Rachael Ray

I have not heard of Hint, but I am friendly with the folks at Honest, makers of Honest Kids.  My kids like this drink, but I was always bothered by the fact that there was sugar in it.  Cane sugar or refined sugar, I don't care, it's still sugar.  So I was really pleased when the company revealed to me recently that they will be removing the sugar from the kids drinks and making it all about the juice and water.  Good move.  Kids seem to love these drinks, I think because the pouch makes them nice and cold, for one.

My son woke up with a croupy cough today. What do you guve your kids when they have a cold?  I remember when they were babies it was always the BRAT diet-bananas, rice, applesauce and toast, but how about when they get older?  My son doesn't like really anything that I think he should have, like chicken soup or orange juice, but what is most important?  Some people think feeding them too much during an illness is harmful, which is a totally foreign concept to me.  I think the important thing is that they stay hydrated, no matter what they drink.  Ginger ale here I come.

Lunch was so uneventful for me growing up that I don't remember it.  That is until I entered 5th grade where no one was allowed to bring their lunch and you had to eat from the cafeteria.  I absolutely loved this.  I have distinct memories of that cafeteria where we sat gleefully with our teachers and dined over a pleasant conversation while getting our first lessons in table manners (no talking between tables).  I really enjoyed the tradition of it all. 

Of course for me eating has always been an exciting event, so it's no wonder I embraced lunchtime at school.  I recall loving the hot ham and cheese sandwiches, the breaded pork chops and mashed potatoes, and the mac and cheese.  What do these have in common?  They were hot.  I happen to know my daughter loves when I put anything in her thermos because as she says, "it's always a surprise and it's always good."  I think the idea of a hot lunch is really satisfying to kids, so sometimes the same 'ol pb&j just falls flat (and gets squished too, as I recall).

I also distinctly remember we had the option to make our own salad or sandwich and I invented a dish when I was in fifth grade where I took a tortilla, spread it with peanut butter, covered it with shredded lettuce and rolled it up.  Little did I know I was making Thai food. 

I never remember my parents never asking me what I ate for lunch.  I never ate breakfast.  Then again, I grew up differently than I am raising my kids.  My mom was a schoolteacher so we ate every dinner together that she made from scratch, never take out. We also just didn't have sugared cereals and chips around the house.  The worst indulgence I could make would have been to eat too much bread.  Which I did, because that's what kids do, indulge in the things they love.  My mom always knew she was getting that one good dinner in me so she probably didn't worry about the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, I can't make the same promise.

The key, and I am trying to actually do this, is to not have the junk around. Knowing the choices of things to eat at home could range from good for you to not bad for you, you can let the kids make their own lunches and snacks and see what they invent.  Even if it's as weird as peanut butter and lettuce, it's really not that bad for them. 

In all seriousness, I had a few other bad habits.  We always had a stick of pepperoni around and I would take big bites out of it and stick it back in the fridge.  Nice.

I think that breakfast for dinner idea is brilliant.  Rach calls it BLD (see our collection of these recipes) or Breakfast Lunch Dinner, meaning it's a recipe you can have for any of those meals.

You can make it so healthy, like you did with crepes and fruit, you can even use buckwheat flour, which I just discovered, is not wheat at all.  I had no idea, did you?  It's actually in the same family as rhubarb, although I don't really think it's a vegetable either.  What the heck is it?  Well, for one, it's gluten-free which means its groats make a great porridge and its crepes or pancakes allow people to enjoy these foods without the gluten.

Either way, I salute you for starting this trend, which I will be certain to try in my house.  If only my kids liked eggs...

So wait, how did your family like the Chicken Vindaloo?  Was it too spicy?  I brought home King Crab legs last night, which I remember as a decadent treat growing up and yet my son ran away, scared!