SOBE Food and Wine Fun and Fit as a Family Event

We had a blast today at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival’s family event held at Jungle Island.

With tickets just $20 (living social had an $11 deal), it’s the best bargain in the whole festival. Most events have triple digit price tags. Big names stars like Giada de Laurentiis, Rocco Dispirito and Anne Burrell headline this event. (It takes place tomorrow, too.)

Here are some highlights:

Our big event was a cooking demo by Giada Di Laurentis. She made pizza muffins and strawberry muffin pies.

Our big event was a cooking demo by Giada de Laurentiis. She made pizza muffins and strawberry muffin pies.

Her presentation was pretty informal and unruly kids took advantage by wandering on stage. In this picture she's answering a question from an audience member whose grandson eats only chicken nuggets and white rice. Gida suggest adding peas or carrots to the rice. The woman says the child won't eat them. I sent mental waves telling her, "If you offer only healthy options, he'll get hungry enough to try!" Clearly, not even a food Network star could help the willfully helpless.

Her presentation was casual with kid helpers and an audience Q and A.

The kids got cute chef hats and aprons, which is perfect timing because they finally outgrew the ones I made them for Christmas two years ago.

Older kids got to participate in a Food Lab sponsered by Whole foods, but mine were too young.

Older kids got to participate in a Food Lab sponsored by Whole Foods, but mine were too young.

There were a lot of giveaways and food samples. In this picture Max was gobbing up a fresh salad he made with pineapple, corn, cucumbers and black beans. Other giveaways included veggie pasta, pizza, frozen yogurt, green smoothies, bananas, coconut water, cheese and all sorts of pencils, coloring books, stickers and soccer balls. I was loaded like a mule by the end of the day.

There were fun obstacle courses, hula hoop contests and dance-offs to take care of the “fit” part of the event.

Of course, this took place at Jungle Island, so some animals got into the fun.

There was a ridiculous amount of product placement at this event, but I’m including this shot of Badia’s Coconut Water because it was really good. I didn’t even know they made coconut water, but this is by far my favorite brand if it’s not coming directly from the tree to me. There were just two ingredients: coconut water and pulp from young tender coconuts. If you’re in the market, give this one a taste.

What a fabulous time we had at our first taste of one of the biggest food events on earth, the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.

Can’t wait to do it again next year!