Salinas Press - The Paleo Cookbook for Kids: 83 Family-Friendly Paleo Diet Recipes for Gluten-Free Kids

Copyright 2013 by Salinas Press, Berkeley, California

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ISBN Print 978-1-62315-310-6 | eBook 978-1-62315-322-9

Introduction

W hat is the Paleo diet? Its a way of eating that emphasizes real food and natural flavors, colors, and textures. It has become the gold standard for a healthful, balanced diet. It is based on following the diet that humans consumed for millennia before the invention of agriculture, when grains and legumes began to take center stage. Looking at the decline in human health since that time, one could argue that as a species, humans were meant to eat fruits and vegetables, nuts, and meatsnot grains and legumes.

The goal of this book is to help you serve kid-friendly Paleo meals to your children throughout the day. offers a range of recipes for meals, snacks, and sweets, with special emphasis on lunch.

Your child may be on the Paleo diet for any of the same reasons that an adult is: better health and vitality, better digestion, fewer toxins, reduced allergies and inflammation, better and more restful sleep, clearer skin, and healthier hair. A Paleo diet is also associated with improved glucose tolerance, so it may be helpful for children and adults with diabetes. Sustained weight loss and improved mood are two more benefits of this diet. And while there are other benefits that could be listed, there is no corresponding list of disadvantages to a Paleo diet for you and your children.

At first, your children may wonder why their peanut butter sandwiches, pizzas, and tacos have disappeared. You can help them understand by pointing out two basic facts: First, foods like peanut butter sandwiches are now just pale versions of their former selves, since the original ingredients are virtually stripped of nutrients and fiber. Second, the primary ingredients used to make that sandwichgrains and legumesare difficult for us to digest and in some cases can even make us sick. Of course, understanding why something is not all it should be is not the same as replacing a yearning for a pizza or a sandwich. This book offers attractive substitutions for comfort foods your kids might miss.

If your kids ask why a Paleo diet is good for them, the grocery store provides a good lesson in its benefitsone your kids cant help but notice. Point out the fresh foods arranged around the perimeter of the store. Produce and meats dont have labels with a list of ingredients. All you need to know about those foods is contained in their names: apple, chicken, egg. Now travel down the cereal or cracker aisle and look at any package. The ingredient list will be long and likely full of items that have four or more syllables. These additives and derivatives arent real foods; in fact, they are called food ingredients to distinguish them from a more natural version of the original food.

Cooking Paleo for your children is an exercise in abundance. Fruits and vegetables offer more colors and look delicious because they are so bright and vivid (most processed foods fall within a short beige color spectrum). Nor does Paleo cooking mean that you must spend hours at the stove. In fact, it could liberate you from the stove, since many foods are ready to serve without any cooking at all.

You may wonder how you will fill plates and stomachs without mashed potatoes or spaghetti. Filling a plate with salads, raw vegetables, and fruits makes the plate look enticing and will tempt your children to try a bite. Soon the unfamiliar becomes familiar and potentially a new favorite.

Some children are introduced to a whole new world of foods when they start a Paleo diet. It can feel unfamiliar at first. Overcoming resistance to foods or textures or flavors is a simple matter of being patient and persistent. While you are making the transition, it might make sense to stick to familiar foods that get a good reception, even if that means serving the same basic menu for several days or weeks in a row. Adding new flavors and recipes slowly is a good way to break the old routine little by little. A great place to start is by offering your own version of beloved dishes from a favorite ethnic restaurant.

Use the information you find in will show you the best way to begin: Tasting a new food in small amounts is the optimal way to introduce a new flavor. Children are often willing to taste one forkful, so its a good strategy to assemble plates that offer a little bite of a lot of things.

The main thing to rememberand to tell your childrenis that the Paleo diet means your options are pretty much wide open, as long as the foods you consume are as whole, unrefined, and unprocessed as possible. If one food doesnt pass the kid taste test, you can be sure something else will.

You know there will be times when you face challenges. The best way to head off those situations is to meet them head-on with your own alternatives. Breakfast cereals can still be something crunchy in a bowl with cold milk, and you can still offer fruit, pancakes, or even waffles. Lunch can still include sandwiches, wraps, tortillas, burgerseven pizza. You can still enjoy baked goods like brownies and chocolate chips to satisfy an urge, or crunchy chips and crackers to scoop up dips.

When your children are on their own, you have to rely on them to make their own good choices. The foods you buy, the meals you make, and the answers you give to their questions can build a strong foundation. Paleo kids get the best of all possible worlds: plenty of foods that make them strong and keep them healthy, and parents who care enough to feed them well and teach them why food matters.