Photo credit: Elizabeth Potenza/Fort Lauderdale

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I've learned a lot about frugality from my mother-in-law. She's the best kind of economizer: She's got a generous heart, but a frugal lifestyle.

Stale cereal can be yummy.

She and my late father-in-law gave my kids their first savings bonds and $100 bills. But she also uses empty cereal bags to store leftover foods.

So I'm dedicating this recession busting idea to her, even though it's so sugary, she probably wouldn't approve of my feeding it to the kids.

It's my way of using all food, and letting none go to waste. (Just like restaurants take their wilting vegetables and make vegetable soup.)

The principle is that of Rice Krispie Treats. Just sub out whichever cereal is getting stale. I keep a bag of marshmallows on hand for this very purpose. Melt the marshmallows, add a tad of butter to the mix, pour on the cereal and refrigerate.

No matter what kind of cereal it is, believe me when I say, it will be delicious when covered with melted marshmallows.

Yum!

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A hankering for fried chicken led us to a Piccadilly in Hollywood.

The cafeteria-style restaurant is the closest I can get to Morrison's Cafeteria. There were many Sunday afternoons spent in the carpeted dining room of the Skylake Mall restaurant "dining" on the Blue Plate special or inhaling the fried shrimp.

At Piccadilly, I had the three-piece chicken dinner with two sides for $7.49. A drink and side order of fresh fruit tipped my portion to $11. My husband had the chicken pot pie topped with a biscuit and two sides for $4.99.

A fantastic deal for a family, right?

We shared portions of our meals with the toddler.

Do you know of a better place for a family to get a great meal for less than $10 per person?

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Mother’s Day is around the corner – May 10 – which gives us this weekend to plan and shop.

I’m a simple gal, so I really don’t want anything. Really.

A nice little kiss on the cheek from each kid, a hug – and I’m happy. Seriously, honest.

For my own mom, I’ll roll out the red carpet – it’s her day. It’s whatever she wants, whatever she wants to do. Typically, I make dinner – whatever she’s in the mood for!

Plants, hand-made cards and family time – all top the list of my favorite gifts I've received.
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Come next Sunday, we’ll be with my parents for some good inter-generational fun! Sure it’s Mother’s Day, and I suppose I could sit one meal preparation out. But frankly, I love to cook! That’s what I want to do and anyway, it’s all about us moms that day.

This year, what’s in your gift bag to Mom?

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Its' a no-brainer, really.
When you acknowledge the spirituality of others, you learn more about yourself. You gain insight.

That's what we told The Kid when we explained why we were hosting a Passover dinner in our home this week.

Our guest list included Jewish people and Christians. We invited friends, neighbors and co-workers to a "Gentile Passover". Everyone was touched by our invitation. One said she had been thinking about what she would do this holiday.

We made Matzo Ball soup, from scratch; and roasted chicken and lamb. Our neighbor cooked a brisket.

All of us, including The Kid and his friend, listened as one of the guests explained the meaning of the opening plate and what the food on it signified.

Everyone brought something to the table.
But the main courses were inclusiveness, love, respect and friendship.

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Don't just hide the junk food. Talk up the superpowers of the carrots.

Or as my wife does, hide the vegetables; she purees them into a marinara sauce.

This article in Newsweek says a Cornell researcher found that telling kids they're eating "X-ray vision carrots" helped kindergartners eat 50 percent more carrots. The researcher doesn't seem to have a problem with lying to kids in order to get them to eat.

Sounds like an old trick to me. I remember my mother telling me and my friends that eating spinach gave Popeye big muscles. So we should eat our spinach to. That was a lie, too, and it didn't work. It wasn't until I was older that I appreciated a good spinach dish. And I loved Popeye as a kid.

Generations of parents have faced the challenge of trying to get our kids to eat healthy. My guess is that the kids will mimic their parents' habits. So we have tried to be better role models for my daughter, 3 1/2, and son, who turns 1 this month.

Even so, we just don't leave the cookies out on the counter. They're kept out of sight and come out only as a treat.

Also, we offer the kids apples and oranges for snacks or give them broccoli or asparagus with their dinners. A crazy thing happens many times. They just eat it.

I wonder, though, when they don't want their vegetables, should we just lie to our kids? What do you think, is a "healthy" lie OK?

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Getting dinner to the table within an hour of getting home is a nearly impossible feat.

