Trust Kids To Like Healthy Food

If you've visited this blog before, you'll know I have a strong propensity to proselytize. Nothing religious or political, don't worry. My abiding passion is delicious, healthy home cooking, and I'll chew your ear off about it if I get half a chance.

I'm at my most zealous when it comes to feeding children, for the eating habits they develop in early childhood will stay with them for the rest of their lives -- both the good and the bad!

Children are the toughest customers when it comes to healthy eating. They love what nutrition scientists call "high food reward" fare (in plain English: anything addictively fatty, sugary, crispy, crunchy or nugget-shaped) and turn up their noses at anything vegetal, whole-grain or additive-free, especially when it comes out of a cooking pot rather than a package.

Or do they?

In my experience, children *do* like healthy food -- provided it's tasty and attractively presented. The problem with a lot of "health food" is that it isn't always that appealing: steamed fish, overcooked vegetables, brown stews, chewy whole grains or "white cubes of nothingness" (as my oldest son describes tofu) just aren't that appealing. And so when faced with a perceived choice of brown sludge on the one hand and Happy Meals on the other, most kids will choose the latter. Can you blame them?

"A few years ago, I went through a quinoa phase," recalls Delphine, a friend of mine. "My kids are still traumatized! Whenever I cook, they say: please don't let it be quinoa. And they just love McDonalds!"

As with most things in life, however, there is a Middle Way: food that's healthy *and* tasty!

I'm very lucky that my kids (aged 9, 9 and 14) generally "real" food -- including more unusual items like seaweed, smelly cheese and bitter chocolate. I never got into cooking "kids' food" because I was too lazy to make separate meals for adults and kids, and too time-starved to make cute snacks like caterpillars made from miniature pancakes.

So instead, our kids have always eaten the same dishes as their parents: home-cooked vegetables, fish, meat, stews and soups, and for dessert, a fruit, a square or two of dark chocolate or -- on special occasions -- some home-made vanilla egg pudding. They generally eat these hungrily and happily.

They even take quite a lively interest in food -- not just the eating of it, but also shopping for it at the farmers' market and cooking it. All three help in the kitchen, with my oldest son producing whole meals single-handedly on days when I'm busy or he's bored.

Of course my kids aren't immune to the lure of "kids' foods" they see advertised in magazines and on billboards, and get to sample at their friends' houses or at school. As I have written about before, I am resigned to their occasional forays into the world of edible junk (which are nearly daily, given the amounds of sweets and candy bars their friends bring to school); it's just that I don't buy that stuff for them.

This strategy is bearing fruit, as a school week's worth of anecdotes will illustrate.

On Monday I did something unusual: at the health-food store, buying some peppers for dinner, I picked up a roll of chocolate cookies for the kids as a snack after school. (I don't know what came over me -- I never buy cookies. Maybe a need to mitigate my Food-Nazi reputation?)

When the kids got home, I produced the cookies with a triumphant flourish -- tadaaaah! Three disappointed pairs of eyes stared at me. "I'd much rather have one of those," mumbled my oldest, pointing at a red pepper peeking out of the shopping bag. "OK," I said, "you can have a pepper -- but are you really sure?" He was. Then the twins started clamoring: "If he can have a pepper, we want one too!" Sure, go wild! So they all started chomping on peppers and I improvised a side-dish of frozen spinach. The cookies are still in my kitchen cupboard.

On Tuesday, my 14-year-old took a tub of dinner leftovers to school for lunch, a portion of lentil byriani, an vegetarian Indian dish. He was slightly worried his friends would make fun of him for eating something so "health-foody." Instead, attracted by the scents of cardamom, coriander, cilantro, garlic and caramelized onions, a class-mate took a taste of his lunch and liked it so much she offered him $5 for it! (Maybe I should set up a byriani stand outside the school?)

On Wednesday, my twins' school held a cake sale and of course I allowed them to buy a piece of cake at recess. My daughter picked a cupcake with blue icing, topped with a gummy-bear. "I was really surprised, it tasted horrible -- really artificial," she told me in the afternoon. "I picked off the icing and tried to eat just the cake, but even that was too sweet."

