This week, a new recipe. Perfect for fall or winter!
This makes about 72 mini-muffins. I've counted each serving as 2 muffins. (If you make these for your family and use regular size muffin pans, a serving size is half a muffin and you'll get 18 muffins from this recipe.)
Each serving has 113 calories, 4.2g fat, 71mg sodium, 2g fiber, 10.3g sugar, and 22% RDA of Vitamin A. (Pumpkin is a vitamin A powerhouse!)
Ingredients:
2.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar Splenda blend
10 TBS flaxmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 TBS pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup canola oil
3 apples, chopped fine
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put your mini-muffin liners in your pans.
2. Mix all your dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Then carefully fold in your chopped apples.
3. Spoon your batter into your muffin pans and bake for about 10 minutes. The tops will start to turn golden brown and feel firm to the touch when they're done.
4. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Granola Bar Recipe
This recipe is a favorite of most everyone who's tried it. There are endless variations--I've done the nutrition calculation for the version below, but you can put change all the extras as much as you like. If you want to make changes and bring them to school, go to http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php Just type in the recipe (the same format as below) and put in 24 servings, then calculate and make sure your changes didn't put you over on sugar or calories. How about white chocolate chips and dried blueberries instead of chocolate chips, or just add raisins, or dried cranberries or any other dried fruit you have. Don't like coconut? Leave it out. Does your family like nuts? Throw some in. Make them with dates and maple syrup and use maple extract instead of vanilla. I'm thinking you can even substitute out some of the canola oil and add in some peanut butter (not for school maybe with all the nut allergies, but, you know, for your family and friends.) You get the idea. I doubt I've made these the same way twice.
Granola Bars
2 cups oats (slow cook)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
8 TBS ground flaxmeal
1 tsp salt
8 TBS unsweetened coconut flakes
½ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 egg (beaten) (or egg substitute)
½ cup canola oil
½ cup maple syrup or honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat your oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 14” pan with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Mix in the wet ingredients.
4. Using a piece of wax paper, press the mixture into the pan.
5. Bake for 22-26 minutes. (Check often--these will be hard as a rock if you let them go too long! Pull them out when they are starting to brown around the edges.)
6. Let them cool for 5-10 minutes, cut them, then let them finish cooling.
24 servings
Calories: 144 Fiber: 2.1g
Total fat: 7.7g Sodium: 104mg
Sat. fat: 1.7g Protein: 2.7g
Trans fat: 0
Sugars: 8g
Enjoy!
Granola Bars
2 cups oats (slow cook)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
8 TBS ground flaxmeal
1 tsp salt
8 TBS unsweetened coconut flakes
½ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 egg (beaten) (or egg substitute)
½ cup canola oil
½ cup maple syrup or honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat your oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 14” pan with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Mix in the wet ingredients.
4. Using a piece of wax paper, press the mixture into the pan.
5. Bake for 22-26 minutes. (Check often--these will be hard as a rock if you let them go too long! Pull them out when they are starting to brown around the edges.)
6. Let them cool for 5-10 minutes, cut them, then let them finish cooling.
24 servings
Calories: 144 Fiber: 2.1g
Total fat: 7.7g Sodium: 104mg
Sat. fat: 1.7g Protein: 2.7g
Trans fat: 0
Sugars: 8g
Enjoy!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Some Easy Food Ideas (let the grocery store do the work...)
Here are some food ideas from the aisles of my local Kroger (shout out to the Forest Park location)...
So, I felt a little silly photographing foods with my phone, but I'll take a hit for the team. (And I only dropped and exploded one container of yogurt.)
Pudding: Read your labels. The regular Jello individual servings didn't meet the guidelines. But here are some that did. And I'm sure there are more, but I shop with 3 little boys so this is all I photographed!
Yogurt: The go-gurts and Trix yogurts are too sugary to meet the new guidelines, but the Yoplait serving size is small enough that the low fat version works. There are lots of fun flavors so an assortment might go well at a party. But even more fun are the Yoplait Splitz. It's a healthy version of the sugary kids yogurts. My boys love them!
