School Kids Should Have Cholesterol, Fat & Produce

This is a response to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's  post on Weston Price Foundation's Healthy 4 Life  press release and the 8 minute video of Sally Fallon Morell presenting the WPF response to USDA's new dietary guidelines.  My comments will make more sense if you read Kelly's short post first and watch the 8 minute video.  I promise, it won't be a waste of your time.  It may be the best thing you can do this year to give the gift of physical health, and incredible brain function to your family.

The video has a good explanation of why cholesterol and saturated fats are necessary for health, especially for kids who have developing brains.  Please, go watch the video, even if you don't want to read me opine about school food reform!  If the health benefits of saturated fats and cholesterol are news to you, I suggest  you sleep on what you hear, and follow your heart.  If you feel like Sally's nutrition education may be valid, do your own research, get more information so you can decide for yourself if saturated fats and cholesterol can bring wellness to your family.



 ___________________ My response to Kelly's post, it's a bit informal, but I don't have time to edit....

First I'll say that I'm am 100% on board with dietary cholesterol and saturated fat as nutrient dense foods, necessary for hormone function, proper brain nourishment, weight maintenance and overall good health.

BUT.  As a school food reform advocate I have to say that given the "as-is" of the current dietary guidelines upon which the school lunch program develops meal plans, the recent recommendation to eat nutrient dense foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, and for produce to make up 1/2 your plate is a good direction for the school lunch program to go.  If the cafeteria tray went from 90% low fat flavored milk, processed factory food and a couple sides of refined grains to 50% fruits and veggies and 50% low fat, factory made crap, that would be a big improvement.

Fruits and vegetables may not be as valuable as bone in meat, saturated fats, organ meat and pastured animal products, however they are not health damaging like the processed and packaged food that most school kids are subjected to every day.

Real Estate on the Plate
If kids took an apple instead of a whole wheat roll to go with their slice of pizza, chicken sandwich, or chicken teriyaki over white rice this would be an improvement right?  We are agreed that it's not as good as an improvement as liver with onions with sourdough toast and pastured butter.

Because fruits and vegetables are already accepted as healthy by our mainstream medical and nutrition community, there is much less resistance to adding or increasing the availability of produce in the national school lunch program machine.  Simply put, veggies are already on the menu, and putting more of them on the cafeteria line is an easy win compared to getting organ meat, saturated fat or full fat dairy on the serving line.

Kids need relief  TODAY.  Not in 10 years which is what it would take (if not 50) to make a paradigm shift in the food pyramid.    Students simply can not wait another decade or 4 before they have better food at school.  Their health is already in the toilet.  Sadly, most kids, parents and health professionals won't know until the child is an adolescent, teenager or young adult that their health was damaged from the food pyramid and processed food.  As a product of the packaged food and picky eater diet, I was in my early 20s before dealing with IBS pain nearly caused me a semester of bad grades at college.  Luckily I quickly learned the role of food and my health and I'm healed now.  For some it happens sooner.  For others later.  For many, they never learn that diet is the culprit of health problems, and never experience healing.  They never experience wellness.


Antioxidants
The other benefit to more students and Americans increasing their produce intake is their high level of antioxidants.  Our modern world exposes us to toxins in our water and air, they are in the dirt our food grows in, they are in the products we sleep in/on, skin care products.  Antioxidants protect our cells from free-radical damage.  Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants.  Even real foodies could use extra antioxidants to rid their body of the toxins in the air.  Even with a clean diet and properly functioning gut and hormone system, real foodies breath garbage from the air into their lungs every day.  The antioxidant dense plant based foods are especially necessary for people who don't have a clean diet.

When talking about school food reform, we must be careful to demand feasible and sustainable solutions.  You can't take a program that is historically underfunded, understaffed and undermanaged and expect that it's possible to go from factory made meals one year to pasture fed animal products, whole fat dairy, light on the grains, with a side or two of "lovely" fruits and veggies. 

I applaud Sally and WPF for doing this PR and advocating for children's health.  It will just take more than a foundation who is educating people about what the "to be" should look like to make meaningful change on the cafeteria tray.

I would love to see WFP lead a coalition of non-profits and University research facilities in studies that link the downward academic success of american school kids to the standard american diet.   Maybe then the leaders in the whitehouse, the leaders of education, leaders in the medical community and leaders in food manufacturing will say, with deep remorse, "No, profit and prosperity from the medical and food industry is not worth mass illness of our population.  Our nation will find other ways to profit and enjoy prosperity than shoveling harmful food and Rx medications at our people."

Your thoughts?  Does it make sense to question the nutritional value or benefits fruits and vegetables for america's school children?

Butternut Squash Pizza Recipe

This recipe is a spin on vegetable pizza.  This recipe is a reader submitted recipe from Ana. Want to share your recipe on the Food with Kid Appeal blog?  See here for details.

This recipe is gluten free recipe since it has a butternut squash slice as the crust instead of a wheat dough.  I might try these finger food veggie pizzas with goat cheese since we are temporarily dairy free.  I might go with a green pesto like sauce instead of red.  So many options!



Butternut Squash Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, neck cut in half inch slices, round part cut in half and seeds removed.
1/2 -1 cup of tomato sauce, or pizza sauce
1 cup of shredded mozzerella/ paremsan cheese mix
1/2  tsp dried oregano
1 tsp healthy fat (coconut oil, butter, ghee)

Directions
*cut the squash in half inch slices until you reach the seeds (you should get squash "disks")
* use fat to grease a baking sheet or similar and bake your slices at 350/375 until they start getting golden underneath and soften.  About 10-20 minutes.
* flip them and put tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella or Parmesan cheese on top until the cheese melts. Add a little oregano and voila!
* you can add anything else on top, it really works as any other pizza
* for the bottom part of the butternut squash (the part with the seeds in it), you can scoop out the seeds and bake it "face down". Once the squash starts to soften you can turn it around and fill it with tomato sauce, cooked corn and top it with cheese. It looks like a bowl so you can just eat right out of it!

