Adventures Of Sammy

As mentioned in my previous post, Clover Leaf is Re-inventing Fast food to make Canadians healthy. They gave me the chance not only to interview Chef Michael P Clive, their creative resource for their 5 healthy recipes, they let me ask them a few questions, too.

Do you know how many calories you need to cut to lose 7.5 lbs per year? Why they chose tuna as their main ingredient to improve health? What Clover Leaf fees their employees for breakfast? BananaBoy certainly had fun finding out and is now excited to hear when tuna is on the menu – he doesn’t mind which flavour it is.

Read on, eat healthy and tell your friends!

Sarah Butland: As a Canadian, I’ve been seeing so many companies say they are supporting health but taking actions proving otherwise. Do you feel you’ll be leading the way for other companies to take part in changing our diet the right way?

Clover Leaf: We hope other companies will recognize what a struggle it can be for Canadians to maintain a healthy lifestyle in a hectic world. At Clover Leaf, we believe that the more convenient, time-saving and healthy choices available for consumers to choose from, the better!  That’s why we “re-invented” fast food, taking traditional take-out favourites like burgers, pizza and tacos, and putting a healthy twist on them.  These recipes are fast, easy and delicious, but are much lower in calories and fat than traditional fast food favourites.

Sarah Butland : All of your recipes for this campaign include tuna. Why tuna? What are the benefits of this fish versus say, salmon or lobster?

Clover Leaf: Canned tuna is already in the pantry of nearly two-thirds of Canadian households. We wanted to create simple, healthy recipes that would be easy alternatives to fast food, and the versatility, convenience and accessibility of our flavoured tuna products allowed Clover Leaf to do just that.

Tuna is a rich source of lean protein, low in fat and packed full of other healthy nutrients such as vitamin D and selenium.

Although salmon is typically higher in fat than tuna, it’s the good kind of fat, loaded with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. We recommend Canadians have a variety of fish and seafood in their diet. Our website, www.cloverleaf.ca, has hundreds of great recipes, including not only tuna, salmon and lobster dishes, but also recipes for shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, crab, sardines and herring!

Sarah Butland:  You pride yourself on having a Thriving Workplace with fresh fruit provided every morning, filtered water systems, and employee discounts on your fish. What do you find employees best respond to and how do you suggest other companies learn from your examples?

Clover Leaf: Good health practises help both individual employees and our overall business. Clover Leaf can trace its roots as far back as 1871, with the very first and only cannery on the Fraser River in British Columbia. This long-term success would not be possible without our valued employees. Our team respects the philosophy that we “practice what we preach” by making a healthy lifestyle and smart food choices a regular part of their busy lives.

Sarah Butland: Was the idea behind adding flavour to your tuna based on getting young children to like it, or was it simply to offer more variety?

Clover Leaf: A little bit of both, with some convenience thrown in! Flavoured tuna is another step toward encouraging Canadians to include healthy seafood in their diet. Because the flavour is already mixed in with the tuna, it saves a step and allows for quick and easy recipes, such as our Spicy Tuna Pad Thai with our Spicy Peanut Satay and Spicy Thai Chili flavours, or the Original Shawarma infused with Lemon & Pepper and Garlic & Hot Pepper flavoured tunas.

Children are responding well to the new flavours too, especially in fun recipes like the Personal Naan Pizza. As seafood consumption is a part of healthy brain development and functioning, it is especially important that children get enough of this low calorie, high protein food. For full details on children’s seafood consumption, Clover Leaf encourages Canadians to follow Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating.

Sarah Butland:  Is there a reason only your light tuna is flavoured, or do you plan to offer a line with your white tuna as well?

Clover Leaf: You read our minds!  Clover Leaf will soon be launching three flavoured white tuna products: Sundried Tomato, Chipotle and Jalapeño.  Look for them on grocery store shelves starting in February of next year!

Sarah Butland: Your website has a lot of tips and information about getting healthy and maintaining good health, including recipes and links to other websites. Has this always been something Clover Leaf has focused on, along with quality fish?

