Blog Posts by Cheryl Tallman, www.FreshBaby.com

Toddlers are selective, predictable and stubborn. Here are some tips to make lunchtime fun for your toddler!

Schedule: A key to toddler lunchtime good behavior is keeping to the same schedule every day. Sit down at the same time each day for lunch with your toddler.

Keep portion sizes small: In most cases, a serving of any type of food is about one tablespoon for every year of your child's age.

Be patient trying new foods (or even new versions of old time favorites): Raw broccoli, chopped broccoli and broccoli soup - we know its all broccoli, but expect your toddler to be suspicious. It can take a child more than up to ten times to try a new food.

Choices: Offering one large food item (i.e. a sandwich) for lunch will not go over as well as offering 3-4 small food choices. Provide a balanced healthy lunch every day that includes: Protein, Fruits and/or Vegetables, Grains, and Calcium. Food choices can be simple:

• Cheese - cubes, slices or sticks

Recognized in the literary world with stories such as Cinderella, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, the pumpkin is no stranger to the spotlight. Each year in the USA, thousands of pumpkins are carved into jack 'o lanterns and many pumpkin pies are eaten at holiday celebrations!

Pumpkin is excellent for you. It has no cholesterol and is low in fat and sodium and rich in vitamins. The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that it is loaded with the antioxidant, beta- carotene. Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protection against heart disease and other aspects of aging.

On top of being good for your health, Pumpkins taste good too. That's why they are a part of the diet in almost every country in the world.

Age to introduce: About 8-10 months (cooked and pureed).

Toddler Treat: Pumpkin Sauce

This is the

These wraps can be served as a traditional wrap sandwich or slice it into pieces (like a sushi roll) for bite sized treats.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon peanut butter or sunflower butter
1 tablespoon cream cheese
1/2 kiwi
Tortilla -- whole wheat or plain (squared)

Instructions:
Remove the skin from the kiwi and slice it into thin rounds. Spread peanut butter over half the wrap and cream cheese on the other half of the wrap. Arrange the kiwi slices evenly over the cream cheese. Beginning on the cream cheese end, gently roll up the tortilla forming a log shape. The peanut butter will act as the glue to keep it together. Serve.

Per Serving: 323 Cal (46% from Fat, 12% from Protein, 43% from Carb); 10 g Protein; 17 g Tot Fat; 35 g Carb; 4 g Fiber; 5 g Sugar; 92 mg Calcium; 2 mg Iron; 308 mg Potassium; 235 IU Vit A; 52 mg ATE Vit E; 42 mg Vit C

-- Cheryl Tallman is the co-founder of Fresh Baby, creators of the award-winning So Easy Baby Food Kit, and

You may have heard people comment that lettuce is just empty calories. This is just not true. While iceberg lettuce is not a nutritional powerhouse, other salad greens are nutritional champions.

As a general rule, the darker the leaves, the more nutritious the salad green. Just as an example, romaine and watercress have seven times as much beta-carotene, two to four times as much calcium and twice the amount of potassium as iceberg lettuce.

By simply choosing a variety of salad greens you use in your salads, you can enhance the nutritional content and enjoy new tastes and textures. Give it try!

At the market: You want to buy salad greens that have been picked recently. A great place to buy salad greens is a farmer's market or farm stand. Look for clean, fresh looking cut ends. You don't want anything that looks rusty, dried-out or wilted. Crisp, bright looking leaves are good too. Firm or solid feeling heads of lettuce are best.

Storage at home: For wilt-free lettuce

Avocados are the most practical "go anywhere, eat anywhere" food. They do not need to be cooked, require no refrigeration, they come with their own carrying case and even have a built-in serving bowl! So next time you and your baby are on the go, drop an avocado and a spoon in your diaper bag and you are all set!

Directions:

The handiest method for preparing an avocado is to cut the pear-shaped fruit in half length-wise with a sharp knife so that you cut in to and all around the pit; then rotate and pull the two halves apart. Remove the pit. With the knife, gently make a cross-hatch pattern throughout the halved fruit while the skin is attached, then use a spoon to separate the flesh from the shell by scooping the soft, ripe fruit gently. The skin becomes the serving bowl.

Yummy, Quick, Sweet treat: Spread some avocado right on a graham cracker. For an older toddler, add a few raisins and make "Ants on the grass"!

Age to introduce: About 9 months

Here are

Encouraging healthy eating is about balance - even when it comes to taste. Here are a few tips that can help you expand or improve the balance in your child's taste buds.

Experiment with Tastes: Allow your child to experience and identify the four unique tastes that make up flavor - sweet, salty, sour, bitter. Taste small amounts of different ingredients to identify which taste category they belong to. This can be a fun kitchen activity when preparing dinner!

Stay Balanced: Good taste is a balancing act. Include a variety of tastes in your meals and encourage your child to try all foods. Experiencing the same tastes all the time is not a path to healthy eating.

Ask Them and Talk About It: When you hear "that's yummy!" or "Yuck - that's terrible!" - ask which flavor is best or bothering. The more you understand your child's taste preferences the easier to guide (and expand) their food choices.

Sweet Tendency: Both breast milk and formula are sweet. It is the first

Encouraging healthy eating is about balance - even when it comes to taste. Here are a few tips that can help you expand or improve the balance in your child's taste buds.

Experiment with Tastes: Allow your child to experience and identify the four unique tastes that make up flavor - sweet, salty, sour, bitter. Taste small amounts of different ingredients to identify which taste category they belong to. This can be a fun kitchen activity when preparing dinner!

Stay Balanced: Good taste is a balancing act. Include a variety of tastes in your meals and encourage your child to try all foods. Experiencing the same tastes all the time is not a path to healthy eating.

Ask Them and Talk About It: When you hear "that's yummy!" or "Yuck - that's terrible!" - ask which flavor is best or bothering. The more you understand your child's taste preferences the easier to guide (and expand) their food choices.

Sweet Tendency: Both breast milk and formula are sweet. It is the first

Neither plant nor animal, mushrooms are classified as fungi. Mushrooms pop up in forests at certain times of year in various places all over the world and then disappear completely without warning. Ancient Egyptians believed that mushrooms paved a path to immortality and they were considered food for royalty only.

The most commonly cultivated mushroom in the United States is the white button mushroom and topping the exotic list are truffles that sell for $1,000- $1,500 per pound.

Mushrooms are high in the B-vitamins, riboflavin and niacin, which promote healthy skin and good vision and ensure that the digestive and nervous systems function as they should. Mushrooms are an important source of potassium; in fact, one medium-sized portabella contains more than a banana. Mushrooms also contain essential minerals including selenium, pantothenic acid, and copper, all of which work to keep the body healthy.

Scientists believe that extracts of various mushrooms could be very