Apple Bran Muffins

If you've never had a bran muffin, you don't know what you're missing! I know, bran sounds terrible. What, a healthy muffin!? Gross...But, really, they're not. Back when I was a junk food addict, I loved bran muffins. They're soft and nutty...delicious! And with the addition of loads of sweet apple, mine are even better :)

Teaching Children to Eat, Lesson Four: Tips and Tricks

Alright, time for the fun stuff! For a lot of us, we already have kids with eating issues, even husbands with eating issues (yes, my love, I am going to keep referencing you, ha!) and there's no way to backtrack. It's never too late to improve eating habits, though. And like I said, this doesn't just apply to children, some of these tricks apply to any adult in your life, including yourself!

To simplify things, I'm going to make this a list. It'll be a long list with details, but a list nonetheless, and running in order of how we reach the meal (essentially, farm to table!).

1. We are more likely to eat what we had a hand in creating. 

Have your kids help you pick out produce at the store. Show them which food items you need to buy and let them pick it up and/or put it in the bag. Even let them choose food they'd like to buy (remember, I said produce, not cookies).

Additionally, grow your own food and include the family in the process, sowing/planting, watering, harvesting. It doesn't have to feel like a chore; it can be something really fun, especially when your children (and you!) see that you are the reason this is growing. Plus, it'll save some money on your grocery bill! Tip...planting can be easier than sowing seeds and you can start small--look up plants that are easy to grow, such as ones in pots (herbs, tomatoes, peppers). 

Let your kids help plan the meal (once they're old enough to not say they want ice cream for dinner and actually plan a real meal with you).

Have your kids help prepare the meal, washing, chopping, adding ingredients to the bowl/pan/pot, mixing, plating, serving.

2. Hungry children eat better than full children.

This one is easy, make sure your kid is hungry at meal time. Nix the snacks, they don't need them! If you do let them snack, make sure it's not too close to dinner time. My guideline is my daughter can have a snack two hours before dinner. If she seems like she's starting to get crabby from hunger and I don't want her to skip dinner due to being too crabby to behave and eat, I'll let her have a very small snack, such as three animal crackers, a small bowl of berries (most fruit isn't filling), or a small plate of raw vegetables (which are at least as healthy as the meal I'm making).

If your kid isn't hungry, why would she give into eating dinner, especially if it's not something she really wants?

3. Offer the same foods regularly so your child is used to eating it.

Just because you have a great eater at age 1 or even age 2 doesn't mean you'll have one at 3 or any other age. If you're not consistent about serving a food to a child so young, it can easily be forgotten and, in that case, it's suddenly new and suspicious to your three-year-old. If your want your child to like something for life, make sure you keep it in the rotation, at least once monthly! You can change up the way you make it, but just make sure it ends up on your child's plate often enough for her to remember that she likes it.

4. Children want what we have and are more likely to participate in something that we're participating in.

Serve your child the same thing that you're eating. Better yet, eat whatever you want your child to eat. They're more likely to eat their food if you're eating the same thing at the same time.

When I want G to eat a banana, I open one and start eating it in front of her. Not only that, I talk to myself about it, "Oh wow, this is a really yummy banana. Mmm!!" I pay no attention to my daughter so it doesn't look like I'm trying to get her to do something, I act immersed in the deliciousness of what I want her to eat.

When G is eating something and offers me a bite, I take it regardless of whether I want to. 

You can only expect as much from your child as you are willing to do, yourself. If you're not going to eat it, why should she? Which is more reason to expand your own palate because "Do as I say, not as I do" is completely ineffective for a 3-year-old.

5. Children respond better to other children than they do to adults.

Act the same age as your child. I can't begin to tell you how well this works for me. I'll sit with G, same food on my plate as hers, pick up a piece of broccoli on my fork and say "Wow! That's a BIG broccoli! LOOK AT THAT BROCCOLI! It's real big!" And then make a show of eating it and delighting in it. I'll pick up a tiny piece of sweet potato and say "Aw look at that, it's a baby one! Look at that tiny potato!" and eat it. I'll even ask if she has one, "Do you have a big broccoli!?" "Do you have a baby potato?" Quickly enough, she'll be searching her plate for one to match mine, exclaiming about it's size and eating it, especially the big ones. Kids love anything that's "more," you know? Similarly, I might exclaim about color, "Look at my muesli, it's pink!! Wow! Look at all that pink! Oh, I found a big red raspberry, look at that!" 

Don't be afraid to drop to their level for certain occasions :) Even better, if you know of a child who eats well, get together with that family for a meal because your child is highly likely to be influenced by the other.

6. If they think you'll give them whatever they want later, they'll skip the meal.

If your child rejects dinner, don't give into the desperation of not having a "starving" kid. Do not give them something else to eat later; at the least, don't give them something unhealthy to eat later. They're smart, they'll realize they don't have to eat dinner and will still get cookies in an hour. Hold firm, tell your children they have to eat what the rest of the family is eating and actually follow through.

7. Remain Neutral

A lot of times, children think it's funny when we get mad. Have you ever had your kid smile at you when you start scolding them? They love attention and will absolutely take it in a negative form. It's generally not as effective as remaining emotionless, yet firm. Don't give them the ammunition that is your emotions.

