* * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * *

Making Mealtime Nutritious and Fun, September 14, 2006

Reviewer:

Richard R. Blake (San Leandro, CA)

Ask any child, "What are the four basic food types." You may be surprised when they respond, "Fast, frozen, instant, and take out." Informational and entertaining, Malcolm Kushner addresses a timely and important issue faced by American's today, that of childhood obesity.

The book includes over 100 recipes that have met the criteria set forth by the author and his team of consultants. The recipes had to be squeezable, be approved by their medical advisor, had to be made without cooking, and had to be approved by the taste tester.

The book is divided into six basic groups of recipes: Dressings, dips and spreads, sauces and syrups, snacks, sandwiches and other stuff, desserts, holiday squizine, and ethnic squizine. A blender is the only appliance needed to prepare these, cleverly illustrated, mouthwatering recipes.

The easy to follow instructions also provide suggestions for getting children involved in the preparation of the meal. This involvement adds a touch of family time fun to meals and the ownership the child feels insures less stress at the dinner table.

In addition to the valuable background information and recipes I especially appreciated the humorous quips in the "food for thought" sections, generously spaced throughout the book. Malcolm Kushner has given the reader a sample of his wit and lived up to his reputation of "America's Favorite Humor Consultant."

This delightful book should be in the hands of every mother of pre-school through pre-teen children. It should be displayed and available in book stores and in the waiting rooms of pediatricians across America.

This cookbook for kids offers a unique tool in America’s battle against poor eating habits – FUN. California Squisine: Healthy Food That’s Fast, Fun and Squeezable For Kids encourages children to eat fruits and vegetables by playing with their food.

Squisine – “squeeze” plus “cuisine” – refers to any food that can be squeezed out of a tube, frosting bag, or plastic bottle. As any child knows, squeezing stuff is fun. That’s why major corporations pursue young consumers by packaging yogurt, peanut butter, and pudding in squeezable containers. California Squisine goes one step better by providing simple recipes for squeezable dips, dressings, sauces, and toppings that are pediatrician-approved as part of a healthy diet. Kids can help create these toppings and then squeeze them onto foods that they might otherwise resist eating – like fruits and vegetables.

Each of the 100 recipes in the book had to pass four tests: It had to be squeezable. It had to be no-cook. (All you need is a blender.) It had to be approved as consistent with a healthy diet by a pediatrician. And it had to be approved by the author’s nine-year-old volunteer topping taster. Nutritionists, dieticians, and other specialists all acknowledge that getting kids involved in meal preparation and making mealtime fun are important keys to more nutritious eating. And better eating is critical to reversing what the Surgeon General has called an obesity epidemic in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has doubled since 1980, and the rate for adolescents has tripled;or, as the Surgeon General has said, “Generation Y is quickly becoming Generation XL.”

Why is this happening? Over the past 25 years, a nation of children hooked on fast food, television, and computer games has eaten more and more junk while getting less and less physical activity. Comedian Buddy Hackett once said, “As a child, my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.” Today it’s take-out or leave it. Unfortunately, the take-out is high-calorie, low-nutritional-value, fast-food.  

California Squisine was written to help remedy this situation. “Many kids today think a balanced diet means a cookie in each hand,” says Malcolm Kushner, the cookbook’s author. “I want them to have a fruit or vegetable in each hand.” While squisine is not aimed specifically at weight-loss, it is intended to encourage children to eat healthier foods, which will naturally produce weight-loss. “Squeezing a tasty sauce or dressing over fruits and vegetables makes it more likely that kids will eat them. It’s fun. It gets them involved. And it makes the fruits and vegetables taste good,” says the author.

So start kids eating healthy before it’s too late. If playing with squisine gets them to eat better, let them play. It will make mealtimes more fun and less confrontational.

Bon appesqueeze!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Malcolm Kushner, “America's Favorite Humor Consultant,” is an internationally acclaimed expert on humor and communication. He is the author of The Light Touch: How to Use Humor For Business Success; Public Speaking For Dummies; and Vintage Humor For Wine Lovers. He is also the co-creator of the humor exhibit at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Kushner has been profiled in Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York Times and The Washington Post, and has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, CNBC, Voice of America, and The Larry King Show. The Wall Street Journal has called him “irrepressible.” Kushner has been a keynote speaker everywhere from The Smithsonian Institution to the Inc. 500 Conference. Malcolm Kushner is based in Santa Cruz, California. Visit his Web sites at: www.kushnergroup.com and www.museumofhumor.com.