TruMoo Wrap-up and Giveaway

Last week I had the opportunity of participating in a talk about nutrition for children over at The Motherhood. It was sponsored by TruMoo Chocolate Milk.

The talk was very informative. We learned a lot about TruMoo as well as shared tips for encouraging healthier eating in our children. Andrea Carrothers, MS, RD and Nutrition Communications Manager at Dean Foods, told us about the chocolate milk in schools debate. She said that many schools are removing chocolate milk from their menus and finding the overall consumption of milk going way down. The nice thing about TruMoo is that it uses natural ingredients at regional dairies and has no High Fructose Corn Syrup! Ideally our children wouldn't need the sugar either, but TruMoo does appear to be a better choice than the other chocolate milk options readily available, and clearly a much better choice than soda and juice-type drinks with little to no nutritional value.

If you'd like to see all of the questions and answers, you can read the entire chat here. For a nice summary of the highlights go here.

One of my favorite parts of the discussion were the ideas tossed out about ways to encourage healthier eating in children.

Here were some of the suggestions:

• Use whole grain tortillas for quesadillas and wraps
• make mini-pizzas on whole grain tortillas, pita bread, or english muffins. Try and sneak some veggies on to the pizza.
• Green smoothies! Spinach, kale, and other greens, can go undetected in a frozen fruit smoothie.
• Pre-cut veggies and fruit so they are accessible to kids. A little dip can go a long way to making it fun to eat fruits and veggies.

And a couple more ideas that didn't quite make the chat, but I thought you might like:

Images originally from parents.com, cutefoodforkids.com, familyfun.go.com, and simplebites.net

Healthy can be fun, too! Here are some examples of healthy food and snacks that I have pinned on my "Fun Food" Pinterest board. Not everything on that board is healthy, by any means, but I do get excited when I see cute things done with healthy foods. What kid wouldn't want to eat Ernie or Burt, or let that penguin waddle into its mouth? Of course, we might not always have time to make the food this cute, but that brings me to my other suggestion. My friend, Rochelle, commented that her kids do best at eating when they are involved in the meal preparation. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Maybe they can help put together the Mr. PotatoHead faces or add the ingredients in the blender for the smoothie!

Our friends at Dean's Foods, want one of my readers to get the chance to sample TruMoo milk themselves. Here is a picture of some of the fun stuff that they sent me before the chat. There were two samples of milk, and of course they were both consumed (mostly by me) before I could take any pictures (this bottle is empty). I'd like a few more so I can have my kids try it, but clearly, it passed my test! :-) Anyhow, you can win your own TruMoo gift pack with samples, just by leaving me a comment below. Please give me your best tip on helping kids eat healthy! If you really don't have one, pick your favorite tip mentioned above. If you have more than one tip, you can have more than one entry, if you leave separate comments for your tips. You are welcome to leave links to recipes, etc., just PLEASE make sure and leave your email address so I can contact you if you win! 

What creativity do you use to get your kids to eat healthily?

Disclosure: I was sent a sample and compensated to participate in the chat and blog about it. As always, the words and opinions are mine alone,