To satisfy their cravings for crispy-crunchy-fatty-spicy sensations, last night's dinner was home-made falafel: vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free garbanzo balls made from sprouted beans, cooked in olive oil and drizzled with a garlicky sesame dressing. Extreme healthiness nothwithstanding, my kids wolfed them down.

And today, my older son took a piece of home-made chocolate-zucchini cake to school which he shared with a class mate known for his aversion to green vegetables. “He loved it – didn’t notice a thing, and I certainly wasn’t going to ruin his appetite by telling him,” my son reported cheerfully in the afternoon. 

I'm not trying to brag; I simply want to show you that, contrary to what junk-food advertisers would have us believe, children actually like the taste of real food -- even those who, like my son's friends, don't eat like this regularly and whose mothers aren't health nuts. So please remember, it's never too late to teach your child (or yourself!) to enjoy healthy, tasty, home-made food!

Here are just some of the things that help get kids interested in healthy food:

• Make dishes taste interesting by using exciting textures, spices, herbs, (natural!) colors and salt (yes, in moderation salt is fine)
• Don't scrimp on fat -- healthy fats such as olive oil, cold-pressed nut oils, ghee, coconut oil or raw, pastured butter bring out the flavors of any dish and are wonderfully satisfying to young taste buds
• Encourage kids to be creative with food (e.g. assembling a wrap filled with healthy ingredients such as tuna salad, guacamole, hummus, egg salad and chopped raw vegetables; or dipping fresh fruit into dark melted chocolate or threading it onto kebabs)
• Don't allow filling snacks in-between meals: come dinnertime, a ravenous child can't afford to be picky
• Downplay dessert: serve small desserts as an occasional treat, but teach children to fill up on mains, not afters
• Offer healthy, home-made versions of unhealthy foods, e.g. home-made chicken nuggets or fish sticks with home-made ketchup; bring home-made lemonade or pop corn to the movies
• Get kids involved in shopping and cooking, and ask them to suggest ideas for meals (a sure way to get them to eat that meal, since they suggested it!)
• Eat with your children and set an example by being a non-fussy eater who revels in simple, tasty food

If you're new to cooking, check out my YouTube cooking videos, where I show how to make simple, tasty dishes that my children love and that even beginners can easily master.

Marinated pork belly - recipe

In case you're confused: no, pork belly isn't a health food! For thousands of years, pork has been regarded with deep suspicion and accused of transmitting dangerous pathogens to humans. Indeed, a recent series of articles on the Perfect Health Diet health blog linked pork consumption with liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Nonetheless, I include it here. For one, because just as it has been maligned by some for millennia, it has been widely eaten by others – including the famously long-lived Okinawans – for just as long. So I figure it can;t be *all* bad.

Moreover, for people who simply can't bear to give up bacon, I wanted to offer a preparation is at least a healthier alternative to mass-produced bacon. Nonetheless, I do feel it should remain an occasional treat, carefully prepared and enjoyed in small quantities.

Having said this, a recent study run by the Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that promotes ancestral foods and food preparation methods, found that fresh pork may not be all that unhealthy, provided if you treat it right.

Although their study was very small, it yielded interesting findings, namely that marinating fresh meat in acidic substances such as vinegar, or curing and fermenting meat, as Italians and French have done for hundreds of years (yielding prosciutto and saucisson sec), may make it healthier than eating it fresh. (You can read a detailed description of this study here.)

Imagine my relief upon reading this study, for it tallies perfectly with the way I prepare pork belly at home: marinating the meat in lemon juice, garlic and spices. Slowly grilled or roasted at moderate temperature these marinated pork belly slices make a tasty addition to an old-fashioned farmer's breakfast. They can also be cubed and added to vegetable stir-fries or egg-fried rice.

