The Magic of Healthy Living Weekend at Epcot with Pollo a las Rajas

Today has been a much better day than yesterday. For instance, nobody hacked my email this morning to beg all of my kith and kin for a wire transfer. It's the little things like not getting hacked and humiliated that can make a day so much brighter. And Blogher seems to be cooperating a little better today. Not perfect, but better. It's the little things like not having to download the same pictures 753.9 times that make my heart sing zipadeedoodah.

Now, onwards and upwards. Shall we?

Just a couple of weeks ago, Sailor was the lucky recipient of a hefty prize as an essay winner for Disney's Magic of Healthy Living contest. Sailor was just one of fifty. Her cousin, Annaliese, was another one of the fifty, and that made the prize just that much more special. My sister MK and her family joined us at Disneyworld for a whole week, culminating in the prize package weekend for the two girls. On Friday morning, the two girls were lucky enough to be part of a public service announcement that should show up on Disney sometime in the near future. The point of the public service announcement was to show some inexpensive and creative ways that kids could get fit. Sailor was filmed jump-roping and Annaliese was the hula-hooper. They were slated to have an interview with some Disney teen celebs, but the crew ran out of time. The girls were good sports, especially since they still got to meet some Disney VIPs, like Caroline Sunshine of Shake It Up. She was adorable, super friendly and really kind to her adoring little fans.

That evening we had our first official event in a giant warehouse-y structure within Epcot. When we walked through the door, we were greeted by Disney cheerleaders who were whooping and applauding. The whole place was cheerily decorated and full of wholesome Disney loveliness. We couldn't help but smile. Sailor was assigned a team leader with two other cute little girl essay winners. Our families sat together during mealtimes.

Here is Sailor with a healthy dinner. I think she was too excited to eat anything.

Several buffet tables were set up with a wide array of healthy choices, like fava bean succotash, root vegetable potato chips, roasted pork loin, heirloom tomato soup with tofu cream...

Disney put on quite a show for the kids. They watched a couple of picture collages on screen with pictures of the actual kids doing healthy activities with a few headshots sprinkled in. They also had a video message from the First Lady commending them for their commitment to healthy living. We had some Disney characters that showed up to boogie down with the winners, a pots and pan chef's band (The Jammers?), and were introduced to a few more Disney teen celebs that would be hosting for the weekend.

Dessert was an assortment of tiny puddings. We loved the Meyer Lemon and the Strawberry. I can't embrace tapioca in my pudding, even if it is chocolate.

Afterwards, Disney got the kids all pumped up again showered the kids with ticker tape.

We exited through the tunnel of amped-up cheerleaders and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, Sailor went off on a bus with the winners. We attended a separate breakfast for the families.

We met up with Sailor and her gang at an empty field inside of Epcot. I would never have know these places existed.

The winners particpated in outdoor games throughout the entire morning. Simple games from all over the world. The equipment used was very simple: a ball, a balloon, a rope, a Chinese jumprope. Again, the idea of the weekend was to show that getting fit is fun and doesn't require a whole lot of money, equipment, or time.

There were lots of famous athletes and Disney celebs on hand to hang out with the winners. Maybe you will recognize them. I'm sorry to say that I did not. I don't know who famous people are. Who is Kim Kardashian? Why is Snooki famous? These things I do not ever hope to know.

We had a fun make-your-own lunch spread out on a lazy susan. There were sauteed peppers, grilled chicken, spinach, chopped onions, salsa, chutney, beans, pitas and tortillas-and it was up to you to decide how you wanted to make it. For dessert, we had a fabulous brownie with a banana macaron and strawberry basil ice cream with a green tea swirled cookie thingy. The brownie was excellent. Was it healthy and low fat? Maybe? I got the chef's business card so that I can email him for the recipe.

After lunch the kids met back with their groups for more games inside of Epcot.

Sailor's group went to a grassy knoll in Germany to meet with Dopey and Helga to play more games like "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?"

