Archive for July, 2011

Every Bag Counts

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

We’ve been spending a lot of time this summer talking about fun food and making cute replicas of our storybook favorites. But while we are fortunate enough to have fun with our food, there are plenty of kids and families who are going hungry this summer. The problem is worst at the end of the month, when many families’ food benefits have run out, and it’s exascerbated in the summertime when kids can’t rely on school breakfast and lunches.

Currently 1 in 7 households (about 50 million people, including 17 million kids) are considered “food insecure,” meaning they do not reliably have enough food to feed everyone in the household every day. 17 million kids! That’s more than sad; it’s a heart-stopper.

What can you do? Here’s an easy one: From now through Saturday, you can take part in a food drive run by Safeway (Vons/Pavilions here in Southern CA). For just $10 at the store you can buy pre-filled bags of food, which will then be donated to local food banks. Thanks to Safeway for this easy and tangible way to contribute.

Also, did you know that of the 21 million kids eligible for free or reduced lunch in the U.S., less than 3 million get a free meal in the summer? That’s why Share Our Strength has been working hard to get its  No Kid Hungry in Summer Campaign close to meeting its $25,000 goal. Every dollar you give can connect a kid with 10 meals, and your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Ansara Family Fund at the Boston Foundation. Visit their Road Trip page to see where they’re visiting this summer.

Want to make a more direct contribution (or need help yourself)? See Feeding America’s Food Bank Locator to find one near you; or contribute directly to Feeding America here.

How about no kids going hungry this summer?

Posted Under: Nutrition | Tags:
This post was written by jollytomato on July 21st, 2011

Keep Kids Busy in the Kitchen

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Got the mid-summer doldrums? Kids complaining about being bored? Here’s a solution: Get them busy in the kitchen. That’ll teach ‘em. Oh, and maybe they’ll have fun and sample something healthy too.

Without further ado, we present the Top 5 Ways to Keep Kids Busy in the Kitchen in the Summertime:

1. Husk corn: Buy a load of corn for dinner, from the farm market if possible. Station your kids in the kitchen, or even better, in the back yard, with a big bag to hold the husks. Then have them peel away. Bonus time-consumer: Tell them you don’t want to see a single strand of corn silk left – This should add at least 15 more minutes to the job.

2. Pit Cherries: Got a big basket of cherries? Give your kids a hand-held cherry pitter and set them up in a place where you won’t care about cherry juice splatters. Outside is best, but the kitchen sink will do too. If you have two kids and two cherry pitters, see who can pit the most in five minutes.

3. Spin Salad: Got lettuce at the farm market? Got herbs in your garden? You’re going to have some mighty tasty salads this summer, but someone’s going to need to clean them. Put your kids in charge of washing the lettuce leaves, spinning them in a salad spinner, and then tearing them into bite-sized pieces. Who knows, they may sample some along the way.

4. Scoop Watermelon: America’s favorite summer fruit is here, but it needs some prep work before you can enjoy it. One way to get your kids involved is to cut the watermelon in half and then have them scoop out balls with a melon baller. You can also chop the melon into large pieces and then have your kids cut bite-sized cubes with a safe kids’ knife. In this picture, we made a watermelon basket, carved out large chunks of watermelon, and then had our helper chop them into smaller pieces. (True, the pieces were not perfect, but who’s complaining?)

5. Squeeze lemons: You never know when you’re going to want a big batch of lemonade. And for that matter, you could always use some extra lemon juice to drizzle over cut fruit or grilled vegetables – or your nicely washed salad. If your kid needs something to do, hand him a big stack of lemons (cut in half) and have him squeeze away using the lemon juicer.

Now who’s going to complain about being bored?

Posted Under: Just For Fun, Parenting | Tags: , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on July 20th, 2011

Cook Your Books

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

It’s summertime, and your kids are probably reading away (right? right?) and enjoying their time immersed in new adventures and fantasies. Every now and then a book inspires a cooking project that practically begs to be recreated in the kitchen. Lucky for us, both of our boys had summer books that inspired kitchen adventures.

Our four-year-old loves, loves, LOVES the Henry and Mudge series, and his favorite book is almost certainly “Henry and Mudge and the Funny Lunch.” In the book, Henry and his dad create a funny food treat (a pineapple sofa) for their mother for Mothers’ Day.  We followed the pictures in the book to carve out the pineapple “sofa” and make marshmallow pillows. Then we picked out some strawberries for each of the “family” members and gave them miniature chocolate chip eyes. In the book the pineapple sofa is served on an enormous chocolate bar, but after we had finished the pineapple creation, our four-year-old was so excited he (astonishingly) forgot all about that detail. We enjoyed it anyway.

After the success of this project, he decided he wanted to move on to one other “funny lunch” highlighted in the book – the Sweet Potato Shoe. Our four-year-old was convinced that the shoelaces in the picture were made from cheese but we couldn’t figure out how to lace long pieces of cheese. Instead, we used a piece of whole wheat spaghetti, cooked al dente. We spent about 15 minutes trying to lace the spaghetti, then decided that life was too short to spend lacing spaghetti and settled on this “good-enough” version.

Our seven-year-old has spent much of the past year obsessed with Harry Potter, and when we were invited to a Harry Potter movie-viewing party, we decided that the event called for some serious Hogwarts treats. Inspired by the Golden Snitch Butterbeer cake pops on Amy Bites, we decided to make these Golden Snitch mini cupcakes. This was a two-stage project, the first stage of which was creating the wings. We used Wilton’s yellow fondant and cut them in wing shapes using Leaf Cut-Outs. Then we painted them with gold PearlDust and let them firm up. In the meantime, we made mini cupcakes with a standard yellow cake and frosted them with a white buttercream frosting.

When it was time to go to the party, all we had to do was slide in the wings and the Golden Snitches were ready for takeoff. Harry Potter movie purists will note that the Golden Snitch is usually pictured as gold with white wings, rather than the other way around, but we told our kids that you can make it any way you imagine it to be – you don’t have to stick with the movie’s interpretation. Again, we had no complaints whatsoever from the cupcake-eaters.

What are your kids’ favorite summer books? Have they inspired any interesting cooking projects?

Posted Under: Just For Fun, Parenting | Tags: , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on July 19th, 2011
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