How to offer healthier goodies to your goblins

The fall weather is upon us and this means a change in the foods we eat. Have you found yourself wanted to put on a pot of chili? As the temperatures change we have seasonal food that we tend to gravitate to, but remember the guidelines still remain.

1. Aim for a minimum of five servings per day of a fruit or vegetable.

2. Make your grains (bread, cereal, rice, pasta, etc.) a whole grain more than half the time.

3. Limit sodium intake to less than 2000 mg per day (that is one teaspoon).

Fall is packed with a new source of fruits and vegetables. I encourage you to stock up on local apples. These local varieties can be a quick snack for your family and tend to be smaller in size which is closer to the 4 oz. portion size (tennis ball, not softball size). Apples also make a great option to pass out to Trick-or-Treaters.

Also, have you ever tried to eat a pumpkin? Remember they were a vegetable first before we decided to carve then for decoration. Here is one of our family favorites:

Dinner in a Pumpkin, modified

2 small sugar (baking) pumpkins

1 onion

1 cup celery

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb. beef

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup ketchup

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1, 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1-4.5 oz. can mushrooms, drained

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1, 10.75 oz can condensed cream of celery soup (look for reduced sodium!)

2 cups cooked rice (I recommend whole grain!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut off top of pumpkin, scrape out seeds and pith.

2. In a large deep skillet, sauté vegetables in olive oil until soft. Add beef; cook and crumble until evenly brown. Add the pepper, ketchup, garlic, salt, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce. Simmer 15-20 minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine beef mixture, soy sauce, mushrooms, brown sugar, soup and rice. Mix well, pour into pumpkins and replace lid.

4. Place filled pumpkins on a baking sheet and bake for one hour or until pumpkin is tender. As you serve dinner, be sure to scoop out a little of the cooked pumpkin too.

For more information or to contact Elise call 385-6143 or email KlopfensteinE@HCHC.org.