8. When all else fails, trick them.

I am a big proponent of getting your children to actually like what they're eating, to actually see a vegetable and want to eat it, not to see their favorite junk food and not realize it's filled with nutrition. If they spend their childhoods eating foods that look like their favorite junk foods, then they won't actually learn to love food and when they leave home, they won't know how to cook healthily for themselves, they'll just go straight to what they believed they were eating. More than that, if you let them engorge themselves on healthy "junk" then they won't have the skill of self-moderation, which can lead to bad habits later in life. Nutrition is important, but it isn't the be all and end all of eating. Having a love for food is important, as well! But...just because you're still working to change your child's eating habits doesn't mean you can't give them some secret nutrients in the meantime, for your own peace of mind. Here's how:

Cut food small enough so nothing can be picked out: G loves stew. Just DEVOURS it. But I don't think she would if I left the veggies and meat in large chunks like in my husband's or mine; she'd probably just eat all the carrots and ignore everything else! So I always finely chop her portion and she just eats it up without question. And this works for many, many other meals, as well. Think, ingredients to mix into pasta or rice (including risotto). Or what about pureeing cooked vegetables into a creamy soup (sans cream!) or mixing them with mashed potatoes? It'll change the color, but that might be fun for your child--carrot and potato is delicious and mashed celery root and potato is a classic. 

Smoothies/Milkshakes: A milkshake is just an unhealthy smoothie, is it not? I find most children enjoy smoothies because they're sweet (in fact, most children enjoy fruit because it's sweet; vegetables are the problem), so they're a great way to get hidden nutrients into your child and, if for some crazy reason she won't drink smoothies, then just call it a milkshake. First, make sure you only use healthy ingredients: 

• milk
• plain yogurt (you're adding fruit, why do you need sugar-laden vanilla or fruit yogurt?)
• plain kefir (you can replace both milk and yogurt with this since it's a yogurt drink)
• banana (to sweeten)
• frozen fruit (or fresh fruit and ice)
• nuts (the resulting texture is much better than nut butters)
• leafy greens (such as spinach or kale)
• pure vanilla extract

That's it. Don't add sugar or juice (which is not healthy, it's just sugar water with flavor); banana should be enough to add plenty of sweetness and, if for some reason it's not, use honey. If your child won't drink smoothies, but will drink milkshakes, call it a strawberry milkshake, a mango milkshake, a peach milkshake, even a chocolate milkshake--just add a little unsweetened cocoa powder (or cacao) to the ingredients and, voila, chocolate with no added sugar. To get started on the right track to delicious, healthy smoothies, here are some of my favorites:

• Start-Right Smoothie by Ellie Krieger -- I replace the 6 fresh strawberries and cup of ice water with 6-8 frozen strawberries and only use wheat germ if I happen to have it.
• Peach Pie Smoothie by Ellie Krieger
• Mango, Strawberry, and Pineapple Smoothie by Anne Burrell -- try replacing orange juice with milk or kefir, adding a banana, and using frozen pineapple (they're very watery fruit!)

A little side note, if your smoothie recipe contains honey and you're making it for a child under 12 months, just replace the honey with some fresh banana, a perfect, creamy, healthy sweetener! And don't forget, if you own a crazy food pulverizing blender of awesomeness (like a Vitamix or Blendtec, even some Ninja models), you can hide vegetables in the smoothies too! 

Pasta Sauce: If your child likes pasta (and more than just buttered noodles), you can hide a lot of nutrients. Most traditional pasta sauces are healthy, outside of ones that use cream, butter, and loads of cheese (skip the Alfredo!), but you can always leave those out! Don't be afraid to play with recipes, adding and subtracting ingredients where you see fit (and doing so will help you learn to be a cook rather than a recipe follower, making last-minute meals so much easier to throw together!). 

Pureed Pasta Sauces:

• Simple Tomato Sauce by Giada De Laurentiis -- packed with onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and tomatoes.
• Butternut Squash Sauce with Sage by Tyler Florence -- It almost looks like traditional mac & cheese!
• The Best Tomato Sauce Ever by Jamie Oliver -- LOADED with well-hidden veggies
• Simple Bolognese by Giada De Laurentiis -- to get meat in your child's diet. Anne Burrell's is delicious, as well, but takes a little more effort: Pasta Bolognese
• Vegetable Bolognese by Giada De Laurentiis -- consider substituting healthier ricotta for the mascarpone

There are also some great sauces that have larger pieces of vegetables, just puree the finished sauce and add pasta-water to thin it out, as needed. Even better, chop it up really finely, so the veggies aren't distinguishable or detectable, but it's not such a smooth, pureed sauce. Then, over time, chop the vegetables less and less fine; your kids won't even notice it's happening and, one day, they'll suddenly be eating chunks of vegetables without minding!

Chunky Vegetable Pasta Sauces:

• Roasted Provencal Vegetable Sauce by Bon Appetit 
• Pasta e Fagioli by Rachael Ray -- pancetta is like a thick Italian bacon
• Pasta Primavera by Giada De Laurentiis -- a spring/summer dish!
• Checca Sauce by Giada De Laurentiis -- ingredients stay raw, so you can't fully puree it or it'll end up as a thin liquid. If you need to puree it, just cook the tomatoes first!
• Pasta Ponza by Giada De Laurentiis -- Consider leaving the breadcrumbs off until the end--mix the roasted tomatoes with the pasta and remaining ingredients in the baking dish, mix the breadcrumbs with a little olive oil until they're all evenly coated, then sprinkle over everything and put back in the oven until crumbs are toasted and golden. If you've never tried it, you have no idea how delicious pasta is topped with breadcrumbs! And let the kids help out by sprinkling breadcrumbs over, themselves.

