Everyone is busy getting their kids back to school.  What a perfect time to take a little break and bring the kids to a Family Night that will mix fruits and vegetables and lots of FUN.  Nourish Interactive has been working with Fresh Choice to reach out to kids and promote healthy eating.  With September being National Childhood Obesity Awareness month, it is a reminder to us how important healthy foods and daily activity is for kids.

We are happy to let our San Mateo, CA and nearby Peninsula cities know that the Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo will host its First Family Night.  Nourish Interactive will be there with nutrition education games to make fruits and vegetables fun for kids.

Click to go to Facebook Event Page!

Take a night off from cooking and enjoy fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables from their local farm while the kids have some fun learning about healthy food choices.

Just a few of the FREE & FUN nutrition activities for kids:

• Take a picture with Chef Solus
• Play Nourish Interactive Games- winner of Parents’ Choice Seal and Children’s Library Association Award
• Play tic-tac-toe   The vegetables versus Chef Solus
• Coloring fruits and vegetables while kids learn where produce really comes from!
• Spin the wheel, land on a fruit or vegetable and win a prize!
• Healthy eating out tips for parents to take home.
• Each child will have their name entered into a contest and have a chance to win a Wii game system.

Play the Yummy Drops Fruit Game and automatically get a FREE Kids meal coupon for Fresh Choice Restaurant!

More information:

Family Night event at Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo, CA

Fresh Choice and Nourish Interactive Partnership

Nourish Interactive partnered with Fresh Choice!

Sleep: the ultimate school supply

Start the school year off right by getting your kids back on a healthy sleep schedule! Have them go to bed at the same time each night and get a consistent amount of sleep.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Related resources:

Getting into sleep routine for back to school- video by St Christopher’s Hospital

Back to school sleeping requirements and tips – from The Sleep Doctor

I want to thank all the wonderful people who supported us in the Michelle Obama “Apps for Healthy Kids” contest.

We won’t know until September (no specific date given) who were the winners of the contest.  But we were in the top five for popular vote and that says a great deal about the support we received from everyone.

But I wanted to give a special shout out to the Mommy Bloggers who really stepped up to support us!  Putting our banner on their page and sharing our website and contest with all their readers.

Please help us support them by visiting their sites.  To make it easy for you to find these great websites, we have created a  special page that lists their websites and the wonderful services they provide for other moms.

We are all mothers and it is great we can help support each other and the wonderful work that every one is doing.

Check out these mom-owned and run websites and blogs.  They have great healthy tips, recipes, products and services to help families.

List of Exclusive Mommy Bloggers Websites

Thanks to all who participated in our Children’s Nutrition Survey and Curious Chef Kids’ Cooking Set Giveaway, over 500 responded to share their feedback on our nutrition education website, children’s nutrition, current food issues and challenges for getting kids to eat healthier.

We heard from many parents, grandparents, educators and health care and food service professionals, neighbors, and more. Thank you for sharing the survey with friends and on Twitter and for taking the time to share your experiences and great opinions. We  value all of your thoughts and ideas and will be releasing a report on this exciting nutrition study very soon!

The wonderful prize of child sized cooking tools by Curious Chef drew great interest for the survey. ‘Cooking with kids‘ is a hot topic, as more families are finding getting children involved in the kitchen increases children’s interest in eating healthy foods and more communities are offering cooking classes for kids of all ages.  We used random.org to choose the winner and send congratulations to Brett M from Tampa Florida the winner of the Curious Chef 27 piece Foundation Set!

Visit Curious Chef for fun child sized cooking tools for kids in the kitchen! Start your collection of kid sized cooking tools with one special piece, a foundation set to get started or a gift set. For added value look for money saving online coupons and free shipping offers on their site.

You can also follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/curiouschef

Just in time for back to school a new video created by Farm to School Movement”Lunch Encounters of the Third Kind”

Learn more about the Farm to School Movement and Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization at www.onetray.org

Related resources and action guides:

Sign a online petition to support the movement via onetray.org

Community Action Guide to Change School Food Policy- PDF

School Food Article by Nourish Healthy Kids

Prime time, not snack time

Avoid having the family munching in front of the television this week. It’s harder to keep track of how much you’re eating!

