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Like many of you, I frequently struggle when trying to persuade my children to make healthy food choices. One child despises vegetables, one child only likes red meats, and one thinks sugar is the base of the food pyramid. I sometimes think, “Where did I go wrong? Did I not expose them to a variety of nutritious foods when they were toddlers?”. I even sadly project to the future, “When they go out to a nice dinner and meet their future in-laws will they order chicken fingers and french fries?”, hence revealing my total and complete failure as a parent. However, I have good news — it’s not too late! Doctors and nutritionists found the following strategies work well with children and teens.

Can you believe it? School is almost here! We all know what that means — waking up early, packing lunches, helping with homework, and taxiing to after-school activities — brace yourself, it’s a whirlwind!

At Cali’flour Foods we recognize providing clean and healthy choices offers our children an optimal chance for success. As parents, we’ve all seen the studies reporting deficits in nutrition can lead to issues with attention, processing, behavior and problem-solving. Sadly, this results in overall lower academic performance.

With most diseases, the mystery is the problem. If we could only figure out the how and why, we could do something about it. Fortunately, despite the seriousness and risk from type II (two) diabetes, we can follow the trail back to the start and discover some startling insight.

NOT to be confused with TYPE I (one) Diabetes, type II has been directly traced to weight gain, in general. One of the biggest clues to this fact has been the rise of this disease in young children.

It’s that time of year to start getting in the learning mood, and what better way than to deliver a delicious reward at the end of a lesson? Here are five ways to get your kids learning the basics that will stick in their minds for a lifetime.

Shapes! Every kid loves to make shapes with just about anything they can get their jam hands on. Turn this curiosity into a project by using cookie dough cutters to make fun shapes in the pizza crust. Simply use a thawed crust (easier for cutting) and press down your desired cookie cutter shapes to create munch-able monsters or delicious dinosaurs, whatever your little’s heart’s desire! This is a great opportunity to teach about different animals. Ask questions like, “What is a biped? Quadruped? Which ones are mammals and which ones are reptiles? Where does the lion live? Don’t forget the geometric shapes either. How many sides does the triangle have? What does Octagon mean? The options are nearly endless! Use the leftover cutouts as breadsticks by following our breadstick recipe. Bonus Points: Use our Plant-Based crust for “cookie” type shapes. Simply follow our recipe for a whole pizza here: https://www.califlourfoods.com/blogs/recipes/mini-dessert-cauliflower-pizzas-with-deanna-stagliano -and get creative!

Every year we kick off the holiday season with a bang, otherwise known as Halloween. This is a great time of year to get in a festive spirit and it all starts with a dress-up party that even adults are allowed to partake in! With that being said, we wanted to encourage you to enjoy the upcoming holiday with some insight on the balance between fun and safety.

Unfortunately, we live in a day where it appears as though our kids are less safe walking the streets than we were growing up. Some might argue that it’s the same dynamic it has always been, but with the advent of the internet and its popularity, we are simply seeing more of the same stuff that’s always been happening. We are not here to take a side, but we do want to express our love for our neighbors (that’s you!) by sharing some insight on making it a safe Halloween without having to sacrifice the fun of it. It’s all about the balance!