• Ask your kids what they will enjoy.  Remember that if they don’t like certain foods at home, they won’t like them at school either!
• Ask for their input before loading their lunch box.  Just because they liked something today doesn’t mean that they will like it again tomorrow.
• Keep in mind that your children don’t have much time to eat — pack foods in small portions that are easy to eat, so they have time left to play.
• Don’t be lured into buying prepackaged lunches, which are high in fat, sugar, salt, and calories, are much more expensive, and produce tons of unnecessary garbage.
• Let your child help you select a cool lead-free and reusable lunch bag or lunch box.  Pick up a few reusable containers that will fit inside – this will prevent food from leaking and getting smashed, and will help you avoid using disposable items like plastic bags and foil.
• Pack a reusable drink container instead of juice boxes, juice pouches, cans, and disposable plastic bottles.
• Instead of packing a paper napkin, use a cloth one (baby wash cloths, or cut up old t-shirts work great for this!)
• Pack stainless-steel utensils instead of using disposable plastics.
• Buy in bulk instead of purchasing pre-packaged items.  This will save you money, and you can reuse or recycle the containers at home.
• Whenever possible, pack lunches the night before.  Why add more stress to your morning routine?

Here are a variety of ideas for some fun and interesting lunches.  Don’t forget to include fruits or vegetables, protein, and whole grains every day.

Sandwich Alternatives:

• Instead of sliced bread, try rice or whole grain crackers, whole wheat pita bread, whole grain bagels and tortillas.
• Wrap it Up!  Combine a variety of spreads, fillings, and wrappers for a sandwich alternative your kids won’t forget.  For lots of wrap recipes, please visit the Healthy School Lunches page at What’s Cooking.

Make Ahead…

• Quiches or frittatas are full of protein.  Try making a batch in a mini muffin pan – they will be a great size for school lunches and will last in the refrigerator for the whole week.  Organic and free range eggs are good choices!
• Whole grain pasta or couscous salad
• You can make several peanut butter and jam sandwiches at a time. Wrap them tightly and store in the freezer.  Toss one in a lunch bag and it will be thawed by lunch time!  Is peanut butter banned at your school?  Try cashew butter, almond butter, soy nut butter, sunflower seed butter, or tahini (sesame seed paste) as alternate spreads.
• Many of the thermos treasures below can be made ahead, stored and warmed before packing.

Thermos Treasures…

• Tortellini with pesto
• Spaghetti with marinara sauce
• Noodle Soup
• Fried Rice
• Chili with corn chips on the side for dipping
• Fruit Smoothies… cold, of course!

We truly enjoyed tasting the variety of marmalades that were available with breakfast each day. Their flavors were bright and fresh, and were a wonderful change from the predictable flavors of jam we can find at home.

• Naranjilla (Lulo) with sugar: This marmalade comes from a greenish citrus fruit and contains small flecks of zest. It was sweet and slightly tart at the same time. Most of us thought it was too sweet and gave it a 2. Amelia loved it, however, and gave it a 3.
• Naranjilla (Lulo) Light: Instead of containing sugar, this version contains fructose. It is less sweet than its traditional counterpart and had more of a tart bite to it. With the exception of Amelia, we all loved this one and easily gave it a score of 3.
• Uvita or Cloudforest Berry, Light: This marmalade also contained fructose instead of sugar and was delicious. The family commented that it reminded them a little of strawberry jam from home. This got a 3.
• Naranjilla-Uvita: Like the Lulo jam, this one also contained a bit of zest, which gave it an interesting texture, especially when spread on toast. It had a slightly smoky flavor, and earned a score of 2.
• Melon Amazonas (also known as the Amazonian Guava and Amazonian Cantaloupe): This marmalade was less tart than the others, and fell flat in comparison. While it was sweet, it was more mild than the others and lacked a burst of flavor in the mouth when tasted. It earned a 2.

I called the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, and the director of food services told me about that joy that their patients express when they receive cards from other children.

Because I teach cooking classes to children, we spend a lot of our time learning about how to build community through food, cooking and eating together. Why not blend the caring and creative act of art with the nourishing act of eating?

What would brighten up a sick child’s day more than eating a meal served on a beautiful Get Well or Happy Birthday placemat made by another child. Yes, some kids are in the hospital for their birthdays. Why not make it a little better if we can?

We challenge you to decorate and design place mats for sick kids in your community and encourage others to do the same.

