At Our House, Broccoli is King!

Oh, the battles that have been waged over the lowly broccoli! The simple pea! The insignificant green bean! But not at our house. At our house Broccoli is King! Broccoli rules! No temper tantrums herald its entrance. No displays of force accompany its place at the dinner table. It always baffles me how so simple an issue raises such heights of passions. I have entertained exasperated and tearful parents' reports of raging battles that have undermined the entire household for months and years on end. They plead with me and beg me to tell them the secret of Broccoli’s long reign at our house. Let me say from the very beginning that as a parent I am responsible for my child's health and welfare. I take this responsibility very seriously, sometimes to the amusement of friends and family. Yes, I have been called an overprotective parent. My oldest son was 1 yr old before he actually came in contact with dirt! However in the area of food, I believe that parents often abdicate this responsibility and feed their children all kinds of processed stuff that hinders their child's health and development. I've been laughed at and told, "Well, we ate it and we're okay." Well, really now, are we actually healthy? North America has some of the highest rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease in the world. Our children's hospitals are full of children with cancer and other diseases to say nothing of the numbers of children that suffer from rare diseases, asthma, allergies, skin disorders, ADD and ADHD. And I actually wouldn't rate myself as the healthiest person. I have weight issues but my doctor tells me I am as healthy as a horse-not sure if that is a spring colt or a put-out-to-pasture-old-nag! But as a child I didn't eat much processed food. I wouldn't say that my diet was exactly healthy but I did eat vegetables every day. Sugar and pop were rare when I was a kid-juice an occasional treat! But today those foods are consumed in quantity by most children.

With the advent of the internet information is available to us in such incredible abundance and ease of access that we have no excuse. I actually studied for years to learn about nutrition and diet so I could feed my kids well. As well as information the food choices we have today are incredible.

Broccoli was not always king at our house. When I was a child, I didn't know it existed, simply because it wasn't available to the population of small town Ontario in the '60's and '70's. I think I was actually a teenager before I saw my first head of broccoli! It is now one of my favourite veggies! However, I did have access to fresh yellow and green beans, picked straight from the garden, snapped, washed and steamed with a bit of butter and salt and pepper! Yum! My favourite! I was the kid that took the salt shaker to the garden and sat in among the tomato plants, picked them off warm and glowing from the sun, rubbed them on my pants and bit in with the juices running off my chin, salt ready to use in the other hand for the second bite. Asparagus, before it appeared in stores was hunted down in expeditions with my mother and picked wild from patches along the side of the road, brought home, washed and creamed to be served on toast. It was a yearly feast-my mother still doesn't realize that Asparagus is sold in stores! You see, we all know that parents model behaviour for children so if your children will only eat chicken fingers, cheese and pancakes made from a box, what exactly are you eating? My daughter and I have both come to the conclusion that if we were to eat prepared food, taken from the freezer and micro waved everyday for one week, that we would have a sore throat and be feeling tired, drained and suffering a definite lack of energy.

I believe that the first step in good nutrition is breast feeding and we are all well aware of all the benefits associated with the practice for both mother and child. The one area in which breastfeeding relates to feeding children after they are weaned is that flavour of a mother's milk changes with her diet and accustoms the child to different tastes. I also do not feed my babies cereals when they are less than 1 yr. I start them on fruit, then veggies, mostly prepared at home. This gives them adequate nutrition and fibre to start up their tiny digestive tracts. It also allows the infant body time to develop the neccesary enzymes needed to digest starches. After 1 yr, I introduce whole grain cereals and poultry and fish in small amounts. This gets them used to different flavours and textures. You also need a certain amount of discipline. It always amazes me that parents give in so easily to their children. You wouldn't let them play in the street at 2, so why would you allow them to make their own food choices. My children are fed at regular meal times and if they don't try and finish the small portions we give them, then their food is taken away and they are given it at a later time. I've seen parents take their children's unfinished food away, then present them with cookies and juice in return. You have to be firm and don't give in to their crying, begging and pleading. You might wish to die when listening to their complaints but they will surely not die no matter how much of a fuss they make! I've also found that when most children see a new or different vegetable they will turn their nose up at it, but if it is cooked properly and tried, they will like it. My older children have told me that they didn't like squash or some other veggie as a child but they ate a small portion of it then and now they like it. There are also different ways of presenting veggies to children. It's been my experience that they most love raw veggies with dip and if my kids are pigging out on raw veggies, I don't really care if they eat a little high fat dip with it-the vitamins and raw enzymes they are consuming far out way the detriment of the fat. I also let them pick new veggies out at the store to try or make it fun. My children love to help me prepare artichokes and love to eat them-they are unusual, but fun to eat!

It is also apparent to me that most picky children have learned the habit at home. I see parents turning their nose up at food and wonder why they don't understand why their kids are so picky! Remember that Broccoli? Well, you still will not see it on my parent’s table because my mom claims that my dad doesn’t like it. However, for some reason he eats it at my house. Hmmmm. Another veggie he did not like was squash, however it did not prevent my mother from cooking it. He always remarked that you should cook it on a plank, feed the squash to the pigs and eat the plank. All my kids love squash!

I have my ways of getting things in there. My mother-in-law was serving spinach that she boiled (to within an inch of its life!) and my children asked her what it was? She was amazed and asked me why I didn’t cook spinach for my kids. I replied that they had been eating it for years but didn’t know it! I layer it in Lasagne and oh, how they love Lasagne! My favourite way to cook Spinach now is to saute chopped garlic in olive oil with halved Grape Tomatoes, Ground Pepper and Basil, then when the tomaoes are softened, I stir in Baby Spinach! Yummy and the smell is amazing! Try it on pasta with White Sauce! For interesting ways to incorporate veggies into your kids food check out Jessica Seinfeld’s book: Deceptively Delicious. She hides things like pureed beets, squash and sweet potatoes in muffins, cookies, brownies and even Mac and Cheese in order to get the veggies into her kids.

The other thing that is so amazing about veggies besides the cool shapes and colours are the names. After all, what more fun names can you think of than Zucchini? Asparagus? Cauliflower? Cucumber? Time to go-off to make some Baked Potatoes with Broccoli and Cheese sauce for supper!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cup soft margarine
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini (remove pulp and seeds but do not peel)
1/2 cup sour milk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Beat margarine, oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar until well blended. Beat in zucchini then add flour (mix dry ingredients together first) and milk alternately until blended. Bake at 350 ' in a greased 9 x 13 pan or bundt pan. Bake 35-45 minutes until done. Ice with Cream Cheese icing.

Taken from: St. Paul's Lutheran Lady's Cookbook

My kid's favourite vegetable!