But I've found that casseroles, cooking on weekends and supplements go a long way to getting dinner made in short order.

And by supplements, I mean the cooked rotisserie chickens at grocery stores, the order of ribs from a favorite restaurant, the frozen shrimp purchased -- on sale -- by the bag.

Filling in the edges of the meal with fresh vegetables, microwaved potatoes or steamed rice is much easier.

So grab a rotisserie chicken tonight and make a Chicken Avocado Pecan salad, Fast Chicken Black Bean Chili, Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chicken and Diced Avocado or Chicken Pot Pie. (The links take you to the recipes as they appeared in today's paper.)

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I knew this would happen. We’ve been to Costco once since joining in October.

Let me explain. I posted in the fall about my frustration with repeated trips to the grocery store. Several people talked up the benefits of Costco in response, online and in the office. So we headed to a Costco not long thereafter and joined up. We spent several hundred dollars on all those oversized items. It seemed like a good decision.

And I think it was. But we haven’t been back since. I thought of this when I saw the remaining two items from that trip: a huge container of olive oil and the last of the almonds.

I suppose it’s the old dictum: you’ve got to spend money to save money. In the meantime, I’ll just run out to Publix. But tell me, how often do you go to Costco?

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At the end of a long work day, the last thing I want to do is make a nutrious meal for my 23 month old.

On those days, I usually rely on party foods to make a meal without making a meal. The crackers come out its sleeve, the block of cheddar gets sliced and topped with pre-sliced, bagged apples.

But the other day I rediscovered how to get a fuller meal to the table without lifting a finger: have hubbie make a casserole.

We've eaten severals meals from the one-dish wonder of chicken/rice/broccoli. And I've committed myself to making TWO casseroles this weekend to serve during the week when energy is in short supply.

If you want the recipe, click below. Otherwise, share a link to your favorite casserole recipe for other time-strapped parents to use.

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Every year I dread Girl Scout cookie season and get excited about it at the same time.

As Girl Scout parents, we are asked to sell so many cookies that it's pretty burdensome. At the same time, almost no one says no when you ask them to buy.

According to Girl Scouts of South-East Florida, nine out of 10 people will buy cookies if asked. Despite the recent peanut scare and kosher-labeling problems, the flavors are so unique (think Thin Mints, Thanks-A-Lots and Samoas) and the time frame so limited ( Jan. 22 to Feb. 10), that many people stock up on their favorites so they can last into next year.

For the second year, you can also donate Cookies for the Military. Last year, more than 19,000 boxes were delivered to military personnel.

Click here to find cookie sales locations in Broward and here for Palm Beach County.

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In looking for something to blog about, I came across the Dietary Recommendations for Children and Adolescents: A Guide for Practitioners. It’s a consensus statement from the American Heart Association and was published in 2005 in Circulation, the AHA’s journal.

There was plenty to, yes, chew on in this, but here’s a gem in the ages 2-6 section: “Two natural parental impulses, pressuring children to eat and restricting access to specific foods, are not recommended because they often lead to overeating, dislikes, and paradoxical interest in forbidden items.”

This comes after a reminder that parents choose what is eaten, and when and where, and kids decide whether to eat and how much. Of course, the article is full of reminders about what we want kids to eat, and even suggestions about ways they might actually eat it.

All this leads me to the dilemma of the fish nugget. I cooked dinner the other night, and our 2-year-old was really only interested in his macaroni and cheese. I heated a fish nugget despite his warnings that “I don’t want that, daddy.” He took one bite. I could hear that voice in my head, “He’s got to eat more.”

How many times did we hear that as kids: “You can leave the table after one more bite.” To this day, I hate Brussels sprouts because that “one more bite” made me once want to gag. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned.

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I used to send my kids to local camps over winter break so they could do something constructive while I was at work.

But now that they are in the double digits, they groan at the idea of another organized activity. Fortunately I found something fun for them to do and they have actually agreed to it.

Publix has opened a cooking school in Boca Raton called Apron's. They are doing a Kids' Survivors Camp Dec. 29 and 30, in which kids can learn some basic recipes and cooking skills.

How could they say no to learning to make (and eat) pretzels, blondies, brownies, empanadas and churros?

Cost is $70. For more information, click here.

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I blogged recently about whether we should join Costco. The response was surprisingly strong - maybe even a tad heated. The lengths people take to save money on groceries made me look like a slacker.

