via youtube.com
This is a great video looking at things being done in the bay area to help kids eat more healthily. Whether you are looking for healthy lunch ideas or any other type of inspiration, it's worth watching!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Healthy Lunch Ideas - Try Mandarin Jelly
via youtube.com
When coming up with healthy lunch ideas it's important to introduce your kids to something new. So watch this great video for making Mandarin Jelly and give your kids a sweet treat!
Healthy Lunch Ideas For Camping
While food safety is important any time of year, proper food handling is essential for summer meals, especially when away from your home kitchen. Since any food-related illness can spoil a camping trip or family vacation, it is worth being extra careful with food in the summer. Fortunately, you can help keep food safe with four simple steps.
What we know
- Food-related illness is under-reported and misunderstood: One in six Americans get sick from a food-related illness every year. Many of them blame it on the flu or other “bug."
- Looking, smelling, and tasting are not accurate ways to check if food is safe to eat:Food can look, smell, and taste fine - and be full of bacteria that make you very sick.
- Food safety involves four key steps: Any perishable food can be a place for disease-causing bacteria to grow. Visit www.homefoodsafety.org to learn more about the problem and, more importantly, the solutions!
What you can do
1: CLEAN - Wash hands often.
- When water is available, use biodegradable soap. Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds, scrubbing all parts thoroughly. Rinse with water and dry with paper towels.
- If water is not readily available, carry plenty of hand sanitizer and disposable wipes for cleaning hands carefully and often (before/after eating, touching animals, etc.).
2: SEPARATE - Keep raw meats and ready-to-eat foods separate.
- Cross contamination can occur in coolers, especially when juices from raw meat or poultry drip onto other foods. Double-wrap all meat products in sealable plastic bags.
- When preparing meat/poultry/fish for grilling, use separate dishes and utensils. Wash carefully before using the same items for cooked meats or other foods.
3: COOK - Cook to proper temperatures.
- Always use a digital or dial food thermometer in your camp kitchen. Ensure all that ground meat is safe to eat by cooking patties to an internal temperature of 160 °F.
- Cook all other beef/veal/pork/lamb/wild game to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F. Cook all poultry to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F.
4: CHILL - Refrigerate all perishables promptly to 40 °F or below.
- Take plenty of cold power (ice blocks, water frozen in plastic milk jugs, or gel packs) to keep cold foods COLD. In camp, keep the cooler in shade or covered with a tarp.
- Put ALL perishable and cooked foods into a cooler after 2 hours. For more tips, visit www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/food_safety_while_hiking_camping_&_boating/index.asp#9.
Food safety is an essential part of making sure your kids eat great, nutritious, healthy food. So when you are coming up with healthy lunch ideas for your camping trip, remember these rules!
Healthy Lunch Ideas For Sweet Treats
Lunch Time Dessert: Baby Black Bean Brownies
Whether you homeschool, or send kids to school (or even if they aren’t old enough for school) kids like an after lunch treat. Heck, I like an afternoon treat! These black bean brownies make a great dessert for something a little sweet to finish off a healthy meal.
The reason I like these black bean brownies is you don’t have to puree the beans before adding them to the mix. Who wants to spend all that time in the kitchen anyway, right? I promise you, the beans blend right in with the rich chocolate taste of the brownies, that no one will be complaining.
One Tip: If you are using canned beans, make sure to rinse them thoroughly! Hot water is ideal. Get all the sodium rinsed off that you can!
For lunch, try a chicken salad (shredded chicken, strawberries, chopped pecans, and salad greens), some rolled up flat bread, and a mini, bite sized brownie.
Black Bean Brownies Recipe:
- 1 15 ounce can of black beans, or 1 1/2 cups pre cooked black beans.
- 1/2 cup cocoa (100%)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
We often forget, when we are coming up with healthy lunch ideas, about one of the most important meals... dessert! Make sure you give your little ones a sweet treat full of goodness!
Brown Rice For Your Healthy Lunch Ideas
Leftover Brown Rice Breakfast Pudding
I want to use more whole grains around here beyond whole wheat. There are so many other delicious whole grains with different nutrients that can be of benefit to our family. One easy to prepare whole grain is brown rice. While rice is common on most dinner tables, it’s also great for breakfast. Rice is also great because
- it stores well,
- few kids have sensitivity to it,
- it’s super cheap, and
- it makes great leftovers!
If there are ever ways to repurpose leftovers, I will use them!
So, here it is:
- Take 2 cups cooked brown rice, reheated.
