Nutella as part of a nutritious breakfast?

After spending a decade working in advertising, I know better than to believe anything I see on TV. The marketer’s mission is to position their product in the most appealing way to their target audience in order for them to buy it.

While there are restrictions on marketing and advertising to children (that are loose and rarely enforced), there aren’t many laws on the marketing of foods. For example, Kelloggs was in trouble a few years back during the swine flu epidemic for claiming that Rice Krispies would boost your immunity, but can still say that other cereals, full of sugar but with some whole grains, are part of a nutritious breakfast.

Whether we’re talking sugary cereals or Nutella, it’s everything else that makes the breakfast nutritious…not the food with all the marketing dollars behind it. Most cereals targeted to children are no better than a candy bar. The recommended daily allowance of sugar for kids is 12 grams. The recommended serving of Nutella is 21 grams of sugar.

What kid doesn't want chocolate for breakfast?

Would you feed your child a candy bar for breakfast?

I wouldn’t. But I treat my kids to chocolate chip pancakes every once in a while, or cinnamon rolls, or what they call apple pie.

What’s the difference?

First, these aren’t part of our daily breakfast and rarely get served on a school day. I let my kids know that they’re having a “once in a while” treat. And it’s balanced as much as possible with whole grains, fruit and protein. I also make most of these from scratch so I know each ingredient, and it’s quality stuff.

What does that look like?

If I were serving pancakes, a cinnamon roll or muffin, I’d balance that out with fresh fruit and some nuts for protein. The Apple Puff that my kids call “pie” includes eggs and apples, and we use wheat flour so it’s pretty complete. I may offer trail mix as a mid-morning snack. The chocolate chips we use are most likely to be broken bits of a dark chocolate bar from Whole Foods or Trader Joes.

Back to Nutella. I read this article about the mom who filed (and won) a lawsuit for their claims that Nutella could be part of a wholesome breakfast and am torn. On one hand I believe that marketers need to be responsible in their efforts and this case (if publicized well) will communicate the truth to moms around the country who have believed this claim and taken up their suggestion.

I know there are kiddos (and some of us mamas) that start their day with a Nutella-slathered bagel. Are there worse things to eat in the morning? Always. Is it better than going to school without anything to eat? Yes. And do we sometimes do whatever it takes to get food into a picky eater’s belly? Oh, yes.

But there are better options. My hope is that this case inspires moms to not place their faith and children’s health in the hands of food manufacturers. We need to be diligent about reading labels, not ads. Our best interest is our children, while the food manufacturers work hard to make a profit. The reality is that if we stop buying junk food they won’t produce it.

I know this puts many of us in a pickle because our child relies on something sweet, like Nutella, to get some breakfast down in the morning. Trust me, my daughter needs an incentive at many meals so I can relate. Here’s a few ideas that might inspire a healthier start to the day:

1. Feed them what they like. Find a couple healthy breakfasts they like and figure out how to incorporate them during the week. My daughter loves eggs but it took too much time to make them before school until we got a non-stick (safe) pan. If they like pancakes or waffles, make a big batch on the weekend, freeze them and pop them in the toaster! Try smoothies too.
2. Start healthy and add sweetness. If they’ll only eat Nutella-slathered bagels, take some creamy peanut or almond butter and add a tiny bit of chocolate, lessening the chocolate over time. Or mix some cream cheese and preserves to add protein and fruit to their bagel.
3. Teach them about “sometimes” foods and “anytime” foods so that they can tell the difference, especially when they’re not with you.

Patrick's Best Berry Banana Smoothie

Love Nutella and don’t want to give it up? Can’t say I blame you. I love chocolate + nuts! There’s a ton of recipes out there for homemade Nutella that you can adjust the sugar quantity to make it as sweet, or healthy, as you want. Here’s one that looks like a good base to experiment from.

When sugar is the first ingredient in anything other than a treat, that needs to be a red flag for us that this isn’t a healthy option. The sooner we can help our kids understand that, the better their chances of a healthy life are.

