My mission this school year is simple: Pack a healthy lunch for three kids – every day. A lunch that’s healthy enough to keep their concentration levels high for the rest of the day, and tasty enough not to get traded. Mostly a lunch that they’ll eat!

My motivation is high at the beginning of the school year and I’m filled with creative ideas on food, presentation and love notes to include in my children’s lunch boxes. Even with the best intentions, there’ll always be a morning where I’m running late, one of the kids is sick and now I’m rationalizing the nutritional benefits of beef jerky. For those days, I’ve created a check list to guide my choices so that I’ll be giving my children a healthy lunch experience even on my sleepiest mornings.

For each lunch box I make sure they include the following: Main dish, 2 side dishes, beverage and a snack

Those categories must include one serving each of:
• lean protein (main dish)
• fruits and vegetables (side dish - try for one of each)
• calcium (can be additional side dish or beverage)
• whole grains (usually part of the main dish but can also be a side dish).
• Beverage (usually water or low fat milk. Occasionally 100% juice)

Lean protein options – Antibiotic and hormone-free, no nitrates Turkey; chicken; and ham; fresh salmon and low-mercury canned tuna for healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Non animal source proteins include legumes, organic tofu and tempeh.

Fruits and Vegetables – one half cup is considered one serving, so lunch time is a great place to continue to reach the daily allowance. Fresh organic fruits and vegetables are best. Offering a variety of choices (the colors of the rainbow) will provide maximum amounts of vitamins and nutrients. Buying in season is a great way to get the most flavorful and economic choices. Try your local farmer’s market. It makes a great weekly family outing as well as providing many teachable moments.

Calcium – Organic lowfat milk, cheese, no sugar added yogurt, calcium fortified soy or orange juice and dark, leafy greens.

Whole Grains – Whole grains contain fiber and vitamins that processed refined grains do not. Try whole grain breads, tortillas, pastas or cereals. Also try brown rice, quinoa, whole barley, bulger or buckwheat.

Whichever combinations you choose, some of these foods pull double-duty in nutrition. For instance, string cheese provides both calcium and protein.

To help get you started on lunch box planning here are a few ideas:

Main Dish
Organic turkey on multigrain bread
Mac n’ Cheese with vegetables mixed in
Soup (when using canned soup, up the nutrition by adding a handful of beans)
Beans & Rice
Vegetarian or turkey chili
Tuna & shredded carrot wrap
Miniature Ham & Cheese sandwich on baby bagels
Healthy Burrito with sweet potato spread topped with beans and veggies
Peanut Butter & bananas on multigrain bread or crackers (check to see if peanuts are allowed)
Add left over chicken to potato salad, over greens or in a wrap
Tofu dogs (keep warm in hot water in a thermos)

Side Dish (any 2)
Apple slices w/fruit yogurt dip or peanut butter (check for allergies)
Dried fruit mix
Hummus and veggies
Homemade Pita or tortilla chips w/fresh salsa
Cherry tomatoes with light ranch dip
Organic fresh fruit
Applesauce
Hard boiled egg
Brown rice pudding
Salad
Edamame
Baked sweet potato fries (cold)
Bean deep w/homemade chips

Snack
Whole grain snack bar (check sugar grams)
Homemade baked goods
Soy or rice chips
Homemade muffins
Graham crackers
Low fat popcorn
Whole wheat fig cookies
Organic string cheese (calcium)
Dry cereal or granola (low sugar)
Whole grain waffle with nut butter or fruit preserves
Raisins
Low fat no sugar added yogurt cup or squeezable (calcium)
Soy or lowfat pudding (calcium)
Cheese and whole grain crackers (calcium)

Beverage
Drinkable yogurt or kefir (calcium)
Orange juice (calcium)
Water
Organic milk (calcium)
100% fruit juice
100% vegetable juice or fruit and veggie blend
I remember being shocked to learn that the actual time allotted for eating lunch only lasts 15 to 20 minutes and is filled with distractions and the urge to get in line to play tether ball. From then on I made sure the lunch foods I packed were easy to eat and in easily opened containers.

You can keep soup and chili warm by pre-heating thermoses with hot water a few minutes, empty the water and add the food.

Now that you’ve decided on the food, think about ditching the brown bag and plastic baggies for reusable lead free lunch boxes or totes. There are a lot of adorable eco-friendly choices that your child will love.

Theresa Kiene
Chief Executive Mommy

One of the coolest things about working in our baby food tasting room is that I get to feed and play with Babies everyday.

As my oldest turned 10 over the weekend (yes, I was a little weepy) working with other parents’ babies is a constant reminder of the joy and fulfillment I get as a mom every time I serve my family a healthy meal. Although every baby that I meet is different, the way they express the joys of eating is always the same. It’s now going on 10 years that I’ve been cooking and feeding fresh, organic baby food – and since I’m in the baby food business – that’s literally thousands of babies. I’ve noticed that when I meet moms most of them have already had the “First Foods” feeding conversation with their pediatricians – but they still have so many unanswered questions. There are so many topics to cover at the doctor’s office and there’s only so much time doctors have to give…

The question that moms always ask me the most often is: which first foods do they begin with, fruits or vegetables?

Some moms worry that if they begin with fruits, their baby won’t love veggies, since fruits are sweet and would spoil their taste buds. And really, what mother doesn’t want their kid to love vegetables?

My personal opinion is that after your baby has been introduced to iron-fortified cereals and you’re ready to introduce other solid foods, it really doesn’t matter what you begin with, either fruits or veggies. If you’ve breast fed your baby then they’ve already experienced the sweetest taste on the planet and no fruit can compete with that! Formula fed babies also experience sweet tastes even if not quite the same as breast milk.

So don’t worry when your child pushes away the broccoli because their first fruit was a banana. A variety of healthy, developmentally appropriate taste experiences are the way to go. If you want more info on appropriate first foods go to the “Nutrition” section of www.homemadebaby.com. Or better yet – bring your baby by our baby food tasting room – I’d love to meet them!

SMART EATING FOR SMART BRAINS

Confucius said a lot of smart things in his day. But I’ll bet if he’d spent any time as a mother, he’d have also said: “A happy baby is a happy mommy.”

Look around any airport or mall, and you can see the relationship between what children eat and how they behave and learn. Chances are the child dangling from the light fixture ate too many swizzle sticks and malt balls.

Studies show that the relationship between behavior and learning begins with the brain. A baby’s brain triples in size by the first birthday. Since the baby’s bloodstream feeds its nutrients first to the most vital organs, the brain gets the first helpings. Mozart might help, but a developing brain craves three types of foods:

Mood Foods

The brain uses 20% of the body’s carbohydrate supply. That affects behavior and learning. Foods that contain sugars (complex carbohydrates) released into the bloodstream at a slow and steady pace are:

•Cereal and grains like oatmeal and brown rice.

•Fresh fruits like apples and oranges (fruit juices don’t provide the necessary fiber needed to release sugar over a sustained period of time)

•Veggies and Legumes, like sweet potato and lentils.

•Dairy products, like milk or yogurt (but beware of the added sugar in many flavored yogurts)

Smart Foods

Proteins are necessary for brain development, because their amino acids help your baby’s brain build neurotransmitters that carry messages from one brain cell to another – literally, the firing pistons in the brain’s engine. From birth to six months, the average baby requires 13 grams of protein daily.

•Breast milk and/or formula is the perfect choice.
•Older babies can incorporate seafood, soy products (watch for allergies), meat & eggs

Fat is good (really!)

The baby’s brain is 60% fat and it uses 60% of the total energy consumed by the infant. The right kind of fat is important too: Breast milk is rich in brain building fats such as DHA and Omega-3 fats. Other food sources include:

• Green leafy veggies
• Flax seed oil
• Salmon

Selecting Certified Organic foods to feed to your baby’s brain at this most vulnerable time in its development have immense benefits that last throughout your child’s life. This includes:

•Lowering your baby’s risk of allergies or asthma

•Decreasing exposure to toxic chemicals.

•Infants’ diets are usually restricted to a small range of foods in concentrated amounts, which puts them at a higher risk for toxic exposure.

Here are some of the foods that help to build your baby’s brain:

Broccoli, Avocados , Cantaloupe, Cheese, Brewer’s Yeast, Eggs, Peas, Spinach,Brown Rice, Asparagus,Legumes, Oatmeal, Yogurt, Bananas

How food affects your baby’s mood and brain growth varies from child to child, but if you understand how foods affect the mind and body, you can make wise choices for your entire family.

Theresa Kiene
Chief Executive Mommy
HOMEMADE BABY

Do you ever wonder how Jello gets its pretty colors? Or how the taste of vanilla can exist in food that doesn’t contain vanilla beans? Additives and chemicals are added to our everyday foods and beverages and most have nothing to do with nutritional value. They exist to fulfill consumer’s expectation of perfection. We know that Mother Nature may not produce a perfect fruit or vegetable so we keep them unblemished with the use of fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. With the continued high demand from consumers for meals that are easy to prepare and taste good, the industry of food additives in the category of flavorings and flavor enhancers is expected to top $1.46 billion this year.

