Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on May 18, 2013 0 Comments
Grow a love of new foods from the ground up. Fresh from the garden, this week we try the often underappreciated
radish (leaves and all).
A love of new foods
starts in the garden. Our tiny kitchen garden has been a steadfast source of
new food inspiration for our family. It’s where my daughter discovered that she
likes cauliflower – raw more than cooked. It inspired both of my kids to try
all sorts of leafy greens – from butter lettuce to baby kale. And this week, it
invited them to try radishes (leaves and all).
We’ve spotted radishes at
the local market many times, with lackluster interest. But growing radishes
changed our perspective. Sowing seeds, helping them grow, and thrilling in
the pleasure of pulling those little pink buds straight from the ground changed
our relationship with radish.
We started simply -- sampling
radish in its raw form. My daughter, who tends toward artistry in her approach
to foods of any kind, spent an unencumbered weekend morning gingerly slicing
our fresh radish into delicate, wafer thin layers, creatively cutting them into
fun shapes inspired by her favorite characters like Totoro, and artfully arranging
her creations on a tiny tasting platter for everyone to enjoy.
Then we moved to cooking.
Drawing inspiration from Deborah Madison’s captivating new book, Vegetable Literacy, we gathered a few
more ingredients from our garden and together we experimented with how to cook radish,
ending in a lovely sautéed radish salad. This recipe is a wonderful example of
how to use the whole plant – it incorporates the radish and its lovely dark
green leaves, leaving nothing to waste.
We plan to continue
experimenting with other ways to try radish -- marinated with pomegranate
molasses, tossed into a Mediterranean style salad with spinach, chickpeas and
tomatoes, or nestled in a hummus-stuffed pita.
Sauteed Radish Salad
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Crunch a Color points: 15 red, 15 green, 10 green
Inspired by Deborah Madison’s Vegetable
Literacy
Ingredients:
3 to 4 small radishes,
finely chopped
½ cup shelled peas
½ cup asparagus, sliced on a diagonal
A handful of radish leaves
Juice from ½ of a lemon
1 Tbsp olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Directions:
1. Wash and prepare your
vegetables. Gather as much as you can from your garden. Round out your recipe
with fresh veggies from the farmers’ market.
2. Heat a pan over medium
heat. Add the olive oil, then the asparagus and radishes. Simmer for about 3
minutes.
3. Add the peas and
radish leaves. You can add a touch of water at this point if you need. Continue
to simmer for another 2 minutes, or until the peas are bright green and the
leaves are wilted. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and a little salt.
*
Have you tried radish leaves? What other ways should we try radish? Share your
ideas!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s post: Homemade Hummus.
About the author: Jennifer
Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color® --
award-winning nutrition
games that make healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled
to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into
a healthy
eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit kids’
nutrition programs. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color® has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food
Revolution, Rachael Ray's Yum-O!, Laurie David’s Family Dinner, Kiwi Magazine, Dr. Greene, and Yum
Food & Fun For Kids, among many others, as a simple, fun and playful way to
get kids to eat healthy and try new foods. Jennifer’s passion is making
mealtime fun and healthy for busy families. Her easy recipes, quick tips,
and new food adventures are regularly featured at Pottery
Barn Kids, Jamie
Oliver’s Food Revolution, The
Huffington Post, and on her weekly recipe blog at crunchacolor.com.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on May 13, 2013 0 Comments
A healthy homemade hummus is the first of many
ways we plan to try our new food of the week: chickpeas.
There’s a lot to love
about chickpeas. Mark Bittman recommends them as an ingredient in one of his
top three go-to recipes. They are inexpensive, healthy and can be prepared in a
myriad of ways. When I asked what we should make with our new food of the week,
friends brought a bounty of ideas to the table: pop ‘em in stews, toss ‘em in
salads, blend ‘em into hummus, snatch a few for a snack!
We decided to start with
a simple, homemade hummus. And we did it the slow way -- gently toasting sesame
seeds to create our own tahini, slowly soaking the dried beans overnight, then
blending it all together to create a delicious homemade hummus.
Getting my kids to try our
new food this week relied on two key strategies.
First, cook together. When
my kids prepare a new food, they are much more likely to try it! Cooking
together is an essential part of the equation.
The other key is timing.
Fresh veggies (along with a new food or two) arrive at the table first. At our
house we call it the “veggie course.” This strategy gives my hungry helpers a
choice of veggies first (before they load up on carbs!). It also buys me extra
time to put the finishing touches on the rest of the meal before we sit down
together as a family.
What we Liked: Our healthy homemade hummus outshined any store-bought hummus by a
long shot. From a taste perspective, there was absolutely no comparison. As for
my kids, they were willing to give it a try, but the garlic in this version was
a bit too strong for their liking. Instead of chalking it up to a failure
(which it wasn’t), we talked about what parts of the recipe they might change. What
did they think of the texture? Which flavors did they taste and which were too
strong? The next version we plan to make is with roasted garlic, which we all
agreed would soften the flavor a bit. Most importantly, we are working together
to find the right mix for our family.
Healthy Homemade Hummus
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Crunch a Color points: 10 protein
Ingredients:
2 cups chickpeas
½ cup olive oil
1 Tbsp tahini (see make ahead below)
Juice of one lemon
1 large clove of garlic, chopped
Make ahead:
For the tahini, lightly
toast 1 cup of sesame seeds in a sauté pan over medium heat. About two minutes.
Let cool, then blend with 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor until
smooth.
For the dried chickpeas,
cover fully with water and soak overnight. Drain, then boil gently for about an
hour and a half. Let cool before using.
Directions:
1. Load your ingredients
into a food processor. Blend! Add a touch more olive oil to adjust the
consistency if you like.
2. Serve with freshly cut
veggies.
*
How do you like to prepare hummus? Share your ideas!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s post: Amazing Avocado.
About the author: Jennifer
Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color® --
award-winning nutrition
games that make healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled
to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into
a healthy
eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit kids’
nutrition programs. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color® has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food
Revolution, Rachael Ray's Yum-O!, Laurie David’s Family Dinner, Kiwi Magazine, Dr. Greene, and Yum
Food & Fun For Kids, among many others, as a simple, fun and playful way to
get kids to eat healthy and try new foods. Jennifer’s passion is making
mealtime fun and healthy for busy families. Her easy recipes, quick tips,
and new food adventures are regularly featured at Pottery
Barn Kids, Jamie
Oliver’s Food Revolution, The
Huffington Post, and on her weekly recipe blog at crunchacolor.com.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on April 28, 2013 0 Comments
The secret to getting past picky? Try it lots of
different ways.
Avocado was one of the
first foods that I served to my son James, and it continues to be one of his
favorites. But for my daughter Catherine, it’s a struggle. Whether I didn’t
expose her early enough, or the texture is one that she just doesn’t enjoy,
it’s a challenge to get her to try avocado.
But our Cinco de Mayo
party wouldn’t be complete without this wholesome, healthy fruit. So this week
in our 52 New Foods adventure, we’re trying avocado -- a few different ways. It's the secret to getting past picky!
First we tried it sliced
in a quesadilla. Then rolled in our sushi. And finally tossed into our mango
salsa.
Avocado hasn’t yet made
it onto Catherine’s “favorite foods” list. More important than whether she
liked this new food was her willingness to try a new food. That is what we are
celebrating at our family table this Cinco de Mayo!
Tip: Avocado
can quickly turn brown when it’s exposed to the air. Add a squeeze of lime or
lemon juice to prevent browning. Leaving the pit intact will help too.
Mango Avocado Salsa
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Crunch a Color points: 10 green, 5 yellow / orange, 5 red. Bonus points (x2) for
each new food you try.
Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 mango
5 strawberries
1 Tbsp meyer lemon juice
A few sprigs of cilantro
Directions:
1. Dice your fruit into
¼” to ½” size pieces. Load into a medium size bowl.
2. Add lemon juice.
3. Toss gently.
4. Garnish with cilantro.
5. Enjoy on its own or
atop grilled salmon or chicken. Yum!
*
What’s your favorite way to serve avocado? Share your ideas!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s post: Eat Your Colors!
About the author: Jennifer
Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color® --
award-winning nutrition
games that make healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled
to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into
a healthy
eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit kids’
nutrition programs. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color® has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food
Revolution, Rachael Ray's Yum-O!, Laurie David’s Family Dinner, Kiwi Magazine, Dr. Greene, and Yum
Food & Fun For Kids, among many others, as a simple, fun and playful way to
get kids to eat healthy and try new foods. Jennifer’s passion is making
mealtime fun and healthy for busy families. Her easy recipes, quick tips,
and new food adventures are regularly featured at Pottery
Barn Kids, Jamie
Oliver’s Food Revolution, The
Huffington Post, and on her weekly recipe blog at crunchacolor.com.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on April 22, 2013 2 Comments
A fun (and colorful) way to try new foods and cook
together.
This week we’re boosting
up the color in our 52 New Foods challenge. Instead of just one new food, we’re
bringing together a few new foods and having fun eating our colors with a rainbow
salad bar! It’s an easy way to sample new tastes – jicama, radicchio, and
tomatillo – along with familiar favorites like strawberries, blueberries, mango
and avocado.
It’s also a fun and
simple way to cook together with your kids. As Michael Pollan put it in his recent
interview with Mark Bittman of The New York Times, “Cooking is probably the
most important thing you can do to improve your diet.” But cooking with your
kids can feel overwhelming for busy parents. How to tackle that challenge? Make
it easy!
Cooking together can be
as simple as chopping up fresh fruits and veggies and assembling them in a
salad. Setup your cooking project like an activity, with all of the ingredients
and supplies you’ll need within arms reach. Let the little ones peel and
squeeze, and the more experienced kids chop and dice. Most importantly, let
each person create their own mix.
What we Liked: It’s highly unlikely that my kids would have tried radicchio simply
on its own. But sprinkled on a colorful salad that they created? You bet! Same
goes for jicama. Be sure to put out a few favorites along with your new foods
to give your kids a safe place to start. Encourage them to try even a few small
sprinkles of radicchio or a couple of jicama matchsticks. Your goal is to get
them to try something new, and it’s 100% okay if they don’t like it on the
first try. Keep trying!
Eat Your Colors: A Rainbow Salad Bar
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Crunch a Color points: 15 blue / purple, 15 white (x2), 10 green (x2), 10
yellow / orange, 5 red, 5 blue / purple, 5 yellow (x2). Bonus points for each
new food you try.
Note: Crunch a Color points will be different for each person depending on their mix.
Ingredients:
3 rainbow carrots
2 tomatillos
1 jicama
1 avocado
1 mango
1 pint strawberries
½ pint blueberries
½ head radicchio
5 slices pineapple
1 small onion
1 Meyer lemon
1 lime
Cilantro for garnish
Directions:
1. Peel and dice your
veggies and fruits. Let your kids do as much of the prep as possible! My only
exception is with using the mandoline. To create super thin shreds of radicchio,
as well as jicama and carrot matchsticks, I prefer to use a mandoline. I’m not
quite brave enough to let my kids have at it with that slicer – at least not
until I find a safer version! Everything else is fair game.
Note: If you choose to
include tomatillos in your salad bar, consider roasting them first. Ten minutes
in a 350 degree oven will do the trick. My kids preferred the flavor of roasted
tomatillo to the raw version, although you can serve it either way.
Tip: Light a votive when
cutting an onion to banish tears!
2. Serve your
ingredients in small bowls, lined up in the colors of the rainbow. You should
have between a ½ cup and 1 cup of each ingredient.
3. Let each person create
their own recipe. Encourage everyone to include at least three colors in their
mix. Bonus points for trying any of the new foods, even just a taster. I was
floored when my 6-year-old son James included everything in his salad – even
the onions!
4. To finish, squeeze a
little Meyer lemon or lime on top of your salad. Enjoy!
*
What’s your favorite way to eat your colors? What are your tips for cooking
together with your kids? Share your ideas!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s post: Taco Night!
About the author: Jennifer
Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color® --
award-winning nutrition
games that make healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled
to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into
a healthy
eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit kids’
nutrition programs. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color® has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food
Revolution, Rachael Ray's Yum-O!, Laurie David’s Family Dinner, Kiwi Magazine, Dr. Greene, and Yum
Food & Fun For Kids, among many others, as a simple, fun and playful way to
get kids to eat healthy and try new foods. Jennifer’s passion is making
mealtime fun and healthy for busy families. Her easy recipes, quick tips,
and new food adventures are regularly featured at Pottery
Barn Kids, Jamie
Oliver’s Food Revolution, The
Huffington Post, and on her weekly recipe blog at crunchacolor.com.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on April 15, 2013 6 Comments
Some days I feel like I’m fresh out of healthy
lunch ideas! So I turned to my friends for some inspiration.
