Did you know that 40% of Americans fail to consume the recommended four servings of fruit per day? Libby's can help change that! Our NEW, 6-oz. Single Fruit Cups are bigger than the standard 4-oz. alternatives, and boost your daily fruit intake.

• Focus on Fruits - Fruit is not only a tasty snack, but also helps reduce the risk of some chronic diseases. Many fruits are packed with nutrients like potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin C and folic acid, which are crucial elements of a healthy diet. Libby's Single Fruit Cups contain 6 oz. of the world's best California-grown fruit that you can eat as part of a sit-down meal or an on-the-go snack.

• Taste is Key - We all know that child with a sweet tooth! ChooseMyPlate.org says fruits sweeten any recipe, from breakfast to nighttime dessert. Delicious diced peaches, diced pears, cherries, pineapple bits and grapes make up the four varieties of Libby's Single Fruit Cups. But, the best part about Single Fruit Cups? There are no gels, creams or other unhealthy additives, and each cup is just 120 calories!

There are many ways to eat a Libby's Single Fruit Cup. It can be a convenient and tasty afterschool snack, mixed with cereal or yogurt for breakfast, or a healthy and delicious component in your dinner salad. Single Fruit Cups come in sturdy, easy-to-open containers, with innovative see-through packaging. Plus, they're individually sold which means you can purchase a few in every variety and never get bored! Stock up on Libby's Single Fruit Cups at your nearest supermarket.

It is time to bring those shamrocks and leprechaun decorations out from the storage bin. March 17 marks St. Patrick's Day, and everyone will be commemorating the Luck of the Irish. With a little help from Libby's, you can celebrate St. Patrick's Day too by going green at every meal!

Breakfast of Cham-PEA-ons
Serve some Frittata with Peas and Potatoes for a hearty St. Patrick's Day brunch. Your family members will have the energy to celebrate if they start the day with a protein-filled dish.

Lunch on the Green
Whether your family plans to tee up at the minigolf course, lie out at the beach or ride the Ferris wheel six times in a row, we bet there will be a lunch break in store this St. Patrick's Day Saturday. Libby™s Sweet Pea Dip doubles as a sandwich spread for sit-down meals or on-the-go snacks. Pack a picnic filled with savory sandwiches or a light lunch of crunchy veggies and dip using this versatile spread.

Dinner, Emerald Isle Style
A common Irish dish, Shepherd's Pie with Lemony Green Beans gives us a double-dose of greens and reminds us of the delicious flavors that characterize the cuisine of the Emerald Isle.

Treats Fit For a "Pear" of Leprechauns
Libby's Vanilla Pear Walnut Bread adds an extra serving of green fruit to your St. Patrick's Day diet. Your family will be as excited as if they found a four-leaf clover, and will surely go back for seconds of this delicious treat.

At school, children learn about topics ranging from the periodic table to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but you can turn your home into a place for education as well. Here are some tips to subtly turn mealtime into learning time.

• Time to count those peas. Addition and subtraction are two of the most basic arithmetic skills, and the easiest to practice in a fun, at-home setting. While you enjoying your Libby's Sweet Peas tonight, ask your kids to count how many peas are on their plate at the start of the meal. Ask again about halfway through, and see if they can calculate how many peas they ate!


• Kitchens can be chemistry labs, too. There are two types of cooks: those who are precise and those who are intuitive. When you cook with your kids, take a chance at being the spontaneous chef - add a "pinch" of salt, a few "shakes" of pepper or "three seconds" of paprika. Your kids will love pretending to be scientists while they create a complex concoction. You can even get a few giggles by dressing in lab coats and goggles!


• Four score and seven bites ago. Everyone has a favorite food, including our nation's leaders. With Presidents' Day still on our minds, conduct a lesson during dinnertime through that follows the history of presidential food. The Food Timeline says Barack Obama loves trail mix and chocolate, while George W. Bush prefers a hearty chicken potpie. Serve dishes your family and the First Family share in common as favorite food, and sneak some American history facts in there while you are on the subject. The kids are likely to remember historic facts if they have fun while learning.

Although Valentine’s Day is not until next week, it’s never too early to prepare! Take some time from your hectic life filled with science projects, basketball practice and everything in between to show your Valentine how much you care. These helpful tips can show you how to create the perfect Valentine’s Day without breaking the bank.

• Make sweet Valentine’s Day decorations. Flowers and chocolate may be the traditional Valentine’s Day accessories, but you can spice things up this year with some unique pieces that make your special someone smile. Design a mason jar with brightly colored paper and fill it with chocolate for a homemade touch, or construct festive, felt fortune cookies with “sweet nothings” inside. These easy crafts can also double as favors for your kids’ class parties or centerpieces for your romantic dinner for two. 

• Prepare a feast filled with love. Nothing is more romantic than a homemade meal tailored just for your Valentine. Create a dish that shows you care, like our Paella Salad or Vegetable Sausage Soup. Don’t forget to finish it off with some Libby’s Fruit Cocktail drizzled with chocolate syrup for dessert!

• Spend quality time at home. After the kids go to bed, turn up your playlist to your favorite songs, crack open a bottle of your favorite wine, and relax. A board game is a great way to spend some quality time with your Valentine, while still having fun.

This Valentine’s Day, ditch the candy hearts and fancy restaurant protocol and plan an evening just as special in your own home.

2012 is almost here, and that means New Year’s resolutions are due. If you’re like many people, you know the drill: You make resolutions, you do well with them the first few weeks, you do less well with them after the first month, and you give up on them after a few months. But for all of you families out there, I have an approach that may help you have greater success with your 2012 resolutions.

Of course most of us have the best of intentions in following through on our resolutions, but it’s hard to make such big changes on our own. In this vein, as a husband and parent, I’ve learned that people can do a much better job of sticking to their resolutions if they do them together as a family. If your spouse or children are also keeping track of how well you’re making progress toward a resolution, you not only disappoint yourself when you begin to reach short of a resolution, you disappoint them, too. And the same goes for them when you’re a part of keeping track of their progress. Think of the old saying: There’s safety in numbers.

In particular, I’ve seen two ways that making resolutions as a family can help individual family members better reach their goals. First, simply making a commitment to hold each other accountable for resolutions creates an added incentive not to disappoint a family member with a lapse in will. If your goal is to lose 10 pounds and you have a young daughter who is helping you with this, would you really eat that big after-dinner snack at home as easily as you would if no one but you were keeping tabs on your progress?

A second way that tackling resolutions together as a family can help family members better reach their goals is that, by going through this process, you can show your children the importance of sticking with something and seeing things through to the end. The bigger lesson here about reaching New Year’s resolutions is that, more than achieving just a single goal, it shows your children that they can succeed in making big changes and accomplishing worthy goals if they put their minds to it. If your son has a goal to improve his grade in math, and if you keep checking in on him to push him to help him ultimately achieve this, this can serve as a tremendous motivator for his confidence at a formative age.

For these two reasons, I highly recommend you see this time of making resolutions as one that is not in isolation. Making resolutions should be something that does not just occur at the turn of a new year, but at many times throughout the year, when you see things that you can change about yourself and change with your family members.

While New Year’s resolutions are something that are oftentimes something that we get sidetracked from after a short time, they don’t have to be. If you can turn to a family member and to hold you accountable, you are and will be kept on a path to completion, and success. I hope you give it a try.