That's all for today! More grocery store ideas next post!
As always, please comment with your own suggestions!
So, I felt a little silly photographing foods with my phone, but I'll take a hit for the team. (And I only dropped and exploded one container of yogurt.)
Pudding: Read your labels. The regular Jello individual servings didn't meet the guidelines. But here are some that did. And I'm sure there are more, but I shop with 3 little boys so this is all I photographed!
Yogurt: The go-gurts and Trix yogurts are too sugary to meet the new guidelines, but the Yoplait serving size is small enough that the low fat version works. There are lots of fun flavors so an assortment might go well at a party. But even more fun are the Yoplait Splitz. It's a healthy version of the sugary kids yogurts. My boys love them!
That's all for today! More grocery store ideas next post!
As always, please comment with your own suggestions!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Party Fun, get moving and take the focus off the food
Tonight was the first PTA meeting, and our fearless leader, Michele Gilmore said something very profound. One of the reasons people are upset about the new guidelines is that we've been told we can't bring in cupcakes. As soon as you tell us "no" what's the first thing we want to do? Exactly the opposite. We are such rebels. So, it's time to focus on the positive, what we can do.
Games. Talk to your teacher before the party. Is he or she open to pushing the desks and chairs to the outer edges of the classroom for some activities? Especially with the older kids, it could go really fast with everyone helping, and just think what you can do with all that floorspace. (And, some of these games can be played without rearranging furniture too.)
1. Freeze dance: Start and stop music, anyone moving when the music stops is temporarily out. Get all tricky at the end until one player remains.
2. Hot potato
3. The nose knows: Put different strong-smelling items in numbered paper bags, cover with a tissue for no-peeking and have kids fill out their guesses on a sheet of paper. Whoever gets the most right wins. Try using coffee grounds, orange peels, pepperoni, toothpaste, ripe banana, fruit roll-ups, crayons, hand sanitizer, and whatever else you come up with.
4. Four Corners: There are many variations of this game. I like the "getting to know you" version for a classroom party. Ask a question with four possible answers. It can be trivia, multiple choice style, or favorite color, or favorite type of vacation, or favorite subject in school. For favorite subject you could have everyone whose favorite subject is reading go to corner 1, math to corner 2, science to corner 3, recess to corner 4. It's fun for the kids to see who ends up where and they get to know their classmates a little better. Definitely throw in some silly ones! It's always nice to have a game with no winners and losers to mix things up a bit.
5. Memory Game: Prepare a tray with various items from home or the classroom. Walk around the room slowly with the tray giving everyone plenty of time to see what's on it. Put the tray away or cover it with a cloth and then have the kids write down everything they can remember. Whoever remembered the most items is the winner. (A fun variation on this one, is to have the person holding the tray leave the room, then ask the kids to write down what that person was wearing instead of what was on the tray. Hilarious.)
6. Silence: A good game for the very end of the party. Have the students arrange themselves in some sort of order without speaking a word. You could tell them to line up tallest to shortest, shortest to tallest, alphabetical order by first name, by last name. How about arrange themselves in a square or circle, or a straight line alternating boys and girls. They get to move around and the adults in the room get a little break from the noise.
7. Pin the Blank on the Blank: First of all, use tape, not pins! Now, get creative for your holiday party. Harvest Party? How about pin the pumpkin on the vine, or pin the hat on the pilgrim, or pin the feathers on the Indian, or pin the butter on the corn on the cob, or pin the spider on the web. Winter party? How about pin the carrot on the snowman, pin the mitten on the kid, pin the marshmellows on the hot chocolate. You get the idea.
8. Guess how many: Remember the old jar of jelly beans contests? Guess how many are in the jar? So, get creative. Find a jar and fill it with holiday appropriate stuff (probably not candy, I guess). How about pumpkin seeds for Harvest, small pebbles spray painted whatever color is appropriate for the party, high bounce balls, legos (try yard-sales maybe), grapes, blueberries. Ok, that's all I've got for now. Feel free to comment with more and better ideas! (Shouldn't be too hard...)
All right, that's a good start. I know you've all got really great ideas you can share in the comments section. The internet is our friend (that's where most of these ideas came from!). The kids will be having so much fun, no one will want to stop for snacks anyway! If you bring something like individual applesauces or fruit cups or yogurts, you can send them home in backpacks if they want to keep playing instead of eating. Please comment with more fun game ideas!
Games. Talk to your teacher before the party. Is he or she open to pushing the desks and chairs to the outer edges of the classroom for some activities? Especially with the older kids, it could go really fast with everyone helping, and just think what you can do with all that floorspace. (And, some of these games can be played without rearranging furniture too.)
1. Freeze dance: Start and stop music, anyone moving when the music stops is temporarily out. Get all tricky at the end until one player remains.
2. Hot potato
3. The nose knows: Put different strong-smelling items in numbered paper bags, cover with a tissue for no-peeking and have kids fill out their guesses on a sheet of paper. Whoever gets the most right wins. Try using coffee grounds, orange peels, pepperoni, toothpaste, ripe banana, fruit roll-ups, crayons, hand sanitizer, and whatever else you come up with.
4. Four Corners: There are many variations of this game. I like the "getting to know you" version for a classroom party. Ask a question with four possible answers. It can be trivia, multiple choice style, or favorite color, or favorite type of vacation, or favorite subject in school. For favorite subject you could have everyone whose favorite subject is reading go to corner 1, math to corner 2, science to corner 3, recess to corner 4. It's fun for the kids to see who ends up where and they get to know their classmates a little better. Definitely throw in some silly ones! It's always nice to have a game with no winners and losers to mix things up a bit.
5. Memory Game: Prepare a tray with various items from home or the classroom. Walk around the room slowly with the tray giving everyone plenty of time to see what's on it. Put the tray away or cover it with a cloth and then have the kids write down everything they can remember. Whoever remembered the most items is the winner. (A fun variation on this one, is to have the person holding the tray leave the room, then ask the kids to write down what that person was wearing instead of what was on the tray. Hilarious.)
6. Silence: A good game for the very end of the party. Have the students arrange themselves in some sort of order without speaking a word. You could tell them to line up tallest to shortest, shortest to tallest, alphabetical order by first name, by last name. How about arrange themselves in a square or circle, or a straight line alternating boys and girls. They get to move around and the adults in the room get a little break from the noise.
7. Pin the Blank on the Blank: First of all, use tape, not pins! Now, get creative for your holiday party. Harvest Party? How about pin the pumpkin on the vine, or pin the hat on the pilgrim, or pin the feathers on the Indian, or pin the butter on the corn on the cob, or pin the spider on the web. Winter party? How about pin the carrot on the snowman, pin the mitten on the kid, pin the marshmellows on the hot chocolate. You get the idea.
8. Guess how many: Remember the old jar of jelly beans contests? Guess how many are in the jar? So, get creative. Find a jar and fill it with holiday appropriate stuff (probably not candy, I guess). How about pumpkin seeds for Harvest, small pebbles spray painted whatever color is appropriate for the party, high bounce balls, legos (try yard-sales maybe), grapes, blueberries. Ok, that's all I've got for now. Feel free to comment with more and better ideas! (Shouldn't be too hard...)
All right, that's a good start. I know you've all got really great ideas you can share in the comments section. The internet is our friend (that's where most of these ideas came from!). The kids will be having so much fun, no one will want to stop for snacks anyway! If you bring something like individual applesauces or fruit cups or yogurts, you can send them home in backpacks if they want to keep playing instead of eating. Please comment with more fun game ideas!
A recipe! Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
These muffins are amazing! For those of you who enjoy baking, this is a recipe you can make for a party!