Note: my kids eat these "pizzas" with the skin and all but if you don't want to eat the skin, I personally think it is easier to remove it after it is baked.  Before you put the "toppings" on you can remove the skin around each slice. They come off pretty easily.

Ana's Bio

My name is Ana and I grew up in Buenos Aires (Argentina). I moved to the US with my husband Daniel 10 years ago and after living in Pennsylvania, Washington, DC and Colorado, we now live in Cypress, TX with our son (5) and daughter (2). As a child, I was raised with food made from scratch at every meal and lots of fruits and vegetables on our table everyday so that is also what I try to do with my own kids. But living in a society where artificially colorful food-like products is abundant and so readily available, it is a constant challenge to keep my kids excited about our scratch-made meals and we frequently need to review the reason why his lunchbox content looks so different from most of his classmates. 

What Ana likes about Food with Kid Appeal

Your blog is not only an inspiration to try new recipes but also as reminder that I am not alone in this endeavor. A few years ago, I became increasingly interested in environmental issues and began to realize the benefits of organic/local produce as well as raw foods. Since then I have been trying to improve the quality of the ingredients I use and this spring we will be starting our own organic garden in our backyard. We are all very excited!

This post is participating in Kelly the Kitchen Kop's real food wednesday.

[Ed Note.  Don't you love it when life helps you out on days when you have so much on your plate that there are balls dropping you don't even remember tossing up?  Back in November I put out an APB for recipes from readers.  Ana was quick to respond with this awesome kid friendly way to get orange veggies down the hatch, but she lacked a photo.  She sent the photo today, and voila, I am able to cross "publish a recipe post" off my list of things to do ASAP. Thanks Ana for making my life a little easier today!]

Why I Don't Think School Food Reform = Nanny State

Bettina over The Lunch Tray, posted a link and commentary to a NYT article about the childhood obesity issue, who supports government intervention, who doesn't.  It got me thinking, and I ended up writing a long comment on her blog post, that I wanted to share here.

I grew up in Republican household with the belief that our great government should let our great people decide, and act on things for ourselves.  I think that's a fine mentality to have about consenting adults, but for children's health, I have a different perspective.

I think a highly packaged food diet harms children.  I think that kids who live with parents who are ignorant of nutrition deserve to have their schools, their churches, their community centers looking out for them.  I think the government should help everyone who feeds children including schools, restaurants, churches, etc. understand what it is they are feeding kids, and what it can do to a child's health if it is not eaten in moderation.  The government should also encourage organizations, and institutions feeding kids to do so in a nourishing way, not a health damaging way.  The government should enable operations to feed kids real food.  These kids are our people, our work force, our community.  They deserve health from anyone who can give it to them.

Junk Food in Moderation
Moderation does not mean packaged cereal or a cereal bar for breakfast, a lunchable and capri son for lunch followed by mac and cheese with a hot dog for dinner, filled in with goldfish and chex mix for snacks.  That is a 100% packaged food diet, and even though some of those items contain whole grains, proteins, fruit juice and are enriched with vitamins and minerals, it is not sufficient nourishment for a growing and developing child.

Why, oh why do people think that the government is trying to impose nanny state, when it is trying to protect children from harm?

A Nation of Sick People
What will happen to our nation when the majority of our current, next and future generations have serious health concerns?

• I'm not just talking about medical bills and high costs of health.  
• I'm talking about lost productivity for working adults who spend a lot of time at a Dr office or hospital managing conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, sleep apnea, depression etc.  
• I'm talking about our great nation not being able to innovate, develop and prosper because our population is too sick to thrive.  That means a depressed economy, poor job conditions.  I don't know about you, but I want my kids to have great job opportunities when they get out of college.  
• I'm talking about your kids dealing with death among their peers as young people.  Dealing with early death of their future spouses, friends, co-workers.  The next generation will bear a lot of grief losing loved ones before old age.

My Job Is to Feed My Kids Right
Maybe your kids are fine because you know better, but what about the other kids in the class who can't learn  because their brain doesn't have the nutrients it needs to pay attention and sit still, causing classroom disruptions and making it hard for the teacher to teach all the students, including your healthy child?

Maybe your child will be healthy as an adult because they eat right, but what happens when their best friend who ate a packaged food diet and their boss at work and uncle have serious health concerns, possible early death because they didn't eat right.  Now your healthy adult child is needlessly experiencing a lot of grief losing loved ones.

Your healthy adult child will have co-workers who constantly miss work due to health concerns and he will have to pick up the slack for them in their absence. Being overburdened at work will make your child lose precious time with his wife, kids, family and friends.

Do we really want to march forward singing the tune of "I'm taking care of my family, you take care of yours?"

It's not about trust here.  I trust most parents to do the right thing for their kids.  Sure there are some parents who didn't really want to be parents that can't get their sh*t together.  But there are many many many capable, loving, attentive parents who are unknowingly damaging their childrens' health because it is counter-intuitive that the majority of the food in the grocery store is health damaging.  The damage is subtle.  You don't know until it's too late, and then when you do know, you can't point the finger at this ingredient or that eating habit.    

The medical community is still trying to figure out what causes all of our health problems.  Is it GM foods?  Is it chemical additives in our food?  Is it lack of real nutrients?  Is it an imbalance of nutrients?  Is it too much sugar?  Too much fake fat?

I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist.  I can't prove anything to you.  I can say that on a real food diet for the past seven years, I feel younger, more energetic and more well than I ever have before.   I have less illness, less minor aches and pains and more feeling-awesome-ready-to-greet-the-world days.  Why don't  we all want that wellness, that productivity, that level of contribution and connectedness for each of America's children?

Here is the comment I left on Bettina's TLT post.  I'm not editing it, just pasting it stream of consciousness as I wrote it.  Hope my emotions didn't muddle up my thoughts too much.

_______________________________________________________________

I am always surprised when people link nanny state to a child's health.  A child can not feed himself.  He can not shop at the grocery store or prepare foods for himself.  He relies on his parents, his school and his community to do those things for him.

When parents and the community are ignorant of nutrition as so many people are, the child's health will suffer, precisely because our government allows food manufacturers to produce, market and sell entirely too much food that harms human health.

I also don't want the government to take away big macs.  But i do want the government to make a choice to care for the health of our country by saying, hey  John Q Public, go ahead and eat fast food, packaged food, soda and other low-fat food like factory made substances with no real ingredients as 95% of your diet over 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 decades.  Go ahead, but if you do you WILL get sick.   You will have IBS, or cancer,  become overweight, get diabetes, have high blood pressure, develop kidney stones,  etc.  That's not nanny state.  That's disclosure.   Same thing that we do with alcohol and cigarettes.

Kelly - unfortunately we do have to rely on the govt to make changes.  communities absolutely can plant gardens, teach kids about real food and offer more real food at school, home, and social gatherings. BUT.  In my experience, kids who like junky stuff, will NOT eat real food when junk is available.

However, when you remove the junk, kids, even those who eat a lot of packaged food, WILL eat real food.  When you add fresh fruits and vegetables to the school lunch line, a few kids eat them.  Most kids don't take them, and half that do toss them in the trash uneaten.

We saw that at Sherwood E when we did a taste-off competition.  Only thing on the menu was fresh fruits and vege.  No chips, no juice, no pretzels, no hotdogs.  82% of all students tried every thing offered.  http://tinyurl.com/4ugmwg8

When you teach kids why they should have them, a few more kids eat them.  As long as those fruits and vegetables are served along side chocolate milk and other carnival foods, kids will mostly not take advantage of any menu reform that is happening.    We saw that when we looked at the increase of fruits and vegetables consumed at Sherwood E after six months of nutrition education for all 400 of our students.  Fruit and Veg consumption increased, but we only gained a few new students eating fruits ( 25/335) and vegetables (52/335 for raw broccoli)  http://tinyurl.com/4j8pemg

Hmmm,  when students only have access to real food most will eat it.  When it is served along side carnival food most will not participate.

Until the govt changes the way school lunches are funded and reimbursed, the nutrition requirements for those lunches and gets rid of the hundreds of obstacles school food service groups have to actually delivering real food to students, not much will change in the area of school food.  

Unless every student receives nutrition education, any menu reform that does occur will have low acceptability.  Meaning it will be served, offered and either A) not taken from the line or B) tossed in the trash.

How do we get nutrition education to all students without asking the govt to make it so?

__________________

Your two cents?  Do you think the government should help kids achieve wellness by helping schools, families and kids lose weight and prevent weight gain?

Poop Matters - Kids Should Know

Sherwood students participating in the Eat to Learn program will not hear about the link between the fiber in cucumbers, healthy poop and a smart brain.  Their principal decided it was not appropriate for morning announcements and censored the content.  Food revolution attempt stymied again by an administrator who may be doing the right thing for teachers and test scores, but the wrong thing for student learning and health.

Poop Matters - Kids Should Know
I get that hearing a lesson about poop would get kids talking and asking questions. It might even cause a classroom disruption.  Responses to curious students would eat into time for planned and required lessons. 

But, I don't know why it makes sense for a school to pass up an opportunity to teach a very important health lesson to students. 

Do we really think that elementary students aren't smart enough to handle information about poop, a normal bodily function, and use it to become better learners?

Do you know how many Americans suffer needlessly from constipation?  Do you know how serious health concerns can become for people who suffer from constipation for years and years?  Did you know that a real food diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables provides plenty of fiber to keep bowels moving, toxins removed and brains functioning properly?

Sherwood students won't be learning it.  Too bad.  There would have been a captive audience of 400 students willing and ready to learn about how eating produce can keep their brains healthy by getting rid of toxins via regular bowel movements.

If you're a Sherwood parent and want to share this important lesson with your child, here are the morning announcements for the vegetable of the week, cucumbers, as I wrote them.

Read on for an update on how Eat to Learn is changing kids eating habits in the Sherwood cafeteria.

Cucumbers Give Kids Healthy Poop and Smart Brains

Day 1  Cucumbers contain Vitamin C.  Vitamin C enters into brain cells easily. Once Vitamin C is in your brain it protects brain cells.  Vitamin C protects neurotransmitters from bad oxygen (oxidation).  Cucumbers are a defense shield for your brain.

Day 2  What happens when you forget to take out the kitchen trash?

(Pause and wait for classes to think/answer)  

It gets stinky and really gross!  If you forget to take out the kitchen trash for 5 days, you do not want to be in the kitchen.  Yucky smell! 

Cucumbers contain fiber.  Fiber is necessary to help your bowels function properly.  Bowel is a medical term for the tubes that hold the waste your body makes from the food you eat.  Your body turns food waste into poop.  When your body can’t “take out the poop” it stays in your body and gets really gross.  The waste products in your poop turn into toxins, and hurt your brain.  Your brain doesn’t want to be in your body when the poop doesn’t get taken out every day or two! 

Eat some high fiber cucumbers and keep your bowels emptied out.  All fruits and vegetables contain fiber.

Day 3  Magnesium is a mineral in cucumbers. Magnesium is needed in every cell in your body.  Magnesium helps your brain in a special way.  Magnesium helps your brain focus and pay attention. 

