How to Bring the Food Revolution to Your Child's School

Who cried, gasped or shuddered while watching Jamie Oliver's show the Food Revolution? Who gets angry when parents and administrators take one step forward in getting better food at school, and the USDA pushes us one step back with outdated and misaligned nutritional requirements that favor the processed food industry? Who wants to scream at articles like this one that depicts the mindset of some nutrition experts who think chocolate milk is better than no milk.

"We can tell your kid here's your white milk, you need to drink it. But if it goes in the trash, what good does that do?" Nationally, schools report most of the milk kids consume in their cafeterias is flavored — about 70 percent.

Does every adult in this country think that kids aren't capable of learning to like wholesome nutritious food? Our schools can teach pre-K kids to read and write, but generally speaking we don't think kids have the aptitude to adopt good eating habits? WTF? The answer is to flavor, sugar coat and spike with petroleum based food coloring an otherwise nutritious food so they'll consume more milk? Ridiculous!

I agree. Taking flavored milk away and expecting kids to adopt white milk without assistance and guidance from wiser adults won't work. My kindergartner went from knowing the alphabet and handful of sight words to reading in 9 months. Why would I not have confidence that he could learn how to swallow milk without sugar and flavor? My kids can do anything they're taught. Teaching kids why their body and brain need good food, and how to eat it is the right thing to do.

The wrong thing to do is for parents and school districts is to keep flavoring up, deep frying, and processing a bunch of raw ingredients just to get kids to eat up. Of course milk tastes better with sugar. And potatoes taste better when fried. Those are sometimes foods, treats. They don't belong on the menu every day. Come on America! Empower kids to like whole, natural foods. They can handle real food. They are hungry for real food! Administrators are you listening to this? Kids will automatically pay more attention to studies, and misbehave less if they consume less added sugar and more nutrients their body and brain need. Are you sure reading programs and standardized testing rescue teams need more funding?

If your heart was touched by the Food Revolution and you want to DO something to make a difference, you may be scratching your head, trying to figure out where to start. I know I was back in April.

In the coming months, I'm going to document my journey with Spring Branch ISD's Child Nutritional Services (CNS), school administration, lunch ladies, and PTA (PTO) to get better food on the lunch trays of kids in my district. I hope this helps other parent groups and schools make small changes that over time will add up to better food for kids. You can sign up to receive email updates (click that link) so you don't miss a move I make (even the mistakes!). SBISD is located in Houston, TX.

What's Happened So Far- 2010
April - met with Elementary School Nurse and Kitchen Manager to determine how food is ordered, and what discretion the campus had on food ordering. Inquired as to whether we could eliminate sugary cereal, or flavored milk. Was told by kitchen manager that she had to get all orders approved by her manager in CNS.
May- Volunteered to start a Wellness Committee, an initiative that was approved by the incoming PTA President.
June - Met with Child Nutritional Services Coordinator to determine how food is ordered, distributed, prepared in the district. Proposed to make Sherwood Elementary a Pilot campus for

• student education on 9 "super" food items by parent volunteers during lunch, supplemented with take home flyers for parents with the intent of increasing participation in healthier school lunch items that are already available (white milk, fresh vegetables, salads, beans, whole fruit, brown rice, broccoli, chicken on the bone, eggs and others).
  
• eliminating flavored milk from lunch and sugar cereals from breakfast menu
• adding hard boiled eggs and oatmeal to breakfast offerings
• introducing Limited time - menu options. This is a way to try out potential healthier menu items for the 2011-2012 menu.
  
• have some produce tasting days. CNS will bring their produce vendor to our campus and let kids sample some of the items.

Please note, all these initiatives are proposed. None have been approved by all relevant stake holders, although I'm hopeful most of them are doable.
The Good News

• The campus Kitchen Managers are empowered to choose from a list pre-approved reimbursable food items when ordering for their campus. They do not need sign-off from anyone to elect not to serve Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast!
  
• Most of the kitchens in the district have cooking equipment and can prepare food with recipes.
• If the school serves more kids (participation in school lunch increases), they can hire more staff.
• More beans are on the menu in 2010-2011. Once every 5 weeks spicy beans, charro, black-eyed peas, hummus or baked beans will appear on the menu. Huzzah for the super bean, a vegetable and protein all tucked in one neat and tidy package! May our kids all eat more beans.
  

The Bad News

• Most of the food served is pre-prepared and reheated prior to serving, only a few items per week are cooked on-site following a recipe.
  
• The kitchens are short on labor and on the days that require cooking, it's a struggle for the "lunch ladies" to get food out on time as well as manage their other responsibilities.
• I think the premise behind increase in staff to match increase in participation, is they'd have another set of hands to prepare food on cooking days. But with more kids to serve, I'm not sure that extra pair of hands would stretch as far as we might think.
• The lunch ladies only have 30 minutes to prepare for breakfast, so while we'd like to add hard boiled eggs to the menu, we may not be able to make that happen due to time constraints.
• the kitchen managers have 4 hours of nutrition training and limited cooking skills. Many are not educated or empowered to help kids make better food choices, yet they are the ones ordering food for each campus.
  
• The menu is already set for 2010-2011, which means there is little to be done for this school year. The silver lining is we can start talking about some new ideas for the 2011-2012 school year and test drive them as "limited time" menu options at Sherwood.
• There is an ingredient called "beef crumbles" used in some of the meals. We looked up the ingredients, and it actually had less preservatives than I expected, but it's frustrating that we have to serve beef with "caramel color" to kids. I did not inquire about the ingredient list on the chicken nuggets. I didn't want my heart to break. I was reassured the breading was "whole grain" but I'd rather breaded, fried anything be a special occasion food, rather than a regular rotating option.
  
• In addition to the 1 ) main entree, elementary students can choose 2) hot sandwich or 3) yogurt or 4) Baked Potato (MWF) entree salad (T,TH). That's right. Your kiddo has 4 entree choices every day! I suspect we'd have an easier time teaching kids to eat wholesome food if they had fewer choices. If a kid can always pick sweetened yogurt (which is the same mentality as sweetened milk IMO) which would he choose? Baked chicken and salad or sweetened yogurt with syrup packed fruit?
  

Things I still don't have my brain wrapped around

• Commodity Food - The district has a 700K budget for commodity food. This is excess food (whole chickens and produce from farmers) collected by the USDA that SBISD can accept, process and incorporate into their annual menu plans. If I understand it, food comes in by the truck load and the district sends it out to be processed (chickens turn into chicken sticks and chicken patties via Tyson, raw vegetables turn into canned items). The district doesn't consume any of the commodity food as an ingredient in a recipe. I'd like to know if there's any way we can use those chickens or produce with less processing.
• Staffing/Labor - How can we get more hands available in the kitchen to prepare more food on-site from raw ingredients? CNS funds itself, so between the money coming in from school food purchases and reimbursable lunches from the government the district has to balance the cost of labor used to procure and prepare food for the kids.

What's Happening Next

• CNS has invited me and a parent group to meet with the CNS Director to discuss next steps on the pilot, including the possibility of eliminating flavored milk at lunch. Meeting time TBD.
  
• I need to get a "parent group" assembled! If you're a Sherwood Elementary Parent and you want to shape the food changes at Sherwood, please join the Wellness Committee, and send the URL for this blog post to anyone else you know at Sherwood who would like to join us. Also comment here and let me know what you'd like to see done at Sherwood with regard to school food.
  
• I'm working on designing 9 food flyers to be used A) in the cafeteria to connect real food to kids' activities & teach them to eat wholesome food and B) send home with parents so they can reinforce good habits with real food facts at home. Here is the draft of the egg flyer for kids. (when I say I, I mean Hubby is designing 9 food flyers. I love that man!)
• The Wellness Committee will be formed, a kick off meeting held and an agenda set for the 2010-2011 calendar year. Come on, join me! It's lonely being the only member.
  

If you're an existing Food with Kid Appeal reader, I hope you don't mind these interruptions to recipes so I can share our school's journey. And by all means if you're already working with your school to make changes in school food, please comment here and let us know what you've accomplished and what your plans are moving forward. We can learn from each other.

A huge thanks to Michelle Stern of What's Cooking for documenting her school's journey to better food. Without her leadership I might have lost courage and never gotten this initiative off the ground.

Unstuffed Mushrooms

I've enjoyed mushrooms most of my adult life, but until recently they weren't a routine "veggie" on our table. Slimy mushrooms are ick, which puts them on the list of produce to be used the same day as purchase. I hadn't made "mushroom night" a grocery day habit, thus we didn't eat them often.

As recent research on mushrooms and their health benefits - vitamin D, beta glucans, selenium - is piling up, it was time for me to start a new habit. If you happen to dine at my house on grocery day, you'd be eating mushrooms in some form or fashion.

One night in a scramble for what to do with mushrooms, I decided to toss mushroom stuffing ingredients in a the pan after sauteing some sliced mushrooms. Two on-hand ingredients made this a quick and tasty side dish: the bread heels left from our weekly loaf of sour dough bakery bread and a batch of oregano pesto.

Mushrooms may not be the first piece of produce you'd put on a list of kid food, but after a months of serving them regularly, my boys both dig in. Little boo often picks his out of the dish and eats them separate, but Big boo usually eats them as served (except in cream of mushroom soup). If you missed how I introduced mushrooms to the boos, check that beta-glucan adventure story out here and here.

Unstuffed Mushrooms
1 package button, crimini or baby bella mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cubes oregano pesto (or 2 TBS fresh chopped herbs), defrosted.
3 tbs butter
2 slices stale bread heels, toasted and cubed.

I started out by drying out the bread heels in the toaster or in the oven. Then I cubed the bread. Next, melt the butter in a pan on medium heat and add the onions. Once they've taken on a little color, add the sliced mushrooms until they've let out their juices and taken on some color. Add the minced garlic and cook one minute. Then add bread cubes, cooking a few minutes more. Remove from heat and toss mushroom mixture with the oregano pesto. Serve warm. Note: I made them again and left the mushrooms whole (as pictured), but we all preferred them sliced.

Kid Appeal Tip Do you hesitate serving your kids ingredients that are well known to be disliked by kids? Don't let a produce's reputation ban them from your table. Most kids can learn to eat most ingredients. There are always exceptions to the rule, but only trial and error will clue you in to your kids exceptions list. If you enjoy eating something, then it's fare game to serve to the family. Over time the exposure and your enthusiasm will generally lead to kids accepting the ingredient. To speed up the process, tell kids what the ingredient does for them. Mushrooms contain zinc, critical for wound healing. Mushrooms help heal boo boos! A 5oz portion contains 52% of the daily recommended value of selenium which is necessary for the proper function of antioxidant system. Be brave. Offer mushrooms to your kids!

I'm a creature of habit. Giving mushrooms "a day" made them part of my routine. How do you manage to create new meal time habits?

Red Cauliflower aka Hubby-Emptied-the-Bowl Cauli

Anyone else out there love Mediterranean cauliflower? I'm sure there's a name for this traditional dish, the edges are all browned. It's oilier than roasted would be, so I expect it's fried, but not sure. I always finish it even though the portions are entirely too big and I'm already stuffed with fresh pita bread, hummus and tabbouleh. Can't. Get. Enough.

The cauliflower I made the other day was the same. Hubby and I finished our plates, and then as the kids poked over their plates we both kept going back to the bowl for more bites until it was empty. I can't ever remember finishing a whole head of cauliflower with just the four of us.

I wanted to roast the cauliflower but this Houston June is far too hot to heat the oven up like that. Instead I started off by steaming the cauliflower to soften it up, and then pan searing it in some oil, so it would take on some color. Meanwhile I mixed up a little sauce to toss it in. Here's what I put in the sauce. It gets its name from paprika which turns the creamy florets a nice shade of red.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a lot of prep for a veggie side. I promise you it's worth it. Do it on a night when you're heating up left-overs for the main meal, and it won't be so overwhelming. Of course, you could achieve nearly the same effect by skipping the searing step.

Red Cauliflower
ingredients
1 head of cauliflower, steamed, then pan seared or roasted
2 TBSP olive oil
3 cloves garlic - minced
1/4 tsp of cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
lemon zest (tsp?)
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

directions
while the cauliflower is cooking mix the oil, spices, zest, lemon juice, garlic with a whisk until combined. After cauliflower is cooked and still hot toss in the sauce mixture. Serve warm or room temperature.

While hubby and I loved this and little boo ate it happily, big boo thought it was too lemony. He still ate it, but it wasn't a new favorite for him like it was for us. I loved the lemony flavor, but might go with less zest/juice next time. I'm thinking I might bring this as a side at a future family gathering.

Not only is cauliflower frugal, but I imagine that most of the other ingredients on your list are already in your pantry and fridge just waiting to make your next vegetable irresistible. If you have left over cauli, it makes good filling for enchiladas. Just puree it, toss it in the freezer and add it to your next meat/cheese mixture.

Kid Appeal Tip Do you avoid new preparations of vegetables your kids already eat the tried and true way? There's no need for that. You don't have to stay in a vegetable rut just so your kids eat up. When I served the cauliflower this way instead of saying "I hope you guys like it this way, it's different than usual." I said, "I know little boo is going to be happy about our veggie tonight, because he's a big cauli fan." I like to assert the reality that I hope comes to pass, and let the boys prove me right or wrong. A good part of the time, my version of reality transpires and the boys play into my expectations. With my statement I was empowering little boo to like the new cauliflower recipe. He didn't hesitate to try it, and when he did, it suited him just fine. It goes without saying that if your kid eats up a new recipe the first time you make it, he deserves gushing praise for being such an adventurous healthy eater. Call grandma up and tell her right away about that fabulous accomplishment.

This post is participating in The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

Asian Pasta with Baby Bok Choy and Chicken

I have a new found love for baby bok choy. It's such a delicious, sweet and crunchy cabbage and one I'd like to cook with every week. This recipe evolved from a quick pasta salad I put together one picnic supper night. The first pass dish was sauteed onion and baby bok choy in a rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce dressing over rice noodles. That was good, but this was even better. Chicken and ginger kicked up a notch or six.

This dish even got the mother-in-law stamp of approval, which surprised me. Her first comment was "It's different." Then... "I like the ginger, it reminds me of the salad dressing at Benihana." And finally, "I could eat some more of that."

Asian Pasta with Baby Bok Choy and Chicken
ingredients
1 large diced onion
1-3 fingers of ginger
5-6 heads of baby bok choy, washed and sliced in 1/2 pieces
2-6 cloves minced garlic
1 lb boneless skinless chicken (I used thighs)
1 8oz package brown rice pasta, cooked, drained and rinsed. (I used fusili)

sauce ingredients
1/2 cup chicken/veggie stock or water
2-4 TBS soy sauce (i used tamari)
2 TBS sesame seed oil
1 TBS cornstarch

In a large non-stick pan, cook chicken on medium heat on both sides until done, about 5 minutes per side. I used no oil since thighs are quite fatty. Meanwhile chop veggies and whisk sauce ingredients together, reserving. Remove chicken from pan, leaving pan juices in the pan, add onion and ginger, cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the bok choy, and garlic; cook until slightly wilted. I try to add the white stem parts first as they take a little longer to cook than the green tops. Slice the chicken and return it to the pan. Whisk the sauce again and add it to the pan. Toss to coat, keep stirring until you see the sauce thicken up. Add the pasta to the pan and combine with veggie/meat mixture.

Kid Appeal Tip Do your kids pick onions, herbs, ginger and anything flavory out of everything you make? Take heart, this is pretty common. When my kids ask "what's this" I answer truthfully and say, "that's where all the flavor is." Turns out most foods with a lot of flavor are also very good for the body. You can puree or finely mince all these ingredients and the flavor (and all the nutrition) will still be there. But I advise against "hiding" all of it. If kids don't know what they're eating, they might not eat it when the know what it's in there. I've started doing half minced/grated ginger and half thinly sliced ginger in Asian dishes. I want the flavor of ginger in there, but don't want it to be too overwhelming for the boys. This way they can pick out the big hunks of ginger and it's still got enough bite for me and hubby. After a few months of this method, Big Boo rarely picks out ginger pieces, but Little Boo is still eating around them. When Little Boo tells me he doesn't like ginger, I correct him and say "actually you like a little ginger, because I put tiny pieces in the sauce. When you get bigger you'll like a lot of ginger like I do."

If you're not already routinely eating cabbage, you should be. It's full of fiber and Vitamin C and an antioxidant powerhouse. In addition to being an excellent warrior against cancer, it also holds it's own against virus and ulcers. And it's frugal! Cabbage is one of the most affordable veggies out there. Make it a point to put it in your meal plans more often. Are you up for the challenge?

This post is participating in LifeAsMom's Anything Goes Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Pennywise Platter hosted by the Nourishing Gourmet.

What's your favorite cabbage dish?

PS - I can't stop staring at the photo. I can't believe I took that picture!

Herbed Potatoes on the Grill

Georgia's Farm to Market has had local sustainable red potatoes for a few weeks now and we've been indulging. I love that they are less than $1 a pound. How often do you get that price for local sustainable veg? The potatoes are coming from Country Boy’s Treasures Farm in Sugar Land, TX and home of my high school. I appreciate that this farm is making it possible for me to feed my family real food on a budget. The potatoes are delish.

I've made potato salad with fresh marinated artichoke hearts a couple times and a few batches of mashed taters. This weekend hubby wanted to grill. Recalling my stash of fresh rosemary, oregano and red potatoes I knew what our starchy side would be.

Even before I knew how good fresh herbs were for the body, I loved cooking with them, and an herby oil was one of my favorite things to whiz up in my mini-chop. What doesn't taste better with an herby oil drizzled on?

I was happy both the boys ate these without complaint. Big boo exclaimed on his first bite "ooh these are good!" Atta boy. Little boo liked his with a smear of goat cheese. Atta boy. It seems after years of cool reception to potatoes, they are finally becoming universally accepted. Yahoo!

Herby Oil
2 TBS virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley, basil), a handful or 2-4 TBS chopped
2 cloves of fresh garlic, sliced

Clean, stem and roughly chop fresh herbs. Add all ingredients to a mini chop until herbs and garlic are in small bits. Reserve in a large bowl.

Potatoes on the Grill
instructions
Clean 1 lb. of red potatoes. Start a pot of water boiling. Cut potatoes in half. Add potatoes to boiling water, reducing heat and cook for 8-10 minutes or until a knife inserts easily. You don't want them fork tender as for mashed potatoes or they'll fall apart on the grill. Drain the potatoes and hand them to your man and have him grill them until grill marks appear. Apologies, I don't work the grill. Toss the grilled potatoes in the bowl with the herby oil and enjoy the smell of fresh herbs wafting up to your nose. Go ahead. Taste one now, no one's looking. Try not to devour them all before sharing with your family. Hehe.

You don't have to grill the potatoes, you could cook them a tad longer in the water, drain and toss in the oil. The point is not to heat (cook with) the oil. All the nutritive value of the oil is retained when you apply it to cooked food, vs cooking with it.


Kid Appeal Tip Do your kids pick herbs out of everything? I still have one that does, and one that doesn't. Chop them small. Instead of large basil leaves torn in pasta salad, puree them into a sauce/vinaigrette. Once they get used to the taste, start using larger pieces. Have them help wash and pick leaves off stems. They're more likely to eat it if they helped prepare it. Finally, give it time. Time cures most food aversions. You keep serving them, and eventually kids will eat them.

I think of herbs as a super green vegetable on steroids. Most help boost the immune function, and have an exponentially higher antioxidant count than other fruits and vegetables. Fine, I may be exaggerating, but it's something like quadruple. That means herbs can fight cancer, virus, bacteria and other yuck floating around in your body. Ask your kids to learn to love herbs so they can enjoy good health for a lifetime.

What's your favorite way to eat potatoes?