————-

Childhood obesity is now the nation’s disease—an ailment crippling the body politic. The long-term health effects are well-established and include early onset diabetes and premature hip and joint problems. American children are prematurely aging, suffering from sicknesses that were once the provenance of older adults. Old has become the new young.

The lineup of culprits includes school vending machines, latchkey children, the endangered home-cooked meal, vanishing physical-education classes, fried everything, supersized portions, sedentary hours spent zoned out in front of the computer screen, nutritional ignorance, misleading labeling and more. But whatever and whoever is to blame, it is surely not kids. We cannot expect children to make the right food choices when healthy foods are out of reach and nutrition-smart role models are not in evidence.

The saddest thing about childhood obesity is that it’s unnecessary. It’s inexcusable that in the breadbasket of the world American children are eating so much lousy food.

As an agriculturist and horticulturist, I believe that the answer is simple. As parents, educators, nutritionists and marketers, we have to imbue our children with the love of—and consumption of—the most beneficial food for growing bodies. This means fresh vegetables and fruits, whether store-bought or home-grown.

As kids, we imitate our elders, who teach most effectively by example. Right now, adults aren’t doing a good job of modeling good behavior. According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 26% of adults have three or more servings of vegetables a day, a number that includes those who deem a tomato slice or lettuce on a burger as a “vegetable serving.” In other words, roughly 80% of U.S. adults scarcely eat any vegetables at all.

Liking vegetables is not a given: Every food other than breast milk is an acquired taste. But children can easily learn to enjoy eating their greens. It’s simply a matter of education and familiarity—as in “family.” Children will happily eat squash, artichoke or broccoli, to the delight of the parents who taught them to do so. As for fruits, children can gobble them up, but like vegetables, they must be at the ready, at least as available as all the junky alternatives.

Kids imitate their elders, who teach most effectively by example.

In our research at Atlee Burpee, we have found that kids who grow vegetables alongside their parents eat them regularly and with gusto. Peas, green beans and raw carrots—the very vegetables that kids are told to eat, their parents’ admonishing fingers wagging—are particular favorites.

While not all American families have the benefit of a sun-filled backyard for a vegetable garden, companies like Burpee offer many vegetable seeds and plants that you can grow easily in containers. You can grow beets, carrots, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts, which can be plucked from the stalk well into winter.

Eighteen years ago, as president of the American Horticultural Society, I initiated a children’s gardening program. Our annual symposium drew thousands of educators and community gardeners with the goal of educating and inspiring children to grow gardens in their school and neighborhoods. The results were heartening: Thousands of churches, schools and community centers sprouted new gardens.

Yet no single institution is sufficient; fighting a problem of this sort requires a multifaceted effort. Churches could do much more to inspire families to grow vegetables. Public and private botanical and community gardening groups should augment efforts to lure neighbors into their educational demonstration gardens. Most families, whether in the city or suburbs, can plant at least a “starter garden”—involving pre-teen children in the planting, tending and harvesting.

Let’s make 2011 the Year of the Vegetable. We have nothing to lose but our waistlines.

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• Eating and Cooking Products

To celebrate the new flavors, Freschetta is hosting the  Freschetta “Fresh Ride” Sweepstakes. You can enter by visiting www.freshridesweepstakes.com for the chance to win a 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid* car and other great prizes, including Fresh Flower of the Month Club memberships and a year’s supply of Freschetta® Pizza. Simply enter your information on the site for a chance to win these fresh and exciting prizes!  You can get additional entries by sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and email, too!

Here are more details on these new California-style pizzas.

Available in delicious varieties, including:

• Mediterranean Garlic & Veggie: Blends vibrant, flavorful vegetables and garlic with a garlic- and  white wine-flavored sauce,feta and mozzarella cheeses.
• Spicy Chicken & Feta: Grilled chicken, red onion, feta, provolone and mozzarella cheese on a spicy buffalo ranch-style sauce for a hint of heat.
• Bacon Spinach & Artichoke: Combines fire-roasted artichoke hearts, spinach,bacon and mozzarella cheese with a garlic- and white wine-flavored sauce.
• Sundried Tomato & Cheese: Tomatoes, marinara and cheese fused together for a tangy, sweet and salty flavor.

