Low Salt, Full Flavor

While I am avoiding the chocolate covered bacon bandwagon, I can understand the appeal of sweet and salty. But I worry about overindulging in salt, particularly in the holiday season when we go to a lot of holiday parties and dinners.

So I was eager to try LoSalt, a low sodium salt made from potassium chloride. It has 2/3 less sodium than regular table salt, with no artificial flavors.

LoSalt, which comes in iodized and original versions, can be substituted one for one in recipes and at the table. One of my kids routinely salts her food before tasting – we don’t put salt on the table, but she’s old enough to get it herself – so this an ideal way for her to reduce her sodium consumption.

I tested LoSalt in homemade bread, and in salted fudge brownies, and in everyday cooking, and couldn’t discern any difference.

Here are the brownies. They are not low fat, low sugar or low in calories, so indulge wisely:

Salted Brownies

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

  1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

 2 cups sugar

 3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon LoSalt

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-inch square metal cake pan with foil, draping the foil over the edges. Lightly butter the foil.

In a large bowl, microwave the butter with the unsweetened chocolate. One at a time, whisk the cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla and flour. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle the salt evenly over the batter and swirl in using a butter knife.

Bake the fudge brownies in the center of the oven for about 35 minutes, until the edge is set but the center is still a bit soft; a toothpick inserted into the center should be coated with a little of the batter. Let the brownies cool at room temperature in the pan for 1 hour, then refrigerate an 1 hour. Lift the brownies from the pan and peel off the foil.

Healthy Eating for Back to School

Urban legends abound about children who choose salads over brownies, but most kids, left to their own devices, will opt for the sugary, fatty option every time.

Even my children, raised as vegetarians – as they point out, ice cream and chocolate don’t have meat.

And as my youngest heads back to school, and we confront late sports practices, piano lessons and other afterschool activities, I start hunting for healthier convenience foods.

Kidfresh has a new line of frozen meals, with vegetables ‘hidden’ inside. The cheese quesadillas have carrots blended in and the ravioli tomato sauce includes butternut squash and carrots.

Even the chicken nuggets (which my niece sampled) have undetectable cauliflower mixed in.

Kidfresh also uses no artificial ingredients, flavors, colors or preservatives.

My kids are past the hiding vegetable stage, though I still make puttanesca sauce with a bunch of chopped spinach or kale. If you puree greens in a spicy tomato sauce, they take on the tomato/olive/hot pepper flavor and if anyone spies a little green, you can always say it’s parsley.

How do you hide vegetables in your kid’s food? Comment below for a chance to win a coupon for a free Kidfresh meal.

Peanut Butter & Pickles: veggie lunch

About a year ago, I paid an obscene amount of money for a few jars of Rick’s Picks pickles. I was at a benefit for the Prospect Park Alliance and hey, it was for the kids. For the very Brooklyn playgrounds where my daughters had frolicked.

The great thing about pickles, of course, is that they can be stuffed into the back of the pantry and used throughout the grim winter. Or forgotten about and then found with a happy surprise, which is what happened when I was doing a little Spring cleaning – very little, I should add – and I unearthed a jar of Rick’s hotties.

These pickles on steroids, made with habanero and sriracha, add an incredible kick to veggie burgers and an unusual twist to the peanut butter and pickle sandwich that the New York Times raved about recently.

I usually make the sandwich with Smucker’s natural peanut butter, but with these spicy pickles, I added a schmear of Peanut Butter & Co.’s equally spicy The Heat is On.

It was pretty awesome.

I can’t wait to see what I find next time I dig through the pantry.

Fitness: Your Healthy Pet

After pledging to keep my dog healthy through the emBARK on Pet Health campaign I volunteered with my children at Spring Farm Cares animal sanctuary in Clinton, NY.

At this shelter and adoption center, you spend a little time cleaning and then get to play with kittens and help socialize them. The sanctuary is near Hamilton College, where my older daughter is a senior, and students who miss their pets from home often volunteer here.

My daughter volunteered here so many times that she got my brother to adopt to the kittens from Spring Farm Cares, pictured here.

In the NYC region, these shelters received pet health kids from the emBARK on Pet Health campaign:

Bergen County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center

100 United Land

Teterboro, NJ 07608

201-229-4600 ext 4606

Humane Society of Atlantic County

1401 Absecon Blvd

Atlantic City, NJ 08401

609-348-8033

Guardians of Rescue

34 E. Main St., Suite 303

Smithtown, NY 11787

631-946-0815

iI you haven’t already, take the pledge at the emBARK on Pet Health site.

