The Kid Factor

At the beginning of this month my husband and I took the kids to Sweet Tomato.  While we were eating our salads, another family sat down a few tables away from us.  I glanced over and noticed the little boy who looked to be about four had cracker-type food and raisins on his plate. Then they brought the girl a plate stacked full of bread sticks.  I'm not going to lie to you; I totally judged.  And I really have no room to do so as this morning I consumed a large piece of cake brought to me by one of my students, and just now I finished a slice of apple pie which was purchased from Kroger and contains who knows what. I didn't read the label.  

Judgement aside, I think too easily we as parents (myself included) can fall into the I'm-afraid-my-kid-will-starve-if-he-doesn't-eat-something-so-let's-just-give-him-whatever-he-will-swallow trap.  The truth is that not all foods are created equal and eating "something" is not better than missing a meal because the child doesn't want the healthy options.  I promise you, your child will not die if they occasionally miss a meal, and their bodies are programmed not to let them starve.  


Let me say this as gently as possible: children eat what we give them and teach them to eat.  Children in every country of the world eat the food that is typical of their culture.  I know as a parent it can be difficult and emotional to deal with children's eating habits.  I've outlined some ideas that have worked with my children and maybe can help you in your journey with your children to healthier eating habits.  (As always, if your child has a medical condition, follow the advice of your pediatrician before making changes to their diet.)


Get them involved
Kids love to imitate adults, and are more likely to eat foods that they have helped to make.  Give your little "chef" jobs like tearing up the lettuce for the salad and measuring ingredients.  As they get older, teach them cooking skills so they can take responsibility for themselves and won't be helpless when they leave home.  If you have a garden, get them involved in planting seeds and watering plants.  Eating snap peas straight of the vine is a special treat.


Relinquish control
Yes, you read that right.  This is one of the most successful strategies I have used with my kids.  As an adult I don't want someone just plopping food on my plate and saying, "Eat this."  Children want choices, too.  One of the favorite meals in our house is "make your own salad night."  Everyone starts with lettuce, and the kids get to pick what they want to add.  Here are some other examples of how this works:


For snack: "Would you like an apple or grapes?"
When serving food: "Do you want a little salad or a lot of salad?" "Do you want your chicken on your rice or on the side?"


Be an example
If it's not a food you want your kids to eat, don't keep it in the house.  If it's a "sometimes" food, only eat it sometimes.  Rest assured that if you aren't eating to the same standards that you want your kids to have, they will call the "that's not fair" card. (And they will likely want to scarf down those forbidden foods as adults in righteous vindication.)


Dealing with picky eaters
Allow your kids to have dislikes in foods.  One of ours doesn't like yogurt and another doesn't like beans.  We don't make them a separate dish, but there are other foods served with the meal that they can eat.  However, in our house the rule is you can have seconds when you've had firsts of everything.  If we know it's a food they're not particularly fond of those "firsts" are a small portion.  This is normally met with complaints at first, but now our kids know the way it works.  And over time, we have seen them grow to like foods that they objected to at first.


Making changes is difficult at first.  Changes also take time.  What we've seen as a result, though, is that our kids love real food. They ask if our food is homemade or if it came from our garden.  They want to know if the meat and dairy came from the farm.  And they get excited about it. We've also noticed that eating real food improves their health and their mood.


One important note is that we don't force our kids to eat or eat a particular food.  As parents we can no more force our children to eat something than we can grow wings and fly.  What we can control is what food is available for them to choose from. 


What has worked for you with your kids?

New Year's Resolutions?

I always cringe at the whole "New Year's Resolution" kick.  In the back of my mind, skeptical little me says something like, "Yeah, right. Sure. That's gonna happen."  And to be honest, most New Year's Resolutions fail. Miserably.  Maybe because we promise ourselves too much change too abruptly.  Or maybe because we throw in the towel after one little setback thinking that all is lost, and our lives turn into a little Greek tragedy in our minds.  Surely I'm not the only one prone to overreact.


Like two weeks ago when I not only broke the Pyrex baking dish therefore ruining dinner, but then also left the burner on all night long under dinner number two destroying any chance of leftovers.  The fact that I also sabotaged the last two batches of yogurt (over the period of a month) pops up in the back of my mind and the end result is me crying in the kitchen wondering if I've completely lost my mind and thinking there is no hope for me to be able to successfully cook healthfully for my family, the world has come to an end.  Dramatic and over-the-top, I know.


In spite of my resistance to New Year's Resolutions, I find myself making them.  Normally to myself or my husband, not out loud to other people, lest they should point their fingers at me and mock me when I fail.  Truthfully, I make resolutions more often than once a year.  There are summer resolutions, beginning of school year resolutions, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter resolutions, and more in between just because.  It is quite possible that I self reflect to much.  However, minus the self-condemnation and perfectionism, self reflection allows us to move forward into positive change.


So...I'm going out on a limb here and letting you in on a couple of my goals for this year.


1. Food Budget  I know I always say that eating healthfully isn't expensive, but I haven't been tracking actual grocery costs in a while.  It's time to put some numbers to my claim.  This year I plan to keep a spreadsheet on our grocery costs and blog about them at the end of the month to hold myself accountable.  I will include money saving tips in these blogs as well like how to turn two chickens into many meals and savings. Cha-ching!


2. Meal Planning  I know, it's shocking. You thought I was perfect in this, right?  I've been making menu plans halfway but not really assuring that we have all the ingredients on hand for the menu.  Oops.  We also haven't been looking ahead on the weekend to get ready for the week.  Which results in some chaos around the dinner hour, especially when the kids have activities.  Today we went to the grocery store and picked up the few items we needed for the week and spent a little time prepping.  And I didn't even lose it when my beloved blender bit the dust.


Below is our current menu plan.  Enjoy!

         Side Note: If you're wanting to make diet changes see my previous post here to         help you get started.


Winter Meal Plan


Saturday- Lasagna, Steak, or Meatloaf  (Lasagna and meatloaf are freezable.)
Sunday- Chef's Choice (Tonight is salmon; next week will be wings not fried in vegetable shortening, though.)
Monday- Crock pot Bean Soup or Vegetable Soup (I use my cookbooks or search the web based on what we have on hand.)
Tuesday- Spaghetti or Parmesan Chicken (Cook meat on the weekend to save time.)
Wednesday- Leftovers night
Thursday- Quesadillas or Bean Burritos (We can beans and keep them on hand.)
Friday- Clam Chowder (Disclaimer: We haven't tried this recipe yet, but it looks similar to one I lost. We will probably tweak it a bit, of course.) or Chicken and Dumplings (recipe below)

• The Best Ever Chicken and Dumplings

  I sliced and diced this recipe from a couple of different recipes and tweaked it a little. Yum.

  
  

  Stew

  • 1 potato, peeled and chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 (14 ounce) can free range chicken broth (or homemade)
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 lbs bone-in chicken thighs
  • 1 (9 ounce) package frozen baby peas

• Dumplings

• 1 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 t salt
• 3 T butter
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 to 3/4 C cold buttermilk, as needed

• INSTRUCTIONS

  • Stew

    1. In a 3-4 quart crock pot, mix potato and carrots.
    2. In medium bowl, combine chicken broth, flour and spices and blend well until smooth.
    3. Pour over vegetables in crock pot.
    4. Add chicken.
    5. Cover crock pot.
    6. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours until chicken is thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken and pull from bones, if desired.
    7. Add peas and cover again.

  • Dumplings

    1. In a medium bowl , whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the margarine with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the egg and 2/3 C of the buttermilk and blend until a lumpy, thick, soft dough is formed, adding the remaining buttermilk if it is too dry. do not overmix.
    2. Using an oversized spoon, scoop up some dough and drop immediately on top of the finished simmering stew in the slow cooker, taking care to place each dumpling on top of something. Cover and cook on HIGH until the dumplings are cooked through, 23-30 minutes. Pierce the dumplings with a toothpick; it should come out clean. serve immediately.

The Day After Christmas

Every Christmas season starts out with good intentions.  This year we will bake cookies.  This year we will finish our shopping early.  This year we will do Advent Readings.

Yet Christmas Eve I found myself buying ingredients for pecan pie and stocking-stuffers amid other last-minute shoppers and football game traffic.  Fast forward to see me and the hubby baking aforementioned pie and stuffing said stockings late that night while the children were nestled all snug in their beds.


And the Christmas cookies?  I really tried.  Promise. But I left the dough out too long and it stuck to the counter.  We managed a few cut outs that looked more like Gingerbread poop than Gingerbread men before deciding to postpone the cookie-making until later.  Later never came.


As far as Advent Readings go, I read two.  Which is one more than last year.  So there's hope, right?


To be honest with you, this year I've wrestled with the idea of how we celebrate Christmas.  Of how we buy gifts and from whom and to whom we give them.  Of whether the way we celebrate is the way Jesus would want us to celebrate Christmas.

Seeing my children's excitement when opening long-awaited gifts shifted my view a bit.  Their childlike anticipation and joy reminded me that Christmas isn't only a time to reflect, but also to celebrate.  Waiting over. Promise fulfilled.  Who better than children to remind us how to party?


I know that Christmas isn't Jesus's "real" birthday. I know about the pagan roots, etc, etc.  But it's the time that we've decided to remember His birth.  And isn't it right that we should do so?  We set aside time for our birthdays and anniversaries, veterans, presidents, and patriotic holidays.  In the Bible the Israelites set aside time to remember and to celebrate important events.  And they celebrated.  And feasted.


I'm not saying that we shouldn't remember Jesus's birth every day and live in a way that lines up with our faith.  I'm not saying that we should give in such excess that we dig ourselves into debt.  I don't think it's all about giving or getting the nicest, newest, latest "toy" that Plastic Inc. produces.  However, giving thoughtfully and lovingly to our family and friends and giving generously to those who have not seems like a fitting way to honor a King who told us to have faith like a child.


This year I'm baking Christmas cookies the day after Christmas.  And mailing a few cards.  After all the waiting and preparing and anticipation of Christmas, one day seems too little for celebration, as if it's an all-or-nothing, now-or-never, let's-move-on-to-next-year event.  The Son of God came to Earth!  I think we'll celebrate all week.


Here are some yummy recipes for those of you who procrastinate or lack time-task judgement like me...


Pecan Pie (no corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils)
Gingerbread People
Pumpkin Pecan Snickerdoodles
Rum Balls
Chocolate Truffles
Sugar Cookies


Note: If you're interested in making your chocolate recipes with fair-trade chocolate or want to know why you would want to, find more information here.

The best part of waking up...

is already having a plan for breakfast.  I had a conversation this past week about my breakfast meal plan.  And, yes, it may seem a little uptight to some. I have used some variation of a breakfast plan for years, tweaking it as my family's needs and our nutritional awareness has changed, and it has made life so much easier in the mornings.


What's wrong with Fruity Pebbles?

Our cultural norms for breakfast tend to be bread-based.  Navigating bread, crackers, cereals and the like is a path full of landmines of food substitutes, additives, trans fat, and high fructose corn syrup.  Studies performed on lab rats have shown breakfast cereals to be at best extremely limited in nutritional value compared to whole wheat and at worst (when eaten exclusively) to cause organ failures from insulin shock.  Even the "healthier" options for cereal are not that good for you.  Not to mention they cost a pretty penny.


"But I don't have time to fix breakfast!"


