What are YOU cooking? A Call for Guest Recipe Posts

What are YOU cooking up for your family? I want to know. Kid Appeal readers want to know.

In the past when I have been traveling or otherwise occupied, I have shared with readers guest articles written by other bloggers and Kid Appeal audience.

Much of the content I'm developing this fall has been for the Eat to Learn program, and covering school food reform. I had been sharing this content with readers, but since last week's content poll, I'm changing directions. What (most) readers want are recipes and kid appeal tips, so....

I'm calling on you and your recipe box. If you'd like to have your recipe published on Food with Kid Appeal, please send them in. I want to know what you've been cooking with your family. What is your family's crowd pleaser? What's the dish you prepared that finally got your kid to eat greens or brown rice, or chicken? What fabulous new recipe did you try that your family enjoyed? What was your most recent recipe flop? What do your kids like to help do in the kitchen? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and treats, I'm interested in it all!

You don't have write a blog or be a recipe creator to qualify. You may send in recipes from other sources (include links or reference to credit the original recipe). If you have a tip or suggestion on how you've over come kid complaints or the picky eater syndrome, share those too.

You don't have to be an award winning writer (believe me, mediocre writing skills in good company on this blog.....). You just have to have a recipe and/or wholesome food experience with your kids to share.

Here are some recipe guest post guidelines:
1) 750 word max
2) send a picture of the dish, ingredients, or your kids helping/eating (your own, or credit the source).
3) recipe should be contain real ingredients (doesn't have to be 100% from scratch, but please no uberprocessed food substances!)
4) send article, recipe, photo (s), and a bio of you, to me via email jenna AT foodwithkidappeal DOT com. I will reply and let you know when your recipe will be published.
5) no deadline. This is an open invitation for kid appeal readers to share the recipes their families are making.

Can't wait to see what you and your family is cooking!

Ack! It's noon thirty and I haven't even decided what I'm making to go along with garlicky green beans for dinner.

(Blogs) I'm Thankful For

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We get all the family, food, time off and none of the stress of presents and endless gift exchanges.

After a blissful day of prepping scratch made stuffing (ok fine, I didn't bake the bread myself), pies with no added ick, and a redo of the cranberry jello salad I grew up on into a juice/gelatin/fruit concoction, I'd like to take a few moments share with you some of the blogs I'm thankful for. Some of these I've been reading for years, others I've just started following and have found them immensely supportive and informative.

I'm thankful to have the platform of this blog to empower parents and kids to try and learn to like real food that will nourish their bodies for a lifetime. Thank you for reading and thank you for working with kids to adopt healthier eating habits. Every day you help train kids' tastebuds, you are investing in the next generation.

The Lunch Tray - for providing a roadmap to school food reform, documenting HISD's journey to school food reform and for creating a forum for school food reformers to learn and swap war stories.
Spoonfed - for her focus on teaching kids to be mindful eaters, and thought provoking commentary on food news.
Better School Food - for her collection of resources and suggestions for starting meaningful school food reform. Big fan of Dr Susan's counsel to raise Food IQ.
NourishMD - for their leadership in the marriage of medicine and food.
The Slow Cook - for his school food reform journalism.
What's Cooking With Kids - for her dedication to teaching cooking skills to kids, and for her leadership in school food reform.
The Nourishing Gourmet - for tasty real food recipes and a forum for tasty real food recipes.
Kelly The Kitchen Kop - for thought provoking commentary on real food practice and politics.
LifeAsMom - for her perspective on parenting and her open heart to figure out how to parent with grace and joy.

(If you blog about teaching kids to love real food or school food reform and I've overlooked you, many apologies. I try, but can't read all the great content in the blogosphere! Leave a comment and I'll pop over.

Happy eating, enjoy your family!

Making Thanksgiving Pies a Little More Wholesome

This is another post from the archives (Nov 24th 2009). It's all about enjoying dessert without nasty additives found in cool whip and store bought treats. No red 40 will be in our cherry pie! Sure it looks a little anemic, but tastes better. We'll also be making bread cube dressing from scratch this year. I'm thrilled to have something to do with all that chicken stock hogging space in the freezer! PS. Look at little boo's chubby cheeks. I miss that toddler face! Gobble Gobble.

As my contribution to dinner for 21, I volunteered to make pies this year. I've got cherry, peach, pumpkin and pecan on the must have list. It is dessert, but along with several spoonfuls of sugar each pie I'm making this year also provides nutrients.

• The fruit in peach and cherry provides fiber, vitamins and antioxidants.
  
• The pecans are high in protein and healthy fat. The protein in the dessert will help the body assimilate all the sugar better in the blood stream.
• Chocolate provides more antioxidants than green tea or red wine according to several studies.
  