In addition to the potentially beneficial effects of acidic marination, this preparation also lacks other unhealthy compounds often found in processed pork: nitrates, nitrites, excess salt, artificial flavorings and carcinogenic chemicals resulting from smoking. Meat from free-ranging pastured hogs tends to be less fatty than from their intensively farmed cousins because of the more active foraging they do, so always buy the very highest-quality pork you can find—ideally, pastured in a meadow near you, from animals that haven't been treated with growth enhancing antibiotics or other drugs.

Recipe:

10-15 slices of pork belly, cut about 6mm/ 1/8 inch thick

juice of 1 lemon

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

½ tsp paprika powder

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

a pinch of herbes de Provence

freshly ground black pepper

Place all the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine with a whisk. Add the meat and mix with your hands or a wooden spoon until it’s well coated on all sides with the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 3-4 hours.

Line a baking tray or chopping board with baking parchment and place the meat strips on this, laid out nice and flat. Cover with more film or slip into a large plastic bag and place horizontally in the freezer. Freeze overnight, or at least 6 hours. Once frozen, remove the meat slices from the tray and store in a resealable plastic bag and place back in the freezer. Retrieve as needed.

The pork slices can be defrosted before cooking, but I usually pop them straight under the grill (on low to medium heat) where they defrost while cooking (the slices are so thin that they will easily cook through). Watch this closely to avoid the meat getting burnt. Salt lightly and serve.

Home-made beef jerky

There's nothing like chomping on a strip of lean, spicy dried meat when you're out hiking in the wild or stuck on a long car journey with no easy access to nutritious, satisfying food. High-quality protein eaten at regular intervals throughout the day can stave off cravings for sweet snacks and helps sustain energy. And because dried meat is a highly concentrated source of nutrients, little will go a long way.

What makes this healthy?  First, we're avoiding the no-no's of most commercial jerky: excess sodium, sugar, artificial flavorings and preservatives. Conversely, the marinade used here brims with healthy ingredients: ginger, turmeric, pepper, lemon, red wine, raw cocoa powder, tomato paste, onions, garlic, cinnamon and apricots. Not only do these create a delicious bouquet of flavors, they also have a range of anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties that may work together synergistically to protect us from disease. 

As the meat is being dried rather than cooked, it’s important to use super-fresh meat for this recipe that’s been kept well chilled from the minute it left the butcher shop until the moment you start preparing the jerky. Once you get started, make sure your hands and all implements (chopping boards, knives, roasting grills) are spotless. Sorry to sound obsessive, but I don’t want you catching some nasty bug…

Ingredients:
2 kg/4lb lean meat (e.g. beef:  or skinless duck breast), cut into slices of about 1/8 inch/3mm thick, flattened with a meat tenderizer and cut into strips about 6-4 cm2-3 inches long.

For the marinade:
4 onions, coarsely chopped
2 heads garlic (cloves peeled and coarsely chopped)
14 oz/400g tomatoes (fresh, coarsely chopped, or from a jar)

3 tbsp tomato paste
fresh ginger (about 1 inch/2 cm piece), finely grated
3 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp pure cocoa (unsweetened)
1 tsp allspice
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
½ bottle of organic red wine
scant ½ cup/100 ml soy sauce
12 dried apricots
juice of 2 lemons

Place all ingredients for the marinade in a saucepan, cover and bring to boil. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and leave to cool for about 20 minutes.

Blend into a smooth paste with a liquidizer or hand-held pureeing device. Pour this into a large container with a tight-fitting lid, Add the sliced ​​meat and mix well to coat with marinade on all sides. Seal tightly and marinate in refrigerator overnight.

The next day, lay out meat slices on metal grills (you can pack the meat quite tightly as it will shrink substantially during drying). 

Preheat oven to 70°C/160°F (the temperature at which bacteria are destroyed). Slide in meat grills (place a baking sheet underneath so you don’t mess up your oven) and bake for ½ hour. Then lower temperature to 55°C/135°F for the remainder of the drying process. (These are the temperatures recommended by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to ensure that any pathogens are killed. Click here for the official government guidelines on jerky-making.)

