Packing Healthy School Lunches Year Round

Saturday, September 03, 2011

It’s September, and for a lot of us that means it’s back-to-school time. Pencils, erasers, notebooks, new clothes . . . it can get exhausting after a while! One of the things that you might not be thinking about is your child’s lunch box. And no, I don’t mean whether it should be Hannah Montana or Ben 10. Rather, I mean what you’re going to fill that designer tote with every day for the next several months.

Buying lunch at school every day is costly, and you won’t always know where that food is coming from. Even though schools are cracking down on nutrition for school lunches, cafeterias do not always place emphasis on locally grown produce. One way to ensure that your children are eating healthy foods grown locally is to pack their lunch yourself!

If your children are picky, as mine are, it can be tricky to find the fruits and veggies they crave year round. But getting them to eat seasonal selections doesn’t have to be a fight; it can be fun and full of adventurous eating. Here are a few tips to get your kids eating healthy options every day.

• Dip it! Kids love dipping just about everything from sweet fruits and crunchy veggies to breaded chicken or mozzarella sticks. Providing a “fingers only” lunch to your little one is a fun way to get them eating healthy options. Julienne your veggie selections and provide ranch dressing or hummus to dip with. Offer different cubed fruits and cheese with caramel dipping sauce. And, if your child likes chicken fingers, you can bread and bake enough small pieces of chicken for a week’s worth of lunches Sunday night. Cold chicken tastes just as yummy as warm and it’s easy to transport to school! Store your dips in reusable containers for easy cleaning and no-mess transportation.

• Pasta salad can be a great way to “hide” fresh veggies from picky eaters. Chop your fresh veggies teeny-tiny, almost small enough to make a slaw, and mix with whole wheat pasta, olive oil, and spices. Just a little bit of seasoning will turn a veggie salad into a new and flavorful food for your child.

• Tuna boats, anyone? Take a halved bell pepper and stuff with tuna salad. If you want to be creative, you can include a toothpick and a triangle-shaped wedge of cheese for your child to “raise the sail” on their boat. Little touches like these have kids clamoring for more!

• Is apple picking on your September agenda? Prepare in advance for the fresh fruit so that you can store and enjoy their fresh crispness for months at a time. Gather black and white newspaper pages (avoid colored print as these contain hazardous chemicals that could leech into the fruit) and quarter them. Wrap each apple individually so that when you store them, they won’t touch each other. You don’t have to exclude air from their environment; a slight twist of the newspaper at the top will do the trick. Store them in a cardboard box in a dark, cool area where the apples will not freeze. You could use an unheated basement or an enclosed porch. Taking these few extra steps will ensure that your apples stay fresh through February. Think of the happy smile when your child sees a crisp apple in the middle of winter.

These are just a few suggestions, but if you think about it, I’m certain you can come up with more inventive ideas on how to include local produce into your child’s lunch each day. Not only will it save you some much needed cash, you will be providing healthy, fun food choices for your children—which is always a bonus!

Time to Harvest: Lettuces!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Have you already harvested your first lettuce of the season? I have cut some mixed red and green lettuce, but just take a look at this beautiful head of red butter lettuce I enjoyed last weekend. A boiled egg, some sea salt, a touch of olive oil, vinegar and dijon mustard - it was perfect! Remember that one you start cutting your lettuce to keep planting every week or so, and you’ll have a steady supply through the Spring.

My first Leeks!

Monday, May 09, 2011

I planted my first leeks last summer, and low and behold, they popped up beautifully this Spring. I had to brace myself, both feet solid, to pull these suckers out, beautiful and gritty. After a hearty few washings, I used them to make the recipe for Dilled Green Beans with Seitan from “Super Natural Everyday,” pictured below. Delicious! What are you cooking with leeks?

Thai Curried Squash Soup

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Arriving home from a long vacation, I looked around my kitchen, realize there is very little fresh in the house, and decided to make a pantry soup for friends arriving for dinner and a movie. Squash can keep almost forever in a cool location, and I had these leftover from my last few CSA pick-ups in November. A few onions, carrots and apples relaxing nicely in my crisper, and some pantry basics rounded out this spicy, creamy soup with inspiration from a recipe from Bon Appetit. I rarely follow any recipe to a T, rather I make things spicier, add more of what I like and less of what I don’t etc. until I get it just right! You might want to do the same - 4 tsp. of curry past makes quite a spicy version of this Thai Curried Squash Soup.

Last-Minute Local Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Planning to pick-up your local produce right before the big day? Here is a list of local farmers markets that will be open on Weds, November 24th. If you have more to add to the list, please comment!

Broad & South Farmers’ Market
Broad and South streets
2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Clark Park Farmers’ Market
43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cliveden Park Farmers’ Market
Chew Avenue and Johnson Street
1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Fairmount Farmers’ Market
22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Haddington Farmers’ Market
52nd Street and Haverford Avenue
1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Headhouse Farmers’ Market
2nd and Lombard streets
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Judy Wicks and delicious lunch!

Friday, November 05, 2010

Judy Wicks and a delicious lunch? Sign me up! In full disclosure, I organized this program, and will be making the lunch. I hope you can join us for what promises to be an intimate and engaging program. We’ll also have the White Dog cookbook available at a bargain price!

Founder of the famed and favorite local eatery the White Dog Café, JUDY WICKS will be at the Writers House next Thursday, November 11, at 12:00 PM, for this year’s Bernheimer Symposium. Although lunch will be served, this talk is not limited to locavores and foodies: Ms. WICKS, a farm-to-table advocate, will be touching on subjects from sustainability to community arts and social justice. Also the founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, she was named the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2005, and more recently in 2007, received the Philadelphia Sustainability Lifetime Achievement Award. Spots are limited so please rsvp to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to let us know you’re coming!

Best,
WH Staff
________________________________________________________________________

The Kelly Writers House and the Bernheimer Symposium present

JUDY WICKS
a local lunch conversation about food, politics, and activism

Thursday, November 11, at 12:00 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
Please rsvp to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call (215) 746-POEM

________________________________________________________________________

JUDY WICKS is owner and founder of Philadelphia’s 25-year-old White Dog Cafe, and is a national leader in the local, living economies movement. She is co-founder of the nationwide Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), and founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN). She is also president of White Dog Community Enterprises, a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to building a local living economy in the Philadelphia region.

Judy has won numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2005, and the Philadelphia Sustainability Awards Life Time Achievement in 2007. Other accolades include Oprah Magazine’s “5 Amazingly Gifted and Giving Food Professionals,” and Inc. Magazine’s 25 favorite entrepreneurs. Judy co-authored The White Dog Cafe Cookbook: Multicultural Recipes and Tales of Adventure from Philadelphia’s Revolutionary Restaurant, and is currently working on a book about her business and the local living economy movement to be published by Chelsea Green.

With a four-part mission of serving customers, community, employees, and the natural environment, the White Dog Cafe has created numerous educational and community-building programs which focus on topics such as economic & social justice, environmental protection, peace & non-violence, drug policy reform and community arts. Through “Table for Six Billion, Please!” the international “sister restaurant” project Judy began in 1986, she has organized trips to Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Vietnam, and Israel / Palestine in order to understand the effects of US policy. A local sister restaurant program promotes minority-owned restaurants in Philadelphia and Camden. In 1992, Judy began the White Dog mentoring program, which introduces inner-city high school students to the restaurant business through internships at the Cafe. Her adjacent gift store, the Black Cat, founded in 1989, features local and fair trade crafts. White Dog Enterprises, which includes White Dog Cafe and Black Cat, employs over 100 people and grosses approximately $5 million annually, demonstrating the concept of “doing well by doing good.”

The Cafe sources all produce in season from local organic family farms. All meat and poultry is humanely raised, and fish and seafood are sourced from sustainable fisheries. One hundred percent of electricity is purchased from wind power sources, the first business in Pennsylvania to do so. Entry-level employees make a minimum “living wage” of $9/hour. Twenty percent of profits are contributed to White Dog Community Enterprises and other non-profits. Community Enterprise projects have included Fair Food, which connects local family farms with urban markets, and SBN, which was spun off in 2006.