Yield: 48 mini-muffins
1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Fill your mini cupcake sheet with mini cupcake liners and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine your flour, flaxmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside.
3. In a blender or food processor (or with a potato masher or fork) combine the bananas, water, vanilla, and oil. Process or stir until well blended.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips and stir gently until the flour is just moistened. Don't overmix.
5. Fill your mini-muffin cups 3/4 of the way full. (Your batter should fill 48 exactly.)
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the tops are just starting to brown and spring back when touched. (Or poke with a toothpick and check for crumbs, whatever your preferred method is.)
Let them cool a few minutes and eat! (Or, let them cool completely and then pack them up and take them to school.)
 |
| Yummmm... |
Serving Size: 2 mini muffins
Nutrition Info per serving:
Calories: 93
Total fat: 3.6 g
Saturated fat: 1 g
Sodium: 115.8 mg
Potassium: 72 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 14.7 g
Fiber: 2.1 g
Sugars: 5.7 g
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
6 Tbs Whole Ground Flaxseed Meal (I use Bob's Red Mill, from Kroger in the organic section)
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 medium bananas
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs canola oil
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (If you have a peanut/treenut allergy in your classroom, please use Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips. They are free of all the major allergens and they taste great too!)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Fill your mini cupcake sheet with mini cupcake liners and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine your flour, flaxmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside.
3. In a blender or food processor (or with a potato masher or fork) combine the bananas, water, vanilla, and oil. Process or stir until well blended.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips and stir gently until the flour is just moistened. Don't overmix.
5. Fill your mini-muffin cups 3/4 of the way full. (Your batter should fill 48 exactly.)
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the tops are just starting to brown and spring back when touched. (Or poke with a toothpick and check for crumbs, whatever your preferred method is.)
Let them cool a few minutes and eat! (Or, let them cool completely and then pack them up and take them to school.)
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Beverages
All right. Beverages. Here goes. This area is pretty unclear to me. Not in what drinks are allowed, but this line from the chart. "At least 50% of beverages must be water and no or low calorie beverages." And up above, it says elementary school kids can't have the low or no calorie beverages. No tea, no coffee, no flavored waters, no Sobe... I can't think of any other drinks that might be in this category. Not that it matters, because they're not allowed at the elementary school.
So, it seems to me that it's possible we should only be serving water at the parties since most kids are probably drinking milk at lunch. But, maybe if water and juice were both offered at the parties, that might meet the requirements. (By the way, if anyone official knows for sure, please chime in with a comment!)
These are the drink guidelines: an 8 oz serving of plain fat-free or low fat milk up to 150 calories per serving, or an 8 oz serving of flavored fat-free or low fat milk up to 150 calories per serving, or an 8 oz serving of 100% juice (or 100% juice plus water) up to 120 calories per serving. Or as much water as you can drink. Good old just plain water.
I'll probably be bringing cups for water to the parties in my son's classroom. Here are some fun ones that could make drinking water fun:
http://www.amazon.com/Fred-9-Ounce-Pick-Animal-Paper/dp/B0015MPDX6/ref=pd_sim_k_1
They're a little expensive, but we could draw our own on plain cups for the craft...
Friday, September 2, 2011
So, what are the standards anyway and when do they apply?
Well, let's start with when the standards apply... Princeton has adopted the rules for "all sales of food and beverages to students in all Princeton City Schools during the regular and extended school day setting." Also from my Springdale note, "we will no longer permit cupcakes, cookies, or candy of any kind that do not meet the nutritional standards. As of today, please do not send in sweet treats of any kind. Teachers will be following these guidelines as well when we have our classroom celebrations." So, while Bill 210 seems to only apply to sales of food and food provided by the school, Princeton has adopted the standards for foods sent in from home for the class. So, we need to follow the guidelines for birthdays as well as the 4 classroom seasonal parties during the year. **The rules do not apply to packed lunches.** That's probably the number one question I've heard from parents.
