This past week, I was honored to guest host the Food Revolution Tuesday Twitter Party where we discussed a topic near and dear to many of our hearts – Feeding Picky Eaters. We got a lot of new and creative ideas from fellow parents struggling with the same issues from around the globe. You can find the followup article and some of the wonderful suggestions here on jamieoliver.com. (more…)
Summer is in full swing! What are your plans with your kids? Long afternoons under the sprinklers? Trips to the cool sanctuary of museums to beat the heat? Cooking? Did I just say, “cooking”?? Sure, why not. Cooking with our kids is a great summertime activity! When you find yourself with an hour or two and the need to feed the family after a full day of summertime fun, why not turn dinner into an activity for your kids. There are so many benefits to cooking with kids. Kids love creating, mixing and measuring, parents love having a fun activity for the family that doesn’t involve the television or a video game…plus, everyone gets fed! One less thing on your plate for the afternoon. (more…)
Out of the Box Food has had a makeover! This week I wanted to introduce you to our redesigned site and give you a chance to poke around and see what’s new! The lovely team at TCDawson Designs has given Out of the Box Food a fresh look, new dynamic recipe page and a more user friendly way to navigate our comparisons and recipes. We have also added a button on the sidebar from which you can order our NEW REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!
Organic – What our Grandparents used to call “food” (more…)
This summer fruit salad works as a lovely side dish, healthy breakfast or a light dessert. Take advantage of the fresh bounty at your local farmers market, and let the kids get creative with the fruit choices. You may find they learn to love something new.
It’s a Pie Party! A few weeks ago a fellow blogger, Shauna Ahern at the wonderful site Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef and some of her friends, decided to get other bloggers, home cooks & chefs together for an internet wide Pie Party on July 5th. Well, I didn’t need much more than the suggestion to bake up my families favorite, Blueberry-Apricot Pie. But to give it the Out of the Box Food Health Boost, I made it with very little added sugar and baked it in a whole wheat and flax crust. My family sends out a big, giant “thank you” through a mouthful of Blueberry Apricot Pie to all who created “Pie Party”. They can’t wait until the next one!
Out of the Box Food is getting a makeover! We are currently in the process of a site redesign which will make Out of the Box Food a cleaner, more user friendly resource for parents. Over the next couple of weeks, you may notice new posts of recipes you’ve seen before as we transition to the new site. Please bear with us and know we will continue to bring new content every week. (more…)
Rather than succumb to the drive-thru to satisfy our cravings for crisp, salty potatoes last week, we talked about how to make our own Restaurant Style French Fries. Crisp on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, these fries made even our youngest critics happy. But for many of us, week night dinners do not include two quarts of oil and a fry thermometer (heard your comment, Susie!). So let’s slim down the fry in both calories and time by baking them – they will certainly make an easy, fresh and delicious accompaniment to any BBQ or Sandwich night. (more…)
McDonald’s French Fries. As American as apple pie and corn on the cob. As common as state fairs in the summertime. I actually think it might be difficult to find an American who has never popped (or more accurately, crammed) those spears of crisp, salty potato into their mouths. If you are one of those people, I applaud you. I wish I could say the same. Back in our McDonald’s days, (I’m happy to report my family is now MDPF – McDonald’s Product Free), I would feed my children those little nuggets of “chicken” making sure they had eaten a few fries to round out the meal (I literally gag as I remember). One of the many things I didn’t know then is how many ingredients actually go into those puffs of salty decadence. French Fries should contain potatoes, oil and salt. They may not be a health food, but they should be natural. McDonald’s French Fries are as natural as…well, they’re just not. (more…)
It’s summer! Across the country, state and county fairs are offering loads of delicious processed foods on sticks. Foods that kids love (and I hate to admit, some of us adults too). Today as my boys and I strolled through the brightly colored booths at the Ventura County Fair, we inhaled the decadence of fried fair treats, creating memories of summer. These are the memories we will eventually go back to on cold November afternoons, encouraging us to take out a box of frozen corn dogs in order to recapture the experience. Hey, why not? Frozen corn dogs are easy, inexpensive, delicious, and some brands are even made with healthy turkey dogs, right? But it’s what lies within the box, underneath the list of thirty seven, no thirty eight ingredients that should snap us back from our sweet memories of summer and encourage us to look for food outside of the box.
This recipe was originally developed to make pre-baked pizza crusts for quick and easy pizzas, but dough can be made up to step 7, then topped with your favorite toppings and baked at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until brown and bubbling for a fresh, hot pizza straight from the oven.
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