A 4-H Remixed Recipe Challenge

March 7, 2012 in Evansville with 0 Comments

When I say “I have a dream,” my husband cringes because it often means some massive new project. Well, this time, I was in a dream and it inspired a vision of a new 4-H project: Remixed Recipes. The purpose of the project would be to take old family recipes, analyze their nutritional content, and remix them with changes so they are healthier and provide more nutritional value.

Back story? As our 4-H leaders were recently preparing box lunches for a meal (described in my Box Lunch Balancing Challenge blog), I pushed and prodded more nutrition in each lunch. The president of our 4-H leaders told me as we prepped lunches she had a dream about me the night before.

She dreamed that I started a new 4-H project to encourage healthier eating. In her dream, she saw the project rules:

  1. Members would take a family favorite traditional recipe and analyze its nutrition content.
  2. Members would then replace or add 3 ingredients to make it healthier to eat. They would analyze the nutrition content of the new recipe.
  3. Members would prepare a sample of the new recipe for judges to try and would exhibit the old recipe, with the new one.
  4. These recipes would be kept and accumulated each year so as members continued in the project, they would have a collection of healthier alternatives to family favorites.

This has real potential to be a great 4-H project. Since I’m already covered up as superintendent of 2 project areas (creative writing and robotics) and assistant superintendent of a 3rd (computers), I don’t have the time to make this dream a reality.

In order for it to happen, in our county, we would need to find a superintendent and then work through a process of project review to add it.

Since I was “in a dream,” I now “have a dream” to make this a reality and am looking for someone to shepherd it through the 4-H project process for Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

Then, this morning, national 4-H tweeted about a comparable opportunity. The CDC has a new Recipe Remix tool to remix your favorite recipe.  I asked if there were any counties running this as a project. They said no. Challenge accepted.

  • Can we find someone to make this project happen in our county?
  • If you’re in 4-H in a different county, why don’t you try to make it happen in yours?

In 4-H, we are working to foster a revolution of responsibility, where our young members learn responsibility by doing projects and accepting challenges.

Maybe it’s time as 4-H leaders we start another revolution: a Revolution of Responsible Eating.


How to Make Leftover Freezer Soup

March 3, 2012 in Recipes with 0 Comments

A few leftovers frozen over time can make a wonderful soup. I keep a large margarine container in my freezer that is labelled “soup.” As we eat different meals and vegetables, if there are a few leftovers that aren’t really enough to serve an extra meal, I put them into the soup bucket. When the soup bucket is full, it’s time to make vegetable soup.

The advantage is that it creates a simple base for any soup and reduces food waste. In addition, it saves time in putting together a large pot of soup. Because the leftovers may have been cooked with spices, I don’t add any seasoning to the soup until everything is combined together and I can taste how the flavors have blended.

Today’s vegetable soup bucket included leftovers of roast beef, chicken, broccoli, onions, peppers, green beans, and more.

Freezer vegetable soup recipe

The recipe for each freezer soup varies according to whatever ingredients are on hand. Today’s version:

  • soup bucket of leftovers
  • 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 cup leftover green, red, yellow, and orange peppers that had been sauteed
  • 1 lb. ground beef, cooked and crumbled
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 6 tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can chili beans
  • 1 can peas
  • 1 can corn
  • 1/4 head cabbage, chopped into slivers

Today’s batch is about 4 quarts of vegetable soup. After everything simmers and blends together, we have soup for dinner.


My Box Lunch Balancing Challenge

February 27, 2012 in Education, Evansville with 3 Comments

Can food providers provide healthier food options that are affordable and that people will eat?

Vanderburgh 4-H Leaders addressed that challenge this weekend as we provided box lunches for Startup Evansville, a weekend activities to encourage business startups. We needed to provide easy to eat box lunches for participants.

In our county, to help cover the cost of project manuals for 700 4-H members, leaders volunteer to cater fundraisers.

As 4-H Leaders, we are fully committed to teaching youth to make healthful choices.  With this box lunch gig, the question presented itself: will we practice what we teach? If so, how? What will people eat?

