Healthy Schools Campaign

Top Blog Entries from 2009!

It's been a great year for the HSC blog, and we're proud that our readers have continued to visit day after day for fresh content, lively discussion and valuable information on ensuring a healthy future for all children. To ring in the new year, we've compiled a list of our most popular blog entries from 2009. (Drum roll...)

10. More Reasons for Recess

9. Good Luck to Cooking up Change Students From White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass

8. Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization - Let's Do it Right

7. New White House Chef Support Healthy School Lunches

6. Do Healthy Eating Habits Start at Home?

5. Kids May Go Hungry to Avoid Stigma of Free Meals

4. The Lunch That's Changing the Future of School Food

3. Secretary Vilsack Connects Healthy Eating and Reduction in Health Care Costs

2. A Parents Perspective on Asthma: Talking with Michelle Obama

-And #1-

1. Students Bring Healthy School Lunch to DC and Cook with White House Chef Sam Kass

Honorable mentions:

• This is Not Your Father's School Nurse
• My First Garden Meal of the Summer
• H1N1 and Green Cleaning in Schools

Happy New Year from all of us at HSC -- We look forward to seeing you again in 2010!

All Pumpkin Butter, All the Time

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

My new favorite blog for kid cooking ideas is Weelicious. It's great. If you're cooking with your kids, check it out. Over Thanksgiving weekend I tried a simple recipe with Henry which he loved: pumpkin butter. And it was pretty simple.

First some background. This past fall, my family went apple picking together. And at the farmer's market at the orchard, we picked up some pumpkin butter. It turned out to be one of Henry's favorite items. He ate toast with pumpkin butter, bagels with pumpkin butter, pancakes with pumpkin butter. It was all pumpkin butter all the time. Then I saw this recipe, and I knew what we had to do. You can watch Henry's pumpkin butter dance in anticipation of our snack.

Henry and I grabbed a can of pumpkin puree, some spices, and some maple syrup for sweetness, and off we went. I adapted my recipe based on what we had in the kitchen at the time.

1 can pumpkin puree

3 sprinkles nutmeg

5 sprinkles cinaman

1 splash vanilla

1 dash salt

5 tablespoons maple syrup 

Put it all in a big bowl. Get a big wooden spoon. Mix it up. Add more of whatever it is missing. Eat it on everything. Smile.

Watermelon Bowls... Because Presentation Counts!

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

What I've found with feeding my three year old is that presentation matters. Presentation is what takes a meal from a regular plate of food to a treat of yumminess. And it makes it fun. That's why I make a face out of raisins in Henry's oatmeal, make "ants on a log," or make baked chicken pieces that are perfectly finger sized for eating.

That's also why I purchased a mini watermelon that I saw in the market the other day.

Now, I never have problems feeding Henry fruit, but a special mini watermelon bowl turns a bowl of fruit into a special treat. I mean, come on, it's a watermelon bowl! How often do you eat from a cool watermelon bowl?

What fun presentations of food do you serve your kids?

Quick & Kid-Friendly Classic Snack: Ants on a Log

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

I love celery but don't find too many times that I feed it to Henry -- not for any particular reason, I just don't always think about it. But the other day I decided to revive my one of my favorite childhood treats: ants on a log.

Celery, peanut butter, raisins. Crunchy, sweet, creamy, fun, and a bit silly. All things that kids love. And who doesn't love watching their kid eating veggies and thinking creatively all at the same time?

Cheesy Breakfast Spinach

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

My wife and I buy huge bags of pre-washed spinach from Costco, which forces me to find creative ways of using it. Spinach salad, spinach omelettes, galactic green sauce, spinach bars -- or I just add spinach to anything that I'm making for an extra nutrient boost.

This morning I realized that I needed to finish off a bag nearing the end of its life. So I sautéed up some cheesy spinach. My intention was to eat it myself because Henry hasn't been into spinach lately. But to my pleasant surprise, once he saw the cheesy deliciousness, he joined in the small feast.




Cheesy Spinach

Lots of washed spinach (I used about 3 cups)
Cheese (I used about 1/4 cup of parmesean plus about a tablespoon of shredded mozzarella, but use what you've got -- it's all good)
A dash of salt

Stir-fry all the ingredients together until the cheese is melted and the spinach is wilted. Note: The water from the spinach will come out and make the dish liquidy, but that's normal.

