FAMILY-FRIENDLY FOOD FUN FOR FALL

- C&J Nutrition, Contributing Writers

Fall is a very tasty time of year.  There is hot spiced apple cider, pumpkins and squash, and yummy baked goods.  Aside from food, fall is the ideal time to be outdoors, since it’s not too warm or too cold.  Why not combine all the tasty aspects of fall: food, time with family, and fun?   Here are five ways to have fun with all three!

  1. Farmer for a day.  You don’t have to own an organic fruit or vegetable farm to get the full farm experience.  Lots of organic farms all across the country are open for visitors to come look around and buy fresh produce.  In the fall, apple picking is especially fun – but even if you live in an area where apple picking isn’t available, a visit to a farm in the fall is a really fun thing for the whole family to do.  Farm visits are a perfect opportunity to teach kids about where their food comes from.  Plus, when kids are able to pick out their own produce at a farm, they get much more excited about eating it later!  To find a local organic farm near you, visit http://www.localharvest.org/

2.  Make some squash ravioli.  One of the best ways to help little ones have a healthy relationship with food is to involve them in the cooking and preparation process.   A fun (and easy!) way to meld fall flavors with a very popular food is to make squash ravioli.  DIRECTIONS:  Mix 1/3 cup whole grain bread crumbs with 2 containers of Squash Em, ½ cup part skim milk organic mozzarella cheese (or a soft goat cheese), salt, and pepper.  Working on a floured surface, place a tablespoon of filling in the center of a won ton wrapper and brush the edges with water.  Put a second wrapper on top and press down on the edges to seal in all the filling (and forced the air out).  When all the ravioli are ready, drop them in small batches into boiling water for about two minutes.   They’re great sautéed with olive oil, farm fresh veggies, and Parmesan cheese or with a traditional tomato sauce!

3.  Be an edible artist.  Nothing says October like carving a Jack-O-Lantern.  But, what about all those pumpkin guts your little ones love to scrape out of the pumpkin?  Save the seeds, rinse them, and let them dry on a cookie sheet.  Then, divide them into three or four batches and let your kids season them – cinnamon sugar, salt and pepper, and curry are some fun seasoning choices.  Spray the seeds with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with seasonings, and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes (until golden and crispy), stirring them around once.

4.   Channel your inner Martha Stewart.  It’s fun to play with food – and sometimes you just have to admit this and work with it.  A fun way to encourage kids to play with their food in a constructive way is to make cloved oranges.  Using small organic oranges, give kids a bowl of whole cloves and allow them to stick them (like push pins) all over the oranges.  Older kids can do patterns, their initials, or even cover the entire orange in cloves, while younger kids have fun pushing cloves in more abstract artistic fashion.  When the oranges are “cloved”, pin a ribbon loop to the top and place them all in a glass bowl as a table centerpiece.  Once they’ve dried for about two weeks, they can be hung around the house to make everything smell spicy and great.

5.  Fruit-ify your baking.  Fruit puree is a great way to add fiber and nutrients to baked goods while cutting out some of the fat.  Any of the Tastybaby fruit flavors (and Squash ‘Em and Sweetie Pie) will work for this.  Simply replace 2/3 of the butter, oil, shortening with Tastybaby and then replace the last 1/3 with olive or canola oil.  It’s fun to experiment with things like Squashed oatmeal cookies (add Squash ‘Em and pumpkin pie spice) and banana Bangos bread.  The options are endless and it’s fun for kids to pick their flavor combinations!