First Dr. Davies stated the problem she sees most often in her practice is constipation. Kids get constipated because they don’t get enough fiber in their diets, aren’t drinking enough water and they are more sedentary. As parents we need to get our kids off the couch and outside playing games. We need to make sure they are drinking enough liquids. And we need to make sure they are eating the right foods.

Kids needs to be eating foods filled with the “building blocks” of nutrition. This includes protein (the basic building block), fats (for brain growth), and carbohydrates (for energy). You get protein from beans and meats. You get fats from fruits, beans, pasta and rice. And you get carbohydrates from things like oils and avocados.

So what can we do now that our kids are older and may not like vegetables or prefer McDonalds as their dinner of choice? Well it’s never too late to make changes.

1. First we need to lead by example.
2. Make it a family goal and change everybody’s eating habits.
3. Remove foods with a lot of preservatives.
4. And start to retrain the palate.
5. Also, make sure you are reading the labels. Avoid foods high in sugar and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is high in calories and has no nutritional benefit. However, companies use it a lot because it is cheap, has a sweet taste and is easy to add to food.

So how can you get your kid to eat healthy foods?

• Dr. Davies says it’s okay to sneak foods in to their diets. I was really glad to hear this because I love the book Sneaky Chef, but it gets some slack for encouraging parents to sneak food in to their kids’ foods rather than just teaching them healthy habits. The problem is sometimes kids (especially strong willed teens) need us to be sneaky.
• Make homemade pizza together and let your kids add the veggies to the top of the pizza. When they are involved in the preparation they will want to eat their concoction.
• Use avocado instead of butter. Puree the avocado and spread it on bread.
• Put blueberries on cereal or make blueberry pancakes. Blueberries are an antioxidant which heps boost the immune system.
• Puree vegetables and put them in sauces or ketchup.
• Make smoothies. Who doesn’t love a smoothie?
• Add whole fruit to juice.
• Make fruit pops.
• Make sure kids stay hydrated throughout the day. The foods we eat have water in them, but you can also send a bottle of water to school with your child. Make sure they have liquids before school and after school as well.

What about juice? Many middle school and high school kids think they have outgrown juice. Instead they want to move on to soda (most of which have lots of sugar and caffeine in them). But juice can be a healthy alternative (as well as water and milk). But make sure they aren’t drinking too much juice; around 12 ounces a day is good for an older kid. And make sure they are drinking the right kind of juice. Juice drinks are not juice and may contain as little as 10% of actual juice. When buying juice look for the following:

• 100% pure juice (like Juicy Juice)
• “Natural” may be misleading. “Natural” may also contain very little actual juice in the drink.
• No additives.
• No preservatives.
• No high fructose corn syrup.

Making good food choices starts at home so encourage your teen to eat better foods. These are lessons your kids will carrying on with them to adulthood.

You also have lots of chances to win great Blogtoberfest prizes! Today, October 10th, your chances (and prizes) are hiding at the following blogs: A Child Chosen, All Holiday Café, Babylune, Blog Fabulous, Career & Kids, Cooking Gadgets, Declutter It, Foodie Obsessed, Jewelry and Beading, Kettle and Cup, One Book Two Book, Quilting and Patchwork, and Supernanny Rules. Visit them all and leave a comment – you may win even more!

Post from: Blisstree

Making Healthy Food Choices

Our favorite fruit smoothie recipe is so easy the kids can make it themselves! Simply put a cup of orange juice, a small bag of frozen strawberries and two bananas into the blender and blend until smooth. Serve in a fun cup and add a paper umbrella for decoration.

Other yummy smoothie recipes:

• 10 delicious smoothie recipes from StartCooking.com
• Blimey Limey smoothie (just like Tropical Smoothie’s and my favorite flavor ever)
• Barefoot Contessa’s tropical smoothie
• More kid friendly smoothies
• How about a candy bar smoothie?
• The Ultimate Smoothie Book: 130 Delicious Recipes for Blender Drinks, Frozen Desserts, Shakes, and More!

Don’t miss any of the beach week fun – visit the Camp Weary Parent page for a complete listing of all the activities.

Post from: Blisstree

Fun and Fruity Smoothies

There are plenty of variations on this recipe so feel free to add your touch of creativity! This recipe is pretty simple and does not require cooking so I was very comfortable letting my 9 year old take the lead on the recipe and the girls were able to do the whole thing on their own.

What you need:

• Chocolate jello pudding mix
• Milk
• Chocolate wafer cookies (Oreo, graham crackers, or similar work fine)
• Gummy worms or gummy bugs

How to:

• Follow the instructions on the pudding mix box and mix up the chocolate pudding. Put it in the refrigerator to set – at least 15 minutes.
• Next place the cookies in a large ziploc bag and seal. Use a rolling pin to crush the cookies into crumbs.
• Alternate layers of pudding and cookie crumbs in a clear plastic cup or other container making sure the top layer is cookie crumbs.
• Insert gummy worms into the cup so it looks like the worms are coming out of the dirt.
• Enjoy!

Don’t miss any of the fun – stop back in tomorrow or visit the Camp Weary Parent page for a complete listing of all the activities to date.

Post from: Blisstree

Yummy Dirt Cups

Now that it’s summer many teens are on their own during the day. And they are making their own meal decisions. They can no longer rely on the school cafeteria to provide them with food from the major food groups. On their own, many teens turn to a new set of food groups; soda, sugar, salt and grease. You will often find teens sitting in front the television with a bag of chips or walking to the pool with candy in their mouths. Lunch consists of double cheeseburgers and french fries from the nearest fast food joint.

What can we do to get our teens to eat better?

1. Set a good example. It’s hard to convince kids to eat healthy when they see you skipping breakfast every morning and eating a bag of popcorn for dinner every night. Eat breakfast with your teen (if he’s up that early). Make a balanced dinner (with a veggie side dish) and eat together as a family as often as you can. If your teen is used to eating fruits and veggies then they will likely grab those from the crisper even when you aren’t home.
2. Talk to them about healthy eating. Do they know the major food groups? Do they know how many servings of fruit they should be eating each day? Check MyPyramid.gov for tips on what and how much to eat. There you can find what constitutes one serving. For example, one service of grain is one slice of bread.
3. Keep healthy beverages in the fridge. Throw out that soda. There is not one good thing in soda. There’s too much sugar. There’s too much caffeine. Kids don’t need to get full on all those empty calories. Instead stock the fridge with juice and milk. Have orange juice for breakfast. Keep jugs of 100% fruit juice in the door. Make sure there is cold milk on hand. Get some V8. If your teen isn’t to thrilled with tomato juice, get that new V8 that also includes fruit. I’ve tasted it. It’s pretty good. Also, get your teen a water bottle. That way she can take drinks or water with her and won’t be tempted to purchase a big slurpie at the convenience store on the way to the pool.
4. Make sure they eat breakfast. Even though they aren’t studying they still need to eat breakfast. It’s still the most important meal of the day. Leave a healthy breakfast for them; whole grain cereal and milk, a bagel with peanut butter, an english muffin with jam, oatmeal with raisins or yogurt and fresh fruit. Give them several options so they don’t turn to cold pizza or a can of Pepsi.
5. Leave them a healthy lunch. They will be more apt to eat something good for them if they don’t actually have to spend the time making it themselves. Kids are way too busy (or so they keep telling me) to have to spend a half hour making lunch. Make egg salad sandwiches, prepare a salad, brown hamburger so they can make their own tacos, leave chicken or turkey wraps in the fridge or put vegetable soup in individual one serving size Tupperware containers.
6. Make sure they have healthy choices for snacks. Throw out the potato chips and candy bars. Instead pack the cupboards and fridge with healthy foods. Cut up fruit and veggies and leave them in snack sized Ziploc bags so your teen can just grab it on the go. Instead of chips satisfy their salt craving with pretzels or tortilla chips and salsa. Make jello with fruit chunks the night before and leave in the fridge for the next day.

Here is a list of great foods to keep in the kitchen for snacks:

• milk
• yogurt
• pudding
• string cheese
• cheese slices (or slice cheese blocks ahead of time)
• carrot sticks (or baby carrots)
• celery sticks
• cut up broccoli
• cut up cauliflower
• sliced cucumbers
• cherry tomatoes
• vegetable juice
• apples
• bananas
• grapes
• cut up melon
• berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)
• oranges
• peaches
• pears
• raisins
• dried fruit
• 100% fruit juice
• sunflower seeds
• nuts (chopped walnuts, pecans)
• peanut butter
• cereal
• pretzels
• popcorn
• crackers
• Chex Mix
• bagels
• english muffins
• whole grain bread
• animal crackers
• graham crackers
• trail mix

Still need more ideas? Here are some healthy snack recipes to try:

Ants on a Log
Spread peanut butter on a piece of celery and top with raisins.

Homemade Trail Mix
Combine 1 cup whole grain cereal with a 1/4 of chopped walnuts and 1/4 of dried fruit, such as cranberries or bananas.

Fruity Popsicles
Buy a cheap popsicle mold from the store. Pour 100% fruit juice (such as Juicy Juice) in to the mold and freeze.

Banana Pops
Peel bananas and cut in half. Dip each half in to yogurt. Place in cup and allow to freeze.

Peanut butter and banana sandwich
Spread peanut butter on a slice of whole grain bread. Top with banana pieces cut in to coins.

Breakfast Banana Split
Cut a banana lengthwise and place in bowl. Pour a cup of plain yogurt. Add 1/2 cup of fruit preserve. Top with fresh fruit.

Berry Smoothie
Combine one cup fruit yogurt with one cup mixed fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) and 2 tablespoons orange juice in a blender. Blend.

What other healthy snack ideas do you have?

Post from: Blisstree

Healthy Snacks for Teens

Right then she reminded me of my childhood self. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a veterinarian and I went through a phase where I wanted to be a vegetarian. I figured a vet couldn’t eat animals. Surely it goes against some vet law or something. But it didn’t last long. I just couldn’t give up my chicken. (I’m pretty sure I could eat chicken for every meal, even breakfast. Have you ever had a chicken omelet? Yum!)

A few months ago I found out my seventeen-year-old sister is a vegetarian. It wasn’t something she jumped in to quickly. She told her parents of her wishes and they gave her the ok as long as she researched it and made sure she was eating healthy. She did a lot of searching on the internet and discussed it with her doctor. She’s very good about sticking to her meat-free diet and making sure she eats meals that will give her the necessary nutrients and vitamins. Many teenagers do not yet understand their nutritional needs and do not make good vegetarian food decisions. So it’s really important that the parents are involved, they do a lot of research and they consult their doctor.

Many parents believe their vegetarian children will not get enough protein if they aren’t eating meat. They also believe their vegan children won’t get enough calcium if they don’t drink milk. But the truth is, you can eat a full balanced meal without meat or dairy products. You just need to be more aware of the foods you are putting in to your body to make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need. Lots of fruits and vegetables contain protein and many are a good source of calcium, especially green leafy vegetables. A vegetarian diet can be very healthy. In fact the majority of vegetarians say they chose that diet for the health benefits.

If your teen is thinking about becoming a vegetarian or vegan there are several good books to help them with their research. A Teen’s Guide to Going Vegetarian by Judy Krizmanic is a great resource for teens. This book explains the different types of vegetarianism and why a vegetarian diet is good for you. It also explains how to live in a meat-eating world as a vegetarian. Plus it includes tons of great recipes to try. And they get all of this in easy to understand language written just for them. Judy Krizmanic also has companion book to her teen guide; The Teen’s Vegetarian Cookbook. In this book teens will find tons of recipes using every day ingredients. If they are looking for even more recipes, Deborah Madison has several great vegetarian cookbooks with recipes even teens will love.

There are also a ton of resources on the internet. The Vegetarian Resource Group has a page just for kids. And there are some great blogs out there with a new recipe posted often. I really like The Student Stomach because it’s written by a college student so she knows exactly what a vegetarian goes through in a meaty world. I also like Fat Free Vegan. Here SusanV not only offers some great vegan recipes, but she’s also concerned with a fat-free diet. Plus she has a blogroll of over 200 other vegetarian and vegan blogs.

Vegetarianism is become more popular with today’s youth so there is a chance you may encounter this request. Just stay calm and realize it’s probably a healthier diet then you think. If you and your teen do the research and stay informed they should have no problem living a vegetarian lifestyle.

Post from: Blisstree

Help, My Teen Wants To Be a Vegetarian

We tried the Cheddar Cheese flavor first and it was okay, but no one asked for seconds. They did however, ask if I would buy the original flavor mix, and that went over much better.