The USDA may technically identify a pickle spear as a vegetable (no wonder those school burgers included pickles), but they are a nutrient detriment that adds salt to the diet. So we shopped and bargain hunted, still including some traditional options. Our final decisions?

Day 1 lunch:

  • Hoagie turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches
  • Potato chips
  • Chocolate chip cookies
  • Organic spring mix lettuces
  • Veggie packs with broccoli, grape tomatoes, celery, and organic carrots.
  • Apples or bananas

Day 2 lunch:

  • Turkey and ham wraps with cheese and organic baby spinach on artisan whole wheat tortillas
  • Potato chips
  • Chocolate chip cookies
  • Veggie packs with broccoli, grape tomatoes, celery, and organic carrots
  • Apples or bananas
We also included additional trays with extra tomato slices, cucumbers, and green peppers in case anyone wanted to add them to their sandwiches.

After delivering the second day, I stayed to observe participants eating. What foods would they eat? Which would they skip?

They ate the vegetables. (and the chips, cookies, and wraps) Not everyone ate everything, but most of the participants did eat vegetables when offered them as an alternative. Several also chose the fruit.

My challenge to you: if you organize a meal or event, add at least 1 additional fruit or vegetable into the menu.  And add 1 more vegetable a day to your own plate, at each meal.

Comment below to share how you meet the balanced box lunch challenge.

The USDA has ideas on how to incorporate more vegetables into your diet if you need it.

Bottom line: we can balance the traditional box lunch without breaking the bank.

 


Crying For Our Children

February 26, 2012 in Family Life with 1 Comment

I saw a father sobbing over his child’s heartbreak.

As a parent, we know in our heads that the challenges our kids overcome build their character and develop their empathy.

That doesn’t matter one bit when in our hearts we feel their pain. Not the pain of a hangnail or an inconvenience. But the pain of heartache, disappointment, and loss. We would absorb every gut punch and take it tenfold if it would save their heartbreak.

Life doesn’t work that way.

The father – or the mother – who is sobbing has already given their kids the great gift of all: love.

When our kids know they are loved and we are there to comfort and encourage them, they have a well of strength that will carry them through the heartbreak.

As I saw the father crying over his child, I had a different perspective. My own father never cried over me and never will. I will never know unconditional love and support from him.

My husband and friends have stood in that gap for me.

Our youth need more mentors. I know many young people who have dad gaps like I do. If we want them to flip their childhood scripts and build better lives, it’s going to take responsible adults to mentor and encourage them.

The risk of mentoring young people – both those with parents and those without – is that we too feel their pain.

Would that all young people had a host of friends and family to watch over, encourage, and occasionally cry during their life journeys.

And a warning to the young people I’ve taught, tutored, or worked with as a youth leader – you have a cheerleader in your corner, ready to cheer and rejoice your victories and to cry and pray over your sorrows. For a lifetime.


For Those Who Mourn

February 23, 2012 in Evansville with 0 Comments

In a terrible moment, lives change and worlds turn upside down. Tragedy strikes, time stops, and it seems as though the earth under our feet has crumbled.

When we see those tragedies happen to those we love, we struggle to find the words and know what to do. So all we can say is we’re sorry, we’re praying for you, we’ll do whatever whenever we can to help you.

Evansville, Indiana may be bigger than the town of 6,000 where I grew up, but it’s really a bunch of small towns all sewn together by road maps. We have many ties and love our neighbors. At least most of them.

I struggle to find words this morning to comfort those who mourn and just wanted to share the words of my friend Bill, Evansville Watch, that he posted on Facebook:

Life can change in an instant. Tonight’s tragic accident is a reminder to us all of that fact. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the fallen firefighter, to the injured firefighter and to their family and friends. To the McCutchanville Fire Department family, please know we are praying for each of you. We can’t begin to understand your pain but as a community, we mourn with you. So often we lean on your shoulders as you help us through life’s tough moments. Please feel free to lean on us now..we are here for you.

I know that any firefighter across the country that hears of tonight’s tragedy will feel a pain in their heart too. They are part of one big brother and sisterhood and when one hurts, they all hurt. As I said the other day, these guys and gals walk into places you and I run from. They are our everyday heroes and when a tragedy like this strikes, it deeply affects us all.

We pray for the fallen firefighter..we pray for the injured firefighter..we pray for their families and friends..we pray for each and every one of you. 

May God be with you.
May God bless you all.

Bill, Debby, Jaga, Richard, Kristi and
the 16000+ members of EvansvilleWatch

For those who mourn, our tears join yours. You are lifted in prayer.

Please know that those who love you will do whatever we can to help you during this terribly tragic time.


Top 10 Things You Can’t Give Up for Lent

February 22, 2012 in Family Life with 0 Comments

Ash Wednesday is here again. I enjoy the seasons of the Church Year because the feasts of Easter and Christmas are sweeter when we have a quiet, reflective time to balance them. That, for me, is the meaning of Lent.  When we give up something for Lent, we consider carefully. Here is a list of top 10 things we can’t give up:

  1. School. When my son was younger, he always asked for this one. I always told him no.
  2. Chores.  He tried this one too, with the same answer: no. (By the way, if you think kids who grow up on farms benefit from helping on the family farm, the Dept. of Labor is trying to regulate them from doing this. Public comments have been requested by the Dept. of Labor.)
  3. Animal Care.  Yes, the litter box must be cleaned during Lent. Animals must still have food and water.
  4. Musical Instrument Practice. We paid for the instrument, we pay for the lessons, and you WILL practice!
  5. Paying bills. Mortgage companies, utilities, and banks will not buy this.
  6. Exercise.  Not an excuse. Keep on moving!
  7. Things You Don’t Have or Do. As my daughter said,  ”You can’t give up Playstation 2 if you have a Playstation 3.”
  8. Bathing and Personal Hygiene. Once upon a time it might have been ok to take one bath each winter. Queen Elizabeth I may have bathed only once every 6 months. No longer in style.
  9. Laundry.  40 days is a long time to wear the same clothes. Or to have that many different outfits to wear.
  10. Cooking. I have been tempted to take a Lenten holiday and quit cooking for my family. They can cook for themselves. However, someone is going to have to prep the meals.

Bottom line: what we give up for Lent is something that distracts us or is bad for us. I’m thinking of giving up second helpings and am still thinking what else to give up.

The other part is if we give something up, we also need to add something – to add something positive to our lives.

Yesterday was Fat Tuesday. So today, we begin Lent so we can reflect and be best prepared to celebrate the Holy Triduum, concluding in Easter, in 40 days.


Give Health a Chance

February 19, 2012 in Family Life with 3 Comments

A week's produce share from Seton Harvest, a CSA in Evansville, Indiana.It’s 2012, and we know what it takes to have a nutritious diet. Whether you put those choices into the food groups I grew up with, or the pyramid, or now the plate, the basics are the same. A varied diet that is low in fat, high in fiber, and full of fruits and vegetables is good for you.

So how do we get that people don’t know what nutrition is? We were all taught it in school. We see it on TV. It’s in newspapers, on the web, and in magazines all the time.  Yet I still go to the grocery store – whether it’s the low budget no frills store or the high end suburban grocery store – and see the kid who only eats chicken nuggets made of cut up processed chicken parts which could conceivably include bones, fat, dyes, breading of who knows what, and any semblance it once had to real meat is now gone.

Or the other choice is a pre-packed lunch box because we are incapable of putting together cheese, crackers, and a cookie all wrapped up in an MSG high calorie package with a cholesterol bow on top.

We don’t want to know. We want to live in a world of denial where:

  • Eating a pickle spear counts as a vegetable because once upon a time part of it was a cucumber.
  • That ketchup packet in the drive thru counts as a vegetable serving.
  • French fries count as a double vegetable because we super-sized the order and threw extra salt on top.
  • We justify fruit drink as a fruit because it’s the color of a fruit and has fruit in its name.
  • We say we can’t afford healthful food choices when a grocery card is full of sodas, snacks, box mixes, frozen snacks, and more.