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Gearing up for a healthy new school year! Some children have just started school and others will be going back to school very soon. The end of summer is a great time to start getting on track for the new routines. Our new article 3 Healthy Steps for Back to School starting the year to make the transition back to school. The first step is starting the day off with a balanced breakfast.

Breakfast food tips for back to school: Studies have shown that children who eat a healthy breakfast are able to concentrate and perform better in school.

Eating a healthy breakfast from the food groups gives children the fuel they need for a productive day at school.

It can be a challenge in the ‘morning rush’ to find time for a healthy breakfast, but skipping breakfast or eating a high sugar breakfast food will often make your child feel tired, restless or irritable by mid-morning. By eating a balanced breakfast, your child will have energy throughout the morning and help him/her concentrate better in class.

Parents and older siblings can act as healthy role models by eating breakfast with them. If time is a restraint, switch some of the morning chores to the night before to ensure there is enough time to eat breakfast or prepare breakfast the night before.

Here are some healthy breakfast food ideas for your child:

✰ Make a parfait. Layer low fat yogurt with berries and top with granola.

✰ Have a special breakfast once a week featuring smoothies, pancakes, waffles, or omelets.

✰ For smoothies, blend low fat milk with frozen berries and a banana (or any fruit) and blend for 30 seconds.

✰ A Breakfast sandwich or burrito can be a fun and healthy breakfast food

✰ Serve unusual breakfast foods once in a while like last night’s leftovers.

✰ Opt for a whole fruit instead of fruit juice (but always choose 100% fruit juice when splurging)

Leave a comment to share your favorite breakfast tips below!

Kids have a Fun Nutrition Story for the month- Chef Solus helps the Explorers learn about eating healthy and being physically active to start the new school year off right!

Printable breakfast tracker

Printable Eating Breakfast Food Tracking Sheet

Printable tips for back to school

3 Simple tips for a healthy new school year

Healthy tip sheet for back to school

Backpack Safety Tips

Traveling to and from School- Safety Tips

I get asked sometimes what to do for your children when everything you have tried has not worked. Your child will simply not eat any or very little fruits and vegetables.  Kids can be very picky eaters and stubborn, too.

I always recommend continued patience and don’t give up trying to introduce fruits and vegetables in different experiences that can be really fun for kids.  Like planting a vegetable and involving the child so they can see it grow from a little seed.  That can really pique their interest.

But in the meantime, how do you ensure your child is getting the necessary vitamins and minerals they need that only comes from fruits and vegetables.  Although fresh is best, sometimes a child does need a supplement.

I am not an expert at supplements but there is one that my husband and I take every morning and one that I buy for my grandniece who is five years old.  And that is Juice Plus.  It is not a manufactured vitamin but actually made from 17 fruits and vegetables.

As I said, it is not a vitamin or mineral, it is actually whole food supplement.  It is made from 17 different fruits and vegetables that are juiced and then dried at low temperatures so that the water and sugar,  salt and the bulk are removed leaving just the concentrated powder from the fruits and vegetables.  This powder is put inside capsules and chewables for kids.

I am not paid to tell you about this special nutrient.  I just really believe in the importance of fruits and vegetables and wanted to share with you something that my family takes to get all our nutrients. I do eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day but sometimes I don’t get all the servings my body needs.  I know my little five year old is one of those very stubborn picky eaters.   That was when I found out they also had a the kids chewables Juice Plus.

When I find a healthy snack or in this case, supplement that I really think is great, I want to pass that on to you.

Here is a link to their general Juice Plus website where you can get more information about their kids chewables and all the research and science behind their product.

Resources:

Picky Eaters Printable Guide for Parents

Summer vacation, it always goes by too fast. Yet there is excitement in the air. Your child is starting a new grade soon you are shopping to get  back to school supplies yet again. Suddenly it hits you – that two words which you had forgotten about since the end of the last school year: SCHOOL  LUNCH!

