School Lunch Revolution & a Recipe for a Healthy Hero (Podcast #102)

Over the past few months, we’ve been absolutely wowed by the growing momentum behind school lunch reform. Both of us have spent time in the “trenches” working to improve the school lunch options in our children’s schools, so we understand the time and commitment it takes to bring positive change to the system. On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, we dish about several of those efforts and chat about the role we see for ourselves in the movement.

If you watched the last episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC, you may recall his disappointment when some of the kids brought brown-bag lunches filled with candy, chips, and soft drinks. We were disappointed too, so from now on, we will be making a greater effort on our website and blog to provide our readers and listeners with tips and recipes for adding ease, nutrition, and fun flavors to kids’ lunches. Under the Mealtime Tips section of our main site, we have a fact sheet on Brown Bag Boredom Busters, and we have some helpful articles you may want to check out too: Think Outside the Lunchbox and Smart Snacking. Read on for a lunch box Healthy Hero recipe and links to some of our favorite school lunch reform websites.

Healthy Hero

Makes 4 Servings

  • 1 cup packed baby spinach or romaine lettuce
  • 1 tablespoon lite or regular Italian salad dressing
  • 4 teaspoons honey mustard
  • 4 whole wheat submarine rolls, halved
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced roast beef
  • 4 sandwich-cut dill pickles
  • 1 medium tomato, thinly sliced, optional
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced reduced-fat cheese (mozzarella, American, Swiss, or provolone)
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced low-sodium deli turkey

1. Combine the spinach and salad dressing in a bowl and mix well.

2. Spread 1 teaspoon of the mustard on one side of each roll. Layer evenly with the roast beef, spinach, pickle, tomato as desired, cheese, and turkey. Place the remaining roll halves firmly on top. Slice in half or pack whole.

Nutrition Information per Serving:  350 calories, 11g fat (4.5g saturated), 870mg sodium, 39g carbohydrate, 6g fiber, 28g protein, 15% vitamin A, 25% calcium, 15% iron

Print Recipe

We could spend all day going from website to website reading about the people and organizations working to improve what our kids eat in school. Here is just a brief overview of some of our favorites:

Two Angry Moms:  Two moms make a movie about their quest to improve their school lunch program and provide tools to help you bring change to your district.
Let’s Move: More than 31 million children participate in the national school lunch program, and Michelle Obama, through her Let’s Move initiative, wants to make it a whole lot healthier.
Chef Ann Cooper: As the self-described Renegade Lunch Lady, Chef Ann’s life work is to transform how we feed our children in school each day, from highly processed to highly nourishing food — one school lunch at a time.
Farm to School Initiative: The USDA encourages schools to buy produce from local farmers.
Fed Up with Lunch: Blogging anonymously under the pseudonym, Mrs. Q, this third-grade teacher from the Midwest is eating school lunch just like the kids every day in 2010. Her photos and insights are a real eye opener!
Moms Inc.: A group of concerned moms provides tips and tools for helping fellow parents approach school administrators and food service directors with the goal of improving the nutrition in school lunches.

What’s happening in your community? Do tell!

May 5, 2010 | Filed Under GivingBack, KiwiMagazine, Lunch, PickyEaters, Podcast, Website | 8 Comments 

Pancakes on Patriots’ Day

Do you have one favorite day that you look forward to each year? I do. For me, it’s Patriots’ Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts which commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battle of the Revolutionary War. I’m no war buff, but I do love a good pancake. On Patriots’ Day, my sleepy little town of Lexington, population 30,000 (okay, maybe we’re not so little), marks the holiday with a reenactment of Paul Revere’s ride, various skirmishes between the Minutemen and the Redcoats, parades, a 5K road race, and the oh-so popular Pancake Breakfast.

Simon attends the annual Pancake Breakfast … something he’s enjoyed since making the transition from baby food to solids!

All morning long, locals and visitors start the day with a hearty meal, stacked with nostalgia.

Members of the First Baptist Church help raise money for charities like Habitat for Humanity and the Lexington Food Pantry.

With three local churches to choose from, this year, we decided to dig into an all-you-can eat pancake feast at the First Baptist Church. The pancakes were amazing. Served on real china, they came out hot and light — they actually tasted more like crepes than pancakes. The pancakes are made from scratch versus a mix, and the recipe is an “antique,” handed down from the minister’s mother. One of the members actually shared the recipe with me.

