Family Nutrition … it’s our “Beat”

March is National Nutrition Month, and tomorrow is officially National Registered Dietitian Day.  Admittedly, we never knew there was such a day, but then again, there’s a National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day and a National Blueberry Pancake Day, so we’re thrilled registered dietitians get their own day too.

To celebrate, we’re participating in an RD Blogfest (AKA blog carnival).  For the event, dietitian bloggers across the web are showcasing what it means to be a dietitian and highlighting the different career paths they’ve chosen (see links below).

Dietitians do a host of things.  Those with clinical backgrounds often work in hospitals and nursing homes while others, trained in the area of media and communications, bring their talents to public relations firms, food corporations and major magazines and newspapers.

As The Meal Makeover Moms, we consider ourselves family nutrition experts.  Our journey down that path began in 2004 with the release of our book, The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers.  The book highlights our simple food philosophy that kids – even picky ones — will eat nutritious food without complaint as long as it looks and tastes great. To write the book, we drew upon many experiences – Liz worked as a producer for CNN and PBS for many years, writing and reporting on food and nutrition, and she was also trained at The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in Cambridge MA; Janice, the uber organizer between us, worked as the dietitian for the U.S. Senate in Washington and spent over a decade collaborating with award-winning chef Daniel Bruce at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

Timing is everything. In 2004, when the web was really starting to take off we launched MealMakeoverMoms.com, our online Meal Makeover Moms’ Club (now over 6,000 members strong), and a monthly e-newsletter.  At that time, we also began hosting hands-on cooking classes for fellow parents and wrote for several parenting magazines including Nick Jr., American Baby, and Kiwi.  Today, we co-host a weekly radio podcast, Cooking with the Moms (anyone can tune in either on our website or on iTunes).  In addition, we have a newly-designed food blog, Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen, where we post kid-friendly recipes, mealtime tips, and new food product news several times a week. We mastered a lot of new technologies along the way; we’re still amazed that Janice learned how to edit the podcast and that Liz finally figured out how to post to the blog without breaking out in a cold sweat!

As busy moms, we understand the daily challenge parents face when breakfast, lunch, and dinner rolls around.  By sharing our tried-and-true recipes — Cheeseburger Pizza, Mommy’s Edamames,  Apple Butterscotch Cake to name a few — and realistic mealtime advice, we aim to make a positive impact on families everywhere.

Blogfest contributors:

Beyond Prenatals -
Food vs. Supplements and Real Advice vs. Fake Advice
Annette Colby -
No More Diets! A Registered Dietitian Shares 9 Secrets to
Real and Lasting Weight Loss
Ashley Colpaart -
Dietitians working in food policy, a new frontier
Diana Dyer -
There & Back Again: Celebration of National Dietitian Day
Marjorie Geiser -
RD Showcase for National RD Day - What we do
Cheryl Harris -
Me, a Gluten Free RD!
Marilyn Jess -
National Registered Dietitian Day--RD Blogfest
Julie Lanford -
Antioxidants for Cancer Prevention
Renata Mangrum -
What I'm doing as I grow up...
Liz Marr -
Fruits and Veggies for Registered Dietian Day: Two Poems
Jill Nussinow -
The Registered Dietitian Lens I Look Through
Wendy Jo Petersen -
March 11 is our day to shine!
Diane Preves -
RDs & the White House Forum on Health Reform
Andy Sarjahani -
Green Eggs and Ham and a Sustainable Food System
Rebecca Scritchfield -
Big Tips from a "Big Loser"
Anthony Sepe -
RD Showcase: Registered Dietitian Day, March 11, 2009
Kathy Shattler -
RD Showcase for Nutri-Care Consultation
UNL-Extension, Douglas/Sarpy County -
Nutrition Know How - Making Your Life Easier 
Monika Woolsey -
Dietitians--Can't Do PCOS Without Them!
Monika Woolsey -
In Honor of National Registered Dietitian Day
Jen Zingaro -
My life as a Registered Dietitian


March 10, 2009 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Misc., Website | 9 Comments 

No Whine with Dinner: Sausage, Potato & Green Bean Dinner

Little Boo eats dinner!Finding a healthy, delicious, family-friendly recipe that everyone eats without complaint is something many moms (and dads) only dream of.  Today is the first installment of our new monthly feature, No Whine with Dinner.  In it, we highlight success stories and a favorite kid-pleasing recipe from fellow food and parenting bloggers.  Our first Q&A is with Jenna, host of Food with Kid Appeal, for her One Pot Sausage, Potatoes & Green Beans dinner.  Jenna is the mom of two boys, “Big Boo,” age four and “Little Boo,” age two.

