A Practical Guide To Healthy Living

Happy Monday, friends – hope you all had a great weekend!  We’re busy busy busy over here at Chez Semi-Sweet.  The perfect storm of school events, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year, writing deadlines, oh yeah, and D. out of town, again = mama is over-freakin’-loaded.  It’s all I can do to keep everyone in clean undies, let alone develop ravishing recipes.

So, we’re hangin’ in with some old stand-bys and some non-recipes.  What’s a non-recipe?  Fage 0% with dried sweet cherries, sunflower seeds and Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter.  That’s a non-recipe.  Or cottage cheese with cracked pepper mixed in and an orange on the side.  Or a packet of flaked salmon with a little light mayo, curry powder and a sprinkle of salt and a grapefruit.  You get the drift.

But Friday, D. came home and I wanted a cooked meal.  You remember this frittata from a week or so ago?  It was good, but I wanted to amp it up.  This version, also with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes but with the cheese switched up and the addition of onions has been judged by D. to be “the best one ever” – I hope you’ll agree!

Two Cheese Spinach & Sun-dried Tomato Frittata  

Preheat the broiler to medium-high.

Put the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover them with boiling water – let stand for 10 minutes to soften, drain, and chop coarsely.

Fill a microwave-safe bowl with as much spinach as you can, cover (preferably with a glass lid and not plastic wrap!) and microwave for 1-2 minutes ’til the spinach is wilted.  Repeat with another batch of spinach.  Squeeze excess water out of the spinach, chop it coarsely, and set aside.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat and add approximately 2 T. of olive oil.  Add the the onion and saute until soft and translucent.  Remove the cooked onions from the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg substitute/eggs, a dollop of milk, the Parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and onions and stir. 

Heat another tablespoon of oil in your skillet over medium heat.  Add the egg mixture and cook, gently lifting the edges so that the runny egg on top can make it to the bottom and cook.  When the egg is fairly well set, but still damp on the top, crumble the goat cheese evenly over the top.  Place the pan under the broiler and broil until puffed, brown and bubbly and set – approximately 5 minutes or fewer.  Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, slice and eat!

Serves 2 heartily, 4 smaller portions, or 1 with leftovers for lunch the next day.  Would be nice with a tossed salad (more veggies, more veggies!) and a crusty loaf of bread on the side.

© 2010, Semi-Sweet. All rights reserved.

Forget the “war on terror” for a minute.  Is your kitchen table a combat zone?  If your answer is yes, even sometimes, read on.  Elizabeth Ward, a registered dietitian and mom, weighs in on one of the most vexing issues for parents everywhere . . . how to deal with a picky eater. 

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Your toddler’s on a two-month run of wanting only peanut butter and jelly on white bread with the crusts cut-off – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Perhaps your five year-old refuses to try any new food. Or, your child barely touches his food at mealtimes, much to your chagrin.

While selective (a.k.a. picky) eating and a poor appetite are more common among the younger set, preschoolers and younger school children are not immune. Question is, how should you deal with a child who turns up his nose at novel foods, demands the same foods at every meal, or who eats like a bird, without getting completely aggravated?

First of all, don’t take a child’s behavior personally. Rejecting new foods, or the balanced, well-planned meals you make, has nothing to do with you or your parenting skills.  Hard to believe when you’re in the middle of a “food fight,” but true.

Here are some other strategies that may help you better handle erratic eating in your youngster.    

• Banish grazing.  As much as possible, schedule meals and snacks for your child to better regulate his appetite. I don’t recommending complete rigidity, but children need to know that eating occurs at about the same time every day. When your child doesn’t finish his meal, save the rest for later; rest assured, he’ll be hungry in an hour or two. Don’t allow your son or daughter to graze on so-called snack foods (Goldfish, anyone?) between meals, and don’t let him or her cruise around all day with a sippy cup of water, milk, or juice within arm’s reach. 

• Let kids make (healthy) choices. Allowing kids to make choices increases their interest in eating. Let them choose between a banana or an apple; whole wheat bread or whole grain cereal; or green beans and carrots. They may pick the same foods over and over, but that will eventually stop, hopefully before you’ve been driven completely crazy. 

• Understand their resistance to new foods. Children spend their days learning and mastering new skills like walking, running, climbing, and talking, and are so consumed by novel experiences and sensations that they often don’t want any surprises on their plates. That may be why a child latches on to favorite foods to the exclusion of new ones.  Don’t worry. It won’t last forever.

• Serve new foods early in the day.  Children get tired as the day wears on, and being confronted with a new food may be the last straw for a worn-out toddler or preschooler.  Serve children something new at breakfast or lunch or just after a nap, when they are well-rested, and hungrier. 

•Keep trying new foods.  Always serve a small amount of a new food alongside your child’s favorites. Expect to serve that food at least 15 times before your child accepts it, or even acknowledges it.  Encourage them to try it, but don’t go overboard.

• Put on your best Poker Face.  Kids crave attention, even when it’s negative. When you get upset when your child rejects a food or won’t eat and you’re tempted to show your emotions, don’t.  Older toddlers in particular are fast learners. They remember that refusing to eat what you put on their plate, or demanding the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner pushes mommy’s buttons! And they’ll push those buttons, over and over.

Elizabeth Ward is a registered dietitian, mother of three, and author of Expect the Best, Your Guide to Healthy Eating Before, During, and After Pregnancy, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feeding Your Baby and Toddler.  Visit her at: www.expectthebestpregnancy.com.

© 2010, Semi-Sweet. All rights reserved.