Clover Leaf: Absolutely.  We at Clover Leaf have always believed that a healthy active lifestyle, including healthy eating is the key to a longer, happier life.  We pride ourselves in providing our consumers and customers with a wealth of information that can help them to do just that.

Sarah Butland:  What advice do you have for children/adults who are hesitant to try seafood?

Clover Leaf: Seafood and fish play a crucial role in human health, including reducing the risk of heart disease while improving brain development and normal functioning. In order to get these and the many other benefits, why not start with one of Clover Leaf’s Re-Invent Fast Food recipes?  By replacing a fast-food cheeseburger with the Captain Burger with Bacon and Cheese, you’ll save calories and fat while getting the many benefits of tuna, not to mention how delicious it is!

Sarah Butland: You’ve dealt with Chef Michael P Clive previously on the Take 5 campaign. Since he has a musical background, has he written a jingle for your company yet?

Clover Leaf: No. But we love Michael’s passion for cooking and entertaining!

Sarah Butland: What was the inspiration for the easy open cans? When were they first introduced?

Clover Leaf: The stiff metal “Easy Open” lids with the pull ring have been around for more than a decade, though most canned seafood products do not have this feature.  However, within the past couple of years Clover Leaf has introduced “Easy Peel” lids on all of our Flavoured Tuna and Tuna Salad Kit products.  The easy peel lids are foil – somewhat like what you’d find on a yogurt container.  The pull tabs on these lids allow anyone to open these delicious products quickly and easily.  Clover Leaf is the only canned seafood brand in Canada to offer this convenience.

Sarah Butland: Is there anything else you’d like Canadians to take away from this campaign?

Clover Leaf: Much of the fast food out there is low on nutrition and high in fat, calories, and sodium – and it’s often served in very large portions. By replacing those fast food favourites with Clover Leaf’s ‘Reinvent Fast Food’ recipes, you can lose weight and get the heart-healthy benefits of fish. Remember – you can lose up to 7.5 pounds in the course of a year if you eliminate just 500 calories from your diet every week!

Major thanks to Clover Leaf for their effort and support in encouraging Canadians to make the healthy choice, whenever possible.  And thanks to them for asking me to share this information with all of you.

And, of course, thank you for reading!

Sarah Butland

BananaBoy is making a difference in Canada and you can help! I have recently created a petition for you to sign in support of bringing more healthy foods to our schools, just like Jamie is doing for the school’s in the United States.

The support for Jamie Oliver’s newest petition to remove flavoured milks from the schools in the United States has been tremendous but he still doesn’t stop his effort with getting more signatures. Only I’m not able to sign it because I’m in Canada. A lot of people have been publicly voicing this same concern and even though we’re not in the USA and our children do not attend their schools we are showing that our support goes beyond our countries borders.

But let’s show our own government how we feel about sending our children to eat foods that are making them unhealthy and eventually obese.

Adventures of Sammy and BananaBoy are all about supporting a healthy today just as Jamie Oliver is.

So come on over to sign my petition today and share it with friends and family. I hope to forward this to my local premier at the end of May 2011 depending on the amount of signatures collected. This is the information on the petition:

I was the first signature, will you be the second?

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

This weekend marks the event that all parents have been waiting for. A one stop place for anything parenting will be made available for one day only this coming Sunday – November 14, 2010.

From car seat clinics,  to My Gym, literacy advocates and more there will be plenty of people giving out free stuff and tons of advice.

I will be there with a special deal of "buy two Sending You Sammy’s and get a Brain Tales – Volume One for free!!!"

Make sure you’re there.

For further details please visit Outside the Crib .

Have a tremendous day!!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

During the summer months especially, it’s often difficult to encourage children to read and to continue engaging them in activities that expand their mind. It’s often said that reading levels drop during these months as children are more concerned with watching television or connecting with friends than to read a book.

Sunny days are great for getting out and having fun but on rainy days it’s important to leave the tv turned off and participate in many other activities. Either alone or as a family.

I’m compiling a list for parents and guardians to use in order to pass on the love for learning all year long. If you have any suggestions or action plans you do at home please comment and share. I’ll be adding to this list as the days go on but here’s 25 ideas to get you started.

25 Ways to Get Your Child to Read

1. Going on a trip? Have them read the license plates in front of them and make words from the letters in them.
2. Have your son or daughter read the road signs while on your way to drop them off somewhere. Test their memory by asking which street name was their favourite or which sign they saw the most.
3. Read in front of them. That’s right! Do something you love and instill the love of reading in them. It’s just that easy.
4. Read to them. A great way to get your child to read is to start the story and alternate the pages you read and the ones they read. If they want to keep reading out loud to you – let them!
5. Have them write a letter to a relative – close or far. This will get them to write back and receiving a letter in the mail is an awesome feeling that will encourage your child to read the letter immediately. And so the cycle begins…
6. Start a book club. Invite your son and/or daughter’s friends over to choose a book and then invite them back to discuss it and choose another. If everyone is reading it’ll be the in thing.
7. Get your child a library card. Free books are an amazing way to always have a new book on hand.
8. Subscribe to a newspaper or online publication of your child’s choosing. This will give them a regular source of new material that interests them.
9. Go to the zoo! That’s right, take them out for an afternoon at the local zoo. They always have write up’s on the animals so they can read and learn and have fun!
10. Have them start a website. This will get them writing, reviewing and looking for new ideas on what to write about. It can be free and a fantastic way to get your child used to a computer.
11. Get them an email address. This connects them with friends, family, and new pen pals and has them reading email after email and eager to do so.
12. Weekly trips to the library and, if possible, walk as it gives you exercise and time to discuss the books you want or have.
    

    Keep reading… you never know what your reading will spark.

13. Let them choose what they want to read. Comics, Manga, information books, technical books, non-fiction, fiction, Guinness Book of World Records – there are books for everyone.
14. Rent a movie in another language and have them read the subtitles! This done several times can teach them a new language too.
15. Play a board game and have them read the instructions out loud. Games with trivia questions are fantastic for this.
16. Have them choose what the family watches on television after reading through the TV Guide.
17. Subscribe to a magazine of their choosing. Every month when it comes in the mail give them a week or so to read it and then ask them questions about the articles.
18. Bake! Have them read the recipe to you as you go along.
19. Pair up. Children can always use another friend and if they meet once a week to read to each other that’s even better. Check with your library or school as I’m sure there’s someone looking for a friend in your daughter or son.
20. Go for a walk in a natural setting. Have a notepad on hand and have your child draw or note a description of some interesting things they see. Then go to the library and find what these items are in an encyclopedia. Take this one step further and have them write a story containing some of these items.
21. Write. When you write you often read your work over and over again. This also encourages your child to research or read stories or poems similar to what they are writing about.
22. Encourage your kids to start a collection of jokes, comics, poems, etc. Put them in a journal, have them rewrite them or cut and paste them.
23. Play a matching game with letters. Get the magnetic letters and play on the fridge!
24. Have a weekly spelling bee. Have your child choose words for you and you for him/her. Depending on the age of your child you may want to encourage top marks with taking over their chores or doing something they love to do.
25. Going to get groceries? Have your child write the list (with guidance) and then have them read it to you while helping you find the items.

So there you have it. My first installment of 25 ways to get your child to read. I know you have some yourself and I would love it if you shared them.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah Butland

Parents Canada has joined Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution in a big way. Ok, ok. Jamie started in Huntington, West Viriginia in North America (he actually started in his own home country of England in the very beginning) but that doesn’t mean Canadians can’t learn from this and take their own spin from it.

Parents Canada did just that. Every issue they are asking for your stories on how you’re starting your own Food Revolution whether it’s just in your own home or beyond. It starts somewhere and it’s vital it starts with you.

On page 74 of their printed magazine you can see my part in this revolution that will help children make the right decisions when it comes to food and activities.

Are you doing something to help the health of your family, community, country and/or beyond? Make sure you tell Parents Canada for your chance to help change the world.

And make sure you sign Jamie Oliver’s petition to show your support.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland