School lunch is sad, there’s no other way to put it.  Processed meat wrapped in cheap bread, starchy, overcooked vegetables, fruit served in sugary syrup, over-salted, over processed “food” filled with additives and hydrogenated oils.  If you think I’m being a little bit pessimistic here, go eat lunch with your kids.  The lunch  menu can be a little deceiving, they may list “fresh vegetables and fruit” but they don’t say that they’re only going to give them 1/2 a cup of the fresh stuff, next to the huge piece of white bread that is 4 times the size of the little piece of processed meat tucked away inside.  I watch kids eat school lunch everyday…and I am never jealous.  They usually eat their unsatisfying lunch, then scavenge whatever they can off the next person’s styrofoam try, and an hour later they are complaining about being hungry.  Although they are not hungry from a lack of food, they are hungry from a lack of REAL FOOD.  Eating too many carbohydrates leaves you feeling full for a little while, until the simple sugars have all been digested, the insulin has been spiked and now you’re back down at your low, begging for more sugar.  All the while learning is supposed to be occurring?

If it weren’t already bad enough, most kids are also eating breakfast at school.  Either some sort of french toast sticks, mini pancakes, a piece of sausage wrapped in a pancake and served on a stick, or a 1 ounce piece of meat engulfed in a ginormous white croissant or biscuit.  Paired with a small carton of juice, a carton of milk with 27 grams of sugar, and a piece of fresh fruit…if they’re lucky.  Again, an hour later they are hungry from the surge of insulin and then the lowering of the blood sugar.  I would estimate that if I began eating the school lunch and breakfast now, I would gain about 10 pounds by April.  I am not kidding.  10 pounds in 2 weeks–it has taken me 3 years to lose 10 pounds!  No. Thank. You.

So, what’s the alternative?  A lunch box filled with nourishing protein, fresh fruit and vegetables,  and tasty treats without the sugar, that’s what.  Of course your kids love the addictive combination of salt, fat, and sugar that is offered to them on a shiny plastic tray at lunch time,  but wouldn’t your kid also love to drive at the age of 10 and watch television for 6 hours a day?  Some things just aren’t healthy.

My sister came across this issue with her 6-year-old, her oldest daughter doesn’t mind packing her lunch, she loves all the good food her mom cooks, but how do you tell a 6-year-old that everyone at the table is going to be eating pizza today….but you?  You could say “Sweetie, I love you, and that pizza is filled with hydrogenated oils, white flour, cheap meat, and fake cheese product, so today I’m going to pack you a healthy lunch!  Woo hoo!”  To which you’ll probably be met with tears, and possibly a call from the principal the next day telling you your child has high jacked another student’s Tony’s pizza and ate it before anyone could intervene.

Or, as my husband would say, you could start any insurgency.  Start with a new lunch box,  a totally awesome new lunch box with their favorite cartoon character on it.  (The 10 bucks will pay off over time as you start saving on lunch money).  Buy those little baggies with cartoon characters on them.  Find a cool water bottle.  You’ve got all of the goods, now for the food.  Make a batch of your child’s favorite food, even if it’s mac and cheese from the box, you’ve already made an improvement over school lunch.  Pick a school lunch that your kids don’t like and send them to school with their awesome lunch box and cool baggies filled with their favorite food, their favorite fruit or vegetable, a cheese stick, and  treat, whatever it takes to get them excited.  Come up with some occasion, make this a celebration.  Tell them it’s their half birthday or Harbor Day or something.

The second week: have your child pick their least favorite lunch again, same deal; cool lunch box, baggies, a smaller serving of their favorite food (if it is an unhealthy one), a piece of fruit, cheese stick, maybe one of those individual sized Greek yogurt, and this time include a homemade treat like these muffins or cocoa-nut balls.

The third week: have your child pick two meals that they don’t like and go through the same process.  This time pick another favorite food, put a small serving in a container (unless it’s something healthy, then go nuts), a fresh vegetable, cheese stick or plain yogurt flavored with honey, and a homemade treat that they helped make.

Continue to progress until they’re packing lunch for a majority of the days.  Eventually, you won’t have to pack their favorite food to get them to take their own lunch and it will be worth the effort.

