Whole Grain Strawberry Shortcake

After Kara from Itty Bitty Bistro guest posted here with her white wheat whole grain pita pockets, I decided I needed to try some of that flour. The shortcake to go with our farm picked strawberries was a great way to try the white wheat out. I’m sold. I’ll be using white wheat flour for all my quick bread baking. It works well instead of the all purpose, whole wheat mix I recommended in the whole grain pancake recipe I posted a couple weeks ago.

Have you ever done pick your own (PYO) fruit? I haven’t done it since the boys were born, and I have to say, that the one day I got to enjoy a family day with the boys a couple weeks ago for Spring Break, I had the best time. Picking strawberries on a foggy morning was so relaxing. Watching Big Boo and his friend have a contest to see who could fill up their buckets the fastest was fun. Doing the count at the end of Little Boo’s picking, 43 in the tummy, 2 in the bucket, was hilarious. Notice in the photo above he couldn't take a break from gobbling long enough to smile for the camera. I don’t even want to know how many caterpillars he ate. Spending a day on a real farm where a family spends their time toiling in the dirt and collaborating with nature to create red juicy orbs of deliciousness was just the kind of break from selling wet-stock inventory control software that I needed.

Froberg Farm was a great place to spend a morning. After we had buckets full of berries, weighed in and paid for our loot, we took our brown bag lunch over to a grove of trees and had a delightful lunch. The boys gobbled up their sandwiches (except for little boo, he was too full of berries) and ran off to a low hanging tree branch and scrambled around for a while. Froberg also has a vegetable market (not organic), where I got locally grown broccoli, greens, pecans and cornmeal ground fresh at Frobergs.

Later at home in the early evening I sat outside in the sun and sorted berries. I find that while sorting, washing and prepping fresh produce is time consuming, it is the perfect stress reliever at the end of a busy day of work and child care. There is a certain harmony to the universe when you triple wash dirty locally grown lettuce, hack up a winter squash for roasting or snap beans. Ripe and unbruised ones for the fridge, bruised ones to slice for shortcake and unripe ones to leave out for a day to finish ripening. We picked on a Tuesday, and by Friday night all but a handful of berries we left behind at friend’s house had been decimated. We enjoyed fresh strawberries and cheerios for breakfast, strawberry shortcake, smoothies, and strawberries in fruit salad. I washed and halved a pint of berries and put them in a zip lock bag in the freezer. These made some yummy yogurt smoothies the next week.

Wondering where you can PYO fruit? Check out this source, www.pickyourown.org and see what’s growing and when in your neck of the woods. Be sure to call the farm a few days before you plan to pick to make sure the fruit is ripe and they have produce available to pick and buy. I phoned ahead and got a heads up that the strawberries were ripe, but fields still muddy, so I brought rain boots for the boys to pick in and sandals to change into for the car ride home.

Kid Appeal Tip If you’re having problems getting your kids to eat fresh produce of any kind, get them to a farm (or a farmer’s market). Even for those families who aren’t foodies, inspired cooks or nerds about locally grown organic food, going to a family owned farm with your family is a great way to show kids where food comes from. How it grows, and how amazing it can taste when it’s fresh from the plant can go a long way to encouraging them to try new things. Once they associate “fresh” plant based food with “delicious” they’ll be more likely to try other plant based food. And in this economy when budgets are tight, why not spend a few bucks on gas, load up the kiddos and go pick some food. You get a relatively inexpensive family activity, and included in the cost are some groceries!

I’ll be picking blackberries in May and if I can find a pick your own tomato farm (do those exist??) I’d love to pick enough tomatoes to can some fresh pasta sauce.

Whole Grain Shortcake Recipe (based on this recipe from About.com)

1 1/4 cup white wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter

2/3 cup milk

2 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 400˚ and grease a round or 9” square cake pan. Combine all cake ingredients in a bowl and mix for about 2 minutes. Spread batter in cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Cut into slices. Top with strawberry sauce and fresh whipped cream. (Avoid whipped topping if possible. Trust me on this one. If you can’t trust me, just look at the ingredient list next time you’re in the store. There isn’t a single dairy product in frozen whipped topping. Ick. What is that stuff anyway?)

Directions for Strawberry sauce

Wash strawberries and slice thinly. Add 1/3-1/2 cup sugar per quart (unsliced) of fruit. I like mine a little less sweet. Cover and refrigerate for one hour before serving.

Feeling inspired? Share your own pick your own fruit story on your blog and link up to this post. Maybe together we can inspire back-to-the-roots family outings for other families looking for wholesome, affordable and healthy activities.

PS-I miss you guys! Work has been grueling and my computer was out of commission for over a week with an adware infection. Big thanks to Hubby who spent all of yesterday reinstalling the OS and SW on my laptop. I am now adware am Trojan free.

The Family Meal-Baby's First Finger Foods

Earlier this week I wrote about why I think families should avoid food marketed towards toddlers. I mentioned in that post about the article I was writing for Happy to Be At Home this week which lists a bunch of finger food/family meal suggestions for those first months when baby is transitioning from spoon food to table food. Head on over and see those suggestions.

Sadly, that was my last post as contributing writer for H2B@H. All year I've been juggling a demanding new position at work, nutrition classes, blogging and of course parenting. I really wanted to have my cake and eat it too, and what I found out is that I was just dropping too many balls trying to keep everything in the air. In addition to cutting back on guest post writing, I have to scale back my posting schedule here. While I love to publish 5 or more articles a week, I can't juggle the writing ball and keep all the others in the air.

For two other Feeding Baby posts click the links below. The link above to H2B@H would be a later chapter in the feeding baby chronicles, and I do plan to fill in the gaps with more articles on spoon feeding.

The boys and I got one day of Spring Break last week and went strawberry picking. We feasted on strawberry shortcake, fresh strawberries in cereal and strawberry smoothies. I'm aching to write about our experience and publish the recipe for whole grain shortcake (which BTW no one in my family, grandpa, hubby and nana included knew was whole grain wholesome...).