The also had a gardening class from preteen gardening expert Katie Stagliano of Katie's Krops.

In the evening, we headed back to the warehouse for an awards ceremony and formal dinner.

We ate heirloom tomato water, a grain salad, and a Vietnamese spring roll for appetizers.

The girls were busy sticking foil Mickey Mouse shapes on their water glasses.

For dinner we had roast chicken, heirloom beans and Mickey Mouse polenta. Nice little touch.

The kids marched up on stage to get Healthy Living "diplomas."

I didn't get any pictures, but afterwards Mickey came out to bust some moves with some young, fit Disney singers and dancers. To cap off a great weekend and a great event, we headed into Epcot to watch the fireworks over the lake and enjoy an outdoor dessert bar. My favorite dessert was the low fat lemon cheesecake push pops.

The whole weekend was incredible. I was so impressed with the winners and their families. We met some really remarkable people. Disney was so kind and generous to all of the winners and their families. Their hope is that we will come home and use what we've learned to promote healthy living in our neighborhoods and communities. We've got lots to think about. The best news of all is that Disney is hoping to do the event next year, too. I'm hoping that your kids will be there next.

And now a recipe to share from Epcot. This one hails from the Mexican restaurant inside the pyramid. It would not have been served at Healthy Living event, but I think you will like it anyway. Serve it with chips and salsa and a bed of rice for a lovely meal.

Pollo a las Rajas

4 chicken breast halves

1 cup of chorizo, casing removed and diced (I left this out.)

1 large red bell pepper

1 large Spanish onion

1 large poblano chili

1 garlic clove, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1/2 cup half-and-half cream

1. Season the chicken breast halves with garlic, salt, and black pepper.Place the chicken breast halves in a roasting pan and bake in the oven at350 for 20 minutes or until cooked.2. In a saucepan heat 2 tablespoons of oil and lightly sauté poblano pepperuntil skin starts separating. Peel skin from poblano pepper. Make a slit andremove all the seeds. Slice onion, bell pepper, and poblano pepper intostrips.3. In a heavy skillet heat remaining 3 tablespoons of oil and add chorizo,garlic, onion, and peppers. Cook over medium high heat stirring occasionallyuntil onions and peppers are soft.4. Add sour cream, half-and-half, black pepper and salt and simmer for threeminutes.5. On ovenproof serving dishes, place 3/4 cup of vegetable mixture. Top withroasted chicken breast. Sprinkle 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese on eachserving plate. Broil until cheese melts and turns golden.

Up Next:Harry Potter World and Frozen Butterbeer

Brown Derby Salad and Hollywood Studios

The whole time we were at Disneyworld, I kept calling Hollywood Studios "MGM." I wasn't sure why, except that maybe I associated Hollywood with the big movie studios? The charges would roll their eyes and correct me everytime. "Moooooooom!" Kids always drag out the vowels when they are exasperated, don't they? I stubbornly insisted on calling it MGM. (Read: Once I get the wrong idea in my mind, it's stuck there for eternity. So let it be written, so let it be done.) The Quiet Man suprised me with a copy of the Disneyworld cookbook last week. It's full of recipes from all around the park-including MGM! Read that again: M.G.M, baby! Not Hollywood Studios, my adolescent aborrigines, but MGM! At least there is a method to my madness. Apparently it is out of vogue to call it MGM now, but once upon a time, whenever this cookbook was published, the place was called MGM. Disney might be able to change names, but I'm keeping to the original. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So...while we were at MGM (not Hollywood)...we rode the Tower of Terror (scream for me) and the Great Movie Ride and Toy Story Mania.

West built his own lightsaber to become an official Jedi Knight of the highest order.

