I know some of you are back to school already — we have a few more weeks, here, but it’s never too soon to start filing away new, fast and healthy breakfast, lunch, and after-school snack ideas. The National Mango Board helped get our creative juices flowing with a box of ripe mangos and a cookbook full of ideas. Mangos are high in vitamin C, which is important to keep our little ones healthy throughout the school year.

My soon-to-be first-grader laughed out loud when we came across the mango nacho recipe, so I knew we had to make that first. I made a few tweaks to the recipe, including adding mango puree to the caramel sauce to boost the fruit content and reduce the added sugar. (Plus, the mango makes the caramel sauce more orange — closer to “real” nacho cheese.) We’ll definitely make this again for an after-school treat.

Recipe: Sweet Caramel Mango Nachos
source: Mango Eats & Treats by Mango.org
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 flour tortillas
• nonstick cooking spray
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce
• 2 mangoes, peeled and diced

Instructions:

To prepare cinnamon cream, beat cream, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium bowl with a mixer until stiff peaks form; transfer to a bowl and refrigerate while preparing nachos.

To prepare the nachos, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut each tortilla into 6 wedges. Working in batches, line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper and spray both sides with nonstick cooking spray. Bake tortillas for 10 minutes until browned, turning halfway through until crisp. Stir together sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl; add tortillas and toss well to coat. Pile onto a decorative platter (or individual plates for kids to assemble their own).

Process half of the mango in a blender or food processor until smooth. In a medium bowl, pour caramel sauce and heat for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave. Stir in mango puree. Drizzle mango-caramel sauce over tortilla chips, sprinkle with diced mango and top with cinnamon whipped cream.

Check out the foodie boy explaining how simple this recipe is. The foodie tot tried to get in on the action, too (her job was whipping the cream — she loves to work the buttons on the mixer).

You can get some fresh ideas for cooking with mangos by visiting Mango.org.

The National Mango Board challenged me to spend a week creating healthier eating and snacking habits for my family. Join the conversation and one of my readers will receive a cookbook and a chance to win a shipment of mangos and $200 gift card to Williams-Sonoma.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of National Mango Board. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.

We take a brief intermission from our FRESHFARM Markets Week to share the news of National Can-It-Forward Day, sponsored by Ball. Today, experts from Ball are sharing canning tips on live WebTV and on Twitter (search: #canitforward). While I’ve averaged just one or two batches of preserves each of the past couple summers, I can assure you that the preparation really is the hardest part. If you’re new to canning, Ball offers a Canning Discovery Kit with the items and instructions you need to safely preserve at home. Once you have your equipment (large pot, sterilized jars and lids, and a jar lifter), find the freshest local produce you can and set aside a block of time — you do need to attend to the jam while it cooks, and will want to avoid distractions while processing the jars.

And yes, it is possible to can with kids. You’ll want to keep them away from boiling pots and hot jars, of course, but little helpers are perfect for the preparation phase — rinsing, de-stemming, pitting, etc. I’ve even employed a child-safe-knife-wielding toddler to dice tomatoes for our tomato jam. (Since they’re going into the jam, preciseness of the cut doesn’t matter.) And kids love to see their hard-earned produce (in the case of picking it ourselves, or even better, home grown) turned into something that they can enjoy later in the year.

If you don’t have time to pick your own produce, farmers markets of course are the perfect place to source produce at peak flavor — and many farmers will gladly offer a discounted price for a flat of “seconds,” the slightly blemished fruit that is perfect for jam and preserves.

GIVEAWAY: Ball has generously offered a case of jars to one lucky reader. Just comment below with something you have canned (links to posts welcome!), or the first thing you’d like to, and be sure to include a valid email in the comment form (no need to put it in the comment itself). Comments will be open until 11:59pm Eastern on Friday, July 20. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

Additional canning resources:

• Ball’s Fresh Preserving
• Canning Across America
• Punk Domestics
• Food in Jars
• Jams I’ve Made and Loved (bourbon peach, vanilla plum, strawberry and tomato)

Disclosure: I received a Canning Discovery Kit from Ball for review purposes, and Ball is providing the giveaway prize to a reader. No other compensation was received and all opinions, as always, are my own. Please always follow safety instructions and professional recipes when canning.

It’s amazing how many new products for kids have been developed even just in the four years between the births of my son and daughter, particularly in the natural and organic category. Take baby food — the first time around, there was only one organic alternative on the market. This time, there are all-natural and organic options everywhere you look, at health food stores and mainstream retailers alike. I still made most of my daughter’s food, but we also found ourselves picking up the new organic pouches for meals on the go — like these from Plum Organics. Because pouches allow the food to be heated to lower temperatures than traditional jarred food, the food tastes fresher and retains more nutrients (without additives or preservatives). Most importantly, they taste more like homemade and blend flavors I might not have thought of, like blueberry, pear and purple carrot.

While the youngest is a toddler now, and eating whatever we eat, purees can still provide an extra boost of nutrition at meal time. They can be mixed in to soups or pasta, used as a dip for veggies and crackers, or used like you would applesauce to reduce the fat (butter or oil) content in baked goods. Take these Carrot Oat Cakes I developed for Plum’s Little Foodies Cookbox campaign. Full of fiber and a little sweet, they’re perfect for a quick breakfast or after school snack.

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GIVEAWAY: Plum Organics has provided a “Yum Kit” for one lucky reader, which contains coupons, stickers, and a variety of Plum pouches. To enter, leave a comment below sharing your little one’s favorite early food. The giveaway closes at 11:59pm Eastern on Sunday, May 6. Please include a valid email in the comment form. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

Three ways to increase your odds of winning (must leave a separate comment indicating you’ve done them):

1. “follow” @foodietots AND @plumorganics on Twitter
2. “like” FoodieTots AND Plum Organics on Facebook
3. “pin” this post to Pinterest

Good luck!

Disclosure: I was compensated by Nest Collective, parent company of Plum Organics, for developing a recipe as part of the Little Foodies Cookbox campaign and received products for the purposes of hosting this giveaway. All comments and opinions are my own.

{Admin Note: Voting is now open in the DC Lamb Pro-Am. I’d be oh-so-flattered if you’d take a moment to vote for FoodieTots’ Lemon-Mint Crusted Leg of Lamb. Thank you!}

It’s not often I find myself in the kitchen, a novel in one hand, sautéeing apples with the other while steering the toddler towards her refrigerator magnets and out from underfoot. And I’m pretty sure this is the first adult fiction book review I’ve done here on FoodieTots. But when I read the description of Sarah Pinneo’s Julia’s Child, I couldn’t resist: “A delectable comedy for every woman who’s ever wondered if buying that six-dollar box of organic crackers makes her a hero or a sucker.”

I did have a little apprehension, though. Those of us on the whole foods-local food-organic food bandwagon can be a little, well, sensitive about our food choices. But I follow Pinneo on Twitter (@Julias_Child) and was reasonably certain she was on my side. Sure enough, the novel was an enjoyable read about a woman out to “save the world one bite at a time.” It’s good to laugh at ourselves once in a while, and I found myself laughing out loud at the main character, Julia’s, conversation with her husband about recycled toilet paper. Let’s just say we may have had that exact conversation in the FoodieTots’ house.

In the novel, Julia is a mother who leaves behind a corporate paycheck to launch an organic toddler food business, and moms of all types will relate to her struggles as she attempts to balance the needs of her own family with the demands of her growing business. Even better, a few recipes from the fictional business are included, and it was the Apple and Cheddar Muffets that I found myself baking first. A “muffet” is a savory muffin, the primary product Julia is producing and, at the start of the book, selling to the stereotypical moms of Brooklyn (of course). Aside from the cutesy name, I liked the “muffet” concept and appreciate that they are a low-sugar but still full-flavored kid-friendly snack. (With whole milk, butter and sour cream, they are not a low-fat snack, which is fine for the toddler crowd but may make you feel a smidge guilty after polishing off two in a row. Hypothetically speaking.) As I write this, the kitchen smells amazing, and just look how lovely they are.

If you own a Bugaboo (er, “Frogaboo”) or are a perky blonde co-host of The View (er, The Scene) the satire may hit a little too close to home, but otherwise I think many foodie mamas will appreciate this funny and engrossing read.

The author has also offered one lucky reader a free copy of Julia’s Child, along with a basket of mom-made food products. (Not sure if that includes the muffets…but once you have the book, you can bake them yourself.) Leave a comment below telling us one of your children’s favorite after-school snacks, and I’ll select a winning commentor at random. Comments are open until 11:59 pm Eastern time this Friday, February. 17.

Learn more about Sarah Pinneo on her own blog or Facebook page. And of course, look for Julia’s Child at your local bookseller or online.

Happy December! It’s been a little quiet around here, but I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and are enjoying all the holiday preparations. We’ve lit our (organic, real) Christmas tree and visited New York, now we’re counting down the days to Hanukkah and Christmas. Phew. As we get down to gift-giving business, I have a little holiday gift for you. Read on for the giveaway instructions.

I always have great intentions to make hand-made holiday treats, only to run out of time and have to buy something in a rush. Instead of combing the local mass retailer for something semi-natural (please tell me I’m not the only one who can’t even buy a tiny bottle of hand lotion without reading the ingredient list?), Equal Exchange offers the perfect fair-trade gift baskets for anyone on your list — gifts the recipient will love and that you can feel good about. (Think daycare teachers, the milkman, the boss, etc.)

Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade Mixer Gift Basket, for example, includes a variety of coffee, chocolates and nuts in a fairly traded kaisa grass basket imported by Ten Thousand Villages from Dhaka Handicrafts, a non-profit that works to improve the lives of children and rural families in Bangladesh. The gift basket is on sale  for $47 until December 15th. Also find other fair trade gifts that support small-scale farmers, ranging from $27-$75. Order online and get 10% of your order and receive free shipping on orders over $75. Use coupon code: giftme10 during checkout. Coupon expires 12/31/09. Visit www.equalexchange.coop today to order!

And here’s my gift to you, courtesy of Equal Exchange. One lucky reader will receive a FREE Fair Trade Mixer Gift Basket.* Just leave a comment below sharing your favorite holiday treat to give or receive, by midnight (Eastern time), Sunday, December 13. A winner will be selected randomly on December 14. One entry per person, please, and please help spread the holiday cheer by telling a friend! Please enter a valid email address when commenting (it will not be posted) so that I can contact you if you win.

The Fair Trade Mixer Gift Basket includes:

• Organic French Roast Coffee – 10oz, drip grind
• Organic Hot Cocoa Mix – 12oz
• Organic Very Dark Chocolate – 3.5oz bar
• Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds – 3.5oz bar
• Organic Milk Chocolate with a Hint of Hazelnut – 3.5oz bar
• Organic Tamari Roasted Almonds – 5oz
• Roasted Salted Pecans – 5oz

*Please note the fine print: All shipments are sent via United Parcel Service (UPS). Orders will be shipped within the contingent United States only. We do not ship to PO/APO/FPO’s, American Samoa, Guam, Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or Virgin Islands.

And the FoodieTots.com disclaimer: all reviews are the opinions solely of myself and the FoodieTots family, and are not financially compensated in any way. Equal Exchange is providing the winner’s gift basket.