Healthy Nutrition For Kids: Walden Exclusive!

Thursday, 3/4/2010

Healthy Nutrition For Kids: Walden Exclusive!

Every March, the American Dietetic Association encourages families to embrace a healthy and nutritious lifestyle by celebrating National Nutrition Month. This year’s event is particularly timely with the launch of Michelle Obama’s new childhood obesity task force and a national emphasis on proper nutrition.

Whether in the classroom or at home, proper nutrition should start at an early age. ADA has outlined several ideas to help educate children about healthy food choices. These entertaining activities can be implemented easily and really get kids thinking about their health:

Create a “nutrition quiz corner” with a nutrition question every day for the entire month of March. Students complete an answer form and place it in a box, which is emptied daily. You may award a daily prize, or enter the name of every contestant who answered correctly in a weekly prize drawing. Prizes could be NNM promotional items.
Conduct a “Fear Factor”-type event. Provide unusual vegetables and fruits cut into bite-size pieces. Offer an opportunity to taste and guess the food.
Ask children to begin carefully saving empty food product boxes. Spend some time reading labels and comparing calories, fat, sugar content, vitamins, etc. Expand this into a menu-planning opportunity, with children dividing into teams. See which group can plan the healthiest meal. As a math exercise, add up the calories from various products.
Have an ethnic food night, i.e., Asian cuisine, Mediterranean, French, Cajun, etc. This may be done by inviting local restaurants to participate, or have your own organization provide the food.
Eating the Rainbow. Use “Eating the Rainbow” as a theme and provide examples of colorful fruits and vegetables that are yellow, orange, red, green, blue and purple. Give tips on including more fruits and vegetables in meals and snacks.
Sizing It Up Display. Set up a display with food models and household items to represent food portion sizes. Let participants try to match up foods with the appropriate serving size item.

(via eatright.org)

Doing Our Part

To do our part to raise awareness, Walden.com has enlisted the help of accomplished chef Tina Fannelli Moraccini to share a healthy fun recipe for mini garden vegetable quiche.

Moraccini is the co-founder of the Piccolo Chef, a Los Angeles based culinary Academy for the Young Gourmet. She teaches classes for kids ages 3-17 not only to introduce them to the basics of cooking but also to instill a desire to eat well and make healthy choices.

The garden vegetable quiche recipe is as easy to make as its fun to eat. It’s a great step towards a healthier lifestyle:

Mini Garden Vegetable Quiche
by Piccolo Chef’s Executive Chef, Reba Berdakin

Ingredients:
2 pre-made 9” pie crusts, made without hydrogenated fats
½ medium onion, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 ounces button mushrooms, about 4, brushed clean and stem removed
½ of a small zucchini, cleaned and end removed
½ of a small yellow squash, cleaned end removed
½ red bell pepper, seeded
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 ¼ cup Lowfat or Nonfat Milk
1 cup shredded low fat Swiss, Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F and lightly spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non-hydrogenated oil cooking spray.
Roll out pie crust onto a clean flat surface and using a 3” circular cookie cutter, or circular wide mouth glass, cut out 12 circles of pie crust. Gently fit the circles down into each of the muffin cups and place in the refrigerator to chill while preparing remaining ingredients.
In a food processor or food chopper, pulse or chop the onion, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash and red bell pepper until coarsely minced but not a fine mush.
In a medium skillet, warm oil and butter over medium heat. Add coarsely minced vegetables and sauté until just beginning to carmelize or brown, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk to combine. Set aside.
Remove muffin tin from refrigerator and scoop one heaping Tablespoon of vegetable mixture into the bottom of each of the crusts. Top the vegetable mixture with the shredded cheese, dividing it equally among the quiche.
Pour egg mixture over the vegetables and cheese just to cover and come up to the edge of the pie crust. Bake in oven until just set and the center of the quiche no longer jiggles and crust is beginning to brown, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to set for a couple minutes before removing from pan and serving warm or at room temperature.

Makes 6 servings or one dozen mini quiche.

Tina Fanelli Moraccini is the Co-Founder of Piccolo Chef Culinary Academy for the Young Gourmet in Los Angeles, where children ages three to seventeen come to explore the wonders of the kitchen. Piccolo Chef was created for children not only to introduce the basics of cooking but also to instill a desire to eat well and make healthier choices from the start. Tina lives in Los Angeles with her husband of 17 years, Maurizio, and their daughter, Valentina, 5, and is expecting another little girl in late April.