Food additives are not new (originally they were made from coal tar oil) and children have been eating them for decades. So why do we care about them now?

Today our children are exposed to additives and chemicals everyday all day. Instead of the occasional candy, or special occasion pink cupcakes, children growing up in the United States are digesting chemicals from breakfast until bedtime. Multi-colored toothpaste, colored breakfast cereals, artificial whip toppings, bubble gum, liquid medicine and highly processed convenience foods in lunchboxes (can you say Lunchables?) More children are drinking soft drinks with artificial color, flavor, caffeine and aspartame. The more they have the more they crave and for a tired parent, sometimes the path of least resistance becomes the choice.

More importantly, pesticides, hormones and synthetic food additives have been shown to affect brain development, behavior and learning abilities in children. What you put in your shopping cart is more important that ever!

FOOD DYES – Listed on the ingredients label as “Yellow No. 5”, “Red #3”, etc. Dyes are used primarily to make food appear fresher than it is, or in the case of many foods made for children, to attract them with bright colors. They are used in breakfast cereals, drinks, candy, bakery goods, puddings, gelatin desserts, just to name a few. Instead, look for carrots and beets as natural coloring agents on the label.

ARTIFICIAL FLAVORINGS – Are made up of hundreds of combinations of chemicals, both natural and synthetic. A popular flavoring agent is “vanillin” also listed as “vanilla flavoring” This flavoring agent is made from the waste product of paper mills. Instead, look for “pure vanilla” on the label. MSG, salt and sodium containing agents are popular food additives. MSG has been linked to brain damage and infertility in laboratory animals and many people who eat MSG complain of headaches, chest pains and numbness. It’s primarily used to intensify flavor in meats, condiments, pickles, soups, candy and baked goods.

PRESERVATIVES – There are about one hundred preservatives which are used to prevent food from going “bad”. BHA, BHT and TBHQ are three commonly used preservatives. They may also be listed as “anti-oxidants” because they prevent the fats in food from “oxidizing” or spoiling. There are natural and beneficial anti-oxidants but they are more expensive than the synthetic versions that are currently widely used. You can find them in beverages, ice cream, candy, baked goods, soup bases, potatoes, breakfast cereals, dry mixes, enriched rice, animal fats and shortenings containing animal fats. These preservatives can cause allergic reactions and have been known to affect kidney and liver functions, brain function and may also convert other ingested substances into cancer-causing additives.

Nitrates, nitrites and sulfites, sodium benzoate, calcium propionate and citric acid are preservatives that trigger terrible symptoms in allergy sensitive kids, but for some they are deadly. Nitrates and Nitrites are used as a color fixative in cured meats, and studies have linked them to cancer. Sulfites are used for their anti-browning effects and to keep fruits and vegetables crisp longer.

SWEETENERS - Refined starches, high-fructose corn syrup and all artificial sweeteners (NutraSweet, Equal, Sweet’n Low, Sucralose, Acesulfame-K) not only rob your children of their health, but artificial sweeteners have been linked to brain damage, MS, Lupus and other central nervous disorders. Excessive sugar intake in children is also a contributing factor to our current childhood obesity epidemic.

As the primary grocery shopper, you are the most important person in your family’s health. By reading labels and selecting wisely, you can protect your family and affect the sales of more wholesome foods.

Capturing your baby’s cute reactions to a new food experience has to be a primary reason they created Shutterfly and various family websites. But when your baby’s response is a skin rash, respiratory problem or a tummy ache, put away the camera and suspect a food allergy.

What is a food allergy?
When your baby’s immune system reacts to a particular food as an intruder and releases antibodies that produce symptoms.

What is a food intolerance?
Food intolerance is when a food upsets your baby’s intestines but not other commonly known areas where allergies occur. Lactose intolerance is one of the most common known food intolerances.

Who is at risk?
If one or both parents have food allergies; the risk is higher for their baby. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that baby and parent will be allergic to the same kinds of foods.

Feeding babies solid foods before their intestinal lining is mature can increase their chance of developing a food allergy. Delay introducing high allergen foods such as cow’s milk, wheat, peanuts, egg whites, shellfish, tomatoes and soy. Check with your pediatrician to assess if your baby is in a high risk category and when the above mentioned foods should be introduced.

