I hope you bear with me this week, as I share more Japanese food culture!  All the food information I am getting is from two Japanese girls, and I should add that the details here may not be true for all of Japan!

I think it’s fun to see what people eat for lunch in other countries though.  I know my kids get bored bringing the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school everyday… and these girls had never tried a PB&J in their life!  Instead lunch in Japan goes like this:

• Elementary school- Always school provided lunch!  Pre-school and High school, they bring a lunch, usually in a bento box as pictured above.
• They eat soup at every single meal! EVERY SINGLE MEAL!  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
• School lunch for elementary school is soup, a piece of meat, rice or bread, and fruit for dessert.  They could not believe my kids when my kids said there was a cookie at school lunch every single day!
• In Elementary school, they are given milk to drink, every day.
• The above Bento lunch is typical if they brought lunch to school in high school, or went on a picnic. It included a hard boiled egg, rice, broccoli, and ham.

To make the Rice Bear Ball, Anna made small balls with warm rice, wrapped in saran wrap.  Three balls for the face and two ears were tinted with soy sauce in the rice.  The fourth ball (the mouth of the bear) she used plain rice.

Then, the facial features were made by cutting seaweed paper.  Which they were snacking on afterwards. lol

I think this is a fabulous, healthy, and delicious alternative to a sandwich for lunch! Nathan (my 11 year old) actually thinks rice and hard boiled eggs are the two greatest foods ever made (not including things with sugar)

明日は夕食についてブログを書くよ！

For some super cute Bento characters, visit Pikko’s blog!

Researches have found that kids whose parents set screen time limits (TV, video, computer, etc), those children are more physically active.

The research article came out of July’s Journal of Pediatrics.  I’ll break it down into the parts I think are interesting!

• Recommended screen time limits are less than 2 hours per day
• Of kids 9-14, 27% exceeded recommended limits.
• Kids whose parents had limits within the recommended guidelines were more likely to be physically active.
• The more active kids were one week, the less screen time they used the following week.
• 76.9% of homes with cable had more children going over the limits.
• While almost 50% of parents said in a survey they set screen time limits, only 37% of those kids said there were limits in their home.  LOL!

We are not a family that eliminates screen time altogether.  My husband and I enjoy some television shows, and we both obviously use computers.  I think it’s important for kids to have rules and limits, so they will eventually self-regulate their own screen time and not become zombies as teenagers, or worse- video game addicted husbands!

We definitely have screen time rules at our house.  They get 30 minutes of video games per day. Also, they watch TV in the morning and then the TV get’s turned off at 9AM (sometimes it’s 9:30AM if I’m distracted).  I bought a small timer they set by the computer or the Wii that they set for 30 minutes when they are playing video games.  Once it beeps, they know their time is up.  Then it’s pleading of “Can I win or Die” scenario from there.

What are your screen time rules?

Update on our Japanese friends.   After an 18 mile run (my friend and I are getting ready for a marathon), they decided they wanted to hike to Timp Caves (3 miles round trip)!!   I am so sore today!

I’m a little anxious about our meals next week. We are having two girls staying with us all week from Japan.  I don’t know what they’ll want to eat, and what they won’t want to eat.  I do remember last time we had an exchange student, she thought it was really strange that American’s would eat brown rice.  They love their white rice!

This is Anna, the first year (2007) she stayed with us.  My kids LOVE HER! This time, she is bringing a friend.

I just hope she brings us some more bento boxes!!

Here is next week’s possible meal plan.  don’t forget to add fruits and vegetables to every meal!

For posts I’ve written, last time we had an exchange student:

• Okonomiyaki
• A lesson in Bento
• Portion contortion

Lastly- Visit 45pounds.com to see their latest newsletter. It has lot’s of articles, including “How Bad is Fast Food” and “What Motivates Kids to exercise”.

Business first: 

• Today is the last day for the giveaway! 
• Second, we are experiencing technical difficulties with my shopping cart.  So if you think you placed an order in the last two weeks, you’ll have to email me and let me know, because I did NOT get the details!!  Do you hear the sobbing through your computers?  Cause I’m really frustrated!

On a lighter note… Have you seen Zisboombah.com yet? It’s a free website for kids that helps kids virtually make healthy meals, and then the meals are emailed to their parents with  a grocery list, coupons, and healthy recipes.  My kids were having a competition about who’s meal could get them the most stars (the more stars, the healthier the meal).  They quickly realized the fruits and vegetables really upped the star factor!)

They also have a blog and articles that are great! This article,  5 habits to raising a healthy eater, is definitely a must read.

Also, they have printable activities- perfect for preschool or summer school homework ideas!

And lastly, they need your vote in  Michelle Obama’s healthy Apps Contest!

We need low cost, organic vegetables.  Kids need to get outside.  Kids need to play in the dirt!  What does that boil down to? Kids should be helping in the garden!  This is my favorite photo of TJ literally eating dirt

I have mentioned before, we aren’t much in the world of gardening.  Basically throwing out some seeds, and hoping for a harvest. Well, it happened! We got our first zucchini yesterday.  Hooray for us. And so exciting for the kids.  They practically were fighting over who got to pick it.

Starting kids in the garden while they are young is not tough. They naturally want to get outside. They can begin by helping you with some herbs in the window sill.

Then, other potted plants.  Erica and her friend painted some containers and planted seeds. They were super excited when their seeds sprouted.

And then of course, no child is too young to get outside and pull weeds with you! 

This recent comment from gardening.org sums it up why I believe kids need to be out in the garden with you.

..Gardening helps children to understand and explore the natural world, as well as learn first-hand the benefits of growing, harvesting, and eating healthy foods. It’s called the ‘people-plant connection’, and every child deserves an opportunity to have access to this relationship. 

No activity better links young people to food and nature than gardening. The garden experience bonds youngsters to the cycles of life and teaches them to understand where their food comes from. Is there any greater satisfaction – or “greener” activity – a child can experience than smelling a flower from his or her own garden, plucking a carrot from the ground, or digging new potatoes from warm soil? What can make parents happier than hearing their child tell them they want chard for dinner?

Do your kids help in your garden?

One challenge I have in keeping this blog, is the question as to whether I should post healthy ideas that no one in my family liked.  I go back and forth between,

“Someone’s kids will like it, even though mine didn’t”, and

“If my kids didn’t like it, chances are other kids won’t either!”

So, here is what was scheduled to write about today, which no one would eat, and quite frankly, I wasn’t fond of either.

Sweet Potato Swirls

These beauties consisted of mashed sweet potatoes, piped through a cake decorating bag onto a cookie sheet and baked.

The problem with them is that they turned cold pretty quickly, they weren’t crunchy , or airy like I hoped, and were too much work for what they were.

So, because I don’t want to totally waste your time here today, I thought it would be a good post to update you on the USDA’s report on Children’s dietary intake.  No matter what you think of the USDA and their Food Pyramid, this report is quite fascinating.  They use reports such as these, as they construct the new dietary guidelines for 2010.   I’ll just share one portion.  First of all, for the full report.

Portions I thought were interesting:

Among 2-18 year olds, about half of all empty calories come from six specific foods and beverages:

• soda,
• fruit drinks,
• dairy desserts,
• grain desserts,
• pizza, and
• whole milk (Reedy, 2010).

Mean intake of total vegetables in NHANES 2001-04 among 1-8 yr old children was only 0.8 to 1.0 servings/day, and for older children, 1.2 to 1.5 servings/day (NCI, 2010e).

• Largest vegetable source was from a category that includes vegetable components of pizza, pasta and pasta dishes, condiments, lettuce, tomatoes, vegetable medleys, burgers, rice and mixed rice dishes, string beans, soups, Mexican mixed dishes, chicken and chicken mixed dishes, and tomato sauces.
• Fried white potatoes accounted for one-third (33%) of intake from starchy vegetables,
• followed by potato/corn/other chips (26%);
• other white potatoes (23%); and
• corn (7%).
• Carrots were the top vegetable consumed in the orange vegetable subgroup, comprising 62% of children’s intake, with sweet potatoes accounting for only 5%.

Hmmmm, looks like our kids aren’t getting enough vegetables.  And what they are getting are the crappiest of the vegetables, in the most processed form.  In your social circle, do you find this is true?

First of all, I have been quiet online this week, because we have spent the week at Lake Tahoe with my family. And it looks like my previously scheduled posts have managed to go up. Now we are on our way home, and thought this post would be appropriate:

I get many questions about how our family handles social situations while trying to stay healthy.  While I want to say, “My kids shun the dessert table at family parties because their tastes preferences are so evolved, they hate the taste of sweet things.”  But then I would be lying .  We are a social culture,where food is a major part of our gatherings.

I just started a book called, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.  Mr. Gladwell begins with the story of a community of people from Italy(the Rosetans) that move to the United States.  To make a really long story short, these people were living long lives and not showing any signs of chronic diseases, even after moving to the US.  After gobs of research they found their health had no link to diet exercise, genes, or location.  They actually had poor diets, didn’t exercise much, and weren’t even that lean.  What they finally attributed their long, healthy, disease free life came from their sense of community. 

What they did that people in surrounding cities weren’t doing was:

• they would stop to visit one another on their doorsteps,
• stop to chat on the street,
• they would cooked for each other in their backyards,
• they had three generations living under one roof,
• they went to mass, etc. 

THESE characteristics were actually keeping them from developing the chronic diseases that everyone else in the very close surrounding cities were developing!! Fascinating, right? (Additional reading about the Rosetans)

So, what is the bottom line?  Be social!  Let your kids attend the birthday parties, even though you know they are going to be eating cake.  Let Grandma give them a package of fruit snacks when they visit.  These social connections may end up being more protective to our health, than eating well 100% of the time!

