Free Recipes and Advice

for Getting Real Kids

of boxes,
preservatives,
to Love Real Food
or unnatural
additives!

Beth Bader &

Alison W. Benjamin
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 ake a look at any children’s menu, at virtually any restaurant,
and you might get the idea that kids’ stomachs are gastronomi-
cally programmed to digest only a small handful of items: pro-
cessed meats, pasta, fried potatoes, and melted cheese. Yet considering
the human species was kicking around some 200,000 years before the
invention of dehydrated cheese powder, it’s a reasonable assumption
that somewhere along the line, children were willing to eat something
else. If you’ve picked up this book, chances are good that you’re inter-
ested in that something else, and that you’d like to give your family
something other than deep-fried potatoes and processed grains.
Here’s the good news: it’s possible. It is possible to feed your fam-
ily well, to encourage your kids to enjoy kale, or tomatoes, or squash, or
beans, and to instill in them lifelong healthy habits. It is possible to teach
them that chickens don’t have fingers and that the very best foods don’t
come emblazoned with cartoon characters. It is possible to serve food
that brings your family together, helps children thrive, and gives your
kids the roots they need to someday have healthy families of their own.
It’s even possible to do all this without a fight.
But if you’re reading this, you probably know something else: eat-
ing well in a fast-food world can be a struggle. The struggle follows us
2 everywhere we go. Take the kids to the community center for swimming

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 GETTING STARTED

lessons or gymnastics classes, and there’s a good chance you’ll pass junk
food and soda vending machines on the way in. Lollipops are passed
to children through car windows at the gas station and through teller
windows at the bank. Candy is offered as a reward for good behavior at
school. A simple trip to the grocery store can be like a minefield, with
17,000 new processed foods introduced yearly and positioned right at
children’s eye level, with their favorite TV characters on the packaging.
Most parents agree that in moderation these treats are fine. Yet
these same parents often feel besieged by the very foods they don’t mind
in moderation. And therein lies the problem: not with any one food item,
but with the accumulation of them, all of those junk food encounters,
one on top of another, moment after moment, day after day after day.
Add these encounters to the food on children’s menus — 94 percent of
which is extremely high in calories and devoid of essential vitamins and
minerals — and unhealthy cafeteria lunches, well-meaning relatives, an
endless stream of birthday parties, and those evenings when you need
to throw dinner on the table fast. Soon, you might find that your child’s
diet is more high fructose corn syrup than high nutrition. Somewhere in
there, moderation skipped town.
At what moment, exactly, does moderation become excess? Where
does a harried parent draw the line in the sand? When do “some” treats
become too many? What should kids be eating, anyway?
When you cut through all the noise — all the marketing messages,
the packaging, the whining, the crying, and the cajoling — the answer
to the last question is pretty simple. It’s the same advice you’ll hear
from any experts worth their salt, the same advice you’ve heard since
you were a child. Children need lots of fruits and vegetables. They need
whole grains and healthy proteins, and a certain amount of healthy fats.
They need vitamins and minerals and micronutrients. The best place to
get these things, of course — in fact, the only place to get many of them —
is through good food. 3

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 4

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 Good for Your Family Because . . .
In general, the more pungent the flavor of the allium variety, the more phy-
tonutrients it contains, particularly the sulfur-containing compounds that
research suggests have anti-cancer properties. Yellow onions offer more of
these phytonutrients than white onions. Shallots contain the most of these
compounds of all the alliums.
Alliums also contain chromium, which has been shown to help lower blood
glucose levels and along with their phytonutrients may help prevent cardiovascu-
lar disease. Garlic, in particular, has been studied with regard to its apparent car-
diovascular benefits. Alliums also contain vitamins C and B6, fiber, and minerals
such as manganese, molybdenum, folate, potassium, phosphorus and copper.

RECIPE

Quick Caramelized Onions 1 tablespoon extra-virgin

olive oil
These onions are delicious as a side dish, and they’re great on 2 teaspoon brown sugar
sandwiches and in other dishes (some of our other recipes use 1 tablespoon balsamic
them). vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1. Combine the oil, sugar, vinegar, and salt in a large skillet with a 1 large onion, thinly sliced
lid over medium-high heat, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. 1 tablespoon chopped
Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes to start the browning fresh thyme or rosemary
process. (optional)

2. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes longer,
stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, if using, before
serving.
Makes about 1 cup cooked onions

Caramelized Onion Sandwiches

Caramelized onions are perfect for a healthy twist on grilled cheese.
Use whole-grain bread, stone-ground mustard, cheddar, a few thin
slices of apple, and a layer of the caramelized onions. Butter the
outsides of the bread lightly. Grill the sandwich a few minutes on
each side. The sandwich pairs well with soup or side salad.

