These bars are such a tasty treats, kids won’t even miss the vending machine snacks they’re used to.

Yield: 48 bars

Ingredients

3/4 1cup          unsalted butter
4 tbsp              cocoa powder
1/3 cup            Liquid honey
pinch               sea salt
2 cups              puffed rice
1 ½ cups          cornflakes cereal
2/3 cup            Graham cracker crumbs
½ cup              unsweetened coconut

Method

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in large saucepan on low heat.
2. Stir until butter is completely melted and cocoa is well combined. Remove from heat.
   Add remaining 4 ingredients to the cooled butter mixture and incorporate well.
3. Press firmly in greased 9 x 13 inch pan.
4. Cover and chill approximately 1 hour or until firm.
5. Cut into 6 rows lengthwise and 8 rows crosswise.

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This week, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada declared Canadian youth the newest “at risk” group for heart disease, noting a stunning rise of hypertension in those who are in their twenties and thirties. 250,000 young adults suffer from high blood pressure, eighty per cent of young adults are inactive and forty per cent are overweight or obese, meaning more trouble is just around the corner.

Coming up behind them is a generation of children who are constantly exposed to unhealthy, processed snack foods which are high in fat and sodium. In fact, since 1977, snacking has tripled for children and adults alike.  According to a Government of Alberta Abstract, the demands that arise from both parents working, single parent families, and from escalating time pressures are also lessening how much time we are willing to spend on food preparation.

Compound that with the sense of obligation many parents feel to turn every kid-centric gathering into snack time, and there’s a problem. Too many kids spend their days grazing on salt and sugar loaded treats that have little to no nutritional value.

What’s an overworked, stretched parent to do, especially when snacks have become so much a part of landscape of a child’s life?  Robert Vidra, founder and CEO of Calgary’s Simply Elegant suggests keeping a supply of healthy, convenient, nutritious snacks or mini meals with you in the car, in your purse, or wherever you can.  Make healthy snacks easily available by packing them in lunchboxes and backpacks or by having them visible and ready to eat at home.

Load up on pretzels, fruit, baggies of your kids’ favourite cereal, Goldfish crackers and nutritious granola bars etc.  Veggie sticks with hummus,  apple sauce, fresh or dried fruit, trail mix and air-popped popcorn are also good alternatives. And you don’t need to confine yourself to prepared supermarket foods. Consider making some quick healthy snacks of your own, like this granola or soup recipe from Simply Elegant’s kitchen.

Listen to your kids’ likes and dislikes — no kid will eat what they don’t like.  If the right foods are offered at the right times, snacks can play an important role in managing kids’ hunger and boosting nutrition.  Don’t forget to keep these food allergies on the radar when sharing snacks with others: peanuts, nuts, wheat, dairy, strawberries, milk, and eggs.

Of course, there’s little hope of getting your child to eat healthy snacks if you’re not setting a good example. Telling them they can’t have that vending machine snack — but you can — won’t help you win them over to making positive changes.  That means making adjustments to your own eating habits as well.

Yes, it’s hard. But like any new habit, you need to stay at it until it takes. In this case, failure is not an option. Your kids’ lives depend on it. Setting the stage for healthful eating early on means your children will be more likely to make healthy food choices when they’re older. No one should be facing diet related heart issues in their twenties. Help them make sure they don’t.

The Haggis is a very old, traditional Scottish dish that combines meats, spices and oatmeal.  A traditional recipe for The Haggis would involve the boiled and minced liver, lungs and heart of a sheep mixed with chopped onions, toasted oatmeal, salt, pepper, and spices.  The mixture would then be stuffed into the cleaned sheep’s stomach, sewn up (leaving enough room for expansion to avoid an explosion) and then boiled.

Don’t go…wait come back!  We have an updated version of The Haggis for you prepared with modern techniques that just may tickle your culinary fancy.  And rather than using a sheep’s stomach you can prepare the Haggis in a bowl or use the same type of casing most commonly used to make breakfast sausage.  Ask your butcher if they will sell you sausage casing.

