Learning About Dairy Food Group~ Balanced Eating Fun Series

Teach kids about the dairy group through fun cooking and reading activities! This hands-on lesson from the ‘Little Hands that Cook with Books’ series explores healthy eating with engaging books and simple dairy-based recipes.

Learning about dairy foods with your child or class?  Here’s a creative way to create a yogurt parfait and learn about the dairy food group. Plus add a little heart fun to it too!

We’re working on learning about all the Food Groups in our Balanced Eating Fun Series with Little Hands that Cook with Books.

So far we’ve learned about the:

• Fruit Group
• Vegetable Group
• Meat Group
• Grain Group

The Dairy Food Group

This week we’re focusing on the Dairy Group! If you have the opportunity, I would take your Little Ones to a dairy farm. It’s an unforgettable experience and they will understand in a concrete way where milk products come from.

The USDA states that …

Consuming dairy products provides health benefits — especially improved bone health. Foods in the Dairy Group provide nutrients that are vital for health and maintenance of your body. These nutrients include calcium, potassium, vitamin D, and protein.

The amount we need varies, check the USDA website for more info, but here are their recommendations for children.

How much is a cup?

Source: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/dairy-counts.html

There are a few more tips to include Calcium into your daily meals, check out this USDA Dairy Tips Link

We enjoy making things with yogurt to try to fit in more Healthy Dairy Foods into our day.  We like to just use our favorite plain yogurt and then throw in whatever fruit we have in the kitchen. 

Some of our favorites to add are blueberries and strawberries, but you can add all sorts of things banana, pineapple, cherries, peaches, pears, apples, craisins, mango and many more!  We also put in a little granola to add some protein to our Parfaits.

Here’s an adorable idea for Strawberry Prints by Dot Painting by Dilly Dali Art that would make any strawberry playdate fun. My daughter had fun creating this snack.  We’ve also enjoyed making parfaits with our friends when we go strawberry picking together. Making strawberry prints with paint is fun too!

Amanda just posted this week that her strawberries are starting to bloom and she made some special Plant Labels for her “The Learning Garden.”

We like to read The Little Mouse, The Big Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood when we make our strawberry parfaits.

Make your Own Yogurt Parfaits

Ingredients

• Yogurt
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Any in season fruit
• Nuts or Granola

Directions

Rinse and Cut fruit.  Then add yogurt, fruit, granola by layering it in container.  Enjoy!

Big sister even made a special treat for my One Year old too!  She also enjoyed coming up with the idea to create a heart out of the strawberries when you cut them in half.  We just might be doing some prints with paint for Valentine’s Day soon too.  However I think we’re going to be Finger Painting with a yogurt recipe I found on our Art with Children Pinterest Board this afternoon! 

Here’s an adorable Valentine Bag Idea with yogurt paint too from Hands On: As We Grow.  Check out our Baby Time posts for more info!

Interested in Making Your Own Yogurt? 

I found this Make Your Own Yogurt site with downloadable instructions. It seems that everyone one their own way, I’m sure if you’ve found one that works for you. Kitchen Counter Cronicles shows how you can create yogurt with your kids. 

I encouraged you to at least try the process once and allow your child to observe and talk about the changes in property that happens in the process. When you involve children with cooking sometimes they are a lot more willing to try something new.

My inlaws are from India and they make their own Yogurt, curd or dahi,  all the time in our home. They use it plain but also make Indian Raita, which is a yogurt with cucumbers with salt and spices, there are all sorts of combinations to make your Raita unique. It helps to cool your palate while eating spicy Indian dishes. 

Many other Indian dishes include it from Lentils to Tandoori Chicken, my personal favorite!  Homemade yogurt tastes different from our “store bought” yogurt but is an everyday item within many Indian homes. I would say that it is more similar to Greek Yogurt if you were to compare it.

There are all sorts of ways to incorporate Yogurt into your snacktime and Mealtime. We like to make smoothies for breakfast or snacktime and to encourage my family to eat more fruits and veggies. We use yogurt based dips to make them yummy and a little more healthy.

Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup orange Juice
• 1 4oz container of yogurt, any flavor
• 3 -5 strawberries
• approx 10 blueberries
• or any in season fruit of your choice
• 1 cup of ice

Directions
Add ingredients and blend away and enjoy!  Serves two!

Vegetable Yogurt Dip

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups Plain yogurt
• 1 Packet onion soup mix
• 1 tbsp Minced parsley
• 1/4 tsp Garlic salt
• 1 tsp Dill weed
• Pinch black pepper
• Vegetables of your choice – carrot sticks, celery sticks, green pepper rings, broccoli, zucchini sticks, radishes, etc…

Preparation
Mix ingredients. Best to make dip day before and refrigerate overnight so flavors will blend and dip will thicken slightly

There are lots of recipes but a simple way is to just use flavored yogurt plain or whip in a little bit of Whipping cream or Cool Whip for an extra treat

Next week~ The Grains Group Updated.  It’s here NOW!

• Fruit: Princess Tea Party Menu
• Dairy: Fruit Yogurt Parfaits 
• Grains: Heart Healthy Energy Bars 
• Protein and Meats: Bean Soup
• Vegetables: Vegetable Pizza
• Heart Healthy Fun

Here are an Activity about The Dairy Group – Nurish Interactive Milk Group Printable

Books about The Dairy Group

The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons. Gail Gibbons is probably my most favorite Non-Fiction Authors!

The Milk Group by Mari C. Schuh 

Milk: From Cow to Carton by Aliki

From Milk to Cheese (Who Made My Lunch?) by Bridget Heos

Out and About at the Dairy Farm by Andy Murphy

From Milk to Ice Cream (Who Made My Lunch?) by Bridget Heos

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