And we ate the famous Cobb Salad at the Brown Derby. (William Holden wasn't there, in case any I love Lucy fans were wondering.) There's a reason this salad is so famous. It's superb. This is the original Cobb salad that has spawned so many variations and imitations. The original is the best. The dressing is fantastic and the recipe below makes a hefty batch. It's a little taste of MGM (that's right, MGM-ya wanna make something of it?) all the way from Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad

Estimated Cost: about $10 for for 6 servings

Notes: To save money, buy a bagged mix of spring lettuces and a head of romaine or iceberg for crunch. Chicken can easily be substituted for the turkey. 1/2 head iceberg lettuce

1/2 bunch watercress

1 small bunch chicory

1/2 head romaine lettuce

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked turkey breast, diced

1 avocado

3 eggs, hard-cooked

1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled

6 strips crisp bacon, crumbled

2 tbsp. chopped chives (I used green onions)

Chop all greens very fine (reserve some watercress for presentation) and arrange in salad bowl. Cut tomatoes in half, remove seeds and dice une. Also dice the turkey, avocado and eggs. Arrange the above ingredients, as well as the blue cheese and bacon crumbles, in straight lines across the greens. Arrange the chives diagonally across the above lines. Present the salad at the table, then toss with the dressing (below) and place on chilled plates with a watercress garnish. Serves six.

BROWN DERBY OLD-FASHIONED FRENCH DRESSING

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/4 tbsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 cup red-wine vinegar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tbsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. English mustard (I used dijon)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups salad oil

Blend together all ingredients, except oils, then add olive and salad oils and mix well. Blend well again before mixing with salad. This makes a big batch; store in the fridge and use within 3 weeks.

Next Up:

Disney's Carribean Resort with Black Bean Soup and Johnnycakes

Cap'n Crunch Chicken

I'm a sucker for anything retro. I just bought a sack of Doritos just because they had a groovy 70's sombrero on the package. (Taco flavor and pretty darn delicioso, thank you very much.) Anyway, the sugar cereal companies must know this about me, because they keep reeling me in with quaint boxes of sweet cereal. I saw a circa 1975 box of old fashioned Lucky Charms and I felt like I'd found a pot of gold. Retro Trix turned me into a silly rabbit. Cap'n Crunch? I fought nine siblings every Sunday morning for a second bowl of Cap'n Crunch for a decade of my childhood. My mother bought ONE box of sugar cereal for Sunday breakfast for ten kids. ONE box. Only the early birds got the goods and some early birds were more like hogs than birds. I ought to know because I was one of them. Oh, don't worry. The late birds didn't starve; they got...Grape Nuts. So you can imagine how excited I was to bring home a whole box of Cap'n Crunch for my family of four. I would be the hero! Except that nobody understood how exciting it was to have a box of retro Cap'n Crunch in the house. My two sensible children exchanged bewildered expressions over their bowls of Grape Nuts. The Quiet Man would never deign to eat anything as nutritionally empty as sugar cereal for breakfast. So that left just me and my antiquated treasure. I had to get everybody as enthusiastic as I was about this cereal that caused greed, lust and sin all before Sunday school. I remembered hearing about Cap'n Crunch chicken from Planet Hollywood in the nineties, so I scoured the Internet, fiddled around a little bit and came up with this recipe. The chicken is delicious-slightly sweet and oh so crispy. Everybody perked up. Maybe I'll try and get everybody out of bed early on Sunday mornings with this Cap'n Crunch.
Cap'n Crunch Chicken

Estimated Cost: $6.00 for 4 servings

Notes: Serve your chicken with barbecue sauce, honey mustard, and ketchup-it's all good!

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons milk

1 cup Cap'n Crunch cereal smashed to crumbs

1 cup Panko bread crumbs, or other plain bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Cut chicken into strips. In a shallow bowl, combine cereal, crumbs, garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in egg, then in crumbs. Let dry for five minutes on rack. Heat oil in 12 inch skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken for about 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Enjoy.

PS To make it a meal, try it with the salad from my last post. Just scroll right down.

Up Next: Overnight Yeast Risen Waffles