Eat your veggies!

I know.. I know.. I sound just like your mom (probably because I am one!)

I have never cared much for raw veggies. I could eat them as long as I had something to dip them in to cover up the taste. But after having to omit so many foods from my diet, I have slowly grown to love these fresh, crispy snacks all on their own! I still like to dip them in peanut butter, but mostly now it's just to sneak a little extra protein into my diet.

I think we can learn a lot about what we need in our own diets by reading books on child nutrition and making recipes from cookbooks geared towards children. These ideas and recipes are usually healthy, quick, easy, and fairly inexpensive! Plus, they are great ways to get kids involved with food. :)

I have found that, unlike many cookbooks geared towards grown-ups which often have endless lists of expensive ingredients (half of which I have no idea where to find, nor the time or money to spend on making one meal), cookbooks geared towards children and families offer simple, straightforward recipes which usually consist of easy to find minimal ingredients and don't require much time. My favorites are the ones that include diagrams and pictures on how to pour and mix, such as in "Pretend Soup". Yes, I admit to being a little sloooow sometimes. :)

More than anything, I believe that food does not have to be complicated in order to taste good. I like the idea of going back to the basics and eating food as simply and naturally as possible.

Here are a few of my favorites..

"The Vegan Family Cookbook", by Brian McCarthy
"Organic baby & toddler cookbook", by Lizzie Vann
"Super foods for Children", by Michael Van Straten & Barbara Griggs
"Better than Peanut Butter & Jelly", by Wendy Muldawer & Marty Mattare
"Pretend Soup", by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson
"Honest Pretzels", by Molly Katlen

With the exception of "The Organic baby and toddler book", which I own and memorized after my oldest was born, I was able to find the rest at our local library and have jotted down my favorite recipes in a notebook. Amazon is always a great place to find inexpensive cookbooks too and of course the internet has dozens of recipes and resources online!

Happy reading and eating! :)