If you have received a gift from me, I thank you for your patience and flexibility.  I know that registries exist, and that gift cards are now quite popular among, well, everyone but me.  Somehow, though, I feel compelled to share "the latest, greatest" as gifts to loved ones.  Which is why, several years ago, each of my godchildren received a composter.  Only one could read at the time, but age notwithstanding, I was sure it would be a great experience for all.  Apparently, not everyone shares my enthusiasm for piles of smelly, fly-infested rotting food in the backyard.

One Christmas, when I was bent on NOT adding to landfills, I sent everyone mini-forests, swarms of bees, and one lucky soul got a llama.  As one of my oldest and dearest friends said, kindly, "Wow, that was brave."  (Code for the disappointment in her kids' faces on Christmas morning?)

And still, I persist in my giving habits, certain that some time, some way, my idea of a fabulous gift, and the recipient's idea of a fabulous gift will match.  So, I hope my darling friend Annie enjoyed the kelp noodles and longevity sauce she received from me for her birthday last week.  (The kelp noodles don't really taste like anything, but they are soooo good for you, require NO COOKING, and don't have a bit of gluten...or processing, for that matter!)

At least I'm ALWAYS certain not to give people things they already have!

Before I'd even had my molasses coffee ("moe-wath-us toffee," as my five-year-old calls it), excitement about a fabulous article in today's Austin American Statesman was emailing its way to me.  Entitled, "Austin's own 'food revolution,' minus the reality tv series," it serves up some welcome news about cafeterias in Austin.  Addie Broyles really did a great job of highlighting the food-line happenings.

I was happy to read what the Austin Independent School District is doing (they hired a chef to improve the nutrition and taste of the meals), and, of course, I was thrilled to see at least a bit of the philosophy of Brad Wirht, Bridge Point Elementary principal (and true leader) in print there for the world to see.

I've been teaching "healthiness" for almost a decade now, so I've witnessed myriad styles, disciplines, and philosophies when it comes to teaching "healthy."  (And plenty of "healthier-than-thou-ness," too.)  What I haven't seen--until now--is someone able to deliver the message in such a powerful, inspiring way that kids take it on as their own...en masse.  "Mr. Wirht," grounded by his years in education and connecting with kids, has taken the Healthy Choices message, and plopped it right on top of Bridge Point's culture so that eating healthier is already, well, "normal."

The results at the school have been wonderful.  Amazing.  Exhilerating.  I receive "reports" on a regular basis.  Like the mother who recently told me that each member of her family now has a vegetable chart, to make sure everyone is getting enough servings daily (Mom and Dad have their own chart, apparently).  Or the fifth-grader who let me know he exchanged chips for carrots as his after school snack.  Or this email from a mom of a gluten-free son:

The boys have now asked me to pack carrot sticks for their snack, which in itself is SHOCKING!  So, I did but then got to school and heard that a mother was bringing donuts to celebrate her son's birthday at snack time.  So, I asked D's teacher to just make sure he gets a gluten-free cookie that I had packed him for lunch (there was also a bday celebration at lunch).  I then came up and lunch and saw that D still had his cookie.  I asked him why he had not eaten it, and he casually remarked, "Oh, I just decided to eat the carrot sticks instead." I almost fell over!

Thanks again for what you are doing!!

I so appreciated her email (it gave me tingles!), and am thrilled to be able to share what I have been learning over the years.  But I know a large degree of the success we are all enjoying with Healthy Choices has everything to do with delivery.  As Mr. Wirht is quoted in the article,"We all do things better when we choose."  So, we have given the students information, choices, and lots of opportunities to "buy into" their own healthiness.

Behind it all, and what the scope of Addie's article wasn't intended to tackle, is the paradigm Mr. Wirht employs to Educate, Model, Show, and Involve.  Oh, I've done bits of this with "Taste Tests" for kids, letting them become The Experts, getting kids involved in the cooking (all my recipes have suggestions for how kids can help), etc.  But I would have missed out on the not-specifically-food-related ways to inspire kids to eat more vegetables and think for themselves.  And therein lies the real power in getting kids to eat more veggies!

Here's what I mean.  Left to my own, I would have shared the healthier-eating statistics from various programs (we had a Veggies Are FUNdamental extravaganza, for instance), using Smart Foods-generated presentations and graphs.  Part of Brad's genius, though, was in intimately connecting the students to the process, the presentation, and the success.  Students decided how to promote veggie-awareness, students conducted the surveys, students Excel-graphed the info, students created Powerpoint presentations about their own progress, etc. The Healthy Choices program at Bridge Point Elementary inculcated healthiness into daily-ness.

Who knew getting the kids to teach themselves (with just a smidge of help) could be so powerful?

Brad Wirht knew.  And now that I've witnessed, participated in, (and marveled at) this amazing "delivery system," my impact on schools will be forever improved!  More kids will eat more veggies, and that IS revolutionary!

Thank you, Brad, and vive la révolution.

Breakfast.  "The most important meal of the day."  I won't go on and on about my Big Question (How did it ever become "normal" to eat processed, artificially-dyed, sugared-up fluffs in a box and call it "breakfast?"), but I'm pretty sure "convenience" figures prominently in that equation.  I know how easy it is -- while racing against the tardy-slip/meeting/classtime clock -- to reach into the pantry for something I am sure the kids will eat without whining.  And, contrary to what many people believe, my kids DO complain about food, so I definitely feel the urge to avoid daytime drama.  (Plus, my five-year-old demands a lot from his first meal of the day in terms of sheer quantity: the other morning he downed a tangerine, two eggs, a huge smoothie filled with seeds, veggies and fruit, and -- finally, even though I don't like them -- one of my husband's breakfast bars (more fruit and veggies).  I think he consumed about 750 calories before even heading to preschool!

So, I get the breakfast challenge...and as I said earlier, I am working on it!  One option I created recently, "beetiful cakes," look just like (as one second-grader said) a "bad dessert."  And this gluten-free carrot cake (another one of my veggie cakes), is a good transition from boxed cereal.  (It's still processed, but at least kids are getting veggies, protein, and good fats.)  Try it, and please let me know what you and your kids think in the comment box below!

And, if you're looking for something super easy and full of fiber, don't forget about 3-D Oats.  I LOVE them!)

To start our celebration of the earth today, I took my five-year-old on an "upgraded" nature walk.  We often stroll around the hood listening to birds, counting dogs, and creating stories from cloud shapes, but this morning we meandered with a hardcover bird expert called Bird Songs.  Not only did this book provide great illustrations, but when my son plugged in the number corresponding to the picture, we could also hear the sound each bird made.  It was exciting for both of us to add an extra sensory delight to our morning.  (Thanks for lending us the book, Spencer!)

It's funny.  The sounds are always there, but this morning, we really heard them.  We were actually listening.  Tuned in.

I know our brains take in only a fraction of what our eyes see, and was reminded today that our ears know the same trick, as well.  The music and the sheer joy of listening to the chorus all around us is always available to enjoy: it merely requires we check in.  I think that's called Being Present...something my children--and, apparently, birds--try to help me with daily.

HAPPY EARTH DAY--and happy listening--to you!

You know how it is when you're filling out the form for your new dentist, (or anyone else who wants to know all that personal info)., and you're supposed to put in your job title.  I always stumble at that juncture, and feel like erasing "occupation," since what I do for a living isn't really an occupation as much as it is a passion, an obsession, a must.  And even when I do fill in that blank line, I waver.  Educator?  Writer? Cook? Healthiness pusher?

Well, thankfully, the other day, a darling grade-schooler inadvertently offered up my perfect new job title (of course, MOM will forever be my favorite job!)  She stood behind her mother and pointed across the bleachers to me: "Look, Mom, that's my veggie teacher!"

Isn't that just perfect?  I thought so.  Veggie Teacher.  Lucky me :)

It seems as if I've been away for a while, but only from the computer...not from my "calling" of helping kids (including my own!) eat healthier.  I'm happy to report that more kids than ever are consuming vegetables, especially at Bridge Point Elementary School, here in Austin.  This year I've been helping them introduce a new "Lifeskill," called "Healthy Choices" (the principal is obviously VERY forward-thinking and proactive), and every week I feel more hopeful that it's possible to circumvent those scary stats looming over our children and their future.

For example, this week we finished filming "Veggie Raps," where kids created their own raps about--you guessed it--veggies!  Honestly, some were so darling I nearly fell over.  Besides the sheer creativity and talent, I enjoyed two other great delights...First, I had vastly underestimated the number of students who would find celery, broccoli, and cauliflower poetically compelling.  I'd anticipated about 30 kids would join in the veggie jam, but over 100 kids wrote and performed Veggie Raps!  (We had to film over a three-day period.) From dainty kindergarteners to fifth grade "jocks," pretty much everyone got in on the healthy fun.

The other unexpected Veggie Rap thrill was getting to quiz the kids on their produce-eating habits.  I challenged them, "OK, so you're writing FABULOUS rhymes about veggies...are you actually eating them?"  Without exception, they answered in the affirmative.  Not only that, but they proceeded to detail their upgrades: "I used to eat chips after school, but now I eat carrots."  "I've been trying broccoli every way I can think of...including with chocolate!"  "At night I make a salad for my school snack, so it's ready in the morning when I leave."

After the winners have been announced, I'll be putting the Veggie Raps up on our website, and on YouTube, as well, so watch for those fun videos...and have your kids watch them with you.  I'm certain these talented rappers will inspire many, many veggie resistors and veggie-lovers alike!

Oh, and about those breakfast innovations...I'm working on those, too.  I've created whole grain pancakes (and by that, I really mean WHOLE grains like teff, amaranth, and millet, not combined grains that have been pulverized into a flour), morning soup, and dandelion breakfast tacos, among other breakfast-nutrifying, boredom-stopping a.m. ideas...and I'll be putting those up soon!

I know i promised to talk about breakfast...and I will (in fact, I've been coming up with all sorts of yummy breakfast options!), but I have to share a fabulous Valentine's recipe your kids (and veggie-resistant adults) will love...It's SOOOO easy!

Just take a bunch or two of beets, wash them carefully and cut off the ends (be sure to save the greens so you can steam them and enjoy them with Best Sauce Ever).  Now, without adding water or anything, plop them in your crock pot turned to high, and leave them alone for about 2 hours (big, honkin' beets will, obviously, take a bit longer).  When time's up, you will have the richest cooked beets you've ever tasted...and so easy!

When they are cool enough to touch, peel the beets with your fingers...the skin will come off easily in almost no time.  Slice them into about 1/4 inch slices.

