Rethink Your Drink and Tangerine Soda

Tangerines (photo from sodahead.com)

This March Bay View Nutrition launched its “Rethink Your Drink” campaign.  The campaign educates students about the impacts of sugary beverages like sodas in energy drinks.  In the Nutrition classroom, students measured the amount of sugars in common beverages such as soda, chocolate milk, energy drinks and processed juices.  The students were shocked by how much sugar they drank on a daily basis!  Students learned about alternatives to sugary beverages like water, 100% fruit juices and milk. 

Students are also being challenged to go for the month of March without soda.  So far, over 10 classrooms have signed up for the challenge.  Classes who meet the challenge will win a smoothie party hosted by yours truly.

Similarly, every K-3 classroom is receiving their own copy of Potter the Otter books.  Below is a link to a great website about Potter the Otter and drinking water.

http://www.potterloveswater.com/

See below for a natural soda recipe we made in class.

Tangerine Soda:

Ingredients:

*3 ounces squeezed tangerine juice.

*1 ounce melted honey

*Club soda to taste (depending on desired sweetness).

Preparation

1.     Add tangerine and honey.

2.     Pour over ice.

3.     Add in club soda to taste.

4.     Enjoy!

Students juicing tangerines for tangerine soda.

Growing Up Healthy

Growing Up Healthy mural

This February the kindergarten students received a month long unit on nutrition entitled “Growing Up Healthy.”  Students in all five kinder classes studied My Plate (Michelle Obama’s new guide to nutrition) and its corresponding food groups.  Similarly, students studied the importance of breakfast, eating a variety of foods and physical exercise.  Students in Beth Landry’s classroom received a visit and a virtual field trip from a local farmer.  At the end of the unit, students created a Growing Up Healthy Mural, pictured above.  Students promised to engage in a healthy behavior for the remainder of the year.  Students vowed to jump rope more, eat more vegetables and even plant a garden.  The mural illustrated the power nutrition education can have on early elementary students and their excitement to grow up healthy.

A kindergartner's promise to play outside more.

Papaya Boats

Papaya Boats (photo courtesy of Champions for Change)

This February the 5^th grade students studied healthy desserts.  In doing so, we featured a recipe from the Champions for Change website.  At Bay View Nutrition, we frequently use Champions for Change recipes in our classes.  They are quick, fresh and healthy. The students loved the papaya boats, especially the hints of mint. Enjoy the recipe as a midday snack or to top of a lovely meal.

Ingredients:

*2 papayas, rinsed and peeled

*1 medium banana, peeled and sliced

*1 kiwifruit, peeled and sliced 1 cup sliced strawberries

*1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained

*3⁄4 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt

*1 tablespoon honey

*2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint (optional)

Preparation:

1. Cut papayas in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Place each half on a medium plate.

2. Place an equal amount of banana, kiwifruit, strawberries, and oranges in each papaya half.

3. Combine yogurt, honey and mint; mix well. Spoon over fruit before serving.

Cabbage Spring Rolls

Cabbage spring rolls.

This winter students celebrated January’s Harvest of the Month, cabbage, by making cabbage spring rolls.  The students loved soaking rice paper and wrapping the ingredients together.  Students used grated carrots, sliced cabbage, chopped mint, cooked rice noodles and diced avocados to make this tasty treat.  Student’s also dipped the spring rolls in sunflower butter sauce (peanut sauce can also be substituted). 

Spring Rolls Recipe:

*1 packet of rice papers

*1 packet of rice noodles (cooked in hot water for 2 minutes).

*1 cup of grated carrots

*1 cup of  shredded purple cabbage

*4 tablespoons diced mint

*1 avocado diced

Dipping Sauce Recipe:

*1/2 cup sunflower butter or peanut butter

*1/4 cup soy sauce

*1/4 cup orange juice

*1 tablespoon honey

*1 clove garlic minced

Preparation:

1.     Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a sauce pan.

2.     Heat over medium.

3.     Stir consistently until sauce thickens.

4.     Heat water for rice noodles.

5.     Place hot water in a baking pan.

6.     Dip rice paper in hot water until smooth.

7.     Fill rice paper will prepared ingredients (carrots, cabbage, mint, avocado, noodles).

8.     Wrap rice paper like a burrito.

9.     Dip spring roll in peanut sauce.

Student soaking rice paper.

Ingredients for spring rolls.