Thank you! I hate the sodas too, I just try to not go too heavy on the kids when it’s a special occasion. I am trying to instill a love of good, healthy foods and not an obsession with rules, nutrition or junk. Hope that when they’re older they’ll make the right choices. Fingers crossed!
Thanks Anna! I always notice the seasonality when I receive my Cuisine magazines! I save them for when the proper season comes around I can make some of the delicious recipes/ideas I’ve gotten from them. Love that magazine!
Who doesn’t love the warmth and comfort of a stew in winter and the fresh coolness of a crisp fresh salad in summer? Love cooking with the seasons. Stay warm!
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Asparagus, Steak, Spinach & Potato dinner ©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
The great thing about learning to cook vegetables this way— blanch or steam while other food is cooking, shocking them in cold/ice water to stop cooking, and slowly reheating when it’s time to serve— gives you perfect, just-done vegetables everytime. You don’t need to try to time the vegetables to be finished at the same time as other longer cooking items, they’re cooking when you have the time and finished when you’re ready to eat. The vegetables retain color, crispness (yet tenderness), flavor and nutrients too.
At Thanksgiving I may cook my string beans the day before when I make the cranberry sauce and apple pie. One less item to make during the rush of getting it ALL done.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
Thanks Josie! It’s also amazing how the better stuff gets squeezed off the shelves by the unhealthier choices. There are so many different varieties of gogurts in all crazy colors and with cartoon characters on them. It’s such a struggle sometimes when I shop with the kids because they always want the better marketed ones. I too don’t mind sugar in some things, as long as over the period of a day it’s not too much sugar (holidays, birthdays excluded!).
The dilemma these days is not the dearth of choices but glut. From organic to all natural, from processed to ready-made, from junk to health foods, kid-friendly to just what your family always bought. The book by Michael Pollan In Defense of Food really resonated with me and I have bought it for family and friends. His latest Food Rules gives a guide of what to eat and how. Part of the beauty of these books is that it brings food back to where it should be in our consciousness… something we need to think about but not obsess over. His motto “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants” is such a practical guideline. I try to buy organic and local when possible, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I limit my processed food purchases but I’m not perfect and there are a few things in my cupboard that I know shouldn’t be there. Again, it’s a matter of balancing the “good” over the “bad” or just “better” over “worse”.
One area in which there are way too many choices is breakfast cereal. Some of my friends are more shocked when they see or hear that my kids eat Chocolate Cheerios than that they eat kale. Ok, so I refuse to buy Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms or Fruity Pebbles cereals but I do allow an occasional processed cereal. I base these decisions on sugar content, artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives. The Chocolate Cheerios don’t have as much junk in them as other flavored cereals. I would prefer them to eat oatmeal daily, but it’s not always possible in the morning rush.
A friend also noticed the high sugar content of the Brown Cow Whole Milk Cherry Vanilla yogurt I so enjoy. So, I called Brown Cow and was told that the sugar content is derived from three major components- one half from the milk itself, one quarter from the flavorings (whole fruits) and one quarter from sweeteners (sugar cane, maple and honey). They don’t use fillers or thickeners (modified corn starch, etc) or preservatives. They use real whole milk (the cream is on the top), real whole fruits, maple syrup and honey. So the choice isn’t always about how much sugar, but which sugar is better as well as the other ingredients. If you read the ingredient list of some other yogurts you’ll be amazed at the unrecognizable contents. And why on Earth has yogurt been turned into another junk food with toppings like Oreos and M&Ms or the Trix and Shrek colored stuff?
My kids also love the Maple and Vanilla (low-fat) Brown Cow yogurts. Since it’s not always available where I regularly shop, I do buy Stoneyfield or Trader Joe’s yogurts. They also love when I “make” frozen yogurt. I take Stoneyfield Organic “Yokids Squeezers” (in the tubes) and freeze, then peel off the top part of the packaging, wrap in a paper towel and serve as nice cool treat.
Just try to choose wisely for their health and wallet and your sanity! Put as many fresh, whole foods in their diet and limit the processed and overly sugared and salty foods. Don’t beat yourself up over all the choices.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
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So hot yesterday we joined friends to swim and picnic at a local park.
Wow! Awesome! So happy I can inspire you!
Great! Which vegetable did you use? I find eggplant can sometimes be too bitter for most kids, that’s why I made it with zucchini.
Keep it up and she’ll probably surprise you what she’ll eat. As I’ve said, my middle son starts almost every dinner with “I don’t want that” or “I don’t like that” but then immediately proceeds to eat and enjoy what I’ve served.
It was one of those days around here, which is pretty often, when dinner time was upon us already and nothing was on the stove, in the oven or on the grill. So, what’s fast? Pasta! I had remembered earlier that we had a half package each of frozen large shrimp (uncooked) and Langostinos (cooked) and we could make a pasta with them. Langostinos are a crustacean, like crayfish, just about 2 inches long. I got these ones from Trader Joe’s.
We took the frozen packages out and thawed them in 2 separate bowls of cold water. Put some water on to boil the pasta. Chopped a couple of cloves of garlic, one shallot and 1/4 red onion (because that’s what we had in the house). Sautéed them all in olive oil for a few minutes and added chopped organic white mushrooms (I tend to buy certain things organic and some conventional) a pat of butter, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. After a few minutes added some white wine (please use what you’d actually drink and don’t ever buy “cooking wine” it would leave the same awful flavor in your food as in a glass)— about 1/4-1/2 cup and some more olive oil. Added the drained shrimp that was cut into half (smaller bites) and took off the heat while the pasta is cooking. Once it’s finished and drained, added the pasta to the garlic, mushroom, shrimp mix, stirred in the Langostinos, package of baby organic spinach and 3/4 package of micro-greens and put back on heat stirring regularly for about a minute or two. No need to really “cook” the vegetables or Langostinos, just heat them. All done! It was less than half an hour in total.
The micro-greens I got from Trader Joe’s too (one of my favorite stores) and are the sprouts of Red Russian Kale, Red Cabbage, Purple Kohlrabi, Purple Radish and Beet Greens. They are intensely flavored and only about an inch long- root and all. Some of these ones are quite peppery too. Micro-greens are really rich in nutrients too. Because of their intensity, you don’t need other herbs with this dish, but you wouldn’t go wrong with some fresh chopped basil.
We hadn’t done this dish as such before, so I wasn’t sure how the kids would react except I knew that my middle son would whine, “I don’t want that” per most every dinner. Today he added, “I told you I wanted just plain pasta with butter. Didn’t you remember that?” Of course I did, I just ignored it. My kids get plain pasta with butter often when we go out to eat. It’s funny because we don’t usually have the things listed on the kids’ menu at home I let them order from it out. It’s a treat we’re out, so I let them have a treat of chicken nuggets or plain pasta with butter! The funny thing is as soon as the whine is out of the mouth, the fork is in. He ate it all and really enjoyed it. This was also one of the cases where he said he didn’t like mushrooms unless they were in a cream sauce, so I had him try it… he ate the rest without complaint. 
I’m sure some kids would love to eat cookies, candy and ice cream instead of all the good foods but as parents we know they wouldn’t survive on a diet like that. Well, they need the nutrients in vegetables and fruits and if they’re served regularly they will eat them. We got a taste for them at some point, so will they. Kids have to be introduced to them to understand they should be eating them every day. There won’t be the struggle some have over just a few veggies if they just have them in front of the kids every day. And when there are so many quick (and yummy) ways to do it, it becomes easier for all involved.
©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com
