Menu Plan: The "I Gained 5 Pounds From Halloween Candy" Version

My kids got a ton of candy from Trick or Treating this year, and for the two days following Halloween, Johnny's behavior was horrible because he was so jacked up on sugar. So I took all the candy, wrapped it up and hid it, and after he got all that sugar out of his system, he was much more pleasant to be around. Unfortunately, it also meant that whenever he was at school or otherwise occupied, I was sneaking chocolate from the bag. And no, I didn't actually gain 5 pounds, but I pretty much felt like a blob. So this latest menu plan is my attempt to redeem myself from the Halloween gorging, and also (hopefully) a preemptive strike against Christmas gorging. All the recipes are low fat, low salt or low cal. You hear that, candy canes? I won't be eating you.

This week, we'll be eating:

**Sesame Chicken with Gingered Broccoli--Here's a tip when buying sesame seeds. Get them in the Asian section of the store, you'll get about 4 times the amount for at least half the price of what the little jar from McCormick in the spice section will cost you. This chicken is tasty, as well as quite easy, and the gingered broccoli goes nicely. Maybe a salad on the side too.
**Salmon With Warm Lentil Salad--You'd have to be living in a cave to not have heard about the health benefits of eating fish. I do take a fish oil supplement, but seafood is a pregnancy aversion that never really went away. I'm trying to ease my way back into it. And if it grosses me out too much, I can still eat the lentils. Bread and some kind of steamed veggie with it.
**Tangy Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes--The last pork chops I made were a huge hit with the kids, and I still have some in the freezer. And nothing says comfort food on a chilly fall night like mashed potatoes. Steamed corn on the side.
**Slow Cooked Caribbean Pot Roast--All hail the slow cooker! This recipe is a new one to me, and it won a slow cooker contest in Healthy Cooking Magazine. I'm looking forward to it. Rice and salads to go with it.
**Creamy Tuna Noodle Casserole--My kids are picky about tuna. Sometimes they'll eat it, other times they won't. So if I put it into a hearty and comforting casserole like this one, they'll probably think its chicken...and eat it with no problems at all. Plus, this one makes me nostalgic for the chicken noodle casserole my mom used to make.

What are you eating this week? And how do you avoid the holiday weight gain?

Chocolate Milk In Schools--Yay Or Nay?

If you read my menu plans, you may have noticed that I complain about being out of milk a lot. My kids are big milk drinkers, plus we use it for cereal, cooking, etc, and any more than two gallons in the fridge takes up too much space, so it feels like I'm always running to the store for more. So, when we were invited to a Got Milk? function over the summer at Port Discovery, we went, sampled milk from several different local dairies, and had a milk mustache photo taken. The chocolate milk was the best, and sure it was chocolate, but I didn't feel like I was compromising my diet by drinking it, or that I'd have to pass on a treat later in the day.

So I was a little dismayed to get an email from the folks at the Got Milk? campaign, telling me how some schools are trying to remove chocolate milk from their food offerings, to improve the nutritional quality of their meals. While I applaud the schools for trying to make the food the kids have access to healthier, I can think of at least a dozen different things that would be better to remove instead of chocolate milk. My kids are good milk drinkers and quite often choose plain milk over chocolate, but plenty of parents report that their kids don't like milk unless it's flavored. Having a chocolate milk drinker, in my opinion, is better than having a No Milk drinker, or a child who reaches for soda or junky juice instead.

Out of curiosity, I brought up the issue on Facebook and received the following comments:

**I don't consider chocolate that doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup in it to be junk food, but that's just me!--Julie
**I won't drink milk if it isn't chocolate so I would never buy it and I'm an adult. If it takes a little chocolate to get my kids to drink milk, I'm good with that.--Erin
**Similar to our culture in general, they need to loosen up and let kids be kids. Chocolate milk isn't going to make or break their diets.--Jaclyn

**Remove the pop machines and "fruit" drinks before the milk.--Melissa

**Pop should be removed, not chocolate milk.--Adrienne

On an online community I belong to, there's a debate going on about this very subject, and most parents are okay with chocolate milk being available in schools. If anything, we'd like to see more recess time, less fatty, salty or greasy foods served, and no access to soda during the day.

If you're interested, you can read more about the science behind milk and general health (and sign a petition) at RaiseYourHand4Milk.com, and you can watch this video, featuring celebs like Rebecca Romijn and Angie Harmon.

Opinions? How do you feel about chocolate milk in schools?

Three

Dear Maureen,

When I was pregnant with you and we started telling people we were having a girl, a friend of ours said, "Wouldn't it be funny if she got John's hair?"

Then you were born, our little Thanksgiving baby, and you didn't have much hair at all. Hats always slipped off and I worried about your bald head being cold at night.

By the time you turned one, your hair had grown a little...but not much.

Within a few months, a few strands started to poke up like corkscrews from the center of your head, and by age two, one thing was apparent. You inherited your father's curly hair.