Day 4  Cucumbers contain Potassium.  Potassium channels are key elements which control and shape electrical activity in the brain and determine memory and learning.  To learn and remember a lot of facts, eat sliced cucumbers plain or in your salad so your can get lots of potassium to your brain.

Day 5  Sliced cucumbers are on the menu today.  Grab some on your tray and feed your brain.

Here’s the wrap on cucumbers

«   Vitamin C in cukes gives your brain a defense shield

«   Potassium in cukes makes your brain learn and remember facts.

«   Magnesium in cukes makes your brain focus and pay attention

«   Fiber in cukes helps move poop from your bowels to the toilet.  Put the toxins in the toilet, far far away from your brain!

Eat to Learn Status Update
Sherwood Elementary is in month 6 of the Eat to Learn program.  Daily morning announcements began airing in October featuring one school food produce item each week.  The goal is to link the fruits and vegetables students get in school food to learning.  My theory was that if you make fruits and vegetables relevant to kids they will eat them. 

What is more relevant to a student than brain power?  Elementary students are hooked on learning.  Why not link learning to real food and see if more goes down the hatch. 

Fruit and Vegetable consumption Before and After
Eat to Learn seems to be working.  Raw broccoli consumption on campus is up 80%.  In the fall raw broccoli was not widely accepted.  An average of 31 students, or 9% of cafeteria eaters, accepted broccoli in September 2010.   The most recent data day showed 82 students accepted broccoli, a 164% increase in broccoli acceptance.  This is a small victory, as we still have an average of 274 cafeteria eaters not accepting raw broccoli. 

I had limited data to use to compare before and after fruit vegetable consumption.  I did not receive data for each fruit and vegetable covered in the program.  I also did not get the same number of data points for each type of produce, so drawing conclusions was a less than scientific.  Here is what the data I have could show:

• Fresh Fruit  was widely accepted by 49% of cafeteria eaters before the program.  There was a 14% increase in fresh fruit acceptability over the past six months.  However, I have only three preE2L data points and 11 postE2L data points, so that conclusion may not trustworthy.
• Carrot sticks appeared to have wide acceptance before morning announcements began airing, and acceptance remains strong, but no significant change.  An average of 135 students or 40% of cafeteria eaters accept carrot sticks as of Feb 2011.
• "Tossed Salad" (a bit of iceberg lettuce and a tomato slice) actually saw a decrease in acceptability (40%) over the data period, but the food service folks tell me that's probably due to poor lettuce quality in the winter months due to freezing temps.  Kids don't eat brown lettuce. Or boring salads with low quality tomato slices barely fit for hiding under a sandwich bun.  Big surprise.  
• Cooked broccoli also seems to show an increase (26%) but I don't have before data, and with only two data points, I'm not sure how valid the conclusion is.
• Mixed Fruit (aka fruit cocktail in lite syrup) showed an increase (26%) but again, only 2 data points and neither were from before Eat to Learn launched.

My Question To Teachers
I have a question for teachers (past and present). If your school had a nutrition education program that talked about healthy poop, and your elementary students got curious and asked a bunch of questions all day, even into the next week about vegetables, fiber, poop and healthy brains, would you feel put out?  Would you feel like valuable classroom time was wasted on an unnecessary health lesson?  Would you feel overburdened by having to discuss something with your students that is the health teacher's job, the nurses job, or the parents job?  I'm truly interested in hearing from teachers who support and oppose nutrition education in the classroom.


My Question to Parents
Would you be put out if your child spent some time learning about how to improve their brain function by eating fruits and vegetables during their school day?  Or, in other words, do you mind if your child has 10 less minutes for reading, writing and test preparation in order to get some nutrition and health education in the classroom?

See you in the comments!

Real Food Recipes for Healthy Leprechauns - Dye Free St. Patrick's Day Treats

Sometimes life intervenes and I don't get to do what I want as a blogger.  I'd planned on making guacamole dip from the cookbook I was featured in as my 2011 Saint Patrick's Day recipe, but out of town Spring Break visitors and urgent care visits said otherwise. (Little boo is breathing fine now!)

So instead, here is a round-up of some real green recipes I have featured before on Food with Kid Appeal, as well as links to some of the other places FwKA recipes have been featured.

Party Drama
A holiday is a mixed bag for a real foodie.  I believe kids can have a blast making and tasting food that is naturally colored and enjoy a holiday with real food treats.  I get grief from family who think I'm just a holiday bah humbug because I snub my nose a petrochemical food dyes and junky store bought treats on holidays.  Party hosts get their feelers hurt when my kids or I opt out of a chemically food-dyed item.

It's hard for everybody to wrap their brain around what I oppose. I'm anti junky food additives.  I'm not anti sugar, treats, fun or colorful food.  It's also hard to reconcile the gap between my definition of "moderation" and others' definition of "moderation."  I don't want to eat junky chemical food additives in moderation.  I don't want to eat them at all.  Since food scarcity is rarely an issue at a party and there are usually plenty of menu items to choose from, I can usually still find something to eat at a party that doesn't involve ingesting factory made junk.  I'm very fortunate that all of my family cooks from scratch most of the time. Outside of store bought treats, family meals are usually pretty nourishing.

I choose to eat real food treats in moderation.  I choose to almost nearly eliminate factory made food even during holidays and special occasions.  I'm not judging other folks choices, I'm taking care of my health. I'm teaching my kids to think about the food they eat, even foods they eat in moderation.

I will be saying "no thanks" to artificially colored menu items tonight at our family St. Patrick's day party.  The kids are on their own.  If they want to indulge, they may.  They may say no thanks as well, not sure how it will all play out.  I will probably catch some hell for my choices and theirs. I can live with that.

