Now mind you, I hate for my children to eat on the run. I think it’s rude, crude and probably not too good for their digestive tracks. However, I’d much rather hand them food to walk with than to have them not eat at all. I also know that other people are already doing this.

So the next time I make pancakes, I will glaze them with a fresh fruit compote mixed with a little syrup and butter, and roll them tight. That way my children can still get a hot meal into their bellies before they begin their school day.

I’ll feel better as their mother, and they’ll be able to put on their thinking caps fueled by a full belly.

Fresh Fruit Compote Stuffed Pancakes

Use whatever pancake mix you like or make the pancakes from scratch.

For the compote, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over a low flame.

When it’s completely liquid, add your favorite berries – blueberries,  strawberries or blackberries – plus 1 tablespoon of sugar, and simmer together until the fruit opens.

Turn off heat and cover.

Make a large pancake, put the compote in the middle and roll tightly.

Related posts:

1. Breakfast at Fatimah’s
2. Breakfast on the run
3. Blender drinks for breakfast

Some mothers are even relieved when they don’t have to pack school lunches every day because their children qualify for free, federally funded meals, which by the way are usually horrible.

The other day I interviewed a young rapper who’s about to graduate from college on my radio show “The Real Deal With Fatimah Ali,” which is heard on 900 AM WURD in Philadelphia. He told me that he often eats jelly beans for breakfast. Although this young man loves to cook, eating junk food on the run has become a habit for him and he says he’d rather eat candy than nothing. Unfortunately,  like so many young people, he grew up with two working parents who fed him but didn’t always have the time to make good, nourishing food. And we are seeing this trend more and more.

Still, I was shocked as well as outraged to read a recent news story about a Chicago school forbidding  children from bringing their own lunches from home. According to the principal, the school’s lunches were much healthier than the foods kids were bringing in. Although I seriously understand the reasons for taking these drastic measures, I also felt strongly that this was a missed opportunity to educate children and their parents about making positive lifestyle decisions.

Most of us remember the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

When I was growing up in the ’60 and ’70s that apple was a symbol of good health, along with the cartoon character Popeye’s can of spinach, which appeared on billboards all over town. Along with having good manners, eating good food with lots of fruit and vegetables was the standard for every meal. In my parents’ house, as in most of my friends’ homes, we weren’t allowed to have dessert until our plates were clean. And there was no discussion about it. We ate whatever our mother put in front of us and her food was always delicious as well as healthy.

I’ve said this kazillion times: Children actually welcome the opportunity to eat healthy food, particularly when you educate them from a very young age about the need for good nutrition to build strong bodies. So if you have children or grandchildren who are toddlers, start educating them today about the correlation between good food, healthy minds and strong bodies.

You’ll be amazed at how interested they are in eating well and participating in their own growth and development.

Quick and easy lunch rules

Kids love to dip, so invest in tiny plastic containers and/or ziplock bags.

Put their favorite salad dressing and some leftover plain pasta in a plastic container

Chop up broccoli, carrots, celery, apples and any other snack-like foods that they like and pack it in ziplocks

Find a good vegetable chip or make popcorn seasoned with garlic powder and olive oil for snacks

Allow children to help pack their own lunches and choose what they pack

Remember, the more they help, the better they’ll love the food. And next thing you know, their friends will want them to bring healthy lunches for them as well.

Related posts:

1. The Lunch Bunch
2. Feeding your children well
3. An apple a day keeps us healthier

Since I’m no longer a stay-at-home mom who can have the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafting through the house when the kids come through the door from school, I now have to plan ahead every morsel of food that they eat. Making my teenaged girls healthy snacks, in particular, takes some creativity. Besides, they’re old enough to manage their own.

But if I left my youngest in charge of her diet, she’d be in the hospital from malnutrition.

Baby girl hates to eat just about anything healthy. Her preference is to eat fried chicken and pasta every day. Snacks are the worst to plan for her because she hates fruit and is some-timey about salads. Don’t even talk about getting her to eat vegetables. The best way to get her to eat anything green is to hide it in pasta. She does like applesauce, though. But I’m always hesitant to buy it packaged because so much pre-packaged food includes sugar and preservatives.

Determined to help her expand her mind about food, I decided to introduce her to my applesauce, which is much different than store brands.

I also tricked her and added pears in an effort to get her to eat other fruits. Applesauce is simple to make, and she loves it next to cinnamon toast, which she can make herself.

Not Your Grandmother’s Applesauce (Serves

 Ingredients:

12 mixed apples:

3 Gala

3 Granny Smith

2 Red Delicious

4 Macintosh

5 Pears (mixed)

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon apple cider

Directions:

Skin and core apples and pears. Cut into halves and poach covered until soft. Blend with seasonings and cider. Serve warm with buttered toast.

Garnish with: black walnuts, shredded coconut, and/or currants

Related posts:

1. Grandmother Susie’s apples
2. An apple a day
3. Blender drinks for breakfast

Pomegranates are without a doubt very messy to prepare. The skin is tough, and getting to those juice-filled seeds not only requires patience but also a very sharp knife. Both needs were a huge worry for our mother, who always kept a meticulous house. And the stains that seep into the pores on one’s hands usually last for a few days, despite scrubbing them with soap and water. But there’s nothing sweeter than a perfectly ripe pomegranate that leaves the juice dripping down your chin. And fall is when they are the best, at least on the East Coast.

In addition to being great cancer fighters, the health benefits of pomegranates are endless.

I still love pomegranates, which these days days can be found in specialty stores like co-ops already skinned with the inside sections separated. The only challenge is that when you buy them this way, they will last for only a few days in the refrigerator. They’ve also become big in teas and juices. One red tea is called pomegranate and passion fruit.

Pomegranates are also quite delightful in salads or in stuffing, replacing cranberries that are much tougher and not as sweet.

Related posts:

1. Making fruit bars at home

Most of the time, but not always, my daughters get similar treatment when they visit their friends’ homes. Those few times they haven’t, they’ve come home a mess.

The other day, my 13-year-old returned from an overnight at her friend’s house complaining  that she hadn’t eaten for an entire day and had a headache. Of  course you have a headache, I admonished her. You can’t go a day without eating and not feel weak.

But I know my child, yet I also have a high regard for this particular friend’s parent. So, either my baby girl didn’t like the  food she was offered (which is entirely possible) or her friend – and not the parent – was in charge of  eating that night and took the easy way out. It was probably the latter, I suspected, and inquired further into her story. What did they have for dinner? I quizzed her. “TV dinners,” she whined, her  face  twisted in extreme dislike.

There in was the problem. It wasn’t that the parent hadn’t provided dinner but that my child has never eaten a TV dinner in her life! And she is loathe to trying anything new. Thank GOD, because I don’t want her eating TV dinners anyway. Ever! But I certainly don’t want her to starve when she’s away from home, so we both agreed that perhaps we should limit her overnights.

I realize that all of us are very busy these days. Working parents get home from the office bone-tired. Who has the energy to cook every night? It’s a whole lot easier to have a freezer full of microwave dinners, so at least when we’re tired, the kids are fed. Right? Wrong ! If we train our children to take the easy way out with  food, they’ll develop poor eating habits that can later hurt them. They need to understand that food is meant to fuel us and not just fill up our bellies. 

Fast food just doesn’t do the trick and children must be taught the importance of healthy food and its direct connection to their performance when they are young so they won’t ever crave pure junk. This rush job on eating that society has adopted is detrimental to our health and contributes to poor performance in both schools and the work force. But no matter how convenient fast food is for us, it really doesn’t nourish our families well.

Healthy cooking doesn’t always have to take a lot of time. It’s actually quite  simple (even for folks who aren’t kitchen-savvy) to whip up a delicious meal relatively fast. Considering that most us spend more than 8  times more energy working for someone else than we need to prepare healthy meals, we can afford to find 15 minutes in a day to make a nourishing dinner. And we can teach our teenagers to do the same so that when we have to work late, they can still eat well. Even with no cooking at all, it’s far healthier for children to graze on fruit, nuts and whole-grained cereal in a pinch than it is to make their meal a  frozen dinner. Who could resist this beautiful basket of fruit photographed by Will Croft?

That in mind, I will celebrate my 54^th birthday on June 16 by completing my self-published first book called “Feeding Our Families Well, 12  Steps to Better Health.” In it are lots of tips and recipes for feeding families healthy and convenient foods without chemicals or fat. As a mother of five, I’ve spent the past three decades teaching my children how to be healthy. From the time they were infants, I’ve taught them a healthy philosophy about eating that they are now beginning to pass down to their own children. And I feel very blessed to see the fruits of my food labors come to fruition.  Stay tuned……

Related posts:

1. Feeding your children well
2. Quiche, the perfect food
3. An apple a day

My kids get hot breakfast every day: grits, turkey or soy  bacon,  eggs and toast. My personal  favorite meal  is lunch during the week,  for many reasons, not  the least of which is that it motivates me with something to look forward to as I work through the morning.  But on days when I am health-focused  (which isn’t all of the time because as health-savvy  as I am,  I’m also very undisciplined),  I’ll make a blender drink and eat whole-grain toast or have a bowl of oatmeal or fruit with yogurt.

When I do eat a full breakfast – usually on weekends -  my favorite is fried apples, grits and turkey bacon.  This was a staple  from  my Grandmother  Susie (whom I was named after as Susan Elaine Hughes) except that she used beef bacon and never ate  pork, because she had high blood pressure and her doctor told her not to. Grandmother Susie’s  food was  good but simple, and sometimes she would add scrambled or poached eggs.

My kids love this breakfast or they like  eggs-in-a basket, French toast and pancakes. On weekends, we go all out and make a full-fledged brunch with all of the above dishes,  plus oven-baked home fries and a fruit salad topped with vanilla yogurt and cinnamon.

My typical Sunday Brunch menu:

Fruit salad with vanilla yogurt and walnuts

Creamy grits

Turkey bacon

Eggs-in-a-basket

French toast

Pancakes

Home fries

Fried apples

Related posts:

1. Breakfast for champions
2. Breakfast on the run
3. Blender drinks for breakfast

The maternal women in my family all had very strict rules about food and we had to eat everything on our plates.  My mother insisted that we eat three square meals a day and breakfast was major.  She made us a hot breakfast everyday and we weren’t allowed to leave home without it.  Her mother,  my grandmother Susie was equally as strict and her food which was always wholesome and healthy was also very plain.  Mom’s was a little fancier and she always took great care in preparing her menus ahead of time every week.

These women had survived both World Wars and the Great Depression and wasting food was never an option.           My mom and Grandmother Susie were sympathetic to the picky tastes of children and each worked very hard to  prepare meals that we liked.  If Mom made liver for Dad, she made hamburgers for my two sisters and me because she knew there was no way that we’d  eat organ meat of any type. And Grandmother Susie made us bacon although she never ate  it.  But my step-grandmother whom we called Aunt Lena didn’t care if we liked her food or not.  Except – when it came to our evening treat,  which I’ll get to in a minute.

Aunt Lena had survived the Holocaust.  Her parents and her four sisters  had escaped from the Nazis in Eastern Europe and landed in Brooklyn, NY,  where she grew up in poverty. Although  she amassed great wealth later in her life and was very generous,  she always wanted to make certain that  her eight step-grandchildren were appreciative so,  the children ate what the grown folks ate, there was no discussion about it. When we visited her during the summer and didn’t eat what was served (like oatmeal for breakfast),  we got it again at the next meal – cold, so you know we learned to like it.  But at night  Aunt Lena lightened up and went for fun, allowing us to help create blender drinks that we loved as a treat. They included any fresh fruit from her orchards,  milk which was often powdered and ice cream.

We’ve carried this tradition to our own kitchen, but make healthier blender drinks for breakfast.  Instead of ice cream  we might use yogurt which contains acidophilus,  an immune booster which  also aids  the digestive track.  But bananas are even better than ice cream  to thicken the drink up  along with all types of other fruit. We use what ever is in season and our blender drinks have an orange or unfiltered apple (my preference) juice base.  We also add nutritional supplements like vitamins and Spirulina, which is made from sea algae and turns the drinks dark green.  Spirulina  is an excellent source of food that is high in nutrition, particularly protein and is available at health food stores.  It comes in either capsules, powder or tablets.  Just two grams of Spirulina taken daily can inhibit viruses and it also helps fight allergies. In a blender drink with fresh fruit,  it provides the essential nutrients the body needs.  In today’s fast-paced  environment,  blender drinks made with Spirulina are a great way to make sure that everyone in the family is nourished before they leave the house.

