Food for thought
June 1, 2010 | Food for thought
Kelly served the kids green eggs and ham last week. India Tree natural food coloring and organic bacon, that’s what we’re turning to for easy dinner pizazz. It’s been a slippery slope since the beginning of spring, and until summer inspiration hits we’re expanding the evening meal plan into the breakfast and lunch categories. It turns out the kids love having waffles and eggs with broccoli for dinner.
We begin with vegetables and a protein and fill in around them to build a creative meal. Leftovers in the fridge with rice wrapped in a spelt tortilla or sheet of Nori seaweed, carrots with hummus and guacamole dips, fried egg on brown rice spaghetti–most anything goes. We started with one night a week and now may be up to two spontaneous dinners. The kids like the change, and it’s also made dinner more fun. Four year old Oliver envisions a new way of eating–turkey burgers for breakfast, pancakes for lunch and oatmeal at 6 pm. Though in the end, we realized that breakfast goes better as dinner than the other way around.
And, when we do have energy to do more than heat and roll, Weelicious is great for new food ideas.
March 2, 2010 | Food for thought
Our friend Kass Lazerow turned us on to Jamie Oliver’s award speech at the recent TED Conference. Oliver has started a movement in Britain and the United States to educate families about nutrition and cooking in an effort to fight the obesity epidemic. He’s visiting schools, grocery stores and family living rooms–literally and via his new TV show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution”–to discuss the problem and teach simple steps to a healthier diet.
Oliver’s TED speech is worth watching because he identifies the slide of American eating habits from home cooked meals to fast food and outlines an approach for change. Schools are central to his plan–he advocates teaching cooking in class in addition to improving the meals served, especially important since many kids eat breakfast and lunch at school. Oliver shares powerful footage of his visits to classrooms where the lack of food knowledge is striking, and how simple programs like his work in West Virginia can make a big change in children’s health.
The TED Prize grants recipients a chance to pursue their wish to change the world. Oliver’s wish is to further his work with American families, schools and corporations to educate and change the way we eat. Oliver is an inspiring reminder for us to pay more attention and not succumb to the food industry–as he encourages, “America needs to stand up for better food!”
December 15, 2009 | Food for thought
Fun to make and great for gifts, the sugar cookie is a holiday classic. Years ago, our friend Trish Hecker found this recipe for gluten-free Sugar Cut-Out Cookies. She uses Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix for the icing and natural cookie decorations like India Tree Natures Colors or Sprinkelz. Simple and delicious!
1/2 cup butter or margarine (room temperature, not melted)
2 tablespoons honey More
November 4, 2009 | Food for thought
We’ve been fascinated with food dehydrators since tasting a friend’s just dried crunchy pecans. Delicious–and we never thought we liked pecans that much in the first place! Plus raw food experts explain that roasting and baking can remove nutrients from fruits, nuts and vegetables, whereas drying them maintains their natural good stuff.
The beauty of the food dehydrator is its simplicity–a rectangular box with sliding trays that provides favorite snacks and science experiments. The kids set nuts, fruit, even vegetables on the trays, slide them into the dehydrator, then after they’re dried, taste test and study the results. Weelicious creates yummy fruit and vegetable baby teethers with a food dehydrator.
We like the Excalibur dehydrators because they’re easy to use and clean, and Excalibur’s awareness of BPA issues. Most food dehydrators use polycarbonate plastic, which has BPA, because polycarbonate works well for heating. In the Excalibur, food sits on BPA-free polypropylene screens so food never touches the polycarbonate frame.
August 5, 2009 | Food for thought
Smoothies are ideal for letting kids “cook” in the kitchen–they love creating their own smoothie snack or breakfast, they don’t mind if we add some good stuff like flax seeds, and the only clean up is the blender.
We set the ingredients on the counter, and the kids pour what they want in the blender. We watch so they don’t add too much of one thing, otherwise it’s their creation. They push the buttons on the blender with our supervision. When they find a favorite combination, we help remember the recipe, and they choose a name, like “Blueberry Bubbles”.
Organic ingredient ideas: fresh or frozen fruit (frozen for that icy taste and fresh banana for sweetness), ground flax seeds
(Lyndsey’s kids say they LOVE flax in their smoothies), apple juice/water, rice or oat milk, Acai smoothie packs (unsweetened from the freezer section), goat yogurt, and a touch of vanilla extract. More