Now--here's the part that converts kids--take a small, heart-shaped cookie cutter (I have a darling one that's about as big as my thumb nail), hand it to your kids, and have them make "heart beets."  Never mind if your children don't get as many shapes out of the beet slice as you would, just put them in charge (besides, you can always eat the "scraps"), and let them cut the hearts.  Then, ask them if they want to eat them plain (in marketing, they call this "assuming the sale"), like cookies, or if they want to put them in a salad, on top of hummus, cucumber slices, even ice cream!

My kids are good beet-eaters anyway, but they loved this twist, and it did make for a lovely salad!

Getting your family to eat beets will give your plates lots of color, and their bodies lots of cancer-fighting power, help ward off heart disease, and reduce inflammation.  Plus, if you're pregnant, you'll be happy to know that beets are PACKED with folate, which helps prevent neural tube defects in developing babies.  Finally, they really help you poop.  What's not to love about these little heart beets?  (Note: if you have kidney or gallbladder issues, check with your healthcare pro, due to oxalates.)

(More breakfast info soon, I promise...but right now there's a 5th birthday party I must plan!)

In keeping with my breakfast theme, I re-oriented my original granola recipe.  Oh, you can still make it in the oven, but, as I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible this year, I now make my granola in, yes, a SLOW COOKER!  Here's my crocked variation, which, while not a tummy-warmer like my 3-d oats recipe, is shelf-stable, and great for a ready-when-you-need-it snack in addition to a fiber-filled breakfast.

I have been researching breakfasts all over the globe, and in spite of the spread of processed sugary foods, there are sooooo many mouth watering options on the planet, I can hardly wait to share them,

If you never thought of garlic and onions as breakfast fare, get ready!

As I get older (and wiser!), I’ve noticed a few, well, “shifts.” One thing I haven’t noticed with the years is a big shift in weight. I owe that to - you guessed it - all the vegetables and fruit I eat. I also eat treats regularly, and last night, I enjoyed trying my son’s newest concoction: banana root beer split (frozen banana pieces, organic vanilla ice cream, and organic root beer…we were celebrating an outrageously great math score). And, like most moms, I often find myself finishing my kids’ plates, rather than “wasting” food.

But here’s why those habits of mine don’t send the scale numbers upward: my body is already bolstered by tons of fiber and micronutrients (many of which we probably don’t even know about yet) from eating so many plants. I also make sure my kids get plenty of plants. So instead of polishing off the rest of a kid’s soggy, orange-colored mac and cheese after dinner, my choices include whole grains like rice or quinoa, and myriad veggies.

I hear parents talk a lot about protein, and I’m NOT saying it’s unimportant to our growth and development at every age. I’m just saying it’s probably over-rated. People love to fill their plates with a burger, steak or chicken, and many feel a meal isn’t a meal without that hunk of protein. But protein comes from legless sources, too…and when you consume it that way, say in beans, seeds, and nuts, you also get fiber! And as far as I’m concerned, fiber is the best “diet secret” there is (as long as you consume sufficient water, of course). Fiber fills us up and doesn’t rush through our bodies, so it keeps us full longer.

It’s taken me a long time on this Good Better Best Path to reach the point of seldom eating “processed” foods like bread, cereal, and pasta, but here’s the crazy thing: I don’t really crave them anymore. And that is something I NEVER thought I’d say, since I used to devour cookie dough for breakfast, and spread toast with something new on it almost daily! Maybe it’s because my body is finally listening to what foods are telling it now!

Anyway, I’ve heard lots of talk about weight lately, so I decided to comment (I seldom mention calories, and you will not find that info on any of my recipes). If you want to live free from scale-phobia, listen to your body, and eat more veggies: you’ll be amazed how choosing an extra serving of green beans or salad instead of an extra roll can literally change your life!

I’ve seen lots of information on swine flu precautions/responses/likely causes, etc., but relatively little seems to form a solid line of fact. One group says that having a healthy immune system is likely to make you more susceptible to the strain. But, why then, are children and elderly more likely to get it?

Who knows, but I do have to say that building my youngest son’s immunity throughout this last year is one reason he was able to go to preschool regularly. Not a claim I could have made last year at this time. Despite his physical testosterone-esque ways, he was always the first to let bugs camp out in his system, taking him down for days (and me with him…not that I got sick, but when your children are sick, it makes you feel so bad for them!)

Starting last fall, though, I got very serious about building his body’s bug-killing abilities. I use herbs that are commonly recognized as safe for kids (and written about fabulously in the book Kids, Herbs, Health, but I also was extra vigilant about one of the biggest immunity-busters out there: NO SUGAR!!!

If there’s one thing kids could do to help them stave off illnesses of all sorts, it’s reducing their sugar intake. I haven’t seen any swine flu suggestions from the CDC suggesting sugar reduction as a means to ward off, well, anything, but it’s a great place to start!

It’s no secret around my house that I enjoy my own cooking, but I have to say, last night’s dinner deserved five-stars (she says, humbly). OK, maybe because it was the first meal in ages that hasn’t depended largely upon my slow cooker. (How much I love my slow cooker is also well-known, but even I was tiring of my favorite kitchen companion’s repertoire.)

So, since we hosted a mid-week dinner party last night, I decided to temporarily abandon my slow cooker. Of course, I couldn’t venture back into the frightening category of “time intensive,” since there were music lessons and homework (as well as my own work) to consider, but I did the next best thing: went simple.

If you had been at my house last night for dinner, here’s what I would have served you:

• An appetizer of three different raw (and organic, though not certified) blue cheeses topped with walnuts and the prettiest Pink Lady apple slices (omega-3 and fiber). This was not only elegant and delicious, it involved little more than unwrapping the cheese and slicing those gorgeous apples.


• What I made but did NOT serve was the roasted Garlic White Bean Puree with Argon Oil. That was a big, fat flop for which even I couldn’t muster enthusiasm! Argon oil is made from a tree that pretty much only grows in Morocco. It is a trendy (and pricey) ingredient about which I’ve heard much hoopla. Besides, one of my best friends sent me a bottle directly from Africa, so I was excited to try it. Let me just say, there will be no argon hoopla from this corner.


• For dinner I served fish, something I rarely do. (When I was pregnant with my second child, I didn’t eat fish to stay away from mercury. My lack of fish-love has kind of stuck since then.) But I bought 2 1/3 pounds of steelhead trout (wild, and fresher than the salmon, according to the fishmonger). I did nothing more to it than sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and place it on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. Below the fish (in the oven), I placed a skillet of boiling water, the results of which were moist, melt-in-your-mouth yumminess.


• Veggies included sautéed mushrooms (cremonini and shitake with some fresh-from-the-garden thyme sprigs), and what I know will be a new favorite: skillet travino. OK, a little obtuse, maybe, but I loved it last night when it was hot, and today when it was refrigerator-cold (I think I loved it more today, actually). It’s not really a kid-oriented dish because chicory family members are somewhat bitter, but you could make the same dish with romaine lettuce for kids.


• Our salad/“starch” was a surprisingly HUGE hit with my kids. Something like tabouli (only totally gluten-free and embellished with cherries), both sons asked for seconds, I’ll definitely be making Sunny Quinoa Salad again!


• For dessert I rinsed off some organic strawberries and blueberries from the first crop I’ve seen this year (despite the cold up north, we have had our air conditioner on already!), and whipped up a little agave-sweetened cream as a berry-dipping indulgence.

I’m very, very grateful to now have our smarter by the week e-newsletter in Spanish! We’ve been asked (repeatedly) for a version en español, and finally have it, thanks to one of the most impressive Smart Fooders I’ve met.

I wrote about Annie in an earlier blog because she stands out as a mom who’s made impressively healthy changes for her family outside of an immediate threat. That is, nobody in her family has allergies, cancer, autism, or any other blatant illness that generally inspires dietary change. She’s just made the changes because, well, because she’s smart…because she loves her family…because she likes to cook…all those things and more.

Thankfully, she also happens to be a native speaker of the Spanish language, so we asked her to be part of the Smart Foods Team as we expand to accommodate Spanish speakers.

We feel it’s an important expansion for a lot of reasons. By 2030, Hispanics will comprise about 30% of the US population, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that demographic sector currently has rates of obesity some 10% higher than the overall average in the US. We figure, by educating Spanish-speaking moms and kids now, we can head off the dangerous statistics being pointed to for the future.

If you know anyone who might benefit from smarter by the week in Spanish, please get them This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ! Eventually, we hope to have a Spanish version of the website, including videos!

Muchas gracias, Annie!

The other evening after dinner, my four-year-old asked if we could make some applesauce. Thrilled by his enthusiastic cooking initiative, I quickly agreed.

I washed a few apples, cut them with an apple corer/slicer (I’m sure it has a real name, but we just call the apple flower cutter). I whizzed them around in the food processor a bit, and put them on the stove with some cinnamon, letting my in-house expert advise me on the perfect amount of cinnamon. The whole thing took approximately eleven minutes.

He loved every bit. From my affirming response to his idea; to helping me wash and core the apples; to seasoning the mixture…he was in heaven. Of course he asked for seconds, and then thirds. He was also delighted when the applesauce turned up in his lunchbox the next day.

A couple days later, however, he had apparently rethought my recipe.

“Mama,” he pronounced in a kind of years-of-experience authoritative tone, “you don’t know how to make applesauce the right way.”

“Oh, really? How should I make it?” I asked.

Finger pointed in the air, he assured me, “EVERYBODY knows you have to peel the apples first, silly.”

I had to laugh (and I still don’t know the genesis of his epiphany), but I just thanked him, and explained that there are lots and lots of ways to cook the same foods. Our version of applesauce happens to include the skin, since that’s where so many of the vitamins live (I spared him my antioxidant spiel). And anyway, wouldn’t it be boring if we all ate the same things in the same ways?

I really believe that (despite my blatant efforts to remove high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, chemicals, and dye from our plates). I love the delicious diversity that foods and cultures and habits serve up when they get tossed together.

Sometimes on this quest to HEALTHY, I see “experts” and food gurus extolling “ONE WAY.” I hope, though, in our mutual goal of healthiness and nutritional literacy, we don’t forego flexibility and open-mindedness. After all, if we stayed in the same food patterns, we’d never have cupcakes made with beans, and that would be a shame!

Most nights, my husband tells our children his own special version of fairy tales. They usually involve knights, variously distressed individuals or groups, and “tooting power.” Yes, the thing that little boys around the world find incomparably HILARIOUS, forms the save-the-day power in this series I call “Tootalot.”

Obviously, my mundane preference for reading flatulence-free books is far less compelling to our sons (in all fairness, though, given their age-span, finding books to accommodate and interest each simultaneously has proven difficult of late. Dr. Seuss’s ABCs cannot hold a candle to Mr. Lewis’s Narnia gang, nor vice versa, depending on the age-perspective). But almost every book is ill-suited to compete against adventures co-created and acted out by two surprisingly enthusiastic listeners. And then there are the sound effects…

At first, I admit I was less than thrilled. In part, I’m sure, because of the horrifying toot-filled years before I cut gluten from my diet. But beyond that, I had ideas of How Going To Bed Should Be. And for me, it always involved reading to your kids from books that could fill their heads with new ideas, foster their imagination, and increase their vocabulary.

Of course, that’s exactly what my husband is accomplishing with his oral chronicles, it just took me a while (distracted by the sounds, I presume) to realize it.

It’s the same way with foods. Marketing, or tradition, or some other expectation-setter has stepped in to proclaim certain foods be relegated to certain times and places. Or, not at all. Often this “should” attitude is counter-productive to engendering enthusiasm…and in terms of getting kids to eat well, enthusiasm is a major ingredient!

Who ever said that soup and salad isn’t a perfectly wonderful breakfast? Why not have oatmeal for dinner? As I age, I realize more and more that the point of all of this is really to have fun along the way…

People ask me ALL THE TIME what they should eat/what their children should eat/what their grandchildren with A.D.D. should eat…and my answer is: “It depends.”* That is not the neat, tidy “ANSWER” most people want (I see it in their faces), but it’s the truth.

The only factor I see as a constant when it comes to food and people is that food (and the eating thereof) should be fun…or, at the very least, it should NOT be guilt-inducing, painful, hard, or yucky.

(Before I elaborate on “fun,” I should probably say a word or two about “food.” Like many, including that brilliant and inspiring food journalist, Michael Pollan, I have long believed that “food” is an edible that occurs naturally, not by way of a chemistry lab. Multi-syllabic Periodic Table progeny are, well, chemicals, and while some are certainly delicious, they are not actually “food.”)

“Fun” may not seem like the descriptor on which a gal like me, whose reverence for organic veggies borders on latria, would focus. And when I started sharing what I know, I was anything BUT “fun.” Folks would slump out of my classes muttering, “I’m killing my kids!”

Thankfully, with this many years of practice comes at least a smidge of wisdom, and what I know now (what many cultures—generally not ours—have ALWAYS known), is that food should be a joyful, positive, potentially bonding experience. Which is why sugar on cucumbers is not always a bad thing.

Here’s what I mean. Yesterday, as my three-year-old and I were preparing a picnic to accompany our hike, he added a jar of sprinkles to the cooler of hummus, veggies, nuts, fruit and some homemade “chotwat chip tooties” (no added sugar or wheat, of course!). He had been obsessed with the pink sparkles in a jar since we bought them, and apparently, had a culinary vision for sparkle-use beyond cookies. This is how the sugar sprinkles (naturally colored and organic) found their way to the top of my son’s cucumber slices. OK, so they didn’t have the same nutritional value as the DELICIOUS Meyer lemon hummus my darling husband had made, but sprinkling was fun; he felt “ownership” over his food; we were both able to marvel at his creativity (AKA, “bond”); and he did eat his veggies. Moreover, it was fun.

Given all the dieting angst and upset I see in the US; the hyper-pious “nutrition gurus;” and the misery (and pill-popping) that results from scale-watching, I’m pretty sure adding “fun” to any sense of diet or nutrition would be a step forward for most of us. I bet if we change our attitudes toward what we eat (“I don’t have time to cook!” “I hate veggies!” “My kids will only eat Happy Meals and Nuggets.”), we’ll not only find lower numbers on the scales, but more enjoyment of what we eat, and a lot more fun in our lives.

Hmmm, maybe I should change my answer from, “It depends,” to “Sprinkles.”

* Of course, if you’re a family member or close friend, my personal assumptions and our shared familiarity have thrust you into my world of never-ending “helpful” suggestions (a habit for which I will apologize, but probably not be able to stop…sorry Dad!)

I love the NEW YEAR! That annual “do-overs” opportunity really inspires me. Fortunately, I’m naturally optimistic, so the fact that my resolutions so shockingly resemble each other from year to year doesn’t really bother me. Like I said, do-overs!

We were discussing resolutions as a family the other day, and after explaining to my youngest that a new year’s resolution is helping yourself do something more or better, he responded, smiling, “Den my new year resowution is to watch more tv!”

Unlike my three-year-old, part of my 2009 resolve involves moving my body, so this year, for the first time I think, I’m listing “working out” as a goal. When I was young (pre-kids…it turns out everything before having children was “young”), that was never an issue, since there was always something fun that counted as exercise. Biking, tennis, yoga, dancing…and when I lived in cities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco, even getting from one place to another provided exercise opportunities. With kids, though, unless I’m playing “Kiss Monster” at a playground, or specifically playing with my kids, I just don’t move like I used to…so I need to consciously exercise now.

It’s funny, though, because I always think I don’t have time. This, of course, speaks to the larger issues of life balance, “expectations,” and values. I often suggest during classes I teach that little we are so busy “doing” could be more important than nurturing our children with healthy foods…so why do we women have so much difficulty “nurturing” ourselves? Why do I feel like yoga classes, or walks in nature are such a “luxury?” (I “know” they are not, and yet…)

Maybe what I should really resolve to do, rather than working out, is do a little “working in.” Hmm, I’ll report back on that!

In the meantime, I wanted to share this list of resolutions written by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Far more lofty than my own, it’s a list that both inspires me and makes me think a little deeper, at least for a moment or two!

I don’t think the “secret” to cooking is actually about knowing how to cook. I suspect it’s more about being fearless and therefore enjoying the process. My children have proven this to me repeatedly (on so many levels, about so many things). Unaware of rules or “shoulds,” they mix any number of potentially incongruent ingredients and gleefully declare them “de-wish-us.” (Virtuous Goo is great on everything, according to my three-year-old.)

Most of the time, I’m pretty fearless (which might explain beans as the base for cupcakes or tossing whole oranges – peels included – in scones). But sometimes, I forget.

I forgot to be fearless during a recent trip to visit a friend with cancer. My intent was to fill her freezer with all sorts of yummy, healthy treats so that when I left, she could fill her plate full of anti-oxidant power at any given moment.

That is not at all what happened.

I worried that nobody would like what I made (What if my style doesn’t match their taste buds? Will her kids turn up their noses?), and I was without many of my familiar ingredients (hempseed and miso, it turns out, are not hot items in Zurich). Mostly, I did not feel fearless in the face of the cancer invading one of the funniest, most articulate mothers I know. The fear turned me into a bad cook (and it made me talk a lot, too, I noticed). So, when I finally did manage to pull together a few dishes, they were by no means “de-wish-us.” And the mediocrity took a surprising amount of time.

I’ve thought about that experience now that I’m back in my own familiar, cancer-free kitchen. With the recent, heart-pounding exception of some spontaneous morning flames dancing wildly in my cast iron skillet, I’ve remained steadfastly fearless. (Note to self: try not to get distracted when warming up a skillet with any amount of ghee.) The freedom inherent in that no “what if’s” fearlessness makes the process and the product better. I suspect that is probably true for everything in life. Hmm, now, if I could only remember this lesson outside my kitchen!

I was fortunate enough to hear Judith Orloff, M.D., speak recently about intuition (something I’ve experienced more than ever since becoming a mother). She shared what Quincy Jones offered when asked about his own inner radar. He spoke of “living by goosebumps.” When he gets goosebumps, he knows he’s on the right track. What a great feedback system!

I’ve felt some surprising goosebumps lately, myself, so even in the midst of “health” statistics pointing to disaster, and hearing of kids eating dessert instead of breakfast in the morning, I feel hopeful. Over Halloween, I spoke with a mother who quit her Diet Coke-a-day habit in exchange for green tea, and has filled her home with stainless steel water bottles. How fabulous for her two darling little boys! Goosebumps.

And this week, my beautiful friend Annie gave me goosebumps by reporting many of the little changes she’s made to her family’s diet over the last year or so. Small things that are gradually adding up. For instance, she throws chia water into her banana bread, increasing the omega 3 content, as well as adding fiber and vitamins and minerals to a yummy snack. She also uses more agave nectar and less sugar than she once did.

What’s particularly goosebumpish about both moms, is that they made changes outside of an externally-forced medical issue, like diabetes, or rashes, or food allergies. They just “know” it’s the right thing to do (I suspect they are heeding their mothers’ intuition!) Their kids are very lucky.

Thanks for the goosebumps, Annie and Carrie!

I’m always thrilled when people write me with ideas and questions…they are so valuable! In this case, I was surprised to find so many comments about my Two Celery Soup. I’d mentioned that I was trying to find a way to do without dairy…

Some cooks suggested adding potato, which is, generally a fabulous idea. Potatoes are a great way to add texture and creaminess (especially if using “gold” potatoes). I love potatoes! I know a lot of people have carbophobia, but potatoes can be exempt from the fear of carbs: they have lots of vitamin C, vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, fiber, and phytochemicals galore! In this case, though, potatoes weren’t the ticket. Never mind the fact that I have potatoes in many of my recipes, this sophisticated version of celery soup just wouldn’t work with potatoes.

Another creative chef suggested hemp milk. If you’ve been a Smart Fooder for long, you know how much I LOVE hempseed, and I’ve been told that hemp milk is yummy. That said, many alternative milks are packaged in aseptic packaging, which probably means plastic.

Anyway, my alternative for a creamier version without the cream is here. Basically, I just use twice as much celery root. In this version, I also used leeks instead of shallots, but the effect wasn’t in the realm of creaminess.

Anyway, thanks so much for the great ideas….Please keep them coming and DO try my favorite new soup!

The Bailout is conspicuous among every news source imaginable, and nationally, our underwear is really in a bundle. We are offended, mad, and more than slightly freaked about what it all means for those of us who aren’t actually Wall-Streeters.

While I agree that the economics of this debacle are ugly, there’s a bigger—and far more costly—debacle undertowing us further and deeper. It’s happening a spoonful at a time, and we’re doing it to ourselves.

In 2003, Americans lost $1.3 TRILLION to chronic diseases (both in terms of actual medical payments and lost productivity). Given the trajectory of our nation’s health statistics, that big, honkin’ figure is only going up. And it’s annual; recurring…a perspective that makes The Bailout look like a Happy Meal “bargain.”

Outrage isn’t the solution for either situation, but taking a little personal responsibility is a great start for the latter (in all the presidential debates/rhetoric, I haven’t heard a candidate discuss the importance of healthy eating to the bottom line of this country…even when talking about the need for healthcare reform). Personal responsibility comes easily in the form of vegetable-eating, and sitting down with our family at dinner time, and knowing our omegas from our hydrogenateds.

We may be angered by the irresponsibility we see on Wall Street, but our health is our own opportunity to live healthier and longer…and cost ourselves and “The System” less at the same time.

Last week, the FDA announced that BPA is just fine at such “low” levels as we Americans expose ourselves to. In April, Canadian health officials thought otherwise. Canada actually banned BPA in baby bottles. The Canadian minister of Health, Tony Clement, thought banning was a good idea because, “we believe it is our responsibility to ensure families, Canadians and our environment are not exposed to a potentially harmful chemical.” Good policy, and probably just the beginning…

Oddly, The FDA based its recent decision on just two American Chemistry Council studies (though there are numerous other studies available). Coincidentally, Dow and Bayer, two of the biggest producers of BPA, are also big members of the American Chemistry Council.

Together with some other smaller companies, these members of the industry-sponsored “research” papers produce more than 6 million pounds of BPA every year. (Six million pounds annually might be why ninety-three percent of Americans pee BPA, according to the CDC.)

From everything I’ve read (and my husband says I “overtrain”), BPA isn’t good (unless you’re a manufacturer who wants cheaper canned goods, or bottles, then it’s really good). BPA is known to instigate brain changes and behavior issues among rats, certainly, and perhaps kids, too. Some studies show that it might be a culprit in low birth weight in newborns…and maybe even worse.

According to the scientists at Our Stolen Future, “Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) causes long-lasting changes in female rat breast tissue that make the tissue more sensitive to estrogen at puberty and more susceptible to cancer-causing chemicals as adults.” Translation: rat moms exposed to BPA probably makes their ratlings more cancer-likely. Not good. So, though I haven’t read the two industry-sponsored studies (I try to avoid industry sponsored studies), I can’t see how the FDA came up with their announcement…

As a mother, it’s frustrating that shelf life often takes precedence over human life…I really think we moms need our own research/lobby group!

I am not an easily intimidated soul. My husband marvels that I regularly call politicians (the ones whose paychecks our taxes support, last time I checked), famous authors, and other notoriety types. I like to share my opinion. (Or was that already obvious?!)

But I am frequently intimidated by the prospect of feeding my oldest son’s peers. At eight years old, you’re accustomed to certain foods (and for many, those foods come very colorfully packaged and with toys). If new colors, shapes, and flavors arrive on your plate, you are often reluctant to try them. At eight years old, you are no longer inspired by verses of Sam I Am. At eight years old, you know A LOT (apparently), and your face is excellent at expressing disdain.

The thing is, though, at eight years old, your brain really needs nutrifying, especially to start a good day. Probably a lot more than it does at thirty-eight, or forty-eight. And every study I’ve ever read (that wasn’t funded by a cereal company) underscores the importance of healthy breakfasts.

So, the eight-year-olds who intimidate me most are those who eat cereal for breakfast. Starting the day without a requirement to actually chew is a dangerous marker for the rest of the day (and palate). Fiber unfamiliarity disqualifies so many of my breakfast options. And certainly I wouldn’t want to humiliate my darling son by proposing the vegetables common to his own morning repasts (he often has green beans, broccoli slivers, or peas tucked into his egg tacos, for example). Fortunately, my pancakes can provide the perfect foil, and since agave nectar is so sweet, post-slumber-party breakfasters are often treated to blueberry-topped, sugar-free, hydrogenated oil-free, wheat-free, real fruit-topped hot cakes.

The biggest “trick” to overall healthy eating remains a good breakfast. And in my opinionated opinion, a brain-building breakfast is not one poured from a box…(Did you hear that, eight-year-olds?!)

It’s all about the marketing. Ad agencies know it, of course, which would explain why kids who watch kid-TV are exposed to “an average of one food commercial every five minutes,” according to a Prevention Institute study. And none of those commercials push—or even mention—F & V (fruit and veggies). Surprise.

This supports my belief that our own parental marketing skills must be honed! It’s why I recommend involving the kids in the production process, and asking their expert advice. It’s why we need to treat “healthy” as fun. That said, I’ve been noticing a new marketing trend at my own house: my youngest has started giving foods his own delightfully inspiring names.

Recently, when we were playing a game of family Parcheesi, my youngest (the official dice-roller) asked for “brown candy.” I had not a clue what he meant, so I asked him to show me. He led me straight to a jar of raw pecans. All right then, Brown Candy, it is! (I didn’t even have to make Candy Nuts for him.)

A week or so ago, when I put black sesame seeds on a quick veggie stir-fry, I was surprised when that same Brown Candy kid asked for “more Elmo seeds.” Elmo seeds, Elmo seeds…what could he be talking about? It took my insightful almost-eight-year-old to translate: he meant sesame seeds (Get it? Sesame Street?). Now I pull out those calcium-rich black sesame seeds every chance I get! (The Essential Fatty Acids in black sesame seeds are reputed to be good for hair.)

“Cake sandwiches” are popular around here, too. I make them out of rice cakes and coconut or almond butter. OK, they are RICE cakes, but the mommy-marketer in me likes to focus on the CAKE part of the term (by the way, I don’t give my kids rice cakes without speedbumps…something with good fats or fiber…rice cakes by themselves are quite high-glycemic.)

One thing I’ve noticed about any food marketing to kids, is that it has to be fun and interesting. This is not an epiphany. Little elves who bake cookies in a hollow tree, Cap’n Crunch’s exploits on the Guppy, Fred’s Pebbles regularly absconded with by that crazy nut, Barney, all show that marketers have been onto this premise for a while. But parents over the millennia have not taken enough note of these points, I suspect, since, on a far-too-frequent basis, I hear of veggie wars and fruit-fights.

Maybe if we start getting creative with our food offerings, our kids will start self-marketing, and solve the whole thing for us! Those elves have nothing on my three year old.

People look at me funny when I “wildly” suggest consuming 10 servings of plant foods (AKA fruits and veggies) daily, and I think I finally realized why. Or at least, partly why. The idea of “serving size” in the United States has been warped by supersizing’s ubiquity (but not, apparently, by the fine print on nutrition labels…I’ve seen labels giving facts for what amounts to 2/3 of a cookie…right, like I’m gonna stop at 2/3 of a cookie.)

The fast food chains would have us believe that a “serving” of French fries, for example, is about two fists big. And while there are lots of big, fat, acrylamide-filled reasons to avoid French fries, the mere bad math of eating two fists worth—and calling it a serving—might be reason enough! (Oh, and the French fries are probably genetically modified and fried in hydrogenated oil.)

What I mean by a serving only takes up 1/2 of a measuring cup (it varies a little depending on food ) …and I’m not the one who invented these figures. “They,” the experts who spend their lives conducting studies, suggest 1/2 a cup servings. So, to the relief of many, in a whole day, that really only means about 5 cups of something that hasn’t been processed or stripped down in any way. Just simple, good produce. Like apples or spinach (just think how many servings a good salad will give you!)

There’s a study for just about any fact you want to support. Meat is good/meat is bad. Coffee makes you think better/worse. Wine makes you live longer/kills you…But one study I have yet to find is that, for the “normal” person, increasing produce consumption is bad for you. On the contrary, veggie and fruit eating reduces chances for cancer, heart problems, diabetes, obesity, and myriad other “diseases of modernity” as Anne says.

So grab a peach, and start in on your delicious, nutrifying “quota!”

My oldest son announced in the spring—as my other friends were timing their summer camp applications perfectly—that he wanted no part of camp. Nope, he wanted to stay home with me this summer and just “hang out.” (There will come a time, friends with teenagers assure me, that the mere sight of me will induce sneers of repulsion, so I decided to take advantage of the still-not-grossing-him-out timing.)

He should have known better, of course, because “hanging out” is a skill I probably won’t master this lifetime. And while I think he really meant that he wanted to play his DS every day, all day, he should have known better on that account, too. So, this summer, in between swimming and slumber parties, we are conducting experiments, reading new books (Lawn Boy is our new current choice, my previous selection, Gulliver’s Travels having proven ridiculously complex for a not-yet third grader…What was I thinking?), and listening to live music…outside, in old music halls (waltzing with 91-year-old men!), in contest form (this weekend is a fiddle contest…I do live in Texas).

So far, so good. Well, except for the “Stink Bomb.” It wasn’t nearly as stinky as some ostensibly edible recipes I’ve tried, nor did it “explode” in a manner worthy of more than a yawn from a seven-year-old boy. (“Slightly Smelly Waft” would have been a more accurate name, but probably not so good in terms of marketing.)

We have also, of course, been experimenting with some new recipes for my getting-closer-to-reality cookbook. The Chicken Nuggets were a huge hit (even a teenage boy gave these fast food alternatives a big thumbs up!), and the Mint Limeade Freeze went over well, too. (The Zucchini Pancakes, however, were devoured by just one lone eater in this family—me—and I thought they were so delicious, I ate the entire batch!)

There’s more going on than experiments, reading, and music-listening, though. It’s an alchemy that the school-year bustle doesn’t afford (I totally object to school starting at 7:45 am!!!) We’ve been having conversations that involve more than hurry up-ing, and, “Did you brush your teeth?” We’ve been staying longer at friends’ houses, free from homework to dash home and finish. We do fun things after dinner.

As far as I’m concerned, this is a great summer. I hope my son will find his way to that conclusion, too (his limited screen-time notwithstanding). And by the end of this summer, I’m going to find a more impressive “Stink Bomb,” so check back!

Now that my youngest sleeps through the night (mostly), and doesn’t scream on planes as though he were being showered in hot oil (mostly), I enjoy traveling again. And since I had business in New York recently, I decided it was time to introduce my kids to the Big Apple, a place I once lived and thoroughly enjoyed.

Of course, twenty years ago, I didn’t consider the stroller-subway incompatibility factor. Nor did every handle, seat, and rail remind me of the germ plethora waiting to invade my kids’ mouths (note: 4,237 weekend admonitions to, “Keep your fingers out of your mouth, PLEASE!” held no sway against their habits). And way back then, I really didn’t care much about healthy foods.

Isn’t it amazing how a couple of kids and a couple of decades change your perspective!

Well, there wasn’t much I could do about the subway stairs and germs, but I was impressed with some of our food choices, and did my darndest to find the best places to take kids for healthy (or healthy-ish) foods in “Doo Wa Diddy New York City,” as my kids call it.

While my husband enjoyed his share of the city’s honkin’ white bagels, my kids buffered the Daddy-inspired street corner pretzel extravaganza with organic veggies and free-range eggs at more than one place, thankfully. An easy way to find New York’s organic delights was the book, Greenopia, New York City, (there are also Greenopias for San Francisco and LA…The NYC version is filled with all sorts of green resources, and I highly recommend it). This little treasure was given me by a darling waitress at one of my favorite finds, The Green Table.

And The City wasn’t the only spot my family enjoyed local and organic on the same plate. In gloriously beautiful Lake George, we discovered The Farm House Restaurant, a completely delicious spot associated with—surprisingly—a golf course (but it’s an environmentally friendly golf course, since it is governed by the Adirondack Park regulations). The restaurant is run by a darling and environmentally-committed husband and wife team, and offers the best of Adirondack flavors!

I love vacations…

Wal-Mart has done it again! Earlier this year, they decided to go rBGH-free, and now they’re getting rid of baby bottles, pacifiers, water bottles, and food containers made with that nasty stuff, bisphenol-A (BPA)…at least in Canada where the government recently announced that BPA is toxic.

Sam Walton would be proud!

Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest retailer, so, if you ask me, Wal-Mart’s decision will have a bigger impact than governments conducting studies, creating laws, etc. Our own National Toxicology Program, while admitting concern that BPA is responsible for behavior issues in babies and possibly the early development of teenage girls, said that more research needs to be done (to find MORE kids with MORE problems?)

Anyway, Wal-Mart is definitely on the Good Better Best Path, and I’m quite thankful!

I was driving behind a big red delivery truck the other day, considering the message painted boldly on the sides. “Rethink what you drink,” commanded the large letters, surrounded by happy kids with plastic water bottles.

The message was to buy their water and give it to your kids, but, uhm, I bet they don’t actually want us to go so far as to think about what drinking their water means. I’m pretty sure if we really used our brain cells on this one, not many of us would be giving our kids water that’s been schlepped from who-knows-where, in plastic bottles, having gotten who-knows-how-hot (heat causes the chemicals in the plastic to leach into the water).

And then there’s the silliness of using non-renewable resources (at almost four bucks a gallon!) to transport what might very well be municipal water to our homes/offices/classrooms. I’m not saying that municipal water is necessarily bad. In fact, water that arrives to our homes via pipe is far more stringently regulated than water coming via plastic bottle. It’s just that, if we’re going to drink water from a tap, we might as well skip the (possibly carcinogenic and hormonally disrupting) middleman.

Just a thought, as long as we’re rethinking...

How do you get your kids to eat healthier? To want to eat healthier?

Here’s a great idea started just two weeks ago by a darling teacher of 4 and 5-year-olds. Every day, she passes out this little award (it’s about 3 inches square):

Say what you will about Wal-Mart, but lots of people shop there, so my opinion is, rather than dis a company for its former transgressions—the past is the past, after all—try to help it get on the Good Better Best Path with the rest of us.

I’m writing specifically about Wal-Mart because of their recent WISE decision to go Bovine Growth Hormone-Free !!! Genetically Modified growth hormones have been associated with increased cancer risks, increased antibiotic resistance and increased mastitis in cows (the latter of which means more pus in the milk for our kids—disgusting—and increased pain for the cows—ouch!) Who wants all that extra baggage with their milk or cheese?

Taking this stand is a major deal for this country’s largest retailer. It means pushing on a big, honkin’ part of the supply chain. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s good for the whole organic movement. OK, they’ve made a few blunders in the past (and who of us have not?), but maybe this time, they’re really trying! So let them know you think their efforts are valuable (which they are!), and let them know that you-the-public are watching.

Yes, I know that “industrial organic” (think huge factories with pollution and crowded animals, versus small, bucolic family farms) has gotten a lot of bad publicity for several reasons, not the least of which are the highly publicized corporate green-washing incidents for profit’s sake. It’s true that industrial organic doesn’t represent the intrinsic goal of organic crops or an organic lifestyle (given that the average item travels some 1,500 miles to get to you, that’s a lot of carbon waste, to be sure), but it’s not actually possible a leap from where we are now to a 100% “locavore” lifestyle. Not YET. Maybe industrial organic, trained and expectation-set by an increasingly knowledgeable public (that’s us!), is a necessary step on this part of the Good Better Best Path…

Ha! All the time I advise parents to feed their kids what they eat. Don’t fix “extra” dishes just to please picky palates, simply serve them veggies as if eating veggies were the most natural thing in the world…which, by the way, it is! (Studies report that it takes about 15 times of a food reappearing in front of kids before they’ll just pick up a fork ands start eating it, so be patient.) So, the other evening, when I’d sautéed some organic Brussels sprouts, and served them only to myself (my husband was out of town, and the kids had plenty of veggies), I had to laugh when my oldest son asked, “Where are my green round things?”

I shared from my plate, and he happily devoured every sprout I offered. Of course, I had to divvy up the tiny cabbages, because once my three-year-old saw the gusto in his older brother’s eyes, well, there were never more desirable veggies on the planet than the ones big brother wanted.

“Am I imagining it, or does this lettuce actually have a good flavor?”

“What do you mean?” I asked our houseguest who often refers to my food as “weeds and twigs.”

“Well, usually lettuce is just a tasteless leaf for salad dressing, but this is actually good!” he replied.

…Ahhh, another reason to buy local and organic. I do have to say, since we started our weekly Greenling produce delivery, we’ve not only been getting better tasting lettuce (I think it’s sweeter), but everything we’ve been receiving has been delicious.

I was slow to sign up for a couple reasons, and they turned out to be unfounded:

• I like to choose my own produce. Ha! When it comes to my door from a local source, rather than a few states away, the stuff is naturally going to be fresher and more loaded with nutrients. Studies have shown that fresh produce has a lot more antioxidant power (which could partially explain the better taste), so I know my family is getting more umph per bite. Besides, coming from a local source helps local farmers (CSA: Community Supported Agriculture), and reduces the environmental burden of shipping a head of lettuce 1500 miles to get to my table.


• It seemed expensive. Ha again! While having produce delivered IS a tad more expensive than going to the grocery store, I’ve really cut down on my trips to the store. So, never mind that I’m not spending money on gas, I’m also not spending precious time with my kids behind a cart, in a constant—often frustrating—negotiation (how valuable is that to a mother?!?!). All those occasions I lost the negotiation and we came home with food that really wasn’t so healthy make organic food delivery seem downright cheap!

With Saint Patrick’s Day coming up, those of you who are planning to brine your own corned beef have certainly already started. The rest of you, if you buy it at all, will probably purchase the meat already “corned.” If you do, be sure to check for a gunpowder ingredient, just in case.

No, I’m not kidding. Saltpeter is used in gunpowder and corned beef. It’s technically called potassium nitrate, and it’s what keeps corned beef so reddish. I say, if you want red corned beef, use boiled beet water as the brining water, and you’ll get the color you’re looking for without the nitrates. I tried it last year (using a typical corned beef recipe…I used juniper berries in mine), and my family loved it.

I also made an Irish Soda Bread, substituting typical wheat flour with equal parts of oats I’d whizzed through the food processor, and whole spelt flower. We seldom eat bread in our family (it’s already so processed, and I prefer our teeth get to do the work), but I grew up loving Irish Soda Bread, so I made a slightly healthier, gluten-lowered version for the holiday. Yum!

I do not generally condone mass testing on kids by the FDA,- in areas like death-inducing cough syrup, cloned meat, and milk with genetically modified hormones but no label telling us so—but last weekend, I made an exception for myself. I tested a birthday party full of three-year-olds on my theory that sugar (and post-sugar meltdowns) is not the best choice in birthday guests. I threw an almost sugar-free party! The kids not only loved the moon-shaped cake (perfect for an astronaut theme), but asked for more. I thought that was a good sign…particularly since the cake also lacked wheat. It did have plenty of beans, however…but nobody knew until I told them (actually, I only told the parents, no frosting-faced kid actually cared).

The frosting was largely bean-based, as well…I sweetened with stevia, agave and vanilla, but the overall blood sugar spiking effects were basically nil. It spread perfectly, and left behind the advantages of fiber and protein…two benefits powdered sugar can’t touch.

I admit that at the last minute (the party started at 3:00 and I was putting the finishing touches on the frosting at 2:00), I was wondering what the heck possessed me to attempt such a large scale, sugar-free experiment. I could have just bought a cake from the local bakery (which I’d inspected before, and, despite the raves, bakes its cakes from a mix that include partially hydrogenated oil!), and insured popularity…But we had a child with Celiac Disease to consider, as well as a child who is anaphylactically allergic to nuts, so not only did I not want to take any chances, I wanted to create a healthy alternative for our guests, and my own treasured no-longer-two space guy.

It worked (and the recipes will be up soon!), and now I feel emboldened by the sugar free move! Who knows what I’ll serve at our next fete?!

This was my son's question this morning as he was (I assume) pondering the Nintendo DS game he put on hold.

Having once consulted to multinational electronics corporations who were asking similar questions (my clients made computers, medical diagnostic equipment, cell phones, etc.), I was impressed he could think in that direction. (Some of my former clients would have saved the planet considerable pollution and themselves a lot of money had they asked that question sooner.)

"Well, yes," was my reluctant answer. My hesitancy was only because some of my previous comments have taken on a life of their own (the regrettable occasion I mentioned his friend's lack of manners was revisited again just last night, in fact, despite my numerous, unsuccessful, back-pedaling finesses.) And I didn't want him feeling bad every time he played a brain game. He's seven, for crying in the mud: no need for him to feel guilty about global warming he and his small electronic device didn't cause. That said, always good to think about our actions, and this seemed like a perfect segue to one of those Teaching Moments I usually think about afterward.

"How?" he continued.

OK, he did ASK. "Well, it took energy and material to make it—and it IS out of plastic (on this point he needed no elaboration). It requires energy to play it. And then, when you are done being in love with it (a proposal too unthinkable to register at this point in the infatuation), it may end up in a landfill."

"What's a landfill?"

This kid was thinking. "Well, in the United States, because we have a lot of land, relatively speaking, we tend to bury our trash a lot. Stuff also gets burned. In the Netherlands, where they can't really bury things because there is water so close to the land, they pretty much have to burn things. So they have a lot of laws about that."

"You mean about not burying garbage?"

"No, burying isn't really an option. They have rules about what to burn. For instance, when plastic burns, it makes dioxin, something that causes cancer, so Dutch people want less plastic." (I simplified for the sake of getting to school on time, but I'll be sure to tell him about the time I was at The Hague doing research, and an official there continued the story very pragmatically: "Since we are a dairy-exporting country, if we had dioxin going into the air and falling on the grass the cows eat, we wouldn't be able to export our cheese if it started causing cancer.")

My abbreviated landfill answer satisfied him for the moment, but he wasn't done with the DS interrogation. "And does it use A LOT of energy? Like right now, while it's saving my game?"

"No, it doesn't use too much energy. And, if the energy came from the wind or the sun, that wouldn't be such a bad thing! If it comes from oil that we're running out of, or coal, both of which pollute, that wouldn't be so great." I didn't even touch nuclear…he still hadn't brushed his teeth, and it was almost time to leave.

"Coal pollutes? Like the coal Santa puts in stockings?" (The Polar Express notwithstanding, he'd almost stopped believing since a friend of his informed him that Santa was a hoax. But my husband proved Santa's existence via NORAD this Christmas, so we're on for another year of Santa magic…however hoaxacious it may seem, I love it!)

We spoke a little of how coal used to be a primary source of power, and the logistics of burning it, but then, truly, he had to get to school. I guess we'll cover landfill leaching and making minimum impact choices for another morning.

Now, if only more of us started asking those questions!

What is a vegetable, anyway?

Recently, this question has been asked me in so many ways, I thought it would be good to discuss this substance I repeatedly suggest we all eat.

Botanists and chefs don’t really agree. To a cook, if it’s an edible part of a plant, and not “sweet,” it’s a vegetable. To a scientist, vegetable classification has everything to do with plant sex: where are those seeds, anyway? Veggies, for the most part, do not have seeds in or around them. Think of a carrot or broccoli verses a cherry. (There was the big tomato brouhaha of 1893, where the definition discrepancy engaged the Supreme Court, but that was over tariffs. In the end, the wisdom of the United States Supreme Court determined that the tomato, for taxing purposes, is a vegetable.)

Exceptions buck the rules, of course, like the avocado and, Supreme Court notwithstanding, the tomato. As a cook, a mother, and an educator, I don’t really care. Fruits AND vegetables are filled with fiber, anti-oxidants, nutrients, and micro-nutrients galore…Fruits just typically have more “plant sugar.” The best balance would ideally include more veggies a day than fruit--our kids get “sweet” from plenty of sources these days! For my kids, I’d like it to be 6 veggie servings to 4 fruits a day, but unless I start early with veggies, it usually ends up in a 50-50 tie.

Where does that leave beans (this is my most frequent veggie inquiry), since they ARE the seeds of the plant? Well, technically speaking, the bean pod is a fruit, so the diddy about beans being the musical fruit is at least half right. I prefer to call beans the “magical” fruit, and here’s why: they’re pretty much always “in season;” they have TONS of anti-oxidants (some beans rival the revered blueberry in terms of their anti-oxidant power!); they are kid-friendly; they are very inexpensive; and you can’t beat a bean for fiber! How’s that for magical?

So, when mothers ask if the beans their kids ate for dinner count as a vegetable, I consider the realm of synthetic options they could have eaten, what a scientist would say, and how our bodies respond to them, and I answer, “Yes, beans are a vegetable, too!”

The other night, my second grader announced that a friend’s mother must surely love her children better than I love mine. Candy ubiquity and the presence of every toy in the universe informed him so. And the blatant commutation of cookies over vegetables proved his point beyond a doubt.

My son is of an age now when outside influences are starting to penetrate. Living in a house with customs largely counter to his peers, the differences are magnified. Every time a young friend comes over who has never eaten “real” pancakes, or goes into convulsions at the thought of fruit as an after school snack (“Don’t you have any candy bars?”), my healthiness protectorate zone contracts.

I understand this.

I’ve tried to make up for our “deviations” in the short term, by pouring extra (real) syrup on the slumber-party-er’s pancakes, and in the long-run by creating healthy recipes that emulate the taste bud preferences of my son’s peers. I have tried to plan ahead, accommodate, and accept. (My husband will attest that my flexibility factor has expanded since the arrival of our amazing children.)

But the love = junkfood conclusion through me for a loop.

Immediate protestations filled my braincells. “But look how fat the children are!” “And the youngest daughter has behavior issues that even a casual onlooker could attribute—at least partially—to the child’s constantly reloaded sugar burden.”

But, because every mother knows force creates resistance, and as my braincell-vocal chord connection is still intact (on most days), I did not audibly criticize his friends. (Plus, my goal personally and in my business, is to not point fingers, or make anyone else “wrong.”) I said, calmly, that I believe we are all in each other’s lives to help one another learn more about love. That he’s helped me learn about love beyond my wildest dreams, and I hope I am helping him in that department, as well. One of the ways I show my family love is to offer them foods filled with brain-building, strong-body-making ingredients. “The Jones Family” must have different things to learn together, and their path must be perfect for them. (OK, I did add that if Mrs. Jones knew as much as I do about healthiness, she’d surely be feeding her children the same types of foods that I feed my own treasures…And I believe that’s true…)

We talked some more, but that conversation didn’t—couldn’t—change the fact that our family will never accede to the same popular diet that has pushed American children into the realm of record-breaking illnesses. I’ve witnessed the power of healthy food too many times to accept lesser alternatives for my children on a regular basis.

I don’t know everything about food. I probably know even less about love. And it turns out, dinners of white rice, frosted cookies, and cinnamon buns for dessert may actually be the way I express how much I love my children...by NOT serving these things to them!

Last week, the FDA decided to let cloned meat and milk loose on the market. They asked the cloning companies to voluntarily hold back a while, until we, the public, decide cloned foods are fabulous eating options.

But I won’t eat cloned food, nor will I feed it to my children, who are not Guinea Pigs. I have nothing against technology. My second, miraculous child would not be here if not for the gift of modern science. However, testing thus far on cloned animals isn’t rigorous enough to warrant mass, unlabeled release into the food supply. And who did the testing? The companies selling the technology, as far as I’ve been able to tell.

Why are cloned animals so likely to die prior to complete gestation, or soon thereafter? And what could the birth defect predilection, obscured deeply within the genes of a future Dolly, do to my children’s own genetic integrity? Last year, Science magazine printed an article in which two of the biggest guns at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) discussed the impact of environmental factors (what we eat, chemical exposure, etc.) on human disease. They basically said that genes aren’t the whole story: what washes over and interweaves with our DNA throughout our life has an impact about which science understands relatively little.

Then there is the basic Constitutional issue of my right to know what I’m eating. The FDA has deemed cloned meat and milk “safe” so that they require no process-tracking or labeling of cloned foods (or the offspring thereof). Given the recent salvo of drugs recalled due to their previously undiscovered/undisclosed dangers, I don’t particularly want the FDA acting as the sole arbiter of what is “safe” for my family. (Wasn’t Zetia—and its dangers—in the news the same day the FDA proclaimed cloned meat perfectly safe? And what about the over-the-counter cold medicines the FDA once said were so “safe?” The FDA has documented 54 known deaths of children from those medicines!) A label, at the very least, should be my tax-paying prerogative.

I’ve seen very little reference to food security in this debate, either. If a danger is discovered among the unlabeled clones, how will that effect the rest of the meat and dairy supply?

That our DNA may not define our fate is an idea I can accept. That the FDA may define our fate—without long-term testing or acknowledging our legal preferences—is an idea I can not support. So, I will be calling my representatives in D.C. to urge them to back the Cloned Food Labeling Act (S.414 and H.R. 992). I hope you do, too!

An interesting article in my local paper highlighted plastic’s hormone disruptors as potential “fat-us” contributors. Having monished my concerns about Bisphenol-A (BPA) and its compatriots practically to the point of embarrassment (well, certain family members’ eye-rolling embarrassment), I was thankful to the Boston Globe’s Beth Daley for offering her well-articulated insights. Information sanctioned by the authority of newsprint is bound to get a lot of attention. And this did! (Not as many people have contacted me about this as when Jessica Seinfeld used her food processor on Oprah to get kids to eat veggies, but still…) I definitely recommend reading this “enlightening” article. (Also, Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton has written a great book identifying chemicals/hormone disruptors as fat-makers, among other things.)

The Thin Factor might be just be THE habit changer we needed. For years, experts have been linking plastics and plasticizers to fertility issues, cancer, a surprising number of other illnesses, but babies still drink out of plastic bottles (though thankfully, my darling neighbor, Grace, now uses glass bottles with silicon nipples ) and kids’ sandwiches attend school enveloped in potentially carcinogenic film. If Americans—who are predicted to spend $54 BILLION!!! on diet products in 2009—think plastic makes us fat, maybe we’ll stop using so much. That would be good for our health (since, in 2009, some 70% of us are likely to be overweight or obese) and fabulous for the environment.

Some of the easiest ways to avoid the possibility of obesity-by-plastic are:

• Store foods in glass
• Drink your water from a stainless steel bottle
• Use cast iron pots and pans, rather than plastic-lined non-stick pans (They even have cast iron waffle irons now! and to season it, just follow these directions.
• Watch more Smart Foods videos!

I’ve received SO MANY questions about how to successfully inspire kids to eat more produce, I thought I’d share what my oldest son ate the other day, a typical day. It is the result of advance preparation, so the freezer figures prominently. I didn’t used to think I could plan ahead enough to use a crockpot, but I now find that’s a huge factor in our healthiness success around here. (By the way, my second-grader takes his lunch to school, which is how I know what went in at lunchtime.)

breakfast (2 servings of produce):

Blueberry pancakes with hempseed and agave nectar
Scrambled eggs with peas (and ketchup, which I do not count as a serving of produce!)