Anyway, we plunked down our $50 recently and entered the bounty that is Costco. The shopping experience was not among my favorites – those big carts are hard to negotiate – but we found some bulk items worth the effort. That said, here’s what I learned: there’s little room for error at this place. One of our sons insisted he would eat Honey Nut Cheerios, and persuaded us to buy a big box. He later took one bite and declared them too sweet.

Then I stumbled upon this item in New York magazine. The magazine took a family – mom and dad and two kids – and compared how their weekly grocery purchases would come out at three different grocers and a Costco. Anyway, Costco did very well. Take a look.

There’s an important caveat at the end, though. Make sure you read that. Because when it comes to Costco, the devil is in the quantity. Or, for us, in a huge box of Honey Nut Cheerios.

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I never know how much to restrict my kids' Halloween candy intake.

Am I a total party-pooper if I tell them they can only have two pieces at a time? Or am I negligent if I let them eat lots more?

As I've been thinking about this candy dilemma, I came across this list of "The Best Candy Ever" from babble.com. I'm partial to chocolate candy, but this list brought back lots of memories from my childhood trick or treating days, including Pumpkin Peeps, Sugar Babies and Dots.

On the other end of the sweets spectrum, the American Association of Orthodontists has a list of treats to avoid if your kid wears braces, including caramel, candy corn, nuts and bubble gum.

Do you let your kids indulge at Halloween? Or do you play Scrooge like me?

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I thought my daughter was playing a joke on me when she said PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was urging Ben & Jerry's ice cream to switch its creamy base from cow's milk to breast milk.

She wasn't, although I am still incredulous. PETA sent the letter to the famous Vermont ice cream makers last week.

The animal rights group admits it got the idea from a Swiss restaurant, which is using breast milk in its soups and sauces.

Can you imagine any company in America trying this? Breast milk is made for babies; I'm not sure if there are any benefits for adults or if you can even cook with breast milk. I'm certain, though, that few American consumers have the palate for a breast-milk-based product.

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A plastic gallon of milk has always been too unwieldly for a little kid to pour. But I'm afraid a newly engineered jug might be even worse.

According to this story from The New York Times, the new shape, being sold at some Wal-Mart and Costco stores, saves the grocer storage space and needs less washing, thus saving water. Fewer truck runs also need to be made because more milk can fit in the cab.

The new shape, apparently the wave of the future, is supposed to save us consumers money: 10 to 20 cents a gallon.

I'm all for saving gas and water. But I'm skeptical those savings will be passed along to us.

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I started out with good intentions, but my plan to teach my kids about local vegetable farming failed.

Last summer, I decided to subscribe to Green Cay Produce, a Boynton Beach farm that sells and delivers its vegetables to local homes. It was expensive ($400 to receive a box every other week from October through May, or about $22 per box, plus $5 per box for them to deliver it to the house), but we would get a chance to support a local farmer, see our vegetables grow and see if they taste better straight from the vine.

As the deliveries began, I immediately detected a problem: There were lots of vegetables my kids and my husband were not going to eat. The farm sent over about half a dozen yellow squash and zucchini each time, and there was always lots of arugula, scallions, radishes and eggplant that my family wouldn't go near.

Some of the vegetables ended up going to waste, which I felt terrible about (How much yellow squash can one person, me, eat?) And my kids never got to see the farm up close because we had other plans on their Visiting Day.

So because of the expense and the refusal of my family to try new veggies, I am not going to renew my subscription. Hopefully local growers will start selling their wares at centrally located markets; that way, I can still support them but have more choices as to what I want to buy each week.

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Our 16-year-old daughter, a vegetarian, has recently read the book The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.

This New York Times bestseller opened her eyes to food additives, including high fructose corn syrup, MSG, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners. Pollan, a science and food writer who has conducted tremendous research into where our food comes from, suggests a mantra we should all live by: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

By food, he means food that would be recognizable to your great-great grandparents in the 19th century. Food that comes from real plants and animals that are fed what nature intended for them to eat.

Abby vowed on Easter Sunday that she would no longer eat any bad food additives. Her chocolate bunny remains unopened. She printed a list for my reference from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group of liberal, activist scientists concerned about our food supply .

Meanwhile, daughter No. 2, who will eat meat and has no compunctions regarding high-fructose, multicolored “food,” gets insanely painful migraines of unknown source. The neurologist’s recommendation: No food additives. No peanuts. No chocolate. No caffeine. No hard cheeses.