• I'll whip my own cream using heavy whipping cream and avoid bizarre food additives in "whipped topping" (don't be fooled by that stuff, there is no dairy in there, i'll take fat over food additives any day). I can reduce sugar in the topping by adding just a few tablespoons of sugar before whipping it into a froth.
  
• I routinely eliminate 1/4-1/2 cup sugar from desserts and they are still tasty. No one seems to miss the extra sugar.
• Pumpkin, a member of the "winter squash" category, makes this pie a veggie dessert! The eggs in the custard give it protein to help keep blood sugar in check. Pumpkin has been shown to prevent cell mutations ( as happens with cancer) , promote lung health, and as a rich source of beta-carotene has anti-inflammatory properties, helps prevent cholesterol oxidation (heart health), and helps to prevent diabetic heart disease. Read George's pumpkin summary for more details.
  

I'm using up my orchard picked, put up freezer peaches for the peach pie. I hope to make all the crust from scratch using 50% white wheat flour in the pie crust recipe. For the cherry pie I'll use canned cherries (not cherry pie filling) and make my own filling. See the recipe for reduced sugar cherry filling here, then I'll dump that into crust, top with lattice and bake. If I get what I want, I'll churn out a chocolate pecan as well, I've got my eye on this recipe although I'll probably nix a 1/4-1/2 a cup of sugar.

The Truth About Kids and Holiday Meals
Neither of my kids ate well at family meals when they were younger. Too many distractions with different table, visitors, schedule, unfamiliar food, our normal dinner routine was out of whack. Appetites are dulled by finger foods set out before the meal. Attention is diverted to adult conversation. Suspicions about odd looking food abound. Abundant food options make what-to-eat decisions hard that often "nothing" is chosen.

I hope this year to be an improvement over thanksgivings past. Big boo and little boo are 5 and 3 this year. I know going into this Thanksgiving meal that my youngest likes mashed potatoes. If you've followed this blog long, you know that even one kiddo who eats mashed potatoes is a little personal victory in my feeding my family journey!! My oldest has enough frame of reference he is happily anticipating many traditional dishes. He's also mastered the skill of eating when food is available even if circumstances are distracting (like school lunches or family gatherings). I think the wild card this year for both will be the abundant snacks/appetizers available before meal time for, and the over abundance of choices will still confound little boo at 3.

Last year I wrote this post with some tips about how to make the most of holiday meals and young kids. Get a ginormous list of handy hints there. I've highlighted a few below:

• keep it fun
  
• use this meal as a time to experiment with new flavors
  
• know that they have decades of thanksgiving meals ahead of them to find some dishes they come to cherish and happily anticipate each year
  
• realize that even if they push their main meal around with a fork consuming little you will have taken one step towards exposure and acceptance to your family's favorite holiday dishes.

I'm also threatening to make cranberry jello salad without a box of jello. Not sure how to do that. If you have any "natural" marshsmallow suggestions or tips on how to make jello with juice and gelatin, click through to comment and tell me about it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Food with Kid Appeal Turns Two - What I Want For A Present!

I realized last week that the FwKA blog turned two in late October! I've been so ensconced with developing content for Eat to Learn and working with two SBISD schools on an implementation plan that the blog is, as usual, on the back burner. Sigh.

I miss sharing recipes and Food with Kid Appeal tips here! I just don't have time to work, parent, develop content for E2L and blog recipes. The bulk of the content and planning will be over in early January and I should be able to return to more recipes and tips. For those of you who yawn about all the school food reform posts, hang in there! Normal programming will return soon :)

Hindsight
I'm not nearly as blue about the blog as I was when FwKA turned one. Readership has more than doubled in the past year! Although, I still have hopes and dreams for this blog that have not yet come true. Guess that means I'll keep on blogging!

Tell Me Something
It is my blog's birthday and I do want something from you dear readers. Your input. Leave a comment on the blog and tell me what you like, don't like, found helpful, not helpful. How has this blog inspired you, have you made progress in your goal to grow good eaters? What strategies have worked? What hasn't? Be candid! Feeling shy? Don't want to confess your opinions publicly? Send me an email jenna @ foodwithkidappeal dot com.

Take the Poll
For those of you reading in email subscriptions or via reader, click on through and answer the question in the poll widget on the right column under my profile picture. I want to know what content you find most helpful/inspiring. You can vote for more than one kind of content (and while you're on the page, scroll down and leave a comment, purty please!).

How do you get your kids to eat those dishes?
I'll leave you with my response to a question posed on FwKA's Facebook page. Every night I share what I'm making for dinner in a status update WFD? "What's For Dinner. Last night after announcing I was making Beans-N-Rice salad (recipe in link doesn't have rice, otherwise it was same) , a reader asked:

"Can I just ask how you get your kids to eat these dishes? I have two of the pickiest eaters! They like a handful of veggies and some fruits. I try to broaden the selection and they refuse to eat. I have to sneak veggies/fruit into their meals! It's tiring :("

Answer: training tastebuds is a work in progress! my kids don't eat everything i make. it took at least 2 full years to get both boys to eat salad and soup, and even still my 4yo will refuse soup 25% of the time. i keep serving it, and... eventually they learn to eat it (for most things). @jami had a lot of good advice. to that i will add....

