I had the most amazing time in South Africa, learning about and tasting exotic foods.  One of my foodie rules is a try new foods – don’t be boring –  by eating a little of lots of different foods  your body will get everything it needs.

Well I took this very literally and seriously in South Africa. On day three I tried my first ever Crocodile carpaccio, its finely sliced raw Crocodile meat served with rocket and a mango chutney. Sound bizarre? I promise you it was one of the nicest things I have ever tasted!! Thumbs up for Crocodile!!

Another new thing for me was the waitress who served me the crocodile all dressed in traditional costume, painted some African art on my arm. So cool!!
On day five I visited a school on the outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa. Here they were serving chicken feet for the children for lunch. They were cooked in a large pot with spices. Luckily for me they went cooked yet so I didn’t have to try one – I think I would have struggled a bit!!! However, as said don’t be boring – so I have to do what I say…  if they were , I would have mustered up the courage to try one.

Closer to home and a lot more ‘normal” in the last School holiday Cooking program I issued a challenge to all the kids to try new-to-you foods. Wow I was blown away with how some kids totally got into things and tried foods which they had never tried before…

I am totally convinced there are hundreds of potential favorite  foods out there just waiting for each of us to find…  and even if you have tried something  a long time ago and didn’t like it then you might just like it now! ( see my blog on Mushrooms!!) A lot of kids take up to 12 times tasting a food before we like  a food!!  So don’t  give up!!

I love it when I find other people who are on the same mission as me!! Next week the NZ Nutrition Foundation’ s Food Week 2012 runs. I am totally supporting the  Just Cook concept so will be on TVNZ U at 6pm on Tuesday the 8th May to encourage everyone to Just Cook !! This is really supports  my It’s My Turn To Cook Tonight Bosch School Holiday Cook in Program.  I want all of the kids who were on the  holiday program are  to get in behind Just Cook and rustle up at least one family meal. We know after their week on the School Holiday Program they are absolutely able to! And if you weren’t on my program (haha I know you will be next time cos the prizes were sooooo good!!) then you should give it a go too – I got such good feed back how much you enjoyed the challenge/ chance / opportunity to actually make a whole meal…so rise to the occasion – you may surprise yourself!

Food Week’s  theme is  Just Cook. Just cook a family meal and sit down and enjoy with your family. But hey – I think it is fun to cook for your friends too!

Just Cook runs a couple of competitions too  - so check out www.justcook.co.nz and see if you can get involved!

That's my little brother William on the cover with me!

If  your parents are thinking you should learn to be food savvy  - here is the thing I have co-wrtten a book for parents  with my mother.  My mother looks at the serious things ( nutrition, self esteem, eating too much junk food, food skills etc )  - I bring her back to earth so she remembers how kids think and operate…Together we have something that is really realistic!

 Life love food kids is a book is about a couple of journeys…

 There is my mother’s food journey – from when she was a little girl to now. It’s about what happens when childhood memories, the science of nutrition and the teaching of cooking get mixed up with family and life. 

 My part in her journey is about me getting ready to leave home and wanting to know enough about food so that I can look after myself. 

My favorite saying is ‘a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step’. This is really true about food – each time I have learnt a fact or how to do something has been a step towards my independence.

I think the lessons from our differing perspectives will help your parent to  help you travel along the same path as I have. It feels good to know I know enough about food to take good care of myself. 

Claire

PS – it will be on sale in about 4 weeks – watch this space!

I am a dreamer so it sort of follows that I dream, or visualize, about food too.

When I think about my meals I sort if hold an image in my mind about what to eat.    I ‘see’ my plate as being half fruit and vegetables or salad,  quarter protein (meat, fish, eggs or poultry ) and quarter carbohydrates or grains (rice, pasta or breads – here’s the good part  - I love potatoes and depending on who you listen to they can fit in two categories – veg or carbs!?)