Mornings are not my thing, so let me tell you I am NOT up at the crack of dawn cooking up breakfast.  Plus, we have four children (and ourselves) to get ready and out the door on time for work/school.  I looked at our family's schedule and nutritional needs and created a weekly breakfast plan.  And it works for us.  I don't have to try to think at 6:30 in the morning, and the children like knowing what's coming which makes for smoother mornings. One night my son asked me what was for breakfast in the morning. When I told him I wasn't sure, he said, "Look at your calendar, Mom."


Below is our family's breakfast meal plan. I included links to some of the recipes mentioned.  Feel free to use it as a starting point to plan for your family.  Keep in mind that nutrition isn't one-size-fits-all, so you may need to adjust accordingly.


Mondays- Baked good and fruit-I make some kind of quick bread or muffin on Sunday for breakfast the next day.  I vary it by the season or what we have on hand, such as banana bread or muffins, pumpkin bread, blueberry muffins, or cinnamon rolls if I made bread over the weekend.  Another option is to make a large batch of muffins or bread once a month or so and freeze it for later use.


Tuesdays- Cereal and fruit-I know I just said boxed cereal isn't good for you.  It isn't.  And we don't eat it.  We eat homemade granola, oatmeal, or we make a muesli-type breakfast that we call "make-your-own-cereal."  Granola is one of those things I make on the weekend.  Although, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort so I do sometimes throw it together during the week.  If you're not a fan of oatmeal, try making your own from raw oats or steel cut oats in the crock pot overnight.  I never liked oatmeal as a kid, but love the stuff I make myself with pecans, apples, cinnamon, and honey stirred in.  I had to play with the amount of water and the cooking time for both kinds of oatmeal because I do not like my oatmeal mushy. Yuck!


Wednesdays- Yogurt and fruit- I start my own yogurt in the crock pot on Sunday nights (can you tell I love my crock pot?)  It is soooo easy and soooo yummy.  If you don't want to make your own, pick up a large container of the plain organic yogurt in the store.  We stir in fresh or frozen fruit and honey or make smoothies and serve it with a half slice of toast or leftover bread from Monday.


Thursdays- Toast and fruit- I make my own bread most of the time, which I'll cover in a later post. When buying bread from the store pick one that is 100% whole wheat without partially hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup.  


Friday- Eggs-This is kind of my Friday treat.  The kids aren't here so it's a little easier for me to take care of breakfast, although I could probably cook eggs on a kid-day occasionally.  Eggs actually are healthy and good for you, believe it or not.  Normally I make an omelet or a breakfast burrito to get some veggies in with it.  (Salsa counts, right?)  Breakfast burritos can be pre-made in a large batch and frozen to be reheated later. Supposedly you can mix omelets in Ziploc bags, freeze them, and then cook them in boiling water, but I'm not really comfortable with cooking my food that way. It takes me maybe five minutes to cook up breakfast, so not that big of a deal. It can take some searching to find tortillas without the yucky stuff. Whole Foods is the only place I have found healthy flour tortillas at a decent price.


Saturday & Sunday- Chef's Choice- Homemade biscuits, pancakes, waffles, coffee cake, or whatever we feel like cooking up.


Helpful Tips


-Look ahead at your week on Sunday to see what you might want to pre-make or to see if you need to tweak your plan for some reason.


-After dinner look at your plan to see if you need to get anything started that night for breakfast the next morning. Have a backup plan if you forget. In our house that's usually toast.


-Set a time for waking up, breakfast, and leaving the house. For example: the kids wake up at 6:30, breakfast is at 6:45, we clean up and leave at 7:00.  If they miss breakfast once or twice, I promise they won't starve, but they will start learning to manage their time.

Don't Throw that Out: A Thanksgiving Tale

Last Saturday night we had a Thanksgiving-ish meal since my parents were in town and the kids were with us.  Since all of us would be eating another Thanksgiving meal, and because we like to get creative in the food department, we decided to put a little twist on the traditional meal.