Spring Break Plans

Checking into a hotel can be a painful process, made even more difficult with whining kids.

Think about it. You just pulled up after a long drive, or flew in – which means you took a cab or train to the airport, waited in line, sat strapped in a seat, took another cab or a courtesy shuttle to a car rental counter and waited again.

So for a little kid (or even a big, grown-up adult) that check-in counter is the last straw.

Not so at DoubleTree by Hilton hotels.

At check in, they literally turn pouts into smiles with warm chocolate chip cookie for all.

This little gesture is particularly welcome at Spring Break, when families across the US all cram in a family vacation.

If you haven’t planned your spring break trip yet, you are in luck. I am co-hosting a twitter party with The Motherhood & DoubleTree by Hilton properties.

Join the party to learn what to look for when selecting a hotel, tips for traveling with children and trip location suggestions. Share any plans for the upcoming Spring Break and advice based on your past family vacation experiences. We'll also be talking about family-friendly packages at select DoubleTree by Hilton properties.

When: Tuesday, March 12, at 1 p.m. ET (the party will last one hour)

Where: We’ll be on Twitter – follow the #DTSpringBreak hashtag to track the conversation. See the details and RSVP .

Hashtag: #DTSpringBreak

Prizes: DoubleTree by Hilton will give away five total prizes. Four prizes will consist of tins of DoubleTree by Hilton's signature cookies (one tin for the Q1 winner, two tins for the Q2 winner, etc), with one grand prize of a free two-night stay at any DoubleTree by Hilton location. Winners will be chosen randomly from among participants who respond correctly to trivia questions.

Vegetarian in Vermont: family friendly dining

The Common Ground Café, in Brattleboro, Vermont, was a Mecca for vegetarians. On any trip to Vermont, whether for skiing or biking, we detoured slightly off I-91 for interesting soups and sandwiches. Sadly, The Common Ground closed, but vegetarians can still eat well in the Green State.

For breakfast, The Hatchery, in Ludlow, has a vegan tofu scramble with avocado and salsa, that fuels you for the day’s activities. The Hatchery is only open for breakfast and lunch; lunch vegetarian choices include a grilled vegetable sandwich with spinach, mushrooms and feta, a tofu wrap with cilantro pesto and the ‘asparagui,’ with grilled asparagus, cheddar cheese, arugula and roasted peppers. On our recent family ski trip to Okemo, we had planned to have dinner one night at Harry’s Café, about 5 miles down the road from the resort. Unfortunately, we didn’t make reservations in advance and couldn’t get a table until 8:30. So this vegetarian-friendly restaurant, with a Thai night on Thursdays (and a few Thai items on the regular menu) will have to wait for another trip. Fortunately, Ludlow, a quintessential New England ski town, has other vegetarian and family friendly choices. The Cool Moose Café bills itself as a steakhouse, but t has great veggie burgers. The Bleu Moose & shrooms burger (also available in beef or chicken) has bleu cheese and mushrooms, and the tasty jacked up Philly burger includes jack cheese and cooked peppers and onions. Both are “2 napkin’ meals. There are several fish entrees, a roasted Portobello entrée and a hearty salad with local goat cheese, good greens and cranberries. Kid meals include a smaller burger, pizza and salad. Cool Moose also has a large selection of local craft beers. Coleman Brook Tavern, in the Jackson Gore Inn, is a farm to table restaurant with a few vegetarian choices. The pappardelle was loaded with fennel, roasted peppers and white beans in a wild mushroom broth. There is a filling roasted beet salad with Vermont chevre and pumpkin seeds, a Portobello strudel that works as a light appetizer and a delicious baked cheese stuffed with maple pumpkin butter and ginger-butternut squash. There’s an extensive and quite pricey wine list, great martinis and lots of single malt scotch to sip. Best of all, when you stay at the Inn, you can simply take the elevator to your room.

Fitness Challenge: JCC in Manhattan

The JCC on the Upper West Side has facilities for the whole family, from a nursery school to programs for seniors. While this all in one approach can sometimes shortchange areas, the fitness center is state of the art. There is a huge pool, two gyms, and classes galore. About the only negative is the slow elevator, so if you use the locker rooms, on the 5th floor, you might need to run up and down the stairs. But think of it as the start of your aerobic workout. The locker rooms are spotless and loaded with thick, soft towels, lotions and soaps, and cotton balls and Q-tips (though why do you have to ask for a tampon?). I took a spin class, which comes with free cycling shoes, and nice bikes where you can keep track of your calories and RPMs. There are also classes in yoga, martial arts, strength and conditioning and Zumba. Pre and post natal classes, teen fitness classes and senior classes address the needs of the whole family: a rooftop playground helps kids keep active.

