School Nutrition Recipe Challenge
| January 14, 2011 | Posted by admin under Cooking, Healthy Eating, Kids, Nutrition |
“Recipes for Healthy Kids” is a contest sponsored by the “Let’s Move” and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that invites school nutrition professionals, chefs, students, parents and community members to create tasty, healthy, exciting new recipes for inclusion on school lunch menus across the country. That sounded like a perfect challenge for our Chef Justin so he met and collaborated with Linda Searight, Food Service Director at Florida State University Schools on a recipe that children and adults can eat any day of the week.
Chef Justin and Ms. Searight formed a team and developed a recipe entitled: “Florida Veggie and Red Bean Tostada.” The recipe included fresh vegetables roasted together and mixed with red beans and a zesty tomato sauce and served in a whole grain corn tostada on leafy greens.
The recipe received rave reviews from first graders to high school students and was served in the school cafeteria on December 15. Comments included “This is fantabulous” and “I loved it- it’s delisous.” But not only did it taste good, it was good for both the children and the adults who enjoyed it for lunch. Only 14.5% of the recipe’s calories came from fats, well below the minimum daily requirement. Only 5% came from saturated fats. The recipe had no sugar at all and was within a reasonable amount of sodium for all students.
Starting on March 1, 2011, recipes of fifteen semi-finalists will be posted at www.RecipesForKidsChallenge.com. Non-competing members of the public are encouraged to vote for the People’s Choice Award. Winning teams will prepare their nutrition-packed recipe at the White House. So please get involved and vote for Chef Justin and Florida State University School. “Let’s Move” Florida into the winner’s spot!
Sounds delish! Can’t wait till it’s published so I can try it! As a Florida school teacher who sees (and cringes at) what kids eat every day, I applaud the efforts and the contest!