You want to pack nutritious lunches for your kids but you know it isn’t going to be easy. You want to provide healthy sandwiches or at least a quick and balanced meal that your kids will actually eat. You’ve been here before and recall some of the frustrations. Either you pay for the cafeteria lunch and hear about the awful food, or you discover your daughter hasn’t even taken a bite of her lunchbox sandwich and had only one bite of her apple. This is one reason some parents opt for pre-packed lunches that can contain too much fat and sodium.

Or maybe you toss in a bag of potato chips – because it feels better knowing your son got something into his tummy. Oh yes, getting your child to eat a nutritious lunch can seem like a battle. But does it have to be? Really? With some easy, quick lunch ideas you can get your child eating a nutritious meal without all the headaches!

Schools’ Cafeteria Policy and Healthy Lunches

First, give yourself a pat on the back for making nutrition a priority. It is important to teach kids healthy habits even when they are away from the home. And schools are there to help you!  This is one of the reasons Congress established the school lunch guidelines requiring all schools with a federally-funded meal program (e.g. National School Breakfast or Lunch Program) to develop Wellness Policies by 2007. (More information on school wellness policy).

The Wellness Policy addresses nutrition and physical activity at school. Unfortunately, Wellness Policies may not be enough as schools struggle with small budgets for food service. Thus, quick, easy processed foods (think chicken nuggets and French fries) can still be offered at school.

I recall counseling a few families who struggled with their school-age children. They were so used to eating pizza, hot dogs, and chips at school that this is all they wanted at home for dinner. I recommended packing a brown bag lunch at least two times a week to slowly introduce healthy lunches.

The Easy, Fun and Healthy Lunch Box

Printable Food Pyramid Guide PDF

Get your kids to help you so that healthy lunches are a family affair! It starts by planning ahead and looking to include healthy foods from the five food groups. Add a dash of fun!

Here is a list of healthy, fun and creative lunch ideas for kids:

• Get out the cookie cutters – no not for cookies, but for sandwiches. Kids love food in shapes. You can make a star-shaped sandwiches or even one shaped like a pumpkin. Surprise them with different shapes over the week.
• Serve sliced ham, chicken, tuna or egg salad sandwiches. Some kids love mustard and mayo but some kids may just want a pickle with it. Go with what your child likes. Similarly, some kids don’t like peanut butter but will enjoy sunflower butter, cashew or almond butter as a spread.
• Serve sliced meat rolled up into tubes and offer the bread separate (some kids just aren’t into sandwiches). Similarly, tuna salad can be offered with crackers. Remember, bread doesn’t have to be sliced bread; offer bagels or tortillas. Even just plain sticky rice or couscous can be a hit.
• Toothpicks can add some fun too – kids love bite-sized food. So make a mini-sandwich and place a toothpick in it. You can get toothpicks with fun designs at party stores.
• Other bite-sized food includes cucumber and avocado rolls (many grocery stores now have a section of Japanese food). Or make your own roll: Use Korean roasted seaweed (this has a nice sesame flavor to it) and sticky rice (these are simple versions of kimbap”. Just roll up the rice like into a mini-cylinder shape. Have your child help you make it the night before.
• Tea sandwiches: These are bite-sized sandwiches. Although adult versions usually have spices and onions, you can make your child a cream cheese tea sandwich with very thin cucumber slices.
• Use leftovers for school lunch. If your child ate the beef stew last night for dinner, serve it up for lunch. Either use a thermos after heating it up in the morning or just serve it cold (place an ice pack in the lunch box though to prevent food illness). Check out Easy Lunch Boxes Makes packing a lunch easy! Earth-friendly and safe no BPA, lead, vinyl, PVC or phthalates.
  
• Have some fun and get creative with these tips from moms on how get started with bento lunch boxes for kids:
  Bento Lunch Ideas -Great for Kids!

  Fun with Bentos for Kids
  
  You may also be interested in:More Healthy Lunch Food Ideas for Kids PDF

• School Health and Food Policy Article Back to School- Backpack Safety Tips

Printable Healthy Lunch Box Notes-  tuck one in your child’s lunch bag, it’s a great way to remind them to eat their lunch!

Follow the rainbow

Fruits and vegetables of different hues offer a wide range of nutrients. This week make a dish for your family with green spinach, orange carrots, black beans or red berries for a healthy, colorful meal everyone will enjoy.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.