Don't forget that you can just as easily make a big batch of pasta sauce as you can a small one, but with the added benefit of having enough to freeze for quick meals later (the same goes for any sauce, soup, or stew)! And you can use these to top meat, fish, rice, vegetables, anything you can think of.

Meatballs, Hamburgers, Meatloaf: If it contains ground meat, you can hide just about anything in it. And, actually, the basis for a lot of meatloaf is vegetables, which bring moisture and flavor to the meat. As long as it's chopped up finely enough, nobody will know the difference. And if meatloaf is unappetizing to your kids? Well, change the shape! Use a meatloaf recipe, but make meatballs, a hamburger patty, mini loaves, whatever you can think of to make it more appetizing looking. And try topping it with a yummy homemade sauce instead of ketchup. Here are some recipes to try or inspire!

• 9 Mouthwatering Meat Loaf Recipes from Real Simple
• All-Time Favorite Veggie Burgers from Cooking Light -- you don't have to make a veggie burger; you can use some of these recipes to create a beef hamburger that includes veggies :)
• 10 Easy Meatball Recipes from Real Simple

If you seem to rely on these types of meat dishes a lot, consider using ground pork, turkey and/or chicken in place of beef--I recommend using dark meat because it's not as dry or, at the least, mixing it with white. Dark meat is not the enemy! A topic for another time. I also recommend Jenny-O turkey, which always turns out well for me. And remember to top with one of your delicious veggie sauces from above! ;)

Rice and Grains (and Casseroles made with them): Just as with stew, you can chop anything into tiny bits and mix it into rice, though your child may be a little more suspicious being able to see it all mixed into the rice so easily--there's a big difference between plain rice and rice with little colorful bits in it! And if your child likes rice, try out some other grains that look similar! What I usually do is refer to everything with the same name. My daughter loves rice and pasta, so when I make a different grain, I might call it "barley pasta" or "farro pasta" and I might call risotto "rice soup." Before she turned three, it didn't matter what something was called, she'd eat it, but at a more suspicious age, she's more likely to eat something if only the shape is different, but it appears to be very similar to what she's used to.

Hiding nutrients can be really easy if you just think creatively. Look over your recipes and think about how you can alter the ingredients to be more appealing to your picky child. I like to use the entire potato in mashed potatoes (the skin has more fiber!), so I use the large-holed grater of my food mill so that it includes the potato skin, but cuts it so small, my daughter (and husband) can't eat around it. I once made chicken for my husband that had thin slices of zucchini hidden beneath the melted cheese that I topped it with. A friend has hidden tofu by squeezing out the water and making it small enough that it wasn't noticeable in the dish.

There are a lot of options and you don't have to resort to buying a special cookbook about hiding food for children (and remember that a muffin is not healthy just because it includes grated carrot). Cooking shouldn't be a grand effort every night where you make one meal for the adults and a completely different meal (or sets of meals) for the kids. Make one meal for everybody and if you absolutely need to trick your kid into eating it, figure out how to alter her portion (or the whole dish) to fit her needs, but don't turn yourself into a restaurant sous chef. And remember, loving food and enjoying a proper diet is just as important as getting nutrients, especially as we age and become set in our ways. So don't skip the efforts to teach your child to love real, healthy food, just use some of these tricks in the meantime.

And lastly, always remember that what your child eats in a week is more important than what she eats in a day. Just ask your doctor!

Kisses and well-wishes,

Barefoot Momma

P.S. What can you look forward to next? Back to recipes...and tips for how to enjoy cooking and how to make home-cooked meals a breeze (or as close as we can get!).

Teaching Children to Eat, Lesson Three: Make Meal Time Important

I have so many fond memories of family meals, I'm not sure where to start. My favorite evenings at home with my parents were when my mom would play Sergio Mendez while she and my dad cooked and, while nobody actually danced around the kitchen, there was a vibrant, happy atmosphere. I loved Sunday dinners, too, because we'd eat in the formal dining room and my brother and I got to light candles all along the walls and then put them out with a long, antique metal snuffer, our special Sunday dinner job. Gatherings with extended family were (and still are) even better, sitting at the table with my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma, everybody laughing and chatting while we happily ate the piles of delicious food on our plates. Even once the meal was over, most of us would still sit at the table, my aunts and grandma reminiscing while I listened with eager ears. Those are my happiest memories of all and something I want my children to have the opportunity to experience. Of course, not every meal was this memorable, but they were (outside of exceptions like nights out) always with family.

When you have a child, it's important to consider what your values are and which ones you'd like to extend to her, even whether you'd like to teach new ones that, up until having a child, haven't meant a lot to you. For me, one of the biggest is family meal time and I think that should go for everyone else. For one, studies show that children and adolescents who grow up eating dinner regularly with their families behave better, have lower rates of substance abuse and other delinquencies, lower instances of teen pregnancy, higher self-esteem, and better performance in school. 