And my husband has slightly elevated blood pressure, so low-sodium for him.

I challenge you to walk in my shoes for just one trip to the grocery store. Try reading the labels on everything you buy. High fructose corn syrup is everywhere: In crackers. In jelly. In waffles and cereal. In strawberry cream cheese. Artificial sweeteners are in almost anything labeled “low” or “no” sugar. MSG is in packaged soups, taco seasoning, salad dressings and lots of mixed spices. You’ll see long lists of things that turn out to be benign vitamins in bread, but then there’s BHA or BHT. There are sulfites in bacon, sausage and frozen turkey and chicken products.

Sodium is loaded into soups, canned vegetables and almost every prepared food. Cold cuts have all kinds of complicated-sounding preservatives. Tuna has traces of toxic metals such as mercury which might trigger migraines.

Do you know how hard it is in the 21st century to sustain yourself on a 19th-century diet?

We’re managing so far. But even with the no-additives diet, our younger daughter has been sidelined with a migraine for the past two days.

I guess I really am going to have to take that no-peanuts edict seriously. But what do you put in a lunchbox for a kid who cannot eat cheese, peanut butter, cold cuts or tuna?

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Oh great. Two of my kids' favorite foods made it on to the list of the "Worst Foods in America."

In his book, "Eat This, Not That: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution," Men's Health editor David Zinczenko lists 20 of the worst foods in different categories.

My kids drink the "Worst Drink," Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie (166 grams of sugar) and eat the "Worst Kids' Meal," Macaroni Grill's Double Macaroni 'n' Cheese, with 62 grams of fat.

Fortunately they only eat these monsters a few times a year. But for some reason, I didn't see these foods as the poisons I guess they are.

Take a look at some of the others. Which of these do your kids devour in blissful ignorance?

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This week, the daycare my child attends celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Easter by asking parents to bring in plates, cheese, juice boxes and SWEETS: cupcakes, candies, cookies.

What the heck do children ages 1-2 need with candy???

Baby teeth are temporary, and can be difficult to clean if the baby is like mine and squirms and wails during the cleanings.

I was instructed via a note to bring candy for the Easter party. I brought grapes, lovingly divided into baby bite sizes, for the kids.

As a compromise, I brought in treat bags of candy and gum for the teachers.

How do you deal with your daycare provider plying your child with sweets?

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Somewhere, my Abuelita is laughing at me.

My grandmother used to do all the cooking for the family, just about every night. She lived upstairs from us in an apartment building in the Bronx. She cooked typical Puerto Rican meals, heavy on the yellow rice (I hated yellow rice) and red beans (I hated red beans), occasional small pieces of steak (I hated steak), usually with onions (I hated onions). More than once, I would get a special serving of white rice and corn, so I could be spared the indignity of the meal Abuelita had spent so much time preparing for the rest of the family.

Fast forward... Years after Abuelita's passing, I'm a stepfather, and about twice a week, it's my job to cook for the family. Nothing fancy, mind you. I'm not much of a cook. But I make some fantastic spaghetti sauce, which becomes "pasta sauce" when you serve it with anything other than spaghetti. Sometimes, if I have one handy, I'll even cut up an onion to add that extra little bit of flavor. I love the taste of cooked onions. The other night, my wife asked if I could make sausage and peppers. Yum. And boil some spaghetti, too.

The sausage and peppers were just about ready when Christine and the girls got home. The younger one, Paxtynn, asked me when dinner would be ready. I pointed to the spaghetti, still boiling with about four minutes to go. "That'll be a couple of minutes," I said. Then I pointed to the sausage and peppers and said, "That's just about rea..."

"I don't like that!" she interrupted, as if to say, "You don't really expect me to eat the centerpiece of the meal you've prepared, do you?"

She is such a fussy eater. A hint of sauce for spaghetti, but no more. Ribs? She'll take two and eat half of one, leaving the rest on her plate. Rice? Sometimes, but not much. She doesn't like this. She doesn't like that (but she'll eat uncooked noodles straight out of the box like it's a potato chip -- I don't get that). No consideration for the work that goes into preparing a meal. Taste buds that can't handle taste. My masterpieces, unappreciated in their time. She's like a little, annoying, bratty, fussy... female version of me when I was her age.

When I remember that, I smile. Sometimes I laugh. She has no idea how much it stings when she points to food I've made and says "I don't like that." I never thought of what it must feel like to my Abuelita, who must be looking down at the situation right now and thinking, "Ah ha. Ahora sabes!"

"Now you know."

I do. And I know she's laughing. And I'm laughing with her. Lo siento, Abuelita. Y gracias.

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Since I am often quick to critcize the school lunch program -- particularly in light of the horrendous choice the program made with its beef supplier -- let me also be the first to praise when school lunch goes right.

Today Broward County Public Schools announced that it will offer a vegetarian lunch option starting next week. Unfortunately, only three schools get the privilege of choosing a Gardenburger: Everglades High, Driftwood Middle and Eagle Point Elementary.

I have to hope that these schools are just a test to see if students will choose a Gardenburger. I know mine would. I'm still hoping for other vegetarian choices beyond a salad bar or cheese pizza -- lentil soup, vegetable soup, black beans and rice, or perhaps a nice bean and cheese burrito?

But the Gardenburger is a great start. It's a far better choice than beef, even when the beef is not from a questionable source. Gardenburgers have no saturated fat, no transfat, no cholesterol. They are high in protein, so they fill kids up. The production of Gardenburgers uses no methane (a byproduct of cattle that contributes to global warming). AND they taste good!

Altogether, a better choice. Thank you, Broward Schools.

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"Mommy, I want to go on a diet."

And now, my worst fears are realized. Erika is all of 9. She's active and a normal, slender girl. She does not need to go on a diet.

Where is this coming from? From some mean tween on the playground? From TV, which at times feels like the font of all her knowledge?

We are not a dieting kind of house (although some of the older members of the family probably should be dieting.) I've never restricted my kids' food much because they've never abused the privilege. We have junk food around the house, but they don't gorge on it. They like apples and baby carrots and pretzels. They might eat a piece of candy now and then, but they tend to forget they even have a Halloween stash. I figure if I don't make an issue of food, they won't either.

And so far, it's worked. Erika eats pancakes and waffles with little or no syrup. She takes the cheese off her pizza. She likes broccoli. Not because I've harped. She just tends toward healthy habits.

So, a diet? I ask her why, tell her she's healthy, explain that she already eats a pretty good diet. Why, Erika, why?

"No, I want to go on a healthy diet. No junk food. I'll just eat fruits and vegetables and protein. And one piece of garlic bread."

Oh. How can I argue with this?

"And I'll just have one brownie a day. Two. Maybe three."

Sounds like my kind of diet.

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For better or worse, my kids love bread as much as I do.

We like the crusty Italian or French breads that are hard on the outside and soft and luscious on the inside. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer places to buy these delicacies.

One of my favorite bakeries, Flakowitz in West Boca, closed recently for unknown reasons. It made me realize there are almost no traditional, stand-alone bakeries near where we live.

Has Publix put all the bakeries out of business? Are rents too high to support little bake shops?

In Boca Raton, Kings Market had excellent bread, but they are temporarily out of business. The Boys Market in Delray Beach also has good crusty bread, but I find shopping in the narrow, crowded aisles there too unpleasant.

Do you know a good bakery? Give me a name and I promise to become their best customer!

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Moms disguising vegetables in their kids' favorite meals is nothing new. Still, I've enjoyed reading about the controversy over Jessica Seinfeld's possible plagiarism in her new book, "Deceptively Delicious," which is now number one on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Some of the recipes are almost identical to combinations in "The Sneaky Chef," which came out last year. Both books encourage parents to puree healthy foods, like squash, and mix it into similar-colored foods, such as macaroni and cheese. Same thing for spinach into brownies, avocado into chocolate pudding and sweet potatoes into grilled cheese.

The New York Times had a great quote from Jerry Seinfeld, Jessica's husband, about the controversy: "I really don't think we have another Watergate here."

Of course we don't. But I would like to know if parents think mixing healthy foods into their kids' meals has any long-term benefit. Don't we want our kids to make healthy choices on their own? Are they really learning anything by us being sneaky?

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Here's something from the Sun-Sentinel's new blog The Skinny

Burger King today made a big push toward making its children's meals healthier with the introduction of broiled chicken tenders, organic unsweetened applesauce and apple slices cut into the shape of french fries. The new items should be appearing in BKs early next year.

According to the Associated Press story, the burger giant will also set nutritional guidelines to follow when targeting children under 12 in advertising, including limiting ads to Kids Meals that contain no more than 560 calories, less than 30 percent of calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars.

