Get Your Family Eating Right

Healthy eating is important for my family. We eat mostly meals made from whole foods and basic staples. We avoid most artificial preservatives, food coloring, and other not-so-natural ingredients. We eat meatless meals once or twice a week and I think, a wide variety. Sometimes friends or relatives ask me how we do it. And I’m afraid I give off this vibe of doing something complicated, or at least unusual. Of course I always do my best to answer questions, but sometimes I wish I could write a book that explains it all.

Fortunately, someone has already done that for me. And they did such a good job that now I’m just going to tell everyone to read this book. I just had the opportunity to review Get Your Family Eating Right: A 30-Day Plan for Teaching Your Kids Healthy Eating Habits for Life by Lynn Fredericks and Mercedes Sanchez.

About Get Your Family Eating Right

This book takes a somewhat different approach to eating healthy. Start on day one, and take it one day at a time. Each chapter is one of thirty days. It includes a goal for the day, motivation and tips for achieving it, and a few recipes that go along. Sure, the idea of changing the way your family eats in a month is overwhelming. But one step each day? Anyone can do that.

The tone is conversational and says exactly what I try to tell people. It is honest and doesn’t tell you the process will be easy. It speaks to anyone who struggles with healthy food, meal planning, and battling kids who don’t love to eat vegetables (or anything else, sometimes).

Start on Day 1: Embrace Change and by Day 11, you’ve Become a Confident Cook. By the end of the book, you will learn how to take control of the kitchen chaos and enjoy planning, cooking, and eating with your family. Some of the steps will be more challenging than others. And of course, there will always be areas you need to work on. I mean even now, sometimes I just want to buy a frozen pizza and take a nap. I’m human, sometimes a very tired human.

Overall, just by reading this book review and thinking about eating healthy, you’ve made a step in the right direction.

About the Author

In the introduction to the book, Lynn and Mercedes share their own food experiences. Both are moms who used cooking and eating together as a way to strengthen their family bonds. Both love cooking with their kids.

I have to admit, this is the one area that I fail at most often. It is so much easier to do it myself. It’s less messy. And sometimes I don’t give my kids as much credit as I should. At seven and ten, they could be helping in the kitchen a lot more than they do.

My review

I kind of just want everyone to buy this book. Or check it out from your local library for free. But read it and see how much of a difference just a few changes in your food routine can be. I think that the main reason I struggle with explaining our healthy eating habits to friends and relatives is that we are starting at a different place. I love food and cooking and eating with my family. I look at cooking as an art. Almost magic. You are turning a handful of vegetables, grains, and maybe meat into something that is really nourishing.

Sometimes I think about how much I loved Ding Dongs as a kid. Or Mountain Dew as a teenager. In retrospect, both of those are kind of gross.

So this book is for anyone who wants their kids (and themselves) to eat a little better. Junk food? Every now and then. But mostly food that came from a plant or animal that we can recognize. Those meals are the most colorful, flavorful, and fun.

This book says everything I want to tell people. I haven’t had time to try a lot of the recipes in this book yet. Mostly, I’ve been reading the daily steps and seeing where I can tweak my own process. We did try the black-eyed pea and collard soup last week. To be honest, we didn’t like it. It was kind of bland and just wasn’t quite what we wanted. But I think I started with the wrong recipe. This recipe is something similar to what we already eat.

The road to change starts by leaving your comfort zone. I always imagine Sam from The Lord of the Rings, at the part when he and Frodo are leaving the Shire. He says, “If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.” Every time I watch the movie version, I imagine his taking a step and then repeating his line, all the way to Mordor. Now this is the farthest away I’ve ever been…

It’s kind of silly, but that’s really how most people change anything. One step at a time. Eventually you get comfortable with where you are and you can take the next step.

What I should be trying is Scandinavian Barley Salad with Apples or maybe Persian Rice with Raisins and Lentils. Both of those would be completely new to us. If you follow my weekly Menu Plan Monday posts, you know that my kids love to try new foods. In just the past month of so, we’ve discovered that all of us love curry. Really spicy curry.

If trying something way outside the box sounds intimidating, this cookbook also has healthier versions of classics like chicken tenders and apple pie.

Buy the book

Get Your Family Eating Right is available at bookstores and Amazon.com. If you give it a try, come back and let me know what you think.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher for review. I also have an affiliate partnership with Amazon and may be compensated if you purchase through my link. Opinions here are always my own honest thoughts.