Canning Jar Salads

I've got salad-in-a-jar fever - and the only cure is MORE canning jars.

Are you looking for an easy, stress-free way to eat more fruits and vegetables during the week? Do you want to find fun ways to get your kids to eat their greens? Do you have a little extra time on the weekend you can carve out for food prep? Then read on.

If you store salads in a canning jar, you can eat them all week long. Yes, even on the last day of the week, your salad will taste as fresh as day one. It's truly amazing. The secret is in the stacking. Stack your salad right, and it will stay fresh and crisp. Oh, and they're beautiful. Bonus.

How to Stack Your Canning Jar Salad:

Step 1: Prep the vegetables and keep them separate.

Step 2: Pour your favorite dressing into the jar first.

Step 3: Add protein or a hearty vegetable like quinoa, faro, chickpeas, cooked chicken, cauliflower or broccoli.

Step 4: Add chopped vegetables.

Step 5: Add greens like spinach, iceberg, arugula, kale, etc.

Step 6: Top with treats like chopped apples, a little cheese, a sprinkling of walnuts, or even edible flowers.

Step 7: Close the jar and put it in the fridge.

On your way out the door that week, grab: your jar, a bowl, a fork, and a napkin. At lunchtime, shake your jar to mix the dressing and pour it into the bowl. 

For families - If you have kids, let them help you prep (if they're old enough), and layer the ingredients. At dinner time, give everyone their own closed jar. Let each member of the family shake up their own salad and pour it out. Make salad fun!

Salad Recipe Inspiration:

(from the bottom up)

1. Spinach-Apple-Fennel:
• balsamic vinaigrette
• rainbow quinoa
• thinly sliced fennel
• spinach leaves
• chopped Gala apples that have been sprayed with lemon juice
• chopped Gruyere cheese

1. Strawberry-Feta-Pasta:
• sherry vinaigrette
• whole wheat rotini
• chopped red peppers
• rough chopped spinach leaves
• sliced strawberries
• crumbled feta cheese

1. Fig-Almond-Couscous:
• balsamic vinaigrette with a touch of honey
• whole grain couscous
• chopped cucumber
• arugula
• chopped figs
• chopped almonds

You could add tofu, chicken, tempeh, or roast turkey to these salads too. Use my ideas as a starting point for your own favorite combinations!

Dressing Recipes (if you have time):

5-minute Basic Vinaigrette (from Mark Bittman):

You'll need olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, shallots, and salt and black pepper.

-There are endless variations on this dressing - add honey, use different vinegars like sherry or apple cider vinegar, throw in some chopped tomatoes, etc. More recipes from Bittman and the New York Times here.

I'm also playing with the small canning jars - like this pint size. I stuck celery sticks in peanut butter and I'm calling it a celery forest. It's a great snack for work!

I've been loving the Ball wide-mouth pint and a half jars for salad (makes filling and pouring easier) and the half-pints for snacks and sides.

Do you like canning jars? What are you going to make?

Can't wait to hear!

Caroline

Have Fun & Stay Healthy This Summer

The first official day of summer is June 21st! So soon! I love the long, light days of summer and the fun outdoor activities that come with them - taking evening strolls, tossing a football, meeting up for BBQs, reading in the park, and brunching outdoors to name a few. Granted, a lot of the summer is still spent indoors working while looking at the nice, sunny day outside...but there are many more fun weekend options for non-winter-loving people like me.

Often, these exciting weekend options like fairs and ballgames center around food. Specifically junk food. You can't avoid it - it smells good, people are probably yelling it out at you "Hot dogs! Ice cold Coke!" and let's face it, there's something there that you know tastes good. Look, I'll admit it, fried dough tastes really good. It's designed to taste really good. It's fried. dough. Now, if you have a little once a year and you share it with friends, fine. But, if you're a family going to these events all summer, it can be difficult to stay on a healthy track. 

The solution to a summer of junk food? Well, actually, there are three. 

To learn the three guidelines and prepare for your fun, healthy, active, awesome summer, check out my article at NY Metro Parents magazine.

A Balanced Plate (& A Cheesy Giveaway!)

When I want it decadent and gooey, I hit up San Francisco’s American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. When I feel like a little kid, I peel thin strings off a cheese stick and pretend I have a cheese beard. When I’m really hungry? Slices of comté. Bread knife. Kitchen counter. But, when I’m feeling fancy, I pull out my cheeseboard, cheese knives, and a bottle of wine. And sometimes I invite other people to join me.

As a dietitian, I want people to enjoy eating. We typically eat at least three times a day, every day for our whole lives. Let’s say you start eating regular meals at about a year old and you live until you’re 90 – that’s at least 97,455 eating opportunities. And that doesn’t count standing outside the refrigerator plucking out handfuls of grapes, eating frozen mini chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s, or enjoying healthy snacks throughout the day.

Food is both personal and social, and if you stress about everything you eat, you’re going to spend…well, a lot of time stressed out. And that’s going to do a number on your body’s ability to regulate its own hunger and fullness signals and desire to retain or lose weight.  Not to mention bolster its uncanny ability to wind and warp feelings of hunger and fullness with emotion, totally confusing us inside and out.

On the whole, I believe that if you like something, eat it. If you feel better not eating it, and you can maintain a healthy attitude and get all the nutrients you need, don’t eat it. I’m not a fan of “forbidden foods” because that all-or-nothing mindset leads to guilt, and more guilt. Better to balance your diet by eating lots of healthy food so when you make an indulgent choice that’s got the whole delicious fat-salt-sweet thing going on, you’re all good.

This leads me back to cheese.

My typical advice for people who are trying to eat healthfully is to enjoy small amounts of full-fat cheese, and use reduced-fat cheese when you're making a dish that calls for a lot of dairy and you just need that cheesy flavor and texture. For example, when I make lasagna, I use skim milk shredded cheese for the majority of the dish, and mix in some full-fat cheese to boost the flavor.

When Culture gave me the opportunity to throw a cheese party, I jumped on it, and prepared a bunch of healthy apps to go alongside the main attraction.

They sent a pretty box of cheeses: Bayley Hazen Blue, Comté, and Great Lakes Cheshire, along with spiced pecans and oat crackers.

While the cheese was a huge hit, the Zingerman’s Spiced Pecans may have won the popularity contest. Friends dipped their fingers into the empty bowl to scoop up the sweet powder. 

Another unexpected hit was celery and carrot sticks dipped into spicy Thai peanut sauce. It went with chicken skewers, but people seemed more interested in dipping the veggies! The Barefoot Contessa’s spinach gratin made with skim milk went over well too. Special thanks to Saffron Road and TraderJoe’s for letting me pour some appetizers out of a bag. I chose a mix of high-stress (raw chicken on the counter 30 minutes before people arrived) and low-stress appetizers (open plastic container of edamame, insert spoon, place on table). There are shortcuts for pretty much everything – you gotta pick your party prep battles.

I’ve posted my recipes and other healthy app ideas on my Pinterest page!

THE GIVEAWAY:

You could win a copy of  Cheese for Dummies, courtesy of Culture magazine! 

To enter, tell us: what are your favorite healthy appetizers? You must post a comment to enter the giveaway. For every tweet or facebook post, you get an extra entry! The giveaway ends on Tuesday, March 12th at 12pm EST. I'll announce the winner later that day. 

I can't wait to hear about your favorite healthy appetizers - if you have links to the recipes, please share them with everyone!

How to Handle After-School Hunger

(Tip #1) Have a bowl of cold, washed fruit on the table waiting for them

Does your child come home from school "ravenous" every day? Take the stress out of feeding your sweet hunger-monsters by preventing intense after-school hunger pangs, and learn how to get healthy, yummy snacks on the table FAST!

