Real Food for Healthy Kids or Kill It and Grill It

Real Food for Healthy Kids: 200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes

Author: Tracey Seaman

Real Food for Healthy Kids
200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes

Chapter One

What to Feed Your Kids and Why

Scaling the Food Pyramid

There's a reason why kids have to be in their late teens to vote, drink, or drive. It isn't until then that they've gained some measure of maturity or self-discipline. That need for good judgment also applies to their nutritional choices. Just as we would never leave a six-year-old unsupervised with a kitchen knife, nor should we leave him with a cupboard packed with candy. Kids of all ages need some healthy eating guidance to ensure that they are getting a nutritious diet. This book will help you help them, providing you with wholesome recipes. Yes, there are also some delicious treats and desserts included, but even the vast majority of these we gave a nutritional make over so you'll feel better about making them (plus, we feel strongly that kids need to learn moderation, not deprivation). But first, in order to determine what your kids should eat on a daily basis, you need to learn about the basic food groups they should have each day and what constitutes an appropriate portion for their age.

How much kids eat is almost as important as what they eat, and learning about portion control is crucial, even at an early age. The concept of teaching young children about portion control is a relatively new one. Parents used to insist kids clean their plates (some still do) and now we are told that we should allow young children to regulate themselves, eating what they need and leaving the rest on the plate. However, even that modern theory is in dispute. A study of preschoolers published in a 2005 issue ofAppetite magazine found that how much the kids ate correlated strongly with the amount of food placed on their plates. So, whether you have toddlers or teenagers, it's best to give them the appropriate portions for their ages and sizes. Kids who tend to leave food on the plate should be allowed to do so, unless you feel they are not getting enough protein, calcium, vitamins, and the like. For kids who are natural clean-plate clubbers, give them appropriate portions, and if they ask for seconds, offer them more fruit and veggies first.

It's also never too early for children to learn about healthy and unhealthy foods. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sponsored a study tracking almost six hundred kids aged eight to thirteen. They found that kids who attended nutrition classes ate a significantly healthier diet, even years later, than those who did not. In response, the institute introduced the idea of "Go Foods," which were healthy everyday foods; "Slow Foods," which you could indulge in a couple of times a week; and "Whoa Foods," which you would have only occasionally. (For more information on this and other health and nutrition information for kids, go to www​.realfoodforhealthykids​.com​.)

What follows is a brief synopsis of the latest government guidelines on what and how much children should eat, broken down by age. It's important to follow these basic tenets for good nutrition, modifying them slightly for your particular child's needs. Obviously, a healthy diet and exercise go hand in hand, something our video-game-playing, computer-glued kids should be reminded of daily. It bears remembering that doctors have concluded that this is the first generation who may not outlive their parents, due to unhealthy weight and its resulting problems such as diabetes and heart disease: Childhood obesity is up 45 percent in the last decade, and at this printing, 16 percent of our children aged six to nineteen are overweight or obese, and another 20 percent are at risk of becoming overweight or obese. There has been a sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and there is a direct correlation between a diet high in sugar and fat and little physical activity.

Daily Nutritional Guidelines

The United States Department of Agriculture created a food pyramid of daily guidelines for kids. (It's available online at www.mypyramid​.gov, although the guidelines are only applicable for children aged two and up.) Some nutritionists feel the government should have been more strict, for instance, requiring all, not just some, of the grains to be whole grains, insisting on reduced fat when recommending milk and dairy products, and completely restricting sodas and sports drinks, rather than labeling them as drinks to be used occasionally. Essentially, a child's daily diet should be composed mostly of calories from complex carbohydrates and lean proteins and no more than 20 percent of calories from fat. Here are particulars about each category of food and the specific daily nutritional breakdown for preschoolers, elementary school children, and teenagers, all derived from the U.S.D.A. and the Institute of Medicine.

Daily Foods

Vegetables: Opt for bright and dark veggies: spinach, sweet potatoes, and carrots are great choices. Starchy, whiter foods, such as baking potatoes and corn, are less nutritious.

Fruits: Choose vitamin-rich fresh fruits, such as strawberries, peaches, mangoes, and apples. Fruit juices should be consumed as little as possible. When offering juice, make sure it is 100 percent real fruit juice with no sugar added.

