what are you snacking on?

Kids need a snack?
I know it is so tempting to reach into the pantry and grab the box of fish crackers.  STOP! 

Give them fresh fruit!

Cantaloupe is filled with an enormous amount of Vitamin A and beta-carotene and Vitamin C.  You know that Vitamin C is important for a healthy immune system.  And Vitamin A is good for your eyes.  Now, most people think "good for your eyes" means 20/20 vision. Rather, "good for your eyes" means that it can help reduce your risk for things like cataracts and macular degeneration.

What do fish crackers do for you?  Um, fill your belly with empty calories...and them make you want more one hour later. 

How do you pick the best cantaloupe?  Smell it!  Works every time.  If it smells like a good one, it is!  If I pick one up at the store and it isn't smelling ripe yet, I just leave it in our fruit bowl for a couple days until it smells just right.

****

Before I truly understood the importance of good food, I would let Ben and CC snack on whatever they wanted before bedtime.  Ben would always request tortilla chips, and I would hand them over without thinking.  Now?  He MUST eat fruit (or some other healthy snack) before tortilla chips.  Since their bellies become full with fruit, they won't eat as much chips.

After he eats an apple, he will get his chips.  And sometimes he won't even ask for the chips after he eats the apple because he is satisfied. 

Making kids eat fruit first is a great way to introduce your kids into eating good foods.  They are motivated to eat the good stuff because they know chips will come.  Before you know it, they will forget about the chips and ask for fruit.  Promise!

pinto beans with rice and veggies

A lot of times I really do just throw together recipes on the fly.  This was thrown together, and actually tastes good.


ingredients:
pinto beans - 2 cups
minute brown rice - not cooked
yellow pepper - diced
red pepper - diced
broccoli - two small crowns, cut into bite sized pieces
mushrooms - one container, which is 8 oz I think, cut into bit sized pieces
chicken bouillon - optional
soy sauce - optional

** Regarding the pinto beans, I actually made an entire bag of dried beans weeks ago and froze them.  I prepared the entire bag of beans as the bag indicated.  Once the beans were cooked and cooled, I divided the beans into 2 cup servings, with the water included, in sandwich baggies. I froze all the bags.


In a large pan, saute a red and yellow pepper.  To that, add the mushrooms until they start to get tender.  To that, add the broccoli.  Once all those ingredients cook up, add the frozen bag of beans.  Cover.

After a good couple minutes, check on the beans.  They should start to thaw out, and the liquid should start to incorporate into the dish.  If you want to add chicken bouillon to the liquid at this point, do it.

Once the beans are fully thawed out, simply add as much rice as needed to absorb any liquid.  After about 10 minutes, the rice will be fully cooked and there shouldn't be much liquid in the pan.

Add soy sauce to taste.  Done!


*****

Ok, so maybe this meal isn't prepared in just a couple minutes since the beans have to thaw out and the rice has to cook.  Although there is about 20 minutes of cook time, the time you are at the stove is minimal.

Interesting facts about the ingredients in this dish:
- pinto beans have a good amount of magnesium. When you body has a healthy amount of this stuff, your veins and arteries relax which means that everything (nutrients, blood, oxygen) flows better.

- check out this link about soy sauce...it isn't as bad as you think it is!

Barley with bell peppers and zucchini

** Barley takes about 50 minutes to prepare.  In order for this to be a quick meal, make the barley one day ahead of time. The package says that cooked barley is good for a week in the fridge. 

- To make the barley, I boiled 2 1/3 cups of water, and then I added 3/4 cup barley.  I reduced heat and simmer for about 50 minutes.  After which I kept on the stove to cool down a bit.  When cooled I put the whole pot in the fridge. 




The next day, I diced and sauteed one onion, one red pepper, one yellow pepper and one zucchini. 

Meanwhile, I put the barley pot on the stove to heat up.  Once the veggies were good, I added them to the barley.  I added a bit of salt and chicken bouillon. 

That is it.  The dish is surprisingly creamy, and the kids liked it.  Simple, fast, and nutritious. The dish really took just minutes to prepare. 


Here are some interesting facts about the foods in this recipe:
- barley: it has crazy amount of fiber in it! It is also very gentle on the tummy. 
- bell peppers: did you know that a bell pepper has twice the amount of Vitamin C as an orange!

A look inside my refrigerator and pantry

Here you have it folks, a look inside my fridge.  This is shortly after grocery shopping, so it is rather full. 

I buy 95% of our groceries from Aldi.  When Steve went mainline and we took a 57% paycut that first year, Aldi was a necessity. Now, I just love it.  Their prices are beyond fair, and I can get mostly everything I need from there.  Sure, you have to bag your own groceries, but if that means I spend $140 a week on groceries rather than $200 at a "fancy" grocery store, then I don't mind at all.

At any given time, our fridge is filled with:
 - almond milk (we prefer vanilla or dark chocolate)
        *from the Eat to Live mentality, i keep animal protein to a minimum.  I believe I can get all the goodness of cow's milk with almond milk.  I have grown to believe that cow's milk is made for a baby calf to grow a ton in a year, so it doesn't quite make sense to give it to my kids.
- orange juice. I buy it fortified with calcium and vitamin D.
- kefir (which is sort of like a yogurt drink)
- "bubble water" we call it.  It is sparkling water with lime flavoring.
         *I do not like artificial sweeteners.  I just don't.  Sure we have drinks like Diet Coke and Crystal Light at times, but day-in day-out I prefer to keep as natural as possible.
-  eggs
     *I have lately gotten into cage free eggs...this is mostly for consideration of the hens. Surely, a happy hen lays a better tasting egg, right?
- fruit
     *we always have bananas, apples, and oranges. We also usually have grapes.  Seasonally, we adjust.  Now we have watermelon all the time...can't.get.enough.  We also have other summer fruits like peaches and plums, berries, ect. 
- vegetables
     *we always have carrots and some sort of greens.  I also buy items like broccoli and mushrooms. Squash and zucchini are also staples.
- shredded mozzarella cheese.  I don't want to go vegan, since I am kind of afraid for taste reasons.  So, I stick with cheese that is lowest in saturated fat. 
- hummus. Can't.get.enough.of.this.stuff.  I tried my go at making it myself, but I didn't do well at all.  I buy three containers a week, and they are all eaten.  I used carrots as dippers, and this is one of my go-to snacks.
- flax seed.



Now for a look inside my pantry:

Let me first focus on all the good items we always have in there.
- whole wheat pasta
- tomato sauce
- grains (quinoa, brown rice, and barley)
- nuts (pistachios and almonds and cashews)
 - granola
- oatmeal
- beans
- corn
- diced tomatoes

And for the not-so-good stuff:
- tortilla chips.  This is Ben's favorite snack, so I do buy one bag a week.  Salt is my weakness, so I will treat myself every once in a while to chips, but I really do need to stay away since I like to polish off an entire bag in one sitting.
- flour tortillas.  This is a necessary evil.  Wraps are the best palette, if you will, to add healthy items and make quick meals.  Aldi doesn't have anything more nutritious than this.  I am sure any other grocery store has whole wheat wraps, but I just don't bother.  
- mac and cheese.  Sometimes I really just have no energy for anything more than just mac and cheese.  I do try to add flax seed to it, to make it a bit more healthy. 
- cereal.  We don't really eat a lot of cereal, but we always have it around.  Since we don't eat a lot, I don't always tend to stick to the healthy stuff.  My go-to boxes are raisin bran, frosted shredded wheat, and cheerios.  I will buy fruit loops and lucky charms at times. 
- cereal bars.  The kids always eat one in the way to school. 
- fruit chews.  With little kids, you need to have portable snacks that you can always keep in your purse for those "urgent" situations.  These fit the bill for that.

There you have it...my fridge and panty exposed. 

Now, let's get started on some meal ideas...

Why I am starting this blog

I am married to a pilot who is gone a lot.

I am a mother of two young children.

I work outside of the home.

When my pilot husband is on a trip, I am a single mother.  I have a lot on my plate, pardon the pun, when my husband is gone.

Sometimes on the way home from work, and after I pick up the kids at school, I want to go through the drive-thru at the local fast food joint, because I just don't want to cook.  And then I get over my laziness, and think in my head of what I can prepare for my children that is nutritious, and QUICK!

This blog will focus on recipes and meal ideas that are nutritious and quick.  We owe it to ourselves, and our children, to prepare nutritious foods that are good for the body.  I fully believe you are what you eat, and I want my children to be as healthy as possible.  I want for my husband and I to be as healthy as possible.

I need to add this disclosure: I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist.  I have no formal education on nutrition.  I get a lot of my knowledge from www.whfoods.com and Eat to Live.

Don't think that I prepare perfect foods all the time, because I don't.  Yes, I have treats in the house and yes I sometimes service mac and cheese for dinner.   But hey, I am a Libra - I am all about balance.  I strive to do my best all the time, but in my world that isn't always possible.

The goal of this blog is to be a quick reference for quick moms (and dads) to prepare simple, quick, and nutritious meals for your family.  You can do it!  Don't use excuses when preparing a meal.  With planning and the right mindset, you can prepare meals that your kids will like and that are good for them!

Welcome aboard!