Jill McKenzie - 52 Weeks of Proven Recipes for Picky Kids

Visit us at ShadowMountain.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McKenzie, Jill. 52 weeks of proven recipes for picky kids / by Jill McKenzie. p. cm.

Includes index. ISBN 978-1-59038-986-7 (paperbound) 1. Cookery. I. Title. II.

Title: Fifty-two weeks of proven recipes for picky kids. TX652.M3685 2008 641.5dc222008018632 Printed in the United States of America Worzalla Publishing Co., Stevens Point, WI 10987654321 To my wonderful, picky children, Amber, Jessica, Joseph, Michael, Kaitee, and Jacob Mothers of Picky Kids Love These Recipes! Jill has a great knack for using unique seasonings to make ordinary food taste great. I enjoyed everything Ive tasted of her recipes. She has a chef-like quality to her recipes, but they are simple to make. I love feeling like I can actually cook something my children enjoy. Deanne Crockett All of my kids loved them.

This book is a great idea. Capn Crunch Chicken came out really moist and crunchy. Gretchen Bartlett Jill has shared some of her recipes with my family and we found them to be full of flavor, easy to make, and something everyone enjoys. With seven in our family, that is not always easy to accomplish! Ive made them for large crowds and everyone ALWAYS wants the recipes. They are simply that good! Jana Dixon As a mother of young children, I feel a need to provide healthy food for my family. As a woman, I feel the need to be creative.

By using these recipes from this amazing cookbook, I am able to make healthy, yummy food that my children will eat, while stretching my creativity beyond the pre-prepared foods that we have become accustomed to. Holly Davis My grandchildren have enjoyed the fun and creative recipes from this cookbook when they come to visit. Its a wonderful idea. Marty Ellis A Second Helping of Praise... Our viewers love a Jill McKenzie recipe! She knows how to get kids to eat... without it being boring.

She adds some unique twists to her recipes, creating the perfect combination of originality and taste. Its the perfect cookbook for getting your family back to the dinner table. Michelle Kettle, Program Director, Studio 5, Salt Lake City, Utah At Utah Valley University, our students are on tight schedules and usually work within tight budgets. Jills fast, tasty, and inexpensive recipes are just what students are looking for. McKenzie is UVUs Hallway Gourmet, and weekly brings gourmet delights to the campus halls and energetically engages students in learning how to prepare these simple but tasty foods. These homegrown recipes are fast and delectable, even when prepared by a novice like me.

Grant Flygare, Director Office of Student Involvement, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah Jill has created fun and nutritious meal ideas that will appeal to all the members of your family. Ive had the opportunity to sample some of these recipes. They are savory and have time-saving ideas that will help you reclaim your mealtime together. Suzanne L. Price, Pleasant Grove Maceys (retired), Owner/Operator of Price Catering Acknowledgments Grateful thanks to Chris Schoebinger, an inspiring genius of good ideas; Jana Erickson, for letting this great idea incubate; Janna DeVore, for an amazing editing job; Lisa Mangum, Shauna Gibby, and Tonya Facemyer, and the rest of the Shadow Mountain team. Thanks to the families who devoted their time and talents to prove and try these recipes; Suzanne at Maceys; Grant at UVU; and Michelle at KSL for adding to the momentum and joy of this project.

Thanks to Holly for last-minute details and encouragement. Thanks to my dog, Sooner, who kept my feet warm while I was typing. And, finally, special thanks to Roger, who is the pickiest of them all. I am so glad he picked me. Introduction Is this what were having for dinner? Yuck! Can I have some macaroni and cheese? your child complains as you bring a lovingly prepared meal to the table, your back aching from standing in the kitchen for more than an hour and a stack of dirty pots and pans waiting in the sink. The only thing that could make the situation worse is your husband piping in with, Or we could have hot dogs instead! This is a true storyit really happened to me; and I imagine that it happens in dozens of other homes in my neighborhoodand neighborhoods everywhereon a nightly basis.

I wrote this book to help empower you to reclaim dinnertime in your home and to provide ideas, tools, and suggestions that can possibly obliterate dinnertime whining and complaining altogether, or at least reduce the complaints from nightly to monthly. Before you dive into the recipes that follow, read through these tips. You may feel like youve gone back in time and are just introducing your baby to solid foods; but these tips really will make a difference in what your childand husband, and even youenjoy over time:

• Its better to take just one taste. Sometimes the threat of having to eat an entire portion is overwhelming. Promise yourself, or your child, that all that is needed is just a single bite. If, after trying a new food, you or your child insist that its not going to be on the menu, then simply accept it.
• Be brave and introduce new foods more than onceeven if it was rejected on the first try.

  Many of us have to try a food several times before developing a taste for it. Continue to offer a new food without force. Eventually you or your child just might acquire a taste for it.

• Its important to be a role model. Let your children see you enjoy a wide variety of foods. Just like you had to show your baby how to take his first bite of strained peaches, sometimes you need to show your eight-year-old that you, too, can eat vegetables. Scheduling family meals helps kids watch the adults in their family enjoying lots of different types of food.

  It also keeps a family healthier and happier when you eat together.

• Try foods in different forms. Your child may not like bananas, so try a smoothie with bananas and yogurt instead. Some foods that arent so appealing in their natural state, can take on a whole new a peel in a different form.
• Be flexible, but disciplined. Dont snack on unhealthy foods between meals. When kids eat too many sweet treats, they are more likely to not be hungry at dinnertime and it will be easier for them to refuse to eat what you have prepared. Instead, when your children are hungry during the day, offer them healthy snacks like vegetable sticks or sliced fruit.

  If they are hungry enough, they will eat them. And when your children have been snacking on healthy foods, you can be flexible enough to occasionally let your kids skip eating a serving of vegetables at dinner because you know they have eaten them earlier in the day.

• Let dinner be a special time to focus on the family. Think of dinner as a chance for quality time rather than a chance to focus on the food your child wont eat. Put less pressure on eating and more emphasis on sharing the details of the day.
• Let the children get involved in the preparation of dinner. Not only will you have fun; but you can almost count on children eating what they have prepared.

Many of us come from a generation of quick-and-easy meals, so thats what we are used to. But too often, those straight-from-the-can or packaged dinners are lacking in nutrition and taste.