The most common signs of food allergies include but are not limited to:
Tummy trouble/gas and bloating
Rash on the face
Runny nose and watery eyes
Diarrhea or mucus in the stools
A red rash around the anus
Vomiting or excessive spitting up
Fussier than usual
Really colicky
Some food allergies can be so severe that anaphylaxis (cardiovascular system goes into shock) occurs and can become life-threatening.

Be a food Detective
Although skin tests are available through your doctor or allergist, parents can help to find the offending food by careful observation and note taking.
1) Keep a record of everything you are feeding your baby and any symptoms.
2) Try to keep food choices to Organic, additive and dye free.
3) Eliminate the most likely offenders for 10 days to 2 weeks. Keep track of any reactions. Also, stick to single ingredient foods while conducting your experiment so that it will be easier to isolate the offending food.
4) Reintroduce suspect foods one at a time to see if the symptoms reappear. If so, avoid that food for a few months. Many food allergies are outgrown, especially those to milk and soy. Shellfish and nuts in some cases turn out to be life long allergens.
5) Some children can tolerate small amounts of high allergen foods or other foods from the same food group. You can find out if your baby’s allergy is portion related by reintroducing food in small amounts once every few days and then increase the amount given until allergic signs reappear.
6) Share your findings with your pediatrician and together devise a feeding plan.

Nursing mothers: Some research suggests that if breastfeeding mothers keep allergenic foods out of their diets the first year, their baby will be less likely to develop allergies.

As busy parents seek convenience, children eat foods that are overly processed and filled with preservatives and additives. It is natural for the body to rebel against these foreign substances added to our food. Make reading ingredient labels a habit and you will make smart and healthy food choices for your entire family.

In a perfect world, my children would never eat sugar, sleep through the night and always say thank you. Nothing is ever perfect and I am reminded every time I plan a child’s first birthday party. Suddenly, Traditional Mommy wanted a beautiful cake her baby could put her little hand in, and smoosh on her face – a cake that would make her eyes pop with delight when we sang happy birthday. On the other hand, Modern Mommy had spent so much time keeping her eating only organic and sugar free foods how could she give in for the sake of a photo op? My compromise? This delicious recipe for a celebration cake that’s sugar free, but still gets the eye-popping impact of a traditional sugar-slathered birthday cake.

CAKE
2 ¾ Cups Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
¼ cup Wheat Germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice or 1 Tablespoon Apple Pie Spice
¼ teaspoon sea salt (fine)
1 ½ cups Apple Juice Concentrate*
3 medium bananas very ripe mashed
½ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract**

FROSTING
2 8oz bricks cream cheese, softened
½ cup Juice Concentrate*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract**

FILLING
1 9oz jar organic strawberry fruit spread
1 cup thinly sliced fresh organic strawberry or bananas

*Apple Juice Concentrate in sold in natural food markets, or make your own by boiling a thawed can of Organic Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate for about 10 minutes until it forms a syrup.

**Use Pure Vanilla extract not imitation

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 F. Generously grease and flour a 9- inch springform cake pan.

Sift together the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, 5 spice and salt into large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, blend with an electric mixer on medium speed, apple juice concentrate, bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend at medium speed until very smooth, scraping the sides down if needed. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Bake 35 – 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cake cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and let the cake cool completely. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and than slowly add the juice concentrate and the vanilla until completely mixed and smooth.

When the cake is completely cooled, slice in half with a serrated knife as evenly as you can. Place the bottom half on your serving platter. Spread the top of the bottom half with the organic strawberry fruit spread and then layer with the thinly sliced organic bananas or strawberries. Place the top layer on top of the bottom layer and lightly press together. Spread the frosting smoothly on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with strawberries, nuts or figurines that fit your party theme. You are only limited by your own imagination. Our toughest critic, 9 year old, Lucia, says “It’s soooo sweet it’s hard to believe it’s sugar free!”

This cake recipe can also be used to make cupcakes. A homemade whip cream frosting works well and is easy to flavor with vanilla and fruit juice concentrate instead of sugar.

So don’t put away that Sugar Free sign. Traditional Mommy gets to share the same kitchen – now you can have your sugar-free cake and eat it too!

First Foods Can Create A Fruit and Veggie Lover!

Did you ever wonder why one child will only eat plain pasta while her best friend craves a steaming plate of broccoli raab with pine nuts? According to a new study, the difference between the friends may have to do with the way they were both fed during the first seven months of their lives.

