This year I’ve been working on a series about healthy food and other food issues, exercise and activity, the pressing childhood obesity epidemic and more.

Image by Flickr User Bruce Tuten

All of the posts in this series relate to healthy kids, with a focus on these main topics:

• How to be more involved in what and how your kids are eating.
• How to recognize and deal with food and activity problems in your home.
• How to deal with any food and exercise issues that may be holding you back as a good parent.

The overall goal of this series is for parents to gain the tools to raise kids who are allowed to and able to make healthy and green choices for a lifetime. Following, I’ve broken this series down into more manageable chunks…

If you like, bookmark this page, as I’ll be updating it as the series continues.

Start Here

• Childhood obesity and food issues in America SHOULD NOT be taboo
• Encourage healthy lifestyle habits with the bare minimum

Image by Flickr User guy schmidt

Understanding Food & Activity Issues in America

• Child portions are excessive in the United States
• How body weight and calories work
• Signs your child may be overweight

Parents in Denial

• Majority of parents underestimate severity of childhood weight problems
• Why U.S. parents are in denial about childhood weight issues
• Happy Meals are not responsible for your child’s health

Health Consequences of an Overweight or Obese Childhood

• Is it really that dangerous for kids to be overweight?
• Weight problems affect teens differently than younger kids

Healthy Meal Tools

• 10 Basic Principles for Greener and Healthier Family Meals
• Healthy & green packed lunch ideas
• Green & healthy cookbooks
• Green and healthy cooking with kids

Affordable Healthy Meals

• Excuses about healthy meals costing more time & money are bunk
• 70+ tips about how to buy organic food on a budget
• Easy and low-cost organic breakfast

Healthy Activity Tools

• How to cut screen time and get your kids outside
• Move childhood back outside
• Grow a nature loving family

Get Over Your Fear of Kids Being Kids – so they can be more active

• Is it safe to let your kids play outside alone?
• 50 things I did outside as a kid that didn’t kill me
• Do you let your five-year-old go to the park alone?

Parenting Food Fails + How to Solve Them

• Fail tactics when trying to raise healthy kids
• Healthy Kid Meal Fail – Excess Toppings and Sauces

Image by Flickr User woodleywonderworks

Legal and Public Issues Surrounding Food and Activity

• Many pediatricians fail to discuss childhood weight issues with parents
• Is childhood obesity child abuse?
• The (not so) Awesome Happy Meal Lawsuit
• New USDA school lunch guidelines may be healthier
• Is the obesity epidemic an environmental issue?

Extras

• Confessions of a chubster – a fresh first-hand take on weight issues in America
• My son disqualifies me from mentioning childhood obesity

We’ve been discussing healthy food and lifestyle choices this year and now it’s time to put some of this knowledge into action. If you need (or want) to make your meals greener and healthier for the long haul, here are some easy ways your entire family can make it happen.

Image by Flickr User eyeliam

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses

Sit down and make a list of your family’s general food and meal strengths, weaknesses and wishes. It doesn’t have to be a long list. Focus on the biggies. For example, my list would say “I have a picky eater in the house (my son), but he does eat veggies like a champ. I’m a good baker but not so great when it comes to cooking. Plus, I hate grocery shopping and want to cook stuff that’s fast, but still healthy.”

What I might gather from this list is that I need to plan fast meals, do all my shopping once a week, not every night and I should probably look into a good cookbook or two so I can become a better cook. Oh, and I need to consider meals that my overly picky son will like. This list isn’t meant to be major goals you have to work on. The list is just there to get you thinking about food and how it affects your household. For instance, if you tend to cook in the microwave only, and aren’t willing to budge, it’s fine to try and plan healthy meals that can go in the microwave.

In general, a basic list like this means you acknowledge and maybe even embrace your food strengths and weaknesses, so that your attempts to remake your meals is with you, not against you.

• Basic healthy actions you should take as a parent

2. Get some quick portion-size education

If you suspect that portion sizes are out of control at your house, it’ll require a bit of education. See the following for some basic food portion primers:

• Food smarts for kids
• Guidelines for kid portion sizes
• Proper adult-sized food portions

Next, if you don’t have any, get some basic measuring cups and keep them handy. Until you can eyeball proper portions, measuring cups are some of the best friends you can have and may mean the difference between a proper 120 calorie bowl of cereal and a 300 calorie bowl. Use those measuring cups to measure out serving sizes that are recommended in the links above. One more tip – use smaller dishes, as it will help you naturally serve up smaller, more appropriate sizes.

Image by Dor Sela

3. Get lovable with veggies and fruits

In many households, families focus on the main dish the most, which, in America, tends to be some sort of meat or often pasta. Paying more attention to how you cook and serve vegetables and fruits, means your family is more likely to eat them up. If you’re not sure how much love to give veggies and fruits, consider that experts say at least half your plate at meals should be made up of veggies and fruits. I’d say that’s a decent amount of love required.

To improve veggies and fruits, serve the freshest produce you can or on busy days go with frozen, not canned (ick). Frozen are best after fresh and have just as many nutrients. Steam, don’t boil. You can even serve raw veggies, which is super fast – plain or with a low-fat dip. Lastly get a great veggie cookbook and see what looks awesome – in fact, put kids in charge of choosing the veggies and fruits and if necessary cooking them. My son always eats his own cooking more than mine. Oh, and don’t forget, you can serve fruit as dessert.

4. Go organic

You might think I’m nuts to say, “Hey remake your meals” AND “Go organic too!” Doesn’t that sound like a lot of work?

Here’s the catch, going organic can help you eat healthier naturally. Organic food tends to be more expensive, thus requiring you to think about each purchase. Really thinking about the food you buy is a key step to healthier eating. Plus, with organic food costing what it does, you’ll be more inclined to spend the money you have on whole, fresh foods rather than junk.

• Go organic without going insane
• How to afford organic food

As you go organic, work on discussing organics with the kids too. This is a great way to work green eating conversations into your family’s life.

• One healthy organic meal that’s under $2 per person

5. Eat less meat

Eating less meat lowers your carbon footprint and in many cases is healthier, allowing you to cut fat and calories easily. Going meatless more often isn’t as painful as you might think and bonus, you’ll save tons of money. Meat is expensive! Start with meatless Monday and work up to more meatless meals from there.

• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
• 8 Meatless Dishes for Meat-n-Taters Lovers

6. Institute recipe hour

Once a week, sit down with the family and look through cookbooks, cooking magazines, the web, what have you, and make a semi-solid list of healthy meals and recipes you’d like to try during the week. Do this before you go grocery shopping. If you already have a stocked pantry, head to All Recipes and do an ingredient search, which can show you various ideas for what you have on hand.

Knowing ahead of time what you’ll be eating during the week can cut down on your mealtime stress level, save you money and stops you from eating fast food or junk just because it’s quicker.

Image by BlueOrange Studio

7. Shop less

Daily shopping for groceries encourages impulse buys, overspending and can make you so insane that you buy the first quick (and maybe not healthy) thing you see. I personally HATE shopping, even grocery shopping, so I make it a goal to go only on big shopping trips twice a month, where I stock up on dry goods and such, plus once a week to restock stuff like fresh veggies. Four shopping trips a month is a heck of a lot better than daily trips to the store.

Also this requires I plan healthy meals in advance, to a point. I’m not crazed about it, but we do plan a general menu for the week.

8. Cook together

Some kids really like to help out in the kitchen, and others don’t, but no matter what, your child should be involved, at least somewhat in meal planning, prep and cooking. Even little kids can shred spinach or lettuce, mix batter or scrub potatoes. With all kids, this gives you a chance to talk about why you cook how you do – i.e. why olive oil is a better choice than butter or how come you’re steaming, not boiling veggies.

Cooking is a skill your child will need as an adult, so it’s smart to start getting your child involved early. My own son isn’t that into cooking. I still keep him involved though. He helps to plan meals, sets the table or I’ll have him sit and talk to me while I cook. Once in a while he’ll even brave his way into the kitchen and cook something.

Image by Flickr User tiarescott

9. Eat together at the table

Research shows that eating together, as a family not only makes for more well adjusted kids but encourages healthy eating habits. Kids get enough screen time as it is, they don’t need to watch TV while eating. Plus screen time mixed with eating means you’re less likely to pay attention to normal hunger cues, meaning you may keep eating once you’re full.

Eating at the table helps you pay better attention to your child’s eating habits too. Such as you’ll notice if he’s loading up on unhealthy food toppings, taking three servings or skipping his veggies nightly. In turn, this gives you a chance to discuss healthy eating habits, along with the not so healthy ones. Eating at the table is also fun. If you’re not sure how to talk to your kids, start with high-low. We do it every night. Everyone says the best part and worst part of their day, which usually results in more conversation.

On top of eating together, ban phones, books, electronics and other distractions at mealtime.

10. Be honest about food issues

The biggest focus of my childhood obesity and healthy living series is that families need to talk. Without open and honest conversations about food, calories, weight and so on, kids will never learn to make healthy choices.

As noted before, talking about food is very hard for many parents, with most parents claiming it’s easier to discuss drugs and sex than food with a child. If you’ve got issues with food topics, get over it. You need to use mealtime to set a good example. If your child is loading up on 1,000 calories of tarter sauce, and you just ignore it, or sit and say, “That’s okay” you’re not helping your child. You need to speak up when you see unhealthy habits. Not in a mean way, but in a, “There’s a healthier way to eat” way.

Encourage even picky eaters to try a little of everything. Talk about foods your child likes and doesn’t. Mention why you made the healthier low-calorie fish over the fatty hamburger. These are issues kids can handle, and they should be allowed to handle them too, so they can grow up and make healthy choices for a lifetime.

• Common pitfalls parents fall into with kids and food

If you’re trying to cook healthier and serve your kids the correct food portions, something to watch out for are toppings, sauces and other add-ons.

Excessive toppings and sauces can turn an average healthy meal into a nightmare meal.

In many cases, parents allow their kids to dish up their own sauces and toppings, without discussing health cons, thus, kids are getting way more calories in a day then they should.

Cream cheese on a bagel can add up the calories quickly. Try a lighter spread then top it off with fruit.

5 average kid meal ruined by toppings

MEAL 1: 2 average pieces of fish, scoop of long grain rice, steamed mixed veggies and apple and orange slices = 434 calories

+ A normal size serving of tarter sauce (which is considered 2 tablespoons) = 544 calories
+ 9 servings of tarter sauce = 1,424 calories

MEAL 2: 1 bean burrito (with beans, 1/3 cup of 2% cheese, tortilla), 1/2 cup of peas, fruit on the side = 482 calories

+ 1/4 cup sour cream = 601 calories
+ 1/2 cup of sour cream = 720 calories

MEAL 3: 2 slices of cheese pizza, big bowl of veggie salad plus ranch (1 tablespoon) and fruit 390 = 469 calories

+ 6 tablespoons of ranch = 907 calories

MEAL 4: 1/2 breast of baked chicken, 1/2 cup broccoli, normal sized cornmeal muffin and fruit = 465 calories

+ 1/2 cup of processed cheese sauce on the broccoli = 865 calories

MEAL 5: Small baked potato with tablespoon butter, 1 piece of white fish, cup of steamed veggies and fruit = 451 calories

+ 2 more servings of butter, 1/4 cup sour cream, 3 servings of tarter sauce = 1,104 calories

You may as well serve fast food

The average child or teen in the United States needs about 1,600 to 2,000 calories per day. None of the meals above that include massive additions of toppings, fits into a healthy kid calorie range, unless you’re seriously skimping on breakfast, lunch and snacks (which you shouldn’t).

In almost of these situations, you’d be better off calorie-wise, simply buying your kid a Happy Meal (860 calories). Plus, while it’s not more expensive to eat healthy in general, in the case of the meals above, fish and organic chicken can be expensive unless you find a killer sale. So money wise, you’d also be better off with the cheap Happy Meal.

Beyond calories, another problem with the toppings above – tarter sauce, sour cream, ranch, cheese sauce and so on, is that these toppings get almost 100% of their calories from fat. Basically, you’re just advocating for pure fat when you allow your kid to eat this way.

What to do?

You’ve got a few choices here. It’ll really depend on how you’ve raised your child thus far.

Use fruit, not sugar to top off cereal - Image by blackcat79 via sxc.

Situation one – you’re raising a healthy eater from birth

Role model healthy topping portion sizes for your child when he’s young. No one is saying that you should cut toppings entirely. However, there’s a healthy way to eat them and an unhealthy way to eat them. With young children, it’s best to place the toppings on their food for them, so they can get an idea of what’s healthy and what’s not.

Do not add needless toppings, such as sugar to cereal or fruit ever. Kids should be able to eat a basic food like cereal or fruit without an added sweetener.

Also, before you even add toppings, make sure it’s necessary. Not all foods need toppings. If you raise your child on burritos that are sour-cream-free, and potatoes with light butter or no butter at all, you may be surprised that he’ll simply eat his food without a topping. Kids develop tastes for fatty toppings, they’re not born with a taste for them.

Two – you’ve got an older child or teen who has been raised with toppings galore

Here you’ve got two choices. You can get rid of toppings entirely. I.e don’t keep tarter sauce in your house. I actually hate this plan because kids, once grown will run into toppings and they should know how to use them properly. It’s lame to pretend toppings don’t exist. Secondly it’s not fair to people in the household who use toppings correctly. Banning food, is not, in my opinion, ever a realistic or useful plan.

A better choice is to start changing everyone’s habits. When you serve foods that kids are used to eating with toppings, don’t add the topping right away, see if your child will eat the food without. If your child asks for a topping, say ranch, serve him up a proper amount and serve yourself one too, saying, “This is how much a real serving of salad dressing is.” It’s up to you if you discuss calories or not and fat or not – some kids can handle this conversation in little bits, some can’t. If your child gets defensive saying you didn’t give him enough, point out that the ENTIRE family is attempting to eat healthier and you’d like everyone involved.

Some research says you shouldn’t police food, especially if you’ve allowed your child to eat whatever he wants so far in life. However, I’m not sure what I think about this. Sure, it’s frustrating and hard to have to change habits now, but in my opinion, it’s better to change habits now than to have your child’s belly fat get out of control or have your kid develop diabetes. I guess it’s up to you.

Little things you can do

• Buy alternative toppings. Salsa, for example, is a healthier topping than sour cream. Lemon plus a little sugar in ice tea is better than a ton of sugar alone. Italian dressing can be a better salad dressing choice than ranch. BBQ sauce is low fat, low calorie and works well with many foods.

• Don’t dress up foods just because. Adding cheese to veggies or even butter should be considered a very once in a while event vs. an every evening sort of deal.

• Spice and sweeten up foods with herbs, spices and fruit, not toppings.

• Learn to be a better cook. Often I’ve seen people add toppings to make food taste better. If you cook well in the first place, toppings become less necessary.

• Role model, role model, role model – there’s no way to emphasize this enough. If you load on toppings it’s totally unfair and confusing for a kid if you limit their toppings.

• Don’t keep toppings on the table, such as butter, dressing or sugar.

• Plan meals that don’t need toppings, or plan meals that need less calorie-dense toppings.

• Use less toppings slowly. For example, if your child insists on 9 tablespoons of tarter sauce, suggest they add just six. The next time you serve fish, bring it down more, to maybe three tablespoons. Eventually, hopefully, they’ll develop a taste for the food you’re serving vs. the topping.

Lead image via Flickr User ozmafan

Even kitchen-reluctant kids, like my son, will come help with this surprisingly simple organic cooking project (I promise).

Homemade organic soft pretzels

Homemade soft pretzels are way better than bought. For one thing, nothing tastes as yummy as your very own homemade pretzel. Secondly, soft pretzels can be healthier at home. You can increase the wheat flour content, add healthful herbs and spices and add less salt. Plus, there’s no raging neon cheese involved. These also pack up well in a lunch sack in place of a sandwich.

Each of these homemade pretzels has around 120 calories, so when paired with fresh fruit, they make the perfect appropriate sized snack for your child (or you).

Gather up:

• 4 to 4.5 cups white organic flour – you can sub in 1 and 1/2 cups organic whole wheat flour
• 1 package of yeast. If you use bulk yeast like me, use 2 and 1/4 teaspoons
• 1 and 1/2 cup organic milk
• 1/4 cup organic sugar
• 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons organic olive oil
• About a tablespoon of honey
• 1 organic egg white + 1 tablespoon water
• Optional: Stuff to go on top of your pretzels such as salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, herbs, cheese, sugar and cinnamon, etc.



• Stir your dough until you can't stir anymore

   

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• Knead dough into a nice smooth, springy ball

   

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• place dough in oil coated bowl

   

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• Let your dough rise

   

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• Roll dough into a long sheet

   

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• To make traditional pretzel shape do this

   

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• Then this

   

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• Cross the tops over

   

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• Attach to the bottom and seal with a dab of water

   

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• different shape ideas for pretzels

   

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Make your homemade soft pretzel dough:

• Mix 1 and 1/2 cups of flour plus your yeast in a mixing bowl.

• Carefully heat milk, sugar, oil, honey and 1 teaspoon salt until warm. Not hot, it’ll kill the yeast!

• Add milk to dry ingredients and mix for 3 minutes. I used a simple mixer, but you can do this by hand too.

• Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can actually mix, using a wooden spoon. You won’t be able to mix it all in by hand.

• Turn your dough out onto a table surface and knead in any remaining flour until you have a nice smooth, somewhat stiff but still springy dough. Usually this takes about 6 to 9 minutes of kneading. Form into a nice ball.

• Lightly oil a bowl. Place your dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Leave your bowl in a warm, non-drafty area to rise.

Zelda Triforce Pretzel!

Getting your soft pretzel dough shaped:

• Once dough has doubled (in about 1.5 hours) punch it down, then let it sit for 10 minutes.
• Get your baking sheets ready. Either lightly oil them or place eco-friendly parchment on them.
• Once dough has rested, roll into a long rectangle. About 16 inches long and 1/2 inch thick.
• Using a pizza cutter, slice dough into twenty 16 inch strips.
• Shape your dough (if you need help with basic pretzel shape see slideshow above).
• Place pretzels on baking sheets and bake for about 3-4 minutes in a 475 degree oven.

Boiling your soft pretzels:

Boiling isn’t called for in all pretzel recipes, but it’s necessary if you want traditional pretzels. Boiling kick-starts the nice pretzel crust and helps your pretzel dough puff quickly and become chewy. If you don’t boil, your pretzels will be rather flat and more like bread vs. chewy pretzels.

• As you’re baking your pretzels, dissolve the 2 tablespoons salt into a big pot of boiling water.

• After baking, add semi-baked pretzels, 4 at a time or so, to your pot of boiling water. After a minute, turn each pretzel over for one more minute.

• Remove pretzels with a slotted spoon and place on a cooling rack to dry a bit.

Baking your soft pretzels:

• Place 1/2 inch apart on your baking sheets.
• Mix egg white with 1 tablespoon of water, and lightly brush on each pretzel.
• Sprinkle with salt or other topping.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven – watch near the end. Pretzels should be just golden brown.
• Cool on racks.

Eat and enjoy!

Pretzels with sprinkled Parmesan cheese

Extra tips:

• You can add any topping as noted above – be creative.

• You can also add stuff inside your pretzels during the shaping part. You can add finely shredded cheese, Parmesan, herbs and spices, and other grains and seeds to your dough as you shape it. You may have to re-knead a bit, but then your add-ins will bake right in.

• When shaping you can go with a traditional pretzel shape or make anything you like. We braided some, made some flat and you can even use sharp cookie cutters or knives for shapes like alphabet letters, butterflies or flowers.

• You can also roll your dough around stuff. For example, when we made these, Dave put a dollop of organic peanut butter on a piece of dough and rolled it up, making a peanut butter pretzel ball.

• Cedar made some pretzels on a stick (he used toothpicks, but you could use bigger sticks).

• Try some without salt, you might be surprised at how good they still taste.

Other fun organic baking projects to try with kids:

• Organic apple pie
• Organic cheese crackers
• Organic pumpkin cupcakes
• Organic honey oat bread

I didn’t own a microwave for my entire adult life, until a couple of years ago, and that’s only because I moved in with someone who already had one. I wasn’t against them or anything, I just didn’t want yet another appliance cluttering up my space. I guess I should have got one at some point, because most of the time, microwaves do have some nice eco-benefits, such as…

• Microwaves cook faster than most ovens or stoves, and cooking faster means less energy waste.

• If you reheat leftovers or small portions in a microwave, it can save you up to 80% cooking energy.

• Microwaves save on a/c costs in summer, as they don’t generate as much heat as the typical oven or stove.

• Microwaves are recyclable in many cases. Call your microwave manufacturer or visit Earth 911 to locate a facility that will take your old microwave.

• In the 80s and 90s you’d still hear that microwaves emit weird toxic waves into your home. That was true. Some older microwaves did emit high levels of not so safe waves. In fact, even now, all microwaves do work via electromagnetic radiation, but the FDA sets safe radiation levels now, so new microwaves on the market are pretty safe. Course, it’s the FDA, so… take this info with a grain of salt.

• Microwaves can save you time, so you can invest that time in other, useful eco-activities.

Do microwaves have any eco-cons?

• There is no ENERGY STAR label for residential ovens, ranges, or microwave ovens at this time – they do make energy star commercial ovens, but that’s it.

• Microwaving plastic containers can release bad chemicals into your kitchen and food. Avoid this issue by using food-safe glass containers vs. plastic in your microwave.

• Nutrient worries are something to consider, but not freak about. In any case, whether you use a stove or microwave, cooking foods for prolonged periods will zap out healthy nutrients. Just cook food lightly and you won’t need to worry.

• Microwaves usually stay plugged in. While you won’t stop global warming by unplugging an appliance or two, every bit of energy savings can save you $, so unplug your microwave when it’s not in use.

• Dirty microwaves cook slower and are less energy efficient. Keep your microwave clean, naturally.

• Older microwaves don’t just emit higher levels of radiation, but they’re far less energy efficient. In the case of microwaves, newer is better.

We rarely buy soda. It’s expensive and doesn’t serve any real nutritional purposes. That said, once in a while, Cedar will ask for some. He doesn’t eat fast food, doesn’t much like cake or cookies and usually drinks water, juice or milk, so I don’t feel terrible if he has an occasional soda. Also, soda gives us a good excuse to make soda popsicles.

Cedar's Grapefruit Gratitude Pops

Soda popsicles are a rare treat around here. One, because as noted above, we don’t normally buy soda. Two, usually I err on the side of making 100% healthy ice pops, because the kids go through them like mad and I don’t want them licking down soda anymore than I want them drinking it. However, if you use soda in small amounts, you can make some super amazing sparkling pops for a special treat or party.

Why add soda pop to popsicles?

• Soda in an ice pop adds a nice bubbly flavor. You can actually taste the carbonation, which results in a really nice, light and airy pop.  Bonus, ice pops made with soda tend to pop right out of their molds easily.

• Soda can accent the right ingredients nicely.

• Fun for kids – and adults. If you normally make 100% healthy ice pops, the occasional treat ice pop can keep kids’ sweet tooth happy without doing as much damage as say, an entire bottle of soda or some other high calorie treat.

• Soda pop ice pops are perfect birthday party fare.

How bad is the soda aspect?

Soda is not a healthy drink for kids and most drink way too much of it. In the case of ice pops you use very little soda as compared to other ingredients. For example, the other day we made a batch of homemade ice pops with soda (recipe below) and we used less than one can of soda, combined with other, more nutritionally sound ingredients, and ended up with about 8 ice pops. One can of soda per 8-10 treats is not bad.

You can make ice pops with soda a bit better for kids by skipping name brand soda. For my son, I stick to soda choices like Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Soda, which is USDA organic, has zero artificial ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup. Cedar also likes Hansen’s Cane Soda, made with cane sugar not high fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. Basically if you’re going to buy soda for a treat look for a version without high fructose corn syrup and with no artificial colors or flavors. For example, real root beer is clear, not brown.