Judy has appeared on Nightline, MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, CNN, and numerous local TV and radio shows. She and the Cafe have been featured in Oprah Magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Fortune Small Business, Washington Post, Whole Earth Magazine, Utne Reader, Yes Magazine, Fast Company, Healthy Living Magazine, Business Ethics Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Chronicle of Higher Education, Resurgence Magazine, Hope Magazine, Sojourner Magazine, In Business, Orion Magazine, The Other Side, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine and the Philadelphia Business Journal. Judy’s business career is featured in several books including Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and Life by Mark Albion, Good News for a Chance: How Everyday People Are Helping the Planet by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel, and Aiming Higher: 25 Stories of How Companies Prosper by Combining Sound Management and Social Vision by David Bollier.

Judy was co-founder of the Free People’s Store, now called Urban Outfitters, in 1970, and general manager and co-proprietor of Restaurant LaTerrasse from 1974 to 1984. She was also co-founder and President of Synapse, Inc. a non-profit publishing company, and editor and art director of its publications, the Whole City Catalog in 1972 and 1974, and the Philadelphia Resource Guide in 1982.

Established in the memory of Comparative Literature teacher and scholar Charles Bernheimer by Writers House Advisory Board member Kate Levin (GAS’96), the BERNHEIMER SYMPOSIUM is organized each year by the Writers House Program Coordinator, who takes the opportunity to think expansively about programming possibilities.

Fermentation Hoe Down!

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

The newly formed Fermentation Society of Philadelphia is having its first event this month!  Come to see workshops and to share your own recipes will fellow fermenters. 

FYI, an omission from the flyer:  Be prepared to give a little donation to compensate the church for the use of its space.

Best Local Food Apps

Monday, October 25, 2010

I don’t have an iphone, but I know plenty of people who do. Some of you may be wondering if there are apps to help you stay on top of your local eating goals.There are!  Some help you figure out what’s in season and where to find it, while other help you find very specific recipes (healthy, vegetarian or vegan, low salt, quick, etc.) based on the seasonal produce you’d like to use. I’ve included a few of the most popular below, but please add more - if you use them and like them - in the comments section for future updates.

Locavore ($3) - The entire purpose of locavore is to help you find in-season produce. Yeah!
Harvest ($2) - How do you find the best produce? This database helps you decide if the asparagus is too limp, the melon to hard, or the tomato too green.
How to Cook EverythingMark Bittman helps you figure out how to cook everything, from delicata squash to red quinoa.
Whole Foods The only thing free about Whole Foods is this helpful app, which lets you sort by food allergy/aversion, and searches for recipes based on the ingredients that you’re purchasing.
Epicurious I used the Epicurious website all the time, because it has awesome advanced searching options (vegan + breakfast + main course + bananas = recipe) and a solid rating system. The app will even build a shopping list for you.
Cook’s Illustrated Another great, free, recipe searching app with lots of helpful hints. This app even has a timer that runs on your phone to remind you when your quiche is done!

Green Tomato Pie!

Monday, October 18, 2010

So I cleaned out my summer crops and planted some seeds (lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, radishes) and now I have all of these green tomatoes to deal with.  I can’t just compost them, and after making more fried green tomatoes than anyone can really eat, I decided to have a crack at this recipe that I’m been saving for a while.  It’s a sweet pie made apple-style, but with green tomatoes instead.  Verdict?  It’s good!  The recipe calls for a bit too much sugar, but the tomatoes have a strange sourness to them that makes the pie more complex than an apple pie. 

Pie crust:
2 c flour
1 c shortening (I use Crisco, it’s just easier)

<1 tsp salt
1/2 c cold water

Place the water in the freezer while you combine the rest of the ingredients. Use a fork to mash shortening into flour until peices are "pea-sized." Add the water a bit at a time until all dough holds together in a ball. Refridgerate.

Filling:
1 1/4 c sugar
1 T flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
2 T butter
3 c thinly sliced green tomatoes

Set oven to 425 degrees.  Sift dry ingredients together and mix with tomatoes.  Let sit while you roll out the dough and cover the bottom of the pie pan.  Drain off some of the excess juice created by the tomatoes and sugar mixture, then fill pie pan and dot with butter.  Place top crust and bake for 45 minutes.

Et viola!

Soup Weather

Sunday, October 10, 2010

As a certified - or maybe that should be certifiable - fan of cheese, I have a tendency to eat cheeses like brie as is… with crackers or fruit. The other day I ran into a recipe for brie soup at We Gotta Eat, the place I’ve been storing all my recipes in a bid to cut down on the clutter of cooking magazines at my house, and decided to give it a go with Cherry Grove Farm brie.

The results were, well, mixed. The soup itself was delicious, especially since I added potatoes to make it a cheese and potato soup, but very little of the brie actually melted. Maybe it needed to be cooked for longer? A friend who made some without the local brie ran into the same problem - she used a stick blender to break up the clumps of unmelted brie. In spite of the problems with the chunky cheese lurking in the soup (not a terrible problem to have), it made a perfect dinner in a bread bowl and topped with sauteed mushrooms from Mother Earth Farms.

1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
4 cups heavy cream
10 ounce brie with rind removed and cut into pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig basil
4-5 potatoes, peeled and cubed
Salt and pepper

Bring wine and vinegar to a boil in a soup pot, reduce heat to a simmer, and reduce the liquid until only a cup remains. Stir in cream, brie, garlic, sprigs of thyme and basil and cook and stir 10 minutes or until the brie melts (note: I probably simmered the soup for about 15 minutes and the brie still hadn’t melted). In the meantime, boil potatoes until tender. Combine potatoes with brie soup and season with salt and pepper.

The only things that weren’t local: salt and pepper, vinegar, wine, and bread bowls.

Now It Feels Like Fall

Saturday, October 09, 2010

The cooler fall weather has really inspired me to spend more time in my kitchen lately, so tonight I broke out a precious chicken from Griggstown Quail Farm for roasting with homemade butter. I like a simple preparation for my chickens - a little salt and pepper in the cavity and outside the chicken, some pats of butter under the skin of the breast, and that’s it.

I really wanted some stuffing to go with the chicken, but my little couple pound chicken wasn’t going to hold a whole lot of it. Instead, I made it outside the chicken in a roasting pan. As thrifty measure, I like to use up all the vegetable odds and ends hanging out in the refrigerator.  In this case, I had some cremini mushrooms from Mother Earth Mushrooms, some onion and celery from Lancaster Farm Fresh, carrots from Green Meadow Farms, and some red peppers from a local grower I roasted earlier this summer. Oh, and most importantly: the very last of the basil from my garden.

12 ounces bread cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
12+ ounces button or crimini mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage leaf
2 cups chicken stock
A handful of chopped basil
Salt and pepper

Saute the vegetables in butter and olive oil until tender, mix with bread cubes and basil, season with salt and pepper, and pour chicken stock over until it has the desired consistency. You can either serve it immediately or bake it for a while to dry it up a bit.

A bit of local steamed broccoli made for an almost entirely locally grown meal. Just the olive oil, salt, and pepper didn’t come from the Philadelphia area.

This is a great time of year for produce, and aside from all the rain, we’ve had a nice long growing season. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on some winter squash!

Greens and more greens!

Thursday, October 07, 2010

My CSA floweth over with greens right now. And as some of the warmer season vegetable start to dwindle, farmers markets (and hopefully your fall gardens) will still have hearty leafy greens for awhile.  I’ve also been making more greens-centered dishes in genera, like the Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens recipe from Heidi Swanson’s “Simply Natural Cooking” -a great cookbook for plant-based cooking - pictured above.  And of course, chopping up dandelion greens, chard, kale, and sometime bok choi and adding them to most everything! I’ve been:

1. Adding them to soups
2. Adding them to pasta sauces
3. Braising them with mushroom, butter and garlic to top gnocchi, polenta, and risotto
4. Topping hearty toast with quick-fried greens and an egg for a fast dinner or breakfast
5. Omelettes!
6. Adding them to potato and pasta-based casseroles (mmmm, mac & cheese with greens!)

How are you using all of your greens?

Carrot Top Soup

Monday, October 04, 2010

This sudden cold snap seems to have us all thinking about soup. As promised a few weeks ago, I did find a way to use my beautiful carrot tops and made this beautiful soup with them. The flavor is quite delicate, and a good homemade vegetable broth makes all the difference. The addition of brown rice makes the soup hearty enough for a meal and, of course, some good quality parmesan adds a great sharp and salty kick.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Ever since we pulled our first new potatoes out of the ground, my fiance Michael and I have been hooked on home-grown potatoes.  The earthy, creamy density of them is unbelievable.  This year we also grew our own leeks and Michael came up with this amazing recipe for potato leek soup.  It requires you to make your own stock, so try it on a crisp weekend day when you have some time to dedicate to it.

Michael’s Creamy Potato Leek Soup (Serves 6)

Home Made Veggie Broth:
1 med onion, chopped (garden)
1 leek (white part only), chopped (garden)
1 carrot, chopped (CSA)
4 stalks celery, chopped + leaves removed and set aside (store)
4 stalks thyme (garden)
1 potato, sliced (garden)
4 stalks parsley (garden)
1 bay leaf (store)
1 pinch turmeric (store)
1 pinch cloves (store)
1 head garlic, peeled and crushed (garden + CSA)
2 tbsp butter
8 cups water
Salt and pepper
Cheesecloth

1. Tie up bay leaf, parsley, thyme and celery leaves in cheesecloth
2. In a large soup pot, sauté onion, leek, carrot, celery and garlic in butter
3. Add water, cloves, turmeric and lastly the cheesecloth bundle.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer with the top askew for appx 2 hours.  Add salt and pepper to taste sometime during the simmering – don’t add salt unless the liquid is boiling somewhat, otherwise it will fall to the bottom and won’t dissolve.
5. Strain into a large container through a colander.  Crush the solid veggies to get all liquid out.  Discard boiled veggies (don’t bother saving them, you just boiled all the taste and nutrients out!)  If using a vegan broth (oil instead of butter), compost them.

Notes:
Makes appx 6 cups broth.  You can experiment with adding any types of veggies you have around in the broth, but watch out for stuff that makes it too sweet.  For vegan broth, use oil instead of butter.  For chicken broth, use chicken livers, hearts, bones, feet etc, boiling for 3-4 hours and skimming fat off top periodically.  For beef broth use beef bones, oxtails etc and skimming fat off periodically.  To store, try freezing in an ice cube tray for conveniently sized portions to be used in your cooking.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup:
3-4 cups leeks, white part only, washed thoroughly and chopped (garden)
2-3 large white potatoes, sliced, skinning optional (garden)
6 cups veggie or chicken broth (see above recipe – garden/CSA)
½ cup chopped chives (garden)
½ cup whole milk, half and half or cream
Salt and pepper

1. In a large soup pot, sauté the leeks in butter.  Add small amounts of broth as necessary to keep leeks from burning and sticking to pot.  Let leeks soften (15 min or so)
2. Add broth and sliced potatoes, bring to boil, the simmer with top on for appx 45 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Blend soup in a food processor or blender until it is smooth.
4. Return to pot and add cream.  Soup is ready to serve, you may eat it at any temperature (good cold in summer) but if you like it warm, heat but DO NOT bring to boil.
5. Garnish with chives.  Additional garnishes include types of blue or gorgonzola cheeses or sour cream.

Drying Fresh Herbs

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sadly, almost all of my herbs got eaten by squirrels, killed by the heat wave, poisoned by black walnuts, or crushed by construction materials. This past week I decided that instead of harvesting my own, I’d order some lemon balm from the Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA and still have plenty of winter tea. Lemon Balm can be dried like most herbs from your garden - easily. The fastest method is to lay the herbs on a cookie sheet and place them in your oven. Just a little heat - 100 degrees - can try the herbs in an hour or two, or if you have a gas oven with a pilot light you can leave them in there overnight and wake up to dried herbs in the morning. I usually remove leaves before drying, but with some tough leaves, like rosemary, it is easier to dry them on the stalk and then remove them later.

Some people prefer to hang their herbs by their stalks. These bunches, hanging over a kitchen sink, in front of a window, or in a dry attic look and smell lovely, though they can take a bit longer to dry. If left undisturbed, they may hang intact for months, but watch out - they can also get dusty!