Moms … try this for your kids.   It’s awesome and without all the oily fat.  Preheat oven to 350E.  Cut a 6 oz. boneless chicken breast (raw) into 5 strips. Use a blender or food processor to grind ½ cup Fiber One cereal, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, to a breadcrumb-like consistency and place the crumbs in a dish.   Pour Egg Beaters into a bowl.  Coat raw chicken strips with Egg Beaters first and then with crumb mixture.  Place strips on a baking pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (butter flavor!).  Spray a light mist of the spray on top of strips and place in oven.  Cook 10 minutes, turn strips over.  Add another light mist of spray and cook for another 8-10 minutes *until chicken is fully cooked and Fiber One crumbs look crispy).  Serves 2 kids; 2-1/2 strips = 1 P

If you’re having trouble getting your kids to eat veggies, use your imagination. Try chopped/minced carrots or zucchini in muffins or pancakes.  Dress up veggies with something your child enjoys——add low-fat cheese to broccoli, lower-fat peanut butter to celery, or flavored yogurts as a dip for veggie sticks.   For the littler ones, make up a fun face out of veggies on a plate——peas for eyes, a carrot for a nose, sprouts for hair, two halves of yellow pepper rings for ears, etc.  There is a ton of ways to introduce veggies to your kids, including ‘hiding” them!   A GREAT book about that is called Deceptively Delicious, Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, by Jessica Seinfeld.

Remember, moms, you decide which foods to buy and when to serve them. Though kids will pester their parents for less nutritious foods, adults are in charge of which foods are regularly stocked in the house. Kids won't go hungry. They'll eat what's available in the cupboard and fridge at home. If their favorite snack isn't all that nutritious, you can still buy it once in a while so they don't feel deprived.  In the end, kids do as you do.  Be a role model and eat healthy yourself.  When trying to teach good eating habits, try to set the best example possible. Choose nutritious snacks, and don't skip meals.

All school-age kids should join their moms and dads in the kitchen because the lessons learned there can be a benefit both at home and at school.   Cooking teaches your child about eating well.  Kids are receptive to conversations about nutrition.  Planning a menu is an opportunity to explain smart food choices.  Take the time to discuss the different food groups and encourage kids to experiment with foods.  A child who has a hand in making the vegetables will be a little more willing to sample them at the table!   Sharing food means sharing memories and good conversation.   Grandma’s secret zucchini bread recipe can be your chance to pass on a little bit of family history.  Did you love peanut butter and banana sandwiches when you were 8?  Tell your child about the foods you liked as a kid.  The kitchen is also a great place to ask thought-provoking questions of your child such as:  To make a really colorful dinner, which foods would you include?  Cooking can also foster responsibility.   Kids start out learning to follow recipe directions and then they learn to clean up after themselves when the project is completed.  Learning how to safely handle kitchen items is an important part of learning to cook.  Kids do need safety reminders and help with following steps in a recipe, but they can learn to clean up spills as they happen and to put things back where they belong.  Your kitchen is a learning laboratory.  As your child learns to crack eggs and stir sauce, he or she is also gaining new science, language, and math skills. Basic math skills (“are we putting in more salt or baking soda?”) and sequencing skills (“what is first…next…last?”) give way to fractions (“is this ¾ of a cup?”).  Reading recipes can improve reading comprehension, and something as simple as salt sprinkled on an ice cube demonstrates basic science principles.

All you need is one box of orange-flavored gelatin (4-serving size), ¾ cup low-fat milk, one 6- or 8-oz. container low-fat vanilla yogurt, ½ cup boiling water.   Place the gelatin mix in a medium-size bowl.  Add the boiling water.  Stir until gelatin mix is completely dissolved.  Let the mixture cool a little bit.  Add milk and yogurt.  Stir until all ingredients are blended.  Spoon into freezer-pop molds and insert a wood pop stock.  (You can also spoon the mixture into 5-ounce paper cups but cover with foil before inserting the pop sticks.)  Makes 6 pop sticks, 93 calories each = 1 Milk

by Teresa Bateman.   Harry loves junk food and hates exercise—and it shows.  But his clever pet hamster knows where Harry can go to get fit—Hamster Camp, where everyone eats and plays like a hamster. Before Harry knows it, he's got some healthy new habits. Order through your local book store or online at www.healthykidscatalog.com.

This is a funbook forpreschoolers.  While teaching upper- and lowercase letters, the author introduces fruits and vegetables from around the world and provides interesting facts about each one.  Order through your local book store or online at  www.healthykidscatalog.com.

Lizzy Rockwell shows kids in such a fun way how their amazing bodies can jump, sprint, twist, and twirl, the point being that our bodies are built to move so kids need to get moving!  She explains how our bones and muscles, heart and lungs, nerves and brain all work together to keep us on the go. Kids walk and skate and tumble through these pages with such exuberance that even sprouting couch potatoes will want to get up and bounce around—and that's the ultimate goal.  Order through your local book store or online at  www.healthykidscatalog.com.

by Jerome Tiller.  Sammy starts his day at the fair as a hungry boy who craves a delicious corn dog that he remembers from last year. The author does a terrific job of describing how Sammy’s brain acts as the control center of all his actions, sending hormones to all parts of the digestive system and making him feel hungry. This event-based book describes the affect of what we eat and how our bodies process food.  Order through your local book store or online at www.thereadingtub.com or at www.artwriteproductions.com