Strollerderby : vegetables

Save the Planet, Save Money On Organic Food

Amy Kuras — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:31:00 GMT

In keeping with Earth Day, Consumer Reports (via the Consumerist) has some suggestions of how to save money on organic foods. One ideas is to prioritize your purchases: concentrate on foods that when conventionally grown have the most pesticides, like apples, peaches, strawberries and the like.

Another is to try the store brands. I swear by this –I couldn’t afford to eat anything organic were ti not for Trader Joe’s (also, almost one of their foods have high frustose corn syrup in them) and the private label organics from the two local supermarkets I prefer. Consumer Reports also suggests Costco’s Kirkland Signature organics brand. I agree – however, dealing with the massive warehouse club packaging can be a problem if you have a smaller family or a smaller house.

My personal Costco tip is to shop with a friend and split things. For example, they sell three-pound containers of organic spring mix for something like $5, less than half of what we’d spend for conventionally grown at the local fruit market. But that’s a lot less of a bargain if half of it ends up going bad before you can eat it. My solution is to give half to my mom, who loooovvves her some spring mix, whenever we buy it.

Also, look at some of the big organic brand’s websites for coupons, join a food co-op of there is one nearby, and shop in season. Some of the commenters also suggest buying a community-supported agriculture share or buying “pre-organic” from a farmer’s market. Many farmers are looking to switch to organic but have not been following those practices long enough to be certified as organic farms, so buying pre-organic can both save you money and help the farmer along in that process. Farmer’s markets, whether you’re buying conventional or organic, help the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of your food. And? They’re just plain fun for kids.

They Say: Kids Will Eat Carrots if You Don't Call Them Carrots

KeriF — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:33:00 GMT

A recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that kids were more likely to eat vegetables with cool names. No, not cool like "rutabega," cool like "x-ray vision carrots."

"Cool names can make for cool foods," says Brian Wansink of Cornell University, lead author of the study. "Whether it be 'power peas' or 'dinosaur broccoli trees,' giving a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. And it seems to keep working--even the next day," Wansink said.

It took a research study and a handful of scientists to figure this out? We parents have been doing this for years.

I know my kids are partial to broccoli "trees" with "fairy dust" (grated Parmesan). And who can resist the classic "ants on a log"? Because a kid, of course, would sooner eat bugs than raisins.

Kids aren't the only ones so easily fooled. You know that Chilean sea bass that's so popular? Would you still order it if went by its real name, Patagonian toothfish?

What are your favorite food fibs?

The Zen of Not Eating, According to a Four-Year-Old

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I've heard kids make up some pretty good excuses not to eat: "I need to share my lunch with Zoe [the dog]." "My tummy is only hungry for cookies." "It makes me sad when you give me carrots."

But this excuse from four-year-old Noah, taken from Babble's Kids Say the Cutest Things, definitely takes the cake (no pun intended). After his mother tried in vain to get him to eat his lunch, Noah announced, "Mom, food is good and all, but you know what tastes great and is always in your mouth!? Your tongue!"

You have to admit there's something Zen about Noah's thinking--all of the striving and preparing and arguing we do for balanced meals, never pausing for a second to notice that our mouths are already full! Honestly, how many of us ever take the time to just be still for a few moments and enjoy the taste of our own tongues?

Thanks, Noah! You've really put things in perspective.

Photo: lewiswebpage.com

They Say: Parents Pack Bad Lunches

JeanneSager — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:33:00 GMT

My daughter gets the kind of lunch kids dream about. Sandwich. Fruit. Snacks. Milk or juice. But is that good enough?

A new study says parents aren't packing nutrition in their kids' lunch pails. We're packing what we know our kids will eat.

Can you blame us? We don't want to hear from our daycare providers that our kid was the one throwing a fit at lunchtime. And we don't have time for the "sneak it in there" recipes in all the parenting magazines. So we cut corners. We pack a fruit cup rather than cutting up fresh fruit, because if we chuck in an apple our kids are going to moan about the peels and the teachers at daycare aren't likely to sit down and peel it for them. We pick up crackers with the processed cheese of our childhoods, and we close one eye so only the words "whole wheat crackers" register.

According to the study in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, seventy-one percent of packed lunches don't have enough fruits and vegetables. One in four preschool kids don't get enough milk with lunch.

Interviews with parents revealed more than sixty percent were packing foods they thought were nutritious - but not expecting their kids to eat them. More than sixty percent also packed foods they figured the kids WOULD eat.

So what's the trouble? It's hard to track what your kids are doing out of sight. You can balance how much "good" and how much "bad" they eat at home during dinnertime, but kids don't have that guidance at a daycare center. It sounds like parents are giving their kids too many choices. If you know they will overeat on snacks, don't pack them. Are we really afraid our kids will starve if we give them choices of healthy vs. nutritious?