Cheesy spinach is a delicious and quick way to eat your greens. . .  and maybe your kids will join you!

Happy Thanksgiving! Corliss High School's Tender Cranberry Raisin Oatmeal Cookie and Orange Cranberry Relish

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our minds are on food this week, so we’re thrilled to share two recipes that we hope will brighten your holiday table, tomorrow and in the months ahead!

Corliss High School student chefs with their culinary instructor Lois Martin and team mentor Stephen Menyhart. . . and the award-winning cookies!

***
Corliss High School’s Tender Cranberry Raisin Oatmeal Cookie               

It takes an exceptional cookie to stand out in a festive room filled with hundreds of food-loving guests and 15 teams of very talented student chefs. The Tender Cranberry Raisin Oatmeal cookie designed by the young bakers of Corliss High School did just that, winning the coveted Audience Choice Award for favorite cookie at HSC’s Cooking up Change healthy cooking contest.  Just one taste and you’ll understand why: this chewy, flavorful cookie is perhaps the perfect treat!

Many thanks to the student chefs of Corliss High School for sharing this exceptional cookie recipe!

Ingredients

¾ c. unsalted butter
¼ c. trans fat free vegetable shortening
1 ¾ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8  tsp ground allspice
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 tbsp dark corn syrup
1 c. dried cranberries packed
1c. golden raisins
1c. chopped walnuts
2c. white whole wheat flour
2 c. rolled oats
1c. whole berry cranberry sauce

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine butter, shortening, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt, vanilla beating until smooth.
2. Add eggs one at a time beating well at each addition, then add corn syrup.
3. Stir in the fruits and nuts, then flour beating gently until well combined.
4. Add the oats last until thoroughly distributed throughout the bowl.
5. Before panning put thumb print in each cookie and add cranberry sauce to the center.

Bake cookies at 350 F for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are slightly brown around the edges but still soft to the touch.

***

Chef Stephen’s Orange Cranberry Relish

There are plenty of other foods to stress about on Thanksgiving Day, so try this uber-simple cranberry orange relish. Its unusual taste results from blending the whole oranges, including the rind, into the relish.

This makes a tart but delicious side dish to the heavy fare typically featured at a Thanksgiving spread. This relish will keep well in the fridge for up to a week, so it can also be slathered on post-Thanksgiving Sandwiches as a delicious condiment.

Many thanks to Chef Stephen Menyhart, team mentor for the Corliss High School team, for sharing this recipe!

Ingredients & Instructions

In a blender, place the following:

2 large oranges (washed and cut into quarters, including the skin)
4 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
2 cups sugar

Pulse in blender until mostly smooth. Serve Cold.

* * *

Enjoy!

Corliss High School student bakers share tastes of their award-winning Tender Cranberry Raisin Oatmeal Cookie at Cooking up Change on Oct. 29

ABC (Apple Banana Corn) Pancakes

By Mark Bishop, HSC Deputy Director

 

Kids love pancakes. I love using the leftover food in my fridge. The confluence of those two loves always creates a special moment for me.

Last Sunday I was browsing a few blogs and came across a recipe for Banana Corn Fritters on Weelicious. As I skimmed the recipe, three thoughts ran through my mind:

1. I have a brown banana and leftover corn in my fridge!
2. That looks yummy!
3. I'm out of corn meal :(

Rather than give up and allow my banana and corn to go bad, I decided to venture off on my own. Why not doctor up my favorite Trader Joe's pancake mix? So here's what Henry and I did. . .

ABC (Apple Banana Corn) Pancakes

1/2 cup of cooked corn kernels

1 mashed banana

1 small finely diced apple

1 cup TJ's multi-grain pancake mix

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon brown sugar

 

 

We mixed up all the ingredients and fried the batter on a hot pan. Wow. They were awesome. Really awesome. We topped them with some pumpkin butter that we bought from the farmer's market and it was pure yumminess! The corn made them hearty and crunchy. The banana made them smooth and creamy. The nutmeg gave them that fall taste that I love. And Henry went to town -- helping and eating.

 

Give it a try and don't be afraid to add your own leftovers for your own unique taste.

 

 

Quick, Easy and Healthy Dessert Option: Apples & Honey

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Henry and I were eating dinner alone the other evening, and afterward he asked me for dessert. I didn't want to disappoint, so I decided that fruit was the way to go -- but with a twist. I quickly sliced up an apple, spread it out on a plate, drizzled it with honey, and there was a easy and really tasty dessert. I would have sprinkled cinnamon on it, but he stopped me for some unexplained reason. And of course, fruit alone is a great dessert option, but sometimes you want to offer a special treat!

Nothing magical here, but fruit is great, and adding a little extra sweetness and cutting it up into a different shape can make it even more extra special.

Last Garden Meal of the Year

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Now that fall is upon us and winter is coming up fast, I thought my garden harvest was in the past. But last weekend I found a few more gems and realized I could pull together one more final hurrah of a garden meal.

I was pulling up my tomato plants and found two small green bell peppers, two nice-sized cucumbers, and the score of the day: a big bunch of leeks that I forgot we even planted. So here was my plan:

Cucumber salad. Simple. Clean. Actually, I was thinking about Cooking up Change because one of the student teams had a nice cucumber salad that was really good -- and Henry chowed it that evening. So I seeded and sliced a cuke and tossed it with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a half teaspoon of sugar, and a dash of sea salt. I don't remember my cucumbers being so crunchy. Henry ate nearly the entire thing. Delicious.

Bell peppers. I only had two small ones and when I cut them, they were so firm and crisp that I decided I couldn't do anything other than slice them and toss them with salt, oil and balsamic vinegar. Simple. Super fresh.

Leeks. I love leeks. And for me, this was the star of the evening. I caramelized a bunch of leeks in a pan with olive oil, added a dash of sea salt, then added 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and let the vinegar reduce until the leeks were covered with a syrupy coating. I took out the leeks, then cubed and cooked two small zucchini the same way and combined them with the leeks. It was so delicious with the sweetness from the vinegar and the nuttiness from the browned leeks. So good. I could have eaten that all day.

Spinach. I had a bag of spinach that I needed to use so I wilted a bunch with feta cheese. Tasty. And Henry took a good liking to it. See the video below for proof. This was not from my garden.

Protein. I had a leftover frozen salmon fillet that I defrosted and pan fried with some garlic and herbed breadcrumbs. Simple. And again, Henry went nuts eating the salmon. Really. Again, see the video.

Sometimes cooking is simple. Try not to use too many ingredients and keep fresh food tasting fresh. This was a (mostly) garden meal fit for a king. And sadly, it seems to have been my last one for a couple of months.

Crowd-Pleasing Peanut Cedar Salmon

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

I rarely write down a recipe (other than when I'm writing our healthy recipe blogs) but this one was such a success that I wanted to try to replicate it. And it was a huge kid-pleaser. The first time I didn't have a camera with me, so rather than post without a photo, I decided to see if I could replicate the magic -- and bring a few photos along as well.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to a friend's house and both Henry and his friend Cooper chowed down on this grilled salmon that I made. The adults raved about it too. It was my first time using a cedar plank to grill on, and it won't be my last.  

Serves approx. 6 people

2 pounds salmon
Olive oil
Sea salt
1 lime
1/2 cup of crushed peanuts
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1 small onion
1 teaspoon brown mustard
1 cedar plank

Soak the cedar plank according to directions. Usually for 20 minutes to 4 hours.

Mince garlic, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and mustard together. Add finely minced onion and peanuts.

Cut salmon into 1-inch wide pieces and coat with olive oil and juice from one lime and sea salt. Place salmon onto cedar plank.

Coat top of salmon with the peanut mixture.

Grill cedar plank/salmon over indirect heat for 30 minutes.

I love the smokiness of the cedar. The combination of the sweetness of the sugar with the crunch of the peanuts makes for a great contrast. It got the big thumbs up from two kids and four adults the first time I made it. The second time around it was equally an adult-pleaser, but the kids this time... well, Henry decided he wasn't hungry and didn't eat anything. Oh well. As they say, the best-laid plans...