For the last 30 years, our Thanksgivings have been as natural (chemical free) as possible. Most Thanksgiving dinners are loaded with ingredients the Pilgrims never heard of: High Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG, artificial colors and flavors, polysorbate 60, sodium caseinate, and transfat. These ingredients are so commonplace today, that for many Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving with them.

I was motivated all those years ago to eliminate chemicals from our Thanksgiving feast, because our four-year-old daughter, Jenny, reacted to the additives and sugars in processed foods. Today, there are over 3,000 additives in our food supply, we have Genetically Modified Foods (GMO), and sugar is paramount. In fact, we now have a new sugar: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Savannah and Ashlyn are determined to help their mom make their Thanksgiving healthy and yummy.

According to a USDA’ report, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars; the majority comes from high fructose corn syrup. Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.

Making your Thanksgiving healthier really isn’t as difficult as you might first think. Purchase a turkey with the nutrition label listing only one ingredient: turkey. Save money and make your own stuffing with leftover whole wheat bread. Instead of soda pop, containing HFCS, for the kids, offer sparkling apple juice. Don’t use box mixes or canned vegetables, like sweet potatoes.

I’d like to know who came up with “candied sweet potatoes.” Aren’t sweet potatoes, well, sweet, without marshmallows? Did you know that marshmallows are really sugar-mallows, because they no longer contain any marshmallow root. Marshmallows are made from sugar, primarily corn syrup, water and gelatin.

I suggest regulating sugar in all its forms to dessert. Delete it from the main course. And, totally eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from your Thanksgiving meal altogether.

Many of the dishes we serve during the Thanksgiving meal are loaded with sugar. Why aren’t they considered dessert? This is beyond me! Jello “salad” is one that stands out. Jello is made with only five ingredients: water, gelatin, sugar, and artificial colors and flavors. This doesn’t sound much like a “salad” to me.

Cranberry sauce is a Thanksgiving perennial. They say there is always an exception to the rule. This is my exception for sugar during Thanksgiving dinner. Cranberries by their very nature are tart. I always purchase cranberries in the produce department and cook them with less sugar than is suggested in the directions. Some make their cranberry sauce with apple juice instead of sugar, but I haven’t been able to find the right combination that suits our family.

Pre-made, whipped toppings, like Cool Whip, are primarily air, sugar and transfat. Make your own whipped topping with real whipping cream. Not only will it taste better, it’s better for you. Cool Whip is made of water, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut (this is the transfat) and palm kernel oil (CPKO), sodium caseinate, vanilla extract, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60 (glycosperse), and beta carotene.

A natural Thanksgiving begins with having yummy, healthy recipes and then purchasing whole foods. Now’s the time to do a little planning. Read labels and find products free from sugar and artificial ingredients. Take a close look at the ingredients in your favorite recipes and make healthy substitutions. Finally, keep sugar regulated to dessert.

For my alternative to the jello fruit mold, CLICK HERE.

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Last week, I checked out Aleksandra Mir’s The How Not to Cook Book: Lessons learned the hard way from the library. Mir offers cooking advice from 1,000 anonymous cooks. Clever concept for a book I thought. As I skimmed through How Not to Cook, I realized that I could come up with nearly as many examples of cooking mishaps just from my own experience.

In about 15 minutes, I wrote down 25 personal illustrations of how not to cook. This is not an anonymous or fictional list. I really did all of the things listed below.

If you like to cook, you probably have experienced a calamity or two. It’s nearly impossible not to. Fortunately, most cooking errors aren’t permanent. (Leave one of your hard-learned lessons in the comment section below.)

Ally knows even grating cheese can be a challenge.
Protect your knuckles at all times.

Of course I’ve been cooking for over 40 years, so I most likely have a few more mishaps to choose from than you do. Some of these cooking, um, experiences are from when I much younger. Some are very recent. Such as, the first example. The teakettle incident happened only this year. You’d think I would know better. So you see, it’s never too late to learn from your cooking mistakes. That is if you live to tell about it.

1. Don’t ever leave a teakettle on the stove unintended, especially when it doesn’t always remember to whistle. You could end up ruining your favorite, expensive teakettle. Furthermore, it might take a while to get the smell of burnt stainless steel out of your kitchen.

2. You can’t make a decent stew in less than an hour without using a pressure cooker. (Hey, I was newly wed and my wonderful husband blamed the chewiness of the meal on a tough piece of meat.)

