It’s been awhile since I’ve done a post about dessert, which if you know me or have read my blog know it’s my favorite meal of the day.

My sister in law was over copying a recipe I have for healthy granola bars. She made a comment that it was very similar to a recipe she had for oatmeal cookies.  So I thought, “maybe I’ll just make them into cookies then.”  My kids like the granola bars fine, but they eat them so slowly, that I end up scarfing up the whole pan myself. And they aren’t exactly low in calories if you know what I mean. If I’m going to indulge, it’s not going to be on granola bars.

I halved the recipe (which I’ve been doing with experimental foods) and it only made 16 cookies. The kids liked them. I felt good about the cookies overall because there was a lot of oats, whole wheat flour, nuts, and dried fruit. I thought it was the perfect healthy snack until they picked out the dried cranberries.  On top of that they each only had one, which means I may have eaten 12! I really, really liked them.

If you like to bake, or have time to bake, here is the recipe. If you are a super busy mom and don’t have time to make mac and cheese, I totally approve of the Kashi granola bars!  This was the half recipe; 2 1/4 cups oats, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/3 C softened butter, 1/3 C honey, a handful of dried cranberries, and a handful of chopped pecans. It was very difficult to mix. I used my hands and sort of squished it up. Rolled into balls and baked for 8 minutes at 325.  I under-cook everything and it seems to keep them soft and chewy rather than crunchy.

We had asparagus for dinner, much to the dismay of all three children. They took their token bite and moved on to their number one love and mine, pasta.  I do make some pretty fantastic asparagus though. My husband loves it. I sautee it in a little butter and brown sugar (the vehicles to help veggies go down), and then simmer it in chicken broth for about eight minutes. Drain and eat!

I have a notebook that I use only for vegetable dishes. Everytime I find one that I like, I cut it out and put it in the notebook.  I have a million ways to cook carrots, broccoli, green beans, potato casseroles, ton’s of different salads etc. It’s super handy when we need a vegetable dish to go with dinner. Of course the binder is the old fashioned way. If you are more a digital recipe collector, my sisters menu planning software is awesome!

This is my new favorite salad. Even the kids will eat a few bites. But I’ve been obsessed with it for about two weeks now, eating it EVERYDAY!

It’s pre-cut cabbage, apples, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and poppyseed dressing.  So super delish! If I’m feeling extra hungry, I’ll add some cold, leftover chicken from dinner.

This is a picture of my 7 year old.  Think she’ll need braces?  Yeah, that’s what my dentist said too.  My oldest has never had a cavity. He brushes for the two full minutes every night, and always takes flouride.  Flip-flopper isn’t so diligent, and she’s had two cavities, only one filled, the other the dentist is waiting for the tooth to fall out. And ketchup boy has had one.

I found the most interesting list in my Nutrition text book.  Foods considered the most sticky promote tooth decay, while the least sticky food have little effect on tooth decay.

Most Sticky:

• caramels
• chewy cookies
• crackers
• cream filled cookies
• granola bars
• marshmallows
• pretzels
• taffy

Sticky:

• Doughnuts
• figs
• frosting
• fudge
• hard candy
• honey
• jelly beans
• pastries
• raisins
• syrup

Somewhat sticky:

• bagels
• cake
• cereal
• dry cookies
• milk chocolate
• rolls
• white bread

Barely Sticky

• Apples
• bananas
• fruit drinks
• fruit juices
• ice cream
• oranges
• peaches
• pears.

So I guess the moral of the story, more ice cream, less raisins!

We determined last week we want to help our spouses get healthy, without being a nag.  There are so many other fun things to nag about, why waste it on food?

The first and most important rule is not to let it be about weight.  If your spouse is heavy, most likely they already know it. Automatically any mention of eating more carrots is going to make your spouse defensive if he thinks it’s about him/her losing weight.  Make sure they know your intentions are purely about them feeling better and living longer.

The second thing is to remember the 80/20 rule.  I love this rule.  If you eat well 80% of the time, you can eat less healthy food 20% of the time. If what you have in your cupboards is healthy, they will be able to eat well most of the time. When they go to work, or out with friends, they can eat french fries and soda (20% of the time)

Third, change your own attitude. Do you tell your spouse what you want him to do in a demanding, eye rolling, condescending way?  How about try cheerful, loving, fun, sweet, and of course, sexy way!

Fourth, just get active for fun. Let’s go on less dinner dates, and more dancing dates. Less movies, and more messing around! There’s nothing naggy about saying, “Hey hon, want to try our hand at some badmitton tonight?” During my health counseling days ladies would say to me, “my husband doesn’t need to exercise, he’s already thin!” I couldn’t beleive it. Everyone should be active, no matter their size.

So, stir-fry up some broccoli, slip into something a “little more comfortable”, and let him know you want him to live to be 100!

Next week: Sending food with him to work!

