How to Eat Healthy This Holiday Season

Posted on November 23, 2010 by viviankirkfield

This is a diagram depicting the rise of overwe...

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We’re coming into that dangerous season of overeating, oversnacking and going overboard when it comes to what we put in our mouths. As parents, not only should we oversee what our children are eating…we should also try to be good role models. I actually LOVE junk food…and work really hard to keep most of it out of the house because I know that if it is easily available, it will be eaten by me. There are a few suggestions I have that work for me…I hope they work for you also.

Plan your weekly menus ahead of time…when we get busy as most of us are, failing to plan in this area is almost guaranteed to equal planning to fail. Fast-food, take-out or frozen TV dinners may have their place on occasion…but if you put aside 30 minutes a week to plan some basic well-balanced meals, your family will be eating more healthfully most of the time. This also allows you to maximize on weekly specials at your local stores. And, it gives you more time for other things…like time to read a book or take a bubble bath.
Choose one morning or one afternoon or one evening a week to turn on your oven and use it to prepare casseroles, a roast chicken, baked potatoes, healthy cookies/cakes/muffins. If you are able to put aside several hours on one day for this task, the rest of the week will be a breeze. Refrigerate or freeze what you have prepared and you will have healthy, ready-made meals for most of the week.
Include your family in the planning and preparing…picky or fussy eaters often eat what they help prepare. Children LOVE helping in the kitchen…it builds their confidence and self-esteem.
Think about portions…I truly believe that the large, super-sized meals that many of us eat, at home and in restaurants, are one of the largest contributing factors of childhood obesity. Just because the cereal bowl can hold 2 or 3 cups of cereal doesn’t mean we should fill it to the top…if you read the portion size on the box of cereal, you’ll see it says 1/2 to 1 cup, depending on the type of cereal. Dinner plates are really large…maybe you can use smaller plates when serving.
Remember to keep hydrated…I know that when I get busy, I forget to drink enough water…and then I think I am hungry and eat a couple of cookies, at 100 calories each, when what my body really wants is a glass of water. With NO calories! Also, try to nix the soda…full of empty calories and not much else except a college education for your dentist’s children.
Plan to have healthy snacks ready for hungry children and yourself between meals like carrot sticks and humus or apple slices and almond butter. Again, if we don’t plan ahead, we will probably grab the first thing we see…and that might be cookies or chips.
If it works with your schedule, try eating 6 smaller meals, instead of the traditional 3. When we are REALLY hungry, we tend to eat more than we should because we eat quickly and our internal hunger regulator doesn’t have time to kick in to tell us we are full. And, on the subject of full, try to stop eating BEFORE you feel full…if you feel full, you’ve had too much. This always happens to me when I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet…and I am never a happy camper afterwards.
Make sure you do allow yourself and your family some special food treats that are part of your holiday traditions or customs…denying oneself EVERYTHING we love is a sure way to feel deprived…and that often leads to overeating, oversnacking and going overboard. I actually have a small ice-cream (made with fat-free frozen yogurt, a handful of homemade granola and a few almonds) every night after dinner. I look forward to it and enjoy it immensely…it is my reward to myself for a good day’s work…and, so far, I haven’t had to hide the scale.

Cooking With Preschoolers

Posted on October 26, 2010 by viviankirkfield

Cooking is one of the best activities for preschoolers. It builds their self-esteem as they master tasks and skills, mixing and measuring the ingredients. It teaches them about the foods they eat so they can make better food choices as they grow up. It encourages them to try new foods as they prepare various recipes, expanding their food horizons. Most importantly, they love to do it and cooking with your preschooler helps create a life-long parent-child bond.

Cooking with preschoolers is a passion of mine which is why my new parenting book provides 100 child-friendly healthful recipes and 100 age-appropriate, eco-friendly craft projects, in addition to pinpointing 100 picture books every young child should hear. The cooking experience is crucial because with each recipe your preschooler helps prepare, he gains confidence and competence and his sense of self-worth grows.

What ingredients should we use? The best that we can, of course! If you are able to purchase organic, locally grown, in-season produce…I’d encourage you to do that…I believe such ingredients will add immense benefits to your entire family while creating a less damaging impact on our planet. Organic or not, just make sure everything is fresh (check dates on dairy and other items…sometimes stores miss removing out-of-date stuff) and whether it is a snack or a meal, we want to provide low-fat, low sugar and high fiber combinations that are packed with nutrition. It’s important that they taste good also. However, taste is learned and we need to be careful of what we say and of our facial expressions when we are eating…many children develop food dislikes when they see a parent shunning a particular food.

