Friday, September 11, 2009 at 09:08 AM
I remember that before I had kids, I always wondered why Moms made such a big deal about the busy-ness of the first week of school. I mean, really, it’s not like the Moms had to go to school – just the kids. What is the big deal, I thought? Now that I am a Mom of a 1st grader and Pre-K-er, I know that it’s both an exciting and stressful week. I am oh-so-happy that it is Friday because I am tired. So, I’ve decided to take a break from blogging today and direct you to a great post today on It’s Not About Nutrition: The Art & Science of Teaching Kids to Eat Right. She talks about how as parents we think that pretzels or fat free Fig Newtons are better for you than potato chips, and guess what? They’re not! That’s right. Check out these NuVal scores:
Lay’s Potato Chips Classic … 23
Rold Gold Pretzel Rods … 14
Nabisco Fig Newtons Fat Free …13
And how do you think Baked Lay’s score? Find out in Dina Rose’s post The Potato Chip Challenge: How We Decide What Snacks We Give Our Kids.
And Happy Friday Everyone!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: snacks
Tags: potato chips, snacks
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Don’t you just love all those “Back To School” segments that permeate the airwaves at this time of year. My husband and I saw this short Healthy School Lunch piece on our local Boston NBC station Monday night. While I admire Molly’s nutritious choices and creative presentation, I just can’t see myself making a Turkey Kabob for my son’s lunch box. Molly cubed the turkey, and cut up pieces of home-made bread for her kabobs. That is just not happening in our household. And then I think of what my son would do with the skewer once he was done with the kabob? Use it as a weapon? Hmmmmm. Not a workable lunch idea for me. Even the news anchors were doubting Molly’s suggestion to get your children to eat roasted red peppers.
Instead of a labor-intensive lunch making plan, I decided to use one of my favorite strategies to make life easier: use child labor. My son started first grade this morning. So last night, I asked him if he’d like to make his own lunch. He enthusiastically agreed to do so. So I got him set up and he went to work. While he worked on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I cleaned up dinner dishes. It was a win-win situation. Yes, there was jelly to clean up after, but it was worth it.
I went into the office today to see my friends who work in Scoring to see how my son’s lunch fared. I was pretty excited because I thought I had found THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. I was wrong.
Nature’s Pride 100% Natural 100% Whole Wheat Bread: 27
Trader Joe’s Natural Peanut Butter: ?
Smucker’s Strawberry Preserves: 1
Organic Baby Carrots: 99
Apple Slices: 96
Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Chocolate Milk: 27
So the bread that I bought looked really healthy. Look at all those claims – 100% Natural, 100% Whole Wheat. But it got a 27. Not bad, when you consider that the median score in Bread is a 25. But it’s not THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. That would be Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread. And this is why I really wish I had a grocery store that actually had NuVal in it. I work there and I work with scores all the time, but when faced with the completely overwhelming bread aisle, I can’t remember which breads get what score.
The peanut butter that we used is from Trader Joe’s and we haven’t scored their store-brand products. Now, I could assume that it gets close to what Teddie Peanut Butter Smooth gets (a 36). But as I learned from my Bread experience, you really can’t make those assumptions.
My son also packed a snack for school.
Fruit Falls Tropical gets a 41 (a much better score than many juice boxes)
Pepperidge Farms Goldfish get a 24
Bananas get a 91
With my own first-day jitters, I worried that he might get hungry and so I quickly packed him a second snack this morning:
Minute Maid 100% Juice Mixed Berry which scores a 13 (see what I mean about those juice boxes)
Wheat Thins which get a 23 (nope, they’re not better than Goldfish)
Grapes which get a 91
Well, he’s home now and he had a great first day. His lunch may not have been made on a skewer, but it was a fun project. And it included this note that you see in the picture. Now that’s creative. And it only took me a minute.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples, bread, peanut butter
Tags: Apples, bread, chocolate milk, Goldfish, Juice, peanut butter, wheat thins
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 07:35 PM
Tina, the blogger behind carrotsncake.com, wrote a lovely post about NuVal this morning. She loves food and she loves to eat, but she is all about balance. She posts what she eats every day – with beautiful pictures to illustrate her choices. She is one of my Go-To Blogs when I need a little pick-me-up. I love to see what Tina is up to. She’s about a decade younger than me, married with no kids. I get to live vicariously through her and reminisce about the good old days. Check out how her breakfast scores.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Carrotsncake
Friday, September 4, 2009 at 06:59 AM
If you’ve read some of my last few posts, you know I’ve been hanging on to these last days of summer and dreading the back-to-school routine. I’m trying to snap out of it. I’ve been doing some self-analysis (much cheaper than real therapy) to figure out why I’m so down on school. And it all comes down to one thing – the morning routine stresses me out. I figured this out when I had a bad dream recently. I woke up in a sweat with the PBS series’ Superwhy song “Hip Hip Hooray, the Superreaders Save the Day” song in my head. You parents of young kids know the one – with the little superreaders doing their little victory dance at the end of every episode. Well, that song comes on every day in our house about five minutes before we need to leave for the bus stop. It’s that moment when lunchboxes, backpacks and briefcases need to be lined up at the door, shoes and coats need to be on, Mommy needs to have dry hair and hopefully, some make-up on. Most days, it’s a sprint to the finish line.
