Yet, they’re trying.  I have to give them kudos for that, they are always willing to give each vegetable a try.  The other day as I snipped jumbo kale leaves to blanch and freeze, my daughter watched carefully before asking how it tasted.  I offered her a giant leaf, and she spent the next ten minutes on a swing, nibbling that kale into oblivion.  When I asked her how she enjoyed it, she told me it was “all right — kind of like cabbage.”  Every day as I walk the garden, looking for new delights, both children accompany, pointing out this and that and enjoying the entire growing process themselves. They remember those cold April days when I pressed those tomato seeds into soil, and now they’re getting their first taste of that labor.

Perhaps the biggest hit of the summer would be our pole beans.  My children love green beans fresh out of the garden.  Cook them in any way and they both turn up their noses, but freshly picked, crisp green beans will beat any bowl of ice cream, hands down. On any given day, either child can be found amongst the beans, picking and nibbling like little rabbits.  The first time I caught them doing that, I wanted to scold them — those beans had been planned for dinner!  I started out of the house to confront them on this when I caught myself and laughed at what I had almost done.  I was going to scold my children? For eating vegetables?  Every since then, we have done the exact opposite.  We grow green beans for the kids. At any time they may pick the ripened vegetables and eat them to their heart’s content. And while this year it’s the beans, maybe next year they’ll add that rainbow chard to their repertoire. 

And for those vegetables that we’re not growing in the garden, we can always rely on our local farmstands and farmer’s markets to supply us with what we want.  Sweet corn is a perennial favorite there, as are cabbage and cauliflowers.  When we walk up to a roadside stand, each child is charged with the responsibility of picking out a vegetable.  More often than not, they each end up picking two or three vegetables that they’d like to try out.  What I have noticed is that by giving my children the choice, they are much more likely to eat that vegetable.  When they know they’ve had a hand in its selection, whether it be from a store, farmer, or plucked from the earth, there is a connection to that vegetable that makes it even more appealing.   When they’ve personally chosen that carrot to be part of a meal, there is a difference from a meal that they are simply presented.  Give your children a choice — even in the bustle of a supermarket, give them the task of choosing one vegetable, and then be prepared to give that vegetable a chance yourself.  It’s totally worth it, and a lifetime of healthy eating will be well rooted from your example.

We find that when we’re camping that we tend to be hungry more often. We’re always active, and as a result, always burning calories.  Three meals a day hardly cuts it, and it can be difficult to make sure that the snacking in-between is of a somewhat substantial nature, especially for children.  It would be very easy to hand them some fruit snacks or a bag of chips and call it done, but nutritionally, I want the food we eat to make an impact.  Fresh fruit and granola bars are usually our number one choices, but by the end of the week, the fresh fruit is not so fresh, and we hardly want to eat another peanut butter granola bar.  One thing that I’ve decided to take along this year are fruity quick breads.  Specifically, Banana-Blueberry Bread.  Packed with mashed banana, whole blueberries, and crunchy walnuts, each slice presents a full serving of carbohydrates and a bit of protein to give you that burst of energy you need.

Even better, these quick breads freeze beautifully.  When frozen, I can pack them into the cooler, and by the third day they will be perfectly thawed and ready to eat.  As with any quick bread, the best flavor develops well after baking, and I find I prefer them after they’ve been frozen and then thawed. Whether you’re going camping or just are in the mood for a quick bread, you can’t beat this combination of bananas and blueberries.
  Banana-Blueberry Bread

1 1/4        cups  sugar
1/2           cup  butter — softened
2              large  eggs
1 1/2        cups  mashed banana — 3 to 4 medium
1/2           cup  buttermilk
1              teaspoon  vanilla
2              cups  all-purpose flour
1/2           cup  whole wheat flour
1              teaspoon  baking soda
1              teaspoon  salt
1/4           teaspoon  cinnamon
1              pint  fresh blueberries — washed
1              cup  walnuts — chopped (optional)
Move the oven rack to a lower position so that the tops of the pans will be in the center of the oven.  Preheat to 350ºF.  Grease the bottoms only of two 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans.

Beat the sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl until creamy.  Add the eggs, banana, buttermilk and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Stir in the flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Gently fold in the blueberries and walnuts, if using.  Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pans on a cooling rack.

Gently loosen the sides with a knife and remove from the pans.  Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Alternatively, wrap well and freeze the bread, removing from the freezer the evening before serving.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 90 Calories; 4g Fat (36.1% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 13mg Cholesterol; 96mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Hmm… this wasn’t very encouraging. So I picked up the book to give it a thorough going through for myself.  The first few pages were promising, encouraging safety and cleanliness, and giving tips for using the silicon cups in the best ways possible.  I eagerly turned to the first recipe, Easy Eggs, and was a bit taken aback.  The lone ingredient was 1 egg, cracked in a cup, stirred, and microwaved for 30 seconds.  I bought this kit for this? I turned past the egg recipes, hoping for something better, and stumbled on a muffin recipe — only to discover that the recipe actually made 12 muffins, and we had 6 muffin cups.  The procedure has you remove the cooked cupcakes from the silicon cups after cooling for 5 minutes, reloading and baking again.  So instead of running the hot oven for 20 minutes plus pre-heating, we are now up to 40 minutes plus preheating.  It seems to me that the creators of this cookbook could have seen fit to either make the recipes fit six cups, or provide the twelve cups necessary to complete the recipes.

What I was most excited to see were the main courses and the side dishes. The Little Lasagnas, penne pasta tossed with sauce and cheeses was a cute idea, but the procedure itself seems to be missing a few steps.   Overall, I have to admit that I am quite disappointed with this whole product.  In the end, I did convince my children to try one recipe for Roasted Broccoli, but the results were less than stellar and won’t be repeated in our kitchen.  With only 29 recipes in the book itself, this book was not a very good value for the purchase price either.  The concept is so adorable and seems so do-able that, while we may be discarding the book, we will be keeping the cups handy and trying to come up with our own recipes to utilize the colorful kitchen tools.  The execution of this cookbook sadly missed the mark in our kitchen, and I would have a hard time recommending this to anyone with children.

I recently decided that the idea of a s’more would translate very well to a bar cookie.  Portable, and decidedly less messy than the traditional creation, I set out to create the perfect facsimile of the campfire s’more tradition.  I put the bars together fairly quickly, and then took them along with us for a holiday weekend.  No sooner had I set the bars out than they were gone — eagerly devoured by both grown-ups and children alike.  I knew I had found the perfect solution for my mess-phobic children when I saw both of them slowly chewing with their eyes closed, savoring every bite of their Simple S’more Bars.  These bars are easy enough to make for any occasion, and they are also simple enough that a child can make them with very little difficulty.  Depending on the age of your children, they may need a little assistance in navigating the oven, but overall, this kid-friendly recipe is sure to have everyone clamoring for s’more.

Simple S’more Bars

Dutifully, I did the one thing that she couldn’t do, and that was pop her popcorn for the mix with the hot air popper.  She continued on, though, assembling all her ingredients, getting out the right measuring cups, and even improvising once or twice by adding “just a little bit more of that.”  When her mix was complete, she asked me once again for the plastic bags.  Puzzled, I asked why we couldn’t just leave it in the bowl for snacking on, and only then did she inform me that we were making a snack mix to take with us for the Fourth of July festivities.  The snack mixes were for all the kids who would be at our family gathering.  What a thoughtful girl!  So we found some festive looking bags in my craft supplies and ended up with a handful of goodie bags to be shared by my generous little girl.  This is her adaptation of Kibbles and Nibbles

Kibbles and Nibbles

• 3-1/2 cups plain hot-air popped popcorn
• 2 cups small pretzel sticks
• 1-1/2 cups of your favorite cereal
• 1-1/2 cups almond chocolate-coated candy pieces
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss gently with your hands to incorporate.  Place one cup of mixture in each of 10 plastic goodie bags and tie with a twist-tie.  Alternatively, leave the mixture in the bowl for eating with a group of friends.

Kitchen for Kids is a cookbook written specifically for young children.  All of the recipes are kid-tested, as well as kid friendly.  There are no knives used, no stove-top cooking is utilized, and power equipment like blenders and mixers are eschewed.  Simple, straightforward cooking that produces flavor is the order of the day, and with over 100 recipes to choose from, even the pickiest eater is bound to find something.  As a mom, I also appreciate that the recipes are written with child size servings in mind.  A cake recipe makes a small cake for a child to share, rather than an entire sheet pan, making the recipe easier for those small hands to put together. The cookbook also features photos throughout, so a child can quickly be enticed by a cookie or a loaf of bread.

Abigail loves her new cookbook, and as she read through a few of the recipes, she became excited when she realized that she could make the entire thing by herself, with no help from an adult.  I have no doubt that in a short amount of time, this book will be full of drips and spatters- the kind that mark a well-loved cookbook, and make it stand out from the rest on the shelf.  Here is a recipe that Abigail recommends; she says it’s a fun new way to eat vegetables, and that it will be even better when made with fresh peas from the garden.

Peas and Corn Packets

Supplies: bowl, measuring cups and spoons, spoon, foil, baking sheet

Ingredients:

• 16 fresh sugar snap peas
• 10 whole baby corn cobs (from 1 can)
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
• pinch of garlic salt
• sprinkle of pepper
• 2 ice cubes

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. Wash the sugar snaps.  Trim them by snapping off the stems and pulling off the long stringy skin that runs along the edge.  Put the trimmed sugar snaps into a bowl. (Throw out the stems and stringy bits.)

3. Drain and rinse the canned baby corns.  Add with the frozen peas to the bowl of sugar snaps.  Add the oil, soy sauce, garlic salt, and pepper.  Use a spoon to stir well.