Oh, and did I mention my laptop has some adware trojan infection that essentially rendered it useless? I am working from hubby's antique mac which is older than our marriage.

It was fun to poke around in old picture files and look at messy one year old eater pictures. Little boo's hair used to stick up in the back. We called it scary hair. It didn't lay down until he was close to two. Awwww how cute is he?

Feeding Baby Getting Started
Feeding Baby An Overview of Spoonfeeding Baby

5 things you really need to know about transitioning from spoon food to table food

This is a companion piece to my post for Happy to Be at Home this week. I started a list of foods appropriate for beginning eaters and got on a soap box about food items marketed towards toddlers. I decided to take out my rant and move it here. Stay tuned later this week for a link to the H2B@H article with ideas of real food to feed babies and toddlers who are transitioning from spoon to table food. At some point the feeding tot job gets more complicated once your baby refuses the spoon. Between that list and these guidelines navigating this transition will be a little easier.

3 Reasons to avoid food marketed at toddlers

They aren't what they say they are
Gerber has a line of beginner snacks that attempts to reassure mom that nutrition is happening when she feeds these items to her baby. What is a fruit puff? Fruit is not "puffy" or "light and crunchy" like dry cereal. Fruit is juicy. Fruit is crisp, or soft. Fruit resembles something that grows in nature. Gerber's Fruit puffs are essentially fortified cereal with some added apple powder. Apple powder is the sixth ingredient, right after sugar. There is only 1g of sugar in a 1/2 cup serving, so however much apple is in this product, it is less than 1g per 1/2 cup serving. Further, they claim to have whole grain goodness, but rice flour is the first ingredient listed, and it is not whole grain. The whole grain part comes from the second ingredient, whole grain oat flour. I give Gerber some props though for using natural colorings for this product. So let me be clear. Gerber fruit puffs are not fruit. They are cereal. The amount of fruit in Gerber fruit puffs is negligible. You're better off feeding your baby cheerios when you're on the go, and letting them eat soft ripe fruit like pears, peaches, mangoes, or bananas when they're seated in a high chair. I'm not even going to get started on "Yogurt Melts."

They are expensive
You feel safe because the portions are appropriate, and the packaging says they are right for your child's age, but the ingredients are the same as other products. Look for canned/jarred fruit (packed in juice instead of syrup) in the canned food isle. The cereal isle is already full of low sugar, whole grain, bite sized crunchy appropriate toddler snack food. For finger food snacks that are ready for on the go, look for breakfast cereals that are whole grain and low in sugar in the breakfast food isle. Cheerios aren't the most wholesome cereal in a grocery store, but they are whole grain, vitamin fortified and low in sugar.

They will delay the transition to table food
Sure it's convenient, but all you've done is transition from baby food jars to finger food containers. Kids need real food, and the variety of nutrients in these pre-packaged meals and snacks is not as diverse as they would get on a diet of table food made from wholesome ingredients and low amounts of preservatives.

5 things you really need to know about transitioning from spoon food to table food


Protein and fat are key until tots are 2, and still very important between 2-3 years. In the early years of life the brain is in rapid development and the brain needs protein and fat to develop. Eggs and fish, nuts have both. Beans are good for protein. For fat, use olive oil to drizzle on veggies and pasta. Flaxseed meal is also a good source of omega three fat, you can grind whole seeds or buy flax seed meal and add it to batters (pancakes).

Feed them what you eat. They need to eat with you and eat what you're eating (unless what is cheetos and mountain dew). That's the way to get them at the table eating the family meal. Babies and young toddlers need to observe experienced eaters at as many meals as possible. Older siblings, parents, friends and relatives all count. The better diet their role models have the more likely they are to have a varied palate.

Practice. They will eventually master fork and spoon feeding, but only with lots of practice. Give them utensils at every meal, and let them practice. The younger they are the sooner they will tire of it, and start using hands, or welcome your assistance.

Snacks are universally appealing. Most toddlers love snacks and would choose snacks over "meal" food most of the time if given the choice. So don't offer snacks around meal times. Keep it out of eye-sight when meals are served. You can't rationalize with a baby about why they need to eat pasta instead of a granola bar at dinner. Thankfully young kids forget about what they can't see very quickly.

Gagging. From time to time your tot will gag on food, probably because they tried to swallow it before chewing (enough). That is part of the normal learning process of eating food that requires chewing before swallowing. In most EVERY case your baby's reflexes will expel the food and they will continue breathing. But, you need to be vigilant. When feeding a food for the first time, be seated and focused on how baby tolerates the new food. Watch carefully if gagging happens, and if he shows signs of choking and not breathing, be prepared to help him remove the food from his airway.

Veggies for Breakfast-Egg Scramble

Getting a co-op share of veggies with two preschoolers as half the family often means we can’t eat up all the veggies at lunch and dinner. While big boo and little boo will eat the vast majority of veggies I serve (mashed potatoes aside-click to read story), they eat tiny portions leaving most of the veggie consumption to me and hubby.

What to do with all the extra produce? Veggies for breakfast it is! Eggs are-for the most part-accepted by kids, so they make the perfect vehicle for breakfast veggies. Cheese is a natural egg pairing and makes this veggie scramble salty and scrumptious. I’m a lazy cook so while this could be an omelet, I take the less fussy way and scramble it.

This week we had a couple large yellow squash and a huge bunch of locally grown spring onions (delish delish delish). One large squash went into a veggie bean soup, the other ended up in the eggs, along with a couple finely diced spring onions.

What’s good in summer squash?

While summer squash (yellow crook necks and zucchini) are not the nutrient power houses as other garden veggies are, they still contain a fair amount of nutrients. There was a time when I was biased against veggies outside the “super veggie” status, but whole foods that are lower down on the super foods list can still have a place at your table. Summer squash is prolific, as any gardener knows, which makes them a frugal and nutritious addition to your regular diet. Their flavor is milder than most of the super veggies so kids may adopt them to their diet more readily. One cup of summer squash has 15% of daily Vitamin C requirement. That’s more than fortified breakfast cereal! One cup also has 10% of recommended daily dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin A, folate, copper and magnesium. I was surprised to see they contain omega 3 fatty acids! Go big optimal functioning brain!

