by Natalie Grebe When chatting with a friend recently, she teased me about my love of chickpeas. I could eat them every day! Luckily for me, they can be prepared many ways as a healthy snack or side dish. My friend mentioned how frustrating it was for her to try to eat a well-balanced diet...Read More

By: Kitty Syster Are you tired of making the same lunches over and over? If you participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), you know how important it is to provide nutritious, well balanced meals for the children in your care. But sometimes it can be difficult to create new lunch and...Read More

Regina Wright Plan Do Review: Spring has Sprung and during the springtime we like to enhance our ways of keeping children hydrated. Below are a few quick nutritious delicious snacks that can also include educational opportunities to talk about math concepts, shapes and colors, textures as well as familiar springtime themes like rainbows, insects and the weather.Read More

Kitty Syster We all know that changes in CACFP whole grain food requirements occurred a little over a year ago and they can be confusing. The reason for the change, is that grain/bread products are an important dietary source of iron, thiamin, niacin, and riboflavin. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage at least half...Read More

By Natalie Grebe This recipe gives teachers many opportunities to incorporate learning into snack time. While making the snack, utilize the time to review colors, discuss how the foods you chose are grown and discuss why vegetables are healthy. Have children count out ingredients and discuss textures such as crunchy and smooth. The Crunchy Rainbow...Read More

Regina Wright Mini Pizza Recipe English muffins Tomato sauce Shredded cheese   Use one English muffin per child. Spoon 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce onto the English muffin. Spread 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese on top of the tomato sauce. Warm in the microwave for 10 seconds. Cool to serve.Read More

Regina Wright Ingredients: Blueberries – up to 10 per child Bananas – 1 per child Strawberries – 4 per child Greek nonfat vanilla yogurt – 3 tablespoons per child Ice – 1 cup per child Water – 1/3 cup per child Popsicle sticks – 1 per child Straws – 1 per childRead More