• Post our Recipe for Action image (at the top of this post) and our simple instructions on your blog.
• Let us know you will be joining us.
• Place mats should be 10 inches high by 14 inches wide. You can either make your own from blank butcher or construction paper, or you can purchase simple colored ones at any restaurant supply store.
• Your place mat should express a special message, such as “Get Well Soon,” “We hope you feel better,” or “Happy Birthday.”
• Decorate your place mat with your beautiful art work. Remember your place mat has two sides — feel free to paste word search, dot-to-dot and sudoku puzzles, comic strips or collages on one side.
• Say who your place mat is from, and include your age. Feel free to write a little note or say something else about yourself, too.
• Laminate your place mat so that it can easily be cleaned and either re-used or displayed to decorate the room.
• PLEASE take a photo of your place mats and send them to us. We can’t wait to see your work and will be sharing our favorites at the end of August.
• And then send your place mats to your local children’s hospital, of course!

This is an ideal activity for family members of all ages to do together. Or try it with the kids who come to play this summer. But most of all, feel good that you are doing something positive with your children that you can all be proud of. The recipients will appreciate it!

We sat on hay bales piled high in the back of the feed store and listened to Michael talk about his latest book, In Defense of Food.  He neatly summarized what the book was about in the first few minutes of the book.  He started by explaining the importance of people understanding that “there can be no healthy people without a healthy diet.  And there can be no healthy diet without a healthy agricultural system.”  He reminded us that the health of our food is directly connected to the health of the soil in which it is grown.

There is a misconception about health and healthy eating in America.  Similar to the French Paradox (the irony that French people indulge in lengthy, rich meals and drink ample amounts of red wine and yet have very little incidence of heart disease), there is also an American Paradox.  Americans are “the champs” of diabetes, heart disease and obesity, yet we are the nation most obsessed with healthy eating.  How can this be?

He boils it down into a single term:  Nutritionism.  Nutritionism is based on 4 concepts (or common misconceptions).

1. Nutrients are the important component of food.  Food is simply a delivery system for nutrients, and food is simply a sum of its parts.
2. If nutrients are a key to our health and are invisible to the naked eye, we must need experts to tell us what we should eat.  He compared this concept to religion, which often relies on the priesthood to offer leadership and guidance.
3. The food world is divided into Good and Evil.  Currently, the “communism of nutrition” is composed of saturated and trans fats.  The current “blessed nutrient” is Omega-3 Fatty Acids.
4. And finally, the whole point of eating is Health.  What we eat either ruins our health or contributes to it.  (Never mind about the joys of delicious foods and sense of community that we feel from cooking and eating together.)

He pleas for us to throw out the ideology of Nutritionism, and consider that food IS more than the sum of its parts.  The science of nutrition is currently as advanced as surgery was in the 1650’s — and it might not be something that we should participate in quite yet.  It seems that wherever the Western diet appears (complete with processed foods such as refined oils, carbs, and grains), disease follows.  Contrast that with traditional diets, composed of REAL FOODS where diseases like diabetes hardly ever exist.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to consider that the best way to avoid the pitfalls of our Western diet is simply to get off of it.

So, what are you supposed to eat if you can’t rely on what the “experts” are telling you?  Michael first suggests you ask your mother or grandmother, the person who might provide some traditional examples of Real Food.

• He doesn’t recommend eating anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
• Does it contain high fructose corn syrup?  This is a huge sign that you are eating something highly processed.
• Can you pronounce the majority of the ingredients?
• Does it include traditional ingredients that you would expect from such a product?  (For example, does your sour cream contain cream?  Does your mayonnaise contain eggs and oil?  Does your butter contain milk or cream? etc…)
• Are you buying foods from the perimeter of your market, where they can easily be replenished when they start to rot or expire?  He points out that the items in the center of the grocery store lasts forever and that you should never buy food that is “incapable of eventually rotting”  (such as the twinkie that has been sitting on his desk for the past 2 years).

In summary, Pollan reminds us that how we eat and where we shop are just as important to what we eat.  Food is created by a set of relationships between the ecosystem, people, and the food chain.  He advises us to Vote with Your Fork and purchase and consume foods that are grown and harvested in an environmentally sustainable way.  For now, ignore the misconceptions of nutritionism and eat (real) food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.  Your body and our planet will thank you.

