School’s out, the kids are home and moms and dads everywhere are in the kid’s summer food dilemma. For those of you that have picky eaters, just follow my mom’s advice. Get them very very hungry and they’ll eat anything. Granted, they will be moody, fussy and deplorable for a few weeks, but it works.

Since reading the book Fast Food Nation several years ago, I made the decision to completely avoid unhealthy food choices for my kids. So long chicken nuggets, french fries and any other processed type frozen food. Instead, I introduced the kids to the basics such as grilled meats, whole grains and plenty of fruits and veggies.

Oh, and dairy...three servings a day for these little darlings. They were initially resistant, starved themselves for a few days, revolted, wouldn’t speak to me, took it out on the dogs, tried to con my husband when I wasn’t home and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were repeat guests on Dr. Phil.

My grocery lists once loaded with frozen products were now reduced to the bare basics of foods. I shopped the outside perimeter of the grocery store and made only few trips to the middle aisles. I stopped buying fruit juice and replaced their juice boxes with water bottles.

Breads were all 100% wheat or whole grain, cereals had to have at least three grams of fiber, the fruit and vegetable drawers were always loaded and I bought bulk frozen meats whenever they were on sale. Sounds like a kid’s nightmare, but let me tell you something, they were coverts within months. Not only did they covert, but they became creative converts.

Realizing I wasn’t going to budge, they inventoried what I was buying and found their own ways to jazz the food up. For instance, whole grains pretzels were used to dip in little glass bowls of peanut butter, apples were creatively cut by Evan with my great grandmother’s old apple corer, sprinkled with cinnamon and then dipped in peanut butter, whole grain toast was topped with peanut butter, sliced bananas and a drizzle of maple syrup and standard yogurts were placed in the freezer until they resembled ice cream. The kids thought this stuff up all on their own!

I was most impressed with the smoothies they created with old packets of sugar free jello powder. In the blender, Evan and Aidan will put one cup of vanilla yogurt, 1 cup of frozen blueberries and 2 tsp of sugar free strawberry banana jello powder. Once mixed, it tastes like a yummy sweet slurpy you’d find at the convenience store, but it is good for them and they feel proud that they made it.

You can substitute whatever fresh or frozen fruit you have on hand and vary the flavors of jello packets you buy. I love them too and it is a creative way for kids and adults to get their dairy in. Despite all their great efforts, requests for french fries still came in at least once a day. I solved the problem with “Halloween French Fries”.

I cut a sweet potato into strips resembling fries, sprayed them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese, placed them on parchment paper in the oven at 400 degrees, and cooked until crisp. I turn them halfway through and their color is just amazing. The taste is great too and once again, they are good for them.
I have been faithfully changing my children’s diets for several years now and finally they are totally on board. Evan and Aidan are an integral part of meal preparation, they read labels, and grab for fruit or yogurts as snacks before asking for anything else.

They realize they have more energy and are aware of the connection between what they eat and how they feel. Aidan can tell you how many grams of fiber are in every food in the house, they know fiber makes them poop, and they think “brown bread” is sweeter than white bread. We are an average family that made years worth of small changes that added up. When I first started changing what they ate, I admit, it was a nightmare, but I look back now at the successes over the years, marvel at their boundless energy and healthy weights and I am grateful I stuck it out. They are educated, share their knowledge with their friends, no longer crave “fruit snacks” and think Multigrain Cheerios are junk food.

So, just when I thought my kids were perfect, I went to make chocolate chip cookies for a company function (whole wheat flour of course). Much to my surprise, the entire 24 oz. bag of semisweet chips was missing. I hunted for this bag for hours bewildered where they might have gone. The search ended up becoming a complete cardio workout I was so frustrated. Turns out my converts really are creative. I found the empty bag hidden in Aidan’s closet and Evan now has a cavity. The saying I had sworn by for the past few years, had now come back to bite me in the behind. “If you buy it, they’ll eat it”.