Posts belonging to Category Food and Nutrition

In Texas we get cold rain instead of snow, which is not nearly so Winter Wonderland-ish as the white powder. It’s cold, dreary and very, very muddy. The kind of mud that sucks up mud boots of little boys and has my washing machine churning through the heavy duty cycle. Since we’ve been fighting generic winter colds, I’ve been low on energy and creativity.

Enter an easy dinner to make life just a bit simpler.

I warmed tomato soup from a box on the stove and made some grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches. For the first time ever, I didn’t even stand over the stove cooking bacon, but laid it out on foil on a cookie sheet and popped it into the over. This is how restaurants do it…I don’t know why I haven’t done it before. So easy and zero clean up.

It was declared the “Best Dinner Ever,” especially since the boys could dip their sandwiches into their soup, ranking it behind my (in)famous nacho dinners when Dad is gone. Got to remember to keep this one on the back burner.

Good morning, ladies!

This morning, I am thinking about breakfast options, and realizing that our boxes of cereal have gone untouched for the past few days. We have been relying more on oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and homemade muffins/pancakes/waffles to get us going in the morning, and I would love to expand our repertoire and add some new items. There are some mornings that cereal does the job just fine – I especially like Special K because it has large amounts of protein, but it lacks fiber. However, with a son who doesn’t eat lunch until 12 at school (he leaves the house at 7:30) and some daughters who aren’t big lunch eaters, I feel a great responsibility to feed them a hearty and nutritious breakfast!

If you have a minute, please share you breakfast ideas and recipes – my family will thank you! To get us started, I will share one of my favorite homemade pancake recipes – this recipe uses oatmeal in the batter, making for a nice nutty texture. We often eat ours without syrup because the flavors from the brown sugar and cinnamon are so wonderful. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Pancakes (from the Better Homes and Gardens “Cooking for Two” cookbook – I’ve doubled the recipe and made some modifications)

Heat 1 c. of milk in a microwavable dish until hot – stir in 2/3 a c. of oats (I use old-fashioned), stir, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together 2/3 c. flour, 2 T. brown sugar, 2 t. baking powder, 1/4 t. salt, and 1/2 t. ground cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

In a small bowl stir together 2 beaten eggs, 2 T. cooking oil, and 1 t. vanilla.

Add the oat mixture and egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Let the batter rest for a couple of minutes.

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 c. of batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 3 minutes or until pancakes are golden brown. Enjoy!

The feast...absolutely no prep work!

The boys and I have spent the last few weeks reading through our apple book basket and since, to my great dismay, there is no apple picking in our area, we decided to have our own apple harvest party. I bought a bunch of different kinds of apples we invited some grandparents and we had an apple tasting party. Simple, easy and sweet, and so much fun!

Different kinds of apples

Tallying the votes

Three year old refused to eat the apples

Not a healthy halftime snack

For the past month, we have been in full soccer mode.  Our Saturdays are spent at the soccer field, and with only two children on teams, we regularly have practices 2-3 nights per week.  The kids are loving the time outdoors, the competition, and the new friendships, and we are truly enjoying spending our weekends watching games and killing downtime on the playground.  There is, unfortunately, one thing we are not loving about soccer season—half-time snacks.

At some point in the last twenty years, an appropriate half-time snack went from orange slices and your own water bottle to oreo cookies and Hi-C juice boxes.  I’ve also seen Fritos, Doritos, and even Twizzlers.  I’m serious.  As a former Division 1 collegiate athlete, I am horrified.

I’ve seen my coaching husband have to chase children back onto the field as these children clung to their Hi-C juice box and fig newtons.  I then watch and deal with the tears as my own younger two children grab and ask for any “leftover” team snacks. Apparently the majority of adults in our town are completely unaware of the obesity problem in our country?  And it isn’t just our town.  My husband recently informed me that a neighboring town has banned half-time snacks because the snacks were unhealthy.

Just to clarify, soccer games are 40 minutes playing time, and no more than an hour and 15 minutes between departing and returning to your own home.  A snack of any kind is completely unnecessary, let alone a snack that is simply junk food.

Yet I am continually amazed at how seriously parents take the “snack sign up” sheet, and I almost laughed at another mother’s horror as she realized someone had forgotten to bring the half-time snack.

As someone with a number of years of experience in competitive sports and proper training/nutrition, allow me to clarify a few things–

1)  When working out for less than an hour, it probably does more harm than good to consume any food.  It is best to eat something low in fat prior to the workout (preferably 1-2 hours beforehand) and then eat again after the workout.  If your child feels low energy during short workouts, consider having him consume something higher in protein about 1.5 hours beforehand (my personal preference is a hard boiled egg!).

