Leave us a comment below and let us know why you’d like to win the Sustainable Snack Basket!  We will choose a winner on Sunday May 13th to help celebrate Mother’s Day!

Good luck and Happy Healthy Eating!
Kia

So we put on our work gloves and head out to make our little corner of the earth a little cleaner!

We are always talking about and taking care of our bodies by Eating Rainbows so it’s a natural extension to take that care and give it to the Earth.

After our walk we celebrated with the Rainbow fruit sticks that Hannah made for us!

We hope you had a wonderful Earth Day with your family!

Happy Healthy Eating,
Kia

Not only is she a big fan, she uses our rainbow chart at home with her 4 girls, she also mentions us in her classes and events!  It was such a thrill for us when she asked if we’d like to team up for a wonderful event she was involved in last month called , “Kids in the Kitchen” a Coronado SAFE Fundraiser.  I wish we could have been there in person to see all 60 kids learning about eating rainbows and watching them get involved in all the parts of food preparation and presentation and then have their parents enjoy the fruits of their labor   Having our rainbow kits there was a close second to being their in person!

Here are some articles you can read about the event…huge thanks to Melissa for mentioning Today I Ate A Rainbow in both articles! How fabulous is that!!

Coronado Eagle & Journal  and  eCoranado.com

Melissa has a new cookbook coming out “Ten Dollar Dinners: 140 Recipes & Tips to Elevate Simple, Fresh Meals Any Night of the Week” and I can’t wait to get it!

Special thanks to Melissa for all your Rainbow love and support!!!!!

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Love this question and thank you for inquiring! First things first, let’s talk about the basics – what a music therapist is, where we work, our education, etc.!

Without going into ALL of the details, (but if you are interested in more information, which is AWESOME, I recommend visiting www.musictherapy.org, the website for the American Music Therapy Association) a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) uses music to address non-musical goals with a variety of ages, diagnoses, and populations.

As a music therapist, I use a variety of music interventions (instrument playing, songwriting, singing, etc.) to address an array of needs and goals on which the client is working – these can include IEP (Individualized Education Plan) goals in school, behavioral, communication, cognitive, social/emotional, physical, or other goals, such as ADLs, or Activities of Daily Living.

One such ADL may involve encouraging the client to eat a variety of foods.  I have several clients who eat limited amounts or kinds of food due to poor oral motor skills, texture sensitivity, or issues related to a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (many of my clients with ASD are encouraged to be on a gluten-free diet, which may be a difficult transition for them).  Other needs of my clients might include helping them learn how to create snacks or meals independently or helping them learn the oral-motor control and internal rhythm skills necessary to be able to participate in the actual act of eating.  Dinnertime can be a stressful, confusing, and overwhelming time for both the parents and the child with these needs.

Here’s where the music therapist can come in (and we can collaborate and co-treat with other therapists, dieticians, and professionals in that child’s life, too!).  We use songs and instruments that are engaging, motivating, and address the above-mentioned areas of need.  These songs can be ones we wrote independently with the child in mind, or, even better, co-wrote with the child.

Rachel

In our music therapy sessions we can discuss, play, and sing about:

1. Trying different foods

2. The physical act of eating (the rhythm of the music is great for helping with the internal rhythm required for the act of chewing)

3.  Appropriate ways to eat (for those who are on the autism spectrum, social “rules” can be quite difficult to grasp)

4. Overall wellness skills

Audio files and videos can be made so the parent can use them in the home environment, or while the child is sitting at the dinner table!

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments, as I’d love to hear them!

Rachel See Smith, MA, MT-BC
Board-Certified Music Therapist
Music Therapy Services of Austin

E-songbooks:
“Children’s Songs for Therapy”
“Listen, Sing, Speak!”

Not only does Karen share the 10 food rules, well actually they are more like habits, she also includes some wonderful recipes that our family was very excited to try!  Hannah decided she wanted to make crepes…it was our first time so it took us a lot longer than it would take a pro like Karen! But it was well worth the effort! We made both types of crepes, one was a meal and one was a dessert…both were delicious!

We made the batter the night before so that it could sit in the fridge overnight…

We made our breakfast crepes with some eggs, baby spinach and a little bit of melted cheese. Mmmmm!

Side note: The French like to make the table as presentable and possible…we don’t have a tablecloth (yet) so I unfolded cloth napkins instead

Then Hannah cut up some juicy strawberries for our dessert crepes.

Making crepes takes some practice, as Karen notes in her recipe, the first crepe usually doesn’t turn out well so just keep trying! Hannah needed more help with this recipe than with her previous ones but she was so excited about eating crepes that she didn’t mind! She was licking her lips in anticipation…

This book is worth it JUST for the crepe recipe alone!!! We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal, we practiced putting down our forks and knives in between bites so that we could do as the French and really savor each bite. Sometimes I’d look over at Hannah and she’d be chewing with her eyes closed and have a little smile on her face! French Kids Eat Everything has taught us the importance of slowing down and enjoying our food and each others company. We also earned our green and red magnets during this meal!

