern world exposes us to toxins in our water and air, they are in the dirt our food grows in, they are in the products we sleep in/on, skin care products. Antioxidants protect our cells from free-radical damage. Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants. Even real foodies could use extra antioxidants to rid their body of the toxins in the air. Even with a clean diet and properly functioning gut and hormone system, real foodies breath garbage from the air into their lungs every day. The antioxidant dense plant based foods are especially necessary for people who don't have a clean diet.

When talking about school food reform, we must be careful to demand feasible and sustainable solutions. You can't take a program that is historically underfunded, understaffed and undermanaged and expect that it's possible to go from factory made meals one year to pasture fed animal products, whole fat dairy, light on the grains, with a side or two of "lovely" fruits and veggies.

I applaud Sally and WPF for doing this PR and advocating for children's health. It will just take more than a foundation who is educating people about what the "to be" should look like to make meaningful change on the cafeteria tray.

I would love to see WFP lead a coalition of non-profits and University research facilities in studies that link the downward academic success of american school kids to the standard american diet. Maybe then the leaders in the whitehouse, the leaders of education, leaders in the medical community and leaders in food manufacturing will say, with deep remorse, "No, profit and prosperity from the medical and food industry is not worth mass illness of our population. Our nation will find other ways to profit and enjoy prosperity than shoveling harmful food and Rx medications at our people."

Your thoughts? Does it make sense to question the nutritional value or benefits fruits and vegetables for america's school children?

Butternut Squash Pizza Recipe

2011-03-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

This recipe is a spin on vegetable pizza. This recipe is a reader submitted recipe from Ana. Want to share your recipe on the Food with Kid Appeal blog? See here for details.

This recipe is gluten free recipe since it has a butternut squash slice as the crust instead of a wheat dough. I might try these finger food veggie pizzas with goat cheese since we are temporarily dairy free. I might go with a green pesto like sauce instead of red. So many options!

Butternut Squash Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, neck cut in half inch slices, round part cut in half and seeds removed.
1/2 -1 cup of tomato sauce, or pizza sauce
1 cup of shredded mozzerella/ paremsan cheese mix
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp healthy fat (coconut oil, butter, ghee)

Directions
*cut the squash in half inch slices until you reach the seeds (you should get squash "disks")
* use fat to grease a baking sheet or similar and bake your slices at 350/375 until they start getting golden underneath and soften. About 10-20 minutes.
* flip them and put tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella or Parmesan cheese on top until the cheese melts. Add a little oregano and voila!
* you can add anything else on top, it really works as any other pizza
* for the bottom part of the butternut squash (the part with the seeds in it), you can scoop out the seeds and bake it "face down". Once the squash starts to soften you can turn it around and fill it with tomato sauce, cooked corn and top it with cheese. It looks like a bowl so you can just eat right out of it!

Note: my kids eat these "pizzas" with the skin and all but if you don't want to eat the skin, I personally think it is easier to remove it after it is baked. Before you put the "toppings" on you can remove the skin around each slice. They come off pretty easily.

Ana's Bio

My name is Ana and I grew up in Buenos Aires (Argentina). I moved to the US with my husband Daniel 10 years ago and after living in Pennsylvania, Washington, DC and Colorado, we now live in Cypress, TX with our son (5) and daughter (2). As a child, I was raised with food made from scratch at every meal and lots of fruits and vegetables on our table everyday so that is also what I try to do with my own kids. But living in a society where artificially colorful food-like products is abundant and so readily available, it is a constant challenge to keep my kids excited about our scratch-made meals and we frequently need to review the reason why his lunchbox content looks so different from most of his classmates.

What Ana likes about Food with Kid Appeal

Your blog is not only an inspiration to try new recipes but also as reminder that I am not alone in this endeavor. A few years ago, I became increasingly interested in environmental issues and began to realize the benefits of organic/local produce as well as raw foods. Since then I have been trying to improve the quality of the ingredients I use and this spring we will be starting our own organic garden in our backyard. We are all very excited!

This post is participating in Kelly the Kitchen Kop's real food wednesday.

[Ed Note. Don't you love it when life helps you out on days when you have so much on your plate that there are balls dropping you don't even remember tossing up? Back in November I put out an APB for recipes from readers. Ana was quick to respond with this awesome kid friendly way to get orange veggies down the hatch, but she lacked a photo. She sent the photo today, and voila, I am able to cross "publish a recipe post" off my list of things to do ASAP. Thanks Ana for making my life a little easier today!]