A little more from Joy Bauer
April 12, 2010 - 06:09 AM Filed in: Food Tips
Are “Kid Friendly” Foods a Defeat?
By LISA BELKIN
A publisher sent me the galleys of the wrong book a few months ago. William Morrow meant to send me a parenting book to review, but instead a cookbook arrived in the mail.
Called “Slim and Scrumptious,” with a sleek photo of its author, the nutritionist Joy Bauer, on the cover, I figured it was a book about low-cal entertaining, and I left it on the kitchen counter unread. Later that night I came down and found that my son had dog-eared the recipes he hoped I would make. Mac and cheese, chicken-lettuce wraps, pork fajitas, sesame chicken, spaghetti Bolognese, hamburgers, chocolate pudding. Seems this was a book of healthy versions of recipes that kids would eat — sophisticated, slimmed down versions, at that — and since that day we have systematically made every dish my son prescreened. The only people happier than the children at our house are the adults.
Like practically every family in the United States, we struggle with balancing healthy food with kid-friendly food and adult-palate food with easy-to-get-on-the-table food. Apparently Bauer, who is a private-nutrition consultant, as well as a regular health-and-diet contributor to the “Today Show,” has the same struggles at her house. The book I received by mistake is out in stores today, and I interviewed her recently about how to fill the needs of everyone in the family at once.
Q.
Are “kid foods” a defeat? It feels like shortchanging my children — nutritionally, aesthetically — to serve macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers. On the other hand, it seems to be all they will eat.
Don’t feel guilty about serving standard kid fare. The fact is, most children have very different palates than adults. Strong tastes — onions, garlic, spices, sharp cheese, bitter vegetables and the like — aren’t usually well received. Kids do better with more neutral-flavored foods like chicken, pasta, rice and mild cheeses. And, let’s face it, as parents we all appreciate the convenience of frozen or packaged foods, especially on busy weeknights.
Here’s my advice when it comes to tackling this issue. Try to limit convenience or packaged foods, such as frozen chicken nuggets and pizza, to two to three nights a week. Look for brands with clean ingredients that are low in saturated fat and salt. At the same time, and most importantly, learn to prepare healthier, homemade versions of these very same foods in your own kitchen using lean meats, low-fat dairy, whole grains and added vegetables.
For example, use lean ground turkey meat for burgers, tacos and meatballs. And whip up kid-friendly mac and cheese using whole-grain pasta, 2 percent reduced fat cheddar cheese and skim milk. Make delicious low-fat fries by cutting up white and sweet potatoes into strips, misting them with olive or canola oil and baking them in the oven. And no matter what you cook as your main fare, always try to serve additional vegetables on the side and use gentle encouragement to get your kids to try them.
Lastly, don’t rely on “kid foods” every night of the week. Continually try out new foods and recipes — healthy renditions of beef or shrimp stir-fry, chicken parm, even hoisen-glazed salmon — and make it a policy for your kids to take at least one bite. If you encourage them to sample new foods regularly as they grow older and their taste buds evolve, they’ll be more likely to enjoy a healthy variety. You may have to try some foods over and over before they meet approval, but eventually your kids might even start requesting them.
By LISA BELKIN
A publisher sent me the galleys of the wrong book a few months ago. William Morrow meant to send me a parenting book to review, but instead a cookbook arrived in the mail.
Called “Slim and Scrumptious,” with a sleek photo of its author, the nutritionist Joy Bauer, on the cover, I figured it was a book about low-cal entertaining, and I left it on the kitchen counter unread. Later that night I came down and found that my son had dog-eared the recipes he hoped I would make. Mac and cheese, chicken-lettuce wraps, pork fajitas, sesame chicken, spaghetti Bolognese, hamburgers, chocolate pudding. Seems this was a book of healthy versions of recipes that kids would eat — sophisticated, slimmed down versions, at that — and since that day we have systematically made every dish my son prescreened. The only people happier than the children at our house are the adults.
Like practically every family in the United States, we struggle with balancing healthy food with kid-friendly food and adult-palate food with easy-to-get-on-the-table food. Apparently Bauer, who is a private-nutrition consultant, as well as a regular health-and-diet contributor to the “Today Show,” has the same struggles at her house. The book I received by mistake is out in stores today, and I interviewed her recently about how to fill the needs of everyone in the family at once.
Q.
Are “kid foods” a defeat? It feels like shortchanging my children — nutritionally, aesthetically — to serve macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers. On the other hand, it seems to be all they will eat.
Don’t feel guilty about serving standard kid fare. The fact is, most children have very different palates than adults. Strong tastes — onions, garlic, spices, sharp cheese, bitter vegetables and the like — aren’t usually well received. Kids do better with more neutral-flavored foods like chicken, pasta, rice and mild cheeses. And, let’s face it, as parents we all appreciate the convenience of frozen or packaged foods, especially on busy weeknights.
Here’s my advice when it comes to tackling this issue. Try to limit convenience or packaged foods, such as frozen chicken nuggets and pizza, to two to three nights a week. Look for brands with clean ingredients that are low in saturated fat and salt. At the same time, and most importantly, learn to prepare healthier, homemade versions of these very same foods in your own kitchen using lean meats, low-fat dairy, whole grains and added vegetables.
For example, use lean ground turkey meat for burgers, tacos and meatballs. And whip up kid-friendly mac and cheese using whole-grain pasta, 2 percent reduced fat cheddar cheese and skim milk. Make delicious low-fat fries by cutting up white and sweet potatoes into strips, misting them with olive or canola oil and baking them in the oven. And no matter what you cook as your main fare, always try to serve additional vegetables on the side and use gentle encouragement to get your kids to try them.
Lastly, don’t rely on “kid foods” every night of the week. Continually try out new foods and recipes — healthy renditions of beef or shrimp stir-fry, chicken parm, even hoisen-glazed salmon — and make it a policy for your kids to take at least one bite. If you encourage them to sample new foods regularly as they grow older and their taste buds evolve, they’ll be more likely to enjoy a healthy variety. You may have to try some foods over and over before they meet approval, but eventually your kids might even start requesting them.
0 Comments