Candy Rules!!

Halloween is behind us but for many families, the aftermath is buckets and pillowcases filled with candy. To help your kids control their appetite for Skittles and Snickers, consider some of our Halloween food rules:

- Set limits. It's okay to eat a couple of pieces of candy a day, but half a dozen or more is a bit much. For Liz's boys, two or three pieces is the limit: one piece after lunch and one after dinner (none for snack time).
- Donate a few pounds to your local nursing home.
- Make tooth brushing mandatory after eating a treat.
- Find out if your dentist, or any others in your community, have a "buy-back" program. In our area, one dentist pays $2.00 per pound of confections. In December, he and his young patients use the candy to create a gingerbread house which is then given to a local nursing home.

Tell us about your candy rules!

Halloween Party Ideas

Add a new twist to your Halloween gathering by serving some good-for-you goodies. Kid-friendly suggestions: sweet potato chips, all-natural cheese curls, popcorn, dried fruits such as apricots and cranberries, Chocolaty Pumpkin Bars , pumpkin seeds, and chocolate milk. You can even try these fruit kebabs, presented in a pumpkin!

Frighteningly Delicious Fruit Kebabs

Makes 25 kebabs

1 honeydew melon, cut into cubes

1 cantaloupe, cut into cubes

1 quart strawberries

1 small bunch seedless red or green grapes

Mini marshmallows

25 ten-inch wooden skewers

Thread fruit and marshmallows onto skewers. Stick ends into pumpkin (to make inserting the wooden skewers easier, use something like a metal meat thermometer ... or even a drill bit ... to poke the holes). For an added element, use a marker to create a funny or scary face.

Nutrition Information per Kebab: 25 calories, 0g fat (0g saturated fat), 0mg sodium, 6g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, 0g protein, 35% Vitamin C

The Best Snack Cake Ever!

Celebrate autumn’s best apples with this easy-to-make snack cake. Perfect in a lunch box or as an after-school treat, your kids will love every healthy bite. The Meal Makeover secrets in this recipe include the whole wheat flour, flaxseed, omega-3 eggs, and of course, the apples.

Apple Butterscotch Cake
Makes 15 servings

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large omega-3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large Golden Delicious apples, unpeeled, cut into quarters, cored, and coarsely grated (about 2 packed cups)
1/3 cup butterscotch chips

Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Whisk together the two kinds of flour, sugar, flaxseed, baking powder, pumpkin
pie spice, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, applesauce, and oil in a separate bowl. Stir in the apples until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan; smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake about 35 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack before cutting.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 220 calories, 11g fat (3g saturated fat), 160mg sodium, 28g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 4g protein

BACK TO NATURE Giveaway Winners

We are thrilled to announce the winners of last month's giveaway for snack bars and squares from Back to Nature. The snack lineup includes Banana Walnut Bakery Squares, Oatmeal Raisin Bakery Squares, Apple Fruit & Grain Bars, Strawberry Fruit & Grain Bars, Cranberry Almond Chewy Trail Mix Bars, and Cherry Pecan Chewy Trail Mix Bars. Made with organic fruits, grains and real nuts, but none of the artificial flavors, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup found in many popular bars, nutritious Back to Nature squares and bars are a snack you can feel good about!

And the winners are ....
Gina L. from Burke, VA, Jo C. from Rancho Cucamonga, CA, Amy B. from Westport, CT, Michelle S. from Bedford, IN, Nancy C. from Reading, MA, Patricia M. from Wakefield, MA, Kelly D. from Colorado Springs, CO, Barbara B. from Coplay, PA, Kelly M. from Lakeville, MN, Aileen B. from Johns Creek, GA, Donna Z. from Bronston, KY, Susan H. from Troy, MI, Karen H. from Steilacoom, WA, Dawn Y. from Urbandale, IA, Daniele F. from Sun Prairie, WI, Diane S. from Palm Coast, FL, Crystal B. from Keller, TX, Jennifer M. from Cranston, RI, Cathy N. from Rockville, MD, Vivian T. from Kailua, HI.

We wish we could hand deliver all of your gifts (especially to Hawaii) but clearly that is not realistic. So instead, expect your gift boxes to arrive via snail mail some time over the next few weeks. We'll be back in touch in early November with news on our next cool giveaway.

Simply Ming

We recently had the opportunity to mingle with celebrity Chef Ming Tsai (http://www.simplyming.org/), host of the popular PBS cooking series, Simply Ming. We ran into him at the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) in Philadelphia, PA. There, on behalf of Canola Info, Ming conducted a cooking demonstration featuring recipes from his show. The MC for the event was dietitian pal and author of The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous, Carolyn O’Neil (http://www.dishdivas.com/). Liz was invited up on stage to taste his food along with incoming ADA president, Marty Yadrick and Jeanne Goldberg, Professor of Nutrition at Tufts University. Ming was as charming (and handsome!) in person as he is on TV … and his beautiful food tasted great too!

The Battle of the Books

There's a bit of a battle going on at the bookstore this week between the newly released Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine, released just last spring. Both feature recipes that "hide" fruit and veggie purees in kid-favorite meals -- everything from mac & cheese to chicken nuggets.

While we like the idea and confess to "weaving" good-for-you ingredients into many of our kid-friendly recipes (Chocolaty Pumpkin Bars, Have-It-Your-Way Tacos w/ black beans, Mama's Amazing Ziti w/ shredded carrot), we think it's critically important to introduce children to the actual fruits and vegetables themselves.

When our book came out in 2004, the public was just starting to talk about the growing rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. as well as poor nutrition among kids. We hope The Moms' Guide to Meal Makeovers helped to get that conversation going... we plan to talk about it now and in the future and to offer fresh advice and recipes on our blog and websites. AND ... if all goes according to plan, we'll get book #2 published before our kids go off to college! We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, feel free to share your "sneaky" tricks for getting your kids to eat healthfully. We'd love to hear from you.

A Nutrition Extravaganza!

We just returned from the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association in Philadelphia. In addition to interesting seminars and networking receptions, we had the opportunity to check out hundreds of products at the Convention Expo. Overall, what we saw was food companies making an effort to add good-for-you ingredients to their products. Yeah! We'll be featuring some of our favorite finds in our upcoming blog entries. To whet your appetite, here are a few fun products that we learned about and sampled.

KeriBar is made with whole grains, flaxseed, and dried fruits. Our favorite flavor: Strawberry Chocolate Chip (it reminds us of our own homemade Grab-and-Go Breakfast Bars).

Gerber Graduates mini fruits and mini veggies feature freeze-dried bits of apples, bananas/strawberries, and corn. They're all natural and ideal snacks for toddlers with tiny tummies.

Ian's Natural Foods has introduced new whole wheat french toast sticks available in three fun flavors: Cinnamon & Honey, Banana, and Triple Berry. There is also a wheat-free/gluten-free version.