A vegetable usually refers to an edible plant or part of a plant other than a fruit or seed. Therefore, any edible plant with seeds or a pod is not a veggie.

Many put legumes are in their own category, because they are counted as a carbohydrate and a protein. Answers.com says legume is “a pod, such as that of a pea or bean, that splits into two valves with the seeds attached to one edge of the valves. Such a pod or seed used as food.”

Legumes are the staples of many diets. The good news with a tight economy, legumes can help keep your grocery bill low. They are inexpensive while they are an excellent source of protein and high in fiber.

Although Kaliyah eats legumes all the time, she’s not sure what they are!

Legumes are low in fat.  Most varieties provide half our folate requirements. They are a good source of phosphorus, potassium, iron, zinc, calcium, and selenium and contain Thiamine (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), B5 and B6. Furthermore they are low on the Glycemic Index.

Eat More Legumes:

> Use beans as your protein source instead of high priced meats or dairy products.

> Purchase dried beans, green peas, and lentils. They make great pantry items. Soak beans overnight and then cook them. A pressure cooker will speed up the cooking process. Lentils and peas don’t require pre-soaking and the cooking time is less than for beans.

> Change your favorite recipe by replacing half of the meat with legumes.

> Stock your pantry with a variety of canned legumes and beans for a quick meal or side dish.

> Prepare soups, stews and casseroles with added beans.

> Have a vegetarian day once each week.

> Try a new legume each week–most supermarkets stock a wide variety of both dried and canned.

> Vary your lunches with a bean soup or salad.

> Use pureed beans as the foundation for dips and spreads.

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

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

Cabbage offers many health benefits. It’s inexpensive and cabbage gets rave reviews from the world of nutritionists. Cabbage is relatively cheap, yet one of the richest when it comes to protective vitamins. Members of the cruciferous family are rich in anti-oxidants. They are the first line of defense against cancer.

Sarah holds halfs of red and green cabbage.

Cabbage is rich in:
Vitamin A: protecting of your skin and eyes.
Vitamin C: an all important anti-oxidant which helps the mitochondria to burn fat. Cabbage has more vitamin C than oranges.
Vitamin E: a fat soluble anti-oxidant. You’ll want to use recipes that use a healthy fat, like olive oil or butter, to get the most benefit from cabbage.
Vitamin B: boosts energy metabolism.

Cabbage Tips:
Cooked cabbage is delicious if prepared properly. Very finely shredding cabbage is important for tasty cabbage, as well as cooking it just until tender. Remove outer leaves and core. Shred the cabbage with a knife or in food processor. Drain, but don’t remove all the water. The water adhering to the cabbage is sufficient to cook it. Add a pat or two of butter or olive oil, salt and pepper to the cabbage then cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is wilted. Prepare red cabbage the same as the green variety, only allow a little more time to cook.  Click Here for a kid-friendly sweet-tasting cabbage and apples recipe.

>Don’t buy halved or quartered heads of cabbage even if it’s well wrapped. As soon as the leaves are cut, cabbage will loose its vitamin C
>Wash cabbage only when you are ready to use it.
>Look for solid, heavy heads of cabbage, with no more than 3 to 4 loose outer leaves.
When buying cabbage, choose the smaller variety, they taste better.
>Cabbage is easier to digest in its raw fresh form than when cooked.  The longer it’s cooked, the less digestible it becomes. Cabbage sprouts are delicate and easier to digest, and they also contain higher levels of nutrients.

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.

Researchers at Ohio State University analyzed government data on 6,500 children and teens, ages 2 to 18. They found the children were consuming an average of 2 cups of fruit, vegetables, and juice combined a day. French fries account for 25 percent of their vegetable intake. Someone consuming 2,000 calories a day should be eating 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of veggies a day—over TWICE the amount recorded.

Then there’s the nagging statistic that French fries compose 25 percent of children’s vegetable intake. While writing “Eat Your French Fries Vegetables,” I decided to see if the claim that a Happy Meal will last for years is true. I purchased a Happy Meal on March 3, 2009. To follow Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog, you’ll want to subscribe to the Baby Bites Ezine.

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Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog:

March 3, 2009
My newly purchased Happy Meal smells yummy and it’s very colorful. I receive a PetShop virtual pet dog in a yellow plastic doggie carry-case, along with my child-size hamburger, small fries, and a soft drink. On one side of the cardboard box the meal comes in are cutouts for a pet shop window and door. What little girl wouldn’t absolutely love it? The boy’s side of the box has a Spider-Man scene. The Spider-Man side states, “Meet the spectacular Spider-Man in McWorld at HappyMeal.com and go on your own superhero adventure!” WOW what fun. As colorful as my Happy Meal is, the food is mostly colorless. French fries are made from starchy white potatoes and a hockey puck-size brown hamburger is served on a mini-white-bread bun. There’s no lettuce, cheese, or otherwise healthful topping, just a dab of ketchup and a slice of pickle.

March 4
Happy Meal greets me as I walk into my office this morning. It’s perched on a shelf behind my desk and there is a faint smell of French fries as I enter the room. My husband is concerned about the odor. I ask, “What do ya mean?” After all it smells yummy. He says, “What about when it putrefies, decomposes, and turns rancid?” I answer, “That’s the point of my experiment. It’s NOT supposed to decompose, only a natural food would do that! If it does, I’ll move it into a glass container, to control any unpleasant smell. Then, I’ll have more to report.

March 5
Day three, my cheery Happy Meal’s yummy smell is hardly noticeable as I come into my office. I can’t help but think about the hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food. It’s even in their fries …MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk from ingesting MSG in Happy Meals. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children. Morgan Spurlock, from the movie SuperSize Me, experienced extreme headaches on his McDonald’s diet. In his movie and book, he says his health team was at a loss for the reason. It’s a shame they missed the connection to MSG. For more information about MSG, Click Here.

March 6 AM
I now own my very own McDonalds’ Spiderman toy. Yep, I went back to McDonalds and purchased the toy alone. Now I have a toy for each side of the McDonalds’ box. A toy meant for a girl and one for a boy. I was motivated to purchase the second toy, because yesterday, Kelly wrote a comment on my Facebook page after I mention the “Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog.”Kelly observed, “Sadly, with all the marketing it seems to be more about the toy.” And then offered her solution, “I often will make them a healthy lunch at home, and then go thru the drive thru and just buy the toy!”Checking my original receipt, I found my purchase of a Happy Meal cost me $3.02 (after taxes, before taxes $2.79). The toy with the Happy Meal is listed on the receipt as zero.  When I purchased the toy alone, it cost $1.69 (of course, plus tax). Using a rule-of-thumb that the cost of an item is doubled, the toy most likely cost McDonalds about 80 cents. It would be my guess the paper products (the box, napkins, and cup) were next in expense for McDonalds. That alone speaks volumes about the quality of the food.

March 6 PM
YIKES, I’m becoming a regular McDonalds’ costumer! Yes, I went back there today and purchased a second tiny hamburger. Yesterday, I realized my experiment hamburger had ketchup and a slice of pickle on it. I was afraid these two toppings would alter the result, so I went back and purchased a PLAIN tiny burger. It cost me another 89 cents, plus 6 cents tax. Now, I have a control burger without toppings, albeit three days fresher. While I was there, I checked out what it would cost to purchase a small order of fries: $1, plus 7 cents tax. That means that the FOOD and PAPER portion of my original Happy Meal cost me $2.02 and the toy $1.00.

March 7
You’d think at least the ketchup your child is dipping her French fries in and the dab on the hamburger is healthy, after all it’s made of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a super food, right? Not so fast. Ketchup is usually one-third sugar (unless you purchase a healthy brand at a whole foods store).The ingredients on the McDonald’s Fancy Ketchup read: “Tomato concentrate (not whole tomatoes), distilled vinegar, High Fructose Corn Sweetener, Corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavorings.” When you add the High Fructose Corn Sweetener with the Corn syrup, most likely sugar will be the real first ingredient. Ketchup is sugar and worst kind of all. Click Here for more info on High Fructose Corn Sweetener.

March 8
It’s day five, and somehow I don’t feel consoled by McDonald’s website reassurances: “McDonald’s offers a range of menu options to help meet your family’s nutrition needs. When it comes to eating with your kids at McDonald’s, you can feel good knowing that our Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals contain important nutrients that growing kids need. Many of the foods we serve at McDonald’s are the same trusted brands you might purchase for your family at your local grocery store.

“My Happy Meal looks pretty much the same as the day I purchased it. The only difference I can tell is the ketchup and the pickle are being absorbed into the mini-white bun. Of course, the plain burger I purchased looks the same, so do the fries. If this were real food, there should be some decomposition. In Morgan Spurlock’s (Super Size Me) McDonald’s experiment found fries are turning black from decomposition by 2 weeks. But, McDonald’s fries never did decompose. That can’t be food, for food to nourish your body it needs to decompose.

Could the lack of decomposition be because of trans fat? I thought McDonalds said they no longer use trans fat, but according to the McDonlds website their French fries are prepared in hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Any hydrogenated oil is a trans fat! Trans fat is created when a vegetable oil is overheated. Restaurants use their frying oil for a week. It’s heated over and over again. Trans fats can’t release any useful mediators. Their shape keeps them from being recognized by enzymes. Explains a lot, don’t you think.

March 9
How many times have I heard “It’s cheaper to eat out than cook at home“? I don’t know maybe a million! I don’t get it. A Big Mac Meal costs $5.39 and a Happy Meal, $2.79, plus tax. For a family of four that’s $16.36 or a mom and one child $8.18; not including taxes. Not a bargain when you think what that could purchase. Last Spring, I worked out a food budget for two people on food stamps. ( Click Here for my Food Stamp Budget blog.) With a meager food stamp budget of $300 a month for two people, about $10 a day you can feed two people whole foods. One trip to McDonalds would cost almost as much as a day’s groceries. If you ask me, that’s NO bargain.

March 10
Today, is day 7. My Happy Meal still looks happy. The fries haven’t changed a bit, although the French fry smell is faint. The hamburger itself looks like it did on day one. The ketchup and slice of pickle have dried. The mini-white bun is now hard and has split. If you look closely at my original photo at the top of this blog, you can see a vertical crease in the bun. It looked as if it had been squished or bent before the patty was placed on it. The split is in the crease. (My second PLAIN Burger, purchased three days after is still perfect.)

March 12
What is a natural flavor, exactly? McDonald’s says their fries contain a natural flavor. A substance can be natural, but it may violate a religious or dietary restriction or it may cause allergic reactions in some people. It turns out that today, “natural” can mean just about anything. The natural flavor in McDonald’s fries is beef flavor containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.

March 15
The Happy Meal was launched in 1979, by 2003 the Happy Meal accounted for 20 percent of all meals sold at McDonalds! It was pure marketing geniuswhen Ronald McDonald became their mascot. In commercials, Ronald McDonald inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland. He has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. Our kids have been taken captive, by a clown. According to Barna Research, kids ages 2 to 7 watch an average of 25 hours of television a week and see about 40,000 television ads per year. It’s no surprise Ronald McDonald was number two on a list of the most recognizable people in the world. This, of course, relates directly to our kids’ addiction to junk food!

March 16
My Happy Meal is 12 days old. I’m taking it off my shelf, just for a little peek to see how it’s doing. Ya’d think that there would be some sort of decomposition going on by now. I don’t see any…nope none at all. My Happy Meal is still looks perky.

March 19
It’s too bad that even in the midst of the recession, parents are finding the financial wherewithal to keep their kids supplied with Happy Meals. February’s sales were up 5.4 percent above last year. January’s global comparable sales leaped 7.1 percent. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if parents cooked whole foods at home? No only would they save during these tight financial times, but their kids would be healthier, too.

March 30
Do you know the:
1) percentage of potatoes which end up French fried: 22
2) age when a toddler first eats a French fry: 6 mo
3) percentage of toddlers who eat French Fries everyday: 21

March 31
I’m taking my Happy Meal on its first field trip. It’s going to be my show-and-tell for tonight’s presentation to preschool moms in Littleton, Colorado. No one will believe my Happy Meal is one day shy of four week’s old! It looks as good as it did on day one.

April 10
You remember the jingle, “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” What’s in the  Big Mac® special sauce: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). CONTAINS: WHEAT, EGG AND SOY.
Looks like sugar is the number one ingredient in the Big Mac® Sauce.  (And by the way, the Happy Meal purchased on May 3 looks as good as it did on day one.)

April 29
Since I began this blog, I’ve written another post about Monosodium Glutamate. MSG is a common ingredient in McDonald’s food.  Click Here to read “Hidden Toxin in Food.” Unappetizing as it is, my Happy Meal is just as perky as the day I bought it, nearly two months ago!

June 3
How sad are Americans? Despite all the cautions about fast food, a recent poll found that 44 percent of Americans say they like the taste of fast food too much to give it up. Greg Chu, senior vice president of health care for Synovate in North America, says people in the USA have “a love-hate relationship” with fast food. “We love the convenience. We love the taste. We love the assurance that you can count on it. But we know it’s not good for us.”

December 14
I wish I could say that my Happy Meal has changed in some way. But it looks pretty much the same nine months after I purchased it. The bread is crusty. That’s all!

March 3, 2010
Read about my Happy Meal’s first birthday, CLICK HERE.

Click Here for a synopsis of “Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater”

It’s my fruit and veggies fighting again! You may think your kids fight a lot, but fruit and vegetables don’t like each other at all. They’re probably fighting right now in your refrigerator, too!

The solution for happy produce is to keep fruit and veggies apart from one another. Manufacturers understand this; that’s why they construct refrigerators with separate bins for each. For a long time, I didn’t know that it was important to separate fruit from veggies, so I just shoved produce into which ever bin had the room. I was just asking for a fight to break out.

Vegetables don’t contain seeds and fruit are plants with seeds. We think of some fruit as vegetables, such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and avocados, but they contain seeds. Botanically speaking, Anything with seeds are fruit. Vegetables are roots (like carrots), tubers (like potatoes), stems (like celery), flowers (like broccoli), or leaves (like lettuce).

Apples, avocados, melons, peaches, and pears manufacture ethylene gas as they ripen. When fruit are stored with vegetables, the vegetables loose their green color and spoil more rapidly. You’ll save not only money when your veggies and fruit are stored in separate bins. But also flavor, as vegetables stored with fruit will develop a bitter taste.

Here are some other useful tips for longer produce storage:

• Remove the tops from beets, carrots, and radishes, because the sap will continue to flow from the root to the leaf. This deprives the part to be eaten of some of its nutrition.

• If your lettuce or celery is wilted, soak it in cold water. The vegetable will absorb the water and crisp up once again.

• Place mushrooms in a brown paper bag to enhance longer storage. Mushrooms collect moisture and get slimy when kept in an airtight container, like the plastic bag from the grocers.

• Potatoes, onions, and garlic should be stored in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place-not the refrigerator. Don’t place them under the sink either, as the moisture will cause them to quickly spoil.

• Bananas turn black when stored in the refrigerator. Keep them on the counter. When you have too many ripe bananas, peel, place individually in sandwich bags, and freeze. Defrost a frozen banana for a sweetener in baked goods and they’re very handy when frozen. They turn a regular fruit smoothie into a frozen shake.

• ALWAYS thoroughly wash vegetables and fruit to remove bacteria. Preferably wash and dry before placing in the refrigerator.

Click Here for Go Organic without Going Broke.

The animation in Ratatouille is surprisingly lifelike, at times you almost forget you’re watching an animated film. The story centers around Remy, a cuddly rat-chef, who has an especially delicate nose. He not only appreciates finer cuisine (over a rat’s typical banquet of garbage), but has a love of the culinary arts. Ratatouille is extremely entertaining and the plot is intelligent with multi-dimensional characters. Ethics are an important element made evident in the moral dilemmas Remy faces.

When we viewed Ratatouille in the theater, I was aware of the noise level as it was extremely low, indicating the children were engrossed in the story. At times, I glanced around, just to see if the kids were really following the storyline. If they missed the finer points of culinary cooking or the implications of the moral dilemma at hand, it didn’t take long for laugher to erupt when the tempo quickened with a catastrophic spill or chase. This more than made up for any dialog that might be lost on younger children.

As people piled out of the movie theater, it was obvious that children and their parents alike adored Ratatouille. Hip, hip, hooray! At last, a healthy role model for kids. Enough of cartoon characters promoting fast foods and sugar-laden cereals. Finally, a vegetable-loving Remy. So what if he’s a rat? He loves to eat whole foods, even eggplant and of course cheese.

My enthusiasm quickly faded, as I become more aware of the children. They gleefully exited the theater with a candy box held in one hand and a soda pop in the other. Unfortunately, this entertained and amused generation is the first that’s not expected to live as long as their parents—the candy and soda pop are an obvious indication of why this is the case.

Remy is not only cute and clever; he’s a lover of whole foods. Remy’s culinary tastes are too sophisticated for junk food—remember, he loves Ratatouille! Take this opportunity for your prodigy to emulate his enjoyment of gastronomy. “Don’t hork it down!” Remy instructs his brother, Emile, when tasting a new food creation, but slowly chew it and appreciate the flavors.

Ratatouille is one of my favorite Mediterranean vegetarian dishes featuring eggplant and tomatoes. Unfortunately, many times vegetable-challenged kids often consider Ratatouille to be “yucky” and refuse to eat it. Somehow, Ratatouille seems not only an appropriate title for an animated film about a culinary-loving rat, but justified.

Rent Ratatouille for a fun project. It’s perfect for a rainy or snowy day. When you watch it with your kids, emphasizing whole foods and how much fun it is to cook. Then your kids can follow Remy’s example: make Ratatouille for dinner. After all, Remy has so much fun cooking; your kids can, too!

First, involve them in the planning and preparation of the meal. Take your kids grocery shopping and let them help you purchase the items for Ratatouille. Then, discuss the ingredients listed on the nutrition label of a sugary breakfast cereal. Would Remy eat that? NO! He would create a breakfast masterpiece with scrumptious oatmeal or cream of wheat. Finally, let your child help prepare Ratatouille. While giving it a stir, observe it as it cooks. What’s the texture like as it begins to heat up? Take a long, slow whiff. “Mmmm, that smells soooo very good!”

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.

Click Here for a Ratatouille recipe.