Nutrition Bites: One Liners and Fillers
For Newspapers, Newsletters, Church Bulletins, or Menu Cards

"Nutrition Bites" are fillers that can be used in a variety of publications to promote the Eat Better, Eat Together theme. Here's some places to use the "bites":

• Newsletters such as PTA, work site, organizational
• Church bulletin boards
• School menus
• Recipe cards
• Table tents
• Daily bulletins
• Bus signs
• Promotional flyers

Family-Meal Bites
Shared meals, especially with your family, nourish both the body and the soul.

Family meal times are a great time to slow down and get in touch with your family. Turn off the TV. Talk about what happened in everyone's day - school, job, friends, or what was in the news.

Family mealtimes do not have to be gourmet or fancy meals. Remember that food isn't the focus; shared time is.

Make one meal a week special for your family by using candles, a new recipe, a favorite food, a centerpiece (a child's art work?) or serving an ethnic meal.

Surveys have shown that kids who do well in school have something in common: family dinners.

Table Talk
An important part of positive family meals is good conversation and good conversation leads to good grades for many children.

A good family meal is good conversation. Questions help start good conversations. If you could invite a famous person over for dinner, who would it be? What would you talk about? Which of your friends' parents do you like and respect? Why? What is your favorite TV show? Why? If you could spend all day with a friend, who would it be and what would you do?

Good conversation is important to family meals and helps to make the meals memorable. Start a conversation with a story. After a few sentences, pass the story to the person sitting next to you, and so on. Or, ask everyone to bring a new word to the table. Practice using these new words in sentences.

Conversation makes for good family meals. A good conversation starter is to reflect on the day's activities. What was the best thing that happened to you today? The worst thing? The funniest?

During a family meal, keep conversation positive. If children think of the table as a place for conflict or discipline, they won't want to be there.

During a family meal, a good family discussion means that kids' opinions are respected. Give each child practice expressing their thoughts and feelings so they'll be more comfortable outside the home.

Meal Planning Bites
If planning family meals, ask other family members what they like to eat. Now that you know what everyone likes, decide what type of food you might enjoy together for dinner.

When planning family meals, keep health in mind. Use the Food Guide Pyramid. Dinner should have at least one serving from each of the five recommended food groups—grains and bread products; fruits; vegetables; meat, fish, poultry or beans; and milk or yogurt. Go easy on sweets and high fat foods.

Count how many times you ate dinner with your family last week. Try to add one more time this week. If necessary, mark these days on your calendar and tell the family.

If everyone is very busy and gets home late and you still want to have a family meal, plan a late-night dinner or a weekend meal. Give young children a late afternoon snack to hold off the "hungries".

Planning family dinners is a tough balancing act. Time, energy and money are limited. Yet we want to provide a nutritious dinner and a happy time around the table. Stock your cupboards with meals that you can fix in a hurry. Have two or three favorite meals.

If you are rushed, cooking for your family can be difficult. Look at your own schedule for the month to see when you might have some time to cook ahead, and when you can get some help from other family members.

Have children help plan one dinner for the family each week so they are part of the decision-making.

Involve family in preparing the meal to extend the time you have together.

Plan family dinner menus for as long as you can a week, a pay period, or a month. This will save time and avoid costly last-minute dinners out or pizza orders.

If your family eats together, try a new recipe each week. If the family likes it, keep it (and write down what you served with it); if it bombs, toss it.

Family mealtimes are a great time to try a recipe that reflects your cultural heritage. Talk about what you remember from your childhood or family stories.

When cooking family meals, involve the kids in preparing dinner. Children are more excited about eating when they have helped prepare the food.

If you want to have family meals together, make it clear that sitting down together is a family priority - everyone comes for dinner, eats (or at least tries) what's served and contributes to pleasant meal time conversation. Present this as a positive and important family event.

Summer Season Bites
Plan family meals around the seasons. Early summer is a great time for local produce in Washington!

Plan family meals around the seasons. Summertime is a good time for a picnic.

Fall Season Bites
Plan family meals around the seasons. Fall is time for pumpkins and squash. Take family to a pumpkin patch.

Special family meals can be prepared around squash. Acorn squash (also called Danish squash) can be green or orange on the outside.

A whole family meal can be built around potatoes. Did you know that Washington State grows lots of potatoes, second only to Idaho? Bake the potatoes and put out lots of different toppings that family members can choose from. For starters try: hot crumbled cooked ground beef and grated cheese, sour cream, or salsa.