PotreroHillParents.org

It’s that time of year once again. Why does the summer always seem to go so fast?

I found this great article while perusing one of my most favorite things to read, the Chronicle food section this week. Listed here are plenty of great, and healthy, meals to send your kids off to school with. And best of all, they’ve already been kid tested, and approved!

Send students packing with kid-tested meals
Amanda Gold, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Their expressions were pensive, focused. They chewed and swallowed meticulously. Between bites, the only sound was the quick scratch of pencil on paper or the squeak of an eraser.

More silence as forks were put down and pencils abandoned.

“Well?” I asked carefully, holding my breath. “What do you think?”

“Good,” giggled 5-year-old Adam Jones, as he slithered off his chair under the conference room table, any remnant of concentration swallowed with his last bite of pita pizza.

Read more…

In advance of Marion Nestle’s upcoming Potrero Hill event to discuss her new book, What To Eat, PotreroHillParents.org had the opportunity to ask the author and well-known nutrionist some questions about food, health and parenting.

Here’s our exclusive interview:

PHP: In your latest book What to Eat, you mention that there’s not just one single nutrient that will make you healthy. Can you give us a few examples of how we can make sure our kids are eating healthy?

Nestle: Oops. That isn’t quite what I meant. One single nutrient alone won’t make you healthy. You need enough—but not too much–of all of them. Since there are more than fifty nutrients required for health, you would go crazy trying to keep track of them one at a time. The great thing about food is that you don’t have to. Unprocessed foods contain loads of nutrients, although the proportions of single nutrients differ. That’s why eating lots of different kinds of foods is a really good idea. If you can encourage your kids to taste and try many different foods, even eating small amounts of them, you really don’t need to worry about single nutrients (and if you still have nagging doubts, give them a multivitamin).

PHP: From unhealthy school lunches to being bombarded by television ads for junk food, we recognize how “tempting” it is these days for kids to eat the wrong foods. What advice can you give parents to keep their children on track nutritionally?

Nestle: I see three problems with junk foods. They are heavily advertised to make kids want them, they are highly processed so they are not as nutritious as “real” foods, and they are loaded with calories which today’s kids don’t need. Worse, the advertising is designed to make kids think they are supposed to eat those foods, and not the foods that you eat. Kids should be eating foods for grownups, just smaller amounts and not heavily salted or sugared. If you don’t want your kids eating junk foods, don’t have those foods in the house.

PHP: How can parents get involved to create real change in the way schools feed our kids?
Read more »

I sometimes consider myself a real cupcake “snob”. Growing up on only home made treats as a kid, I find it tough to even like most bakery cupcakes. That was until I went to NYC and tried cupcakes by Magnolia Bakery — never dry and they have lots of (well my favorite) buttercream frosting!

A copy of their recipe is below (and here’s the link, since they look so pretty in the photo). I have one of the Magnolia cookbooks and have made the cupcakes about 4 or 5 times now.

If you follow the recipe exactly, they come out wonderful!! Disclaimer: I have to admit that it’s temptingly dangerous to have them around — in fact, I’m waiting for my daughter’s first birthday in August to have an excuse to make them again. Not that excuses are needed.

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Everyone is always asking us which is the most popular cupcake at the bakery. Most people are surprised that it is what we call the vanilla vanilla - the vanilla cupcake with the vanilla icing (and the most popular color for the icing is pink). Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes (depending on the size of your cupcake papers and muffin tins) Read more »