Here are a few of our best tips to help get you moving in the right direction. I hope you’ll add your ideas in the comments!

Fresh fruit: the very best snack!

• Keep prepared fruit and vegetables around for snacks. Cut up carrots into sticks and place in a bowl that gets covered at night. Wash some berries for the day. Cut up an apple and toss with lemon to keep fresh. Make healthy snacks accessible to your children – not the unhealthy stuff.
• Put healthy dips in small cups or bowls that encourage more produce. Hummus, mashed avocado, almond butter, and pesto sauce make healthy dipping sauces for kids. Even most ranch dips are ok – just read the label!
• Do your kids always ask for dessert? Try fruit-based dessert - and gradually add more fruit, less sugar. Small steps, right? Try cut, fresh fruit with a light drizzle of chocolate sauce or whip cream. Homemade applesauce can be a great after school treat: toss diced apples, raisins, cinnamon to taste with 1/4 cup apple juice in a covered pot over a low heat. Cook for about 30 to 45 mins – or until desired texture and consistency. Add other fruit or spices to mix things up.
• Play the Rainbow Game. Take your kids to the grocery store or farmer’s market and ask what they want. Give them specific color assignments (maybe even on paper) so they begin to understand the concept of eating the rainbow.
• Incorporate vegetables in with other foods (this is different from “hiding” foods). Add shredded carrots or other veggies into meatloaf or meatballs. Add lettuce to sandwiches. Making spaghetti? Add some zucchini ribbons to your pasta before tossing with sauce.
• Bring fruit to sport activities. Kids don’t need juice or sport’s drinks, granola bars, crackers, candy or chips after an hour of playing hard. They need to fuel up with water and vitamins they can get from fresh fruit. That’s it.
• Smoothies are a great way to start the day with a lot of fruit - fresh or frozen. Try Patrick’s Best Berry Banana Smoothie or a variation of it using your child’s favorites.

We’ve all heard it before, but getting kids involved in the process has a lot of proven merit, especially when it comes to trying new fruits and vegetables. Find ways throughout the day or week to get them involved – take them to the grocery store with you or, even better, the farmer’s market, let them pick out something new this week, give them choices around when they’d like their fruit (with breakfast or as a snack).

How do you help your kids get more servings of fresh fruit and veggies each day?

For those nights, we keep a few things around the house just in case. There’s almost always pasta, bread, eggs, bacon, vegetables,rice and a frozen something. But some weeks, we have too many of those nights and we can’t have sandwiches for lunch and dinner more than one day. You’ve done this too, right?

One of my favorite go-to meals is a quick stir fry. A shortcut I learned a long time ago is that frozen vegetables and fruits are almost just as good for us as fresh because they’re flash-frozen right after they’re harvested which means that the nutrients are preserved.

Another shortcut is our rice cooker. Oh my goodness, this appliance is used a lot around here! It’s so nice to be able to pre-program the rice cooker to have fluffy rice ready just in time for dinner. Or for stir fries, hours ahead of time so that it can completely cool. I also use it often for quinoa that I take to lunch with soups or vegetable sautés. I love my rice cooker!

Ok, back to stir fry. I make mine super, super simple. It’s basically a few ingredients that come together for a healthy, yummy dinner.

Easy Peasy Stir Fry

Easy Peasy Stir Fry

1 cup low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup soy sauce (we use low-sodium gluten-free tamari sauce)
3 tbsp chunky peanut butter

1-2 bags frozen stir fry vegetables (quantity depends on how much you want leftover; we also add half a bag of frozen peas and a couple handfuls of frozen edamame)
Vegetable or sesame oil to coat the pan (sesame oil is my preference)
2 tsp ginger (fresh or powder)

Rice (I start with two cups of cooked, cold rice and adjust from there)

Instructions:

• Coat frying pan with oil. When pan is hot, add frozen vegetables, garlic and ginger. Toss until vegetables are cooked. Don’t overcook though – they’ll turn to mush.
• While the vegetables cook, make the sauce by adding stock, peanut butter and soy sauce until well blended.
• Once cooked, add rice and pour the sauce all over on top. Mix very well, adding more rice and soy sauce as you’d like.