What about the older kids?  I don’t know too many 13-year-olds that carry Superman lunch boxes, but at this age they will have a better understanding of healthy foods and it is time they start learning the importance of it.   If your teen is completely opposed to the thought of packing a lunch, you could start by only providing enough money to buy the school lunch, as opposed to all of the extra snacks and drinks that they buy with it.  Of course you don’t want them to go hungry, but it’s not like the chips and cookies they are buy are providing them any nourishment anyways.  Instead, make sure your house is fully stocked with healthy snacks that your teenager can take along with them to lunch.  A friend of mine tells her kids to pick 10 lunches off the school menu each month, every other day they pack their lunch.   Find what works for you.  Maybe my ideas would never work for your family, that’s fine, but find something that DOES work. Don’t give up.

Maybe your child’s willingness isn’t the issue, but instead TIME is the issue, where do you find the time to pack lunch amidst the crazy mornings and even more hectic evenings?  Again, that comes back to preparation, you’ve got the make the time to make healthy choices.  Make large batches of tuna, chicken, or egg salad for the week, grill some extra chicken, pork, or steak over the weekend, buy some quality lunchmeat, have fresh fruits and veggies on hand.  There are lots of options for you and your kids to pack a lunch and avoid the processed food found in cafeterias and fast food joints, just find what works for you.

This is just one more small change that will make the world of a difference for you AND your child.

EAT

NOT

I am not sure where this week has gone.  If someone finds my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday please let me know.  Actually, you can just keep them!  This week has been a whirlwind and I am looking forward to a nice calm weekend.  I’ve wanted to write numerous times this week, but I have not found the time.  Instead, I’ve been thinking of various topics that I have not yet covered, among them, the topic of teenage nutrition.  I’m not sure how I’ve gone so many months without tackling this one, after all, I spend the majority of my day surrounded by teenagers!

I talk about getting kids in the kitchen and how to make your toddler to eat more veggies, but getting a teenager to examine his or her eating habits might be one of the most difficult tasks we could set out to accomplish in the realm of creating a nutritious lifestyle for our families.  In the early years of high school, I was obsessed with being thin.  Up until seventh grade I had been a chunky kid and I hated it, but in seventh grade I finally started thinning out. By the time I was in ninth grade I had become obsessed with the thought of being skinny.  No, I never stopped eating completely, but I didn’t eat as much as I should have, and I DEFINITELY didn’t eat the things that I should have. My mother always provided us with a good nutritious breakfast and dinner, but I didn’t eat enough of it.  For lunch I would have a little salad or a soft pretzel dipped in fat-free yogurt.  It worked, I got skinnier, but the thought of food never left my mind.

My junior year I didn’t go out for the cheerleading squad or the tennis team, so I started going to the YMCA and taking kickboxing classes to stay active.  I think being out of cheerleading helped with my obsession to be thin, because by the time I was a junior I had regained healthy eating habits and started really thinking about what I was feeding myself.  The combination of going to the gym and eating well really made my junior year more successful.  It increased my work habits in every capacity; at school, the gym, and my job.

So what changed? How did I get back to those healthy eating habits?  Sometime between my sophomore and junior year, my dad went on the Adkins diet, and because I was obsessed with being thin I decided I’d try it too.  I read the book and learned about it before I did it, and it was pretty simple and easy to do.  By the end of my time on the Adkins diet, I had gained 6 pounds or so, but it was 6 pounds of muscle.  My little body had been DYING for the protein and for a break from the large amounts of simple carbohydrates I had been feeding myself.  It responded by feeding my muscle and giving me the energy I needed.  I didn’t stay on Adkins, but I started looking at all of the simple carbohydrates and the quality of the food I was eating.

One day, while ranting about how unhealthy the school lunch was, my friend said to me “Why don’t you go to college for nutrition or something?”  And there, at that very moment, I realized she was right and that was exactly what I wanted to do!  Well, as I’ve written about before, that plan changed but this conversation at the lunch table my junior year lead me to further invest my energy into the area of nutrition.  It would be a few more years until I would really begin researching and gaining a better understanding of nutrition, but from that point on I was always trying to make the best choices for myself.  I still didn’t have the best knowledge, but I had the desire and I was trying to make healthy decisions.  I think this is the difficult part with teenagers; the desire to make healthy choices.