Today is your third birthday, sweet girl, and your hair is only one thing that has changed dramatically. It seems like in a flash, you've gone from a quiet, smiley chubby baby to a running, jumping preschooler.

On the past year, you made it through an MRI and eye surgery, and abandoned the highchair, stroller (mostly) and diapers. You started preschool, learned to dress yourself completely, spent your first night away from home without mommy or daddy, and developed a serious love affair with suede shoes. You gained 6 pounds, added the words, "excellent," "tangled" and "favorite" to your vocabularly, and discovered that while you love to eat pistachios, you'd rather Mommy do the shelling for you. And your hair, that fabulous hair, gets you attention from every one we see when we are out and about.

As we move out of the baby years and into the "kid" years, I was looking forward to getting rid of the changing table and the crib and the booster seats and the bibs. But today I find myself feeling a tiny bit sad. Not because you aren't a baby anymore, because you become more delightful with each day, but because it is all going so fast and I'm powerless to slow it down and savor it a little more. You are full of so much life and laughter and I can already see the successful young lady you will be in the years to come.

Happy Birthday, my curly girl, we love you so much.

Love, Mommy

"The Singing Lizard" Kid's CD Review And Giveaway

Every parent who has ever suffered through endless renditions of the most annoying kids song ever knows how much it can grate on your nerves. In my case, the song is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." By the third time in a row hearing it, I'm snarling nastily in my head, "would someone just squash the dumb spider already and put us all out of his misery!"

We are a family that loves music. If the radio isn't playing, or my iPod isn't plugged into the receiver and set on shuffle, someone in the house is singing. My 5 and 3 year old's have recently taken to disappearing together into their bedroom for "band practice." They stand on my son's bed (the "stage"), while my son holds my husband's guitar in front of him like a stand up bass and my daughter plays the harmonica. They take requests. It's hysterical. One thing is clear from the songs they choose to perform--they appreciate good music.

Unfortunately, over the summer, after hearing a Nirvana song on the radio and having my son ask me what "horny" means, I also realized that they absorb more from lyrics than I thought they did. It was time to choose my music a little more carefully. However, most of the music meant for kids ears, while fun for them, makes me cringe. Especially the spider one.

So I was thrilled when I was asked to preview the debut album of The Singing Lizard, AKA Liz DeRoche, Alphabeat, and both my kids and I loved it.

Many kids CDs sound like cartoon music, but DeRoche's versions of classic children's tunes are set to funky beats with creative twists on the lyrics. It was perfect music for dancing to, and also nice to have on in the background without worrying about swear words. In fact, several times I have found myself humming the title track, and her version of "The Wheels On The Bus" really got my toe tapping. Even the version of my most hated song, "Itsy," had a nice Sarah McLaughlin-esque feel to it. I didn't grit my teeth even once. It helps that DeRoche has a nice voice!

One lucky reader will win a free Internet download of the Alphabeat album. To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me how your kids feel about music. I must have a valid email address, as this is the way you will receive your prize. This contest will be open for one week and I will choose a winner on Saturday, November 21, and publish the name of the winner on this post. Good luck!

You can purchase individual tracks and order custom CD's at TheSingingLizard.com. Don't forget the holidays coming up, this CD would make a great stocking stuffer.

Disclaimer: The Alphabeat CD was provided for me for free. My opinions are my own and I am not being paid for a positive review.

Congratulations to Missy, who wins the Alphabeat Internet download!

Menu Plan: The Magazine Version

The problem with having a lot of cooking magazines is that it becomes a problem to store them. Plus, the sheer number of good recipes means I frequently intend to try something that I see, then stick the magazine someplace and forget about it.

So this month, when I got my Thanksgiving and Christmas issues of Real Simple back to back, and they both had some really great recipes in them, I decided to make my entire menu plan the Real Simple version. As an even bigger incentive, the recipes are basic, nutritious food, and I already have a lot of the ingredients.

So here's what we'll be eating:

**Spiced Pork Chops with Couscous--We haven't had pork chops in awhile, and this version looks like it will be nice and moist. And both kids will eat pork. Couscous, also a kid friendly dish, on the side, along with some kind of vegetable.
**Roast Chicken With Olives and Carrots--I love recipes that consist of dumping everything into a bowl and pouring some olive oil on top and then sticking it in the oven. Bread and salads to go with it.
**Steak With Crispy Potatoes--I'm pretty much a meat and potatoes girl, so this dish is right up my alley. Johnny has also decided recently that carrots are his favorite, but only when mixed with peas and only when cut up into little squares. So guess what frozen veggie we bought at Safeway to go with the meat and spuds?
**Tilapia with Tomatoes and Capers--The original recipe called for halibut, but I have some fish left in the freezer to use instead. The kids will probably pass on the tomatoes and capers, but they'll eat the fish. Sugar snap peas to go with it, and maybe more bread.
**Broccoli and 3 Cheese Lasagna--We haven't had a good gooey pan of lasagna in awhile, plus I have two big jars of sauce that have been sitting and collecting dust. This version is meat free and uses no cook noodles. Salad and steamed corn too.

What's on your menu these days?

Deadlines

A few months ago, my mom called me and asked me when I was planning on potty training Maureen. My answer was, "Meh. I don't know. I don't really feel like it now." And when I suggested that she could potty train her on the days she babysits, she wasn't really thrilled with that idea either.

The thing was, I was totally planning on using my "Do Nothing" method that worked so well for Johnny. At 18 months, he learned how to take his diaper off and was making messes, so we bought him a toddler potty. He thought it was the coolest thing ever...until he turned two and all bets were off. I tried pretending using the potty was fun, I tried bribing him, I tried cajoling, I even made up a potty song, but nothing worked. And at some point, I decided, "This is stupid," and that I had better things to do than hang out in the bathroom all day long.

So we just quit. Left it. Said nothing. Put the toddler potty away. And right about when he turned three, while on vacation, the pee thing clicked. (And he also overheard his grandmother saying she was going to get a milkshake on the boardwalk that night and asked her, "Did you poop in the potty, Grandmom?") A few months after that, the poop thing clicked and he's been completely potty trained since then.

Maureen is an independent sort of child, and we had made some half hearted suggestions about toilet learning, but she was not only not interested, but adamantly against it. She told me once, after I changed a messy diaper and I suggested she go in the potty next time, "Ewwwww! That's yucky!" And, to be honest, I'm not all that crazy about public restrooms, so it was just easier to change her diaper.

Finally, we gave her a deadline. When she balked at the bathroom, we said, "That's okay, you don't have to go, but when you turn three, the diapers need to go away." She accepted that. We added on the pacifier that she was taking at night. She accepted that. We added the one remaining sippy cup that is for the rare occasions when I let her have a drink of milk in her bed in the mornings while the house warms up. She accepted that.

Knowing that she didn't have to do all those things NOW seemed to go over really well with her, and having a deadline gave her some time to get used to the idea. If you asked her, "Maureen, what happens when you are three?" she would respond, "No diapers. No pacifiers. No sippy cups. I'll be a BIG girl!"

And then...she met her deadline early. All on her own.

About three weeks ago, at bedtime, she announced she needed to pee in the potty. She did, then when my husband tried to put a diaper on her for bedtime, she threw it at him and hollered that diapers are for babies. She is nowhere near ready to be diaper free overnight, so instead we compromised--if she let Daddy put the diaper on, she could get rid of the pacifiers, which are also for babies. Score!

Since that day, she had abandoned the toddler potty for the regular toilet (yay!), and can go, wipe herself well, get her pants back on and wash her hands completely unassisted.

So we're two for two using the "Do Nothing" Method. And trying to figure out what to do with the changing table. The remaining sippy cup is still in the kitchen, but I think I'm going to throw it out tomorrow.

After five years and two months of changing diapers, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. And unlike a friend who says she was a little sad when her youngest potty trained, because it meant he wasn't a baby anymore, I'm not the slightest bit sad.

Menu Plan: Tired Of Shopping

After two busy weekends in a row that involved food and cooking and multiple trips to the grocery store, I decided today that I might as well pitch a tent in the parking lot at Safeway. Because that way, when I inevitably need to go there, I have to walk a lot less distance. Johnny and I went, yet again, Monday morning, for milk, bananas and eggs. On the way out of the store, I remembered that I hadn't done my menu plan yet and will probably be out of some key ingredient and maybe I would just order my groceries online. And then I remembered that Safeway is being greedy and now requires a sizable order to get the free delivery, and sorry, but I'm not paying thirteen dollars for delivery when the store is half a mile away.

This week's menu plan is therefore based on the dregs of my refrigerator, freezer and cabinets because if I have to go to the store again this week, I may go crazy. Er, crazier. Whatever.

Here's what we'll be eating:

**Frozen Pizza--Because it's been sitting in the freezer, one lonely leftover from this past summer, when I did the Kraft Two Week Dinner Planner review. It's plain cheese, which is fine for the kids, but I'll probably put some veggies on it for the adults. Add in some salad and maybe some extra steamed corn or something.
**Peanut Chicken Stirfry--I also realized it's been a long time since I made a stirfry. And this dish will help use up some of the frozen edamame that has accumulated in the freezer. The problem with always buying waffles, edamame, corn and canned green beans each time you go to the store is that pretty soon, you end up with nothing else and no extra space.
**Roast Beef With Mashed Potatoes and Gravy--The last time I made a roast, my kids took my luscious, tender, melt in your mouth meal and put ketchup on it. This is a great crockpot meal, because this week is looking pretty busy. Salads and corn to go with it.
**Spinach Pie--I have half a block of feta in my fridge that needs to get used and this is the perfect way to do it. Maybe some sliced fruit on the side, if the kids haven't eaten it all by then.
**Tilapia Piccata--The best thing about this recipe is that I have every single ingredient in the house. And that will delay the inevitable trip to the store by at least a day. Yay! Maybe some pasta and salads and steamed veggies to go with it.

What are you eating this week?