Like many Americans, my husband and I spent the last weekend doing our taxes. And this gets me thinking about making purchases that are a good financial value, including the foods we purchase. We share the same values as other families when it comes to food; we want food that is safe, affordable and nutritious. This is very important to us since we have two teenage boys and they eat a lot!! How are you going to eat well and manage the costs this year?

It is reassuring to know that many familiar foods are the best nutrient-bang for your buck. These foods include eggs, milk, beans, lean ground beef, potatoes and soup. Other favorites that pack a nutritional wallop include sweet potatoes, bananas, oatmeal, oranges, yogurt, spinach and tuna just to name a few. I definitely keep these as regulars in my kitchen pantry.

Here are a few other strategies to get the most value from your food dollar: cook at home, minimize waste and avoid overeating. Here are the tips that I employ to meet these objectives;

• Keep basic food staples on hand so we don't end up going out to dinner because we don't have any food in the house.
• I also keep some "go to" foods on hand to extend a meal if my kids' friends show up at meal time. That means I keep on hand lots of pasta, marinara and some frozen foods (yes, frozen pizza) in order to feed hungry teens. I cook more rice or pasta if we have extra kids in the house and always like to have enough milk for everyone.
• Ironically, I don't shop too far ahead. Our schedules change constantly (teenagers never plan more than an hour ahead). I don't like rotting food in my fridge, so I tend to buy the vegetables (with the exception of salad greens which I try to always have on hand) on my way home from work.

I have a theory that it is better to fill up on healthy food so you are less tempted to go overboard on high calorie/low nutrient foods. Overeating is not good for your health or pocketbook. I also don't buy diet food; it can be more expensive and less satisfying. We eat regular everything, salad dressing, butter, mayo, etc. and skip the snack foods labeled "low-fat" or "low calorie." Due to the health halo associated with low-fat foods, people tend to overeat them.

Eat Better, Eat Together is a blog series by registered dietitians and parents whose stories and advice help families start or strengthen a commitment to balanced family meals and create healthy, successful families. Take the Eat Better, Eat Together Family Meal Pledge at Facebook.com/MealsMatter.org.

Planning meals and coming up with shopping lists can seem like an endless process for the primary meal preparer and food shopper. In my family, that would be me! To keep meal planning interesting and easy while providing foods my family will enjoy, I usually follow the following thinking process:

• What season is it? In summer we do more grilling and in winter we do more stews and casseroles.

• What do I have in the pantry? I always like to keep my pantry -- which includes the refrigerator and freezer full. When cooking for teenagers you never know how many kids will show up on any given evening.

With these questions in mind, I come up with a few entrees for the week and create a shopping list to accommodate the menu and fill up the pantry.

Now for the part about balanced meals. Balanced meals include one food from each food group. The new MyPlate icon is a good representation of a balanced meal because all five food groups are included. When I plan a meal I try to include "five of five." Here are a few examples of how I to do it:

• Spaghetti is a frequent menu item at our house. Spaghetti includes ground meat, vegetables (onion, mushrooms and marinara sauce) and grains (spaghetti). What food groups are missing? Milk and Fruit. We always pour milk for dinner, so add a fruit salad (maybe even as dessert) and our meal is balanced.

• Since the weather is turning cold, we are doing more stews and crock pot meals. So if the menu includes Beef Stew with meat and vegetables, then I balance the meal by serving dinner rolls (grains), sliced fruit (whatever is in season) and milk to drink.
  

• If I am serving oatmeal made with milk for breakfast, then I'd consider adding yogurt and fruit to add flavor to the oatmeal, and maybe a hard cooked egg to boost the protein (I generally do not serve vegetables for breakfast so that is an exception to my balanced meal implementation.) Another option would be to add a scrambled egg with salsa.
  

• For lunch, if deli sandwiches are on the menu, then I'd add cheese to the sandwich and a side of fruit and baby carrots.

I have found the balanced meal approach to menu planning to be simple and effective. When my kids were little and incredible "food fussies", the balanced meal worked in my favor becuase I could always count on them eating the fruit, milk and bread if the entree wasn't kid-friendly enough. Now that they are older and willing to eat almost anything, I use the balanced meal approach to add more interest and variety, for example adding more veggies into a casserole or adding fruit into a green salad.

Does every meal need to be balanced? Of course not. However, this rule of thumb for menu planning is a simple way to keep healthy and provide variety.  Check your cart while you are still in the grocery store. Do you have foods from all five food groups? 

Maureen Bligh, RD

Project Manager

Subscribe to the Meals Matter blog, follow @MealsMatter and #EatBetter2Gether on Twitter for more tips, recipes and family meal inspiration.

Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters is a blog series by parents and dietitians whose stories and advice reminds us that we can overcome the challenges of feeding children. Subscribe to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

I began my career as a dietitian working in pediatrics. Given my background I felt confident that when I had children I would raise them to be healthy eaters. However, what I thought would be fairly straightforward and easy, turned out to be much more challenging than I expected.

I assumed that by offering a variety of foods and setting a good example, my children would happily eat all types of foods. Yet, both of my children were extremely picky eaters when they were young.

Now, I am happy to report that both of my children, who are now teenagers, eat a wide variety of foods from all of the food groups, drink huge amounts of milk, do not have “food issues”, eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.

How did we get from the picky toddler years to their successful eating status today? We used the division of responsibility rules outlined by Ellyn Satter, set a good example (yes that is important) and were very patient. We served foods family-style, in a very neutral fashion. We did not force them to take bites or put foods they did not want on their plate.

Research shows that if you force kids to eat a food, they are less likely to eat it when they are adults. Reflecting back, I am glad that I didn’t mess with their internal abilities to regulate their food intake.

I don’t remember exactly how old my son was when he asked us to pass the broccoli, but I am guessing between 8 and 10 years old. I remember passing the broccoli as if it was an everyday occurrence but was cheering inside, yes this works!!

From that day forward, they both tentatively tried new foods and slowly became more competent eaters. When they went through their teenage growth spurt, they really expanded their food choices.

Developing a healthy eater is an ongoing process and a continual discussion. My oldest son just completed his first year of college, and I’ve been proud to learn he has made an effort to eat healthy food his first year in the dorms! This summer we will be teaching him how to cook easy meals that include all the food groups (with a heavy focus on grilling) – and I expect he will successfully navigate the way into cooking for himself. 

Taking the long view made it possible to relax when my boys were young and picky. I was confident that in the end they would eventually learn to eat well. And, that’s exactly what happened.

Maureen Bligh, Registered Dietitian

Subscribe to our Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters blog series to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

For more tips and information on raising healthy eaters, follow @mealsmatter and the #eatplaylove hashtag on Twitter.

Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters is a blog series by parents and dietitians whose stories and advice reminds us that we can overcome the challenges of feeding children. Subscribe to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

One thing many moms have in common is that we can feel guilty and worry about our children more than is productive.  And the massive volume of “expert” advice that is so pervasive in our culture fuels these feelings. So, it’s easy to understand that when we feed our child something we perceive to be less than healthy, we feel guilty.

Well, there is a way to keep your family fueled with nutritious food and still live guilt-free. It’s called reality-based meal planning. As with many aspects of parenting, there is a wide gap between our “ideal reality” and the “real reality”. The key is learning the difference.

Here a few examples to get you started:

Ideal #1: Serve balanced meals most days (meals with one food from each food group).  

Reality: You don’t have time to cook every night.

Solution: If you must get fast food, just get the entrée from the drive through and bring it home. At home, serve milk, fruit and baby carrots. A balanced meal!

Ideal #2: Avoid all processed foods. Serve only food your grandmother would recognize.

Reality: Your kids are all on different sports teams and you don’t have time to cook from scratch and get them to practice.

Solution: There are many solutions – cooking ahead on the weekend, letting older children prepare meals one night a week or doing something simple by combining fresh or frozen   veggies into a prepared entrée.

Try the Food Personality Quiz to find ways to prepare meals that match your cooking style.

Ideal #3: Your child loves a wide variety of foods including vegetables.

Reality: Your child eats a very small number of foods and shuns all vegetables.

Solution: You might need to lighten up. When kids feel too much pressure they tend to do the opposite. Ellyn Satter, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD provides some excellent guidelines on how to help children to develop into “good eaters”.

It is important to give yourself permission to be a “good enough” mom, when it comes to food as well as every aspect of parenting. Perfection is not required. Just love, patience and continued “small steps” toward your ideal.

Subscribe to our Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters blog series to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

For more tips and information on raising healthy eaters, follow @mealsmatter and the #eatplaylove hashtag on Twitter.

Maureen Bligh, Registered Dietitian

Recent consumer research conducted by the Center for Food Integrity, found the greatest level of consumer agreement to this statement:

“Eating a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods including meat, vegetable and dairy is a sound strategy for good nutrition.” 