Related posts:

1. Breakfast at Fatimah’s
2. Breakfast on the run
3. A ready-to-go breakfast of pancakes

Grandmother Susie’s Apples

INGREDIENTS

1 cast iron skillet

7 apples (3 Fuji, 2 Granny smiths, 2 Macintosh)

3  tbs  Smart Balance Omega Buttery spread (made with extra virgin olive oil)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 tbs  honey or brown sugar

1 tbs  of pure maple syrup

DIRECTIONS

• Thoroughly  wash apples and cut into quarters, leaving the skin on
• Remove seeds and cut each quarter into fours, length wise
• Melt butter in pan and add apples,  toss with a wooden spoon until browned on all sides (about 12 minutes)
• Add spices and cover and simmer, with heat turned down to low
• How long you cook these is entirely up to you, and really depends on how soft you like your apples.  I always cook two different batches and prefer mine slightly firm and a little bit burnt with the sweet stuff carmelized.  To get make them that way I use only 2 tbs of the  butter and cook them on a higher flame with the lid off.  But my kids like theirs completely soft and not burnt at all,  which requires longer cooking on a lower flame and a cover after they brown.
• Serve hot and garnish with vanilla yogurt, sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Breakfast blender drink

This drink is extremely nutritional and contains everything the body needs for a healthy boost of energy. You can vary the fruits depending on the season. The main body of the drink is the juice, the banana and the spirulina. You will feel immediate positive changes in your body when you drink this. It will give you a burst of energy, cleanse your bowel track and help you lose weight if those are your concerns.  It’s easy to make, convenient to take along and it can stand alone as a meal.

INGREDIENTS

One large blender

• One quart  of Orange juice (with or without pulp)  or unfiltered apple juice
• One ripe banana
• One mango skinned and seeded
• One  quarter  of a ripe melon

(we prefer honeydew and cantaloupe)

• One cup of  either ripe strawberries, blue berries or watermelon
• 1  kiwi

(or all three depending on how thick you want the drink)

• Two tbs of powdered  spirulina
• ½ cup of plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1 tbs of honey
• 2 Vitamin supplement tablets

DIRECTIONS

• Wash all fruits thoroughly
• Crush the vitamin supplements with either a mortar and pestle or the flat side of a wooden spoon and set aside
• Peel the banana and cut it into three
• Skin and remove seeds from the melons and cut them into medium sized wedges
• Pick the stems  from blueberries
• cut off tops of the strawberries
• skin and seed the mango
• Peel the kiwi
• Blend juice and all of the fruits, starting with the banana until liquid
• Carefully remove blender top and add in the honey, yogurt,  spirulina and vitamins and blend until smooth.

(You can add in ¼  cup of ice, but we prefer not to because it waters it down)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Muddie’s Southern fried Chicken

Note: l  love  Michelle  Obama’s  10% rule and  have adopted it in my own kitchen.  That  means  that by eating healthy foods 90 % of the time, we don’t feel so guilty when we allow ourselves  the luxury of eating  all time favorites like fried chicken the other 10% of the time.  Although I usually prefer baked over fried,  every once and awhile I do yearn  for something crispy,  ignore my  cholesterol  and fill my junk  craving with fried chicken.

• One large cast iron frying pan
• One  18 – piece  fryer pack of chicken
• Two  cups  of 100% vegetable oil
• Heat oil  on medium flame and turn to medium-high when the chicken is prepared

INGREDIENTS

1. ½  tsp kosher  sea salt
2. tsp black pepper ( white or cayenne  for spicy)
3. tsp paprika
4. tsp onion powder
5. ½  tsp garlic powder
6. tbsp Italian seasoning
7. 1½  cups of  flour
8. 1 tsp curry powder (optional)

DIRECTIONS

- Wash and pat dry each piece of chicken and clip off any excess hanging fat

- Mix four and seasonings  in a one gallon zip lock bag

- Shake chicken in zip lock bag, three pieces at a time until evenly coated, shake off excess

- Test  oil  with a sprinkling of flour which sizzles when it’s hot enough

- Gently place chicken in a pan (so the grease doesn’t pop), leaving ¼ inch between each piece (discard flour mixture when finished)

- Fry   chicken on med- high burner for 12-15 minutes on each side, depending on the size of pieces.

