My daughter’s school principal is requesting ideas for alternative snacks for parents to send to school to celebrate their child’s birthday, rather than the usual cake/brownies, etc.  Do you have any handouts/suggestions that I could use?
– Mary Therese Maslanka, RD, LDN, Registered and Licensed Dietitian, Mount Prospect, IL

We must admit, this is probably one of the most useful questions we have had the privilege to answer. We know all too well about the nutritional dangers of children’s menus, party food and snacks that are laden with fat and sugar. Plus we just finished a show about the alarming statistics of childhood obesity. We worked with Mary to come up with a few rules so the creations are good for everyone:

- fewer than 100 calories

- parents can make it quickly

- kids want to eat it

- can’t make too much mess for the classroom/teachers

That is a tall order!

But we did come up with some creative ideas that we wanted to share below.

Ingredients:

• Rice Krispies Treat – 90 calories
• Fig newton (1) – 45 calories
• Vanilla wafer (1) – 18 calories
• Mini rice cake (1) – 10 calories
• Fruit, fresh (1/2 cup) – 40 calories

4 different presentations:

• Rice Krispies Bowl – 90 calories each ($3.99 for 16 of them)
• Newton’s Fruit Cake (Fig Newton and fruit) – 85 calories cookie/fruit ($12 for cookies, fruit)
• Dip Me Sheet – 60 calories for cookie/fruit serving ($12 for cookies and fruit)
• Rice Cookie Cake and Fruit – 50 calories cookie/fruit ($5 for rice cakes and berries)

Newton’s Fruit Cake – place cookies around the outside of the pan and fill with dried or fresh fruits. Add sprinkles and then adhere 8 candles to the tops of the cookies with frosting.

Dip Me Sheet – place a variety of fruits, caramel dip and vanilla wafers in an attractive square pan. Decorate with balloon candles held in place with styrofoam.

Rice Krispies Bowl – the easy way out – arrange these in a bowl and garnish the middle one with frosting, sprinkles and a candle.

Rice Cakes and Fruit – arrange them in bowls and garnish a few with frosting and candles – yummy!

Tips:

• Use candles, sprinkles and decorator’s frosting for fun festive touch.
• It is best to offer a variety of cookies and fruit – even if you had the perfect ice cream cake there are kids who don’t like that – they always love a choice so everyone finds something they like.
• If parents unite, this will become the norm.
• As our reader pointed out, some of the classes have 23-30 students, so with 36 weeks of school, that is almost 1 sugar-laden treat per week! If you were serving cake or regular cupcakes each time, that is about 9,000-12,000 calories per school year from birthday parties! Ours ring in at about 2,500 calories and this saves, on average, about 8,000 calories per child.

This message is brought to you by our Nutrition Education Store – find great educational ideas for kids and schools here:

Nutrition Education Materials for Kids, Families, Schools

and for Nutrition Month – the theme this year is colors – what a great way to celebrate that, too. Here are more materials:

Nutrition Month Education Materials

MORE on cake here

I made this wonderful cheesecake for my son’s graduation. It provided us with a very elegant dessert that is light and creamy . And it was very easy to make.

You save 100 calories and 11 grams of fat per slice with this treat compared to regular cheesecake. And even MORE compared to regular cake with frosting.

16 ounces neufchatel cream cheese

16 ounces lowfat or fat-free sour cream

1 lemon – zest and juice

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup splenda (or sugar)

4 eggs

8 lemon cookies (lowfat)

1. Place lemon cookies in food processor and pulse until the crumbs are fine.

2. Lightly spray a deep dish glass baking pan with vegetable cooking oil spray and sprinkle the cookie crumbs on the bottom and sides.

3. Place the neufchatel cheese, sugar, splenda and lemon in a food processor and pulse until it is smooth and creamy. Add the sour cream slowly, scraping the bowl between each addition to avoid lumps. Add the eggs one by one and mix smooth.