It's their first shot at learning to eat well and make healthy choices outside of the home, but they're still little kids. They still need some guidance from Mom and Dad. When we're not there, that means making the tough choice for them.

Image: Family.Go

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How Much Would You Pay for an Organic Thanksgiving?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

Nothing puts the price differential between organic and non-organic eating into perspective like a Thanksgiving Day meal. Paying $2 more for organic blueberries or $1 more for organic milk may seem like an easy decision, but what about spending almost $80 more for one meal's worth of Turkey?

As the New York Times reports, smartmoney.com has done some investigative reporting on the real costs of an organic Thanksgiving Day meal. Shopping organic as thriftily as possible at Whole Foods, Associated Supermarket, and the Food Emporium, the financial advice Web site found that an organic traditional Thanksgiving Day meal cost $126.35 more than a non-organic meal. According to Smartmoney, this constitutes a rip-off.

126 bucks is certainly a prohibitively hefty price tag for many families, but let's keep in mind that there are thriftier ways to buy organic than shopping at Whole Foods in Manhattan. For instance, I shop at a co-op and I would bet that buying an organic meal there might even be cheaper than a non-organic one bought in traditional supermarkets. And if you can afford to pay a little more for farming methods that are easier on the environment, by all means do. Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

Photo: New York Times

They Say: Kids Like To Eat Vegetables. I Still Don't Believe Them

JeanneSager — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Kids like vegetables. They like them better than candy. OK, I didn't believe it either. But the results of a survey of California four- and five-year-old kids claims if peas and a Tootsie Pop had a fight, peas would knock 'em out of sight.

What bothers me about these kinds of studies is not only the size (there were just 100 kids involved) but the fact that interviews with kids are conducted the way they would be with adults. Chatting with four- and five-year-olds in English and Spanish over a period four days really tells us nothing about kids' eating habits. It tells us that a bunch of pre-schoolers, whose attitudes toward food are generally as fickle as they are toward their toys, gave some adults the answers they wanted to hear.

What would be more telling would be a process that tracked what kids actually ate when presented with options. Give them a plate of peas and a Tootsie Pop and see what they reach for first. Do they ignore the Tootsie Pop? Do they opt to eat it last? Or do they go glutton and find out just how many licks it takes to get to that chocolate goodness?

As an adult, my tastes are pretty well formed. I'm not going to decide tomorrow that I've given up on dark chocolate M&Ms for taste reasons (size of my butt reasons, maybe). My three-year-old will tell you tomorrow that the same cauliflower she devoured for dinner is "yucky." Last night, she announced that she wouldn't eat the ziti I'd made because, "I don't like sauce." It was the first I was hearing of it after almost three years of dishing out extra helpings of "red stuff" for her ravioli. By the same token, convincing her to eat just four green beans to satisfy the "green quotient" in a meal can take intense amounts of cajoling. But on an "all about me" poster she made for nursery school, listed right under "favorite food" are the words "green beans." Huh? Apparently that's what she told her teacher, and the unwitting teacher wrote it down.

Sure, she likes some vegetables. She even likes some she pretends to hate (and gobbles down while we're not looking). But give her peas or that Tootsie Pop, and I know where her loyalties lie.

Image: PBS Kids

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Broccoli Spheres and Carrot Air: Kid-Friendly Veggies

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:35:00 GMT

If you’re not inclined to take Dr. Brazelton’s advice to forget all about vegetables and just buy a multivitamin for your kids, you may be interested in Sara Dickerman’s experiments with something called “molecular gastronomy.” In an effort to get her picky three-year-old (AKA the Critic) to eat vegetables, she tried out chef Ferran Adrian’s recipes for “spherified” vegetables, which are basically gelatinous globules with liquid centers.

Doesn’t exactly sound appetizing to me, but if your kids like Jell-O, why not broccoli spheres? Plus, using Adrian’s cooking methods turns dinner preparation into a science project your kids are likely to be excited about.

$200 will buy you a Texturas kit, which contains the additives Adria uses for his magical concoctions, as well as some tools not normally associated with food. Most importantly, the kit comes with a recipe book. I, for one, would have no idea what to do with a giant syringe, a powder called Xanthana, and broccoli. It turns out that, after mixing all of the ingredients together using the mysterious tools, you drop the food balls into a mixture of sodium alginate and water. There, they congeal into what look like, as you can see from the photo, tadpoles.

After a few failed experiments, Dickerman alights on a dish she calls “homemade carrot air,” which the Critic gobbles down. It’s a pricy, time-consuming way to go, but if you can spare the time and money for vegetal spherification, your own little critics may thank you.

They Say: Don't Eat Your Veggies!

Another Try at Getting Kids to Eat Fruits and Veggies

Amy Kuras — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:06:00 GMT

There’s been all sorts of handwringing over childhood obesity, and concerns about how to get kids establishing healthier eating and exercise habits. Unfortunately, many studies have shown that many of these programs work for a short time, and when they are over kids go right back to eating crap.

I think one of the biggest issues is that especially in poorer areas, there are not a lot of grocery stores selling fresh, good for you food. I frequently see kids and teens rolling up to the local gas stations instead and stocking up on potato chips, candy or hot dogs because they are cheap and easy to get.

Also, if parents don’t really understand proper nutrition, they are not going to pass it on to their kids. I mean, we never have spaghetti at my house because I, the chief cook and food procurer, hate spaghetti. If I hated fruits and vegetables and didn’t think they were that important, you can bet we’d rarely have them.

A University of Maryland research thinks she’s found the key – expose kids to fruits and vegetables at school, and let them taste a wide variety of them. Bonnie Braun, an associate professor at the university’s school of public health, targeted kids getting free and reduced price lunches at several Baltimore-area schools. They exposed them to produce frequently, and let them taste a variety of different kinds of vegetables and fruits. They ranged from the “exotic” like eggplant to the more mundane, like apples – although at least one kid hadn’t even had those before.

Pretty sad to think there are kids who don’t even get apples at home – but great that they’re learning about the taste and nutrition of produce somewhere.

They Say: Don't Eat Your Veggies!

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton is about to become your kids’ new hero. In today’s New York Times Well Blog, he colorfully answers readers' questions about their children’s health, and gets the ball rolling with a firm admonition against vegetables.

Forget about veggies, he says. Battling your child to eat any particular food will only backfire in extended dietary struggles throughout your kid’s childhood. Buy a multivitamin for those picky eating years, and save yourself and your kids some headaches.

If you do feel like getting creative, Dr. Brazelton suggests Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. But he cautions against getting bent out of shape over any dietary experiments with your kids. Instead, he says, “keep mealtimes relaxing and enjoyable, and focus talk on fun things, but not on food.”

For Dr. Bazelton’s advice on Vitamin D supplements, low cholesterol diets, and calorie counts, visit the Well Blog.

Kitchenista: A Searchable Feast

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

If you are at all hungry, do not read further. Also, if you do not want drool on your computer's screen, do not read further. For the rest of you, click on.

Foodgawker is a searchable database of web recipes with gorgeous pictures. You've seen food before, you say. How is this different?

To you, I say:

Chocolate, ice cream and vegetables. If the recipes are half as good as the pictures, we will all be eating well.

Now if they can figure out a way to make these foods magically appear on my desk in edible form, my life will be complete.

Photo credit: eatingoutloud

14 Lies Parents Need to Stop Telling Their Kids (Part 1)

Cole Gamble — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:00:00 GMT

You have the eat vegetables because big kids eat their vegetables.

If you've ever told your kid they couldn't leave the table until they finish their carrots while you ate ice cream straight from the carton, don't worry. You are not a hypocrite; you're just every other mom or dad in the world.

You are the prettiest girl/most handsome boy in the world

Can't be true. The law of averages makes it mathematically impossible. Are they very handsome and pretty? Sure, why not. But yours can't be the most handsome or pretty. Mine are.

Go to bed or I'll call the police

No wonder kids grow up to become adults with big problems with authority. Personally I never had the cops take me away as a kid (because I went to bed). But when it came time for me to call the cops on my kids, guess what? They didn’t come. CPS did though.

The cat “ran away”

No cat ever runs away, unless you mean running away to kitty heaven. This is a lie you can almost justify in your head because it sounds so close to the truth. “Ran away”…“ran over,” almost the same thing.

Santa, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy

The big three. The Legion of Doom. Yes, these on the face are sweet pillars of youth and magic, but take a moment to examine what you are really telling your child when you pass on their legends:

Santa

Breaks into your house, eats all your food and maybe leaves you some tainted toys from China. And that's if he deems you as “good.” If not he leaves you coal (which with today's fuel prices might not be the worst gift). And how does he know whether you are good or not? He's been watching you. He's always got his eyes on you. You know who else watches you all the time and decides whether you are good or not? Buffalo Bill. If you get a stocking full of skin lotion, I’d move.

Easter Bunny

So there is this bunny. No, not a normal sized bunny. A seven foot tall bunny. A bunny who could dunk on Shaq. Anyway, this is an anthropomorphized bunny. He can talk and stuff, although all he wants to talk about is marshmallow. Not that you'll be able to pay attention to what he's saying, you'll be fixated on those six inch incisors and asking yourself, “what exactly does a giant bunny you have to do with this holiday?”

Tooth Fairy

Oh how these three love breaking and entering. This time a tweaked-out lady wants your teeth. Why does she want your teeth? What is she doing with all those teeth? Making human jewelry? Here's another thing to consider, what happens if TF shows up to a kid's house to find there is no tooth and she made a mistake? She doesn't just toddle off. This lady has gotten a jonesin' for teeth and she needs a fix. That's why she carries around a set of brass knuckles. Sweet dreams, kids.

Click here for part 2

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Greenhouse: Weeding Out Weeds

Amy Kuras — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Let's talk about weeds. No, not the Mary Louise Parker vehicle, and not the smoky-smoke kind. The ugly, prickly, insidious kind that crowds out friendlier plants.

With two little kids, about 17 jobs, and a house to take care of, I've given up my customary gardening this year save for a few tomato and basil plants. But that leaves fertile ground, literally, for weeds to come in and take over. Even if I were not attempting a more green lifestyle, I have plants in there I want to encourage, so soaking the beds with Roundup and being done with it is out — not to mention I’d rather my kids not eat tomatoes that had been so recently exposed to God-knows-what chemical herbicides.

And then there's our lawn. Suffice it to say when a photo of my daughter, husband and dog on the front walk of our house ran in a local publication last year, more than a few people commented not on the significant cuteness of all three, but on the visibly weedy lawn.

Good old Organic Gardening mag to the rescue (I remember my dad getting this in the 1970s — these guys were green way before it was trendy). They have a whole section on identifying, treating and eradicating weeds. I've already done one thing, mulched the hell out of the beds. Extra bonus, now I know exactly what a hoe is for. With a little more work, soon I can spend weekends in the yard with a glass of iced tea instead of sweating over the weeds outside.

Kitchenista: I Can Make It, But Will They Eat It?

Madeline Holler — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:02:00 GMT

A while ago, my daughters saw a pile of artichokes at the farmers market and I'm the kind of mom that has to take over every bit of their curiosity by over-indulging in a discussion and pulling out all the stops to give them the experience.

So I bought the artichoke and everybody was excited and it has been sitting in the fridge for over a week.

Turns out, I only know how to eat artichokes, not prepare them. But I tracked down some step-by-step instructions (with pics!) so I'm motivated and have no excuse.

It's especially Step. 3 that's been missing from my life. Whenever I read about scooping out the prickly parts, well, it just seems overwhelming. But check out the picture (above). How hard could that be?

Now that I have no excuses for making it, tell me: are my kids actually going to eat it? Do yours?

Photo: elise.com

Kitchenista: More Purple in Your Diet

Madeline Holler — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:34:00 GMT

Screw the food pyramid, which I think we can all agree is the agriculture department's way of getting us to carb-load to our fat bellies' content. Plus, who even knows how much a serving is?

Instead, I've been trying to go the healthy diet strategy of "eating a rainbow." This is where you attempt to eat six different colors of fruits and vegetables everyday: red, white, green, orange, yellow, blue/purple.

What I love is that garlic and onions count (white). And that this approach mixes fruits and vegetables together. Because darn it if that tomato isn't just the kind of crossover artist that can get me to way overthink this stuff.

But I do get stuck when it comes to the purples. Especially when trying to eat in the right season. The only winter purples I can ever come up with are beets and purple cabbage -- difficult sells in my home. But I've managed.

Today, my faux-Asian purple cabbage slaw.

Slice as thinly as possible 1/2 head of purple cabbage. Fluff it up in the bowl you'll serve it in.

Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of rice vinegar. A few pinches of salt.

Add a couple of tablespoons of mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine) and then a drizzle of sesame oil.

Toss and let it sit until you're finished making the rest of dinner. The salt and vinegar soften the raw cabbage a bit, but it's still crisp. The sweetness of the mirin cuts down on the taste of garbage that many associate with cabbage.

Before serving, toss with toasted sesames (white, not black, unless you want to have the "those are bugs" battle).

Kitchenista: Unbland Zucchini With Almonds, Curry and Mint

Madeline Holler — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:03:00 GMT

I am a big fan of zucchini because it's so cheap and filled with all the good stuff (vitamins, fiber, etc.). But zucchini is such a bland vegetable that it drives me crazy/makes me gaggy when it's served raw or even steamed. I think it needs to be saturated with other flavors and mixed with other textures to be enjoyed.

Luckily, unblanding zucchini is easy -- just chop it up and sautee with garlic in olive oil. Or you can add a little curry powder, mint and almonds and have this incredible side dish I came across in "The Paris Cookbook" by renowned American in Paris Patricia Wells. Even your picky eaters will get over the zucchini hump if you serve it like this.

Please note: The official version of this recipe calls for fresh almonds, which I suppose is an option when you're Patricia Wells and you live in Paris and have access to the abundance of a centuries-old farmer's market. For the rest of us, there's Trader Joe's, so feel free to use whatever version of almonds you can find -- fresh, raw, toasted, slivered, sliced.

Unbland Zucchini

Trim and cut four to six zucchinis into the size of whole almonds.

In a bowl, combine the zucchini pieces with a 1/2 cup of almonds, 2 teaspoons curry powder (any store-bought kind will do), and a couple of pinches of salt, pepper. Toss and let sit for 15 minutes.

In a nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat until hot (not smoking). Dump in the zucchini-almond mixture. Shake the pan or move the stuff around with a wooden spoon for a few minutes, until the zucchini gets a little brown but is still firm (don't let it get translucent). Add a handful of finely chopped fresh mint (or, like, a couple of teaspoons of dried mint) and remove from heat. Stir. Taste and adjust for salt/mint/curry/pepper.

Photo: www.catchthespoon.com

Kitchenista: Lentils, Pasta, Bacon (Optional)

Madeline Holler — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:38:00 GMT

I stole this idea from some ancient episode of Molto Mario and can now make it so quickly it would qualify for a spot on Rachael Ray. Plus it's healthy and you can make it vegetarian or vegan (suitable for the Skinny Bitches).

Seriously, this recipe can do no wrong. Here's the non-veg version. But for the meatless, it's pretty obvious to leave out the bacon/ham and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Sautee a diced onion and one to three cloves of garlic in olive oil in a big pot. While that's going, rinse between one half and a whole bag of lentils.

Add diced pancetta/ham/bacon and let it brown. Then throw in a couple of teaspoons of dried rosemary (or French thyme works well too) or a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. Sautee until you really smell the rosemary and then throw in the lentils and stir. (This is also a good time to throw in other chopped veggies if you're getting rid of stuff -- zucchini, carrots, squash work well.) Add salt and pepper. Let that all sizzle for a few minutes.

Add one carton of broth (chicken or vegetable) or add enough water to cover the lentils mixture and then some. If you don't have broth, just fill the pot with water and add a bouillon cube. Let simmer until the lentils are done (doesn't take long, they're small). This should still be watery. If not, add some more water. Then add, like, a cup to a cup and a half of a tiny pasta -- tubettini, orzo, shells, macaroni, whatever.

When the pasta is nearly al dente, stir in a can of diced tomatoes. You can also add some greens here if you need to up the leafies in the night's meal. Add another round of salt and pepper to taste.

The whole thing thickens so that it's not quite a soup. Pull out the rosemary sprigs if they're still in there. Serve in bowls. Sprinkle with parmesan if that's your thing. Make plenty because this stuff is even better the next day (though the pasta gets a little bloaty).

Kitchenista: Empty the Crisper, Mold and All

Madeline Holler — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:01:00 GMT

Do you ever wind up with the crispers full of not-too-perky, partially moldy veggies (with matching sprouted potatoes in the cabinet)? As punishment for letting my enthusiamsm at the farmer's market get out of hand, I force myself to scrape the mold and find a way to use the nearly rotting stuff anyway.

The best I have come up with winds up being actually pretty good. Sometimes I even make it with fresh, crisp mold-free produce.

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 350-375.

Clean, peel and chop whatever you have -- set aside any leafy stuff for now. When you chop, think about cooking time. Cut sweet potatoes bigger than, say, beets, since sweet potatoes cook rather fast while it takes extra time for beets to become al dente. Peel a few cloves of garlic if you have it (yes, even if it's sprouting). Toss it all in a roasting pan (or on a cookie sheet).

Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper well. And then just pick your favorite one or two dried herbs (I like thyme). I also like generously sprinkling on a smokey paprika. Mix well with your hands.

Roast uncovered for 20-ish minutes (until things start getting brown). Stir around and then cover with foil for another, I don't know, 20 minutes? Then stir again, poke beets or white potoatoes to see if they're soft enough. Repeat every 10 minutes until done. When the veggies are getting close to done, you can stir in leafy greens like spinach or kale. You can also add a melty cheese toward the end or sprinkle toasted nuts over it all or both.

It's not only tasty and healthy, but you've cleared out the fridge. Time to go nuts at the farmer's market again!

Photo: Mangopowergirl.blogspot.com

Signs of Spring In Your Mailbox

Amy Kuras — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:06:00 GMT

We're in the midst of a winter snowstorm and I am so pregnant that I have taken on the appearance of a Weeble. Getting up off the couch much less doing more than the bare minimum of daily chores is a challenge. In short, I am cranky and weary.

So I found this article, about those seed catalogs that start showing up on your doorstep at this time of year, was a pleasant reminder that there will be spring weather and workable ground again someday, probably someday soon.

According to the story, flipping through garden catalogs can be a nice teaching tool for kids. Talking about the colors or the shapes can be fun with young children, and older ones can actually read them and help pick out what to grow in the garden this year. It can even get them eating better, since they helped grow their vegetables – and fresh out of the garden ones are incredibly more delicious than even the nicest farmer's market fare.

If mine is any indication, little kids do love to "help" in the garden. As an 18-month-old she'd pretty much just sit in the veggie patch with a trowel and fling dirt over her head (aaahh, the summer of the White Trash Baby, since she had a naturally-occuring mullet, and invariably would end up dirty as hell and wearing only a diaper) but this past summer she helped me water, plant seedlings and even weed a little.

Pretty soon--rototiller. Too young?

Photo: www.whiteflowerfarm.com

Kitchenista: Good Enough For a Potluck in Mumbai

Madeline Holler — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:32:00 GMT

For the tastiest curries, I'm all for grinding and mixing your own spices, and pounding crisp aromatics into thick pastes using a mortar, pestle and all the seething anger that built up over the weekend. But sometimes, you just need to make dinner. For that, we go to whatever's in one of the jars that we have on hand.

But that doesn't mean soup or spaghetti and sauce again. You can still have curry -- which, incidentally, I think are the most forgiving and easiest vegetable hiders, take that Ms. Seinfeld! -- and it's very easy. Like, 15 minutes from thought bubble to table.

Just stock up on these (especially the stuff in the jars): Patak's Taste of India.

No need to venture into your cities Little India (though, by all means, go!), because these are available in the most meat 'n' potatoes suburban supermarkets -- look in the international aisle. There a lots of variations and please, try them all.

My favorite, though, is Patak's Original Mild Curry Paste, cilantro and cumin. You can do anything with it, but here's the best. (Don't worry, "mild" still has a little heat, which I think is good to get even little kids used to. Just blob on some plain yogurt if the kid starts wailing.)

Dice and saute an onion, if you have one, no big deal if you don't. Throw in some chicken, diced or hard vegetables like carrots or parsnips or potatoes or whatever. Any, all, none of it, doesn't matter. Just wait with the delicate leafy stuff for the final step. Throw in a can of garbanzos, any size can, but the more you make the more leftovers you have and you'll want leftovers of this for sure.

When the garbanzos seem heated and the optional onions are soft and, even better, kind of browned, scoop out some of the curry paste, one heaping spoonful at a time. Stir after each spoonful. You're trying to make sure you have enough to coat all the garbanzos and/or optional chicken. Keep dumping. You can't overdo it and you can always add more later, so don't sweat this step.

Now, dump in a can of diced tomatoes -- any size. Stir. Add some water or chicken broth to make the amount of curry that you want. Taste. Add more paste if you want. Here you can throw in bell peppers or spinach or fresh tomatoes -- any other kind of vegetable that wilts quickly or should be done, at most, al dente. Let the whole thing simmer until the rice is done.

Serve in big bowls over rice. Dollop some yogurt on top for extra richness/coolness. You'll love it so much, you'll want to bring it to your next potluck in Mumbai. But don't.

Seinfelds Get Sued For Plagiarism and Slander

Kelly Mills — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:33:00 GMT

Oh, perhaps you remember the saga of the hidden vegetable cookbooks? Jessica Seinfeld came out with a book on secreting vegetables in your kids' food, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. This book bore remarkable similarities to a book that came out a month earlier, by Missy Chase Lapine, called The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals. When I posted about this scandal, the publisher commented here and denied plagiarism played any part in Seinfeld's book. Around the same time, Jerry Seinfeld went on Letterman and echoed that denial, adding, "Now you know, having a career in show business, one of the fun facts of celebrity life is wackos will wait in the woodwork to pop out at certain moments of your life to inject a little adrenaline into your life experience." He also went on to comment on Missy Chase Lapine's name, saying, "if you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins. Mark David Chapman. And you know, James Earl Ray. So that's my concern." Those are the murderers of John Lennon and Martin Luther King, Jr., by the way.

And that, folks, is why the Seinfelds are now being sued by Missy Chase Lapine for slander and plagiarism. But you know what I think is one of the worst parts of this whole thing? In addition to Jerry Seinfeld's supremely asshole-ish comments, the Seinfeld's lawyer just "suggested Lapine was seeking publicity to boost her book's sales." Hold on, I have to count to ten before I get into this. Exhale...two, one.

Now, what I'm getting here is that Jerry Seinfeld says that as a celebrity, he has to deal with wackos who are trying to get press by targeting the famous. And the Seinfeld lawyer is calling this a publicity stunt. But wait, why did Jessica Seinfeld's book get so much attention over Lapine's in the first place? Why was she so "promotable"? How did she get on Oprah and a billion other talk shows and in newspapers and magazines and even here on Babble? Was it because she has had an illustrious cooking career, made a name for herself as an excellent child nutrition expert?

Naw. It was because she's married to a famous guy. So every time the Seinfelds get pissy with Lapine over supposed coattail-riding, I guess we can all scratch our heads and say, hmmmm. So it's okay to saddle up on someone else's fame at the expense of struggling authors, but those authors better back off the Seinfelds. That's just shame-to-the-less. Aaaand we even said it last time, too.

Oh, and it's messed up to use your fame and the many forums it brings to call someone a nut, too.

The Dark Side of Seinfeld’s Sneaky Veggies

Madeline Holler — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:52:00 GMT

While Jessica Seinfeld single-handedly ups the Vitamin A and antioxidants intake of our nations’ children with her stealth veggie offerings, some damn celery-crunchers are exposing a darker side to the chocolate-zucchini muffin.

By tucking peas in here, spinach in there and watching her children unwittingly lap it up, experts warn that the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld is betraying her picky kids' trust.

To both the experts and Seinfeld, I say: Oh, come on!

Our kids are fine when we lie to them about harmless things -- Santa, the tooth fairy, "grown-up naked wrestling." I don’t think Seinfeld's kids are going to grow up doubting their mother when they find out she's been stirring spinach into cake batter. On the other hand, so what if kids don't eat many vegetables now? All this blender-work is just delaying their inevitable encounters with anything green and inadvertently raising what will be very picky adults. Who, by the way, are nothing but trouble.

Here’s how I think her sneaky approach goes wrong:

First, she’s stirring squash in to macaroni and cheese and adding cauliflower and broccoli to chicken nuggets. I haven’t read her book, but I’m seeing a lot of “kid-palate” pandering. When does she propose they make the transition to a main course and two sides kinds of meals? When will they take the plunge and eat a stir fry? Do she and Jerry eat the nuggets or separate, grown-up meals? I think regular meals that are different from the parents' keep kids from sucking it up and choking down a green bean even more than odd textures and grassy taste.

Most importantly, I think parents have to learn to prepare vegetables in a tasty way. Very few vegetables are super-nummy raw. In-season tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, red or yellow peppers … am I missing anything? … all good fresh off the truck. Most others, though, you’ve got to do something to them – at the very least salt and more often than not, a little cooking and herbs.

Another thing: why all this emphasis squash? Unless nicely adulterated with salt, garlic, herbs and cooking, squash is bland, bland, mealy and bland. Of course Seinfeld has to boil it, puree it and stir it into something before her kids will eat it! A sophisticated palate wouldn’t enjoy a pile of squash, cooked or otherwise, that didn’t have anything added for flavor.

With veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, sure, you can eat them raw. But they carry that faint taste of garbage. A little blanching and they’re so much mellower (and, hey, give a little with the ranch dressing if it gets your kid to try a real floret. With ranch, no betrayal necessary!).

If you’re really getting desperate, throw it all in a spicy/sweet curry, or a stir-fry that includes pineapple, or melt it all under cheese on a pizza, or roll it up in rice and nori for sushi. Kids will get a few bites, at least, before picking off what they don’t like but the vegetables are still there on the plate, part of dinner, to be expected, until the end of time. Tolerance with this pays off. Just last week, my six-year-old made it through a slice of pesto pizza without first pulling off every bit of spinach. That’s progress!

I love vegetables and I also like to cook so we sit down to pretty tasty veggie-heavy meals regularly. The approach in my house, though, is to serve every veggie dish on a no-pandering platter (with a fresh dollop of “no other options” on the side). Draconian? Sure, but for this I’ll get skinny kids that might one day actually eat a fresh blueberry or take more than two bites of a salad.

Remember, it’s 2007 and the Clean Plate Club disbanded at least a decade ago. Two bites and it's over until tomorrow. So what if your kid doesn’t eat five servings of fruits and vegetables everyday? You didn’t either and, except for those thighs, you turned out juuuuuuust fine.

Update: For family photo of the veggie chowing family, look here.

Things Fall Apart: Don't Eat the Baby Carrots

Karen Murphy — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:08:00 GMT

You know what I'm talking about here, because it's a staple of many kid-centric households: the peeled baby carrot, so neatly packaged in little bags. I suspect these are the only vegetable some kids will eat.

But like many vegetables, there's a sinister side to these carrots. Oh? you ask. Sinister? An innocent sweet orange vegetable? How can that be? Well, for starters, I always used to call them "baby finger" carrots. Have one look at them and you'll know what I mean. And you'll never taste one again. (How could you eat fingers?? Of babies??)