HINT: Want your frozen vegetables to cook even faster? Put extra stock in the pan with vegetables, place a cover and let them steam. Just watch them closely so they don’t overcook.

If you want to add chicken or another meat to the dish, cook that after the vegetables (set them aside). Once the chicken is just done, add the vegetables, rice and sauce and mix well.

What are some of your favorite meals for weeknights that don’t go as planned?

Baked Apple Puff

Here’s our roundup of great brunch ideas that everyone will enjoy:

Double Chocolate Baked Donuts

Breakfast Berry Pie

Baked Apple Puff

Monkey Muffins (from Pioneer Woman)

Frittata with Kale and Purple Potatoes (gluten and dairy free from InspiredRD)

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Tart (from Simple Bites)

Mini Frittatas (from Giada De Laurentiis)

SHARE TIME: What’s your favorite brunch dish or recipe? Tell us in the comments below!

Monkey Muffins from Pioneer Woman

We had recently learned that the teflon coating that made non-stick pans not stick was pretty harmful stuff and it was killing me that we had them in our house, potentially harming my kids, so they got the boot one day. And we didn’t cook for a few days until we found a replacement set of stainless pans.

It didn’t take long to get used to the stainless pans and soon enough I loved them. We were cooking everything in them and finding recipes to use new oils and braise meats. Oh, but scrambled eggs were a mess. I mean an official Big Old Messy Mess. There wasn’t much we could do to not make a mess with our scrambled eggs. So, we just started to make over easy or poached eggs. Problem solved.

But we really like scrambled eggs.

So I was pretty excited to be contacted recently by West Elm (a store that I also adore!) about a new line of safe non-stick cookware called Greenpan that they wanted me to experience. Before I agreed to try the line I wanted to understand what the non-stick coating was made of and what kind of testing the product had gone through.

The makers of Greenpan developed a coating called Thermolon that is safe for humans and safe for the earth. It can be heated to high temps and not off-gas dangerous substances like the old non-stick pans we had around here. Here’s their response in regards to the product safety and testing questions I had:

Because we are an international company sold in over 80 countries, we must comply with International standards. Our product has been certified by the third party test labs as conforming to international regular food contact standards set by the US FDA (USA Food & Drug Administration) and the German LFGB.  Moreover, the coating has been certified by the Swiss government and KTR (authoritative test institute certified by Korea Laboratory Accreditation) as conforming to their standards.

While it’s nice to see that the product has been certified safe to US FDA standards, I’m even more comforted knowing that it’s passed international standards since theirs are typically higher than our own. I did the research and decided that the products seem safe for my family and I urge you to do the same. Here’s their site. Read away!

We received an 8″ frying pan and the first thing that came to mind to make was, of course, scrambled eggs!

Eggs with spinach that didn't stick!

When the eggs were done, they just slipped right onto the plate. Guess what was left in the pan? NOTHING! Seriously. I really didn’t need to clean it out (but I did!) because it was just so clean. The best thing about this pan is that it means we can have eggs for breakfast on a school day. With clean up as easy as this, I have just enough time to cook up a couple eggs and rinse it practically clean for later.

Greenpan frying pan

They also sent a one-quart saucepot – can you believe that it had been so long since I used a non-stick pan that I had to ask for recipe ideas? We’ve made our stir fry sauce, cheese sauce and even poached eggs (we really like eggs) for Bird Nests using the pot since it’s the perfect size.

One quart sauce pan by Greenpan

It feels a little silly to say this, but, we have been really enjoying having non-stick around our kitchen. The clean up is just so stink in’ easy! Do you have any non-stick pots? Want to replace them with something safer for your family? We want to share Greenpan with you and West Elm has generously given us one of their pans to give away.

