Raising Healthy Eaters: Start with Healthy Recipes for the Whole Family

My kids are what I would consider “good eaters.” That being said, they are very different in their food preferences. For instance, my eldest son, age 8, loves fruits and vegetables. At a birthday party, he will skip the birthday cake, especially if it has chocolate or frosting on it, and will look for fruit.

My daughter, age 6, is so different from him. She has a “sweet tooth” and loves meat! She will give up pasta and rice easily in order to have more meat. (Yes, she will order “spaghetti with meatballs” for the meat, not the spaghetti!). My littlest one, age 2, is still very young, but I can already tell that he loves salty foods. He can enjoy cake and cookies, but he prefers olives! If I let him, he will finish a whole can or jar of olives!

I believe this to be the case in most families. Even if your kids are not considered to be “good eaters,” each of them will have his own eating patterns and his own preferred foods. That complicates things when you need to create one meal for the whole family. At the same time, you also want to make sure each child gets his nutritional needs met according to his age, body size and activity level.

Nobody said that being a parent is an easy job, but it shouldn’t be a daily struggle, especially when it comes to family meals. So, how do you make sure they are all eating right and meeting all of their nutritional needs?

This is one of the reasons I wanted to write my book, “Raising Healthy Eaters.” In my clinic, I meet many families that find it very difficult to cook for the whole family when every child has different food preferences. The parents often feel frustrated dealing with the food issue. Also, many parents want to make sure they provide the healthiest food for their family, but feel they lack the knowledge and expertise to cook “from scratch” at home

I believe I have a gift to give to the families I’m working with in my clinic. I’m originally from Israel, and for many years I have been cooking Mediterranean dishes as well as traditional Tunisian foods based on recipes from my mother-in-law, Sara Saroussi. Everything is homemade from scratch with lots of flavor and high nutritional benefits. I started to translate my homemade recipes to English and to modify them to incorporate ingredients found in the Californian kitchen.

When I received so much positive feedback on my recipes, I decided I wanted to reach out to more families around the US, and I started to write my book, “Raising Healthy Eaters.” In this book, I combine educational information about children’s nutrition, conveyed in a family-friendly way, with simple and delicious homemade recipes for the whole family.

I invite you to read, cook, and enjoy “Raising Healthy Eaters.”