Beyond all these great things, the family meal is also a way to ensure your kids not only eat, but eat a healthy diet. The youngest of children want nothing more than to be like everybody else they see around them, especially their family, especially their parents. If you have a toddler, have you ever noticed her joyously ask you to join whatever she's doing? "Momma, dance!! Momma, come build blocks! Momma, can you color? Momma, come sit with me!" They love us, want to spend time with us, and want to be just like us. So it's no stretch that they're more likely to eat something if we're sitting with them, eating it too; it's less suspicious, for one, but it's also something special they get to share with us rather than something they're doing alone like so many other activities, especially if they're an only child. And we spend so much time away from our kids (especially full-time working parents), they deserve special quality time with us. What better time than meal time? We all have to eat, right?

I know it's hard for those of us with really young kids to get them to sit still for any period of time to do anything, but it doesn't have to be that way. As with everything, starting from day one can have a big impact. If your baby always sits with you at the table, no toys, no television, no phones, no distractions (period), and this continues as she ages, it's far more likely she'll sit through dinner, sans battle, as a toddler (and a kid, and a teenager!) because she's spent her meals at the table from day one, so it's all she's ever known. And if she eats her meal at the same time as everyone else, she'll be in the habit of being hungry at that time, as well, something fairly necessary for getting children to eat ;)

I think one of the biggest mistakes is being lax with our children until "they understand" and then trying to change things up on them. It doesn't matter if your child knows what's going on yet; if she grows up watching you, listening to you, participating with you, she'll eventually catch on and then it'll simply be a part of normal life, just the way things are. And if you don't start from day one, if you let your baby eat in the family room in front of the television for the first couple years, you're teaching her that this is normal and when you try to change it and get her to sit properly at the table, she's going to resist you and it'll be that much harder for you to keep trying. I know this part from experience as a few nights ago G was fairly upset that we turned the TV off and told her to sit at the table and eat. Over and over and over she asked us to turn Mickey back on and she kept asking for crayons and my phone. This isn't my idea of a happy family dinner and neither is having to listen to children's shows or to keep reminding my daughter to eat her food while she's "just watching Mickey!" or "just coloring!" or "just watching babies on Momma's phone!"

That's another thing, these distractions just keep your child from the main goal of the meal...eating. And that's a huge struggle so many of us face! It seems like our children never want to eat and, if they do, it's only junk food. But part of the reason they don't want to eat is because they're so distracted--there are so many other more exciting things they could be doing! When you have a reliable schedule, though, when you always have bath time at 7 o'clock, your child takes a bath, right? When you always have bedtime at 8 o'clock with two stories and a song, your child gets dressed, listens contentedly, and then crawls into bed, right? I'm talking most of the time, not during those exceptions when our kids turn into the Hulk. When there's a tradition your child has always known, it's ingrained in their minds; they're not as rebellious about it. This will never be perfect, they're going to resist sometimes, of course! But for the most part, every night won't be a battle. There is no natural need to watch TV and play with toys and eat junk food and ignore adults. The only reason our children engage in this behavior is because we unwittingly encourage it.

So, my advice is this. Make meal time important as many nights during the week as possible (or mornings or afternoons--there is more than one meal a day!). Set aside a specific time for dinner and try to adhere to it, but don't get too stressed out if you end up eating a little earlier or a little later; it's also important that your family meals are relaxed and happy, not rushed and stressful. I try to have dinner ready by 6:30/7 every night, but sometimes it's just out of my hands and I'd rather have a blissful 8 o'clock meal than an unpleasant 6:30 one! Does that screw up the whole schedule? Now everyone's even hungrier, now dinner is during bath time...Well, I set out some veggies and bread for the hunger...and maybe G will take her bath while I finish cooking and we'll eat afterward. It's not the end of the world.

And involve your kids in the meal--have them help you prepare the food, cook, set the table. Children as young as age two can help out--they can add lightweight items you've measured out (even "help" you pour heavier ones), sprinkle herbs/seasonings, help stir or mix (you'll do most of it, but they'll feel like they did the whole thing). For meals like pasta, soup, or stew, I like to put G's portion in a cool pot on a cool burner and let her "cook" it all by herself (but I still tell her it's hot and to watch her hands!). Children (and adults) are more willing participants in eating when they've had a hand in preparing their own food; it's a sense of ownership, of pride. I did that! I can't wait to eat it! And, yes, it might take longer to complete the meal if your toddler is "helping", but the end result is going to be so much more satisfying and helpful (in the long-term) than if you rush through the whole process alone and just drop a plate in front of her at the table. Even babies can participate, just put him in a high chair where he can see all the action, or maybe wear him! Baby A loves to watch me chop and is fascinated by the sizzling and steam coming from a pan of hot food. As long as he isn't hungry or tired, he'll happily sit, stare, and teeth.