I’m working on a strategy to make this year’s morning routine go more smoothly so that I won’t be having nightmares about little Superwhy people. One change we are making is that the kids must get dressed before they come downstairs. We implemented that at the end of the summer and it has helped tremendously. Inspired by this week’s Boston Globe article on breakfast for kids, the other change is that I am going to try for breakfasts that fit three criteria for the kids:
1. It must be quick
2. It must be something they are excited to eat
3. It must have a good NuVal score
My 4-year-old loves Quaker Old-Fashioned Oatmeal. It is not all that quick, but we can make it ahead in larger batches and reheat it throughout the week. She does get excited about putting in some brown sugar and raisins. And it gets a great NuVal score – a 57. This is much better than her other choice – Aunt Jemima Frozen Mini Pancakes. They get a 6. We are all done with buying those. If she does want something hot and toasty, we can always do Kashi Go Lean Waffles, which score a 36. She also likes Kix cereal, which gets 29. That is not bad when you consider that the highest-scoring cereal that you can reasonably expect your kids to eat is Cheerios which get a 34.
As for my son the First Grader, he is all about Cinnamon Toast Crunch right now. The regular version scores a 27. I am still on the lookout for Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 75% reduced sugar because it scores a 40. I just have not found it in my grocery store as of yet. Sugary cereals get such a bad rap, but truthfully many of them get scores that are not so bad. Consider this:
Lucky Charms Cereal scores a 23
General Mills Whole Grain Guaranteed Basic 4 Cereal also scores a 23
Now, I haven’t let the kids buy Lucky Charms in the grocery store. It’s just the principle of multi-colored marshmallows for breakfast. I just can’t. But if it means that the little Superwhy people will stop visiting me in the middle of the night, I just might break down and do it.
Wow, I feel like a Super Reader! I Changed the Story, I Solved the Problem, We Worked Together, So Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray, the SuperMommy Saved the Day!!!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Kashi Waffles, Kids Breakfast, Kix, Quaker Oats, Stress, Superwhy Song
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 12:58 PM
We had 2 vacations this summer, with 2 completely different results. Vacation #1 left us feeling bloated and exhausted. Vacation #2 left us feeling somewhat tired, but also refreshed, renewed and ready to start the new school year. Why the difference? Vacation #1 was very short, it included a theme park (Storyland) and restaurant-only dining. Vacation #2 was longer, it included beaches and hiking and we ate mostly at home.
Dictionary.com defines vacation as a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation or travel. We took our Storyland trip at the very end of June, when the school year had just wrapped up. While we could have chosen to stay in a rented condominium, we chose a hotel instead. I was adamant – I did not want to make beds, I did not want to cook dinner, I did not want to do dishes. While it was nice to take a break from these chores, 3 days of restaurant and theme park food left us feeling yucky. Combined with the long theme park days and no time for exercise, my DH and I came home feeling exhausted. When you live healthy most of the time, a departure from your routine is really no vacation.
Last week, we spent 8 glorious days on Block Island, a small island located 13 miles off the Rhode Island coast. While we had been to BI previously for day trips and even overnight on friends’ boats, this was our first week-long beach house rental there. We’ve been doing the beach house thing since our children came along. Now that they are 6 and 4, we made the following observations: we had to bring less stuff (no pack & play, no diapers, no stroller), there was less laundry to do (those potty training years were no fun), there was little rest time for us since the kids do not nap anymore, and there was significantly more whining. While the kids loved boogie boarding in the surf, they did not share our penchant for hiking Rodman’s Hollow or the rocky coastline to the Old North Lighthouse. And shopping – forget about it.
But back to healthy living on vacation…
We had learned our lesson at Storyland. A happy vacation, for us, needs to include a balance of healthy eating and physical activity. My DH and I took turns going out for runs on the island’s hilly roads and I even got to a Pilates class at elevation studio. As for eating, I went into the vacation thinking we would eat 4 nights at home and 4 nights out. I brought 4 Dream Dinners, a meal preparation location of which I am a devotee. Turns out, the owner of our house was an Italian gourmet chef and the kitchen was extremely well-equipped. We also had a beautiful wrap-around deck overlooking meadows. After long days at the beach, it was more of a vacation to stay in, cook an easy meal and watch the stars with a bottle of wine. On our 8 day vacation, we ate out at a restaurant once and ordered pizza once. Everything else was home-cooked.
Groceries on an island are prohibitively expensive, so I shopped on the mainland the day before we left. Still, we did have to buy some items there since we decided to stay in and cook. I bought tomatoes (NuVal score of 96) at the Farmer’s Market for $15 – for 3 large and 3 small tomatoes. But with the island-grown lemon basil, they were worth it. No Chobani Greek yogurt at the Block Island Grocery, so I bought Fage Total 0% (NuVal score of 94) for $7. We threw some blueberries (score of 100) and blackberries (score of 91) in and it was delicious. Friends of ours were also vacationing on the island and invited us for a last night seafood grill. They served seared Tuna (score of 82), grilled shrimp (score of 75), and grilled scallops (51). I made my famous avocado salsa (avocados score an 86 and cost about $3.00 each on the island) and it was a feast to remember.
For now, the days of jetting off to a Caribbean island and sipping frozen drinks all day under a palm tree are not happening. But I think I’ve found a recipe for vacation that will get us as rested as we’re going to be at this point in our life. We’ll be back for those $15 Block Island tomatoes next year.
And here’s my Avocado Salsa recipe (really it’s from my fabulous hair stylist, Karen).
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 red peppers, finely chopped
1 small bag frozen corn
2 cans chopped black olives
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp oregano
4 ripe avocados, chopped
Mix everything and refrigerate. Serve with blue corn chips (Garden of Eatin’ Blue Corn Chips with Salt get a 40).
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: scallops, tomatoes, vacation
Tags: avocado salsa, avocados, blackberries, blueberries, Fage yogurt, scallops, shrimp, tomatoes, tuna, vacation, whining
