Renee Fox Column: Restaurants Make it Easier to Eat Healthy

Our lives seem to get busier every day, and we often don't have time to make homemade meals for our families. Instead of spending the little time we have at home slaving over the stove, most of us would rather spend our evenings with those we love.

Dining at restaurants is a great way to enjoy a delicious meal and time with our families or friends. However, eating out frequently could add extra inches to our waist line if we are not making healthy selections. Sometimes it can be challenging to make a wise choice if we don't know how the meal is prepared.

Now you can relax and enjoy your healthy meal and night out, thanks to a new program that is making it easier to make smart selections. The Smart Meal program highlights meals that are 700 calories or less, lower in fat and include items such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Restaurants participating in the Smart Meal program use the Smart Meal seal to identify these entrees on their menus.

The Blue Heron Brew Pub in Marshfield, Hidden Creek Kitchens by ODC in Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids, and Red Mill Supper Club in Stevens Point have become the first Smart Meal restaurants and catering services in our community. Knowing the healthier choice is easier to find just might make the decision -- to stay home and cook or go out -- an easy one.

Typically, many Americans choose to splurge on calories when dining out, but that trend appears to be changing. A recent article in the USA TODAY states that consumers finally are ordering healthier meals and references a historic change in Applebee's top-selling item. Earlier this year, the restaurant chain sold more of its 550 calorie sirloin and shrimp entrees than any other meal on the menu for two straight months. Applebee's never has had a low-calorie item rank that high in sales for a full month in years past.

With obesity rates continuing to rise, some folks are thinking more about the calories and types of foods they eat. The Smart Meal program makes it easier for health conscious customers to make wise selection when ordering out. Many local restaurants have shown their concern for the health of our community by participating in the Smart Meal program. In addition to these first three Smart Meal restaurants, several other eating establishments in Wood County are making plans to participate in the program this year.

You can help increase the number of participants by asking your favorite restaurant to join the Smart Meal program. It's free for restaurants with funding made possible by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the Wood County Health Department. Restaurants who are interested in learning more should visit www.getactivewisconsin.org.

Renee Fox is a health educator for Communities Putting Prevention to Work, Aspirus.

Reposted from the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune and Marshfield New-Herald. 6.8.11

Let the cooking begin!

We still have a time to enjoy our spring veggies! Although it has felt like the middle of the summer with this heat, early season food crops are still available. Rhubarb and Asparagus should both be looking good this week at the farmers market. Other ingredients from the recipes may be there too, like green onions or eggs. Explore a little while you're at the market, maybe try a vegetable or fruit that you haven't before, or try cooking a vegetable a new way! If you want to get excited about next weeks meals or snacks, ask vendors what will be coming next!

Try a recipe and let us know how it goes!

Rhubarb Muffins

Yields 12

Preheat oven to 375 F

Combine thoroughly:

1 ½ cups flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking poweder

In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients well.

1 cup buttermilk, sour milk or plain yogurt

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup oil

1 egg (beaten)

1 teaspoons vanilla

Stir in dry ingredients until just moistened.

Stir in Rhubarb filling.

1 ½ cups rhubarb

Grease muffin tin. Fill ¾ full with mix.

Combine and sprinkle on top of batter:

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter (melted)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon flour

Bake in oven at 375 F about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserts and comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan and allow to cool on a rack.

~You can add any kind of nut like in with the rhubarb filling for more great flavor!

Lemon Asparagus Pasta

4-6 servings

Cook pasta in boiling water 4 minutes.

Add asparagus and cook 2 minutes longer or until tender. Drain.

8 oz. angel hair pasta

1 ½ cups asparagus (cut into 1 inch pieces)

While pasta cooks, melt butter in large frypan over medium heat.

Add green onions and lemon peel and sauté 1 minute.

Add lemon juice and cook until liquid is almost evaporated.

1 tablespoon butter

½ cup green onions (chopped)

1 ½ teaspoon lemon peel (grated)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Beat together and add along with pasta and asparagus to pan with green onions.

¾ cup milk

2 eggs

Cook over low heat until milk mixture is slightly thick (about 4 minutes) *Do not boil*

Stir in following mix.

1 tablespoon fresh dill (chopped) /1 teaspoon dried

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Serve immediately

Survey throughout Wood County

The coming week will see people on the streets, and they are trying to learn more about how Wood County lives. The Survey Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) is designed to measure the health of our communities. It was highlighted in an article Tuesday by Deb Cleworth posted in the Marshfield News Herald. http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106070592

The people you may find knocking on your door will be asking questions about you and your area. Questions will be about both lifestyle and environmental factors that influence our health. Those who participate will receive a check within a month of participating, that’s just how important we think this is! Previous health surveys have told us about struggles with childhood obesity and the lack of fruits and vegetables in our diets.

