Nutrition Month! Time to Get Kids in the Kitchen! (Opp to win a pair of cooking class tickets too…)

This nutritious post was provided by The Chester County Hospital and Health System.  To learn more about nutrition services, visit us online. >>

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March is National Nutrition Month – what better time to get your kiddos helping out in the kitchen? They’ll learn how to help prepare their own foods while you teach them healthy habits in the process. Your children’s efforts may even turn into a new love of healthier foods that they help create. Read on for age-appropriate tips, interactive food fun and a chance to win a pair of tickets to a healthy cooking class (this one’s just for you, mom!).

Get Cooking

Even the youngest of tots can start learning in the kitchen by naming different foods or counting fruits and veggies. The sooner you get your kids in the kitchen, the sooner they’ll move into the more advanced tasks (saving you some precious food prep time). Who knows, maybe they’ll cook dinners for you when they reach their teen years?  Well…let’s not be too hopeful. 

Kim Knipe, Coordinator for Community Nutrition and Outreach at The Chester County Hospital, shares these tips to make your under-foot distraction your newest little chef:

Chef-in-Training

• Gather ingredients
• Talk about favorite foods
• Help put away groceries
• Count ingredients along with you (1 egg, 2 eggs…)
• Tear salad greens into bite-sized pieces
• Empty your trash bowl into the big trash can

Chef’s Helper

• Peel bananas
• Wash veggies
• Set the table
• Mix ingredients
• Pour ingredients into a bowl
• Open packages

Sous Chef

• Make salads for family dinner
• Slice soft foods with a butter knife
• Measure ingredients
• Crack eggs (and wash hands afterwards!)
• Preheat the oven (with guidance)
• Line and fill muffin tins

Of course, remind kids to wash their hands before and after helping in the kitchen so the habit begins to form at a young age. And always supervise your child if they are old enough to handle a knife during food preparation.

If you find that your kids aren’t interested in these tasks, ask them what they’d like to do to help. They may be quick to mention things you would never think of. At a certain age, Kim says her daughters loved to pour drinks for family dinner. Who knew? Ask and you shall receive…pour on!

“While you prepare food together, be sure to share healthy tips like why fruits and veggies are so good for them and why it’s important to choose whole grains,” Kim shares. “You might not think they’re listening, but they are and some of it will stick!”

Fun Food for Thought

Test your child’s food knowledge with these fun games from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. From portion sizes to word searches, these games pack some fun into Nutrition Month.

If you’re looking for healthy recipes or new motivation to bump up your nutrition, spend some time surfing The Chester County Hospital’s Pinterest. We’re adding new pins each day during Nutrition Month to help you eat more healthfully all year long.

Want Cooking Help? Enter to Win!

We’ve teamed up with Cooking Spotlight of Phoenixville to give away a pair of tickets to the “Welcome Spring with Delicious Recipes” Cooking Class. Want to enter for a chance to win?  We’re giving you four opportunities! Enter here by liking The Chester County Hospital’s Facebook page by March 29, and you and a friend could be enjoying a hands-on, fun-filled evening with refreshing and invigorating recipes to welcome in spring.  Be sure to check out WC Dish for more foodie fun and restaurant news, too.

Celebrate Nutrition Month by trying new recipes and having your kids accompany you in the kitchen. Now…get cooking!

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Join us on Facebook, Twitter (@cchosp) and Pinterest, or visit us online at ChesterCountyHospital.org.

Win it Wednesday: Wine & Dine with The Town Dish

This week’s “Win It Wednesday” is served up by Chester County’s own TownDish ladies, Founder Mary Bigham and Editorial Director Amy Strauss. Since the TownDish (WCDish, DowningtownDish, KennettSquareDish, MainLineDish, PhoenixvilleDish, ExtonDish) lives to discover our local stomping grounds, one bite at a time, their themed prized pack highlights the Best of Chester County’s cuisine, valued at $100!

As a proud sponsor of this past weekend’s 32nd Annual Chester County Restaurant Festival, a downtown West Chester food festival that attracts over 20,000 food lovers, the TownDish wants to pass along their appreciation for the area’s best eats and sips, and allow one lucky winner to dive in and drink up!

Experience the incredible eats of the newly-awarded “Best Chef of Chester County” with a $25 gift card from the challenge’s winner: Chef Jon Amann of Amani’s BYOB! Amann won over the judges once again with his slicing, dicing, bruleeing and sauteing in the Restaurant Festival’s Annual Culinary Cook-Off (and yes, he was 2010’s champ too).

Amani’s BYOB is located on Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown. Providing a menu which incorporates the best local ingredients available each season, Chef Amman is able to utilize local farmers, putting a twist on the traditional BYOB.

Since the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail premiered in this year’s competition as a “secret ingredient,” we’re also giving away a pair of passports for the winner to go trailblazing during their upcoming Harvest Festival (taking place Sept. 24 – 25, Oct. 1 – 2). BVWT Passports are a $30 value EACH. BVWT passports do save visitors $50+ in tasting fees, plus they provide for a free commemorative wine trail glass.Plus, they do not expire until the end of December, so please – let the winery touring begin!

And, since TownDish team is certain there is nothing better than wining and dining (and since Amani’s is a BYOB), they’re rounding out “Win It Wednesday” with the additional gift of a bottle of prized BVWT wine.

Cheers to Chester County!

SHINE and Dine: A Girls Night Out in West Chester

Enjoy a night out “on the town” as you tour some of the finest restaurants in West Chester. Chat with healthcare professionals and sample some tasty hors d’oeuvres and drinks before indulging in dessert, coffee and an informal panel presentation about caring for the TOTAL woman.

This fundraising event is co-sponsored by the SHINE committee, a volunteer organization whose goal is to offset the costs of care for cancer patients.
Date & Time: September 27, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Location: Limoncello Ristorante at Kreutz Creek Vineyards West Chester Tasting Room
Nonna’s Restaurant
Side Bar & Restaurant
The Social Lounge
Teca
The Chester County Historical Society

Fee: $20 donation to SHINE

Click here to register or call 610.738.2300

Support Dash4Diabetes at DASH & DINE 4/1-4/3: Presented by TheTownDish.com

Dine at some of your favorite restaurants April 1st through 3rd (or March 31 for Landmark) and a portion of your check will be donated to support Diabetes Education in our County. All you have to do is print out the Dash & Dine Coupon and present it to your server. The Town Dish is a network of foodie websites that provide locally-focused dining and lifestyle information. Featured sites include…Downingtown Dish, Exton Dish, Phoenixville Dish and West Chester Dish. Participating Restaurants: West Chester Restaurants ***Thursday, March 31 ONLY – 25% Donation!***Landmark Americana Tap and Grill 158 West Gay Street, West Chester Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House 117 East Gay Street, West Chester Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant 3 West Gay Street, West Chester Kildaire’s 18-22 West Gay Street, West Chester Nonna’s 116 East Gay Street, West Chester Pietro’s Prime 125 West Market Street, West Chester Side Bar and Restaurant 10 East Gay Street, West Chester Exton Restaurants Exton Riverstone Cafe 143 West Lincoln Highway Winner’s Circle Sports Grille 143 West Lincoln Highway Phoenixville Restaurants Phoenixville Bistro on Bridge 212 Bridge Street, Phoenixville Molly McGuire’s Irish Restaurant & Pub 197 Bridge Street, Phoenixville

WC Dish shares the Best Kept Food Secret in West Chester!

This article was written by Mary Bingham and reposted from WestChesterDish.com:

Don’t miss out on this event. Walk your way to the yummiest spots in town AND benefit charity all in one amazing evening. The Rotaract Club of West Chester is hosting another Dine About Fundraiser on Thursday, September 23 from 6-9pm.

The menu includes offerings like Oysters, Crab cakes, Shrimp Cocktail, Smoked Duck Cappelini in Hunters sauce, Plantain Chips with Sour Cream, Guacamole, Local Beer, Ice Cream and Cupcakes!

Tickets are ONLY $25 and grants you access to sample some of the newest and best restaurants in town! Restaurants include: Scooped Ice Cream, A Taste of Olive, Gadaleto’s Seafood Market, Boxcar Brewery,Nooddi Thai, Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House and The Side Bar, Cakes and Candies by Mary Ellen and business participation from Katimac Floral Designs.

Participants have a chance to win raffle prizes which includes gift cards to participating restaurants and other upcoming event tickets. For tickets they can email wcrotaract@gmail.com.

You can buy your tickets in advance at Sovereign Bank at 50 West Market Street in Downtown West Chester. Buy your tickets today because they will sell out!

This Dine About will be for the benefit The Chester County Cancer Center. If you’d like more information, please email us at wcrotaract@gmail.com or visithttp://www.wcrotaract.com/. Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18-30. Today there are over 7,300 Rotaract clubs with 170,000 members in 150 countries.

31st Annual Chester County Restaurant Festival is this weekend

By Leslie Weinberg of WC Dish

Do you love dining out in Chester County, but always have difficulty picking just one restaurant? You can sample as many as your heart desires at the 31^st Annual Chester County Restaurant Festival on Sept. 19 from noon to 5:30 pm.

Booths from more than 60 restaurants — serving everything from deep-fried lobster mac and cheese bites to chicken cheesesteak wontons — will be lined up on Gay Street between Matlack Street and Darlington Street in West Chester.

According to West Chester Parks and Recreation Department director Keith Kurowski and intern Renee Ryan, the department encouraged restaurants to offer smaller portions of creative dishes at lower prices, so festival-goers can enjoy more of what the festival has to offer. This year, participants can text in their votes for their favorite dishes for the WC Dish Choice Awards.
Looking for a way to burn off all of those delicious calories? Bring your dancing shoes over to the stage arenas at Gay and Matlack streets, Gay and Darlington streets and the “Church Street Café.” There will also be 110 arts and crafts and non-profit booths woven along High Street from Matlack Street to Chestnut Street.

Thirsty visitors can enjoy a fresh pint or glass of wine at the “Church Street Cafe” on the corner of Market and Church streets. There is a $3 cover to get into this beer and wine garden, and it goes directly to the Parks and Rec Summer Camp Fund. Visit http://www.wcdish.com/ for performance schedules and to see this year’s participating restaurants.

“West Chester is the hub of Chester County, and this is the biggest event of the year for the borough,” Kurowski said. “The best part is the cook-off aspect. It is not too often that chefs get to do their thing in front of large crowds, right on the Courthouse steps.”

From 2 to 5 p.m. on the steps of the County Courthouse (2 N. High St.), four local chefs will be judged by a jury of four local food experts to determine the best chef in Chester County. The ever-popular Chester County Culinary Challenge consists of three rounds: Appetizer, entrée and dessert. Each round will last 30 minutes and a surprise ingredient donated by Buy Fresh, Buy Local will be introduced at the beginning of each round.

Margaret Andraos, co-owner of The Mediterranean, placed second in the Culinary Cook-off last year with her crab cakes over portobello mushrooms, vegetable and potato frittata, and apple and pear cobbler. Andraos is constantly including seasonal and locally grown foods into her menu. The Mediterranean has participated in the Restaurant Festival for the past 11 years and has quite the history with the event.

“We love the Restaurant Festival. Actually, our first day of business was on the Restaurant Festival [13 years ago] and lots of people who know us and worked for us over the years show up. It’s a huge celebration for us,” Andraos said.

Last year, about 22,000 people attended the festival, so be sure to get there early to beat the lines. The only food not included in the festival is pet food, so please leave your four-legged friends at home. For the special price of $2, participants can park all day at any of the borough parking garages.

About WC Dish
WC Dish is all about celebrating food in Chester County! Recipes, foodie news restaurant reviews and more.

Hungry? Fly to your favorite city for the day!

Check out what Mary Bingham from West Chester Dish, Downingtown Dish, and Phoenixville Dish is up to! She is flying from Philly to Boston and back again today all in the name of delicious food. As Mary explains, she is not only indulging in some of Boston’s finest eats, she is also serving as a Philly Food Ambassador, bringing some favorite Philly treats to hand out along the way!

You can read this post to get the story on Mary’s trip and get all the details on how she got to Boston for less than $40 on Southwest Airlines! You, too, could have a day-long feast in one of your favorite cities taking advantage of Southwest’s amazing fares!

You can also follow along on the rest of Mary’s journey today on Twitter (and #dishtrip) and on Facebook!

New Year’s Eve in Chester County (sans kiddos)

If you are among the very, very lucky able to secure a babysitter for New Year’s and are still trying to figure out where to go on New Year’s Eve? Head on over to West Chester Dish for an awesome list of resturants and menu info. They have it all listed for you… from West Chester to Pottstown.. this is your one stop guide to New Year’s Eve in Chester County…sans kiddos!

New edition of Chester County Cuisine & Nightlife

The latest edition of CC: Chester County Cuisine & Nightlife celebrates a red delicious October with the Phils kicking butt during full-fledged apple season. Pick one up today or click here to download the PDF version.

Check out WC Dish’s favorite fall recipes for the festivities, and get the gossip on the latest restaurants opening in the county.