I was especially interested in the recipes in the book to see if there was something . . . → Read More: Book Review: Getting Your Kids to Eat Right ISBN 0346125197]]> I picked up this book at the Salvation Army since we have a 2 year old who can sometimes be a litle difficult to feed.  If she’s into eating she will eat for hours, but some days she pushes everything away.

I was especially interested in the recipes in the book to see if there was something good tasting, simple to prepare and good for her.

Getting your kids to eat right was published in 1981 so some views on children’s nutrition have changed a bit but this book was ahead of it’s time when it was published. 

Much of Barbara Richert’s advice was probably controversial when the book was published; however, it is now common place.  Ideas like minimally processed foods, raw foods, homegrown foods and food safety issues were just not part of our world back in 1981, but they sure are now.

The first part of the book is titled “In Praise of Deviousness” which should make sense to most of the moms and dads out there who have slipped something healthy into their kids dinner without bothering to mention it. 

The chapters discuss nutrition, eating disorders and food safety issues.   The last chapter in this section is especially important and it deals with working with your school to improve the students food choices.  Hard to believe that this fight was going on nearly 30 years ago and we parents still have not won.  Cheap, government subsidized foods – not healthy foods – are still being given to our children at school.  Something must be done to change this or all the hard work we do to get them to eat healthy at home is lost.

Part 2 of the book is the recipe section.  In this section every recipe is simple, healthy and contains no pre-processed ingredients.  If you made any of these recipes for your kids you’d be doing a great thing.

Recipes that stood out to me to try were:

• Cream of tomato soup (from scratch, not a can)
• Oven Meatballs
• Macaroni and Cheese Bake (not from a blue box)
• Potato Cheese Pancakes
• Rice Custard
• Sweet Potato Pudding

This book is just faboulous.  I give it a 5 out of 5 star rating, plus you can pick it up for next to nothing for your own library here: Getting your kids to eat right

In addition to the explanation they give a conversion chart for substituting one for the other and a list of recipes that showcase either broth or stock to emphasize how they should . . . → Read More: What’s the difference between broth and stock? Can you substitute broth for stock? If so, how do you do it? Swanson gives us answers.]]> If you’ve ever wanted to know what the difference is between broth and stock, you can check out the Swanson website here for an explanation.

In addition to the explanation they give a conversion chart for substituting one for the other and a list of recipes that showcase either broth or stock to emphasize how they should be used.

Neat little reference.

We are ice cream junkies in my house.  At some points each person has their own half gallon (well, whatever size it is now) in the freezer.  We had to move to this because there was a lot . . . → Read More: August 29, 2010: What is the secret to making that expensive ice cream last longer? Ice Cream cones are the way to stretch your ice cream dollar.]]> Hard to believe something so simple would help my family save so much on ice cream, but it does.

We are ice cream junkies in my house.  At some points each person has their own half gallon (well, whatever size it is now) in the freezer.  We had to move to this because there was a lot of late night “poaching” of ice cream going on.  Plus we all like different flavors.

When Breyers goes on sale (like it is now at Giant and was last week at Weis) for 4 for $10 I usually stock up.  We don’t like eating any products with high fructose corn syrup in them and unfortunately a lot of brands have switched to that over sugar to save money.  Breyers so far has stuck with regular sugar so that is why we pay a little more for it.

Two weeks ago I found gluten-free ice cream cones at Giant and purchased some for my husband.  I was amazed to see that both daughters also preferred the cones to the dish.  This ended up stretching our ice cream much further for several reasons:

• The serving size that fits into a cake cone is pretty small.  Using a bowl for ice cream has a lot more space inside than a cone and believe me certain family members will fill that space plus some.
• Our family only eats one serving of ice cream a day and since that service is smaller in a cone the container of ice cream lasts longer.
• The ice cream is savored slowly in the cone rather than gulped out of a dish so everyone enjoys their ice cream more.
• It is more like eating out than a dish.  Cones are special so we’re making fewer trips to the local ice cream shop.

Now gluten-free cones will seriously dent your budget (12 cones to a box for around $3.25) but regular cones in larger sized boxes can be had for $1 at dollar general and some other stores.

So if your family loves ice cream but you need to watch your wallet, try using cones instead of bowls to stretch that ice cream farther.

Here are three quick tips to make those boxed mixes taste more like homemade:

If you’ve ever wondered how they get that tuna in there or how sardines . . . → Read More: How does tuna get into the can? And how do they get the sardines to line up? Ask the mermaid at Chicken of the Sea.]]> I just got mermaid mail this week and visited the Chicken of the Sea website.  I found a neat section that talks about how they process the different types of seafood they package – they call it “from the sea to the shelf.”

If you’ve ever wondered how they get that tuna in there or how sardines end up in a can, or oysters, or crabmeat or salmon… check out their website here.

While I was there I took a look around.  I have to admit I love the . . . → Read More: August 13, 2010: The Daily Frugal – Visit Gloucester Massachusettes in this wonderful video and snag a coupon too]]> I got a newsletter from my friend the Gorton’s fisherman today and visited his website to print off a coupon (We do buy Gorton’s since some of their grilled products are gluten-free.  See my husband’s review of their gf products here.) 

While I was there I took a look around.  I have to admit I love the Gorton’s marketing campaigns.  The come off as being much more more real than others and I don’t mind them being a little corny sometimes (OK I really like corny stuff!)  They are doing a Soduko promotion right now – you can get an electronic game for 3 proofs of purchase plus $1.99 shipping plus enter to win a classroom full of the games for your school.

In addition, right now they are featuring a video of Gloucester, their hometown, done by Joe Berlinger.  I’ve never been to Gloucester so it was so interesting to see this seaside community and hear the people speak that live there.  In particular they featured several women who were mothers or wives of fishermen and described the strength it takes to send them off to sea without knowing if they’ll be coming back. 

Please take a few minutes out of your day to watch this video – it shows what America used to be about, real people doing real jobs. Check it out here.

One . . . → Read More: August 11, 2010: The Daily Frugal – Are Kemps and Green’s Ice Creams Gluten Free? You can ask a cow.]]> This is another wacky website post.  I was looking for Green’s ice cream coupons (no luck) and ended up on the Kemps website.  Well, it just so happens that through their website you can ask a cow a question!  Here is a picture of the teacher cow who I assume is just waiting to answer our questions.

One question I was going to ask she has already answered and that is if their products are gluten free.  The answer is some of them are.  You can see the full answer here.  Spumoni lovers beware  – the coloring agent used in Spumoni is not Gluten-free.