Although the school year is wrapping up (here, anyway), it’s never too late to bring attention to childhood obesity and what kids eat. I have always had issues with school lunches, even growing up. However, I was fortunate to have my mom pack my lunches, which allowed me avoid a pizza and tater tots carbo load.

As a school administrator, not only have I noticed a significant increase in larger, overweight children, but lunch duty has been an eye-opening experience. Kids today have eating habits that are so different than when I grew up. Now, I really see what kids are choosing. A school with which approximately 85% of its population qualifies for free and reduced lunch, there are not many lunch bags that travel to the cafeteria in my building. Even so, taking income out of the picture, the numbers of “extras” that are purchased is maddening, from Hot Cheetos and Chips, to cookies and ice cream. What parents/caregivers don’t realize that it’s just as costly to eat at school as it is from home. A school account can run as much as $55+ dollars/month per child. Making a healthy, properly portioned sandwich, with an appropriate snack can cost the same amount. Can you imagine the cost of more than one child, and how much food can be purchased for that same amount?

Why do I think it’s that easy? This school year has been different from years past and it has been the first year I have eaten the school lunch as often as I have. I believe, while not the sole reason, my eating incorrectly at work/school has contributed to my recent weight gain. But, as I work on a budget, I still do try to make a conscious effort to bring healthy eats to work. An example? How about a turkey cheese wrap with lettuce (or cabbage mix for that added crunch)? And, to make it healthier, replace the mayonnaise with reduced fat ranch dressing.

Check out the links below for school lunch tips and assistance. Whether at school, summer camp, field trips, or on family road trips, it is possible to make it work. Because, in the grand scheme of things, what do we have without our health?

Tips for Preparing Fast, Healthy and Inexpensive School (and Preschool) Lunches

How to Pack the Perfect School LunchCool School Lunches

Yes, it’s May, and yes, it’s finally 75 lovely, sunny degrees out, but I defy you to find a child who will reject a dumpling on the sole basis of the weather outside. I know my own kids would happily consume dumplings in weather nearly as steamy as the stew those fluffy dough pillows are swimming in.

So, if you have lingering containers of stew, chili, or hearty soup in your freezer, now’s the time to use them up, before the really hot weather sets in. Whip up a batch of these super-quick dumplings and enjoy. Younger kids can help measure and stir; older kids can make the whole thing themselves, with some supervision as they drop the dough into the stewpot.

Be forewarned — you may find yourself making chicken and dumplings or beef stew all summer long just to have something to eat dumplings with!

Parsley Dumplings for Stew

(adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book)

• 2/3 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (I double this amount; you can omit if your kids think the green stuff is icky)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons oil

Combine flour, parsley, baking powder, thyme, and salt. Stir together milk and oil and add to dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until dough comes together. Drop tablespoons of dough into bubbling stew (or chili or hearty soup). Cover pot and lower heat; simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, or until a toothpick insert into the center of a dumpling comes out clean. Do not lift the lid while the dumplings are cooking.

Makes 4 to 6 dumplings

While we made this with traditional peanut butter, a natural peanut butter should work just as well, if not better. I also suspect that a peanut alternative like almond or cashew butter would taste phenomenal as well. For a real treat, top this peanut butter with apple slices for a peanut butter sandwich like you’ve never experienced before.

Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter

• 4 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 4 tablespoons plump raisins
• pinch of salt

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and stir well to combine. Use as a sandwich spread or as a dip for apples or pretzels. Peanut butter will keep for about 2 weeks if stored covered in the refrigerator.

Makes enough for about 3 sandwiches

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.

This afternoon, my daughter and I created Banana Chocolate Chip Bread. That’s primarily because I don’t really care for nuts and, honestly, I think chocolate chips could replace them as an ingredient anytime.

We slightly modified this easy (and fast) One Egg Easy Banana Bread Recipe by using just a quarter stick of butter (replacing the rest of butter with a half cup of apple sauce). We also added dark chocolate chips, and we put some sparkly multi-colored sugar on top.

She wasn’t thrilled with the hour-long cook time, but it smelled amazing while it was baking. She also griped just briefly when she realized we were celebrating Mother’s Day with something called bread, not cake (clearly inappropriate).

But it was pretty hard for anyone in the house to complain when they tasted it. I’ve always loved the banana/chocolate combination, and this bread was delicious. It was also a fun baking project with my 5-year-old. In fact, she did all of the mixing herself.

It was a perfect tasty treat and a fun baking project for Mother’s Day.

Watermelon has always been a favorite in our family. We were amused to discover that it is also a favorite of the white-faced capuchin monkey, who steals it from the visitors to Manuel Antonio Park whenever possible. Sadly, stealing food is simply an opportunistic behavior that these animals have adopted in response to the plethora of human visitors to their habitat. These monkeys can also be found sneaking into the recycle bins on the park grounds to consume Coca-Cola that is left in the discarded cans. These animals take advantage of any opportunity that they finds for additional caloric intake. If foods with poor nutritional value become abundant, their health begins to fail and their population size can decline. Both the monkey and our family give Watermelon a 3. (Photo taken by my dad.)

We were very excited to taste the Star Fruit. We hoped that the flavor would reflect the beautiful shape that this fruit displays when cut in slices. While we loved the crunchy consistency that reminded us of jicama, we were disappointed with the lack of flavor. The membrane that separates the “star” into sections was tough and got stuck between our teeth like floss. Our family gave this fruit a 1. (Below — our daughter is excited to taste the fruit, but was ultimately disappointed; our son gave it a thumbs-up!)

Tune in soon to see the results of our delicious tropical marmalade taste testing…

If your kids haven’t hit the magic years between roughly 8 and 18 when their interests suddenly explode in direct proportion to how much work and laundry you have and homework they have, and you’re spending more time on the sideline and in the bleachers than on the sofa, I have a few words of advice:

1. Rest up. And while you’re at it, save up. If gas is expensive now, who knows how much it’ll be by then.
2. Enjoy not going out. You will come to revere — that’s right, I said revere — nights when you just get to stay home.
3. Start a collection of grab-and-go meal ideas. Being prepared with an arsenal of meals that prep and cook quickly and can be eaten on the go will prove invaluable later. Trust me. You don’t want to find yourself in some fast-food drive-thru most nights of the week, on a first-name basis with the intercom, breathing the exhaust fumes of the car in front of you and pleading with your kids, again, to sub out the fries with the apple slices.

So, here’s one for that collection. Whether you call them fold-overs, pasties, or meat pies — depending on your geographic region (U.S., Great Britain, and Australia, respectively) — these savory Hot Ham and Cheese Pastries are fun to eat and a favorite of kids and adults alike.

Perfect for eating out of hand, these pastries are the perfect solution for lunch or dinner on the run. They’re great for sleepovers and impromptu driveway basketball tournaments, too. You can make and bake them in advance, then cool completely, wrap well in plastic, and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator and reheat in a toaster oven or conventional oven.

Feel free to modify ingredients according to your family’s preferences, adding chopped veggies or switching cheeses. You can replace 1 cup of the white flour with whole wheat flour for added nutrition.

Hot Ham and Cheese Pastries

For Pastry:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

For Filling:

• 1 cup chopped cooked ham
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 ounces Neufchatel cheese (or light cream cheese)
• 2 scallions, green part only, sliced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 egg, beaten
• Grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut shortening into flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle ice water over, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing crumbs with a fork. When the mixture forms large clumps and no fine crumbs remain, use hands to form dough into a disk on a well-floured surface.

Roll dough out into a rectangle about 1/8 thick. Cut dough into 5-inch squares and place on baking sheet.

