In this episode of Healthy Family Project, we’re celebrating our first anniversary with a look back at some of our most popular episodes from the last year, including:

Episode 2: Dealing with Picky Eaters

Registered dietitian, Holley Grainger, shares tips and ideas on how to deal with picky (selective) eater. As a mom of 2, she shares her experience with raising her little ones to be healthy eaters.

Episode 3: Managing Screen Time

Psychologist, Dr. Stephanie Smith, talks about managing screen time, including how to set screen time limits, how to keep guidelines in place and how parents can set an example for their kids.

Episode 18: How Families Can Reduce Food Waste

Pamela Riemenschneider shares tips on how families can reduce food waste at home, ways to use all of your fruits and veggies, how to properly store fruits and veggies for longer shelf life, lunchroom waste and the truth behind expiration dates.

Episode 23: Make-Ahead Meal Ideas

Brierley Horton, registered dietitian and single mom of two, shares tips about make-ahead meals, how to prep meals in advance, make-ahead breakfast and snack ideas, how to freeze meals and more.

Episode 9: Quick & Easy Dinner Hacks

Aggie Goodman shares her easy dinner hacks including tips for leftovers, pantry staples, kitchen gadget must-haves, and more.

Power Your Summer

Time to kick off the shoes, grab your swimsuit and enjoy the sunshine poolside. We’re celebrating summer with our #PowerYourSummer Sweepstakes, giving out weekly prizes ranging from watermelon pool floats to pineapple beach towels and more. Enter weekly for your chance to win!

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Sign up for the Produce for Kids e-newsletter to receive healthy recipe inspiration, our latest blog posts and more directly to your inbox each week.

Want to skip straight to a hot topic? See time stamps below. But of course, we recommend listening all the way through!

  • 1:55 Dealing with Picky Eaters
  • 4:31 Managing Screen Time
  • 7:42 How Families Can Reduce Food Waste
  • 11:53 Story Time with Charli and Grace
  • 13:58 Make-Ahead Meal Ideas
  • 18:14 Quick & Easy Dinner Hacks

Relevant Links

The latest from Produce for Kids

Healthy Family Project Podcast

Conversations covering hot topics in the world of health, food and family with a dose of fun. Helping families ease their way into a new fresh and healthy world. Brought to you by Produce for Kids.

Be on the lookout for new bi-weekly episodes and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play or your favorite podcasting site. If you like an episode, make sure to leave a rating and comment.

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Transcript for Episode 28

This transcript was produced by Otter.Ai. Please forgive any misspellings and grammatical errors.