Kid Appeal Tip  According to a little web research, leprechauns cause mischief by pinching people on St. Patrick's Day.  In order to avoid a prank by a leprechaun you can wear green so they don't see you.  Why not take that a little farther with the tots?  Let them know that in addition to wearing green, they can be even more invisible to leprechauns by eating plenty of real green food.  Leprechauns can see artificial colors so the only sure way to protect against a pinch is eating naturally green food. Green food like broccoli, spinach, kiwi and grapes.  Let me know if it works in getting some wholesome food down the hatch!

Naturally Green St. Patrick's Day Recipes
Green Kefir Smoothie from Not a Short Order Cook.

Green Monster Smoothie from Brenda at Meal Planning Magic

Green Macaroni and Cheese from FwKA







Healthy Little Green Pearls from FwKA








St. Patrick Day recipe round-ups featuring Food with Kid Appeal recipes and guest posts
I'm always so honored when an unknown blogger or reader decides to link up to one of my posts.  Thanks for the love!  Disclaimer (not all recipes featured by other bloggers are chemical dye free...).
PBS Kitchen Explorers
Meal Planning Magic
The Foodies
Polka Dot Design
Two Kids Cooking
My Delicious Ambiguity
Pitter Patter Fun
Nourish MD
Mr Food
Two Kids and a mom Cooking
Messy Kids
Red Plum 
Food with Kid Appeal (more green recipes)

(If you linked up to one of my posts for a St. Pat's article and I missed you, I'm sorry!  Leave me a comment with the URL and I'll get the list updated.)

This post is participating in Life as Mom's St Pat's URS and Pennywise Platter (link coming soon).

Enjoy your little leprechauns today!

Real Green Food St. Patrick's Day Party

student tastes food at real red food valentine's day party

[Ed. Note.  This is a story from FwKA reader, Sheryl.  Read how the Real Red Food Valentine's Day party went down in her son's class, and her plans for a vegetable filled St. Patrick's Day party.]

Happy Valentine’s Day!!**

*did I mention no candy or cakes involved?

My 7 year old son has such a wonderful teacher this year.  Mrs. B has been very receptive to all the ideas I have thrown out at her, which included making your own green and gold fruit kebabs to celebrate the Packer’s Super Bowl,  and having a ‘Real Red’ Valentine’s Day party was no exception. 

When I presented this idea to her, she had no hesitations.  The activity would even correspond to a unit on healthy eating that she was teaching. Tasting real red food was only one part of the party.  The students would also be painting and decorating a love note box and completing an obstacle course.  Mrs. B sent out an e-mail about what the food portion of the party was about and how we were trying to introduce the students to real, healthy foods.   

Parent Response

The response was overwhelming.  Parents were thrilled to be able to contribute healthy foods to the party.  I came to school early on the day of the party to clean fruits and veggies and was amazed.  The parents had provided:  red peppers, cherry  tomatoes, Macintosh apples, radishes, strawberries, cherry crasins, gluten/casein/peanut/egg free trail mix with cranberries in it, salsa, beet and pineapple salad, red grapes, pomegranate and red grapefruit juice.   

Did each parent understand the point of the activity?  The majority did but one parent sent in pepperoni and the grapefruit juice was not 100% juice.

Teacher Preparation

The classroom teacher had done a wonderful job preparing the students for the activity.  She had explained numerous times that they were expected to try each item.  If they didn’t care for the food item, the response should not be negative but instead, “Hmmm…that was rather interesting.”   

Mrs. B provided clipboards for the students to use while they filled out their questionnaire which included the name of the food, a quick sketch of the food, a prediction if they will like the food, and a rating scale:  3 – awesome, 2 – pretty good, 1 – no thanks!  Each student voted for their favorite red food.

Student Response

Where the kids disappointed to have a party without candy, cookies, and cupcakes?  Not at all!   I didn’t hear a single complaint. The kids thought it was a lot of fun to try new foods.  I had made the beets and pineapple dish and was amazed to find so many students tried it – including my own super fussy eater.  The teacher even welcomed the opportunity to try some vegetables she had never tried!   

• The most popular red food was strawberries but there were a lot of other favorites.   
• One boy couldn’t get enough salsa and was drinking it from the cup.   
• Another girl ate red peppers hand over fist.  
• The least favorite was the radishes.   
• Most of the 14 students had tried all the ‘real red’ foods.

I have to admit, I didn’t really hear a lot of feedback from the parents regarding the party.  I asked Mrs. B if she had and she hadn’t.  I figure no news is good news. Mrs B has noticed that the students were bringing more fruits and vegetables for snacks for themselves and to share with the class.  To me, that is a good sign.  Several teachers have also requested information from Mrs. B so that they could do a ‘real red’ party next year.  

Green Food Next

What’s next?  Just presented and confirmed today…a St. Patrick’s Day party with green fruits and vegetables.  Making an appearance will be green beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, green grapes, granny smith apples, kiwi, and broccoli.   To spice it up, the students are going to smell the foods first to see if they can match the smell to the food. 

This was a fun, simple activity to do with my son’s class.  Thanks for letting me share.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday.

Healthy St Patrick's Day Recipe - Green Monster Smoothie

[Ed. Note.  This is a guest post from Brenda Thompson at Meal Planning Magic.  If you're like me and don't bat an eye at meal planning, you'll probably find a few useful tips on her blog, not to mention some delish recipes.  She's a fellow Houston blogger.  Enjoy this green recipe just in time for Saint Patrick's Day.]

