Creamy "Red" Soup: A Winner with the Kids

Do your kids like soup? I've been on a mission to find a soup that my oldest gal will eat. Soup is one of my favorite meals to make- year around! But it's been one that she's never will eat. I would never say she's a picky eater- don't really believe kids are really picky, just have undeveloped tastes. She just says she doesn't like them. But after watching my youngest slurp up soups I fix I decided it was time to try one on her again. Oh, and not only did I try the soup on her but I also made it with tomatoes, a vegetable she's not too found of.

When thinking of ways to get your kids to try new flavors, switch up the texture---puree them. Now I'm not saying hide them, but instead use the puree as the highlight of the meal, like in a soup. Or you could  add some new spices. In my case I tried using a leek and extra garlic. Another great trick I tried was to play around with different temperatures of the foods. Maybe they'd rather have the food cold. Of course with some soups cold or lukewarm might not be appetizing, but for this soup it worked just fine.

Whatever you do, don't give up on your child's taste buds! Keep trying they will eventually come around. - You did didn't you?

Creamy "Red" Soup (A.K.A. Creamy Tomato Bisque)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, cleaned and diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 cup red pepper, diced
1 28oz. can whole tomatoes with juice
1 cup 2% milk

Directions:
Heat olive oil in large stock pot. Add leek and garlic, cooking until leeks become transparent. Then add red pepper and let soften. Pour in tomatoes with juice and bring to simmer for about 15 minutes. Once heated then add milk and puree using a hand blender or pour small batches into your food processor.

Kids Cooking with Sesame Street: Banana Bread

"Sunny Day.

Sweepin' the clouds away.

On my way to where the air is sweet."

Does anyone remember these books? You might need to flash back to the 1970's.

 



It was a 15-volume series that Funk and Wagnalls, Inc. put out from 1978 to 1979 and they were the BEST books! I remember sitting up with my mom having her read every word on each page. Taking in each detailed picture. One of my favorite volumes is #14 "Featuring The Number 14". It has this cute story called "Grover's Bedtime Story"- who does love Grover? "Me, cute, furry, adorable old Grover?" Ahh!

I have since passed these books on to my oldest gal who has now read every book cover to cover. She recently picked up Volume 14 and asked if we could bake "Big Bird's Banana Bread". And is my gal good or what? Knowing that we're following the REAL Food Challenge, she immediately showed me that it's calls for honey, no sugar! I love her.

  

She and her sister had a great time baking the bread/muffins, we used a muffin tin for part of the mixture so my oldest could use her new cupcake stand. This was also the first time I let my girls do all the melting, measuring, pouring and stirring and they did fabulously! The bread turned out great too!



  



Big Bird's Banana Bread (Muffins)

From Volume 14 of the Sesame Street Library

3 peeled ripe bananas

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put the peeled bananas in a bowl. Mash up the bananas with the back of fork and add melted butter. Measure in baking soda, flour and honey. Stir everything together until it is mixed together. Bake for 1 hour (or we baked the muffins for 25 minutes and a mini-loaf for 45). Check with a toothpick to make sure the center is cooked through.

When cool, slice and share it with your neighbors!







Start Your Morning Off Right- Coconut Breakfast Bars

When I started planning for our REAL Food Challenge the first thing I thought about was our bowls of cereal. Some mornings are just too wild to have a big breakfast and cereal is the easiest thing to serve along with a fruit smoothie. No matter how busy we are we will never skip breakfast! So now I'm making a little more effort at night to prep either some steel cut oats, make some muffins or mix together some pancake batter.

Breakfast is THE most important meal of the day for everyone, and especially children. Their brains need the nutrients to help them absorb and learn throughout the day. Research has shown that a nutritious breakfast positively impacts brain function and energy levels in children giving them the perfect start to their day.

There are many benefits to eating breakfast and many reasons why parents should make eating breakfast a top priority for their children! You can walk into a school and see firsthand what happens to the kids who don't have a balanced breakfast. They are more apt to be distracted, restless, irritable by mid morning. Some even feel that those students who do not eat breakfast are more likely to be aggressive and get in trouble throughout the day.

Eating breakfast in the morning also leads children to eat healthier the rest of the day. Just like adults, if kids eat a nutritious breakfast then they will be less likely to snack on empty calories later in the morning. Fill up on complex carbohydrates, fiber, protein and make sure to keep the sugar content LOW.
For more great breakfast tips check out the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Coconut Breakfast Bars
(Makes 12 squares)

1 1/4 cup steel cut oats
2 cups unsweetened light coconut milk
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sliced raw almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, coconut milk and honey together and let sit for 10 minutes then stir in remainder ingredients. Grease 8x8 baking dish and pat ingredients in evenly and bake for an hour or until golden brown on top. Let cool completely before cutting. Perfect cold or warmed!
Keep in airtight container for up to 3 days.

Challenge Update:
We are about to end our 2nd day and so far so good. Number one challenge for the hubs-- post workout meal. He's been used to drinking a Whey Protein Shake. For me- had to travel today and didn't pack everything I needed and ended up eating a baked potato and added sour cream on top but then noticed the preservatives listed on the container. Scraped most off and ate it with a dry salad.
So far the girls are doing great too! I've packed them slices of the Whole Wheat Bread with shredded carrots, raisins and peanut butter to spread on top. They have also had slices of cheese, apples and celery with yogurt, honey and cinnamon. One big change we made was to switch to 2% milk since technically it's less processed than skim...not so sure I can do this one. I'm not a fan of the thick texture.