Three Twins has 70 certified organic flavors ice cream, uses high quality and health conscious ingredients, and all of the bowls, spoons, cups and napkins in the store are 100% compostable.

To bring the store to life, Group 41 Inc. (www.group41inc.com), a stylish, boutique architecture and design firm based in San Francisco, was assigned to create a “green” and “eco-friendly” design to complement the organic sweets being sold.

Working with the limited, 415 square foot space, Joel Karr, Founder and Principal of Group 41, incorporated not only the retail and display features, but keenly fit in an ice-cream production facility which was compactly designed into the tiny back-of-house space.

Environmentally friendly materials were a must, and the message was visually conveyed with a color palette centered on green tonal themes.

Beautiful details such as 3Form “eco-resin” panels were backlit so that they appeared to glow from within, and sustainable materials such as bamboo plywood panels were used for the build-out. Vintage 1950s chrome refrigerator doors were used as unique menu boards, conveying not only the nostalgia of ice cream making, but the timely idea of re-use.

Speaking personally - we have been to their flagship store many (many, many) times and are eager to return almost as soon as we depart.  Neal, the founder of Three Twins, is creative and energetic, often creating new and interesting flavor combinations.  Some work beautifully, others, like Noodle Kugel, not so much…  Regardless, if you are ever in the SF Bay Area (Terra Linda or Napa, in particular), it would behoove you and your family to give this shop a try.  It will be hard to pry yourself away!

Although these wonderful new pasta shapes are targeted towards families, I am confident that anyone who tries them will love them. Families will enjoy Barilla’s partnership with Scholastic, who teaches them how to make some Mealtime Magic with these little gems. Don’t miss their virtual story book and printable pasta-related activities and recipes, of course.

My children loved the Mini Wheels the best, perhaps because the shape was so novel to them. Although I try to shake things up a bit in the kitchen, I must have missed the larger variety of this shape in the past. Try these Barilla Piccolini with any of your favorite pasta recipes. We recommend this one, using Barilla Mini Farfalle.

Pasta Primavera

Don’t be overwhelmed when you see all of the vegetables that you will need to prepare for this recipe. If you are looking for a shortcut, feel free to use some of the prepared produce in the salad bar of your local grocery store. The rainbow of colors in this dish are a sure sign of the large quantity of antioxidants within.

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 medium zucchini, cut into thin strips
2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs dried Italian herbs
1 lb Barilla Mini Farfalle (bowtie pasta)
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2. On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat.
3. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets.
4. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
6. Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine.
7. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten.
8. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste.
9. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Servings: 6

CALL THE KIDS:

• Measure the olive oil, salt, and herbs.
• Grate the parmesan.
• Count out the correct number of tomatoes.
• Sort the sliced vegetables and put on baking sheet.
• Sprinkle the prepared vegetables with olive oil, herbs and salt.
• Toss the cooked pasta with the roasted vegetables and parmesan cheese

For more family friendly recipes like this, subscribe to What’s Cooking Weekly

“The love of food reaches all ages, and teens today are continually expanding their culinary knowledge – from cooking classes to kids’ cookbooks. ‘Top Chef Junior,’ which will be based on the Emmy-nominated hit culinary series ‘Top Chef,’ is an eight episode series where teens (ages 13 to 16) will compete to see if they have what it takes to become a junior ‘Top Chef.’”

As a cooking teacher for kids of all ages, I can honestly say that very few children would seem to be able to perform under the types of pressure that the adults in Top Chef are subjected to.  I, personally, would crumble with the intensity of criticism and competition that the former adult contestants faced.  I truly hope that the “teach and test” aspect of the show comes to fruition — this way, the show could be like an intense culinary academy with fun, challenging, and rigorous testing.  Plenty of children love to cook and, with supportive parents, are encouraged to participate in the kitchen.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the culinary skills of these contestants-to-be would blow many cooks out of the water!
To date, there are no real cooking shows for kids out there.  Pretty soon, our friend Michael’s show, DOOF, will appear on PBS.  My kids, ages 6 and 8, can’t wait for it to come out.  Perhaps Top Chef Junior will be edgy and exciting enough to capture and hold the attention of older kids and teens who thirst for age appropriate culinary inspiration and guidance.  I, for one, will be sure to tune in and check it out.  If given the chance, I bet my kids will be joining me!

