Ingredients:
One large package chicken wings (about 20)

¼ cup mango nectar (I used R.W.’s Mango Nectar)
¼ cup hot sauce* (I used Nando’s Hot Peri-Peri Sauce)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon each:
garlic powder
onion powder
turmeric
dried oregano
apple cider vinegar
salt

Method:
1) Rinse chicken wings and pat dry. With poultry scissors, snip off the wing tips.
2) Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl with a whisk.
3) Place chicken wings in a 10″ X 14″ glass baking pan, pour the sauce over the wings and turn to cover wings with the sauce. Marinate in the refrigerator for about an hour.
4) Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Turn the wings in the sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn wings over and bake another 20 minutes.

5) Place in serving dish and brush with drippings from the pan. (*Taste a hot wing, if you want it hotter, add a teaspoon more hot sauce to the drippings before brushing the wings.)

Serve with large napkins and Blue Cheese Dressing…YUM!

Tristan is realizing someone has to actually catch a chicken, before dinner!

You’ll Need:
One 3-pound farm-raised chicken
1 tablespoon (or more) salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 or 3 sweet potatoes
1 large onion

Method
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
1. Wash and thoroughly dry the chicken inside and out with paper towels. The less steam and drier heat the crispier the chicken. Salt and pepper the cavity.
2. Truss the chicken (tie the legs together with cooking twine).
3. “Rain” the salt over the chicken. Rain salt on both sides of the chicken.
4. Place the chicken in a roasting pan. Cut up the sweet potatoes (thick slices) and onion (also thick slices) and scatter on the bottom of the pan to catch the fat drippings to help with splatter and also to have something else super yummy to eat!
5. Roast the chicken for 40 min (breast side down) then turn it and cook it for an additional 20 more min (breast side up) to get the other side crispy.
6. When you take it out of the oven to let it rest flip it back over so the juices run back into the breast of the chicken. Let it rest on a cutting board for 15 minutes.
7. Slice the chicken and serve with the sweet potatoes. (Save the bones and use for chicken stock.)

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The study, led by researches from Cornell University, found that while adults tend to find three items of different colors most appealing, children preferred much greater diversity. On average, they preferred seven different items on their plates and six different colors.

Think like a kid, because kids find different things appealing.
Have your kids help assemble these Mouse Eggs. They are fun to eat!
Click Here for a fail-safe hard boiled egg recipe.

Study co-author and Cornell postdoctoral research assoicate Kevin Kniffen said, “Compared with adults, children not only prefer plates with  more elements and colors, but also their entrees placed in the front of the plate with figurative designs.”

With Baby Bites, learning to acquire new tastes is fun. I included 12 Fun Food Facts and Big Bite Activities in my book. These will not only familiarize your child with various foods, but it’s guaranteed that you’ll have a great time in the process.

The Big Bite Activities incorporate all seven sensory techniques. When you accomplish an activity with your child, she’ll listen to you read the steps, interact with you verbally, touch the food, move as required to complete the activity,  completed, and lastly smell and taste the result.

Always keep in mind how your child thinks. Learning is fun for kids. Don’t make mealtime a chore. Remember to keep food visually appealing, it’ll make a difference for the picky eater.

Make Egg Boats– Click Here.
Make funny face pancakes– Click Here.

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
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The following statement from a Facebook posting is not entirely true:

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what fast-food chicken is made – things like chicken nuggets and patties. In addition, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it. Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve — bones, eyes, guts, and all. It comes out looking like a pink python.

There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be re-flavored artificially. Finally, since it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color. You eat this every time you order chicken nuggets or a chicken patty sandwich.

The Truth:
*The entire chicken is not ground up to make the chicken paste as the bones are removed.

*The meat is not “soaked” in ammonia. Ammonia is no longer  approved food additive. (We’ll that’s a relief.)

Somehow this explanation doesn’t make me feel any better: According to the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service, “Mechanically separated meets are the real thing and are safe. Very simply, mechanical separation is a way of getting every last piece of meat from the bone of a chicken, turkey, or other food animal. Bones with edible meat attached are forced under high pressure through a device that separates the bone from the meat. It’s a process that’s been used since the 1960′s and for a variety of popular products.”

I guess we should just trust the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service. After all they’re looking out for the folks (or maybe not).  They say mechanically separated products are “safe, wholesome, nutritious, and useful in providing consumers with the wide variety of economical meat and poultry products.”

It’s a good thing any product containing mechanically separated chicken must be labeled as such in the ingredients statement. This ruling became effective November 4, 1996. Products which might contain mechanically separated chicken are hot dogs, sausage, fast food nuggets and chicken patties as well as frozen nuggets and chicken patties.

What About McDonalds?
Are the chicken nuggets the healthier choice on McDs menu? The Facebook posting singled out McDonalds as using mechanically separated chicken in their nuggets. McDonald’s previously used mechanically separated chicken. Today, they claim they use the white meat from chicken. Do you feel better? Do you still believe the nuggets and chicken patties are the healthier choice at McDs? If you do, then read this from The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

“Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There’s some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasi-edible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the “leavening agents”: sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are “anti-foaming agents” like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it’s also flammable.

