When we visit India, my kids love to go the local McDonald’s. And it’s not just for the toys.

My vegetarian kids love their McVeggie burger (a vegetarian patty made up of peas, carrots, green beans, red bell pepper, potatoes and onions) and the McAloo Tikki burger(a patty made out of potatoes, peas and spices).

“Why don’t they serve this in New York?” they ask.

We hardly ever take them to a McDonald’s here, except when we are on a road trip and there are no other options along the highway. And then, their choices are limited to orange juice, fries or hashbrowns.

Technically, they are lacto-ovo-vegetarians which includes eating both eggs and dairy products, but no meat or seafood.

My rationale for raising them as non-meat eaters is that I feel this way I am giving them a choice as opposed to making it a matter of habit. And if they should choose to become non-vegetarians some day, I will not question their decision.

But more importantly, I try to make sure their current diet is not lacking any nutrients.

Luckily, there is no shortage of nutritious and healthy vegetarian recipes or ideas for homecooked Indian meals, and most restaurants(except for fast-food chains) have tons of options.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Mickey Dees and all the other fast-food chains had healthy vegetarian options?

When my soon to be 18-month-old daughter was young, my brother would occasionally feed her and say “nyum, nyum, nyum,” to her as she gobbled down whatever was in her path. Well the saying stuck, so today she continues to refer to food and eating as “nyum, nyum, nyum,” and when it’s especially good she says it louder and with more gusto.

So recently we were riding along in the car and suddenly she yelped out nyum, nyum, nyum. I looked in the rearview mirror wondering if she picked up an old Cheerio from her car seat but, alas, she was gleefully looking out the window with nothing in her mouth. Suddenly, I realized what was going on as we sped past the culprit. It was those famous golden arches.

Mind you, the interesting thing about her reaction is that Zyla has never been inside a McDonalds nor has she ever eaten a happy meal, fries or any McD fare, for that matter.
How did she equate the ubiquitous brown and yellow eatery with food, I pondered.  I don’t let her watch  television,  but when I asked my mother—who watches her all day—how this could have happened, she matter of factly said “she saw it on TV.”

“But I told you I don’t want her watching television,” I protested.

“Well you and your brothers and sisters watched TV, and I don’t see any problems with all of you,” she shot back.

I have this thing about letting Zyla watch TV, mostly because her pediatrician said no TV until she’s at least 2 and also because I read this book–I’m forgetting the title—about the power of marketing and your child. Basically, it was about how ads get you to buy things you don’t need and how they start targeting kids at a very young age.

I witnessed firsthand how a commercial triggered a reaction in my daughter’s very young, impressionable mind, and I was a bit saddened by the whole episode. I want her to grow up making decisions on her own, not ones based on an advertisement. But how can I say that when we’re all somehow lured in by the power of marketing.

I guess I was sad because a little bit of her innocence was stolen and she’s too little to even realize it. Such is life, I guess. But then again, who can deny their French fries?

Here’s a lunchtime debate that has arisen recently in at least two school districts I’ve spoken within in the past month or two.

It’s about white milk vs flavored milk.

Many districts, in an effort to improve the health of their student population, no longer offer whole milk. They offer 2 percent, 1 percent or skim only.

Others offer flavored milks in addition to white—chocolate or strawberry.

One district had considered banning strawberry milk because of a high sugar/fat content, and then found it offered less bad stuff than chocolate milk. The district continues to offer all three.

One district has banned flavored milk entirely.

Here’s the debate: one side believes that eliminating whole, chocolate or strawberry milk from the lunch line will force children to drink low-fat, white milk. Supporters on this side say that children will eventually gravitate to healthier choices if given nothing else. With milk, it’s go healthy or go thirsty.

Others believe that children not allowed a choice of, say, chocolate milk during school lunch will simply stop drinking milk entirely, losing whatever benefit that milk provides (calcium and vitamin D come to mind). Supporters on this side say better flavored milk than no milk at all.

Wondering if there’s any kind of consensus out there?

In typing up notes for an upcoming story on school lunches, I was suddenly reminded of a conversation I had with my own children when all three were still in the public schools.

There they were, in elementary, middle and high school, respectively, and there I was, happily slicing carrots and celery stalks and worrying about whether tuna salad would go bad while sitting in their locker, when it was forcibly brought home to me that packing is not the same thing as eating.

“Mom, could you pack me an extra bagel?” I recall one of my babes saying.

“Sure,” I replied, tickled that I’d hit on something they liked.

“Yeah, my best friend likes them, and I can trade it for a candy bar her mom gives her.”

That’s when the other two chimed in, explaining what their friends brought, what they brought, and how they pooled their resources every lunch hour and chose what they wanted.

I guess it’s better than the story one of our editors tell when he was in school in the 1930s and a buddy of his would toss his brown bag over the fence of a local junk yard every morning on the way to school. When the snow melted in the spring, the remains of scores of school lunches were discovered…

I reserve pizza dinners for those nights when I come back from work too late or too tired to cook. There was such a night earlier this week, and we had company as well — two of my older son’s friends from down the street. Their entire dinner conversation consisted of deriding their school lunch and waxing eloquent about the lunch offered by the neighboring school district. They have real pizza, they said, not the cheap cheese on cardboard excuse that we have. And their burger patties aren’t slimy, like ours. Their lunches are REAL fast food, they said with envy.

All that fast food talk got my competitive spirits up.  I can rustle up a darn good meal, and my son knows he disses my cooking at his own peril. But of late he’s been coming to the table and saying, “Indian food, again!” I guess he wants the regular American fare that is standard in his friends’ home.  But I’ve got some news for him: Our home is an Indian home (well, mostly) and Indian food is what he gets.