Mommy's gonna order the broiled chicken and apple fries, too.

-- Gail Gedan Spencer

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My kids have no idea how most fruits and vegetables are grown, and to be honest, neither do I.

So I am making an investment in a farm near Boynton Beach. For $400, Green Cay Produce will deliver part of its bounty to our house every other week from October through May. We will also be able to visit the farm to see how our fruits and vegetables are grown.

They call it community-supported agriculture, and it's considered a way to keep small farms afloat and eat food as it's fresh and available, instead of frozen and bland.

It sounded pretty expensive, and I chose the least costly option (you can also get a bigger box and get one each week instead of every other week). If we have a hurricane, I likely will lose my money.

But I want to see if fresh-off-the-vine produce actually does taste better than what I buy at Publix. For more information, go to http://veggies4u.com.

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In case you missed it this weekend, here's a story and video about Broward County parks and their move to offer healthier fare. If I had to do it over again, I'd mention that perhaps the healthiest way is to bring a cooler of your own stuff (which is permissable) or at least an apple or your own trail mix.

In response to the story, a person with a string of titles after his name (even if you do have those why use them?) offers his opinion on the county's food.

Agree or disagree?

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My kids cringe every time we approach the checkout line at Publix, because they are about to hear me make excessive demands on the bagger.

It drives me crazy when they put only one item in a plastic bag and then place it in my cart next to a dozen other plastic bags that will pollute the environment. Usually I request a complicated combination of paper and plastic bags, which I tell the bagger to fill to the brim, and then ask them to give me the gallon of milk with no bag so I have one less bag to throw out or recycle.

To make this interaction easier and help the environment, I bought one of Publix's canvas "green bags." I bring it when I go to Publix or any other market and ask the checkout people to fill it up.

Now I learn that reusable grocery bags are becoming a fashion statement. The tote in the picture here, which says "I'm NOT A Plastic Bag," is by London designer Anya Hindmarch and caused a stampede when it was first released in June in Taiwan. Whole Foods sold out its allotment in New York last month, and I see one is selling on Ebay now for $168.88.

So I am now officially unfashionable with my $1.49 purchase but at least I throw one less bag a week into our garbage dumps. Does our paper/plastic bag system drive you nuts, too?

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Ana Isabel woke up cranky. Who knows what ailed her.

She wanted nothing to do with her morning juice. Milk? That got the wave off. Maybe a banana that she normally devours. Ana would have nothing to do with it. A bit of mommy's oatmeal? No. No. No.

She poked her right index finger into the palm of her left hand, as she often does when she's hungry, and said "cookie." We normally don't buy snacks like cookies, chips or ice cream. Mainly because Ana's parents have little will power. But here we are, early one morning and our 2-year-old says she's hungry and wants nothing but a cookie. And this time, we have a box of cookies in the cabinet.

So what would you do?

Click continue below to see how my wife and I handled our little morning mini-dilemma.

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Like everybody's kids, mine have food quirks that make them seem like picky eaters.

Abby, 15, has not eaten meat since she learned where meat comes from at age 3. For years, we fought the good food fight and made her eat fish and poultry, but as she’s grown, she’s stuck to her anti-meat stance. Now she has political arguments to go with her touchy-feely ones. She will not eat anything with eyes (except potatoes).

Beth, 13, likes many foods including red meat, but she doesn’t really like things all mixed up. She’d prefer a meal from 1955 every night: meat, veg, potato or rice.

In our family, my husband is the one who’s home in the afternoons to cook dinner. Only he’s, well, not a great cook.

So he came up with an offer he hoped our daughters would not refuse: He would double their allowance any week that they cook at least one dinner for the whole family. They could choose the menu and the only rule is it has to be a complete meal, not just dessert or a bowl of fruit.

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I take it very personally when my kids don't want to eat my food. But I have never told them to go make their own.

Still, I'm enjoying a blog from a mom in Austin, Texas, who got tired of having to make separate meals for her kids and told them to Make Their Own Damn Dinner!

Last summer, she began recording every meal she made for herself and her husband, as well as what her kids, ages 8 and 10, made for themselves. The only rule for the kids was that their meal had to have a protein and a fruit or a vegetable.

Her experiment is over, but she still writes about what she has been cooking. Last night I made the roast chicken she recommended, and it was real simple to make and came out juicy.

