Tips and Recipes

Fish sticks are a kid favorite! Introduce veggies and new flavor combinations by making them into fish tacos.

Step one - Bake your fish sticks in a preheated oven, 425 F for 16-18 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 165 F.

Step two - Assemble your fish stick fish taco: pile your fish sticks with cabbage, diced pineapple and sauce.

Step three - Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 corn or flour tortilla
• 2 fish sticks
• Purple cabbage, shredded
• Pineapple, diced
• Cilantro (optional)
• Sauce (tartar sauce, hot sauce, chipotle sauce, fresh lemon or lime juice)

We love oatmeal because it is quick, affordable and versatile. Here are some fun oat facts:

• 🥣 Oatmeal is high in fiber, which helps keep you full, longer.
• 🥣 It helps digestion and keeps you regular, which is important to keep you feeling good and healthy.
• 🥣 The recommended fiber intake is 25-30 grams a day, depending on age. With 4g of fiber per serving of oatmeal you are well on your way to meeting your daily fiber goal.

Oatmeal is not just breakfast—have it for lunch or dinner too! Add your favorite toppings to bump up the protein and fiber for a balanced meal. If you don’t have time to cook oatmeal, try overnight oats! (We’ll be sharing our favorite recipe soon). Or blend some oats into your smoothie for added nutrition (check out our smoothie video below).

Pizza is a kid-favorite dish that can be customized with all your favorite (healthy) toppings. Add proteins, veggies and even fruit! (Drop a pineapple emoji in the comments to let us know where you stand on pineapple as a topping🍍.)

Highline Nutrition Specialist and Dietitian Kris Marsh shows in the below video how you can customize your pizza toppings using last month’s make-your-own pizza kit. A simple cheese pizza with mozzarella gets the addition of veggies: bell pepper, onion and sliced spinach.

Want to experiment more with pizza? Make your own dough at home using this Healthy School Recipe. Or take the easy route and use store-bought nann or english muffins and marinara to make mini pizzas too!

Sliced, diced or mashed - avocados are full of healthy fats, nutrients, vitamins, fiber and minerals and they are so versatile! Each meal kit had an avocado this week. Check out how we prep avocados - leaving no green goodness behind. Plus an easy guacamole recipe below.

🥑 When picking an avocado- press the stem on the top. If it goes in easily-it is ready to eat.
🥑 Avocados can be kept on the countertop to ripen. Once they’ve been cut, put them in the fridge.
🥑 If you want to slow the ripening process keep them in the fridge, whole. If you need to speed up the ripening process place the avocado in a paper bag with an apple or kiwi.
🥑 Avocados are a fruit! They have a fleshy pulp and a seed, which fits the botanical criteria for a berry, but they can be classified with vegetables because of how they are typically eaten and how they taste.

A few ideas for incorporating avocado into your child's daily meals:
🥑 Add sliced avocado to sandwiches, salads, burgers or smoothies
🥑 Add diced avocado to soups, chilis, tacos or burritos, scrambled eggs
🥑 Add mashed avocado to toast, or use it as a dip for chips or vegetables

Quick Guacamole Recipe
☑️ 1 avocado, mashed
☑️ ½ lime, juiced
☑️ Pinch of salt

Combine ingredients and add to your favorite dish.

Tofu! Bake it, dry fry it, pan fry it with a little oil and even eat it raw. Tofu is a great way to add protein, calcium and iron to your diet. It’s also versatile--it takes on any flavor you pair with it.

Nutrition Specialist and Dietitian Kris Marsh shares her personal tofu recipe she got from her mom. She now makes it for her kids. Their review: Yum!.

• ✔️1 block of extra firm tofu, cubed
• ✔️1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari
• ✔️1 teaspoon curry powder
• ✔️1 teaspoon dill, dry
• ✔️1-2 cloves minced garlic (optional)
• 🍛Top a bowl of rice or veggies with your seasoned tofu, add a slice of avocado and hot sauce.

Delish!

If you’ve never pickled your own veggies, it’s easy, quick and most importantly, delicious. Pickled veggies elevate your sandwiches, tacos and rice bowls...or any other dish that sounds good! Use these pickled veggies to top your banh mi sandwich (bahn mee).

Make-your-own quesadillas are a simple, quick meal that is versatile and kid friendly! Use your imagination to add other ingredients that your kids love. Here are ideas to dress up your quesadillas:

• 🧀Use a mixture of cheeses (cheddar, monterey jack, pepper jack, mozzarella)
• 🧀Add protein (shredded/diced chicken, ground beef any other favorite protein)
• 🧀Add beans (refried, black beans, pinto beans)
• 🧀Add sautéed veggies and onions
• 🧀And last but not least, pick a dip for your quesadilla! Guacamole or mashed avocado, salsa, sour cream or plain greek yogurt (a great alternative for sour cream)

Check out one of our favorite smoothie recipes! No blender? No problem! We'll show you how to use the same ingredients to build a beautiful yogurt parfait. It will be easy to prep a nutritious and balanced meal to fuel you through your school day.

Healthy Fast Facts:

• 🥤Strawberries are a great source of Vitamin C. Oats are a great source of iron. When paired together Vitamin C helps increase the absorption of iron. Iron is an important mineral for growth and development.
• 🥤Bananas are a good source of potassium. Another important mineral that your body needs to function properly.
• 🥤Oats and yogurt add protein to your smoothie. Getting 15 - 30 grams of protein at breakfast will energize you and keep you feeling full longer.

Make your own smoothie creation using these guidelines:

• ➡️ Pick 2 fruits (strawberries, banana, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple, peach)
• ➡️ Pick a veggie (spinach, kale, cucumber, zucchini)
• ➡️ Pick a protein (greek yogurt, peanut butter/nutbutter)
• ➡️ Pick a nutrition booster (chia seeds, avocado, silken tofu, beans, oats)
• ➡️ Pick a liquid (milk, plant-based milk, water, coconut water)

If your kids don’t like eating raw veggies--try roasting them! 🥕🥦 During roasting, natural sugars are caramelized making veggies sweet and delicious! This week your meal kit has carrots, an onion and bell pepper - perfect veggies for roasting.

How to use in your meal kit:
🥕Top entrees such as the make-your-own pizza or philly cheese sandwich with roasted onions and peppers!
🥕Roast onions, peppers, carrots...and any other veggie you may have, to serve alongside the orange chicken and rice.

Getting kids to eat more vegetables can be challenging. Here are a few other tips if roasting veggies doesn’t do the trick for your kids:
🥕Change the presentation of the food - instead of carrot sticks, cut carrot coins or shred the carrot
🥦Keep introducing veggies - it can take up to 10-15 times before a child knows if they like a food or not
🥕Add a healthy, fun dip like hummus, yogurt dip or guacamole

Follow our basic roasting recipe in the video and add some extra flavor and nutrition to your entrees this week.
✔️Preheat oven to 400F
✔️Drizzle with oil
✔️Sprinkle with a pinch of salt
✔️Roast veggies for 20-30 minutes or until roasted and browned to your liking

Here are four ideas of how to prepare oranges as a snack or use in a dish.

• 🍊Cut oranges in fun shapes - pinwheels and smiles (wedges). Eat as is!
• 🍊Segments (also called supremes) – These are perfect for younger children who may not like the tough membrane or you can add to salads and top off your yogurt.
• 🍊Orange Juice - Freshly squeezed orange juice--there is nothing better! You can drink it, use it in a salad dressing or create a marinade. Try a simple vinaigrette to top a salad or marinate your favorite protein.
• 🍊Zest - Don’t forget about the zest! In this video Kris Marsh, our Nutrition Specialist/Dietitian, uses a microplane to zest the orange. Make sure to only get the colored part and avoid the white pith, which is bitter. The zest is bright and adds flavor- whether it is in a pasta dish, baked goods or in a dressing.

Oranges are a great source of Vitamin C, B vitamins, calcium, potassium and fiber. They are easy to prepare and incorporate into your daily routine to help keep our immune system healthy and strong.

Hard boiled eggs are a game changer when it comes to eating healthy on-the-go! They are easy to pack, quick to eat and a great source of protein. Here are a few different ideas to switch up your hard boiled eggs.

1. 🥚Make a deviled egg. Cut the egg in half, scoop out the yolk, add a dollop of mayonnaise and mix. Spoon into the egg white and sprinkle with black pepper or paprika. Enjoy!
2. 🥚Make a breakfast sandwich with sliced hard boiled eggs. Here, we toast bread, spread on mashed avocado and topped with an egg. Add other ingredients to create your perfect breakfast sandwich: bacon, tomato, spinach, cheese or any other meat or veggie that you love!
3. 🥚 Add to a salad to boost your meal’s protein, healthy fats, and improve the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients in the veggies.

Eggs are good with any meal--breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Here is a trick for peeling hard-boiled eggs at home.
✅put a hard-boiled egg in a small glass jar
✅add a couple inches of water
✅cover with lid or your hand
✅shake and swirl the jar
✅the egg shell should break away

Eaten by itself as a meal or a snack, it is not likely very enjoyable--but when it is chopped and prepared with other foods it adds layers of flavor and texture.

In this video we show two ways to cut an onion - half moon slices and diced onion. Here are some ideas to use your prepared onion in your meal kit or other meals this week:

Half Moons
🧅 Caramelize onions and add to a burger or a sandwich
🧅 Roast onions and add to a pizza or stir fry
🧅 Leave onions raw and add to a salad

Diced
🧅 Make a mirepoix (pronunciation: meer-PWAH) (onion, carrot, celery) to start a soup
🧅 Add to scrambled eggs
🧅 Saute and add to any dish (tacos, lentils, chicken, tofu)

When you think of a healthy food, onions are probably not the first thing you would think of, but they are good for you and have great health benefits. Not to mention, so versatile and can be used in a wide range of different cultural dishes. Onions are used in recipes throughout the world and have an interesting history (more to come on that). Onions come in different colors - yellow, white and red. They are a great source of vitamin C, phytochemicals, fiber and more.