Real Food for Healthy Kids

Real Food for Healthy Kids has over a dozen healthy cookie recipes, but this one is particularly good for making Christmas cookies:

Simply Splendid Sugar Cookies
King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour is preferable for these yummies. Use festive sprinkles on them if baking them for the holidays.
Prep: 10 minutes plus cooling
Baking: 24 minutes
Speed Limit: 34 mpr
Makes about 40 cookies

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups white whole-wheat flour, such as King Arthur
1 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
White sugar sprinkles, for rolling

1.    Arrange the racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. Get out 2 large cookie sheets and line with parchment paper. Place some white sugar sprinkles in a small bowl.
2.    Prepare dough: Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, baking soda and salt and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Add the flours and mix at low speed until blended, scraping down the bowl once or twice.
3.    Scoop up enough dough to form into a 1-inch ball, rolling between the palms until smooth. Roll the dough ball in sugar sprinkles and then place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat, arranging a dozen coated dough balls evenly spaced on each sheet and then, using a drinking glass, press on dough balls to flatten to about 1/4 inch thick.
4.    Bake cookies about 12 minutes, switching and rotating the pans half way through, until cookies are golden and somewhat firm to the touch. Transfer cookies with a metal spatula to racks and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Cooks’ Note:
You can use chocolate “jimmies” or other sprinkles for coating the cookies before baking. The sugar comes in colors, but we prefer not to use artificial coloring. Coarse sugar sprinkles are available in specialty stores; we like them better than the kind you can typically get at the supermarket. Indiantree.com offers sugar sprinkles that are dyed with vegetable juices—the pink, orange and yellow are particularly pretty.

per cookie:
90 calories, 5g fat (3g saturated), 10g carbohydrates, .5g fiber, 1g protein

I’m thankful I have healthy, happy kids and I am also thankful that they are always willing to try any new food once. They took bites of asiago-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon (loved!), creamed spinach from Real Food for Healthy Kids (liked), sweet potato puree with streusel topping (one loved, one hated), and local goat cheese with smoked salmon on walnut bread (liked not so much). What did you make for Thanksgiving and what did your kids love?–Tanya

Last week Kellogg’s announced their cereals were now boosted with additional vitamins and thus branded items like Cocoa Krispies with a banner that promoted new immunity-boosting properties. Yesterday they agreed to pull those boxes. It’s unfathomable to Tracey and I that a box loaded with sugar and artificial color could be labeled as immunity boosting. Yes, and it also boosts your insulin levels and calories….Here’s to a company realizing they made a mistake and dealing with it promptly.

Tracey and I (and our incredibly excited families) are heading back to Epcot and to the world’s largest and best run food and wine festival. We will be doing cooking demonstrations using recipes from Real Food for Healthy Kids, and offering seminars on how to get kids who are picky eaters to wolf down healthy foods. If you’re there, we will be appearing Friday October 30 through Monday, November 2nd. I know, it’s a tough life….

–Tanya

Tracey and I see alot of tablesettings for kids; almost every major tableware manufacturer makes adorable but pricey bowls, dishes, and utensils for toddlers and babies. But oftentimes, these are made from easy-to-break china, or they feature television characters, making these marketing tools, literally. But Olive Kids is a breed apart. This mom-and-pop company headquartered in New Hampshire makes, among other things, personalized plastic placemats and plates that feature sweet illustrations, bright colors, and your child’s name. While these are not microwave safe (you don’t want to microwave your kids food in any plasticware), these are BPA free, so they are made from the safest plastic around. Plates cost about $23 each, placemats are about $11, and you need to allow about two weeks for delivery.

–Tanya

On Thursday I’m headed to one of my favorite cities, San Francisco, to participate in a number of events at the first ever SF Chefs.Food.Wine festival. Besides hosting Epicurious’ annual Wine.Dine.Donate dinner at E&O Trading Co, and hosting cooking classes on eggs and basque cooking, I will also be doing a cooking demo at Macy’s on Sunday morning in Union Square. The two recipes I will be whipping up are edamame succotash salad and flying saucer chocolate chip cookies; if you’re around come by with your kids!  I will be signing books afterwards.

Before I take off, I will be appearing on the Today Show Tuesday, August 4 in the 10 a.m. hour, cooking some easy recipes that make good use of the beautiful produce at the farmer’s market.

It seems that great minds think alike and we recently were in communication with a similar sounding company, Real Food for Real Kids. Located in Toronto, Canada, this catering company feeds healthy food to regional elementary schools, childcare centers and camps. Their mission: Change the way children eat and understand food; provide children with delicious, healthy, all-natural meals and snacks; reconnect children and families to real food; inspire future generations to make healthier choices, every day; and support local farmers and producers who are as committed to responsible and sustainable business practices as we are. They have some great child-friendly recipes and a lot of good information about nutrition for children. Check them out!

We don’t turn up our noses at premade mixes of certain foods and slice and bake Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough is fine in a pinch but this week’s voluntary recall of the dough due to E. coli contamination reaffirms that making your own is always best. Because of that, I am publishing on our site our delicious, healthier chocolate-chip cookies from our award-winning Real Food for Healthy Kids in our Kid-Friendly Recipe Section. (It’s at the bottom of the page.) Whip up a batch and tell us what you think.