4. Pour the cream cheese mixture to the pan and heat your oven to 325 degrees F.

Bake the cheesecake for one hour or until it is firm in the center and a knife inserted in to the center comes out clean. Refrigerate the cheesecake until completely cool, about 4 or 6 hours. Sprinkle with sugar on top and invert twice so it comes out of the pan but is served top side up.

5. Serve with berries.

Compare cake options, 122 grams (4.3 ounce slice):

• sorbet/yogurt pie: 220 calories, 5 g fat
• this double lemon light cheesecake: 236 calories, 11 g fat
• regular cheesecake: 350 calories, 22 g fat
• cake with frosting: 450 calories, 20 g fat

Our graduate placed in the top five of his class with three academic awards – so we were very proud and glad to be ready for his special celebration!!

Visit our NutritionEducationStore.com for more great nutrition education and presentation ideas and products.

Easter Rabbit Salad

Easter Rabbit Salad
Here is our latest creation with fresh fruit ready to share!
The criteria:

• Common fruits
• Anyone can make it
• Everyone wants to eat it
• Has to be shaped like a rabbit
• No candy – a healthy fun fruit salad

So, here you go! Our Easter Rabbit Salad.

• 1 pineapple
• 1 quart of strawberries
• 1 apple, grated
• 1 banana
• dark raisins or dried blueberries for the eyes

1. Peel the pineapple then cut 2/3 lengthwise – you want the body to be bigger than 1/2.
2. Remove the core with a serrated knife.
3. Slice the 2/3 part which is the body and set in bowl in bed of strawberries.
4. Carve the remaining 1/3 into a head – making ears and a shaped face. Set up against the body.
5. Carve out a hole for the eyes and fill with raisins.
6. Use the pineapple to make fringes for the bowl and whiskers.
7. Use the grated apple for the tail – you can use fresh lemon to keep it white
8. Use a banana for the legs and nose.
9. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Easter Rabbit Salad Handout (PDF)

Here is another recipe that uses canned pears, it is fun for kids to make:

Easter Bunny Salad

4 romaine lettuce leaves, washed and dried
4 pear halves, fresh or canned, blotted dry
12 dark seedless raisins
4 miniature marshmallows
8 apple slices
1 teaspoon fat-free cream cheese

Place a lettuce leaf on each of 4 plates. Use the pear half as the bunny’s body. Add raisins for the eyes and nose, using the cream cheese as glue to hold them in place. Use the apple slices to form ears. Add a miniature marshmallow for the tail, again using cream cheese to hold it in place.

Servings:
4. Serving: 1 bunny

Diabetic Exchanges:
Bread & Starch: 1.0

Total Preparation & Cooking Time: 10 min. (10 Prep, 0 Cook)

Enjoy and Happy Easter and Happy Passover or just Happy Spring.

Sugar Rabbit

We are going to be posting lots of new items in our store – check out some of them now:

Do you want to serve a creative birthday cake made from sorbet and berries? This one doesn’t need batter, baking time, frosting or hours of preparation. It is colorful – made “a la minute” (at the last minute) right at the table. We used chocolate and strawberry sorbet, fresh berries, fresh whipped fat-free cream and vanilla frozen yogurt. The whimsical candles made a nice topping.

Start with some fresh berries that are rinsed and cut in quarters – one quart to be exact.

Scoop a variety of frozen yogurt and fruit and chocolate sorbet into a frozen shallow bowl or cake dish. Decorate with whipped cream and candles. We like to scoop the sorbet so it is arranged by color.

Watch it disappear fast!

Dinner was courtesy of my mom, who is celebrating her 74th birthday. After reading all of my newsletters and nutrition information over the years, she has taken the messages to heart and cooks healthy – no more high blood pressure medicine, no more cholesterol medicine – she keeps these numbers looking good with diet and exercise and we are all blessed with another healthy and happy birthday.

As you can see, dinner was simple but healthful – salad, 3 kinds of veggies, and her famous pasta. Her sauce is so delicious I asked her to share – I think the secret is the thickness from the salt-free crushed tomatoes and the lively flavor of the fennel seeds that make you think she put sausage in it!

