THE GREAT PUMPKIN

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"There are three things I've learned never discuss with people:  religion, politics, and The Great Pumpkin."

                                    --Linus  from "It's the Great Pumpkin,                                                            Charlie Brown" (1966)

October is when parents think about taking the little ones to the local pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins for Halloween.  Pumpkins are great for more than decorating your front porch a couple of weeks a year.  Pumpkin is a squash that is delicious, healthy, and good for you.  Like all vegetables that are orange, pumpkin is high in the anti-oxidant, beta-carotene.  Beta-carotene converts to Vitamin A in the body and may offer protection against certain cancers and degenerative aspects of aging.

Growing Healthy Kids has been asked to create a gluten-free pumpkin recipe for the first ever children�s October event on Main Street Vero Beach.  We�ve been working furiously in the GHK Test Kitchen to come up with the perfect pumpkin cookie for kids.  The results so far are..."YUM...More, please!"

I have a confession, dear readers...Cooking pumpkin is SO EASY.  Before this challenge to create a gluten-free pumpkin cookie came to Growing Healthy Kids, I had never cooked a pumpkin to use in a recipe.  Now that I have crossed that line and I have learned how easy it is, I am a convert and will probably never go back to using canned pumpkin again!

DIRECTIONS FOR USING FRESH PUMPKIN IN PIES, SOUPS, AND MORE:  Break off the stem of a small pumpkin.  Wash the outside.  Cut pumpkin in half.  Scoop out seeds.  Place upside down (skin side up) in a large baking dish.  Add a small amount of water (1/2 cup or so).  Roast in an oven at 400 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork.  Let cool.  Scoop out pumpkin and puree in a food processor.  Freeze pumpkin if you are not going to use it right away.

AMAZING PUMPKIN FACTS

One cup of 1� pumpkin cubes contain:

• 30 calories
• 394 mg of potassium
• 197% of daily Vitamin A
• 17% of daily Vitamin C
• 1 gram of sodium

CLICK HERE to get into the mood with The Great Pumpkin Waltz by Vince Guaraldi.

Happy, Healthy Pumpkin Season to you and your family!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

FAVORITE KITCHEN TOOLS FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�A lot of parents ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables.  The first thing I say is that it starts from the top.�  

                                           --Chef Emeril Lagasse

Our Growing Healthy Kids movement features some awesome classes in the kitchen for kids.  One thing I love to watch is how the kids all clamor to do something.  When the kids show up for a class, the first thing they see is a display of all the ingredients we are going to play with.  A lesson  I learned from my father who was an aerospace engineer was to always use the right tool for the job.  That same lesson applies in the kitchen, which is why this week�s WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS topic is about kids� favorite kitchen tools:  lemon squeezers and garlic presses. 

A recent GROWING HEALTHY KIDS IN THE KITCHEN program
in Vero Beach, Florida.  Kids wait with anticipation
to use the lemon squeezer!

Lemons have seeds.  Using fresh lemon juice is so much better than using bottled lemon juice.  Having a lemon squeezer in your kitchen makes having fresh lemon juice to use a no-brainer.  Look for one that is easy for the kids to use and easy to clean.  You can get a great lemon squeezer for under $5.00.

In our Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen educational programs, we ask kids if they know the trick for releasing the juice from lemons (or limes) so it is easy to squeeze.  No one ever guesses the trick but it is so easy:  roll a lemon on the counter with just a little bit of pressure.  Another trick is to put the lemon in the microwave for ten seconds but I really don�t like using a microwave anymore.  

Garlic is really good for keeping us healthy and protecting us from colds.   So good that I look for ways to have garlic every day.  I am one of those people who never takes a sick day because I don't get sick and I owe a big part of my own wellness to eating garlic.  One of my observations in every Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen class is how much the kids LOVE to use the garlic press.  They will stand in line to wait for a turn to be able to use the garlic press.  Buy your family a good garlic press � one of my favorites is made by Pampered Chef. 