If kids are taught to eat unhealthy things while growing up, these habits are going to spill over into the teenage years, and then carry on into adulthood.  The desire to make healthy choices may not appear until it is too late.  UNLESS something changes, UNLESS an adult in their life intervenes and shows them the easy ways they can make healthy changes.    As adults we are here to set the example, we are here to encourage our kids and teens to make healthy choices.  First and foremost by leading by example, secondly, by encouraging them through words and ACTIONS.

After offering up a suggestion regarding getting a kid to eat more healthfully the other day, I was told “You’ll understand when you have kids,” and I’m sure I will, I have a lot to learn.  I don’t have kids and I can’t begin to understand the difficulties and struggles parents go through to do the best they can.  I can’t imagine how hard it is to be a parent, but I was a kid who had parents who did everything they could to ensure that their children were fully equipped with the knowledge they needed to make healthy choices.  I do understand what that’s like and I can only offer my ideas and experience from childhood.

10 Ways to encourage your teenager to make healthy choices:

1. Provide healthy snacks. They’re going to eat whatever is in the fridge, by keeping unhealthy foods in the house you are ENCOURAGING them to eat it.  After all, why would you buy it if you didn’t want them to eat it?

2. Talk about it. Be verbal about the healthy choices you are making, tell them about the healthy aspects of a meal you’ve prepared.

3.  Pack a lunch. The lines in high school cafeterias can be ridiculously long and some students only have 20 minutes to eat, this does not encourage healthy eating.  Encourage your teenager to pack a lunch, LOTS of kids pack lunches.  They’ll have more time to eat and talk to their friends, instead of wasting time in line to eat an unhealthy, processed lunch.

4. Let them buy their own junk. Growing up, my mom didn’t keep junk food in the house, if we wanted it, we had to buy it ourselves.  Of course we didn’t want to spend our own money on food, so we were much less likely to buy junk food.

5. Have them do their own research. During class the other day, my students and I were discussing Greek food, as we are doing a unit on Greece.  I had them researching the foods eaten in the Greek culture and explaining how the geography affected their eating habits.  During their research I heard a lot of “ewwws” as they read that the Greek culture ate a lot of sheep, as their geography doesn’t allow for huge cattle or pig lots.  I said, “You think that’s gross, you don’t even WANT to know what’s in chicken nuggets!”  They were IMMEDIATELY intrigued, “What’s in chicken nuggets?”  Well, I could have rattled off about preservatives and unknown byproducts, but I simply said “Look it up!”  And the shocking part was THEY DID….and then swore never to eat chicken nuggets again.  We’ll see how long that lasts, but it got them reading and it got them interested in exactly what they were eating.  If your kids wants to eat processed foods, that’s fine, but encourage them to research what’s in it.  Let them make the decision for themselves.

6. Put them in charge. Give them the opportunity to make a healthy meal for the family once a week, or every other week.  Chances are they will want some kind of incentive, so make it a competition; whoever makes the best meal of the month wins–decide what the winner gets as a family.

7. Start a breakfast club. Not the kind of breakfast club that includes dressing up as a ninja turtle and going to the bars at 5 am on game day in 30 degree weather but a HEALTHY breakfast club.  Invite your kids to have their friends over once a month on Saturday morning or early some morning before school to make a healthy breakfast for their friends.  My friends and I did this in high school, it was a great way to get together, and believe it or not, we ALWAYS got out of bed early to make it to someone’s house for breakfast club.   Yes, my parents welcomed my friends with open arms at 6 am on a week day, THAT’S how far they were willing to go to encourage us.

8. Show them the benefits. Leaving work yesterday, I passed 20 kids running in shorts in 30 degree weather, preparing for track in the spring.  That shows JUST how much effort they are willing to give in order to excel in sports, so, why wouldn’t they give healthy choices a try as a way to increase their athletic abilities?  More energy, better endurance, more strength.  Who doesn’t want that?  Show them how professional athletes (the really good ones) pay very close attention to the foods they eat in order to compete.

9. Brain food. Maybe you’ve got an Ivy-League-bound kid in your house, help them make the connection between better eating and better thinking.  Increased brain function, clarity, energy, better recall–ALL of these things are associated with a good diet.  If they really want to take their education seriously, help them bring it full circle, what we eat affects EVERY aspect of our life.

10. Improving mental health. Is your teen on medication for ADHD, Depression, Mood Disorder, or Bi-Polar?  A healthy diet can benefit ALL of these diagnosis. I did not say CURE, but a healthy diet, with the proper medication, exercise, and sometimes therapy can greatly aid in mental health.  Vitamin and mineral deficiencies may be adversely affecting their mental or emotional health.  Teach your teen to eat whole, vitamin-rich foods.  Help them help themselves.

If you’ve got any suggestions that have worked for your teen, PLEASE share them.  I know there are a lot of experienced parents out there who have a lot to teach us!  Have a GREAT weekend, you’ll hear from me soon!

In contrast to my highly emotional post on Monday, I want to give some  straight forward tips on how to make accessing healthy, whole foods more affordable.  I do understand that buying processed food can be cheaper than filling the cart with produce, meat, and a few dairy items.  Note that I said CAN BE not it is cheaper.  There are ways to make healthy food very affordable, it just takes a little commitment to the cause.  But, I would imagine that if you’re reading this, you are committed to your health and you will put this list to good use!

1. Create a budget.  Look at your monthly expenses, how much do you spend on fast food, gas station drinks and snacks, and quick trips into the grocery store to pick up dinner?  You may find that you’re spending an extra $50 or so on little stops here and there, when that money could go toward your grocery budget and be spent on healthy snacks and meals that are quick and easy. 

2. Pack a lunch box.  Yup, even as an adult I have a pink lunch box that I carry to school and the gym.  I load it up full of food in the morning, sometimes with a little extra because I never know when I’m going to be hungry.  My husband and I both take leftovers from the night before for lunch the next day, it saves on time and money.

3. Look at sale adds, there aren’t as many coupons to clip when it comes to whole foods, but stores do often put them on sale and list them in weekly adds.

4. Go to the farmer’s market.  At our farmer’s market I can get bags and bags full of produce and only spend part of my grocery money, leaving the rest for the things I need from the store.

5. Plan your meals based upon what is on sale.  If cabbage is dirt cheap, (well, even cheaper than it normally is!) find 2 recipes that include cabbage and eat it once on Monday and once on Friday. 

6. Substitute expensive ingredients.  Have you found an awesome recipe that you’d love to try, but it calls for expensive ingredients?  Substitute it!  If you can’t think of a substitute, google it and you’ll be amazed that lots of people are asking the same question!

7. Do your own rinsing and chopping.  It is very easy to buy a bag of fresh broccoli that has already been rinsed and cut, but it is also more expensive.  Take the extra 5 minutes to rinse it yourself and cut it up and put those couple dollars you saved toward another nourishing meal.

8. Buy meat when it is on sale and freeze it.  My mother was the queen of buying items on sale and putting them in her freezer!  She would plan her meals based upon the items on sale and store the rest for another time.

9. Buy frozen vegetables.  Not only are they often cheaper, but they are very convenient.  They are picked  and then frozen, so you don’t have to worry about them being fresh, they always are. (Unless you’ve had them in the freezer for 3 years).

10. Buy produce that is in season.  During the winter, greens and root vegetables are in season so they are cheaper, while strawberries are imported from somewhere warm, so they are more expensive!  Spend your money on the seasonal veggies, not only will they taste better, but you know that they haven’t been transported from somewhere that doesn’t have the same practices and regulations as US farmers.

11. Don’t waste money on junk.  You heard me, junk.  Why do they call junk food, junk food?  Because it is junk.  What do you do with junk that is laying around your house?  Take it to the junk yard.  Why do we eat junk food and take our garbage to a junk yard?   If you want your kids to have cookies, make them using quality ingredients that you can be proud of.

12. Buy meat with the bone-in.  It is often cheaper and it has a lot more flavor.  The best part, you can use the bones to make your own stock! <—This is my sister’s blog, she is a creative, culinary genius.