Here come the sun

Protecting your skin against the sun, whether at home or on vacation, is easy when you have the right products

Hats off to…
Your mother was right. One of the best ways to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays is to wear a hat. Instead of a ratty old baseball cap, get the Scala Sewn Ribbon Sun Hat - The Tres Jolie. This hat has SPF built into it (in addition to the sun protection any hat adds). And the hat is great for travel, too. Roll it crush it, stuff it in your beach bag – it bounces right back into shape.

Of course, where it really needs to be is right on your head.

Face off
SPF and antioxidants come together in DNA Defense SPF 30+. This rich cream both renews and protects skin, with vitamins A and E offering antioxidants and zinc oxide providing the sunscreen.

For the kids
Chemical-free Sunology All-Natural Sun Protection has a sunblock for kids that is SPF 50. The sunblock is ideal for young sensitive skin and is super concentrated, so you have to apply less – great for squirmers. The lotion comes in 3 ounce bottles so you can carry it on an airplane. The sunblock is also water resistant, so perfect for a beach vacation.

If you did not listen
If you did not wear a hat, or apply enough sunblock, you can heal damaged skin with Miracle Skin Transformer Heal Everything Balm. This soothing lotion can also alleviate irritation after shaving your legs, and moisturize while it heals. The chemical free Miracle Skin Transformer includes the new body lotion, with an SPF 20 that is ideal for everyday use. The lotion minimizes imperfections while it protects skin from more damage.

Fitness Challenge: Day 77

Over my years in Park Slope, the basement gym at the corner of Union Street and 7th Avenue has gone through many iterations. The latest is Slope Fitness, which has a guaranteed lifetime membership rate for the first new members.

While the gym is essentially the same as the previous one, it has a few nice touches. One is free coffee, an incentive for those who drag themselves to early morning workouts.

Another is an extensive class list, including a spin class that adds an abs workout, and Fight Club, combining aerobics, boxing and martial arts.

There is a free supervised play area for children while parents work out, and in the fall, there will be dance classes for children.

Cooking for Kids

Once kids learn to say “no, they often direct their negativity towards food. Anything that has a funny look, smell or feel may be rejected.

Then the parents spend hour between meal times figuring out what their picky kids can eat.

And it doesn’t necessarily go away when they grow up. My teens make sudden, random statements like “you know I don’t eat lentils,” (Really? Since when) and “Now I’m vegan” (sorry, kid, we’re vegetarians and I’m still using cheese and eggs).

But I still appreciate cookbooks designed for families, especially ones like Parents Magazine Quick & Easy Kid-Friendly Meals, which has some pretty healthy and tasty dishes.

Take the banana quinoa waffles. One of my kids loves pancakes and waffles, but has been on an anti-banana kick lately, probably from a microscopic brown spot that she spied on a seemingly ideal banana.

These, waffles, made with whole whet flour and quinoa, are even better if your banana is covered with brown spots. The banana is mashed in, so if you hide offending skin, you can easily sneak a little banana back into your kid’s diet.

Other recipes include an easy black bean soup (made with canned beans) that has undetectable sweet potato (and if you swap out the chicken broth for vegetable, the soup is vegetarian).

I’m looking forward to watermelon season and the cold watermelon soup. You serve it with raisins to look like watermelon seeds – inspired!

Corn & edamame salad and cauliflower “popcorn” roasted with olive oil and topped with Parmesan cheese will please fussy kids and adults.

Roman Pizza in Park Slope: kid and diet friendly

Can you eat pizza and still stay in shape? Probably not if you scarf down a couple of slices at a most Brooklyn pizza joints, but if you go to a restaurant like Campo de’ Fiori, it's easy. First, start with one of the great salads. Even the simple mixed greens had a delicious vinaigrette, and a sprinkling of raw onions. There is also a beet salad, and a radicchio salad with gorgonzola and apples.

