Raisins- some kids love them, some hate them.  My daughter has crossed over. She used to be a hater, but started to like raisins when she got addicted to trail mix!  I’ve always been a lover.

Raisins are the original fruit snack! Remember when we were kids?  Fruit snacks didn’t come in brightly colored baggies, full of corn syrup.  They were tiny single serving boxes with the SunMaid Lady on the front.

Why should our kids eat raisins?

• Potassium!  Raisins and dried apricots are one of our best potassium sources.  In fact, last night we were trying to find potassium rich foods for this Trek I keep talking about.  My husband is going to be one of two medical people there, and he’s concerned about dehydration.  Potassium and sodium balance is essential.
• They are shelf stable without the use of chemicals! Stock up parents, these babies can last a long time stored properly.
• They are the top US source of Boron (a mineral for bone health)
• Raisins are high in phenols (an antioxidant that protects against oxidative damage)
• Protects against macular degeneration (important for my kids- my father in law is blind from it!)

Bottom line, share the raisins!!!  Sunmaid sent me a link to this recipe, and we loved it.  So, I’m posting it here with permission.  I’m always looking for salad recipes, beyond lettuce based boring salad.

BAJA COLESLAW

• 1/2 small head cabbage, washed and finely shredded (about 4 cups)
• 2 small carrots, peeled and shredded
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 small sweet bell pepper, diced 1/4"
• 3/4 cup Sun-Maid Natural Raisins or Sun-Maid Golden Raisins, divided
• 1/2 cup cubed fresh or frozen, thawed mango
• 1/2 cup cubed fresh or frozen, thawed papaya
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• Chopped cilantro leaves for garnish

COMBINE cabbage, carrots, onions, bell pepper, ½ cup of the raisins, mango and papaya in large bowl.
MIX sugar, olive oil and lime juice in small bowl. Add to vegetables and fruit and mix thoroughly.
TURN into a serving bowl and garnish with cilantro and remaining ¼ cup raisins.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Nutrients per Serving: Calories 180; Protein 2.2g; Fat 7g (Sat. Fat 1g); Carbohydrate 29g; Dietary Fiber 4.7g; Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 35mg
Daily Values: Vitamin C 93%      Vitamin A 70%       Dietary Fiber 19%

Great lunch idea: Baja coleslaw, rolled tortilla, rolled deli meat, all on a Healthy Habits Plate.

So that’s it- We’re off to the desert. I’ll be offline for THREE DAYS!!! AHHHH!!!  I’ll miss you~ But be back Monday with another giveaway!

These little energy bars are perfect for the active family!  I’m actually super excited that I made them. I had several reasons for trying my own energy bars!

• We love to go hiking
• My husband and I are headed out for a 22 mile trek in the desert with teenagers from my church (and I wanted some healthy food to take along for me!)
• I’m headed out for a 17 mile run this morning, and I’m tired of fueling up on processed energy bars!  ACKK. You read that right!. 17!  My running partner is trying to kill me!
• I went to the health food store and spent $1.49 on a bar (Larabar) that had 2 ingredients! Cashews and dates.  I thought to myself.. how hard can that be?  Not hard at all!

I used for this Energy Bar recipe

• 1/2 cup cashews
• 8-9 dates
• (Then I added a drop.. just a drop of agave to make it more appealing for the kids. You could also add honey)

Blended it all up in a food processor.  Because My food processor is quite small, I only turned it on for short bouts and came back to it. I didn’t want to ruin my food processor.  Once all combined, I pressed it into chunks.

After we decided we liked it, we began to experiment by adding:

• non sweetened coconut
• sesame seeds
• Hemp seeds
• pumpkin seeds

What I love: They are gluten free, full of fiber, they are non-dairy, vegan, and they pack a bunch of calories and healthy fat right into a tiny little bar.  Not for your average snacking- but perfect for hiking and long stretches of time when you don’t want to carry much food.

Need more snack ideas? Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! 

One challenge I have in keeping this blog, is the question as to whether I should post healthy ideas that no one in my family liked.  I go back and forth between,

“Someone’s kids will like it, even though mine didn’t”, and

“If my kids didn’t like it, chances are other kids won’t either!”

So, here is what was scheduled to write about today, which no one would eat, and quite frankly, I wasn’t fond of either.

Sweet Potato Swirls

These beauties consisted of mashed sweet potatoes, piped through a cake decorating bag onto a cookie sheet and baked.

The problem with them is that they turned cold pretty quickly, they weren’t crunchy , or airy like I hoped, and were too much work for what they were.

So, because I don’t want to totally waste your time here today, I thought it would be a good post to update you on the USDA’s report on Children’s dietary intake.  No matter what you think of the USDA and their Food Pyramid, this report is quite fascinating.  They use reports such as these, as they construct the new dietary guidelines for 2010.   I’ll just share one portion.  First of all, for the full report.

Portions I thought were interesting:

Among 2-18 year olds, about half of all empty calories come from six specific foods and beverages:

• soda,
• fruit drinks,
• dairy desserts,
• grain desserts,
• pizza, and
• whole milk (Reedy, 2010).

Mean intake of total vegetables in NHANES 2001-04 among 1-8 yr old children was only 0.8 to 1.0 servings/day, and for older children, 1.2 to 1.5 servings/day (NCI, 2010e).

• Largest vegetable source was from a category that includes vegetable components of pizza, pasta and pasta dishes, condiments, lettuce, tomatoes, vegetable medleys, burgers, rice and mixed rice dishes, string beans, soups, Mexican mixed dishes, chicken and chicken mixed dishes, and tomato sauces.
• Fried white potatoes accounted for one-third (33%) of intake from starchy vegetables,
• followed by potato/corn/other chips (26%);
• other white potatoes (23%); and
• corn (7%).
• Carrots were the top vegetable consumed in the orange vegetable subgroup, comprising 62% of children’s intake, with sweet potatoes accounting for only 5%.

Hmmmm, looks like our kids aren’t getting enough vegetables.  And what they are getting are the crappiest of the vegetables, in the most processed form.  In your social circle, do you find this is true?

Today’s giveaway- Funky Monkey Snacks (head over to the giveaways to enter)

ALSO, in SHK news, Nisha at Healthy Mom’s Kitchen is giving away TWO Healthy Habits Plates! If you don’t have yours yet, go enter today!

Now our snack of the week!  Watermelon Salsa.  We must hurry with the watermelon because it will soon be out of season.  Buying watermelon in season is literally the only time to buy it.  In season, you’ll pay under 0.20 per pound, as opposed to $3 per pound, not in season… if you can even find it at all.  So, we are eating ours furiously and quickly.

Of all the Watermelon Salsa recipe’s I’ve tried, I like this one the best.  More watermelon (much to the delight of my kids), and less weird stuff (as they say).  The simple recipe is:

• 3-4 cups diced watermelon
• 1 TBL cilantro
• 1 TBL very very very finely diced red onion
• 3 TBL lime juice
• sprinkle of salt.

Add baked corn chips and enjoy.  We are!  And, from a mom- it’s less messy than watermelon wedges, dripping all over my kitchen floor until I yell for them to eat their watermelon outside.  Then they drip through the house as they make it to the door.  And by then, it’s also all over their sticky little hands and faces

Head over to Maria’s blog for a watermelon salad recipe that looks great!

Getting active this weekend:  Our local fire department put a fun event on for the kids. They called it Foam day. They sprayed foam from their hoses for like two hours!  Hilarious, right?  The kids had a blast! 

Grape Juice, we love it.  Know what Erica Loves? The grape juice cartons!  As soon as Erica saw the Welch’s cartons we got in the mail she said, “Finally! Now I can make a bird feeder!”

Welch’s has a new line of juice called Healthy Start.

The moms and dads at Welch¹s have created Welch¹s Healthy Start fruit  juice ­ a 100% juice that has calcium, vitamin C and natural antioxidants straight from the grapes.* What it does not have are added sweeteners or high-fructose corn syrup. So it¹s good for you and a great way to start the day. Not to mention it also tastes great.

We had three cartons, that took my kids a day and a half to polish off. We didn’t even get a chance to use it in smoothies, or to make popsicles, Just drank it pure.   We tried Concord Grape, White Grape Orange Mango, and Blueberry Pomegranate Concord Grape.

Anyway, want to try it? Go here for a $1.50 off coupon.

(Sucking every last drop out)

And, on to our meal plan for next week:

For past meal plans, go to the meal planning archives.

Monday- Another giveaway!!

When given the opportunity, kids love to be outside, especially at night!  Kids want to be active, and nighttime brings activity to a whole new exciting level.

My husband is great about taking the kids and their friends out at night to supervise, and the kids love it.  So, what kind of night games do we play?

• Kick the Can  Like Hide and seek, and running mixed.  Person that’s IT counts, everyone else hides.  As the IT person looks for hiders, hiders can come out and run back to the can before they get spotted.  If they are spotted and tagged, they are out.  If they can get to the can before the finder tags them, they are safe.
• Ghost in the graveyard  Everyone counts while.  one person hides (the ghost).  Then the group starts looking for the ghost.  When someone finds the Ghost, that person will yell, “Ghost in the graveyard”, while everyone tries to run home before they are tagged by the ghost.  If someone gets tagged before they get home, they are it.
• Flashlight sardines  Everyone counts- one person hides.  When you find the hider, you hide with them. The last person to find the group hiding, becomes ‘it’ next time
• Flashlight hide and go seek.  Regular hide and seek.  My sister in law brought the kids glow bracelets and glow necklaces to wear during our night games.
• Capture the Flag-  Have two teams.  Each team tries to steal the other teams planted flag before getting tagged.  A BIG field is helpful in this one.  The “flag” could be anything- but something visible like a glow stick might be helpful.

