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Ranch Dip for Kids

Want to make a big plate of veggies disappear? Just serve this dip—kids find it irresistible! What you need: 2/3 cup sour cream 1/3 cup mayonnaise 1 tbsp. cider vinegar 1 tsp. dried dill weed 1 tsp. Dijon-type mustard Pinch salt Pinch pepper How to: In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar until smooth. Add dill, mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk to blend. Makes one cup. Cover and refrigerate for up to one week.   *Recipe adapted from Better Food for Kids, Your Essential Guide to Nutrition for All Children from Age 2 to 10 by Joanne Saab and Daina Kalnins.  

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, and Red Lentil Soup

One of our centres shared this recipe with us. Every time they make it, the kids gobble it up! Perfect for lunch on a cold winter’s day. What you need: 1/4 cup butter 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped 1 apple peeled, cored, and chopped 1 onion, chopped 1/2 cup red lentils 1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger 1/2 tsp ground pepper 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp paprika 4 cups vegetable broth Plain yogurt How to: Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Place the chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, apple, and onion in the pot. Stir and cook the apples and vegetables until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir the lentils, ginger, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and vegetable broth into the pot with the apple and vegetable mixture. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes. Working in batches, pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot. Return the pureed soup to the cooking pot. Bring back to a simmer over medium-high heat, about 10 minutes. Add water as needed to thin the soup to your preferred consistency. Serve with yogurt for garnish. *Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-carrot-apple-and-red-lentil-soup/    

Apple Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a comforting food for winter. Including apple makes this recipe extra moist and extra healthy, and molasses is a source of iron. Serve this gingerbread as a snack with applesauce, or as a dessert with real whip cream. What you need: 2 cups All-purpose flour (or try a blend of 1 cup all-purpose and ¾ cup of whole grain flour) ¼ cup Granulated sugar 2 tsp. Baking powder 1 tsp. Baking soda 1 tsp. Ground ginger ½ tsp. Ground cinnamon ½ tsp. Ground nutmeg ½ tsp. Salt ½ cup Butter or margarine 2 Eggs ½ cup Molasses ⅓ cup 2% milk 1 Medium apple, peeled and grated How to: Preheat the oven to 350° F (180°C). In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter, eggs, and molasses. Stir in dry ingredients, a little at a time, alternating with small additions of milk. Fold in apples. Pour into greased 13”x9” baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before cutting into 15 pieces. *Recipe adapted from Better Food for Kids, Your Essential Guide to Nutrition for All Children from Age 2 to 10 by Joanne Saab and Daina Kalnins.

Family in motion Day

Take time to be active for this year’s Family Day holiday on February 16, 2015. There will be many activities happening across Saskatchewan for children, parents and caregivers to get moving! Healthy Start will be doing a LEAP activity circuit and a few other games at l’École Canadienne-Francaise, 1407 Albert Avenue in Saskatoon from 1-3pm. Please stop by for some great ideas to keep active indoors during the winter months. For further information on the event, please call the Healthy Start team at 306-621-6413. After participating, send a story or picture of how your family was physically active to [email protected] for a chance to win a Ski Adventure at Table Mountain!

Gift Certificate Winners – Process Evaluation Survey

Thank you to all the centre Directors who took the time to fill out our Process Evaluation survey! The feedback you’ve given will make a huge impact in improving Healthy Start. We are pleased to announce that the winners of a $50.00 certificate from Supreme Learning are Next Generation Child Care Co-operative in Saskatoon and Children’s Choice West in Prince Albert, SK. These centres were randomly drawn from all those who answered the questionnaire. There’s still time to provide feedback here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FNVy8vEsemY3_db1CINJ__S7SQm0G3p0YlSQzXZkd50/viewform?usp=send_form

How will you keep the kids moving during winter time?

