Beth Ann Bentley's Blog (47)

Massive Food Recall: Products Containing Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)

I hadn’t given much thought to Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein before today. Really, I don’t think I knew it existed and I am still having a hard time pronouncing it. But here we are with a recall of this substance that turns out is in tons and tons of processed foods. It is a common flavor enhancer like MSG, OH WAIT A MINUTE it is MSG, sort of.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, commonly referred to as HVP, is a vegetable protein (soy, corn, wheat) that has been broken down into its… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on March 30, 2010 at 8:54pm — 1 Comment

Our Kids Deserve Real Food at School

Help Schools Serve Real Food

The Time for Lunch Campaign plans to send thousands of letters to congress calling for big changes to the upcoming Child Nutrition Act. Slow Food USA is launching this campaign in an effort to do their part in ending child obesity and diabetes. Don’t you think you owe it to your children and their friends to help them out? It takes only a few seconds to fill in your information and the Slow Food… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on March 17, 2010 at 8:41am — 6 Comments

Picking a Children's Vitamin

It is often difficult to make sure that your kids are maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet and receiving the proper amount of vitamins and minerals. It can be an even bigger challenge today due to children eating away from home, at school, friend’s houses and fast food restaurants. So I supplement with a comprehensive multivitamin with probiotic to help maintain my children’s health and improve their immunity. And since my kids are not big dairy eaters, I also supplement with a… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on March 3, 2010 at 10:49am — No Comments

Fresh Frozen or Canned

At the speed of life, convenience is often the utmost importance. We even sacrifice taste, nutrition and budget for the sake of time and ease. But what if convenience caused a health issue? Would you stop and take notice? Would you change your habits? Plan ahead more? Shop for smaller amounts more often? Buy an extra freezer? Make things from scratch? Or do you say forget about it, I’ll just do what I have always done since no one has gotten sick yet…or maybe all those colds are a symptom of… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on February 18, 2010 at 10:21am — No Comments

Valentine's Day Classroom Party

If your school is like many around the country, you are trying to reduce the amount of sugary treats at school. We are organizing more activities and less eating. Fourth grade is raising money for a child with a special heart...giving a heart for Valentine's Day. The kinders are playing games with chopsticks and sweet tarts and broken heart cards. We are requesting parents to not bring in candy treats this year. We are also limiting the sugary treat to one cookie or brownie type… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on February 9, 2010 at 2:02pm — 4 Comments

Nitrates and Nitrites

Chemically speaking, Nitrates (NO3) and Nitrites (NO2) are from the same chemical compound family. They both also occur naturally in our food and water supply, and our body does need them to function properly. Nitrates are used mainly to make fertilizer, explosives and glass while nitrites are used mainly as a preservative in foods. However, these two naturally occurring chemicals, when used in excess have very dangerous side effects.

To explain this… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on February 9, 2010 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Stone Soup

First you start with stock, and then you add leftover meats, veggies, rice, pasta, grains or potatoes. Soups are nutritious, delicious, cost effective and very portable; all the criteria for a great lunch on the go. Try these dinners to soup combos. You can blend the soup for a creamer texture and ease of drinking out of a travel mug, or you can leave it chunky to eat with a spoon (or a fork). There is no recipe here, just use what you have and improvise. Bonus: Use up your leftovers; you can… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on January 13, 2010 at 8:48am — 2 Comments

Random Organization

If you are like me and the millions of other mothers out there, being more organized is high on your list of things to do this year, let’s face it… it is on your list to do this week. My house is upside down right now. Christmas is packed up, yup…all packed up. The pine needles are vacuumed up, however, I expect to see more pine needles seep from the wood work over the next few months, it’s inevitable.

So back to organizing. Over the holiday break I had the opportunity to… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on January 5, 2010 at 8:30am — 4 Comments

Cooking with Kids

Cooking with kids requires lots and lots of patience. You have to get yourself mentally prepared:

•all will NOT go according to plan

•there will be a BIG MESS, that you yourself will be cleaning up

•the final product will not look great, but it still may taste okay

•your “helpers” may quit on you part of the way through

All of this does improve as you cook with your kids more and also find out if they like it. If you don’t think you will have the… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on December 16, 2009 at 10:05am — No Comments

Damn, I'm Out of ...

You are in the middle of cooking a big meal, baking some cookies or creating some other culinary masterpiece when you discover you are out of an important ingredient, now what?

1. Leave everything where it is and run to the nearest grocer

2. Throw everything in the trash cursing yourself, the kitchen and the god of cooking

3. Check the list of handy ingredient substitutions.

I choose option 3. Yes, there are many options when it comes to ingredients and I bet… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on November 27, 2009 at 3:04pm — 4 Comments

Ten for A Dollar

What a deal! Every Tuesday and Thursday at my children’s school you can purchase 10 Twizzlers for $1.00 from our very own Snack Shack. That is 10 cents per Twizzler. Deal or not deal? For your $1.00 you get 320 calories of strawberry flavored, chewy ropes, of bright red yumminess. What else you ask? Well what else do you need to know? They taste good and, well…it is only a treat, right? Here is the break down…All the ingredients are listed by volume with the greatest amount first.

•… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on November 13, 2009 at 9:55pm — 3 Comments

An Idea On How to Make Money Repeating Yourself

Repeat. It is what I do all day…repeat myself. “Please eat your breakfast.” “Do you have your shoes on?” “Make your bed.” “Brush your teeth.” “Did you pack up your backpack?” “Pick up your room.” But my all time favorite is “Keep your hands to yourself!”

This morning after about the 10th time of asking my lovely children nicely to please eat their oatmeal, it hit me. Remember the saying “If only I had a nickel for every time…”?

I announced that the next time, and every… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on November 3, 2009 at 9:48am — 14 Comments

Apples, Apples, Apples, they are not just for bobbing you know.

The apple, a globe or heart shaped fruit that got Eve in a bunch of trouble comes from a small deciduous tree and is a member of the Rose family, really roses. The tree originated in Central Asia somewhere between the Caspian and Black Seas. While archeologists have found evidence of humans enjoying their “apple a day” as far back as 6500 BC; Alexander the Great is credited with finding the dwarfed apple trees and introducing it to Europe.

Apple seeds were brought to North… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on October 27, 2009 at 9:23am — No Comments

Halloween Party 2009

My youngest child is in kindergarten this year so I volunteered to be the room parent with another mom in his class. Usually I don’t like the whole co-room parent thing, but I really like this mom and we can organize a party together pretty well.

Our first task is of course the Halloween Party. Halloween at our school is a big deal. The students, teachers, admin and even some parents get dressed up after lunch and walk in a parade around the small town. The parade is led by… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on October 13, 2009 at 8:30am — 5 Comments

ASK A QUESTION; OFFER A COMMENT...ANYTHING, PLEASE!

So for the past two weeks I have had writers block. There is no shortage of things to write or comment on, god knows there are nutrition issues, energy efficient ideas, what to plant in your kitchen garden for fall and winter ideas, signing up for a CSA in your area information, fall farmers market, apple picking and recipes, throwing a Halloween party at school, news about fruits and veggies and childhood obesity, the best children’s vitamins I have found, a week's worth of crockpot… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on October 6, 2009 at 9:58am — 6 Comments

100 Calorie Packs: Cost to Wallet and Health.

No one denies that snacking, when done properly, is a great way to keep your energy up and your weight down. And with today’s busy lifestyles, having “grab and go” snacks are a way of life for most of us. But have you ever stopped to think of the cost to your wallet and your health? The snack industry estimates that the retail sales of packaged snacks are at $68 billion for 2008, with projected sales to be near $82 billion by 2013. Yes BILLION!

I agree in some way that having… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on September 17, 2009 at 12:56pm — 1 Comment

Fresh Salad Fall to Winter

So it’s no secret that I like to garden. I especially find it rewarding when my children and I can pick our own vegetables and eat them, our own farm to table program in the back yard. I also teach this concept at my children’s elementary school and am proud to say we have a tons of tomatoes ready to harvest right this minute and have had plenty of afternoon snacks in the playground.

As I was sitting at the kitchen table today looking at the screen of my laptop wondering what I… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on September 10, 2009 at 1:22pm — 1 Comment

Do we really need more “innovation” in food ingredients?

Like many of you reading this blog, I subscribe to several email newsletters, some for work, some for pure enjoyment. One of the ones I receive for work related topics is Innovations in Food Ingredients. It can get pretty technical at times so I usually just look it over to find out if anything is now dangerous that we have consumed in the past or what is coming down the pipeline as a trend. Today I was struck by an absurd title “Transparent gel advance may give ‘excellent food… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on September 2, 2009 at 10:57am — 5 Comments

Food at School and Healthier Children.

Lunch matters. It has to fuel an entire afternoon of math, science, PE, and language arts. It keeps your child strong, focused and happy, therefore what you choose and how you pack it does and always will make a difference in your child’s ability to perform well in the afternoon as well as be happy and stay healthy.

With the news reminding us that this year’s flu season could be terrible, it is up to us, the parents, to keep our children healthy by bolstering up their immune… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on August 25, 2009 at 11:10am — 6 Comments

A Greener Lunch

Now is a good time to look for eco friendly lunchbox items, why you ask? Well shops are starting to stock up now; you can order online and not pay express shipping; you can try a few things out or research other items in time for back to school; and you can practice using them before school starts.

Here are a few great resources to start with:

1. EcoBags

2. Laptop… Continue

Added by Beth Ann Bentley on August 4, 2009 at 8:58am — 1 Comment