Kids’ Meal Ideas Support Children’s Cancer Research! {Salad Recipe included!}

Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign raises money for local children’s cancer research

Everyone wants kids to eat their veggies! Fortunately, I do have a good veggie eater on my hands – everything from tomatoes to cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and even radishes! Oh I count myself lucky!

If it’s a struggle to get your children to eat produce, check out a new program from Stop & Shop grocery stores to help out. Now until May 31, Stop & Shop is offering shoppers collectible Produce for Kids’ Ideal Meals^TM – quick and easy healthy meal ideas, which are free and can be found in displays featuring LazyTown^® characters from Sprout TV in the produce department. Each meal idea features fresh fruits and vegetables as main ingredients!

The popular superhero-like LazyTown characters, Sportacus and Stephanie are featured on the in-store displays. Kids can join in the fun by visiting the new Kids Only! section on www.produceforkids.com  to partake in healthy eating games and activities, become a Super-Active Super Hero and enter to win awesome prizes.

But even better – through May 31st, Stop and Shop has teamed with participating produce suppliers as part of the Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign to raise money for local children’s cancer research. The more produce shoppers add to their shopping lists, the more hope they can give to children in the area. I think this is a great initiative because we’ll all be eating healthy, and children with cancer will get the funding they need to get healthy!

“Families that incorporate fresh produce into their meals eat healthier. That is why Stop & Shop and Produce for Kids are on a mission to improve family nutrition and give families resources to do so,” said Arlene Putterman, Manager of Public and Community Relations for Stop & Shop, NY Metro Division.

Here’s a sample recipe from your local store display:

Garden Vegetable Pasta & Fresh Salad
Serves 4; Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. uncooked pasta (whole wheat or multi-grain)
• 1 medium sweet onion, peeled, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
• 2 cups mushrooms, washed/dried, chopped
• ½ cup kalamata olives, sliced
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• Salt, as needed

Directions:

1. Preheat Heat oven to 400° F.
2. Cover cookie sheet pan with parchment paper or use a non-stick pan and lay onion pieces and mushrooms on pan. Season very lightly with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, set aside until easy to handle.
3. While vegetables are roasting, cook pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, drain and toss with tsp. olive or vegetable oil and set aside.
4. In large frying pan, melt butter on medium high heat, add roasted onions and mushrooms. Stir for 2 minutes. Turn heat to medium, add spinach and sliced olives and cook 2 minutes. Add pasta, stir and season with salt as needed. Turn off heat and cover if needed to keep warm 

Fresh Salad
Serves 4; Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of packaged salad
• 1 apple, cored, sliced
• 4 Tbsp. red wine vinaigrette

Directions:

1. In a bowl, add packaged salad and sliced apples.
2. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Garden Vegetable Pasta Nutrition Information: Calories 501; Fat ; Protein ; Carbohydrate ; Fiber 6g; Cholesterol 33mg; Sodium 545mg; Calcium 34%DV; Vitamin A 46%DV; Vitamin C 86%DV; Iron 19%DV

The following companies support the Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign and local children’s cancer research: Del Monte Gold^® Extra Sweet Pineapple; DOLE® Packaged Salads; Lil Snappers™ Apples & Pears; Mexican Haas Avocados; Naturipe® Fresh Berries; RealSweet® Vidalia® Onions; SUNSET® One Sweet Tomatoes™; TopLine® Seedless Cucumbers & Rainbow Peppers; USA Pears. Additional sponsorship provided by JOH.

To learn more about Produce for Kids and healthy eating, visit www.produceforkids.com, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. To learn more about Stop & Shop, visit www.stopandshop.com.

I will receive a gift card as compensation for sharing this information. All opinions are my own and 100% honest!