Read my article at PBS Parents

New Year, New Foods: How to encourage picky eaters (and their parents!) to try new foods in 2013

Happy New Year! If you're aiming to include more veggies on the table in 2013, check out my latest article for the Campbell's Nutrition & Wellness Newsletter to learn how to get picky kids (and their parents!) picking vegetables. I've also included links to a bunch of websites to get you motivated - from age-appropriate kitchen activities to how to start a vegetable garden.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

For more tips, read the entire article by clicking here [this will open in a new window].

Make a list of seasonal vegetables to try every month!

Caroline Kaufman Nutrition is now on Facebook

Hello everyone!

Looking for even more healthy tips, links, recipes, and strategies for you & your families? Visit Facebook and "like" my new business page: Caroline Kaufman Nutrition.

Yes, I'll be posting new content all the time, but I also want it to be a place for you to share with me and one another. I want to hear from you! Stop by and join the conversation.

Here's a sampling of the fun, practical posts you'll find on my new Facebook page:

1. Kitchen Help: Are you making healthy, savory sandwiches or grilled dinners on your panini maker or Foreman grill? Check out my tips on how to clean them (hint: save those take-out chopsticks!)

http://www.realsimple.com/magazine-more/inside-magazine/ask-real-simple/clean-panini-maker-00000000018609/index.html

2. Food Safety: Reusable grocery bags are great for the environment, but they may be carrying more than food. Wash them to get rid of lurking bacteria. http://www.eatright.org/kids/tip.aspx?id=6442469594

3. Easy Cooking Tips: Bored with baked sweet potatoes? Check out some creative ways to eat sweet potatoes and mix it up at the table. If your kids don't like one prep, they may like another!
http://www.beewellforlife.com/5-fast-and-tasty-ways-to-eat-sweet-potatoes/

4. Delicious Dinners: This chicken piccata from EatingWell will be a hit at dinner (and makes great leftovers for lunch). Add zucchini in with the mushrooms to amp up the veggie power. 

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/best_healthy_chicken_recipes?slide=69#leaderboardad

5. Family Nutrition: advice for parents trying to raise healthy eaters & take the stress out mealtime. Here are some tips on handling picky eaters:
http://www.eatright.org/kids/article.aspx?id=6442467922

I hope to see you there!

Caroline

Apple Cheddar Bagel Chips

Day old bagels get a second life when they're sliced thin, sprayed with olive oil, and toasted crisp in the oven. Pick up a variety at your nearby market or favorite bagel haunt - the everything, onion, rye, whole wheat, and pumpernickel are all delicious in chip form. 

You can eat pretty much anything with a bagel chip. They're a base for open-faced sandwiches, a conduit for getting hummus from the container into your mouth, and a tasty tray for tart apples and shredded cheddar cheese. 

These guys go great with bowl of soup or paired with a healthy fat for a weekend snack. Whole grains (like the rye or whole wheat bagels) plus a protein or healthy fat make a perfect snack. Try a bagel chip with sliced turkey or almond butter to get you from lunch to dinner.

Cabot Creamery sent me Sharp Extra Light (75% reduced fat) cheese to play around with. It has a mildly sharp flavor, shreds really easily and melts and browns like a cheese should. I like using full fat cheese when I'm not using a lot - like grating fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano on top of pasta. But, when I need a lot of cheese, like for a lasagna or these cheese bagels, I like to use (or mix in) some reduced fat cheese.

Ingredients: bagels, apples (sliced), shredded cheese

Bagel Chips with Sliced Apples and Melted Cheddar Cheese:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Thinly Slice bagels into rounds, being careful of your precious fingers!
3. Spray rounds with olive oil (as you know, I love the Misto)
4. Arrange bagels on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, flipping them over halfway through
5. Layer bagels with apples and cheese and place under the broiler for 5 minutes, watching to make sure they don't burn.
6. Let cool for 2-3 minutes before eating

Note: I received free samples of cheese from Cabot Creamery. I was under no obligation to write about the product and received no monetary compensation.