Last night I cooked a chicken curry, which is milder and less complicated than the one I usually make. And he loved it. I thought I would share it with our readers so that when your kid complains about the food you put on the table, you could offer this up. Most of the ingredients are easily available in the grocery store or in your kitchen cupboard.

2 1/2 pounds skinless chicken

1  big red onion sliced

4 tomatoes sliced

2 teaspoons ginger paste

2 teaspoons garlic paste

4 green cardamoms, 1 piece of cinnamon broken into two, a couple of bay leaves,  1/2 teaspoon pepper corns and 6 cloves

3 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste
2 green chilli pepper (optional)

1/4 cup of plain yogurt

salt to taste

A handful of coarsely chopped cilantro
Heat oil in a deep pan. Add the cardamom, cloves, peppercorn, bay leaves and cinnamon, and let it sizzle for 30 seconds. Throw in the onions and saute till it softens and begins to change color. Add the tomatoes, salt, chilli powder, ginger and garlic  paste and cook till the tomatoes soften, and then add the chicken and stir well and cook for about 10 minutes. When the chicken is partially cooked, add the yogurt and mix well, making sure no lumps remain. Cover and simmer till the chicken is done and there is a thick sauce. Throw in the cilantro and the green chilli pepper, if using, and mix well. Serve with warm rice.

Enjoy!

I don’t know about you but it’s only Day 2 of the 2008-2009 school year and I’m already sick of making lunches.

Probably not a good sign.

It doesn’t help that over the summer we switched to a new daycare-slash-preschool for the two little ones that provides snacks, not lunches. (Our previous one offered lunch, not snacks.) So instead stuffing a few baggies with Goldfish and running out the door, I’m now on the hook for three full lunches — and naturally three different personalities and tastes.

I should listen more to my mother, who is firmly in the “night before” camp. (How else could she have gotten varying combinations of nine kids off to school each morning?) At the very least, it avoids all those last-minute arguments about what goes in the lunch box.

This morning:

Me: “We don’t have anymore of the apples you like, how about a pear?”

My 6-year-old son: “I hate pears.”

Me: “How can you hate pears? They taste just like apples.”

Son: “No they don’t.”

How exactly are you supposed to win that argument?

So with thoughts of one more lunch-making day to go before the weekend, I was happy to stumble upon this NPR piece by Betsy Block, author of “The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World.” (Algonquin Books 2008)

I’m definitely making the pumpkin bread — that’s one thing I know all three will love.

What’s your secret for school lunches?

Photo by Stephen Schmitt / The Journal News

This being the first week of school, I’ll stay the course on the school-lunch theme.

Sanjana, my third grader, wanted pasta for lunch yesterday, her first day back to school.

When I began searching for a plastic container to fit her lunch bag, she stopped me before I went any further with my silly plan. My food diva insisted on a thermos which was to be wrapped in foil to keep her penne with marinara warm.

And I promptly succumbed. After all, a kid that shows interest in healthy food should never be taken lightly.

As for Krishna, my first grader, he demanded a chutney and cheese sandwich in a container, not in a sandwich bag.

A truly finicky eater, I was impressed by his choice of sandwich and didn’t let the container part bother me. I should have known better.

When I checked his lunch box after school, the sandwich was untouched.

His reason: He couldn’t get the said container to open.

In the book of excuses, Krishna’s begs for a whole new chapter.

Me: And you couldn’t find an aide or any other adult in the lunchroom to help you?

Him: I didn’t know anyone. All my friends tried to open it. But they couldn’t.

Me: OK, so what about the yogurt in the bag?

Answer: A sly smile.

It’s gonna be a fun school year.

All this back-to-school talk got me thinking about my old elementary school days and what it will be like when my daughter boards her first yellow bus. She’s about 4 years away from the experience, but I’m sure it will be as memorable to her as it was to me.

In fact, my first childhood memory is getting on an empty school bus and walking all the way to the back and sitting in the last row. When the bus came to the next stop a little blonde girl with pigtails got on and sat in the first row. I inched my way toward her as the bus carried on and that little girl would become my first—and subsequently—best friend until about sixth grade.
Other school memories include the cafeteria lunches. My favorites included square pizza, chocolate milk in a carton and those small cups of vanilla and chocolate ice cream that I always stirred into a soup with the little wooden spoon that came with it.

Some not so pleasant memories include having an aversion to franks and beans until well into my 20s after a kid lost his lunch on the bus and having to watch chunks of hot dog roll down the aisle. Excuse the visual, but hey, I’ve lived with it all these years.

I don’t know what school lunches are like today. I understand they offer healthier menus nowadays. Anyone care to let me in on what I have to look forward to in, well, four years?

Photo courtesy of TJN.

I’ve packed lunches for my three children pretty much from the time they were in kindergarten. If I have this figured correctly, I’ve been making school lunches almost continuously since 1989 (not to mention for day-care, but we won’t go there).

With school starting up again and my youngest starting her junior year in high school, I’m back packing brown bags.

Or not.

“Oh,” my youngest said, eyeing the stuff I was lugging out of my trunk this past weekend after a trip to the grocery store. “I don’t have lunch this semester. I thought you remembered.” Considering that this is the child who only eats packaged foods, nothing I had brought in would perish in, say, the next century or three. But I figured I ought, as a parent, suggest that my youngest consider bringing food to school just in case she got hungry. After all, unlike her sibs, she doesn’t come straight home after classes. She has a very full after-school schedule that will only get worse as the year progresses.

She told me that she would have to apply for some sort of official permission to eat in class, and that some teachers don’t allow it even with the proper forms filled out.

I’m tempted to call my school district to get the rights of it. It’s amazing how stuff gets garbled between this and that.

In the meantime, I’m putting a few snacks in her backpack “just in case” she gets a free minute between classes or the odd free period at 10 a.m.

I’m thinking this will be a long semester.