January 2015

Activity- How Does Your Garden Grow? Getting Ready to Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden

Imagine opening your back door to retrieve an ingredient needed for that night’s supper. Imagine kids literally “picking” their own vegetables to eat. Believe it or not, it’s easier than you may think to make this fantasy a reality! The growing popularity of the farm to table movement has led more and more families to plant their own small vegetable gardens right in their own back yard, and you and your family can take part too. Use these simple guidelines to spend an afternoon with your kids preparing for a vegetable garden of your very own!

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Cook With Butternut Squash: Nutrition, Tips & Fun Food Facts

Fun Food Fact

What’s shaped like a pear, is a cousin to the pumpkin, and was born in 1944? If you said butternut squash, you’re correct! The squash family is thousands of years old, but the butternut variety is actually pretty new to the tribe. Australians call this type of squash a “butternut pumpkin”. Although pumpkins and butternut squash are similar, pumpkins are actually classified as a fruit, while butternut squash is identified as a vegetable.

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Where Did that Come From? The Importance of Knowing Where Your Food and Kitchen Products Originate

We all know it’s important to pay attention to what we’re feeding our children, but it’s also critical that we consider where our kitchenware and cooking equipment come from. While it might seem overwhelming to add yet another thing to think about while preparing meals, we think paying attention to potential chemical threats is well worth it. Here’s how to make sure your family is safe:

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Cook With Nutmeg: Nutrition, Tips & Fun Food Facts

Fun Food Facts

Did you know nutmeg once caused a war? We think of nutmeg as a yummy spice included in eggnog, but its production was extremely valuable several hundred years ago. Back then, nutmeg trees only grew on a few Indonesian islands. In 1621, the Dutch waged a war to control these islands just for their nutmeg production. They even sent out warships to destroy nutmeg trees planted elsewhere. Learn more about the history of nutmeg, here. 

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Activity- Apron Decorating

Cold winter months mean more time indoors, and more time indoors means a need for fun indoor activities! If this need sounds familiar to you, you’ve come to the right place! Hand decorated aprons are perfect for wear in the kitchen or to protect clothes during arts and crafts time too! This apron making activity is not only an opportunity to have fun and express creativity; it also leaves your healthy little cooks with an apron of their very own (or one to give to a loved one!).

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Five Easy Steps to an Indoor Winter Herb Garden

Fresh herbs add flavor and antioxidants to almost any dish. While it’s true that herbs are “in season” throughout summer, it’s quite easy to grow an herb garden during winter, too. Just follow these five simple steps for growing your own indoor winter herb garden. This project is a great way to teach little ones about how plants grow and are maintained. Even better, your kiddo can contribute to each family meal with his/her home grown herbs! 

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Cook With Sage: Nutrition, Tips & Fun Food Facts

Fun Food Facts

Sage is a very old herb. The Romans prized it as a medicine (salvia, the official name for sage, means to heal or save). Centuries ago, people were also convinced that sage produced wisdom. Have you ever heard the phrase “sage advice”? How about the word “sage” being used to describe a person? It means someone who is very wise. Sage is a versatile plant: a pungent herb for cooking, an attractive landscaping bush, a soothing medicinal tea, and a popular greenery in craft projects.

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Activity- What’s Wrong with this Plate?

One of the goals of feeding your kiddos healthy meals is to lead them to a lifetime of healthy cooking and healthy eating. With this goal in mind, we want our little ones to be able to use good judgment on their food choices wherever they are and whatever they are offered—even when we aren’t around to help guide them. This activity will help them learn how to make good choices and have fun doing it. Plus, this activity provides kids with a fun game to play with over and over again.

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Nutrition Advice Overload: Making Sense Of It All

The importance of the whole family eating healthfully receives plenty of attention in the news, on social media sites, and in casual conversation. In fact, it receives so much coverage that choosing what is healthiest for you and your family can become downright confusing. Every recommendation seems to contradict the last piece of advice you heard, and it’s overwhelming. Whole grain, no grain, dairy, soy, local, organic, non-GMO… It can leave you frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. But before you do that, keep reading to learn how to sort through the mess and decide what’s best for your family. 

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Cook with Sweet Potato: Nutrition, Tips & Fun Food Facts

Fun Food Facts

As a famous scientist in the early 1900s, George Washington Carver invented over 100 ways to use a sweet potato (synthetic rubber, glue for postage stamps, and starch for cotton fabrics are just a few!). Other experimenters have combined sweet potato juice with lime juice to create a dye for cloth. Artisans have used sweet potatoes in ceramics and researchers are currently considering sweet potato as a biofuel option! All this from a simple root vegetable. But our favorite use for sweet potatoes is to eat them! 

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