We naturally skipped over the cured meats selection and headed straight to the pizzas. The Roman style pizzas use organic wheat in dough that sits overnight, developing the flavor. The eco conscious restaurant also uses organic tomatoes and local vegetables. Plus the chefs profess not to cut down trees or produce on CO2 to cook the pizza. The simple Margherita pizza lets the purity of the ingredients shine. Just the right amount of extremely fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil come together in a deeply satisfying square pie. You can also get pizza with buffalo mozzarella or creamy burrata. We liked the Vignarola, with artichoke hears and topped with salad. Salad on pizza is a sneaky way to get extra veggies into your kids, and it is both tasty and low in calories. There are a number of vegetarian pastas, including one with cauliflower and gorgonzola. We will be back.

Fitness Challenge: Day 33

The shiny, new Chintatown YMCA shares a building with a Whole Foods. This is a serious upgrade from how the Bowery used to look.

The fitness floor overlooks the pool, so parents whose children are taking swim lessons can spy on their kids while they exercise.

I face a serious but funny challenge - forgot my shorts, so I have to exercise in skinny jeans. Running on the treadmill if fine, if warm, but lunges and squats are out of the question.

There is a subset of NYC fitness buff that exercises in short shorts and construction boots. I think I might look like I share the obsession with how I look when I work out; my concern is how I look the rest of the time.

OK, the skinny jeans look good. But I feel weird. And sweaty.

Veggie Dogs: Asia Dog

If you are searching for a quick meal, hot dogs are not the vegetarian go to choice. But Asia Dogs, one of New York’s artisanal hot dog purveyors, has a veggie dog to go along with its organic beef or chicken dogs.

The veggie dog itself is rather flavorless, but the toppings more than make up for it.
In a nice touch, you can get a whole wheat bun (and no extra charge). You can keep it simple with the Mel & Steve, (named for the owners) an Asian sesame slaw flecked with sesame seeds.

Even better is the Thai style Sidney, with mango, cucumber, peanuts and fish sauce. The counter person warned me about the fish sauce, in case I was vegan.
I also love the saltiness of the Ginny, which has kimchi and seaweed flakes.
If you take kids, they might like the kimchi corndog, which can be made with a veggie dog.

The small shop, in NoLiTa, has a handful of tables. Look for the Asia Dog truck weekends at Brooklyn Flea.

Fitness Challenge: Day 15

For years, I took my kids to gymnastics classes and camps at Chelsea Piers. When your kids take a class, you get a pass to use the Sports Center, but since I had my own gym, I never did.

I did once get a facial at the spa, and apparently you also get a free day pass if you spend enough.

But one of my kids had a pass and since I was going to a cocktail party at Pier 60, I decided to finally try the gym.

It is truly massive, and one of the best perks is the sun deck off the pool, where you can catch some rays on a nice day.

I love the elliptical machines here; instead of individual televisions, there are 8 overhead screens and you can plug into any channel. Seems more environmentally conscious.

The showers are gorgeous here, with individual changing areas, thick, soft towels, and good products.

Fitness Challenge: Day 13

Although I have one last day at 24 Hour Fitness, I forsake the gym and head to the park. My daughter runs with me, and we incorporate some other exercises into our run: high knees, butt kicks, and mummy walks.

We also stop at a bench for tricep dips and use a curb to do step-ups.

Prospect Park also has a fitness area, with pull up bars where you can work your whole body. The fitness area is next to the playground where my kids used to run in the sprinkler and swing. We can hear the cheerful sounds of kids playing while we grunt through our workout.

10 Tips: Fun with Vegetables

I may have been a picky eater when I was a child, but I also ate most vegetables. It was never a problem to get me to eat a salad – I just liked it plain, with no dressing. It was all part of my no condiment stance. But it angered my mother, who insisted I use dressing (why? It’s not the healthy part).

Anyway, at some point I discovered blue cheese dressing and started dumping it on my greens.

With my kids, it was a different story. It was a challenge to get them interested in vegetables, possibly because they had few other choices. Perhaps if I’d plied them with meat, they would have rejected it, as I did, for the veggies. So I had to be creative, and think of ways to sneak veggies into food and involve the kids in the process.

1. Farmer’s markets: from the time the kids were little, we took weekly trips to the farmer’s market and let the kids choose what to buy. When you are faced with a bounty of fruits and vegetables, healthy food is bound to be chosen.

2. Read cookbooks together. And not just ones for kids. I have a huge cookbook collection, and I look through them with my daughters, or let them read them alone, and mark them up with post-its.

3. Cook together. This can be frustrating for kitchen control freaks, but when the result is ownership of the meal, kids are more willing to try exotic foods.