For more information on Freschetta^® California-Style Pizza, visit www.freschetta.com.

Here on Lipstick to Crayons, Freschetta is offering four of my readers a chance to win a coupon for a free pizza and a eco-friendly canteen-style water bottle. To enter, leave a comment below.

Giveaway guidelines

To win, let me know in the comments section below what your favorite pizza is.

Receive additional entries by doing any/all of the following, but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:

1. Blog about this contest
2. Subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed
3. Tweet this giveaway on Twitter
4. Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati
5. Stumble this post
6. Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time Dec. 7, 2010. Be sure to include a valid email address. Winners will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If a winner does not claim prize by Dec. 9, 2010, she/he will forfeit the prize to alternate winner who will be drawn at random.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED.

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Enter KooLoos- an original new snack that packs lots of taste by combining roasted soybeans and organic ground flaxseed — without the fat! KooLos are:

• Rich in Omega 3 Fatty Acid
• A good source of soy protein (7 grams of protein in a 1-ounce serving)
• Heart-healthy
• Cholesterol-free
• Trans Fat-free
• Contain 20 ms of isoflavones from soybeans and 3 grams of dietary fiber per 1-ounce serving

KooLoos come in three flavors: Honey B.B.Q., Salsa (my favorite) and Original. They are a baked snack and they contain 60 percent less fat than peanuts.

KooLoos are available at health and mainstream food store nationwide for an SRP of $1.99 to $2.29. You can find more information about them here or join their Facebook page, would may have coupons down the road, here.

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As I was driving today, it occurred to me that it might be time to share my tips and tricks for inexpensive family travel as part of the new Frugal Living focus on Lipstick to Crayons.

Keeping Kids Entertained

Planning goes a long way toward keeping kids happy in the car. It helps to have movies and video games, but it helps even more to have movies they’ve never seen or games they don’t own.  Still,  it can get expensive to rent a bunch of movies and games — especially if your trip is long enough that you might incur a late fee. So we like to do a swap with friends and neighbors before taking a road trip. Both families in the swap get to enjoy some “new” movies and games, and no one has to spend any money. We also sometimes rent a few items from the local library — you can find a lot of good movies there that you may have missed at the theater, and you can almost always get your hands on a few classics that your kids may not have seen.

Speaking of the library: many of them have established a vast collection of online books that you can download directly to your home computer and transfer to your iPod or MP3 player.  As a distance runner, I LOVE this feature because I enjoy listening to books while I do my long training runs. But it can also be a way to help pass the time while driving across long stretches of barren highway, and sometimes older kids likes listening to books on the electronic devices, as well. Since downloadable books and books on CD can get very expensive, this is a huge cost savings.

And of course, the library certainly offers tons of books and magazines for those delightful children who are happy to sit quietly and read in the car. I only got one of those out three, so if you have a carload of them, count your blessings!

Another splendid trick I have used over the years is the “Present Bag.” Before going on a trip, I go to one of those dollar stores and buy a bunch of $1 items that are age-appropriate for my kids, along with a few fun snacks like candy necklaces, dot candy on paper and pixie sticks. Then I wrap each item individually in newspaper like a present. When the kids start to get restless in the car or I sense that they are about to begin bickering, I bride them with a gift from the Present Bag. (Make sure you mark the presents so you know what’s in each one — my son didn’t appreciate a book full of Strawberry Shortcake stickers one time).

Another great use for  Present Bag: eliminating the whine, beg and eventual cost of purchasing stuff at roadside convenience stores  and souvenir shops. Kids want and need to get out of the car and they love going into these stores, but if you can use the Present Bag to distract them from that overpriced toy that will be broken before the next exit.

Meals and Snacks

Of course, it’s cheaper to pack a cooler full of food and bring bags of snacks from home than it is to buy them on the road. (One convenience store owner told my husband his stuff costs 18 to 20 percent more than the grocery store). But again — kids want and need to get out of the car, and those exits tend to be at places selling food and snacks. I try this approach: I pack sandwiches, veggies and dip, trail mix and other snacks from home, and use the fast food restaurants and convenience stores to “compliment” what I bring. For example, I might tell the kids that we have drinks and sandwiches in the car, but they can each get an order of fries to go with their sandwich. Or, I tell them I have trail mix or popcorn in the car, but they can each have a pack of gum or mints.

Plus, eating from a cooler of food that you made yourself is tremendously more healthy than eating from the deep fryer at a fast food chain.  And during spring, summer and fall, a short picnic at a rest stop is more fun for the kids than having to sit still at a restaurant anyway.

Accommodations

There are all kinds of ways to get reduced rates on hotel rooms and lots of Web sites dedicated to doing that. I do think that showing up at the desk of a hotel and requesting a certain rate in person works best, but only when the hotel isn’t full. We save money by making one hotel room work for our family of five, and we choose hotels that offer free breakfast. That’s a decent savings, particularly if it means you can eat a later breakfast, skip lunch and do an early dinner. And if you have a room with a fridge and a microwave oven, make use of them by having at least one other meal each day in your hotel room.

How do you save money when you travel? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks.

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Penny-Pinching Processes (not necessarily in order)

Process 1

As I mentioned, I started following several blogs toward  the end of last year as part of my learning process. While I wish I could, I cannot reinvent what these amazing and smart women have created. So, if you’d like to reduce what you spend on groceries, personal care products and household supplies, I highly suggest you subscribe to these blogs:

• Money Saving Mom
• Deal Seeking Mom
• The Coupon High
• The Coupon Project
• Attention Target Shoppers (even if you don’t have a Target, this blog provides lots of great tips and ideas for thriftiness)

Process 2

I started clipping coupons in January and I made my coupon binder. You can find examples of coupon-organizing systems at several of the blogs mentioned above. I like the binder system best because I “love me a three ring binder.” I made mine from one of my daughter’s old middle-school zippered binders. It’s complete with her middle school doodling on the cover. Maybe I’ll graduate to something more “grown up” eventually, but this one was free and saving money is the whole point of the exercise, so it made sense.

Process 3

I participated in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. If you want to save some money on groceries right away, I suggest you give this a try for a week or longer. There may be lots of complaining from your kids, but it’ll be worth it on the money front! (Be sure to check out Eat from the Pantry Challenge Part 2 and Part 3). Doing this challenge also made it easier for me to get a handle on what I have in my fridge, freezer and pantry.

Process 4

This one is simple: When making dinner, I double or triple the entree (if it’s something that will freeze well). And don’t say you don’t have enough freezer room. As I learned from the book Miserly Moms, you don’t even need two freezers, but rather, a bunch of gallon-sized freezer bags that can be filled and frozen flat.

Process 5

I started buying whole chickens, cooking them and pulling the meat off the bones, then freezing the meat in freezer bags for use in chicken quesadillas, chicken tetrazinni, chicken strombolis, home-made chicken pizza, etc. It’s a lot cheaper than buying the boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

Process 5

I clip my coupons from the paper on Saturday morning, and I file them in my binder on Sunday so the task is done by the time the grocery ads arrive in the paper/mail on Monday.

Process 6

I read the blogs mentioned above and make a list for the Walgreens and CVS deals I will take advantage of that week to stock up on groceries and personal care items that are free, almost free or significantly discounted.  Doing these Walgreens and CVS deals is a learning process, and you should start small. I think Money Saving Mom has the best tutorials on how to get started doing this. I usually hit Walgreens and/or CVS on Monday or Tuesday, with my list of deals for each store written out and the coupons to make the deals even sweeter paper-clipped to the lists.

Process 7

I look through the grocery ads that arrive on Monday and make a list of the items I will buy from each store on a separate sheet of paper,  also paper-clipping to each list any coupons that coincide with the sales. Remember that the front and back pages of the ads tend to be the “loss leaders,” so these are the best deals. I no longer make a grocery list based on what I want to cook that week — I make a list based on the sales, and build our meals around those items.

Here’s an example: Last week, our local grocer, Schnucks, had pasta on sale 10/$10, pasta sauce on sale 10/$10, 4-pack baked potatoes 10/$10, etc. I went to Schnucks and bought ONLY the 10/$10 items, stocking up on pasta, sauce, etc. Then I built our meals last week around those sales. We had a baked-potato night, and a spaghetti pie night (and I doubled the spaghetti pie recipe, so there’s now one in the freezer). I had already stocked up on frozen ground turkey, shredded cheese and sour cream, all of which had been on sale the previous week, so I had the ingredients for some very inexpensive meals.

How much have I saved so far? That’s hard to answer for a couple of reasons: 1) I saved a ton of money on groceries in Janaury because of the Eat from the Pantry Challenge, but that won’t happen on a regular basis; and, 2) I’m also building quite a stock pile of food and personal care items as I find things on sale, so there are weeks when my grocery expenditures include this stockpiling effort, but I’m getting items cheaper than normal, which will save me money down the road.

I can say this: I have not had one single week since I started in which my total groceries (from the grocery store and Walgreens, Target and CVS) cost me $300, which was a number I often hit prior to my “journey toward frugality.” And, as I mentioned above, I’m stock piling quite a bit of stuff as things go on sale. Plus, I haven’t had to run out and buy diapers or juice or milk at the last minute, paying the highest price for said items because I had to have them at that moment. My shopping is more carefully planned, and therefore more thrifty in nature now. And, I’ve got a number of meals accumulating in the freezer for nights when things get “hairy,” which has cut down on last-minute take-out.

It’s a learning process, but I’m glad I’m doing it. The grocery budget is one of the few line items we can affect (there’s never a sale or coupons for the mortgage payment or the phone bill), so I’m trying to approach this as an exercise in “financial empowerment.” It sounds more fun that way, don’t you think? And I will admit to getting a little bit of a buzz when I manage to cut my “out of pocket” costs for a load of groceries by $20 or $30 at one time by using coupons!

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The newest sauce and stir varieties are:

· Chicken Breast Chunks with General Tso Sauce (my favorite)
· Chicken Breast Chunks with Spicy Sweet & Sour Sauce (my second favorite)
· Crispy Breaded Wings with Citrus Fire Sauce
· Crispy Breaded Wings with General Tso Sauce

I’ve tried all four varieties and enjoyed them all but loved the Chicken Breast Chunks with General Tso Sauce. They are made with the highest quality chicken and are an easy snack option for those starving kiddos after school, but also a great compliment to stir fry or fried rice to make a complete meal. And with the Superbowl just around the corner, they’d make a yummy no-hassle offering for entertaining.

If you’d like to receive two coupons to try Any’tizers for free, enter the contest below:

Giveaway Guidelines:

Leave a comment below about your favorite snacking time.

Receive additional entries by doing any/all of the following, but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:

1. Blog about this contest
2. Subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed
3. Tweet this giveaway on Twitter (you can tweet daily if you want, but make sure you leave a comment each time you do).
4. Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati
5. Stumble this post
6. Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar
7. Become a fan of Lipstick to Crayons on Facebook
   

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time Feb. 1, 2010. Be sure to include a valid email address with each of your entries. Contest open to United States residents only. Winner will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If winner does not claim prize by Feb. 3, 2009, he/she will forfeit the prize to an alternate winner.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO JESSI, COMMENT #71.

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Gerber 8 Grains and Yogurt Cereal adds variety to your baby’s diet while introducing her to the taste of yogurt.  It is made with eight natural grains (wheat, barley, rye, corn, sorghum, rice, millet, oat), real yogurt and live and active cultures.  The product has no artificial flavors and is an excellent source of iron for healthy mental development.

Gerber’s DHA & Antioxidant Purees are made with 100% natural fruits and vegetables and come in six varieties, such as Apple Blackberry and Farmer’s Market Vegetable blend to help introduce your baby to new tastes.  Gerber Purees with DHA have 18mg of DHA per serving to help support brain and eye development and are an excellent source of either vitamin A (from beta carotene) or vitamin C, protective antioxidants that  are essential building blocks of baby’s natural defense system.