The Menu


Pumpkin Soup 
(I did NOT actually serve it in it's own shell. I cooked the pumpkin first and then made the soup.)
Glazed Ham with Pecan Crust
Scalloped Potatoes
Zwieback Rolls
Cranberry Apple Crisp

The pumpkin soup was not such a hit with the kids, but Ben and I liked it.  Everything else was a definite hit. And I have finally fulfilled my responsibility to the family heritage by making Zwiebacks.


The Leftovers


Of course Thanksgiving always brings to mind leftovers and endless days of eating leftover turkey sandwiches.  Which is an option.  We don't often buy lunch meat because the better options are EXPENSIVE, so some of the ham will be used for sandwiches as a treat.  (Side note: I remember turning up my nose at sandwiches made with leftover turkey as a kid because I was accustomed to slimy packaged lunch meat!) However, my favorite way to use up leftovers is to turn them into a "new" meal.  For example, the leftover scalloped potatoes and some of the ham became part of this morning's Farmer's Breakfast casserole.  


We don't often eat ham, so I am in the process of finding some decently healthy recipes for the leftovers to be spaced out over the next couple of months.  I searched for freezer meals, but a lot of the recipes I found don't really fit into our eating habits.  Also, my preference is to cut up the meat and freeze it in about two-cup portions to be added to recipes rather than pre-make the entire meal.


These are my initial findings in the recipe department:


Lentils with Ham and Rosemary
Southwestern Bean Pot
Split Pea Soup
Ham and Scalloped Potatoes
Cut up ham to add to homemade pizza, breakfast burritos, etc.


(Not a very long list, I'd love to hear any recipe ideas!)


The leftover pumpkin soup I froze in two-cup portions.  I often freeze the leftovers from soup or beans in smaller portions to be used in the future as quick-and-easy lunches or dinner.  Cheaper and healthier than Lean Cuisine, just add a salad, raw veggies, bread, or piece of fruit to round out the meal.


Other Ways to Save Food


I also spent a little time this morning taking care of fruit that was on its way out.  Pears that were getting overripe are sitting in my crock pot with apples and ginger about to become Apple and Pear Sauce with Ginger.  Grapes are flash-freezing on a cookie sheet in the freezer to be added to future smoothies.  Overripe bananas also go great in smoothies, banana bread or muffins, and pancakes.  Old (not moldy) bread can be frozen for use as bread crumbs or turned into croutons.


Yes, this does take a little time in the kitchen, but the alternative is throwing out the food and going to the grocery store to buy more food (think time, gas, and food money).  Saving the food you already have costs little-to-no money.  Plus, it probably doesn't take as much time as you'd think.  I spent about a half hour getting the food started this morning and then walked away to do other things.


Note: Several of the recipes I mentioned can be found in Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook, my favorite slow cooker cookbook.  I checked it out at my local library before buying a copy for myself.

The Halloween Dilema

I have issues with Halloween. Not even because of the association with death and horror, although we do leave those aspects out of our activity choices.  It's all the candy.  Yes, I realize it's just one day.  But that candy hangs around much longer than just one day.  And it's not like our children aren't inundated with candy and sweets on a regular basis--birthdays, Valentine's Day, Christmas, prizes, etc, etc. Why do we feel that a celebration has to be tied to large consumption of unhealthy, processed food?

I know some people have their kids donate a portion of their candy to their dentist who donates it to a charity or trade it in for a book or other toy.  And in my house the candy has simply "disappeared" as soon as Halloween becomes a distant memory.  With these options the candy is being thrown away (wasteful) or given away to "less fortunate children," because we don't want our own children to eat it. Really???

I have found another reason this year to not be a fan of Halloween. Child slave labor. I realize this is a sticky issue and that people have different opinions on child labor in other countries.  I realize that standards of living and standards of pay can be different in other countries than they are here.  And I am sure I am unwittingly supporting companies whose practices I would disagree with on a regular basis.