Another way to make the meal process more fun is setting out a small, simple appetizer; it brings everybody into the kitchen where you can socialize (whether someone's helping you cook or not) and enjoy a little yummy, casual bite together before the meal. Who says that Mom has to stand alone in the kitchen for an hour while everyone else is off watching TV? I like to throw some slices of crusty bread in the oven, drizzled with olive oil and pepper, and let them cook for several minutes until crispy--it can be as easy as that! Top with anything you like, maybe a little grated cheese, maybe some roasted peppers, olive tapenade, whatever! B and I love crostini with roasted red peppers (and maybe a beer and a glass of wine, shhh...) while G snacks on plain crostini with sliced fresh bell pepper on the side. Something that simple can feel really special. And think about this--if you put a vegetable out before dinner, when everyone is at their hungriest, the kids (and your picky husband) are more likely to eat and finish it. In the words of Martha Stewart, "It's a good thing." ;)

Once dinner's ready, turn off the TV and get rid of distractions. Don't forget to put baby in his high chair at the table or, if necessary, hold him (sometimes I need to feed Baby A while I eat my dinner, another reason to breastfeed because that leaves one hand free)! Consider putting all the food on a big platter to set in the middle of the table (yes, another dish to clean, but just one!) where everyone can help themselves and you and your children can see the beautiful meal that came out of all that effort you just made. Plus, having the food in front of them will encourage your kids to eat it--they'll see that everyone is eating the same thing and feel like they can get more of whatever they want at any time. Then just sit back and relax! Talk to each other, play a little quiet music, light some candles (this is a lot more enjoyable for kids than you'd think!). Then clean up together--someone brings the dishes to the sink, someone else wipes down the table, someone else washes the dishes. These things don't have to be a burden; learn to have fun with it all. It's an easier, funner, happier experience when the whole family is involved and, beyond that, shouldn't they be anyway?

I think I have one more lesson up my sleeve, all my little tricks to getting my kid (and the hubs) to eat....You know, when all else fails! :) And, after that, I'll start talking about how to make meal prep easier on yourself (outside of involving the whole family) because we all know that's nearly an equal obstacle!

Kisses and well-wishes,

Barefoot Momma

Teaching Children to Eat, Lesson Two: Get it Right from Day One

Yesterday, I talked about how you're in control of what your child eats, no matter how much he yells or cries or stomps his feet. Today, I'm going to talk about the best way to ensure your child spends as little time as possible yelling, crying, and stomping his feet about what he does and does not want to eat. It's a very simple practice: get it right from day one.

Most of us have seen those articles about different meals around the world, right? Kids eating fish, fermented cabbage, broccoli, green beans, tofu, lentils. Things you wouldn't dream of your child ever touching! If children are born preferring cookies and chicken nuggets, how on earth did all these children in other countries end up agreeing to eat, even enjoying, all these "weird" foods? Why are Japanese children eating the same foods for breakfast that they eat for lunch and dinner? Why are Korean children eating fermented vegetables? Why are Indian children eating lentils? Middle Eastern children eating lamb? Italian children eating clams and mussels? French children eating beets and mushrooms and wilted greens?

Fresh red bell peppers. One of G's favorites to this day.

The reason American children, in general, balk at these foods isn't because they're born with a preference for junk food, it's because a great enough effort hasn't been made to teach them to enjoy other foods. Children in so many other countries are fed these items from day one. Their parents (for the most part) make baby food at home rather than buying it on a shelf. They feed their children the same meal the rest of the family is eating rather than making something special that they think the kid will eat.

Mmm beef stew.

If you want your child to love food, to love all kinds of food, and, most especially, to love whatever you put in front of him, the best and easiest way to achieve that is to start from day one. Children are most receptive to new foods when they're first being introduced; they're not yet suspicious and skeptical of anything "new." When a baby rejects a food, it's because he genuinely doesn't like the taste and, even then, if you continually give him that food every so often, he'll most likely learn to love it. A friend shared this great article that illustrates my point so well, Rise and Shine: What Kids Around the World Eat for Breakfast. I recommend everyone takes a look at it, if for nothing more than to see photographs of the different foods children around the world eat. It really proves that our taste preferences aren't so much innate, but learned, especially reading about how some Korean babies will grab their tongues or even cry after their first taste of kimchi, which must be one of the most well-known, beloved Korean foods we Americans know.

Interestingly, the article also points out that babies' first taste isn't their first puree, but what you eat while pregnant, which affects your amniotic fluid. Not only is the baby getting nutrients directly from what you choose to put into your body, but he's also tasting it. In The Lost Art of Feeding Kids, Jeannie Marshall teaches us that what you eat also alters the flavor of your breastmilk. Have you ever tried it? I always taste the milk to make sure it hasn't gone bad before it gets to my baby; you never know! And on any given day, your breastmilk might taste completely different than the day before. It might be a little sweeter, or a little more bitter. What you put into your body makes its way to your baby's, which is a great reason to eat healthy as well as yet another reason to breastfeed rather than give formula; which offers no varying flavors to your baby's palate, just sugar (more likely high fructose corn syrup) to make all those man-made vitamins taste good.

One big difference between how we feed our babies and how other cultures do is that we've turned it into a science, a medical one, at that. We're so afraid of allergic reactions and so concerned with nutrition, we forget about the importance of teaching children to love food. So let's get back on track. If you love healthy food, you're going to be healthy, it's as simple as that. You don't need to know which vitamins are in which foods, just make sure you're eating a little of everything. Each food group contributes to our diets differently and, within those, each different color of food designates a different vitamin. And, interestingly, foods that taste good together often aid each other in vitamin absorption. For instance, did you know that Vitamin C aids in the absorption of iron? Think about lemon and broccoli, lemon and dark leafy greens, lemon and fish. And did you know that legumes and carbohydrates each lack different amino acids, so form a complete protein when paired together? Think about traditional Italian foods: pasta fagioli (pasta with beans), white bean dip with crostini, minestrone (soup made with pasta and bean broth). Traditional cultural foods tend to be highly nutritious and there's a reason for that far beyond putting each ingredient under a microscope to dissect it. Eat traditional foods and a plentiful variety of foods and you'll have nothing you really need to "think" about as far as your health goes.