Food with Kid Appeal Tip Make food relevant to them. i connect the food i make with their body and brain. they know that their brain needs fat to get bigger, protein to unite messages, carbohydrates for fuel and micronutrients (antioxidants) for defense against toxins and free radicals. they know their body needs carbohydrates for energy. because they want energy to do stuff and a brain that learns mucho stuff they are usually willing to try what i make. the tastings usually lead to accepting the food. Here's an article that goes into more detail.

Present Time
For the Food with Kid Appeal blog's 2nd birthday would you kindly click through, take the poll, and leave a comment? If you're still feeling generous, open up a new email message and send the URL for this blog to friends, family, bloggers and teachers who care about teaching the next generation of kids to nourish their body with real food.

Thank you for reading and being a part of my journeys both school food reform and growing good eaters!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday.

Today I Killed My Mini-Chop

Today I killed my mini-chop making these fruit & nut cookies. It is a sad day for me. My mini-chop is the most highly used small appliance in my kitchen. I use it daily to support my kefir blueberry banana basil smoothie habit. Often it's used more than once, for whizzing up breadcrumbs or making a home-made ranch dressing or avocado chevre dip for veggies.

I am kicking myself. I deserved it. Jenna = lazy cook. Last time I made these cookies I started out in my mini-chop and had the good sense to drag out my behemoth kitchen aid processor to finish the job. The mini-chop carafe has already taken a [dozen] beatings. This time, I felt invincible. I was empowered somehow to reinforce the small battered and chipped carafe (ahem, I may have dropped it on the floor a time or eight, and i maybe might have, ahem ahem, stuffed it entirely too full way too often) with blind faith that it would stand up to pulsing unsulphered apricots into tiny sticky glue shreds that would hold together 2 cups of chopped pumpkin seeds. It finally broke under the constant pressure of my wear and tear.

I will miss you dear mini-chop. You have given me nearly a decade of good service. You stood up to my misuse and two rather rough toddlers (read: carafe bangers, bonkers and button mashers).

It will be a long six weeks of working with the cumbersome kitchen aid to make a little smoothie. Lugging that ginormous carafe and lid and stopper and blade in and out of the dishwasher (as if I'd ever wash it by hand....with all those pokey-up-and-out pieces and curvey pieces.) As I try to tetris the dishwasher with tears in my eyes every night I will think back to my careless mistake of trying once again to pulse dried fruit in my mini-chop.

I look very much forward to your successor, who I hope will be under a tree in my living room in about 40 days. I do believe Santa will think I've earned it by doing this good thing, and that good thing.

Do you still remember how you killed your last now-defunct small kitchen appliance?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm still here, I promise! Since I'm so distracted with Eat to Learn content development, I thought I'd rummage through the archives and remind us all of a wholesome fall holiday treat. I posted this recipe two years ago. (moment of silence, i just realized my blog had it's 2 year anniversary without any recognition of the event, gasp!)

Be patient with me dear readers. I will eventually emerge from content development and return to posting recipes and Kid Appeal Tips.

It must have been 2 years ago that I decided I was going to cook with canned pumpkin more. Ha! I was going to bake muffins, use it in oatmeal, toss it in chili. This recipe, was about as far as I got. I tried adding pumpkin to oatmeal, and even with chocolate chips it was not a hit with the boys. I may venture out and try it again given the season.

Do you ever do that? Plan on adding a certain ingredient or cooking technique to your routine and then get derailed with follow through? Happens. To. Me. All. The Time. I pretend it's because I set too many goals, but it's probably more because I'm a creature of habit, and creating a new habit requires lots of deliberate effort.

The inspiring recipe came from Cookie Madness. My changes included using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, and reducing the flour by 1/4 cup and including 1/4 cup fresh ground flax meal.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 scant cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour or white whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions: Mix first nine ingredients in a bowl until spices, sugar, soda, powder are incorporated. Add the flour just until mixed and stir in chocolate chips. Drop a heaping tablespoon of batter on to parchment lined or greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Cookies won't spread much. The texture of the cookie is cake-like. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes. Cool cookies on cookie rack (or flattened paper grocery sacks).

Kid Appeal Tip I'm not against wholesome ingredients in treats, but I do make sure my kids know what they're eating. If I never told them they ate pumpkin cookies, they might never know they like pumpkin. Carry on with adding vegetables to casseroles, soups, and desserts! And after your kid gobbles up say, "Wow, now I know you like pumpkin!"

So, help me with my guilt. How often do you drop the ball on kitchen goals your set?