Back-to-School Brain Food

In today's Cooking with the Moms radio podcast, our featured topic, Back-to-School Brain Food, highlights the importance of feeding kids a delicious array of foods rich in omega-3 fats, iron, and zinc -- all important for brain health. Be sure to listen in as we share two family favorites, Teriyaki Salmon in Foil and Szechuan Beef Stir-Fry. Also tune in to hear our 9-year old guest, Simon (Liz's son), talk about clever ways to get kids to eat their veggies and to learn about his latest food jag: quesadillas. Here's a recipe Simon asks for when he's having a quesadilla craving:

BBQ Beef Quesadillas

Makes 4 Servings

6 to 8 ounces leftover steak (or chicken or shrimp), diced into small pieces

1 orange, yellow or red bell pepper, roasted or grilled and finely diced

2/3 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels, thawed

1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded Cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons all-natural barbecue sauce

Four 10-inch flour tortillas

2 teaspoons canola oil

Combine the steak, bell pepper, corn kernels, cheese, and barbecue sauce in a bowl. Divide the mixture evenly and spread over half of each tortilla. Fold over, press down gently, and set aside. Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add two of the quesadillas and cook, pressing down occasionally with a spatula, until the tortillas become crisp and golden on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Flip the tortillas and cook an additional 2 minutes. Repeat with the remaining oil and quesadillas. Cut into quarters and serve (Liz's family had them with vegetarian baked beans last night, and it was a great side dish).

Yummy Green Beans

We heard this afternoon from Charity, who posted and shared a recipe that she makes with the green beans she gets from her CSA. Well, it just so happens that Janice's parents were coming for dinner and were bringing green beans from their friend Mo's garden. Since the recipe looked so yummy Janice made it tonight. The adults all loved it and the kids, while a bit less enthusiastic (there is a lot going on in this dish), also gave the recipe a 'thumbs up.' So you don't have to search our blog for it, here is what Charity sent along. There are no ingredient amounts so just wing it. Janice cooked hers in a nonstick skillet and used extra virgin olive oil and lots of almonds, and garlic from her CSA. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Here's my "recipe" for green beans:
1. Cut green beans into 1-2 inch lengths. Add a bit of water and cook in microwave for about 5 minutes.
2. In a small sauce pan, saute plenty of garlic in a little canola or olive oil. After the garlic is tender, add slivered almonds. Stir constantly until almonds are toasted.
3. Add cooked green beans and just a bit of chopped dried apricots. Mix well.
4. Serve sprinkled with feta cheese.

Blogs-O-Plenty

A few weeks ago, Janice spent several days in San Francisco at the annual BlogHer conference. She was one of over a thousand women bloggers who gathered to gab and learn about … well, blogging! In your wildest dreams, you wouldn't believe the number of bloggers floating around out there in cyberspace including moms who blog about their kid’s day-to-day activities, food bloggers who share their favorite baby food recipes, and women who blog about political and social issues. Here are just a few of the cool blogs Janice discovered at the conference.

www.deliciousbaby.com/
www.foodblogsearch.com/
www.kalynskitchen.com/
www.kitchengadgetgirl.com/
www.motherswithcancer.com/
www.momcentral.com/

Janice went to BlogHer with McCain Foods. They were there to share the news about their new line of healthy potato products, sold in school cafeterias nationwide. Their Sweet Potato Fries as well as their Smiles have zero grams of trans fats (that's the artery clogging kind) and meet the guidelines of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, aimed at fighting childhood obesity. Janice is a big fan of McCain's sweet potato fries since each serving provides a whopping 100% of the daily requirement for immune-boosting vitamin A. How sweet is that! Ah, if only every school in America would serve them.

What are some of your favorite blogs? Do tell!!

Tiny Treats

Janice's 16-year old daughter, Carolyn, recently spent a week at a camp in Ferry Beach, Maine. When Janice, Don and Leah went to pick her up, they all got to enjoy one of Carolyn's favorite treats from the camp store, a "Teeny Tiny" ice cream cone. Talk about a great way to exercise portion control! In an age of super-sized portions (even so-called "kiddie cones" are now gigantic) the Bissex family appreciated the bite-sized serving.

If your kids are screaming for ice cream, be sure to listen to our Cooking with the Moms podcast from August 6th. The theme is Frozen Treats, and during the show, we share three homemade popsicle recipes and a Super Sundae with Strawberries.  Try our sundae recipe and let us know what you think!

Super Sundae with Strawberries
Makes 1 Serving

One small scoop lowfat vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream (about 1/3 cup)
Two strawberries, thinly sliced
Drizzle chocolate syrup
Drizzle caramel syrup
2 teaspoon toasted chopped walnuts or pecans
Small dollop light whipped cream

Spoon the ice cream into a bowl or parfait glass. Place the strawberries around the ice cream, drizzle with the chocolate syrup and caramel syrup, and sprinkle with the nuts. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 140 calories, 6g fat (2g saturated), 45mg sodium, 19g carbohydrate, 1g fiber, 3g protein, 35% vitamin C, 8% calcium

A Crazy, Almost-Food Adventure

On a recent family vacation to Maine, Liz’s 13-year old son Josh decided to test his fishing skills one evening with a hook, some line, and a hot dog. What he caught was this giant lobster (estimated by Josh to be about 7 pounds). Well, since Josh has a conscience (a 7-pound lobster is over 30 years old) and knows better than to eat something he doesn’t have a license to catch, he gladly tossed the giant crustacean right back where he/she came from.
From catching fish to growing and harvesting your own produce, tell us about some of your exciting food adventures this summer! As always, we love to hear from you.

Our First "Live" Podcast Guest

"Cousin Andrea," perhaps one of our biggest fans out there, was the first "live" guest on Cooking with the Moms this week (www.MealMakeoverMoms.com). Ever since our weekly radio podcast launched back in May, 12-year old Andrea (Liz's niece) has been a devoted listener. In fact, every Wednesday when we post a new show to iTunes and our website, Andrea rushes home from school (or camp), runs straight to her computer, and listens to the show.

This summer, Andrea spent two weeks at Camp Medolark (www.Medolark.com) near Camden, Maine. On her way back to Connecticut, she stopped by the Moms' "studio" and sat in on our Frozen Treats show. You'll love hearing her talk about her adventures at camp (she got to take cooking classes!) and her thoughts on our Trio of Pops.

We hope you'll listen in each week just like Andrea does! In the meantime, here's a recipe for Watermelon Pomegranate Pops to whet your appetite for our August 6th podcast

Watermelon Pomegranate Pops
Makes 4 Servings

1 1/2 cups cubed seedless watermelon
1/2 cup Pomegranate blueberry juice

Combine the watermelon and juice in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into four 3-ounce popsicle molds and freeze until firm, about 3 hours. To remove the pops from the molds, run under warm water to loosen. If you don’t have popsicle molds, divide t he liquid between four paper cups. Cover each cup with foil, insert one craft stick through the center of each foil, and freeze.

* We like Minute Made Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice

Nutrition Information per Serving: 30 calories, 0g fat (0g saturated), 0mg sodium, 9g carbohydrate, 0g fiber, 0g protein, 15% vitamin C

Join a CSA

For the past few years, Janice has been a member of the Farm Direct Coop CSA (community supported agriculture). We talked about CSAs this week on our podcast, Cooking with the Moms, and promised to provide information about joining one. But before we do that, for those of you who are not familiar with CSAs, they help to forge a relationship between consumers and local farms. When a consumer becomes a"member" or "shareholder" of a CSA, they pay an annual membership fee and in turn, receive a weekly basket of produce -- whatever happens to be in season. There are many websites out there devoted to CSAs. A good place to start is http://www.localharvest.com/. If you're a member of a CSA, tell us what you got this week and feel free to share any new or tried-and-true recipes.