Real Food for Healthy Kids: 200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes
383
Real Food for Healthy Kids: 200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes
383eBook
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Overview
In an era of McDiets, packed schedules, and stressful jobs, it's harder than ever to incorporate nutritious food into our children's daily lives. But you no longer have to rely on microwaved hot dogs and frozen pizza. In this essential cookbook, food—and parenting—experts Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel offer help and hope, whether you're experienced in the kitchen or more inclined to head to the drive-through.
Real Food for Healthy Kids features more than 200 easy-to-make recipes for school days and weekends, including breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and even parties. Each recipe has been taste-tested by children and analyzed by a nutritionist.
- A power breakfast might feature Carrot Cake Oatmeal, Green Eggs-in-Ham Quiche Cups, or Hole-y Eggs!
- Keep kids energized with a Real Food lunch, such as Hail Caesar, Jr. Salad, Turkey Pinwheels, or Egg Salad Double-Decker Sandwiches.
- Seaman and Steel's snacks include Zucchini Tempura with Horseradish Dunk, Chewy Granola Bars, Happy Apple Toddies, and much more.
- Serve a mouthwatering family dinner: Peachy Keen Chicken, Super Steak Fajitas, or Princess and the Pea Risotto.
- Enjoy a scrumptious dessert: Cheery Cherry Plank, Brown Mouse, or Chocolate-Covered Strawberries.
Seaman and Steel have spent the last four years developing and testing recipes to create nourishing dishes that kids of all ages, from babies to grad students, and even finicky eaters, vegetarians, and kids with food sensitivities will enjoy. Whatever recipes you choose, this indispensable cookbook is sure to become the resource you turn to every day for years to come. Equal parts cookbook, nutrition guide, daily menus, party planner, and parenting guide, Real Food for Healthy Kids will get your kids engaged in eating, happily and healthfully for a lifetime.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780061982958 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 12/15/2023 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 383 |
| Sales rank: | 930,567 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Tanya Wenman Steel is editor in chief of the award-winning food website Epicurious.com. The winner of a prestigious James Beard Foundation Journalism Award, she is a regular guest on Today, has written extensively for the New York Times, and been an editor at Bon Appetit and Food & Wine magazines. She lives in New York with her husband and twin sons.
Tracey Seaman, a single mom of two adolescents, is test kitchen director of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and has been a food editor, stylist, and recipe developer, whose credits include Food & Wine, Gourmet, Vegetarian Times, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Kids, and other national magazines and cookbooks. She lives with her family in New Jersey.
Tracey Seaman, a single mom of two adolescents, is test kitchen director of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and has been a food editor, stylist, and recipe developer, whose credits include Food & Wine, Gourmet, Vegetarian Times, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Kids, and other national magazines and cookbooks. She lives with her family in New Jersey.
Tanya Wenman Steel is editor in chief of the award-winning food website Epicurious.com. The winner of a prestigious James Beard Foundation Journalism Award, she is a regular guest on Today, has written extensively for the New York Times, and been an editor at Bon Appetit and Food & Wine magazines. She lives in New York with her husband and twin sons.
Read an Excerpt
Real Food for Healthy Kids
200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes
By Tanya Steel
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2008
Tanya Steel
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780060857912
Chapter One
What to Feed Your Kids and Why
Scaling the Food Pyramid
There's a reason why kids have to be in their late teens to vote, drink, or drive. It isn't until then that they've gained some measure of maturity or self-discipline. That need for good judgment also applies to their nutritional choices. Just as we would never leave a six-year-old unsupervised with a kitchen knife, nor should we leave him with a cupboard packed with candy. Kids of all ages need some healthy eating guidance to ensure that they are getting a nutritious diet. This book will help you help them, providing you with wholesome recipes. Yes, there are also some delicious treats and desserts included, but even the vast majority of these we gave a nutritional make over so you'll feel better about making them (plus, we feel strongly that kids need to learn moderation, not deprivation). But first, in order to determine what your kids should eat on a daily basis, you need to learn about the basic food groups they should have each day and what constitutes an appropriate portion for their age.