Here is her recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 onions, diced

1 gallon of crushed tomatoes – no salt added

2 tablespoons of Badia ground garlic & parsley,

3 tablespoons sugar,

1 tablespoon chopped fennel seeds,

1 tablespoon of dried basil,

1/4 cup dried onion flakes,

ground pepper

Saute onions in olive oil until tender, about 3 minutes, Add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients and cook on a low simmer for about a half of an hour. Refrigerate until ready to serve – freeze extra if needed. This makes a little more than a gallon of sauce which would equal about 5 jars of sauce.

You can use whole tomatoes that are salt-free too – just crush them with a hand blender.

Visit our nutrition education store for more cooking instruction materials

PLUS – now you can get a 7 day trial for our membership area – visit http://communicatingfoodforhealth.com

A recent trip to our favorite farmer’s market in Homestead (Robert is Here) yielded many prizes. We know it is not so warm everywhere as here so we thought we would share some tropic love and particularly to get ready for Nutrition Month – back to basics – why not develop a love of fruit and learn about new ones!?

Here are the names:

The Caneel fruit is most exquisite and easy to use. You let it sit out until it gets very soft and then you scoop it with a spoon. We decided to use an ice cream scoop to display its beautiful golden flesh in neat round balls. It tastes like an egg custard and it has a texture like velvet.

The Black Sapote is equally rich in its flavor and texture. It looks and tastes like chocolate. We were quite struck with it when we sliced it in half after allowing it to soften. Look at how beautiful the color is!

We could envision serving it with a little whipped cream and chocolate shavings but we never quite got that far because it was swooped from the platter. The texture is like avocado but the flavor has a distinct cocoa flavor.

The mango is so lovely – inside and out – look at its color:

Here is part of our platter:

• The sapodilla is on the left front – it tastes like a sweet pear steeped in cloves. Directions: peel the skin off, remove core and cut in cubes.
• The passion fruit is so colorful and aromatic – truly exotic. Directions: cut them in half and loosened the seeds, which are the edible part.
• Next to the passion fruit you will see the black sapote (chocolate fruit). Directions: cut in half, scoop out pulp away from seeds and peel; we like to cut it in chunks like cookie dough.
• The mango is sliced and on the right. Directions: peel away the skin, slice the fruit in thin strips from the pit.

And here is the other half of the platter:

• Apple bananas, far right. Directions: peel and quarter lengthwise. Sprinkle with Key lime juice for flavor and to keep them from turning brown.
• Ugli fruit, wedges in the center. Directions: remove the peel like a tangerine; separate the sections which come apart easily.
• The scooped Caneel is on the middle left and looks like pumpkin ice cream. Directions: cut in half and use ice cream scoop to form the soft flesh into balls.
• Mango is on the left here again.

Here is the whole platter:

The Ugli fruit was a great surprise. We have seen them in the grocery store but never paid them much attention. But it was obvious from their abundance and the reputation of Robert’s that these fruits were very fresh so we had to try one.

Ugli fruit tastes like lemonade candy! And look at the sections – they are large but they come apart very easily. We love these and would buy them again and again!

Here is a photo of the Ugli fruit, the pomelo and the grapefruit just for comparison:

Here are the sections from the Red Indian River Grapefruit and the Pomelo – they were so sweet and juicy and this plate was gobbled for breakfast! Directions: peel the fruit, remove the core and seeds, cut into wedges – removing any more seeds that appear.

This citrus plate made a lovely centerpiece and we enjoyed using these in our meals all week long:

The orange platter kept in the refrigerator and these were wedged and peeled for dessert and lunchboxes:

One good idea was to peel and wrap the tangerines so they could be “on the go” with us or ready for lunch boxes – less messy for the person eating them on the go:

The star fruit were very plentiful and their playful shape can come in handy for fruit salad or as a tart garnish for fish. I was able to snap a photo of them growing on the trees in the nearby Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead. Directions: slice them thin – no peeling needed.