- When both sides are golden brown, turn flame down to medium low heat and cover (this will soften the skin,  but  ensures that it’s done inside)  Cook  for                another seven minutes on med-low heat and then remove cover the last five minutes  so the  chicken can breathe and crisp up again.

* Chicken should never be eaten pink

Remove pieces and drain on a paper towel or brown paper bag

Served best  with  coleslaw.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oven baked teriyaki chicken

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Make sure chicken is througoughly washed, taking care to discard extra fat and pat dry with a tea towel, or a paper towel

INGREDIENTS

One 18 piece package of fryer chicken cut up

One bottle of  pre-made  teriyaki   sauce   (I prefer  Trader Ming’s  Soyaki, because it has sesame seeds and no preservatives)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp season salt

2 envelopes  of  Sazon

1/2 cup of unbleached flour

1/4 cup Virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Mix all dry ingredients with four and set aside

Coat a baking pan with olive oil and set aside

Coat each piece of chicken with flour mixture and then lightly brush them each with olive oil.

bake in oven 20-30 minutes on each side until brown

Add  teriyaki  sauce and make sure that each piece is thoroughly coated

cover tightly with aluminum foil and turn oven down to 250

Bake covered for another 8-10 minutes until the chicken falls off of the bone

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Healthy scottish eggs

Scottish Eggs are a meal in one. Traditionally, they call for pork sausage and are fried. But we’re trying to cut down on cholesterol and we don’t eat pork sausage, so we’ve adapted them to be healthier by using ground turkey and frying them in the oven.

They can be served with a nice salad or a side of spinach tossed with garlic and olive oil. They also taste great with any number of sauces, white or red on the side.

INGREDIENTS

One dozen eggs, hard-boiled and peeled

2 pounds of  ground turkey

3 eggs beaten with 2 tbsp spring water

1/2 cup of unbleached flour

1-1/2 cups of bread crumbs

1 tsp finely ground sea salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Non-stick olive oil spray

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix dry seasonings and bread crumbs and set aside.

Coat hard-boiled eggs with flour and refrigerate  for 15 minutes.

Mix ground turkey with seasonings and wrap around hard-boiled eggs.

Coat with beaten eggs and then roll in seasoned bread crumbs.

Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and spray eggs slightly with non-stick olive oil.

Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes, turning them as they brown,  making sure they brown on all sides.

Related posts:

1. Apples a day

Although eating them might not keep every illness away, apples are one of the healthiest foods that nature  provides. They are loaded with nutrients which help nourish our bodies inside and out. They are also used in a variety of other products,  including potpourri, and there’s  nothing sweeter than the smell of cooked apples wafting through the house.

Apples are the perfect food, and  taste great raw or cooked, or as drinks like cider and  even martinis.

According to the web site Health Diaries, apples can help our bodies ward off diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. They are great for fighting lung, breast and colon cancer and  lowering cholesterol and blood sugar. The  site also reports that asthmatic children who drink apple juice daily have less wheezing episodes than those who don’t. Apples have pectin, which reduces bad cholesterol (LDL), a major contributor to coronary heart disease. The site offers 20 Facts About Apples.

Although we can buy apples in the supermarkets every season, fall is typically the time they are harvested on the East Coast. There are more than 7,500 different varieties of apples grown throughout the world, about 2,500 of which are grown right here in the United States. The biggest apple-producing states are Washington, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Michigan.

Right near Philadelphia, Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA,  is the place to take your entire family if you’d like to pick your own food.  For years, when our children were younger, we took them there  to visit the Pumpkin Patch and buy special treats like fresh honey. Linvilla Orchards harvests at least 25 different types of apples, and sells  pies and the best apple cider you’ve ever tasted.

I love apples cooked or raw, and fried apples, a Grandmother Susie specialty,  are still considered a treat in my house. These days,  I’ve replaced her white sugar with raw sugar or honey, and they still taste just as wonderful. We also love to make apple dumplings and apple salad with feta cheese, walnuts and vinaigrette dressing.

Click here for my recipe for Apple Salad.

Related posts:

1. An apple a day
2. Apples a day