With the arrival of the winter season, we asked Directors and Educators from Healthy Start child care centres how they keep themselves and the children in their care active. Here are some of the answers we received: When the winter days are too cold to go outside, we do a lot of dancing in our center to keep active.  We also have a yoga instructor to do Kids Yoga with the children. We leave a CD available for the kids to use at any time with pictures of the yoga poses. When the weather is nice we go outside to climb the large hills of snow at the park, close to our centre. – Vanscoy Early Learning Centre, SK The children go outside daily for 45-60 minutes. When the weather does not allow us to go outside and we must stay inside the children do yoga, dance through obstacle courses, do ballet, stretch and move a lot with music, as well as aerobics. We try to encourage them to be active throughout the day wherever they are to decrease sitting time as much as possible. We are promoting different activities every day, for example activities with resistance to strengthen muscles. The children were shown the right way of sitting up straight, which is pretty hard. We try to increase the children’s flexibility through yoga and ballet dances. Finally, having knowledge about the importance of the circulatory system, we are making the children aware of the importance of walking running etc. to stay healthy, especially in the winter when they are more limited in choices to be active. – Kinder Kollege, Kindersley, SK To keep our children busy during the winter months, we incorporate movement into songs when we sing them, play Freeze dance, pp. 34-35 from LEAP-HOP, games like red light, green light, and What time is it Tricky Wolf, pp. 100-101, or do yoga. With weather permitting us to go outside and be active the children play tag, soccer, make snow angels and snow men, and go for neighbourhood walks. – North Battleford Day Care Centre, SK When we go outside, the children love tobogganing.  They will use their toboggans to pull one another around the yard, as well as transport ice blocks to be used to build forts. We will build forts in the backyard, decorating the ice blocks with food colouring mixed in water. The children also love helping out when we need to shovel the snow and make snowmen of all sizes. When we need to stay inside, we play three of the games found in LEAP-HOP binders. Parachute lift-off, pp. 66-67 and Playful parachute, pp. 70-71 are two good options. They especially enjoy Freeze dance, pp.34-35 as they have the chance to dress up as characters from the movie Frozen and sing and dance around the room. We also play with hula hoops. The children really enjoy spinning the hoops around their waists or setting them up for hop-scotch. They also pretend to be frogs, hopping from one lily pad to the next. The children love taking the sponge noodles and pretending they are snakes that need to be jumped over or make shake. We have put a track in our centre so that the children can follow the route. Equipped with steering wheels that we bought, they pretend to be cars that need to follow the traffic signs and road signs we have made. Finally, any action song is a lot of fun to move along to. We hope to introduce them to yoga this winter. – Dundonald Childcare Cooperative, SK  

How will you stay active during the holidays?

Our team shares how they will stay active during the holidays!   Marie-Lynne and her fiancé transformed their basement into a home gym. So she will be working out 3-4 times a week for about 45-60 minutes.   To stay active this holiday season, Holly will be going ice skating with some friends at the Meewasin skating rink and will try to make it to yoga class. She wants to increase the number of times she walk (instead of drive) for short trips e.g. to the mall or the grocery store.   Véronique will stay active during the holidays by walking the mall before she shops the mall, meaning that she plans on going in an hour before the stores open to get some cardio done! She also plans on dancing away to all her favorite holiday songs.   To keep active over the holidays, Stephanie is going to run after her new kitten Toulouse at her parents’ house in Yorkton. She plans to go on outdoor family runs and take part in some yoga classes in Toronto. If there’s time, she will go snowboarding as well!   Allysha found a new way to stay more active in the winter. She lives in an old 3 storey house, and she realised that she could run up and down the stairs to get her heart rate up.  She will put her running shoes on and will run up and down the stairs 5 times, followed by a set of hand-held weights.  She will repeat the circuit several times, it’s amazing how much she huff and puff by the end.  She will have to shut her cat in the bathroom while she runs so she won’t trip her on the stairs.   Gabrielle will go for walks in her neighbourhood; participate in a Holiday curling bonspiel, and jump on the treadmill for some cardio after the Christmas-baking-indulgence!   During the holidays Roger will be on his stationary bike for at least 30 minutes per day, gradually increasing the resistance each time. Also, during the first week of January, he will be snowshoeing with his wife.   Melissa will be dog sitting during the holidays. She plans to take the dog on 2 to 3 walks of 20 to 30 minutes in duration per day. She is also planning to restart her yoga practice.

