Liver and spinach that kids will love: Spinach Crepes Bernoise

Dec 3, 2009 by Anna Migeon

Think it’d be nice if you could get your kids to eat liver? or spinach? How about both at once? Here’s an unusual, easy and delicious recipe that my kids have always loved. The key: pretend you have no interest in whether they eat them or not, but enjoy them yourself. Ask very casually if they want to try any. Do not urge them. If they are hungry and you do not press them, they are pretty likely to try it.

Spinach Crepes Bernoise

Spinach crepes:

3 C fresh spinach

3 C milk

2 ¼ C sifted flour (whole grain if desired, or mix of whole and white)

4-5 whole eggs

Pinch of salt (to taste)

Pinch of nutmeg (to taste)

6 T melted butter

(you might want to actually bump this up to 4 c of spinach and milk and so forth. There are never too many crepes. We eat them plain if we run out of filing.)

1. Place…
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Healthy, tasty and unusual snack: East Indian Popcorn

Nov 28, 2009 by Anna Migeon

This totally different popcorn recipe is a simple, quick and easy way to make a healthy and delicious homemade snack for kids or adults.  Popcorn is actually nutritious, if it’s not slathered in unnatural grease and tons of salt. This curry-spiced version is full of interesting flavors and textures.

When I first came across a Food & Wine cookbook recipe for “Indian Popcorn,” I looked for the “nigella seeds,” aka “black onion seeds,” it called for. Not finding them, I substituted sesame seeds. They ended up burnt to a crisp on the bottom of the pan.

Since then, my garlic chive plants have blossomed and are now dropping their little black seeds. I thought maybe I could use those seeds…

The Tempting Apple: How to make raw fruits and vegetables appealing to kids

Nov 21, 2009 by Anna Migeon

This post was featured on Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday on Feb. 5, 2010

Let me just say right off the bat that the best ways to make raw fruits (and vegetables) or anything else that’s healthy more appealing to kids are:

1. Avoid giving them junk food. Ever. Kids who eat junk food develop a taste mostly for junk food.

2. Also: catch them when they’re hungry. Food plus hunger and nothing else equals kids eating.

3. Perhaps most important: do not push them to eat whatever it is. At all. Ever. Kids who are never pushed to eat will naturally like raw fruit. Kids who aren’t pushed do not develop food resistance.

Other posts here expound upon those topics at length. But here is a bit more on the topic of making raw fruit appealing.

The other night, I went to…

Do it yourself: save money, eat better by making your own yogurt

Nov 17, 2009 by Anna Migeon

Do you dream of getting your hands on some raw, local, organically produced milk from grass-fed, pastured cows at a reasonable price? Do you love the idea of making your own simple, old-fashioned cultured milk products?

Where there’s a will, there’s probably a way.

I am getting three gallons of good raw milk every other week from a farm in the area. I make four quarts of delicious and nutritious yogurt for about $7 every other week.  It’s extremely simple and satisfying.  It’s an easy way to be more self-reliant and less dependent on industrial food corporations. It’s also a great way to give your kids a closer relationship to food and its magic.

The sources for good raw milk tend to be more underground than otherwise, but such sources…