FIVE GOOD FOODS FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"The reluctance to put away childish things may be a requirement of genius."  

                                   --Rebecca Pepper Sinkler

Playing with kids in the kitchen is a great way to get kids interested in healthy eating.  Parents say to me all the time, “My child is a picky eater.”  My response is always, “Then let them play with their food!”  Everyone's favorite program is Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen, where kids get hands-on experiences in kitchen hygiene and safety, food selection and preparation, PLUS kitchen cleanup. 

Here are five great foods we have been playing with recently in our GHK kitchens (AND changing kids’ opinions about what tastes better than honeybuns and white pasta):

1. Haas avocados
2. Black beans
3. Quinoa (a grain, pronounced “keen-wa”)
4. Wild salmon
5. Greek yogurt

Staying at a healthy weight is easy when you know what to do.  All of these foods can be considered “superfoods” for several reasons because they are:

• Super healthy for your body and your brain
• Super easy to prepare
• Super fun to eat
• Super filled with the good fats, the good carbs, and the good proteins

Kids at a recent GHK in the Kitchen class at Gifford Youth Activity Center, Vero Beach, Florida 

Can you say "fresh parsley"?

Kids intent on using the lemon squeezer while making the JamSam Salmon Burgers (see recipe below).

Speaking of good foods for great kids, here is the recipe for GHK’s JamSam Salmon Burgers.  Just ask any of the kids at Gifford Youth Activity Center how delicious and easy these are!

JamSam Salmon Burgers

4 servings

Prepare Dill Mayonnaise:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise*
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill 
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

For Burgers:

• 2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley
• ½ Vidalia onion, finely diced
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup panko bread crumbs
• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 lemon, zested
• 2-4 Tablespoons Dill Mayonnaise
• 2 (6-1/2 ounce) cans Alaska skinless and boneless pink salmon, drained well
• Additional panko for coating the burgers (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil

In medium bowl, combine, parsley, onions, eggs, panko, black pepper, salt, lemon zest and the Dill Mayonnaise together. Add drained salmon and mix well together. Make 4 patties, rolling them in additional panko, if desired, and set aside.

In a large skillet on medium, heat oil. Place burgers in skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Turn and brown other side.

Serve on potato buns with Dill Mayonnaise, fresh spinach or local greens, and sliced tomatoes.

*For demonstration purposes, Hellmann’s Olive Oil mayonnaise was used in the preparation of this recipe.

Parents, it’s easy to get your kids to eat healthy foods when they learn by playing.  Come play in the kitchen with us on November 16th in Vero Beach, Florida when Growing Healthy Kids partners with Chef Chris Bireley of Osceola Bistro for a special Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen Cooking Class for kids ages 5-12.  If you’d like to attend, just shoot me an email: growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com. 

For information about why a healthy weight is so important for your children, click here.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

POWERFUL PUMPKIN COOKIES

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Dramatic increases in childhood overweight and obesity in the United States since 1980 are an important public health focus.  Despite efforts over the past decade to prevent and control overweight and obesity, recent reports from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) show sustained high prevalence, with 17 percent of children and adolescents with a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile for age and gender...To summarize, two major postmortem studies have demonstrated that the presence of obesity in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased evidence of atherosclerosis at autopsy, especially in males.  Because of the strong association with elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance (IR), obesity is even more powerfully correlated with atherosclerosis; this association has been shown for each of these risk factors in all of the major pediatric epidemiologic studies." 

                        --Expert Panel on Integrated Guidelines for 

                          Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction 

                           in Children and Adolescents

                           National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Inspiring kids to eat more of the good foods and less of the bad plus getting regular PHYSICAL FUN! is at the heart of what the Growing Healthy Kids movement is all about.  Last week I heard from a friend of mine who reported that she, after reading several  WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS columns, was inspired to start a Wellness Wednesdays Walk to motivate herself and several other mothers to start exercising more.  This is what I talking about!  

Some of the words that come to mind when I hear from people inspired by the WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS column include:

Inspire – change – movement – kids – health – fun – families – together – mentoring – loving – kindness – respect  - happiness – friendships – helping – community.

Who knew this beautiful pumpkin could turn into
healthy cookies for kids?

Since this is the last Wednesday in October, I am sharing the newest recipe from our busy Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen.  This cookie was featured at a Main Street Vero Beach event last weekend.  Our new Gluten-free Pumpkin Cookies were sampled by several hundred people and all the reviews were over the top “delicious”!   Here is the recipe:

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies

 

SIFT TOGETHER dry ingredients in a large bowl:

• 2-1/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free baking mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon xanthum gum

USE AN ELECTRIC HAND MIXER and mix in a large bowl:

• ¾  cup Florida crystals demerara sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 12 Tablespoons butter (1-1/2 sticks)

ADD these to the wet mixture:

• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ¾ cup pumpkin (used fresh cooked pumpkin if available; otherwise, substitute canned pumpkin)

ADD wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until mixed.  DROP about ¼ cup on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  

BAKE about 12-15 minutes at 375. 