Kid Appeal Tip Kids under three are in uber fast brain development. Even after three and into early adulthood some brain growth is happening. The brain needs fat and protein to develop and function so it is mission critical for a young child’s diet. Unless your child is following a vegan diet, you should focus on getting eggs in a kid’s diet routinely. There are so many ways to eat eggs, that with some experimentation, you should be able to find a way they like them. For more on nutrients in eggs, click that link. One thing I’ll add that I learned from Dave Grotto in 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life is that the protein in eggs is second in nutrient quality only to breast milk. That’s pretty nutrient dense protein if you ask me. Scrambled eggs are another way to use up left over store bought or homemade baby food purees when babies transition to finger food and start refusing the spoon.

Veggie Scramble Recipe

1TBS fat (butter or olive oil)

1 med-large summer squash (yellow or green) sliced thinly or shredded

1-2 spring onions diced finely, including tender green tops (or 2-3 TBS diced onion)

1 oz of sliced ham (optional)

6-8 eggs, scrambled

2 oz shredded cheddar

Serves 2 adults and 2 small kids or 3 adults.

This is a low heat meal, so I use olive oil. On med-low heat sweat onions until translucent. Add squash and cook until soft. If you need more oil in the pan to cook eggs, add some. Add eggs (still at med-low heat) and scramble with the veggies. Eggs stay tender when allowed to cook at low heat. Yes, this will take longer, but be patient. You’ll enjoy the end result if you slow the cooking process down. When eggs are done, fold in shredded cheddar and remove from heat. Serve immediately.

Other veggies that go well in eggs are peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and tender leafy greens like spinach, chard and beet greens.

What’s in your favorite egg scramble/omelet?

Hot and Spicy Popcorn - Whole Grain Snack

LifeAsMom’s ultimate recipe swap this week is Hot and Spicy. Go check out what others have cooking.

Popcorn is a whole grain snack, and when you make it at home and control butter/fat and sodium amounts it can be wholesome. Popcorn is Hubby’s signature dish. As a kid I grew up eating microwave popcorn EVERY day after school. A whole bag to myself. My brother hated the way it smelled, but I loved it and had the whole thing to myself. I don’t even what to know how chemically altered that junk is. I recall a few months ago where a man who ate several bags a day sued the manufacturer because the chemicals in the fake butter mixture made him sick. That’s enough for me to swear off microwave popcorn for all eternity. If you can spring for the cost, buy organic popping corn.

My dad uses an air popper, then drizzles on melted butter. But the popcorn gets mushy this way. Hubby’s stove- top popcorn is by far the best I’ve ever had. I used to make popcorn with earth balance fake butter, but no longer buy the stuff. I'm a complete coconut oil convert when it comes to stove-top popcorn. Do not use olive oil for popcorn. It is not high heat safe. Plain butter will also burn at this heat.

UPDATE** Thanks to cheeseslave I've switched to coconut oil for popcorn. I LOVE it. I resisted initially thinking I'd miss the buttery flavor. I don't miss the butter flavor at all! Hubby's not quite as enthusiastic as I am, but he's taking one for the team, as we try to reduce the amount of "butter" spread we use.

The hot and spicy comes from the seasoning. I have a Mediterranean mix with herbs and crushed red pepper flakes. You probably have your own dry spice mix with some heat in it in your pantry. If not, check out the spice isle in your grocery store and pick one out. I use this same spice blend on oven fries, and with olive oil and salt for a fresh crusty bread dipper.

Kid Appeal Tip Popcorn is a universally accepted snack by most kids so this is a good way to introduce “heat” to your child. Start with a lite sprinkling of spice mixture and increase how much spice you add each time you serve it. Over the course of a few months your kidlets may have learned to appreciate a little heat!

I defer all popcorn making to hubby. He’s the pro in the family. His always tastes better than mine, and I’m sure that because he’s had far more practice. The wisdom here is that if you’re new to saucepan, stove top popcorn, and it’s not absolutely delightful the first time, keep practicing until you get it right!

Stove Top Popcorn Recipe
Turn heat on medium high-high heat. Add enough coconut oil to coat the bottom of the pan generously. Pour popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan. They shouldn’t be too crowded and they should be in a single layer. Any more than that and it won’t fit in your pan when popped. Cover the lid and don’t open it until the kernels have all popped. Swirl the kernels around, then let it sit until you hear the kernels popping. Be vigilant, you need to start stirring as soon as kernels start popping so they don’t burn in the oil. Once you hear it start to stop, continuously move the pan in a circular motion until you no longer hear kernels popping, or they slow down a lot. Take the pan immediately off the heat and pour popcorn into a large bowl. Add salt and spice to taste and toss. Store left overs in an airtight container.

Alton Brown likes to eat his leftover popcorn like breakfast cereal with milk and sugar sprinkled on top. If you want to try that, keep some of the popcorn plain. Any one tried breakfast popcorn?

For more recipes and kid appeal tips on how to make real food relevant to your kids, click there to join the food with kid appeal facebook fan page, or there to become a subscriber via email or google reader. We share What's for Dinner (WFD) daily on Facebook, and I pose a "Question of the Day" (QOTD).

What’s your favorite way to make home made popcorn?

Introduce New Foods Slowly and In Small Quantities

This is a guest post from Jen, a pastor's wife and homeschool mom of two, a 9 year old son and 7 year old daughter. She blogs over at What's Cooking 4 Us. In this post Jen shows us an easy to use a baby step approach to getting kids turned on to new foods. This approach will work well for most toddlers and preschoolers who are averse to new foods, as well as older kids who have a really limited diet and a large list of food items they think of as "bad food." Most parents dealing with normal toddler aversions or older picky children are frustrated. You try something and it doesn't work. This will work, but you have to give it time. The acceptance of a wide variety of food happens over time. I love the idea of green beans on a hot dog! Kinda like relish minus the vinegar and preservatives.

