Spend Smart. Eat Smart.

Have you ever visited your kids’ school lunchroom. Imagine the New York Stock exchange–only with yogurt being exchanged for a sack of chips instead of stocks being bought and sold.

One of the most important tips for packing lunches that your child won’t trade away is to involve them in the planning, shopping and preparation of their meals. Children who help select items are likely to remain interested in their selections…and will probably look forward to trying them. This is also true for meals at home, but even more important for meals eaten away from you. For more tips on packing sack lunches kids will enjoy, check out Tips for packing lunches……for kids and others.

-pointers by Peggy

food preparation, resources kids, lunch, planning, preparation, school, shopping

School is starting soon. Where can you get a balanced kid’s meal for under $2? The answer is your local school…and if money is tight you might be eligible for free or reduced price lunches. According to Mary Kay Madsen, Nutrition Consultant for Iowa Department of Education, school lunches are lower in fat and sodium and higher in calcium than in the past. She said studies show that—overall—school lunches are more nutritious than what kids bring from home, especially when you consider that school lunch comes with milk.

2008-2009 School Lunch Prices in Iowa
Average and Range

For more on school lunches, check out the State of School Nutrition 2009 Survey. Contact your local school for free and reduced price lunch application forms.

-pointers by Peggy

food cost, resources kids, lunch, nutrition, school

“Yikes! The kids are home for the summer and eating me out of house and home!” I’ve felt this way many times. One way we’ve tried to deal with summer snacking at our house is through a tried and true method ISU Extension has been teaching for years: snack boxes. This works if you are home all day with your children (or if you are a home child care provider), if your children are home with a teen sitter, or if your children are at the age they can stay home alone. Put a container in the refrigerator and one in the cupboard. The purpose of these containers is to have some grab-and-go snacks that children can eat between meals. To learn more, see Summer Snacks!

-contributed by Renee Sweers

food cost, food preparation, recipes kids, snack boxes, snacks, summer

We all know it is much easier to shop without kids along, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.

Recently, Ruby, an Extension staff member, shared how she dealt with this issue as a single parent. Together, she and her pre-school daughter planned their meals and snacks, wrote their grocery list and then went to the store. When the four-year old saw something she wanted, they’d check the list. If it wasn’t on the list, they didn’t buy it.

The list was specific. If they needed cereal, the brand was included. No more ‘middle of the cereal aisle’ arguments as to whether to buy plain Cheerios® or a pre-sweetened cereal with a favorite character on the package front. Yes, the four-year-old sometimes said “we need to put that cereal on the list next time,” but generally forgot about it when time came for the next planning session.

Snacks were part of the planned list, too. It is much easier to guide a child’s snack choices at home where healthy snacks can be planned for, than in front of the tempting candy or chip section at the store.

What about toys, books, and other trinkets? Since they didn’t eat them, they weren’t on the list!

Looking back, Ruby realizes this strategy has lots of benefits. They stayed within their limited food budget, ate healthier food choices, her daughter learned discipline at an early age and they shared a pleasant time together.

What do you do to make shopping with kids a little easier?

For additional shopping tips check out when to shop on the Spend Smart. Eat Smart. site.

-contributed by Joyce Greving

food cost, resources budget, discipline, grocery list, kids, planning, shopping, snacks

Sometimes it’s the way you present food that makes it special. Fruit Kabobs are an example. You could chop fruits up and stir the yogurt in, but it wouldn’t look this good.

Kids will love to make their own kabobs—let them choose the fruit, and maybe slip in something they haven’t tried. Check out the SpendSmart. Eat Smart. recipe page for the Fruit Kabob recipe and a video demo. Let the kids watch, and after the fruits are cut into pieces, they can take over!

The cost for the fruit kabobs is $2.67 for 30. I wouldn’t buy the whipped topping for just 2 tablespoons, but if you have it on hand, it adds a little.

Fruit Kabobs for $2.67
 1 red delicious apple: $0.30
 2 kiwi: $0.67
 10.6 ounce can chunk pineapple: $1.00
 8 ounces low-fat fruit yogurt: $0.66
 2 tablespoons fat-free whipped topping: $0.04

-pointers by Peggy

food cost, food preparation, recipes fruit, kabobs, kids, recipe, yogurt