Garlic and lemon are great additions to vegetable dishes. Try these ideas at your house this week: 

RECIPE IDEA:  Steam some broccoli and squeeze a little fresh lemon juice on it for flavor instead of butter.  The lemon is healthier and better for you than butter!  

RECIPE IDEA:  Use the garlic press and add fresh garlic to a foil packet of vegetables such as zucchini, green beans, and carrots.  Add a little extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt and pepper.  Wrap tightly.  Throw the foil packet on the grill with some fresh fish and you will have an amazing vegetable dish that the kids will devour!

With gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.   

WHAT'S IN YOUR PANTRY?

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Pasta, vegetables, fish, and good bread...That's my idea of how to eat well and healthfully."  

---Marion Nestle

The Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and Professor of Socialogy, at New York University, and the author of Safe Food (2002), What to Eat (2006), and Food Politics (revised ed., 2007)

Last night, one of my wonderful neighbors stopped by the house to ask me for some healthy food ideas for her dad (who has Type 2 diabetes).  She walked into the kitchen, picked up a bag of Bob�s Red Mill Whole Grain Oat Flour (which I just bought for the Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen�s new challenge later this month), and started asking questions.  

Here are some of my answers:

• Eating whole grain foods is key to a balanced eating plan.  
• Make AT LEAST HALF of all your grains whole grain.  Think of all the foods you eat that contain grains:  breads, pastas, cereals, tortillas, cookies, cakes, crackers, rice, and more.   

Whole grain foods are central to the recipes created in the Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen.  We love Bob�s Red Mill products because of their purity, quality, and dependability. Here are ten items from Bob�s Red Mill you can ALWAYS find in my pantry:

1. Steel cut oats
2. Whole grain oat flour
3. Coconut flour
4. Brown rice flour
5. Ground flax seeds (you can use these as a substitute for oil in baking!)
6. Corn grits/polenta
7. Organic quinoa
8. French lentils
9. Raw pumpkin seeds
10. Quick cooking wild rice

What is YOUR favorite whole grain product? To learn more about one of Growing Healthy Kids' good food companies, click here,

In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

NATIONAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH AND YOUR DAILY EXERCISE

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Every hour you sit at work increases your mortality eleven percent.  Think about that."

----Dr. Mehmet Oz

Up.  Just get up.  Leave the desk and take a ten minute break.  The company will not fall apart while you take a short break to get up from your desk and walk for ten minutes.  The above quote by America�s favorite doctor, Dr. Oz, really resonates with me as I observe adults who think they are productive by not leaving their desk for hours at a time. 

Did you know that a minimum of ten minutes of exercise gives you heart health benefits?  Are you getting thirty minutes a day at least five days a week?  How many days a week are your kids getting at least an hour of exercise a day?  How do you plan fitness into your day?  Deliberately or by accident?  What about your kids?  Do you schedule recess for yourself every day?   

Fitness guru Richard Simmons recommends that you should never eat lunch at your desk.  Simmons says, �Stop thinking you can eat at your desk.  You need to take 15 minutes and go just eat something.  It�s bad for digestion.  You can get diverticulitis, you can get stomach aches and you can get depressed.�   He added, �We�re not winning the war [on obesity]; we�re losing it.  There are more overweight children, more overweight teenagers�there should be more rules about food.�  Make the commitment to take walk breaks and lunch breaks away from your desk.  Your mind will thank you. 

Reversing America�s childhood obesity epidemic will happen by improving the health literacy of parents.  Here's a challenge:  Be a better role model for your own children.  Let them see you sweat! 

One of my favorite Growing Healthy Kids� T-shirt designs created by Get Shot by Ella designer Ella Chabot promotes the mantra, �Exercise Daily�.  Write these two words on the top of every day�s �To Do� list and plan movement and physical fun into your schedule.  Make it a habit.  Commit to it for 28 days. 

This WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS' column is dedicated to Baby Ellie.  She is the reason our family traveled great distances this week (we calculated over 32,000 miles - ONE WAY) to celebrate her first birthday together.  Ellie is my mother�s first great grandchild, daughter of my nephew, Robbie Heinrich, and his wife, Sara Stout Heinrich.  This child is healthy because her mother plans time to cook and prepare fresh fruits and veggies every week for her.  Sara has scheduled to make access to good food choices easy by planning around what foods are locally grown and in season.  Baby Ellie is the

Baby Ellie with her proud parents, Robbie Heinrich (my nephew), his wife, Sara,
and Stella (the dog, looking for cake crumbs),
at Ellie's first birthday party last weekend

picture of health and that is why I was so happy to deliver a GHK shirt of her own so she can be our youngest ambassador in Kentucky.  

All children deserve access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  Support your local farmers.  Eat rainbows from the garden!  

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

To check out the Growing Healthy Kids' store, click here.

NATIONAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH AND LOCAL FARMERS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�We are not very good at keeping people healthy 
over the long haul.� 

                                                     -- quote from a Cleveland Clinic administrator 
                                                                                  on a talk show in 2013 

What�s your favorite summer vegetable?  One of mine is red peppers.   There are just so many delicious ways to prepare them (think roasted red pepper soup, roasted vegetables, and wild shrimp and roasted pepper quesadillas).  

With fresh peppers and tomatoes in abundance right now, making a fresh salsa is an easy way to eat fresh and eat local.  One thing we love to do in the GROWING HEALTHY KIDS movement is expose kids to farms and farmers so they learn where food really comes from and, hopefully, will learn grow a few things they like.  The folks at Florida Veggies and More recently invited GROWING HEALTHY KIDS to play at their hydroponic farm in Vero Beach, Florida as part of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  

Eggplants!!

"Farmer Lisa" Brenneman gives the kids
and the volunteers a tour
of the hydroponic greenhouse.

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS with YOUTH GUIDANCE at
Florida Veggies and More this month as part of
National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

�Farmer Lisa� Brenneman gave a farm tour to children involved with Youth Guidance Mentoring and Activities Program and adult mentors, then we all met in the farm store kitchen for cooking lessons using fresh-picked veggies.  Not a drop of salsa was left at the end of our fabulous morning!  Thanks, Farmer Lisa, for sending everyone home with a pepper plant of their own! 

An Easy Growing Healthy Kids Menu

Summer Salsa

Mango Salsa

Whole grain cheese quesadillas*

  

SUMMER SALSA

COMBINE in a bowl:

• 1 medium tomato, cut into �-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
• dash sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons (or more) fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• 1/2 jalape�o pepper, finely diced (with or without seeds, depending on desired hotness-it is hotter with the seeds) (PARENTS:  Substitute 3 Tablespoons of chopped green pepper for the kids' version.)

       

TRANSFER to a serving bowl.  Let rest for about 1 hour, covered and unrefrigerated, for best flavor. 

USE gloves when working with jalape�o peppers. 

NOTE FROM NANCY:   This is a fun, easy recipe to make for Tuesday Taco night.  Serve with black bean and cheese nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas, or just whole grain chips.  It also makes a delicious topping on a Sunday morning veggie omelet. 

To make mango salsa, use less tomatoes, dice up a ripe 

mango, and add about � cup of diced red pepper. Eating good foods is easy when you know how to prepare a few basic recipes.  For these and more basic recipes every kid should learn to make, click here to order your copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH.

Parents, the responsibility for our children's health is most importantly ours.  Hospitals, drug companies, and health insurance companies do not have an interest in keeping people well.  With all the profits being made from disease and obesity, we can each make the decision to be as healthy as possible.  One thing we can all do is plan our meals around the fresh and locally grown vegetables where you live.  SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS! 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

*For demonstration purposes, La Tortilla Factory whole grain tortillas (12 grams of dietary fiber per tortilla) were used in the preparation of the quesadillas. 