More sauce, please!

But enough information. Let's get down to how to make this happen! Making your own purees; it's so much easier than you would ever think! Even easier than cooking for yourself, especially to make large batches for freezing and quick-defrosting later. All you have to do is cut up a vegetable or fruit, roast or steam it, and puree it or mash it. The same with any other produce. The most work is washing, cutting, and dividing up the food to go in the freezer, but even that can be easy and it certainly is if you're already washing and cutting up food for your own meals--just do it in bulk!

To get your baby started on the track of food love, you should expose him to as many flavors as possible and interesting combinations. There are a lot of great baby food books out there, my favorite being Tyler Florence's Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating. The book is, in my opinion, as close to perfect as you can get. It's not gigantic, so it isn't overwhelming, and Tyler includes a lot of great information about cooking for children, including tips for making it easier on you (like making dinner for the whole family and just chopping it up small enough for the baby), as well as some of the greatest flavor combos. Who knew that spinach and pear is actually DELICIOUS? How about plain yogurt pureed with pineapple, avocado, and banana--a dairy/vegetable/fruit snack that I bring to work for myself because it's that good! Tyler will take you from purees to table food, so there's a little bit of something for everyone. And don't forget, you don't have to puree the food--does it look like something you might like to eat? Just leave your portion whole and puree the baby's.

Every day, I'd make a big batch of smoothies for everyone to share. An easy and delicious way to get those nutrients!

My second favorite book is Karin Knight's The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet. This is a larger book, so a little overwhelming (so many choices!), but it has some of the best information I've seen to educate parents about how to feed their kids and what to feed their kids, and the recipes are really delicious. There's even a section at the back that lists each one so you can log whether or not your child liked it. This and Start Fresh are my go-to books. The thing is, once I had made enough recipes from each of these, I was able to start coming up with things on my own so easily, cooking without recipes, and, like I said before, I even learned to use these books to cook for the rest of the family. They're really tools for family eating, not just feeding a baby.

Now, let's get back to the fact that, even if you go through all this effort, your baby might reject the food. Don't forget that first impressions are not necessarily lasting impressions. Almost any food can be an acquired taste. In Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything, he proves that anybody can acquire a taste for almost any food simply by eating it several times over. Hired as a food critic for Vogue, he was determined to learn to enjoy foods that had previously repulsed him in order to prepare to do his new job properly and he actually found that most foods he'd previously avoided had become likable, even delicious. Of course, there were others that he never became accustomed to, but that would be the exception, not the rule.

Studies have actually shown that it can take up to 12 tastes for a food item to taste good. Remember what that article said about Korean babies and kimchi? Clearly it's not "love at first bite," but if you spoke to a Korean adult, he'd probably speak of it with love. Keep in mind that it's more difficult to get a person to not only try a new food as he ages, but also to try it another time if he doesn't enjoy it at first. My husband is 34 years old and it has been quite the process to get him to accept and like certain vegetables. I've had to nag him, hide vegetables in his food, cut them up so small that he can't possibly pick them out. I have a few tricks to get him to actually learn to like the food, but should I have to deal with all this? Do I want to deal with all this? No. And I certainly don't want to deal with this from my children. I'm not going to make three different meals a night. In the words of so many mothers, "This is not a restaurant." That's why it's so important to keep trying while your children are still young, while they're babies eating their first purees and the most they can do to avoid the food is spit it out or clamp their mouths shut, not throw a tantrum and beg for something different. So, if your baby spits out her broccoli puree, just put it on the backburner for a week or two and then try again. Don't give up on a food just because your baby or child rejects it. And remember, if you made a freezer stock, the next try is as easy as popping a cube out of the freezer to defrost!

It's also helpful to think about different ways to prepare a food. For one, this can help immensely to get a kid to like something they have a distaste for at first, but it also brings something new and interesting to the table so that this one food doesn't just hit one note. Think about what you can do to make something more appetizing. For instance, I hate tender crisp steamed broccoli, but love roasted broccoli, especially with minced garlic, lemon zest, and a little spray of lemon juice. It brightens and refreshes the flavor; I could devour it! So maybe your baby spit out the steamed broccoli, but what about roasted? What about adding herbs and spices to a food? You need to think outside the box. As long as you make food delicious and interesting, especially from day one, your baby will probably love it and love you for it!

Stay tuned for Lesson Three!

Kisses and well-wishes,

Barefoot Momma ;)

Teaching Children to Eat, Lesson One: You are in Control

My daughter, G, loves food and always has. When she was a baby starting out on solids, she ate everything I served. In fact, in her first year and a half of life, she only rejected two foods: pasta with sardines (I was actually surprised) and peas, which I was glad never to cook again :)

Of course, G is only three-years-old, so she has her problems like any other child. Toddlers are not the most cooperative of children, no matter what a parent claims. I just can't believe there's a single toddler out there who hasn't refused to eat something at some point or disobeyed her parents or thrown more than one tantrum. If a parent claims this, they're either lying, delusional, or repressed the memory.

Anyway, we have our obstacles. When G was a baby, she wasn't wary of food. Now at three-years-old, she's more suspicious, more hesitant. Then, of course, there's the issue of the maturity of a toddler! There are foods my daughter LOVES that she'll absolutely refuse to touch. It has nothing to do with being picky, it has to do with being obstinate, being in control. Young children have so little control over their own lives, they'll grab it anywhere they can and one of the few things you can't force on them is food; it's not like you can hold their mouth open and cram it down their throat. So, for parents, making sure their children are good eaters is a slippery slope.

What you need to remember, though, is that you are in control, not your child. You decide when and what your children are allowed to eat. Oftentimes, we get caught up in the anxiety-driven thought that our kid is starving. She didn't eat her breakfast or lunch! She's refused everything I've offered and only wants cookies! She has to eat SOMETHING. I guess it'll have to be cookies...

No! Don't do that to yourself or to your child. You should never allow stress or anxiety or fear to influence your decisions, especially when it comes to raising a child. Your children need to know that you're in control, not them. For one, they'll actually be more comfortable knowing they have someone to rely on. Two, when they're older, they'll respect you and love you for being a parent. And three, they behave better when they know who (to borrow from Pamela Druckerman) "the decider" really is.

And just to squelch those fears, every doctor I've ever spoken to (yes, my children see multiple) and every piece of literature I've read on the subject has said that, what's most important, is what your child consumes over an entire week, not within one day. Their appetites are all over the place. Sometimes a kid doesn't want to eat a thing, sometimes he eats two helpings at every meal. Seriously, there have been days when G has eaten little more than a banana and some crackers and other days when she's eaten eggs, toast, cereal, yogurt, and fruit just for breakfast and two helpings of dinner, plus multiple healthy snacks afterward (carrots, peppers, more fruit and yogurt, and maybe some cookies after all is said and done). You really never know what's going to happen. Bottom line, so your kid goes to bed hungry sometimes--that's not exactly torture. At some point, probably fairly quickly, he's going to eat what you tell him to eat because children have instincts and they like instant gratification; they're not going to allow themselves to starve to death. So don't act like that's happening if your kid skips dinner.

And with that we begin lesson number one--you are in control. How you exert your power is up to you, up to your instincts, up to what you're comfortable with. But always remember that you are the one in control.

If you lived in France, you'd probably be very strict. Children eat at a specific time, they eat what you serve, and if they choose not to eat, then they eat nothing until the next meal; and they absolutely do not snack (except for one special treat at a specified time between lunch and dinner). Maybe you're not comfortable with that level of strictness, though. It certainly appears to work for the French, but it's not something I, personally, am capable of adhering to, so maybe some of you aren't either!

For my household, I've come up with a course of action that I'm comfortable with and that appears to work for my daughter. And that solution is offering a healthy alternative, which she always accepts at some point. So, let's say G doesn't want to eat the dinner I made. She's tasted the salmon and broccoli, but decided she's not going to eat it. Maybe she's asking for cookies, maybe she's only said that she's "all done with dinner" and decides to leave the table. Either way, she's not eating the meal I made that the rest of the family is eating. What do I do?

First of all, I do not allow her to eat a drop of junk food. If it's not healthy and she hasn't even attempted to finish her dinner, she's not eating it, no matter how hard she cries. That's the most important part. And, once she's gotten the idea that I'm unwavering and it's pointless to try, she's less and less whiny about it, though she'll always make the attempt!

Anyway, I give her a choice, a healthy alternative that I know she enjoys and I let her know that she always has to eat something healthy before she eats dessert. Right now, she doesn't quite understand what I'm talking about--she's not so in tune to the meaning of "dessert." But eventually she'll understand and that's the point; one day, she'll know first thing that she's not touching junk food until she eats something healthy first.

As for now, it goes something like this: "If you're still hungry, you can eat either an apple or a banana. If you don't eat either your dinner, an apple, or a banana, you're going to bed hungry." That's it. I don't give her too many options because that becomes overwhelming; a lot of kids are indecisive and make easier decisions when they have few choices. A different night, maybe I'll offer her an egg or yogurt (depending on whether she had either earlier that day). How about a salad or some fresh veggies? If she asks for something completely different, but it's healthy, I absolutely say yes. As long as she's eating something healthy and it doesn't require me to cook an entirely separate meal, I'm game. You go right ahead and eat that.

Now, the key to this alternative working is that you need to know what healthy foods your child actually likes--most like some form of fruit, so it's always good to keep these in the house, even if it's frozen fruit that you need to defrost first. It might look a little mushy to you, but your toddler probably doesn't care! And if you can't think of a single healthy food your child likes, well...a misstep was made somewhere between now and when your baby first started eating and that's something you'll need to work to fix and a topic I'll discuss at another time.

Back to the subject at hand. Children have no idea what they're doing in life. They haven't been around very long, their minds haven't matured much at all, they need direction from their parents. It's our job to teach them how to be healthy, autonomous adults and that's a really difficult job. You need to be strong and you need to keep that backbone straight and in place. It might tear you up to hear your kid throw a tantrum or cry, but she needs you to be the strong one because she can't be. And, after not too long, you'll see it pay off.