Introduce new foods slowly and in small quantities

I'm going to break this process down for you into parts. This method is something I figured out over time by observing other wiser moms and it worked great for us:

Just on the plate. Start with putting the new food (just one tablespoon of it) on the child's plate. Don't mention it, don't draw attention to it. If they ask what it is, tell them what it is and leave it at that. PURPOSE= is to get the child familiar with the food. They get used to seeing it on their plate without having to taste it. They get familiar with the shape, the color, the smell and they watch you eat it. Once they've gotten used to the new food on their plate you'll be surprised that sometimes, many kids eventually will just start eating it without any coaxing! I was shocked the first time my son just out of the blue picked up the "new food" that I had been placing on his plate over the past month and he gobbled it down. Suddenly it wasn't "new" anymore because he was used to seeing it. Once they get used to seeing this foreign object on their plate a few times without trying it, move on to the next step. (no, I do not place it there every meal...only when I'm serving it in our normal meals but I do try to have that new food a little more often when I'm introducing it.)

Just one bite. If they haven't already, it's time to give it a little taste. Just one bite. Tell them that they can spit it out if they don't like it but they need to start having just one taste and see if they like it (or if they've had it in the past, see if they've changed their minds about it). If they spit it out, don't think you haven't made progress. They just got that taste in their mouth and that means MORE FAMILIARITY. Yep, they are getting used to it without even realizing it. From now on, that food has "just one bite" status and each time it's presented on their plate, they need to get in just one bite. Over time, they actually start developing a taste for it. Watch, you might not even have to mention the "just one bite" before they've finally decided that it's just not so bad and eat it on their own.

You need to eat it because it's good for you. After a few months of "just one bite" status, assuming that we aren't having major gagging issues over this one food (more on that later) then it's time to move to this new level. Yep, it's good for you. By now you've talked long many times with your children about why our bodies need healthy foods, you've checked out books from the library that educate them on what healthy foods are, you've made them a part of picking out veggies and fruits at the super market and they understand that they grow big and strong by eating healthy foods so they totally get "you need to eat it because it's good for you." Remind them that even mom and dad have to eat foods that they don't like so much because they are good for them. My kids can now recite this statement to me without coaxing. Altogether now, "We have to eat foods we don't like sometimes because they are good for us!"

Allow your kids to NOT like food. Okay, I know this sounds hypocritical but what I'm talking about is a sincere dislike for something. Your kid might be a great eater and love just about all the healthy foods you give him but he just has this strong aversion to peas that he just can't seem to get around. That's okay. Allow your child to have their one or two things that they just can't handle the texture or taste of. Just train your child how to handle the times when they are served that one disliked food in public so that they don't cause a scene. =0) Most adults have these picky foods that they just can't get past and that doesn't mean they aren't a healthy eater. Allow your child the freedom to express his personal taste in foods. Even in this case, you may find with time that they change their minds as they grow and their taste buds change. My son hated pasta for the longest time. It was his one food texture that he couldn't stand and then one day he got a hold of some pasta and poof, it was gone. He ate it all. So, don't worry if your child has a dislike for one particular food item, time could change that..but if it doesn't, that's okay too as long as they are getting what they need in other healthy foods. Kids have more taste buds than adults. We lose them with age which is why elderly people usually like a lot of salt on their food. So, this may explain why kids don't like strong tasting foods until they are older....spicy is usually 10 times as spicy for kids.

Do what it takes to get it down. What do I mean by that? No, not force feeding them. Time to get creative. You can get creative in the ways you HIDE IT, SERVE IT, and DIP IT.

See her entire post here "Tips and Links to About Getting Kids To Eat Healthy."

Spill it. Are you seeking instant graticification when it comes to developing well rounded eaters?

Antioxidant Dessert-Chocolate Cupcakes

Mmm. I just ate one of the left-over cupcakes from Big Boo's birthday party. They are so good and chocolately. Best with an ice-cold glass of milk!

Check out my post this week on Happy to Be at Home for the Chocolate Cupcake recipe. Not only do these have cocoa in the cupcake batter, they also have melted chocolate on top of a cream cheese frosting. Tons of antioxidants in the high quality chocolate used to decorate the tops, and the cocoa in the batter.

Big Boo and his friends had a blast at his gynmastics party. They bounced all over the trampoline, did rope swing, ran through tunnels and across balance beams.

Me : What was your favorite part about your birthday party?

Big Boo: All of it. I liked all my friends there bouncing with me. And the rope swing.

Me: And what about you? What was your favorite part about brother's birthday?

Little Boo: "Get on the pancake, and swing, and fall in the blocks."

The rope swing had a leather disc for the kids to sit on. Little boo called it a pancake. Hilarious.

St. Patrick’s Day Green Mac-n-Cheese

LifeAsMOM's weekly Ultimate Recipe Swap is St. Patrick's Day food. Hope you'll stop by and check out some of the other recipes her readers have shared. Fun!!

I’m sure there isn’t a single reader who hasn’t heard of “The Sneaky Chef” technique where you blend purees into sauces, smoothies and batters to hide veggies in a kid’s meal. While I do look for opportunities to add nutrition into our diet, I also know that if you always hide nutrients kids will never learn to like them enjoy them and eat them. After all, the older they get the less and less meals they eat at home, and at some point in early adulthood they will eat all their meals away from home. What will these kids do then?

My strategy is to add nutrients to batters, sauces and smoothies, but to also offer these items as whole foods so that kids have a chance to accept them. Kids can’t eat what isn’t available. If a fruit salad is never offered and fruit is always served in a smoothie a kid can’t learn to appreciate fresh fruit.

That being said there are times when sneaking in veggie, fruit, lentil, bean purees is appropriate.

• When young kids don’t have a lot of teeth to eat all table foods


• When grade-schoolers have missing front teeth and biting sandwiches and crunchy foods are a challenge.


• When kids are malnourished, and nutrition, even sneaky nutrition is priority over best-case eating habits


• When kids are diagnosed with disorders or illness that cause many food sensitivities (i.e. with Autism Spectrum Disorder)


• When food allergies complicate adequate nutrient intake.
  