3. When using a blender don’t start on high. Especially without placing your hand on the lid. You’re likely to end up with a polka dot ceiling.

4. Don’t forget to add the baking powder when making cookies. You’ll be serving little flying saucers.

5. When boiling eggs don’t place cold eggs into warm water. You’ll end up cracking the shells and a trail of egg tentacles will fill the pot of water.

6. Don’t ever use an electric burner. You might forget that the burner is on, especially if it’s on low. Besides, it’s so much easier to control the temperature with gas.

7. If you plan on a baked dish for dinner, turn the oven on. This is especially important if you have a new oven. Make sure it actually got turned on when you set the temperature.

8. Add salt at the END of cooking. Salt loses its saltiness as it cooks.

9. Don’t add olive oil to the water when cooking pasta. It will make it impossible for the sauce to cling to the pasta.

10. Clean the bottom of the oven before roasting a chicken or a turkey. Or the smoke alarm will be your signal that dinner is ready.

11. When making oatmeal for breakfast, don’t check your email. You’ll end up with a burnt offering.

12. After a trip to Tuscany, don’t attempt to make cousin Mirella’s signature apple cake without first having accurate measurements. Metric conversion is hard enough, but with guesstimates, it’s impossible. Then add the need to alter a recipe for high altitude. It just isn’t the same. (Can’t say I didn’t try.)

13. Never sauté veggies on high heat. Splattering oil will ruin your blouse and you’ll make a mess of the stove and the wall behind it. In addition, you’ll be concocting your own trans fat.

14. Use only sharp knives. A dull knife will most likely fail to penetrate hard raw veggies or even bread on the first pass and you’ll need four stitches.

15. Don’t keep knives in a drawer. It’s impossible to keep them sharp. (See number 14.)

16. Gather ALL the ingredients for dinner BEFORE you start cooking…or you may find you don’t have an onion or garlic. Just about everything tastes better with onions and garlic.

17. When attempting a new muffin recipe from a cookbook, be careful not to lose your place. If you begin with one recipe and end with the one printed beneath, you will have trouble making it a second time, no matter how yummy it turns out.

18. Don’t cut the amount of baking soda in biscuits, even if you live at high altitude. You’ll end up with hockey pucks.

19. When your husband invites a guy from work and his family over for dinner, be sure to ask not only how many, but how large they are. Or you could end up entertaining the giant family with enough prepared food for little people.

20. Always use extra virgin olive oil. It tastes so much better and it’s healthier, too.

21. Crush garlic by placing a clove under the flat side of a knife and then hitting it with your palm. It takes only a second. The paper-thin covering will pop right off.  It’s so much more efficient and fun than pealing it with your fingers.

22. Never throw out a brown banana. Peel and freeze it in baggie. Then toss the frozen banana into the blender when making a fruit smoothie.

23. Don’t cry over spilt milk…call the dog.

24. When attempting to make gravy, never add flour directly into hot turkey drippings or you will end up with little gravy dumplings. (Note: Dumplings aren’t supposed to be in gravy. Perhaps a stew, but definitely not gravy.) Whisk the flour into a little wine and then incorporate it into the hot drippings. Don’t forget to pour yourself a glass of wine.

25. Never exactly follow a recipe. Live dangerously; it’s more fun that way.

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In the past week, I’ve been interviewed for print and radio media in China, England, Scotland, Sweden, Canada and the U.S. Various television stations called to set up interviews.

Yesterday, a reporter first told me that McDonald’s responded to my Happy Meal blog. This is McDonald’s statement: “The posting on this site about our hamburgers is completely unsubstantiated and is in the realm of urban legends. McDonald’s hamburger patties in the United States are made with 100% USDA-inspected ground beef. Our hamburgers are cooked and prepared with salt, pepper and nothing else — no preservatives, no fillers. Our hamburger buns are baked locally, are made from North American-grown wheat flour and include common government–approved ingredients designed to assure food quality and safety. These are the same foods that consumers buy every day in their local grocery stores — bread, meat and potatoes.

According to Dr. Michael Doyle, Director, Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, ‘From a scientific perspective, I can safely say that the way McDonald’s hamburgers are freshly processed, no hamburger would look like this after one year unless it was tampered with or held frozen’.”

Whoa…I’m an “urban legend”? Now, I‘m laughing. (I really laughed when the reporter read me the statement.)

