Healthy Recipes, A Great Cause, and a Kroger Gift Card Giveaway

Have you heard about the Produce for Kids Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign? This is a great program I am thrilled to share with my readers.

Produce for Kids^® is launching its annual Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign with 16 major supermarket chains across the country, including your local Kroger stores, to help raise money for Texas Children’s Hospital and other local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals^®.  

Now through July 24^th, thanks to the annual Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign hosted by Kroger and Produce for Kids, the more produce shoppers add to their shopping lists the more hope they can give to local children. Celebrating a milestone 10^th birthday in 2012, Produce for Kids is excited to kick off this year’s campaign with a new partnership with Sprout^® and LazyTown^TM. During the campaign, Produce for Kids will offer shoppers collectible Ideal Meals^TM – quick and easy healthy meal ideas, which are free and can be found in displays featuring LazyTown characters from the popular, health-focused, children’s series airing exclusively in the U.S. on 24-hour preschool television channel, Sprout. Ideal Meals offer shoppers chef-created/nutritionist-approved easy solutions for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Featuring fresh fruits and vegetables as the main ingredients, Ideal Meals are great for busy families who crave fast meal options that don’t require stopping at the local drive-thru. 

Eating as healthy as we should is something I admit we've always struggled with. The reasons are many. Time, finances, picky eaters, turning to convenience foods more often than necessary. I know that when it comes to those of us who extreme coupon, the fact processed foods are often available for next to nothing tends to fill our pantry with items that are not necessarily all that healthy. I am often guilty of opening boxes rather than cooking anymore, which is not an easy thing to admit to for a woman who adores cooking.

Ideal Meals comes to the rescue with simple, quick, healthy meal suggestions. Just look for the display at your favorite store!

You'll find great ideas, like these Chocolatey Fruit Skewers!

Serves 4

Preparation Time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

·   1 premade pound cake

·   8 strawberries, whole, leaves hulled

·   8 raspberries, whole

·   1 cup pineapple, cored, chunked

·   4 Tbsp. chocolate syrup

·   4 (6-inch) bamboo skewers

Directions:

1. Cut pound cake into 4 1x3-inch rectangles and 8 1x1-inch squares.
2. Place 1 1x3-inch piece cake on plate, stick skewer in middle. 
3. Add strawberry, raspberry, pineapple and 1x1-inch piece of cake to skewer.  Repeat with another strawberry, raspberry, pineapple and 1x1-inch piece of cake.
4. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

Nutrition Information:

Chocolatey Fruit Skewer Calories 354, Fat 2.5g, Protein 12g, Carbohydrate 52.1g, Fiber 2.4g, Cholesterol 9mg, Sodium 280mg, Calcium 348mg, Vitamin A 529 IU, Vitamin C 44.4mg, Iron 1.4mg

Sounds good, right? I love fresh fruit in a dessert, so this recipe greatly appeals to me. 

Is your favorite store participating in Get Healthy, Give Hope? Check the stores and dates below.

Kroger Southwest: June 13th – July 24th

Fred Meyer: June 14th – July 26th

Price Chopper: June 17th – July 28th

King Soopers: June 20th – July 31st

Kroger Central: June 21st – July 18th

Want a chance to try some of these great Ideal Meals for yourself? I have a $25 Kroger gift card for one lucky reader. To enter simply check out the Produce for Kids website and leave me a comment telling me which Ideal Meals recipe you would like to try. This is mandatory for entry.  Additional entries can be made by:

• Following both @ProduceForKids and @ATexasHousewife on Twitter
• Tweeting about the giveaway with a link back to this post and mentioning @ATexasHousewife.

Deadline to enter is 11:59pm central time on July 24th. Winner will be selected via random number through Random.org. Be sure you leave one comment for each entry method and that I have a way to contact you should you win. 

Disclaimer: I received no monetary compensation for this post. I was offered a $25 Kroger gift card, PFK goodies, and Ideal Meals cards. All opinions are 100% my own and are never reviewed or edited in any way by sponsors.