Combine all filling ingredients except beaten egg and Parmesan cheese, mixing well. Place a couple of spoonfuls of filling on one half of each square of dough. Using your fingertip or a pastry brush, moisten the edge of dough with cold water. Fold over, press edges together, and crimp with a fork to seal. Poke each fold-over with the tines of a fork to allow steam to escape.

Brush beaten egg over each fold-over, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and bake for approximately 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Makes about 6 pastries

One of our favorite frozen treats is the ice cream sandwich; those simple chocolate wafers surrounding vanilla ice cream are always a welcome sight. Unfortunately for little hands and little tummies, one ice cream sandwich is far more than they need to be eating any time of the day. While looking at the cookie selection one day, I became inspired by a simple box of vanilla wafer cookies. Why not make our own? Then we can make them whatever size we like, and we can also make them whatever flavor we like.

Zander got to choose the ice cream filling, which actually ended up being orange sherbet. Sherbet is bright, refreshing, and also happens to be a healthier alternative to ice cream. We took one wafer cookie and topped that with a small scoop of orange sherbet. A second wafer was pressed onto the sherbet, and then the whole assembly was wrapped tight with plastic wrap and placed in the freezer for two hours to allow the flavors to meld together. It worked beautifully, and the kids were ecstatic with their new frozen treats. One apiece was plenty for them, while Mom and Dad nibbled on a few each,and didn’t feel near so guilty about the indulgence. Quick and easy, these will be a new standard warm-weather treat for us, and will make an excellent addition to a birthday party or two as well.

Green Eggs & Ham (with pesto and prosciutto), Marinated Berries and Fizzy Fruit. Treat your Mom to an extra special breakfast in bed!

Marinated Berries
An amazing way to jazz up fresh berries!

INGREDIENTS:
1 pint fresh berries (your favorites: strawberries – cut into bite size pieces, blackberries, raspberries), washed and rinsed
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons organic sugar

Place all ingredients into bowl and carefully mix. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Mix before serving. Serve by itself, on top of cheesecake, whole grain pancakes, shortcakes, etc. Be creative! Serves 4.

Green Eggs and Ham
A super simple and fast way to create a gourmet breakfast.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cage-free all-natural eggs
1 tablespoon all-natural pesto
1 slice prosciutto (Italian ham), torn into bite size pieces
Grated parmesan reggiano cheese
To taste sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Crack eggs into mixing bowl and loosely scramble with pesto. Heat pan on medium heat, add butter and move butter around to coat pan. Pour egg mixture and prosciutto into pan and slowly move eggs with spatula until cooked. Top with cheese. Serves 2.

Optional ingredients:
Replace prosciutto with chopped turkey or ham.

Fizzy Fruit
A refreshing drink and healthy replacement for soda or sweet tea.

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz. Pellegrino sparkling water
4 oz. 100% all-natural fruit juice

Pour water and juice into glass and enjoy! Serves 1.

Optional ingredients:
Try different juices for variety; cranberry, orange juice, etc. Be sure to use 100% fruit juice.

Warmly,
Doreen and Lizzie Marie

There are two types, a Bears and Bees mix and a Bears and Cheese trail mix. We picked up the Bears and Bees version at the store.

There’s no question. This isn’t the perfect kid snack food. This isn’t as healthy as serving up fresh fruit or veggies. It also is something you could totally make yourself. In fact, I found a teddy bear trail mix recipe here.

It is, however, a nice occasional alternative to typical packaged snack foods and cookies. It’s also nice to have something nonperishable in the pantry that’s just ready to toss at hungry kids.

Both varieties have 130 calories per serving (one-eight of the box), 3.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, 6 grams of sugar and 1 gram of fiber.

The Bears and Bees version has chocolate Teddy Grahams, graham bee cookies, pretzels, and yogurt covered raisins. It was extremely popular with my kids, probably even more so than when they just get Teddy Grahams for snack.

You can find out more, and see full nutritional information, at Nabisco’s Teddy Graham Trail Mix site.