Ideally

I am an idealist. I write as if the world is perfect and in a perfect world, there are certain things that should be done. However, in this real world of ours, I know that everyone has their own set of circumstances, and cannot always follow ideals. My hope is that I give you enough information to be able to use in your own set of circumstances.

Ideally, you were raised on zucchini, butternut squash, spinach and a great diversity of other wonderful vegetables. If you were, great! You will love the following recipes. If you weren't like I wasn't, give them a try. I have made up these recipes or adjusted recipes I had to make them more delicious and palatable for even a picky eater. Even if you think your child will turn up their nose at your hard work, try them yourself. If they see you eating and enjoying them, it will make a difference to them. The more you put these very nutritious vegetables in front of them, the more likely they will begin to like them.

When I worked for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), I had a poster in my office that showed a child with a plate of broccoli in 10 different pictures. The captions went something like, "See it" with her nose turned up in the first couple, "Smell it" in the next two, then "Touch it", "Taste it", and finally "Eat it" in the last picture where she was happily chewing a big bite. It may even take longer than ten attempts at getting them to eat a new food, but you have to do your part by putting it on their plate. Begin to make these kinds of foods, fresh vegetables, more the norm, and sugary, calorie laden foods more of the exception.

Tip #1: reduce the amount of highly processed "junk food" in your kitchen. Make fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts available to you and your kids. I like to have a minimum of three different fresh fruits for them to choose from for snacks in the fridge or on the counter. You may find it helpful to have them pick out which ones they want when you go to the grocery store.
Tip #2: if you prepare a new food for a child (or a picky husband), and they won't try it, or they take a bite and say they don't like it, the worse thing you can do is to not ever prepare that food again. Here we go with the ideals...ideally, each time you fix it, your child becomes more and more apt to like the food.
Tip #3: make up a rule (and stick to it)...ours is you can leave one food on your plate, but you have to at least try everything. This, of course, means that you have to make more than one type of vegetable or serve a fresh fruit with your meal. Try not to make an enemy out of any one food--then it is just a contest of wills!


Recipes:

I have tried different recipes for creamed spinach, and they were either too bitter or not flavorful enough. Thus, I made up my own...not to toot my own horn, but it is good! As a bonus, the next day it is great in an omelet.

Creamed Spinach

¼ lb. Pancetta, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoon butter
½ c. onion, minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 lb. fresh spinach, cleaned, drained and chopped
½ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup Parmesan, shredded

Chop the pancetta and fry in 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels. Add butter and the rest of the olive oil. Add onions and cook on medium heat stirring often until soft. Add garlic and cook until beginning to turn light brown. Add spinach and saute for 3 minutes, stirring often. Add cream and take off the heat. Add the shredded parmesan, and stir to combine. Enjoy.


The following zucchini recipe is the bomb! I buy a big wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano at Costco that I use for many recipes, but not this one! It works best with the cheaper grated stuff.

Baked Zucchini Sticks with Parmesan Crust

6 T. butter, melted
2 zucchini, medium size
¼ c. flour, salted and peppered
¼ c. panko bread crumbs (use regular ones if you don't have panko)
¼ c. grated parmesan, cheap kind

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut zucchini into 3 inch sticks, thick cut. Dip in flour, then butter, then mixture of panko and parmesan. Place on baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with marinara or pesto for dipping.


If you have never had butternut squash, you are missing out. It is sweet and almost creamy. This is an easy recipe--the hardest part is peeling the skin off the squash.

Roasted Butternut Squash

1 small butternut squash
3 tablespoons or so of olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425. To prepare the squash, cut it in half. With the cut side down on your cutting board, peel the skin off using a vegetable peeler or a knife. Then cut both sides in half. Scoop out the seeds, and dice into small 1/2 in. cubes. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with the oil. Then sprinkle on the salt and pepper and mix with clean hands. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until tender and brown on the edges.

Butter, YUM!

I believe in eating everything that grows in or on this earth in moderation. I believe that anything we adulterate is bad. Webster defines adulterate as, "to make impure by mixing in a foreign or inferior substance." Butter...good, trans-fat margarine...bad. Water...good, sodas...bad. Homemade chocolate chip cookies...good, snack cakes made with chemical preservatives...bad. Oatmeal...good; highly processed, artificially flavored and colored cereal...bad. Seems simple, right? What we do in this country though is pick everything apart, and make fat of any kind bad, or make sugar the culprit, or a lack of Omega 3s, or obsess over protein. We need it all...the fat, the carbs, the protein, the vitamins and minerals and one is not any more important than the other. If you find this hard to believe because you are overweight, and you need to find fault with something, here it is...calories and/or lack of activity. It is that simple.