2)  Avoid extra sweet foods during a workout–examples include candy, soda, cookies or cake.  These cause a spike in blood sugar, and then cause sugar levels to drop.  At best kids can become dizzy and sluggish, at worst, the sugar will cause an upset stomach.

3)  If other kids or coaches insist on a snack, even for a short 40 minute soccer game, here are some good suggestions–orange slices, bananas, apple slices, or grapes.

It was my turn to bring a snack last week.  I opted for oranges.  They were not popular, there were even some complaints.  At least my younger two had their fill of uneaten oranges.

Let's Get it Started

Greek Yogurt, where have you been all my life? With the high energy/protein requirements of daily life these days, beginning the day with toast, cereal, or any of the usual quick breakfast options leaves me faint on the couch by 10am. Eggs are a little high maintenance and aren’t all that appetizing 7 mornings a week, and before now, yogurt didn’t quite have the protein to satisfy me. Enter nonfat Greek yogurt: one individual-sized pot has 14g of protein (the same amount of protein as two and a half eggs, and twice the protein of a normal pot of yogurt), only 130 calories, and 40% of the calcium RDA, just for starters. That is packing a serious nutritional punch. My sisters-in-law were eating it with honey and slivered almonds mixed in when we saw them at Christmas. My kids love it, and it’s quick before school and so healthy. It’s about 1.5 times as expensive as normal yogurt, but less with sales and coupons, and now all the store generic brands are making their own Greek yogurt. Bring on the day!

Who needs a cleaning lady, anyway?

Have you seen the new dual-action Lysol wipes? I have always been a fan of Lysol/Clorox wipes for quick cleanup, because they are durable, quick, and lighter on the chemicals than spray plus paper towel. Now, some mastermind at Lysol Headquarters has taken it to a new level. The new dual-action wipes have one side that is the usual softer side for wiping, but now the other side has a scouring texture for scrubbing. With that scrubbing side added, I can deep clean a large-ish surface in our house with one wipe in no time flat. Cleaning the gooey cup holders and other heavily-soiled surfaces inside the car? A breeze. Scrub then wipe then toss it out. Thank you, Lysol, for eliminating a few extra steps and making quick cleanups even quicker.

Ok, so I decided today that I need to “modernize” my shopping lists and recipes.  No more post-it notes reminding me to buy peanut butter.  I don’t want several cabinets in my kitchen dedicated to recipe storage (I don’t use 90% of those recipes anyway!).  I spent this afternoon investigating different meal-planning, recipe-creation, shopping-list-organizing sites.  I didn’t find a single site that suited all of my needs.  The three most promising sites were Cozi, Allrecipes, and RecipeThing.

Cozi has a beautiful layout, and is very easy to use.  However, it doesn’t allow me to store my own recipes and create a database that easily loads into my shopping lists.  If the recipe is already on their site, it is PERFECT.  But I can’t store my recipes, so I would need to type ingredients in each week, rather than just add those ingredients with a single click.  I love all the different shopping lists though.

Allrecipes offers a free online recipe box.  You can upload your own recipes or recipes from the web into their cache, and then it generates a shopping list/meal plan.   The big catch–you cannot add additional items to the shopping list.  So, for example, if you need cereal and milk, the only way to get them into your list is through a recipe.  This is annoying and will not address my post-it problem.  I think you can upgrade, for a fee, and then this service might be available, but I’d like to check out free options first, and I’d also like to make sure the site does what I want before I start to pay money.

RecipeThing offers a free online recipe box.  It is very easy to use, and stores recipes very nicely.  It allows for meal planning and the creation of a shopping list.  Unfortunately, it does not allow you to upload recipes from the web (unless you create a new recipe card), nor can you add items to your shopping list or delete items you already own.  If I need cereal and milk, they must be part of a recipe from the calendar to make it on the list.  As I mentioned earlier, this does not address my post-it problem.

Maybe I need to compromise.   I would love to sign up for a meal-planning, recipe, shopping-list creation site that does all of the following:

1.  Allows me to create my own shopping lists (preferably multiple lists like Cozi).

2.  Allows me to upload my own recipes, store them, and then with one or two clicks add the ingredients from those recipes to my shopping list and meal calendar.

3.  Allows me to easily print said lists (I do not have a technologically advanced phone where I can view my list from the store).

4.  Allows me to “search” for recipes by ingredients.  So for example, if I have a lot of eggplant, I can easily search for recipes using eggplant.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions?

I’ve mentioned our family making a concerted effort toward improving our health over the past two months– we’ve been on a bit of a nutrition kick,

scrutinizing labels for the fewest ingredients, seeking more whole foods, and trying to make more at home versus buying items ready-made at the store.  So far, so good.  I’ve talked about my love of Tra.der Joe’s.  It is such a fantastic store with whole foods at a much more affordable price.  Laziness (or “Blissful Naivete” was what I liked to call it) was

part of the reason why we didn’t switch sooner.  But in the end, it was really the sticker shock that scared me away from making such a change in the past.  TJ’s has helped remove most of my fears and keep our budget in order, all the while helping us eat much healthier and feel a little better about the food choices we are introducing to our children!