This really is a must read book for all parents because it give simple yet effective strategies that will eventually become habit and setting healthy eating habits is one of our most important jobs as parents!

Stay tuned because we’ll be interviewing the author of our new favorite book, Karen Le Billon, right here on our Rainbow blog!! If you’d like to get a chance to chat with Karen I hope you’ll join us on twitter tomorrow at 4pm PST/7pm PST for a special twitter party! Read more about it here! You’ll have a 3 chances to win a copy of French Kids Eat Everything and a Today I Ate A Rainbow kit…talk about a perfect combo to get your kids set up with healthy eating habits!!!

Bon Appetit

Kia

At Easter Hannah and I like to make this cauliflower bunny as part of our centerpiece…add a little dip and it’s gone by the end of the evening!

We just cut up a head of cauliflower (we buy two and cut up both and serve the extra in a veggie tray), use extra long tooth picks and stick on end into a small 3 or 4 inch styrofoam ball, then you add the rest of the features with whatever produce you like and have on hand! When you’re guests are ready to dig in they just pull out a piece of cauliflower and use the tooth pick to hold on as they dunk the cauliflower into their favorite dip.

It’s cute, fun and good for you…you can’t go wrong with that combination! We hope you have a happy and healthy long weekend!

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Would you like a chance to chat with Karen and learn how she cured her picky eaters by following these 1o food rules?! You’ll also have a chance to win one of 3 prize packages ~ French Kids Eat Everything book and a Today I Ate A Rainbow kit!

We are so thrilled to host a very special Twitter party with guest of honor Karen Le Billon Tuesday April 10th at 4pm PST7pm PST and you are invited!! Simply follow @karenlebillon and I @eatingarainbow on Twitter and the join in the chat by using the hashtag #frenchkids We will be chatting about banning snacking to once per day, getting kids to try new foods and how to make meal time an enjoyable time for the whole family!

I will be writing a full book review very soon and we’ll also have the honor of interviewing Karen Le Billon here on our rainbow blog so stay tuned! Hope to see you at the twitter party!

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

I am getting much better at just letting her do things on her own without chiming in with my advice on how to do it easier or faster!  It’s been a fantastic lesson for me in letting her find her own ways of doing things in the kitchen…in fact it’s also carried on outside of cooking…I’m finding it easier to let her spread her wings a bit.  She’ll always be my little girl but I think her transition into her tween years will be easier if I’m not holding on quite so tight!

This week I made granola bars as she made her french toast so I was in the kitchen but busy doing my own thing!  At one point Hannah had to separate the whites from the egg yolks, she’s never done this on her own before so I was curious to see what would happen.  Her first attempt didn’t go very well, the yolk ended up in the bowl, the second attempt didn’t go much better as the yolk broke so half went into the bowl.  Luckily for her the recipe called for 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites so I suggested that she could just use those as her two whole eggs…the relief on her face was precious!

She very slowly was able to get the egg whites from her 3 egg in a method I’ve never seen before   I wanted to jump in at that point and do it for her or tell her how to do it but I’m proud to say that I waited until she asked me for advice. I happily demonstrated how I do it (my recipe needed an egg too so I used mine as an example) and then encouraged her do it with her egg.  Worked like a charm and she was so happy!

There were a couple of other challenging steps for Hannah in this recipe but she kept going and this morning when we bit into her delicious breakfast she announced that it was “totally worth all that hard work!” and I had to agree!

Every time we give our kids a chance to try something new it enables them to add to their toolbox of skills! It’s our goal that by the time Hannah is ready to the leave the nest that she will be confident in her cooking abilities and will want to continue making healthy food choices for herself!

Happy Healthy Cooking,
Kia

I usually find that even her friends that are picky eaters will end up munching on the snacks. I think it’s either because they’re hungry or they just know that’s all we have to offer them!

Happy Healthy Snacking
Kia

My dad passed away 23 years ago on this day, he had cancer and a number of other health issues…healthy eating was never tops on his list. I think losing him when I was at such a young age left me with an appreciate for life but it has only been since my daughter came into my life that I really started connecting healthy eating with my own health.  Being responsible for her health and well being has been a great motivator and catalyst for me to take care of myself too so that I can be a good role model for her. We all have different reasons for choosing to make healthy eating a priority, for me a lot of it has to do with knowing that I want to be as good to my body as I can so that I can be around for a long time!  I shared this quote on twitter yesterday “Those who think they have no time for healthy eating, will sooner or later have to find time for illness” ~ Edward Stanley

Seeing this heart shaped apple this morning reminded me of how grateful I am for my good health – I was close to Hannah’s age when my dad passed away so being able to wake up and spend another day with her is something I am grateful for every morning.  So it was with a thankful heart that I cut up this apple and enjoyed it with my daughter.

Happy Healthy Eating

Kia