Slow Cooker Safety
Slow cookers provide endless opportunities to cook all kinds of foods, from soups and casseroles to dips and vegetables. You can put ingredients in your slow cooker in the morning and come home to a ready-to-eat dinner. While we often think about using slow cookers in the cold weather months to make a hot meal, slow cookers are also great to use in the warm months because they put out less heat than an oven.
Slow cookers work by heating food at a low temperature, so food will take longer to cook than they might in the oven or on the stovetop. This is great for tougher cuts of meat like shanks, chuck roasts, and shoulders, as the low temperature helps make them more tender. The direct heat and long cooking time help ensure that meat cooked in the slow cooker will reach a safe internal temperature for consumption. There are other food safety considerations to be mindful of when using a slow cooker, such as the following:
- Before Beginning: Make sure your slow cooker and work area are clean. Place the slow cooker in a secure location, such as a high countertop, where it won’t be knocked, touched, or come in contact with other kitchen tools or food. The outside of the slow cooker can still become hot to the touch, so keep it away from children.
- Ingredients: Thaw frozen foods like meat and poultry in the refrigerator before adding them to the slow cooker. Always keep perishable ingredients refrigerated until you begin preparing them. When cooking dry beans in your slow cooker, soak them first and boil for at least 10 minutes before adding to the slow cooker.
- Preparation: Add vegetables to the bottom and sides of the slow cooker since they cook slower than meat. Starchy vegetables like potatoes, green beans, and carrots cook well in the slow cooker with enough time. After vegetables, add meat, then a liquid such as broth or water, as indicated by the recipe. Properly secure the lid and leave it on the whole time the food is cooking. Use the low setting for all-day cooking and for less tender cuts of meat.
- After Cooking: Before removing food from the slow cooker, check the temperature with a food thermometer to ensure it has reached a safe internal temperature. After the slow cooker has finished the programmed cooking time, it will keep the food at a safe temperature until ready to serve. If you have leftovers, store them in a shallow container and cool within 2 hours at room temperature before covering and refrigerating.
For more information on slow cooker safety, visit https://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/Slow_Cookers_and_Food_Safety.pdf
-Cara
Ways to Add Beans to Your Diet
Legumes are types of foods in the protein food group which include lentils, edamame/soybeans, split peas, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, and other beans such as kidney beans, lima beans, red beans, navy beans, black beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, cannellini beans, and Great Northern beans. Beans and other legumes are rich in fiber, folate, potassium, iron, magnesium, and are low in fat. Eating more beans and other legumes can help lower blood pressure, improve heart health, and regulate blood sugar levels. They’re inexpensive and can be added to a variety of dishes. Note that while string beans are a nutritious, starchy vegetable, they are not considered legumes like other kinds of beans.
When you buy canned beans, look for low-sodium options. Drain and rinse canned beans before eating or cooking reduce sodium even further.
To prepare dry beans, soak them (for at least 48 hours to reduce gastrointestinal side effects), then drain and rinse beans in cold water. Place soaked beans in a pot, cover with water, and let them come to a boil on the stovetop. After boiling for 10 minutes, reduce heat to low and continue cooking until beans are soft and can be easily mashed (usually around 45 minutes depending on the bean). If you cook beans in a slow cooker, make sure to boil them on the stovetop before finishing cooking in your slow cooker.
Not sure what to do with your beans once they’re ready to eat? Here are a few ways you can eat beans!
Salads: Top your salad with beans for a nutritional boost. You can also make a bean-based salad, like this fiesta salad.
Soups: You can add beans of your choice to any soup, such as chicken noodle soup and potato soup. Also, try bean-based soups like taco soup and chili.
Rice and Beans: Rice and beans is a quick nutritious meal. Brown rice and beans together provide plenty of fiber, and you can add all kinds of vegetables and sauces. For example, you can try rice and beans with salsa, tomatoes, salad greens, onion, and bell pepper.
Hummus/Bean Dip: Hummus (made with chickpeas) pairs well with vegetables and whole grain crackers. Chickpeas aren’t the only bean you can use to make a bean dip–you can also try making bean dips with other types of beans like black beans and kidney beans.
Tacos: Use beans instead of meat for a less expensive taco recipe. If you want to include some meat, you can replace some of the meat with beans. This is a great way to slowly add beans to your diet!
Hidden: Add whole or mashed beans to recipes with ground beef (like meatloaf, meatballs, and hamburgers) and sauces (such as spaghetti sauce) where you may not even realize they’re there.
Eggs: Try Southwest-style eggs with black beans, salsa, onions, bell pepper, and other vegetables. You can also make an egg burrito with beans.
A common complaint about eating beans is the gastrointestinal side effects like bloating and gas. This is completely normal when your body isn’t used to eating beans. Make sure to rinse canned beans very well and cook dry beans until they’re very soft to eliminate as much of the gas-producing carbohydrates as possible. Also, introduce beans into your diet very slowly. Start with just a couple of tablespoons, then gradually add more by the tablespoon as you tolerate small amounts over time. Lastly, you can add spices like cumin and ginger when you’re cooking beans to help with digestion.
How will you try beans this week?
After-School Activity
The first day of school is coming up. With the rush of gathering school supplies, packing lunches, and meeting teachers, it can be easy to lose track of time and forget to include time for children to be active. Start the school year off on the right foot by planning for physical activity!
Some children get physical activity at school during recess, physical education class, and after-school sports, but there are also many ways children can be active at home after school! Try a variety of activities to keep children interested and excited to be active. Find what works for your family and stick with it. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Have a Dance Party: Dancing is a great way for gets to let loose and get their energy out after a long school day! Let children pick music that will get them moving.
Go for a Walk: Walking is great activity for the whole family. You can walk in your neighborhood, on a hiking trail, through the mall, or on an indoor track. If it’s raining, you can march through the house together, letting children take turns as the leader.
Outdoor Games: Being active as a family, you can play team sports and games like basketball, soccer, kickball, baseball, and more! Try games that are easy to play in your yard or in the driveway like four square, tag, and relay races.
Yoga: Children of any age can try different yoga poses. Yoga can be a great way for children to be active while winding down their day. Doing yoga helps build strong muscles and improves flexibility. Do yoga in a room with enough space for everyone to stretch out, or you can try yoga outside.
What activity can you and your children try after school next week?
Fitness Basics for Youth
We know that physical activity is good for us and our children. For children, being active regularly can help improve cardiorespiratory fitness, strengthen bones and muscles, keep them at a healthy weight, reduce anxiety, and reduce the risk of health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and obesity. Whether your children are already active or are just getting started with physical activity, there are some fitness basics to be mindful of.
How much physical activity should youths aim for?
Children and adolescents should try to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. This activity should be moderate to vigorous. Moderate activity includes activities like brisk walking, hiking, dancing, and bicycling less than 10 miles per hour. When doing moderate exercise, you’ll breath faster, but you’re not out of breath; you can talk, but you can’t sing; and you’ll start sweating after about 10 minutes. Vigorous activity includes activities like running, swimming freestyle laps, aerobics, basketball, and bicycling more than 10 miles per hour. When doing vigorous exercise, your breathing is deep and quick, you can’t say more than a few words without taking a breath, and you’ll sweat after just a few minutes. Also, youths should include aerobic activity (e.g. walking, running, swimming, dancing, bicycling), muscle strengthening activities (e.g. gymnastics and push-ups), and bone strengthening activities (e.g. jump rope and running) every week.
Warming Up and Cooling Down
Warming up helps prevent injuries when exercising. A warm up can just be a slower version of the moderate or vigorous activity your child does. For example, if your child is going to run, they can warm up by walking to help get their heart rate up slowly. Breathing will start to be deeper than when you’re at rest, but not as much as moderate or vigorous activity. After activity, have children cool down by stretching or walking slowly for about 5 minutes to let their heart rate come back to normal.
Hydration & Nutrition
Children should drink water before, during, and after exercise. This will help replace the water that children lose by sweating during physical activity. Drinking water is especially important when exercising outside in the heat to prevent heat illness. Also, children should eat a nutritious snack after they exercise, such as whole wheat crackers with peanut butter or low-fat yogurt with fruit.
Remember if your children are getting little to no activity, it’s okay to slowly work their way to 60 minutes of exercise daily. They don’t have to go right from 0 minutes to 60 minutes! Help them find activities they love to make them excited to play everyday! How can you be active with your children?
References
- https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887
Touch Football
August is here which means football season is upon us. As a family you can play a non-contact game of football that doesn’t involve tackling–either touch football or flag football. These variations make it easier for young children to learn how to play.
Before you play touch or flag football, make sure you have plenty of space to run free of obstacles and other hazards. Between four and nine players per team is a sufficient number, but you can play with fewer or more people, depending on the size of your group. In touch football you tag the opposing team member to end a down and in flag football you remove a flag from the opposing team member to end a down. Touch football may be preferable to flag football if you don’t have flag belts.
Short bursts of intense physical activity when playing touch and flag football are good for heart health and can also help children release their energy. Whether they play on a non-tackle team or casually with friends and family, non-tackle football like touch and flag football can be great forms of activity for children–especially teens.