Eat

Children take pride in what they create, whether it’s a picture colored with crayons or a meal they helped prepare for themselves and their family. When encouraging healthy eating, participation is a key to success.

Creating a salad bar as a family meal is an easy and fun way to allow each member of your family to have creative control over their meal, while encouraging exploration and adventure of their taste buds. In addition, children can help in multiple ways to prepare the meal and take pride in the variety and choices they’ve helped to make for the family.

Controversy arose earlier this year when Stanford University published a study that suggested organic fruits and vegetables may not be as healthful as touted by the pro-organic community. Unfortunately this received quite a bit of superficial publicity from mainstream press.

However, this is an extremely important topic and is worth taking a deeper look into the reasons we need to go organic: for our families, our communities and our global environment. Here are six big reasons to go organic:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends Americans consume three cups of leafy greens weekly or about half a cup each day.  These vegetables thrive in the cold of winter, making now the perfect time to start getting more greens into your diet.  Leafy greens are packed with nutrients including Vitamins A, C and K; folate, calcium and iron while providing a good source of fiber.

With that said, here are some common greens that can be found in your grocery store to help get you started with the recipes below.

I know a person who spends hours working out every day, six days a week. He has been doing this for the last 60 days and has not lost a single pound. How is that possible? The answer is quite simple: he never changed his diet!

When it comes to looking good and feeling good, healthy weight plays an important role and experts agree that a major factor is what you eat. Most of us can manage to figure out a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Where almost everyone falls off track is mastering the fine art of snacking.

According to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council released in August 2012, 40 percent of food in the United States is never eaten, amounting to $165 billion a year in waste. Food waste not only costs money, but also takes up space in landfills where it produces methane gas, contributing to greenhouse gases and global warming. This is why environmental advocates push food composting, which is both eco-friendly and makes for a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

Whether you like to hop on bandwagons or not, and regardless of the name, "Meatless Monday," it’s a good idea to include at least one meatless meal into the family dinner rotation once a week. Here is a quick and easy dinner menu your whole family will enjoy!

Broccoli Enchiladas
Ingredients:
3 cups of broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

In Japan, the color red signifies energy and power and is often used as a color for heroic figures. This is a good description because when you include red fruits and vegetables in your child's meals, they will grow up strong like superheroes.

Red foods are packed with lots of vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium. Red foods also contain compounds called phytochemicals, which have been shown to have positive health benefits. Phytochemicals, you might have heard about, include flavonoids, lycopene, reservatol and capsaicin.