Mini Touchdown Meatloaf - Meal Play Monday

The only thing better than fall weather and football is a game day party full of snacks and rivalry.  This Meal Play Monday post is for all the football lovers that will be hosting a game day party for this weekends games.

Mini Touchdown Meatloaf

       

Image Credit

Serving Size: 8 

 Calories: 324

Ingredients:

• PAM® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
• 2 pounds ground round beef (85% lean)
• 2 cans (8 oz each) Hunt's® Tomato Sauce-No Salt Added
• 1/2 cup Egg Beaters® Original
• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 envelope (1 oz each) dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup Hunt's® Tomato Ketchup
• 1 stick (1 oz each) part-skim mozzarella string cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line shallow baking pan with aluminum foil; spray foil with cooking spray.
2. Mix beef, tomato sauce, Egg Beaters, oats and soup mix in large bowl until well blended. Shape into 8 oval-shaped meatloaves, about 5x3 inches; place in prepared pan. Spread ketchup evenly over tops of meatloaves.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until meatloaves are cooked through (160°F). Cut cheese stick into thin strips. Cut strips into 8 long pieces and 32 short pieces. Place 1 long piece and 4 short pieces on each meatloaf to resemble 'laces' on a football.

Check out more game day recipes including appetizers and main dishes.  

Too much work?  Too many guests?  Maybe a Hot Dog Bar would be better for your party.  

Hot Dog Bar

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Allow your guests to make their own meal with a Hot Dog Bar.  Minimal work for the host will result in more enjoyment.  Visit Modcitymag for a list of toppings for your Hot Dog Bar.  

Feeling Full vs Eating Healthy?

Currently, Schools battles controversy regarding nutritional school lunch with total calorie amount.
New school lunch regulations have parents concerned that students aren't getting enough calories to fill their stomachs.

School lunch regulations, in 2012, only required a minimum calorie count.  The new USDA school lunch regulations require that school lunch contain 550 to 850 calories, depending on their age, with no more than 30% of total calories come from fats.  In order for lunch to fall within guidelines, the portions have gotten smaller and junk food has either been eliminated, or substituted for a healthier version.  Schools have changed, even the cookies, to smaller, healthier versions, completely altering their flavor into something tasteless.

Image Credit: "20111019-FNS-RBN-1744 - Flickr - USDAgov" by U.S. Department of Agriculture - 20111019-FNS-RBN-1744. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20111019-FNS-RBN-1744_-_Flickr_-_USDAgov.jpg#mediaviewer/File:20111019-FNS-RBN-1744_-_Flickr_-_USDAgov.jpg

The Elkhart Truth discusses some of the parents concerns that the school nutrition regulations are resulting in hungry students.  Many students are throwing away their fruits and vegetables, sometimes even the junk food, resulting in calorie deficient, unsatisfied students.  Hungry students can become distracted, irritable, and uncooperative, all competing against their attempt to learn.

Are 850 calories enough for an average student?  For an active, growing teen?

 As an athlete in High School, I remember eating pizza, cookies and chips somedays, and chicken tenders with salad other days.  To this day, I remember, my favorite lunch was the spicy chicken tenders.  I enjoyed lunchtime because there was such a variety of choices.

A new movement in the midwest has added a salad bar to Elkhart County Schools attempting to encourage students to eat more vegetables.  A salad bar allows students to create their own variety of toppings, everyday, instead of pre made salads a couple days a week.

What were some of your favorite school lunches?  Do you think it is important to only serve healthy food?  Or should they incorporate more variety?  Share your thoughts here and take my poll to see how others feel about the subject.

Meal Play Monday

Meal Play Monday will be a day dedicated to doing EXACTLY what we have been taught NOT to do, play with our food.  Meal Play Monday's will include fun recipes for children, as well as adults.  I will include fun recipes themed for the holidays, party favors, and healthy snacks for children.  

In a previous blog, Lynsee Yacks had asked if I had any tips to getting children to eat healthy foods.  I was stumped on the subject for a while.  I realized, while grocery shopping with my son, that children want to eat food shaped like fun characters.  My son wanted to buy fruit snacks shaped like Mickey Mouse, and macaroni and cheese shaped as Sponge Bob, even Cheez-It's with the letters of the alphabet on them.  If we want to get children to eat healthy food, we need to make it fun.  

I hope to accomplish a couple of things with this weekly themed blog.  Not only to get children to eat healthy foods and impress our party guests with our fun snacks, but also to tap into our creative sides.  

Creativity is essential in the growth of young minds and the seeds of creativity are within everyone.  Those that nurture their sprouting imaginations will go on to lead the future with powerful creative thinking abilities.  Those that "think outside the box" are the leaders that invent and problem solve in new ways. Society dismisses creativity as an important aspect of life and many never even get the chance to explore it.

Read more on the importance of creativity in this link.

This week's Meal Play Monday recipes will be in response to Lynsee Yacks request for tips to get children to eat healthy food, fruit in particular.  Arranging fruit into fun pictures makes food more desirable for children.  Eating becomes fun, more like edible art.  

image credit: Gabriela Fischer Fun Meals 4 Kids

The Bananapolice.com's Fun Meals 4 kids offers tons of fun edible arrangements to help encourage children to eat fruit.  

Personally, I have not had trouble getting my son to eat fruit.  My issue has always been getting him to eat a healthy breakfast, with all the sugary cereal advertisements.  If any of you have a similar issue, I have found a few helpful cites that integrate healthy breakfast food into an edible arrangement.

image credit: Victoria Wellman of Mail Online

Do you have any helpful suggestions to getting children to eat healthy food?  Fruit? or Breakfast?  I would also like to hear how you feel about the importance of creativity.  Do you agree that it is an important quality to explore?