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Wednesday, September 21, 2011
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L AWRENCE J OURNAL -W ORLD
Guide, don’t force, children to practice healthy dietary habits
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ave you made a date for a Monday dinner with your family yet? This is the third in a series of articles I’m sharing during the month of September on the importance of family meals — gearing up for Family Day being celebrated across the nation on the fourth Monday in September. Family meals are all about eating. Right? Well, that’s kind of true, but family meals also can be about enjoying nutrient-rich meals, as well as learning many other things. Family meals offer “teachable moments” to explore different foods. Family meals help parents teach children healthy eating habits for a lifetime. Families who regularly eat together tend to have healthier eating habits and better health. Whether you’re sharing a meal at a park, in a car or at the family table, children who eat with their families eat a more nutritious diet. For example, they eat more fruits and vegetables, more calcium-rich foods and less soda pop and snack foods. Family meals also provide a meaningful opportunity for parents to model healthy eating practices. Parents can model eating a variety of foods by enjoying three or four different foods at a
meal. And they can encourage their children to do the same. Consider these tips to promote healthy eating: ! Eat moderate portion sizes. Try using slightly smaller plates or serving bowls to encourage moderation. ! Eat at a regular time and place during the day. Family mealtimes help provide a structured time for eating rather than snacking at all hours. Random snacking can lead to overeating. ! Get enough to drink, especially water. Choose healthy beverages such as water, low-fat milk and 100 percent fruit juice. Minimize sweetened beverages or soft drinks. ! Offer fruits, vegetables and whole grains instead of high-fat snack and convenience foods. Although a few potato chips are okay to eat occasionally, these foods should not be consumed often. ! Choose lean beef, pork, poultry, fish and beans for rich protein sources. Also, enjoy nuts/seeds for vitamin E and magnesium. Mix it up — try a small handful of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, cashews or walnuts. ! Discuss healthy nutrition and good food choices during the family meal. Talk
Cooking Q&A
Susan Krumm skrumm@oznet.ksu.edu
about — and model — the kind of eating patterns you would like to encourage as a family. ! Pay attention to the foods you make available. Provide a variety of nutritious food choices and encourage children to try them (but do not force them). I know, getting children to eat vegetables is a common challenge for many parents. Continue to offer small portions of vegetables at each meal, even if a child often has rejected the food. Kids often avoid new or different foods. Sometimes you’ll need to make 10 to 15 attempts before a child even will taste an item. Here are some ideas to encourage children to eat more vegetables: ! Try incorporating veggies into recipes such as pasta sauces, casseroles and soups. ! Serve veggies raw or
Matthew Mead/AP Photo
AUTUMN ROASTED Tomato and Sausage Pasta in Concord, N.H. This easy pasta is topped with roasted tomatoes, green peppers, garlic and sausage.
Roasted pasta dinner fit for busy, chilly evenings By J.M. Hirsch Associated Press Writer
Fall inspires me to get back into the kitchen. Now if only it somehow also created lots of extra time for me to do that. The best I can manage are compromise dishes — meals that are home cooked from scratch but require little hands on time. Because on beautiful fall afternoons the kitchen may call to me, but so does my son. And he wants me jumping in piles of leaves, not standing at the stove. This ridiculously easy pasta topped with roasted tomatoes, green peppers, garlic and sausage is a great example. Dump everything on a rimmed baking sheet, toss it in the oven, then go outside and play in the leaves. A little while later, boil up some pasta, spoon the “sauce” over it, top with grated Parmesan and you’re done. To make this dish even more weeknight friendly, it’s extremely versatile. Use whatever tomatoes you have handy. Ditto for the peppers and pasta variety. And don’t hesitate to add any other vegetables you have. To save even more time, buy the prechopped veggies in the grocer’s produce section.
AUTUMN ROASTED TOMATO & SAUSAGE PASTA 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved 4 cloves garlic 2 green bell peppers, cored and cut into thick strips 1 large red onion, roughly chopped
8-ounce package white button mushrooms 12-ounce package cooked Italian chicken sausage, cut into 1-inch chunks 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon dried basil Kosher salt and ground black pepper 1 pound spaghetti Grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Heat the oven to 300 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, combine the tomatoes, garlic, peppers, red onions, mushrooms, sausage and carrots. Drizzle the oil over the vegetables, then sprinkle with the oregano and basil. Use your hands to toss the vegetables and sausage until coated, then spread in an even layer. Place in the oven and roast for 40 minutes. Walk away and
do something fun for the first 20 minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions. Drain, then divide between serving plates. Spoon the roasted vegetable and sausage mixture, including any juices that have collected in the pan, over the pasta. Top with Parmesan and pine nuts. Serves 6.
cooked until “just done” – not mushy. ! Involve children by growing a vegetable garden or a container garden on your deck or front step. ! Have children help choose recipes and help pick out vegetables at the store. Try a different vegetable or a different form of vegetable every week or two. Remember, enforcing the “clean plate club” rule is not OK. Be sure to offer a wide variety of healthy meals and snacks, but let children decide what and how much to eat. This lets children learn to recognize when they are hungry or full. In the long run, this will help them eat what their bodies need and may help promote a healthy body weight. Here are some winning conversations for this week: ! What new food would you like to try next week? ! How does your body tell you when you are hungry? ! What is your favorite
physical activity? ! What is unique about the person to your left? ! What are all the different colors we can see in our meal? ! If you gave yourself an award, what would it be? ! Name someone you admire. What is it about them that inspires you? Here’s a menu idea that is filled with a mix of colors and textures:
to brown. Add the defrosted pineapple juice to the pan. Swish the water in the can and add it to the pan. Cover and cook slowly, turning now and then, for 50 minutes or until the chicken is fork tender and reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Put the chicken on a warm platter. Skim the fat from the chicken juices in the pan. Boil down the juices until they are slightly thickened (about five minutes). Return the chicken HAWAIIAN CHICKEN to the pan. Reheat it for a few minutes. Serves 5, 1 teaspoon oil or margarine Nutrition facts per serv2 1/2 pound chicken, boneless and ing: 340 calories, 8 grams fat skinless and 16 grams carbohydrate 1/4 teaspoon salt Menu idea: Hawaiian Chick1/8 teaspoon pepper en, brown/wild rice blend, 1 (6-ounce can) pineapple juice, fro- green beans, canned peaches zen concentrate and low-fat milk. 2 cups water
Thaw the pineapple juice. Spray a large frying pan with cooking vegetable spray. Heat the pan on low. Put the chicken parts in the hot pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken begins
— Susan Krumm is an Extension agent in family and consumer sciences with KState Research and Extension-Douglas County, 2110 Harper St. She can be reached at 843-7058.