  

Did you notice that “picky” eater on that list?? Nope. Picky eaters should not qualify for sneaky nutrition at the exclusion of offering whole foods. Picky eaters actually develop a more restrictive diet when parents offer only those items kids devour and don’t show initial aversions to. Do your picky eater a favor and keep exposing her to a variety of food. She may warm to them more slowly and need more encouragement that your more adventuresome eaters, but she will eventually accept some of the things she thinks she hates. Of course I do condone a double pronged attack, where you offer whole foods and sneaky recipes at the same time until a wider variety of food is accepted. That will give you peace of mind that your childs vitamin and mineral needs are being met until she is eating more food without deception.

Kids love colored food, so here’s a way to excite their eyes and avoid chemical additives in food coloring. Most food coloring is petroleum based, a chemical I prefer to keep out of our diet. Spinach, beets, carrots, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and turmeric are great ways to color food without chemical additives.

Green Mac-n-Cheese
Green Mac-n-cheese is a dish I served Big Boo when he was making a transition from baby food to table food. He could eat soft things like pasta, but raw and even small pieces of cooked veggies were not quite manageable. Spinach is hard to except in puree unless you have a mouthful of teeth. While this is very appropriate dish for a toddler coming onto table food, it also a great natural food coloring a kid favorite for a fun holiday, St. Patrick’s Day!

Recipe

One 14.5 oz box of whole wheat pasta shapes (shells, elbows, spirals, etc.), cooked and drained.
8 slices Horizon American Cheese Singles
1/3 cup + 2 TBS organic milk
One bag prewashed baby spinach.
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cans (5oz) cans of tuna (not albacore-it has more mercury)

Over medium heat, drizzle a bit of oil in a sauté pan. Add spinach and wilt until it reduces in size, turns bright green and is soft. Add wilted spinach to a food processor and puree. Add a bit of milk if you need some liquid to get a smooth consistency. Cook and drain pasta according to package directions. Add 8 slices of Horizon’s American Cheese Singles to the empty hot pasta pan along with the 1/3 cup milk. Stir until combined. Use up to 2 more TBS milk if needed to get the right consistency for sauce. Add spinach puree and mix until combined. Add salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. Return drained pasta, and drained tuna to pan and coat with spinach cheese mixture.

Need another green recipe? Here's my take on the "Got Milk" campaign's Green Milkshake.

Kid Appeal Tip Kids don’t like to feel that nutrition is being “done” to them. Eating healthy food because you have to, makes eating healthy food unappealing. It feels like a punishment, instead of an opportunity to provide their body with food that fuels play and learning. Watch your language when talking about “healthy” and “unhealthy.” Connect good food to energy for play, calories for growing and protein/fat for brain function and growth. Show enthusiasm when offering good food.

Negative reinforcement
Be mindful of how you talk to others about what your kids like to eat. If kidlet hears you say to a friend “Jimmy doesn’t like any healthy food. All he eats is peanut butter sandwiches and crackers or junk,” then kidlet believes what your say. He is a kid who doesn’t like healthy food. So when you offer him something that’s new and you label it “healthy”, he won’t eat it because it’s “healthy.” He’s not refusing it because it looks strange or tastes awful. He’s refusing it because he is a kid who doesn’t eat healthy food.

Positive reinforcement
Try reinforcing the things your kids eat that are healthy. Even if your child’s diet is very limited, think of the healthiest food they like. That may be milk, or apples or peanut butter. And let kidlet hear you say to their dad or a friend, “You should have seen Jimmy gobble up his peanut butter sandwich today. He must have needed a lot of energy for the playground, and big muscles to ride his bike.” Then the next time you offer him “grow” food he’ll be more inclined to try it because you’ve labeled him as a kid who eats food that helps him learn, grow and play.

This dish was a huge hit in our house. We had an adult dinner guest who had three servings and even my pasta loathing hubby ate it happily. I'll let you be the judge of whether or not little boo enjoyed it. (He's in the I-won't-smile-for-any-camera-no-way-no-how phase, but the chin should be evidence enough...)For more recipes and kid appeal tips on how to make real food relevant to your kids, click there to join the food with kid appeal facebook fan page, or there to become a subscriber via email or google reader. We share What's for Dinner (WFD) daily on Facebook, and I pose a "Question of the Day" (QOTD).

What's your take on sneaking veggies into your child's diet?

The Best Whole Grain Pancakes - Healthy Breakfast Tips

I have tried dozens of whole grain pancake recipes, and this one is the best. Hubby, who is a syrup fiend, and starch hater, stated after tasting one plain while I was still cooking, "ooh, these are good, did you already put syrup on them somehow?" They do have sugar and fat in the batter, but I think when you're going whole grain, it's best not to try to cut back on sugar/fat content, otherwise the overall product suffers. I personally thought they were a bit sweet, so I might reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup next time.

Kid Appeal Tip Too busy on weekend mornings to get in a home cooked big breakfast? Make it a weeknight or weekend evening tradition. Eggs, griddle items, and salty breakfast meat is a meal the whole family will look forward to, and provides a great opportunity for you to get some whole grains and eggs into your family's diet. The best part is the left-over griddle items freeze nicely in a ziploc bag. They pop in the toaster or microwave for a wholesome breakfast in a snap. Be a hero and make homemade pancakes for dinner!

For those of you with babies making the transition from spoon food to table food, add some veggie purees to the last 1/4 of the batter and make them some veggie-cakes. These can be offered at meal or snack times. Pancakes and waffles are ideal for beginning eaters. Hold off on syrup as long as you can!!

Whole Grain Pancakes (inspired from 101 Cookbooks)

ingredients
2 cups white whole wheat flour (I sub 1/4 cup of flour for flax seed meal)
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar)
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 1/4 cups organic buttermilk (or milk)
2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted (melt in the pan skillet you are going to use, or sub butter)

directions
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another. Using room temp buttermilk will help the coconut oil from solidifying. Combine the two and mix gently. That's right, gently. Lumps are OK. Melt some coconut oil on a griddle or skillet and pour 1/4 -1/3 portions on medium heat. Flip when bubbles appear and the edges are set. Keep the stack warm in the oven and serve to happy kids!

