Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on April 10, 2013 2 Comments
These simple mango salsa recipes make it easy and
fun for picky eaters to try a new food (or two) lots of different ways – the
key to getting past peas and pasta!
Fresh, organic mangoes
gave the market a bright splash of color. Impossible to resist, we
decided to make them our new food of the week. A fun way to start our Whole
Foods Challenge!
As part of our 52 New
Foods adventure, we’re heading to Whole Foods to scout out our new food each
week this month. It’s how my kids plan to celebrate the launch of Crunch a
Color at Whole Foods markets! We hope you’ll join us. Be sure to snap pictures
of the new foods you are trying and share them with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Bonus points if you spot Crunch a Color in store!
Now back to those
mangoes. You may be thinking, “It’s not hard to get kids to try mango!” This
is true, but there’s a secret. Familiar foods like mango are your ticket to
more challenging foods like onion and pepper. Here’s how:
Set the ingredients up
assembly line style, and let your kids create a mango salsa tasting bar.
Encourage them to build their own recipes, moving from just one or two
ingredients (mango and lemon) to a full on salsa with all of the fixings including
those tough to try foods like red onion, cilantro and pepper. Let them taste a
bit of each version and figure out the right mix for them! They may decide that
they don’t like the recipe with red onion, but it’ll get your kids having fun
tasting a new food a few different ways, which is your goal! It’s one of the
keys to getting past peas and pasta.
What we Liked: This little game worked wonders with my picky eaters! First, it got
my daughter Catherine to finally try (and like!) cilantro. Surprise! The mango
salsa recipe with onion and pepper was a little too strong for her palette, but
I celebrated that she gave it a try (and we agreed to do it again). As for my
son James, his reaction to the full on version of our mango salsa – mango,
lemon, lime, strawberry, cilantro, red onion and pepper – can only be
summarized one way. A picture is worth a thousand words!
Mango Salsa Recipes for Picky Eaters
FOR A PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE CLICK HERE.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings Crunch a Color points: 5 Yellow / Orange, plus additional points for the other colors
that you add.
Ingredients:
2 mangoes
2 medium strawberries
2 slices of red pepper
2 slices, Meyer lemon
2 slices, lime
1 Tbsp red onion, chopped fine
1 handful, cilantro
Directions:
1. Prepare your
ingredients. Mangoes and strawberries should be cut into ¼” cubes. Lemons and
limes sliced into wedges. Peppers and onions chopped fine! Cilantro can be left
as is.
2. Setup your ingredients
assembly line style, starting with the simplest recipe on the left (mango,
lemon, lime) and moving to the most challenging recipe on the right (red onion
and pepper).
3. Prepare your mango
salsa recipes, moving from left to right. The recipes build on each other. For
example, the last recipe includes red onion and pepper, along with all of the
ingredients that came in the earlier versions (lemon, lime, strawberry,
cilantro).
4. Give ‘em a taste! We
tried our mango salsa recipes with a slice of whole wheat tortilla.
5. Vote for your
favorite!
*
How do you like to enjoy mango? Do you have a favorite mango salsa recipe?
Share your ideas!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s new food: Eggplant Parmigana.
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.
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on February 24, 2013 13 Comments
How to make sweet potato fries so crispy and tasty
they’re worthy of a French bistro.
I have a weakness (well,
maybe more than one). Frites. When we meet, I have a terrible time resisting
their unhealthy whispers. I know better. I want to set a good example for my
kids. I don’t want to like them. But I do. This relationship kind of reminds me
of high school boyfriends.
In the final stretch of
our 52 New Foods adventure in France, it would be impossible not to mention one
of my favorite French bistro meals: steak and frites. Instead of avoiding it, I
decided to give it a healthy makeover, starting with the frites. Not only are
these fries tasty and easy to make, they are nutritious. According to Mark
Bittman of The New York Times, their recent rise in popularity is due in no
small part to their nutritional profile.
Most of the recipes I’ve
tried in the past have resulted in soggy sticks, so I worked diligently until I
figured out how to make sweet potato fries crispy like their unhealthy cousins.
The trick? Cut the fries a little thinner, avoid layering them on the pan, and
be sure to bake until the color turns to golden brown with dark edges and the
skin is a little bit puffy. Serve them piping hot to avoid letting sogginess
sink in. Trust me, that won’t be hard to do.
What we Liked: These crispy oven baked sweet potato fries are easy to make and feel
like an indulgence. I never have to encourage my kids to try a bite of these
healthy frites. More often, I sit at the table thinking, “I should have made a
bigger batch!”
Crispy Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 to 30 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings Crunch a Color points: 15 yellow / orange
Ingredients:
2 lbs sweet potato
2 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to
450 degrees. Peel and slice the sweet potato. Cut into ¼” to ½” wide sticks to
ensure crispy frites! This is a fun and easy job for the kids to do. After
peeling, have them cut through the middle of the sweet potato first, then set
the flat side down to cut in half again before slicing into sticks.
2. Place the sweet potato
fries on a lined bake sheet, drizzle with olive oil and salt, then toss with
your hands. This step helps to save on cleanup.
3. Bake at 450 degrees
for 25 to 30 minutes, turning halfway through. Serve hot!
*
How do you like to make sweet potato fries? What’s your trick for making them
crispy? Do you have a favorite spice that you like to add to these healthy
fries? Share your tips and tricks!
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s new food: Apple galette.
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.
Posted by Jennifer Tyler Lee on January 26, 2013 2 Comments
Our simple, sizzling bok choy recipe with a hint of garlic and ginger
makes a super side for a healthy supper.
Bok choy is one of my
favorite Asian greens, but it took some time for my kids to warm up to this
simple vegetable. Was it because they felt that it was their responsibility to be
wary of anything leafy-green? Regardless, I was determined to turn the tables.
Last year I started to
feature bok choy in clay pot rice – sweet and salty flavors mingling together
with a few crispy bites of green was a taste my kids loved. But my goal this
week was to get them to enjoy this friendly Asian cabbage in the same way that
they love a side of broccoli – simple and green. The trick was lightly stir-frying
the bok choy in freshly minced ginger and garlic, and adding a little touch of
salty flavor with Braggs Liquid Amino Acids – it’s made with unfermented non-GMO
soy beans and has a flavor similar to soy sauce. You can find it in most
organic markets and health food stores.
As I started to write this
post, I searched for more information about soy, and Braggs in particular, to uncover any new health
concerns. I first turned to Marion Nestle for the scoop on soy in general, then reviewed an interview with Michael Pollan on NPR (way back in 2008) where the topic of using Braggs came up. In the end,
I’d recommend making this simple bok choy recipe with non-GMO Tamari (like
San-J Tamari) if you want a little salty flavor, but you can also just simmer
up the bok choy with garlic and ginger and leave it at that. It’s up to you to
decide.
A Simple Bok Choy Recipe
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 7 to 9 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings Crunch a Color points: 10 green
Ingredients:
4 bunches of bok choy
3 slices of fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp non-GMO Tamari sauce
2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
Sesame seeds for garnish
Directions:
1. Mince the ginger, then
the garlic. My kids love using their big muscles to put the ginger and garlic
through the press! Set aside.
2. Chop off the ends of the
bok choy and discard. Then chop the remaining leaves into 1-inch sections.
My budding artist was fascinated with the pattern made
by the chopped ends of the bok choy. Beautiful!
3. Give the bok choy a bath
in a bowl of cool water. Swish the greens around gently, letting the dirt sink
to the bottom of the bowl.
4. Scoop out the bok choy from the bowl and into
a sieve. The dirt will be left at the bottom of the bowl. Give the bok choy
another quick rinse with water.
5. Heat a wok over medium
heat. Once the wok is hot, add the grapeseed oil, ginger and garlic. Simmer gently
for about 2 minutes. Then add the bok choy and stir-fry for another 5 to 7
minutes, or until the leaves are bright green with slightly brown edges. At the
very end, add the Tamari and toss gently in the pan to coat evenly.
6. Garnish with a few sesame
seeds. Serve immediately.
* What
is your favorite way to enjoy bok choy? Post your pictures and recipe ideas on
our Facebook page.
Craving more easy recipes to try? Catch up on
last week’s recipe: Easy Orange Granita.
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 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, 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.
