Food Revolution – The Next Kid Thing

Cooking With Kids Video Series Debuts

April 13, 2011 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Michelle Obama initiated a movement when she started her Let’s Move campaign to emphasize the importance of combating childhood obesity. Jaime Oliver embraced this same movement in his own way with Food Revolution, where he’s gone on to raise awareness of how skewed the food “system” has become and educate families about eating better.

Because I’ve become so interested in food and how it pertains to our kids, I’m always impressed when a company I already admire joins this movement. In line with getting kids to make healthier decisions, Weight Watchers, perhaps the favorite weight management program among my friends, has launched their “Cooking with Kids Web Video Series.

The Cooking with Kids video series, featured on Weight Watcher’s site, aims to bring to life “teachable moments to help kids value fresh and healthy foods to instill good eating habits at an early age.” Through this video series, Weight Watchers hopes to take kids beyond the kitchen to discuss topics like where the food is harvested, the culture behind the food and the difference between fresh food and processed. And as we’ve seen from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, it’s clear that these are topics that many kids don’t know about.

Good Eating: High Plains Bison

September 1, 2010September 1, 2010 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Like many of you, I’m a bargainista—or at least I try. I have always said that the driving force for me nowadays to shop for discounts and clip coupons is so that I could use the money I save and put it towards buying “better” meat for my family. After reading so much about food recalls and watching Food Inc., it’s a fact that, as parents, we have to be cognizant of what’s going on with our food and how we feed our families. And for me, it’s one of my priorities to overhaul how I shop for groceries all together.

On that end, I recently had the chance to taste a sampler of Bison meat from High Plains Bison. If you’ve ever had bison, then you know that its taste is distinctively different from beef and has less fat. (You can see the marbling in the bison ribeyes below.)

Doing some research for this post, according to Bison Basics, grass-fed bison has less calories and more protein than lean beef, turkey and pork. And according to High Plains Bison, while bison may not be considered health food, it is healthier. Bison is low in cholesterol, low in sodium, a good source of iron and also contains a healthy dose of Omega 3 fatty acids too.

Yum Food & Fun for Kids: New Resource for Food Revolution

August 13, 2010August 13, 2010 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Magazines: I know many of you love them as much as I do. There’s truly nothing like flipping through glossy pages and indulging in feature stories, cool products and advice columns. In my case, I’m always looking for inspiration, whether it’s for writing, design or to just shop.

On one of my recent trips to Target I found a new magazine called Yum Food & Fun for Kids. Always, in search of new ideas on how to improve my efforts in the kitchen and at the dinner table, especially where the kid is concerned, I think this new publication fills a void at the newstands.

Fill the Easter Basket with These Sweet Treats

April 1, 2010April 2, 2010 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Easter is upon us, which means it’s that fun time of year when the Easter Bunny fills the kids’ baskets with loads of goodies.

Easter is second to Halloween as the most important candy-eating occasion of the year. A 2009 Nielsen survey reported that consumers were expected to buy more than 120 million pounds of candy in the week leading up to Easter.

That’s a lot of candy!

With Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution creating waves, in addition to Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, healthier eating for kids is a topic that’s important to me and my loved ones, as I’m sure it is to all of you. Like many others, I’m learning so much from this new revolution that I’m happily campaigning by sharing here on NKT, on Twitter and to whomever will listen.

LSU AgCenter nutritionist Beth Reames suggests: “For Easter this year, think beyond the usual sweet treats.”

For kids, sometimes a new and interesting “treat” is just as good, or maybe even better than the usual sweet treats. My agenda this year for filling the Easter basket is to go beyond the candy aisle. Believe me, I love candy, especially Easter candy a little too much, which is EXACTLY why it’s important to me to put more thought into treats for the kid. There are more sweet treats than Cadbury Creme Eggs and Solid Chocolate Bunnies!