4. Cut 2 squares of foil, each about 12 inches square.  Lay the squares on your work table.  Put a pile of vegetables in the middle of each square.  Add an ice cube to each pile.

5. Wrap the foil around the veggies and ice, sealing the edges.  Make sure there are no holes.  Place on a baking sheet.  Bake 20 minutes.

6. Get help opening a packet to check that the sugar snaps are cooked.  They should be bright green, crunchy, but not raw.  When the sugar snaps are done, the baby corn and shelled peas will also be ready.  Eat warm.

Makes 2 Peas and Corn Packets.

Fishy Fruit Dip

Serves 4

You will need:

• 1 mango or 1 peach, cut into cubes
• 2/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Mandarin orange segments
• Kiwi and/or apple slices
• Chocolate chips

Place the mango or peach cubes in a small mixing bowl. Using a potato masher or a fork, smash the mango or peach into a smooth pulp.

Add the yogurt and the honey to the fruit and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into a small serving bowl.

Decorate the dip using the mandarin orange slices for the mouth, a chocolate chip for the eye, and the kiwi or apple slices as fins and tail.

Serve with your favorite fruits for dipping.

A shopping trip later, we had all the ingredients necessary for Abigail’s first Monday morning of summer vacation. Together we had edited the recipe a few times to make it slightly more healthful and also more to Abigail’s tastes. She measured and blended like a pro, and when asked about the favorite part about making them she had an interesting answer — “I liked measuring the honey. It was cool to spray the measuring spoons and then have the honey slide right out.” The spray she was referring to was the can of cooking spray, which she used to spray her measuring spoons before measuring the honey with them.

These smoothies are delicious for both kids and adults. The cottage cheese was an interesting ingredient that gave a great texture and a flavor not unlike a cheesecake.

Raspberry Breakfast Smoothie

serves 2 children

• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 1 cup frozen raspberries, still frozen
• 1/3 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 ice cubes

Combine all the ingredients in the jar of a blender. Puree for about 1 minute, or until well combined and the ice cubes have disappeared.

I wasted no time in baking up a batch of rhubarb muffins to see if they would pass his inspection as well. These muffins were very easy to put together, and with less sugar than a normal muffin recipe, I can feel great about feeding these to him. As I’ve been experimenting with using different milks in my baking as well, I used vanilla almond milk to great success, so those with dairy allergies can feel free to use a dairy-free milk as well. My son loved these muffins. I sliced them in half and gave them a thin smear of homemade strawberry jam and a new snack time favorite was born. Now he loves rhubarb, I love rhubarb, and these muffins are great to have on hand. They store very nicely in the freezer and thaw in just minutes on the counter.

Rhubarb Muffins

Makes 18 standard size muffins

Preheat oven to 375º and spray 18 muffin cups with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl combine the flours, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat together the brown sugar, eggs, milk, oil, and lemon juice until well-combined. Add the moist ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in the rhubarb. Portion out into 18 standard size muffin cups.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in muffin tins on a rack. Remove from the muffin tins to cool completely before serving.

I’m trying very desperately to change this mindset and continue to change things up a bit. As seedlings are bursting forth in the garden and the farmer’s markets are just around the corner, I really want to keep eating exciting, instead of turning into a salad marathon to use up those odds and ends. One dish that, in particular for me, is easy to get repetitive with is the simple taco. My children love tacos, especially when they get to have a hand in assembling their own taco creations. However, as with everything else, I find that we tend to gravitate towards a ground meat and cheese type of taco and I decided that we needed to change this mindset.

I turned to Cooking Light magazine for inspiration and an oldie but a goodie recipe for Pork and Pineapple Tacos. This recipe comes together very quickly as long as you have all the ingredients on hand. At first, my kids were a little leery about these tacos, wanting to know where the cheese was, and wanting to know why the salsa was green instead of red. We did opt to leave off the cilantro and onion relish for the kids (more for me!) and the resulting tacos received two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Both kids loved the pork and pineapple combo, and even decided that green salsa tastes better than red salsa sometimes. For the most part we followed the recipe as written, but I couldn’t help but think that a fresh, ripe pineapple would take these tacos to a whole new level.

Pork and Pineapple Tacos

Recipe from Cooking Light Magazine, October 2002
Serving Size : 4

3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile pepper powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound pork tenderloin — trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 can pineapple tidbits in juice — (15 1/4-ounce) undrained
6 flour tortillas — (6-inch)
3/4 cup salsa verde

Combine onion and cilantro.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine chipotle powder, chili powder, salt, and pork in a medium bowl. Add pork mixture to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until browned. Remove from pan.

Add pineapple to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in pork mixture; cook 1 minute or until pork is done.

Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spoon about 2/3 cup pork mixture down center of each tortilla. Top each serving with 2 tablespoons onion mixture and 2 tablespoons salsa; roll up.