Grains: Use whole or multigrain flours, whole-grain breads, oatmeal, whole-grain low-sugar cereals, brown rice, and whole-wheat pasta. Ban white bread and white rice from your house as much as possible.

Meats and Beans: Serve lean proteins, such as beef, pork, chicken, fish, beans, tofu, or eggs. When preparing any protein-rich food, opt to serve it steamed, baked, or grilled, not fried.

Dairy: Serve lean sources of dairy, such as low-fat milk (check with your doctor to determine whether your child should have whole or reduced-fat milk), low-fat yogurt, ricotta, or cheese.

Oils: Use monounsaturated oil, such as olive—preferably extra-virgin—safflower, and canola oils. They provide vitamin E for healthy skin and the development of cells.

Fats and Sweets: Limit intake of butter, cream, sugary cereals, soda, candy, and the like as much as possible.

Real Food for Healthy Kids
200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes. Copyright © by Tanya Steel. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish

Author: Ted Nugent

In this cookbook, Ted Nugent shares his favorite recipes for such exotic fare as wild boar, pheasant, buffalo, and venison. Kill It and Grill It is filled with hunting anecdotes, detailed instructions on cleaning and dressing your game, helpful hints for those new to hunting and cooking wild game, nutritional information, and of course, recipes.

New Yorker

In Ted Nugent's recent cookbook, Kill It and Grill It, the seventies macho-rock icon ("Cat Scratch Fever," "Wango Tango") and avid bowhunter declares, "If mankind is anything, we surely are hunters." Throughout this gleefully carnivorous guide to stalking and grilling wild game, the Motor City Madman's prose is as electrically confrontational as his "dangerass hi-velocity R&B MotorCity guitarstorm." He disdains vegetarians as being in "terminal Gomer denial," praises free-range flesh as "gonzo octane racefuel," and extolls the "full predator spiritual erection" afforded by the hunt. Despite the vein-popping aggro, the book reveals a surprisingly environmental and health-conscious world view as it presents recipes for Ted's Favorite Porkfeast and Sweet 'n' Sour Antelope.

Don't expect to find the Nuge waiting for a table at the Grit. This Athens, Georgia, vegetarian bistro -- housed in a building owned by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe -- has a far-flung reputation as the indie-rock Moosewood, although, as owners Jessica Greene and Ted Hafer point out in The Grit Cookbook , "we're not food snobs or health police." Mac and Cheese, 45 rpm Pancakes, and BBQ Tofu are the restaurant's idea of down-home veggie fare, whose glories are sung by members of the B-52's, Cracker, and Fugazi.

Somewhat more traditional soul food is on the stove in The Blues Highways Cookbook , by Jason R. Girard. With asides about bluesmen such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Girard, the chef of the blues club Buddy Guy's Legends, in Chicago, serves up recipes for Hoppin' John, sweet buttermilk cornbread, and peach cobbler -- homey grub that would have any road-weary musician singing for his supper.(Mark Rozzo)

Table of Contents:

	Introduction : celebrate the flesh
Ch. 1	I kill it, I grill it	1
Ch. 2	Celebrating thriving wildlife	9
Ch. 3	Pure sustenance - butcher your own	15
Ch. 4	Backstrap fever	23
Ch. 5	Sacred venison	37
Ch. 6	Dinner on the hoof	49
Ch. 7	Rock 'n' roll hogmando	61
Ch. 8	Texas wild boar BBQ	71
Ch. 9	Snowhogs	79
Ch. 10	I like my pork pissed off	89
Ch. 11	The big kahuna	95
Ch. 12	Killin' and grillin' large game in America	101
Ch. 13	I like mine rare, but not that rare	109
Ch. 14	On the sweeter side...	119
Ch. 15	Hasenpfeffer by Glock	127
Ch. 16	Limbrat Etouffee	135
Ch. 17	Bushytail bushwhackin'	141
Ch. 18	Duck, duck, goose	147
Ch. 19	More delicious birding	155
Ch. 20	Sexfried fishslab	167
Ch. 21	The soul sandwich	173
Ch. 22	Hearty hunting soulfood	179
App	Hunting and conservation groups	193