PARENTS AND OBESITY

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�If kids grow kale, they eat kale.  If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes.�  

                   --- Ron Finley

When was the last time you showed a child how to plant and grow a tomato? Kids come up to me all the time to thank me for the tomato or pepper plant they received at a Growing Healthy Kids program and learned how to take care of.  �If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.  If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.�  That�s what I�m talking about.  If you believe that food is the problem and food is the solution, watch this video featuring Ron Finley. Thanks to Adina Lehrman and Lucie Burke!!

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  The focus of Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. is to raise awareness about how to reverse, halt, and prevent childhood obesity.  One way we do this is by educating parents.  Send us your idea about how we can educate parents about preventing childhood obesity and growing healthy kids and you could be one of three national "best idea" winners selected to receive a copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH, the first book from the Growing Healthy Kids� movement to reverse childhood obesity.   

  

Send an email to growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com by September 26th.  Include your (1) idea about how to educate parents (2) name (3) email address and (4) mail address.  If your idea is selected as one of our three national winners, we�ll email you by September 30 to let you know that a copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH is on its way to you.  HELP US HELP AMERICA�S CHILDREN get to -- and stay at -- a healthy weight by reducing, halting, and preventing childhood obesity.  Become part of the solution! 

This week, I ran into a friend of the Growing Healthy Kids movement to reverse childhood obesity, Adina Lehrman.  Adina recently planted a permaculture garden in front of the new organic juice bar (LOV Juice in Vero Beach, Florida).  When I met Adina several years ago, I asked her to speak with a group of kids I was working with for an entire school year at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County.  I will never forget the talk and demonstration she gave about �bunny balls� (one of the most organic methods of fertilization around).   To check out her website, click here.  You can also connect with Adina on Facebook. Here are a couple of pictures of the LOV Juice garden planted by Adina and her business partner, Lucie Burke.

Adina enjoying a conversation in the shade of the edible garden in front of LOV Juice.

Good news from Tallahassee, Florida.  I spoke with The Man in Overalls AKA Nathan Ballantine with the Tallahassee Food Network.  Nathan is working with kids and adults to grow a network of community gardens, increase access to locally grown, healthy foods, and build a bridge so that poverty is not a barrier to having access to fresh vegetables.  Next month I will be making a road trip to visit the community gardens in Tallahassee and surrounding areas to bring ideas back to our bioregion in the Research Coast of Florida.  To learn more about The Man in Overalls and the Tallahassee Food Network, click here.

Send us your best ideas for teaching parents and let�s move on raising awareness about how to halt, reverse, and prevent childhood obesity. 

NEW! Lunchboxes for your Growing Healthy Kids!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

NATIONAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"ONLY TOGETHER CAN WE REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE."

                                         

 -- Blake Mallon, Project 10 Kids

This week Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. kicks off a new nutrition education after-school program.   Remember last week�s column about superfoods?  We will be featuring those foods and others as we create a new generation of NUTRITION DETECTIVES.  For the next 6 weeks, we will be sharing highlights from the program.  If you have ideas for what you would want your own kids to learn, let us know!  

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  One in three kids in America is overweight or obese.  Everywhere I look, I see kids of all ages at risk for obesity-related diseases like diabetes and sleep apnea.  Childhood obesity is not the kids� problem � it is our problem.  As parents, as teachers, as adults who run after-school programs, as business owners who offer health care benefits for dependents, we all have a responsibility to improve our own health literacy and awareness about what foods to put on our own plate. 

What's YOUR favorite veggie?

Stuffed portabella mushrooms (with whole grain couscous, spinach and yellow peppers)
 from the GROWING HEALTHY KIDS' Recipe Collection

This month make a personal commitment to start looking at your own shopping cart and make at least half of your food purchases vegetables and fruits. As you and your family plan your dinner menus, plan for at least half of your plates to be filled with vegetables and fruits.  Make the commitment to eat more of the good foods (see last week�s column: "Ten Foods to Eat More of") and less of the bad foods (like white flour, Pop Tarts, and sodas).  If every parent in America�s makes this simple commitment, then it is possible that we will not need to have a National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.