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to “help preserve freshness.” According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.” Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
& The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

With Deen’s recent admission that she has Type 2 Diabetes (and has known since 2008) the backlash has been fierce for the popular Food Network personality. Deen is a proponent of high-fat foods.

People are pointing fingers at her love of everything-smothered-in-butter as a cause of her diabetes. Weight certainly plays a role in controlling diabetes. Fried foods don’t help at all. While fat intake for diabetics has more to do with what kind of fat a person consumes; it’s the simple carbs, especially sugar, that are especially problematic for diabetics.

Paula Deen — the queen of fried food.

Deen should replace the oils she uses in her cooking with coconut oil and eat less fried food. Heating any oil at  high temperatures turns it into a trans fat. Coconut oil takes the heat better than other oils. If she would then eliminate sugar, Deen will certainly gain control over her high sugar numbers.

Most nutritional advice for diabetics is to avoid all fat. Despite the knowledge that fat is not only good for you, but necessary. The problem is most people consume the wrong kinds of fat. All altered fats (trans fat) and processed oils are harmful. Virgin coconut oil is most likely the healthiest of all oils and it’s naturally saturated.

Contrary to what you may have heard, not all saturated fat is unhealthy. This is from Coconut Cures (one of my favorite books) by Bruce Fife:

“…coconut oil may be one of the best foods for diabetics. Glucose as well as long-chain fatty acids requires insulin to enter the cells. Medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil do not need insulin. They can pass through the cell membrane and enter without it. Not only do MCFAs pass through the cell membrane with ease, but they also penetrate the mitochondria without assistance. Mitochondria are the energy producing organs of the cell. They take glucose or fatty acids and transform them into the energy the cells require to carry on their metabolic processes and keep them alive.

…Not only are MCFAs in coconut oil able to feed the cells without the need of insulin, they also help improve insuline secretion, insulin sensitivity, and glucose tolerance. Lauric and capric acids, which make up the majority of the fatty acids in coconut oil, enhance the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin. All of the MCFAs in coconut oil stimulate metabolism, thereby increasing the prodution of insulin and the absorption of glucose into the cells. This is good news for the many diabetics who depend on daily insulin injections. Coconut oil can help reduce their dependency on insulin medication.”

CLICK HERE for ordering information for
Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
& The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) This is an exclusive breaking news story from NaturalNews. Dow AgroScience, LLC, is petitioning the U.S. government to deregulate a genetically engineered variety of corn that is resistant to 2,4-D, an extremely toxic pesticide that was 50% of the recipe to making Agent Orange (used in the Vietnam War as a weapon of mass destruction).

This is all admitted right out in the open in the federal register text:
http://www.federalregister.gov/arti…

“We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has received a petition from Dow AgroScience LLC seeking a determination of nonregulated status of corn designated as DAS-40278-9, which has been genetically engineered for increased resistance to broadleaf herbicides in the phenoxy auxin group (such as the herbicide 2,4-D) and resistance to grass herbicides in the aryloxyphenoxypropionate acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase inhibitor group (such as quizalofop herbicides).”
Kaylee wants to know, “What could be wrong with fresh corn?”

The chemical pesticide group 2,4-D can cause acute toxicity and was a major component (roughly 50%) of Agent Orange, says Cornell University: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profile…

Rats fed 2,4-D produced “fetuses with abdominal cavity bleeding and increased mortality,” says the Cornell link above, which also states that 2,4-D may cause infertility, birth defects, organ toxicity and neurological effects.

Previously used as a weapon in the Vietnam War, 2,4-D may now be dropped en masse on U.S. crop fields

What’s most astonishing about this petition request is that if it is approved, the U.S. would then become an “agricultural war zone” where genetically engineered corn is “carpet bombed” with 2,4-D chemicals. Being resistant to such chemicals, the GE corn may then uptake those chemicals into its own structures and grain kernels, thereby creating corn laced with 2,4-D that would be unleashed when you eat your corn-based breakfast cereals or corn tortillas.

Corn is in practically everything you buy at the grocery store, one way or another. Watch the document King Corn to learn more: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115/

Corn is also one of the main feed sources for factory farmed cows, which are especially efficient at concentrating toxins into their fat tissues, to be unleashed when digested by humans.

If this petition is approved by the federal government — which has long conspired with GMO companies such as Dow, Dupont and Monsanto — it would result in the unleashing of tens of millions of gallons of toxic pesticide chemicals annually onto America’s agricultural landscape (not to mention runoff into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans).

Urgent Action Item: Comment on this Dow petition
The U.S. government claims to be accepting public comments on this petition request. We have no way of knowing whether all such comments are merely chucked into the “round file” or whether they are actually considered, but if you want to submit comments about this petition, YOU CAN’T do it online anyway!

The government’s online comment submit system doesn’t recognize this document — at least it didn’t at the time this story went to press. Try the following link yourself to see if it works:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!docume…

So your only remaining option is to submit comments by mail:
• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2010-0103, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.

From the Federal Register website:
Supporting documents and any comments we receive on this docket may be viewed at http://www.regulations.gov/#!docket… or in our reading room, which is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.

Share this NaturalNews story! Let people know that America’s corn fields are about to be treated with the same chemical weapons our nation once dropped on Vietnam.

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
& The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

You want your fussy eater to be hungry during meals. The only snack to even consider is one immediately after school. This should be a mini-meal, no soda pop or chips, or even popcorn. (For special occasions, replace soda pop with carbonated water, mixed in equal parts with 100 percent fruit juice.)

Your kids’ after school snack should not contain carbohydrates (cookies, cupcakes, chips, candy, crackers, donuts, ice cream, soda pop, etc.) The only way to effectively accomplish this is to clean out the junk food from your pantry. For optimum results, teamwork is required. It’s likely the entire family’s diet needs improving. If your spouse isn’t in agreement, your best efforts will most likely be sabotaged.

Cade knows, the food battle is won (or lost) in the grocery store.

How can you expect junior to develop self-control, when he sees other family members regularly gorging on junk food? If your pantry contains chip, cookies and the like, you’ll need to replace them with nutritious snacks. Whole grain crackers, cheese, fruit, nuts, popcorn are some healthy snacks. ( Click Here for more snacking ideas.)

The toddler is dependent on her parents for planning the daily menu, but the older child is already helping himself. If your child is accustomed to snacking on junk food and drinking pop or other kids’ sugar drinks, you can’t expect a positive change in eating habits with the offending foods within his reach.

The battle is won or lost in the grocery store. This is the perfect time to implement your New Year’s resolutions. Begin the next time you’re grocery shopping. Only purchase whole foods.

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
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The Baby Bites steps are designed for habits to be established in three weeks, but it’ll take longer for an extremely resistant eater to eat everything with the family. Think about it, the most resistant child in four short weeks, will add four new foods to the list of things he regularly eats. In three months, that’s at least a dozen! The goal isn’t to overwhelm your child, but to alter  perceptions and acquire new tastes.
Tristan can give his mom a run for her money!
Baby Bites gives you the tools to outsmart your picky toddler.

Flavor is a combination of smell and taste (plus texture). By teaching children to smell, feel, and explore foods, they’re learning ow to appreciate new flavors. Taste is a part of the flavor, but not all of it. Many children have learned to only appreciate sweet and salty tastes.

Taste buds are located on the tip, sides, and back of the tongue. There are four or five different tastes, depending on whom you ask. Sweet, bitter, sour, and salty are commonly recognized, but the Chinese define a fifth taste: Umamie, which is pungent or savory like meat. In addition, French scientists have located fat receptors on the tongue, explaining the desire for fat in our diets.

Your preschool child’s stomach is about as large as his fist. Keep portions very small. For more see “Train Up a Child” in Chapter four of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
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Today, Approximately 90 percent of American’s food budget is spent on processed foods. No natter how much you might discuss a subject, (read about, study, etc.) it’s not until you get around to doing something that anything will actually change! Remember, small changes over time make a big difference.

Begin by making a few realistic, incremental changes — which are likely to last. Improving nutrition in your family’s meals is a process occurring over time. Healthful meals don’t have to take a lot of time to be tasty. Julia Child took us all off the hook when she said, “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces –  just good food from fresh ingredients.”

Being prepared with frequently used whole foods in you pantry and having a few pre-made healthy items on hand is the key to successful, hassle-free, nutritious mealtimes. A few extra minutes planned in advance of your week will reap ten-fold during your most hectic days.

Aaron agrees, “Talk doesn’t cook rice!”

Traditional time-saving meal preparations include bulk meal cooking, multi-use recipes, and shared cooking groups with friends. I find for busy families, basic ingredient bulk cooking takes the least amount of preparation and planning. Cooking extra in bulk cooking allows for the other time-saving preparation, as well as spur-of-the-moment meals.

I don’t know how many times I’ve decided what’s for dinner at five o’clock. Having pre-made brown rice, grilled chicken and hard-boiled eggs available makes a last-minute dinner decision a snap. Many of the kid-friendly recipes in Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater call for these prepared-ahead ingredients. When you have brown rice, chicken and boiled eggs in your refrigerator you are guaranteed to solve your dinner dilemma when your day runs wild!

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
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Eating is more than taste. Helping to prepare meals employs all the senses. The more you include your picky eater in meal preparation, the more likely she/he will eat it.

Tasks a Preschooler Can Accomplish

(The following was taken from page 58 of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. Click Here for a synopsis.)

1. Set the table.

2. Clear the table.

3. Toss things in the trash.

4. Identify and bring items within reach from the pantry.

5. Measure ingredients.

6. Break eggs into a bowl with assistance.

7. Use a plastic knife to cut soft fruit and cheese.

8. Make sandwiches.

9. Toss salads.

10. Serve her/himself cereal with assistance pouring the milk.

Katelyn thinks it’s even more fun to help mom
cook wearing a fancy chef’s hat and apron.

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Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
& The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.