Kids | My Kids Really Eat This

So it’s back to school time for everyone around here. Our school year began with a delay created by the havoc Hurricane Irene wreaked. She left so many trees down across roads and power lines which in turn left 98% of our town without power —and running water (we have wells that are powered by electricity). The sound of generators running throughout the day and night got to me, maybe partly out of jealousy for those who wouldn’t be throwing the contents of their freezers out. Then just into the new school year my middle son had his tonsils and adenoids removed (we’d made the appointment in May and didn’t know he’d only have 2 days of school, but thought it better to do it then instead of when the curriculum really kicked in.) He will be better for it as his tonsils were disgusting. He was off from school for a week and needed much TLC. The day he went back to school I pulled my other 2 out for a dentist visit.

So today, Monday, I finally feel like school has begun. I will get things done! Yeah right. So much to do. Laundry, of course. Sorting clothes to donate, cleaning cluttered office, regular household chores, continue working on potential new clients’ portfolio, begin marketing new business, getting Cooking Club labels printed, start grilling vegetables for ratatouille, finalizing Cooking Club dates, write a pitch & bio… Hmm, what am I missing. I’m sure there’s something! Oh, reply to all the emails that are piling up.

Most importantly I have finished the list of snacks here for parents at our school to counter the one our school nurse sent out. It gave me shivers that so much junk was on the suggested snack list. It is not easy to convince people that foods labeled with health claims are not actually healthful.

My list is not faultless, it has better alternatives. The brightly colored yogurts that I see in the stores targeted toward kids are full of artificial colors, sugar and may contain growth hormones. So, while I do give a suggested contrast with other yogurts, I realized they aren’t perfect but this is the world we live in.

I hope to get part of my To Do List done now. Funny, how I get joy from things like shopping on my own and accomplishing some order in my house.

My list was adapted from 100daysofrealfood.com a wonderful site for living without processed foods.

Country Pork Ribs have lots of meat, unlike spare ribs. My husband made some with a glaze that my middle son said tasted like popsicles. So these are now called “Popsicle Ribs”. Salt and pepper them before putting them on the grill toward the edges (on “indirect heat”: not over the flaming coals) for 20 minutes turning occasionally. Coat with the glaze and cook for another 5-10 minutes. These were very thick, so you might need to adjust cooking time according to thickness.

Apricot Orange Soy Glaze (“Popsicle Sauce”) for Country Ribs

1/2 cup apricot jam

1 tsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp Tamari soy sauce

1 Tbsp orange zest

Mix together. If you want to kick it up a notch add some hot pepper.

Baste meat after it’s almost done and keep it on indirect heat. That way it won’t burn because of the sugar.

We also grilled some calamari (squid) that I put in olive oil, salt and pepper before putting them on the grill. These take just a couple of minutes. So we put them on when everything else was done. Squeeze of lemon is perfect on top.

Only my middle son would taste the calamari, but before he went to bed, my eldest said he’d wished he had tasted them. Luckily we bought 8 tubes and had only 4 that night and the other half the following night.

We served them with a cucumber and onion salad; green beans; tomato basil goat cheese salad; corn on the cob and also some eel sushi for a side dish per request of my 8 year old. Too much food for only five of us, but thoroughly enjoyed.

My Kids Really Eat This

getting kids to eat well in the real world

Tag Archives: kids

Nut Free Snacks

Popsicle Ribs