Dinner Tonight

Dinner Tonight

Healthy Cooking for a Healthy Texas

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Creamy Avocado Veggie Dip

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Need a quick recipe for a picnic or family get together? Try our delicious Creamy Avocado Veggie Dip.  This tasty dish is a great way to incorporate more veggies into your day!


Creamy Avocado Veggie Dip
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Servings
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Creamy Avocado Veggie Dip
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Servings
6
Servings
6
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, combine vegetables.
  2. Chill for at least an hour or longer to allow juices to accumulate.
  3. Drain well.
  4. In a small bowl, combine fresh dill, seasonings, sour cream, and mayonnaise.
  5. Fold dressing mixture into the vegetables.
  6. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes

Conversation Starters After School

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After school snack time can be the perfect opportunity to engage with your children and allow them to debrief their school day. Making connections and staying aware of what’s happening in your child’s life are key to a great school year. Below are some tips on how to talk to your child after school.

How to Get Your Child to Talk About School

By Andrew M.I. Lee, JD

At a Glance

  • Some kids don’t like to share information about their school day.
  • The way you ask kids questions can encourage them to talk more.
  • Ask specific, open-ended questions instead of questions that can be answered with yes or no.

Some kids love talking about school. With others, it’s like pulling teeth to get them to share even a few details about their day—especially if there are things going on that are upsetting them, like bullying or struggling in school.

If your child is on the quieter side or is very private, there are ways to ask questions that will open up a conversation instead of shutting one down. Here are some key concepts for starting a dialogue.

1. Ask open-ended questions. If you ask a question that can be answered with one word—yes or no—that’s what you’ll get. A one-word answer.

Example: “What was the best thing you did at school today?”

2. Start with a factual observation. Kids often have a hard time answering questions that seem to come out of the blue. Making an observation gives your child something to relate to.

Example: “I know you have a lot more kids in your class this year. What’s that like?”

3. Share something about yourself. When someone tells you about themselves, it’s natural to want to do that in return. Share something with your child and see what you get back.

Example: “We always played dodgeball at recess. What do you and your friends like to do?”

4. Avoid negative questions. If you think something isn’t going well, your questions may come out in a negative way, with emotion-packed words like sad or mean. Asking in a positive way lets your child express concerns.

Example: “I heard that you sat with new people at lunch today. What did you talk about?”

Here are other examples of how to say things differently to get your child to open up.

Afterschool Conversation Starters

Instead of this Try this
Was school fun today? What was the best thing you did at school?
How was lunch? Which kids were sitting near you at lunch?
Was your teacher nice? What was the most interesting thing your teacher said today?
Did you get your locker today? How was it getting to your locker between classes?
Were the kids in your class friendly? Who did you like talking to the most?
Did you get your schedule? You got your schedule today, right? Which days look busiest?
Do you have friends in your classes? Who are the kids you talk to most in your classes?
Did your presentation go well? What part of the presentation do you think was best?

Phrasing your questions this way invites your child to talk. But don’t expect for every question to result in a long, detailed answer. The goal is to have many small conversations over time. It helps to find natural moments to talk—like at dinner or riding in the car—when you’re not in a rush.

Sometimes kids, like adults, just don’t feel like talking. It’s important to know when to stop asking questions and leave it for another time. But if there’s something urgent or serious going on, you’ll have to ask direct, specific questions and push for an answer.

Full article can be found at understood.org

BYO Salads

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BYO (Build Your Own)

A salad is a mix of various ingredients (cooked or raw) served cold. There are several ways to make a salad; thus, get creative with the following salad variety breakdowns:

Leafy Salad: raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing.

  • Elements of a leafy salad include lettuce, fruit and/or veggie, protein, crunch (nuts, bacon bits, croutons, etc.) with a dressing of your choice.

Fruit Salad: various mixed fruits with toppings and dressing.

  • Elements of a fruit salad include a mix of 3 or more various fruits with a dressing of your choice.
    • May squeeze lemon/lime juice when using bananas – this will help prevent browning.

Pasta Salad: small pieces (i.e., pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing.

  • Elements of a salad include pasta, fruit and/or veggie, diary with a dressing of your choice.

May pair a lean protein with any of your salads. Get inspired by our salad recipes and start building your (BYO) salad tonight!

A salad bar is an excellent way for everyone to join in and build their own (BYO) Salad. However, it’s essential to follow all food safety precautions before laying out your salad bar. Learn more below:

Clean and sanitize all surfaces, prep utensils, and containers before and after each service. Plus, wash all fresh produce.

Separate all ingredients into different containers, and each container should have its own serving utensil(s).

Cook eggs, meat (cook to correct temp), and pasta before chilling and serving in the salad bar.

Chill: Salad bar items must be kept at a temperature below 41 degrees Fahrenheit – may place ingredients over ice to help keep at the correct temperature.

Learn more about how to avoid cross-contamination.

 

 

References:

Gordon Food Service Contributors. (2018, August 21). Salad Bar Safety: The Cold Truth. Gordon Food Service. https://www.gfs.com/en-us/ideas/salad-bar-safety-cold-truth

Merriam – Webster. (1828). Salad – Definition. Merriam – Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salad

Partnership for Food Safety Education. (2021). The Core Four Practices. Fightbac.Org. https://www.fightbac.org/food-safety-basics/the-core-four-practices/

Team, B. V. T. (2020, March 11). Salad Bar Food Safety: 10 Critical Ways to Protect Customers. Hitchcock Farms. https://www.hitchcockfarms.com/blog/salad-bar-food-safety

 

Dinner Tonight Links:

https://dinnertonight.tamu.edu/wash-fresh-produce/

https://dinnertonight.tamu.edu/cross-contamination/

https://dinnertonight.tamu.edu/recipes/salad-recipes/

Picky Eaters

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Children don’t always want to eat their vegetables. Make up a game at the dinner table to see who can come up with the funniest name for your vegetables! If you have a picky eater who won’t touch a plate with leafy greens or an unfamiliar vegetable, you may be wondering what to do. Try these tips:

  • At the grocery store, let children pick their own fruit or vegetable.
  • For variety, try a different color each week.
  • Fill the shopping basket with a fruit or vegetable from every color in the rainbow.
  • Let them play with their food. Use slices, dices, pieces and whole fruits and vegetables
    to be creative.
  • Make colorful and funny fruit and vegetable faces. Make a game out of it (who can make the funniest face), then eat them together.
  • Make an edible landscape. For example, use a banana slice as the sunshine, broccoli as trees, leafy greens for grass, etc.
  • Give fruits and vegetables a funny name.
  • Let children help prepare fruits and vegetables. They can:
    • Wash fruits and vegetables before cooking or eating
    • Snap the peas or break apart the broccoli
    • Tear the lettuce for salads and sandwiches
    • Measure the vegetables before cooking
    • Peel fruits and vegetables
    • Slice soft vegetables with a plastic knife
  • Read books about fruits and vegetables with your child.
  • Introduce children to gardening to teach them how fruits and vegetables grow.
  • Plant seeds together and watch them grow.
  • Set a good example ― eat and enjoy fruits and vegetables with your child.
  • Have your child eat with another child who loves fruits and vegetables.

Establishing a love for fruits and vegetables while your children are young will help them be healthy now and in the future. A diet high in colorful fruits and vegetables will provide a variety of vitamins, minerals and fiber that children need to grow. Studies show that eating fruits and vegetables can help your child maintain a healthy weight, keep bowels regular, and decrease the chance of diseases like heart disease and cancer. Start now to establish a lifetime of healthy eating habits for your children.

To view the whole PDF from University of Nebraska Extension, click here.

Be Sneaky with your vegetables, how to sneak them into your picky eaters food!

Play a game at Dinner Tonight that will help engage your child with eating vegetables and fruits.  

 

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Cook with Your Kids

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5 Great Reasons to Cook with Your Kids

​​By: Nimali Fernando, MD, MPH, FAAP

When it comes to raising an adventurous eater, it is not just about coaxing kids to eat their veggies. Bringing up a child who can enjoy a cantaloupe as much as a cupcake takes patience and persistence, but it does not have to feel like a chore.

Kids may need to have frequent joyful experiences involving food to overcome the anxiety they may have around tasting the unfamiliar. Over time, cooking with your children can help build that confidence—and provide rich sensory experiences.

Here are five ways to enjoy cooking with your children while raising an adventurous eater along the way.

  1. Engage other senses. For a hesitant eater, tasting an unfamiliar food can sometimes be intimidating. You can help your child explore foods when cooking using other senses besides taste. This helps to build positive associations with food. Kneading dough, rinsing vegetables, and tearing lettuce all involve touching food and being comfortable with texture. The complex flavors we experience when eating food come from both taste sensations from the tongue AND smelling with the nose. While cooking with new ingredients, some children may feel too overwhelmed to taste. If this happens, you can try suggesting smelling a food first; this may provide a bridge to tasting in the future.
  2. Use cooking to raise smart kids. There are so many lessons that can be taught while cooking. Math concepts like counting, measurement, and fractions naturally unfold when navigating a recipe with kids. Explaining how food changes with temperature or how certain foods can help our body be healthy provide great lessons in science. While cooking with your child, practice new vocabulary as you describe how food looks, feels, and tastes. Following a recipe from start to finish helps build the skills for planning and completing projects.
  3. Make cooking part of the family culture. The family meal can start in the kitchen as you cook together. Family meal preparation is an opportunity to celebrate your cultural heritage by passing down recipes. Help your kids find new, seasonal recipes to add to your repertoire and family cookbook. Cooking together and prioritizing health over the convenience of processed food are great ways to lead by example and help your children buy into a culture of wellness. Building daily and seasonal traditions around cooking together helps strengthen your family’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle.
  4. Keep it safe. Teach kids the importance of staying safe while cooking by showing them how to hold kitchen tools safely, how to use oven mitts to protect hands from heat, and  how to turn appliances on and off safely. Always supervise children when cooking to ensure they are sticking with safe and age-appropriate tasks. The best way to keep cooking safe is to know your child’s abilities and his or her stage of development. A four-year-old child, for example, may not be ready to sauté vegetables over a hot pan, but may have the fine motor skills to rinse fruits or tear salad leaves. Keeping safety in mind, it is not difficult to get kids—even toddlers—involved in the kitchen.
  5. Ask for input. Children feel more included in mealtime when they are asked to be a part of meal preparation. Collaborate with your kids when selecting recipes for main dishes or sides. Let them help you make the shopping list and find groceries in the store or farmers market. When cooking together, let children offer a critique of the foods you are preparing. Together you can decide what ingredients you should add to enhance the flavor. Talk about how people enjoy different tastes, and share your preferences with each other. Letting children be “in charge” of details like how to set the table will help them feel invested in mealtime.

Over many years, cooking as a family will help develop a happy, adventurous eater with some pretty valuable life skills—and plenty of happy memories in the kitchen. With enough practice, your child will someday be able to cook YOU a delicious meal!

From the American Academy of Pediatrics, see full article here.

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