“A baby needs to taste both fruits and veggies to learn to like them,” according to Julie Mennella, the study’s senior author and a Biopsychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. But only repeated exposure to fruits and veggies in infancy will get your baby to love them later in life.

In other words, if at first your baby won’t eat green beans, try, try again. Babies naturally grimace when tasting new foods. It’s innate, and not a sign that your baby hates the food and won’t try it again. Sometimes it’s just too much work and they don’t feel like it.

So how many times do you push the little spoon against those pursed lips before it’s time to reach for the pear puree?

Children might take 10, 15, or 20 tastes in as many meals before they learn to like a new food. “I’d encourage parents to try a small amount of new foods, offer with encouragement, and re-offer for at least a week before deciding if the baby likes it or not,” says Connie Diekman, President of the American Dietetic Association.

But don’t bribe.

Let them try the food on their own initiative. Preschoolers who’d been offered a new juice and allowed to experiment with it on their own were more likely to try the juice the next time they were offered it than the children who’d been rewarded for trying it with a trip to the playground.

So where do you start– fruits or veggies?

At Homemade Baby, that’s probably the most common question I’m asked when parents visit our baby food tasting room. I find that it depends on whether you’re breast feeding or formula feeding. A breast fed baby has already tasted the sweetest milk on earth which helps with their transition to fruits. Meanwhile, formula fed babies seem to transition well to vegetables. In either case, research suggests that moms who eat plenty of fruits and veggies while pregnant and breast feeding help pass the preference for these healthy foods on to their babies.

“The more variety a breast-feeding mom has in her diet, the more the infant is likely to accept a wide variety of foods”, said Lona Sandon, of the American Dietetic Association. This enhances the baby’s likelihood of trying and accepting new foods or flavors.

So eat the fruits and veggies you enjoy while you’re pregnant and lactating, because your baby is going to be experiencing those foods through you. Whether you’re breast-feeding or formula-feeding, as you introduce solids, make sure you’re offering plenty of variety of fruits and veggies and offer them often. And you may just hear “pass the broccoli raab please.”

Sweater weather has arrived, and that means more indoor activities, and the aroma of comfort food wafting through the air. This is the time of year when I feel the most pressure to channel my grandmother’s cooking. As a little girl, I’d watch Grandma summon seemingly hundreds of delicious and comforting homemade meals based on what ever looked the most fresh in the market that day. As a mom, I’ve desperately wanted to give my children those same results – only healthy. After all, my Grandma may have been a great cook but she never read a label!

Fortunately for today’s moms, nutritional information is more available than ever before. Unfortunately, babies grow so much during their first year, it’s almost impossible to keep up with all of their big nutritional changes. Just when I’d get my feeding strategies down, I’d discover that my baby needed yet more nutrients to meet her quickly changing system. Here are some things Grandma probably didn’t know…

Babies 9 to 12 months old require from 750 to 900 calories a day. 1 year olds need about 1,000 calories a day and twice the daily calcium as they did at birth. Calcium helps your baby grow strong bones, teeth and gums. Some good sources of calcium are salmon, blackstrap molasses, legumes and tofu.

Older babies and toddlers require about five times as much iron per pound as a full grown man. Maybe this explains the incessant climbing on everything in sight. And since the word “active” doesn’t even begin to describe the behavior of my babies as they grew older, getting them to eat a well balanced diet seemed about as likely as getting my husband to empty the dishwasher.

Who can keep up? So I changed my strategy.

Instead of obsessively accounting for her nutrients on a daily basis, I recorded a week’s worth of eating and then assessed the progress. Simply switching from a daily to a weekly perspective gave me an enormous sense of freedom – and my baby, sensing that mommy’s less stressed, even seemed to eat more.

It all began with a simple chart…

Down one side, I listed the major food groups. Down the other, I listed the daily feeding schedule. Then, after each feeding, I filled in a slot with only the approximate amount of food I’d fed. By the end of the week, a quick glance told me which fruits and vegetables she’d gotten enough of, and which ones still needed to be incorporated into her feeding plan. As my baby grew, this simple chart helped me track dairy and meat consumption too. It also helped me see which foods I repeated too often, and it forced me to introduce more variety into the whole family’s diet. Because of this chart, I learned there are many more foods that my children will eat when those foods are presented in a positive way.

Grandma had it going on. Simple and fresh is best. But nutritional labels are important too. So now when I see food in the market, I think: “If Grandma couldn’t pronounce the ingredients on that label, then it’s not for me”