As I stood in the kitchen yesterday morning, though, amidst powdered sugar sprinkled all over the counter, dusting my face, pants, and shoes, and making a nice layer over pretty much anything in the vicinity, I had a moment where I doubted it all.  My hand mixer was fried, my arm hurt, and I was running late.  Was it really worth slaving away at the counter to make homemade icing for 20 cupcakes to be delivered to school a mere hour later?  My list of things to accomplish in that hour was almost insurmountable as it was.  My stress flared.

You see, I had conquered the first round of frosting the night before, but ran out with 5 cupcakes to go.  Back to the store (twice) it was in the morning and then back to making icing again.  I will admit, it turned out to be pretty tasty and I now have gobs of it sitting in my fridge awaiting its debut on the birthday cake that I will procure tonight for a party full of 10 boys (7 and under) on Saturday.  I can guarantee they could care less whether it was from Betty Crocker or B-mama.  But I know and that brings me satisfaction.

As my to-do list lengthens and the party day approaches, though, how much is too much? Is homemade worth the extra stress?

I do love to cook.  Making things from scratch brings me great joy.  Doing so at the eleventh hour, at 5pm with children running amuck, however, is not my idea of joy and peace.   I obviously need to set aside some time to enjoy the homemade process.  Then, I need to allow myself time to savor the end product.  As far as the icing goes, I’m just praying it doesn’t dry out before tomorrow night when it’s show time and on the cake it will go!  Perhaps its really about prioritizing the things we love and making those from scratch, but resorting to healthful substitutions in a pinch.  And not piling on the to-do’s when the list is already long enough.

I am only one mother.  A mother who loves her family enough to feed them the very best.  But when is homemade too much?

Our home has been doing a major nutritional overhaul in the past weeks.  We’ve gone from all things processed and chemical to whole foods and more fruits and vegetables.  We’re trying to eat out less and eat in more, consuming more nuts and whole grains and even making our own bread.  Many of the Builders have been a great inspiration to us in this endeavor–we’re just slow on the uptake and finally got the message!  It really took me sitting down to enter receipts into our budget back in November to realize we were eating out WAY too much; to the point that I was worried for my husband’s arteries.  With his job being very demanding, with little time for exercise, and with plenty of excuses to eat fast food on the run, he was shaping up to be the next 35-year-old heart attack victim (despite looking generally “healthy” from the outside).  Something had to change.

Out went his daily trips to Wen.dy’s (they have a joint on the first floor of his building), in came lunches made by me.  In the past I’ve refused this nicety for my dear one, citing small children and the busyness of the morning.  But I was willing if it meant helping him eat better and stay with us longer.  And to be honest, it doesn’t take too much time, especially when I’m already making a lunch for our kindergartner.

Out went crackers and chips and cereals where we couldn’t even read half of the ingredients, in came more sensible choices from better stores.  To look at our cupboards now, you wouldn’t recognize anything from the past.  We’ve started anew and it feels really good.  The boys have definitely needed some coaxing to adjust.  They don’t recognize any of our old brands and wallowed a bit before realizing that more nutritional mini-wheats from our new store taste really good and just as good as the old ones.  Other foods followed suit.  We’re still working on their transition to new ranch dressing.  Nobody does it like Hidd.en Valley.  The other night I had a good chuckle when M said, “Mommy, can we just please switch back to the dressing with chemicals?”  lol.  Change takes time.  And surprisingly, our budget hasn’t taken too much of hit thanks to great places like Trad.er Joe’s.  What a wonderful place–I get everything there now and have been so surprised at how reasonable their prices are.  We can buy organic (delicious) pasta from Italy for the same price as the store brand from Food Li.on.  I’ll take it!

Out has gone some of the items we used to purchase, in has come foods we prepare at home, like bread and granola.  I have always made my own pesto and guacamole, but how fantastic it’s been to add to my cooking/baking repertoire!  A breadmaker purchase using points from our credit card has made homemade bread a more feasible reality.  It is delicious!!  We also made our own calzone dough the other night.  Note: Things taste better when you know you made them.  Eating is more of a personal celebration.

To top things off, my hubby has started training for a half marathon in March.  This is such a great endeavor and one that I’m encouraging him to do wholeheartedly.  It has meant sacrificing my own evening time with him so he can hit the gym.  Sometimes it means I’m alone with the kids for bedtime while he gets in his workout.  But it’s worth it.  When the health of a loved one is on the line, I’m willing to make sacrifices.  I also downgraded my half-marathon aspirations to a local 10k this spring.  Our home can’t manage two people training for a distance race, but the outcome is that I’m really excited to do something shorter and faster that asks less of me on the training schedule.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Blessings to you in the new year!  Let us embrace the God of the universe and the good He has given to us on earth.  God bless.

I made this gem for my troops yesterday and *boy!* is it good.  My favorite way to eat it: on top of Tra.der Joe’s strawberry low-fat yogurt.  Just plain good.

Tracy’s Homemade Granola

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup grade A dark amber syrup
2 T butter
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 325
2) Mix together the first 5 ingredients
3) In a small bowl, stir together the syrup and melted butter.
4) Pour the syrup mixture over the dry ingredients, coating the dry ingredients well.
5) Spread this mixture onto baking sheets (either greased or lined with parchment paper)
6) Bake at 325 for 30-45 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
7) Add the craisins, dates, and chocolate chips or whatever dried fruit combination you prefer.
Eat and Enjoy!

Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year or traveling with kids?  Either way, life is complicated!  Around the holidays I always think about my mom, okay, that makes it sound like she’s dead, which she is not, just in Bermuda, which is like heaven, but anyway, can you tell I have had too much coffee this week?

I think about my mom during the holidays because she is a terrific hostess, she manages to put out a wonderful, elegant meal while staying calm and gracious.  Her home and holidays are what most would call formal, but they are never stuffy, everyone is perfectly at their ease.  I give her a lot of credit, and I am inspired by her.

One of my mom’s taglines, from when she had 3-under-2, is “you gotta do what you gotta do!”  Seriously, if that meant that some of the sides were secretly store bought or the dishes did not get done until Friday, so be it.  My mom doesn’t do guilt and she doesn’t do competition, she operates on the assumption that what she has to give is good enough, and the amazing thing is that she is almost always right.

My temperament is very different from my mothers, I tend towards competition, perfectionism and vanity, especially with regard to entertaining, but what I want most of all is for everyone to be as welcome and happy at home as we were growing up.  So, this thanksgiving, here is what I “gotta do.”

With 7 children under 9 attending my thanksgiving this year, I am using my everyday china.  It is attractive enough, and I will be much  more relaxed, which will put everyone else at ease.  To make this work, I have created a casual table scape by letting the kids pile gourds, fruit and nuts all down the center of the table, interspersed with candles and the kids pine cone turkeys.  Now, the casual looks like it is by design.

I am using gravy packets.  I will make some of my own gravy from the bird, but I will supplement with McCormick.  Honestly, you can’t taste the difference once it is all mixed in there, and this way you can have enough gravy to put a gravy boat at both ends of the table.  While I stir the gravy, I will be glad that I have so many wonderful people in my life to serve this day.

I am letting my mother in law bring the sweet potatoes, and they are not my grandmother’s sweet potatoes, and I am not making more sweet potatoes.  What she makes will be delicious, and my kids (and husband) will just have to live without the marshmallows.  I have promised sweet potatoes with marshmallows at a later date.

I am making brussel sprouts, because I love them, even if I might be the only one who eats them.

I am making a cheesy project where on each placecard there will be a question having to do with gratitude.  (What invention are you most grateful for, what change are you most grateful for this year, what food are you most grateful for, etc).  This will keep the conversation flowing and put us all in a grateful frame of mind.

Lastly, I am letting my kids watch TV for most of the day today.  It’s just what I “gotta do.”

Friends, today, and throughout this busy time coming up, take a cue from my mom, and give yourself permission to do what you gotta do so that you and your family will have a happy and healthy holiday season.

In an attempt to get my children to eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, I decided to introduce the concept of “eating the rainbow” one evening for dinner last week. Eating the rainbow simply means that you try to eat fruits and vegetables that span the color spectrum, from red strawberries to green spinach to purple plums and everything in between. The idea is that the foods in each color group contain a unique set of vitamins and minerals, and that eating a wide variety of these foods ensures that you get all of the nutrients needed. This website gives a good explanation of which fruits and veggies fall into each group, and the unique properties that each group possesses. In any case, I purposely plated mostly foods that my kids are used to, but added some that they don’t typically gravitate towards, like tomatoes and blackberries.

My children were less than enthusiastic. “Oh noooooo,” moaned my son when I told him of my idea, “Do I have to eat all of that?!” And from my daughter I heard, “But Mommy, I don’t like tomatoes!” The only enthusiastic child was the 8 month-old baby – you can see her hand going for the colorful plate in this picture

But you know what??? I think it was a good first step! Controversy creates the opportunity for conversation, so we had a nice dinner table conversation about the benefits of eating a wide variety of foods, and my kids did try a couple of new foods. Maybe if I continue to offer a wider variety of fruits and veggies,  they’ll eventually come to enjoy the diversity!

God bless you all at the beginning of this Thanksgiving week!