On our way to set up for the event, we passed a little boy who was selling snow cones from his driveway. Our daughter read his sign and exclaimed, “He’s not doing anything good. He just wants the money.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess. She is proud that we have worked together (with our school, scout troop and friends) to raise funds for the prevention of childhood hunger in America.

Several times during the afternoon and evening, I had to hold back tears. Families played soccer; kids laughed as they rolled down the grassy hill; and others sat happily on blankets listening to the sweet voice of Brian Joyce, a dad from our school who sounds just like (my favorite!) James Taylor.

As I approached the microphone to thank everyone for coming together for our cause, I was met with applause from the crowd… and for the 20th time that evening, I had to hold back tears. Boy, it feels good to energize a crowd and show them that helping others can be a fun and wonderful way to spend time with family and friends.

Our grand total for the evening, in case you were curious? $667! So far, we have raised over $1000, twice our initial goal!

I made the following recipe with an enthusiastic group of first grade Girl Scouts. They LOVED helping to melt chocolate with a hair dryer and patiently waited in line to hold the bowl steady and stir the melting chocolate. Occasionally a little drizzle of chocolate flew through the air, and by the end of our cooking session, we were all sprayed or dusted with some evidence that we had been in the kitchen!

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

These tasty gems are simple enough for even the youngest chefs to create. Let your imagination go wild - no two pretzels will be alike.

1 bag large sourdough pretzels or pretzel rods
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz milk chocolate chips
4 oz candy melts, assorted colors
assorted sprinkles

1. Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2. Place each type of chocolate chip and candy melt into its own glass bowl.
3. Bring your hair dryer into the kitchen. Seriously.
4. Turn the hair dryer on High and blow hot air onto one bowl of chocolate at a time, stirring frequently. The chocolate and candy melts will begin to glisten as they start to melt. Continue stirring to prevent burning, as they finish melting.
5. Coat half of each pretzel in chocolate and / or the melted colored candy melts. You can either dip the pretzel or coat it with melted chocolate dripped from a spoon.
6. While the chocolate is still wet, add an assortment of sprinkles: confetti, nonpareils or colored sparkling sugar.
7. Place coated pretzels onto the prepared baking sheets and allow to dry.
8. Once dry, place the pretzels in an airtight container and store in a cool location.
9. If you plan to sell these at a bake sale, place each one into a food-safe plastic bag, seal closed and tie with a pretty ribbon.

CALL THE KIDS:

• Line baking sheet with foil or parchment
• If your sprinkles don’t come in jars with a shaker lid, pour them into little bowls so they are easy to pinch or scoop.
• Help to stir chocolate while it melts
• Dip pretzels into the chocolate
• Decorate with sprinkles
• Once pretzels are dry, put them in baggies and tie closed with ribbon

TIPS:

• If you don’t have a hair dryer, you can melt the chocolates in the microwave. Heat them on 50% power for 1 minute at a time, stirring in between, until melted.
• Alternatively, you can place the chocolates in a metal bowl fitted over a pot of simmering water. Stir frequently - the steam from the simmering water will heat the bowl and will melt the chocolate. Be careful if using this technique with young children - the bowl gets hot and the steam can burn their skin.

My sister has been volunteering for Share Our Strength, a national organization that weaves together a net of community groups, activists, and food programs to make sure no kids in America grow up hungry. Her enthusiasm piqued my interest, and when I visited their website, I couldn’t help but get inspired myself!

Here is what usually happens in my head — When I see an organization, such as Share Our Strength, that is doing such good work, I wonder what steps I might be able to do with my family or students to contribute to the cause. Usually, I have to don my teacher hat and design some curriculum that would allow us to cook some delicious recipes AND help someone at the same time. But this time, I was spared the effort of lesson planning!

The Great American Bake Sale is an annual event, sponsored by Share Our Strength, that mobilizes Americans to end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities. Wait - I think I should clarify something here. Yes, I do realize that my cooking classes focus on healthy and seasonal foods. And yes, I also realize that most of the time baking isn’t the most healthy endeavor. BUT, pair a community building activity (like baking) with a cause (like ending childhood hunger) and you have a recipe for success (even if it there is a little extra butter and sugar thrown in!)

The funds raised from Great American Bake Sales have allowed more than 5.3 million meals to be served to low-income children nationwide. Proceeds also fund grants that promote access to after-school and summer feeding programs, as well as nutrition education programs for at-risk youth.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can pass this one up. Are you with me? To register or to learn more about Share our Strength or the Great American Bake Sale, please visit their website.