Make sure it’s really a treat. Even though I let Cedar have less toxic soda, I still rarely buy it. It’s a treat, not a diet staple.

Working with soda in ice pops

Soda expands. Make sure you one, leave an open can in the fridge for a while, before making your pops so the bubbles die down a bit, or two, if you want the extra carbonation and a bubbly texture, mix up a batch of soda pops but don’t fill the popsicle molds all the way up. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top.

Keep reading to see two delicious soda pop popsicle recipes.

Cedar's Grapefruit Gratitude Pops in Fun Molds

Sparkling Pink Grapefruit & Citrus Strawberry Ice Pops

Cedar wanted to name these “Grapefruit Gratitude Pops” – no clue how he came up with that, but I thought a more descriptive name might be good. In any case, Cedar was browsing through Ice Pop Joy the other night. I guess he was inspired because he said he wanted to make ice pops. Cedar is not a kid who likes to cook. That said, I jumped at the chance to get him in the kitchen and said, “Sure, but we’ll have to base the pops on stuff we have in the house, because I’m not going to the store.” He started looking around the kitchen and gathered up some option ideas. On hand we had OJ, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen cherries, apricots, carrots, tofu, milk plus some other ice pop type ingredients. We also had a can of grapefruit soda.

After thinking it over, Cedar grabbed the blender, gathered some ingredients, got out some molds and created the best ice pops ever!

I’m not kidding. Though very simple, these grapefruit ice pops are AMAZING. Cedar’s about as creative as I am in the kitchen (sadly, not much) so I actually can’t believe he came up with such yummy pops. The best way I can explain them is to say they taste like that sparkling fruit punch parents make for kid birthday parties, only these pop are a little healthier.

In a blender, combine 3/4 of on 12 oz. can of Hansen’s Grapefruit Soda with about 1 cup of organic orange juice and a cup of frozen or fresh organic strawberries. Blend, pour into molds and freeze. Eat and fall in love.

These have a bubbly punch of grapefruit flavor but the OJ and berry taste really come through as well. They smell amazing too and are the perfect ice pop texture – not too hard, not too soft. I think they’d be perfect for a birthday party or on a hot summer day, although it’s winter right now and they’re still great. They’re seriously one of the best treat ice pops I’ve ever had.

Treat Worthy Organic Root Beer Float Ice Pops

These root beer float popsicles are ultimate treat ice pops, not an ice pop staple. When I make them, the kids go INSANE and only want these, not any other pops. That said, because I think most food kids eat should be nutritionally sound, I only make these about two or three times a year.

Open one can of Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Root Beer and leave it in the fridge for a few hours, so the fizz dies down. Later, combine the can of root beer with one to two scoops of organic vanilla ice cream (we use Alden’s), plus 1 cup of 1% organic milk. Blend, pour into molds and freeze. I can’t remember how many pops this makes, but it’s somewhere in the 8-10 category. Kids and adults love these, and they really do taste just like root beer float on a stick, but just make them once in a while. They’re not the healthiest ice pop choice.

• 50 amazing ice pop recipes
• Ice pops 101 

Do you ever make ice pops with soda?

As I mentioned in a previous post, my major New Year’s goal is to limit some of the excess food packaging that comes into my house.

My foolproof super hopeful plan!

As noted, I’ve failed to reach my goal for four years or so. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been aiming too high, which is exactly the opposite of what I always tell other people to do. For example, I want to eliminate ALL unnecessary food packaging. Yet, obviously I’m not nearly reaching that goal. I always tell you, my readers, to take small steps towards a greener lifestyle, so this year, I’m taking my own advice.

In 2012, my household will be concentrating on some smaller, hopefully more achievable steps towards an overall less package-laden lifestyle. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Baby steps for my goal this year!

Who will be involved:

Since I live with four other people for the time being, a true elimination of household packaging would require the entire household’s cooperation. That spells potential trouble and extra stress I don’t need. That said, I’m limiting my goal to what I can control – meaning packaging concerning my son Cedar and myself.

The basic plan:

1) I sat down and thought about all the foods we buy prepackaged.

2) First I eliminated impossible items from my list. For example, I’m not buying an organic cow, milking it and churning flipping butter and ice cream. I’m also not raising chickens. Meaning, we’ll keep buying items such as organic milk, eggs and butter prepackaged.

3) Then I thought about the stuff I could manage easily because I’ve already got the skills – i.e. I can bake cookies and muffins vs. buying packaging. I can also buy rice and beans in bulk and cook them vs. purchasing cans or boxes.

4) Then, because a goal should be at least a little bit challenging, I considered something harder. For us, the food items with the biggest package impact would likely be soup. We eat soup for most lunches and often for dinner too. We eat organic veggie, chicken noodle, veggie chili, tomato and more. I have almost zero soup making skills. I’ve tried to make soup before. At best I’ve had curious results and at worst really terrible results. If I can learn to make decent soup, it would be a BIG deal, save on lots of cans and a great accomplishment.

My chosen small steps:

• Quit buying rice and beans in cans, bags or boxes. Both are easy to get organic in bulk, but take more time to cook.

• Don’t buy potatoes or carrots in bags anymore. Can you believe I sometimes do this! Anyhow, I can cut up bulk carrots myself and lately I’ve located bulk organic potatoes not in bags.

• Bake cookies and muffins from scratch from now on, using bulk ingredients. Easy because I’m a good baker and since I work at home, baking is something I do have time for – i.e. it’s easy to walk away from the oven, so long as you set a timer.

• Learn to make soup. This will be the hardest part for me. One reader suggested a crock-pot, which I’ll be looking into, and I’m going to gather up some organic soup recipes.

How is 2012 going so far?

Well, not great, but luckily it’s only the 8th. I bought bulk carrots and potatoes this week, plus didn’t buy any muffin mixes or prepackaged cookies.

I’ve utterly failed to research soup making yet and I bought two boxes of rice and two cans of soup. Blah. So, it’s going about half good. Stay tuned, because hopefully I’ll manage to look up some soup recipes and share them here.

Image by Johnkarun via sxc.

In my last post I said I was getting mighty tired of the whole, “It’s too expensive to eat healthy argument.” Since I myself am short on time and far from rich, I thought I’d post some meals we make at home.