The Healthy Start Team’s favourite winter recipes

Miniature Brownies (Gabrielle’s Favourite) Ingredients: 1/3 cup of brown sugar ¼ cup butter 3 oz semisweet chocolate ½ tsp. vanilla 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/3 cup flour 24 chocolate Rosebuds Directions: In a saucepan, melt sugar, butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring, until chocolate is just melted.  Remove from heat and let cool for 1 minute. Blend in vanilla and egg; gently fold in flour until blended. Spoon into tiny baking cups. Bake at 350o F in oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Remove from oven; set a Rosebud on top of each. Let cool. Makes 24 brownies Source: The Canadian Living Christmas Book   Lentil Soup (Stephanie’s Favourite) Ingredients: 2 cups of lentils 8 cups of fresh water 1 medium onion, chopped 2 medium carrots, chopped 2 celery stalks, chopped 2 sprigs parsley, chopped 1 clove of garlic, minced ¼ tsp. black pepper 2 tsp. salt 20 oz can of tomatoes 2 tbsp. vinegar A pinch of oregano Directions: Wash lentils, and then add to 8 cups of water in a large pot. Add onions, carrots, celery, parsley, garlic, pepper and salt. Simmer uncovered for 1 ½ hours. Add tomatoes, vinegar and oregano. Simmer for a few minutes more before serving.   Cheesy Artichoke and Bean Dip (Holly’s Favourite) Ingredients: 1 can (19 or 15 oz) of cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed 1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tbsp. reduced-fat mayonnaise Pinch of cayenne pepper Freshly ground black pepper to taste 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley 1 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest Directions: Preheat the oven to 400° F. Coat a 2- to 3-cup baking dish with non-stick spray. Place the beans, artichoke hearts, garlic, mayonnaise, cayenne pepper and black pepper in a food processor. Process until almost smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl once or twice. Transfer to a medium bowl. Site in 2/3 cup of the Parmesan, parsley and lemon zest. Scrape into the baking dish and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tbsp. of Parmesan. Bake the dip, uncovered, for 20–25 minutes or until it is heated through. Serve warm with whole grain pita chips, whole grain crackers, or veggies. Serves 8 Source: http://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/warm-artichoke-and-bean-dip-recipe-2/   Little Date Balls (Mélissa’s Favourite) Ingredients: 2 cups of dates, pitted and chopped 1 egg 2 cups of melted butter ½ cup of almonds or pecans, finely chopped ½ cup of crisped rice cereal (Rice Krispies) 1 tbsp of vanilla extract Unsweetened shredded coconut Directions: In a saucepan, on medium heat, heat the butter, egg and dates for 5 to 10 minutes. Add in the almonds/pecans, Rice Krispies and vanilla extract. Mix well (if the mixture does not easily run, put into a blender for a couple seconds). Wet your hands with cold water and make round balls about a tablespoon in size (CAUTION: the mixture will still be hot), then roll the balls in the unsweetened shredded coconut. Refrigerate the balls until they are firm enough to eat. Keep in the refrigerator. The recipe makes about 14 balls. Enjoy!   Baked Oatmeal with Fruits (Allysha’s Favourite) Ingredients: 3 cups rolled oats ½ cup brown sugar 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 cup milk 2 eggs ½ cup melted butter 2 tsp. vanilla extract ¾ cup dried cranberries Directions: Preheat oven to 350° F. In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Beat in milk eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in dried cranberries. Spread into 9 x13 inch baking dish. Add fruit, any fruit. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Source: CHEP – Good Food Inc.   Low-fat turkey gravy (Marie-Lynne’s Favourite) Ingredients: 4 cups unsalted turkey stock, divided 2 tbsp. fresh sage, remove from stem and finely chop 2 tbsp. fresh thyme, remove from stem and finely chop 1 cup skim milk 1/4 cup cornstarch Directions: Place turkey stock in a saucepan on the stove top over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add sage and thyme to the simmering stock. Continue to simmer until the stock is reduced by 1/4, or until about 3 cups of stock remain. Pour milk into a small bowl. Add cornstarch and stir to mix evenly. Slowly pour milk mixture into the simmering stock, stirring slowly. Bring sauce to a boil and continue to stir until stock thickens and has a nice shine, about 3 to 5 minutes. Pour gravy into warmed gravy boat and serve. Serves 8 Source: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/recipes/turkey-gravy/rcp-20049921   Squash recipe (Stephanie’s Favourite) Ingredients: 1 medium squash (acorn or butternut) 10 fresh sage leaves chopped roughly or 1/2 tsp. dried sage 2-3 red chilies sliced thinly fresh or 1 tsp. dried chili flakes (vary the amount of chilies depending on your desired level of spiciness) 2-3 garlic cloves, diced Salt and pepper to taste Olive oil Directions: Heat oven to 350° F. Chop the squash into 3/4 inch slices and place in single layer on a pan. Combine olive oil, sage, chilies and garlic for seasoning. Drizzle the seasoning over squash until coated. Roast uncovered for 30-45 minutes. Enjoy!   Note: If baked uncovered the squash will blacken, it can be covered depending on preference. Source: James Del Frari and Jamie Oliver, http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/rice-recipes/roast-squash-sage-chestnut-and-pancetta-risotto/   Grilled Chicken Sandwiches (Mélissa’s Favourite) Ingredients: 1- 1/2 cup of cooked chicken, minced ½ cup of low-fat mayonnaise 1 green onion, chopped finely 1 small celery stalk, minced Salt and pepper to taste Whole-wheat bread slices Directions: In a mixer, put in the cooked chicken, celery stalk, green onion, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Reduce the mixture until all the ingredients are finely chopped. Spread the mixture on the bread slices to make the sandwiches. Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles. Put the sandwiches in a Panini grill until the bread turns golden brown. Note: The sandwiches can also be grilled …

