Nothing like joining together health and fun recipes for kids. Here is the nutritious Banana and Mango Delight, yields up to four servings.
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1 ripe mango, peeled and sliced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
½ cup raspberries
2 cups cottage cheese
1 tsp apricot jelly
Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine sugar and lemon juice. Add banana and mango slices and stir, so that the fruit is well coated.
Use a fine mesh strainer and press the raspberries with the back of a spoon. Extract all the raspberry juice.
In a small pot on very low heat, melt the apricot jelly and stir in the raspberry juice.
Divide the cottage cheese in 4 individual bowls and cover with the fruit slices. Drizzle with raspberry sauce and enjoy this delicious and light dessert.
Last-minute holiday shoppers with kids on their lists can breathe a little easier this year. The younger set almost universally appreciates gift cards (and cash) in their Christmas stockings and near the Hanukkah menorah over many other gifts for kids.
While not their first choice - video gaming machines and games hold that status - gift cards and money increased in popularity this year among both boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18, according to new research conducted by the YouthBeat® division of C&R Research, Inc. of Chicago. More boys and girls said they prefer to receive gift cards or cash for the holidays than last year (12.3 percent vs. 7.9 percent for boys; 22.5 percent vs. 19 percent for girls).
This preference rose significantly among children in households with annual incomes of between $50,000 and $75,000 (40.8 percent in 2009 vs. 33.6 percent a year ago). And it really rose among Latino youth, ranked by 43 percent versus 25.8 percent last year.
YouthBeat’s online survey of more than 1,200 youngsters found that nearly 80 percent had received a gift card, up nearly 10 percent from 2008. They also prefer gift cards versus a present chosen for them by about a two-to-one margin. GameStop gift cards were boys’ top choice; girls preferred Target-branded cards. Cards from Wal-Mart were the aggregate store of choice overall.
“Kids of all ages understand how they can use gift cards and cash as a means of getting exactly what they want during the holidays,” explained Paul Metz, senior vice president at C&R Research. “It also shows that they’re well versed in cards’ flexibility. That will be handy for those still looking for last-minute holiday gifts for kids.”
