Month: January 2018

Lentil Granola Bars

Ingredients: 2/3 cup shredded coconut 2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup pellet-like bran cereal 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup lentil puree* 1/2 cup canola oil 1 egg, beaten 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, dried cranberries or raisins   Directions:  Preheat oven to 350F. Make sure rack is in centre of oven. In medium bowl, mix coconut, oats, brown sugar, cereal and cinnamon. Add lentil purée, oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix until dry ingredients are just moistened. Spread over a 10 ½ x 16 (25 x 40 cm) non-stick cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. While bars are still warm, add chocolate chips, dried cranberries or raisins on top and cut into 35 bars.   *Lentil Puree: Rinse and drain a 19-ounce can of lentils. Place in food processor, add ¼ cup hot water, and puree until the mixture is very smooth, adding more water in small amounts to reach desired consistency, similar to baby food, about 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl as needed. Refrigerate or freeze unused lentil puree for your next batch!   Recipe adapted from: Pulse Canada

February 2018

Check out this month’s Healthy Start Sampler to learn about physical literacy in the winter, and more!

Edible Santa Claus

Ingredients: Pancake or toast without crust (face) Raspberries or sliced strawberries (hat and nose) Sliced bananas (eyes and beard) Blueberries (center of eyes) Yogurt and unsweetened shredded coconut (pompom and hat border) Small plate for each child Butter knife for each child Plastic wrap to cover Santa Claus and share with families Directions: Read a story related to the theme. Teach children about fruit portions with the help of the Canada’s Food Guide. Ask questions about what children know and would like to know about fruit. Make a brainstorming list with them. Sing and dance to the theme. Add empty clean strawberry/blueberry/raspberry containers in the block play area and the drama play area (kitchen corner). Invite children to wash hands and sit down to each prepare a Santa Claus. Teach children how to use a knife and cut a banana on their plate. Let children be guided by their creativity (they do not need to make a Santa if they rather make a Christmas tree for example.) They can choose to place the fruit where they want on their plate. Invite Santa Claus or an elf to come and talk about healthy eating. Take photos during the project and post them on walls. Invite children to also take pictures. During “Circle Time” ask children what they have learned and document their learning. Invite them to draw what they have learned. Share with parents and co-workers. Make your own bread crumbs by saving and drying out bread ends and crusts Get the children involved in the kitchen by grating the zucchini and cheese, mixing, measuring and forming the patties.   Source: Blessed Beyond Crazy

Make this year’s holiday celebration active!

Looking for ways to spice up family celebrations this holiday season? Why not add some physical activity! Gather all of your family members and go caroling throughout the neighborhood, go skating or tobogganing or even go on a nature scavenger hunt. The LEAP™ HOP Family Resource has a lot of great ideas your whole family can enjoy and easily do indoors! To give the activities a holiday twist, try playing Freeze Dance (page 34) using Christmas carols, wrap and decorate empty boxes and use them as pins for Knock Down (page 44) or make ankle bells (page 104) and while playing Follow the Trail (page 32) have everyone pretend they are Santa’s reindeer visiting houses on Christmas eve. Be creative, have fun and get moving!

Halloween

Active games for your Halloween party

Need some ideas on how to keep the kids active during your Halloween party? Check out these great ideas from Active for Life: Monster Freeze Dance – Put on “Monster Mash” or other seasonal tunes. Have the children show off their silliest monster dance moves, but they must freeze in place when the music stops. Pumpkin Bowling – Choose small pumpkins with short stem. Set up 4L milk jugs and tape off a starting line on the floor. The children are then to roll the pumpkins at the targets to see how many they can knock down. To make it extra fun, have the children decorate the bottles with stickers, markers and other spooky materials. Musical Pumpkins – Cut pumpkin shapes from construction paper and arrange them on the floor. The children must move from pumpkin to pumpkin while the music plays, just like musical chairs. To keep children from being excluded, allow them to share pumpkins as you remove a pumpkin for each round. By the end of the game, all of the children have to squeeze onto one pumpkin!

Cheesy Zucchini Bites

Ingredients: 5 cups grated zucchini (about 3 medium or 4 small zucchini) 1 tsp salt 1 cup panko or regular bread crumbs 2 large eggs 1.5 cups grated old cheddar cheese (about 175g) Directions: Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine zucchini and salt in a medium bowl and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. Strain any excess water and transfer zucchini to the centre of a clean dish towel. Wrap the zucchini up and twist the towel to squeeze as much excess water from the zucchini as possible. Transfer zucchini back to bowl and add panko, eggs and cheese. Mix thoroughly and shape mixture into 2 inch round disks. Bake for 22-25 minutes, flipping halfway through, until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Tips: Make your own bread crumbs by saving and drying out bread ends and crusts Get the children involved in the kitchen by grating the zucchini and cheese, mixing, measuring and forming the patties. Makes 16-28 bites Prep time 15 mins Cook time 25 mins Total time 40 mins   Source: http://howtoeat.ca/four-ingredient-cheesy-zucchini-bites/

HSDS Team welcomes a new student!

We welcome Tamsin Forbes, a kinesiology student collaborating with the Fredericton Family Resource Centre and also part-time on a small project with Healthy Start until the end of March. Originally from a small town in northern Alberta, Tamsin moved to Fredericton to pursue a degree at the University of New Brunswick in Recreation and Sport Studies with a focus on Wellness, within the faculty of Kinesiology. She has had a lifelong love of sports and recreation and has had the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of different activities. She keeps involved in the sport world here in New Brunswick by coaching a youth girls’ developmental basketball team, aged 9 – 11 years old, and in the past has also coached the co-ed 5 – 6 year old team. Moving forward with her career, Tamsin would like to continue to work in health promotion and community development roles, with a focus of encouraging physical activity amongst families.

HSDS team welcomes new nutrition practicum student

Véronique Dion-Cyr is from the Montérégie region of Quebec. She is finishing her Bachelor’s degree in nutrition at the University of Ottawa and is posted in Saskatoon for her practicum until the end of March 2018. Véronique is eager to collaborate with the Healthy Start initiative and hopes that her knowledge and experience can contribute to the project. Her interests are centered around the physical and psychological well-being linked to nutrition. She wants to support improving population health issues like decreasing chronic diseases. Véronique is also interested in cooking, photography, management and entrepreneurship.

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