Start young to teach healthy eating: Recipe for Parmesan-crusted Chicken Fingers

Television and peers can trump parents when it comes to influencing what children eat, but that doesn't mean families can't fight back.

A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study found that parents have waning influence over what their kids eat. But it also found that the best defence is to start teaching healthy eating habits early.

Adopting common-sense approaches at home can help:

First, be careful about forbidding certain foods. A good/bad approach often makes less healthy foods more attractive. It also limits children's ability to develop the skills they need to make their own healthful food choices.

Second, quantity matters. The more foods children try, the more likely they will find healthy ones they enjoy. Give them the option of turning down a new dish as long as they give it a try. The empowering option of refusal often results in a "Hey, I like this" experience.

Third, make healthier foods seem like exciting treats. A colourful fruit salad, homemade whole-grain cookies and English muffin pizzas made with low-fat cheese are all fun foods that can provide your child with valuable nutrients.

Finally, you can always fight fire with fire. These Parmesan-crusted chicken fingers have all the flavour and appeal of the greasy fast-food classic but are baked using an "oven-frying" technique that uses hardly any oil.

Adding Parmesan cheese and tangy Dijon mustard to crunchy, Japanese-style breadcrumbs (panko) gives these easy-to-prepare chicken fingers a sophisticated coating the whole family will enjoy.

Look for panko breadcrumbs in the Asian section of your market. For even more kid appeal, serve the chicken fingers with a homemade honey mustard sauce, or a sweet-and-sour sauce made from apricot jam, cider vinegar, salt, pepper and a drop of hot sauce.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Fingers

Olive or vegetable oil cooking spray

150 ml (2/3 cup) panko (Japanese-style) breadcrumbs

50 ml ( 1/4 cup) grated Parmesan cheese

30 ml (2 tbsp) chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1 ml ( 1/4 tsp) ground black pepper

15 ml (1 tbsp) Dijon mustard

2 egg whites

500 g (1 lb) chicken tenders

Place a rack in the top third of the oven. Heat oven to 220 C (425 F). Set a wire rack on a baking sheet and coat rack lightly with cooking spray.

In a shallow bowl, stir together breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley (if using) and pepper. In another shallow bowl, whisk together mustard and egg whites until frothy and opaque.

Dip each chicken tender in egg white mixture, then in breadcrumb mixture to coat all sides. Place on prepared rack.

Spritz top of each tender lightly and evenly with cooking spray, then turn and repeat on the other side. Bake until crumb coating is golden brown and crisp and chicken is no longer pink at the centre, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 204 calories, 24 calories from fat, 3 g fat (1 g saturated, 0 g trans fats), 72 mg cholesterol, 13 g carbohydrate, 32 g protein, 0 g fibre, 339 mg sodium.