Top 5 School Food Frustrations…

If you had asked someone ten years ago if they thought obesity would be a major concern for the kids of American, they probably would have laughed. They would have mentioned drugs, alcohol and teen sex as the main concerns. Please know that I am not about to say that these are not concerns… because they are!!! But who would have thought there would have been this much attention focused around childhood obesity.

Have you noticed that this is the focus of the major research funding and most medical communities? It is not only the highlight of medical discussions, but one of the most expensive problems this country has ever faced! The average cost for treatment of overall obesity---meaning all ages---is 150 billion dollars. We have seen childhood obesity numbers triple in the last 25 years! To put that into perspective, that means 12.5 million children between the ages of 2 and 19 years of age are obese. Why aren't we getting the message?

Picture this, what if we started seeing children smoking cigarettes at these rates? Wouldn’t that get your attention? Would you take steps to do something about that problem? Maybe push your local school officials and/or local Health Department to implement more tobacco education programs? I mean, come on! We all know what smoking can do to the body, but do we all really know what childhood obesity leads to? It subjects our kids to some of the worst diseases known: diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and hypertension, just to name a few. Why would anyone cause a child to struggle with these health issues?

It is time to wake up and take action! To be honest... I am frustrated!

My Top 5 School Food Frustrations

#1 - Schools
- I feel that they are treating our children as customers in the cafeteria. I understand that they are trained to do this from a government standard but they can fight!
- They can fight to get the processed foods out of their schools. Too many children have to rely on school food as their only source or nourishment. They deserve better!!!
- They can fight to bring back the kitchen to the cafeteria.
- They can fight to have fresh local products to serve.
- They can fight for our children!!

#2 Parents
- Parents that give in to their “kids tastes” just because they have picky eaters.
- Parents that think- this won’t happen to my child. I have heard this too many time –“We only eat fast food a few times a week.” It ends up being a few TOO many times instead!
- Parents that will not take responsibility for their own health.
- Parents who spend more time and money on their own luxuries and do not make sacrifices for good food for their families.
- Parents that refuse to change for their kids!

#3 Marketers
- There is absolutely no reason why we need a bazillion food commercials solely targeting kids.
- They know better than to do this! Do they enjoy watching mom and dad stuff the kids with this junk and not care what happens next?
- They cannot market cigarettes to children so how can they market these sugar laden foods that cause just as many problems to kids as young as 2yrs old?

#4 USDA
- Why the USDA? Because school food is 10 billion dollar program! And who oversees this "program" but the USDA.
- They are the ones that set the standards for our school cafeterias.
- They are the ones that allow chemicals to be served to our children.
- They are the ones that allow persuasion from major companies, I resisted naming names (UGH!), and major industries such as Beef, Pork, Dairy, Sugar and many others.

#5 Policy Makers (Politicians)
- The Childhood Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization and we CAN make a difference! Remember these are the folks who ultimately, with persuasion from lobbyist, make the decisions for what schools serve in cafeterias. What does it take for politicians to pay attention to these issue and pass bills to help our children?

It takes you!! Take the time right now to urge Congressional Leaders to make a change for the health of our kids! Make them stand out in this time of need. Remind them that there is a 1/3 of the population that is obese-kids included! We cannot keep going on like this.

Click here to learn more about how you can help!
www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/getinvolved/action/childnutrition/action-act.php

www.foodincmovie.com/sign-the-petition.php

***I'd love to hear from you. Leave me a comment and tell me how you feel about this issue.

Slumber Party and Cookies!

This weekend was full of milestones for our family. First- my youngest has totally conquered potty training! Yes, that is blog worthy! Second- my oldest had her first sleepover with her two best friends. And third- my husband and I both celebrated today with Father's Day and my birthday. Guess my milestone is that I'm a year closer to a milestone birthday- ugh.

My gal was thrilled when I offered to have her friends over. These sweet girls are part of a very important family to us! We have had the honor of spending lots of time with the entire family, but Friday was just the girls!

So, what do you do when you host your first sleepover? Well, for me... you COOK! My husband was wonderful and made them pizza, McD style! Then they got to help me mix some cookie dough and then add their own style for their cookies.



I used my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and let them add either, oatmeal, cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate chips and/or raisins. It was funny to watch them figure out what they wanted to add. A couple of them went with more of an oatmeal cookie style while others were chocolate all the way!







Cooking with my own kids means a lot to me, as I've mentioned before ---but cooking with other kids is even more important! My mom invited my friends in the kitchen to cook too. She'd either have us help make cookies, cakes, salads and even tacos. I still have friends that remember those times and appreciated the gift she shared with us. Why should we shoo the kids out of the kitchen? Why shouldn't have them in there with us learning, sharing and tasting foods they may never have the chance to taste again. Not only is cooking with kids helpful for the exploration and development of food appreciation but- this is a prime time for discussion. I learned more from the time these girls and I had measuring out baking powder than I did with just sitting with them in front of the TV. (Ha ha- we did that while we ate our freshly baked treats :)) Next time you host some of your kids friends at your house, invite them in the kitchen with open arms.



Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Use a large bowl and whip butter and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and egg and mix until creamy. Sift dry ingredients together and add one cup at a time to mixer. Blend slowly. Stir in chocolate chips and other ingredients if like. Bake for about 8-10 minutes and remove from oven when cookies are crisp on bottom but slightly shiny on top.

Spinach and Cheese Popovers

I have a confession to make...instead of being hooked on Facebook, I am hooked on Twitter! There is just something about the simplicity of this social network tool. You have 140 characters to make the most of the moment, there's no "Farmville" or "Mafia Wars" and you can't upload 103 pictures of your highschool prom. Sure, there's plenty of useless information on all of the social network communities, but I signed on to Twitter to follow other bloggers like me; mothers busy raising our kids the best we can by cooking up fun food. The majority of the folks I "follow", not "friends", are food bloggers. Over the past year I can't tell you all the amazing tips I have picked up from others on Twitter. See, I use this as a way to network, not waste time! Remember the Adopt-a-Blogger project I was selected for, well---if it hadn't been for Twitter, I might never have found out about the awesome chance to work with a more experienced cook that could help teach me. Come follow me and see what I can say in 140 words. @melmcd99

Well, the other afternoon when I got home from work, I did my typical check-in with my Twitter network and ran across one of my favorite cookbook authors, @MollieKatzen tweeting -
"Popovers! Make them with children. Thanks for this very sweet blog. Beautiful site as well." http://bit.ly/dDAYrK
This tweet had me curious so I clicked on the link and it brought me to The Hungry Artist, a beautiful blog from a mom striving to cook up the best for her family! She was making these yummy looking Popovers that Mollie Katzen had whipped up in her cookbook, Pretend Soup. Perfect idea for dinner!

My husband had taken my oldest gal to a birthday party and wasn't planning on being back in time for dinner so my youngest had full run of the kitchen with me. We had a lot of fun mixing the ingredients together. She had lots of fun! This recipe was SO easy to mix up with her!

I needed a little more added to the recipe to make it "dinner" worthy so I thought of adding some sauteed spinach and fresh mozzarella cheese. These are SO easy to mix up and quick to bake. By adding the extra ingredients, you don't get the pretty large puff nice there is not a lot of room for the steam to build up inside.



Spinach and Cheese Popovers
Adapted from Pretend Soup

1 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups spinach, steamed or sauteed.
8 small fresh mozzarella balls sliced in half.

Heat oven to 375 degrees

Melt butter and brush it in the muffin tins, spread thinly even if using a nonstick pan. Add small, even amount of spinach in the muffin tin and top with cheese.

Break both eggs in large bowl and whisk in milk. Add flour and salt and mix until all blended. It's okay if there are some lumps. Mixture will be thin. Add about 1/4 cup of mixture to each tin- about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 30 minutes making sure NOT to open the oven until timer goes off. This lets the steam build up inside.
Serve hot. Store leftovers in the refrigerator and re-heat in toaster oven.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Have any of you ever had a recipe you really want to perfect and after many, many tries it still doesn't come out right? This might be something you ate at your favorite restaurant and you were trying to replicate it, or it might be a family tradition that no one has a recipe for.

Well, this morning I DID IT! I finally got the fluffy, whole wheat pancakes I had been wanting. I've never been a fan of old fashion buttermilk pancakes as they tend to be too sweet. I would rather enjoy some hearty whole wheat ones. The trick I think I discovered is the combination of a larger amount of buttermilk and both baking powder and soda. I normally just use baking powder and no soda. Using both results in a wonderful chemical reaction that allows the pancakes to fluff to perfection!

Now I will warn you that using whole wheat flour along with the white whole wheat flour will make these heavier than regular buttermilk pancakes. If you are interested in making these less hearty but still use higher in fiber and healthier than traditional ones than use all while whole wheat flour.



Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Makes about 8 -5inch pancakes

2 cups fat free buttermilk
1 egg
1 egg white
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cane sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

In a small bowl whisk together milk, eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar. Measure all dry ingredients into a large bowl then gradually add wet ingredients and stir. Be careful not to over stir as this will result in chewy, tough pancakes. Heat skillet or griddle to medium high and pour ¼ cup of batter per pancake. If you are not using a non-stick skillet then add a little bit of butter or cooking spray to prevent from sticking. Let cook about 2 minutes per side making sure not to get too brown.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

When we lived in Asheville, we had this funny-looking plant growing beside our gate. At first glance my husband and I thought it was some nasty weed---no, we were not lazy weeders---but soon we noticed it was a stalk.

We ended up cutting it down before we discovered what it really was. If I had known what I know now, we would have been able enjoy many more of these cakes and other great Rhubarb treats.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

1 1/2 cup rhubarb, diced
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced thinly
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup organic cane sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup fat free buttermilk
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray. In small microwave safe bowl, melt 1 tbsp butter. Stir in brown sugar and pour onto bottom of pie pan. In large mixing bowl beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add milk, extract, powder, soda and salt and blend. Lightly spoon flour and stir just until creamy (do not overstir). Carefully fold in diced rhubarb and sliced strawberries. Pour batter into prepared pie pan and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.

Let cool for 5 minutes on wire rack. Place plate upside down on top of cake and flip over onto plate. Cool completely then serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream- optional.

A Manly Mexican Pizza: Guest Post

Hi, dear readers. I've got something special for today's post. I am very excited to introduce my wonderful husband, Case, as a guest on my blog! To give you a little background on my hubs...he's an educator by day, and a writer, photographer, guitar player, volleyball player, and best darn father and husband all the rest of the time! I've had the time of my life as his wife and friend for the past 11 years. Even though I've done the majority of the cooking, Case did find his way into the kitchen when we lived in Portland, as he and a friend fixed dinner for the wives one night. They went all out: fish tacos, corn cilantro chowder and an awesome frozen margarita pie! After that boost of self-confidence, he even mastered a homemade pizza. Let me have him tell you more. Hope you enjoy. Maybe we can get him back here to share more later.


So, for nearly 11 years now, I have been known as the pizza man in our household, rarely ever changing recipes--why fix what already works, right? Yet, I found myself challenged when dining at a local eatery recently where they concocted the most amazing Mexican pizza I had yet tried---thin, spicy and certainly memorable. So when trying to relive this experience at home, I decided to rearrange my traditional approach to pizza and dive into something new.

I made my dough as usual, substituting Mexican spices for Italian, but little else changed… except for the toppings. Not fully finding my restaurant experience nirvana, I think I came up with something that might stick in the old family recipe book, though.



Mexican Pizza

3/4 can vegetarian refried beans
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup green chilies, diced
1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup salsa (your choice, mild or hot)
Prepared pizza dough

Roll pizza dough out on lightly floured surface. Spread refried beans evenly over dough and top with next 3 ingredients. If you are interested here is where you could add ground turkey or thinly sliced cooked chicken. We did this version vegetarian for our Meatless Monday addition. Toss cheese on top of veggies and then add salsa on top. Bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes or until cheese is slightly brown and bubbly.

Now, to tell the truth, I had not fully prepared myself for the endeavor, for if I had, I would surely have included cilantro, lime juice and a dollop of sour cream to the mix of post-bake ingredients. And, yes, I could have swung for the fences in applying a healthy smear of pico de gallo and washing it down with a Negra Modelo, but, as I implied, my stomach was working ahead of my brain this night.

Regardless, I found the whole undertaking to be refreshing and rewarding. I hope you will consider spicing up your next pizza pie with something a little… loco?

A Garden Update: The Case of the Missing Chard

After planting our garden about a month ago, at least one us thinks of looking at the garden daily. We were all excited to see the plants starting to show through, but we gradually started noticing something was getting to our Swiss chard plants as they were starting to sprout leaves. The stalks were still intact, but the leaves were nibbled around the edges.

So, our neighborhood is known for its rabbits. And not just your cute little hippity-hoppity kind, but rather a larger variety with thick white tails. Would you believe we even have a humongous domestic one that someone let loose last year. He even survived a harsh winter and is back wandering the streets.



One morning while I was at work, my husband glanced out the back door and caught the rabbit red-handed enjoying a hardy, iron-rich breakfast of Swiss chard. Well, to save the beets, spinach and broccoli that was coming up, we decided to conquer the problem. My husband measured the garden, hit the hardware store, and in less than two hours, we had a fence surrounding the garden. Hooray! We won that round, but now the chipmunks are hanging around the corn. UGH! Guess it could be worse---maybe deer.



Now, on the flipside, the other parts of our garden are going well! Just take a look. Here is a great shot of the volunteer squash that we have coming up in random spots. Remember, we use LOTS of our compost on the garden which contains LOTS of seeds. It's kind of fun to see what will come up each year. One year, when we were in Portland we used our compost on our yard before we re-seeded, and ended up with pumpkins growing in the grass. How fun!



For those of you who had questions about growing corn, take a look. It's really not that hard, as long as you have proper germination. We let the multitude of bees that like our neighbor's flowers do their work.



And look... I even have two tomatoes!! Woohoo! I will be so shocked to have fresh homegrown tomatoes from my garden before late July!! Wish me luck.