I figured we’d start with something easy and something that most kids I know will eat. When we’re extremely short on time or tired, we tend to make breakfast for dinner. It’s not hands-down the healthiest meal we make, but it’s not unhealthy either and it’s a far cry from fast food. Also, this meal is super easy and low-cost.

Here’s how to manage organic breakfast for a family of four.

• Wash two large organic baking potatoes (which will make about six servings) then cut into small chunks. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a light layer of olive oil. Toss the potatoes in the pan and season with whatever herbs and spices you like. Put the pan in the oven on about 400-425 degrees and walk away for 30 minutes. Use those minutes to do other stuff. 5 minutes.

• When the potatoes have about 10 minutes left, go back to the kitchen. Wash and then slice up one organic cucumber, two or three organic carrots and some sort of organic fruit, say a couple of apples or oranges (we usually serve two veggies and two fruits per meal). 3-5 minutes.

• Get out a frying pan and add a small dab of butter. Turn the heat on medium. Less than 1 minute.

• Crack 8 organic eggs into a bowl. Stir a bit then pour into the pan. Use a spatula to move the eggs around until they’re cooked but not tough and rubbery. 5 minutes, if that.

• Toast up 4 pieces of whole wheat organic bread, spread with tablespoon of organic jam. 2 minutes.

• Grab your kid at some point and make him set the table and pour drinks.

• Serve everyone two eggs, a piece of toast, 1/6 of the potatoes, veggie slices and fruit. Sit down at the table and eat together.

TOTAL HANDS ON TIME TAKEN:

16 – 18 minutes, about the time it would take to drive and get fast food.

CALORIES & NUTRITION IN THIS MEAL:

Two eggs, toast, jam, veggies, fruit and the potatoes have about 400 calories. Drinks and using butter in your eggs add on extra calories, but all in all, this is not a high-calorie dinner. Compare it to the average kid-meal at a fast food place (860 calories) and you’re looking good.

Nutritional needs being met will vary by person (gender and age) so see my post about portions and food groups. Personally, I think this meal is short on veggies and we usually eat more than what I said to make, but carrots and cucumbers are easy, so that’s why I recommended them. Nutritional needs met by a typical fast food meal will not be as good if you take the time to compare.

TOTAL COST OF THIS MEAL

I got the following costs from grocery receipts I’ve been saving.

• Organic carrots – $1.00
• Organic cucumber – $1.00
• 2 large organic apples – $1.13
• 2 large organic baking potatoes – $0.92
• 8 organic, cage-free eggs – $2.32
• 4 slices of whole wheat organic bread – $0.75

The butter, herbs, olive oil and jam are trivial so I didn’t include their costs.

Total cost - $7.12 or $1.78 per person. This meal would have been less expensive if I got the eggs and bread on sale (I didn’t).

I’m not sure how much most typical fast food meals cost, but I’ve seen signs around town for kid meals that cost $2.00 so I’m guessing an adult meal would be at least $3 or $4. That’s about $12 for a family of four, if fast food is really that cheap. I’ve also seen signs for $5 meals around town, so my guess is that a meal for a family of four would more run in the $15 range.

Overall, the homemade meal doesn’t take more time, it’s healthier, with more food groups and costs less than fast food. However, breakfast isn’t the only decent meal you can make if you’re short on time. Stay tuned, because during 2012 I’ll be adding more quick, healthy and low-cost organic meals to Growing a Green Family.

Instead of general New Year’s goals, I’m concentrating on discussing the childhood obesity epidemic. That said I do still have two general goals for myself, or I should say my household. One of my goals is to get this household more active, since we’ve been slacking, but we’ll discuss that later. First, let’s look at my big goal of the year.

The ongoing food packaging goal

For over four years, my New Year’s goal has been to eliminate food packaging that comes into my house. I’ve done a horrid job too. Seriously, I’ve been terrible, not really limiting much food packaging at all. Each year I think, this is the year I do better and each year –  zero results.

For example, if you look in my cupboards and fridge, here are some typical items we buy that come in packages of some sort:  ketchup, crackers, soup, bread, frozen veggies, milk, refried beans, eggs, granola bars, butter, baking goods (I often, but don’t always buy bulk), sometimes cookies, tortillas, spaghetti sauce, cheese, bagels, rice and so on and so on. We do buy 90% of our food in organic form. However, for a green family, I feel like we have way too much overly packaged stuff.

What’s stupid, is that half this stuff I can make from scratch, using bulk goods brought home in reusable bulk bags or containers (which I already own). I’m a good bread and cookie baker. I can make crackers and granola. I’m decent at making sauces and there’s no question that I can get organic veggies fresh in reusable bags vs. frozen.

Why we fail year-after-year

Being that I make this flipping goal every year, I needed to figure out how come my household keeps failing to meet it.

We’re busy: I feel like we’re pressed for time constantly. We’ve got three kids with three different school and activity schedules. My boyfriend works an oddball shift full-time at his day job and performs frequently with his band (second job). I work full-time+ writing and I’m on the board at my son’s school. Like we’ve got time to bake and cook from scratch every night. It’s REALLY easy to open cans of soup.

I’m ill-equipped: I’m a decent cook, but not a genius cook. Stuff like homemade soup is a stretch for me. In fact, I’d say that soup is our biggest failure. We get canned soup often. Even though we buy organic, it’s still packaged and the cans are known to harbor BPA (lame).

My partner is ill-equipped: I’m not the only adult in the house with issues. My boyfriend doesn’t seem super keen to cook from scratch either and his cooking abilities are also limited.

Picky kids: My boyfriend’s kids want processed foods often (turkey dogs, bagels, mac n cheese, etc) and my son, Cedar, is so picky that once we find something he’ll eat, we tend to stick to it, rather than try anything new. For example, Cedar just recently decided mac n cheese is okay to eat, but says, “I like the Annie’s white shells and not other mac n cheese.” Thus, whipping together a homemade dish of mac n cheese could mean a picky kid food revolt.

Benefits of eliminating some packaging

If we manage this goal this year, there are some major benefit though. For example:

• Lower grocery costs. There was a time, years ago, when I used to buy more food in bulk and cook from scratch more often, and I did spend less on groceries. Packaging and convenience does cost you, especially if you buy mostly organic.