Maybe you are cursing me right now, but let me give you the good news...you don't have to give up anything with the exception of food that is not really food. We were never meant to eat chemicals, but we do in our sodas, our fast food, our preserved processed foods that will never die. That is not food!

In our house, we eat butter, sugar, salt, oil, dairy, red meat, chicken, beans, flour, grains, pasta, fruit, nuts, and lots of vegetables. We eat dessert, too--cakes, pies, and cookies, but we make them ourselves, and on occasion. We don't deprive ourselves of anything except "chemicals". We don't miss a meal either. We may spend more than most on food, but we spend hardly anything on the doctor.

I try to maintain the mentality of what my ancestors might have eaten. My grandmothers are 100 and 90 years old, and they never worried about getting enough of this vitamin or that nutrient because they ate from the land. They had gardens; they canned for the winters; they killed their own beef and shared it with their neighbors, and when their neighbors killed their cow or pig, they shared too. But they also worked...hard. They got plenty of carbohydrates from their grains, and fresh fruits and vegetables, and plenty of protein and fat from their animals. It was a balanced diet, from the land.

Have you ever heard of perimeter grocery shopping? That is where you buy most of your grocery store items from the perimeter of the store. Meats, fish, produce, and dairy are usually all along the outside walls of the grocery store because they are fresh; they will rot which means they are alive. They were meant to keep us alive.

Enough of my tangent...I hope I have convinced you to eat fresh, whole foods (not specific nutrients), and to eat a variety of everything--not to deify any one food or nutrient or demonize any other. All foods are good--as long as they are really food.

Hide them!

I began writing a new entry about feeding your kids wonderful vegetables like spinach and Brussels sprouts, but my husband thought I should first share my arsenal of tricks that I use to get more vegetables in my kids. Therefore, you will have to wait until tomorrow because I know you are biting at the bit to get my recipes for spinach and Brussels sprouts, not to mention butternut squash and black-eyed peas. Okay, maybe not, but you're going to get it anyway.

If you read my earlier post on flavor, you know that my husband was not raised on any of the aforementioned vegetables (well, occasionally he got some canned black-eyes), and he has a very tangible aversion to onions, and any onion-like substance, so I hide them. I make things like marinara with lots of vegetables that they never have a clue about (because, of course, as I have mentioned earlier, our kids learn from our actions, so now they have an aversion to onions and anything else they have heard him talk negatively about). I make meatballs, meatloaf, soups, spaghetti, casseroles, even desserts with vegetables hidden in them. I have mentioned earlier that I cut my vegetables up very small, and I usually cook them first, so my family doesn't get an unexpected crunch from something. I am not over-exaggerating when I say that you can do this with almost any vegetable, and it will only add to the flavor not detract. Just make sure that it is cut up small and cooked until soft.

Here are some examples: I make a black bean dip with a whole onion in it for my very picky son that he loves. Also, his favorite meal is spaghetti and meat sauce, so I mince up onions, carrots, bell peppers, spinach, whatever I have, cook it in some light olive oil, add the hamburger meat, cook that, and make my sauce (or if in a pinch, I add Ragu's Sun-dried Tomato and Basil marinara). He doesn't have a clue, and if he sees something in it that looks odd, I just say it's an herb. It's not lying, right, as long as it's for his own good? Well, I am not advocating lying to your kids...you tell them whatever you want, but this is just what works for me.

The trick about it really is that the more you get these wonderful, nutritious foods in them, the more their taste buds will acquire an affinity for them. Therefore, when you start putting things like creamed spinach or roasted butternut squash in front of them, they may surprise you with phrases like, "This tastes better than I thought it would."

I could go on about the specific nutrients in each fruit or vegetable, but I don't believe in that. I think you have to ingest a wide variety of "whole" foods (not processed) to get all of the nutrients that we need. We are so blessed in this country to have every type of food available to us, almost year-round...why do we choose these awful, nutrient-deficient foods that do nothing for us except provide calories? I think we all know the answer...it's easier and it's convenient. I am all for ease and convenience, but at what price?

Recipes:

The following black bean recipe can be used for so many things. Many Hispanics eat these in the mornings for breakfast. We like them with homemade tortilla chips, on tostadas, tacos, soft tacos, burritos, or just as a side item.

1 large onion, minced which means chopped until very small pieces
2 tablespoons light olive oil
2 cups cooked black beans (rinsed if using canned)
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a skillet (I like cast iron; you actually get more iron in your diet this way). Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until browned or caramelized. Add the beans and water and mash with a potato masher. If you want it smooth, you can use a blender (just add more water), or a food processor. Then pour back into the skillet to heat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.