If you’re one of the thousands of moms and dads across the country struggling to get your little one to eat more foods, this may be your big day, ‘er weekend.
Meal Makeover Moms Janice Newell Bissex and Liz Weiss will be among the list of local and national chefs in town for Taste of Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday at Tech Square in Midtown.
Bissex and Weiss, registered dietitians and authors of the newly-released "No Whine with Dinner: 150 Healthy, Kid-Tested Recipes from the Meal Makeover Moms" (M3 Press, $24.95), are scheduled to do a cooking demonstration at 2 p.m. Saturday on the Family Food Zone stage. The moms will be demonstrating their recipe for Quick Apple Sausage Quesadillas.
In addition to the easy-to-make, family-friendly recipes, the book offers 50 secrets for getting picky eaters to try new foods.
Weiss said the idea for the book came from a survey.
“We conducted a survey in the summer of 2009 and asked moms what is the number-one obstacle to getting your kids to eat healthy, well balanced meals,” Weiss said.
Of the 600 people surveyed, 51 percent said their children whine and complain, and 17 percent said the goal of healthy, well balanced meals just takes too much time.
“So given the struggle and the challenge that moms face, we decided we better write a second cookbook,” said Weiss, who with Bissex also wrote “The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers: Improving the Way Your Family Eats, One Meal at a Time.”
“We blended traditional media with social media, using it to help us write the book. We asked moms to test our recipes and have their kids test them.”
Based on what parents said, Weiss said they either threw out or tweaked the recipes.
“Sometimes we just nailed it,” she said.
Just days before their arrival, the authors took questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Q: How did you develop so many recipes?
A: It took us about three years. We'd develop and test recipes in the Boston area and then send them out via e-mail to be tested by moms and their kids.
Q. What makes your recipes kid-friendly?
A. For us there are a few things. Our recipes are packed with good nutrition and they taste good and appeal to kids. We're really sensitive to textures. For example, if we make a soup that calls for a can of diced tomatoes, we use crushed tomatoes instead because in our experience kids aren't going to like diced. If we add nuts to a recipe, we'll chop them up so that they are really fine. We also deliberately make our recipes very playful.
Q. One of the final chapters in the book offers dessert recipes. I would've thought that was the least of a parent's worries. What gives?
A. Our focus is on healthy eating, so the dessert recipes are better for you. For example, a lot of desserts are made with lots of butter but we make use of canola oil and whole wheat flour to improve the nutrition.
Q. The fact that you list some 50 secrets to getting picky eaters to chow down suggests that this is a really big problem. Is it and why?
A. Because there are so-called "kid foods" – chicken nuggets, mac and cheese – kids have gotten used to eating processed foods so it's hard for parents to get kids to eat real, homemade food that's got more things going on.
Q. I recently wrote a story about sensory perception disorder in which some people suggested that the disorder may be at the root of at least some of the pickiness. Do you think parents struggling with this should have their child tested?
A. We hear from moms once in a while who say, "I have tried everything but my child still refuses to eat a varied diet and try new foods.' That's a red flag and signals that it may be time to talk to your pediatrician about sensory issues that may be hampering them from handling a variety of different foods.
Q. You list 50 secrets to getting picky eaters eating. Is there one among them that is fail-proof?
A. I think every secret in the book is as unique as the mom who shared it. We hope that when people read those they identify a few that work for them. One example is to play what one mom calls the "try it" game. Every time she goes to the supermarket with her kids, they have to choose a "try it" food, then find a recipe and try it. It's a great way to get kids engaged and involved and to really give them control. It might not work with your 15-year-old, but for an 8-year-old it's awesome.
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