WHEN COOLED, ice with a glaze made from:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice**

** For demonstration purposes, Natalie’s Orchid Island Orange Juice was used in the preparation of this recipe. 

READERS of WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS know that the mission of Growing Healthy Kids, Inc., is to raise awareness about the critical importance of reversing the childhood obesity epidemic.  Our children’s health – and lives – are at stake.  Every week, more evidence emerges that cannot be ignored.  The fact is that our bodies are simply not designed to be carrying around extra weight.  When children become overweight and then stay that way as adults, they are being sentenced prematurely to diseases usually thought of as old people’s diseases.  Another study of 1,500 adults prior to bariatric surgery has just been released and found that those who were obese at age 18 were more likely to have diabetes, asthma, polycystic ovarian syndrome, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, lower extremity edema and other obesity-related diseases.  To read the abstract of the study in the journal Pediatrics, click here.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

MINDFUL HEALTH, MINDFUL FUN, AND KALE FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

  

"The choices we make matter."  -- Nancy Heinrich


How many times have you said, “I wish I knew this 20 years ago?”  or “Why did I ever start (fill in the bad habit)?”  When I was a kid growing up in Sacramento, California I ate lots of vegetables but I never ate asparagus, brussels sprouts, and kale.  Now, I love them and can’t get enough of them!

BRUSSELS SPROUTS!!!  

VEGETABLES AND FRUITS FOR JUICING at a recent GHK program! 

JAMMING SALMON CAKES FROM A
RECENT GHK KIDS IN THE KITCHEN PROGRAM!

Demonstration of MINDFUL FUN at a
recent GHK Kids in the Kitchen program at Gifford Youth Activity Center, Vero Beach, FL)
(yours truly in the background overseeing the fun!)

Mindful fun at a recent GHK event at
Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, FL

 The choices we make every day matter.  What we learn impacts our decisions.  How much we know about a subject influences the choices we make.  Our mind is the most powerful tool in our health tool kit.  That’s what mindful health is all about.  Be mindful, be healthy!

The Growing Healthy Kids (GHK) movement specializes in mindful fun as the vehicle to arrive at our destination of mindful health.  Kids in the GHK education programs learn about foods firsthand that create health because they talk with the farmers, then they become the farmers, the chefs, and the nutritionists.  We love celebrating each child who makes the mindful health transformation from “I don’t eat that” to “Can I have seconds?”  and “Can I take some of that home to my parents?”  after attending a GHK Kids in the Kitchen program. 

Mindfulness is simply a direct, conscious choice to make a deliberate decision. Think of mindfulness as a strategy for bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis.  It is a state of mind that creates prosperity.  I believe that to be healthy is to be prosperous.   By being mindful of what we choose to eat and drink, we make the choice to stay in balance.  Think about what you are eating and why you are eating.  I often ask clients to keep a journal of their emotions ("how were you feeling when you ate this meal/snack/binge food item") when they are seeking solutions for helping their children and themselves get to healthier weights.  They are given the assignment of recording what they eat for one week and also noting how they were feeling at each meal or snack.  What emerges is self-evident:  “I was worried about getting written up at work,” "I was bored,” or “I just had a fight with my boyfriend”. 

Overeating is not productive and does not result in prosperity.  Overindulging in desserts and refined sugars leads to inflammation within the body and weight gain.  Why is this important?  The body is not designed to carry around an extra 50 or 100 pounds.  If you need inspiration, check out CNN’s FitNation series of interviews with people who have made the effort to shed the weight and have gotten the results.  Your attitude can affect your decisions.  Think about what you want and think about why you want it. Then go write in down.  Be specific with the “why”.  Use what we call SMART goals:  Specific-Measureable-Achievable-Realistic-Time-Specific. 

Parents, this message is for you:  Use mindfulness and get yourself fit.  Be a better role model for your children.  The world does not need more overweight children or children with diabetes.  It also does not need parents who are overweight.  Be mindful of what you eat.  Eat with the intention of being healthy every day.  As we like to say in the Growing Healthy Kids movement, “eat rainbows”.  Engage in mindful fun, or as my friend, Ronnie Hewitt, former CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, used to say, "Fun with a purpose!"  Twenty years from now your kids will thank you!  Heck, they just might be partial to asparagus, brussels sprouts and kale.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.