Dessert Turned Main Dish – Whole Wheat Strawberry Cake
Kids Food / Lunch Box / Snacks / Sweet Treats

Dessert Turned Main Dish – Whole Wheat Strawberry Cake

One of the not-so-guilty pleasures of being a food blogger is the ability (and necessity) to set aside time to peruse many of the fabulous food blogs out there.  Today I happened upon Fork Spoon Knife and Smitten Kitchen.  What beautiful sites filled with mouth-watering food photography and delicious recipes.  Both sites had photos of similar desserts that caught my eye.  Fork Spoon Knife had one for a Strawberry Buttermilk Cake while Smitten Kitchen had photos of their Summer Strawberry Cake.  In both sets of photos the strawberries peeked out of golden brown puffed cakes, just begging to be eaten.  I knew then and there, that we would be the ones to eat them.  I had strawberries and buttermilk just waiting in my fridge for a good use.  But there was only one problem – we didn’t need dessert, we needed dinner.  So what’s a mom to do?  I upped the nutrition ante of course! (more…)

2 Comments
05/29/2011
Croutons – Top Salads with Butane or Bread?
Dinner Table / Healthy Lunch Box Ideas / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Croutons – Top Salads with Butane or Bread?

Welcome back to an ingredient we’re beginning to recognize with dependable frequency – TBHQ.  Yes, the ingredient that preserves food products by way of lighter fluid is back in the “mix”ed greens.  This time it joins us in the form of a crunchy tidbit our children rely on to top a salad…the crouton.  Croutons are by definition (according to dictionary.com), “A small piece of fried or toasted bread, sometimes seasoned, used as a garnish for soups, salads, and other dishes.”  Bread, oil and seasoning.  That’s it.  Simple right?  Not always. (more…)

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05/22/2011
“Secret” Ingredient Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box / Snacks

“Secret” Ingredient Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that a a lot of kids out there like avocados.  They are a healthy, nutrient rich fruit (yes they are a fruit) that are often passed off as a vegetable in sandwiches, salads, and of course, guacamole.  Seeing as Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, I realized those easy prepackaged containers of guacamole would soon be flying off the supermarket shelf.  (more…)

3 Comments
05/01/2011
Farmer’s Markets for Kids – A Magical Introduction to Fruits and Vegetables
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Farmer’s Markets for Kids – A Magical Introduction to Fruits and Vegetables

Spring Break.  For many of us those two words are synonymous with freedom:  freedom from school, freedom from responsibility,  freedom from winter, and freedom from the captive grasp of supermarket produce.  That’s right, Farmers Markets are opening in towns across the country, and for those of us here on the west coast lucky enough to have year-round farmers markets, we are now able to enjoy the bounty of spring produce. (more…)

9 Comments
04/24/2011
Dinner and Dye – No More Red 3 or Red 40
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Dinner and Dye – No More Red 3 or Red 40

Food dye.  Well there’s the big red-blue-yellow and pink elephant in the room.  Artificial food dyes are currently headliners on our food related news. A couple weeks ago Frito Lay announced they plan to give a more natural makeover to some of their snack products like Lay’s flavored Potato Chips, Tostitos, Multigrain SunChips and Rold Gold Pretzels.  And a week later the FDA held hearings to evaluate a request to post warning labels on the labels of products containing these artificial colors.  You can read three pertinent news articles on these topics here: (more…)

10 Comments
04/10/2011
The Scary Seven: Foods the Experts Avoid
Kids Food

The Scary Seven: Foods the Experts Avoid

Some of you may have seen this article before.  It has floated around Facebook and been passed along in emails.  But in case you haven’t, it’s an article that needs to be read.  According to an article in PREVENTION magazine, there are seven foods that individuals at the forefront of food safety avoid eating.  These foods are as follows: (more…)

4 Comments
04/03/2011
Let’s Talk Turkey: Does Deli Turkey Need Nitrites?
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Let’s Talk Turkey: Does Deli Turkey Need Nitrites?

The answer is NO.  Repeat after me, No nitrites, no nitrites, NO NITRITES!!!  Okay, I just had a flash back to my old cheerleading days.

Turkey deli meat is one of those things that I never really thought too much about.  It’s always been the lean deli protein that came sliced, smoked, honeyed or roasted and when piled on whole wheat bread with mustard and veggies became my healthy lunch.  Or was it?  During this Out of the Box Food journey I’ve been looking more carefully at everything, and that needed to include turkey.  I tended to choose turkey over ham because it was supposed to be healthier, right?  Well, I’m learning that it’s not just about the product itself, but how the product is cured and what might be added to it that makes the difference. (more…)

5 Comments
03/27/2011
Soup’s Still On…Skip the Bull(ion)
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Soup’s Still On…Skip the Bull(ion)

I received a comment to the Chicken Stock post a couple weeks ago, with a question about bullion cubes.  Chicken and vegetable broths are chock full of sodium, but what about those little cubes of flavor that dissolve into hot water to make soup?  Those must be better, right?  After all, they are so small.  Well, the short answer is no.  The censored, passionate answer is…well, let’s leave that one to the imagination. (more…)

4 Comments
03/20/2011
Clean-Out-The-Fridge Vegetable Broth
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Clean-Out-The-Fridge Vegetable Broth

How many times do you find yourself cleaning out the produce drawer of your fridge and kicking yourself for not actually using those veggies you were certain you’d use, “this time”?  It happens to me a lot.  I overbuy the beautiful produce I see at the farmer’s market, use only half a bunch of celery or undoubtedly leave half an onion sitting wistfully softening in the drawer.  Don’t beat yourself up.  You can use those leftover veggies to replace something you’d normally buy at the market, but without all the added sodium.  Something you can use to make soup, risotto, mashed potatoes, sauces…the possibilities are endless.  Vegetable broth. (more…)

1 Comment
03/13/2011
Chicken Broth: What’s in a Can?
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Chicken Broth: What’s in a Can?

I can’t tell you how many of the recipes I make call for chicken stock or broth.  It’s an ingredient I use more often than I can keep track of, yet I was unaware what I was actually adding to my dishes every time I cracked open a can or poured generously from a carton.  Sodium.  And lots of it. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that individuals consume less than 1500mg of sodium per day (that is just over 1/2 tsp of salt).  Yet some varieties of packaged chicken stock and broth contain more than 850mg sodium per serving! (more…)

5 Comments
03/06/2011