CHEESESLAVE

Chicken nuggets: quite possibly the all-time favorite meal among kids in America. I don’t know anyone under 10 who doesn’t love chicken nuggets. The problem with most chicken nuggets is they are full of junk like MSG, trans fats, and petrochemicals. And of course the chicken is usually from battery chickens from factory farms, which are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and fed genetically modified corn and soybeans. Here’s an easy, healthy recipe for homemade chicken nuggets that children will love.

This post is part of a series, Best of Expo West 2009: My Favorite Things.
Ever have one of those nights when you really don’t feel like cooking? Ever wish you could just go to the grocery store and pick up something healthy to feed your family that doesn’t require any work on your part?
I was [...]

Almost every Saturday Kate and I go to the farmer’s market in Santa Monica and eat raw oysters on the half shell. The oysters from Carlsbad Aquafarm are so fresh (just harvested a few hours before) and unbelievably delicious. We are so lucky to live in Los Angeles and be able to eat fresh oysters for breakfast at the farmer’s market.

I took home some samples of Bare Fruit Snacks from Expo West and I have to say, they are really delicious. What’s in them? Just organic fruit, dried in an oven. Nothing else.

The problem with a lot of dried fruit out there is it’s not organic and/or it’s got added sugar, oils, and other additives. Much of the dried fruit you’ll find in stores also has added sulfites.

Mothers are always looking for healthy lunch ideas. So I thought I’d share some kids lunch ideas with you. It’s hard enough to come up with healthy recipes for kids — much less recipes for portable meals that can go in a lunch box or lunch sack. Plus, most toddlers are picky eaters. You want to pack something they will actually eat — not leave sitting there while they fill up on other kids’ Doritos and Oreos. Here are a few tips on how to pack lunches for kids, with a list of ideas for healthy lunch ideas and lunch menus.

Every Saturday morning, Kate and I go to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and eat oysters for breakfast. This is a photo of her last weekend. She looks cranky but it’s really impatience. You can see the pile of shells on her lap, and she’s pointing and saying, “More!”

She always draws a crowd when she eats oysters at the market. People are stunned that a toddler would willingly eat raw oysters. But why not? I figure if I get her hooked on them now, maybe she’ll love them for the rest of her life — just like her father and I do.

We were shopping at Trader Joe’s the other day; it was almost dinnertime and I think Kate was getting hungry. She grabbed a stick of Kerry Gold butter out of the cart and started eating it. It kept her happy, so I let her have as much as she wanted.
The other shoppers gave me funny [...]

This is pretty much the breakfast Kate eats every single day.
Two pastured eggs scrambled or cooked over easy in plenty of grass-fed butter (usually raw; although I often use KerryGold). I add a couple of pinches of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
It’s funny. At our last visit to the pediatrician, they asked me what [...]

Here’s a great snack for toddlers instead of Cheerios (which is terrible thing to feed to a child): raw pine nuts and organic raisins.
These pine nuts are raw, and have been soaked overnight in salt water, then dried in a dehydrator. This way they are chock-full of enzymes and don’t have the phytates that regular [...]

What Kate Ate Today:
Breakfast:
Eggs and onions scrambled in butter and duck fat
Two pieces of bacon

Lunch:
Leftover bacon
Homemade mushroom soup (made with homemade chicken stock and shiitake mushrooms) with raw cream
Homemade sauerkraut
Local organic grapes

Dinner:
Chicken livers sauteed in bacon fat and butter
Salad of tomato, Italian parsley, arugula, mint, onion, cucumber, and sardines dressed in olive oil, red wine [...]