Dry for about 8 hours, leaving the oven door slightly ajar (stick a wine cork or other small object in the door to let the evaporating moisture escape). The jerky is ready when it has shrunk to nearly half its original size/weight and looks like leather – pliable but dry.

Place jerky in a hermetically sealable container. Keeps for several weeks in the fridge.

Healthy meatballs recipe

From Spanish albondigas and Lebanese minced-lamb kekabs to Moroccan lamb or beef kofta or Greek keftedes, meatballs are a mainstay of Mediterranean cuisine. Traditionally -- before the advent of cheap, mass-produced meat -- they were an economical way of using up less-noble off-cuts of beef, pork or lamb and extending these with ingredients like vegetables, nuts, rice and herbs.

The meatballs featured here are nearly 50% vegetables, which makes them a great way to get veggie-phobes (say, picky toddlers) to eat their greens while simultaneously persuading meat-phobes (rebellious teenagers, for instance) to eat a bit of meat.

Meatballs work well as a sandwich or wrap filling, lunchbox fillers or finger food for kids, on picnics or long journeys (transported in a cooler) and as a sausage-substitute alongside weekend breakfast eggs. I usually make a big batch of these (tripling the recipe below), freeze them and defrost a few as needed. Occasionally I dump a handful into a pot of tomato sauce for a speedy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

You can vary flavors by using different combinations of spices: for hints of Greece, add oregano, mint, garlic and a pinch of lemon zest; or head to Spain by adding garlic, ground almonds, paprika powder, ground cumin and chopped parsley; or go Lebanese with pine nuts and a pinch of cumin, coriander and cinnamon and chopped fresh cilantro, served with a light garlic dressing (ground lamb works great for all the above).

What makes these healthy? Start with top-quality grass-fed meat, whose praises I have already sung here. These meatballs are baked in a moderate oven rather than fried, grilled or barbecued, further reducing potentially damaging chemicals. Lastly, this is a great way to boost your intake of plant phytochemicals, because nearly half of these "meatballs" is actually not meat (and not breadcrumbs either), but fresh vegetables and herbs.

Recipe (makes about 25-30 meatballs):

1 onion

1/2 to 1/3 (depending on size) celeriac root, peeled

2 medium carrots, peeled

1 large or 2 small leeks, partially sliced lengthwise and carefully rinsed under running water to wash out any grit stuck between the leaves

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 handfuls fresh parsley

1 tbsp dried herbes de Provence

2 tbsp olive oil

2 free-range, organic eggs

About 1 lb / 500g freshly ground beef (organic grass-finished, preferably)

Start by coarsely chopping carrots, celeriac, leek and parsley and placing them in a food processor equipped with an S-shaped blade. Chop until the vegetables are finely diced (but not mushy). Add crushed garlic and pulse again very briefly to combine.

Pre-heat oven to 350°F/180°C.
 
In a large frying pan on moderate heat, warm 2 tbsp olive oil and tip in all the chopped vegetables and herbes de Provence; salt and pepper lightly and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. (You can skip this stage, but as vegetables do contain quite a lot of moisture, there’s a risk that if you add them to the meat raw, your meatballs will end up becoming waterlogged…). Remove pan from heat.

Place ground beef and the vegetable mixture into a large bowl and crack two raw eggs on top. Using an electric whisk (kneading attachments), a wooden spoon or your hands, knead all the ingredients thoroughly to combine. 

Using your hands, shape meatballs roughly the size of a ping pong ball and place them on a lightly oiled baking tray. Slide into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes; the meatballs will render a little moisture but hopefully not too much.

Remove tray from the oven and allow meatballs to cool. Transfer to a container with a tightly fitted lid and chill, then freeze.

Herby marinated “deli” chicken slices -- recipe

Check out my cooking video of this recipe on YouTube.

A versatile stand-by, this dish combines high-quality protein, a raft of anti-cancer ingredients (turmeric, garlic, olive oil, herbs, paprika, black pepper) and delicious flavors. While it takes a little time to make (most of it involving meat marinating while you’re off doing other things), you can prepare larger batches of chicken breasts by doubling or tripling this recipe and freeze these until needed; this way, your initial time investment will quickly pay off.