13. Be careful of buying in bulk.  I know, buying in bulk is supposed to save you money, and sometimes it does.  We have a Costco card and we make a visit every couple weeks because that’s about all my little heart can endure, too many people, too many isles, too many processed foods.  Ho-ly Cow.  Anyways, buying in bulk can be a double-edged sword.  You may spend $2 less buying 24 of something for $19, but at the same time you had to spend $19, which limits the rest of your grocery budget.  It only takes a half-dozen items to get your bill up to $100 in some cases.  They do sell produce, meat, and dairy at Costco and Sam’s Club, but the majority of the items in that store are huge boxes of processed foods, which we know, Lauren does not like and neither does your body.  Buy the healthy things you really enjoy eating in bulk, if you can find them, and freeze them, that can be a good way to save your pennies.  So, buy in bulk, but be mindful of how much you are saving in comparison to how much you are spending. 

14. There are LOTS of foods you can freeze that you may not even know about!  Butter, cheese, milk, yogurt, fruit (if to be used for smoothies or baking), herbs and vegetables can also be frozen with a little guidance.  Thanks to Simple Organized Living for providing us with great reference sheets for freezing herbs and vegetables.

15. MAKE A LIST!  Go to the store with a grocery list in hand, and the kicker is, get only the things on the list!  All of those extras can really add up.  If you’re taking your kids with you, it can be a little more difficult, what with them pulling things off the shelves, so make the trip meaningful to them.  Give each of them a list, maybe the ingredients to a healthy dessert, and once you’ve gathered all of the ingredients you can go home and make the dessert.  It is extra effort, I know, but it’s jut an idea!  I know it must be very tempting to promise a treat at the end if they’re good, and that’s great, just do what you can to make it a healthy treat!

Hopefully one of those 15 tips will help you!  Please share any additional tips you might have!

Another 2 hour delay today, but at least we didn’t get what the Midwest and Northeast got.  I say “at least” but I truly wouldn’t have minded being snowed in, other than the fact that we’d be in school until July.  They’ve already taken away everything but my birthday for make-up days now.  Oh well, I have great students and coworkers to look forward to, so forward we go with the school year!

In January it is easy to get jaded, what with the bleak weather and shorter days.  It is comforting to think forward to spring, planting our gardens, mowing our yards, watching flowers spring from the earth, I can already smell spring, can’t you?  It’s the perfect time to begin planning your garden, especially if you’re in the southern states where the growing season starts much earlier.  Last year my husband built me three, 4×12 raised beds that run alongside our house. I would like to think I have a green thumb that has been passed down from generations of farmers, but last year darn near everything in my garden died…except for the weeds that I mistook for eggplant.  I nearly cried when I watched my husband rip out the ginormous weeds that I was waiting to give forth eggplant.  I almost gave up, but the desire for fresh, organic, self-grown vegetables was far too strong to be defeated.   I planted some herbs and cold weather greens and ended up with a few more (edible) things growing in my garden before the winter came. 

I comforted myself with the reasoning that it had been SO hot in Virginia last summer that everyone’s gardens must have gone up in flames like mine had. Fortunately my neighbor hadn’t had much luck, at least I didn’t have to look at someone elses Eden next to my Sahara Desert.  This year I pray for better weather so that I can grow something beside weeds that resemble cannabis and eggplant.  I plan to focus on the vegetables I know will grow no matter what, such as; squash, spinach, tomatoes, collards, penny sized beets, and parsley…which were  the only things I got from my garden last year.  It may sound good, but I planted a large variety just so that at least SOMETHING would make it, I guess my strategy worked.  I am looking into those heat lamps to put in my basement  ( like the ones my neighbors had in college) so my seedlings will be stronger at transplant time.  Some plants can be grown indoors up to 10-12 weeks before the last frost, when they can be transplanted outdoors, so I can get started soon.  My husband and I have been “strategically cracking eggs” for a few weeks now, so the eggshells as containers for my seedlings.  We just break the top off, leaving the bottom 2/3 or so in tact. I saw it in Better Homes and Gardens last year, not only is it adorable, but environmentally friendly as well.  Go me.