- In a blender, blend up
- 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (or low fat milk with 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
- 1/2 cup berries (strawberries)
- 1 tsp. honey or agave
Mix the milk and berries with your warmed up brown rice. Let sit for 5 minutes to absorb Top with extra berries or other fruit. Makes 4, 1/2 cup servings. Keep reading for nutritional information...This is one of my favourite healthy lunch ideas. It's easy to make and super scrummy. Best of all rice is something your kids will be familiar with, so it's an easy one to introduce!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Healthykidshealthyfamilies: Veggies: The Whens, Wheres, and Hows of Encouraging More Veggie Consumption
Veggies: The Whens, Wheres, and Hows of Encouraging More Veggie Consumption
I am always playing with how to mix things up and get the kids at our table to eat more veggies. As I said in "Veggies First", offering veggies as an appetizer is a great way to curb the 5 o'clock hunger pains and get veggies in their bellies. But there are a couple of other tricks that have been working great in our family this past year.1. Veggies as the first course....
This is bringing us back again to a time when meals were much slower, had smaller portions and typically had a vegetable course at the beginning of the meal. In our house we are invoking this time by offering a little bit of salad first to the kids or small bowls of soup. The salads have been elaborate with my homemade dressing and they have also been super simple chopped up cukes with tomatoes and my daughter's favorite food - ranch dressing.2. Small portions....
Kids are turned off when their plates have heaping servings of vegetables. It is our attempt to get them to eat more vegetables but it backfires all the time. Try a very small portion size of EVERYTHING on their plates, including the veggies. This is an odd suggestion but I have tested it out on my kids, all their friends and my friend's kids. Serve them one bit of chicken along with 5 peas, it intrigues them and they eat all the peas. Serve them three bits of chicken and a pile of peas, they eat the chicken and leave the peas. Smaller portions work but make sure all the foods are a smaller portion, they can always have more.3. Any time/All the time....
The more veggies that are served, the more kids are exposed to them, the more they eat. There are studies documenting kids in immigrant families, in the US, whose families eat vegetables at breakfast. These kids eat more vegetables than other US kids, even if the remainder of their diet is fairly Americanized. Serve tomatoes with breakfast on their buttered toast, serve sliced cucumber on the side, carrots with cream cheese and anything else that is a favorite (My son just suggested a microwaved potato with butter and salt). Keep vegetables in all the lunches and snacks, too. Again, make portion sizes small.4. Match the competition....
Vegetables are up against rough competition that doesn't play fair, they are fighting against Cheetos, super sweet yogurts, rich cheeses, salty crackers, etc. to try and get your kid's attention. These foods are creating a taste palate in kids that is hard for vegetables to compete against. Kids and adults will typically choose the foods that are richer, saltier and/or sweeter over the plain taste of vegetables. So....don't be shy, go ahead and flavor the vegetables. Vegetables can compete if they are straight from the garden but most of the time that isn't an option. Veggies just need a little help. Using salt, sugar, a little cheese or butter is not a sin and it will make the kids like the veg more.
Healthy Lunch Ideas For Back To School
Welcome back to school! We hope that your summer provided a renewed energy for a wonderful school year! Healthy Kids Challenge wants to serve as your partner in health this year to bring health and wellness ALIVE. Whether your needs are nutrition education curriculum, staff training, wellness council support or resources, look to HKC for solutions!
The new school year is a great time to gather an existing wellness team or build a new team! Team up for wellness with the following Healthy Kids Challenge tips.
- Get people on board
- Begin recruiting those who have expressed or demonstrated an interest in nutrition and physical activity. Start with whatever number of members you can.
- Brainstorm potential recruits who represent different groups: administrators, classroom teachers, youth leaders, PE teachers, nurses, food service, community members and families .
- Develop a team vision:
- Brainstorm the team’s wellness dream and then write a short memorable statement describing the dream.
- Vision example: A school/youth program that provides a healthy environment with consistent messages that guide learning and opportunities for practicing healthy lifestyle choices; and connects with families and the community to expand the messages and healthy choices everywhere kids go.
- Share the team vision and develop awareness:
- Identify ways to let others know of the vision through newsletters, Web site and word of mouth
- Use “talking points” for nutrition and physical activity:
- the needs (childhood obesity, poor eating and physical activity habits of kids)
- the benefits (improved academic potential, better attendance)
- what you intend to accomplish (awareness and appeal for HKC’s Healthy6 messages, increased role-modeling)
Getting involved in healthy kids eating challenged is a great way to connect with other parents looking for healthy lunch ideas. Getting kids to eat better as a community will have beneficial and long lasting effects.
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