Bogus. We know better. Isn’t it time if we are going to make bad choices for our menus that we just own them and say, “I know these food choices will boost my cholesterol, make me gain weight, suck the nutrients I do eat from my body, and shorten my lifespan, but I don’t care.“

I deserve better, and so do you. Try a single baby step. Swap out a single snack for a vegetable. Next week, make it two. If we plan menus for our families or for others, work twice as hard to give health a chance.

Warning: if I cook a meal for you or help you plan an event, I’m going to ask, “Where’s the food?” And that is going to mean real food, as in original source fruits and vegetables.

I’m doubly determined because last year my town was highly ranked for its obesity rate. Like others concerned in my community, I’m working to do my part to knock down our rating and build the fitness of our community.

All I am saying is: give health a chance. I know that if I want there to be health in Evansville, I have to let it begin with me, and my own dinner table.

Won’t you join me?


Search Your Colleges. Then Search Again.

February 14, 2012 in College Prep with 0 Comments

If you have teens going to colleges, search their social media footprint.

For years, I’ve told my social media classes that colleges and scholarship committees do social media background searches. Now, as the parent of a graduating high school senior, I see the ways they use social media to better communicate.

When we tour a campus, I now tweet about it to see if their college administration is listening. So far, half respond. I want my teens to learn to use social media well. If a college leads by example, monitors their own Twitter presence, and replies to my tweets, that’s a plus in their favor. For the colleges that don’t, it’s a potential red flag.

My most amusing moment was at a college day when I checked in on FourSquare and watched the Admissions reception table. I stood by the side and noted when one of the admissions counselors saw the Tweet on her phone. She immediately tweeted on behalf of her college’s admissions office. Then, she grabbed the counselor next to her, they looked me up, and then I could see their scanning the room to find me. I said nothing but nearly exploded with laughter the moment they saw me. Neither of them said a word. But later that day, one of them asked, “Do you use Twitter?”

Answer: “Yes.”

I was impressed with the school that gave their scholarship weekend a Twitter hashtag to see if any students tweeted about it. And I enjoyed the professors’ banter with that hashtag. About half the colleges she has applied to have made creative use of private Facebook groups to better communicate with students and their parents. (And you know that means they are also screening students and their social media profiles.)

Now, I see it’s also important to flip the search. Last weekend, I started a Hootsuite page to search  my daughter’s top college choices.

What’s being tweeted about my daughter’s prospective college choices? Who is tweeting about them?

Here’s what I’ve found in 3 days:

  • One college is under pressure to drop certain majors because of declining enrollment. I checked my daughter’s department and preferred major, and it’s not on the list.
  • One college has just had student protests because of a professor’s ill-advised, inappropriate use of Facebook.
  • Some colleges tweet links to their research studies.
  • Lots of students love their college’s sports teams and live tweet during games. And they hate it when their teams lose.
  • Some professors require students to tweet and do an excellent job of engaging students in online conversations.
  • Some colleges promote their career fairs via Twitter. (a very good thing)
  • Some college students blog about stupid things their classmates say in class.
  • Some college students hate the cafeteria food. (Imagine that.)

Colleges do social media background searches to see if a student’s test scores, transcript, scholarship essays, and interviews reflect what the students say and do on social media. I think that’s a good thing.

Parents need to do social media background searches on prospective colleges to ensure that the gorgeous brochures and weekend tours match what is happening on campuses.


4 Ways Suzuki Applies to Family Social Media Training

February 13, 2012 in Family Life, Social Media with 0 Comments

I was a Suzuki mom. My kids started violin lessons at age 3. We later moved beyond Suzuki, but I applied many of the things I learned as a Suzuki mom to later help my son with speech therapy when he was a preschooler.

Now, as I train parents, youth leaders, and teens on social media, basic tenets of Suzuki training apply to teaching teens to use it well.

