- Author: Melissa Tamargo
It's that time of year! March is National Nutrition Month®, and we're getting ready for this year's theme to “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right.” Eating right can be challenging as healthy foods are often misunderstood to be bland, flavorless, boring, and not worth the time, but this isn't always true! Eating right can be delicious, flavorful, quick, and easy, and – most importantly – you can enjoy it too!
Eat right with less salt
Adding salt is a popular way to add flavor to meals, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. In fact, most Americans are getting too much sodium from the foods they eat, increasing the risk of chronic disease. Try these sodium-busting...
- Author: Sarah Watkins
California 4-H is biking its way to healthy living. At the World Ag Expo in Tulare last week, 4-H members from across the state came to help at the California 4-H booth in the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources tent. In honor of UC Cooperative Extension's 100th anniversary this year, California 4-H presented activities focused on healthy living.
In 2010, 18 percent of children ages 6 to17 were obese and only 15 percent of students in grades 9 to 12 nationwide met the objective for daily physical activity. Also, according to the USDA, “The quality of children's and adolescents' diets is a vital issue because poor eating patterns established in childhood may transfer to...
- Author: Missy Gable
Shorter days and colder weather means most people aren't thinking about spending large amounts of time in their garden. However, February is the perfect month to plant cool season leafy vegetables or root plants, like cabbage, beets and carrots. These nutrient-rich plants are packed with healthy antioxidants and vitamins and make the perfect addition to a hot bowl of soup. If you aren't game to play outdoors, cold winter months are a great time to stay inside and start planning for summer garden fruit and vegetable bounties.
If you're like most people you're probably already dreaming about summer fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes, sweet corn, blackberries and chard. Follow these three simple tips and you'll be...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A good way for 4-H'ers to test their cooking skills is to compete in a countywide chili cookoff.
Making a "super bowl" of chili is also quite timely for Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 2, when the Denver Broncos try to defeather the Seattle Seahawks.
The Solano County 4-H Program traditionally hosts a chili cookoff at its annual Project Skills Day. All clubs in the county are invited to participate.
This year three boys enrolled in an outdoor cooking project teamed to win the four-way competition, held Jan. 11 at C. A. Jacobs School, Dixon.
Cody Ceremony, Randy Marley and Justin Means, all members of the newly formed Pleasants Valley 4-H Club in Vacaville made “4-Alarm Chili,” obtaining the recipe...
- Author: Aubrey White
To create a successful farm-to-school program, establishing a quality salad bar is just a small piece of the pie. While supporting local farmers and providing them with market outlets is a core mission of farm-to-school, there is a large suite of opportunities between the farm and the salad bar, as well as an undeniable list of challenges. Since 2001, the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program has been helping Davis Farm-to-School and the Davis Joint Unified School District establish and improve its practices by conducting an annual program evaluation. Now in its 13th year, it is one of the longest running farm-to-school evaluation efforts in the country, and the...