Brain Washing My Kids

So I am very conscientious about the fact that I don't want my kids to be the weird kids who scream "poison" at some kids birthday party when the innocent mother brings out the cake and ice cream.  However, I really want them to understand that the American diet is NOT okay for our bodies.  I think they are getting the message.  A few days ago they were playing store and asked me to come buy some food from them.  At first they would hold up a plastic food item and I would say "Yes, I love pears, they have 5 grams of fiber!" or "Yuck, no donuts for me."  Well, they quickly caught on and began holding up food items and answering for me, such as "No soda for us, that has way too much sugar," or "Eggs are a great source of protein."  I found it cute when they even held up white bread and said "Mom, this is actually whole grain bread so you can buy it."  They know how to convince me!  In the end they had two separate buckets-- the healthy food and non-healthy food.

The other night for dinner Lucy abstained from Ketchup with her salmon because it has too much sugar.  I didn't say anything-- it was all her.  But I don't want my kids to feel like they can't have certain foods so I am still figuring out how to strike the balance.  In the mean time it is cute to see how much they are picking up as I learn and share with them. 

Ya win some, ya loose some

Talk about a Millet Disaster tonight.  Let me back up and explain.  I bought Real Wild Alaskan Salmon as this is suppose to be much healthier than the $7 cheaper version at Costco that is farm raised and has dye to make it look pinker.  So I decided that butternut squash and some sort of grain pilaf would be good sides to go with it.  Well, I got my bulk Millet out and decided to try out my pressure cooker (I've only used it once before) to save time since millet takes about 35 min on the stove top to cook.  It took me a good 20 minutes to review the directions on how to use the cooker and then I wasn't sure if I could add extra ingredients to make it a pilaf or not so I just added broth, garlic, and celery.  It cooked for 10 minutes, and then I had to wait another 15 min for the canner to cool off enough to remove the millet.  Above is what it looked like.  It was all clumpy and stuck together.  I thought it would be okay once it cooled on our plates until.....Liberty asked if she could have some.  I informed her I already put some on her plate in which she said I hadn't.  I glanced over to see that the spoonful I gave her actually was so formed that it rolled off her plate like a bouncy ball.   

Jon and I started laughing so hard I was sweating all over and almost choked. Not exactly the soft bed of millet pilaf I envisioned to lay a fillet of salmon on.  So whether it was the pressure cooker or that I shouldn't make up my own millet pilaf recipes in a hurry like that I don't know but I am pretty sure you shouldn't be able to remove the entire bowl of millet with one swipe of a spoon! 

oh well, won't make that mistake again!
Happy Eating
Chanda

Thursdays Meals

For breakfast I tried waffles again, this time with mainly buckwheat flour, a little of brown rice, then added flax, oat bran, and hemp protein (which turns things green by the way).  I used agave, half EV olive oil, half coconut oil but cut the overall oil the recipe called for in half.  Once again the kids didn't notice a thing and no syrup was necessary as long as you have all the fresh summer fruit to top it off with!  For lunch we were in a hurry so I combined cottage cheese, plain greek yogurt, walnuts, flax and oat bran again together in a bowl with more fruit.  I didn't get any veggies in which was a bummer but it held me over for a good 4 hrs with out a problem.  Here is dinner:

I call this a date night meal.  The Talapia comes seasoned from Costco and then I used tortellini and good old marinara sauce from a jar but its still better than going out to eat or grabbing a Little Caesars pizza which I would have done in the past on a really busy day like today.  So, it isn't as great as if I had made it all myself but its better than the alternatives and the kids fight over the Talapia which always makes me smile.  The salad though--I loved it.  I added spinach, kale, romaine and bok choy, then sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, strawberry slices, and dried cranberries. The contrast of the bitter kale and bok choy with fruit was perfect.  Lucy wasn't a fan of the bok choy and Liberty not a fan of the uncooked Kale but you can't give up on the first try, right?  Its good to have some leafy greens again though.  Still haven't finished my pantry and I got some more good things to try from Costco today so hopefully I will have more updates soon.

Oh side note, I knew I would be gone for about 4-5 hrs this afternoon and usually will throw in a Zone bar if I will be gone that long.  They aren't the best or the worst protein bar out there but since I am trying to eliminate non-whole-foods, I decided to try just bringing a banana (they come in their own nifty packaging) today in case I got low.  When I get low I need quick sugar and isn't that what a banana is --plus fiber?  It did the trick on the drive home, without all the other garbage in a packaged bar.  No protein so not the perfect option, but worked today!

Recall

Is that what they call it when the put something in a magazine and there is an error or misprint?  Well, I went to eat the homemade nature's path granola last night and it just wasn't the same as the day we made it.  Too much cinnamon and not enough binding agent.  So don't go try out the recipe I put on the blog just yet--give me a bit more time to see if I can get the ingredients down perfect! 

Happy Eating
Chanda

What A Hit!

While in Spokane last April, my sister Stacy served us Lundberg Jubilee rice with a hard boiled egg on top.  Not gonna lie--when she first handed it over, I was most skeptical that this was all we were having for lunch.  However, I loved it and finally got my azure standard order with packets of Jubilee rice in my possession so I made it for dinner.  The kids literally freaked out they loved it so much.  Briggs ate his rice plain and was asking for seconds before I even sat down for prayer or brought over the boiled eggs.  The kids had never had boiled eggs and were thrilled to peel them and mash them into their rice.  I told them that we could have it for lunch like I did at Aunt Stacy's and Lucy exclaimed "Lets have if for lunches and dinners!"  I really wish I could have paired it with a nice green salad as that would have gone better but alas with my husband gone for the second week I can't get to the store for more fresh greens so we went with broccoli and zucchini and fruit salad.  I was SO full afterwards and I didn't even take any seconds.  I was worried there wasn't enough fats with this but apparently the eggs have enough fat with the protein because we were all plenty satisfied.

Now, since I didn't get to post this last night I do need to tell you what happened tonight at dinner.  I spent the afternoon cleaning out my pantry and trying to fill it with only whole foods (hopefully pics on this tomorrow) and so I wasn't prepared for dinner.  I have foods in my freezer I want to no longer keep with our new lifestyle but figure I am not going to just throw away so with Jon gone I decided I could serve Dino-bite chicken nuggets for dinner for the kids.  They were fine with this until I pulled out the leftover rice and the last boiled egg for myself.  HOLY COW.  There was mass complaining that I didn't offer this to them.  What kids choose multi-grain rice with a hard boiled egg over Dino-bites?  See, you gotta try this meal!  Oh, FYI, I do think a little sea salt sprinkled on top does make the meal.

Happy Eating
Chanda

Buckwheat Pancakes

I've been trying to incorporate Buckwheat more into our diet lately.  This morning I ground it into flour to make these pancakes.  Here is the recipe I found and what I did:

Tasty Buckwheat Pancakes
1/2 c whole wheat flour--I used brown rice flour (still deciding on how I feel about wheat flour...)
1/4 c buckwheat flour
1/4 c quick cooking oats
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup skim milk
3 tablespoon safflower oil--I used 1 1/2 tbsp canola and then ran out so used coconut oil for the other 11/2 tbsps.
2 tbsp honey--I used 1 tbsp agave instead of honey since honey often makes the pancakes looked burned
1 egg, lightly beaten--skipped the beaten since I'm lazy
Oh and I added 1 tbsp flax as I always do.

They were delicious!  I am constantly trying alternatives to syrup so this morning I drained some homecanned peaches and put them on top.  Served it with an egg and fruit and was completely full until lunch time, no low blood sugar or anything!

So excited for my first shipment from azure standard tomorrow.  Hope to share all kinds of new things with the new products arrivals!

 Happy Eating
Chanda

Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Granola

WE DID IT!  

Costco had a coupon for Nature's path Pumpkin Flax Granola so we decided to try it. Though it has 6g protein and 5g fiber which is far better than most breakfast cereals, it still has 10g of sugar!  So it is fine for a treat but still not a great substitute for breakfast.  Therefore the kids and I set out on a mission to see if we could reproduced a healthier version.

Here are the original ingredients:  Rolled oats, evaporated cane juice, soy oil, brown rice flour, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, oat syrup solids (oat syrup solids, tocopherols), sea salt, molasses, cinnamon.  It also is produced at a facility that uses peanuts and tree nuts.  

Here is what we used in our first batch: 2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup crispy brown rice, 1/4 c pumpkin seeds, 1/4 ground flax seed, 1 Tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup molasses, 1/8 c brown rice syrup.

Bake at 325 for 7 min, remove and mix around, bake for another 7 minutes.

I am not a huge molasses fan and was worried it would be too much so I made a second batch with 1/4 cup honey, no brown rice syrup as this was not necessary and I shouldn't have added it to the first batch. 

Note that I used ground flax seed instead of solid like the original recipe since our bodies can't absorb the solid flax and they just get stuck in your teeth which is really annoying so why not use the ground version--plus then you don't need to use as much oil! Also, I added some crispy brown rice since the original granola had something that was puffed it it but we couldn't figure out what and thought this would be a good choice to try--I think it was!

We did a blind taste test with all three types and both Lucy and Liberty didn't know the difference between any of them.  I could tell the store bought only because of a slight texture difference that I was aware of in advance but otherwise all three really taste almost identical except maybe a slight taste of molasses in the homemade molasses version (it also gives it a darker color).

The last test was to have Lucy eat it with milk like cereal.  She just smiled, nodded her head and said "Good!".

Now I am wondering about adding hemp protein for more nutrients or coconut oil for an even yummier result!  hmmmmmmm

Happy Eating!
Chanda

My new favorite meal

This is my second time making this meal and it is soooo delicious!  Okay so I made Quinoa from a recipe I have called Quinoa and Black beans.  But instead of adding the corn and beans at the end like the recipe said I just cooked the Quinoa.  While that was simmering I cooked up some fresh corn on the cob, hurried and heated up a bowl of black beans, and one of pinto beans, cut up some lettuce and spinach (we've had so much salad lately we ate all the healthier greens so I am afraid I only had ice berg to put with the spinach so if you make this hopefully you will have a healthier green to add to the spinach!), cut up some fresh cilantro, and then made guacamole (I like mine with just avacados, lime and garlic-yum!).  We put a tortilla on the bottom but it really isn't even necessary.  Then pile on the above, and top with crumbled up "Food should taste good" chips and cheese if you want.  I know that having corn and beans is doubling up on the carbs so you don't have to do the corn if this is a worry.  But Quinoa is a complete protein and the fat from the avocados is great for you.  So that topped with a bunch of fresh greens should make a pretty good meal.  I use to do homemade cafe rio and make the labor intensive lime & cilantro rice but I think the Quinoa totally does the trick and is way easier and faster.

In other news, we are on a mission to discover a quick alternative to cereal for breakfast that doesn't involve cooking at all.  Friday I had our homemade granola with oatmeal milk topped with fresh fruit--very satisfying.  However, since it is homemade I don't really know how much sugar per serving their is or fiber so I may be fooling myself.  The girls and I are on a mission to figure this and a few other granola options out so I will keep you posted.

This morning I made a variation of the waffles I made the other day.  I used my 6 grain flour, added some more cooked buckwheat,1 Tbsp hemp protein and flax, used 1/3 cup coconut oil instead of the 1/2 c oil it called for, and then accidentally forgot to add sugar but couldn't even tell!  They got eaten all the same.  Unfortunately, right after breakfast our free day with Jon got completely turned upside down so we had to eat out for lunch--luckily it was at least Rumbi.  But I was bummed none-the-less.  I felt really drained this afternoon but my dinner boasted me right back up!

Okay enough for today!
Happy Eating!
Chanda

Kale Chips

My sister Stacy, who is also on a journey to better nutrition, told me about Kale chips.  You take kale, wash and dry it, then add 1 tsp olive oil and rub the leaves in it.  Then you put them on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake for 10-15 minutes.  She said they taste kinda like popcorn and she is totally right!  My kids loved them.  Briggs said "Nany mom?" which means Candy?  About 5 minutes later Liberty exclaimed they were like candy.  hmmmm  They really are pretty good. I don't know if I would call it candy but if you have a salty craving this will totally satisfy and you are eating Kale--doesn't get much better than that.  Thanks Stacy!  There was more on the pan originally (before I could get a picture) but the kids kept eating them off the hot pan so I put them on a plate. 

Love this!
Happy Eating,
Chanda

Thursday

 For breakfast we had waffles.  I used 1 cup brown rice flour and then used 3/4 cup plain old white flour to make sure there was enough gluten.  I then added a tbps of flax and one of oat bran.  I used 1/2 cup coconut oil instead of 1/2 cup butter--but think this was WAY more than the mix needed in the end--I didn't even need to spray the waffle iron.  I also added about 1/2 cup of some of the left over cooked buckwheat cereal from yesterday.  The recipe calls for 1 tsp vanilla which I think is the key. Oh and it calls for 2 tbsp white sugar so I did 2 tsp agave instead.  I served them with fresh blackberries, strawberries, apricots, and nectarines on top.  THEY WERE HEAVENLY!!!  No syrup needed!  The best part was that lunch time Lucy said she was still full from breakfast and then at dinner she said she still was full from breakfast--they were seriously satisfying.

For Lunch I served a milk free smoothie of frozen bananas, frozen Normandy veggie blend, fresh strawberries, blackberries, and pineapple.  I added flax and hemp protein and water.  Delicious.  I served this with whole wheat tortilla and cheese.  I am not wanting to do everything whole wheat anymore but I have what I have so I might as well use it.  Same goes with dinner.

For dinner I made whole wheat pasta with a vitamix version of low fat Alfredo sauce. It is milk, 2 tbsp cream cheese, 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 Parmesan cheese, and garlic.  I added a huge spoonful of Greek yogurt to try.  The yogurt made it thicker which I liked but Lucy was hesitant about--it dulled the garlic flavor I think.  I poured their sauce out and then added some fresh basil and it made a great creamy basil sauce.  Anyways, I served it with a garden salad, fruit, and broccoli.  Here is the cool part--I gave everyone their plates with a little of everything and both the girls devoured their salad first, then fruit, broccoli and finally pasta, then asked for more salad.  How cool is that?  So all my worry about serving the not-so-healthy sauce and they probably both had maybe 2 tbsp of it each, if that.  However, I can tell that I didn't get enough fat or protein with the meal because it is now 9pm and I feel empty inside--not hungry but like I've only eaten veggies.

Happy Eating
Chanda

Wednesdays Meals

 Today I thought I would try buckwheat hot cereal for breakfast.  I put out frozen fruit, granola, flax, brown sugar, agave, and milk in case it needed some doctoring--which I feel like it did.  It wasn't as easy to eat as a bowl of oatmeal but easier than a bowl of Quinoa.  Once I added frozen berries, walnuts, flax and sprinkled a little granola on it, it was much easier to eat and not be so plain.  Lucy liked it fine, Liberty and Briggs both ate several bites but in the end it got to bland for them.  Not awful but not sure I would add it to my weekly breakfast menu quite yet.

 We had some multi-grain crackers and cheese for a snack around 11am before we headed out for an errand so I wasn't starving around lunch time at 1pm.  So for lunch I had cottage cheese with berries, chia seeds, and flax, spinach with hemp seeds, and then some apples and celery with sunbutter on the side.  I did great until around 3:30 when I didn't get a nap and felt another cold come on.  I grabbed 2 of the healthy cookies I made on Sunday.  Not super glad I did but it did the trick to hold me over until dinner. I don't know if there was enough fat in the lunch to hold me over either.

By dinner I just wanted something really filling and comforting--not just salad.  Since Jon is out of town I made fish sticks--pretty healthy ones actually, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and fruit on the side.  Each kid at the same things without a single complaint, at everything they were given and asked for seconds or thirds.  We at 5:30 and I didn't even think about food again until 9pm when I thought a bowl of granola with oatmeal milk would be a nice end to the day.

Happy Eating
Chanda