  1. Learning begins young. Age 13 is the minimum for social media sites like Facebook. I support that minimum and also believe that’s a good time for parents to introduce their kids to limited social media use where they learn to use it well.  It is easier to friend and guide a 13 year old than it is a 15 or 18 year old. Teach them well while they are more likely to listen. As we moved back driving ages, more teens have opted not to do any drivers ed but to simply get their licenses at age 18. And now studies are showing an increase in traffic fatalities among these 18 year olds because they never learned to drive well or with training. The same applies to social media.
  2. Nurture by love. Kids who feel loved and connected are going to be more likely to reflect that in their social media content. Once I heard a teen refer to another mom, “I feel sorry for her kids when they are sick. She complains on Facebook about it so much they must think she hates them.” What is she teaching them?
  3. Good examples inspire greatness. Parents and youth leaders who model using social media for good lead by example. Teach teens by example to promote their communities and encourage others. Kids learn to talk by listening to their parents. They are still listening – and reading – as teens.
  4. Listen. Suzuki parents listen to their kids play and help them improve, a little at a time, with positive encouragement.  Sometimes I tell parents to see what their kids are doing on social media, and they refuse. Their kids might be asking for help or need some encouragement. Other times, parents listen, and we help their kids avoid driving off a cliff. Many parents have no clue what their kids are posting on Facebook or Twitter.

Savvy social media use will matter for teens when they pursue jobs, college entrance, and scholarships. Social media background checks are and will be the norm.  

My kids know I can access their latest Facebook statuses with 2 clicks on my smartphone. In my parenting via social media classes, I tell the story of how I responded and what happened the day my phone joined the wrong teen’s Facebook profile to my daughter’s contact – and the OTHER girl posted an expletive ridden update about her family.

Families invest time and money helping their teens prep for college entrance exams. They often hire tutors if needed and make sure their kids have well-rounded outside activities.

It is now equally imperative that families work with teens on smart social media use that helps – and doesn’t hurt – their future college and career options.  

Teens who use social media well, especially those who are funny, can set themselves above the pack at scholarship time.


How Not to Parent on Facebook

February 11, 2012 in Family Life with 7 Comments

I am absolutely sick.

I just watched that viral Youtube with the angry dad who shoots his daughter’s laptop. I won’t embed it because it embodies on many levels what can go wrong with parents who don’t interact well with their teens on social media.

The mistakes?

  • Don’t humiliate people online. Even if people are out of line, public humiliation never improves a situation.
  • Don’t post when angry. I’ve done it, and I’ve learned from mistakes. When angry, step away from the keyboard and put down the phone.
  • Don’t destroy property. This is hard as a parent – there are times as a parent of teens, I have gotten that angry. Physical violence does not solve problems.
  • Don’t respond to anger with more anger. Anger + anger = more anger, not resolution of a problem.

I teach community classes to youth organizations and church groups – on how to work with young people on social media. I share my own mistakes and experiences as a mother of Facebooking teens.

Like every parent of teens, there are moments I have felt that absolute hit the wall frustration. The best advice I was ever given was by a more experienced mom who advised me to approach discipline issues with a perspective of how to address the problem but not block lines of communication.

Shooting a teen’s laptop and posting it on Youtube will not improve family dynamics.

My older teen will leave home in 6 months for college. With each day, I realize that our time before she leaves is precious; even when we’re angry at each other, I’ve got to find ways to make it better.

We all know our time with kids passes quickly; what happens if a tragedy strikes right now, with this family, before they can make peace and find resolution? This angry video would stand as the tombstone on the grave of their family peace and happiness for lifetimes.

I’ve been at the receiving end of public humiliation. Once when I was a toddler in church, as my parents were musicians, I sat in a pew and decided I had had enough being good in church. So I kicked the pew in front of me with my dress shoes. And I kept kicking and pounding the pew, which echoed so loudly I woke up the guy in choir who always slept through the sermons. The lady who was supposed to watch me did not stop me. As soon as the service ended, my mother marched into the congregation and whipped me in front of everyone. I never kicked a pew again.

Yes, I needed to be taught a better way to behave. Public humiliation was not the way to make that happen. I still remember that Sunday morning over 40 years ago.

Like the dad in the video, I had a tough road and worked my own way through it. Thank God my teens have an easier life and know what it’s like to have the childhood I didn’t.

Parents do need to monitor and respond to how their teens interact on social media.

This video, however, is a tragic testimony in how not to socially parent.


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