• We’ll learn some new skills, like how to make soup.

• We can teach one, two or maybe all three of the kids to cook too.

• We’ll avoid pesky BPA in cans.

• We’ll avoid cluttering up the landfills with trash – not all packaging is easily recycled. Plus, although we do recycle like champs, recycling takes energy, so why not avoid the packaging in the first place.

• We’ll be more self-sufficient and less dependent on food companies. For example, I get cranky when my favorite organic vegetable soup is out of stock. It would be better to learn to make it myself.

• We can feel better about our footprint. It’s not just all the packaging to recycle that bugs me. It takes energy and other resources to make food packaging. Plus, we’re not a family that buys a bunch of useless junk (most of us are not excess stuff fans) so the fact that we buy too much packaging just feels icky to me.

Since I haven’t reached this goal in previous years, I decided to lay out a much better plan this year. That plan is coming up soon. For now, tell me if you have any green New Year’s goals for 2012.

Image by raja4u via sxc.

This year, instead of green goals, I’m looking at the more pressing child obesity epidemic. Before we look into how to raise an active, healthy eater for life, we really need to discuss portion sizes. Your child may eat really well – whole grains, fish and veggies but if portion sizes are too large, it may become a moot point. Healthy eating isn’t just about the type of food but the amount of food as well. It’s also about being active which we’ll look at later.

• Need a quick primer about how body weight and calories work?

Excessive portion sizes are a big deal in the U.S.

Consider that The Nemours Foundation says that most school-age kids need 1,600 to 2,500 calories per day. At puberty, girls and boys need a few more calories a day, unless they’re not active. The USDA notes that a teen who gets less than 30 minutes of exercise a day needs just 2000 calories to maintain a healthy weight.

Research shows that if your child consumes just 100 calories (the equivalent of 8 ounces of a soft drink) above daily requirements it will typically result in a 10-pound weight gain over one year.

Most kids in America are way overdoing it on portion sizes, which leads to excess calories and in turn, excess weight.

Calories that are in some typical kid meals and food items – note that all the foods or meals below are either items I’ve seen kids eat or stuff that kids themselves have told me they’ve eaten in one sitting:

• A whole bagel with cream cheese + large bowl of cereal and milk + fruit + juice = 975 calories (if you add 3 teaspoons of sugar to the cereal this breakfast is a total of 1,020 calories)
• 10 oreo-like cookies = 530 calories
• 2 slices of pizza and large soda = 906 calories
• 2 cups spaghetti with white sauce and a salad with 3 tablespoons of ranch = 1047 calories
• 1/2 bag of potato chips = 486 calories
• 6 fish sticks, 2 tablespoons tarter sauce and vegetables topped with Velveeta cheese = 852 calories
• 6 chicken nuggets, 1/2 cup of peas, 15 tator tots = 584 calories
• 2 pancakes with butter and syrup, two pieces of real pork bacon, apple slices, glass of milk = 732 calories
• Lunchables = 340-400+ calories (depending on type)
• 2 cups of grape juice = 308 calories
• An entire quart of chocolate ice cream = 1,144 calories
• Two maple bars = 920 calories
• Package of top ramen + handful of goldfish crackers = 520 calories
• 1 small movie popcorn + medium soda = 1014+ calories
• Croissant (whole, large), 2 scrambled eggs (cooked in butter), whole orange = 452 calories
• 1/2 box of mac n cheese = 615 calories
• PB&J, can of chicken noodle soup, pear slices plus sweetened fruit drink or tea = 757 calories
• Spaghettios type products = 340 calories per can
• 2 bean burritos dipped in 1/2 cup sour cream = 986 calories

• Panda Express kids meal with orange chicken, chow mein, cookie and soda = 840 calories
• Restaurant bacon cheeseburger, fries and soda = 1,600 calories (+ fries dipped in ranch = 1,810)
• Red Robin kids meal pizza with pepperoni, fries on the side and a soda = 981 calories
• Subway kids meal ham sandwich, snack sized bag of chips and a soda = 730 calories (880 with cookie)
• A typical fast food kids meal with a small cheeseburger, small fries and small soda = 860 calories

What about hot school lunches?

Research shows that many school lunches are high in calories, some in the 800 calorie+ category. Beyond that, many hot school lunches are too high in saturated fat and sodium, not to mention the fact that some schools (about 20%+) have brought fast food companies in at lunch time, meaning your child can get an assortment of crap to eat midday if he so chooses. School lunches have many problems beyond calories of course, but that’s a bigger issue.

It’s not all about the type of food

Now, be aware that I’m not saying ANY of the foods above are evil – okay, I’m not a fan of ramen and no one should ever eat an entire quart of ice cream or half a box of mac n cheese in one sitting. However, what is more important than the type of food your child eats, is that you’re aware of how calories in foods add up due to extreme portion sizes.

There is nothing wrong with eating ice cream, candy or cake or eating out once in a while. However, obviously if you eat massive quantities of treats or eat out every night, those calories start to really add up.

An unhealthy week: If your child needs about 1,600 calories a day (11,200 per week) and eats 5 small fast food happy meals a week (yes, I’ve met kids who do this) that means your kid is already at 4,300 calories for the week.  Add in seven unhealthy sweet and salty snacks (3,534 calories) and just four cans of sodas (582 calories) that leaves only about 397 calories per day allocated to healthy, less calorie dense foods for your child. And keep in mind that most kids eat more than 7 unhealthy snacks and drink way more than four sodas a week.

Even if your child does eat healthy food items, it’s easy to go calorie crazy due to portion sizes. For example, if your child eats that first breakfast on the list (the bagel, cereal, juice and fruit) he’s already near the top of his calorie requirements for the whole day, leaving just 625 calories to divide up between lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks for the rest of the day.

This is why portion sizes are so important.

Why are kid portions out of control?

The Nemours Foundation points out that portion sizes began to increase in the 1980s and have gotten bigger and bigger ever since. For example bagels 20 years ago were about 3-inches in diameter and 140 calories. But bagels today are huge, often weighing in at a 6-inch diameter and 350 calories. Oddly, not even religion is excluded – check out how The Last Supper has grown.