00:13
Welcome to the healthy family project by produce for kids, covering the hot topics in the world of health,
food and family with a dose of fun. Welcome to our anniversary episode. Happy Birthday healthy family
project. Yay. It’s just hard to believe when we’ve been producing the healthy family project for an entire
year. I can remember back when our team was sitting around talking about potentially starting this
podcast and now we’re a year in. I’m so grateful for this experience and the chance to connect with all of
you, we are going to do something really fun today. Well, it’s hard to pick favorite snippets from all 26
episodes in the past year, we did pull several that stood out for one reason or another to share today. So
if you haven’t listened to all of the shears episodes, these snippets might inspire you to go back and
listen or even re listen. Because I know it’s been a while. And then in celebration of our year. I’m also
including a fun surprise for my daughter, Chef Charlie, who you guys hear a lot about. She’s my selective
eater, and grace from our team who you know from our healthy bite segments. And then also Charlie is
the one that signs off at the end of each episode, saying Be sure to subscribe, so keeping it in the family.
So like I said, Charlie is a selective eater and Grace’s a former picky eater reformed. And then Charlie
recently wanted to record her own podcast when it was take your child to work day she came along with
me. So when I share that later in this episode, that’s going to be her quick stab at the job of podcasting
host, and I will share that midway through today’s episode. Our first clip comes from my friend Holly
Granger. From clever for living with Holly Granger. She is a mom of two wonderful little girls and a
registered dietitian and a wife. And I’ve known Holly for several years now. And we always have the best
conversations around picky eaters. Usually lots of laughs and real real talk. She is real, that’s for sure
when it comes to dealing with the kiddos and their selectiveness. So we had a great conversation about
picky eaters in episode two. This clip talks about how bringing kids into the kitchen encourages trying
new foods and her love for dips.
02:35
I found that with the girls, they’ve had the best luck and I’ve had the best luck getting them to try new
things when they actually have their hands on it. And they are. They’re right there in the trenches with
me. So whether it’s trying to figure out what we’re going to eat, and that may be, you know, meal
planning on a Sunday, which always sounds great, but many times it’s 530 and we’re standing in the
pantry and the refrigerator trying to figure out what leftovers we can bring back to life or what’s in the
fridge that you know, we can kind of think Alright, this is like a version of chopped where what Yes. What
are we going to create? So but bringing them in is good. I mean, I’ll never forget it’s the funny little things
that stand out with the girls that I had Francis rinsing a can of black beans in the seat for me, just in the
colander once and she stood there at the sink and just ate black bean after Black Bean after black bean
that was like, I am not going to say a word no. Because who knows if she’ll eat them again. But it was
just that like, Oh, these are these are good. I mean, it was straight out of the camp. They weren’t warm,
they’ve been rinsed off, you know some of the stuff on them. But she just did their happiest could be and
ate them. So you know just bringing them in is good. And then we have lots of luck with things like dip
dip. ranch dressing, yeah, guacamole are certainly vehicle foods in our family. And you know, I don’t I
don’t bat an eye at pulling out ranch dressing full fat in the bottle, whatever it is, you know if it means that
they will dip carrots into it. So that’s, that’s certainly one thing that that we tried to do.
04:13
Be sure to listen to episode two with Holly to get the full scoop on how to deal with your picky eater. And
when the holidays are rolling back around in the fall, you’ll have to listen to our holiday two part series
focusing on balance around Halloween, Thanksgiving and more. And those are episodes 12 and 13.
With Holly Granger. Now with summer nearly upon us it’s probably a good time to revisit Episode Three

