It’s back-to-school time and EWG came out with their list of eco-friendly tips for buying products for your kids – including:

1) Look for pencils made from sustainable wood or recycled newspaper, without any paint or coatings

2) Look for hand soap and hand sanitizers without triclosan, triclocarbon or fragrance

3) Avoid buying polymer clay (the kind that stays soft at room temperature and hardens in the oven because it is made from PVC and has phthalates.

Check out the full list on the EWG and happy back to school!!

If you are growing zucchini in your garden or have a CSA farm share, now is the time of the summer where you start finding creative ways to use zucchini. It is always so plentiful this time of year and it’s hard to keep up with it all. But one of my favorite ways to use zucchini is easy and so yummy! This Zucchini Bread recipe is adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It’s my favorite zucchini bread recipe  – the top gets a chewy crust and the inside is soft and delicious. And even my picky boys who won’t eat zucchini on its own with gobble this bread down. It’s a fun way to get their vegetables in!

Zucchini Bread
from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

2 zucchini (1 pound) ends trimmed
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I use non-fat Greek yogurt)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour (here’s a place you can substitute 1 cup of white whole wheat flour for one of the cups of flour without there being a big difference)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped coarse (optional)
3/4 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously coat a 9×5 loaf pan with oil spray.
• Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Squeeze the zucchini between layers of paper towel or a clean dishcloth. (note: this is key to keep the batter from getting too moist). Whisk the sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt and lemon juice together in a large bowl.
• Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt together in a separate large bowl. Gently fold the zucchini, raisins or cranberries (if using) and the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Fold in nuts (if using).
• Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 55 to 60 minutes.
• Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool for 1 hour.

Did you ever notice that the greatest “make life easy” inventions seem to come from parents who have had to deal with some kind of frustration or inefficiency for long enough that they decide they can come up with an ingenious solution? Well I have found another one of these inventions. And, as I find with most of these types of things, it’s a “duh- why didn’t I think of that??” idea. This is specifically geared toward anyone who has to carry an Epi-Pen – a prescription injector that is for life-threatening allergies like food allergies or bee sting allergies. These injectors need to be on parents of children who suffer from the allergies at all times. A matter of 1-2 minutes can mean life or death (so keeping one “nearby, in the car for instance, can be a deadly mistake). The unfortunate thing is, they are awkward to carry, and you typically need to keep two on hand, making it doubly awkward.

But fine, no worries. You can pop them in your pocketbook (mom) or in your back pocket (dad) when going out. But what happens when the child gets older and needs to have them on hand but is going somewhere without his or her backpack? Or what if you are an adult who suffers from an allergy and you want to go out for a run, or do something where carrying a bag is not convenient? Since fanny-packs are long out of fashion, there have been few alternatives, other than carrying the “pens” in your hand.

So along comes a pair of ingenious moms. They, like me, became concerned about their nut-allergy kids as they got older and started going off on their own. A bike ride to a friend’s house, a trip into the town center for an ice cream, a soccer practice. What could they do to ensure that the Epi-Pens would be on hand? So they put their heads together and came up with a simple yet smart solution – called Take In Case. It’s a sleeve made of a stretchy material that has a little padding. The whole thing measures about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long, and it has two pockets that securely hold an Epi Pen each. VOILA! Now any child (recommended ages 10 and up) or adult can carry the Epi Pens on their arm or calf and keep their hands free.

We have been using this for a couple of weeks now and it has been great. My son is 10 years old but is, um, a little “slender” (ok – he’s as skinny as a rail) so it’s a little big for his arm, but he still puts it there anyway, and he actually doesn’t mind carrying it. Not bad!

Check out this site TakeInCase.com for a lot more information, and to find out how to order the case. From my perspective, it’s $25 well spent. And a portion of the sale goes to support food allergy research as well!

If you’re not already on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution email, I highly recommend it. He doesn’t send out a zillion emails – just maybe one every week or two – but they are always interesting, helpful and thought provoking. Jamie’s “Food Revolution” is his effort to improve the health of children by encouraging them to eat healthier foods – and his first target has been improving the foods served in school cafeterias (an effort I fully support!). But he also looks to parents to get their children to eat better choices at home as well. And in this week’s email, he underscores the fact that one of the biggest sources of sugar in a child’s diet in the U.S. is from soda. We’ve heard that over and over in the news as well. However, he also reminds us that sugar is in many other drinks that are popular with kids. And some are even “healthy” options like juices.

So he created a handy “toolkit” using data from the Harvard School of Public Health’s The Nutrition Source (another great source for tips on healthy living and eating). Jamie’s toolkit is an easy to read chart that shows how much sugar is in 12 ounces of drinks like cranberry juice cocktail (12 teaspoons!!!), orange soda (11 teaspoons) and even orange juice (10 teaspoons). It’s pretty eye opening!

And if you want to get even more detailed, check out The Nutrition Source’s How Sweet Is It? chart. Oh boy. I always knew that 100% grape juice was sweet – but didn’t realize that it has 15 (!) teaspoons of sugar per 12 oz. glass! How about that tasty Odwalla Apple Raspberry drink? A whopping 14 teaspoons. I definitely recommend a quick browse of the chart – and possibly printing it out.

We are not big soda drinkers in our house – but my oldest son loves it as a treat. I told him about a “The Nanny” episode that I saw once where she made one of the children, who was addicted to soda, spoon 12 spoonfuls of sugar into a 12 oz. glass. It took up nearly half of the glass. She pointed out to him that he was drinking that, basically with water and colors and flavors, every time he had a soda. It was a pretty strong visual. And even just telling my son about it got the point across. If you want more visuals, check out this cool site, Sugar Stacks, that shows you exactly what the amount of sugar in drinks and food looks like by featuring photos of the food and drinks with stacks of sugar cubes next to them (the photo above is one of their photos).

And Jamie Oliver’s point? Sugary drinks are OK for a treat, but stick to water for the bulk of your beverage consumption. No calories. No concerns. He even has some great ideas for flavoring your water and some fruit smoothie recipes as well. Fruit smoothies again can pack some serious natural sugar if you use too much juice or milk, or add additional sugar. But they are also a great way to start the day with protein and vitamins. And Jamie suggests throwing in a handful of nuts and/or natural oatmeal as well, both of which can slow down your body’s process of absorbing the sugar.

I have been on a smoothie kick for the past year and a half (ever since I got my Silver Bullet little blender – I love that thing!). Anyway – I do a quick smoothie in the morning with about 1/3 cup frozen blueberries (look for pesticide-free or washed frozen berries as they are often loaded with pesticides, unfortunately…), a little OJ, and about 1/3 cup fat free greek yogurt. I throw in a handful of oatmeal and some flax meal. I know – it sounds nasty that way but it’s surprisingly good and incredibly filling! And this summer I ventured into new territory at the suggestion of a friend who’s a nutritionist. I add a couple of leaves of kale into the mix. Granted you have to have a lot of berries to overpower the kale taste but it grinds up so small you really don’t even realize it’s there. And with kale being such a “super food” – it’s a pretty great way to start the day! (OK, I can hear collective groans from you all – but really, it’s way better than you’d think!)

Regardless of whether you want to do a deep dive into crazy smoothie world or not, the moral of this whole story is that you can easily cut out wasted calories by watching what you drink. Choose water, seltzer or sparkling water (try it with a splash of juice), tea & coffee (easy on the cream but it’s even ok to have a teaspoon of sugar in there) or other low-calorie, low-sugar drinks.  Save the other drinks for a treat. And keep an eye on what the kids drink – teaching them healthy habits at a young age will pay off for sure.