Even if you don’t have kids, many experts believe that nutritious food helps improve school performance and helps to create healthy eating habits that will be carried into adulthood and passed on to the next generation. That impacts all of us as employers, supervisors, colleagues, neighbors and citizens. Nutrition also plays an important part in helping to reduce obesity, diabetes and other food-related diseases.

During the next two months, Congress will consider a Child Nutrition Reauthorization that will establish the budget and priorities for school lunches for years to come. Now is the time to let our representatives know that we care about the type and quality of food served in our nation’s schools.

Let your voice be heard; tell Congress you want schools serve better lunches to our kids:

If you don’t enjoy good nutrition at home,
maybe you can learn it at school. Photo
courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

• Provide $1 more per day per child for better school food.
• Strengthen nutritional standards regarding all the food offered in schools.
• Provide funding for healthy eating education and regional farm to school initiatives.

President Obama has committed $1 billion more to the cause of child nutrition, but it’s a big country: an extra dollar per day per child is needed. But funding for anything at this point is tight. You can let Congress know that America’s kids need more…$1 per day per child… for their school food. This is where you can help.

• You can add your name to this petition at SlowFoodUSA.com. 

Chocolate truffles covered with rose petals.
Photo courtesy VosgesChocolate.com.

Now, you can take a literal bite of it, with the new Le Chocolat en Rose truffle collection from Vosges Haut Chocolat.

The pink Champagne truffles are made from 65% cacao dark chocolate flavored with Piper Heidsieck brut rosé Champagne, then rolled in fragrant rose bud poudre (crushed rose petals). Twelve pieces of Le Chocolat en Rose truffles are $39, 20 pieces are $53, at VosgesChocolate.com.

If you’re not familiar with edible roses, they’re a delicacy used to make jams, sorbets, pastries, confections and other foods throughout the Balkans, India and Iran (or more romantically, Persia). But as those countries don’t have a tradition of chocolate-making, creative American chocolatiers have incorporated rose water and/or rose petals—with delicious results.

We can recommend plenty of beautiful Valentine chocolates without roses, too.

The cucumbers can be puréed and strained, or seeded and finely diced; then mixed with yogurt, herbs, and sometimes, olive oil.

There are variations of tzatziki throughout the Middle East, where the sauce is used as a side dish to meals with meat (another of its many names is tarator). The acidity of the yogurt is a counterpoint to the fat of the meat. Tzatziki is also used to top souvlaki and gyros (in the U.S. tahini, a sesame seed sauce, is more often used with these sandwiches).

The classic yogurt-cucumber spread is a new way for Americans to accent a chicken, turkey, pork, ham or veggie sandwich, or as a side or sauce with the meat. Instead of using whole-milk yogurt tzatziki, it is quite low-calorie when made with fat-free yogurt.

• Click here for a tzatziki recipe. You can be creative with it, adding your favorite herbs (such as mint) and chopped olives.
• There’s also a raita recipe, and an explanation of the differences between tzatziki and raita.

A pork chop with low-calorie yogurt-
cucumber sauce. Photo courtesy National
Pork Board.

Planning a Super Bowl Party? Or have you volunteered to bring a dish to someone else’s?

Jambalaya is fun, filling and easy to make for a crowd.

Jambalaya was created when Spaniards living in the Latin Quarter of New Orleans couldn’t afford saffron, due to the high import costs.

So they created a New World version, which became jambalaya (jamón and jambon are the words for ham in Spanish and French, respectively; “alaya” came from “paella”).

Get a yummy jambalaya recipe as well as a brief history of this popular Creole and Cajun dish.

So, serve a “skinny” cheese course. If you present self-serve selections—large wedges or wheels on a tray—the temptation exists for people to help themselves to 500 calories or more of cheese (not to mention the bread or crackers).

Instead, pre-plate the cheeses for everyone, with a one-ounce slice of one great cheese and a bit of gourmet salad greens lightly tossed with vinaigrette. Put one large crouton (a slice of toasted baguette) or specialty cracker on each plate to avoid the temptation of a bread basket.

• Drizzle a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano with aged fine balsamic vinegar and a small frisée salad.
• Serve a fine blue cheese or a goat cheese with a drizzle of quality honey, some red grapes and dressed field greens.
• How about a wedge of Brie or Camembert with a plump fig and a few walnut halves with a baby arugula salad; or your favorite Cheddar with a fan of apple slices and red-leaf lettuce?

Serve large wedges of cheese and people will
help themselves to large portions. Instead,
pre-cut and serve just one or two slices to
everyone. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Have fun devising your own combinations and garnishes. Add a basket of fresh fruit to the table to finish your meal.

• Read our Cheese Condiments article for more ideas.