Summer's freshest ideas to feed your kids well

(ARA) – Summertime brings out the best in family meals -- fresh vegetables and fruit, fresh-air dining and a fresh opportunity for parents to maintain their commitment to feeding their kids well.

According to a recent study by Ohio State University and published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, of children ages 2 to 5, less than 22 percent meet recommendations for their daily vegetable intake and for children ages 6 to 11, it’s less than 16 percent.

“With a little creative know-how, it’s easy to create summer meals that are full of veggies, value, variety and versatility,” says Sylvia Klinger, a registered dietitian, mother of two and member of the Ragu nutrition advisory panel.

Klinger offers some tips for adding more of the good stuff to your kids’ diets this summer.

* Eat out … side: Spend less time in the kitchen with quick and easy recipes like Chicken Margherita. Once the meal is ready to go, dine together on the patio, or spread a picnic blanket on your lawn for a special summer celebration.

* Nurture natural nutrition: Use the summer break to teach your kids about satisfying and nutritious meals. Bring them along to the farmers market, or take a special trip to a local farm. Let them select from among the fresh, brightly colored vegetables, then decide as family how to prepare them.

“One of the easiest ways to incorporate veggies into children’s diets is to use a great tasting tomato sauce like Ragu Old World Style pasta sauce, which provides more than a full serving of vegetables in every half-cup of sauce,” says Klinger. “It also contains vitamins A and C, anti-oxidants and lycopene. Add even more vegetables by combining with your farm-fresh suggestions for a delicious veggie pizza.”

* Skip the sweets, but delight in dessert: Keeping dinner healthy doesn’t have to mean sacrificing dessert. Take advantage of the abundance of fruits in the summer to make dessert as healthy as the main course. Slice up a juicy watermelon or freeze fruit juice in a cup with fresh fruit for your own homemade ice pops.

* Switch up summer snacking: Being out of school means kids have more free time to snack. While eating frequent, small meals is a good idea, it’s important to keep kids focused on the good stuff. Get in the habit of switching from junk food to healthy bites by preparing good-for-you snacks in advance.

For nutritious meal inspiration and delicious recipes visit www.Ragu.com.

Try these kid-friendly recipes the whole family is sure to love:

Chicken Margherita

Makes four servings. Prep time: 5 minutes. Cook time: 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups Ragu Old World Style Margherita Smooth Pasta Sauce
4 slices fresh or packaged mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Season chicken, if desired, with salt and black pepper. Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and brown chicken, turning once, about 5 minutes. Add sauce and simmer covered 5 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Top chicken with cheese, then let stand until cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Garnish with basil. Serve, if desired, with hot cooked penne pasta topped with additional sauce, heated.

Meatball Hero Sandwiches

Makes four servings. Prep Time: 10 minutes. Cook Time: 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 pound. lean ground beef
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg
1 jar (1 pound,10 ounces.) Ragu Old World Style Sweet Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
4 Italian rolls (about 6 inches long each), halved lengthwise
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)

Directions:

Combine ground beef, bread crumbs and egg in medium bowl; shape into 12 meatballs. Bring Pasta Sauce to a boil in 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Gently stir in uncooked meatballs. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until meatballs are done. Serve meatballs and sauce in rolls, topped with cheese.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest Lets You Be the Judge!

(BUSINESS WIRE)--For the first time, the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest is opening its judging up to you, America! The country’s most prestigious cooking contest once again will have 100 finalists vying for the $1 million grand prize, but now America can help determine 10 of those final 100 recipes with the new You Be the Judge! voting, beginning May 14, 2009, at www.bakeoff.com.

The 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off® competition, set for April 11-13, 2010, at the Waldorf=Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek hotel in Florida, will feature two groups of recipes that will comprise the final 100 recipes—90 recipes whose creators will directly earn a spot at the competition and 20 recipes that will be placed on www.bakeoff.com for America to judge.

The 20 recipes will be posted in pairs every two weeks beginning May 14, 2009 (namely, May 28, June 11, June 25, July 9, July 23, August 6, August 20, September 3 and September 17, 2009) where the dishes will be judged. Voting is limited to one vote per person per each pair of recipes. Voters must be registered members of www.pillsbury.com and 18 years of age or older as of May 1, 2009, to participate.

“Through the years, we’ve received many calls from people asking how they can be a judge for the contest, so we thought it would be fun to have people get involved and help us decide which recipes should move on to Orlando and compete for the million-dollar grand prize,” said Kim Anderson, Pillsbury Bake-Off® Kitchens Manager.

The recipe from each pair that receives the most votes will earn a spot in the Bake-Off® finals on April 12 in Orlando, where 100 home cooks will compete side-by-side at 100 mini-kitchens. You Be the Judge! voting for the tenth and final pair ends on October 1, 2009 at 11:59AM CDT. The 100 recipes competing for $1 million at the competition will be announced mid-October 2009.

The 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off ® Contest is sponsored by General Mills, General Electric, The J.M. Smucker Company, Eggland’s Best, Land O’Lakes, Inc., Fisher® Nuts and The Hershey Company and will award more than $1.1 million in cash, prizes and trips.

From early January through mid-April 2009, home cooks entered their original recipes in one of four recipe categories: Breakfast & Brunches, Entertaining Appetizers, Dinner Made Easy™ and Sweet Treats. Entrants had to use two or more different eligible products in their recipes, with at least one ingredient from the primary list of products and a second from either the primary or secondary list.

The primary list featured returning eligible products to the contest, including Pillsbury® Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls, Classic Pizza Crust, Cookie Dough and Ready to Bake!™ Cookies, Grands!® and Golden Layers® Biscuits, Cinnamon Rolls, Breadsticks, Crusty French Loaf, and Pie Crusts; Pillsbury® Brownie Mixes and Pillsbury BEST® Flour. Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Recipe Creations® flaky dough sheet and Thin Pizza Crust were new products on the primary list.

The secondary list featured Green Giant® Frozen Vegetables, Jif® Peanut Butter, Smucker’s® Jams, Jellies, Preserves, Fruit Spreads and Ice Cream Toppings, Crisco® Cooking Oil, Eggland’s Best Eggs, LAND O LAKES® Stick Butter and Fisher® Nuts. Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Hershey®’s cocoa, baking chips or bits and baking chocolate were new eligible ingredients also on the secondary list.

Recipe entries are judged on taste, appearance, creativity, and consumer appeal. For the 44th contest and You Be the Judge! voting official rules, visit www.bakeoff.com.

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FunnySpoon.com Launches a New Twist on the Cooking Website

/PRNewswire/ -- Scratch cooks aren't the only people who need a cooking website. Launching today, FunnySpoon.com serves up recipes featuring incredible menu shortcuts that are created through the use of common grocery store items.

FunnySpoon.com features dozens of recipes and coupons, as well as a shopping list generator. The website was created by two working women, Carrie Myers Jaynes and Vicki Monti, who searched for a resource and community to help them create quick and healthy meals that use branded grocery store products. Not finding any, they created it themselves.

"FunnySpoon is for the Wednesday night cook in all of us - when there is no time to cook from scratch, you don't want to drag the family to a restaurant, and you don't want breakfast for dinner again." Said co-founder Carrie Myers Jaynes, "By using everyday ingredients, you can create a dish - in just minutes - that your family will love and you'll feel great about serving!"

"People feel overwhelmed by meal preparation - what to cook, what products to buy, how to prepare. FunnySpoon meets those anxieties head-on by providing solutions that are quick and nutritious, and by celebrating the fact that you can deliver a from-scratch result without the from-scratch complexity. We do this by pairing branded products that complement each other to create the perfect dish. Everyone has their secret shortcut recipe and we'd like them to share their wealth of knowledge with the rest of us who are trying to figure out the daily meal-time dilemma," said Carrie.

With families heading back to their home kitchens for dinner during the economic downturn, FunnySpoon comes at a perfect time to help people put quality food on the table at a fraction of restaurant prices. "FunnySpoon cooking is not cheating," said Vicki. "Not even professional chefs cook from scratch every night they are home. There's no shame in using shortcuts when the result is a great-tasting dish that fits your budget and your time."

FunnySpoon.com Announces Recipe Contest

Just in time for the website's debut, FunnySpoon.com is holding a "Share Your Recipe" contest inviting all non-scratch cooks, young and old, new and experienced, to share their recipes for quick meal preparation and shortcuts to simplify the cooking process. The first fifty submissions will receive a canvas, eco-friendly shopping bag courtesy of FunnySpoon.com.

