Ellie Wilson

MS, RDN,CDN, FAND

The world our children are growing up in is busy, noisy, distracted and overwhelming. Parents and caregivers work so hard to maximize their children’s activities, manage phone and computer usage, and reach for the best new ways to nurture balanced, happy, and healthy children and teens. The secret to making it all work may not be new at all – the humble family meal and eating more meals and snacks together has been shown to bring an abundance of benefits to families, one bite at a time!

Family Meals Deepen Relationships and Build Social Skills

Research has time and again shown that family meals have a unique and surprising power to support a range of holistic, positive skills and abilities that allow our children to become their best selves. Family meals literally make families stronger. Eating together fosters family closeness and togetherness, supports intellectual and early literacy skills, and develops language and social skills. In fact, a specific finding of a recent survey about family meals uncovered that over 75% of the families polled described family meals as an ideal setting to have and teach respectful interactions, a critical skill builder that requires this unique time and safe setting to discuss concerning topics and develop problem solving competence.   

Family Meals Improve Mental and Physical Health

Eating more family meals together has huge benefits for health. Research shows that families that eat together more often enjoy more fruits and vegetables, have more healthful weight and other positive health behaviors, such as more physical activity and better sleep habits. All those elements facilitate better mental health across the lifespan – those smart habits carry over into adulthood and sustain good health through the inevitable ups and downs of life.

Family Meals Bring Fun to the Family Table!

It is not hard to make eating together a fun time that everyone looks forward to! Have a picnic indoors, play ISPY, have a “kid’s choice” meal each week, or have your teenagers pick the music to play in the background. Family meals can be a time to share family stories, talk about the favorite thing that happened that day, tell a silly joke, and build food skills through favorite family or culturally relevant dishes or holidays. When parents and caregivers “play” with their children, mealtime becomes a treasured time you can all look forward to!

How about our busy, noisy, distracted lives? It can be hard to get regular meals on the table!

We get it, and we are here to help! Every week, we share ideas for meals that can be made from the items on sale in the ad – we call them Value Meals,  because we know time and budgets are stressed, and inspiration can be hard to muster at the end of a busy day. They don’t have to be perfectly healthy, or pretty, or complicated – the secret sauce is literally your time eating together, a practice that nourishes you all.  Try to get one more meal together each week, and watch your children bloom!

#FamilyMealsMovement

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History of Irish Soda Bread on St. Patrick's Day

We love a good St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Corned beef, cabbage, a Guinness or two. It’s perfect. But next to those big players sits another staple of the meal, Irish soda bread. Without a good soda bread your Irish feast is incomplete, it’s an essential side dish and this year we want to put a bigger focus on it. Let’s learn about the history of Irish soda bread and how it became associated with the holiday.

The first documented people to enjoy soda bread were the American Indians. They used pearl ash, a natural form of soda created from the ashes of wood, to make their bread without yeast. However, this practice became known worldwide when the Irish discovered and replicated it. And although its heavily associated with St. Patrick’s Day, Saint Patty himself was around well before soda bread was well-known.

Irish soda bread was first created in the 1830s, when baking soda was first introduced to the UK. At the time, Ireland was facing financial hardship and lack of resources, so they turned to soda bread out of neccessity, it was inexpensive and required few ingredients. Wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk was all they needed. Even Irish families who lived in the most isolated parts of the country could gather the ingredients to make soda bread. At the time, many of the lower class in these remote areas did not have oven access, so they used iron pot and griddles over open hearths. A unique cooking method that gave soda bread its dense texture, hard crust, and slight sourness.

