Safetacular Fall Celebrations
Fall is in the air. Cooler weather brings thoughts and plans for hayrides, carnivals, festivals, trick-or-treat, and more fun. Halloween may be a fun holiday for kids, but for parents, trick-or-treat time can be a little tricky. Concerns about children’s safety,...
5 Easy Steps to Save for Big Ticket Items
Very few of us have money ready to cover an emergency, never mind the money for the larger purchases we’d like to make. This is why it’s so important to prioritize savings to cover both the items you need as well as those you want. Whether you’re saving for a new...
Packing a Healthy School Lunch
Packing the kids’ lunches for school means you know which nutritious foods they are eating. Here are some budget-friendly, creative ideas to keep kids happy and healthy at lunchtime. Make a “Smarter” Sandwich: While some kids prefer the same thing every day, others...
What Happens When You Eat?
If you think about it, your digestive system is pretty weird. Amazing, but weird. Digestion is the rather complicated process of breaking down the food we eat into energy and nutrients, which then get absorbed into our bloodstream and distributed throughout our body...
Local and Seasonal Foods: August
Local, seasonal food has been the subject of federal, state, and local government policy in recent years as consumer interest in and demand for this kind of food has grown. In fact, research from the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education (piecenter.com/local)...
Child Safety and Convenience: The Laundry Pod Dilemma
Consumer Reports recently pulled their previous endorsement for laundry detergent pods in light of the potential poisoning hazard for young children. Just to be clear, this is only the laundry pods that contain the highly concentrated liquid detergent, not pods...
Kids: After-School Snacking and Food Safety Tips
Are your kids famished when they get home from school? Kids often hit the kitchen right when they get home and begin the search for something to eat. After being at school all day, it’s inevitable they will bring a host of germs into the house (and into the kitchen)....
Preparing for the After-School Snack Stampede!
It may be hard to believe, but summer vacation is drawing to a close and school is right around the corner. It’s time to plan for lots of things like new classrooms and teachers, unexpected supply needs, extracurricular activity requests - and hungry kids arriving...
Let’s Keep Grilling, but Safely!
Summer brings on the craving to grill and that craving continues through the year! Millions of Americans will enjoy grilling as they gather with family and friends. Whether grilling outdoors or indoors, safe food handling is always important. When shopping, pick up...
Food Trends
Upon hearing the word “trend”, you may think fashion. Fact is, foods trend too! Last October, nearly 1,300 members of the American Culinary Federation were given a list of 231 items and asked to rate each item as a hot trend, yesterday’s news or a perennial 2015...