Here are some tips:

• Grocery stores will feature picnic foods this week. If your family grills or picnics frequently, you may be able to stock up and save.
• If you are barbequing, consider having everyone bring their own main dish and a side dish to share. Assign appetizers, fruit sides, vegetable sides, and desserts. Then you can supply the beverages, grill, tableware, etc.
• If you aren’t grilling, consider using the more inexpensive beef or pork roasts to make a batch of shredded meat to put on buns or serve with rice. Another idea would be Any Day Chicken Salad.
• If you are making the sides for the party, don’t go overboard with choices. The greater the variety, the greater the expense, more time spent in preparing, and usually more leftovers. I plan one starchy side like potato salad/baked beans/macaroni salad, a fruit or vegetable salad/tray, plus a simple dessert like bars or cookies. If you are having shredded meat as I mentioned before, think about a big bowl of rice (very cheap and super easy to make, especially if you cook it in the oven or a rice steamer). Here are some ideas from our recipe collection. These are all very simple to make so your kids can help you (kids tend to enjoy eating food they help make).

Creamy Cauliflower Salad

Pasta Salad

Fruit Salad

Fruit-Kabobs-Yogurt-Dip

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

Waldorf Summer Salad

As for the beverages make ice tea, lemonade or a drink mix and have water and lemon slices on hand.

Keep it simple and enjoy your guests.

A fruit salad, like our Frozen Fruit Cups, is great this time of year because berries are in season. I usually double or triple the Frozen Fruit Cup recipe, serve it for a meal, and freeze what is left in muffin cups. It tastes very fresh plus it’s low in calories.

The only thing tricky about this recipe is remembering when to get it out of the freezer. You want it to be slightly frozen when you serve it.

Frozen Fruit Cups

Serving Size:  ½ cup | Servings:  6

Ingredients

2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

1 medium to large banana, sliced (about 6 ounces)

2 kiwi, sliced

2 teaspoons sugar

Directions

1. Mix strawberries with sugar in a bowl. Let sit 20-30 minutes while strawberries make juice.

2. Peel and slice banana and kiwi, add to strawberries.

3. Scoop ½ cup of the mixture into each of six muffin cups lined with paper.

4. Freeze. Remove from freezer about 20-30 minutes before serving.

Tips:

• 2 cups sliced frozen strawberries can be used and may be less expensive in the winter.
• Freeze ahead. Store fruit cups in a plastic freezer container.  They will keep several weeks in the freezer.
• Use other fruits your family enjoys such as mango or melon.
• Fruit cups can be made in small cups, custard cups, or small bowls.

The Summer Food Service Program, administered by the Iowa Department of Education, provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in low-income areas during the summer months. There are many summer food service program feedings sites across the state of Iowa; however, the program is still vastly under-utilized. The biggest barrier to children participating in the Summer Food Service Program is knowledge that feedings sites exist. This summer there are 16 new sponsors and 40 new sites in the summer food service program across the state.

The Iowa Dept. of Education has an interactive map that shows all the sites where any child under 18 can go for a free meal. You do not have to sign anything or show identification. You do not have to live near-by or even in the same county. The map gives contact information so you can find out serving times and dates.

Please help spread the word if there is a site in your community. If there isn’t a site near you, consider working in your community to start a program for next summer (contact Stephanie Dross at the Department of Education).

My three favorite reasons to grill are: 1) it tastes good, 2) I don’t have to heat up the kitchen, and 3) cleanup is easier.  When done right, grilling meat and poultry is a healthy option because the excess fat drips away. Just avoid flame-ups and remove charred areas from meat before eating to avoid the development of potential carcinogens (cancer causing substances).

Hot dogs and hamburger are frequently on sale. Take advantage of special bulk prices on ground beef and make your own patties.  Lay your patties on a wax paper lined cookie sheet so they don’t stick together, freeze completely, and then transfer them to a freezer container for storage.  This way you can take out as many as you need for one grilling session.

Hot dogs and smoked bratwurst are easy to prepare because they are already fully cooked.  Just keep them cold until you are ready to grill and then make sure they are thoroughly reheated and steaming hot.  Fresh sausages, like fresh Italian and fresh bratwurst, need to be cooked slowly and evenly over mature coals until the sausage is gray throughout and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the sausage reads 160°F for meat sausage and 165°F for poultry sausage. Fresh sausage may be parboiled in water for 15 minutes and then grilled.  However, grilling should immediately follow parboiling; interrupted cooking is not recommended.

Hamburgers are more difficult.  The trick is to get them to medium (160°F) doneness, until no longer pink in the center and juices show no pink color, without getting them charred on the outside.  It is not safe to eat rare hamburger because the process of grinding distributes any E. coli or other bacteria throughout the meat.  And now experts say the color of meat is no longer considered a reliable indicator of ground beef safety.  A meat thermometer is the most reliable way to reduce risk of food-borne illness. Cook burger to 160 degrees and put them on a clean plate or platter.

Here’s more information on grilling:

Becoming the Grill Master

Approximate Grilling Times for Meat and Poultry

-pointers by Peggy

Strong evidence shows children and adolescents who consume more sugar-sweetened beverages have a higher body weight compared to those who drink less of these beverages.  Moderate evidence also supports this relationship in adults.

Sugar-sweetened beverages provide excess calories and few essential nutrients to the diet.  Reduce the intake of sugary drinks by:

• Drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages
• Consuming smaller portions
• Substituting water and other beverages with few or no calories for sugar-sweetened beverages

If you want to get an idea of how many teaspoons of sugar and calories there are in various beverages, play Interactive Beverage Guide to Sugars.   Show the website to your children and encourage them to decrease the sugar they get through sweetened beverages.

Sources of added sugars in the diets of the US Population ages 2 years and older

If you would like a closer look at this chart go to: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/dietaryguidelines2010.pdf and then to page 29 where you will find FIGURE 3-6 Sources of Added Sugars in the Diets of the US Population Ages 2 years and Older.

– pointers from Peggy

It’s SPRING. Warm weather makes me start planning for my flower and vegetable garden.  Why?

1. Health — Growing your own makes it easier to get the fruits and vegetables needed for good health. Kids involved in growing or preparing fruits and vegetables are more likely to eat them.
2. Exercise — Gardening provides both cardio and aerobic exercise. Studies show that an hour of moderate gardening can burn up to 300 calories for women, almost 400 calories for men. Mowing the grass equals a vigorous walk, bending and stretching while planting compares to an exercise class, and hauling plants and soil is like weightlifting.
3. Taste – Nothing matches the taste of green beans, tomatoes, basil, zucchini, or peppers picked fresh from the garden.
4. Satisfaction — A weed less, mulched garden gives me a sense of accomplishment.
5. Learning — The more I learn about plants and gardening, the more I want to know. Problems with insects or spots on leaves make me want to find the cause and learn how to keep plants healthy.
6. Family time — Time spent planting, weeding, and harvesting with family is filled with talk and laughter.
7. Friendship — Gardening expands your social circle. Whether it’s someone who lives down the street or halfway around the world on the Internet, gardeners love to talk about plants. Surplus tomatoes, a bouquet, or an extra plant are gifts to share with friends and neighbors.
8. Creativity — Gardening provides an outlet for the artist in all of us, whether it’s planting a bed of perennials or arranging flowers in a vase.
9. Beauty and love of nature — I love the colors, shapes, textures and smells of flowers.  Having flowers in my home gives me joy.
10.   Links to the farm — Gardening takes time, effort and knowledge.  After lots of work, plants can be destroyed by hail, disease, or animals. I have a great deal of respect for those who farm for a living.

Notice anything missing in my top ten reasons to garden?  Saving money.  That’s because gardens don’t always save money. The article, “Can a Vegetable Garden Save You Money”?  by Cindy Haynes, Extension Horticulturist, gives tips to help you save money on your garden.  It’s from 2009, but the message still applies.

-pointers from Peggy

Because you can use almost any fruit, Waldorf Summer Salad is a great one to use with seasonal fruit. Right now, in Iowa, we have lots of luscious peaches, plums, cherries, berries and melons in the markets, so I probably wouldn’t make it with the apples and bananas shown in the picture.

Don’t make this salad too far ahead, but do let the kids help. If you need a few more servings, just add another fruit or two and a little more juice.

Waldorf Summer Salad

Ingredients

• 1 medium apple, diced*
• 1 banana, cut up
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup fruit juice (any kind)
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• Optional: ¼ cup coarsely chopped walnuts or peanuts

Instructions

1. Place apple, banana, and raisins in a bowl. Pour juice over and stir to coat.
2. Stir in marshmallows and, if desired, chopped nuts. Serve.
   *Invite your family to experiment with flavor combinations, such as pears, peaches, kiwi, canned pineapple, and other dried fruits.

If you will be moving the party to a park or camping site, make sure to skim this article about food safety, Pack Safety in Your Picnic Basket. Bacteria grow best under warm, moist conditions.

 -pointers from Peggy

Eating is another routine that changes during the summer. Kids often get up later since they don’t have to go to school, they may skip breakfast, and just snack all day instead of eating meals.   

Sitting down to plan lunch meals with your kids is a good idea. This way the menu includes foods they like and can make themselves. As for snacks, consider preparing two snack boxes—one for the refrigerator and one for the cupboard. Parents or adults choose what goes in the box and children choose what they would like to eat from the box. The University of Missouri Extension has a handout called Pack a snack box with healthy ideas for getting started. 

Remember, you are in charge of buying food. If you only buy healthy foods, that’s what the kids will have to eat.

Next week, recipes for kids…

-pointers from Peggy

Jan’s article was written for the SHARE Iowa newsletter. SHARE Iowa offers food packages at half the retail cost in exchange for two hours of volunteer service in your community. Choosing where you volunteer is up to you – any good deed qualifies.

There’s more on where to find food assistance on the Spend Smart. Eat Smart. web site.

-pointers by Peggy