Ask a Groovy Gal (Well-Being & Health)

ASK A GROOVY GAL
TFG EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JILLIAN SWARTZ ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
JUST FOR THE HEALTH OF IT

I can't get my five-year-old twins to eat vegetables. Any tips?—Marcie, Waltham, MA

My daughter is a funny eater: she actually eats vegetables. It's such a blessing. I feel like it balances out the fact that she gets up most nights at three in the morning. So, I called in a foodie expert, Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Your Kids' Favorite Meals, to give you the dish on getting your little ones to eat their greens.

Here are her three hot tips:

1. Don’t plead, beg, threaten or bribe kids to eat anything – this will only result in a power struggle. The less you show them that you care about what they are eating, the more likely they are to try the healthy foods you secretly want them to eat.

2. Shhh…don’t tell them their meals are healthy. For reasons I cannot begin to understand, when children know something is good for them, they think it can’t possibly taste good — even if it really does.

3. Hide healthy foods in kids’ favorite meals—yes, this is the exact premise of my book, The Sneaky Chef, because it is a successful win/win approach for parents and kids. Your sneaky additions should be fairly bland tasting so they don’t impart an off flavor (or you can easily mask the healthy addition with a strong, yet kid-favorite taste decoy like cheese, ketchup or chocolate) and similar in color to the food in which they're hiding. For example, puree cauliflower and zucchini and mix into the cheese sauce for mac 'n' cheese or puree yams and carrots and mix into tomato sauce over pasta.

Ready to get sly? Try this taste-tastic recipe for healthy—yes, healthy—brownies.

SNEAKY CHEF BRAINY BROWNIES
Makes about 30 kid-sized brownies

Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Purple Puree (see Make-Ahead Recipe below)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Flour Blend (equal parts whole wheat, wheat germ, and white flour)
1/4 cup rolled oats, ground in a food processor
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Butter or non-stick cooking spray
Optional extra boost:1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter or spray only the bottom, not the sides, of a 13-by- 9-inch or 9-inch square baking pan.
3. Melt the butter and chocolate chips together in a double boiler or metal bowl over simmering water (or in a microwave, checking every 15 seconds). Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool a bit.
4. Meanwhile, in another bowl, stir together the eggs, vanilla, sugar, and Purple Puree. Combine this purple egg mixture with the cooled chocolate mixture.
5. In a mixing bowl, stir together Flour Blend, cocoa powder, oats, and salt. Add this to the chocolate mixture and blend thoroughly. Mix in the chopped walnuts, if using, then pour the entire mixture into the baking pan.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in pan before cutting the brownies and use a plastic or butter knife. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
Keeps for a week in the refrigerator, covered tightly.

Sneaky Chef Make-Ahead Recipe: Purple Puree

Ingredients
3 cups raw baby spinach leaves (1 cup frozen chopped spinach, or frozen chopped collard greens)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (no syrup or sugar added)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoons water

Directions
1. If using raw spinach, thoroughly wash it, even if the package says “prewashed.” Bring spinach or collards and water to boil in a medium pot. Turn heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. If using frozen blueberries, quickly rinse them under cold water to thaw a little, and then drain.
2. Fill the bowl of your food processor with the blueberries and cooked spinach, (or collards) along with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of water and puree on high until as smooth as possible. Stop occasionally to push top contents to bottom. If necessary, use a second tablespoon of water to make a fairly smooth puree.
3. This amount of spinach and blueberries makes only about 1 cup of puree. Double the recipe if you want to store another cup of the puree. It will store in the refrigerator up to 2 days, or you can freeze 1/4 cup portions in sealed plastic bags or small plastic containers.
*Recipes are reprinted from The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Your Kids' Favorite Meals

For more great tasting sneaks, go to www.thesneakychef.com.

Are there any good, non-chemical remedies for colicky, gassy babies?—Rachael, Salinas, CA
	I recently found out about these cool wasitbands called Happi Tummi ($24.95, www.happitummi.com), an all-natural, external, pediatrician-recommended band that provides almost-instant relief for your fussy babe's stomach problems. Just heat for 15 to 20 seconds, wrap and relax—that goes for your little one and you since the lavender in the pouch serves as a natural calmer for anyone in smelling range. And, of course, it's cute—I mean, who needs to suffer when you can soothe in style?

I've heard stories of kids reading at two-and-a-half and three years old. Should I be teaching my three year old to read?—Laura, Westchester, NY

Oh, the pressure to create a baby genius—I feel you! I had a cousin who learned to read at two-and-a-half and while my daughter can recognize letters, a reader she is not. I reached out to Marie Rush, founder of Read to Me Every Day (www.readtomeeveryday.com) for the who, what, where, when and why of reading. Rush gave us three great tips on teaching your toddler how to read:

1. Don’t worry about teaching your toddler to read.
2. Don’t get stressed out if another pre-scholar/preschooler is reading and yours isn’t.
3. Read to your child for at least 15 minutes every day.

Here's what else she told me:

If you do all three at the same time, your child will have the headstart he/she needs to read the New York Times when it is age appropriate. For those of us who may be overachievers, or feel like we want our children to be, I have some more detailed suggestions about #3, and some surprising activities which don’t involve books at all.

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear the different sounds in words. For instance, the word sunshine has two distinct “chunks” of sounds: /sun/ and /shine/. The early stages of phonological awareness include hearing and understanding that a sentence is made up of many words, recognizing that words that sound the same rhyme and that words are made from a series of sounds. Making up funny words by changing the beginning sounds, playing with rhyming words, clapping out words in a sentence are all activities that are precursors to reading.

Phonemic awareness is phonological awareness broken down to the individual phonemes, or sounds, in words. For instance, the word cat has three distinct sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/. A child who has this skill will giggle with glee when they realize that all they have to do is change the /c/ to /r/ and they have made up a new word. Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness activities are pre-reading activities that involve nothing other than one’s lips and ears. When actual letters come into play, we have phonics. Phonics is connecting the letters and the sounds, and then forming words.

Read and re-read books. Re-read the books you have already re-read. As you read to your child, point out the words and read with enthusiasm. Know when to stop—your four-year-old child probably has the attention span of a four year old. Take a break and do it again later. Read everything with him or her: meaningful things; a recipe; a sign at a restaurant; cereal boxes, billboards. Write everything with him or her: meaningful things; thank you notes; grocery lists; and wish lists. Most importantly, remember to have fun. If it isn’t fun for you, then I’ll bet it isn’t fun for your child.

Reading and a love for reading begins at home. If you read to your child for at least 15 minutes a day, every day, your child is well on his or her way to that New York Times newsstand.

Click here to read about Jillian's life in the 'hood—motherhood.