But worse, in many states (and Canada! don't forget Canada!) they've been recalled, and that's the part you need to know. Shigella. Which willl make you wish you hadn't eaten those carrots, or anything else. And that in kids can cause seizures.

The recalled carrots were sold under two labels: "Los Angeles Salad Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots" and "Trader Joe's Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots". They were distributed at these stores: Kroger Co. and King Sooper stores in Tennessee, Kroger Co. and Ralph's supermarkets in California, Publix supermarkets in Georgia and Florida, and Get Fresh stores in Nevada, all with "sell by" date up to August 16. The Trader Joe's carrots were sold in Arizona and California, with a "sell by" date up to August 8.

If you live in Canada, apparently it's presumed that you have your own source of news, but since the recall started there you likely know about it already, I hope. At any rate, it involved the same "Los Angeles Salad" brand as in the U.S.

If you have any questions or just want to talk carrots to someone who knows, you can call Los Angeles Salads at 626-322-9017.

Kitchenista: No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Patti — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:28:00 GMT

The heirloom tomatoes at my local farmer's markets are so incredible right now that my three-year-old keeps stealing them off the counter, and even my four-year-old, who is officially anti-tomato, hasn't complained that her "no thank you helpings" have gotten a little more generous as of late.

I don't think it's a coincidence that as Mother Nature heats the joint up to full throttle, she lets one of her greatest creations hit its peak. And this is just about the only time of year that you can appreciate an absolutely perfect tomato without having to go to a lot of effort, so let's get down to it.

No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Salsa Cruda)

Core and seed your tomatoes (many heirloom tomatoes have tiny inner seed compartments, so it's a matter of cutting them in half at the equator and gently squeezing them to loosen and release the seeds. Use your finger to flick the globs of seed and juice out and discard). Cube your 'maters and toss them in a bowl with best quality olive oil, your choice of fresh herbs, and a little salt and pepper.

Let your tomato mixture rest on the counter for at least a half hour, or up to four hours (this is a great prep task to get out of the way during afternoon nap). But please, please don't refrigerate it! The texture of the tomatoes will be ruined. It'll be totally safe at room temperature, trust me. Before mealtime rolls around, cook up your choice of pasta, drain, and toss with your tomato mixture.

You can Greek it up a little bit by using oregano and mint, and tossing your pasta and tomatoes with crumbled Feta cheese. You can have Pasta Margherita by choosing basil and fresh mozzarella. Or keep it simple and just let the tomato flavor be enhanced with a little sea salt and cracked pepper.

Dinner's served, and you barely had to go into the kitchen. The chopping's not very kid-friendly, but other tasks like squeezing out the "tomato guts", cutting the herbs (with kitchen shears!), and stirring the sauce are great for toddlers on up.

My kids—even Little Miss 'Mater Hater—love to sop up the tangy tomato juice in the bottom of the serving bowl with crusty bread when we've eaten all the noodles.

Dora and Spongebob Shill for...Edamame?

Patti — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:43:00 GMT

When my husband has a business dinner or an evening out with friends, I feed the girls macaroni and cheese and put them to bed early. When I have a night out, he packs them up and takes them out for sushi. I don't really get how this is fun for him, but whatever. Going out for sushi with my kids involves the 4.5 year old shelling edamame as fast as her 3-year-old sister can eat them, which is really freaking fast. The older child hasn't allowed a soybean to pass her lips in at least three years, but she's a pod-popping machine.

Would she be swayed to the soy side if she got her hands on a package of edamame with Nickelodeon characters emblazoned upon it? Probably not. I don't think she'd eat one if Cinderella herself appeared in a pumpkin coach and begged her to try it. And the little one doesn't need tricks like this to enjoy her soy. But hey, if you hear that someone's making Wonderpets mixed green salad in a bag, would you let me know? That could be useful.

Vegetables Don't Grow in the Grocery Store

ChagHolland — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:30:00 GMT

Gardens are great for kids. In addition to teaching kids about different vegetables and gardening tools, gardens are also an excellent way to learn responsibility because it's much easier to dispose of a dead tomato stalk than a dead cat. And a garden will get the kids out of the house for a while!

My father-in-law keeps a large garden at his home. Whenever we visit, my daughter spends lots of time out there with him, asking hundreds of questions and studying the growth of the plants since her last visit. She loves it and is eagerly awaiting the harvest. Now if we could only get her to eat her vegetables.

For the city dwellers among us, you can easily grow a mini garden on your rooftop, balcony, or windowsill. Here are some tips from Texas A&M University for gardening in the concrete jungle.

Kids are naturally attracted to dirt. Gardening can turn their love of dirt into a constructive activity. After all, carrots taste much better than mud pies. Or do they?