Box of Treats: Butternut Squash

The other day in the grocery store, I found myself looking at some organic grapes. They were expensive, but looked very good so I decided to splurge and buy them. A day later at home, I opened up the package and found the grapes to be covered with mold.

Ideally, I would like to buy locally produced organic fruits and vegetables for my family to eat, but in my hectic, non-stop busy world, I simply don’t always have the time to make an extra stop at a farmer’s market or specialty store. Sometimes I force myself to make the time but most weeks it simply gets in the way of soccer practice or ballet class schedules. I end up looking for organic produce at my regular grocery store which is often over priced and simply not that fresh. Fortunately, many organic farms are embracing the concept of selling a box of organic fruit and vegetables that are locally grown, once a week. I just signed up for a 15 week CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription through our local preschool for a weekly box of treats.

The concept is fantastic. I don’t have to go to a special market for organic produce and I don’t even have to decide what fruit and vegetables to purchase (the mix has been decided for me based on what is ripe). As I pick up my box for the week I am delighted by the surprise mix of organic fruits and vegetables. If I find myself with a vegetable that I don’t typically cook, I am forced to try new recipes and figure out new ways to incorporate the unfamiliar vegetable in to our meals and snacks. Some might find this stressful, but I see it is a fun challenge that will keep my whole family eating healthy and trying new things.

This week there were three large butternut squash in my box of treats. I love butternut squash when I can purchase it peeled and sliced into chunks ready for steaming or baking. But when I am shopping for vegetables and come across whole butternut squash, my lazy side kicks in and I typically keep walking. Sad, I know. But, here I was with three beautiful squash in my kitchen, already paid for. “How many ways can I cook this,” I thought.

The first one I peeled, sliced and steamed and then offered it to my kids for an afternoon snack. My kids are accustomed to eating sweet potato in this way so when my daughter asked what it was, I responded with “it is just like sweet potato.” Only after they had tasted the squash and determined that they liked it and asked for more did I tell them it was called butternut squash.

The second one I peeled, sliced and steamed but this time I pureed it into soup. My kids wouldn’t taste it (they are not big on soups), but my husband and I enjoyed it.

The third squash I decided to bake. I am more found of savory squash rather than sweet or with nutmeg so I baked it with butter and salt. I scraped out the baked squash, mashed it with butter and salt and served it as a side dish for dinner. My kids have a hard time with the mashed consistency so I didn’t get many takers.

Stay tuned for more recipes and ideas that come to mind as I open my weekly box of treats.

The Independent Kindergartener

When I think about getting my kids to eat nutritious food, in the back of my mind I know that one day my kids will grow up and be faced with making decisions about what to eat on their own. Right now I decide what’s for dinner, I let them know what the options are for breakfast each morning and I am the one who packs their lunch. I know that teaching my kids about what it means to eat nutritious food is just as important as getting them to consume it. One day I won’t be there, looking over my daughter’s shoulder, to guide her in her food choices. All of this I know will happen one day. I just didn’t realize that day was today.

“Sweetie how come you are not drinking any water from your thermos during lunch?” I ask my 5 year old after her first two weeks of kindergarten as I unpack her lunchbox at the end of the day.

“Oh I don’t need my thermos, Mom,” she replies with the attitude of a teenager. “I like to get chocolate milk instead.”

“You BUY chocolate milk every day?” I ask in amazement.

“Yes, its sooooo fun, mom,” she responds with a smile.

“But I don’t give you any money,” I wonder aloud, “so how are you buying milk without any money?”

“My teacher asks us if we want to get milk,” my daughter explains, “so I get in line and pick my milk.”

“And then what,” I coax her to tell me more.

“Then I stand in line and I give the lady my number, 40655, and then I go sit down and eat my lunch and drink my chocolate milk.”

