Healthy Eating

Last week I was watching Oprah and folding laundry. Oprah had Jerry Seinfield's wife on as a guest. (How'd you like to be known as somebodies wife - with no distinct personality?) Anyway Mrs. Seinfield wrote a cook book called "Deceptively Delicious". It came out of her struggle as a mom to get her kids to eat vegetables. She came up with these clever ways to hide vegetables in everything from scrambled eggs to birthday cake to chicken nuggets. She steams and purees vegetables and then matches the vegetable color to the food she's serving. For example, she might add yellow squash puree to scrambled eggs. Her kids don't notice and they get the veggies they need. She says she also serves her kids raw veggies, so they get used to the idea that veggies are a part of a healthy diet. But now she doesn't fight to get them to eat the veggies b/c she knows their hidden in other foods. I'd love to get that book.

Anyway, it got me thinking that most of the moms I know have clever tricks to boost the nutrutional content of the food they serve their kids. Here are some of my tricks, and the some of the tricks I've stolen from my friends.

-Sprinkle Flax Seed meal on oatmeal. I used to disguise this with brown sugar, but now my kids are on to me and they'll eat the flax meal anyway.

-Add frozen blueberries and diced apples to oatmeal. The fruit sweetens oatmeal enough so that you hardly need any sugar at all.

-Make smoothies for my kids snacks using frozen strawberries and protien powder. It tastes sweet, but doesn't mess with their blood sugar.

-My friend, Linette, cooks with ground buffalo instead of beef b/c it is leaner. I use lean ground turkey.

-I bake with sorghum and brown rice flours b/c they're whole grains with more fiber and protien.

-We eat brown rice pasta - it's a complex carb

-My friend Anne has got her boys convinced they're getting a "frosty" but she makes it with real cocoa (flavanoids) and protien powder.

-Natural peanut butter. You never miss the sugar in the PB. Skippy has a kind that's not grainy and doesn't need to be stirred.

-Agave Nectar can replace honey. It is low on the glycemic index and its cheaper than honey too.

-Shred yellow squash, saute and mix with scrambled eggs.

-Add shredded zucchini and carrots to muffin mixes.

-Add pureed cauliflower to mashed potatoes.

-Use unsweetened applesauce to replace oil in baking mixes.

-Add flax meal and protien powder to pancake mix. Top pancakes with berries instead of syrup.

-Mix salsa and tomatoes in with the taco meat.

- Send your husband to work with a box of instant oatmeal or egg beaters and whole grain tortillas (for breakfast burittos) I was worried about Eddie's tryglycerides and his low HDLs. Now he eats oatmeal almost every morning for breakfast, not b/c he's concerned about his health but b/c its so easy.

-Buy OJ with calcium added

-Mix PB, jelly and oatmeal together until its cookie dough consistancy. My kids think I'm letting them eat cookie dough for snacks and its actually full of fiber, protien and relatively low in sugar.

-Go with unsweetened craisins, sugar-free pb, real fruit jams, nautural applesauce, unsalted anything. Little changes add up.

- Teach your kids to read labels, and evaluate the healthy factor for themselves.

-Limit the junk food in your pantry. You it what's convientient. If junk fook is convienient it'll get eaten.

-So that's my best material. Anybody else have some great ideas out there?