healthy recipes

My kids brought home a book called Dumpling Soup from the library, and, enthralled by the concept of dumpling soup eaten by the Korean-Hawaiian-American family in the story, asked if we could make something similar. Of course they wanted to leave out the tripe and octopus also mentioned in the book, so we didn't bother with those things (although I assured them they'd love octopus; they were both skeptical about that).

I decided an easy course of action was to put together some wontons, since they're dumplings of a sort, are traditionally eaten in soup, and are made of ingredients that you can get at the grocery store. Furthermore, they seemed like something the children could help make with minimal effort. So, after picking up a pack of Azumaya wonton wrappers and some other ingredients, we were ready to start our wonton party. True to my prediction, they were also really easy to put together, and even easier to eat.

Yesterday after school, we had my daughter’s friend, Emma, over for a play date. Like most multi-tasking mothers, I started getting ingredients for dinner ready while they were playing. Emma kept coming into the kitchen to stare at my ingredients and to ask questions. When I told her that we were making Asian Lettuce Wraps, she wanted to know why I liked to make foods from other countries. I happily explained how fun it is to try new foods. She leaned over the steaming pot of pad thai noodles and loved that they were almost invisible…I am so lucky to have a career that sparks such enthusiasm in kids!

Our fishing expedition on Flathead Lake this summer was comical. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to catch anything, even though the boat next to us was reeling in fish every time we looked! Clearly, there was something we weren’t doing right. As a man from the next boat yelled over to us, “What kind of bait are you using?” a crazy thought entered into my mind: Feeding children is a lot like fishing – you have to have the right lure, or they won’t bite!  Packing desirable school lunches is a lot like the fine art of selecting an appealing lure while fishing. Try some of these stress-free strategies for packing healthy lunches that your fish will bite and not refuse.