We top with a mixture of yogurt and fruit preserves and sometimes a touch of maple syrup.

For more recipes and kid appeal tips on how to make real food relevant to your kids, click there to join the food with kid appeal facebook fan page, or there to become a subscriber via email or google reader. We share What's for Dinner (WFD) daily on Facebook, and I pose a "Question of the Day" (QOTD).

Sausage, Potato, Green Bean One Pan Meal

My one pan meal with sausage, potatoes and green beans is featured on MealMakeoverMom's new feature No Whine With Dinner. The meal makeover mom's have a weekly podcast, last week's topic is was No Whine With Dinner, check it out and get tips on how to eliminate whining from your dinner routine.

Janice and Liz have posted pages of recipes many of which are sure to fit your family's taste. I hope you take some time to check them out, and while you're there, show the make-over mom's some love and leave a comment on the sausage, potato green bean post!

This dish is one of our family's soul food meals. I guess it's no surprise that the sausage is the first item missing from the boy's plates. It may surprise you though that the next item gone is green beans. Potatoes are often the last thing they eat on their plate.

I can serve this dish to a crowd. So many of my concoctions are veggie based and relatively unknown quantities to most folks. This meal is one even my guests won't whine about.

Cabbage Wraps-Chicken Salad

Are you wondering how you’ll ever get your kids to eat their greens? I know I was wondering when that would happen about a year ago when the Boos were just turning 4 and 2. By this time Big Boo had been presented with a green salad at least once a week for about a year and chosen just to eat the carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers off the top. I figured eventually he’d start eating the lettuce, but he initially he was very averse to trying it.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a bit of a chicken salad problem. As in an I’d-eat-it-for-lunch-every-day-if-I-could problem. Chicken salad is lunch fare around here quite often, and I always get a huge head of lettuce plus other greens (this week it was cabbage and arugula) to consume in the week. That means lettuce is served on all meat sandwiches. When I get down to the heart of the head of lettuce and the romaine leaves get very tiny and cute, I save them and give them to the boys to use as scoops for chicken salad. Eating with food as a utensil is way cool for little kids. This is how I got them to accept lettuce. Once they ate lettuce this way, they started finishing a small green salad at dinner. While the boys were eating chicken salad scoopers, I often skipped bread and wrapped my chicken salad up in one of the larger leafs in a lettuce wrap (think thai appetizer).

Since green cabbage is showing up in my organic produce co-op shares on a regular basis and neither of the boys is terribly enthusiastic about cabbage slaw, I decided to peel off the large outer layers of green cabbage and wrap up chicken salad to make little easy to hold “packages” for them to munch on. These were actually quite tasty and I think I prefer the sweet and crunchy cabbage over the romaine lettuce. These wraps would probably work well with tuna, egg or other meat salads as well.
Chicken Salad Cabbage Wraps Assembly
The boys both liked the chicken salad cabbage packages and ate up without any encouragement or prodding. The only downside to this assembly is it’s hard to get the cabbage leaves off the head without ripping them. I used a knife to score the leaf near the core. Then I carefully peeled it up from bottom, down from top, and in from each side. They split in each direction, but I was able to pry off each leaf with a large enough center in which to place a spoonful of chicken salad. I topped the chicken salad with chopped parsley. Then I brought each edge up and folded it over the chicken salad. The leave stay closed without a toothpick. However, toothpicks are also fun for kids, so add them if you like.


Parsley is a nutrient rich herb, and has been shown to lower blood glucose, and inhibit tumor growth. No need to think of it as a garnish; buy a bunch at the store and top soups, sandwiches and salads with parsley. It adds great color and a fresh taste to many dishes.

Surprisingly, chicken salad is one of the things I don’t make from scratch very often! I have a natural produce store, Sandy’s Market, within walking distance of the house that makes awesome chicken salad. While I do cook whole chickens, left-over meat picked off the bone usually goes into soups, pasta salads or quesadillas instead of chicken salad. If I did make chicken salad, I would shred chicken, add some parsley, diced red onion, salt and enough vegenaise to make it creamy. How’s that for a recipe??

What’s healthy in cabbage?
Cabbage is a good source of vitamin C and fiber. Red cabbage contains anthocyanins also found in blueberries and beets. Sauerkraut is rich in friendly bacteria lactobacillus acidophlilus (although it’s high in sodium). Cabbage is rich in phytochemicals called glucosinolates which may protect against cancer. Cruciferous vegetables appear to lower our risk of cancer more so than many other fruits and vegetables because they activate detoxification enzyme partners so a symphony of cell cleaning is happening. To promote the production of the most glucosinolates, slice or chop your cabbage and let sit for 5-10 minutes before cooking, and cook lightly, steaming or sautéing for 5 minutes or less. Cooking cabbage longer than 5 minutes reduces the glucosinolates.

Kid Appeal Tip Why would kids care about preventing cancer? That is a pretty intangible benefit for a child to grasp. One way to explain what foods that are rich in antioxidants do for the body is to talk about them being cell cleaners. These substances, found in fruits, vegetables, legumes/lentils, nuts, spices and whole grains, suck out all the bad stuff in cells that could make the cell act badly in the body. You can tell your tot that antioxidants help suck out the bad guys from all the cells in our body, and since we have millions and millions (there are some where between 10-100 trillion cells in the body) of cells we need lots and lots of food rich in antioxidants to do that big huge job!

What do you think? Will this lettuce wrapper/scooper technique get your kids eating leafy greens? Your comments make me smile. So, leave one!

Can You Learn to Love Food You've Hated Your Entire Life?

Check out my guest post on MomitFoward. They were looking for guest posters on Lifelong Learning, so I wrote an article Can You Learn to Love Food You've Hated Your Entire Life? Check it out and show the ladies at MomitForward some love by commenting or RSVPing for next week's GNO (Girls Night Out), hosted every Tuesday on Twitter at 8p CST.

Should you become inspired to learn to love things you thought you hated, take a peek at the Recovering Picky Eater thread on the forum for some encouragement.

For my most recent testimonial, we took big boo to a Japanese steakhouse for his birthday last night. This is the type restaurant where they table is a bar around a grill, and your food is cooked right in front of you. One of the traditional vegetables grilled to serve with the meat is onion. When we went in August for hubby's bday, even though I was eating and enjoying onions then, I wasn't quite ready to have them grilled plain vs. chopped and in dishes. This time I ate the grilled onions and out of the variety of items I ate, the grilled onions were one of my favorite flavors. I can not believe I spent three decades of my life avoiding onions. What was I thinking?

Bananasicle Birthday Treat and 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life Book Winner

I love doing giveaways, because you can force people to comment on your blog. As a recruiter by trade I like to ask questions and listen to answers, so it was a super big blast for me to read the nearly 200 comments readers left for a chance to win the book. And most people took a couple sentences to share why they were interested in knowing more about healthy food for optimal eating.

Thanks to the give away host, Heather at Freebies4Mom and her audience, we got at least 200 people thinking about how food and health are connected. I’m very satisfied with those results. Thanks to Dave Grotto for offering this great resource to one of our readers. And thanks to all the readers who took such care in composing very heartfelt responses on what makes a greater healthy food knowledge relevant to you.

Congrats Penny! You left comment number 177! You have won a copy of Dave Grotto’s book, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. (Here is the link in case you missed my review.) You have 48 hours to respond to an email with your mailing address otherwise, we will draw another winner.

Here are your random numbers:177
Timestamp: 2009-03-05 15:32:10 UTC



Big Boo turned 5 today. Happy Birthday to my first born! A tradition at his preschool is to have parents bring in a birthday treat for the guest of honor to share with the class. They eat snack at 10am which is way too early for sugar-laden cupcakes in my book. So, I’m hauling in some bananasicles.
Bananasicles
Peel bananas and cut bananas in half. Put a popsicle stick in each banana half and serve with honey for "glue" and sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, and Kashi 7 grain puffs to dip them in. You could also use peanut butter for glue, but I opted against in case there were any peanut allergies lurking in the room. Chopped walnuts would be another great topping. And if you're doing this in a home setting you could even melt the chocolate so the chocolate was the glue for the cereal and nuts.


The kids were so distracted making a mess with honey and chocolate to notice they didn’t get a cupcake. One of big boo's school buddies said "these are even better than cupcakes!" I was amazed they went over so well. The kids were all eager to tell me stories of eating honey and pumpkin seeds with their families. I always enjoy spending time in the classroom and hanging out with the people that share so much of big boo's day with him.


No, even I do not expect my kids to go without cake on their birthday. I plan on making cupcakes for his birthday party. However, I am compelled to put something nutrient-containing in the cake. Carrot cake is a usual suspect, and last year I made chocolate zucchini cake with whipped cream frosting. Flaxseed meal is involved in most of my baking, even birthday cake.

This year I’m thinking these chocolate cupcakes with melted chocolate for icing. After all, Dave Grotto does condone chocolate eating since it’s one of the highest antioxidant containing foods out there. Big boo is very happy Dave condones chocolate eating. Me too.

Turkey-Rosemary Meatballs in White Whole Wheat Pitas

This is a guest post from Kara over at Itty Bitty Bistro. She is a like minded blogger with loads of healthy recipes for babies, toddlers and children. Show her some love and comment here, then check out her Minnesota Dinner Dish post and find out what "hotdish" and "lutheran binder" are.

I started bringing my daughter, Abby, into the kitchen with me when she was a newborn, holding her in a baby carrier while I made dinner. As she got older, I put her in her high chair next to me at the kitchen counter. Soon, she graduated to being allowed to stand on a chair next to me and stir whatever needed stirring. At 3 years old, I now have her help me with some slicing (whatever can be cut with a butter knife), stirring, scooping, rolling, and whatever else I can think of. I find Abby is more motivated to try a new food if she had a hand in making it, and in turn, I am more motivated to have her “help” me!

Cooking with small children requires you to shush your inner perfectionist – when Abby and I cook together, I often have to stop myself from reaching over and saying “just let me do that!” But if you can get your inner Martha to zip it, the rewards (learning how to cook, learning to appreciate new foods and tastes) far outweigh any culinary mishaps! Here is a dinner that Abby and I made together.

Turkey-Rosemary Meatballs

1 lb ground turkey

¾ tsp dried rosemary

1 egg

¼ cup Panko bread crumbs

salt & pepper to taste

Directions Preheat oven to 400F. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine all the ingredients and seal the bag shut. Have your child helper squish and squash the bag until the ingredients are well-mixed.

Cut off one of the corners of the bag. Let your child (with your help as needed) squeeze out roughly 1-inch blobs of the turkey mixture onto a baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for about 10-15 minutes, until completely cooked through.

White Whole Wheat Pitas

1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp agave nectar (or sugar)

2 tsp rapid rise yeast (or, one packet)

1 ¼ cups water (at room temperature)

2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

In a large bowl, have your child stir together the flours, salt, agave nectar, and yeast with a wooden spoon. Stir in the water and olive oil until a shaggy ball of dough begins to form.

Turn the dough onto a work surface and hand knead for about ten minutes (you can have your child help with some kneading), or use an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook on low speed for about ten minutes. Spray a large bowl with canola spray and place the dough ball inside. Spray the dough with a little bit of canola oil, too. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and leave in a warmish place to rise for about an hour, or until doubled.When the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it into 8 pieces. Cover them with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for about 20 minutes.Preheat the oven to 450F. Put a baking sheet inside of the oven to preheat as well. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough balls into circles about 1/8” to 1/4” thick. I have a child-sized rolling pin, so I let Abby do a lot of the rolling.

Place as many of the pitas on the hot baking sheet as you can fit, and bake for about 5 minutes, until they are baked through and puffy. They will fall a little as they cool, and when you cut them open… voila! Pita pockets! Ready to stuff and enjoy!

We filled our pitas with some lettuce and the turkey-rosemary meatballs, drizzled with a bit of Abby’s favorite ranch dressing. Not all of our pitas turned out perfectly, and our meatballs were really meatblobs, but Abby and I had a great time making dinner together – and that’s what matters most!

The Pressure Cooker—The Busy Mom’s Best Friend

Guest post by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™

I am so excited about the prospect of quick cooking oats, rice and soups. A pressure cooker is on my wish list for my birthday next month. I'll also be reviewing Jill's cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment. I'm hoping I can turn hubby on to more meatless meals, with new recipes from this book and the pressure cooker! What's even better for you is Jill will be giving a copy of her cookbook to a Food With Kid Appeal reader, so stay tuned for that give-away in the coming weeks. Being a working mother of two who is committed to whole food cooked from scratch I need all the tools I can get to optimize both the budget and effort that goes into healthy cooking.

My son was 3 when I started pressure cooking. I say that it changed my cooking life, and probably the rest of it, too. I felt like the best mom in the world because my then-vegetarian son loved lentil soup. (My omnivore husband will eat just about anything.) Since I wanted to make my own but rarely had the time, the pressure cooker saved my butt. I could make the soup in 20 minutes, from start to finish. The only unfortunate part is that the soup was so hot that I had to add an ice cube so my son could eat it right away. Thus began my love affair with the pressure cooker.

Shortly thereafter, my son had a friend over for a biweekly play date. This young boy, about 4 at the time, would ask me every week, “Do you have any risotto?” And every time he asked I would answer, “I don’t but I can make you some.” And about 12 minutes later, he’d have his favorite risotto which I made with onions or leeks and vegetable broth. He liked it so much that he said that it was his favorite risotto. His mom wanted to know my secret. I told her about my pressure cooker.

She bought a pressure cooker, and then her risotto became the best in the world. I could go on and on about why the pressure cooker is so great but I will just share 5 of the many reasons.

Cook Healthier Foods More Easily and Quickly

Legumes, whole grains and vegetables are a snap to cook. Beans become soup or chili, seasoned to your liking, in less than an hour. Cook barley, brown or wild rice in less than 25 minutes. Forget microwaving, instead pressure cook fresh vegetables to get flavorful one-minute broccoli or carrots in two. No need to add fat in these triple-ply bottom stainless steel pots.

Boost Nutrition and Cook Big
A Journal of Food Science study revealed that pressure-cooked broccoli retained more nutrients than with other cooking methods. Colors stay bright and food does not get mushy. Using a 6- or 8-quart pressure cooker makes batch cooking easy; freezing leftovers such as 3-minute steel cut oats or lentil soup is a breeze.

Save Money
One hundred dollars or less can buy a pot that lasts a lifetime. Forget the $2.99 precooked pint of soup or the $1.59 canned variety, as less than $5 of ingredients yields multiple quarts of soup. Stew, chili and pot roast are also pressure-perfect. Home cooked beans beat the canned version for cost and taste. Restaurant quality no-stir risotto takes just seven minutes.

Save Energy and Time

Locking the lid on the pot containing liquid raises the cooking temperature to 250° F instead of 212° F, reducing cooking time by 50% to 70% over stovetop cooking. Cook with gas, electric, glass top or induction. Efficiency rules! -- saving energy, both yours and the planet’s.

Clean-Up is a Breeze

Here is one-pot cooking at its best. Start sautéing or browning, and then add the remaining ingredients all at once, or in stages with the modern pressure cooker quick-release feature. After eating, wash the pot, rinse the gasket, and that’s it.

While I don’t eat meat, I can tell you that a whole chicken takes about 25 minutes at pressure and a 3 pound pork roast cooks in just 45 minutes at pressure, and comes out fork tender.

The pressure cooker is safe, quiet and efficient, relieving you of the nighttime pressure involved with making dinner.

You may be wondering, though, why you’d want to use this instead of the crockpot, for the answers take a look at my blog post here.

For more information about pressure cooking you can check out my website here where you can see me in action with the modern pressure cooker or read my blog here.

High Fructose Corn Syrup In Unexpected Places

This is a guest post from Cathy over at a Life Less Sweet. She blogs about a HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) free life.

Do you know how much high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) you consume?
My family gave up HFCS cold turkey last summer and started really paying attention to the ingredients in our foods. It's shocking all of the places that HFCS is found! Of course it's in soda, but did you know that it's also in tonic water, bread, and sushi? The stuff is ubiquitous in our foods. Unless you become an ingredient reader and actively avoid products that contain HFCS, you're likely consuming more than you think! The Corn Refiners Association says in their creepy commercials that HFCS is fine "in moderation." That's hard to do when it's hidden in so many places. (And what's moderation anyway? We Americans are not known for doing things in moderation well...)

Since giving up HFCS, I've blogged about some of the strange products with HFCS that we've come across. Here's a list of our surprising HFCS foods so far:

Tonic water
Worcestershire sauce
Applesauce
Gatorade and sports drinks
Sweet pickles
Breadcrumbs
Sushi
Planters Nut-rician
Canned soup
Stuffing and Cranberry sauce
Cough syrup
Baked beans
Children's Tylenol
Juice

HFCS-Free food
And here are some reviews of HFCS-free foods that we now enjoy. Giving up HFCS seems so daunting at first, but we've managed to find great HFCS-free versions of all of our favorite products so far.
Salad dressing
Maple syrup
Ketchup
Chocolate syrup
Bread and buns
True North Nut Crisps
Smashies applesauce
Crackers
Indian simmer sauces
Yogurt
BBQ sauce Fruit roll-ups
Bullseye BBQ sauce
Oroweat bread
Jelly
Wild Harvest Organics
Crispy rice
POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

Why should you care about how much HFCS you're consuming? Well, you can read here why and how my family decided to give it up. No regrets!

And if you have a product that you're having trouble finding HFCS free, let me know! I love the challenge of hunting down HFCS-free options!