Breakfast for kids is a challenge!

As a Mom to 5 many of my challenges are based around food.  I personally am a morning person. I get up early with my little ones and we eat breakfast together.  But, as soon as my older kids became teens they stopped wanting to eat breakfast.  They go to bed too late and then they cannot wake up in the morning.  As they sit groggy at the table the last thing they want to think about is, what should I have for breakfast.  

I am participating in a Share Your Love for Cereal Month with MyBlogSpark and I think new ideas are always worth a try.  I was sent a selection of 10 different cereals by General Mills.  Each cereal came in its own disposable bowl and each cereal appeals to teens.  I put these cereals on the table and my teens jumped on them.  They opened it up, put in the milk they liked and ate it up in minutes.  

My oldest even asked if he could have another one?  Seriously, are these the same kids who sit with their eyes closed and heads on the table most other days?  My best advice for kids who do not like breakfast is to always try to stay one step ahead. Change things up!  Serve different foods and flavors than they are used to.  I know when I took out my waffle maker a few months ago everyone was excited for hot fresh waffles in the morning.  That experiment lasted for months.  Us Moms and Dads need to be on our toes, thinking ahead, planning ways to make the kids want to eat.

General Mills recently did a survey in the DC area and 97% of parents think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  I agree!  My 15 year old does not get to eat lunch at school until 1 pm.  If he does not eat before we leave the house at 730AM he cannot concentrate in any of his classes.  On the General Mills survey another interesting question was, what is the most important factor to get your child to eat breakfast, and 81% of the respondents said that the food had to taste great!  The last question that I found really important is which food do you think is a healthy food option, and 86% answered with cereal.  A 2009 study found that children who eat cereal have significantly higher intakes of whole grain, folate, calcium, iron, fiber, zinc and several other nutrients.  If you would like to watch a video or read more about cereal please visit www.cerealbenefits.com  It is very important to me that my kids have some whole grains and calcium in their morning meal and if they can get that in a cereal they love, all the better!  If I could ask an expert in the cereal world a question, I would like to know if there is anyway to make a cereal that my kids would love without all the usual sugar.  Can there be a happy medium between sweet cereal and less sugar?  I hope so!!

Another tip I can offer is that when my kids agree to come shopping with me at the grocery store, they usually choose many foods that surprise me and 98% of the time they eat it and enjoy it!!  I love when my kids come along and choose new breakfast foods and nothing makes me happier than seeing them wake up in the morning eager to eat breakfast!

*********Would you like to win a cereal giftpack of your own from General Mills?

Please leave me one comment and tell me which benefit of cereal is most important to you and your family?  Or, leave me a comment and tell me what question you would like to ask a cereal expert?

If you would like additional entries, 

* follow me on twitter @cookwith5kids

* tweet about this giveaway using hashtag #myblogspark

* please leave a comment for each entry, thank you!

Winner will be chosen on June 11th at noon.

Dislcaimer: I was sent a giftpack from General Mills and MyBlogSpark to review.  The opinions I have provided above are all my own.  Winners must live in the US.

Meatless Meals, Millet Meatballs

Since we have one vegan and one vegetarian in the house I like to experiment a lot with meatless meals.  My carnivores will try most meals I make, but they are a bit skeptical.  I think meatballs are one of the foods that everyone in my house really likes.  I am trying to add more grains into our meals too, so this recipe really interested me.
For those of you who have never seen millet, it is a small yellow grain and looks like couscous or quinoa, that shape and size.  The millet needs to be cooked before you can make the meatballs.  Put 2 cups of water on to boil, add in 1/2 cup millet and reduce the heat to simmer. Cook 35-40 minutes, till tender.  You can even cook the millet the day before. One more note, to make these vegan you can use vegan Parmesan cheese, if you are vegetarian you can use regular Parmesan cheese.

Millet Meatballs
one can cannellini beans, rinsed well
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic minced
2 tsp basil
1/2 cup water
1 and 1/2 cups cooked millet
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs to roll the meatballs in


Preheat oven to 350
In a large food processor combine canellini beans, onion, garlic, basil and water.  Add in millet, bread crumbs, parmesan and salt.  Let mixture sit for 10 minutes.  Shape mixture into 1" balls. You can roll each one in the extra bread crumbs.  To make mine less calories, I did not roll my meatballs in the crumbs.  Place meatballs on to the cookie sheet.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Serve with whole wheat pasta and fresh marinara.  This is a delicious meatless meal!

Kung Fu Panda 2 parent and family review

One of our all time favorite cartoon movies was Kung Fu Panda, so we were super excited to win passes to see a preview of the next one in the series Kung Fu Panda 2 (and, Yes, there will definitely be a Kung Fu Panda 3 based on how this one ends)

Our family rated it like this:
Parents  -  A-
12 year old boy  -  A
7 year old boy  -  A++

Po (Jack Black) is still the Dragon Warrior and now the head of the Furious Five (including the voices of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogan and Lucy Liu), fighting crime and protecting people.  They are all good friends and have fun together being the leaders of Kung Fu.  Things are good for Po and friends.

Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) finds Inner Peace and teaches Po a new move that he needs inner peace to do correctly.   Po will need to master this move and find his own inner peace to meet the new challenges he will soon encounter.  New enemies in far off lands create a weapon which is more powerful than Kung Fu and they need metal to make more of these new weapons to overtake all of China.  When Po first battles these new foes he has a flashback which he cannot explain.  He goes to visit his Father at the Noodle Shop and Po begins to realize that his father may not be his real father (since he is a panda and his father is a stork).  Po now realizes that he does not have inner peace and needs to learn about who he is.  His father tells him the story of how he came to be with Po, but does not know about Po's real parents.  His journey to defeat this new (but actually an old) foe and to learn about his origins takes us through the entire movie.

Parent warnings for small children:  I can't really think of anything.  There is no bad language, a little kung fu violence, some cannons shooting things (Po gets shot at one point) and NO sex/love scenes at all.   There are some sad moments when Po is remembering his parents and what happened to them.  The only thing I thought might be "3rd grade" humorish which people might not like is a scene where the team is trying to make their way through the city incognito and choose to use a large dragon.   - video of scene - click on "Dragon"

Parent Review of the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Our family went to a sneak preview last night to see the new movie, Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides.
 
Our family rated it like this:

Parents  -  B
12 year old boy  -  A-
15 year old boy  -  A+
9 year old boy  -  A-
7 year old boy  -  A

We saw the movie in Digital 3D and we did not feel like the 3D was really worth the extra money for this movie. There were only a few scenes where they used it effectively.  Most of the time I was wondering why I had to wear these uncomfortable 3D glasses.  If you do not need to spend extra money, then enjoy the movie without the 3D experience. A few of the sword scenes were cool in 3D but otherwise, not so much.

A few warnings for those parents who have little kids!
1. This movie is LONG, almost 2 and a half hours long! Your kids will get antsy halfway through the movie and will be bored and want to go home.
2.  There are two scary parts.  Skip the rest of this warning below if you do not want a spoiler alert!

1. The first scene of the movie has a guy getting lifted up in a net, and when they open the net up the guy screams and my kids jumped!
2. The mermaid scene is very scary.  You know it is coming when the pirates reach the bay and they turn on the search lights and take out the nets and try to catch the mermaids.  I know, mermaids are not usually scary, but this scene is!!

3. There is very little if any bad language! They mostly use Pirate language.  There are also no inappropriate scenes of sex or nudity.  There is some violence and lots of guns and swords and people do get shot.

Whatever you do, do not get to the movie late! The first 45 minutes are amazing! Tons of chase scenes, exciting escapes from jail, we were all on the edge of our seats.  The premise of the movie is that three different groups are all trying to get first to the Fountain of Youth.  The three groups are Captain Jack and Blackbeard, an English Boat with Jack's old nemesis and the Spaniards.  Blackbeard has a prophecy that he will be killed by a man with one leg.  In order to save his life, Blackbeard needs to get to the Fountain of Youth first.  Most of the movie centers on who will get to the Fountain first?  Overall the acting and excitement is A+ throughout.  I think if they had cut a little of the middle part, and made it just 2 hours it would have been perfect.  Leave me a comment if you see the movie and tell me what your kids think of it! You can read my 7 year old sons review here, monkeyitouchman.blogspot.com
and stay tuned for our review of Kung Fu Panda 2 tomorrow.

Awesome lunch, seitan stir-fry!

So what do you make yourself for lunch everyday? Is it boring tuna or turkey sandwich? This is my new favorite lunch or dinner and it is soooo healthy!!
I like to buy the costco size broccoli, mushrooms and onions so that I have the ingredients I need on hand for a whole week.
First heat up some EVOO in a saute pan, I use about a tsp or so.  Heat it nice and hot then add in your favorite veggies
sliced zucchini
sliced peppers
broccoli
sliced mushroooms
chopped onions
sliced or shredded carrots
I usually put the onions in alone for the first 2-3 minutes and then add in the rest of the veggies. Once these are cooked (about 2-3 more minutes) I add in chopped up seitan.
Seitan is amazing. I use Westsoy Seitan. It is amazing how much it tastes like a chunk of beef. Seitan is vegan and is good for you! 21 grams of protein and 2 gms of fat per serving.  I use about 1/3 of the package for each stir fry.  I sometimes add in a touch of soy sauce and just keep moving everything around the pan. If I am not making a vegan version I will add in one egg and cook it up quickly on the side of the pan and it easily incorporates itself into the whole dish.
This lunch is filling, nutritious, and most importantly delicious!

Whole Foods Rockville Blogger Tour

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Whole Foods Rockville Blogger Tour Pre-Opening tonight and wow, this store is incredible! Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery halfway through the tour, but you will get the idea from the pictures I do have.

If you live anywhere near Rockville you MUST visit this store soon. I promise you will not be dissappointed.

When we came up to the front door we saw a sign that welcomed all the bloggers. We started our tour right away. The coffee expert told us about a $70 a pound coffee from Panama that they are featuring.  There are also 3 new brewing systems that they are using but since I don't drink coffee I wandered off to take pictures of the fruit.

Before I left the coffee bar area I saw the gelati popsicles. These look wonderful, so fresh and delicious on a hot summer day.

This Whole Foods has a beautiful cultivate garden center right when you walk in.  They are selling as many local flowers as possible.  The flowers are so colorful and reasonably priced too.


They were still busy stocking shelves, setting things up, and getting the store ready for tomorrow's 10 AM Grand Opening, but to me it looked perfect tonight. The fruit section was so beautiful. You just wanted to pick out a fruit and eat it.

Whole Foods is trying to sell as many whole trade fair trade items as possible. You can identify these products with the orange circle sticker on them.  Whole trade brings fair trade to a higher level. It is socially responsible, and they make sure the employees who work so hard picking the fruits are paid well and treated well.  In this new store there are many cut fruits that are organic!

Next we went to the fish area. The fish cases are much smaller and shorter, which encourages the fish guys to come out and talk with the customers.  The fish area will be much more interactive!  There is also a new fish freezer area with many gluten free options that were never offered at Whole Foods before.  A smoked salmon all the way from Norway is another new highlight.  The fish is rated on a 5 point scale and is rated by the BOI (Blue Ocean Institute).  By Earth Day next year all unrated fish will no longer be sold at Whole Foods.

The next area was the cooking coach. This is something I have never seen before. A big table will feature one food or recipe and Michael Kiss, a cooking coach, is available 5 days a week to answer your cooking questions. If he is not there, there are 2 iPads to help answer your cooking questions.  In this area there is a dry mushroom bar, and a huge amount of seeds, grains, flours and more with grinding areas as well. I wish I had some pictures, it was a huge incredible space that truly is one of a kind.

The grocery area is focused on VALUE. They do not want you to think of them as the most expensive store on the block.
Blue tags show items with everyday low prices all year long
Orange tags show sale items that last two weeks long
Whole foods checks the prices at other stores to match or be lower than other stores on many core items.
Gluten free items all are certified and checked and are shown with light green tags.

The dairy department has really cool new doors on all the milks, eggs, etc... These doors are more energy efficient and keep the cool air inside better.

There is also a cool granola bar, literally a bar with different types of granolas, that is conveniently located right next to the milks.

The meat department is huge! The meat is butchered in house. There is also a smoker so they can smoke meats with hickory or cherry wood. Briskets are smoked for over 13 hours alone!  They have many dry aged meats which are aged for 2-3 weeks. The possibilities are endless in the meat department. The homemade sausages look incredible.  If you are looking for something in the meat department just ask, they probably have it!

The cheese area is also enormous.  Two of the cheese team members have worked in all 3 of the Rockville locations for the past 20 years. Their pictures are up on the wall behind the cheese area. This cheese area is three times as big as the old one.  They will be cracking open a large parmigiana wheel this Saturday at 3pm with the Mayor of Rockville. You will be able to taste the heart of the Parm on Saturday.

A fresh pasta bar with homemade pastas and sauces is attached to the cheeses. It smelled and looked so good. I had to keep my son from diving in and tasting the marinara.

Next on the tour was the Restaurant Row. All food is made to order. There are fresh sandwiches made with the variety of meats and cheeses, Burgers, Sushi, Pizzas, and Arepas.  The possibilities for dinner are endless.

The cake department went from 4 feet at the old store to 16 feet! Some of the highlights are
mini tarts at $1.99
cupcakes $1.99
vegan desserts from Sticky Fingers Bakery (only one of the best places in the world)
gluten free desserts
dairy free desserts
tea cakes
16 types of sliced breads
mini pies $2.49

Instead of saying Health Starts Here the baker told us that Happiness Starts Here. Here is the head baker showing us one of his mini apple pies

 Here is an apple pie and a strawberry rhubarb pie just out of the oven.

The whole body area has two new items I had never seen before
a bath salt bar from local vendors and a facial imaging machine which analyzes your face, recommends products to help specific problems, saves your data, then analyzes you again to see if the products help!

May 3rd from 6-8 PM they will be having a spa night with free massages and 25% off many body care, facial products and makeup.

I could probably write 10 more pages but I need to get the kids to bed.
Tomorrow morning at 10 AM is the grand opening. I hope to see you there!!!

Review of George & Martha at Imagination Stage

We were lucky enough to win from Washington Parent Magazine a group of 4 tickets to the opening night of George and Martha playing in Bethesda, MD at Imagination Stage.
Our tickets were waiting for us at the will call window and excitement was in the air. This was the opening night of the new children's production of George and Martha, based on the popular book series by James Marshall.  (James Marshall also worked on the Miss Nelson series of books which our family loves.)

This play is listed for ages 3 and up. I think that any kids from age 2.5 to 14 would enjoy this play. Adults will laugh along too. It is really a play that would appeal to all ages.  George and Martha is playing from now until May 29th, so get your tickets early!
When we entered the theater we immediately noticed how colorful and bright the stage was. Tons of color everywhere.  The kids could not wait for the show to start.  Boy was this blogger surprised when I saw we had front row seats! The kids were literally bouncing up and down, so excited to be able to see it all, almost being able to touch the stage, ready for the show to begin.

I had with me a 7 year old and two 10 year olds. All three of them laughed throughout the show. The ten year olds were not expecting to enjoy it very much, but they were cracking up for the whole hour.  The show follows the books pretty closely and if your children are familiar with the stories, they will recognize many of the various scenes.  The overall theme of the show is friendship.  There are two best friends who start to get on each others nerves over some very silly things.  But, in the end, they realize they miss each other and should stay best friends even though they cannot agree on everything.  One more thing you should know, there are tons of songs in this show! My ten year old asked me at the end if this was a musical. The songs were great, and really made the show even more fun for all of us!
We had taken a few of the George & Martha books out of the library so the kids were familiar with the characters and the type of story it would be.  The show lasted about 55 minutes, with no intermission. If you have a little one along with you, make sure you hit the bathroom before the show begins.  I will not ruin the show for you, but I will tell you that there were no scary parts or scary costumes. I think most kids would really love it. 

Since we won our tickets to the opening night performance, we were lucky enough to hear an introduction from the Playwright, Joan Cushing, and also to be included on a backstage tour and reception when the show ended.  Joan gave us great insight into her ideas of how she wrote the play, songs and music as well as how she felt about the main theme of friendship and the characters.  She told us that she loved the drawings in the original books and would laugh at the books from just looking at the pictures.  There are pictures all over the stage that are inspired by the illustrations in the books.

The backstage tour was truly amazing. My kids love theater and getting a glimpse behind the scenes was really a dream come true.  First, we were taken to the sound control room. We saw many wires, computers and the wireless mikes they used in the show. My 7 year old who is reviewing this on his own blog (monkeyitouchman.blogspot.com) was ready to get in a chair and run the computers for the next show.  We saw how the computers actually controlled all the sound effects including the big doorbell that rang whenever someone pushed it.  They also told us how they were forgetting to use one of the sound effects and just realized it and added it to the computer list of sounds.  This was a sound that they used at least 15-20 times in the play last night and I think it would be very funny if there was no sound for this effect.

Next, we saw the costume warehouse. This room was stocked full of costumes from all different times and places. They were grouped by date, so the clothing from the same eras were kept together.  After peeking our heads in the costume room, we saw the shoe area.  Hundreds of shoes everywhere you looked.  You cannot imagine how many pairs of shoes they had. Every color, style, size of shoes you can think of!  When we got to the room where they actually made the costumes for the shows, we saw four sewing machines, some mannequins, a steam iron, and some of the renderings (drawings they make before creating the actual costume).

  
We next went downstairs to see where the sets were built.  We also saw where they kept the props in the wings near the edge of the stage.  We were allowed to take pictures on the stage which was really cool.  The stage was so cool to stand on. It was a little slick especially where 3 huge glass tiles covered an area that looked like it went 2 stories down to the ground.  The kids slid around, took a few more pictures and then we called it a night.

There was a lovely reception in the lobby for the opening night sponsored by Whole Foods. All of the actors were hanging around talking to anyone who wanted to ask questions.  My kids said to me, "Do you see where the PIG is, she was my favorite". I would love to take a picture with her!  Little did they know, but the Pig (Kate Guesman), was out of costume and makeup and was standing right next to them listening and talking to other people. She was so sweet and talked with the kids and posed for pictures. The kids were starstruck!

I guess my kids were tired because they turned down sandwiches, muffins and cookies and said they were ready to go home. As we drove home my 7 year old techie said, "Now I want to go see the show again so I can look around and understand more how the show works behind the scenes."  

I just want to thank Washington Parent Magazine, the Imagination Stage, and Whole Foods for an amazing night that we truly enjoyed every minute of!