Once it’s chilled, you can slice the meat thinly and use it to fill sandwiches (the picture to the right shows slices of chicken breast atop aslice of toasted sourdough bread, smeared with pesto underneath and a little home-made olive-oil mayonnaise on top, dusted with mild pepper flakes), or tortilla/salad wraps; slice it more thickly and scatter over a big salad; cube it and add it to risottos or soups; or, if you can't wait for it to chill, eat it hot, straight out of oven or pan.

What makes this healthy? The marinade is chock full of ingredients with cancer-protective properties: turmeric, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, parsley, black pepper, mixed herbs and paprika powder, with not a single nitrite, sweetener or flavor enhancer in sight. In fact, the marinade is so tasty that you don't need much salt either. And by marinating the meat in this aromatic mixture, you not only imbue it with flavor, you also protect it from the carcinogens that are often created when meat is cooked (see my previous post). 

Make sure that you respect all necessary sanitary precautions, i.e. handling meat with clean hands and utensils, keeping the meat refrigerated in a sealed, clean container while raw (or after you’ve cooked it), and cooking it thoroughly.

Here’s the recipe:

1.1lb / 500g skinless chicken breast (ideally organic, pastured)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

juice of ½ lemon

finely grated zest of ¼ lemon (untreated)

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp paprika powder

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

generous handful parsley

salt, pepper

De-vein the chicken breasts and place in a container that can be tightly sealed.

Place the remaining ingredients (except salt) in a small chopper/blender and blend until emulsified.

Pour marinade over the chicken breasts and spread with a spoon or spatula until the meat is fully coated. Cover dish tightly with food wrap (or use a container with a tight-fitting lid) and chill for at least 2-3 hours, ideally overnight.

When you are ready to cook the meat, pre-heat the oven to 320F/160C, salt lightly on both sides and place in a clean oven-proof dish. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes until the breasts are cooked-through but still slightly soft to the touch (if in doubt, cut through the thickest part to check for doneness – the meat should be slightly juicy but no longer pink or translucent). 

Remove to a plate to cool; then return to the fridge, well covered.

A healthier kind of processed meat

Today I want to show you delicious and healthy alternatives to industrially processed meats. For while it's all very well to talk about how we should swap unhealthy foods for healthier alternatives, many of us are so used to processed bacon, sausages and deli meats, many of us have no idea how we might be able to replicate these ourselves, in our humble kitchens and with limited culinary skills and time.

I'll offer a broad overview of four home-made alternatives to processed meat here, and will post the recipe for each of the four following preparations over the coming days.

Marinated "deli" chicken (watch video of me preparing these here)

Instead of buying those icky-sticky vacuum-packed slices of salt- and preservative-laden, artificially colored and flavored poultry, consider making this delicious, natural chickeny snack. You can slice the meat thinly and use it to fill sandwiches, or tortilla/salad wraps; slice it more thickly and scatter over a big salad; cube it and add it to risottos or soups; or, if you can't wait for it to chill, eat it hot, straight out of oven or pan.

What makes this healthy? The marinade is chock full of ingredients with cancer-protective properties: turmeric, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, parsley, black pepper, mixed herbs and paprika powder, with not a single nitrite, sweetener or flavor enhancer in sight. In fact, the marinade is so tasty that you don't need much salt either. And by marinating the meat in this aromatic mixture, you not only imbue it with flavor, you also protect it from the carcinogens that are often created when meat is cooked (see my previous post).

Chicken breast (ideally from organic, pastured animals) is also an excellent source of high-quality protein; adding it to vegetable- or grain-based dishes can make these more filling, preventing blood-sugar swings and snack-attacks later in the day.