Go ahead be adventurous – you just might like it!

Ingredients

½ lb minced lamb shoulder
½ lb minced beef
6 oz. beef suet
½ lb beef liver
1 cup of oatmeal
1 cup of stock (reserve this from the boiled meat)
2 finely chopped onions (or you can grate the onions if you choose)
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1 piece of mace or ¼ tsp ground mace
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
¼ tsp ground coriander
Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 250 °-300°F
2. Place the liver in cold water, bring to a boil the liver for five minutes, allow to cool
3. Chop the liver with the onion as finely as you can
4. Boil the remaining meat in a large stock pot approximately one hour; then allow to cool.
5. Reserve the stock
6. Meanwhile, toast the oatmeal in a sauté pan shaking occasionally to be sure all toasts equally and doesn’t burn
7. Chop the meats finely
8. Mix all ingredients together including the reserved stock
9. Transfer to a well greased oven-proof glass bowl and cover with a layer of foil or parchment paper.
10. Place in a baie marie (a water bath) using a pan large enough to accommodate the bowl and add warm water to come ¾ of the way up the bowl. Check from time to time to replenish the water level.
11. Cook for 3 hours.
12. To serve, cut open the casing if you are using and spoon out the filling
13. Accompany with neeps and tatties.(turnips and potatoes mashed together)

“We look to Scotland,” Voltaire said “for all our ideas of civilisation.”  And on January 25, Scots around the world, both real and honourary, become extra, um, civilized as they mark the grand tradition of Robbie Burns Day with all of its customs, including The Haggis.

Born on January 25, 1759, Robert “Robbie” Burns, also known as the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and, in Scotland,  simply “The Bard,” was Scotland’s greatest poet and favourite son.  Although he died more than 200 years ago, he is still considered the  Greatest Scot, as a poll conducted by a Scottish television channel confirmed last year. So in your face, Sir Sean Connery. You too Alexander Graham Bell. After all, you didn’t pen the song that opens every new year and closes the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Nope. “Auld Lang Syne” is all Burns.

The first Burns observance wasn’t held on his birthday, as it is now, but actually upon the fifth anniversary of his death. The idea caught on and shortly thereafter, Burns Clubs sprung up across Scotland, turning into an annual event that eventually came to be celebrated on January 25, complete with The Haggis.

Over the years, Burns’ influence spread due to worldwide Scottish immigration.  Intrepid Scots brought their love of Robert Burns with them when they settled in Canada, Brazil, Jamaica, New Zealand, Argentina, and elsewhere.  As a result, the poet is celebrated in the many countries where Scots settled, and “Robbie Burns Day” is observed.

There are so many Scottish Canadians, they are considered Canada’s third largest ethnic group – and Gaelic is still taught and spoken in some parts of Cape Breton.  In fact, wherever you are in Canada, chances are good you won’t have to look  far to celebrate Robbie Burns Day.  Here in Calgary, for example, the Ship & Anchor Pub salutes The Bard with Scottish dancers, the Address to the Haggis and the John Allen Cameron Band.  Not to be outdone, the University of Calgary features the U of C Pipe Band at their Sixth Annual Robbie Burns Supper and Dance. And many Calgary offices this week will be ordering from our Weekly Specials Menu, themed, appropriately, with Scottish delights.

No celebration of Robbie Burns Day is worth it’s whiskey without the Haggis, which, truth be told, is actually nothing more than a large sausage. So of course, we’ve provided you with the perfect recipe to make your very own Haggis to celebrate Robbie Burns Day with friends and family at home.  Grab your kilt, throw on a bagpipe band CD to pipe in the Haggis while you recite Burns’ Address to the Haggis for a memorable and fun celebration of Scotland’s most beloved poet.

And don’t forget to serve a dram of Scotland’s equally famous drink– whiskey for all!