Some interesting things I learned at my son’s 5th grade Star gazing night.  It takes 30 minutes to get 2/3 of your vision at night.  Meaning, when you first step outside, it’s hard to make out images, stars, shapes, etc.  But after 30 minutes, you can literally see most things, and even tell who people are.  It is really true!

What night games do you remember growing up, or that your kids play today?

Other sites with ideas

• Helium
• Family Fun- Flashlight tag Everyone has a partner.  Each partnership decides on a flashlight signal.  At once, all partnerships separate to opposite sides of field.  The first team to be reunited (by following your planned signal) wins.

You don’t have to have issue’s with gluten to love these pizza’s! My kids that were home loved them. The neighbor girl loved them, and all three were asking me to make them some more.

I got this recipe from a friend, Mindy, who is on a weight loss journey, that’s working! She’s lost 10-11 lbs so far. Good Job Mindy!  Then she posted a Low-carb pizza recipe (without flour) on her blog (that she got from her friend Maria), right at the time we decided to go gluten free for the week. Great timing.  I wanted to try it for sure.

The simple ingredients were:

• 3 Eggs, seperated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
• 3 oz room temperature light cream cheese
• 3 TBL parmesan cheese

First separate the eggs and whip the whites with cream of tarter until VERY fluffy. Second, stir the cream cheese with the egg yolks till blended, and fold into the egg whites.  Also fold in the parmesan cheese.

Spread in a greased 13X9 pan.

Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes.

Top the “pizza crust” with whatever vegetables your kids like.

I cut these out of the pan with a circle cookie cutter.  I added a SMALL amount of tomato sauce, a few shreds of mozzarella, and my broccoli slaw!

Head over to the giveaway page to win a $60 gift card to the CSN Stores.

What child doesn’t like chips? Right?  I tried making sweet potato chips THREE times!  First time, they turned black almost immediately (cooked at 425). Second time, not cooked long enough.. too chewy (at 250).  Third time was a charm (except for the part where I grated my finger prepping the potatoes).  Other than that..wink.. these couldn’t be easier.

Procedure:

• Take a sweet potato
• Grate or cut thin slices
• Place on baking sheet and slightly salt
• Bake at 250 for 1 hour (moving the potato slices around every 15 minutes.
• There is a fine line between not cooked enough and burned.  If you can land at that crispy- still orangish brown stage… They are delicious. 
• If you don’t cook them long enough, they are chewy, and my kids didn’t like them.  The crispier for us the better!!  And at crispy… MMMMM..MMMM

These sweet potato chips make a delicious lunch side or snack.  You can make ahead and store in an airtight container or baggies.

Sweet potatoes are terrific because they are

• They contain Vitamin A!!  262% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• High in Vitamin C.  29% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• Beta – carotene 23,018 mcg!!  (I don’t think there is a Daily value for beta carotene, but 23 thousand mcg seems like plenty!
• 
  

  Twice as high in fiber as regular potatoes

Other things to do with your sweet potatoes:

• Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls
• Mashed Sweet potatoes
• Sweet potato Fries

OK, really these are Johnny cakes, but I renamed them for TJ (Timmy Cakes).  Corn is coming into season around here in Utah, and we are loving it!  Our corn isn’t quite ready yet, but you can buy some fresh, picked this morning corn, on every corner around my town.

Johnny cakes (as they are originally called) are from the South.  The original Johhny Cakes, recipe consisted of:

• White corn
• salt
• boiling water
• bacon drippings

Our Timmy Cakes however had:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 cup corn (I wish you could see the whole kernels of corn in these. Although you can’t see them in the photo, they are there)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients together with enough liquid to pour easily.   Pour 1 TBL batter onto a buttered skillet.  Cook till browned.  (These are Gluten free, low-fat, whole grain)

These corn cakes make a nice side dish for dinner, but we ate them as a snack!  These can totally be a finger food.  They are really good with a little agave syrup or honey spread on top.

Speaking of the south, has anyone read “The Help”?!!!  I can not put it down, and I’m really not much of a fiction reader.  But this book is wonderful!!

It’s so good to be home!  We had a fun week at Lake Tahoe with my family, but it’s always so nice to be home.  Lake Tahoe is gorgeous! We swam, we hiked, we played games, and of course we ate!  And now, I have laundry, a car to clean, groceries to buy, mail to read, and phone calls to return.  ARGHHH!!

I want to abandon my meal plan template in favor of a Gluten free diet this week. Many people have been asking for this, and it isn’t going to hurt us to avoid gluten now and then.  I do however have a slight inkling that Erica has an aversion to wheat.  My husband thinks I’m crazy, but she does have several symptoms that indicate a gluten intolerance.  Such as eczema, stomach pain, gas (bad gas!!), and bloating. So, this is trial week. We’ll see if at least her eczema clears up a little.

Have a great Saturday night, and I’ll be back Monday morning with a giveaway and some new yummy snacks for summer!