Cook with Us | COUNTRY FUN

March 18, 2013
by countryfun
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Oh No! An Unplanned Lunchtime Adventure

Our day was preceding smooth and normal. Everyone was enjoying play and I had the meat sauce for today’s pasta lunch on the stove, seasoned and cooking down. The pureed green beans and last bag of pureed summer squash were ready to be added for that extra nutrition and thickening. Added both and realized a little too late that the squash was actually 6 egg yolks. Those yolks instantly cooked and now I had bits of cooked egg through my sauce.

Oh, NO!

Well, no way was I throwing out this food! There had to be a way to change it up. I’m really good at refrigerator soups, lots of casserole cooking and have a well stocked pantry.

Think!

Eggs and tomatoes ….. I thought eggs rancheros. Could I make this into a Mexican Pasta built off garlic, basil and oregano seasoning……..?

Why It’s Important to Have a Well Stocked Pantry When Feeding Kids Each Day:

A can of Rotel diced tomatoes
black beans
a few handfulls of my dried corn

Tasting good, not bad looking for a sauce, but needs a little something more to brighten it……

Last minute added some chopped sweet green peppers, served over the pasta noodles and topped with shredded mexican cheese and a couple of nacho chips.

Proof the kids here are good eaters. They greeted this dish with “Yum!” “I like this.” There was nothing to do but rinse before loading into the dishwasher. Now if only I could repeat this thrown together save

Tomorrow’s Lunch

No mistake with this casserole that I was making at the same time. Ready for reheating tomorrow. Ground turkey in a barbecue base topped with mashed sweet potato.

February 17, 2013
by countryfun
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Getting Involved with 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go!

For those that are members of the Country Fun family you know that healthy practices have always been a part of the program. In the last few years I have been aware of and accessed information on healthy practices from our local Let’s Go! program’s online toolkit, in addition to the different workshops in nutrition I’ve attended. I have held off becoming directly involved in 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! because of their directives/goals around screen time. We did not meet it with our use of technology. Over the last year there has been a new position being taking nationally regarding screen time. It is now being seen as recreational vs educational. With this change it was time to become directly involved, so I have submitted my application/registration, program self-assessment, met with the program’s representative to develop an action plan, and begun work on the goals. There will be another meeting to assess how the goals have been met this Spring.

Let’s Go! is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program designed to
increase healthy eating and active living in children from birth to 18. Let’s Go! works in six
sectors (schools, early childhood, after school, healthcare, workplace and community) to
reach children and families where they live, study, work, and play. Let’s Go! is centered on
the common message of “5-2-1-0″.

The 10 Let’s Go! evidence-based strategies connect to Let’s Go!’s core message and align with
the CDC and the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations to prevent childhood obesity. Our program goals will be focused on these strategies to improve environments and written policies.

Let’s Go provides free continuing education workshops for involved programs, and guidance and assistance to support them in the adoption of the 10 strategies. These strategies are what the action plan goals will be developed around. The first 5 are what I will be focusing on.

1. Provide healthy choices for snacks and celebrations; limit unhealthy choices.
2. Provide water and low fat milk; limit or eliminate sugary beverages.
3. Provide non-food rewards.
4. Provide opportunities for children to get physical activity every day.
5. Limit recreational screen time.

..As opportunities arise we will also branch out to include the remaining 4 strategies.

6. Participate in local, state, and national initiatives that promote healthy eating and active living.
7. Engage community partners to help support and promote healthy eating and active living at
your site.
8. Partner with and educate families in adopting and maintaining a lifestyle that supports healthy
eating and active living.
9. Implement a staff wellness program that includes healthy eating and active living.
10. Collaborate with Food and Nutrition Programs to offer healthy food and beverage options.

I have already started to rewrite policies that reflect current practice and areas we are working to improve. All policies can be found under Parenting Information/Handbook for CF.

I have also provided materials on healthy food practices under Speciality Blogs/CF is Cooking in the sidebar and under Healthy Snacks in the top menu. Please access this information to support your healthy food practices at home.

February 7, 2013
by countryfun
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A Lesson in Eating What We Might Not “LIKE”

I have always taken providing lunches and snacks daily as an important part of my job and a major opportunity to teach life lessons. We always talk about eating a rainbow, where does this food come from, and how it’s important to eat healthy food that may not be our “favorite” food. I’m always saying “You don’t have to “like” it to eat it.”

Well that lesson was taught well with the new recipe I tried out for lunch yesterday. Multiple sites I follow and have used a variety of recipes from (with success) have posted about 2 ingredient pancakes. There is no flour used here. This group I have here now enjoys eggs for lunch and I’ve been on the look-out for new recipes, so a pancake that used eggs and mashed bananas seemed ideal. It also provided the opportunity to do a little science experiment around eggs that have been around a little while. This doesn’t happen much here as we get our eggs fresh from Julie each week (did so Wed. morning), but I had a dozen that I had not cooked up as hard boiled yet, so a perfect time to try this.

Create your own free digital scrapbook

2 ingredient pancakes = easy to make, budget friendly, nutritious and either really liked or…….. Well, let’s just say I modeled ”You don’t have to “like” it to eat it.” The texture wasn’t like a pancake, but more like an omelet – no problem there. For me the banana flavor was too much. The kids here who really like bananas seemed to also really like this pancake. We served with a spread of peanut butter and honey (our nut free zone is for school-age kids and under 2′s).

At this same meal we also all tried a new fruit – Pummelo - which we ate like a giant grapefruit. We found it sweeter than a grapefruit and being larger more fun to pop the juice from what we call the “pulp pillows”. Being larger we could actually pull apart each section into it’s little pillows, eating each and exploring the texture and burst of juice. We also were really able to experience the oils in the skin. After rubbing our hands over the smooth skin ours hands had a citrus smell to them.