Only problem is that I did put the Happy Meal on my shelf, not in a refrigerator or freezer. I’ve had it out and about as a prop for my talks. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to “tamper” with it in order to make it last a year.

Just because “These are the same foods that consumers buy every day in their local grocery stores,” doesn’t make them healthful. That’s the reason I blog, to help parents understand what’s in the food they are purchasing. Their jingle would be more truthful if it said, “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese and onions on an azodicarbonamide sesame-seed bun!”

Funny, McDonald’s didn’t mention in their statement the ridiculous amount of chemicals (hydrogenated anything is a trans fat) in their French fries. This is the ingredient list for fries from the McDonald’s site:

“French Fries: Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK *(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).”

Scary, when you think toddlers’ first finger food is a French fry and preschoolers eat fast food several times a week!

It appears people have strong feelings about their junk food. The global interest crashed my site several times. Each new server went in with larger capacity only to crash in a few hours. Finally, I got the mother of all dedicated servers. It’s as good as it gets! Only to have the motherboard crash…Murphy’s Law at work. Obviously, I’m up and running now.

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

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

I then began speaking to moms’ groups about healthy eating. Fortunately, the more I spoke, the better I got at speaking. (My apologies to the first groups I spoke to. Don’t know why I was nervous.)

Nonna and Granddad pray that your family will be blessed in 2010!

The first Baby Bites website went up right after the book was published thanks to my son-in-law, Guy. Things got really busy when the present website with the capabilities to blog went up about year ago. At the same time, the weekly Baby Bites Ezine was launched.  We did some podcasting, What’s Cookin’ with Nonna? Then decided it wasn’t the best use of time. Turning my attention to a whole foods storybook, The Forest Feast, it was published in November 2009. The Forest Feast is also different from other storybooks. Not only is the story fun to read, but it incorporates healthy eating concepts in the parenting book for children.

My PC, which was new when I began to write Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater in 2004, was in the computer hospital three times in 2009. I prayed it would hold on until The Forest Feast went to the printers. It did. Later in November, my husband, Dick, bought me the latest and greatest Mac computer. So the last few weeks, I’ve been taking Apple classes. I love it, but as with all changes, it takes time to adjust to a new way of doing things. In the middle of my computer transition, my website got an upgrade. It looks pretty much the same, but the way it works is improved. Of course I had to figure out how to do things a different way on my site as well!

A last minute surprise came December 15. The tradmarks for Baby Bites and Try Rannosaurus were issued! The trademark processe began December 2004! WOW, who knew it would take so long? Now instead of the ™ mark, I’ll be using the ®.

Whew, 2009 went out with a BANG…I’m tired just thinking about the last few months.

Dick and I have four grown daughters. In the last two years, we hosted two additional weddings, and now have four sons-in-law. We have seven grandchildren, with another due any day. Baby Tristan’s due date is the first week in January, but his parents are hoping for a little 2009 tax deduction. My “Nonna” bag is packed, ready to go as soon as the word is given that the baby is on the way.

I was overcome with blessings during the last decade. I’m sure 2010 holds more surprises as well as blessings! In the works are short Baby Bites® cooking videos for YouTube. Thank you for being a part of the Baby Bites experience. I pray God’s blessings for your family as we step into the next decade.

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

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

Wishing I Was Wonder Woman

It’s Mother’s Day again. I’m dreading the annual sermon on “A wife of a noble character” found in Proverbs 31.

When I was a young mom, the life of this Wonder Woman captivated me. I wanted to be her. Her children thought she was terrific and her husband praised her. She was said to be full of wisdom and dignity, had a great sense of humor, and was more precious than jewels. After hearing more than a few sermons about this total woman, I’m beginning to resent her.

Left to right: Jenny, Joy, Julie-ann & Jackie. Photo taken about the time I wrote “Wishing I Was Wonder Woman.”

Where did Wonder Woman find the time to run several businesses (she was an entrepreneur), be the perfect wife and mother, AND care for the poor? Keeping up with my kids, my husband, and our house is more than a full-time job. Yes like Wonder Woman, I get up to make breakfast for my kids, before they go off to school. But, the wonderful wife of a noble character was up while it was STILL DARK (verse 18). The same verse mentions her lamp doesn’t go out at night! When does this woman sleep? I’m lucky if I can make it to the end of the nightly news on TV. By nine o’clock I’m close to comatose.

