Real Food for Healthy Kids

Given every three years, Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards “provide global recognition to the very best in the international food and drink publishing and broadcasting industries.” We have been nominated in the category for Best Children’s Cookbook. The award ceremony is May 3, and is held in Australia so while we have family in Oz we won’t be able to go, as Epicurious is nominated for a fifth consecutive year for the best food web site by the James Beard Foundation and its awards are May 2 in New York (we won it in 2008 & 2009) . Thank you to the judges, and thank you to the readers, for this amazing accolade.

–Tanya

During spring break my family spent some time at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy at the IMG Performance Institute. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. my boys did warm ups, drills, and match play in the hot Florida sun. As my kids aren’t used to the extreme heat, sun, and exercise,  I asked Dr. Sally Parsonage, head of nutrition at the institute, what tips she could give us for healthy snacks and keeping the boys at peak performance:

1) Hydrate properly: Instead of drinking water, refuel with a sports drink like Gatorade or Powerade. If you’re exercising for hours and just drinking water, you are diluting your body fluids and not replacing your electrolyte balance. So, I mixed the kids’ water with a healthy dose of a sports drinks and then served them up at a big glass of pure Gatorade at the end of every day.

2) Eat a diet rich in complex carbs: Pasta, rice, bread and other carbs should make up roughly half of your kid’s daily intake when he or she is exercising a lot because carbs constantly refuel the body. The remainder of the diet should be protein and lots of fibrous, vitamin-rich produce.

3) Have three meals a day plus snacks: Parsonage recommends eating meals two hours before a big day of playing sports and then topping it up with snacks 20 minutes before actual play.

4) Only eat healthy snacks. Bananas, granola bars, an apple, these are perfect snacks for kids to eat during their day of sports. Sugary snacks will only spike their blood sugar up and then bring it rocketing back down, resulting in fatigue and loss of focus.

–Tanya

Say what? New York City Public Schools have passed an amendment barring homemade treats for fundraising efforts but packaged, unhealthy foods are still kosher to sell: As reported in The New York Times City Room blog, ‘”No homemade or unpackaged items are on the list of “approved” foods because “it’s impossible to know what the content is, or what the portion size is,” said Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for infrastructure and portfolio planning, who oversees the regulation.”‘

It’s ridiculous that it’s verboten to sell someone’s homemade brownies or cookies because we can’t decipher the exact calorie count or whether it was made with peanut oil, but selling items like Doritos or Oreo’s are fine. Effectively we are reinforcing to our kids that chemically enhanced fake foods are safer to eat than homemade ones, which are at least made with real ingredients. The simple answer is to sell muffins, cookies, brownies, and quick breads that have less sugar and more whole-wheat flour than the traditional recipes or manufactured versions. Check out our dessert chapter in Real Food for Healthy Kids, or some of the recipes here for healthy options.

–Tanya

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