A Few of My Favorite Things

Today's Blog inspiration was this morning's episode of The Splendid Table on NRP.

This is a summary of today's program from the show's web site:

In 2010, the British chef Jamie Oliver did a TV series about Huntington, West Virginia, called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Huntington had been named the unhealthiest town in America by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the series, Oliver set out to change how the entire city ate, especially targeting school lunch.

Jane Black, a food writer, and her husband, Brent Cunningham, deputy editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, wondered about the show's aftermath. They are writing a book about how to bring a healthier food culture to middle America.

The movement to bring healthy food to our children is now not just a west coast-east coast elite movement. So many times in my efforts to bring awareness of the impact healthy food has on our children, I am met with resistance. Teachers will often frown, wince, and roll their eyes when parents insist that children have organic milk at school. It often seems that perhaps the movement for healthy food is a class issue and only the elite care. The work that Jamie Oliver did in Huntington, West Virginia proves otherwise. 

When he first observed the school lunches and breakfasts served to children, he saw so much of the food being thrown out by children. As a visiting artist at many, many public schools, I often saw the same scenario, The smells of the cafeteria food was often nauseating. 

Jamie Oliver was able to change the food offerings in the Huntington schools. Once Huntington children were offered healthy foods, they ate their lunches! Because healthy food tastes so good!

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/to-change-food-culture-in-the-us-does-the-messenger-matter

My "mentors" in the quest for feeding babies and toddlers wholesome, attractive food have been books. My absolute favorite is Bebe Gourmet. The photography is inviting and the writing and recipes are very accessible. I appreciate the section on frequently asked questions and the tips for making the toddler dishes adult friendly. I have served many of the fruit coulis over yogurt to rave reviews at dinner parties with adult friends.

Other terrific cookbooks are The River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook.

And a new favorite (check out the Vegetable Baby Broth) is the petit appetit cookbook: Easy Organic Recipes to Nurture your Baby and Toddler. The book has so many basic "how-to's", that it is well worth the expense of the book. I also love the author,

Lisa Barnes',  blog: http://petit-appetit.blogspot.com/