I find it interesting that the simple, sound principle of variety and balance expressed in this statement resonates with consumers even in our current era of complicated nutrition advice. While I think this statement is true, I believe it is incomplete. A balanced diet should include foods from all five food groups, adding fruit and breads/grains to the foods listed above.  

Moderation, variety and balance are key components of healthy eating. While these principles do not have the flair of the popular diet regimens du jour, they are tried and true and form a solid foundation for diverse food choices that expand, not limit your options.  

By eating balanced meals, i.e. meals that include one food from each food group, you can achieve the principles of moderation, variety and balance. The food grouping system was designed to provide for important and unique nutrients.  

The foods from the fruits and vegetables groups tend to be lower in calories and including foods from these groups helps keep calories in check. Foods from the meat and milk groups have high quality sources of protein, which tend to offer satiety. And foods from the breads and grains group offer important nutrients and tend to be less expensive per ounce as compared to the other food groups. These foods really do form the perfect balanced diet in many different ways when taken together.  

If you are confused by all the diet advice, check out these easy-to-follow tips that will get you back in balance in no time.

Maureen Bligh, Registered Dietitian

Some friends of mine from Germany travelled to Iran last summer for a few weeks. While in Iran, they were not able to drink alcohol. These friends are very moderate drinkers and ordinarily do not crave alcohol. However, the entire time they were in Iran they were constantly thinking of alcohol and wanted a drink.

This same psychology holds true for dieting. Once you are on a diet and are restricted from eating certain foods, all you can think about is your next meal and the foods you are not allowing yourself to eat. Then the more you think about food, the more you want to eat and the more you eventually eat. This is the primary reason that dieting does not work.

In fact, Medicare did an analysis of 31 studies in 2007 in search of an effective treatment for obesity and found that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain, with up to two-thirds of dieters regaining more weight than they lost.

If someone has rigid rules for “healthy eating” that are disconnected to internal cues, they are more likely to succumb to overeating, as a consequence of breaking their well meaning rules. In addition, they are more likely to eat as a result of external triggers rather than hunger. External triggers include things such as time of day or when a certain program starts on television. They may also be more prone to eat for emotional issues such as coping with stress.

Several popular authors are making the case to abandon rigid dieting rules and learn to eat based on internal cues; examples include Intuitive Eating and Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. They are talking about an entirely new approach to eating that does not eliminate entire food groups but rather is based on internal cues and diet diversity rather than a rigid list of “foods to include” and “foods to avoid”. 

Learn more about this new approach by following our blog series, Positive Eating Approach.

Maureen Bligh
Registered Dietitian

Find related posts on Twitter by searching #NYNA.

In our neighborhood, autumn is the very busiest season for youth sports. In the late afternoon, the local park is a beehive of activity - soccer, fall baseball, Pop Warner football, cheer leading, etc. And part of mother’s role beyond getting your child to the practices and watching the games is planning for your turn to bring the “after-game snacks.”

True disclosure, I am a veteran at youth sports, since my older son is leaving for college this month. We have been continuously involved with youth sports since he was in kindergarten. These are two true stories about after-game snacks:

•  Our first year of tee ball, the first mom to bring the snack brought a paper bag full of goodies for each boy. The bags included an extra large Capri Sun, a six pack of Oreos, a bag of chips and a Rice Krispy Treat. The kids were delighted with this snack and the rest of us felt we had to continue to meet the bar she set.
• A few years later my husband was coaching. Whoever was scheduled to bring snack one day had apparently forgotten and the kids were disappointed. It must have been near Halloween since my husband had a roll of Smarties (very small roll of candies) in his pocket. He announced to the boys, “No worries, I have the snack”. He opened up his roll of Smarties and gave every child one very small candy and guess what, the boys were delighted!

 So here are my pearls of wisdom gained after 13 years of team snacks:

•  The younger the child, the smaller the snack should be.
• Speak up about team snacks early in the season – attempt to get agreement from parents about the type and size of snacks.
• Encourage nutrient-rich choices, banana, slice of watermelon, a chug of chocolate milk, string cheese, Clementines; although avoid going too healthy as it will make you an unpopular mom (no carrot sticks or bran muffins…)
• Young children do not need a large sports drink (they sell smaller sizes). Refillable water bottles brought from home are best.
• If the game spans meal time, consider having a team potluck meal after the game.

 Remember, children typically do not need these snacks to replace calories burned during the game. The amount of exercise during the game can be fairly nominal. That said, a treat after the game is fun and for some kids the highlight.

Enjoy your time in youth sports. Trust me, it goes by very quickly.

Maureen Bligh, MA, RD

Project Manager