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Every year, we attend the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association. This year’s conference was in Chicago (and yes, it was windy there).  As part of the show, we had an opportunity to try an array of new and nutritious food products for kids and families.  Here’s a sampling of what we found:

Clif Kid Organic Twisted Fruit:  Looking for a fun new snack to pack in your child’s lunchbox or backpack?  Your search is over.  Clif Bar is out with a new line of Twisted Fruit snacks.  They take real fruit - strawberry, pineapple, grape — and twist it into a rope shape.  It looks like licorice but is all natural and has no added sugar.

Food Should Taste Good:  Multigrain, sweet potato, olive, and even chocolate. Those are a few of our favorite Food Should Taste Good snack chip flavors.  The sweet potato chips were a big hit with our kids - something we appreciate given their 3 grams of fiber and 20% vitamin A per serving. 

PlumSweet:  Sunsweet is at it again with a new dried plum snack your whole family will love.  PlumSweets are scrumptious, bite-sized pieces of dried plums coated in rich, dark chocolate.  Yum!

Read more about some of the other healthy new food products at the show in the Chicago Tribune, and let us know what new kid-friendly snacks you have found at your local market.

Late Tuesday, we returned from Chicago after several action-packed days at the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).  We saw many old friends (by old we mean, “we’ve known them for a while” vs. they’re old), sat in on interesting lectures (we’ll share some of what we learned in future posts) and got to cruise the exhibit hall to sample new family-friendly food products and to peak at recipe booklets and cookbooks.

We have so many cool things to share with you, but decided to start with a recipe for Cocoa Raisin Muffins.  We tasted this recipe at the California Raisin booth after meeting fitness trainer, Valerie Waters (if you go to the raisin website, you’ll find lots of Valerie’s easy-to-follow healthy living tips).  Anyway, despite the fact that we just got back to reality land, we tested & tweaked the recipe and infused some of our Meal Makeover Mom magic. 

These double-chocolate muffins are perfect for Halloween - whether you’re hosting a neighborhood party or just looking for a new muffin recipe to keep your little ghosts and goblins happy. 

Cocoa Raisin Muffins

Makes 24 Muffins

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup 1% lowfat milk
• 1 cup California raisins
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. Combine the applesauce, egg, oil, and milk in a medium bowl and stir until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.  Stir in the raisins and chocolate chips. The batter will be thick and “fudgy.”
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups (fill them generously).  Bake about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes.  Remove the muffins and cool an additional 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition Information per Serving (2 mini muffins):   210 calories, 8g fat (1.5g saturated, 0.6g omega-3), 260mg sodium, 33g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 4g protein, 10% iron

As you may know, we’re huge fans of chocolate - which is why this recipe caught our attention.  What also caught our attention were the raisins.  They offer an easy way to get more fruit into the family diet:  They’re portable, available year round, and kids naturally love them.

More news from our ADA adventures in upcoming posts this month!

Snack chips are often criticized by dietitians for being too high in fat and sodium and for containing ingredients like partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and artificial colors. To investigate what snack food companies are doing to improve their products, we recently took a tour of the Frito-Lay plant in Killingly, CT.  It’s not every day you get to walk through a food manufacturing facility … nor is it every day you get to wear a hair net, ear plugs, and protective goggles (a hands-down Glamour Don’t though clearly a safety necessity)!

On the tour, we saw how potato chips and Smartfood Popcorn are made, and we got to eat them warm as they came off the production line (incredibly yummy, if we must say so ourselves). We were impressed by the fact that Frito-Lay has reduced the saturated fat in its chips by switching to sunflower oil and that all its chips are trans-fat free. They even have a line of products called Pinch of Salt featuring lower sodium versions of their most popular snacks (we blogged about this on July 7, 2008).

It’s nice to know you can enjoy chips without all the guilt when you need a little crunch with your lunch! As with all snacks, keep an eye on those portion sizes!

When we hear the word, zucchini, we think “healthy,” and when we hear the word, chocolate, we think “decadent.” Lucky for us two of our favorite ingredients form the perfect partnership in cookies, cakes, cupcakes and quick breads. And apparently we’re not the only ones who appreciate the culinary combination between the two; google zucchini + chocolate and you’ll get nearly half a million results! If zucchini is growing in your garden or you happen to pick it up at the market, try our kid-friendly + nutritious recipe for Zucchini Squiggle Squares.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve crunched and munched our way through a bunch of new snack food products. The first was the new lineup of 100% natural nibbles from TrueNorth, made by Frito-Lay. TrueNorth snacks start with nutritious nuts including almonds, peanuts, pistachios, pecans or walnuts which are then used to create four varieties – nut clusters, nut crisps, nut crunchies, and whole nuts. We and our kids liked everything we tried, especially the Pecan-Almond-Peanut Clusters (Carolyn’s favorite), the Pistachio Crisps and the Toasted Sesame Peanut Crunchies (Simon’s favorite). It’s worth noting that all contain 5 grams of protein per serving and mostly heart-healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats.

Another snack line (also from Frito-Lay) that pleasantly surprised us was Pinch of Salt, a low-sodium version of Lay’s potato chips, Tostitos, Ruffles and Fritos. Instead of the usual 180 milligrams of sodium, each has 75 milligrams per serving. To us, they still satisfied our salt craving … but with a lot less sodium. Today, when Liz packed Simon’s camp lunch, she gave him a handful of Fritos in a zip-top bag to eat with his sandwich. Janice, who is obsessed with guacamole, served it along with the Pinch of Salt Tostitos at her Fourth of July cookout.

Let us know if you or your kids have recently discovered any better-for-you snack products.

We recently received a blog post asking us if we had any makeover ideas for Jell-O Jigglers. We’ve had a lot of fun in the kitchen the past couple of weeks and wanted to share what we came up with. In case you don’t know, traditional Jell-O Jigglers, according to the directions on the back of the box, are made with four packages of fruit-flavored Jell-O and water or apple juice. When you crunch the numbers, it turns out that each small, hand-held Jiggler square has 3 teaspoons of added sugar plus a laundry list of artificial colors. To make this recipe healthier and all natural, we used plain gelatine, real, 100% fruit juice, frozen fruit and just 1 tablespoon of sugar for the entire recipe (our squares have just 1/8 teaspoon of added sugar).

We have something to confess (other than the fact that we are deeply depressed over the Patriots’ Superbowl loss):

We’re obsessed with canned pumpkin (yes, we know, we need to “get a life”)! Last Friday, at the ridiculously early hour of 7:00 AM, Liz decided to create a new recipe and test it out on her boys. As you can only imagine, weekday mornings are insane when kids have to be dragged out of bed, fed breakfast, and reminded to brush their teeth. But that didn’t stop Liz from working on a new recipe for pumpkin pancakes. Her motivation for the new recipe was twofold: she had some leftover canned pumpkin in the freezer that she was itching to use up, and her friend, Barbara (also a mother of two boys), was looking for a way to make her basic pancake batter more nutritious. Anyway, here’s what Liz came up with (more on Janice’s obsession in a moment):

Pumpkin Pancakes
Makes 4 to 5 Servings (about 14 pancakes total)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large omega-3 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cups 1%lowfat milk
1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 teaspoons canola oil

Whisk together the flours, flaxseed, sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Set aside. Whisk together the eggs, milk, and pumpkin in a separate bowl until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.

Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Pour the batter onto the hot skillet using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, forming 4-inch cakes. Cook until bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the pancakes and the bottoms turn golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown, an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining oil and batter.

Nutrition Information:
320 calories, 10g fat (2.5g saturated, 1g omega-3 fats), 400mg sodium, 46g carbohydrate, 4g fiber; 11g protein; 80% vitamin A; 25% calcium; 15% iron

Now back to Janice. The day before Liz whipped up her new pumpkin pancake recipe, Janice was busy giving our Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe a mini makeover. Instead of adding 2 bananas (1 cup mashed), she substituted with 1 cup pure pumpkin puree. The result was two dozen moist and incredibly flavorful mini muffins. Here’s Janice’s recipe (by the way, you can easily freeze leftover pumpkin in zip-top plastic bags).

Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 24 Mini Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
2 large omega-3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup 1% lowfat milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Whisk together the flours, ground flaxseed, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Combine the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl and stir until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and cool an additional 5 minutes before serving. When making 12 full-size muffins, bake for 20 to 23 minutes.

Nutritional Information per 2 Muffins:
220 calories, 11g fat (2g saturated, 1g omega-3), 135mg sodium, 28g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 4g protein, 60% vitamin A

Add a new twist to your Halloween gathering by serving some good-for-you goodies. Kid-friendly suggestions: sweet potato chips, all-natural cheese curls, popcorn, dried fruits such as apricots and cranberries, Chocolaty Pumpkin Bars , pumpkin seeds, and chocolate milk. You can even try these fruit kebabs, presented in a pumpkin!

Celebrate autumn’s best apples with this easy-to-make snack cake. Perfect in a lunch box or as an after-school treat, your kids will love every healthy bite. The Meal Makeover secrets in this recipe include the whole wheat flour, flaxseed, omega-3 eggs, and of course, the apples.

Apple Butterscotch Cake
Makes 15 servings

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large omega-3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large Golden Delicious apples, unpeeled, cut into quarters, cored, and coarsely grated (about 2 packed cups)
1/3 cup butterscotch chips

Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Whisk together the two kinds of flour, sugar, flaxseed, baking powder, pumpkin
pie spice, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, applesauce, and oil in a separate bowl. Stir in the apples until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan; smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake about 35 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack before cutting.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 220 calories, 11g fat (3g saturated fat), 160mg sodium, 28g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 4g protein

If you have a toddler, you probably spend a lot of time preparing and serving snacks. Toddlers have tiny tummies and need lots of mini meals to stay energized (and happy) throughout the day.

Right now, we are working on a magazine article featuring healthy snack ideas for little kids — especially those between the ages of 2 to 4. Although we have plenty of yummy and nutritious suggestions — fruit smoothies, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, apples dipped in peanut butter, whole grain cinnamon swirl toast — we are on the lookout for even more ideas. What are your favorite go-to snacks? What do you pack when you’re on the run and need a portable nibble for your toddler? What’s your child’s favorite after-school “treat?”

Share your snack suggestions by posting to our blog!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins (or 24 Mini Muffins)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup 1% lowfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Combine the bananas, eggs, sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl and stir until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 20 minutes or until the muffins are light golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and cool an additional 5 minutes before serving. To make 24 mini muffins, bake about 14 minutes.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 220 calories,10g fat (2g saturated), 140mg sodium, 31g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 4g protein