Patriots’ Day Pancakes
Feeds a Huge Crowd

  • 15 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup cream of tartar
  • 1/4 cup baking soda
  • 1/4 cup salt

Mix 10 cups of the dry mix with 12 large eggs and 1/2 gallon milk.

Print Recipe

Here are a few other images from this year’s Patriots’ Day …

Simon and Josh wait for runners to cross the finish line during the Lion’s Club 96th annual Patriots’ Day 5-Mile Road Race.

The annual Lexington Patriots’ Day Parade attracts huge crowds.

A group from the Lexington Community Farm Coalition propose a new community farm that would bring fresh, local produce and hands-on educational programs to the community.

My husband, Tim, thinks our excitement over Patriots’ Day & pancakes is a bit “over the top.” But then again, he’s British, and he clearly hasn’t gotten over the fact that the English lost the Revolutionary War!  As for me, I can’t wait for next year …

April 24, 2010 | Filed Under Breakfast, CulinaryAdventures, GivingBack | 3 Comments 

New Grant Brings Fruit & Vegetable Gardens to Schoolyards!

Welch’s is one of our blog sponsors, and when they told us about their new Harvest Grants program, we were eager to share the news with all of you. In conjunction with Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine, Harvest Grants aims to help schools across the U.S. plant and grow fruit and vegetable gardens.

Two K-8 schools in every state will receive a Welch’s Harvest Grant:  Welch’s will award 100 garden packages, together valued at $35,000, to the winning schools.  Five schools will receive $1,000 packages; 25 schools will receive $500 packages; and 70 schools will receive $250 packages. Each package will be filled with a variety of tools, seeds, and educational materials that will help students connect with nature and better understand the origins of their food supply.

Between leaders like Michelle Obama whose White House Garden ignited the public’s interest in backyard vegetable gardens and chefs like Alice Waters who founded the Edible Schoolyard, there is no doubt in our minds that the popularity of fresh produce straight from the backyard garden is growing (even Liz, a self-professed plant killer, sowed her first backyard garden last spring with her family).

Getting kids out of the classroom and into the dirt teaches children about sustainability and where their food comes from, and it motivates them to eat nutritious fruits and veggies. They learn as they dig, and it’s fun!

If this sounds like something you think YOUR school would be interested in starting (or if they already have a garden that you think could use a little nurturing), tell your children’s teachers about the Grant (they’re the ones who can apply). Entries will be judged by experts at the National Gardening Association, and the deadline for submission is February 6, 2010. For all the details and the official rules go to the Scholastic Harvest Grants page. By the way, our friends at Welch’s tell us the application will only take 10 minutes to fill out!

January 16, 2010 | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Fruits, GivingBack, Vegetables | 1 Comment 

Janice’s Mother’s Day Road Race

Janice, Mary, and Courtney at finish lineMy Mother’s Day started the same way it has for the past 12 years with a breakfast of our Hearty Cornmeal Pancakes topped with pecans and chocolate chips followed by a 3 ½ mile road race.  The Melrose Run for Women benefits the Melrose Alliance Against Violence, an organization dedicated to violence prevention in the community. Every year, I run the race with my neighbor and good friend, Mary. Yesterday, Mary’s 24-year old daughter, Courtney, joined us and was kind enough to slow her pace considerably so we could all cross the finish line together!  As always, it felt great to participate in such a worthwhile cause.

Wearing our Donate Life t-shirts, we pounded the pavement with the goal of also promoting organ donation awareness.  Every day, 18 people across America die waiting for an organ transplant.  The reason this issue is so near and dear to our hearts is that our friend’s 20-year-old daughter, Laura, died last year waiting for a liver.  Her struggle prompted a group of friends to form Donate Life Melrose and to urge everyone we know to sign up to be an organ donor (depending where you live, you can even sign up on the Registry of Motor Vehicles website).  I’m always amazed when I hear that one organ donor can save the lives of eight people, so please consider signing up … don’t wait!

donatelifetablecrop-370

May 12, 2009 | Filed Under GivingBack | 4 Comments 

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