Vegetable-rich meatballs

I usually make a big batch of these, freeze them and defrost as and when I need them. Meatballs work well as a sandwich or wrap filling, lunchbox fillers or finger food for kids, on picnics or long journeys (transported in a cooler) and as a sausage-substitute alongside weekend breakfast eggs. Occasionally I dump a batch into a pot of tomato sauce for a speedy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

You can vary flavors by using different combinations of spices: for hints of Greece, add oregano, mint, garlic and a pinch of lemon zest; or go Lebanese with pine nuts and a pinch of cumin, coriander and cinnamon (ground lamb works great for both).

What makes these healthy? Start with top-quality grass-fed meat, whose praises I have already sung here. These meatballs are baked in a moderate oven rather than fried, grilled or barbecued, further reducing potentially damaging chemicals. Lastly, this is a great way to boost your intake of plant phytochemicals, because nearly half of these "meatballs" is actually not meat (and not breadcrumbs either), but fresh vegetables and herbs (meat-to-vegetable ratio of roughly 55:45) -- a great way of enticing vegetable-hating meat fiends to ingest those dreaded greens (and barely notice they're doing so).

Home-made beef jerky

There's nothing like chomping on a strip of lean, spicy dried meat when you're out hiking in the wild or stuck on a long car journey with no easy access to nutritious, satisfying food. My kids even take a strip or two to school or sporting event sometimes. High-quality protein eaten at regular intervals throughout the day can stave off cravings for sweet snacks and helps sustain energy. And because dried meat is a highly concentrated source of nutrients, little will go a long way.

What makes this healthy? First, we're avoiding the no-no's of most commercial jerky: excess sodium, sugar, artificial flavorings and preservatives. Conversely, the marinade used here brims with healthy ingredients: ginger, turmeric, pepper, lemon, red wine, raw cocoa powder, tomato paste, onions, garlic, cinnamon and apricots. Not only do these create a delicious bouquet of flavors, they also have a range of anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties that may work together synergistically to protect us from disease. (Note: make sure you take all necessary precautions to avoid any food-borne pathogens surviving the drying procedure; see recipe on my Zest for Life blog for details.) 

Fresh marinated pork belly

In case you're confused: no, pork belly isn't a health food! I include it here because, for people who simply can't bear to give up bacon, this preparation is a healthier ternative to mass-produced bacon. Nonetheless, it should remain an occasional treat, carefully prepared and enjoyed in small quantities.

Marinated in lemon juice, garlic and spices, the meat slices can be frozen on a tray lined with baking parchment, transferred to a freezer bag and individually retrieved when needed. Slowly grilled or roasted at moderate temperature they make a tasty addition to an old-fashioned farmer's breakfast. They can also be cubed and added to vegetable stir-fries or egg-fried rice.

What makes this healthier? For one, the absence of nitrates, nitrites, excess salt, artificial flavourings and carcinogenic chemicals resulting from smoking. Moreover, meat from free-ranging pastured hogs tends to be less fatty than from their intensively farmed cousins because of the more active foraging they do. 

There is also some indication that marinating pork in acidic liquids like lemon juice or vinegar prior to cooking may make it less unhealthy (read more about this in the related blog post on my blog.) Always buy the very highest-quality pork you can find -- ideally, pastured in a meadow near you, from animals that haven't been treated with growth enhancing antibiotics or other drugs.

Of course, this is not to say that marinating or drying meat turns it into an anti-cancer superfood; certain meats and preparations are known to increase the risk of colorectal cancer, and there is no scientific evidence that the preparations described above will lower this. (Though if any cancer researchers out there are willing to test my recipes in their laboratory, I'd be delighted to assist them!)

However, what *is* known is that people eating ancestral diets like the Mediterranean -- which does contain meat, in moderate amounts and gently prepared -- have a lower incidence of cancer. And while this can be attributed to a variety of factors, I have a hunch that the absence from their diets of mass-produced junk meat may be one of them.

So if you're going to eat meat anyway, you'll probably reduce your cancer risk if you stick to the recommendations I have issued in this and previous posts: eat modest amounts of meat, buy the highest-quality meat you can afford, prepare it gently (by marinating, drying or gently baking or stewing it) and overwhelm it with a large variety of herbs, spices, vegetables and fruits.