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Winter 2014-2015

Check out this month’s Healthy Start Sampler for a feature on Waskahiganihk Child Care Centre and to learn how to make terrific turkey tacos!

Moving Together Towards Health – CAPC and Healthy Start

Healthy Start is one of many provincial and national programs aimed at increasing physical activity, promoting healthy eating and encouraging staff wellness in early year settings. Working on this intervention, we come cross a lot of other great programs that are also accomplishing these goals. We would like to highlight some of the excellent work being done by the Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) in Saskatchewan. On October 29, 2014, two members of the Healthy Start team had the unique opportunity to facilitate a workshop as part of a larger forum, organized by the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute, for CAPC Coordinators from all over the province. The forum, held at the Travelodge Hotel in Regina gave participants a chance to attend presentations by Dr. Mariana Brussoni and Dr. Louise Humbert on injury prevention and physical literacy, respectively. The CAPC program, established in 1992 and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), is part of a larger, national initiative. CAPC’s main objective is to enhance the well-being and healthy development of children living in conditions of risk. Clients of the program are families with low incomes, teen parents, single parents, recent immigrants or come from remote and isolated communities. In Saskatchewan, special consideration is given to Métis, off-reserve First Nations, northern children and their families. An example of a great initiative funded by CAPC is the Parent & Pre-Kindergarten Education Program (PPEP) in Esterhazy, part of the Good Spirit School Division. The program is offered in three rural communities for children aged 3-5 years old. Parents participate in support groups, parenting courses, and are involved in classroom activities. One of their (post-workshop) goals was to invite Reg Leidl, Physical Activity Consultant with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, to present on physical activity in education environments. At the forum, the Healthy Start team explained how to incorporate physical activity and healthy eating into the daily routines of these programs, essentially building on the foundations already in place and by sharing the LEAP resources as they are simple, easy-to-use and take a minimum amount of preparation and space to facilitate. It was interesting to learn that many of the CAPC programs have already developed their own initiatives concerning physical activity, healthy eating and staff wellness initiatives. A lot of great ideas were presented as easy measures to adopt in their daily schedules such as eating with the children more often, providing parents with nutrition information, and making a fun environment to explore new foods. There were also great suggestions for increasing physical activity such as promoting outdoor activities (park time), taking active breaks together with the children, and hosting gym nights for families. The workshop presented a great opportunity for the Healthy Start team to assist CAPC Coordinators in assessing their current practices, setting SMART (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Realistic/Results-based-Timely) goals, action planning and adopting guidelines to ensure the long-term sustainability of these changes in their projects and centres.

November 2014

Check out this month’s Healthy Start Sampler for a feature on movement concepts, to discover cooking with tofu and more!

BE ACTIVE

EAT WELL

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