What’s Cooking Blog

Eating well at fast food restaurants can feel like a monumental task - nutrition information is often difficult to find. My friends at Wellsphere just launched Wellternatives – a new free healthy eating service that recommends healthy alternatives for your favorite dishes at hundreds of thousands of chain restaurants. They designed it so that anyone can use their cell phone to receive suggested ‘Wellternatives’ along with calorie and nutrition information for free. It’s quick, fun and easy to use, and works from any cell phone! They also added Wellternatives to their website, along with complete menu listings and ratings, at http://www.wellsphere.com/wellternatives.s

You’ve probably heard about how the restaurant chains all over the country are battling with government officials to keep from having to post their nutrition data. It’s pretty ridiculous for consumers to have to suffer while executives and lawmakers battle it out in court. A recent survey done by Aramark shows that 83% of diners want restaurants to make nutritional information available to them – so Wellsphere decided to give people the information they need to make better menu choices – anytime, anywhere.

So starting today, anyone with Internet access or a mobile phone can get nutrition information for their favorite chain restaurant’s menu items, and even a recommendation for a healthier alternative – for free. One of the keys to making this helpful for people is that they built our recommendation algorithm to not only consider key nutritional factors, but to also take into account taste preference profiles, portion sizes and types of food. That way they can give people healthier alternatives from the same restaurant that they will find just as satisfying and delicious as what they usually eat.

I’d encourage you to give Wellternatives a try by sending a text to 878787 with the word ‘diet’ followed by the name of the chain restaurant and menu item, or visiting www.wellsphere.com/wellternatives.s.

Sometimes pictures (and movies) speak a thousand words.

Here are some interesting and inspiring videos on You-Tube about Share Our Strength, The Great American Bake Sale and Childhood Hunger.

• Share Our Strength Promotional Video
• The Great American Bake Sale
• 5th Annual Great American Bake Sale - short and sweet

The What’s Cooking Bake Sale team is setting dates for our events.  Stay tuned for more on our journey to make a difference.

Champagne, jewelry and flowers are mother’s day gift ideas created by television advertisers. They are lovely, but aren’t what most hard-working mothers really want. Instead, we would kill for hugs without protest, an opportunity to pee all by ourselves and a few moments of peace and quiet.

Time for reality - Most of us would like a gift that offers us some extra time to ourselves each day; a break from thinking so hard. We want someone to just tell us what to buy at the market and how to turn it into a simple family meal. We want fewer arguments at the table about who has to eat what, and how many bites are required to get dessert.

Guess What? There IS just such a gift.  What’s Cooking Weekly offers weekly menus, recipes, grocery lists, nutrition information and tips on what the kids can do to help make dinner…5 nights a week! And it recommends healthy and seasonal ingredients, not chemicals that are disguised as food!

Want to try it? Why not try to WIN a free subscription for 6 months. Simply comment here about a good food or cooking memory that you have with your children. The winner will be chosen at random on the day after Mother’s Day.

In the meantime, What’s Cooking Weekly makes a fantastic gift for Mother’s Day - a valuable gift that includes peace of mind, organization, and tips on spending quality time with your kids in the kitchen and around the table.

Healthy Child Healthy World is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the health and well being of children from harmful environmental exposures. There is a wonderful relationship between Earthbound Farm and Healthy Child Healthy World because they share similar values and a commitment to long-term health.

Earthbound Farm has developed an area of their website to promote the new book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, and fundraising for the Healthy Child Healthy World Organization.

To encourage people to check out the book and drive a donation to the non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World, Earthbound Farm has posted some tips from the book and created an online quiz to raise awareness about keeping children safe from chemicals.

For every quiz that’s completed correctly, Earthbound Farm will donate $1 to Healthy Child Healthy World – Earthbound Farm’s goal is to raise and donate $20,000. The quiz went live on May 1 – www.ebfarm.com.

Earthbound Farm is really excited about the online quiz, and those who complete the quiz correctly will also receive Earthbound Farm coupons and their new Pocket Guide to Choosing Organic.

Want to Win a copy of this book? Take the online quiz and write a comment here letting me know how you did, and what you learned. A winner will be selected at random by the end of May.

The cooler of Amy’s Kids Meals arrived from FedEx just in time - we were in the midst of loading up the car (over and over again) for the move to our new home. While I am not usually a big fan of frozen meals, especially those packaged and marketed for children, the timing of their arrival made these ones even more appealing!

When the kids were finally able to persuade me to take a break from playing the part of a pack mule, I was desperate to find something easy to feed them for lunch. They were quick to remind me of the cooler that had just arrived, containing Amy’s kids meals for us to review. Ever since I started to review ingredients, snacks and other food for kids, my kids have been eager to try new foods and share their opinions.

We began by heating our meals in the microwave. I was skeptical when I saw the divided package of frozen food - each meal containing a main dish, a vegetable, a side of bread and a dessert. How on earth could I defrost all of these components and heat them properly at the same time? The directions asked us to heat the entire package for awhile, but then to remove portions before continuing to heat. I was relieved - and surprised at how well each element held up.

The kids dug into the Baked Ziti with gusto. When I read on the package that the entire meal was dairy and gluten free, I hesitated for a moment, thinking that the kids would notice and complain that it wouldn’t taste like what they were used to. But as a kids cooking teacher, I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut and not say anything - I wanted them to form their own opinions about what they were eating. Sure enough, they enjoyed it. My daughter said that she thought she wouldn’t like it because it was coated in a “red sauce”, but she said it was really good. My son and I liked the broccoli and enjoyed that it was still al dente. My daughter (the picky eater in our family) found it to be too soggy and stopped eating it after one bite. They both enjoyed the hand made rice focaccia and the apple crisp dessert. They loved the crumbly topping and couldn’t get over the fact that their meal included dessert!

After finishing their ziti, they dug into their sample of Mac N’ Cheese. Unlike the ziti, this one was not gluten and dairy free - and they loved the “super cheesy” flavor. Once again, my daughter resisted the broccoli, but that was no surprise to me. The apple dessert in this dish was not as well received as the one that came with the ziti dish. The kids agreed that the inside was very tasty, but they were not big fans of the “outside,” saying it tasted too much like a tortilla.

Overall, these Amy’s Kids Meals were quite a hit. I think that part of their appeal is that they come in a colorful package, complete with a removable tattoo…and dessert. And quite possibly, they were most exciting because I don’t usually partake in frozen meals. One thing you can count on with Amy’s food is that they are made from good quality ingredients, with no added chemicals. They are made from real food, which is always a plus, in my book! Their flavor was quite good and their convenience couldn’t be beat - especially in the middle of a move.

After my last blog post, I was contacted by someone at Share Our Strength, who is helping to publicize The Great American Bake Sale. She shared with me some fantastic tips on how to make your event be as successful as possible. I had to share - I want us to work together to make a difference!

Share Our Strength’s Fifth Annual Great American Bake Sale® is in full swing this spring! The national campaign, working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry, is helping to feed the 12.6 million American children currently suffering from hunger and food insecurity. Registrants can sign up to hold their own local Bake Sale at www.greatamericanbakesale.org.

“Everyone is looking for ways to connect with family and friends while giving back to their community,” said Shalaya Henson, Communications Manager for Share Our Strength. “Bale Sales are a simple, fun and effective way to do just that!”

To help make sure your Bake Sale is a successful one, Share Our Strength offers the following advice:

Know the Laws: Before holding a bake sale, check with your local Department of Health. Many areas require a special permit, which is usually free of charge, but must be approved a certain amount of time before the event takes place. Also, some venues limit the types of food you can sell, so check these regulations out ahead of time.

Get the Word Out: Put out a press release to you local paper’s event calendar, and any other local media that would be interested. If possible, start a blog or website from day one to track your progress, and post photos after the event – as well as information for those who want to make a donation. Email invitations are also a great way to reach friends and spread the word.

Location, Location, Location: Holding your bake sale at a highly visible and heavily trafficked area is key! Hot spots include the home base of a sponsoring organization, churches, schools, malls and the sidewalk of your town’s shopping or business district.

