Camp Aldersgate

Healthy Christmas Ideas

With Christmas coming up, its usually the time when we begin to over indulge on foods and treats as we spend time with family and friends. This year, why not consider making some dishes that are not only tasty to eat but are also kind to your body?

Listed below are some healthy alternatives to the usual favourites, plus maybe some new ideas!

Crunchy Pear and Celery Salad

Ingredients

• 4 stalks celery, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons cider, pear, raspberry or other fruit vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 ripe pears, preferably red Bartlett or Anjou, diced
• 1 cup finely diced white Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (see Tip)
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 6 large leaves butterhead or other lettuce

Method

1. Soak celery in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces.
2. Whisk vinegar, honey and salt in a large bowl until blended. Add pears; gently stir to coat. Add the celery, cheese and pecans; stir to combine. Season with pepper. Divide the lettuce leaves among 6 plates and top with a portion of salad. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Other ideas:

Horseradish crusted Beef Tenderloin

Winter Squash Risotto

Roasted Fall Vegetables in Cheddar crust

Spinach Salad with warm Maple dressing

Edible Christmas Gifts

With Christmas coming up, the thought of buying lots of gifts can be overwhelming. So why not make some of your own gifts to give. Making your own gifts can be fun, rewarding, inexpensive, plus they are made with love.

Here are some suggestions:

Cookie gift tags

Peppermint Nougat

Peanut Brittle

Pie

Jam

 

Below is a recipe for homemade strawberry jam, which is a great gift and like the food revolution is fun to make and great to eat!!

 

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Ingredients: 

5 cup(s) (crushed) Fresh Strawberries

1 package(s) (3/4 ounce) Reduced-Calorie Or Lower-Sugar Powdered Fruit Pectin

2 1/2 cup(s) Sugar

 

Method:  

Prepare six 8-ounce canning jars and their lids and bands for processing following manufacturer's directions. Heat jars in canner with enough water to cover to boiling. Meanwhile, in large bowl, with potato masher, crush enough berries in batches to measure 5 cups crushed berries.

In 5-quart Dutch oven, with wire whisk, gradually stir pectin into crushed berries. Let mixture stand 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place lids in small saucepan and cover with water; heat to boiling and set pan aside.

Heat strawberry mixture to boiling over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and return strawberry mixture to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove strawberry jam from heat. With metal spoon, skim off and discard foam as it accumulates on top.

Place jars and lids upside down on wire rack set over towels to drain. Spoon jam into hot, drained jars to within 1/4 inch from top of jar. Wipe jar rims clean Seal jars. Process in boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. Cool jars on wire rack to room temperature. Label jars and store in cool, dry place. Use within 6 months. Once opened, store in refrigerator and use within 3 weeks.

 

Re-do those Leftovers!

Thanksgiving. Its a time to be thankful, the time to spend time with our family, and of course the time to enjoy one another’s company around the dinner table, enjoying food.  Here at Camp Aldersgate, we love food! We also love being able to reduce waste as well as provide a sometimes-healthier alternative. Listed below are some ideas on what to do with all of that leftover thanksgiving food and allow your family to enjoy their thanksgiving food in a variety of ways!

 

Leftover re-do ideas:

• Turkey/Chicken salad wraps
• Turkey soup
• Chicken/turkey pot pie
• Shredded turkey and pinto bean burrito
• Turkey and squash soup
• Turkey and sweet potato quesadillas
• Turkey and sweet potato shepherds pie

 

Chef in the making!

 

We wanted to show another memorable highlight of the summer here at Camp Aldersgate. Along with hand-made ravioli we also made home made lasagna using pasta that we had rolled out and made ourselves! The picture below is just one example of a moment of fun with making the pasta! 

By making hand made foods for the campers and staff to eat, it allowed fresher and healthier ingredients be included into the cooking. Going with the old saying of "good things in, good things out" this helped to have energetic campers that were energised by healthy food, as opposed to the sometimes heavier feeling that can come with fried and pre-processed foods.

 

Ravioli comes alive!

As the weather gets cooler and the memories of the summer that has been continue to fade, we at Camp Aldersgate thought we would take a look at some of the highlights of the food revolution from the summer. It was a great first summer of the food revolution, where we had an average of 25 campers a week participating in the kitchen and learning basic kitchen skills.

Below is a photo of some Experience campers having fun whilst making hand-made ravioli for dinner.

 

Tips to a Healthy family #2

Following on from our last Healthy family blog where we offered you some healthy lifestyle tips; we have found two more tips that will hopefully you in your process of revolutionizing food within your family. 

1)   Provide healthy snacks through out the day. By keeping fruits, vegetables, and other whole grain snacks easily accessible to children through out the day will allow your children to fill up on nutritious items as opposed to empty calorie snacks such as chips and cookies.

2)   Lastly it is important to limit your child’s portion sizes. It is important to never force your child to eat everything if they are full as well as never using food as a bribe or reward.

Remember food and eating experiences, as a family doesn’t have to be boring or painful experiences.  Talk with your children as a family about what they would like to do to make food and meal times more interesting and inviting, their ideas might surprise you!!

 

Tips to a Healthy family #1

Like you, we want the children that attend Camp Aldersgate to grow up to lead healthy and happy lives. This was part of the reason why we decided to revolutionize our food at camp this summer. We want our campers to experience food in a fresh and new way, in order to excite them about the different options of food. Realistically though we know and understand that this is sometimes easier said than done. We spent sometime looking and came up with some tips that may help in your efforts to revolutionize food in your own home.

 

1)   Have regular family meals- studies say that families that are sit down at the same time every night helps to enhance the appetite and enables children to want to try new and different foods. 

2)   Try and cook more home-cooked meals. By cooking meals at home,  it allows the  family to try healthier meals as wells allowing times for children to be apart of the cooking process which helps in teaching children the importance of eating healthy food.

3)   Encourage the children to become involved through cooking, grocery shopping and helping selecting what they want in their meals.  By allowing their involvement, it helps to provide opportunities to teach about the nutritional values of food as well as making healthy decisions.

 

We hope that these tips are helpful to you in encouraging healthy eating in your children and in your home.

 

Marvelous Meatballs!

A popular favorite at camp was our famous Meatball Subs, which were handmade by our kitchen staff and campers! This summer we had lots of fun making and lots of fun eating these.

 

We decided to let you into the secret of the perfect meatballs, try this recipe for a fresher alternative to store-bought meatballs.

 

Meatballs

 

Ingredients:

1lb Ground Beef

1 egg

1tsp Salt

1 Garlic clove pressed

1tbsp Parsley

½ cup Bread Crumbs

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees F. Mix all ingredients well. Form into small balls and place into baking dish. Bake for 12 mins or until brown, turning meatballs after 6 minutes. Add to your choice of sauce and serve!

 

Fun in the Kitchen

As apart of the Food Revolution here at camp, we believe in having fun with food and making tasty treats at the same time. What better way to do this than with a fun afternoon activity. Why not try one of our summer camp desserts with your kids. Fun to make together and fun to eat!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup and 1 teaspoon butter, softened

1/2 cup and 1 teaspoon packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons and 2-1/4 teaspoons white sugar

3/4 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1-1/2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture.
• Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown