Make Healthy Meals

Deceptively Delicious, the new book by Jessica Seinfeld came out with a bang. Not only of praise, but of controversy, as people noticed its similarity to another book, The Sneaky Chef. You can get a good feel for the controversy by reading the comments section for Deceptively Delicious.

I have to admit, overall it’s a good idea if you have picky eaters and nothing else has worked for getting them to eat healthy foods. Some kids do take a long time to learn to enjoy the foods that are better for them. But I certainly wouldn’t start out this way.

I like how my pediatrician suggested we start feeding our kids fruits and veggies, back when they were on baby food. We started our kids on green beans, rather than on something sweet. This helped them to not expect their food to always be sweet. Both my kids still love their vegetables, especially fresh.

But I don’t expect that to work for every parent.

My first rule for cooking for my family is to use fresh ingredients whenever possible. I avoid boxed and prepackaged foods as much as possible. Sometimes my budget doesn’t allow me to get the best quality, but I do the best I can.

I include vegetables and/or fruits with every meal. Whole grains when possible, although that can be tough at times on a tight budget.

My feeling is that the ingredients you cook with are very important to the overall health of your diet. If you use healthy ingredients you can have a lot of fun with what you cook. Use low fat cheeses to cut back on the fat content of cheesy recipes. Think about the sweeteners you use.

But one of the best things about cooking for your family, especially if you go fresh, is that you know what you’re putting into it. If you can avoid prepackaged foods, you know still more about it. You can avoid the high fructose corn syrup and other things that really aren’t good for your family.

Honestly, I’m not planning on buying either of those books. I don’t need to find more ways to get more fruits and vegetables into my kids. So far as they’re concerned, fruits and veggies are pretty good snacks. But if you need to do it, there’s nothing wrong with using a little deception as a step in the right direction. Just keep working toward an acceptance of fresh foods as you do so. Give it time, make them available, and it probably will happen.

Technorati Tags: deceptively delicious, jessica seinfeld, the sneaky chef, cooking, kids, children, family, healthy, healthy eating

One Response to “Should You Deceive Your Kids?”

1. valmg Says:
   October 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 pm

   I saw that story on the news and it made me laugh.
   I’m tagging you for my new meme. It’s in my link, please check it out!

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