Booklet Serves As Guide To Healthy Eating

Congratulations to the National School Lunch Program! It’s celebrating five decades of providing lunches to children across America. President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act 50 years ago; now more than 25 million students participate in the program.

To celebrate the anniversary, the Agriculture Department’s Food and Consumer Service developed a book for elementary schools and parents called “Food, Family, & Fun: A Seasonal Guide To Healthy Eating.” The 122-page resource book includes recipes and family activities, all organized by season.

You can order the book from the U.S. Government Printing Office for $9 (includes shipping and handling); ask for 001-000-04627-6 and give the title. Send your credit card number or a check, made out to the Superintendent of Documents, to P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Or visit your local elementary school library and look at their copy of the book.

The 50 recipes in the book are lower in fat than traditional school lunch fare, such as New Macaroni and Cheese. You’ll find a delicious Garden Vegetable Rice Salad, enticing Breakfast Burrito with Salsa and yummy New Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (which my kids enjoyed).

Take advantage of the new crop of apples now coming to grocery stores and select a lean cut of pork chops. Cooked in 10 minutes, the combination of pork and apples makes a terrific meal for those hungry students in your house.

Pork Chops With Apples

From “Food, Family & Fun” (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food & Consumer Service).

4 small apples

4 pork chops, 1/2-inch thick, trimmed of all fat

Vegetable oil spray, optional

1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper (optional)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Core apples and cut into quarters. Then cut each quarter into 3-4 slices.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat (or spray a regular skillet with vegetable oil spray). Place chops in the pan and brown on both sides for 3-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper, if desired.

Push pork chops to the center of the skillet. Place apples around chops and drizzle oil over the top of apples. Cook for 5 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time and turning the apple slices over to brown both sides.

Remove chops from pan to a serving plate and surround with the apples.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 250 calories, 19 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrate, 10.4 grams fat (37 percent fat calories); 52 milligrams cholesterol, 42 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes MEMO: Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian and Spokane resident, welcomes ideas from readers. Write to: Five and Fifteen, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

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