We do have more cooking instruction materials here:

Cooking Demo Volume 1 and 2

MyPyramid Cooking Demo Kit

25 ingredients 15 different meals

Here is a rosemary plant that is shaped like a holiday tree – to add wonderful smells to your kitchen – and flavor to many dishes including potatoes and poultry. We used fresh chopped rosemary on a delicious casserole of low-fat scalloped potatoes for a video series for healthy potato dishes. This “tree” makes a lovely decoration and every cook loves fresh herbs. Rosemary tastes wonderful when it is minced finely and added to dishes near the end of the cooking process.  It adds a flavor that is reminiscent of pine.

And a gingerbread house – for families on the go – decorating our pre-fabricated house became a fun family project that allowed us to bond without stress  - everyone could help and there was not much mess. (Not to mention that we have something to admire instead of too many calories to tempt us.)

I bought the gingerbread house from Whole Foods as a sort of last minute purchase because it was peanut safe (my son has a peanut allergy) and I thought it would be a great way to have something fun for us to make together without the work and calories of cookies this year.

Here is how I made the royal icing (which does dry pretty hard and it makes a great non-fat icing to hold the candies on the house):

1 pound powdered sugar

1 tablespoon egg white powder (I like this because it is pasteurized and it is a great staple for baking for when you run out of eggs – look for it in the baking section of the store)

1 tablespoon water (more or less)

Mix and add the water slowly until the consistency is thick like paste. The amount of water is always a variable based on the sugar and the temperature of the ingredients.

We used peanut-safe candies and had a great time decorating – we did it side by side until we had all four sides complete.

An extra house was a hit as a gift to my sister and her family – she and her kids were decorating it today and they will probably take it to an elderly relative to enjoy. As for ours – we have begun to eat it – but just a few pieces of the roof. I guess that is the other thing about a house – you just don’t gorge on it like you do a platter of cookies!

And here is a batch of calorie-free Holiday Tea that went together in minutes and made a lovely table centerpiece:

3 quarts water

6 red tea bags (we chose red fruit tea and red rooibos tea – there are many choices in the grocery store you just have to pick your favorite), caffeine free

1 orange, cut in quarters

1 lemon, cut in quarters

1/2 cup cranberries

We mixed everything and let it stand at room temperature until our guests arrived. Serve with ice and enjoy! It was great for kids or adults.

For our party goods – we served a wonderful array of healthy tapas – these small plates held various combinations of raw veggies with healthy dips, chips with home made salsa, and fruits that were a mix of dried and fresh.

Our guests were delighted that they were sampling our “super bowl snack fare” – and much to our delight all of the veggies disappeared! We will be showing that soon – we have more video recipes to come to get you ready for Super Bowl Dipper Parties.

Thanks to a wonderful reader and member who called to request Super Bowl recipes – we are happy to oblige and will have something to post soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

Cranberry-Poached Pears:

Watch this video and learn to make a stunning dessert with a pear, some cranberries, water, sugar and spices – all in about a minute and a half!

Here is the recipe:

4 pears, peeled, halved, cored

1 cup cranberries

1 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Splenda (use brown sugar as a substitute)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Place all in microwave container and cover and cook on full power for 6 minutes. Pears are done when tender. Serve warm on a plate – as shown – or cover and refrigerate for later use.

Citrus Pummelo Cup

Here is the recipe for the Citrus Pummelo Cup:

1 large pummelo or grapefruit

1 tsp warm honey (we warmed it briefly in the microwave)

zest and juice of 1 lime

segments of 1 tangerine

Peel, core and deseed pummelo or grapefruit as shown in the video.  Cut into segments and remove seeds and core again as needed. Stack the segments on a plate.

Drizzle with warm honey, lime zest and juice. Garnish with tangerine segments. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Serve in glasses or dessert dishes.

The pummello is a fruit that resembles a grapefruit – we have found them to be somewhat of a conversation piece – they are very large! They are juicy and very sweet – we liken them to grapefruit candy!

Apple Ambrosia

We made this recipe using Ambrosia Apples – the title of those gave us the idea. The pineapple is tasty and the acid in it keeps the apples white for a few days!