with psychologist Dr. Stephanie Smith. You can find her over at Dr. Stephanie Smith calm. She’s mom of
three and had great input when it comes to managing screentime I know that this is a hot topic for it was
a hot topic entering into summer last year and it still continues to be a hot topic. This clip resonated with
me as a mom who tends to be on the phone quite a bit myself.
05:00
So, you know, this is this is a tough one for sure. And as I was thinking about having this conversation
with you today, I tried to be honest with myself about how much I’m on my phone in particular, and
decided to download an app that Oh, okay. On my use of my phone, and sort of compared my version of
what I thought to the reality of like, how much I’m actually logging into my phone, how much time I’m
actually looking at different apps and things. And it was sobering, to say the least. So I think that would
be my first tip for folks. All of us are, are generally pretty bad reporters of what we do in reality, you know,
like, oh, I only have one small cup of coffee a day. Five large, exactly, we just kind of all are that way. So I
think it can be useful, again, to use the resources that are available to us to maybe use one of these
monitoring apps, even you know, for a few days or a couple of weeks, to really understand our own
behavior, online or on screens. And then if if we don’t feel like what we’re doing is consistent with what
we’re asking our kids to do, you know, maybe we need to make some tweaks on our own, before we dive
into changing our kids behavior. So if that means, you know, oh my gosh, I’m like on the screen 90% of
the time between 5pm and 9pm. Yikes, that’s not really consistent with what I’m asking the kids to do. I’d
like to get that down to 10% of the time, or whatever. So I think that can be a good initial step in creating
this larger change within a family system is challenging ourselves to be really in line with our overall
goals. I love Dr. Stephanie’s
07:19
recommendation of being honest with ourselves. I know it can be hard sometimes. But being aware of
our own actions can really help us guide the kids and lead a great example. For them. Technology is an
amazing thing. But like everything balance and being aware of your usage is key. When I recorded
episode eight teen, which is up next, the food waste episode with my friend Pamela Riemenschneider,
from produce with Pamela and produce Blue Book services. I knew food waste was going to be a hot
topic in 2019. It was a hot topic in 2018. But it has really just far exceeded my assumption here in 2019.
I’m so glad because all we all need to be concerned and take action when it comes to cutting back food
waste. In this clip, Pamela talks about easy ways families can reduce food waste, it’s not just grocery
stores and big organizations who can make a difference.
08:17
A lot of what I see when it’s talked about when it comes to food waste revolves around what grocery
stores can do or or farmers can do harvesting more seconds or imperfect or ugly produce. But and then
of course, those are some big numbers. But what I like to emphasize with consumers is that according to
rethread, which is an organization dedicated to reducing food waste, and in the greatest impact, the most
impactful thing that we can do to reduce food waste is consumer education, and changing consumer
behavior because most food is wasted at home. I have a little saying and you know it kind of sends me
off on a tangent but I say I call it don’t turn in your CRISPR don’t turn your CRISPR door into an Uber yet
an Uber yet is what they used to have in a French Castle it was a literally means a place to forget. So
you know you see I get it. Yes is right. Yeah, you go on the internet and people you know, do take a
picture of their crisper drawer and it’s like all sad wilted produce. And it’s where good intentions go to die
sometimes, especially when people are doing new year’s resolutions they go out and they buy a ton of
fruits and vegetables because they’re gonna eat healthy now. But you need to be able to plan ahead and
I want to try to make it easy for people because I don’t want to overwhelm people with all these things
that you need to do to make sure you don’t waste food. So step one is just buy with a purpose shopping
list. To a degree, I’m not saying you have to have a regimented list though, so you have a plan of what
you’re going to buy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look around in the store. So because I’m really bad
about walking through the store and finding this beautiful display of produce, and it’s something maybe I
didn’t plan, and groceries, do, grocery stores do this on purpose, and that’s okay. It’s okay to be lured
away by one of these beautiful displays. Because it’s usually something that’s either you know, at the
peak of its season or on sale. So maybe you had planned to buy carrots and have carrot sticks as a
snack on your grocery list. And you see they’re sampling something like a coma. So sub out your carrot
sticks and do hikma and that way, you try something different, and you got it at a good deal because it
was on sale that week. So you know something’s out, don’t necessarily go into the store, see a beautiful
display and add that on top of it. I know the grocery store would love it if you would just buy extra. But
when you get home and you have 10 different snacks, maybe that’s too much for one grocery.

11:05
And we just talked about this today, our team here at produce for kids. So we’re talking a lot about meal
planning. And we all agreed, as you know, personally that when we when we do, there’s weeks that we
do and we don’t but the weeks that we do create a meal plan, however simple it may be. We recognize
that there’s less waste than if we don’t have a plan however simple that may be. Don’t let those good
intentions die, folks buy food with a purpose and a plan. To hear more from Pamela I highly recommend
listening to the entire episode 18 are heading to produce with Pamela on YouTube. I’ll link up in the show
notes. Now before we jump into more meal planning clips, we have a couple meal planning clips coming
up. Let’s pause because I know you’re all dying to hear this quick strawberry podcast from Charlie and
grace.
12:01
Today we’ll be telling the story about the scared strawberry.
12:05
Hi, friends. I’m joining Charlie, my name is Grace and I will be helping to tell the story. Alright, Charlie,
let’s start.
12:11
Okay. So once upon a time, there was a strawberry named Iris.
12:18
Okay, and Iris was in the fridge living happily with her strawberry friends going about life.
12:26
And then someone asked her maybe you should go join the salsa.
12:31
Iris was a little scared. She’s never been in a salsa. She’s used to being in smoothies, over yogurt per
phase in yummy summer drinks. She’s never been in a salsa and she was scared or what does that
mean for her this is very different.
12:47
So she decided to think about it. She thought for two whole days.
12:52
She wasn’t ready to join this also with the tomatoes be nice with the onions and basil, the salt and
pepper. She doesn’t usually get paired up with those guys and she was pretty worried
13:03
then she knows what to do. She decided to be brave and tried it out.
13:08
The day came and Mia opened the fridge getting ready to make a delicious salsa for her and her family
to enjoy. And she grabbed the basket that Iris inside.
13:19
And then when Iris was put with the salsa, she decided that even though it was a weird combination that
people liked a lot more
13:31
Iris could see that the salsa was making the family happy. They enjoyed the flavors. They liked that
combination a little sweet and savory. And she decided she was happy. She didn’t have anything to worry
about
13:41
and they all lived happily ever after.

13:45
Gotta love it a podcast about strawberries and acceptance. Two of my favorite things. We did a meal
planning series if you’d like to go back and listen, they were episodes 21 to 23 I learned a lot from three
amazing meal planners in that series Jessica Levinson of the 52 week meal planner Heather England of
fit mama real food radio, another awesome podcast you need to go subscribe to, and Brierley Horton, a
mom, registered dietitian and a contributor to some of your favorite health and food magazines. Talking
with these ladies, we were able to share lots of laughs and easy tricks and tips definitely must listen to
episodes in my perspective. And then one of my favorite clips was with Bradley when she talked about
how exactly to make time for meal planning. I know that’s that’s the age old question. We know meal
planning will take some stress out of our week. It’ll make just make life easier, healthier. But how do we
really make time to meal plan Let’s listen in. But what
14:48
I always tell people is to start small. You don’t have to plan every single meal for every single day of the
week or even a month. You can start by planning just dinners three nights a week, or just two full days if
that’s what you know, breakfast and lunch is more important for you to plan. I personally find that for
families dinner is usually where they need the most structure, because breakfast, you tend to eat the
same couple things. Lunch, they, you know, either I don’t know, if it’s parents or, you know, adults, they’re
eating out maybe if they’re at the office, or if they’re taking maybe it’s leftovers for school lunch, you
know, they maybe use things that are on hand. But when it comes to dinner, that’s the part that they
really need to focus on when it comes to planning. But really, it’s not necessary to start with planning
everything at one time. And I also highly recommend scheduling at least one night off from cooking, I
totally rely on making enough food for leftovers at least once a week. And sometimes that one night off a
week from cooking his takeout or, you know a freezer meal that I got at Trader Joe’s. And that’s okay, it
doesn’t have to be freshly cooked, every single night of the week, stead I
16:07
kind of have tried to shift my mindset and say, Okay, I’m not going to get everything done. But let me just
do a little bit. And it makes you know, and it makes it enough of a difference that it’s kind of rewarding. So
I would say take advantage of like either a lazy weekend morning, or a lazy weekend afternoon where
maybe your kids are off at a playdate or visiting grandparents or they’re having a sleepover, if they’re old
enough to have a sleepover or they’re going to a birthday party and you’ve you know, plan to carpool
with another parent in the neighborhood or something along those lines. And so maybe you only have,
you know, half an hour, 45 minutes, and you just take a little bit of time to prep your veggies or mix
together the you know, the dry ingredients for a muffin recipe or a quick bread. I’m also a night owl. And I
know everybody is not a night owl. So I but I think this can apply to our early morning people as well. But
you know, after I get my kids to bed and I’ve cleaned up from dinner, I don’t necessarily always have the
energy to sit down and do a little bit more work or read a book because I’ll fall asleep quickly. And you
know, maybe I’ve worn out my TV shows or whatever that I want to watch. So instead, for me baking is
very relaxing. And so I’ll take that that time to to bake something, or even to just prep the ingredients to
then mix it together and bake it in the morning or something along those lines. And that’s kind of like I
think if you just take little chunks of time or times where maybe you won’t be super productive at
something else. But you can pick some type of prep that is fairly mindless for you. And I think that it
varies like maybe somebody else might find making a suit mindless, and baking stressful, like just just
kind of ID what works for you and try and squeeze in a little bit here or there. And then the more you do it
and I say this about meal planning in general, like the more you do it, the more rewarding it is. And so
then the more likely you are to continue to repeat that habit.
18:09
We’re going to round out this anniversary episode with a dinner hack clip from episode nine where we
talked to Aggie Goodman. She lives near me here in Florida and Aggie helps us at parties for kids in
developing some of our recipes that you find on the produce for kids website and she’s also the author of
Aggies. kitchen.com Now, here’s a quick dinner hack clip from Aggie
18:35
if I plan ahead, obviously like everyone else, if you plan ahead, things just run a little bit smoother. So
what I like to do is see what’s on sale as far as pre cut veggies because they are definitely a time saver
no matter what. So if I see some of those bagged veggies, the mixed ones, the broccoli, you know, I I
definitely like to pick those up and then kind of plan meals around them like whether it’s a stir fry or
throwing it in with pasta, and like a protein. So I definitely like am all about the pre cut veggies. I like