Proverbs Wonder Woman (verse 24) made clothing for her family. So did I, that is until 1974, the year of the prairie dress. For a reason I can’t seem to recall, I thought our girls should have matching dresses. I must have been blinded by the cuteness of it all. At that time we had three girls ages 1, 4 and 5 (Joy was born two years later).

I wound up making three long prairie dresses, three long pinafores to wear over the prairie dresses, and three matching bonnets. By the time I finished, I vowed I’d never sew again. That was the end of my “making of garments.”

Had to show off the prairie dresses and pinafores. The bonnets are not pictured. Girls left to right: Julie-ann, Jenny and Jackie. Joy was born two years after this picture was taken. I’m all of 26. (Was I ever that young?)

The wife of a noble character considered a field, bought it, planted it, and set about her work vigorously (verses 16-17). In 1977, we moved to the country. It was time for me to plant a garden. We already had the field (our backyard); all I had to do is plant it. For three years, I dug, fertilized, pulled weeds, and kept the dogs, birds, and kids out of my little garden. We ate zucchini casserole, zucchini bread, zucchini and tomatoes, and zucchini salad. My husband even claims I made zucchini ice cream, but it’s not true. Proverbs didn’t comment on yield of the field, maybe Wonder Woman grew zucchini, too.

“Her children arise and call her blessed” (verse 28). I didn’t have a problem with this verse until my children hit the teen years. All of a sudden, I didn’t know anything. I was embarrassing to be around. They had a mother, how juvenile! I can’t remember one of them uttering an intelligible word first thing in the morning. To make matters worse, my teens never called me “blessed.”

I’m wishing I was Wonder Woman, but I’m an ordinary mom and don’t measure up. How can I listen to another discourse on the Proverbs 31 Wonder Woman? Oh, oh, oh, perhaps this ancient woman was NOT Wonder Woman, but just an ordinary woman. Perhaps the events recorded in Proverbs accumulated over a lifetime. Perhaps the lifestyle of this godly woman might be attainable, even today. Perhaps an ordinary woman (like me) with God’s grace is able to achieve many things—not all at once, but one at a time.

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Joy and Guy’s wedding.

Saturday, Joy my youngest daughter, married the love of her life, Guy. Many out-of-town relatives come for our celebrations, so we cram as much as possible into a few days. We began the wedding week with a bridal shower and ended the day after the wedding with a family brunch. Pretty much partying for the entire week.

Children, grandkids, and extended family celebrated not only the new family tie, but God’s gift of family. Kids are always full of vinegar and unpredictable. Three of our grandkids live in California and four instate. Being able to see all the grandchildren play together is the pride of grand-parenting.

All of our daughters were able to attend Joy and Guy’s wedding. Julie-ann, our eldest,  and her family drove from California and Jackie and her family, including newborn Katelyn, were there as well. Our third daughter, Jenny and John, her husband of almost a year, traveled all the way from Australia to be with us. We are truly blessed.

There were no picky eaters at the rehearsal dinner or the wedding, as every adult and child got to choose what they wanted to eat. After snapping a picture of cousins Angel and Ally at the rehearsal dinner, Ally turned to Angel, and said, “I can’t wait to see this picture on Nonna’ website! It was all I could do to keep a straight face. Of course, I had to publish it, just so Ally can see it!

My husband, Dick, Joy & I

Here’s the picture of Angel and Ally at the rehearsal dinner:

Grandkids Galore:

And baby Katelyn makes 7 grandchildren:

A Big Nonna Hug,
Joann Bruso

I thought waiting for a baby was difficult when I was the one pregnant. The last 4 weeks seemed as long as the first eight months!

But, I think it’s even harder when you’re waiting for a grandbaby.

We now have 7.

Some came to us by way of adoption, some biological.

All are loved.

Each grandbaby is special. The circumstance which each baby came into our family is unique.

Katelyn Hope, grandbaby number 7, tried to come into the world too early. In fact, she wanted to come weeks before her due date.

Modern medicine managed to stop her mother’s contractions. We prayed and waited until the doctors gave the “coast is clear” signal, July 7. That was still 19 days before the official due date, but the baby would be considered full-term at that point.

Everyone was so happy my daughter, Jackie, wouldn’t have the worries of a preemie. We all thought once the ”all’s clear” was given by the doctor, the baby would make her appearance. But babies have their own schedules.

We waited the entire week of July 7. Trying not to bother Jackie with too many calls. We restrained ourselves from calling every hour.

Ally, Ben & Nicole say hello to their new sister, Katelyn Hope 

Certain the baby would come any minute, we cleared our calendars for the following week (of July 14). We wanted to be ready. Dick, my husband, and I made the hour’s drive to my daughter’s home on Monday, July 14 when contractions indicated that the time had come. Only to discover it was a false alarm.

We waited some more.

Sunday, July 20, at 2:30 AM, we got another call. My daughter, Jackie, had just been admitted into the hospital, ready to give birth. We realized we’d most likely miss the big event since we live an hour’s drive away, but immediately headed out the door. Jackie wasted no time in delivering little Katelyn Hope at 2:59 AM. She weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds 14 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.

How precious are grandbabies! So adorable; so cute; so cuddly; so loved.

God’s gift to parents is someday becoming a grandparent.

You have all the blessings, without all the work!

Grandchildren are certainly jewels in our crowns. And now we have seven.

Angel, Zachary and Joshy will have to wait a few weeks to meet their new cousin.

I mused about it in my book, Baby Bites, “There’s something out of whack when our pets eat better than our children. The other day, I was in the whole foods store purchasing dog food for my two little mixed breed pooches, Phoebe and Mille. Mille is short for millennium, as she came to us at the new millennium. Picking up a bag of dog food, I realized my little pups eat more nutritious meals than , most children.

Pictured: Mille & Phoebe

Their dog food is loaded with wholesome nutrients, like brown rice, lamb, chicken, avocado, wheat germ and to top it all off, I drizzle a few drops of olive oil or flax seed oil on top their food. My dogs are healthy eaters, their favorite snacks are slices of apple, cheese, and carrots. For them a treat is a piece of popcorn tossed into the air. I realized kids today don’t eat as well as Phoebe and Mille!”

So you see, I thought they were safe. The recent dog food contamination didn’t motivate me to make my own dog food. I still believed the pet food I was giving them was superior and I was consoled when the brand I regularly purchased never appeared on the contaminated list.

I finally had to face the music. Okay, so my dogs weren’t eating better than most kids, although their food had healthful ingredients, it was highly processed. That’s not so good. I was forced to reevaluate their food when little Mille got so sick she needed an operation. She had stones in her bladder, which were caused by a long-term low-grade infection. Who knew? It was then that I had to admit that even though the food had nutritious ingredients, it was still highly processed.

After the trauma and expense of Mille’s operation, I was told she needed to be on special canned food. At least my pooches are little, each about 12 pounds, so they don’t eat too much.

The canned dog food was going to cost me about $2 per day per dog. That’s not cheap. It’s eight times more what I was spending. Okay, we have an emotional connection to our dogs. After all, Mille’s operation wasn’t cheap either. I want to keep her healthy and to avoid another operation. If I’m going to spend more on dog food, I want it to be the best food for the money.

Canned dog food is expensive and it’s loaded with fillers. The ingredients on the pet food recommended by my vet, the first ingredient is water. The second ingredient, animal by-products…that means it’s not fit for human consumption. Third: corn. Yet, it would still cost me $4 a day for water, animal by-products, and corn. Unappetizing to me and not nutritious even for dogs.

So, I did a little Internet research. I could make my own dog food for less than the canned variety and it would be more nutritious. I’ll admit, not everyone will take the time to cook for their dogs. But, the alternative wouldn’t be as healthful and it would cost me more. After all my writing and Podcasting about healthy families, I could do my best to keep my dogs healthy, as well.

Once a week I make a doggie casserole. Now, I know for sure that my dogs eat better than most children! In fact, they eat better than most people. Their casserole has 3 pounds meat, that’s about 8 cups either cooked ground chicken, turkey, or beef, mixed with 3 cups complex carbs (brown rice or oatmeal), and 3 cups of chopped veggies and fruit. It takes me about 30 minutes start to finish. First, I chop the veggies and fruit, brown the meat and cook the rice or oatmeal, and then I mix it all together in the largest bowl I own. Phoebe and Mille eagerly supervise the entire procedure. I then bag up the casserole in individual portions and freeze it for the week.

I’ll say this much, it smells yummy and my dogs love it. They let me know if I’m a little late serving their food and they always lick their plates clean as a whistle.

If I can put that much effort into healthful meals for my dogs, you can do it for your kids! Like most things, it just takes a little planning. Once you get into a routine, the cooking goes just like clockwork.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.
For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.