Posted by Jennifer Lee on August 17, 2012 4 Comments
Stopping at a convenience store on our road trip, the
healthy food choices were scarce. But nestled between the canned spaghetti and
corn chowder we found a healthy friend: black beans.
Convenience stores are a
frequent stop on any road trip. Notorious for their unhealthy food choices,
they are usually a place I try to avoid. But we were on a different mission
this vacation. Amongst the candy bars and cranked up sodas, we were determined
to find a healthy choice. Our goal: prove that if you try, you can cook a
healthy meal even if you’re limited to foods found at a convenience store.
Hidden at the back of a
dusty, low shelf was the ticket I was looking for: black beans. Packed with protein,
and budget-friendly, we decided to make black beans our new food of the week.
Bonus points for trying a new food and managing to find a healthy choice among
a raging sea of salt and sugar.
How to Cook Black Beans
Prep time: 5
minutes
Cook time: 8
hours
Luckily, the place we were
staying on our trip had a well-stocked kitchen, so we decided to learn how to
cook black beans in the slow cooker. You can just as easily use a good ol’
fashioned stockpot.
Ingredients:
1 lb bag, dried black beans
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1) Sort the black beans, removing any debris or broken beans. Soak in water
overnight. Be sure the water fully covers the beans.
2) Drain the beans, then add
to your slow cooker along with the chicken broth, the garlic powder, and a dash
of salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
3) Set the slow cooker to
low and cook the black beans for about 8 hours, or until the beans are tender.
4) Serve warm with a little
bit of corn and a sprig of parsley or mint for garnish.
Crunch a Color Kids Vote: Hello Mr. (Black) Bean!
What we Liked: Learning how to cook black beans was easy and made a healthy,
inexpensive meal. They would also make a great addition to a healthy lunchbox. We
served our black beans with a side of mixed veggies and Spanish rice. Tune in
next week when we show you how we transformed a few other simple ingredients we
found at the convenience store into these healthy side dishes.
* What are your favorite recipes featuring black
beans?
Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last
week’s recipe: Eating Healthy on the Road.
About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom
of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color -- the
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. Winner of the Dr. Toy and Parent Tested, Parent Approved
awards, Crunch a Color has been featured by Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,
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, easy
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.
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Posted by Jennifer Lee on August 04, 2012 9 Comments
Our family may be taking a vacation, but our healthy eating habits are not. How we plan to keep eating healthy on the road.
Camera. Check. Sunscreen. Check. Blankies. Check, check. We’re geared up
and ready for our big summer adventure. But as much as we want to take some
time off for summer fun, we don’t want our healthy eating habits to take a
vacation. Eating healthy on the road is notoriously difficult, with unhealthy
choices at seemingly every turn. How to resist? Make it a game! This month, our
new food adventures are all about finding the healthiest food on the road.
Eating Healthy on the Road Tip #1: Pack Your Own
You know how you’re always better at eating healthy in the morning? Same goes for eating healthy on the road. You need to start on the right foot! We packed a healthy lunch in our nifty PlanetBoxes for the first leg of our journey. Green beans with nut free basil pesto for dipping, a cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, and blueberries and strawberries for dessert. Three colors, plus a protein and healthy grains earns us lots of Crunch a Color points! The objective: resist the lure of fast food joints at the airport. We also packed some reserves – whole-grain bread sticks, natural peanut butter, almonds, some fresh fruit, and water – so if we’re in a pinch we can still choose a healthy snack. We’ll just need to remember to take a break from all the exciting sights and sounds to power up!
* What are your tips for eating healthy on the road?
Share your comments.
Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last
week’s recipe: Strawberry Lemonade.
About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom of two children
and the creator of Crunch a
Color™ -- the award-winning game that makes 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. Winner of the Dr. Toy and
Parent Tested, Parent Approved awards, Crunch a Color has been featured by
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, 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, easy 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
website, www.crunchacolor.com.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Lee on August 01, 2012 0 Comments
A sip of sunshine, this strawberry lemonade is worthy of any roadside
lemonade stand. Even better that it’s made without refined sugar!
I’m a big fan of “old-fashioned” anything – tree houses that nearly
touch the sky, hopscotch and marbles, and of course, lemonade stands. The
neighborhood kids can always count on me and my kids to stop by their stands on
hot summer days. But the average stand sells what amounts to sugar water. We
decided to take on a new challenge for our roadside lemonade stand this year:
make lemonade without using refined sugar.
Experimenting with Strawberry Lemonade
We started by adding blended strawberries to our fresh squeezed lemon
juice, hoping that just the simple sweetness of the berries would do the trick.
Not so -- still too sour. Thanks to a tip from our good friend Amy The Family
Chef, we added a touch of agave to our summer sipper, a natural sweetener
similar to honey but a lot less sticky. If you can’t find organic agave at your
local natural foods store, there’s always Amazon!
Strawberry Lemonade Without Sugar
This simple strawberry lemonade is best made with farmers' market fresh organic lemons, organic strawberries and organic agave nectar. Squeezing the lemons is the best part, and a fun project for the kids!
Prep time: 10
minutes
Cook time: 0
minutes
Makes 8 to 10
glasses of lemonade
Ingredients:
10 lemons (about 1½ cups of lemon juice)
1 pint strawberries
8 cups of water
¼ cup of agave
A few sprigs of mint
Directions:
1) Slice and squeeze the lemons. We did this part outside, with a sieve
over a large bowl (it’s messy but fun!).
2) You should end up with about 1½ to 2 cups of lemon juice.
3) Load the strawberries into a blender. Add about one cup of water. Blend until smooth.
4) Pour the strawberry lemonade mixture into a large serving pitcher. Add the remaining 7 cups of water.
5) Add a few sprigs of mint, ¼ cup of agave, then stir. Add a little more agave if you like a sweeter taste.
6) Chill in the refrigerator before serving. Then enjoy!
Crunch a Color Kids Vote: Lemonade for sale!
What we liked: No need to spoil a good thing with loads of refined sugar. We enjoyed
making this classic summer treat with a twist. A glass of fresh strawberry
lemonade anyone?
What are your favorite ways to beat the summer heat?
Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last
week’s recipe: Veggie Pizza.
About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of
Crunch a Color™ -- the award-winning game that makes 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.
Watch her picky eaters tell the story of how they turned into healthy eaters playing the
game. Follow @crunchacolor on Facebook Twitter and Pinterest to tune into
Crunch a Color's healthy eating adventure and Jennifer’s tips and kid-friendly,
easy recipes. Crunch a
Color™ is a proud supporter of non-profit kids' nutrition programs including
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and FoodCorps. Available at www.crunchacolor.com and in stores
nationwide at Pottery
Barn Kids.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Lee on July 16, 2012 0 Comments
Veggie pizza grown from our school garden will
certainly challenge the debate that pizza is a vegetable.
Our school lunch menu listed
“pizza” as one of the menu items this week. I was jumping for joy (and so were
my kids). After the fierce debate about Congress declaring pizza a vegetable
this year, why would I be cheering? Because this wasn’t your regular school
pizza! With ingredients grown and harvested from our school garden – beets,
onions, basil, oregano and fresh tomatoes – my food explorers harvested and cooked a
delicious and healthy veggie pizza that we all happily enjoyed.
Pizza is a Vegetable (When it’s Garden Grown)
Running down the shaded,
tree-lined path, the roosters beckoned us to join them in their playground.
Nestled like a jewel in a sun drenched clearing at the bottom of a gentle hill was
our school garden – an outdoor classroom of sorts where my kids and their
friends happily tend to a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables and enjoy getting
their hands dirty learning how to grow and harvest their own food. Today was a
particularly special day. Gathered around the weather-worn picnic tables were
hungry friends and teachers, ready for a feast. To celebrate the end of week’s
worth of hard work in the garden, the children were preparing a lunchtime meal
worthy of Outstanding in the Field.
Veggie Pizza
Prep time: 10
minutes
Cook time: 10
minutes
Makes one
medium pizza, about 8 slices
Ingredients:
Use whatever fresh veggies are growing in your
garden. This week we used:
2 large beets, steamed and chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bunch oregano
1 Tbsp olive oil
Homemade tomato sauce
Fresh pizza dough
Directions:
1) Harvest your vegetables. Use whatever is growing
in your garden and add veggies from the local farmers’ market if you need
extra. Tomatoes, onions, beets, basil and oregano were the features in our school
garden this week.
2) Spread the fresh pizza dough onto a baking sheet.
3) Add olive oil and homemade tomato sauce as your
base.
4) Add the chopped veggies.
5) Sprinkle lightly with shredded mozzarella.
6) Bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or
until the edges of the crust are slightly browned.
7) Enjoy!
Crunch a Color Kids Vote: Delicious!
What we liked: Gathering friends together to enjoy harvesting and cooking fresh garden
veggies is one of our favorite summer activities. Enjoying veggie pizza
together made it even more fun! To our absolute delight, we gobbled up the
beets (a vegetable even I have had a notoriously hard time with!). With a
bounty of garden fresh veggies on our pizza, we think you’ll agree that our
version of pizza is a vegetable.
* What are your favorite veggies to feature on your
pizza?
Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last
week’s recipe: Watermelon Popsicles with a Twist (of Lime).
About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom
of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color™ -- the
award-winning game that makes 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. Watch her picky eaters tell the story of how they turned into healthy eaters playing the game.
Follow @crunchacolor on Facebook Twitter and Pinterest to tune
into Crunch a Color's healthy eating adventure and Jennifer’s tips and
kid-friendly, easy recipes. Crunch a Color™ is a proud supporter of non-profit
kids' nutrition programs including Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and
FoodCorps. Available at www.crunchacolor.com and in stores nationwide at Pottery Barn Kids.
Read More
Posted by Jennifer Lee on July 15, 2012 1 Comment
A summer heat wave inspired us to chill out and make a frosty treat:
watermelon popsicles with a twist (of lime).
Opening the door to the back
garden, a rush of sun burnt air came barreling into the house announcing the
arrival of a summer heat wave. There’s no better way to cool rising
temperatures than with a homemade frosty treat. Thanks to The Naptime Chef, it
was watermelon popsicles to the rescue!
Where’s Watermelon?
Despite our best gardening efforts, the melons in our kitchen garden didn’t
make it. Staying true to our Eat Dirt challenge, we sourced our summer giant
from the local farmers’ market. According to Jeff Leach, author of Dirtying up Our Diets, dirt from the
farmers’ market is the next best thing to dirt from our garden. Armed with a
farm fresh juicy watermelon and an easy recipe, we headed to the kitchen to cool
off.
Watermelon Popsicles with a Twist (of Lime)
Prep time: 10
minutes
Cook time: 10
minutes
Makes about 9
ice pops
Adapted from The Naptime Chef
Ingredients:
4 cups seedless watermelon
Juice from 3 fresh limes
Directions:
1) Using a melon baller, scoop about 4 cups of
watermelon. You could cut the watermelon with a knife, but my kids think the
melon baller is much more fun!
2) Load the watermelon into a food processor and
blend until smooth.
3) Run the watermelon puree through a sieve or food mill to remove the
seeds.
4) Squeeze in the juice from three fresh limes. Stir.
5) We made our pops with a Zoku ice pop maker. For best results when
using a Zoku, chill the watermelon lime juice for about 10 minutes before
loading into the popsicle maker.
6) Enjoy!
Crunch a Color Kids Vote: Cool!
What we liked: This recipe is colorful, easy and tasty! With garden fresh summer
fruit, we didn’t need a drop of sugar to sweeten this treat. Such a welcome
change from the sugary treats you’ll find in the frozen dessert aisle at the
grocery store – and a fraction of the cost!
What is your favorite fruit to use in summer
popsicles?
Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last
week’s recipe: Nut free basil pesto.
About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom
of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color™ -- the
award-winning game that makes 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. Follow @crunchacolor on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to tune
into Crunch a Color's healthy eating adventure and Jennifer’s tips and
kid-friendly, easy recipes. Crunch a Color is a proud supporter of non-profit
kids' nutrition programs including Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and
FoodCorps. Available at www.crunchacolor.com and in stores nationwide at Pottery Barn Kids.
Read More
This simple strawberry lemonade is best made with farmers' market fresh organic lemons, organic strawberries and 