4. Taste tests. Since my kids actually like dressing, I let them experiment with different kinds. We would put out bowls of three kinds of ranch dressing, for example, and let them sample each – by dipping in string beans or baby carrots, of course.

5. Shop at ethnic markets. In NYC, we are blessed with Chinese and Japanese supermarkets, Middle Eastern stores, kosher stores, cheese shops galore. We once visited a Polish store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and came home with dozens of unknown items.

6. Cut food into fun shapes. Make a radish flower, a heart shaped sandwich, pinwheel wraps, all of which can entice kids to try different foods.

7. Color your food. Let your child add a drop of food color to milk to turn it her favorite color, or make green eggs with food color and spinach.

8. Have a picnic. Food can taste better when eaten on the ground, whether in the backyard or on a blanket on the floor of the dining room.

9. Use different utensils to try different food. Our kids were a lot more receptive to Asian soups when I bought the large ceramic soup spoons that the Chinese restaurants use. And they tried Japanese noodles dishes loaded with vegetables and veggie dumplings when I got them special kid-sized chopsticks.

10. Have breakfast for dinner. But make your pancakes with butternut squash puree or mashed sweet potatoes and serve fried bananas on the side.

Try to keep the mood light and have fun.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and The Hub blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

The Hub Children's NetworkHubWorld

Keeping kids safe with vaccines

Two summers ago, my then 10 year old came home from camp with whooping cough. I got a call from the New Hampshire Board or Health and a reminder from my pediatrician that vaccines protect against diseases, but the vaccine can wear off. In fact, the Tdap vaccine, a booster against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (aka whooping cough) is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 11 or 12 year olds, but my daughter was just precocious.

Last summer, before my oldest daughter went to college, the pediatrician recommended a vaccine against meningitis, a disease that often strikes college students who live in close quarters.

And then there was the swine flu. College students around the country were sickened, quarantined and given swine and ‘regular’ flu vaccines if their colleges were lucky enough to have the supplies. Hallie’s college ran out, but she came home for the Jewish holidays and our pediatrician saved a dose for her.

All three of my daughters got the HPV vaccine, which protects girls from human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer.

Our health insurance covered the cost of the vaccines. If you don’t have health insurance, your kids who are 18 and younger may be eligible to get the vaccines for free through the Vaccines for Children program (VFC). Visit the CDC Pre-teen Immunization Hub for a text-based versionVisit the CDC site for more information on pre-teen vaccines

I am writing this post as part of a CDC blogger outreach program. I may receive a small thank you gift from the CDC for my participation in raising awareness about pre-teen immunizations.

Kid appeal – renaming food

As an editor, I had a saying, ‘when in doubt, recast.’ In other words, if you couldn’t figure out how to fix a sentence, rewrite it.

Feeding kids can be an exercise in recasting, or renaming. This started years ago in my home, when my oldest daughter, Hallie, refused to eat Indian food. If you are a vegetarian and you don’t eat Indian food, you might as well say you don’t drink water. You just HAVE to eat vegetarian friendly Indian food.

Hallie was still pretty young, maybe around four, and certainly not reading when I realized I could just say that we were having Pakistani food for dinner and she’d be none the wiser. In fact, she loved it. What’s not to love? Dumplings (called pakora), tofu korma in a nut enhanced sauce, curried vegetables, rice. Indian (er, Pakistani) food has become a staple of her diet.

Another vegetarian dish my husband and I love is riboletta. This stew-y soup, loaded with vegetables, has a broth thickened with pureed white beans and sourdough bread. For whatever reason, my kids decided they hated it. They wouldn’t even try.

But I persevered. I renamed it bread soup and they spoon it up happily.

Now, if there only were a new name I could give to spinach salad..

Kid friendly chocolate cookies

Passover is ending either tonight or tomorrow, depending on your ties to Israel or Reform or Conservative Judaism, but these chocolate meringue cookies, specifically for Passover, can be eaten any time of year. You can even consider them sort-f health food – no white flour, no butter, only a couple of egg whites, some sugar and chocolate. Really, not that bad for you – and they are kid-approved.

Preheat oven to 250

2 egg whites

1/2 C sugar

3 T unsweetened cocoa

1/2 C chocolate chips

Beat the egg white until stiff, on high. Beat in the sugar. Add cocoa and beat on low. Fold in chips.

Drop teaspoon size cookies onto cookie sheet lined with Silpat liner or parchment paper. Bake for one hour, then leave in oven for 2 more hours.

Makes about 2 dozen.