Monthly Archives: February 2009

Feb 23Dinner Recipe featuring POM Juice

It is so much fun when companies send me delicious food to taste and review! Getting the box filled with adorable POM Pomegranate juice bottles was no exception. Not only do my children love to drink the juice, both straight and mixed into sparking water, but they were also game to try smoothie and dinner recipes that included the juice as an ingredient. They especially loved that this delicious juice is filled with antioxidants and is good for them, knowing that I would be unlikely to deny...

Feb 20Tyler Florence on Family Cooking

It was such an honor to be invited to interview Tyler Florence, author and celebrity chef of Food Network's Food 911, How to Boil Water, and Tyler's Ultimate. As a working parent, concerned with feeding my family well, it was only natural for me to ask Tyler about how a busy man like himself is able to spend time with his family in the kitchen. "Family meals are a top priority," he says, and he does whatever he can to be there to eat with his wife and three children. He praised his wife Tolan's...

Feb 19Roundup - Monthly Mingle on Healthy Family Dinne...

It was my first time hosting the Monthly Mingle, a fantastic blog carnival started by Meeta of What's For Lunch, Honey. I was excited to see how many people participated, and thrilled at the responses I got from all over the world. It was wonderful to see the wide variety of foods that people enjoy at dinnertime with their families. I know that I have been inspired to try using some new ingredients in my cooking - and lucky for me, I now have almost 50 new recipes that I can draw from! Monthly...

Feb 18Healthy Ski Snacks for the Family

You have spent a long day on the slopes and have worked up an appetite. Stumbling into the lodge, you find it hard to resist the scent of french fries and hot cocoa. After all, what could be better than a warm high-energy snack after a day of strenuous exercise? While some of the foods you find in the lodge make for delicious treats, most of them provide only empty calories - a quick-fix, so to speak. It is best for your body if you plan ahead and bring snacks are more nutritious. In order...

Feb 9Glorious One-Pot Meals: Simple for Busy Parents

Our weeks seem to be getting busier and busier, running between after-school activities, playdates and appointments. By the time we arrive back home, there is hardly any time to put together a healthy meal. My review copy of Glorious One-Pot Meals, by Elizabeth Yarnell, arrived just in time - I needed a solution to my "too busy to cook a healthy dinner" quandry. By layering foods into a lidded cast-iron Dutch Oven and flash cooking at a high heat for a brief time, Yarnell's "infusion cooking"...

Feb 7Stainless Steel Lunch Kits from Kids Konserve

As many of you know, I sell a variety of waste free lunch products on my website. While I mostly sell cute reusable lunch bags, sandwich wrappers and stainless steel water bottles, many of you are asking for small, leak-proof stainless steel containers. Sadly, I have had a heck of a time finding some that would be affordable to you. But our luck has changed! It was as if Hanukkah came all over again when I got my package from Kids Konserve in the mail. I was so excited to be able to test...

Feb 5How to Select a Healthy Dog Food

I know, I know - this is mostly a blog about cooking with kids for a better body, planet and community. But when our immediate family became involved in the foster program at the Marin Humane Society, dog food became a topic of conversation in our house. Yes, it IS strange. Kids would approach our puppy and ask why she was so skinny. We simply explained that she was found as a stray and that she "came that way." But one month later, when her ribs still showed, we knew it was time to switch...

Feb 3San Francisco Food Bank Reaches Across the Bridg...

In our efforts to cook with children as a means to help the needy, we have noticed that our students do not "see" who the hungry are in their daily lives. They don't realize that they walk amongst the children in their own schools and that they see them on the soccer field. While we have a soup kitchen in our town, food banks haven't been a notable presence...until now. The San Francisco Food Bank has reached across the Bay to meet the need in Marin! They have opened four new pantries at...