We here at the Wood County Health Department are excited about the opportunity to gain more insight to our community and discover what ways we can become healthier and happier. Although our health often is up to the individual and their choices, we believe that our cities and towns can make it easier. It is time for our communities to focus on where our health begins in our schools, businesses, community events and food supplies. This survey will help us see what is needed and what resources in our communities could be better used. We believe that with the help of many, our communities CAN be healthy!

So please, if you hear a knock, answer the door and speak up!

Fresh Market Recipes

With all the great food coming out of our gardens and local farms, I find myself looking for great recipes that will let me enjoy my seasonal ingredients. We'd like to provide recipes on this blog throughout the summer for what is coming out fresh that week, or even that day! A new recipe will be posted at least every Friday to give ideas when you head to the market on Saturday! Don't feel tied to a recipe, if something at the market catches your eye, or your tomatoes are looking especially ripe, go for it!

• Let us know what is fresh at your local market!
  

• If you try a recipe, stop back and tell us how it went!

• Check back often for new creations!

Share your recipes too! If you know of great recipes for a seasonal ingredient, send it our way and we can share it here. If you're willing to give away some of your secrets ,that is!

Wellness Challenge dares Wood County residents to stay fit

Marshfield News Herald- February 4, 2011
Kirsten Sebold has an idea for her fellow teammates on the Wood County Wellness Challenge -- they all could go cross-country skiing together.

"It's really fun, we should do it," said Sebold's teammate Jodi Ertl.

Diane Fehrenbach, another teammate, looked down at her card of wellness activities and said, "Now we're talking about it."

Not only are they talking about skiing together, they're talking about bowling, tubing and snowshoeing -- a host of activities the five team members wouldn't have talked about before joining the wellness challenge.

Sebold, Fehrenbach, Ertl, Ben Corcoran and Josh Nagel are teachers or counselors at Auburndale Elementary School and are one of three teams from the school that have enlisted in the Wood County Wellness Challenge, which began Feb. 1 and runs through April.

"The goal of the challenge is to help them make healthy choices every day," said Amber Engen, a coordinator of the Wellness Challenge at Marshfield Clinic. Participants can be teams or individuals, but they had to join the challenge before it started.

About 60 teams in the Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids areas are competing against one another in the challenge by using bingo cards that assign an activity for the next three months.

February is the Moves month and encourages teams to dance for 10 minutes, go ice skating or play a Wii Fit for at least 30 minutes. In March, teams are challenged to drink green tea, eat whole grains or try skim milk.

Finally, in April, the teams can mix up the activities and attempt to go a full day without television, recycle or volunteer their time.

Each time a team or individual fills out their card, they can enter a prize drawing at the end of each month, Engen said. One of the prizes is a membership to a local gym.
The Auburndale school team members have different reasons for participating in the challenge, but they agree leading a healthier lifestyle is the central goal.

"I figure basically during the winter people are pretty sedentary and don't work out," Corcoran said. "It's nice to do something in a group and have it be physical."

There also is a benefit of doing a challenge like this in a group, Engen said. The Auburndale group plans on joining two other teams for a bowling match in order to knock off one of their bingo squares.

"They always say if you have other people to exercise with and do activities, it energizes you to do better," Sebold said. "We'll be more successful."

At the Opportunity Development Center in Marshfield, Kathy Becker is the team leader of the only client-based team for the nonprofit vocational service agency.
Every day she's encouraging team members Janet Winch, 55, and Sherry Fitzel, 50, to read food labels and eat healthier.

"It's kind of harder with getting that message across to people with disabilities," Fitzel said. "But we're trying to promote it and reinforce that they have fruits and veggies."

When Fitzel views one of the team members picking a healthy snack on their own, she points out that they've made a good choice.
Even once the challenge is over, there's no need to stop, Fehrenbach said.

"I'm making copies of my bingo cards so I can keep it going," she said.

You're Invited

(Click on invite to enlarge)

The problem of obesity is complex. The solutions don't have to be. We know what works to prevent obesity, and we need your help!

Email jjung@co.wood.wi.us to RSVP!

"Orange you glad I didn't say banana again"

Kristie Rauter
Project Director
Communities Putting Prevention to Work

Kristie Rauter is a Community Health Improvement Planner at the Wood County Health Department. She facilitates the Healthy People Wood County--Community Health Improvement Plan.

Here Kristie is standing next to the produce expert at Piggy Wiggly in Nekoosa. This picture was taken during a fruit taste testing that was held at the grocery store. Keep your eyes "peeled" for other fruit and vegetable character spottings around Wood County.

In her free time Kristie enjoys running, playing volleyball, camping, hiking, and being outdoors! Her passion for health and wellness is something she lives in her work and at play.