Stay tuned for Lesson Two and Three, the fun stuff. Tips and tricks to get your kid eating well from the start and through the future!

Kisses and well-wishes,

Barefoot Momma

P.S. For a closer look at why you shouldn’t replace a healthy diet with junk food “just so [your child] eats SOMETHING,” watch this BBC documentary, “Fast Food Babies”.  It’s an eye-opener.

Why Eat Healthy, A Promise to Inspire

As I said in my last entry, I've been reading a lot about food and about feeding children. I can't even begin to summarize all of the information I've learned and I've realized that I don't want to. There is so much bad in our food industry and if you don't realize that, then there's some research to do. And if you don't care about that, then I'm not going to be the person to preach to you. Sources abound. Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (one among so many works of his), Jeannie Marshall's The Lost Art of Feeding Kids, Lisa Leake's 100 Days of Real Food, Participant Media's Food Inc., the list goes on. One simple Google search and you'll probably have a million sources that can tell you exactly why you shouldn't trust our food industry, why you shouldn't eat processed garbage off the shelf (including the supposedly "healthy" versions), why you should avoid GMO's and pesticides, why you should go organic and stick with "real food"--food that has lived and been cultivated as it has for hundreds of years before we started experimenting with it.

There are statistics you can look at...Why have rates of food allergies gone up? Why have obesity rates exploded? Why is the American lifespan shortening? Why are children being treated for heart disease? There are so many questions about the recent rise in so many health issues that can all be answered with "you are what you eat." So if you care, pick up just one of those books above. Buy the audiobook and learn while you're working. Just do the smallest amount of research and your world will be rocked.

But don't look for that here. I don't want to spend my time detailing all the negatives in our culture. I don't want to teach you the common sense knowledge that we live in a capitalist society, which means profit is of utmost importance, which means businesses need to make a higher profit every year or else they are failing to grow, which means they'll do anything they can to get you to buy their product, which includes taking advantage of whatever trends possible, such as the current health food craze--replacing real sugar and fat with chemicals because Americans don't seem to care as much about actual health as they do about their waistlines. Filling junk food with vitamins. Teaching us that we don't have time to cook, so get your nutrients from this factory-made vitamin. Teaching us that nothing need be special anymore, you can have your cake and eat it too, and however many and as often as you like! 

I'd rather spend my time on something more positive. I'd rather give you inspiration. I'd rather relate with you, telling stories about my trials and tribulations trying to feed my family and myself. I'd rather teach you how to achieve health AND delicious happiness in your home with your own two hands. I'd rather convince you that you absolutely do have the time and skill to overcome any food obstacle in your home and show you exactly how.

So...right-hand raised, I promise to do my best not to preach...but to strive to be an inspiration, an example, a friend.

Keep your fingers crossed ;)

Kisses and well-wishes,

Barefoot Momma

New Year, New Changes

I've been absent for a long time. I've only made two posts in the past two years, how is that even possible!?

How, you ask? Well...a LOT has happened.

After B and I got married, we started looking for a house to buy (if that's not a second full-time job--oops I mean third, behind parenthood AND a career--I don't know what is!). Once we got the house, renovations started. And I'm talking DIY renovations of horror (thank god for parents who know how to put a house back together!), but I won't go into the details. Then I got pregnant while the house and yard were still a fairly disorganized disaster. Then we (and by 'we' I mean with major and incredible help from my parents, again) got the house in mostly working, mostly pretty order. And then I had the baby! Little A. The tiniest, sweetest little dumpling ever around with cheeks as soft as pizza dough, eyes as big as the moon, and a smile as precious as...the most precious thing you could possibly think of! ;)

And with all these new life changes came a fireball of stress the size of the sun.

When we started renovating the house, I was absent from home a lot longer. The first two months of ownership, we still lived in our rental. So that meant, instead of coming home from work, I often went to the new house to work. And instead of being home on the weekends, I was working at the new house. Removing wallpaper (something that should be illegal to put on your walls), painting, sanding wood, sanding spackle, who knows what else. Suddenly, I had very little time to cook.

Then, when we moved into the house, we didn't have a fully working kitchen. We had the ovens (yes, a double-oven, woo!) and the fridge, but that's about it! No countertops, no cooktops, no dishwasher, no SINK. How do you prep food with no counters? How do you wash utensils and cookware and dishes without a dishwasher or sink!? We had to commit to my worst nightmare...frozen food and paper plates. It was not a wonderful time, to say the least.

And even once we got the kitchen in order, there was still so much work to do. Then there was the pregnancy and the fact that I was exhausted on a constant basis and Billy was rarely home in the evenings to help out when I was just too tired to make a real meal.

Incredibly long story a little bit shorter...I have faltered. I lost touch with the family meal I had preached about for so long and executed well enough so often. That's not to say I didn't do a perfectly good job--I've still made sure my daughter eats nutritious foods, but my husband and I...maybe not so much.

But, with a new year and a lot of reading (Parenting without Borders, The Lost Art of Feeding Kids, among others), I've been re-inspired and re-determined to get my family back on track.

And I want to provide as much help to other parents (or just hard workers!) as I possibly can :)

I'm so excited to be back on this journey and to take you along with me! Cheers to a wonderful new year!