As passionate as I am about healthy eating, I still find it a struggle to create healthy lunches that
my kids will actually eat. So I turned to my fellow healthy lunch packing friends for a little inspiration. Together with Kelly Lester of Easy Lunch Boxes, I launched The Healthy Lunch Challenge. Moms across the country shared their easy ideas for how to build a better lunchbox on a busy parents' schedule.
TUNE IN LATER THIS WEEK WHEN WE POST THE WINNERS FROM THE HEALTHY LUNCH CHALLENGE ON THE HUFFINGTON POST!
Eat Your Colors
Make your box a riot of
color. Use the Crunch a Color formula when you pack your lunch: three colors +
one protein + one healthy grains. Jill of Meet the Dubiens is full of colorful
ideas.
Think Out of the Box
Rid your box of processed
foods. Start by tackling chicken nuggets, Bent on Better Lunches style!
Then cut the mayo out
like Jenn did at Bento for Kidlet.
Try a New Food
Break out of your recipe
rut by trying a new food each week in your lunch. The creative Keeley McGuire
shows us a fun way to try Brussels sprouts.
Make it Easy
Busy and healthy can go
together if you make it easy! Marla Meridith’s Giddy Up Pasta hits the target.
Another way to make it
easy? Leftovers for lunch! Brenda at Meal Planning Magic shares her tricks.
Cook it Together
“If they cook it, they
will eat it!” Get your kids in the act. Let them create a meal plan for the
week. Encourage them to prepare their own recipes. Try DIY almond butter pizzas
from Organized Bites.
Or make BLT Kabobs from
Biting the Hand that Feeds You (it’s always more fun on a stick!).
Have fun making lunch
together, like Shannon and her daughter at Bento Lunch.
Make it Allergy Friendly
Although my kids do not
have food allergies, their school is 100% nut free so I’m always looking for
easy ways to banish peanut butter from our boxes. No bake cookies made with
sunflower butter are the current favorite in our house, and they are a breeze
for kids to make.
We’ve also got a few
lunch buddies who avoid gluten, which means we’re happy when we find an easy
gluten free alternative to our favorite lunch box treats! How about gluten free
homemade blueberry muffins? Check out Amy The Family Chef for the recipe and
more ideas.
Go Meatless
Take Meatless Monday to
school. Instead of packing lunch meats, pack an easy alternative like tofu and
soba noodles from The Roxx Box.
Make it Fun
The key to making lunch
(or any meal) healthy is to make it fun. Take an extra minute to cut fun shapes
into your veggies, like Deb at iPackLunch. Pop a conversation starter or love
note into your box for a fun surprise. It doesn’t take a lot of time, and your kids will love it!
A special thanks to
all of the moms who participated in our Healthy Lunch Challenge with Easy Lunch
Boxes. Your simple and fun ideas are inspiring!
Kelly Lester, Easy
Lunchboxes
Marla Meridith, Family Fresh Cooking
Cristi Messersmith, Bent on Better Lunches
Keeley McGuire, Keeley McGuire Blog
Jill Dubien, Meet The Dubiens
Brenda Thompson, Meal Planning Magic
Amy Fothergill, The Family Chef
Kendra Peterson, Biting the Hand that Feeds You
Venia Conte, Organized Bites
Deborah Jordan, iPackLunch
Jenn Christ, Bento for Kidlet
Shannon Carino, Bento Lunch
Roxanne Munson, The Roxx Box
Now get out there and
build a better lunch box with your kids. Post your pictures on our Twitter and
Facebook pages. We’d love to sneak a peek at what you’re packing!
About the author: Jennifer
Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color® --
award-winning nutrition
games that make healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled
to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into
a healthy
eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit kids’
nutrition programs. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color® has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food
Revolution, Rachael Ray's Yum-O!, Laurie David’s Family Dinner, Kiwi Magazine, Dr. Greene, and Yum
Food & Fun For Kids, among many others, as a simple, fun and playful way to
get kids to eat healthy and try new foods. Jennifer’s passion is making
mealtime fun and healthy for busy families. Her easy recipes, quick tips,
and new food adventures are regularly featured at Pottery
Barn Kids, Jamie
Oliver’s Food Revolution, The
Huffington Post, and on her weekly recipe blog at crunchacolor.com.
Read More
