Kids arguing over their favorite…squash?

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Fall Y’all Bloggy Giveaway Winner

Thanks to the 57 of you who entered my Fall Y’all Bloggy Giveaway contest, hosted by Bloggy Giveaways.

Our winner is #23 – Katie from Mostly Mommy!  (She was chosen at random by a Random Number Generator.)  She and her family will enjoy a free 6-month subscription to What’s Cooking Weekly, our healthy menu planner.  They will receive recipes, organized grocery lists, nutritional information and tips on getting kids into the kitchen for 5 healthy meals every week.

As a Thank You gift to those of you who entered, I would like to offer you a 10% off coupon if you sign up for What’s Cooking Weekly or purchase it as a Gift for someone you know.  Please enter: FallYall at checkout to receive your discount.

Weekly Groceries from Around the World

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You will find this article there 🙂

Contest – Win a FREE Subscription to What’s Cooking Weekly!

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As of 11/3, this contest is closed. Check here to see if you are the winner. Plus, get a special discount if you would like to subscribe to What’s Cooking Weekly and see what all of the buzz is about!

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The new books by Missy Chase Lapine and Jessica Seinfeld have generated a lot of enthusiasm about getting our families to eat better. But rather than focus on how to hide healthy foods from our children, now seems as good a time as any for families to learn how to bring the kids INTO the kitchen to learn about healthy eating and to help cook the family meal.

What’s Cooking Weekly is an online service that provides families with Healthy Menus for 5 meals every week. Subscribers receive recipes, organized grocery lists, nutrition information and tips on getting kids into the kitchen to help prepare healthy and seasonal meals. What could be easier than getting healthy menus delivered right to your email in-box?

In an effort to generate more buzz about our new healthy service, What’s Cooking is holding a contest during the week of October 29 through November 2. Win a FREE 6-Month Subscription to What’s Cooking Weekly.

Here is how to enter:

If you have a blog:
Place a link to this post on your blog and describe What’s Cooking Weekly. Let me know you have participated by writing a comment here, along with the link where I will find your post.
OR
You can visit our Free Trial Menu and tell us what your favorite recipe is

If you do not have a blog:
Please visit our Free Trial Menu and tell us what your favorite recipe is.

This contest is open to residents of…planet earth 🙂 We will post the winner here on November 3 or 4th.

Lie to Your Children—It’s Good for Them

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Making Halloween a Little Less Scary

With Halloween right around the corner, I have been giving a lot of thought to the menu for our annual block party. We are hosting the party at our house this year, and I hope to serve some delicious finger foods to fill up our bellies before hitting the streets.

I haven’t settled on the menu yet, but here are some items that I am considering:

• Vampire Drool
• Orzo with Roasted Seasonal Vegetables
• Sticky and Slightly Spicy (Bat) Wings
• Spiced Pecans
• Marinated Mini-Mozzarella (eye) Balls with Pita Crisps
• Sour Cream and Scallion Dip with Sweet Potato Chips and Carrot Fingers
• Mummy Pizzas that the kids will make themselves (Just pull apart string cheese and lay it on an English Muffin topped with a little marinara…Add some sliced olives for eyes and voila – you have a mummy pizza!)
• Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie Cake – Absolutely delicious! (We had a bit of buttermilk left over from waffles this weekend, so I used that instead of the sour soy milk she recommended.)

Update: Here are some photos of our food from the Halloween party.  Pictured, you will see Vampire Drool with a Green Ice Hand, Marinated Mozzarella Eyeballs with Pita Crisps, Orzo with Roasted Vegetables and Bat Wings.  Everything was a hit, although I was reprimanded by my daughter for not making enough Bat Wings.  They were gone in a flash!

           

Although I can control the quality of the foods I’ll be serving at home, I can’t control what will be doled out by the neighbors.

Kids are often afraid of the sights and sounds that meet them when the doors at each home creek open…but the truly frightening experience lies in the ingredients of the foods that they are collecting: partially hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, alkali, chemicals, artificial colorings and more…

There is no sense in banning candy – that will only make everyone want it more (parents included…admit it!). But it might be worth a few moments to read some of the labels in your stash, just to see what you are consuming and how it will affect you. It just might help prevent you from over-indulging.

In some homes, parents have created a wonderful compromise – Kids select a few of their favorite treats to keep and trade the rest with you for a toy, trip to the movies or some new books.

If you would like to promote a Healthier Halloween yourself, leave the candy at the store. Instead, pick up some flower or herb seed packets, pencils, colored markers, stickers or small card games to distribute instead.

Picky Eaters – They Get It From You

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Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! This is a title of an article that my husband told me about in the New York Times…

I found it to be very interesting, especially their explanation of how evolutionary biology plays a part in why children are (and should be) cautious about certain foods.

The article also supports what I have been promoting:

• Don’t be a short order cook. Make one family meal each night and don’t cater to the little drill sergeants in your kitchen. (We do that enough the rest of the day!)
• Lying to your kids may not be the best policy.
• Be persistent – It can take 8-12 exposures to a new food before it may be liked…or tasted!

For those of you who are fairly new to my blog, I thought I’d refer you to one of my earliest posts about some power struggles that I was having with my son. Because I Said So… describes how Ari and I avoid battle engagement at the dinner table.

Is Deceptively Delicious too Deceptive?

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Homemade Granola…Crunch!

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As seen on View From The Bay, (Healthy School Lunches segment) on October 3, 2007

Everyone would make their own granola if they knew how simple and inexpensive it was! The sky is the limit on the variations you can do with this recipe. Simply follow the basic formula and let your imagination do the rest. Don’t forget to Call the Kids into the kitchen to help you with this culinary creation.

Ingredients
4 cups oats (not quick cooking)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs sesame seeds

Optional Ingredients:
1/3 cup Dried Fruit, such as cranberries, raisins or currants
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (without shells)
1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds
3 Tbs flax seeds
1/4 cup dried and shredded coconut
1/2 cup nuts: chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans or cashews

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.
3. If using, add shredded coconut, nuts, sunflower or pumpkin seeds and flax seeds.
4. In a separate bowl, combine honey, oil and vanilla.
5. Pour honey mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
6. Pour the granola mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven.
7. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes, stirring gently every 10 minutes, so that the mixture doesn’t burn.
8. After the mixture comes out of the oven, add any dried fruit of your choice: currants, raisins, or cranberries
9. Once the mixture has cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Cooking Tips

• Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts and dried fruits can both be purchased in small quantities in the bulk section of many grocery stores. They are much less expensive this way.
• Flax seeds and walnuts are high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids which play a crucial role in brain function as well as growth and development.
• By making your own granola, you are saving lots of money. Granola and granola bars can be expensive. Plus, there are no wrappers to dispose of!

Call The Kids:

• Measure oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.
• If using coconut, sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, have the kids measure these too.
• Measure oil, vanilla and honey and stir to combine
• Using clean hands, mix wet and dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Spread granola onto a rimmed baking sheet
• Add dried fruit to cooled granola and stir to combine

Recipe Source: What’s Cooking (www.whatscooking.info)

Do You Always Eat Such Good Dinners?

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Yesterday after school, we had my daughter’s friend, Emma, over for a play date. Like most multi-tasking mothers, I started getting ingredients for dinner ready while they were playing. Emma kept coming into the kitchen to stare at my ingredients and to ask questions. When I told her that we were making Asian Lettuce Wraps, she wanted to know why I liked to make foods from other countries. I happily explained how fun it is to try new foods. She leaned over the steaming pot of pad thai noodles and loved that they were almost invisible…I am so lucky to have a career that sparks such enthusiasm in kids!

When I found out that her mother was running late, Emma ran to the table to eat dinner with my kids. After the first bite, she asked, “do you always make such nice dinners?” I looked at the table and had to laugh. It was simple and took less than 30 minutes to prepare. But it made me realize that before I began meal planning, I made the same things over and over again. Emma explained that she was tired of the foods she got for dinner, and asked me if I could tell her mom what I did to the food to make it taste so good.

When her mother came to pick her up, her stood wide-eyed as the kids asked for seconds…and thirds, and ate their asian broccoli slaw! She admitted that until she saw Emma eating with such gusto, she hadn’t realized that she was in such a food rut. She started asking questions about What’s Cooking Weekly, my online meal planning service for families, and decided that she would give it a try. Even if she just tried a few of my menus, or simply added some of my sides to her existing repertoire, she said it was still a good value. She was also excited that she would start saving money on groceries, since she would go into the market knowing what she was looking for.

She nearly had to drag her daughter away from the table when I said that I had to save the rest of the food for my husband, who hadn’t arrived home from work yet.

So, what was that simple menu that caused such a sensation?

Asian Broccoli Slaw:
1 bag broccoli slaw mix from Trader Joe’s
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbs. sesame oil
2 Tbs. sesame seeds

Combine dressing mix and pour on salad, to taste.
Yes, that’s it!

Pad Thai:
This is embarassing – I used a package from Trader Joe’s that was in the back of my cabinet for 6 months. The kids loved it, and it was so easy that I’ll use it again. Next time, I might add some scrambled egg, tofu and maybe some julienned bell peppers or carrots.

Asian Lettuce Wraps:
1 pound ground turkey
1 can water chestnuts
1 small red onion
2 Tbs. oyster sauce
2 Tbs. hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
Juice from 2 limes
1 Tbs. brown sugar
Large lettuce leaves (bibb lettuce works well)

1. Dice water chestnuts and red onion. Combine in a bowl, along with the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, salt, lime juice and brown sugar.
2. In a large skillet, begin to brown the ground turkey. After 3 minutes, add red onion mixture.
3. Cook until the turkey is done.
4. Serve by putting the turkey mixture on top of a lettuce leaf. You can wrap them like a burrito, or like a taco. Either way, be prepared for some of the filling to fall out. The kids loved the fun and challenge of eating their food like this!
5. Serve with Asian broccoli slaw, pad thai noodles or steamed brown rice.