Category Archives: Nutrition and News

Jul 18Summer Travel – Making Healthier Food Choices

Many of us are on the road this summer, heading to hiking trails, taking road trips with our families, or driving our kids to sleep away camp. It can be tempting to stop in for fast food when hunger strikes, but how can you select menu items that are good for you and your family? We all stop at side-of-the-road restaurants every now and then. But instead of beating ourselves up about being perfect when we feed our families, let's simply aim for progress. Making Better Fast Food Choices There...

Jun 22Parenting: Progress NOT Perfection

Bring a parent is really hard. This is probably the only parenting issue that I am 100% certain about. We do the best that we know how to do. But let's be honest for a second. Do you ever have the temptation to avoid reality for just a moment, so that there would be less to feel guilty about? Before Robyn O'Brien was forced to look at the foods she was feeding her family, she didn't enjoy being "preached at" about the benefits of drinking organic milk. She had enough on her mind. She...

Jun 10Canned Alaskan Salmon – Healthy and Sustainable

I meet the coolest people through my job. I love connecting with families who are excited about feeding their children good food, and I love meeting food producers, who nourish us. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Shirley, the president of Pure Alaska Salmon Co. She comes from a long line of salmon fishermen (and women, of course) and cares deeply for the quality of the food that she eats and for the environmental implications of those choices. I had a few ideas for our...

Jun 1Happy to be Getting Crunchy with Corn

One of the best parts about being involved in social media is the friendships that I have developed over the years. Gina Rau started as a virtual friend, as we worked on a blogging challenge together, and she has become a dear "real life" friend. I adore her new website, Feed Our Families, which strives to help families make better food choices. When I was planning to be away at a culinary conference and Gina offered to do a guest post, I jumped at the chance. I know you'll love it as much...

May 25Improving School Lunches with Sprouted Wheat Bre...

Improving School Lunches with Sprouted Wheat Bread

Unless you live in a cave, you know that school food has a bad reputation. I am excited to report that in our district, at least, it's getting better. Our food service director surprised me with an invitation to visit Alvarado Street Bakery in Petaluma, where she plans to source the bread for our school district next year. My food service advisory committee colleague, Susannah, and I went to learn more about their sprouted wheat breads and got to see the inside workings of the bakery. Unfortunately,...

May 20Are All Processed Foods Bad?

When you think of "processed foods" the center aisles of the grocery store probably come to mind. I imagine rows and rows of brightly colored packages filled with chemical concoctions disguised as foods. But I have news for you. Some "real" foods have to be processed before they can be sold in the stores. Does that make them "processed foods?" I don't think so. On my recent trip to Sacramento to learn more about the walnut industry, we visited a walnut orchard and then saw how...

May 16Is There Spinach In Your Brownies?

There are two sides to every story, especially when parenting strategies enter the picture. And most of the time, each side is fueled by passion and the sense that they are right. And the other is wrong. Several years ago, there was a huge buzz about two books that were published almost simultaneously: Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. Both talked about how parents can amplify the nutrition in the foods they feed to their children by including purees of veggies or beans. Let's...

May 9How Food Cravings Might Be Harming Your Child's ...

How Food Cravings Might Be Harming Your Child’s Health

My son recently left our neighborhood public school for a special school for children with learning disabilities. In the few short months that we have been there, I have noticed some quirky eating habits of the students. Many families don't realize that the diet that our children consumes can be connected to their learning challenges and their behavior. It got me thinking about food allergies and how difficult it can be for families to notice that certain foods aren't good for our children. Why...

May 6Walnuts – From Orchard to Table

My poor husband. He married a teacher. And even though I am no longer in a traditional classroom, I still teach - cooking to children, family mealtime sanity to families, and eco-friendly food suggestions to anyone who will listen. And to top it off, I am always drawn towards other educators, and we have him outnumbered. This week, I was fortunate to be invited to Sacramento to attend a media event, sponsored by California Walnuts. How could I turn this opportunity down? I would...

Apr 28The Art of Understanding Meat Labels

After my recent post about tasting beef for the first time in a quarter of a century, several people asked about the jargon in the grocery store. What does it all mean? Can we trust the signs and labels that we see? Or are they merely euphemisms and good marketing? Whole Foods Market would lead you to believe that their meat is all produced in a sustainable and humane way. They even have this warm and fuzzy video showing how much they care... But what do the terms really mean? Are some...