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Give your kids a bloody knife and fork and let me put some fresh food in front of them they can eat.

The thing with children is they're a bit like baking a fruitcake: you throw all the ingredients in but you never know how they're going to turn out.

I have encouraged my kids to eat well from day one. I add flavor - herbs and spices - to everything because I don't want them getting used to starchy, bland food. I also want them to experiment - they don't have to love everything, but they do have to try it.

We were so unprepared that when my husband took off to get groceries, and we'd adopted a 3-year-old, he came back with baby formula, a steak and a teething ring. We had no idea what we were doing. But you learn. There's no way to fully prepare. Just eyes wide open - jump.

We always had our own vegetables growing up and now I'm doing it with my kids at our house in the country.

I try to get them working. My older son is 10 and he's pretty interested. We had a dinner party the other night and he helped a lot. He helped peel asparagus; he hung out. It was great.

I think a great way to get kids to start eating their vegetables is to get creative with them.

Preparing food is one of life's great joys, but a lot of times, parents ask their kids if they want to cook with them and then tell them to go peel a bag of potatoes. That's not cooking - that's working!

As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to encourage your kids to eat well.

I take my kids to a farmers' market each Sunday to buy organic produce.