Announcing "Cooking For Kids- Event"

I saw this show on CNN, FEd Up: America's Killer Diet. I heard this quote from Dr. Sanjay Gupta “…barely one percent of children meet government guidelines for a healthy diet.” If you're searching for a villain in America's obesity epidemic, most nutritionists tell you to put one picture on the wanted poster: a cold, bubbly glass of soda pop.

He talks about this kid, Adrian McHargh who grew up active and skinny in Kingston, Jamaica. An enthusiastic swimmer, he had the pristine waters of the Caribbean for a playground until two years ago, when he and his family moved to America. I would eat a lot because I was bored," he says. "I was sitting on the couch just watching TV, not playing a lot."

Within months, Adrian was in trouble. He'd packed on 30 pounds. Doctors said he had hypertension, high cholesterol and was at high risk for type 2 diabetes.
(Source:CNN)

Kids get carried away by french fries, soda, cookies, chips, juice with high fructose corn syrup. Ready made frozen meals, sugar coated attractive cereals, pizzas and burgers have made it convenient for people from not cooking fresh food. How much freshly prepared food, fruits and veggie servings are included in your kid's diet?

The other day while talking to Kay of One bite at a time, I was telling my concerns about my 4 yr old not eating home cooked food and eats a lot of junk food. She gave me some very innovative ways to make healthy food tasty and attractive.

Now coming to the point, the idea behind starting "Cooking For Kids" event is to cook healthy yet attractive and delicious recipes for kids. We want our kids to be healthy and live a disease free life.



The rules of this event is very simple.

Monthly an Ingredient will be announced by the start of that month and you have to create a recipe with it. The Ingredient can be anything from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, flours, legumes, lentils, dry fruits, herbs, spices, milk, milk products and so on.

1. Prepare a kid friendly recipe with the main ingredient, and post it on your blog from the announced date till 30Th of that month.
2. Send me an e-mail with your Name, a picture of the recipe, perma-link of the recipe and name of your blog to "cookingforkidsevent AT gmail DOT com".
3. Please use “CFK” to denote the subject matter.
4. Also link this event to your entry.
   
   The Ingredient for December month is "Corn". You may use any version of corn. It may be fresh corn, corn flour, creamed corn, baby corn, corn meal or frozen corn.
   Create anything from Soups, Salads, Appitizers, sides, Breakfasts, dinner or desserts.
   
   You can also include information like "sweet corn has significant Antioxidant activity, which can substantially reduce the chance of Heart disease and Cancer.
   
   The deadline for this event will be December 31, 2008. The round-up will be posted by January 5Th 2009. January's ingredient will be announced on the 1st of Jan.
   Please feel free to use the above logo. You can (left)click on the logo to save it.

So get creative and post some yummy recipes!!