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Gingerbread cookie people

Ingredients: ½ cup margarine (no trans-fat) ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar 1 tbsp. blackstrap molasses 2 eggs 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. salt 1 ½ tsp. ground ginger 2 c. tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. allspice ¼ cup milk Dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, etc.) Cooking spray How to: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream margarine and sugar together. Blend in molasses until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in eggs, one at a time. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed mix, alternating with milk. Mix until well combined and dough forms. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C). Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1 cm (1/4 inch) thickness. Use gingerbread people or cookie cutters to cut out cookies and decorate them with dried fruits. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown. Let cool before eating. Makes about 24 cookies.   Reference: LEAP HOP, Legacies Now, p. 143

French Train-the-Trainer Workshop on January 29 – 30th, 2016

Healthy Start / Départ Santé (HSDS) is offering a French Train-the-Trainer Workshop on January 29 – 30th, 2016. Why become a HSDS trainer? To contribute to an early years health promotion initiative. To make difference in the health of young children. To help with the HSDS expansion in your community. This training will occur in French only. To register, please click here. Tentative Schedule N.B – Save the date!  An English Workshop will be offered on May 13-14th, 2016 in Saskatoon. Please contact [email protected] for more information or to reserve a spot.

Healthy Start in your community!

With an active Healthy Start/Départ Santé (HSDS) team, our project is covering a lot of ground and we thought we’d share where we have been since the beginning of our third year of implementation. Since August 2015, HSDS has added 37 new centres and prek’s in 27 new communities. To date Healthy Start is implemented in the North West, far North from Buffalo Narrows to Beauval and Pinehouse. Many on-reserve and off-reserve centres including Head Start programs are now part of the project. In the next couple of weeks, the team is heading to La Ronge, Yorkton, Humbolt and Christopher Lake for trainings in childcare centres and prekindergartens.

Healthy Start/Départ Santé in the Southwest

On October 17, 2015 the Healthy Start team was in Swift Current for a regional training with eight Seeds for Success early learning centres. There were twenty-four participants from early learning centres in Cabri, Gravelbourg, Hazlet, Success, and Swift Current. It was a very productive day with a lot of great discussion and active participation. Each participant took Healthy Start and LEAP BC™ resources back to their centre. Many of them were looking forward to using the Active Play Equipment Kit with the children. Special thank you’s go out to Cathy Knox, Public Health Nutritionist and Healthy Start trainer, for assisting with the training and to Diane Dahlgren for helping organize the day. Healthy Start is excited to work with the Seeds for Success group and expand the program in southwest Saskatchewan.

Potato Salad

What you need: 1-2 small potatoes or sweet potatoes 1-2 tbsp. of mayonnaise Dash of salt Dash of pepper Dash of cinnamon Dash of ground nutmeg How to: Cook the potatoes until soft and then let them cool down. Cut the potatoes into small pieces and put it in a cup. Measure mayonnaise into the cup. Add a shake each of salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well with a spoon. Serves one child Reference: LEAP – Food Flair, Legacies Now, p. 135.  

Fall 2015

Check out this month’s Healthy Start Sampler for a feature on potatoes (recipe, games and book) and our new partnership with Meadow Lake Tribal Council!

Trick or Treating @ Home

Trick or treating with a preschooler can be difficult. The weather may turn cold, October could welcome several inches of snow, and a late night for little ones can cause meltdowns. Not to mention the large amount of sugar children receive and having to dodge the many excited older children on the street; trick or treating on Halloween can quickly go from fun to done. Don’t stress! Below is a list of preschool friendly alternatives to traditional trick or treating:

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Implementation in Meadow Lake

August 25, 2015 was an historic day for Healthy Start/Départ Santé! It was the first training of the season and it was with Meadow Lake Tribal Council at Flying Dust First Nation. During the 5-hour training, 31 participants from 8 daycares and 7 Head Starts learned about our program and our resources. The ladies from MLTC were very active, and some competitive, with the activities we provided from LEAP BC™ HOP-but all in good fun.  Training went great! Special thanks to Joanne Derocher and Evelyn Fiddler who arranged everything, and who were very friendly and hospitable hosts. We look forward to this new partnership with MLTC!

Working Together, Moving Forward Forum Follow-up

To all health promotion partners, to all community stakeholder who work to support healthy living for children, youth and families in SK and beyond, If you took part or were registered in the Working Together, Moving Forward Forum in June 2014, we just wanted to do a quick follow-up and get some feedback on what you’ve been up to since the forum. If you could please fill out the short survey by clicking the link below, that would be greatly appreciated.  We would love to hear from you! Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6KSQJHZ For a summary of this event, please click here.

Greek Salad

Ingredients: 1 cucumber, diced into large chunks 1 tomato, diced into large chunks 1 yellow bell pepper, diced into large chunks Black olives, chopped Crumbled feta cheese Italian herbs (e.g. oregano, basil, thyme), to taste Lettuce or spinach (optional) Lemon juice (optional) Instructions: Cut the vegetables and mix together. Add the feta and herbs. Mix well. For dressing, add a little lemon juice and mix again. Tip: Let the salad sit in the fridge for a few hours to give time for the flavours to mix!

Salad Dog

Ingredients: Lettuce, chopped ½ tomato, diced Onion or green onions, chopped (optional) 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped Mayonnaise Salt & pepper, to taste 4 whole grain hot dog buns Instructions: Cut up the lettuce, tomato, and onion. Mix altogether with the chopped eggs. Add salt, pepper and mayonnaise to the salad mixture. Warm up or toast the hot dog buns (on a BBQ grill or in the oven). Stuff the buns with the salad mixture and enjoy! Variation: Substitute the hard boiled eggs with chicken or lobster!

Hands-on healthy eating

For Healthy Eating, we’ve been working on making gradual changes that make a big difference. Like, we started using ground turkey and chicken in our tacos instead of beef. We also put out all the taco ingredients on the table and let the children build their own lunches. Kids were putting spinach on their tacos – they never would have tried that normally!  ~Dundonald Child Care Co-operative, SK

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