Supermarket Shopping Series: Custom Content Helps Mom Make Grocery List and Satisfy a Picky Eater

Custom content helped transform mac and cheese into healthier pasta primavera.

Like many parents, I am concerned about how to get my children to eat more nutritious meals. Unfortunately, kids can be notoriously picky—like my oldest daughter. So I read anything I see that addresses this challenge. I’ve tried all sorts of things, such as sneaking vegetables into dishes, having my daughter cook the food herself—all to no avail. I’ve felt frustrated to the point of giving up, until I saw some online custom content from Parents magazine.

I received an email blast from the magazine with the title “Dinner Makeovers for Picky Eaters.” I immediately clicked through and found ways I could step-by-step transform classic kids’ meals like macaroni and cheese—one of my daughter’s favorites—into a healthy dish with vegetables.

The site lists nutritional information for these dishes as they are usually prepared. For example, classic mac and cheese contains 350 calories, 7 grams of saturated fat and 920mg of sodium. Then just click through to “Dinner Next Week: A Little Better,” which recommends adding broccoli and a lighter cheese sauce for a dish with only 315 calories, 6 grams of fat and considerably less sodium: 465mg. The second option, “Dinner in 2 Weeks: Really Healthy," shows a wonderfully healthy pasta primavera with 313 calories, only 3 grams of fat and just 235mg of sodium.

Typically, I buy frozen mac and cheese, and yes, using these recipes would take more time to prepare. But, I thought, it’s worth it to get my family eating healthier. And that broccoli mac and cheese recipe just might work, so I decided to give it try. I clicked “get the recipe here” (registration is required) and made my grocery list, which included whole grain pasta, chopped broccoli and reduced-fat cheddar—ingredients I bought regularly before I adopted my girls but had long forgotten in the rush of parental life. Still, I headed to the supermarket wary of just how well “green stuff” would go over at dinnertime.

Later, while preparing the mac and cheese, my daughter asked, “What’s for dinner?” I replied slyly, “Mac and cheese,” but with no mention of broccoli. Naturally, when we sat down to eat, my daughter immediately turned up her nose and complained. I asked her to eat what she could. At first, she picked at her meal, but within a few minutes, that tasty cheese sauce won her over. True, most of the broccoli did end up on the side of her plate, but I’m convinced a few pieces made their way into her tummy.

It was a small success but a success nonetheless, and I’ve prepared the same broccoli mac and cheese several times since. Each time, more broccoli is eaten! So, the next step in the makeover is the very healthy pasta primavera, with red peppers and asparagus. Hmm, dare I try it? Maybe, in a couple of weeks.

This example of custom content helped me solve my picky-eater problem by suggesting just a few simple items that I could purchase on my next trip to the grocery store. And it changed my purchasing behavior not only for one week but for several weeks. This type of content is invaluable to me as a consumer and, especially, as a parent. It also makes it easy to create my grocery list, which I have to do well in advance. When I’m actually in the supermarket, I don’t have time to think about what I’m buying; I’m just trying to get in and get out before the complaining starts. With online custom content, it’s also easy and convenient to check email or Web sites when I have a free moment and can consider recipes and suggestions for what I will buy on my next grocery store trip.

Posted By: Anne Weston