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 Salt and Vinegar
1 bunch kale, 6 to 8 Kale Chips
stems or 12 oz.
These chips were inspired by a tip from Ali’s friend Shannon
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic Toye. We’ve made them on many occasions, and they are a
vinegar (optional) surprising hit with kids and even adults who say they do not
Kosher salt like greens. In both our homes, the kids have been known to
run off with the whole bowl — so get a good first helping! With
this recipe, you want the chips to be both crispy and bright
green. If they start to brown, they can taste burned. If you find
that the chips are browning before the kale is crispy, reduce the
oven temperature.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Wash the kale, dry thoroughly in a salad spinner, and tear into
bite-size pieces. Toss in a large bowl with the olive oil and
balsamic vinegar. Rub the leaves to make sure each gets a
coating of oil so they crisp up well. Oil a baking sheet.
3. Place the kale in single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle
with kosher salt to taste. Bake for about 6 minutes, then stir
and turn the kale and bake for 6 to 9 minutes longer. Remove
crisp pieces as they get done to prevent burning and to allow
the remaining kale chips to get even heat.
Serves 4

Kale Chips Appeal to Kids

A University of Wisconsin extension project involved 201 elementary

school students in making and tasting this recipe themselves.
According to the study, 99 percent of the kids had never heard of kale
before. After they made the kale chips, all but one of the kids tasted
them. And 99 of them (just under half) liked the taste on the first
try. Okay, not all of them liked them right off the bat. But half? On
the first try? We’re talking about kale here, folks. Those odds make it
seem worth a try.

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 Everyone Agrees — We Have to
Feed Our Kids Better
“It’s time for a national
revolution. America needs
“To date, researchers have discovered more than ten to stand up for better food.”
thousand phytochemicals. No supplement can contain — Jamie Oliver, author and
a sufficient amount. Thankfully, you can get all these host of Jamie Oliver’s Food
nutrients today by eating a wide variety of plant-based Revolution Cookbook
foods.” — Joel Furman, MD, Eat to Live: The Revolutionary
Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Little Brown and
Company, 2005.

“Having a child who’s a picky eater is not and never

will be your problem. If it’s a problem at all, it’s the
child’s to deal with, when he or she decides she’s
ready. Your job is putting the food down on the table. Kids who eat fresh produce do
The child’s job is eating it.” better in school. Researchers
— Ann Hodgman, One Bite Won’t Kill You: More Than 200 at the University of Alberta
Recipes to Tempt Even the Pickiest Kids on Earth and the
in Canada evaluated the life-
Rest of the Family Too, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1999
style and performance of 5,000
children. Students who ate more
“All those vegetables we’re supposed to eat turn out fruits, vegetables, protein, and
to be really delicious.” — Barbara Kafka, Vegetable Love, fiber did better on tests than
Artisan Books, 2005. those who ate foods high in
salt and saturated fat. This was
true even after they adjusted
“Do we really want to be telling our for other factors, like family
children ‘Just eat your nice chicken income, parents’ education and
nuggets?’ It would make so much marital status, gender, school,
more sense to say ‘Pull up a chair. and the child’s weight.
Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so — P. Veugelers, Journal of School
endlessly delicious.’” — Ruth Reichl, Health 78 (April 2008), 213–219
“Teach Your Children Well,” Gourmet,
March 2007

“Every action we take can be a celebration
of the world we want.” — Frances Moore
Lappé, Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small
Planet, co-authored with Anna Lappé, Tarcher,
2002
“The basic principles of good diets are
so simple that I can summarize them
in just ten words: eat less, move more,
eat lots of fruits and vegetables. For
additional clarification, a five-word
modifier helps: go easy on junk foods.”
— Marion Nestle, What to Eat, North
Point Press, 2007

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 Kid-Tested
Wisdom

The Authors
Beth Bader is a mom determined to make the
world a better place for her child, one meal at a
time. She writes about her family’s food adven-
The Cleaner Plate Club
tures on her popular blog, Expatriate’s Kitchen, Full-color; photographs throughout
and also contributes to EatLocalChallenge.com, 272 pages; 7‹/• x 9⁄/¢
EatDrinkBetter.com, and Ethicurean.com. She Avail
Paper: able
lives in Kansas. Dece
$16.95 US / $21.50 CAN mber
2010
ISBN: 978-1-60342-585-8 !
Alison W. Benjamin has worked for big compa-
nies, grassroots nonprofits, and The Peace Corps.
No. 62585
Still, one of her greatest achievements so far is
seeing her children dive into a bowl of kale. She
writes the blog Cleaner Plate Club and lives in

Illustrations by Dan Williams

western Massachusetts.

Bader & Benjamin

Publicity Contact:
Amy Greeman (413) 346-2113 or
amy.greeman@storey.com
• Advance blurb mailing
• Authors’ blogs
• Online cooking sites & Mom blogs
• Farmer’s Markets
• CSAs

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To order, please see your sales representative or call (800) 722-7202. Storey
books are distributed in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son, LTD, (800) 387-4333.
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