Cooking with preschoolers is a great time to teach proper hand washing procedures. Make sure hands are washed before and during the food preparation process, especially if hands have touched raw meat or poultry. And definitely exercise caution during the cooking experience…preschoolers should be pouring and mixing the ingredients in the bowls, not stirring the pot on the stove. Any cutting with sharp knives needs to be done by the parent or other responsible adult.

I just came back from a wonderful week in New Hampshire…the New England fall foliage was at its peak…but the best part of the trip was the four days I spent with my two-year old grandson, Jeremy. We walked down to the pond every day to see the ducks, skip pebbles over the surface of the water, and collect leaves of scarlet, gold, green and brown to use in craft projects. He loved cooking in the kitchen…I’ve included one of the recipes below, along with the craft activity we did and the title of the story we read. If you’d like more story/craft/cooking ideas, you can go to the activities page of my website: http://www.positiveparentalparticipation.com/News.php

CHILD-FRIENDLY HOMEMADE CHUNKY APPLESAUCE

You will need: 3 lbs tart cooking apples (peeled, cored and quartered), 1 Tb honey, 3/4 cup water, 1 pinch cinnamon or nutmeg, and a large saucepan with a lid.

Combine the apples, water and honey in the pan, cover and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and simmer till very soft and mushy, about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon or nutmeg and serve hot or cold.
Store in covered container in the refrigerator. Use within a few days. Makes about 4-6 servings.

The story suggestion for the above recipe is THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD. This classic tale of a little engine with a positive attitude helps preschoolers believe in themselves and encourages them to keep trying, even if they don’t succeed at first. Jeremy loved the story…he is excited about all trains right now…when I finished, he said, “More book, Nanu!”

A container train with moving wheels is a craft project will enable your child to have a whole fleet of trains…if you both have the time and patience. For each train car you will need: 1 clean quart-sized cardboard milk or juice container, construction paper, paste, scissors, markers and metal paper fasteners. When we finished the train, two-year old Jeremy exclaimed, “My train, my train!”

Depending on which train car your preschooler wants to make, cut the container appropriately (for example, for a coal car – lay the container on its side and cut off the top).
Cut a piece of construction paper to fit over the outside of the container and paste it in place.
Cut out 4 wheels from another piece of construction paper and attach to the container with paper fasteners. The wheels will be able to turn!
Ask your child what the name of his train is (for example: Jeremy’s Express), and write the name on the side of the train. Use the markers to add details to the train.

For more cooking with kids in the kitchen ideas, check out http://kidsparties.about.com where Megan Cooley, kids’ parties and celebrations guide for about.com is hosting a blog carnival for the month of November.

Halloween memories

Posted on October 5, 2010 by viviankirkfield

I’ve been looking back at my memories of past Halloweens. As a young child, I lived in an apartment house with 104 units…a Halloween paradise…and you didn’t even have to go outside! Of course, that was over 50 years ago, when there was less of a concern about knocking on a door of someone you didn’t know. My 8-year old sister, Rho, was put in charge of me and my two best friends, Jane and Marilyn. We were all of 5-years old and so excited about the candy we would receive…rainbow dots stuck on the white strip of paper, Bazooka bubblegum, Tootsie rolls…just what you’d find if you went to a vintage candy store. I don’t remember what characters we portrayed, but I know that the costumes were always homemade by our mothers.

My next memories are of Halloweens we celebrated when our children were growing up. In the beginning, we went trick or treating in the neighborhood of the small Connecticut town where we lived…where almost everyone on the street knows your name. However, one year, on the morning of Halloween, there were broadcasts on TV and radio about some tainted candy that had been given to children. I was just finishing tying the ribbons on colorfully wrapped portions of homemade rice krispie treats that were to be given out to the neighborhood trick or treaters. Of course, there was no way I could give those out…I’m sure parents would examine their children’s goodie bags and throw out anything that wasn’t store-bought and factory-sealed. That was the last time our children went trick or treating…from then on, we opted to have Halloween parties at our home…inviting friends of our children to share a safer Halloween.

It’s too bad those Halloween trick or treaters didn’t get to enjoy the rice krispie treats, but you can! Here is the recipe I used:

DEVILISH DELISH KRISPS

You will need: 3TB butter or margarine, 1 package (10 oz) fresh marshmallows, 1/2 cup almond butter, 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal, 1 cup organic mini chocolate chips, large microwave-safe bowl, and a 13x9x2-inch casserole pan.

In microwave-safe bowl, heat butter or margarine and marshmallows on High for 2 minutes. Stir and heat 1 more minute. Stir until smooth.
Add almond butter and stir well.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Add the cereal and stir until well-coated.
Spray the 13x9x2-inch pan with canola oil and press the mixture into the pan with a buttered or oiled spatula.
Cover with plastic wrap. Cool and then cut into squares.
Best eaten within 24 hours…I don’t think they will last that long.