How much kids eat is almost as important as what they eat, and learning about portion control is crucial, even at an early age. The concept of teaching young children about portion control is a relatively new one. Parents used to insist kids clean their plates (some still do) and now we are told that we should allow young children to regulate themselves, eating what they need and leaving the rest on the plate. However, even that modern theory is in dispute. A study of preschoolers published in a 2005 issue of Appetite magazine found that how much the kids ate correlated strongly with the amount of food placed on their plates. So, whether you have toddlers or teenagers, it's best to give them the appropriate portions for their ages and sizes. Kids who tend to leave food on the plate should be allowed to do so, unless you feel they are not getting enough protein, calcium, vitamins, and the like. For kids who are natural clean-plate clubbers, give them appropriate portions, and if they ask for seconds, offer them more fruit and veggies first.
It's also never too early for children to learn about healthy and unhealthy foods. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sponsored a study tracking almost six hundred kids aged eight to thirteen. They found that kids who attended nutrition classes ate a significantly healthier diet, even years later, than those who did not. In response, the institute introduced the idea of "Go Foods," which were healthy everyday foods; "Slow Foods," which you could indulge in a couple of times a week; and "Whoa Foods," which you would have only occasionally. (For more information on this and other health and nutrition information for kids, go to www.realfoodforhealthykids.com.)
What follows is a brief synopsis of the latest government guidelines on what and how much children should eat, broken down by age. It's important to follow these basic tenets for good nutrition, modifying them slightly for your particular child's needs. Obviously, a healthy diet and exercise go hand in hand, something our video-game-playing, computer-glued kids should be reminded of daily. It bears remembering that doctors have concluded that this is the first generation who may not outlive their parents, due to unhealthy weight and its resulting problems such as diabetes and heart disease: Childhood obesity is up 45 percent in the last decade, and at this printing, 16 percent of our children aged six to nineteen are overweight or obese, and another 20 percent are at risk of becoming overweight or obese. There has been a sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and there is a direct correlation between a diet high in sugar and fat and little physical activity.
Daily Nutritional Guidelines
The United States Department of Agriculture created a food pyramid of daily guidelines for kids. (It's available online at www.mypyramid.gov, although the guidelines are only applicable for children aged two and up.) Some nutritionists feel the government should have been more strict, for instance, requiring all, not just some, of the grains to be whole grains, insisting on reduced fat when recommending milk and dairy products, and completely restricting sodas and sports drinks, rather than labeling them as drinks to be used occasionally. Essentially, a child's daily diet should be composed mostly of calories from complex carbohydrates and lean proteins and no more than 20 percent of calories from fat. Here are particulars about each category of food and the specific daily nutritional breakdown for preschoolers, elementary school children, and teenagers, all derived from the U.S.D.A. and the Institute of Medicine.
Daily Foods
Vegetables: Opt for bright and dark veggies: spinach, sweet potatoes, and carrots are great choices. Starchy, whiter foods, such as baking potatoes and corn, are less nutritious.
Fruits: Choose vitamin-rich fresh fruits, such as strawberries, peaches, mangoes, and apples. Fruit juices should be consumed as little as possible. When offering juice, make sure it is 100 percent real fruit juice with no sugar added.
Grains: Use whole or multigrain flours, whole-grain breads, oatmeal, whole-grain low-sugar cereals, brown rice, and whole-wheat pasta. Ban white bread and white rice from your house as much as possible.
Meats and Beans: Serve lean proteins, such as beef, pork, chicken, fish, beans, tofu, or eggs. When preparing any protein-rich food, opt to serve it steamed, baked, or grilled, not fried.
Dairy: Serve lean sources of dairy, such as low-fat milk (check with your doctor to determine whether your child should have whole or reduced-fat milk), low-fat yogurt, ricotta, or cheese.
Oils: Use monounsaturated oil, such as olive—preferably extra-virgin—safflower, and canola oils. They provide vitamin E for healthy skin and the development of cells.
Fats and Sweets: Limit intake of butter, cream, sugary cereals, soda, candy, and the like as much as possible.
Continues...
Excerpted from Real Food for Healthy Kids by Tanya Steel
Copyright © 2008 by Tanya Steel. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.