Day 3 of the S Policy and all is well. Reminder of the S Policy: no snacks, no sweets, no seconds. I have to admit that we’ve modified it a little, e.g. carrots and grape tomatoes before dinner are okay; fruit after dinner is okay; and for the kids, we aren’t doing it 100%, which brings me to a key question: what are the best ways to manage kids and snacks and eating well? My kids are hungry at 4:30 pm, so I’ve taken to giving them almost a meal then, and then giving them less food when we sit down to dinner. We have also been vulnerable to what I’ll call the “Pirate’s Booty Phenomenon,” which is that so-called healthy snacks are okay. They aren’t really, and one of my new goals is to increase the homemade snacks (or just the homemade food generally) and decrease the processed ones. We’re not rigid about this — how can we be, given time constraints and given the culture of the world outside of our home. Once kids hit the b-day party age (or enter school), it’s tough to control all the food. What’s also tough is the feeling (sometimes) that you and your school aren’t in alignment on these things.
Now, about that contest! This is also an experiment — a way to see whether anyone is out there. I will send the person who comes up with the best healthy kid snack suggestion (to be judged by me!) or the best school food story (an account of something wonderful happening in a school around food, e.g. a unit in a science class that focuses on nutrition and helps kids to understand why it matters what they put in their bodies; unit concludes with an international food festival in which kids bring in healthy foods and provide nutritional info on their offerings) a copy of Michael Pollan’s new (and very short and readable) book FOOD RULES.
To increase your interest, here’s one of the “rules” in the book: “Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not. Imitation butter–aka margarine–is the classic example. To make something like nonfat cream cheese that contains neither cream nor cheese requires an extreme degree of processing; such products should be labeled as imitations and avoided. The same rule applies to soy-based mock meats, artificial sweeteners, and fake fats and starches.”
You can have 63 more of these facts just by entering and winning this fat-free low sodium organic contest! The contest will run until Wednesday, February 17; winner announced on the 18th. Yay!
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Invented this for my parrot and discovered it’s delicious for people, too:
she loves peanut butter on celery but licked off all the p.b. and threw celery on floor–so I apply organic p.b. (no additives) to head of a broccoli stalk. It works down among the flowerets, can’t be licked off, and is downright yummy. Try it!
Granted, my first idea involves having a tub of homemade tomato sauce in your fridge, but since you can make the sauce on the weekend (and it keeps literally for weeks because of the acidity), I’ll go ahead and mention it: make a little homemade pizza by using half an English Muffin (Bays are best for this). Put a thin slice of mozzarella on the muffin, and then top it with the sauce (cheese first, then sauce — it’s the Sicilian way and it makes abundant sense). Then add whatever flourishing touches you like: a sprinkle of oregano, a bit of grated Parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil. Put it in the toaster oven until it’s bubbly and crisp.
The second idea is what my mom made for me after school or when I was home sick: cheese quesadillas. We have great local soft flour tortillas here in Chicago, and you just fold it in half with thin slices of cheese inside (my favorite is Manchego) and put it in the toaster oven until the cheese melts and the tortilla just begins to crisp. My mom used to serve it to us with a little salsa verde on the side (you can find bottled versions).
We’re also going through a sort of Japanese phase at our house, and my 12 year-old makes a quick snack for herself: we buy Nishiki sticky rice in individual servings (Treasure Island and Peapod carry them), which you heat up in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. Lydia turns it out into a Japanese bowl, sprinkles it with Nori Fumi Furikake (seaweed flakes and sesame seeds) and eats it with chopsticks. (The rice seasoning is also available at Treasure Island, and it’s a great brand because it doesn’t have any additives.)
Well, I’m in a different boat here. My kids dance 2-3 hours straight in the evening and they have BMIs in the single digits so we are more about maximizing the caloric intake. But I hate to have them fill up on junk so our after school rule is no boxes bags or cartons. You have to eat something that’s really food–fruit, vegetable, sandwich, milk etc.
On dance days, I make dinner when I’m fixing my lunch. After school they eat one helping of dinner plus milk. We keep the rest of dinner in the warming oven and they dance while I walk or bike. After dance we sit down together and eat a second helping of dinner. It’s not a perfect solution but for this short time in their lives when they need more than 2,000 calories a day, it’s what works for me because there’s just no way I have time to fix an healthy afterschool snack plus dinner.
Hi!
When I taught elementary school, kids could bring snacks to help with the morning or afternoon lull depending on when we ate lunch. I noticed kids were bringing chips, candy bars, etc. so, here’s what we did (with a nutrition unit). First we had a healthy snack day. Each family that was able signed up to bring a healthy snack. Here are some examples: apples, veggies and dip, 2% cheese and whole wheat crackers, peanut butter and whole wheat crackers, grapes, veggie pizza (made w/crescent rolls), turkey slices, and so on. (We probably should have worried more about processed food, but at the time, I was just worrying about healthy choices–relatively low fat, full of nutritients, and so on.) After this day, we had a healthy snack challenge. Every day at snack time, kids got out what they brought for snacks; and if it was healthy, they put a sticker on a chart by their name. They were allowed to SHARE their snack (if okay with the parents–all information sent home first) with someone else who didn’t have a healthy snack (and I had a few choices too like raisins). So if someone had chips but wanted to trade me for raisins, they could. That person could also put a star on the chart. The point was not who got the most stars but what percentage of the class was eating healthy snacks? You don’t have to take much class time for this with older grades because they become very responsible and just walk right up there, get their sticker, and put it on the chart. I usually corresponded this with a bathroom break, and then while they ate, I read orally to them.
There’s a good recipe for hummus in Bittman’s How to Cook Everything that I use probably once a week. We eat it on everything including fruits, veges, breads, cheese. Easy, keeps well, full of protein, tasty. Baby eats it straight out of the bowl.
I love snacking on tomatos, especially in the summer when they are fresh from the garden.
I treat fixing meals like art class. The more color the better on every plate. Fans of sliced green pears, patches of blueberries, beets, carrots, and yams–how fun are those to arrange on a plate! My little ones love it. It’s like serving up love and good health together, because the healthiest foods are naturally the most beautiful.
Also, every time I pack healthy snacks and hand them around when we’re out and about, or in the car, my girls eat them right up. Without the kitchen nearby to offer sweeter snacks, they eat up the good stuff all the more. So packing ahead to feed them before we arrive home hungry works like a charm.
And one other small thing, when I hand out carrots and tomatoes, I often tell my three, and especially other kids who are with us, “They taste just like candy!” Then while they take their first bites, they think that over, and often like it even more.
(Besides, it’s true!)
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