cutting my own veggies. But reality is I just don’t have the time all the time. And you know, if I can get a
shortcut that way that there’s I have nothing, there’s no problem with that at all. So I definitely tried to
play around like sales Salika to become my friendly link. You know, three out of five of us in our family
love to eat salad. So it’s been fun to try different salads. And like just add them on as a quick side or to
add like protein to it. And then you mentioned pantry and pantry is always a big deal for me too because
I have like a nice stocked pantry and it’s definitely been my saving grace for many, many, many nights.
Pasta, I always have like, you know, a ton of different kinds of pasta, rice and like couscous and quinoa,
like things that you know, can last for a long time. And like canned tomatoes, beans, so the all that kind
of stuff. Definitely, if you need to just throw something together or, you know, just for a quick meal, or add
to a meal, like all that stuff comes in handy.
20:28
Yes, I’ve found over the years I have definitely identified a lot of those staples myself where I’m like, I
know if I have these things in my pantry. When the time comes, I can whip something up
20:42
pots and tomatoes. And then like a bag of broccoli florets is like my staple pasta and then you just add,
like ground turkey or ground beef, you know, just add to the sauce or chicken. I mean, it’s like it doesn’t
get any easier than that. Sadly, yeah, it’s like a no brainer. You come up with a few no brainers.
21:05
It was really hard to pull just a few clips from 26 episodes, there are so many great tips and thoughts and
ideas that have been shared over the year. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the episode mentions, I
know I’ve mentioned a lot. Don’t freak out we have those linked up in the show notes you can head over
there and navigate. And then remember we have lots of new summer content available on produce for
kids calm from recipe inspiration to blog posts to help you nail your your upcoming potluck cookout. I
know there’s gonna be a lot of those going on. As always, all of our our recipes are approved by a
registered dietician and tested by our families over here produce for kids. So if you if you tweet with me
direct, I can can usually have some feedback on a lot of those different recipes. We’ve tried most all of
them in our home over the years. Thank you for listening and supporting the healthy family project over
our first year. It’s truly humbling to look at the journey and all of the amazing people who have been part
of the healthy family project. We have lots of exciting things lined up for the upcoming year, so be sure to
subscribe if you haven’t already. If you like the healthy family project, please tell a friend and leave us a
rating. It will only help our visibility so we can continue to create a healthier generation together. If you
want to tweet direct with me, I’m at Amanda M Kiefer on Twitter. I love to hear what you think of episodes
if you have questions, or a topic idea for the show. And you can find producer kids on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
22:42
Be sure to subscribe Talk soon