Result – maybe try the pancake again with a different topping and less banana. The Pummelo will be here again as long as the price remains reasonable.

January 13, 2013
by countryfun
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Just Add Chocolate!

Feeding children day in and day out can get boring for both the eaters and the chef. In the providing of 2 snacks and a lunch each day, I work really hard to find new presentations of known foods that will be eaten and ways to introduce new foods. It helps when I have a group that enjoys their fruits and vegetables and do not think snacks have to only be baked goods.
All that being said, if you answer the question”What’s for snack?” with “…..chocolate chips” you have an instant hit on your hands.
So my job is to find recipes that allow for the addition of chocolate chips with lower fat and less sugars. A long-time favorite around here (I think I could serve this every day without complaint) is the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread from the Dr. Cookie Cookbook . As much as I also enjoy this bread, I get tired of making it. This week the puree to be used (the freezer is full of vegetable purees from the abundance of produce we processed this summer) is baked pumpkin. Now I don’t have a lot of recipes for pumpkin in my collection of cookbooks, so it was off to my pinterest boards. I’ve been collecting recipes for baked goods that look interesting and easy to do (kid friendly baking) on donuts, muffins & quickbreads during my daily web browsing. Time to actually try a few.

Recipegirl has a Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread - good whole wheat, but I also wanted to use up a last cup of yogurt, so keep looking.

chef in training had an Easy Pumpkin Bread - not sure if I could sub the yogurt for the water and not ready to experiment just now. Keep looking

Maybe I should just do donuts (always another hit) like those tasty Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Spiced Donuts from Shape, or Buns in My Oven’s Pumpkin Donuts, we have done both before from. They are baked and healthy, but I really want a quick bread that uses yogurt.

Pumpkin quinoa, pumpkin cornbread……where is a recipe for a quick bread with yogurt. I cannot believe I do not have one pinned. A quick 10 min. check of my board found no recipe that used the ingredients I wanted to without experimenting. Time for a quick site wide search. Immediate find: So I Guess I Can Cook Now – Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Extra bonus is it makes 2 loaves for the work of one. I changed up the flour mix to make more whole grain (1 C each flour, wheat germ and whole wheat flour). Posted in Cooking With Us under Breads & Muffins (drop-down pages).

The bread was moist, smelled great and disappeared as soon as the snack plate was laid out. The kids immediately asked if I had more of this. Think we have a good substitute for our Banana Bread.

December 19, 2012
by countryfun
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My Top Ten Tips for Providing Nutritious Lunches on a Budget

For those that ask about how I get together the variety of lunches that we eat here on a low food budget, please check out my lastest posting Tips and Tricks for Nutritious Meals on a Budget on Country Fun is Cooking.

I enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking and baking, exploring new flavors, techniques and recipes. After cooking for my family and the childcare for over 30 years, I’ve figured out what works for me to meet budget, time and variety. Maybe some of my tips and tricks will help you.

December 14, 2012
by countryfun
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Early Release = Fun

I know I’ve said it before, but “I really enjoy having the school-age kids here on early release days.” These days let me have special time and interaction with the older children that have usually been in care with me for years without the younger children looking for their attention. Now I also really value the interaction between the ages and LOVE how well the older ones initiate it as often as not, but I miss the daily connections we had when they were here more.

We put this month’s early release to good use. Needing to keep things quieter while rest-time started, I asked the school-age kids to make the star foundations for ornaments I wanted the youngest ones to make as a follow-up to Christmas stories we have been reading. Willingly done and they even decided to make some for themselves. Having done these in years past I knew these kids could do without my help. It’s just colored craft sticks and hot glue. Another way to do these can be see at The Artful Parent who just recently posted their version.

Then it was time to make a favorite snack (with a twist) rice cereal squares. This time it was decided to add mini cinnamon chips from King Arthur Flour, and peppermint bits.

Snack done. Still a little time before rest time would be done and time to glitter up the stars, so what can we make that fits fun, easy and materials on hand? Pinterest Homemade Ornament board time for a quick scan of 150 ideas. When they saw the reindeer idea originally from happy hooligans it was “Can we make that?” Toilet tube, google eyes, pom-pom, pipe cleaners all on hand. Even had tube pre-painted brown. Pulled out some of my ribbons for a little extra if desired.

As the younger ones woke we added the glitter to the star forms. Paint with glue and then sprinkle with glitter. Done and set aside to dry.

Coats on and snack in hand means it’s outside to play.

Fun afternoon. Yes!

October 25, 2012
by countryfun
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Pumpkin Exploration

Five seems to be part of our theme this Fall. It works with our letter “F”, story Five Little Pumpkins, and usually have about 5 children at lesson time. A part of our Fall lessons is the Letter “P” for pumpkins. Now I do not do the jack-o-lanterns around here (as my kids are grown and no trick-or-treaters left in the neighborhood, so why waste a good pumpkin), but rather harvest our pumpkins for eating. That makes it perfect to take time for small hands to explore, eyes to observe and develop more vocabulary.

With our 5 pumpkins we compared weight, size, shape. Talked about the parts and then got our hands “Messy!” “Slimmy!” “Yuck.” “Cold!”

Ended up with lots of seeds to roast for future snacks. The big chunks found their way into the oven to roast for future puree. Puree means tasty soups, extra rich tacos, and lots of bread type snacks. Found a new favorite mini-muffin or donut hole recipe that will post in CF Cooking with Us shortly.