Theories abound as to why kid-sized meals and portions are so out of control. Some guesses include:

• Restaurant portions have confused people (often restaurants serve double+ portion sizes).
• Ads showing larger portions confuse people.
• Dishes have grown in size. Many studies show that the bigger the plate, the more people eat, thinking that the entire plate must be covered in food.
• Companies know that people are more money conscious then they used to be. Many food companies and restaurants serve up much larger portions than necessary so that customers feel like they’re getting more value for their money.
• Food comes in larger packages now, but serving sizes haven’t changed. For example, if you used to get 20 cookies in a package and one portion was 1/8 of that package, you may still eat 1/8 of the package even if the cookie company ups the cookie count to 30 cookies per package.
• People keep dishes of food on the table, allowing easy access to second and third helpings.
• People confuse serving recommendations with portions.

Don’t confuse servings with portions

In many cases families may confuse servings with portions. It’s no surprise, because healthy eating is very confusing, but this is an area you can work on.

For example, a 12 year old boy who exercise 30 minutes a day needs six servings of grains per day. That doesn’t translate to 6 large bagels though. One mini bagel, 14 whole grain crackers, 1/2 cup of cooked pasta, 3/4 cup cream of wheat and 1 slice of wheat bread equals six grain serving and 534 calories. 6 large bagels actually equals 24 servings of grains and as many as 2,124 calories. See the difference?

Portions vs. serving recommendations matters a lot when planning healthy meals for your child. To see both serving size recommendations and portion size examples, visit ChooseMyPlate. To see other portion and serving size ideas, visit Kaboose, and take a look at their handy, free and printable guides below:

• Ages 2 to 3
• Ages 4 to 8
• Ages 9 to 13 (girls)
• Ages 9 to 13 (boys)

Portion control tips at home

• Talk about portion sizes with kids!  Kids aren’t dumb. They’ll totally get portions if you talk about it. My own son likes a certain organic chocolate bar that only comes in an insane giant size. I let him get one, but I also say, “Here’s how much a suitable portion is.” He’s learned to grab a square or two and leave the rest for other days. If Cedar wants ice cream, fine, but he gets an appropriate sized scoop. We’ve always discussed portions and it doesn’t upset him or confuse him, it’s just a part of eating in my son’s life.

• Use smaller plates. Studies show that people are just as satisfied when you fill a small plate with food as they are when they get a larger plate full of food. For whatever reason, covering a plate is more important to people than the size of said plate.

• Eat together. Eating together is not only healthier for kids’ emotional health, but it’s the perfect time to discuss portions, food issues, and eyeball what your kid is really eating. Plus, research shows that people are more likely to eat proper portions when they eat together vs. alone.

• Don’t leave food on the table. In most cases, serve up proper portions in the kitchen, then eat in the dining room.

• Encourage slow eating. It takes a while for he feeling of fullness to hit you. Eating fast, then going for seconds right away often results in over-fullness and too many calories. If your child is a fast eater, make him wait for a bit to see if he’s really hungry enough for seconds.

• Don’t let kids serve themselves unless you’ve talked to them about portion size. I’ve met kids who have no clue about portion size and if you say, “grab a snack” the kid will grab 10 cookies or a huge bowl of nuts.

• Watch out for toppings and spreads. Sauces and toppings on foods like mayo, tarter sauce, butter, syrup, cream cheese, ranch, sour cream and sugar can add dozens to hundreds of calories to an otherwise healthy, low-calorie meal. Have your child try foods before adding extras and when he does add extras, discuss topping portion control. There’s no need to eat half a container of sour cream.

• Don’t skip meals. Kids who skip one or more meals tend to make up the difference with huge portion sizes at their one meal of the day.

• Ban eating out of packages. At our house, we do buy large packages of food, like crackers or sometimes cookies, but if you want some, you take some from the package and put them in a small bowl. Don’t allow kids to sit on the couch with a bag of chips, nuts or carrots. Eating from packages is a bad habit to get into and doesn’t teach portion control.

• READ LABELS: food labels are there for a reason, but many people don’t read them. A typical appropriate pasta serving for young kids is 1/2 cup. However, I’ve seen kids served half a box of mac n cheese, which is 3 servings not one and 600+ calories. Too many calories for a kid in one sitting, especially when you consider that mac n cheese is usually served with other foods. Reading food labels can give you a better idea about appropriate serving sizes.

• If portions is something you and your child have never discussed, you may need to break out the big guns – measuring cups. It’s hard to eyeball correct portions, say one cup of pasta, cereal or 3/4 cup of ice cream, but it’s easy after a while if you measure food for a week and see how real portions look.

Portion control tips at for meals out

• Kids should order off the kid menu. Adult sized restaurant meal portions are usually too big for adults, so they’re extremely large for a child.

• Split meals. A family of four can order a salad for everyone, then split two entrees.

• Once meals arrive, look the meal over and decide how much an appropriate portion is. Put the rest in a doggy bag for lunch the next day.

• Switch out sides like fries or mac n cheese for fruit or veggies.

• Get starters very rarely, as a treat, not each time you go out.

• Don’t eat at buffet type places, they just encourage a more, more, more is better mentality.

• Look up meals online before you go out. It’s hard to find calorie leaflets at restaurants, but most have calorie meal planners online. Know what you’re getting before you go to help cut back on portions and calories.

Overall:

Just because your child likes treats or eats out once in a while doesn’t mean he’ll be overweight or obese. If your child eats huge portions but exercises more than an hour a day, he may still be at a healthy weight. Also, some kids simply burn more calories than others.

However, the portions mentioned above is something to be aware of, especially if you’re already concerned that your child may be at an unhealthy weight. Also, be aware that too large portions aren’t simply unhealthy because they may cause excess weight gain, they’re also unhealthy because they don’t build healthy habits for life. Your child has the right to know what a healthy plate of food looks like. Aiming for healthy lifestyle choices overall should be the main goal in your family.

• Slideshow: Secrets of Healthy Eating and Portion Control
• Slide show: Guide to portion control

Image © Elke Dennis