Good Press

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE (AP) Hide the chocolate milk behind the plain milk. Get those apples and oranges out of stainless steel bins and into pretty baskets. Cash only for desserts. These subtle moves can entice kids to make healthier choices in school lunch lines, studies show. Food and restaurant marketers have long used similar tricks. Now the government wants in on the act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced what it called a major new initiative Tuesday, giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology to improve kids' use of the federal school lunch program and fight childhood obesity. A fresh approach is clearly needed, those behind the effort say. About one-third of children and teens are obese or overweight. Bans on soda and junk food have backfired in some places. Some students have abandoned school meal programs that tried to force-feed healthy choices. When one school district put fruit on every lunch tray, most of it ended up in the g...

We ate these so quickly, I didn't take a photo. I lifted this one from Taste of Home, where I found the recipe in the October/November issue. The recipe was part of a feature suggesting quick breakfast burritos, fruity granola bars and sweet potato muffins for grab-and-go pre-dawn nourishment on Black Friday. They made a perfect Monday brinner (breakfast for dinner). Sammie's Breakfast Burritos for Two 4 eggs 1/4 cup salsa 1/8 teaspoon chili powder 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin 1/8 teaspoon pepper 3 breakfast turkey sausage links, casings removed 1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese 4 fat-free flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, salsa, chili powder, cumin and pepper; set aside. Crumble sausage into a large skillet; cook over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain. Push sausage to the sides of pan. Pour egg mixture into center of pan. Cook and stir until set. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Remove from the heat; ...

We had this for lunch Saturday, actually. Everyone -- even the 7-year-old and her 11-year-old cousin -- liked it. I picked up the ingredients for it partly in celebration that Walmart in Oakland, Md., has Boboli now and that my daughter discovered she liked feta and black olives. I didn't have lemon-pepper seasoning and I saw no need to buy it for one recipe so I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning. We still had some chicken, onion, spinach, sauce and cheese left over so on Sunday I made mini versions using tortillas. They needed to bake for only 5 minutes. Easy Greek Pizza 1 prebaked 12-inch pizza crust 1/2 cup pizza sauce 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning, divided 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach 1 small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings 1/4 cup sliced ripe olives 3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese Place crust on an ungreased baking sheet; spread wi...

Meet Good Press's first guest blogger, Mali Gank. Mali Gank lives in West Virginia with her husband, two bonus children, and 9 pets that may or may not be trying to stage a coup at any given moment. She is currently finishing her degree in education, and in her spare time she reads, writes, and tries to create something from nothing whenever she can. She shares with us her review of Organic Batter Blaster: Original Pancake & Waffle Batter. The store locator on the product Web site says it is sold at Walmarts around north-central West Virginia and western Maryland and Kroger in Morgantown. While vacationing with family in Michigan this summer, I was skeptical when my sister in law pulled the pancake mix out of the grocery bag. I’m not a pancake purist by any means…I have been known to turn to Aunt Jemima or Hungry Jack for a quick dinner fix. However, even my time-saving mentality had ever imagined what I was looking at. It looked like a can of squeeze cheese, the sort my youth ...

I'm not flawless in the kitchen, but we rarely waste food or have to eat my mistakes. I can usually save whatever I've flubbed. One recent weeknight dinner is a good example. I was making Chicken Balsamico with hot orzo, a recipe I learned at this fall's Taste of Home Cooking School. I'm sure I heard the culinary expert say to cook 1 cup of orzo in 1 can of chicken broth. Maybe she said a half cup of the rice-shaped pasta? Maybe I was supposed to put a lid on it? Reduce the heat? Remove it from the heat? Stir frequently? Maybe I was supposed to add a can of water to the chicken broth before boiling? Whatever I did wrong left me with undercooked orzo that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Hating to waste food, I stirred in water -- about a cup -- hoping to deglaze the pan and get the orzo al dente. It worked and the water either cooked off or was completely absorbed. Disaster averted. Dinner was served. Dinner was all right. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't left craving...

I live 30 miles from good Indian food. (OK, I live 30 miles from ANY Indian food.) So I am excited to see Amy's frozen meals for sale at the Walmart in Oakland, Md. I picked the Palak Paneer with a side of Rajmah dal for $3.77. I ate the kidney beans in ginger-garlic sauce first so I could savor my favorite part: the creamed spinach with cheese (the paneer) and basmati rice uninterrupted. Was it as good as Ram's at Mother India in Morgantown, WV? No. But it was a reasonably priced and accessible substitute.

Monday started off better this week thanks to pre-planning and this recipe for a nourishing baked apple oatmeal. I didn't have wheat germ so I reduced the milk to 3 cups. I also mixed it on Sunday night and refrigerated the dish. When I woke up, I put it in a cold oven and turned it to 350. It baked in the 45 minutes it took us to get ready for work. There was no school and our daughter had a friend stay over. We all had a good, hot breakfast -- on a MONDAY! We will be making this recipe often this winter. BAKED APPLE OATMEAL 4 cups milk 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 cups old-fashioned oats 2 cups chopped peeled apples 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup raisins 1 cup toasted wheat germ In a large saucepan, heat milk, brown sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon. Add remaining ingredients; mix gently. Spoon into a greased 2-quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Yield...

If you need to know what buckwheat cakes are, go here . My family eats buckwheat cakes with butter and maple syrup and a side of sausage. But I've seen people heap on sausage gravy or applesauce or apple butter to complement -- or maybe cover up -- the taste. I have heard of people smearing them with peanut butter or elderberry jam. I gotta ask: How do YOU eat your buckwheat cakes? Tell me in the comments.