The official standards came in the form of a chart with several columns and each box had information for elementary school, middle school and high school students. It also had breakfast standards, lunch standards, beverage standards and more! I started my adventure with the elementary school snack standards. In plain English (well, as plain as I can make it) there are 2 major goals for the snacks. One is that they can't be bad for you and the other is that it also has to be good for you. To avoid being bad, a snack must be under 150 calories. Of those calories 35% can be from total fat, only 10% can be from saturated fat, and none can be from trans fats. The snack must also have less than 230 mg of sodium and less than 35% of the snack, by weight, can be from sugar. That's my favorite (heavy on the sarcasm) one to figure out. I've never heard of this before and hopefully I'm figuring it correctly. Here's how I do it. Under carbohydrates there is a breakout of sugar, insoluble fiber and soluble fiber all measured in grams. The serving size at the top of the nutrition label is also measured in grams (usually). So you can estimate by making sure the total sugar in grams is a third or less of the total serving size in grams. If the serving size is 100 grams and the snack has 50 grams of sugar, don't send it school. If the serving size is 100 grams and the sugar is 35 grams or less (and it meets all the other standards) send it in.
Now, moving on to the part about how it must also be good for you. The snack must meet 1 of the following nutritional standards: contain 10% or more of vitamin A or C or E or folate, calcium, magnesium, potassium or iron, or contain 5 grams of protein or 2 grams of fiber or be 1/2 serving of a fruit or vegetable.
So, write that down and take it with you to the grocery store. (Leave the kids at home, because you're going to be reading a lot of labels!) I'll be posting some of the easy-to-buy ready-to-eat food that meets the guidelines that I find and also some recipes that work and taste good. So, keep reading. We'll talk about beverages next time!
These links have all the details and are where I found the charts and guidelines.
http://www.watchusthrive.org/includes/documents/princeton_food_guidelines.pdf
http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/blog_documents/AllianceFoodGuidelines.sflb.ashx
http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/blog_documents/AllianceBeverageGuidelines.sflb.ashx
The official standards came in the form of a chart with several columns and each box had information for elementary school, middle school and high school students. It also had breakfast standards, lunch standards, beverage standards and more! I started my adventure with the elementary school snack standards. In plain English (well, as plain as I can make it) there are 2 major goals for the snacks. One is that they can't be bad for you and the other is that it also has to be good for you. To avoid being bad, a snack must be under 150 calories. Of those calories 35% can be from total fat, only 10% can be from saturated fat, and none can be from trans fats. The snack must also have less than 230 mg of sodium and less than 35% of the snack, by weight, can be from sugar. That's my favorite (heavy on the sarcasm) one to figure out. I've never heard of this before and hopefully I'm figuring it correctly. Here's how I do it. Under carbohydrates there is a breakout of sugar, insoluble fiber and soluble fiber all measured in grams. The serving size at the top of the nutrition label is also measured in grams (usually). So you can estimate by making sure the total sugar in grams is a third or less of the total serving size in grams. If the serving size is 100 grams and the snack has 50 grams of sugar, don't send it school. If the serving size is 100 grams and the sugar is 35 grams or less (and it meets all the other standards) send it in.
Now, moving on to the part about how it must also be good for you. The snack must meet 1 of the following nutritional standards: contain 10% or more of vitamin A or C or E or folate, calcium, magnesium, potassium or iron, or contain 5 grams of protein or 2 grams of fiber or be 1/2 serving of a fruit or vegetable.
So, write that down and take it with you to the grocery store. (Leave the kids at home, because you're going to be reading a lot of labels!) I'll be posting some of the easy-to-buy ready-to-eat food that meets the guidelines that I find and also some recipes that work and taste good. So, keep reading. We'll talk about beverages next time!
These links have all the details and are where I found the charts and guidelines.
http://www.watchusthrive.org/includes/documents/princeton_food_guidelines.pdf
http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/blog_documents/AllianceFoodGuidelines.sflb.ashx
http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/blog_documents/AllianceBeverageGuidelines.sflb.ashx
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