If you’d like to try these products for free, and win a Gerber teddy bear and recipe tin, as well, then enter the contest below:

Giveaway Guidelines:

Leave a comment with a valid email address in the comment section below.

Receive additional entries by doing any/all of the following, but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do.

1. Blog about this contest.
2. Subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed.
3. Tweet this giveaway on Twitter (you can tweet daily if you want, but make sure you leave a comment each time you do).
4. Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati.
5. Stumble this post.
6. Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar.
7. Become a fan of Lipstick to Crayons on Facebook.

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time Jan. 27, 2010.  Be sure to include a valid email address with each of your entries. Contest open to United States residents only. Winner will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If winner does not claim prize by Jan. 30, 2010, she will forfeit the prize to an alternate winner.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO BARBARA, COMMENT #60.

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The dinners have lasted longer than I predicted here for a number of reasons. My in-laws had us over for dinner a few times during the first few days of the challenge before they headed back to Florida for the winter (no, I don’t hate them because they’re warm). We also had a few unexpected events that resulted in my family members being fed outside our home. And, with a few trips to the grocery store for staples, I managed to secure the ingredients for a few more meals.

So, by my calculations, I saved about $150 the first week of the challenge, and I’ve saved about $50 the second week. I have restocked the pantry a little bit (to the biggest sigh of relief by my teen), but I still haven’t purchased any ingredients for additional dinners yet. That will happen in a few more days.

I’m also continuing to learn the ropes of couponing, and today I got $78 worth of stuff at Walgreens for $37.10 with the help of Money Saving Mom and a few other couponing divas! I hope to post more about that later, so be sure to subscribe to my feed!

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In case you didn’t know, Market Day is the nation’s largest food fundraising company. Market Day provides schools and other organizations across the country the opportunity to raise money by selling a monthly food program as well as a gift brochure and restaurant-quality desserts and cookie dough, as well as a gourmet food catalogue.

To be honest, I never paid a lot of attention to the Market Day catalogues that came home with my kids until recently when I was trying to find ideas for something different to pack in their lunches. School lunches are just too expensive and unhealthy, but a soul can tire of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite new finds:

Turkey &  Cheese Pretzel Sandwiches - these sandwiches have slices of turkey and American cheese on a pretzel bun. They’re frozen, so they can be packed in a lunch in the morning and then thaw throughout the day until lunch time. My kids loved them, but my husband loved them even more, so they didn’t last long in my freezer. There are six sandwiches in each $15.29 box from Market Day. That’s about $2.50 a sandwich, but remember, it raises money for your school, too.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Grahamwiches — these treats are a new twist on the old PB&J because the standard ingredients are layered between two graham cracker wafers. Frozen, they make a nice cold snack, or they can be packed in a lunch and thaw throughout the day. You get 12 bars for $10.49, making them pretty economical, too.

Fruit Singles – in the dead of winter, it gets pretty expensive to keep my kids in fresh fruit, but I like the idea of them getting at least one serving of fruit during their school day. These frozen Fruit Singles thaw to a slushy consistency by the time lunch rolls around for my kids, and are a nice alternative to buying small and sometimes sour grapes or over-priced “winter” strawberries each week. They sell for $10.89 for 12 cups.

Among Market Day’s most exciting new offerings are the new collection of herbs, rubs and seasonings from Market Day Gourmet. Each of these spices can be quickly combined with a few ingredients to create delicious, affordable meals that have “gourmet” flavors and aromas complimenting the dish. I’ve made chicken breasts and fish fillets coated with the Carolina Coast Sweet Mustard and shrimp and pepper kabobs marinated in the St. Louis Better Than Caesar spice and a few teaspoons of oil. I’ve also used the Santa Fe Chipotle combined with low-fat sour cream to make a savory topping for baked potatoes.

The spices, which come with recipe ideas for marinades, rubs, dressings and other methods for use, are perfect for use with slow-cookers and make-ahead meals for freezing. The selections include: A Salt for All Seasonings, Carolina Coast Sweet Mustard, Key West Citrus Herb, St. Louis Better than Caesar, Santa Fe Chipotle and Sonoma Summer Herb Blend and they cost $7.99 for a 5.6 ounce container.

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