Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: the fight is back on!

Jamie Oliver is awesome!  His cooking show is fun and inspired and his dishes real yet simple enough for any home chef to master (and he has a certain British charm that I find hard to resist).  But it's his food philosophy that I truly love! 

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution started tonight and it's eye opening!  If you haven't seen it I would highly suggest checking it out!   He's trying to make us aware of what our children are really eating and transform school lunches into something that will actually promote the health and nutrition of our children...what a novel idea!! 

Here are his 3 ideas for starting your own food revolution at home...

Know what you’re eating. In addition to making school lunches healthier, Oliver wants to help Americans become savvier about food — including where it comes from and how it affects your body. He emphasizes fresh, locally grown foods instead of packaged, processed ones that may contain filler ingredients with no nutritional value. Although it may be cheaper or easier to load your freezer with ready-to-serve foods, Oliver encourages families to invest in their health and take the time to cook fresh meals as often as possible. If frozen chicken nuggets are one of your grocery-list staples, for example, consider making your own with fresh chicken cutlets. Offer the kids oatmeal for breakfast instead of pop-in-the-toaster pastries.

Don’t obsess over fancy food labels. Sustainable, organic, free range: While these are all hot trends now in the food world, Oliver would rather see families just focus on buying more fresh foods than get caught up in deciphering such "healthy" labels.

Cook with your kids. Eating meals as a family has proven benefits (studies have shown kids who eat with their families get better grades and are less likely to use drugs and alcohol than those who don’t), but preparing meals together may be even better. Cooking can encourage kids to try healthy ingredients they otherwise wouldn’t touch and teach them about proper portion sizes. It’s also a fun way for you to bond. And you'll arm teens with skills they can use to prepare healthy meals after they’ve flown the coop for college or to live on their own. Give each kid their own age-appropriate job: For example, little ones can rinse vegetables while older kids saute them.

Bravo Jamie, Bravo!!

teach a person to fish

I'm excited to tell you all about Nurture, an organization with which I've been working for a few years.  Nurture was started by Kathryn Guylay, a passionate mother and business woman who saw the need for improved eating habits and health profiles in her community and did something about it!  Kathryn and the equally passionate nurture team work to provide nutrition education and cooking instruction to limited resource families.  Recipes are developed by an amazingly talented member of the team using whole grains, beans, lentils and or fruits and vegetables made in rice cookers and slow cookers.  Each of the recipes is less than $1.50 per serving, nutritious and delicious (a few of my favorites are the sweet potato and barley salad, the white bean chili and the pumpkin pecan oatmeal).  Take a look at the website, get involved or subscribe to our monthly newsletter if you're so inclined.

Winter Farmer's Market BBQ Pork Tacos

Sam thoughtfully chose our ingredients from the market on Saturday....

And here's what we did with some of them on Sunday:

BBQ Pulled Pork
1.25 lb pork tenderloin (leaner than shoulder etc.)
2 shallots diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
1 cup reduced sodium broth (chicken, vegetable or beef)
2.5 cups (+/-) BBQ sauce (we used Chicago's own Smoke Daddy Sweet and Smokey.  Choose your favorite high fructose corn syrup-free sauce or make your own)

Put all ingredients except BBQ sauce in a slow cooker on high for approximately 3 hours or low for about 5 hours.  Shred the pork with a fork, add sauce and let simmer on low for 20-30 minutes and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Wedges
2 sweet potatoes scrubbed
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp real maple syrup
Pinch of Cayenne pepper
Pinch of Paprika
salt & pepper

Bake potatoes at 450 for 15 minutes.Take potatoes out of the oven and cut into long wedges. Toss to coat in oil/syrup mixture.  Cook for about 30 minutes or until crisp on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil or cooking spray.

Winter Slaw
1 baby red cabbage diced (about 1 cup)
1 cup kale diced
1 small butternut squash steamed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (cut squash in fourths and put in steam basket until tender (about 30 minutes depending on the size of your squash)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tsp maple syrup
2 Tsp reduced sodium soy sauce (regular or wheat-free)
1 Tsp Sriracha Sauce
salt & pepper

We enjoyed these items separately on Sunday afternoon and on Monday night, added some corn tortillas, black beans and avocado to the sweet potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch cubes), pork and slaw for these BBQ pork tacos.  Both meals were very good, but according to my husband, the tacos were "awesome"...tough to get from him with leftovers!