What a fabulous way to get some veggies!  Thanks to Lisa for telling me you can buy sweet potatoes sliced up for you in the cooler/produce section of Costco (did you hear that Costco, I mentioned you again!  Anyone at  headquarters going to notice and start giving me kickbacks?)

I highly recommend buying them this way.  A whole sweet potato is pretty tough to slice up on your own.  Very tough.  So I have 3lb bag. I poured 1lb of them into a bowl and mixed some olive oil around them to coat.  Spread them on a cookie sheet, sprinkled a little salt and baked. This takes at least 45 minutes at 400 degrees to get them crispy, otherwise they will just be mushy.

The flip-flopper  was nervous about trying them because she thought they looked like cooked carrots. she tried them and said she didn’t like them. Cereal boy has been more and more accepting. He’ll try new things if I say, “It’s for the blog”. He really liked the “fries.”   Ketchup boy tried one 1/4 piece long with a tablespoon of ketchup, but he said he liked it!

The day has finally arrived!  I thought it was never going to come. But it has, and it’s here!

I have created a children’s plate called the “Healthy Habits Plate”.  It is designed to teach children good nutrition in a simple and visual way.  The plate makes it easy to teach kids proper portions of food in a meal. This should be 1/2 fruits and vegetables, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 grains.  My purpose in doing this is to begin empowering them to make their own healthy choices. To teach them skills for life. To teach them to embrace good food instead of forbidding the bad food.  Kids want to eat well, and they need tools to teach them how it is done.

For one week only I am offering all plates for $5.00  (because I have told so many of you this will be the price.)  Shipping is a flat fee of 1.99 (even for multiple plates) for one week only!  After that, the price will go up! You have till March 1st to get ALL plates for $5.00   Click here to place your order!

Here are some ideas with the plate

 Last christmas we decided to give the grandparents a “Passport” for a trip around the world. We made it look like a passport and had four countries we were going to visit inside.  It had the date, a menu and a country. So for the two months following Christmas grandma and grandpa came on their assigned night and we cooked and decorated like the country. We visited Italy and had spaghetti, french bread, salad. We visited Mexico and had tacos and churro’s. You get the idea. The kids loved it. They learned to appreciate food from around the world and the grandparents didn’t have to get another candle and handsoap from us. (Go ahead mom, you can comment that it was your favorite christmas present ever!) It was a big hit, although it was ton’s of work for me. I don’t think we’ll repeat that again. This year they got candles again. Sorry mom.

Last night we had our annual scout Blue and Gold Banquet, with a Chinese theme to it. I was really pleased to see the kids trying food they don’t normally eat. It’s a great idea to combine education of different cultures with the food they eat there.  I think next time I’ll try Thai.  Here’s a simple Thai recipe I found in a kids cookbook.

Add steamed snow peas and  grated carrots to cooked spaghetti. For the sauce mix in a bowl: 1/4 C peanut butter, 3 Tbl soy sauce, 1 Tbl toasted seasame oil, 1 Tbl honey 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp ginger. Put altogether and garnish with cilatro, peanuts, or sesame seeds.

Below: Flag of Thailand

The American Heart association recommeds, “all children 2 and older should participate in at least 30 minutes of enjoyable, moderate-intensity activities each day. And at least 30 minutes of vigorous physical activities at least three to four days each week to acheive and maintain a good level of cardiorespiratory fitness.”

If cardiorespiratory fitness could be obtained by scaling the side of a castle to rescue princess peach, I’d have two boys in the fitness hall of fame. Luckily between winning a Wii last summer, and santa bringing Dance Dance Revolution, we have more options than climbing mountains and jumping over cliffs, while only using your fingers.  This is truly a fun way to get exercise. The kids don’t even think of it as exercise which is key when you want kids to enjoy being active. We read in the paper a few days ago of a school that uses Dance Dance Revolution for P.E.  My kids were so jealous.

Why don’t mine ever turn out the way they look in the cookbook?  I thought it was a disaster.
The instructions sounded so easy. Insert popsicle stick into banana. Dip banana into flavored yogurt.  Freeze.  The picture in my cookbook looked similar to this, minus the chocolate, plus the yogurt:

So I dipped, banana fell off the stick, into my bowl. I dipped again, yogurt wouldn’t stick to the banana. So I spooned the yogurt onto the banana instead, while the banana lay helpless on my paper plate.  This was my result.

Never fear though. I am an optomist, and don’t like wasting things. I froze them anyway, right on the paper plate I had prepared them on. After frozen, I chopped up the frozen pieces. The kids can stab the peices with a fork or a toothpick. They were pretty good. They tasted like strawberry banana frozen Gogurt, with a little more banana. If they get too frozen, they are a bit difficult to bite into, so only freeze for about an hour or two, or let them sit on the counter for 15 minutes before you eat them. Toppings I thought would be good, but my kids wouldn’t try would have been nuts or granola.