Trying to Change Family's Eating Habits!!!

My introduction to nutrition came 35 years ago when I started getting headaches every day. I found out they were sugar-related and banished sugar entirely from my home for many years after that. My daughter did not taste refined sugar or candy for her first 2 1/2 years (and grew up loving fresh fruit).

For me, lifestyle changes are easiest if you focus on just one thing at a time, but really focus. I started with sugar, then a few months later started cooking more fresh vegetables, experimenting with preparation techniques until I found some I actually liked, then moved on with other foods. I couldn't afford organic (and it wasn't much available) until years later.

I've also found that it doesn't work too well to completely banish favorite foods, so your husband might have a hard time adjusting unless you allow reasonable amounts of pizza and ice cream. But you can gradually increase the proportions of healthier foods as you discover "new" favorite meals and treats. And you might be able to keep your boys from developing a soft-drink habit.

I don't use cookbooks, but I'll bet there are lots of good ones at health/nutrition stores. There are also prepared frozen dishes in their freezer cases that serve in a pinch when you want to avoid eating out (which tends to get awfully expensive, and time-consuming when you are herding young children). And I just googled "nutrition, recipes" and instantly got a long list of free resources.

Good luck! This is a wonderful thing you are doing for your family.

Hi A.,

I'm with ya on wanting to go organic more, but our budget is so tight also, and we sound alot like your family, except we've curtailed the eating out ALOT, and my husband doesn't drink soda.

I have a website I'll post at the end, but one thing I found that if I don't buy it, they don't eat it. What I mean is that since I do the shopping, if I don't want them(hubs and 3 kids) to have soda, ice cream, or chips, I don't buy it, and so they can't eat it.

We don't eat much "junk" in my house. The thing *we* need to do here, is get more excercise.

I look forward to reading your replies. Maybe others' ideas will insire me too! :o)

Good luck to you in your mission!

K. W

http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/index.htm
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/recipeindex.htm
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/dietingonabudget.htm

Talk to your husband first. Make sure both of you are on the same side about providing healthy food and a healthier lifestyle for you children. He can have his unhealthy snacks after bedtime. I feel like if he is not on your side about this its going to be harder to pull if off. Especially if you make a meal and he starts saying how much he hates it in front of you kids, they will just copy him in that. Also don't make treats, ice cream whatever the goal when your kids are eating. I give my kids and little scoop of ice cream with the meal if we're planning on having it. Yes they eat the ice cream or whatever first but then they eat their dinner. At least this way the don't fill up on dinner and then cram ice cream on top because its ice cream. I know there are lots of healthy cooking classes all around and I use to get alot out of cooking light magazine.

I decided after my second child to do this as well.
I tell my husband he can have soda but I ask him not to drink it in front of the children.
I serve water all day long in water bottles and rarely serve juice. I try to avoid putting juice or milk in a sippy cup. I reserve them for the table at meals.
I have a balance though. When we go camping I buy hot dogs and capri suns. But I make sure to buy the ones that are sweetened with 100% juice or sugar. NOT HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. You will find that is in everything!!

So, when shopping I don't always buy organic but I try to buy things with only NAatural ingredients. Trader joes is amazing for this. Their products often have many organic things in the ingredients and the ingredients are all natural. Plus the price is almost 1/3 of the regular grocery store.
I go there only once a month and stock up on cereal bars, granola bars, banana chips, nuts, honey sesame sticks, cereal.

So, I'm trying to buy organic but the prices are high. there are a couple delivery companies that are Organics to you and Pioneer Organics. they deliver fruits and veggies.

My family only eats salad, carrots, corn and sometimes fresh brocoli. they do eat fruit so I try to keep that as the snack or along side meals.

I think the most important thing to start with is to eliminate products with High fructose corn syrup, sucrlaose, all the fake sugars. Only use products that are sweetened with 100% juice and or Sugar.

Look at the ingredients and purchase things that don't have perservatives, Hydroginated Oils.

Also, remember don't take everything away some bad stuff is okay at times.

I shop at costco and buy Organic Ice Cream.
They also have Organic pop tarts, oatmeal.

We only eat Whole Wheat Bread and I try to give them Organic Peanutbutter and Honey instead of Jam.

We talk about eating healthy and I tell my kids they need to make healthy choices. They often live on Apples, carrots and other fruits but atleast they are staying away from artifical things.

I am not good at getting them to eat veggies. so I try to sneak them in here and there. I'm plannig to purchase this book
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.

Also as far as your husband goes you cannot always control his eating habits and I hide my husbands treats. I pack his lunch each day and he gets chips, sandwhich, soda.
I let him have his neceties in his lunch and those things are hidden in the house.
He understands that healthy eating habits are good but his problem is that he has just that a habit.

I'd be glad to mentor you on this process.. I am super excited about changing my families habits too! :)

I'd say take baby steps at first. If you suddenly change your family's entire eating pattern you're likely to have a revolt on your hands!

I love smuggling veggies into my meals. Spaghetti sauce can mask shredded carrots, zucchini, and diced up spinach. Mac & cheese is great with broccoli florets, spinach, diced peppers, chicken, lowfat turkey kielbasa, etc. Meatloaf is just begging for diced onions, celery, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, or zucchini. I usually use half lowfat ground beef and half ground turkey to keep the fat to a minimum. Ground turkey can be substitued for beef in almost any dish, and really helps control the fat.

Taco salads are a great, healthy meal my family loves. Brown some ground turkey with taco seasonings, and stir in a can of FF refried beans and a can of corn. Put the mixture over greens and top with LF or FF sour cream (even nonfat plain yogurt is great) and salsa. A few tortilla chips and some sliced avocado are good additions too.

I applaud your efforts at improving your family's eating habits, especially now that you have a child. Childhood obesity is out of control right now, and the sooner you get your kids used to eating healthy, the better.

Go slow! Introduce one new food at a time to get used to. Generally a lot of people like salads. You can give kids carrots, brocoli or cauliflower with ranch dressing as a snack. You can put Pnut butter on celery sticks. You can have salad with the pizza. Just get a smaller pizza and have other food offerings that are healthy so if snacking continues, it's on the healthy stuff. Or, serve a salad first, then have your pizza.

Fruit is great - takes minimal preparation time. Check out this web site: http://www.HonestFoodGuide.org

This has the list of what's healthy, what's not. Again, however, I stress starting slowly. Eliminate or introduce 1 thing every week. For example, cut out sugar (except for fruit) for breakfast. That alone is HUGE! This also means cutting out sugary cereals. I'm convinced this alone is causing a lot of diabetes.

Organic is good, however, you should only go organic with the top "dirty dozen" foods. The foods that are the highest in pesticides and contaminants. Go to this web site to find out more: http://www.reneeloux.com/go_organic/dirty_dozen.html. Also, this web site says which foods should be organic, which is unnecessary: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13737389/page/2/

Again, go slow. This is going to be a long process. Go with feels right first. Then ad the next thing. Make sure you have a good water filter.

Remember these are all habit changes, so you can't swallow the whole thing at once. It's taken me about 8 years of gradual change to get to where i am now in our eating habits.

Hi A.,

I am a Registered Dietitic Technician and I really appreciate your enthusiasm to change your eating habits. Here are my suggetions:
1.Read labels!! If you don't know how google it and I'm sure you can find the info.
2. As much as possible aviod partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup.
3. When shopping avoid processed food as much as possible. Think, "Could I make this from scratch instead?" It's much cheaper to make meals from scratch.
4. Eat a least 4-5 servings of vegetables, 2-3 servings of fruit daily and 3 servings of whole grains.
5. Try to eat whole grains i.e. 100% whole wheat not enriched wheat flour, brown rice. Start out with brown rice mixed with white.
6. Incorporate these ideas slowly into your families meals.
7. Go to the library and bring home a stack of cookbooks. If you like them purchase them.
8. Take a cooking class. I am not sure where you live, but in Seattle we have PCC which is a local food co-op with excellent cooking classes. Or go to your local community college and see if they have any healthy cooking classes.
9. Start a vegetable garden and grow orgainc vegetables. Find organic vegetables on sale, too. Wash non-organic vegetables with a good veggie wash.
10. It can take up to 10 times to try something and like it. Don't give up on your family.
11. Discuss with your husband (and kids when possible)how important healthy eating is not only for him, but for the kids and the environment. Processed food has a lot of packing waste and takes so much more enrgy to process.
12. Go to eatright.org and eatsmart.org and find hand outs on healthy eating.

Good luck and please feel free to email me if you have any questions. M. Rebar DTR

Hi A., Yea, Elizabeth K. She has some great advice. I wish you were close so I could help you in the kitchen for a couple of sessions. I love to prepare meals for my hubby and anyone else that's around. Once you get going everyone in the family, including your husband, will love getting good food compared to the stuff he thinks he likes better. Have fun with this.

What I did was take a nutritional class. Some places offer such classes to families for free. It really made a big difference. For example, in one can of pop (Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper) there is at least 10 tsp of sugar! Wow. When I took my class, they told me to take how many grams of sugar are in something and divide it by 4. You should get how many tsp there are. An usual daily intake of salt for an adult is about 700 mg. We adults in America consume almost three x that amount! Can you believe it? Check your nutritional label. I make sure to stay away from Red Dye 40 and High Fructose Corn Syrup. These things are not good for you at all. Look at your serving contents as well. Take a can of condensed Cream of Celery. Serving size says 1/2 c. But then you look at how many of those 1/2 c. serv. are in there...there are 2.5. So everything on the label? Times it by 2.5. Salt? There are 860 mg in just 1/2 c. of this condensed soup. That already surpasses the adult intake of salt. Crazy huh? Also, when looking at the ingredients in the label, usually first ingredient listed, is what the product has the most of in it.
You could also try looking up recipes on the internet, if you have a computer. A good place to start could be Allrecipes.com I find ALL kinda of recipes on this site. I love it! There are so many ways to make those veggies that people despise, taste great. My son now loves all of these veggies raw or cooked. Hope all of this helps you! I'm am always full of ideas in nutrition. Want to know more? Feel free to email me. :D ~B.

A.,
This is an easy question to answer for me. I have food allergies as well as our youngest son. I don't eat things that are prepackaged. Most of those products are full of chemicals, fat, salt, sugar and fillers. When I purchase canned vegetables like tomato sauce/diced cut tomatoes, I usually get the generic brand because there are less ingredients in them. They taste just the same if not better. We do splurge on things like frozen pizza from Costco, but that is a treat. My kids used to alwyas want to go to McDonalds, but I have cut them back severely. Yes, they scream and cry, but I stick to my guns and take them home to eat.
A great meal to make is oven chicken. My kids love this. I take a roasting pan and one of those oven bags and put a whole chicken inside (I always rinse raw meats before I cook them.) add cut carrots, cut up potatoes peeled or not, cut celery and some water or organic chicken broth. Maybe about 1c diluted with water. It's basically to keep moisture in the bag. I have fresh herbs in my garden, so I add rosemary, basil, tyme and sometimes ground black pepper. I don't usually add salt because celery has natural salt in it. Later when you serve it you can add salt to taste. I bake it at 350 deg. for about 1-1 1/2 hours. Until the chicken is done. The chicken is tender and the vegies are soft.
I also steam vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and serve them without seasonings. If my kids want, I also give them raw vegetables with ranch dressing. They love it.
A great resource for meals is www.foodnetwork.com and look up Rachel Ray. She has some great kid friendly meals as well as a cookbook for cooking with kids. (I have it.) Also the food network website will list recipes according to difficulty. When I use recipes, I never cook exactly what ingredients they have. I always customize it to my tastes and different items I can eat.
Cook using fresh ingredients versus boxed items and don't add seasonings like salt and pepper until after it is done so you don't over season.
Steam, boil and bake as much as possible and avoid frying.
If your kids like sweets, give them fruits like bananas, pears, peaches.
Lastly, don't buy things that have artificial sweetners like aspartame. This is a known product for causing neurological damage. It is hidden in a lot of products especially chewing gum. And stay away from Splenda. If you're going to have sugar, go with raw sugar and stay away from diet items. They claim to be healthy, but most of them aren's like pop. Go with regular and just use/drink less.
Good luck.

You should take a look at Jessica Seinfeld's book: "Deceptively Delicious". It has a lot of great recipes that are kid and adult friendly, and that have some vegetable in each of them (her trick is using different vegetable purees in each dish). Hope that helps.

Hi A.!

Looks like you've gotten some great responses already. It's great that people are becoming so much more aware of what they eat! Yay!!! I just wanted to add one tip. We try to do organic as much as possible but it IS expensive, as you said. However, this helped me decide what's important: I read recently that certain foods are more important to buy organic than others, i.e. more chemicals are used on them. Here's the link to the site. Hope it's helpful! If itdoesn't work go to www.msn.com and search for "dirty dozen foods".
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/Dirty-Dozen-F...

Hello,
Within this past year my family decided to start eating better too. It wasn't easy to do at first, especially the shopping but, it got easier as time went by and now it is a lifestyle.
We switched to organic foods and low fat foods. I did some research on organic foods and basically what that means is that the foods are natural, no added chemicals, hormones, antibiotics etc. Most of the food that we eat from the grocery stores are packed full of cancer causing chemicals, body and emotion changing hormones and antibiotics that cause us to be immune to them working when we need them. In other words we really are getting nothing good or benefical out of our foods these days. Especially when we eat out. Fast food is basically a step up from eating plastic.
By buying organic foods we are cutting out all the bad stuff and filling our bodies with vitimins and nutrients that the food naturally has in it before being altered.
I'm not a fanatic about anything. Everything in balance and moderation. So do I buy everything organic, No! it's impossible for me to do. So what I do is I try to get everything that I can in organic and the rest I just read labels and try to get all natural or low in fat etc.
For snacks I keep a lot of fruit around the house already cut up so it's easy to snack on. I also try to keep some veggies that the kids like with ranch dressing around. I also buy a lot of organic snacks. There are organic pop tarts, cookie packs and granola bars that my kids love.
I don't use any low fat or organic cookbooks. I'm sure there are plenty out there but, I prefer to use quick and easy cookbooks. I just buy healthier ingredients to put in it. I love the gooseberry patch cookbooks. You can probably find them online. I bought mine from a school fundraiser. My favorites are meals in minutes and come on over. Great recepies and very easy to make meals.
If you have a costco store near you, you can find lots of organic and all natural foods there. I try to stick to my main foods such as meats (full of hormones) Dairy (full of hormones) veggies and fruits (genetically altered) Breads (chemical processes in the grain) I switched my mayo from Best Foods which of course was the best. To Vegginase, sounds yucky I know. It is an organic soy and veggie mayo. Surprisingly it is very good and everyone I try it on likes it.
Well good luck to you! I know you will not regret making the change. J.

Sorry so long, but hopefully you find this helpful!

Our family certainly isn't perfect on this, but there are a few things I have done that have made dinners easier and also a little healthier. Both my husband and I work, and we have a 15-month old, so we are pretty busy! Here is a list of things that you might find helpful to do...

1. Make a list of healthier dinners that sound good to you. Look for recipes that you can make ahead of time or take little preparation. Make sure they don't have too many ingredients, or you'll never have the stuff on hand. Be realistic. If there are more than 8 or so ingredients, don't make it a regular meal! Look at the recipes and anything that can be bought & stored like canned tomatos, spices, etc buy several of and get them in your pantry so you will have them.

2) Every 4-6 weeks take a "cooking afternoon" and make a double or triple recipe of some of the dinners. Freeze them! (Very helpful to have a freezer in your garage for this).

3) A few dinners that I make ahead of time and freeze are: stew, chili made with turkey, a chicken italian soup with veggies that is very good, a soup that we call hamburger soup- that is really like a beef/veggie soup, pasta sauce that I make with turkey instead of beef (don't tell your husband he will NEVER know!), meatloaf. That is 7 dinners and a full week of meals! There are a number of recipe sites, but I use allrecipes.com the most. They have ratings and advanced searches so you can find exactly what you want.

4) Think of a few recipes that you like for dinner that are easy (not just freezable - cause you'll get sick of those). Tacos are pretty easy, grilled chicken breast & broccoli, etc.

5) AND - This was most helpful to simplifying my cooking... Go shopping on Sat/Sun to get ready for the week! Thinking through what you will eat for the week is probably the BIGGEST key to eating right. We mostly eat badly when we are tired and short on time, and don't have anything ready to go. I want to stress that the most important thing here is to FIRST think about what you will eat and THEN shop. Never shop without a list!

6) Eventually, you will get more of a rhythm down. When this happens, you will probably have a "stock" list of things you almost always need everyweek. Type it up, so you have it and use it when you make your list for the grocery store.

7) Don't be afraid to sometimes have grocery stores deliver to you! It costs $10 and is well worth it for those weeks when there is just no time to shop. Note: Your first shopping order with those websites takes forever, but after that it is usually much easier and fast!

Good luck! Be realistic. Don't overhaul everything at once! And, don't let your husband peer pressure you into bad food (my husband does all the time - he sounds a lot like your husband! LOL). I found that I would hold back on making the healthy stuff because I wondered if my husband would complain. But, you know what? He NEVER did. He was just glad there was food in front of him!!!

Hi A.!

I have found that an important step in healthy lifestyle change is food education. When you learn how to read a label and what those things do to your body, you just can't buy certain things any more, thus they aren't around to consume. My husband and I read "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman. It is extreme--and can be used as a diet, but very educational. It changed my husband's life (I've always been a nutrition freak, but he was consuming Mountain Dew like it was going out of style, among other things). We also rarely eat out because it's just not affordable these days, and who knows what they are cooking with even when it seems like a healthier option? We only have one young son thus far, but since he's growing up with only healthy, whole foods around, I'm assuming he won't be the wiser or he'll starve (however the veggie thing is tricky...). I've been reading and hearing a lot of suggestions on Jessica Seinfeld's book, so I'll have to read that. Hope that helps a little. It's worth the research to be healthy.

God bless!

I'm an adoring wife to a wonderful man and a SAHM to a 17 month handsome lil' fella.

Dr. Sears has wonderful tips and practical advice for getting both younger and older kids (so maybe it would work for husbands!) to eat more healthily in his book "The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track."

The main thing I would start with is to start reading labels and stop buying anything with hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, or MSG/mono sodium glutamate. Cutting back on buying processed foods is a good idea as well.

"Deceptively Delicious" has some wonderful recipes to hide healthy food in more mainstream foods so I would think that a combination of the Dr. Sears book (for the facts) and that one (for the recipes) would be most helpful.

Best wishes!
~B.

Check out Rachael Ray's website and charity Yum-o. It is all about helping kids eat healthy. Yum-o has a family cookbook. there is some "sneaking" in veggies but mainly get them to help prepare and serve it in a fun way.

Good for you!! That is a HUGE task, I am still trying to convince my husband that vitamins and herbs are not "snakeoil", hang in there. Don't get too frustrated when things don't seem to be working. Tell your hubby not to worry, "green" doesn't mean endless boring salads. There are LOTS of ways to slip in some veggies and they will ask for seconds :-)

I would suggest finding a local co-op/health food store and ask if someone could show you around and give you a tour of sorts and info, I know at my co-op they are very helpful and knowledgeable.

The quickest thing is to start reading labels and replacing bad versions of good food, i.e, refried beans, they can have "hydrongenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils and those are bad, lots of bread has "high fructose corn syrup" in them, which is bad.

Start using fresh or frozen fruits and veggies.

Smoothies with yogurt and fruit and honey are a good way to get some healthy dairy and fruits.

Try to go as close to scratch as you can, don't buy the breaded chicken nuggets, buy plain frozen chicken pieces instead, etc

Eat more fish

drink more water (if you young ones drink juice instead, you might trying adding water to their juice, gradually increasing the water until they are just drinking water.)

Stay away from added colors and such

Kids tend to like fruit, encourage that. Also, go on a taste tour with fruit as it comes in season, buy something you have never tried and encourage your family to try it too, starfruit, passionfruit, bloodoranges, etc, you can play it up with the kids, and let them see food as surprises waiting to be discovered.

here is a link you might find helpful, and feel free to contact me, this is a subject I love and am still learning about and love to talk about.

World's Healthiest Foods (HIGHLY recommend)
http://www.whfoods.org/foodstoc.php

I also have food sensitivities that I have to work around, which makes me kind of bored and brave in the kitchen. I use quinoa sometimes in place of white rice (check out how good this food is on the link I gave)

high fructose corn syrup information
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup...

hydrogenated oil information
http://www.transfatfree.com/pages/art_hydrogenation.htm
http://www.transfatfree.com/pages/healthy_low_fat_snacks.htm

Hi -
A GREAT resource (I think at least) is foodnetwork.com or watch the shows too. They have all kinds of ways to look up recipes/ingredients. When I am stuck of what to make, I will just type in an ingredient in the recipe finder and it will pull up a TON of ideas. When you watch a show you can print out the recipes from the website either by the recipe name, chef, or time/date the show aired. I do watch some of the shows, so I have picked out a few chefs that I like to try their recipes and know that they aren't too difficult or complicated (for me at least but I like to cook). Dave Liberman, Sarah Lee, and rachel RAy are good ones in my opinion. Also Ellie Krieger's recipes are all broken down with the fat content, calories, ect if you really want to be aware of the nutrients. I also will use canned or frozen in place of some of the fresh to help with budget and to make it quicker. They also have approximates of the prep time, cooking time ect so you know what you are getting into before you start. Hope that helps! T.

A.,
I made this last night and it was great. My 3 year old boy loved it and so did my beer-belly husband. The night before we ate one of those rotisserie chickens on salad, so the chicken in the dish is some of the left over from that.

Sensible Quesadillas
Med size whole wheat tortillas
Low fat cheddar cheese
Regular mozarella (pre shredded in package)
chicken
black beans
green pepper
onion
tomato

Lightly spray frying pan with cooking spray (olive oil) to prevent burning. Put Tortilla in pan, set heat to med. Cut up some cheddar (not too much, just three slices or so cut in halves) and put on one side of tortilla. Add black beans (pre cooked for a few min on the stove top to make tender) Add shredded chicken and chopped onion and peppers. Lastly sprinkle mozzarella on the top and fold tortilla over. Press down with spatula and reduce heat. After a minute flip onto other side. Cut into quarters and serve with low fat sour cream or salsa (optional)and diced tomatoes on top. Yummy!

A good way to learn to eat in general is to go to a couple of weight watchers meetings. If you don't do a membership it's about $12 a meeting and you really learn a lot about nutrition and tricks to make your diet delicious and healthy.

PS - Calcium is really important, try to get your kids and husband to start eating low fat yogurt or pudding for desert.

Sounds like your husband may be a bit hard to budge. Like he too, is young. (Have him check out the fine bodies of soda drinkers in their 40s.) There is so much advice out there...cull the pile carefully!!! #1-Stay away from soda and ALL things with corn syrup. #2 Watch fats carefully. Stale fat is the worst thing to put in your body-even worse than corn syrup- (but the amount counts). Use extra virgin olive oil, but do not cook with it! Grape seed oil has a high smoking point and is therefore more stable. #3 Do eat organic as much as you can. Organic not only means no pesticides or herbicides, but the food is not genetically modified-(read up on big chemical companies-Monsanto, Du Pont, Dow and the evil they have done for decades). Where do you think all that poison ends up? Tons and tons and tons of poisons every year- in the ground and into the ground water and into the oceans, and into us and our precious children. Infertility, autisum, cancer, diabeties all on the rise. How did this happen? (Corporate profits up! Health care costs up! Is your health or your childrens health for sale?) The cure? Grow a garden and/or eat organic and just say no to chemicals. Getting out of eating at fast food places is great because they use the cheapest food and usually the worst food too. (remember those profits!) Read, read, read and talk to people who look like they have lifestyles you want for yourself. Good luck.

HI A. -

I love Cynthia Lair's book "Feeding the Whole Family." She has great ideas for everyone in the family - lots of veggies and brown rice, etc. Her stuff can sound a little strange at first (she uses a lot of alternative sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice syrup, etc. and she uses some sea vegetables to flavor some of the items), but I have made most of the things in her book and they are all outstanding. My family likes the recipes as well. She also has a website - http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/ and it's great. She talks about different grains and makes several recipes there. This book and these recipes helped change the way my family eats and i think you may find it helpful. Good luck!

There is a cookbook called "More with Less" by Doris Janzen Longacre, published by Herald Press. It's all about eating healthy, it has recipes from all over the world, and it has tips and explanations on what makes things healthy, economical, and world-conscious. My mother used her copy to pieces, and I've nearly done the same with mine. It's a great book.

What works for me is to alternate "challenge" meals with known favorites.

Example: on Monday night I'll cook a healthy meal that I know will be a challenge for the kids to eat. When they start to complain I change the subject by asking them what they want to dinner the next night.

The on Tuesday night I'll make the mac-n-cheese/hamburgers/etc. that I know they like.

Wednesday night will then be another "challenge" dinner and the pattern begins again.

Good luck and stay strong. - S.

Don't worry about going organic right away. It sounds like you need to start with the basics. Here are some quick tips. I would suggest starting small. Making little adjustments here and there, so that over time you will have made the family healthier w/o a big battle at every meal.

Switch to Whole Grains in your bread products.
Everybody loves pizza, and you can feel a little less guily if its on a whole wheat crust. You can get whole wheat hot dog and hamburger buns too. There are lots of whole wheat crackers out there, and even whole wheat white bread. Its a fairly easy adjustment w/o a price difference at the grocery store... and so much better for you.

Eat the Rainbow! Add color to your meals. Red Peppers, Orange Carrots, Green Lettuce, Yellow Squash... you get the idea. See if the kids want to help. Pick one color at a time. It can be a game in the grocery store "find someting orange" and then for dinner the kids eat their found treasure.

Have ready made healthy snacks available. Chips are easy because you just grab and go. Wheat crackers, and baby carrots can be just as easy, and so much better for you.

Have carrot cake or oatmeal raisen cookies instead of devils food and chocolate chip. Its still a sweet, but with an added healthy bonus.

Shop the perimeter. All the good stuff (read fresh and natural) is on the outskirts of the store... produce, dairy, meats, etc... get all that stuff first before heading into aisles of boxes and preservitives.

Remember, baby steps can yeild big rewards. Good luck and healthy eating!

Well, I can tell you it's WAY cheaper to eat organic at home than it is to eat out.
I like simple recipes without too many ingredients. If you buy fresh produce and good quality meat then you won't need a lot of fancy stuff to make it taste good.
I'd say start slow with your husband and start incorporating new dishes. Cooking Light recipes are always a good start.
I love checking out cook books from the public library too. Rachel Ray has some good ones. Sunset magazine has great recipes too.
I try lots of new things and occasionally there is a dud and my husband says, "we might not want to have that one again." but most of the time it's a success. My two teenage step kids say I am a fantastic cook.
Learn how to make simple steamed rice and there are tons of things you can serve on top of that. Very healthy.
Try just steaming your veggies so they are still crisp. Pampered chef makes a great little microwave steamer that I use almost every day!
Experiment - don't be afraid to try something new. You can do it!

Hi A., It is good that you are doing this now. I saw that you had several other long answers already so I will make this short. For a husband who dispises green and not a lot of time to make fancy dinners you should have a day of cooking. Sounds fun huh. I try to take one day a month make up casorols that I can just through into the oven from the freezer with everything in them for a balanced dinner. Most of the time they don't even know what there eating. I as brocolli in the tiniest pieces to lasangna. I also make a tatar tot casorol, enchiladas, chili,ect. I put them in frezzer safe container, some in containers that freeze then go directly in the oven. Its great. If you want more in depth recipes let me know. Dinner is tough for me. I am lucky my husband loves to cook. When he is home.
A.

I would definitely say that the most important steps are to increase your families fruits and veggies, stay away from high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and partially hydrogenated oils. Read labels. Look for whole grains wherever you can. Soda is of course BAD, but sometimes you just have to do what works. Good luck.

It's a great goal! Just be sure to take it one step at a time. I first tackled breakfasts. I made my own granola (you can buy lots of healthy kinds, too!) and we eat that with yogurt and fresh fruit. I also found crock-pot oatmeal recipes that can cook during the night. The rule at our house now is that you have a hearty bowl of granola or oatmeal before any other cereal. I've noticed a change in our energy levels, cheerfulness with this change!

Now I'm working on changing our lunches. :)

For the record, we decided that going organic wasn't as critical for us (due to the cost), but that spending more money on lots of fruits and veggies was better. There are lots of fruit markets here that support local farmers without necessarily being labeled organic. I also bake and cook from scratch more.

Good luck! It's a worthy cause!

PS - the kids complain at first, but get used to it. a good children's book about food choices is "Eat Healthy, Feel Great" by Sears.

I've found Martha Stewart's "Everyday Foods" magazine at the checkout (cheaper to subscribe!) to be an excellent resource, for good, easy to cook (I promise! ) meals.

I commend you for your choice for a healthier family!

K.

First of all, don't worry about organic vs non-organic at this stage. Even eating out or bringing it in all prepared can be done in a healthy way. Soda, as in Coca Cola, used to be a staple at our house until our sons heard differently from their cross-country coach, it's water at our house all the time or fruit smoothies occassionally. Milk is still a beverage at breakfast and dinner. Lunch is at school and I think water rules there. Calcium is taken via cheese, yogurt and the occassional ice cream. Brocoli is also a good source. You have young kids and planting a garden box with leaf lettuce, radishes and green onions are a great way to introduce fresh vegies and inspires their consumption. Buy a grape tomato plant and have them help care for it. Take them berry picking, bean picking... go to the Pike Place Market or your local farmer's market.. let them talk with the grower.
Lead by example. If all you have in the house is healthy stuff, it makes it a whole lot easier to fix. I banned potato chips from our grocery list years ago. My husband would sit with a bag of chips and a can of coke and he'd be happy, definitely not healthy. Now it's brocoli, carrot sticks, almonds, Sun Chips or air popped popcorn. A little bit of pizza is a good thing, just not a daily staple. You need a little starch, a little protein, some vegetable matter ... Serve a pasta meal and fix slices of garlic french bread, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and pop it under the broiler. But only make enough slices so each person gets one slice. You can't pork out if there's only one slice fixed. Get yourself a rice cooker/steamer. You can fix rice as a starch, steam chicken breasts and vegies along with. Good stuff. But working a garden spot in your yard or a planter box is a great thing for kids. Visiting a farm or a fair so they can see where their food comes from is great. Picking and harvesting your fruits and vegetables, canning or freezing them guarantees how they were preserved and processed, keeps the prices down in this skyrocketing economy. Take care and enjoy!!!

Go get the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. It contains a lot of recipes with hidden veggies inside. My family loves it!

I see you already have a ton of responses, so I'll try to keep this short.

First of all, it's great to see another young wife and mother. People think it's strange that I'm 27 and have 3 kids, been married for 7 years, and am still head over heels for my husband!! Anyway . . .

Start off simple. I started with Dr. Oz's (from Oprah) guidelines: No High Fructose Corn Syrup, No Partially Hydrogenated anything, and don't buy pre-made if you can make it yourself with real food. That's it. You will learn and grow from there. Just start with reading the labels and if you see either of those two ingredients, don't buy it! Concentrate on food in it's first form before anything has been done to it, and you're well on your way!

Oh, and for great basic recipes, like pie crust (so you don't have to buy it), biscuits, sauces, etc., look at book stores and yard sales for old Betty Crocker. I get almost all of my "just like grandma's" recipes from my 1961 Betty Crocker!

Hi A.!
All of the suggestions here are RIGHT ON! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the "Hillbilly" website--you will find gobs of simple and easy to make food items that are good for you.
When I made THE decision (like you) to change how we ate in our house, I tried to do it all at once, and that was a HUGE mistake. So, as others have suggested, do it a little at a time.
The only thing I can add to the other great suggestions, is that my husband and my kids were equally entertained AND willing to eat "Breakfast for Dinner", and I would chop up veggies (and fruits too), and have them served up on a HUGE platter, so that everyone could pull off what they wanted to eat. We also changed our venue when we ate like this--so I covered the coffee table, and we sat Japanese style (on the ground) and it really was fun doing it this way.
As far as keeping it simple, with veggies, I buy them all frozen, mostly because I get mad when they spoil in the fridge, if we don't eat them soon enough, and I just can't get to the store every day.
Also, it is SO easy to throw frozen spinach, any greens, any veggies, into the microwave (in a glass container with a lid)--for 4 minutes +/- (don't cook them to death so they look like canned veggies-BLECH!) and drain excess water, and add about 3-4 TBSP. of olive oil, salt & a little pepper, and it all tastes WONDERFUL! SO many people hate veggies, because their moms probably used canned veggies, and those truly suck.
I also bought ($10.00) a cool little thing from Bed,Bath & Beyond--it is called "Misto". It is a cylinder that you can pour any liquid into (I use it for olive oil, and for lemon juice instead of Pam or other cooking sprays) and the lid is also a pump that forces air into it (no fluoro carbons!) and you get a great spray out of it!
Thats it for me. If you have any questions, or if I can offer any help, please e mail me :)
Becca

www.foodfit.com is a good website. You can also get good recipes and tips from discoveryhealth.com. Good luck, I am about halfway through the same thing myself. Its a slow process when you have a stubborn family.

Eating healthy can be WAY more cost effective than Dr. Pepper and cheeze pizza. I would start with things that are common, like making burritos (beans are the best thing for your heart!), adding yummy things like cilantro to them. There is a recipe book that Seinfield's wife wrote that hides healthy things like spinach in brownies...you might want to google that. Also, you can make things like speghetti healthy by adding broccoli, zucchini and other veges along with the meatballs etc. Your husband needs to realize he is a role model (as you are to) for healthy eating. It is SUPER important b/c of the high obesity and diabetes rates in children. I see it a ton b/c i am a teacher (as well as a mama). Try to see what kinds of yummy salads you can make adding glazed walnuts (just heat walnuts with honey or sugar), and pear slices with them. Also, you should have around snack foods that are not "white" but orange or green. Like snap peas, celery sticks (make ants on a log with peanut butter and raisins), or carrot sticks. A GREAT magazine to check out is "Eating Well" which gives tons of great ideas for recipes and nutrition advice. It also has beautiful pictures.

I feel your pain! I've been trying to change my family's diet for a while now and have had only marginal luck. My husband is the same only his choices are hawaiin pizza and coke. Rachel Ray has an organization that focuses on education and nutrition it's called yummo. You could probably find a lot of really good ideas on there. I wouldn't worry about going organic especially if you have a tight budget. It really is alot more expensive. I would go organic on the things that really are super bad like meats and dairy. An idea I use a lot is hiding chopped frozen spinach in everything. Spaghetti suace, hamburger pattys etc. you can see it but it adds alot of veggie without changing the taste. Also, I add 2/3 cup pumkin (I use canned) to a batch of pancake batter, also yummy without changing the taste. I would also suggest not buying any processed white flour products. Unbleached flour is better (not the best) than white but try switching fully to whole grains. That will be a big step. Winco's "cascade pride" bread is only a 1.09 per loaf and is really good. Also, whole wheat pasta is really yummy.

There are probably a lot of great cook books out there to help you get started eating healthier but my husband and I really like Eating Well magazine. They weekly planners of recipies that take 30 min or less and many other nutritious, but yummy ideas. They have lots of meat recipies, veggies recipies and recipies that appeal to kids and adults alike. Good luck!

A great website my friend referred me to is www.myrecipes.com - it's from Cooking Light and there are tons of various recipes in different categories, such as "30 minutes" etc.

Also, I have the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious" - it tells how to get veggies in to your kids food, but lots of the recipes are things I eat as well, so that may work for your husband.

Good for you for taking on a healthier lifestyle. It's a real challenge, but you'll be glad you did. Oh, and yes, while organic is ideal, you can be healthy without it. The best foods to buy organic if you want to start small are the foods that you eat the skins on - apples, strawberrries, grapes, bell peppers, etc.

Good for you! You've got a worthy task and a long row to hoe, but you're going to make it! I definitely have recipes, but that's not going to help you unless the recipes have ingredients you think you might like or that you feel you can make. My advice is to start leafing through cookbooks--vegetarian cookbooks especially because they can guide you to healthy and cheap food. Check them out at the library, so you don't have to buy them or look online for recipes. Find something that looks interesting and try it. Try hard to get your husband on board, because you're going to have a hard time with the kids and it will be even harder if you husband is disparaging the food. Try to make a rule about at least trying everything. Studies show that kids often need to try something at least 10 times before liking it.

The other thing I think you should do is plant a garden or go to farmers markets over the summer. Sometimes we think we don't like certain vegetables or fruits because we've never tried them really fresh. Trust me, it tastes better and your family will notice, too. My daughter looooves steamed beets at the age of 5 when she sometimes refuses even rice. So you just never know.

Good luck!

I didn't have time to read all responses because of my wonderful 19 mos old. Grate carrots or zucchini in spaghetti or sloppy joes. Plus, I slowly started adding wheat noodles or buns. Even though my husband picks out broccoli or peppers, etc. He actually complimented me on helping them learn to be healthy and he said "these flavors make the food taste better even if I pick out stuff." Sometimes instead of bread I use Hawaiian rolls, pita or chili tortillas. The healthiest thing I learned was about how awful pop is. Lemon lime soda, root beer, etc. has no caffeine but it has sodium benzoate (preservative) and it causes cancer. Anything diet with aspartame or sucrose causes it too. Lately, we buy green tea sweetened w/ honey (high sugar but no cancer), Northland juices, juicy juice or juices w/o high fructose corn syrup. Plus, I get La Croix sparkling water and add juice to the can. ( I pour some of the can in a sippy with juice and water for the baby then pour juice in the can for hubby or we split a can.) Hansen's or Blue something pop is the best but we can't always afford much. Sun chips are a little better than some. In a hurry I'll buy Bertolli meals and add a salad, and some toast. Apple or nectarine slices for a snack right before we eat. Yams have 200% vitamin A so I cook up some in cubes with potatoes with some scrambled eggs and cheese. English muffins for homemade MC muffins, toast or mini pizzas. Bagels with flavored cream cheese makes a fun snack. Plus, pre-made hash brown patties makes things go quick for camping or busy days. Plus, we buy pop tarts w/o icing and add Brummel as the butter. Brummel only has 46 calories because it's butter made with yogurt and you can't tell. Hide broccoli or cauliflower with cheese or whip cooked cauliflower in mashed potatoes. Have fun with your family and soon they will all have their favs.

Ok, I say read labels. This has been huge to our family. You would be amazed at what is in the food you buy.
Then you can sneak stuff in. I feed the kids broccoli with ranch dressing. Now the kids will eat broccoli without the ranch.
I cut (chop) fresh spinach up, and then I ad it to my burger for spaghetti. But you can ad it to anything that you are cooking.
I also use turkey burger instead of beef. You can start out with 1/2 and 1/2 and then work your way to pure turkey. As long as you spice it.
The kids also like things like rice cakes and hummus.
I found that having pre-cut veggies on hand would increase their use. I also have a fruit bowl on the table.
Cooking stuff from scratch is also a good way to go.
Good luck

Hmm- why not start off slow...dont jump right into salad everynite, how about making some tacos and "burgers" out of ground lean turkey? I make the taco meat with turkey, then put all the toppings in bowls and the kids gt to choose what they want: chopped spinach (we use instead of lettuce), tomatoes, olives, green onions,cheese, avocadoes, cheese, salsa,etc. THe kids love it and have a blast. You can do the same for burgers,with lean ground beef or turkey. Lay out lettuce, tom, cheese, etc. whatever. THen always before I serve a meal, when everyone's starving I lay out a plate of baby carrots, cucumbers, peppers, etc and the kids will come up and eat some. That way atleast I know they are eating something healthy. Good luck! Remember to make it fun!

Here's the best advice I ever got. Shop only on the outer perimeter of the grocery store. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, & extra lean meats. All the stuff in jars & cans lost their vitamin potency long ago. You don't need to buy organic. If you have a local farmers market, shop there. And wash them really well. Also, have you seen the cookbook written by Jerry Seinfield's wife? She buys vegies at the farmers market, chops, freezes them in ice cube trays and then adds them to her pasta or other recipes and the kids and hubby don't even know they are eating them. I need to go buy that book!

Hi A.!
Good for you for being actively involved in keeping your family healthy! That's awesome.
Here is the websites I used. Check them out. The top two even have recipe searches, based on ingredients you have already.... great for a quick dinner idea if you don't have time to run to the store. They include calorie, fat and other nutrition info, so check that out too.
www.kraftfoods.com
www.allrecipes.com
www.weightwatchers.com
(I know, I know, it's a diet website but they have access to recipes for free too. I've been pleasantly surprised at how good some of them tasted... and my family has been too!)
Good luck! And have fun with it.
If your family likes to grill, the kraft website has lots of fun grilling ideas- like tossing veggies in italian dressing and putting them in an aluminum foil (throw-away) cooking pan with holes punched in the bottom of it. And grilling veggies that way. I thought it was fun!
:-)

Read "French Women Don't Get Fat" written by a French lady who gives you the load down on French eating habbits and she teaches some good healthy food relationships and cooking concepts for a healthier style of eating but also creating a healthy love relationship with food.

The food network (foodnetwork.com) is a great resource for recipes and I believe they have a healthy section too. I consider that my husband and I eat fairly healthy. Buy organic, buy whole grains (such as brown rice, wheat bread etc.). Keep fresh fruits and veggies ready to eat. Use olive oil and real butter to cook with. Keep the processed food out of the house, if you are anything like us, if it is in the house we eat it. Maybe give yourself a limit on how many times you eat out to control that. Good luck.

I have also been on a quest to get my hubby to eat healthier. Here is what I found sucessful:

Pick up a copy of Everyday Food at the checkout counter of the grocery store. All of the recipies have very few, simple ingredients, and are pretty healthy in general. It is a good way to try some new foods, and the recipies are all yummy. All my hubby knows is that the food tastes good. If he knew it was healthy, he probably wouldn't eat it.

Who knew we would like parsnips?? But they are now one of our favorite veggies thanks to this little magazine.

Start with small changes. I have been adding things one at a time, while subtracting other to make my kids diets better. We have slowly replaced snacks full of sugar and such with healthier options like apples dipped in peanut butter, or trail mix. My son, who used to hate all vegies, is now an avid eater of greenbeans and sugar snap peas. We are still working on carrots and tomatoes. I have found that if I change too much all at once, I get resistance, but if I sneak in little changes, it all runs smooth.

I like watching the tv show on BBC
You are what you eat. It is usually on at 1pm.
I like to see the nutritionalist work with families, lots of good ideas for kids and husbands.

The website is
http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/273/index.jsp