Victoria Shanta Retelny, RD, LDN, exclaimed, “The videos look great, Judy.  They are so sleek and simple.  I love it!  I am going to make the apple ambrosia tonight with my kids” when she got to preview our videos (our authors do have priveleges).

We love this dessert, too!

2 apples, cored and diced

1/4 cup crushed pineapple in juice, with juice

1 cup light nonfat vanilla yogurt

1 squirt of whipped cream – about 2 tablespoons

1 tablespoon toasted almonds, chopped

Mix all together. Cover and chill until ready to use. Serve in glass bowl and top with more crushed pineapple and toasted almonds. MMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Members get to embed these videos – PLUS they are receiving a holiday issue of CFFH:

December

• December ’09 Full Newsletter (PDF)
• For Consumers:
• Does Mammography Prevent Breast Cancer?
• Food News You Can Use – Winter Shopping
• Recipes: Winter Fruits: More Fruit, Fewer Calories
• Handout: Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
• Handout: Cook at Home and Save
• For Professionals:
• Presentation Ideas: Social Media Tips
• Breast Cancer Reduction: Research Update
• Bonus Handout: 2010 Recipe Calendar
• December ’09 Full Newsletter (Word)
• Become a member today!

Here are more fruit and veggie educational items from our new store:

PLUS  - here is one more reason to visit our store – sign up to be on our mailing list and receive a Word file for a  2010 Recipe Calendar from Food and Health Communications!

http://foodandhealth.com/shop/pages/FreeHandouts.html

If you use a large serving bowl for dessert you will probably fill it. Does this mean the portion size is right? No. It probably means that the portion is going to be, on average according to our experiments, about three times LARGER than it should be. Over time, excess calories from over-sized portions can really add up.

For dessert dishes, it’s time to line up smaller options. Explore your cabinet or nearest dish outlet store. Look for small sauce dishes that can become petit dessert plates. Pictured here are sushi sauce dishes that doubled as dessert plates. We had fun mixing and matching with the dishes, berries, and sorbet flavors.

Members can receive a 2 page handout on this recipe and more – click here for more info

Here are the dishes:

Raspberry sorbet with fresh berries

Cabernet Sauvignon sorbet with fresh berries and shaved milk chocolate

Passion fruit sorbet and fresh raspberries

By serving the petite dishes on a small tray you allow the guests to pick and choose the flavors they like and it becomes a fun, gourmet style treat. This grand finale can help any home-cooked meal have a spectacular low-calorie finish that does not cost a lot. The portion control for the small container of sorbet helps us get many servings rather than a few big bowls.

Here are a variety of sauce dishes from our Crate and Barrel Outlet – from the bargain area – I decided to mix and match to make it fun.

And here is our #30 scoop that is one ounce. If you get used to using this scoop for fat-free ice cream and sorbet you will learn to use less and to judge portion sizes better. It also makes a gorgeous round ball. Our scoop was a little large so the serving size we used is about 1.5 ounces (volume). The package calls for 1/2 cup which is about 4 ounces (volume). We like to use a variety of fruits and we feel this was a fun and attractive way to manage portion control for dessert!

Members can receive a 2 page handout on this recipe and more – click here for more info

I made a delicious dessert using the currants and berries. The currants are a beautiful color!

They are small in size – and you have to separate them from the little stems that they grow on – but it is all worth the work.

Here is the recipe:

Currant Syrup:

1 pint fresh red currants

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

Bring these to a boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and add blueberries and raspberries.

Lacy Oatmeal Cookies:

4 oz trans-free margarine

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

1-1/2 cups rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cream the margarine and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and cream until smooth. Fold in the rest of the ingredients, scraping the bowl and mix until smooth. Bake in spoonfuls on an oiled piece of aluminum foil on a pan in a preheated 350 oven for 12 minutes. They will run very flat and be “lacy” in appearance.

Serve the Lacy Oatmeal Cookies on top of the berry compote.

Enjoy!