“Mom, can you try a different fad next week?” my 11-year-old son asked as he stabbed a stir-fried piece of broccoli with his fork.

“We have this every Sunday for lunch!” my 8-year-old daughter exclaimed as she stared at her plate of stir-fried beef, vegetables and noodles.

“Well, I think you’re exaggerating a little. Yes, we had stir-fried meat and vegetables, but it was shrimp, rice and vegetables. It was two weeks ago, by the way,” I noted in defense of my meal planning.

I had a mental flashback of their rave reviews the first time I bought the convenience item. “It’s gourmet food!” my kids had exclaimed. Tempting as it was, I didn’t remind them of their earlier remarks.

I thought these frozen meals were a pretty good deal on several levels. Per serving, this meal had about 200 calories, 5 grams of fat, 70 percent of the daily recommendation for vitamin A and 40 percent of the daily recommendation for vitamin C. It cost just $1.50 per serving and took 10 minutes to prepare from bag to plate.

On the negative side, it had 40 percent of the daily sodium recommendation and my kids were complaining about it.

“These dinners all taste alike to me. Why does broccoli have to taste so bad, anyway?” my daughter added as she moved an offending green vegetable to a distant side of her plate.

“I want yogurt!” my 3-year-old daughter exclaimed, registering her vote against the main meal.

My husband didn’t say a word during this exchange, wise man that he is. He ate every morsel.

Getting kids to try new foods, especially vegetables, can be challenging for parents. Research shows it sometimes takes 10 to 15 exposures to a new food before a child is willing to accept it.

You need to be patient and sometimes a little sneaky, too. Pair new foods with familiar foods and keep the portions of new food small. For example, what if your child doesn’t like vegetables, but likes spaghetti? Try adding grated vegetables to the spaghetti sauce.

With today’s hectic lifestyles, convenience foods beckon us from store shelves, delicatessens, coolers and freezers. Manufacturers can’t quite duplicate home cooking, at least according to my kids. Label reading is especially important because, nutritionally, many convenience items are high in fat and sodium.

You can make frozen and boxed foods more nutritious with these tips:

• In stir-fry mixes and boxed dinners, decrease the sodium content by using only half the packet of sauce or seasoning.
• If provided, follow the lower-fat directions on macaroni and cheese packages or just reduce the amount of butter or margarine by half.
• Add extra vegetables to canned vegetable soup.
• Top frozen pizzas with chopped vegetables.
• Substitute half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce in boxed brownie mixes.
• Boost calcium by adding milk or dry milk powder to recipes calling for milk.

Here’s a recipe featuring many of autumn’s produce items. If stir-fried vegetables have gotten a little boring, try some roasted ones.

Oven-roasted Vegetables

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. dried herbs (such as rosemary or basil)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 c. cut up assorted fresh vegetables (such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower or red peppers)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a small bowl, mix the oil, lemon juice, herbs, salt and pepper. Wash, peel and cut the fresh vegetables to get 3 cups. Spread vegetables on a sheet pan. Coat the vegetables with the oil mixture. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir after the first 10 minutes of baking.

Makes six servings. Each 1/2-cup serving has 70 calories, 5 grams (g) of fat and 7 g of carbohydrate.

###

Source: Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu

BeefTalk

Prairie Fare

Plains Folk

Hortiscope

Market Advisor:

Crop

Livestock

North Dakota State University
NDSU Agriculture Communication
NDSU Extension Service
ND Agricultural Experiment Station