I like to be adventurous when I cook, but I have restricted that urge because I want my kids to eat my food, not only because it's healthy, but because it's a way of showing them I love them.

How do you handle dinners? Do you make your kids eat what you eat, cook them separate meals, or tell them to Make Their Own Damn Dinner?!?!?!?

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Like my fellow transPARENT blogger Brittany Wallman, I haven't been to a McDonald's in a long time. It's definitely not on my radar when I'm thinking about where to take the kids to eat.

But after hearing about McDonald's campaign to work with mothers to improve the chain's fast food, I'm thinking of giving it a try.

The company is set to start a Moms blog today. They sought women from all over the country who wanted to write about their fast-food experiences. They apparently are listening to the women and modifying their menu accordingly.

When I went on the Web site, I was shocked to see nutrition advice from Dr. Dean Ornish, a famous vegetarian. I checked out what McDonald's has been serving and saw an assortment of salads I had no idea they were offering.

Still, if you bring your family to McDonald's, the kids are going to want a burger and fries.

What do you do when you go to a fast-food joint? Do you make your kids eat as healthy as possible, or do you just say "I give up. Order what you want!"?

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I have never taken my daughter to McDonald's. I don't think she's ever been there, in her life.
She's 5..
I'm doing my small part to combat childhood obesity. I'm also doing my part to combat parental obesity.
She quite possibly might be the only 5 year old in America who could say she's never been under the golden arches.
I think I deserve some kind of trophy, a bronze salad maybe, for this.
I probably haven't taken my son there more than once in his 11 years, either. I heard him telling someone the other day that "I don't really eat at those places.''
And he wasn't bitter about it.
Would I be able to get on a talk show with this information?

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The Publix where I shop placed electronic readouts at the checkout counters recently. Besides seeing a list of everything you bought, Publix puts little messages at the bottom of the screen.

Usually I would ignore these product promotions. But I was thrilled last week to see the message that Publix-brand milk no longer contains rbST, a hormone injected into cows to increase milk production.

I started buying organic milk when I read a few years ago about how hormones like rbST (also known as rbGH) created ovarian and uterine problems in cows and could be connected with similar problems in women who drank it as kids. I even called Dannon to see if their dairy products came from cows stuffed with hormones, and they wouldn't say.

So I guess I don't have to make an extra trip to Whole Foods anymore to buy their brand of organic milk, which is $2.99 for a half gallon, a steal compared with the Organic Valley-brand milk Publix sells for $3.69 a half gallon. Now I can get a whole gallon of Publix-brand hormone-free milk for $3.99.

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I remember many sweet treats from my childhood that I no longer eat because they will make me fat and raise my cholesterol. I'm thinking of Yodels, Ding-Dongs and Twinkies.

Twinkies' combination of sugary cream and yellow cake was irresistible with a glass of milk after school. So I was intrigued to read about a new book that details the making of the Twinkie and where its 39 (!) ingredients come from.

In Twinkie , Deconstructed, author Steve Ettlinger unravels why the Twinkie contains so few traditional baking ingredients, like eggs or milk, and so many industrial-sounding chemicals, like polysorbate 60 (used instead of cream and eggs) and diacetyl (tastes like butter).

With such pleasant associations of Twinkies and my youth, I have often been tempted to buy them for my kids as I pass the shelf in Publix. I have not yet picked up a box, and knowing more now about what's inside my former favorite snack cake, I'm glad I resisted the urge.

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I am fascinated by a book scheduled for release in just a couple of weeks called The Sneaky Chef. The author, a food journalist and trained professional chef, has done time in the toughest kitchen of all: Her own, with two young children.

Not to be outdone by a 4-year-old, Missy Chase Lapin created a whole new cuisine, a sneaky cuisine, a cuisine made up of purees, juices and special baking mixes that sneak the vitamins, phytochemicals, minerals and other good stuff into the foods that kids generally do eat. Foods like brownies, french toast, ice cream and mac-n-cheese.

The idea, she explains, is to pull out the heavy machinery and make pure purees of, say, cauliflower and white beans for a white puree, or broccoli and spinach for a green one, and then whip the heck out of the stuff until it has no texture left. Then sneak it into your kids’ food.

This book contains two recipes for brownies with blueberries (purple puree) and one that calls for spinach in the form of “green juice.’”

I couldn’t resist. I bought the brownie mix, the blueberries and the spinach. Imagine: Healthy brownies.

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