Press Releases
Three Cheers for Milk During June Dairy Month
PHILADELPHIA (May 30, 2007) – Two wonderful things happen every June: Summer arrives, and America salutes its hardworking dairy farmers during June Dairy Month. Like macaroni and cheese and milk and cereal, summertime and dairy foods go hand-in-hand.
As you take another bite of a burger topped with Swiss or cheddar, imagine eating 50 one-pound cheeseburgers every day. That’s about the same amount of food dairy cows need each day. Cows follow a strict 50-pounds-a-day diet of grass, hay and grains to maintain their svelte 1,400-pound figures. To wash down her food, she drinks 25 to 50 gallons of water, enough to fill a bathtub, throughout the day.
All that food is magically morphed into approximately 90 glasses of milk each day. In an average cow’s lifetime, she’ll produce about 350,000 glasses of milk, which can be bottled or transformed into a variety of foods that we all enjoy, like cheese, yogurt and ice cream.
This June Dairy Month, try our tasty recipes for BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Foil Packet Dinner and Cocoa-Berry Yogurt Tarts. Then take a few minutes to raise a frosty glass of Caribbean Milk Cooler in a salute to your local dairy cows in appreciation of all the dairy delicious foods they provide for you.
BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Foil Packet Dinner
Recipe created by 3-A-Day™ of Dairy
Makes 4 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 37 minutes
Ingredients
3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
2 small unpeeled red potatoes, thinly sliced
1 red or green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 375oF.
Place a foil sheet, approximately 12 inches by 12 inches, on a work surface. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the barbecue sauce in the center of the foil sheet. Place one chicken breast half over barbecue sauce and spread another teaspoon of sauce over chicken. Top with a quarter of the potato, bell pepper and onion. Sprinkle with a little of the salt and pepper.
Fold foil in half to cover contents; make narrow folds along edges to seal. Repeat with remaining ingredients to assemble three more packets. Place packets on a baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes.
Open foil packets with scissors and carefully pull back edges (contents may be very hot). Sprinkle a quarter of the cheese over the top of each chicken breast half and return to oven, unsealed, for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted. With a spatula, transfer the contents of each packet onto individual serving plates, if desired.
Nutrition Facts per serving of main dish recipe:
Calories: 290
Total Fat: 4.5 g
Saturated Fat: 2.5 g
Cholesterol: 75 mg
Sodium: 630 mg
Calcium: 20% Daily Value
Protein: 38 g (10 grams from dairy)
Carbohydrates: 21 g
Dietary Fiber: 2 g
Cocoa-Berry Yogurt Tarts
Recipe courtesy of 3-A-Day™ of Dairy
Makes 6 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lowfat vanilla yogurt
1 1/2 cups reduced-fat Ricotta cheese
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
6 graham cracker tart shells
3/4 cup strawberries, sliced (raspberries or blueberries also can be used)
Directions
Mix yogurt, Ricotta, sugar and cocoa powder thoroughly with whisk until creamy. Spoon 1/6 mixture into each tart shell and top with sliced strawberries.
Nutritional Facts per serving:
Calories: 260
Total Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 20 mg
Sodium: 250 mg
Calcium: 20% Daily Value
Protein: 9 g
Carbohydrates: 37 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Caribbean Milk Cooler
Recipe created by 3-A-Day™ of Dairy
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
2 cups fat-free or lowfat milk
2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons sugar
ice cubes
mint sprigs (optional)
Directions
In a blender container, combine all ingredients except ice cubes and mint and blend on high speed until frothy. Pour into four tall glasses filled with ice cubes. Garnish with mint sprigs if desired.
Note: For a thicker drink, freeze pineapple juice in an ice cube tray. Blend these pineapple cubes with all other ingredients except mint. Omit regular ice cubes. Serve in a chilled glass.
Nutritional Facts per serving:
Calories: 160
Total Fat: 0 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 75 mg
Calcium: 20% Daily Value
Protein: 5 g
Carbohydrates: 31 g
Dietary Fiber: 0 g
Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association is the dairy-farmer funded regional promotion organization responsible for increasing milk and dairy product demand throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association works closely with Dairy Management Inc.™, the national dairy promotion organization, to implement dairy promotion, education and research programs locally. For more information, visit www.dairyspot.com.
To discuss dairy’s nutritional benefits with a registered dietitian, contact:
Baltimore/Washington, D.C.
Isabel Maples, MEd, RD
(703) 753-1195
imaples@milk4u.org
Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, Pa.
Isabel Maples, MEd, RD
(703) 753-1195
imaples@milk4u.org
Philadelphia
Althea Zanecosky, MS, RD
(215) 836-5534
azanecosky@milk4u.org
Jennifer Diemert, RD
(412) 369-8363
jdiemert@milk4u.org