The 9.5″ Skillet Giveaway

Greenpan 9.5" Skillet Giveaway

If you want a chance to win one of these new pans and give it a try in your kitchen, there’s one simple thing to do: leave a comment below. Tell me one meal you make that really needs to be made in a non-stick pot or pan. That’s it. Pretty easy.

So, leave a comment (be sure to include your real email!) and maybe you’ll be cooking in a healthy, earth-friendly 9.5″ Greenpan skillet soon!

The legal stuff: Enter just once. No bots – winners must be human. We’ll select one winner randomly on Friday, April 6 at 10p PST. Winners have 48 hours to respond and will forfeit their prize if they do not claim. We were given the two items to review and share our thoughts but were in no way asked to share a favorable opinion. These are exclusively my thoughts.

When we drove east to spend the last few days of vacations with Pops, the kids specifically asked along the way what kind of treats there would be. I’m not really sure why since they don’t typically get anymore treats at their grandparents house than they do at home, but this trip apparently was different. They had some expectations.

Udi's Blueberry Muffins

Sometimes a treat for them can be just as much as a treat for parents. And this spring break trip it came in a four-pack from Udi’s: Blueberry Muffins! Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: not that special. Well, for my kids they are. See, these are the best muffins ever!

I haven’t figured out their magic formula but they make the most moist muffin I have ever had. All of their muffins are good, but these are poppin’ with blueberries. And they top them with sugar crystals that add just the right sweetness. They are the perfect muffin.

And as far as nutrition, I can’t find a thing wrong with them. In fact, the ingredients list is pretty similar to the gluten free, dairy free muffins I’ve made at home.

But, as my kids will remind me, mine do not turn out this heavenly.

So, for two mornings this spring break my kids were happy little folks with their blueberry muffins.They were also pretty darned pleased when we visited one of our favorite attractions in Bend, Oregon and definitely a family tradition: Powell’s Sweet Shoppe.

We finally had time our last night, but not as much as they wanted. Truthfully, we never stay long enough! Marci picked cookies and cream gelato while Patrick chose the raspberry sorbetto. Both amazing! Then they headed straight for the back of the shop to the three seats where you can enjoy Charlie and The Chocolate Factory: their favorite movie!

Not a bad spring break for a couple Oregonian kids even though the weather was anything but nice and kept us indoors way too much!

This week it was chicken strips. They don’t really order them often when we go out, but I know they’d be happier than clams if we stopped for chicken nuggets. My husband was out of town recently so that meant I was in charge of getting meals on the table, and I wanted to try something new: chicken strips.

The kids loved them and asked for seconds! I have to admit that the flavor was great and the chicken was super moist. I’d definitely make these again, maybe with a few tweaks. First, I could have chosen a better night. We had boy scouts this night and I underestimated how long it’d take us to cook, eat, clean up and get ready. Let’s just say it was a rather stressful evening in the Rau house.

I also need to watch the breadcrumb mix on the stove better. The first batch burned so I had to start over. This did not help with my time issue. The half-glass of wine with dinner definitely helped the stress level though.

Ready to try these for your kids? If you do, let us know what you tweaked (we all do that, right?) and if they liked them.

Easy Peasy Baked Chicken Strips

Baked Chicken Strips

2 1/2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp Flax seeds (ground to a fine powder)
Approx. 25 Almonds (ground to a fine powder)
2 tbsp Canola oil
1/2 cup Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Dried thyme
1 tbsp Garlic powder
3 Egg whites
1 tbsp Milk (we used almond milk)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 lb Chicken thighs cut into strips (or tenderloins)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 475 F.  Place a wire rack inside a baking sheet. Spray the rack and cookie sheet with cooking spray (we use olive oil spray).
In a wide skillet, combine the breadcrumbs, flax seed powder, almond powder and canola oil. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Place the mix in a a wide, shallow plate (pie plates are perfect!). Set aside.
In a second shallow plate, combine well the flour, salt, thyme and garlic powder.
In a third shallow dish, whisk together egg whites, milk and dijon mustard until the egg whites start to foam up.
Dredge each piece of chicken (both sides) in 1) the flour mixture, 2) the egg mix, and 3) the toasted breadcrumb mix until coated well. Transfer coated chicken to the wire rack and repeat with remaining pieces.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 165°.