I will probably start next week by filling my eggshells with soil and planting my seeds, at least the varieties that require about 10 weeks of growth before transplanting. I also have a huge deck, so I would like to have some potted plants as well, perhaps a potted herb garden that I can bring indoors next winter.  If you are interested in starting your own little garden this year, either in your yard or on your deck, there are a lot  of books and websites out there to help you get started.  It is important to get some information before you dive into it head first, because if you don’t know what you’re doing it can be a huge waste of money.  But even with the smallest bit of know-how, you can save your family money and experience the priceless feeling of eating vegetables you grew yourself!  It’s also a wonderful way to get your kids eating more vegetables, who wouldn’t want to eat something they grew themselves?

So, when it’s 20 degrees outside and snowing, you can go to your garden in your mind and start planning ahead for the spring sunshine.  Go grab a book or magazine and look for ideas!  Get your family in on the project and get growing!

Although the Fredericksburg Farmers Market wasn’t on the agenda for the weekend, my husband was able to find a wonderful replacement.  Between tests on Saturday, I had an hour break so Evan took me to an awesome place in Richmond called “Farm to Family.”  It is a small, family run store that sells locally grown produce, grass-fed meat, baked goods, and milk.  In addition to their store, they also have a “Farm Bus” that travels to areas that may not have access to fresh produce and they “teach people what it is and how to cook it.” WOW!!  What an awesome concept!! I immediately wanted to board the bus and never get off…unfortunately it was a short visit and I had to be pried away from the Farm Bus and store back to my tests.  Before I left, though, I made sure I was able to get a few things that I could take back to Stafford to eat for the week.  We got a huge butternut squash, some gorgeous cauliflower, broccoli, and apples, as well as some milk.  Although milk isn’t “paleo” it does have a great protein to carbohydrates ratio and I like to drink it after workouts, but I think I’m going to have a really hard time reserving this milk for such times.  It is minimally pasteurized and sold for the consumption of pets, but I got home and remembered I didn’t have any pets…. so I’ve been drinking it and BOY is it delicious!

Back to this concept of teaching people about fresh food and it’s importance.  A country girl like me takes for granted that a lot of kids don’t realize where (or what) their food comes from. Often times my students will ask me what I’m eating for lunch because they don’t recognize the vegetables on my plate.  It’s moments like these that really make me concerned about the future of our country.  I would be willing to bet that there are an alarming number of students at my school who don’t eat a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable a single time throughout the course of the week.  Food that doesn’t come in a package is foreign to them!

Although I don’t have a Farm Bus (yet),  I try to use my classroom as a place to not only learn about Algebra, English, Social Skills, Personal Finance, U.S. and World History, but life skills like nutrition.  I use every opportunity I have to teach kids about the importance of the quality and quantity of food they’re eating.  It’s often times ill-received, but I know some of it sticks and if I keep trying maybe it will make a difference in their lives.

So what can you do without a Farm Bus?  You can start by introducing your family to some fruits or veggies that are new to them.  This week in the meal plan I’ve included eggplant, spinach, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash in the menu, have they had any of those?  My sister has done a wonderful job of introducing her kids to all of those “strange” foods by taking them to the farmers market, letting them help in the kitchen, and I would imagine by being a little stubborn when her kids resist.  Your kids may surprise you, and you may surprise yourself!  The fresh food movement starts at home, YOUR home.  Start today by getting rid of a processed food and replacing it with something fresh!!  Bon Appetit!

To read more about the fabulous “Farm to Family” go to: http://www.farmtofamilyonline.com/

So class, did you complete your homework? What were your favorite childhood memories?  I hope you enjoyed thinking back to your childhood and reliving some of those memories.  My childhood was a happy one, surrounded by lots of siblings,friends and caring parents all wrapped up in one small community in the Midwest.  My best friend’s dad coached my baseball team, my math teacher was the volleyball coach, my mom was (and still is) the sex-ed instructor for the school system, and I knew almost everyone in my graduating class by first, middle, and last name.  By the time I was in sixth grade I’d already decided I was going to move to Switzerland when I graduated to get as far away from this little town as possible (apparently I thought the world ended after Switzerland).  The world out there seemed so much better than the small world I lived in. Although I never made it to Switzerland, I did graduate from high school in my little town and moved onto a large university (Boiler Up!), got married and move away from the little town.  Now I’m in a big town with lost of; stores, people, restaurants, airports, interstates, cars, schools, and more people and more cars.  My saving grace in the midst of this hustle and bustle are the two hours on Saturday mornings when I feel like I’m back in a small town.