Diced Potatoesgreen beans on potatoes

One Pot Sausage, Potatoes & Green Beans
Makes 4 to 5 Servings

  • One 12 to14 ounce package chicken or turkey link sausage (I usually use Aidell’s Sun-dried tomato), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 medium yellow or white onion, sliced or diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced, crushed or minced
  • 1 ½ pounds potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch dice
  • One 16-ounce bag frozen whole, French style green beans, partially thawed
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place sausage in a large skillet or Dutch oven and cook until both sides are brown (the time may vary depending on whether the meat was precooked or not).  Remove meat from pan and set aside. Pour off any fat.  Heat oil in pan and cook onion and garlic on medium-low heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add potatoes to pan and cook over medium heat until they are tender and almost done (test with a fork; you don’t want them as tender as boiled potatoes for mashing).  You may need more oil if you’re using a non-stick pan.  Stir occasionally to prevent potatoes from getting too dark.  When potatoes are nearly fork tender, add green beans on top, cover with a lid, and cook for 5 minutes.  Stir and cook 5 more minutes or until potatoes and green beans are fork tender. The steam will cook the green beans.  Return the sausage slices to the pan and stir them into potato mixture.  Cook for a few more minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Note:  I keep this recipe pretty bland since I’m feeding preschoolers, but if you’d like a little more heat, use some red pepper flakes, your choice of spice mixture, or choose a spicy sausage.

Green Beans, Sausage & Potatoes

Q:  Where did you get the recipe?
A:  In college a friend served a sausage, potato, & onion skillet dish, and that was my inspiration.  I increased the nutritional content by using lower fat, lower sodium (sometimes organic) sausage and by adding veggies.

Q:  What do you like about this recipe?
A:  It’s easy in the sense that all the ingredients go into one pan.  I can have everything diced and sliced in a few minutes, and then be free to hang with the boys or unload the dishwasher in between stirring and adding the next ingredient.  It’s a great nutrient- dense meal for a young kid since it packs good carbohydrates (potatoes) with protein (meat) and vitamins from green beans.  It’s a crowd pleaser too.

Q:  What do your kids think about this dish?
A:  We usually eat before my husband, Martin, gets home. When he walks in the door, the boys run up to him and say, “You’re gonna be excited daddy, it’s yummy potatoes and sausage night.”  One night when the kids were too busy playing to notice what I was cooking, they came to the table and my four-year old said, ”Mama, this is just the meal I wanted – sausage, potatoes and green beans. Delicious.”  My two-year old picks out all his sausage bites, gobbles them up, and then says, “Look at my muscles. More sausage please.”

Q: Other than the fact that this recipe makes everyone in your family happy, do you have any other “Jenna” tips you’d like to share for taking the “whine” out of dinner?
A:  Number one is to get kids involved in dinner preparation.  Seeing ingredients (and sampling raw veggies) before they come together helps kids accept new foods.  My kids love to munch on frozen green beans.  One of them will run in the kitchen, hop on the stool, grab some and say, “Some for me, and some for brother,” and then vanish with a big grin. Next, make food relevant.  If kids know they need carbohydrates for energy, protein for bigger brains and muscles, and fruits/veggies to stay well, they are more inclined to eat them. Finally, keep it fun.  If you enjoy preparing food, eating food, and trying new things, etc. your kids will too.  Describe what you taste in an enthusiastic way and kids will probably want to join in the taste test.

Q:  Can you tell us about your blog?
A:  It’s one thing to know what healthy food is, but it’s another to actually get your kids to eat it.  Kid Appeal helps parents understand how to make food appealing and relevant to their children, which in turn gets food off the plate and into a tummy.  Beyond kid-friendly recipes and childhood nutrition information, on my forum, parents can find a supportive environment to pose the questions that keep them up at night regarding their kids’ diets.

If you make Jenna’s recipe for your family, be sure to let us know what everyone thinks by posting a comment to our blog!

March 9, 2009 | Filed Under Dinner, NoWhineWithDinner, Potatoes, Vegetables | 5 Comments 

Podcast 45: No Whine with Dinner

On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we take the “whine” out of dinner.  As any busy mom (or dad) knows, the constant drone of kids whining is enough to drive any parent off the deep end. Unfortunately, the kitchen and dining room table are often the hot zones where negative comments run amok. We fully understand why parents, beaten down after umpteen complaints from their kids, give up on healthy meals and cave to “kid” foods just to silence all the grumbling.

So here’s the big question we tackle during our No Whine with Dinner show:  Is it actually possible to cork the complaints and get kids to happily eat the wholesome foods parents serve?  Though our tips do not include bribing kids with dessert or slinking around  the kitchen hiding spinach in brownies, we do offer plenty of other easy-does-it advice that really works.  Here’s a sneak preview of two simple strategies:

Establish a Zero Tolerance Policy:  This policy states that whining is NEVER, under no circumstances, allowed at mealtime.  It’s a simple, to-the-point mandate and makes it clear that “if you diss, you’re dismissed.”  Initially, it may be difficult to enforce, but if you stick with it we’re sure that after a few ejections from the table, behavior with quickly improve.  After all, no one likes being excused from dinner.

“Hire” Your Kids to be Recipe Reviewers:  “Hiring” your children to be recipe reviewers is a fun way to get picky eaters to try new foods.  When kids think they’ll hate something new, they cross their arms, clench their jaw, turn their head and refuse to try it.  This unwillingness to sample new textures and flavors, coupled with the all-too-common moans and groans, set the stage for mealtime angst.  To turn the tables, “hire” the kids to taste and critique your recipes.  We created a Recipe Reviewer Chart to help you do just that.

To spread the word that whining doesn’t have to be a way of life at your dinner table, we are introducing a regular blog feature called, No Whine with Dinner.  In it, we feature mealtime success stories and kid-friendly recipes from fellow bloggers.  Our first Q&A with Jenna from Food with Kid Appeal runs on Monday, so check back then!

March 6, 2009 | Filed Under Podcast | 4 Comments 

Bento Box Giveaway

Do you suffer from brown bag boredom? Are your kids tired of the same lunches day after day?  If you’re looking for a fresh approach to packing your kids’ school lunches, you’re going to love our latest giveaway for a Laptop Lunch.  “What’s a Laptop Lunch?” you ask.  Basically, it’s an American-style bento box designed to help families pack healthy, environmentally-friendly lunches for school, work, or travel.

Earlier this week, Janice packed a Laptop Lunch for daughters Leah and Carolyn.  Admittedly, Leah (who’s nine) was more excited than her big sis. No surprise there … after all, cute little containers in a high school cafeteria don’t always cut it.  The colorful plastic compartments (all BPA free) are perfect for packing a variety of nutritious lunch items.  The girls each got a bunch of nibbles including grapes, Sugar & Spice Pecans, banana bread, and a pasta salad made with whole wheat blend rotini pasta, crumbled feta cheese, diced red bell pepper, and Ken’s Light Caesar (you can add diced leftover chicken too).  This particular pasta salad has been Carolyn’s favorite lunch for years, but it was the first time Leah agreed to try it.  Though she had always said, “no” when offered, the cute bento box presentation made it downright impossible resist. Now, she says she wants it every day!  In other words, if you have a child with a ‘discerning’ palate (AKA a picky eater), the bento box may actually encourage him/her to try new foods.

two-bento-box-lunches_resized

For our giveaway, one lucky winner will get their choice of a Laptop Lunch System or a Bento Set with Insulated Bento Sleeve – each is about a $40.00 value!  To enter, all you have to do is post a comment below about your favorite go-to lunches or snacks that you pack in your kids’ lunch boxes or in yours.  We will select our winner using Random.org.  The giveaway ends at noon on Wednesday, March 25. We will enter you twice (doubling your odds) if you tweet about the giveaway to your Twitter followers or if you post a review of our Cooking with the Moms podcast to iTunes (send us an email at moms@mealmakeovermoms.com if you do either).  Good luck …

March 4, 2009 | Filed Under Giveaways, Lunch, PickyEaters | 158 Comments 

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