Despite its humble beginnings, Irish soda bread has become a large part of the typical St. Patrick’s Day feast and plays a major role in Ireland’s culinary history. Pick up your own loaf of Market 32 Irish Soda Bread online or at your local store.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Family Mealtimes Matter Saturday Event!   fmm-logoSeptember is National Family Meals Month ™, and we are celebrating in stores throughout upstate New York with our friends from Cornell Cooperative Extension and Eat Smart NY! Information, education and some great recipes will be shared – check out Pizza Hummus for a fun twist on a smart snack! We have fresh, delicious meal solutions all around the store that can help you spend more quality time with your family, and reap the many benefits of family meals. Children who eat more meals with their family have better grades, social skills, talk with their parents more and enjoy better health – that is a pretty powerful package for something we know you already love to do! Join in the fun on Saturday 9/16 at one of the following New York locations from 10 AM to 2 PM, or grab the handout at the Guest Services desk in your store all month long. #FamilyMealtimesMatter #NationalFamilyMealsMonth #eatsmartny #Timebetterspent http://www.eatsmartnewyork.org/ https://www.pricechopper.com/family-mealtimes-matter?q-family-meals-matter= September 2017 Family Mealtimes Matter Event Locations: Family Mealtimes Matter – Chef’s Menu Meals Make it Easy Ellie Wilson, MS, RDN Senior Nutritionist   fmm-logoEating with your family each night is a priority for your family. Life is so busy – your kids have activities and homework, the dog is barking, laundry in the washer, even the gold fish is trying to get your attention – and everyone is hungry! You want to make this happen, but can’t even think about what to cook…..then you remember, you bought the Chef’s Menu chicken marsala meal – sauté the fresh cut veggies, then the chicken, add the simmer sauce (not too high in sodium, nice!), warm up the wild rice – you’re done, and they love it! One pan, happy faces around the table, some precious time to hear about their day, share yours, and feel good about the fresh meal you made for your family. A little bit leftover will make a great lunch for you tomorrow….everyone cleans up, and 5 minutes later, the dog is barking, the laundry is in the dryer, and the kids give you a kiss “just because”… The Chef’s Menu meals are a huge hit – great variety, portioned well, classic recipes and some new flavor adventures to try, they tick a lot of boxes for busy families. Fresh produce, cut and ready to cook, and delicious, nutritious sides that take just a few minutes to warm up, they help you put it all together. Family Mealtimes Matter – try them all, mix and match – over 40 combinations to enjoy! #familymealtimesmatter #familymealsmonth chefs menu Written by Sarah Palmer It’s never been easier to cook like a chef! Market 32 presents Chefs’ Menu, an easy way to cook gourmet meals at home in less than 15 minutes! Look for the Chefs’ Menu offering in the Butcher section at your store. fb_chefsmenu1080 In 3 easy steps you can whip up a delicious meal!

Step 1: Pick an entrée from our menu

Step 2: Select the ingredients

Step 3: Follow our simple cooking instructions & serve!

Chefs’ Menu offers a wide variety of protein options and flavors. Choose from chicken, beef, pork or seafood entrees. Pick-up a brochure and select one of the recipes inside, or mix & match sauces and sides to make a custom meal of your choice! Each entree serves 3-4. Click here to learn more about Chefs’ Menu and view recipes!     Guest post written by Kathleen McAllister MS, RD, CDN Cornell Cooperative Extension Do you have an energetic child who loves to be with you in the kitchen?  Or maybe a child who wants to eat nothing but boxed mac and cheese?  Working together in the kitchen to prepare food is a great way for children to learn new skills, gain confidence, have fun, and try nutritious foods. Children are eager to be involved in meal preparation, as it helps fulfill some of their natural curiosity about the food they eat.  They are more likely to eat foods they helped cut, stir, chop, or cook.  With the right tools, kids can easily get their hands in on the kitchen action. Helping children assemble their own kid-friendly kitchen kit can make preparing food even more fun and special.  Any plastic container or basket will work well.  Stickers can be used to decorate and personalize the kit.  Start with a plastic or silicon spatula, spoon, or whisk for mixing or stirring, in your child’s favorite bright colors.  Blunt scissors, egg slicers and plastic knives are useful for cutting soft items.  A plastic pizza and cookie cutter can be used to make food into fun shapes.  Add a food grade brush to “paint” on marinade for kebobs and meats.  Complete the kit with a chef’s hat and apron so kids can look the part.  Store your kid-friendly kit in a special place in the kitchen, and your child will be ready to help prepare any family meal or snack. Price Chopper, Cornell Cooperative Extension and Eat Smart New York!,  have teamed up to celebrate our fourth annual Family Mealtimes Matter Campaign.  Make the pledge to spend the next month making mealtimes better together by setting a goal to increase the number of meals you have together as a family.  If you have children, try setting a goal to involve them in preparing one family meal a week, whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner.   Stop by select Price Chopper stores in New York State on October 11th and 13th to speak to Cornell Cooperative Extension Nutrition Educators and Price Chopper Dietitians, and pick up helpful resources.  For a complete list of the Price Chopper locations hosting these events, click here! For more information about Cornell Cooperative Extension and Eat Smart New York!, go to www.cce.cornell.edu  and http://otda.ny.gov/programs/nutrition/ or call your local Cornell Cooperative Extension office.  For resources outside of New York State, contact your state extension office.