Every Saturday morning I make a short drive to my local Farmer’s Market located in the historic town of Fredericksburg, Virginia where the Battle of Fredericksburg took place during the Civil War.  Here on Prince Charles street  you’ll find tents filled with local produce, meat, eggs, honey, cheese, pastries, grain, and the wonderful local farmers, crafters,  and vendors there to make you feel like you’re wrapped up safe and sound in a small community, right in the middle of a surrounding metropolis. In college I frequented the Lafayette Farmer’s Market on crisp fall mornings as well.  While my friends were sleeping off the night before, I’d get out of bed, grab the dog, my canvas bags and go down to mingle with the farmers while I bought way too many fruits and vegetables to cram into the  refrigerator I shared with my four roommates. (At least I didn’t have to worry about them eating my cabbage!)

From my small community to this busy part of the country outside of DC, Saturday mornings are still my time to enjoy the abundance of the community I live in and I’d encourage you to do the same.  You’ll gain a new appreciation for your tomatoes and onions once you’ve meet the lady who spent time watering and weeding her garden so you could make them into marinara sauce.  Once you’ve learned about the process of farming bees and collecting honey, believe it or not, it will actually taste a bit sweeter.  And whether you want to or not, when you know where your pork chops come from, you’ll picture the little squealers wondering through the pastures or forest where they were raised.  I realize everyone doesn’t enjoy the process of shopping for and preparing food as much as I do, so this idea of giving up your Saturday morning in bed to venture out into the brisk fall air may be less than appealing…I get that.  You don’t have to make friends with the farmer to make your food healthier, but you may gain some appreciation for the food on your plate.

Fortunately, I grew up in a house where spending time in the kitchen preparing and appreciating food was a way of life.  One summer my mother had a bushel of tomatoes she was getting ready to can, I was ready to help in my very own white and blue apron decorated with tomatoes for the occasion.  I’m not sure if she told me she didn’t need my help (possibly because of the knives and hot pressure cooker involved) or if I just hadn’t gotten my way, but when she left the kitchen for a minute I managed to take a bite out of as many tomatoes as I could before she returned.  This is one of those stories I’ve heard so many times that I’m not sure whether I remember the incident itself of if I’ve just created this memory from all of the stories, so I don’t recall if Mom was mad or not.  I doubt it though, because we do have a picture of me sitting on the kitchen counter, next to my partially-eaten tomatoes…smiling:)

Believe it or not, I don’t remember much about my favorite cartoons as a child or the toys I played with as Mom was trying to make dinner, but I do remember those times I got to help her or Dad in the kitchen.  I’d watch Dad as he made chili or biscuits and gravy from my spot on the kitchen counter, or get things out of the cabinets for Mom as she managed to make a masterpiece by combining leftovers and canned goods. Mom spent countless hours trying to help me make prize recipes for the Whitley County Fair, and my dad and brothers enjoyed nothing more than taste testing our recipes. (They enjoyed it so much that I had to write poison on the items that were going to the fair, just so they wouldn’t get eaten before I got there).

Of course I remember making Christmas cookies and birthday cakes, those memories are dear to me and will never fade.   But the memories I value most are the times I was involved with the family meal and Mom or Dad would say “Lorny helped make this!” and eat like it’d been created by a five star chef.  Not only did it make me feel valued and important, it increased my interest in the food I was eating and how it was made.

Do your kids have a place to sit in the kitchen to help stir, measure, peel, clean, wash, sort, and watch you cook?  Are there meals they could be a part of that might encourage them to eat something new?  I realize making dinner with a kid in the kitchen takes longer, is messier, and a teaspoon of salt might turn into a cup, but would teaching your child to appreciate food and increase their knowledge of healthy eating be worth it? Healthy habits start at home.  Start today by pulling up a  stool near your  in the kitchen and let your child watch or wash the vegetables and crack the eggs.  If the vegetables are still dirty and there are egg shells in the bowl, that’s okay….you just started making memories and working toward a healthy lifestyle.

Today’s Challenge:
Look in your pantry and refrigerator, are there things in there you KNOW shouldn’t be.  How much do you spend on those things?