“My children / partner won’t eat that” is a response that I often get from clients. It’s not that they don’t want to make dietary changes, but the other people in their household will not agree to or go along with such things.
Wives fuss about their husbands’ eating habits.
Mothers fret about getting vegetables into their children.
Women spend hours in the kitchen making three, four, five different meals to satisfy every palate, and then worrying about getting missing nutrients in somehow.
There have been entire cookbooks written about how to “hide” foods – most notably by Jessica Seinfeld (the wife of the famous comedian) and Missy Lapine (who sued Mrs Seinfeld for plagiarism a few years ago). Both of them advocate stealthily pureeing vegetables into every recipe so that kids (and fussy adults) won’t know they’re actually consuming healthy ingredients.
Marion Nestle, food policy and nutrition guru rightly points out that, on the flip side, there is a trust issue involved. How can a child (or an adult for that matter) keep believing the person making the food after they discover that ingredients they hate are being forced upon them anyway? Personally, I would feel done over.
I’m thinking about recipes that involve beets in brownies, squash in pasta sauces, spinach in burgers. And while these are wonderful and creative ideas, I think it is about how they are presented -- or whether they are mentioned at all. I find the sneakiness problematic.
When kids are involved, what is more important: nutrition or trust?
Where allergies are concerned, I think the dilemma is non-existent. And so too with food choices made for ethical reasons:
A few years ago, I went to dinner at a friend’s house. They had my list of allergies and knew how sensitive I am to certain foods. We enjoyed a great meal and had a lot of fun but on my way home, I started to feel ill. I was dizzy, my stomach was upset, and a migraine soon set in. DW called our hosts to find out whether they had mistakenly put anything in our supper that I might be having a reaction to. The wife admitted that she had, in fact added a teaspoon of bouillon (containing yeast, gluten and sugar) to the soup. Instead of apologizing, she remained incredulous: “It was just a teaspoon! How much harm can that cause?” was what she said.
Other people I know who are a stealth vegans were at a dinner party once where the host proudly announced that the dinner they had eaten contained beef stock. “But you liked it, didn’t you?” he demanded as if that was the point!
I don’t think I need expain how harmful these two events were to the friendships involved.
There are great ways to enjoy healthy fare – it’s simply a question of figuring out how you like it.
This week I made kale chips. It seems everyone is into kale chips these days. Food bloggers have been raving about them ad nauseam and the market is exploding with packaged versions. Still, the store-bought ones are never as good as the homemade version. The first kale chips I enjoyed were whipped up by my friend, Ella from the The Regal Vegan. They were crunchy, savoury, tasty, satisfying. And healthy.
Speed and ease have become of primary importance these days and these little gems are both. (not to mention easy on the wallet!)
Kale chips are ridiculously delicious and if you google them, you’ll find that there are a million ways of flavouring them. I kept things simple: a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, a smidgen of spicy smoked paprika.
If your partner or family has a hard time with things like kale, I dare you to whip up a batch. Chances are, everyone will start thinking of this famous leafy green – symbol of all things terribly healthy – in a whole new way.
They’re kale, they’re crunchy, they’re in your face delicious – no need to hide anything anywhere (except maybe an extra batch for yourself before grabby fingers polish them off)
Kale Chips
(this recipe is for a baked version. They are also a great raw snack if you have a dehydrator)
You’ll need:
- a bunch of fresh, raw kale
- any flavourings (options include soy sauce, salt, vinegar, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika – I recently read a recipe using cinnamon!)
- oil (olive, toasted sesame)
*** the options are endless ***
Preheat the oven to 176 Centigrade (350 Fahrenheit)
Rip washed kale off the stalk into large bite-sized pieces
In a bowl, mix the raw kale and the flavourings until the leaves are well-coated.
Spread in a roasting pan
Bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool before eating so they get nice and crispy.
Note: although these kale chips can happily be eaten on their own, they also make a great garnish in soups. If you're missing some crunch, sprinkle some of these guys on top of a creamy potage! For example, the spicy heat of smoky paprika provided a wonderful topping on sweet winter squash soup.
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water and it's only 9:30am!