Believe it or not, the one vegetable I can pretty much guarantee my children will eat is spinach. They like it raw in salads or cooked in casseroles, dips or soups. Sometimes they will even just munch on it plain! So, last summer when we were visiting my sister-in-law and her family I was intrigued when she offered us a green smoothie. She said it had spinach in it and I’ll be honest, at first I thought “Ewww, spinach in a smoothie?” Her version included bananas, ice cubes and bit of honey. It was delicious and I was anxious to try it out at home. Since my family prefers creamier smoothies and I like to include a little extra protein in them, I came up with my own version using milk and yogurt too. I’ve nicknamed it the Green Monster Smoothie because it just seems to fit.

Green Monster Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 ½ C skim milk

½ C plain yogurt

2 very ripe bananas (the riper they are, the sweeter they are)

2 C loosely packed baby spinach

1 T honey

Combine all ingredients in blender until blended. Pour and enjoy!

Makes 4 cups.

Our taste test at home received mixed reviews. My daughter crinkled her nose before she even tried it but she did take a sip. Thumbs down for her. Her verdict: “It just tastes weird.” My son on the other hand, not only liked it, he drank nearly half of it for his after school snack one day!

Our Green Monster Smoothie has become a regular at breakfast, after school or just whenever. I feel good knowing we’re getting a tasty drink that is good for us too! I have had smoothies with avocado in them too—another way to get a little extra green into our diets—so plan to try that soon. And I’m hoping my daughter eventually comes around on the Green Monster Smoothie too!

What's in your smoothie?

Healthy Little Green Pearls - Natural St Patrick's Day Recipe

"Cool, Mom!  You're national,"  my seven year old said when I told him one of my green recipes was featured on the PBS food blog, Kitchen Explorers. The perspective of my child sure does boost my ego.  He's come such a long way from the one year old who used to cry when I wouldn't let him eat frozen green peas every time I opened the freezer (there are disadvantages to bottom door freezers). Six years later, he's still a big fan of green peas, frozen, on the side or in fried rice. 

Because I forgot about this tasty recipe, I was sure you'd forgotten about it too.  A memory refresher is in order and just time in time for a holiday all about green food.  We do green food naturally without food dyes.  What are better naturally green things than vegetables. Nothing.

This recipe is so simple, you can pull it together with a bag of frozen peas stashed in the freezer for a quick supper night and half an onion.  You need 2 minutes to hack the onion, 8 minutes to cook the onion and another 2 for the peas to lose their chill and turn into bright green pearls before you and your leprechauns devour them.

I know they'll be on our menu next week when all things green come out to play at the dinner table.

See here for the original recipe for Kicked Up A Notch Green Peas and here for PBS Kitchen Explorers round-up of St. Patty's day recipes.  There are a couple other naturally green recipes featured.  I liked Aviva's description of my recipe, so I used it for the title to this post.  Always happy to have wordsmiths make my work better!

Frugal Real Food
Peas are frugal.  I was buying organic frozen peas, but I don't think that's necessary anymore so I save a few pennies and buy conventional.

Growing a Generation of Good Eaters
Will you take 1 minute to help me grow a generation of good eaters?  Babble is running a top 100 mom food blogs contest.  I'm currently sitting at number 87 with 12 likes.  If I get 127 likes, I make the top 10.  Follow this link, click on the "alphabetically" tab, scroll to page 2, look for the "F" section and click the "like" button.  Thanks!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday and Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

What naturally green things will you be serving for St. Patrick's day?

Eating to Learn in Houston Makes Food Revolution News

students pose with taste off punch cards

Last month, Sherwood Elementary's Eat to Learn program was featured in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution February Newsletter.  Sherwood Eagles should be proud to officially be part of the Food Revolution.  These young people truly are changing their future health by learning what to eat in order to fuel their body. Hop on over here to read Sherwood's Eating to Learn story in the Food Revolution newsletter.

Sherwood is now in month 6 of the Eat to Learn nutrition education program.  So far it's going good from what I can tell.  I'd like to have more feedback from classroom teachers directly.  I'm hearing an equal amount of positive and negative feedback.  I've heard some complaints funneled through the principal, but I have to believe there are more teachers who supporter the program.  Just have to find them! 

• The cafeteria manager estimates that vegetable consumption is up 10% since the Taste-Off Competition.
• Some teachers are reporting that the morning announcements are getting kids talking and thinking about how fruits and vegetables fuel their brain.  
• One teacher believes her students are choosing more fruits and vegetables at lunch because of the morning announcements.
• Parents are stopping me at volunteer events telling me their kids are eating spinach, celery and carrots, as well as choosing white milk in lieu of chocolate milk, citing "brain fuel" as the reason.

I'm looking forward to our Health Fair at the end of March where I'll have some food packaging as a big reveal on what's really in those food products marketed to kids and busy parents.  I'll also have a feedback posters out so that kids, parents and staff can let me know what they think, good and bad, about the program.  

I believe at least part of the program will be repeated next year, such as the Turkey Trot and the morning announcements.  I'm still working on getting approval for another Taste Off Competition next year.  We'll see how that campaign goes. 

Your Stories!
How are Food Revolution and school food improvement efforts going at your school?  Have you heard Yes or No from administrators?  Are the programs being implemented showing signs of success?  What obstacles have you had to overcome?  Leave a comment and let us know.  If you're up for writing an article about your efforts, contact me at jenna@foodwithkidappeal.com for submission details.

Recovering Picky Eaters Challenge Tales From the Trenches Week 2

In just two weeks we recovering picky eater challengers are already 30 challengers strong!  We are also welcoming back 2 participants from last year.

In the last year, Facebook has become a better place for dialog versus the comment section of a blog post.  Given that, I will be starting a weekly RPEC Tales from the Trenches status update on each Sunday.  I will keep the Sunday RPEC tales from the trenches status updates going for as long as there are participants popping over to talk about how their tastings have been going.

If you haven't already "liked" Food with Kid Appeal on Facebook, you can do that here.  Just stay tuned on Sunday for the RPEC thread. When you see it, leave a comment.

What should you share?  Anything pertaining to the challenge is fair game.  Whether it's working, not working, stumbling blocks, successes.  Whether you think it's a bunch of malarkey or an window of opportunity to change your relationship to food.  If you're stuck, try

Answering any of these questions:
What recipe did you try?
Were you able to taste the food?
Did you like/not like the challenge ingredient in the recipe?
What recipe will you try next?
What was helpful in getting you to change your mindset about the challenge ingredient?

The week two status update is already up for this week.  Go now.  Discuss amongst yourselves.  Or, if you're feeling shy, hop on over there and lurk to see how other challengers are doing.

How long does it take to change mindset?
It depends on how long you haven't liked an item, and how committed you are to the mindset shift.

How I went from onion hater to onion lover
I spent my whole life thinking I didn't like onions.  It wasn't true, but I didn't know that as a kid or young adult.  I'd eaten onions dozens of times and tolerated them without really knowing it.  But if I ever spied an onion piece in my food, I would pick it out, or skip the dish.

The funny thing is, I didn't grow up thinking I didn't like leeks or shallots, because these weren't ingredients my mom used.  When I started cooking with them as a way to add flavor to meals for my husband that I would ordinarily omit onions from, I accepted them immediately.  Next came local spring onions in my co-op veggie share, then red onions.  I actually loved the dishes I made with the onions in my co-op share, and instantly I was no longer an onion hater.

I can even eat red onions raw on a burger or in a salad.

Do you want to give the mindset theory a shot and learn to like a food you hate (or think you hate)?  Hop on over here and leave a comment to join the challenge.  

See you in the comments on Facebook!  If you don't do facebook, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post. 

Oven Fries - A Healthy French Fry

Monday I posted about mashed potatoes. 

I heart potatoes.  In my book, potatoes aren't bad for you. They actually have a good variety of nutrients, antioxidants, and are a good source of carbohydrates which give you energy. Potatoes makes Dave Grotto's 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life list and George's World's Healthiest foods list.

Perhaps the problem in potatoes lies in what other starchy carbs we're eating, and whether or not potatoes are a part of your vegetable rotation or are on the menu every night.  If potatoes and corn are the only veggies on your yes list, you might have vegetable rotation work to do.

The beauty of this recipe is that if you're using a healthy oil you are only getting good fat when you eat these roasted fries. The amount of fat used is far less than what is absorbed when you deep fat fry a potato.  I say, indulge in oven fries.  Go ahead and take seconds.

Oven Fries Recipe
1 medium to large potato per person
1-2 TBSP healthy fat
Dry spice mix of your choice to taste (I use a Mediterranean spice mix Georgia's sells)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 400, put roasting pan in the oven to preheat.  Cut potatoes in to steak fries.  Coat with fat and add seasonings.  You don't want  them really wet, just a light coating of fat.  Carefully remove hot roasting pan from the oven and spread potatoes in an even layer.  Roast for about 20 minutes (or until they start to turn brown), then flip potatoes and return to oven. To flip use a spatula and scrape the all off the pan, then flip.  The fries will want to stick to the pan, but with some elbow grease and a good technique you will be able to get them off and flip.  Cook another 20 minutes until they are golden brown on all sides.  They will be fork tender before they brown all the way.  To get a crisp outer texture you need the extra time to brown.

If your fries come out soft and mushy or broken up the first time, keep trying.  It took me a while to perfect my method.  It is worth the time investment to get this recipe right.  They are a crowd pleaser every time.  Roasted potatoes don't taste bad when soft, they just don't taste much like fries.  Your taters will be completely edible until you reach perfection.

There are always a few softies in the batch.  That's OK in our family.  Hubby prefers them on the softer side, I prefer them on the crisp side, and the boys are happy with any variety.  There's something for everyone!

Kid Appeal Tip  My kids still fuss a little about skin-on mashed potatoes.  And they still scoop out insides from baked potatoes.  They don't even notice the skins on roasted potatoes, no matter what shape I cut them in.  Half the nutrition is in the skin.  That doesn't mean that eating peeled potatoes is "bad" for you.  No need to fret about it, just make a point of teaching your kids over time to accept the skins (organic potatoes only).  Let them know the skins have vitamins and minerals that help them stay well and make their brain smart.  While you eat your skins be sure they hear you say something like, "I'm gobbling up my skins.  I have a big deadline due tomorrow and I need lots of brain power to finish it right."

So which side of the fence are you on? Potatoes are good or bad for you?

Healthy Birthday Party Menu Plan Happy Birthday Big Boo

double grass-fed beef slider w/ lettuce & tomato

In case you all were wondering what a real food blogger feeds guests at a kid birthday party, here are the deets.

Big Boo turns 7 on Saturday.  I don't really want to talk about it.  He's my first born.  And seven seems so wise and mature.  He can draw his own bath.  Read non-fiction books.  He voluntarily looks for ways to help family members who are sick or have a problem.  I want to hold on to six just as long as I can. This day, today was the last Wednesday I'll ever spend with my first born six year old.  Next Wednesday he'll be seven. I know seven will be full of sweetness and marvel.  He'll acquire new skills, abilities and develop new dimensions of his character; but for now,  I just want big boo the way I know him right now today to linger....just a little longer.  Birthdays are bittersweet.  Nuff said.

I consulted the birthday boy on what well rounded meal he wanted to serve his guests.  First they roller-skate, then return to chez nous for dinner and cake.  Then 2 friends spend the night and get birthday breakfast before heading home tired and exhausted to their parents. 

He liked the idea of grilled cheeseburgers as a main course.  For the vegetable he picked carrot and cabbage slaw, and a side item he picked oven fries.  Carrot cake was his pick, even though I tried to steer him towards cheesecake.  We ate mini sliders over the weekend, and he fancied them for birthday grub.  I talked him out of that claiming dad would have an easier time on the grill with fewer larger burgers. 

Since we're feeding 9 adults and six kids I didn't splurge for grass-fed beef for the burgers.  I did find local natural beef at Georgia's, so that's what guests will be dining on.  It saved me $2 a pound.  I'll find some bakery bread for buns so we can avoid weirdo ingredients.  Tilamook cheddar is our house cheese. 

I guess I need to get hubby's recipe for burgers.  I have moved past my fear of working with raw meat in terms of chickens.  But I still hate working with raw ground meat.  Hubby always does that for me when he's around. 

Funny story about big boo last time we were at McD for a playdate (there, I said it, on occasion we eat at McD, not because I like it, but because it's where friends and family are.)

He opens his happy meal burger and says, "Mom, where are the pickles, lettuce and tomato?"

Me: "McD doesn't think kids like vegetables, so they don't put them on kid meal burgers. Pretty silly eh?  Would you like me to ask them to add vegetables to your burger?"

Him "What??  A burger is not a burger without lettuce and tomato."

Here are the recipes for big boo's 7th healthy real food birthday party menu.  Hope he's still one of the popular kids after this menu!

Carrot and Cabbage Slaw.







 Oven fries

Whole Grain Carrot cake - with white wheat flour, coconut oil and flax seed.  I'm resisting the urge to use my raw milk clabbered milk cheese (consistency like cream cheese) for the cream cheese frosting.  I'm fine with serving this wholesome cheese to guests, but I know not everyone is on the raw cheese bandwagon....

I no longer use artificial food dyes.  Last year we put letters built out of legos on cupcakes.  I have natural food dyes to try out this year.

Egg Toast with local farm eggs from my favorite farmer Cathy.  We eat this for breakfast on school mornings (minus the hole, cooks faster that way.) For a birthday I'll whip out bacon and fruit.  He has two eggs, one toast.  He pops one egg yolk smears it around, getting an even coating all over the toast.  The other yolk he leaves as a "secret surprise" for me to cut  into with a knife.  He likes to watch it gush out all over the plate. Then he mops up all the orange-yellow yolk lingering on his plate with the toast bites.  I love that kid.  Hard to believe in a decade he'll be eating breakfast in the dorm cafeteria (or more likely skipping breakfast so he can sleep in before class).  Dammit.  Didn't I say, I didn't want to talk about my kids getting older??

How do you do birthday party menus in your house?

Fiesta Carrot Salad

I've made this "salad" twice now for demonstrations.  I finally got around to making it for my family and getting a picture.  The boys really liked peeling the carrots into ribbons snakes and little boo did a great job shaking up the vinaigrette.  Hubby complained about the cumin in the recipe.  He said it tasted "gritty."  I use dry spice in lots of vinaigrette and he only complains when it's on broccoli or carrots.  I guess the "grit" is acceptable on greens, but not single veggie salads?  I happen to like the additional smoky flavor to the tang of the dressing. The kids ate up the carrot snakes.

The first demonstration was at a family talent show last summer. I had 10 cousins in the 9 and under crowd help me dump in ingredients, shake the dressing in mason jar, pour over carrots and serve in dixie cups to the family. One particular 3 year old cousin surprised his mom when he asked for a second serving of carrots!

What can I say? I have a certain talent of getting kids who usually won't eat vegetables to try, eat and yes, like carrots and green beans. The public demonstration and dixie cups help a ton. Plus it's not at meal time, it's just a food demo and some samples.

Most recently a friend and fellow Healthy Lifestyles committee member prepared this while I spoke to parents about Sherwood Elementary's Eat to Learn Program, and gave them the run down on what fat, protein, carbohydrates and micronutrients (aka antioxidants) do to help their kid's learn.

This is a great salad to make with your kids. Let them shake the vinaigrette. Let them pour ingredients into the mason jar. If they are old enough to handle a peeler, let them peel the carrot into nice long ribbons into a salad bowl. Have them dump on the vinaigrette and toss the carrot ribbons about.

And if you ever find yourself in a situation at a party, family gathering or school function where you can demonstrate how easy and tasty it is to prepare carrots in this way, please give it a shot. One reader wrote in asking what she could do for a healthy cooking demonstration to a Kindergarten Class. I suggested this recipe.

Fiesta Carrot Salad Recipe

Ingredients

1 bag of shoe string carrots, or 4-6 carrots peeled and ribboned (use a peeler to make length-wise carrot ribbons).

3 TBSP Olive Oil (extra virgin is best)

1 TBSP Mild Vinegar (apple cider, white wine, rice wine)

1/4 tsp Cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment

Large mixing bowl.

Empty mason or jam jar

Measuring spoons

Serving spoon or tongs

Dixie cups (for demonstrations)

Directions

Whole carrots: peel the carrots, discarding outer peel. Continue peeling carrots into the mixing bowl making carrot ribbons. Bag of shoestring carrots: open the bag of carrots and add them to a large mixing bowl. To the empty Mason jar, add the olive oil, vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper. Screw the lid on tightly and ask a kid to shake it up. Give it a taste test. Pour over carrots just before serving (shake dressing again if necessary) and toss. Serve in dixie cups to tots at a play date, or on a dinner plate.

the tongue needs to be just so

Kid Appeal Tip Kids who help prepare food are more likely to taste the food they make and eventually enjoy it. This is a tasty and fun way to introduce kids to carrots, or a new way of eating carrots. The bonus is home-made dressings are fun to shake up and avoid all the preservatives and less brain friendly oils store bought versions contain.

For more Jam Jar Dressing Recipes for your kids to shake up, check out Jamie Oliver's roundup.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday