President's Day = The End of a Season

Today is President's Day. Besides the traditional meanings of this auspicious day, there is another significance. One that causes mothers everywhere to heave a sigh of sugary-sweet relief. This day marks the end of our national over-eating season.

The season begins with Halloween and buckets of snack-sized candies. One bucket from traditional, around-the-hood trick-or-treating, one bucket from school, one from a neighbor or co-worker who is on a diet and thought your kids would like to have her left-overs, one from church, one from prizes at a party at a classmates house, one from trick-or-treating at the mall and one full of your left-overs. But, hey, it's Halloween. I, personally, love Halloween. I even love the occasional candy-corn, though it hurts my teeth.

Next is Thanksgiving. And that is all about over-eating. The turkey! The sides! The bread! The wine! The pie! More pie! A little more pie! One more slice with just a dab of whip cream and. . . sleep.

Then, come the "Holidays" with cookie exchanges, kid's parties, office parties, parades, plates of cookies, fancy dinners, gingerbread houses (I love those too, even though they also hurt my teeth), fudge, your own special cookie recipes, some store-bought cookies as back up in case you run out of time to bake or burn your homemade cookies, and special flavors of ice cream available at the grocery store. Then, New Years, the Super Bowl and, finally Valentine's Day. By President's Day, most of the Valentine's candy is gone and, at last, the over-eating-season is over for another year.

So, let's celebrate this day! Maybe have a cake. . . or some cookies?

OK, wait. I do have some solutions that can make next year's over-eating-season a bit less unhealthy- but without becoming uptight or skipping your favorite treats. The solutions are in Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family. Go to www.feedingthekids to find out more.

A Recipe for Healthy Pizza (with whole grain crust)

My son's class had a pizza party today as a reward for finishing their reading logs. But rather than order the high-fat, refined grain stuff--the kid's made their very own pies. Here is the recipe. (I promise it isn't hard. If I can make it with 20 very excited 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders...) The trick to making it taste great is to use the right type of whole-wheat flour.

Enjoy!

Whole-wheat PIZZA!!!!!!! Makes 1 pizza

The dough:

1 cup warm water
1 package rapid-rise yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 cup regular white flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

The toppings:

¾ cup bottles spaggetti sauce
1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese
12 (low-fat turkey) pepperoni slices
4 mushrooms (optional)
12 or so olives (optional)
etc. (optional)

The process:
1. Mix together yeast and water. Let it get foamy.
2. Add in other ingredients and mix well.
3. Add a bit of extra flour, and knead the dough about 20 times.
4. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for between 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, wash your bowl, clean up the flour and oil your pizza pan(s).
6. Punch the dough down (literally punch it!)
7. Press dough into round shape. Place it in pan.
8. Add toppings.
9. Bake at 475 degrees 20 minutes until the crust sounds hollow when tapped with a spoon.

Packing a Healthy Lunch... at 7 am... every single weekday

Packing a lunch can be a drag. Here are my top 5 reasons why I don't like packing lunches:

1. Tupperware lids are always in the very back of the Tupperware cupboard or missing or close to the right size but actually the wrong size.
2. You have to wash out all those Tupperware containers in the evening.
   
3. My kid's favorite lunch foods shift mercilessly from week to week.
4. It's hard to decide what to pack for lunch at 7 am.
5. Even after you decide what to pack, most lunch food seems kind of gross at 7 am.

But, I do it. My kid's school has a particularly horrifying hot lunch program with nasty vegetables and plenty of fried stuff. I stare longingly at photos in all the news items about the awesome school lunches being served at many schools around the country. We are talking salad bars, stir-fries, brown rice, steamed vegetables, whole-wheat hot dog buns and fresh fruit. Someday maybe all schools will serve those kinds of lunches. Until then, the rest of us must pack.

And since we must pack, I have developed an easy strategy for getting the job done quickly, between gulps of coffee and giving out early morning wisdom like "Don't put snow boots on without socks" or "When you brush your teeth, your breath smells better."

The basic strategy, straight from the pages of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family, is this: pack one whole-grain, one lean protein, one vegetable, one fruit, one dairy and, sometimes, something extra.

Here are some ideas for each category.

• Whole grain: Baked corn chips, baked potato chips, Kashi granola bar, whole-wheat bread (as a sandwich), low-fat Triscuits, brown rice cake, popcorn cakes, whole-grain cereal (as part of a trail mix), left-over whole-wheat pasta with Parmesan cheese, popped popcorn
• Lean proteins: Lunch meat (with or without the rest of the sandwich), beef jerky, salmon salad, chicken salad, bean dip, bean salad, chicken soup (in a thermos), nuts
• Vegetables: baby carrots, pepper slices, cucumber rounds, corn and peas (just put frozen in a Tupperware-they melt by lunch) or add veggies to the protein (in soup, salad, sandwich, dip)
• Fruit: a piece or slices of fresh fruit, cup of applesauce, pop top can of fruit in juice, dried apricots, box or raisins, frozen berries in a Tupperware container (melts by lunch time), a frozen smoothie (only partially melts by lunchtime and can be eaten with a spoon)
• Dairy: let the kids by milk at school, string cheese, yogurt on top of frozen fruit (see above), homemade pudding (recipe in Feeding the Kids), thermos of hot chocolate or milk with milk cubes to keep it cold (recipe in Feeding the Kids, again)

I am in no way implying that using these strategies will solve the 5 reasons packing lunch is a drag. But, at least the strategies will help you pack a healthy, complete lunch... at 7 am... every single week day.

Visit www.feedingthekids for more information!