One Hungry Mama

September 11th, 2009

Weekly Digest (Seriously Busy Edition, Thanks to Back-to-School)

Good Eats Costumes for Kids

Food News, Things We Crave, Green Your Eats, Tips, Tools & Techniques, and the Weekly Roundtable (a roundup of our most recent posts). With back to school season in full swing, there’s a tons of important news about food, nutrition, and kids. Check out this week’s picks!

Food News

• Make sure to grab The Nation’s food issue, Food for All: How to Grow Democracy, chock full of great reading from Anna Lappe, Michael Pollan, Dan Barber, Alice Waters, Alexander Cockburn, and more!
• The Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization by September 30th. Read all about it, why it’s important, and how you can get more info (via Civil Eats)
• The School Lunch Program is part of the aforementioned Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. Check out Slow Foods USA’s 5 point platform on school lunches. It’s a brief, to-the-point mandate for Congress and the Obama Administration. A must-read for any parent.
• And here are more things to consider about school lunches from the smart folks at Serious Eats
• Michael Pollan Op-Ed: reducing health care costs requires overhaul of food industry (via NY Times)
• Early on, parents forge habits of healthy eating (via Boston Globe)
• Making healthful eating fun for kids (via LA Times)
• The social side of obesity: you are who you eat with (via Time Magazine)
• Growing hope and fighting hunger on the Gaza strip (via Grist)
• Big food’s ‘Smart Choices’ label raises eyebrows at the FDA (who knew you could raise eyebrows at the FDA!) (via Grist)

Things We Crave

• Fun product alert!! Moja Mix is a new brand of cereal that allows you to customize your morning eats. Choose a grain base (they offer healthy options like rolled oats, quinoa, and coconut granola), then add from their selection of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and extras like chocolate chips. YUM! (via Cool Mom Picks)
• A round up of fun kitchen accessories for kids from our friends at Lil Sugar, who deserve a shout out for their rationale. The list is meant to help parents engage kids in the cooking process as an alternative to tricking them into eating healthy meals. Kudos and thanks!
• Have you started thinking about Halloween yet? No! Not what treats you’re going to make, but how you’re doing to dress the kiddos. Check out these awesome food costumes (each with step-by-step directions) by the wardrobe person from Good Eats with Alton Brown (via Eat Me Daily)
• Oooh ooh ooh! Classic Hellerware melamine stacking plates and cups! (via DESIGNwatcher)

Green Your Eats

• The value of teaching our children about where food comes from—not just at home, but also at school—and how one organization is connecting farms and schools (via Cooking Up a Story)
• After you read the article above, look for a farm to school program near you!

Tips, Tools & Techniques

• Oh Dee Doh reader Alexandra came up with these inspired graphics as a way to encourage her 2-year-old to eat more veggies. Brilliant!
• We love making multiple use of our kitchen tools (saves money & space). Check out these five ideas for how to use a bite size brownie pan—in and out of the kitchen (via Oh Dee Doh)
• I’ve fallen for a new blog, Blonde Designs. Most of it is design-y, stationary kinda stuff, but these ladies (both of whom have worked for Martha Stewart) occasionally throw food in the mix. And when they do, they’re serious. Check out these gorgeous beehive and bumble bee cookies (Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies) and cake, perfect for a 1st birthday party.
• It’s no secret that motherhood has turned me into someone who uses the freezer… a lot (makes life easy and helps reduce food waste!). If you’re the same way, check out this great guide on freezing delicious summer foods for winter (via Serious Eats)

Weekly Roundtable

• We used up leftover rice wine to make sweet potatoes with Japanese inspired flavor: Sake Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes
• We brought back an old standby to help us get through a busy week: Turkey Paprikash
• Wait! Make that two old standbys, both of which (but especially this one) are great meals for the seasonal shift from summer to fall: Zucchini Orzo Risotto with Feta