There you have it. Just like that the chord of nutrition control had been severed the minute I enrolled my daughter into kindergarten and the teacher handed out student ID numbers for making purchases at lunch time to be billed to the parents at the end of the month. Now, it’s my daughter’s choice. Sure, I can still guide and advise her. But at the end of the day, or in the middle of the day, I should say, it is my 5-year-old, standing in the school lunch line, choosing what she wants to drink. All of a sudden it is no longer about only giving her healthy choices. She has met the school lunch line and now it is up to her to make healthy choices on her own. Of course, I can lobby to improve school lunches and do away with flavored milk. I plan to participate in the PTA committee for school wellness and bring about healthy changes in the years to come. But I also have to deal with the reality of today – my daughter purchasing high fructose corn syrup chocolate milk for lunch.

Just before bedtime that night I call my daughter over to me for a serious talk. We talk about drinking regular milk and how it is good for your body. We talk about chocolate milk that she has at home (in small portions and without the high fructose corn syrup) when she can brush her teeth right after so the chocolate doesn’t sit on her teeth all day and give her cavities. I tell her about how she eats many treats but ones that are approved by me and not necessarily consumed during school. We talk about how she needs healthy food to give her energy and keep her awake so she can learn and play at school. Most importantly, we talk about making healthy choices that are right for her, rather than just doing what everyone else does.

I have no idea how much of our talk got through to my daughter. And of course, drinking chocolate milk at lunch is not the end of the world. But it is the tip of an iceberg that is lurking beneath my feet. The tip of unhealthy habits may seem innocent and inconsequential, but I know better. My gut tells me that giving in to high fructose corn syrup drinks at lunch for a 5-year-old will only pave the way for more unhealthy habits to come. I know that if I stand my ground for nutrition over empty calories, she will feel better, have more energy and develop a taste for more healthy food down the road.

Easy Yogurt Muffins

I don’t bake. Or at least I don’t enjoy baking. It’s true. Just ask my friends. When we have people over for dinner and they ask what to bring, I tell them dessert. At a friend’s house one day my 4-year-old discovered that baking cookies didn’t mean slicing up batter from a shrink-wrapped package. It’s not that I am so bad at baking. It’s only that I don’t enjoy the process. I love to cook. I love to put together a little of this and a little of that and come up with something new and tasty. I find chopping vegetables at the end of the day to be calming and therapeutic. Getting out the flour and sugar and mixing bowls is just more of a chore than I am usually up for.

My daughter, however, loves sweets. If I don’t bake then she will eat sweets baked someplace else with most likely more high fructose corn syrup, sugar or trans fat than I would like. So...I moved the flour and mixing bowls to a more convenient location in my kitchen and decided to make the effort to bake more often.

Here’s a recipe that I found online and then changed a little here and a little there to make it my own. I encourage you to do the same. Feel free to add blueberries or chocolate chips. My son likes them plain so we eat them as a breakfast treat. Enjoy!
Easy Yogurt Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup (8oz.) vanilla flavored yogurt (if you use plain yogurt, you might want to add a little more sugar)
1 egg
(optional: chocolate chips or blueberries)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Beat egg, yogurt and oil in a small mixing bowl. Add wet mixture to dry and mix together. Spoon batter into muffin cups with paper lines. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a drying rack. Makes 12 muffins.

Less Hide, More Seek

Someone just brought up the concept of hiding vegetables in our kid’s food. I have to say that I am not a fan of this approach to getting kids to eat vegetables. I do not think hiding vegetables in other “kid-friendly” food is the answer to getting kids to eat nutritious food. As a mother, I do not have the time nor desire to play veggie-dress-up in the kitchen every day.

I say let cookies be cookies and vegetables be vegetables. If we don’t teach our children what a carrot looks like, tastes like and how it makes our body feel, there is no way our kids will grow up eating vegetables. Sure, hiding vegetables in cookies will give your kid one serving of vegetables today, but what about tomorrow when you aren’t there to offer your special veggie-cookies? I think eating healthy should have more long term goals than today’s daily dose.

The way to get kids to eat vegetables is to teach them how they look, feel and taste – vegetables are yummy, not yucky. Teach kids what nutritious food tastes like so they will grow up to make healthy choices for themselves.

When it comes to nutritious food, a little less hide and little more seek is always the way to go.

A Veggie Vacation

My family and I just spent a week vacationing at a remote, camp-like ranch in the woods. We slept in rustic cabins with minimal plumbing and electricity and spent the days swimming in the pool and nearby river, playing tennis, kickball and shuffleboard and taking pony rides. My husband and I had a great time and so did our two kids. But the one thing that comes with this kind of communal living is communal dining. All of our meals were served family style in the dining hall cabin. When it was time to eat, an enormous bell was rung and all the kids and adults came running from all corners of the ranch.


Don’t get me wrong. The food was great. It was brought in fresh, cooked in the kitchen cabin and served on big platters at large tables. I enjoyed the meatloaf supper, BLT lunch and fajita night. In fact, I ate so well that I probably gained a few pounds, never mind appreciated having someone else cook for me. But my kids are different story. If they don’t like what is on the table, they will eat potato chips and drink lemonade and call that lunch. Or, they will eat rolls and chocolate pudding and call that supper. I’m okay when that kind of “you get what you get kid-dining” occurs once in a while. But when it goes on for an entire week, we have a problem.
To be honest, it’s not the lack of nutrition that bothers me the most. It is the direct effect that poor nutrition has on my kids’ behavior. Cranky kids make cranky parents. If my kids start whining and crying at the drop of a hat, my mood goes south and so does my sense of vacation. I give my kids healthy snacks in order to ward off bad behavior. Sure I want my kids to eat nutritious food so they will grow up to be healthy kids and adults. But my immediate concern is more selfish than that. I want to get through the day with as few tantrums and meltdowns as possible. What’s my solution? Feed them healthy snacks BEFORE they fall apart.

So, here I was, about to embark on a week-long vacation of communal dining. I played out the scenario before it even began. The kids pick at the food during meal time and fill up on cookies, potato chips and ice cream afterwards. Soon their behavior deteriorates which requires me to yell more, administer numerous time-outs and eventually no one is having any fun, including myself. Before we even go down that road, I decide I need an alternate plan. In order to have a good time on this trip I need to bring my own supply of nutritious food that I know my kids will eat to supplement whatever is being served in the dining hall. But how can I do that if I won’t have a kitchen?

Well, I started with what I did have: my own family cabin with electricity, a mini-fridge and running water. I decided to purchase a small rice cooker with a steaming basket for under $15. I figured with this little gadget I could steam vegetables, cook pasta and rice with just a little water and an electrical current.

And so I did. In the evening after the kids went to sleep or during nap time in our cabin, I steamed carrots or broccoli and made rice or pasta and then packed it up to store in our mini-fridge for the next day. I gave the veggies to my kids for late afternoon snacks before dinner time and, depending on the menu, sometimes brought the pasta or rice (and sometimes a can of black beans) to the dining hall to add to their plate during meals.

My solution wasn’t perfect but it got the job done. My kids received their daily dose of vegetables via snacks between meals and always had something nutritious on their plate that they liked in the dining hall. This kind of home-made supplemental nutrition had the desired effect that I was going for. My kids’ junk food snacking was kept to a minimum and their over-all mood swings remained somewhat balanced. Okay, so you can’t solve all of your tantrum problems, but it is worth a try. Happy summer vacation!




VEGGIE VACATION TIPS:

1. Skip the fast food dining as much as possible when on a road trip. Try stopping at a rest stop instead. Picnic outside and make your own PB&J sandwiches.

2. After a potty stop, get the kids moving. Try leading 5 minutes of family stretching, jumping jacks and running in place. You will look very silly, but laughing is also a good way to get the blood flowing.

3. If you are not cooking your own meals, find a way to prepare veggie snacks to supplement in between less nutritious meals.

4. Don’t over-sugar your kids just because you are on vacation. Limit desserts to a reasonable number and proportion.

5. Remember that even on a road trip or at the beach, well-timed nutritious snacks can help ward off bad behavior and meltdowns. Whether the kids are watching movies in the car all day or very active outside, they still need nutritious snacks to keep them going.

6. When bedtime gets pushed later than normal, remember that kids still need to clock in their sleep. Enforce an afternoon nap time or rest time to keep them from falling apart with exhaustion. Or, adopt an early bedtime every other night to counteract the late nights.

7. Relax. This is your vacation too! Do what you need to do to make it fun for everyone.

Playground Snack of the Day

Snack time is an untapped opportunity to put real nutrition into young kids’ growing bodies. Some kids will pick at the food on their meal time plate but munch on snacks all day long. I’m not one for cutting out snacks. So then why not bring the nutritious food out as a snack if that’s when your kid is hungry?


What’s a nutritious snack? Snacks don’t have to be pre-packaged. Just pick a food that you might serve for a meal and present it as a snack. Steamed vegetables, raw vegetables, fruit and nuts make excellent snacks.

I call it the Playground Snack because it is a food item offered after the child has been running around working up an appetite. Now is the time to offer nutritious food – when your child needs it. Don’t wait until dinner when your child is tired and her attention span is diminishing. Offer real food throughout the day when your child turns to you and asks for a snack. Bring real food out of the kitchen and onto the playground for nutritious snacking.

Check out my Guest Blog at the W.H.O.L.E. Gang (Whole, Healthy, Organic Living Everyday)
for Steamed Sweet Potato Snack
Steamed Sweet Potato Snack

Forks On The Left

Meals aren’t just about the food. Nor are they just about the actual time it takes to consume the food. Meals include a before, during and after the actual eating. Meals are prepared for, the table is set, we come to the table, we eat, and then we clean up. That is a meal.
Getting my kids to sit down for a meal and behave themselves is not an easy task and is rarely pulled off without a hitch. But if I somehow combine my kids’ desire to exert their independence and contribute to the meal time experience, they are more likely to behave. If I do the simple act of letting my kids help bring the meal into existence, then they are proud of it and their role in its making.

I read a lot of blogs and books about getting kids to help out in the kitchen and let them cook with you. I think this concept is fantastic and my kids certainly love helping me cook dinner. But let’s be honest here, not every day is a “let’s all cook together” day at my house. I mean, letting my kids help me with the actual cooking is an activity in itself. I enjoy it and try to do it as often as possible, but most of the time I would rather just do it myself while my kids are playing in another room. Sure my son may run in to the kitchen and ask to give the pasta a stir, but there are other ways kids can help out without standing over hot pots or chopping raw vegetables.

Setting the table is the ritual where the table is prepared for the meal where food and family to come together to eat. It is a task that is rooted in traditions and governed by rules and etiquette. But setting the table, for a young child, also has room for interpretation, spontaneity, and individual flare.

“Mommy, can I help you make dinner?” my 5 year old will ask. “Mommy I am hungry,” my 3 year old will tell me as I am finishing up dinner preparations. “Why don’t you both set the table,” I often say to them. “You put out the plates and you do the forks and napkins.” Some nights this plan results in fights over who gets what plate or which fork or who is sitting next to whom. But most nights my kids go about their table-setting chores with a sense of responsibility and pride. Sure, sometimes not everyone gets a fork or the napkins are on top of the silverware. As a parent, I learn to overlook quite a few details for an overall positive effect.

Setting the table doesn’t only have to happen at the table. Sometimes I wonder why my kids enjoy tea parties and picnics so much. Certainly it’s not only for the love of tea or going outside. No, my kids love to play tea party and picnic because they enjoy setting the table. Whether it is with a play set of fine china or paper plates on a picnic blanket, my kids want to prepare for the food to come, even if it is just pretend. We have bottom drawer in the kitchen with plastic containers, plastic cups and paper plates leftover from previous birthday parties, etc. One of my kids’ favorite make-believe games is literally passing out plates and cups. Sometimes they will find a few birthday hats to go with the place settings. Now we really have a party!

So what does that have to do with food and dinner and eating as a family? As a parent, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to get my kids to sit at the table and behave themselves. At the end of the day, nothing I say or do will glue their rear ends to the seat and make them stop fidgeting. My other realization is that I cannot do everything myself. By combining my need for a little help in the kitchen and my kids' desire to do things on their own , usually we end up with a more pleasant meal. Mom is less frantic and the kids feel proud of their work. It would be nice if the forks ended up on the left, but if they are on the right or someplace in between, I smile at my proud 3-year-old and am thankful for whatever calm moments at the dinner table I can get.