Send me your children’s menus!
(Because it’s one step forward, 25 steps back.)

by Christina on July 23, 2010

No. 21 includes an item that "Eat This, Not That!"
called the "worst kids' side dish" in America.
Maybe that's an ironic smile?

Just when I was feeling good about children’s menus, this depressing round-up crossed my desk. In it, the Daily Beast names the 25 worst meals from kids’ menus at chain restaurants, analyzed for calorie count, saturated fat, carbohydrates and sodium. I’m not into counting calories for kids. And I think standard dietary guidelines like the USDA food pyramid are out of whack (for instance, saturated fat, despite a bad rap, is actually good for you). Plus I’m all about the ingredients, so to even call this “food” makes me cranky.  

But when one restaurant meal provides 800 to 2,270 (yes, 2,270) calories for kids who should be eating 1,200 to 2,200 calories a day, well, that’s just not right.  

I know you’re with me. (Check out the comments on my three previous posts about children’s menus: the rant, the survey and the chef.) So how about this? If you come across a children’s menu that rocks — or one you’d like to sock — send it my way. I’ll periodically feature them in a kids’ menu Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame (or some other, more cleverly named sections TBD).  

If the menu is online, just post the link in the comments below. If not, and you’d be so kind, you can scan it (or photograph it) and e-mail me: christina [at] spoonfedblog [dot] net. Or snail mail it: Spoonfed, P.O. Box 10878, Rochester, N.Y.  14610.  

In the meantime, check out the Daily Beast picture gallery and let me know what you think. (I can probably guess what you think. But tell me anyway.)  

This post is linked into Real Food Wednesdays, Fight Back Fridays, Food Revolution Fridays, Vegetarian Foodie Fridays and Wholesome Whole Foods. 

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My kind of carnival: Healthy kids. No fried dough.

by Christina on July 21, 2010

A new Spoonfed post is coming very soon. (So much for stockpiling posts before vacation.) In the meantime, I’m participating in a new monthly blog carnival sponsored by Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit that is all about protecting kids from chemicals where they live, play and learn (food included).

This month’s theme, “Splendor in the Grass,” explores ways to inspire kids to connect with nature, sans pesticides and other nasties. My contribution is a recent post called “Clean food and dirty kids,” about how mood-boosting bacteria (found only in healthy, organic soil) is a good reason for kids to get up close and personal with their food. Other bloggers submitted posts on everything from non-toxic lawns to backyard habitats. Here’s the full list. And a few of my favorites:

For more on Healthy Child Healthy World and how even small changes can make a big difference, check out the group’s video, “A Wake-Up Story”:

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Creating a better children’s menu: A chef speaks

July 2, 2010 Brainy

So this is fun. A month ago I wrote a diatribe against children’s menus, calling them out for being unhealthy and insulting. A lively discussion ensued. Then Brian Van Etten, the chef at The Owl House, a new restaurant in Rochester, N.Y., got in touch. He wanted input on his children’s menu. I posed the question to readers. Another lively [...]

14 comments read the full post >>

Clean food and dirty kids

June 30, 2010 Eco

There came a moment during strawberry-picking last week when the 6-year-olds decided they’d had enough. While the grown-ups continued busily picking a flat apiece, my daughter and her friend snuck off to the shade for a drink and a snack. Then the girls plopped themselves in the dirt and set to work, drawing roads and concocting [...]

28 comments read the full post >>

Hate children’s menus?
Here’s your chance to create a better one.

June 14, 2010 Brainy

Two weeks ago, we had a raging discussion here on the topic of children’s menus. In a nutshell: They’re loaded with unhealthy food. They’re insulting. They perpetuate the false and damaging notion that “kid food” should be its own distinct (junked-up and deep-fried) category.  Brian Van Etten, the chef at a new restaurant about to open in Rochester, N.Y., took note. [...]

45 comments read the full post >>

When parents stand in the way of better school food

June 8, 2010 Brainy

I’m a journalist, which means I balk at reporting anything before I can suss it out. So I was going to post about this after I’d attended a meeting planned for tonight and talked to more of the people involved and done all those other reporter sorts of things. And I still will. But in the [...]

144 comments read the full post >>

Real food on the road

June 6, 2010 Grassroots

Summertime. When the living is easy, road trips entice, and that road is paved with fast food and greasy spoons. What to do, what to do. As a longtime vegetarian, I’ve been bringing food on the road for years, if only a few bananas and granola bars to get me through the gauntlet of golden arches. When [...]

22 comments read the full post >>

The assault (and insult) of children’s menus

May 29, 2010 Brainy

One of our favorite local restaurants lists grilled cheese on both its regular menu and its children’s menu. Same price. Same bread options (wheat, rye, sourdough). But where the regular menu touts “aged” cheddar, the kiddie version offers “mild” cheddar.   The first time I noticed this, I asked the server about the difference, thinking [...]

57 comments read the full post >>

Pesticide, organic and other dirty words

May 20, 2010 Brainy

“Organic” was an early word in my now 6-year-old’s vocabulary. (She pronounced it “ga-nan-ic.” Tell me that’s not adorable.) It’s also one of the first words she learned to spell, which is why we have progressively more readable versions written on random bits of paper and newsprint. So when we go grocery shopping, Tess takes pride in pointing [...]

17 comments read the full post >>

“Two Angry Moms”: Still too true (redux)

May 7, 2010 Brainy

As I posted earlier this week, I was planning to watch the school-food movie “Two Angry Moms” for the second time. Saw it last night, and I was struck again by the similarities between these moms’ battle and the drama that played out on Jamie Oliver’s show in Huntington, W.Va. It was disheartening, honestly, given that [...]

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