So, put down the to-do list and socialize with your neighbors today.  Invite them over for a BBQ, and don’t worry about anything else.

Remember, if you eat whole natural food 80% of the time, don’t stress about the 20%

(Erica and her cousin learning how to Knit with Grandma)

My side of the family

I asked my sister last night if she remembered my dad making this Watermelon Whale fruit basket as kids. She responded with something about how she has blocked out any memories of fruit from her childhood, because she does not like fruit!  We are so different….

Well.. I remember!  Weigh in mom… do you remember?  My dad used to carve a watermelon to look like a whale, and it became the basket to hold our fruit salad.  This project, although I’m super un-creative, was much easier than I thought! 

All I did was penciled the shape of a tail on the backside of the watermelon.  Then penciled in a “head”.

Then  I started to carve the watermelon following my pattern with a knife, and cut away at the design.

Then I scooped out the flesh with a melon baller/ cookie scooper. 

Any of you who are more design inclined and creative, I bet could make this extra cute.  My Google images searches of Watermelon Whales came up with only a few images of this old favorite.   One addition that would have made this extra whale-like would have been to add a celery stalk to look like his whale sprout!  So cute!  I even have celery.  Wish I image searched before I tossed the shell. Isn’t summer great for eating watermelon?   If you haven’t visited the watermelon blog yet, YOU MUST! It’s awesome!  Except they don’t have a watermelon whale yet. (that I could find)

Why we love watermelon:

• Good source of Lycopene, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin A
• Good source of water (kids are going to start needing to be hydrated and watermelon is 92% water!)
• High in energy, low in calories and fat
• Excellent snack and fun to eat! 

Other watermelon posts:

• Watermelon Homework
• Watermelon ice

I’ve been re-reading the book Miserly Mom’s after uploading my bank accounts to Quicken and finding out how much we were spending on groceries!  One thing she recommended ten years ago (I have an old copy) was that snacks could be under $0.20 per snack, which I have stuck with for several years.

Secondly she recommends breakfast be under $0.25 per person.  When you are buying a $4.00 ten ounce box of cereal.. each bowl is $0.40. More than the target. Lucky for us however, our eggs are only $0.06 per egg!  Hooray!  Pair that with homemade bread, a tiny bit of lettuce and tomato, and we’ve got ourselves a filling, healthy, ten cent breakfast!  (with store bought bread from the Bread outlet, we get our bread ten cents per slice)

This is our poached eggs.  Super easy and quick to make. 

• Break an egg into a shallow bowl.
• Boil water in pot with 1 TBL vinegar
• Pour slowly in a pot of simmering water (boil the water, and then turn down to a simmer.
• Cook for 3-4 minutes or until whites are set, and yolk begins to thicken.

Healthy eating does not have to be expensive.  And this next month I hope to stay within my food budget to prove it

Want me to be totally honest and transparent here?  I budget $500 per month for food (family of 5).  Last month I spent $837!!  In my defense, I was super busy with school and did not shop the sales like I should. 

What’s your budget for food??

Our posts about $0.20 snacking:

• Affordable snacks
• Portion controlled Snacking
• Kid Approved Party Food
• Today’s Star: The Granola Bar

I’m so excited to share with you something I get to be apart of! Something BIG!!

I’m in a COOKBOOK!! 

Isn’t it gorgeous! Every recipe in this book uses an ingredient that is BRAIN HEALTHY!  Genius Idea, right?  50 bloggers have contributed to this cookbook, and it’s full of beautiful pictures and a blurb about the blogger. 

Here is the best part… you don’t have to buy the book (although you can available mid July), but you could also get every recipe delivered to your email- one per week for 50 weeks.   And that part is free.  To sign up for the recipe of the week campaign, enter your email on this page.

Other things about the cookbook:

• ThinkFood is a cookbook sponsored and published by Posit Science (www.positscience.com)
• Thinkfood cookbook has snacks, appetizers, sides and salads, main course and desserts
• The goal of this project is to take an integrated approach to brain health that includes brain training and brain healthy eating
• To join the recipe of the week campaign, your community can sign up here: www.thinkfoodcookbook.com … It’s free!
• Beginning on June 16, one recipe will be distributed every Wednesday for the next 50 weeks.  Those who sign up, will have access to print the version of the recipe (for free), which includes more information about the brain healthy ingredient – plus additional cooking tips from you
• Our Posit Science community pages are:
  • Posit Science Twitter Handle: @PositScience
  • Posit Science Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/positscience
• Hardcover copies of ThinkFood will be available to the community for purchase mid-July (exact date TBD)

So, sign up for the free emailed recipes.  Then when the hardcover becomes available, I’ll be able to do a giveaway for a free copy of the print version!