Lowering Sodium Intakes

You may have noticed that recipes that I share on this blog, and the most of the recipes that are posted on the Wildwood website call for lower sodium ingredients when possible.  This is because the average American gets too much sodium in their diet.  While sodium does have some important roles in the body such as controlling fluid balance, as well as maintaining blood volume, too much has a negative impact on most people.  It is especially important that we help children limit their sodium intake.  Not only have foods high in sodium been linked with increased intake of sugary drinks, a recent study showed that eating smaller amounts of salt each day as a teenager could reduce high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke in adulthood.  The American Heart Association recommends no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day for most people, while the average person gets more than 5 times this amount!  Interestingly enough, the majority of sodium in our diets comes from processed and restaurant foods, not the salt shaker. 

Cooking from "scratch" at home can greatly decrease the amount of sodium in your meals.  If you are not quite a "scratch" cooker, you can still decrease the amount of sodium that you serve by choosing lower sodium varieties of canned or packaged foods.  You will also find that as you decrease the amount of sodium in your food, you will be happy with less.  I follow a fairly low-sodium diet and when I try foods that I used to think were seasoned appropriately, they are too salty to me now. 

Here are some more tips for cutting back on sodium:

• Buy fresh and frozen vegetables with "no added salt" or added sauce.
• Buy canned vegetables that are the "no added salt" variety. 
• Rinsing and draining canned vegetables such as beans can also greatly reduce the sodium level.
• Canned tomato sauce is usually high in sodium, substitute tomato puree for a lower sodium pick.
• Use fresh meat, poultry and fish rather than the canned or processed varieties (such as smoked, cured or deli meats)
• Make homemade soups and broths so you can control the amount of salt that is added.  Or at least look for "low sodium" varieties of packaged broth and soup.  When adding salt to soups or casseroles, add it at the end to prevent adding too much.
• Season foods with herbs and spices instead of salt.  Or use half the salt that you usually do and substitute a herb blend (such as Mrs. Dash) for the other half.
• Cut back on convenience foods such as instant flavored rice and pasta, or instant oatmeal packets. 
• Always read food labels because some foods can be unexpectedly high in sodium such as breakfast cereals and bread.
• Packaged bread crumbs can be high in sodium.  Try a lower sodium variety such as matzo meal or panko, or make your own!
• Limit the amounts of condiments that you use or look for lower sodium varieties (soy sauce, ketchup, and salad dressings).  You can also find recipes on the web in many places to "make your own" condiments such as chili sauce, etc that will have less sodium than the packaged varieties.  I have also had great success in substituting tomato puree for part of the ketchup in some recipes.

Go to the Wildwood website recipe page to find our recipe for a lower sodium version of Spanish rice mix (using bulgur), a recipe for seasoned noodles with less sodium than the packaged kind, and a seasoning mix for tacos that is lower in sodium than the packaged mixes you can buy.

Happy New Year!

We had a "stay at home" New Year's Eve this year. My husband, kids and I hung out at home and had a little party.  We played some board games and watched a movie until it was time to watch the ball drop. We have done this since my kids were little and we really enjoy our annual tradition. Sometimes my kids invite friends over, sometimes it is just family. My kids love our annual party because I let them choose some foods that they don't get to eat very often. We had an assortment of dips this year with raw vegetable sticks and chips(!) ~they rarely get to eat chips so this is a real treat for them. I made my homemade onion dip as usual (I prefer to make my own and avoid all of the extra sodium in the onion soup mix variety). We also had guacamole and I tried a new hummus recipe too.  I have several hummus recipes that I love, but I wanted to try this new recipe because it included the addition of healthy walnuts. (Walnuts are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, potassium, magnesium and folate).   I am glad to report that the dip was a success, quite tasty!  Here is the recipe:

Zesty Walnut Hummus (from http://www.walnuts.org/)
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 can (19oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup Italian dressing
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

In a blender or food processor; puree walnuts, chickpeas, salad dressing and cayenne pepper together until smooth.

Crediting information: Makes 19 servings.  Each serving is creditable for 1 meat/meat alternate at snack for 1-5 year old children.  Serve with carrot sticks, celery sticks and/or whole grain crackers for a complete snack.

Butternut Squash

I have had two butternut squashes hanging out in my basement since about August when we got them from the CSA farm we belong to.  I had not done anything with them because I was lacking in inspiration about what to prepare.  However, every time I went downstairs recently I was reminded that I needed to make something with them soon before they started to rot!  My family likes the homemade sweet potato "fries" that I bake in the oven, so I decided to try a similar method for cooking the squash.

First, I peeled the squash and cut it in half.  Once I had scraped out all of the seeds, I sliced it quite thin and then cut the slices in half.  I placed the pieces on a cooking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Then I sprayed it with canola oil cooking spray and sprinkled a little black pepper and salt on it.  I cooked it in a hot oven (450 degrees) for about 25 minutes.  Once I had turned all of the pieces over, it went back in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they were starting to brown on the outside.  The result was wonderful and my family loved it!

As I have mentioned before, butternut squash is jam-packed with nutrients!  Not only is it a great source of beta-carotene;  it is also a good source of vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin E, fiber, and folate.

One squash down, one to go...   Do you have any favorite recipes for butternut squash?

Crediting information: Each 1/4 cup of squash is creditable for 1/4 cup of the required 1/2 cup of fruit/vegetable component at any meal for 3-5 year old children.

Soup Night

As I have mentioned before, Monday night is "soup and bread night" at my house.  I always make the soup ahead of time on Sunday, so that all I have to do on Monday is to reheat it and make the loaf of homemade bread that we always have to go with it (plus soup always tastes way better when the flavors are allowed to develop overnight)!  Since I use my breadmaker to make the bread , dinner is a snap on Mondays.

I try to serve a wide variety of soups so that everyone in my family gets to eat their favorite at some point.  This Southwestern Soup is one of my favorites!  The best part about this soup is that you throw everything into a crockpot and let it cook all day.  As a vegetarian, I like the soup just the way it is, or sometimes I throw in some black beans.  Feel free to add cooked, diced chicken if you like too.  We also like to crush unsalted tortilla chips up and sprinkle them on top of this soup.  Enjoy!

Southwestern Soup

1 Tablespoon canola oil
28 oz low sodium vegetable broth (or you could use chicken broth)
16 oz bag frozen corn, thawed
1, 14oz can low sodium diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 can (4oz) chopped green chilies
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (such as Lowry's)
1/2 teaspoon Fiesta lime Mrs. Dash seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for about 7-8 hours.  Stir before serving.  Serve with tortilla chips if desired.

Crediting information (without beans, chicken or chips):
Makes 21 servings creditable for 1/4 cup of the fruit/vegetable requirement at any meal for 3-5 year old children. 

Serving low-sugar cereals can encourage children to eat more fresh fruit!

Do you serve high-sugar cereals to the children in your care?  I have found that sometimes providers believe that children won't accept cereal if it isn't pre-sweetened.  If this is the case for you, a study in the journal Pediatrics may change your mind.  

A recent study shows that children not only accept low-sugar cereals readily, but they are actually more likely to choose a nutritious, well-balanced breakfast if they are served low-sugar cereals.  In the study, the children were divided into 2 groups.  One group was allowed to chose from 3 high-sugar cereal varieties, and the other group was allowed to chose from 3 low-sugar cereals.  Both groups were also offered milk, orange juice, cut-up strawberries and bananas, and small packets of table sugar.  The kids in this study who ate the low-sugar cereal were more likely to add fresh fruit to their bowl of cereal than those eating the high-sugar cereals.  In addition, the kids in the high-sugar cereal group ate nearly twice the amount of sugar as the children in the low-sugar cereal group!  What I found especially interesting about this study is that even though the children were allowed to add some sugar to the low-sugar cereals, they still added less than was found in the higher-sugar varieties.  (In case you are wondering, the low-sugar cereals were Cheerios, Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies and the high-sugar cereals were Froot Loops, Cocoa Pebbles, and Frosted Flakes). 

Some cereals that contain several teaspoons of sugar are indeed creditable on the Child and Adult Care Food Program, but that doesn't mean that they are the best choice for breakfast for kids.  Most children get way to much sugar in their diet and this study shows that serving low-sugar cereals is an easy way to cut out some of the sugar!  To be a creditable cereal on the CACFP, the first ingredient must be a whole grain or whole grain flour, or an enriched grain or flour. You need to read labels carefully though because some of the cereal companies have started putting more whole grains into their cereals, but are still adding a lot of extra sugar too.   Look for cereal varieties that have whole grains and little added sugar, and then take a tip from this study and put out bowls of cut-up fruit for children to add to their bowls!

Fire Safety

How long has it been since you have practiced your  emergency and/or fire escape plan?  If you need to practice, or if you want to add some fire safety information to your child care curriculum, check out this free activity book available to child care providers.  It has coloring pages, connect the dots pages, word searches, and lots of other activities to teach children about fire safety.  Go to the U.S. Fire Administration website to request a free copy to be sent to you, or download a copy immediately on their website.

Mindful Eating

I love reading about mindful eating and find it fascinating that our environment can influence how much we eat.  I really like all of the research that Brian Wansink  has done, and continues to do, on this subject at Cornell University and through his Smarter Lunchrooms program.  It is very interesting, I think, that just about all of the people who have been involved in his research studies are convinced before the study that the environment has no effect on their eating habits.  Dr. Wansink has found the opposite to be true for the majority of people.  He has found that you really can influence how much someone eats by giving them a different size plate, by giving food a more descriptive name, or even by serving a brownie on a napkin instead of a plate. 

So, I read with interest this new article about how imagination can trick the brain into eating less.  Contrary to popular wisdom that if you crave a certain food for a long period of time you will eat more of it, the participants in this study actually ate less of a food after repeatedly imagining eating the food before they actually ate it.

And finally, today on the Fooducate blog, an interesting article on how being aware of the number of times you chew your food can help you eat less.  Taking a moment to slow down and savor our food can be an easy way to have a more enjoyable and satisfying meal.  

If you are interested in mindful eating, be sure to check out Dr. Wansink's websites (by using the links above) or go to your local library and check out his book Mindless Eating.  It is quite a compelling read if you are curious about how changing your meal environment can help you eat less.