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How Do You Fondue?

(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the hectic bustle of the holiday season in full swing, The Melting Pot fondue restaurant (http://meltingpot.com) offers tips for holiday entertaining, fondue-style, that can keep the host mingling with guests and out of the kitchen.

“Fondue is a fun and interactive experience, which makes it the perfect holiday party activity,” says Shane Schaibly, manager of culinary development for The Melting Pot. “Most people have a fondue pot, whether it’s left over from the disco days or a new wedding gift, and can easily throw together a great meal to share with friends.”

Fondue dishes range from easy cheese appetizers and complete dinner entrées to chocolate desserts. Chef Schaibly offers the following tips to make each course at home.

Cheese fondue

1. Chill your cheese. Shredding cheese when it’s cold ensures the pieces maintain similar sizes and prevents clumping, which can lead to lumpy fondue.

2. Dust lightly in flour. This ensures the fondue reaches a smooth consistency. Use one tablespoon of flour for every two ounces of cheese. Gluten-free dieters can replace the flour with cornstarch.

3. Be a smart matchmaker. Keep cheeses from the same region together, as their flavors will naturally complement each other. Including only two or three varieties will allow each flavor to come through without being overpowered or lost.

Entrée options

1. Ensure the oil is the right temperature. Oil is the traditional cooking style and is still best for batter-dipped proteins. But it can be quite temperamental. If the oil is too hot, it will cook the outside of the protein but leave the inside raw. If it isn’t hot enough, it won’t fully cook the protein. Aim for 350° F, and test with a food thermometer.

2. Dry the dippers. Any water on the food will cause oil to pop, so make sure the vegetables are dry before dipping.

3. Be health-conscious. Vegetable bouillon is a low-sodium, low-fat, high-flavor alternative to oil. It’s also more forgiving because if a piece of meat isn’t done to perfection, it can be dipped back in for an extra minute or two.

4. Experiment with other cooking styles. Some other cooking styles available are coq au vin, a blend of burgundy wine and vegetable stock with chopped vegetables, and mojo, a garlic and citrus flavored broth. Both are similar to bouillon in their forgiving cooking times and go well with a wide range of protein choices.

Dessert

1. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. This is a delicate process. If any water makes it into the top bowl, the chocolate will become grainy and lumpy and will be unusable.

2. Melt it in the microwave. Place penny sized pieces into a round, microwave safe container and nuke for 30 seconds at a time at medium heat. Between warmings, stir the chocolate completely until it becomes fluid and then transfer to a fondue pot.

3. Set it on fire. Flambéing is a fancy trick that is easy enough for beginners to do and certain to impress the dinner crowd. Use one tablespoon of high-proof liquor (The Melting Pot uses Bacardi 151) and light it in a fireproof container, then pour it into the fondue. A sprinkling of cinnamon will sparkle like fireworks.

Dippers

1. Small dippers work best. They must be bite-size; too small and they’ll fall off the skewer, too large and cooking times increase.

2. Choose the dippers. Cheese fondue is best accompanied by assorted breads (pumpernickel, French baguette, rye), vegetables (carrots, celery, cauliflower), or fruit (apples, grapes). But if the local bakery has a family favorite, use it! If the kids don’t like cauliflower, leave it out!

3. Prep proteins the day before. If meats are on the menu, be sure to marinate them the day before so they can absorb plenty of flavor. Small raviolis are also a nice entrée selection and don’t take long to cook.

4. Prepare for dessert. Dessert accompaniments are the easiest to select, mostly because everything tastes great when dipped in chocolate. The Melting Pot offers marshmallows, cheesecake, pound cake, strawberries, bananas, pineapples and brownies. Fruits, sturdy cakes and cookies are a good choice here, as well as Rice Krispies® Treats.

“Sharing a pot of fondue is a great way to slow down and connect with the people you care about,” says Schaibly. “It’s easy to make because there aren’t any hard and fast rules in fondue. If it tastes great, it was done right.”

For more tips and complete recipes, take a look at The Melting Pot’s recently-released first cookbook. Available in the restaurants, “Dip Into Something Different – A Collection of Recipes from Our Fondue Pot to Yours,” features signature recipes for the restaurant’s most popular fondue dishes, salads and accompanying cocktails.

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