When I put this image in mind I find it easy to help me choose how much of what to eat… it’s kind of fun trying to ‘untangle’ foods like fried rice too. It’s easy to fix if your plate gets distorted – sometimes the quarters look more like thirds –  ’cos lets face it, it is usually the fruit and veg half that gets the nudge – just eat a carrot, tomato, orange, apple or a handful of grapes and your picture gets ‘right’. (According to the health guys, about 2/3′s of us don’t get the half bit right – so that is why they are always going on about it!?! )

The other day I learnt another cool trick – it’s 20/20. As you are taking your food stop and and consciously take 20% more fruit and vegetables and 20% less of everything else. I gotta say 20%  more and 20% less isn’t hard at all – doesn’t make much difference to your meal but does to your skin and jean size!

So there you go – see a picture of a plate and play 20/20 – both easy…

PS:  No matter where you live,  you’ll have heard it –  mix it up, 5 to 10 a day,  go for 2 & 5, more matters or 5+ A Day - whatever your country is banging on about  my two tricks will just help you get there!!!

Most of us love chips or fries (whatever you call them – sort of depends where you live) but you know they have a bad reputation. Well here is the inside scoop (haha I am just studying for English and that is a good pun ?!?)

1. When a potato comes out of the ground it is just about fat free.
2. By time it leaves the processor it is around 3-5% fat.
3. By time gets on your plate it can be around 9% for wedges or thick cut ones and around 17% fat for skinny ones.

(But let’s keep this in perspective here – we need some fat. Even the skinny ones have less that most pies or chocolate cookies and neither of them have any Vitamin C  - so chips don’t deserve to be so maligned – problem  is we eat so many of them though!)

So it’s not the potato that is the problem – it is how they are cooked… but there are a few things to help …

• Go for chunky or thick cut – these have about half  the fat of skinny ones. Lots of the skinny ones can give you a big bum if you eat them too often – more than a few times a week. If there are only skinny ones then just go for small size  so you can still enjoy the yummy taste.
• Making chips at home can be great – there are lots of packets you can buy that are around 5% fat or less so that is a good choice. Read the label. They taste good too.
• And better still (cheaper and even lower fat) you can make your own wedges or roast potatoes – these are really easy  and seriously delicious.

So with bought chips and fries just make a decision to eat a little less so you can still enjoy them – my trick is to eat them slowly so you enjoy every morsel – that way you don’t feel deprived – if you feel deprived you’ll only pig out later…

But if all goes wrong,  your will-power does a runner and you succumb to a big serve – there is redemption. Go easy at your next meal, have a glass of milk and an apple, plus do a bit more exercise  to swing back into balance. Do that and it will all work out in the end and your jeans will still fit!?!?

PS; it’s the same strategy you need for chocolate.

Remember my foodie rule No 1:

All food is ok, but don’t do binge or excess – it’s how much and how often you eat a food… two or three chocolate biscuits are ok – a packet isn’t… a can or glass of coke is fine – 2 litres is over the top… Watch out for ‘portion distortion’ – a serve should be about the size of your fist.

A guy likes a girl with a bit of meat on her bones! And your own body will love you if you eat more red meat.  NZ Beef and Lamb is the perfect way to help keep you looking and feeling great! Everyone knows that teenage girls prefer chicken to a steak….but don’t let the blood fool you. That juicy red piece of beef or lamb will provide you with a wide range of essential nutrients. Most importantly for us girls it has a huge amount of IRON.

Iron is essential to keep our blood healthy and helps keep us energised so you can spend more time having fun with your friends! If you eat your meat with a glass of OJ or put some kiwifruit in your salad you can absorb even more of that precious iron. By choosing lean meat cuts, you can save yourself from the fat AND can be sure its packed with protein. Protein help us to feel satisfied so you don’t need to eat heaps and you can save room for one of my yummy fruit desserts.

So girls-healthy blood and bundles of energy. I know what I’m having for dinner tonight!

I wrote this post as a participant in the Eat, Play, Love blog carnival hosted by Meals Matter and Dairy Council of California to share ideas on positive and fun ways to teach children healthy eating habits. A list of other registered dietitians and moms who are participating in the carnival will be listed at the bottom of this post or can be found on Meals Matter.

