Kebabs aren’t just for summer. Little bits of meat and veggies on a stick are universally appealing for both kids and adults, yet we too often relegate them to grilling season. But for those of us living in the northern climes, they just fall off the radar for six months out of the year, and that’s a shame. They’re a great way to spiff up a winter meal and add some variety to your family’s dinner without too much work. So maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to give up on them.
On a day when people like you and I, despite our better judgment, purposefully cart our children around collecting junk food, here’s a fun way to keep the spirit of healthy living alive tonight. When my children came home and saw these just casually hanging out on the kitchen counter, they were more than a little disturbed…and my kids are not easily impressed by anything I do. But with a few pieces of fruit and about 15 minutes with a paring knife, you’ll have a fun item to share for your Halloween celebration.
I recently had a talk with Kevin Concannon, the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and I learned that there’s another entity trying to make your healthy lifestyle easier: the federal government. While that may be surprising to some, supporting the well-being of Americans–and children in particular–has been an important mission of the USDA since the Great Depression. Since healthy children grow up to be vibrant, well-educated, and capable adults, the entire country benefits from good nutrition. And given the fact that the U.S. obesity rate is fast approaching 50% and one in four Americans receives some sort of direct benefit from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, Mr. Concannon is a very busy man.
If you used to find squash in your grandmother’s basement or tucked under your cousin’s bed, chances are they were the winter varieties like Acorn, Hubbard, and Butternut squash. Specifically bred for a tough skin and low-moisture yellow to orange flesh, winter squash ensured that families could store and eat the healthful vegetable throughout the winter. Some varieties will stay in perfect condition for six months or more when stored properly; in fact, my mother had a spaghetti squash perched on her basement steps for almost a year with no ill-effects whatsoever.
Most everyone knows what coleslaw (or slaw) is and people love it or hate it; well, they generally either love or hate the version they’re familiar with. But there are infinite variations–often associated with a particular region–so we’re pretty much guaranteed that there are a ton of shredded cabbage salads we haven’t tried yet. Because of the ease of preparation, the almost infinite possibilities and the flexibility of the ingredients, slaw is a side dish stand-by that provides us with several significant benefits over other salad-type dishes.
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