Timing is Everything: If possible, pick a date that doesn’t conflict with any other major events in your community. If conflictions can’t be avoided, try to capitalize on the popularity of an existing event by setting up your Bake Sale nearby.

A Little Help from Your Friends: It’s likely you will need several volunteers to bake, make signs, solicit donations and sell goods. Keep a list of each bake sale participant and what they brought. Colorful stickers can help keep track of who baked what. Be sure to follow up with a personalized “thank you” to those who pitched in.

Think Big: Everyone loves cupcakes and cookies, but if you’re raising money for a charity, you want to get the biggest bang for your buck. Big ticket items cakes, pies, or small treats grouped together are less labor-intensive, and help to insure that you’ll have fewer leftovers. But make sure you still have a few individually wrapped goodies for people who want to eat on the spot!

The Label Maker: Be sure to ask your volunteers to label all the items, and have a list of ingredients handy. This can be useful, especially when dealing with people who have allergies, diabetes, or other food sensitivities.

Business As Usual: Get local businesses involved, either by donating money, supplies, or space. Food donations can be sold, or can be used to feed hungry volunteers. Be sure to acknowledge these sponsors with signs on the table. Also, you can ask these companies if they would like to match any funds that are raised at the sale.

Supply and Demand: Make sure you have all of the necessities with you the day of. These will include everything from plastic gloves for handling food, to a cash box with small bills and coins for making change, to signage and plates. It’s also important to have literature available for the organization.

Have a Leftover Plan: In case you don’t everything, find a local food pantry or shelter ahead of time that you can donate your food to.

For more information, or to speak with Shalaya Henson at Share Our Strength, please contact:

Christie High, 212.871.3020 ext.114, chigh at jgordonassociates.com

Great American Bake Sale

Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale®, presented by Domino® Sugar and C&H® Sugar, is a national campaign that mobilizes Americans to end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities. Great American Bake Sale proceeds are granted to organizations in communities across America to help provide at-risk children with nutritious meals when they’re needed most – during the summer, and after school. Additionally, proceeds support Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, a chef-led nutrition education program for low-income children and families. Since 2003, more than 1 million people have participated in Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, raising nearly $4 million to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. Great American Bake Sale is supported by national television partner Food Network and national magazine partner Family Circle magazine. For more information, visit www.greatamericanbakesale.org.

Share Our Strength

Share Our Strength® is a national organization working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger, and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play. We work with the culinary industry to create engaging, pioneering programs like Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale®, Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out™, and Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®. For more information, please visit www.strength.org.

I can hardly contain my excitement! I am inspired to get my family and students fired up to use food and cooking for the greater good.

My sister has been volunteering for Share Our Strength, a national organization that weaves together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to make sure no kids in America grows up hungry. Her enthusiasm piqued my interest and when I visited their website, I couldn’t help but get inspired, myself!

Here is what usually happens in my head - When I see an organization, such as Share Our Strength, that is doing such good work, I wonder what steps I might be able to do with my family or students to contribute to the cause. Usually, I have to don my teacher hat and design some curriculum that would allow us to cook some delicious recipes AND help someone at the same time. But this time, I was spared the effort of lesson planning!

The Great American Bake Sale is an annual event, sponsored by Share Our Strength, that mobilizes Americans to end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities. Wait - I think I should clarify something here. Yes, I do realize that my cooking classes focus on healthy and seasonal foods. And yes, I also realize that most of the time baking isn’t the most healthy endeavor. BUT, pair a community building activity (like baking) with a cause (like ending childhood hunger) and you have a recipe for success (even if it there is a little extra butter and sugar thrown in!)

The funds raised from Great American Bake Sales have allowed more than 5.3 million meals to be served to low-income children nationwide. Proceeds also fund grants that promote access to after-school and summer feeding programs, as well as nutrition education programs for at-risk youth.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can pass this one up. Are you with me? To register or to learn more about Share our Strength or the Great American Bake Sale, please visit their website.

Please let me know if you have participated before and if you have any tips to share.

If you would like to make a financial contribution towards our goal, please do so by visiting the What’s Cooking Bake Sale team page on the Share Our Strength website.