The pancakes I made a few weeks earlier came from the freezer, and were warmed in the toaster oven while I was scrambling the eggs. The peas (organic, from Costco) came out of the freezer, too, and were plopped, still frozen, into the small, cast iron skillet in which I cooked the eggs. The breakfast prep time probably amounted to 5 minutes.

school snack: (.5 servings)

3 Meyer lemon scones
I made these a couple weekends ago (I’ll put up the recipe soon!)…I made a HUGE recipe since it’s Meyer lemon season, and I wanted to have plenty stored in the freezer. My son got all the benefits of citrus in something that looked a lot like a cookie (so he wouldn’t feel like the odd man out among all the other kids eating, ummm, a variety of things).

lunch: (3 servings, at least)

Chili made with grass-fed beef, lots of beans, rice, tomato sauce, onions and garlic
Half a naval orange
1 carrot

I made the chili over the weekend, at the same time I made the beans and rice. There wasn’t so much chili left, so the plain beans worked well as an addition. I make all my meat dishes with lots of veggies, and this was no different. Lots of garlic and onion—great for keeping colds away—and tomato sauce. To make his orange easy to eat (otherwise there’s never enough time), but still antioxidant-rich, I cut it in half, and sliced it into 3 sections still held together some at the peel and sent it in a wax bag. I just washed the carrot, and cut it into 3 pieces. No peeling involved: the good stuff is near the peel, and who has the extra time? I think lunch took me about 5 minutes, too. (Which was good, because my husband was out of town, and I hadn’t checked the math homework, which was wrong…so, we had a lot to do prior to the bus arrival at a way-too-early 7:14!)

after school snack: (at least 2 servings, probably 3)

Smoothie
Filled with whole fruits (in this case apples, bananas, pears and a few blueberries), pomegranate juice with goji, hemp seed and a packet of stevia. He helped make the smoothie, so since I considered it an activity we did together, I didn’t bother timing myself…It couldn’t have taken more than 5 minutes, though!

dinner: (3 servings)

Carrot juice quinoa
Stir-fry of broccoli, garlic and chicken
Sweet potato “fries”
Chocolate ice cream

The carrot juice quinoa wasn’t very popular with my kids, but I LOVED it! I used cooked chicken from the freezer that was almost defrosted (I put it in the fridge in the morning) by the time I scooped it into my dinnertime stir-fry with garlic and broccoli in a little olive oil/ghee combo and some salt. Before I started the stir-fry, I cut the sweet potato wedges, and put them in the oven to get a little head-start (recipe forthcoming). Dinner probably took 15 minutes of my attention, the washing and cutting of the sweet potatoes being the biggest time-sink.

This typical day gave him about 11 servings of fruits and veggies. Except for the ice cream, everything in his day was nutritionally dense. With the carrot quinoa exception, he liked everything in the mix (not always the case).

For about thirty minutes of my valuable time, my treasure got lots of anti-oxidants, fiber, certainly, and even though there didn’t happen to be any dairy in his day (OK, the ice cream scoop, but I don’t really count that), he got a fair share of calcium (hemp, quinoa), as well as foods that help with calcium absorption, like bananas. He got plenty of protein (in fact, more animal protein than he generally gets in a day), and very little food that wasn’t nutrient-dense.

Hope this gives you some ideas for your own family!

As I’ve mentioned before, I can never go to the grocery store without discovering at least a few chapters in several people’s life stories. And this weekend was no exception.

I met a really interesting, energetic mother doing her darndest to make sure her son gets totally healthy. He’s nine, and has had issues for a while…She had him tested for certain foods several years ago, but since the allergic response came up negative then, she felt lost. Recently, she insisted on having him retested, only to discover that he IS allergic to several foods…(the tests could have been wrong, his physical responses could have changed, etc.) Now she is able to address the root cause of his issues…and SOLVE them!

In all the years of tests, visiting all the different doctors, having all the different medical procedures, no doctor ever asked her once about her son’s diet. Not once! (And this is a story—different characters, different details—I’ve heard many, many times!)

I relay this story NOT to ding doctors. No way! If it weren’t for doctors and “modern medicine,” my father and my second son wouldn’t be on the planet today. I am thankful, truly, every day for those blessings. But since most doctors aren’t trained in nutrition, it’s not surprising that they don’t think of food as a big factor. It’s like the old saying about how everything looks like a nail if you only have a hammer.

But moms like the one I met are rising to the occasion, and using their intuition (“But he’s already been tested…” was the response after she requested he get tested for food allergies again). And it’s exciting to see how many “chronically ill kids” are getting better because now they are eating the right foods.

I love going to the grocery store!

“She actually said that?” I marvel, when a gossip magazine at the grocery checkout counter reveals a star’s latest faux pas. Then I gather my bags and continue my day, forgetting the insignificant indiscretion. But the headlines I read recently were different. They weren’t in a gossip magazine, and they weren’t uttered by a publicity-seeking celeb. They were in a financial journal, ostensibly more fact-oriented than a tabloid. The authors—recounting huge financial rewards from a company’s genetically engineered seeds—declared, “genetically engineered crops are now viewed as essential, if not crucial.”

Crucial? To whom? By Whom?

I’m a mom of two adorable boys, and I happen to have a masters degree in public policy, so I come to the idea of “crucial” from a different street.

“Crucial” from this mama’s perspective would include a lot more research on the safety of genetically altered food relative to our children. (I’ve seen NO independent studies stating genetically modified—GM—food is perfectly safe for our kids…though I have read reports showing that GM-fed rats are smaller and die much sooner than non-GM-eating rats.)

It seems more than coincident that, since the introduction of GM bovine growth hormone in 1993, and GM soy three years later, there’s been a crazy epidemic in autoimmune problems among kids. A 400% increase in asthma; 300% increase in ADHD; and a whopping 1,500 to 6,000% increase (depending on the source and definition) in autism. And we haven’t even gotten to the B’s!

Then there’s the explosion of increased food allergies. Today in the US, about one in fifteen kids under three has a food allergy. Who had food issues when we were little? Something’s changed. OK, a lot of things have changed, but probably the biggest change in terms of foods and our evolutionary history is the inclusion of GM foods in our diets (our grandparents certainly weren’t dining on it).

Only here in the US, we don’t actually know which foods are GM, like folks in many other countries do (even Paraguay mandated the labeling of genetically modified foods). This is where I put on my public policy glasses, and see that keeping consumers in the dark may be linked to the “crucial” impact of GM foods on some company’s balance sheet. Around the time my second-grader was born, stock in that firm sold for just under twelve bucks a share. Today you’d have to fork out $120 for a piece of the Purveyor of All Things Genetically Modified.

And I’ve noted that they spend at least some of that money paying folks in our government. A surprising number of top guns at the Defense Department, the Department of Agriculture, the EPA, and even the Supreme Court have received salaries or donations from that firm or a subsidiary. It’s not unpredictable then, that many of those government officials think it’s fine to forego long-term health-impact studies. They don’t seem that crucial, I guess.

But, as a mom who reads the stats, and watches the increasing GM acreage coincide with increased sick kids, I know what is crucial to me. “Crucial” means keeping my kids away from foods that have been altered genetically. My greatest treasures are not Guinea Pigs.

Please share this with every woman you know. Women spend about 93% of the food dollars. We can make changes for our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews…Start saying NO to genetically modified organisms!

If not us, who?

Gratefully, Kelly Corbet

what the UN says about GMOs

what the World Wildlife Fund says about GMOs

What a great holiday we had! We got to spend time with friends and each other, and not rush out the door every morning so as to avoid the Dreaded Tardy Slip…Ahhh.

One of the holiday’s most inspiring events was a business party we attended because of my husband’s work. It was hosted by a husband and wife, who, after being married longer than I’ve been on the planet, still have google eyes for each other! The husband brags in the most loving and inspiring way about his wife. She tears up when talking about how cute he is. Not bad for about six decades together.

Beyond that close relationship, this couple has created a generational connection that is equally inspiring. Children, grandchildren (not all), and people taken into the family unit work for the business. And while I haven’t met the entire clan, I’m impressed by those I have met. Besides being enthusiastic, intelligent, articulate, and interesting, they all speak highly of each other. It’s obvious they are all on the same “team.”

But the clincher is that somehow, this charming octogenarian (with, as he will tell you, the support of his darling wife) created a company (lots of companies, actually) filled with people who are also enthusiastic, intelligent, articulate, and interesting. (I’m not trying to be rude or sexist, but I do live in Texas now, where men definitely like to be “men.” And frankly, my interest in talking about football, hunting, and/or golf is matched only by my excitement in memorizing actuarial tables, so at lots of parties, I find myself talking almost exclusively to women.) At these business fetes, the men are as fascinating to talk to as the women!

I don’t know how he did it, but this man has done what I hope to achieve…create a family that’s close, and a successful business filled with people who really rock. (Yikes, I hope the secret isn’t having a great, organized, patient wife, ‘cause I’m out of luck in the wife category!) I know there have been compromises and complications along the way—it wouldn’t be LIFE if there weren’t. But still, every time I leave an event that man has put his energy into, I feel like I’ve seen a sketch for the company I want to create…

At Smart Foods, we are still so small, but while making my resolutions for the year, and visioning a future for my company (my “third baby”), I like to imagine it filled with the same kind of positivity and enthusiasm I witnessed in that house filled with love, support, and interesting stories.

I'm not a party girl…my sisters got that gene. But I have found myself at a surprising number of gatherings this season, and people can hardly wait to talk about healthiness! When newly-met folks find out what I do for a living, they ALWAYS have a story--which I love to hear--and LOTS of questions. (This is a big change from even a few years ago, thankfully!)

Wednesday night, for instance, I met a darling chef and mother of two who wants to create a line of organic baby food. She is SO knowledgeable! It was a total delight to talk to someone so up on the health scoop, and obviously passionate about it. Then there was the energetic personal trainer who knew all about sprouting foods and how much omega-3 she should be getting. I chatted with an interesting mother of two/lawyer-on-hiatus who was now trying to figure out how to cook for her family…not her best skill yet, apparently. (I hope she does herself a favor and invests in that crockpot I recommended. For those of us prone to burning things, crockpots are life-savers!)

Probably most surprising, though, was all the talk about hormones in kids. One stylish mother said she had recently started thinking about all the hormones in milk, and decided it was time to make sure her four-year-old drank daughter only organic dairy (and now she's going to read more about the value of extending her family's organic fare). On the other side of the hormone issue was the mother whose five-year-old daughter had been growing breast buds! Naturally, she was alarmed, and immediately began researching the "developments." Thanks to determination I found impressive, she was able to track down the estrogenic culprit: soy milk and other processed soy products. Once she removed soy milk from her kindergartener's cereal bowl, her daughter went back to looking more like a five-year-old!

There were more stories from the evening--including the hostess proudly telling me she now gives her non-fruit-eating son smoothie drinks and he loves them!, people still talking about the "pureed produce hullabaloo." And I came away feeling totally excited that so many moms are aware of the possible healthiness improvements they can make for their families and themselves, and why they are so important.

It's going to be a GREAT new year!

I received a call the other day about "Certified Transitional" labels: what are they, and what do I think about them? My first thought was actually, "Wow, I feel Certified Transitional!" I know the questioner was referring to fruits and vegetables, but I couldn’t help but think of how that moniker applies to my own food choices…my own life, in fact!

{mosimage} To answer the question, however, if a food displays the Certified Transitional label, you know it is being grown/produced in a way that demonstrates compliance for organic certification, with the exception of timing. To be "Certified Organic," at least three years must have passed since the last application of a forbidden pesticide. Foods "in transition" need only one year to have passed.

What do I think of them? Well, I still think the whole proving-it-DOESN'T-have-anything-toxic-on-it process is silly and backwards. Shouldn't the folks putting carcinogens on kids' foods have to do the extra "dance" and pay more? Maybe someday the system will be reversed to its proper order, and organic foods won't have to "prove" anything. They will simply be the norm. But, until then, I am thankful we have organic labels to let me know the difference.

Now back to my original thought…I hope most of us can consider ourselves "transitional," and feel great about it. It's actually what the Good, Better, Best Path is all about! How I eat now is different than how I ate three years ago, and the same will probably be true three years from now. Hopefully that applies to every aspect of my life (I'm currently working on transitioning to a life focused on total joy and being in the moment…something my children are much more successful at than I am currently!)

Oh, and while on the subject of "transitional," I saw today that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) intends to sue Sara Lee for tricking consumers into thinking their products are healthier than they are. (I regularly used to eat Sara Lee pound cakes from the frozen section, and I'm pretty sure I never considered "healthy" as a descriptor!)

CSPI points to a white bread that claims whole grain goodness. I don't mean to be rude here, but is there ANYTHING about a loaf of almost ANY bread that vaguely resembles an actual grain of wheat? Here's where definitions get tricky and where we should probably call upon our own braincells to tell us the truth--claim or no claim. I don't think any bread should be able to call itself "whole grain," unless, upon inspection, individual grains could be seen and picked out, and chewed on. (Most breads are made of flour, obviously, some using the whole grain before grinding, and some taking off the outer part, where most of the healthy stuff lives. Since the latter--though pulverized--is made from the complete grain, it gets to be called "whole grain.")

Perhaps to defend itself, Sara Lee brought up the topic of its "nutritionally transitional" breads, which, as I interpret it, are breads trying to offer the same white-bread fluffiness while throwing in a few whole-but-still-pulverized grains.

It all gets a little confusing, so I think I'll just stick to my bowls of whole grains, rather than the kinds that pop up in the toaster…Don't know where I'll transition to from there…sprouted, perhaps?

A hilarious and brilliant friend emailed me birthday greetings from Vienna asking if I celebrated with broccoli cake... and hoping that I didn't! Actually, that may be the one ingredient I haven’t tried to sweetly mutate, so no, I did not eat any sort of cake, gallette, cookie, pie, or sorbet that involved broccoli. (And I did not, in response, admit to her the existence of my "chocolicious" bean cupcakes--though the reviews have been unanimously off the charts fabulous).

And not quite so recently, I went to a restaurant with an acquaintance who seemed flustered by ordering the "right thing" on the menu, and finally told the waitress that she'd have whatever I ordered.

Last week, a friend warned me before coming to her home, that her pantry may have a few unhealthy "imports" for the holidays (sugar, and its variants, I assume).

So, for the record: I indulge. Not only do I indulge, but I recommend it! Food should be yummy and fun and enjoyable! Any psychologists will tell you that denying yourself will only make you crave something more. But here's the thing: what I crave now is very different from what I craved even a couple years ago. I don't think I could eat the "real" cookie dough that "sustained" me for breakfast during most of my 20s (though my new and improved version is perfectly acceptable for breakfast, or any time!)

Maybe I am getting wiser as I get older…or maybe I'm just better at listening to my body now. Probably a little of both, but the listening part is particularly important since that is, arguably, optional. The good news is that "listening" to your body gets easier when you trend toward healthier foods. I guess purer foods have less "static," so the connection is more clear.

So, during this season of indulgence, don't deny yourself, but do, as I suggest to my two-year-old, "put on your listening ears," and enjoy!

In our family, one day of singing and cake and crown-wearing doesn't really seem sufficient to celebrate the beingness of someone so special, so we turned a mere birthday into a birthweek (a custom added to our lives before we had kids). This year, my husband and I decided specifically to focus on togetherness and kindness as gifts, rather than something from The Mall…And I have to say, it's been FABULOUS!

I do love morning serenades, of course (the second chorus of which is always my two-year-old singing happy birthday to himself, and reminding us all--in case we'd forgotten since the previous day's announcement--that his birthday is the next in the family). But my favorite birthweek event happened when I came home after a radio interview to my first "group massage."

My husband organized everything: he had a chair by where my hands would be, so my little one could rub mama's hands with lotion, and my sweet seven-year-old was in charge of something called The Thumper. (A device we purchased ages ago from our chiropractor…It's basically 8 or so half-tennis-ball shaped bumps that square up and gently pound you when turned on…used correctly, it is heavenly!)

As the massage--but not the relaxing--began, I heard our younger son ask Daddy for "Moe wotion, pees." I knew already that wasn't a good sign, but decided not to say anything. "Just relax, Kelly," I told myself. Then my second grader commenced the Thumper--precisely on my spine. "Just relax," I told myself: I didn't want my sensitive child who was doing something so sweet to feel criticized, and I figured he'd drive the Thumper to a fleshy part any minute.

As soon as my husband recognized the clench of my body, and began directing son number one in a more comfortable Thumper direction, my younger son must have decided my hands were saturated enough with lotion (his hands certainly were), and perhaps the fabric headboard might need a little. (The rest of my bedroom never quite got decorated, but the bed, oh, the bed is a filigree of matchy-matchy fabrics and ruffles adorning a shockingly tall structure…come to think of it, it's the probably bed's intricacy that stalled the rest of the decorating process…oh well, my two year old was about to get the bed to match the rest of the room's helter-skelterness.)

So, while my husband was trying to gently guide the Thumper to a less painful part of my body--which would have been pretty much any other part of my body at that point--he was also trying to persuade my youngest not to practice his finger painting techniques on the furniture, or, heaven forbid, Mama's Bed. Fortunately for all of us, he managed to stop both the Thumper and the finger painting, thus ending the sweetest, most unforgettable massage of my life.

We laughed about the whole scene when the kids were in bed, and I was reminded how it really, truly is the thought that counts! And I can't think of a sweeter birthweek thought than to gather the family together to do something kind for another member of the family…

"Where are you, Honey?" I asked my second-grader the other morning during the get-out-the-door-on-time rush hour.

"I'm up here multi-tasking, Mom," he replied.

"Multi-tasking?" I wondered. Why on earth would a seven-year-old be multi-tasking? His casual tone informed me of the "normalness" with which he considered his self-imposed undertaking.

Of course, that's because it IS a normal activity in our house. The do-as-much-as-possible-as-efficiently-as-possible example plays out in front of my children daily. With two kids and two start-ups, we are pretty busy around here. School. Homework. Violin lessons. Soccer. Two-year-oldness. Then there's the daily eating thing. So, like many other moms, I have become, regrettably but by what I perceive as necessity, a multi-tasking model. I won't divulge some of the things I've been known to simultinate, but my quite un-stunnable husband has frequently been left speechless (and anyway, I'm pretty sure most every mom has her own two-fer or ten-fer moments!)

For someone whose marriage was performed by a guy in an orange robe, one would expect a little more, well, zen behavior out of me. Most enlightened reading these days--whether from a philosophical, spiritual, or stress-management perspective--reiterates the importance of focus, and "being present."

But what influenced me more than anything I've read or heard from professionals was the multi-tasking moment my seven-year-old was having…or more accurately, modeling.

So now that the holidays are upon us--a season certain to be filled with an abundance of leisure time (!?!?!)--I've decided to forego multitasking. No, really. I'm giving it up. I'm ready for things to be calmer. Slower. Remind me I said this. (I better send a copy of this to my husband,)

I'll let you know how it goes.

(Multi-tasking caveat: I reserve the right to cook two or three dinners at once in my crockpot, of course.)

Another unanticipated delight of motherhood, is my newly acquired knowledge of all things pirate. Until recently, I was ignorant of the true meaning of "Davey Jones" (for those of you suffering pirate illiteracy, it refers to the bottom of the sea), and in a game show, when asked whether Captain Hook was thus named for his right or left appendage, I would not previously have won the refrigerator freezer combo (his left hand is "hooked").

A true side benefit of my newfound expertise is the ability to thoroughly (and, yes, manipulatively) "inspire." I vaguely suspect my techniques would be frowned upon by childhood experts, and I DO try to teach my kids to think independently (how many times have I mantra'd, "It doesn't matter what anyone else does…"???) BUT, pirates rock in terms of what can only be called "peer pressure" (in my house anyway, since perhaps 75% of us consider ourselves to be pirates much of the time).

Brushing teeth, for instance. Oral hygiene, as far as I can tell, is the only aspect of buccaneer life to remain staunchly unglamorized. Even my two-year-old knows, "I not want piwat teef. Yut (AKA yuck)." So at night, we take turns singing, "Yo ho ho and a bottle of juice," as we brush brush brush. My second-grader, already an expert tooth-brusher, enjoys the singing, too. Mostly.

{mosimage} Last night, though, my husband invoked some creative pirate pressure at the dinner table. The goal was to inspire our youngest to eat his asparagus spears, and buffalo meatballs with carrots and onions (the latter was a new recipe my husband and older son devoured). We try not to force food issues around here (emphasis on "try"--I DO read A LOT about nutrition, so neutrality does not come naturally now), so we didn't offer any energy to the protests of, "I no wite dat," (prior to his even tasting a spoonful, of course!)

After everyone else's bowls were empty, my husband began his pirate schtick, and wow, did it work! Pirates, apparently, LOVE buffalo meatballs, and asparagus spears look exactly look like the shark teeth that dismembered Hook. Suddenly, the food became exciting and fun, amidst cries of "Shiver me timbers!" and "Arrrrgh, matey." The next thing we knew, our youngest pirate had finished his dinner, and we were all laughing.

There are lots of ways to get kids to eat healthy foods. (I never would have thought of last night's clever strategy.) Hiding the "good stuff" is definitely one way, and I'm grateful veggies can be camouflaged, because some kids would never down a veggie were it not for a little "disguising." That said, pureeing produce as a long-term healthiness solution probably isn't the most practical of techniques. Food processors are bulky, after all, and likely frowned upon at the nicer restaurants.

The next time my son eats asparagus and meatballs, or something similar, he will no doubt have happy associations with them (I now I will!). And, in the long-run, isn't happy, healthy, adventurous eating the goal?

So, happy dining, or, as we say around here, "Yo ho, yo ho, a piwat's life to Mommy."