Have you ever noticed how BORING nutrition messages are – I mean does it really worry you now if you might get heart disease in 30 or 40 years??? “Eat less fatty food and you will reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease”.

Blah, blah I am asleep already… It needs to be translated to “eat less greasy stuff and you wont get a big bum”. That has a lot more relevance to me.  I mean, I want to fit my ball dress and look good in my jeans.

Anyway with the help of a team of teens and some people that know stuff about nutrition and food we came up with 10 Foodie Rules that  if you follow will help you feel really great. I think it is where common sense and science collide we took all the boring nutrition and turned it into stuff kids like me think is important. We printed these foodie rules in my book Who’s Cooking Tonight? and so many people said that they liked them so we made a  foodie rules You Tube.

btw –  some of my foodie rules are about other things like tv, laughing and exercise! Curious…

Hope you like them!!

Claire

Don't stop here! Join the carnival and read other Eat, Play, Love blogs from dietitians and moms offering the best advice on raising healthy eaters. And if you don't get enough today, for more positive, realistic and actionable advice from registered dietitian moms, register for the free, live webinar Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters on Wednesday, May 18.

The Best-Kept Secret for Raising Healthy Eaters, Maryann Jacobsen, MS, RD
Feeding is Love, Jill Castle, MS, RD, LDN
5 Quick Ways to Prepare Veggies with Maximum Flavor, Dayle Hayes, MS, RD
The Art of Dinnertime, Elana Natker, MS, RD
Children Don’t Need a Short Order Cook, Christy Slaughter
Cut to the Point – My Foodie Rules, Glenda Gourley
Eat, Play, Love – A Challenge for Families, Alysa Bajenaru, RD
Eat, Play, Love ~ Raising Healthy Eaters, Kia Robertson
Get Kids Cooking, Jessica Fishman Levinson, MS, RD, CDN
Kid-Friendly Kitchen Gear Gets Them Cooking, Katie Sullivan Morford, MS, RD
Kids that Can Cook Make Better Food Choices, Glenda Gourley
Making Mealtime Fun, Nicole Guierin, RD
My No Junk Food Journey – Want to Come Along? , Kristine Lockwood
My Recipe for Raising Healthy Eaters: Eat Like the French, Bridget Swinney MS, RD, LD
Playing with Dough and the Edible Gift of Thyme, Robin Plotkin, RD, LD
Picky Eaters  Will Eat Vegetables, Theresa Grisanti, MA
Raising a Healthy Eater, Danielle Omar, MS, RD
Putting the Ease in Healthy Family Eating, Connie Evers, MS, RD, LD
Raising Healthy Eaters Blog Carnival & Chat Roundup, Ann Dunaway Teh, MS, RD, LD
Soccer Mom Soapbox, Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD
Teenagers Can Be Trying But Don’t Give UpDiane Welland MS, RD
What My Kids Taught Me About Eating Mindfully, Michelle May, MD

It never ceases to amaze me how some cafes seem hell-bent in overfeeding us. It seems many café owners have adopted the rule of Miss Piggy the Muppet “Never eat more than you can lift”…
Over the past few months I have really started to notice how gross or huge some portions actually are… enormous muffins (enough for you to share with two others) or the excessively huge pieces of caramel slice (which ideally should be cut into thirds or quarters). Whopping portions are everywhere! If you munch your way through the whole piece not only do you feel sick – you have just eaten almost half your days energy intake.
The worst example is the “killer ice-cream” I found in a store on the Coromandel Peninsular. The ice cream was SO huge they gave you a piece of paper to hold it up with. It was so bad – it was funny and nearly violated Miss Piggy’s rule! They even had a chart on the wall listing the names of the hardy souls who had managed to eat it in record time. Okay, I know you don’t have to buy it.
I think this portion distortion has got to stop… so in my own way now I am taking a stand. I understand that cafes want to be generous – but there comes a point when generous becomes obscene.
When I want to have a muffin but the only one that is there is over-the-top-huge I am going to ask for a half, share it or ask them to wrap half up for me to take home.
I stand by my foodie rule “All food is ok but don’t do binge or excess”.