Homemade snack mix is the best, but the Cheerios snack mix is a good alternative for families on the go.

Post from: Blisstree

Cheerios Snack Mix – Give Me an O

Here are some of her favorites:

Spatulatta.com – this cooking site is for kids and by kids! The sister team of Isabella and Olivia Gerasole have done an amazing job of putting together fun videos of them preparing their favorite recipes, basic cooking skills, a quick reference on weights and measures, links, and even a shop. The girls just released their first cookbook, Spatulatta Cookbook, and my daughter is asking for it already.

Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids – This has got to be my daughter’s favorite cookbook ever. Rachael Ray uses kid friendly ingredients and mixes them up with funky names like “A Nice Italian Girl’s Salad”, “Worms & Eyeballs” (a pasta recipe), “Candy Sushi”, and “Italian Flag Sundaes”. The book is full of fun illustrations, helpful hints, and plenty of “Rachael-isms.”

Cooking Mama – Cook all you want and never make a mess!! Cooking Mama is a fun game for Nintendo DS and Wii that challenges kids to follow recipes, virtually chopping, stirring, frying and baking. There is a nice variety of skill levels and even my 6 year old has fun with it.

One of my daughter’s favorite things to make are her own “specialty” – Oven Roasted Potatoes. She peels and dices potatoes and then places them in a gallon zip lock baggie. She adds a few teaspoons of EVOO (that’s Rachael speak for Extra Virgin Olive Oil), some salt and pepper, a little garlic salt and then gives it all a good shake. Next she spreads the potatoes out on a cookie tray and cooks them in the oven (on 350) for 30 minutes. They are seriously delish!!

Post from: Blisstree

Cooking with the Kids

Yesterday my 9 year old made these completely on her own to take to her Grandparents house for their anniversary. Needless to say, they were a hit. The recipe makes 8-10 mini pies depending on the number of refrigerator biscuits in the package.

Ingredients

• 2 Golden Delicious apples
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• Flour for dusting
• 1 pkg. (7.5 oz.) refrigerated biscuits

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel apples; grate them into a medium bowl. IN a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Stir half of cinnamon sugar into grated apples.
2. Roll each biscuit to about a 5″ circle. Spoon apple mixture onto circles. Fold circles over and pinch edges to make half-moons. Place on a baking sheet.

3. Brush pies with water and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake 20 minutes.

We served these with vanilla ice cream and they were very good. The other bonus, is that when it comes to kids recipes, this one wasn’t even messy!

Post from: Blisstree

Easy Apple Pies That Kids Can Make

Nature Valley has given busy families another healthy, easy to grab and go, delicious snack. The Roasted Nut Crunch bars come in Peanut Crunch and Almond Crunch.

The Peanut Crunch bars are basically peanuts and sunflower seeds held together by a light sugar syrup. They aren’t sticky, and they are packed with protein. The basics: 190 calories, 12 g of good fat, 14g of good carbs, and 7 g of protein. The balance of the protein and the carbs is what keeps your blood sugar on an even keel and keeps you from feeling hungry half an hour later like high carb snacks.

The Almond Crunch bars are almonds, peanuts and sunflower seeds held together by a light sugar syrup. The basics: 200 calories, 14g of good fat, 11g of good carbs, and 7g of protein.

We have tried both flavors and I love them both. My kids prefer the peanut crunch flavor as the almonds are a little harder to bite. Both varieties will now be staple snacks in our house – they are THAT GOOD.

Post from: Blisstree

Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch – My New Favorite Snack

I took a cookie sheet and covered it with aluminum foil. Then I placed 9 Klondike ice cream squares on the tray in three rows of three. I wrote Happy Birthday and finished the empty squares with Xs and Os for my tic tac toe board. I filled in the grid with Redi-Whip whipped cream from the canister. After I took this picture I added mini M&Ms around the edge for even more fun.

The whole ice cream cake cost less than $10 and took less than 10 minutes to make. Also, it was a huge hit and so easy to clean up.

Once I had made this one, I started to think that you could use more Klondike bars and cover the entire surface with regular icing, Cool Whip or Whipped Cream. You could even do something similar using layers of ice cream sandwiches.

Post from: Blisstree

The World’s Easiest Ice Cream Cake