Going through my tweets a couple of weeks ago I came across a tweet that mentioned a school lunch contest that First Lady, Michelle Obama was doing. This piqued my interest and when I read it to Stella she was all for it.
We read the directions and guidelines and put our thinking caps on. One challenge was following the guidelines set forth in the Choose My Plate program. As we were putting together different menus – I kept going back to the food guidelines. I really think they need to have a kids one and adult one, but I will not get into that now.
To explain the contest – this contest is the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. With all the news, discussions, disgust, etc regarding school lunches this really is a great challenge. I was very surprised that I did not hear about it more – but I do not watch TV news, but even people I mentioned this too had not heard about it. The challenge is sponsored by First Lady, Michelle Obama, US Department of Education and Epicurean. There will be one winner from each state and the winners will be invited to the White House for a State Dinner, where the menu will be based on some of the winning recipes. It was open to kids ages 8 – 12 and their parents/guardians. The recipes have to follow the Choose My Plate guidelines, need to be original recipes, affordable and delicious.
The deadline for entry was June 17 and we made it! We submitted our entry and now will wait patiently until July 16 – that is when the winners will be notified.
So what was our entry?
Dish Cakes filled with fruit – the strawberries and cherries were picked at a local farm, 1 serving of raw milk cheese and a salad with greens (local), 1/2 an avocado, lentils and lentils sprouts (we sprouted) with a drizzle of olive oil. This met the Choose My Plate Guidelines – which is mostly fruit and vegetables, smaller portion of protein and grains and an even smaller portion of dairy.
We are keeping our fingers crossed! How cool would it be to go to the White House and to get there with a healthy and nutritious school lunch? Way Cool!!!
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Nice photo of the lunch… very pretty. The fruit dishes are awesome. I hope, hope, hope you win!! What a fun challenge. Hopefully the photo went with the recipes and menu… : )
Yes the photo went with the application. Thanks for the wishes!
Let me know when you and Stella go to the White House for your State Dinner!
Only good wishes from this end. Can’t wait to hear!
Good luck.
so great that you & Stella work on so many of these things as a team…and I think your lunch is definitely White House material…I can see the photo of you & Stella with Michelle Obama already!
Fabulous! This is so original.