However, for the whole I believe that we have created a country that is so concerned with having it all and having it now, that we either do not care or do not know where our food, clothing, and general goods come from or what it has taken to get there.  I believe we have allowed the wool to be pulled over our eyes because we have decided that it is more important to have excess than to have value.  Rather than choosing moderation and self control, we have created a world in which bananas, coffee, sugar, chocolate and the people who produce them can be easily exploited for profit.  I believe this isn't the fault of large corporations, but more so we as individuals who have voted with our dollars and with our lifestyles.

Please don't misunderstand, I know this is a very complicated issue in which it is difficult to determine which side started it, and what then to do to change it.  Sometimes we are stuck with two less than optimal choices.  In no way am I trying to say that I am "holier-than-thou" because of my choices.  What I am saying, is that when an issue pricks my conscious, I believe that I have a responsibility to then make changes in the way I live to line up with my values.  These values have already lead us to make changes such as buying our meat and dairy from local farmers as much as possible, to minimize the amount of processed food that we allow into our diets, and make most of our own food.

Back to Halloween...

This year we decided to have a little Halloween party for the kids, because we still want to do something fun.  The kids, except for one, picked out costumes to make.  We'll make Monster Face Sandwiches with veggies, hummus, meat and cheese, salad, Spider Snacks out of crackers, peanut butter, pretzels, and organic chocolate chips.  For desert we'll have homemade sugar cookies shaped like pumpkins.  We're also brainstorming some game ideas with a pumpkin/Halloween theme and going to download fun music.  For the trick-or-treaters we have sticky eyeballs and the like to give away. (Which may not be the best option either, but we're taking it one step at a time as we learn.)

My challenge to you is not to make the same exact choices I do, but rather to think about what bothers your conscious or doesn't sit well with you.  Then, decide what you can do differently to better reflect your values. 

Variety is the Spice of Life

About a month ago we realized that we had fallen into a pattern of eating out or stopping by the store to pick up something "quick." 
It wasn't that we hadn't planned a menu or that there wasn't food in the house to eat.
Tiredness may have been a factor in the dinner-time blues, but after reflecting, we came to the conclusion that boredom was the culprit.
I plan a two-week flexible meal plan that I modify seasonally, and we were overdue for a change.  Following a rotating meal plan helps me to plan for grocery shopping and simplifies my life.  For all it's benefits, sometimes it just gets a little old and it's time to change the disk.
So without further ado, this is our current "fall" (we live in Texas) meal plan.


Week One


Saturday- Kale Risotto
Sunday- Chef's Choice
Monday- Lentil Soup (The picture looks nothing like the actual soup, and I add Spike Veggie Seasoning.), Brown Rice, Salad
Tuesday- Crock pot Meatloaf, Potatoes, Veggies
Wednesday- Sweet Potato Quesadillas
Thursday- Chicken Tortilla Soup (We have homemade chicken broth and cooked chicken on hand in the freezer, which makes this recipe easy to throw together!)
Friday- Homemade Pizza


Week Two


Saturday- Black Bean Salad/Chili
Sunday- Chef's Choice
Monday- Veggie Stir Fry, Brown Rice
Tuesday- Crock pot Chicken (However we feel like making it.)
Wednesday- Curried Quinoa
Thursday- Spanish Tortilla
Friday- Leftover night


This is just a springboard for our menu for a two-week period. As I mentioned with my previous menu post, since we get our produce through a coop, I alter the menus to fit what we actually have on hand. I.e: Butternut Squash Soup instead of Veggie Stir Fry, Black Bean Soup instead of Black Bean Salad, etc.  I like planning in an open night (Chef's Choice) as well to eat out, go to a friend's house, or have company over and plan whatever fits our fancy.  And I will admit that one Wednesday or Thursday night a week often ends up being picking up take out, especially if Ben's out of town and I work late (read every single week). Pad Thai, anyone?