I didn’t even know what a Veggie Grill was but it sounded good – veggies!

We checked out their website a little bit and learned that they were pretty popular in Southern California, and a few of my friends down there had given them rave reviews. As I patiently waited for a sign indicating when they’d open, I received an invitation to bring my family to a sneak peak event.

Weeeeee…you bet!

My daughter was instantly enamored with the wikki sticks they give kids to play with. One of the employees made a bouquet of flowers for her that she still has on her dresser.

Happy girl

For a kid who has been living dairy free, going to a restaurant that is 100% free of dairy products is like heaven.  My son wanted everything he hasn’t had in so long: nachos, a cheeseburger and mac n’ cheese. We ordered all three and shared, along with their Fiesta Salad.

This was one happy guy who enjoyed his first cheeseburger in almost three years. He said it tasted even better than he remembered.

Boy in Cheeseburger Paradise

Apparently the mac and cheese was pretty tasty too! Perhaps better than the wiki sticks and her lunch was that it came with a cookie: a Newman O’s chocolate cream cookie.

Mac and cheese to write home about!

The Fiesta Salad was a full-sized bowl of vegetables and yumminess. In addition to offering dairy free menu items, they also serve vegan “meat” options. I’m not a fan of what we call veggie meat around our house but the salad was plenty filling on its own.

The salad is a party!

Especially with a side order of nachos that we all shared. Yes, even my husband tried the nachos (and he does not care for “fake” cheese) and admitted that they tasted just like the real deal.

Vegan nachos as good as the real deal

It’s pretty rare for my kids to get drinks when we go to restaurants since they drink almond milk and don’t like anything “bubbly”. Out of habit I asked for water cups but when we turned the corner to our booth I realized that they had a variety of options like raspberry lemonade…with no artificial ingredients like red dye! More cheers.

Natural ingredients only

We’ve been back there a couple times on our own and the kids continue to beg for more visits anytime we’re near that area at mealtime. With their healthy options, it’s hard to say no.

Our little ones work hard – feed them right from the start.

Small kids are incredibly picky eaters. More importantly, they quickly develop dietary patterns that are difficult to change later in life. This is why parents often have to use “stealth nutrition” to get their kids to eat correctly.

First of all, what do kids need to eat? It’s adequate protein, colorful carbohydrates and healthy monounsaturated fats.

The easiest way to achieve all three to make a shake consisting of fruit, some isolated whey or soy protein, and monounsaturated fat that can easily be consumed from a typical drinking cup. Unsweetened almond milk can provide the right type of monounsaturated fat, throw in some colorful berries, and little protein powder and put them into a blender to make a low viscosity shake you can put in child’s drink cup. This is a guaranteed winner for even the fussiest eater.

Getting vegetables in their diet is just as easy; make a puree of various vegetables as a side dish to the shake. If that is too difficult, try a mixture of applesauce and with jars of vegetables found in the baby food aisle of the market. Once your child realizes these ingredients aren’t too bad, then add small amounts of cut up solid colorful carbohydrates (fruits and vegetables) as a side dish to the shake.

Just minimize the white things (cereal, bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes) that your child eats early in life. Your child’s dietary habits will be all the better in the future.

Sure it may take a little more work on your part initially, but you are setting the dietary patterns very early in life that will make your job as a parent a lot easier in the future.

About Dr Sears:

Dr Sears

Dr. Barry Sears is the creator of the Zone Diet and the author of The New York Times bestseller, Enter The Zone. He is a leading authority on the dietary control of hormonal response and develops innovative approaches to help treat and reverse silent inflammation, the leading cause behind cardiovascular disease and Type-2 diabetes. A former research scientist at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Sears has dedicated his research efforts over the past 30 years to the study of lipids. He holds 13 U.S. Patents in the areas of intravenous drug delivery systems and hormonal regulation for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.