Healthy Menu, Happy Mom

Q: How can I help my children grow up to be healthy eaters?

A: I’d say the thing that I find the most daunting about motherhood is trying to figure out what to feed my son. And it has certainly made me aware of the bad food habits I’ve adopted as an adult.

My son asked for M&Ms for breakfast this week, and not for the first time. Candy is one Pandora’s Box I sure wish I had never opened. He’s small for his age and somewhat picky, so I constantly battle with how to balance getting him to eat anything at all versus holding firm and only offering good stuff.

In my own defense, he’s never actually had M&Ms for breakfast. Except maybe once, and of course now that’s all he remembers.

Healthy eating habits start with us, as the parents, being good role models. My mom and dad were very health-conscious when I was a kid, a little bit ahead of their time, I think. I was the only kid I knew who ever had tofu burgers. We rarely ate red meat, ate nothing fried and had both a salad and a vegetable on the table at dinner every night. Dessert was a special infrequent treat.

Most of my bad habits seem to come from sacrificing healthier, fresh foods for things I can get on the table fast. I’m working on developing new habits for all of us. It’s not always easy.

I think the key to healthier eating is taking a little time to plan ahead and then prep food so it’s ready to eat at a moment’s notice.

For example, if I buy a melon and go home and cut it up that night (doing it in front of mindless TV after the kids are in bed can even make this task fun), we eat it. If I don’t, it seems like I end up throwing it out whole and rotten a week later.

Making a salad every night somehow seems overwhelming to me, so when I do make a salad, I make two nights’ worth and store half. It stays fresh until the next day, or two.

The Crock Pot is a beautiful thing for reducing the chaos in the hour before dinner, too. I put one of our favorite recipes at the end of the column.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a very good website, www.MyPyramid.gov, that has information divided by age to teach children healthy eating habits. It includes posters to print, games the kids can play, and guides, sample menus and other information to help parents plan the family’s meals.

Getting them to eat it is the next challenge.

Vegetables. I read in one of the parenting magazines to always put something green on your child’s plate so that it’s expected and “normal.” Eventually they’ll try it and may even come to like it.

I remember a friend who encouraged her 3-year-old twins by letting them decide which vegetable and fruit they wanted at dinner. They had to have one of each but she prepared a couple options every few days so they had a choice and felt like they were in control.

Another friend’s pre-school has the “goodie tray” filled with fresh fruit and veggies in the middle of the lunch table and the kids can help themselves—and do!

My son is much better with fruit and I try to follow the PBS spot’s “eat a rainbow every day” plan and mix up what I offer him. I try to throw a banana in my bag as a take along snack rather than cookies or something like that. For some reason, he eats bananas better in the car than at home.

Rachael Ray had a great tip for cutting grapes in half (or cherry tomatoes, etc.): take two margarine tub covers, sandwich the grapes in between and run a sharp knife through the middle. It works great!

I generally only buy whole grain breads. Looks and names can be deceiving here though. Check the ingredient list. “Whole” should be the first word in the ingredient list.

I also use brown rice rather than white. After a couple of times, we found that we preferred its texture and nuttier flavor to white rice. Kashi makes a Seven Grain Pilaf that is delicious, but you have to like chewy. I add a little chicken bouillon, garlic, sage, rosemary and thyme to the water.

And there are so many pastas available now made with whole grain and a variety of other healthier ingredients. Their texture can be a little drier, but I don’t notice it as much in baked dishes or salads where it has time to suck up more of the sauce.

Our dentist recommends promoting water as your kids’ go-to drink. Too much fruit juice (the acid) is tough on tooth enamel. And the empty calories reduce the intake of better calories. My cousin keeps a few short water bottles with the caps loosened on the bottom shelf of the fridge door so the kids can help themselves.

There are lots of ideas about making kid-appealing dishes in magazines like Parents, Family Fun or Parenting. And I like the website, www.weelicious.com. You can sign up for the daily email. Some of the recipes are a little too complicated for me, but some look really easy.

In the end, the more exposure kids have to healthy foods, the more they will grow to like them. The rule in my house growing up was, you had to try everything, but if you really hated it you could discretely spit it out in your napkin.

I love most vegetables, so I guess it worked.

Jen’s Crock Pot Beef Stew 

1-1 1/2 lbs. of stew beef

1 small/medium onion

1 package of mushrooms, quartered

4-5 carrots

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1-2 cloves garlic (I use the minced jarred kind)

1 tsp dried rosemary, I crush it up good in my palm first so you don't end up with hard sticks

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

 Cook it in the crock pot for at least three hours on high or let it go all day on low. 

About five minutes before serving, mix in a bag of fresh baby spinach. It wilts very quickly. Serve it on noodles or mashed potatoes.