The flip-flopper has a favorite dip that is loaded with vitamin C, Lycopene, monounsaturated fat, fiber, protein,  lutein.  It’s easy to make and delicious.  We include

• Chopped tomatoes
• Diced avocados
• A can of black-eyed peas
• A squirt of zesty italian dressing. 

I personally don’t even need chips to eat this yummy combination.  I spoon it straight out of the bowl into my mouth.  The flip-flopper asks all winter for me to make some, but I never buy avocados in the winter.  She was with me when I bought them the other day, so she’s been begging me to make it.  Then as if to push me over the edge she adds, “But you can put it in your blog, and you can take my picture while I’m eating it.”  Good plan flip-flopper, how would I know what to blog about without you.

Emily sent me a recipe for Apple Oat Muffins that looked terrific. Then as soon as I had a moment to breathe, I’d go to make them, and no apples.  We can not keep apples around more than a day or two.  So early this morning before the kids were up, I noticed three apples left in the basket.  So I went for it.

We plan to take the muffins to the parade with us this morning. In years past I would bring candy, crackers, or other snack food. This year, the muffins.  Healthy and Delicious!

I would love to post the recipe, but Emily got it from Mom’s Baking Book, and I would hate for the recipe cops to discover my post.  It would be awful  for them to sue me for the millions of dollars I have in my secret Swiss bank account.

Quick thought of the day!  If you think parenting is hard, you are probably doing it right!

Busy, busy day.  It’s Round Up Week here in Lehi.  Rodeo, parades, horses, swimming, picnic in the park… My sister and I are in the middle of the City annual treasure hunt (Which we won last year and got a Nintendo Wii from it).   We are currently stuck on a difficult clue, so I gotta go do some research!!  Ta-ta.

There are two foods that literally make my mouth water when I look, smell, touch, or think about them. Truly uncontrollable salivating.  It is kiwi and raspberries.  In fact, as I look at this picture, and write this post, I can’t stop my mouth from watering.  $1.88 is a good price to pay for 1 cup of fresh, very ripe raspberries in Utah.  This is unfortunate, because if I could get them for less, I would buy them every week.  This basket lasted about 3 minutes after we brought it home from the store.  My poor husband never gets any cause they are gone before he get’s home from work.

Why should your kids eat raspberries?  Here’s the deal!  At very young ages, your kids are developing the building blocks to good healthy cells.  At this time it is vital to supply your kids with the highest amount of vitamins and minerals.  Empty calories will only compromise the process, leading to disease later in life.  Calories that are nutrient dense are necessary to get the job done.  Not only does raspberries have good vitamins and minerals, they go beyond what no “enriched” bread or cereal can give them. It gives them essential phytochemicals, flavonoids, and antioxidants.  The phytochemical called tannin is responsible for the antioxidant activity that combats cell damage, possibly preventing unhealthy bacteria growth.  In the colon it may also slow down the growth of cancer cells, and tumors.  Only fruits and vegetables, rich in color, have this possiblities.

Please, for the love of your children, buy some raspberries.  They taste great:

• You may add them to baked goods like muffins or breads, pancakes, waffles.
• Add raspberries to smoothies
• make popsicles out of them
• eat them straight
• mix with yogurt
• make jam
• Top your oatmeal

In a study conducted by the Department of Education in California, they determined “Higher achievement was associated with higher levels of fitness in the three grades they tested.”  Almost 1 million kids were tested. So in short, the more physically fit a child is, the smarter he is!  And it makes sense.  Exercise helps kids focus in the classroom, just as good nutrition does.

Two of the kids participated in a 1/2 mile kids race on Saturday.  They did pretty well.  Cereal boy did it in 4 minutes 15 seconds (9th place in his age group). And the flip flopper came in about a minute after him (6th place in her age group). 

To find out if there are kids races in your area, I usually go to Active.com.  Races are a fun place for kids.  I don’t exactly have my kids train for things like this, but they do run a lot in normal play. It was just for fun.  There are always prizes and drawings afterward, fruit and bread, water, and a lot of excitement.

I used to love spaghetti squash years ago. I would cook it, add spaghetti sauce, and thought it was great.  I wanted my kids to try it, but figured they may be a little apprehensive about eating it straight, so I mixed it with our spaghetti noodles.   If you have never prepared spaghetti squash, it’s really quite simple.

The shredded squash can then be eaten as spaghetti noodles. Other things you can add would be a little butter and salt, a little mozzarella, some alfredo sauce. IGet creative! Most squash does not have an overwhelming taste and can take on the flavor of what you are adding to it, with very little calories.  42 for a whole cup.  Our goal is to find food with more nutrients per calorie. 

Did the kids like it?  They didn’t notice that I added anything.  My kids ate it, although my 2 year old niece spit it out.

An easy way to get your family to eat healthier, without protest, without whining, without expensive healthy eating cookbooks, is to modify those recipes you are already using.  This can prove especially difficult for all you like my sister, who for the love of all that is good, cannot change stray from the written recipe.  But, this can be super simple.  Remember two things:

1. Cut fats in half;  still retain a little fat in the recipe for best results (remember, all fats are not bad).  If recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use 1/2. If it calls for 1 cup oil, use 1/2.  You may add pureed fruit like applesauce if you are nervous about the result to make up the other half, but it is not necessary.
2. Cut sugar by 1/2. This will most likely not affect the consistency of your product, it will only affect the sweetness, which needs to be dialed down anyway.

These two substitutions work amazingly well in breads and cookies.  So I modified my favorite zucchini bread recipe that normally calls for 1 cup of oil, and 2 cups of sugar.  I used 1/2 cup of oil, 1/2 cup of applesauce.  Then changed the 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup.  Wah-lah. Low fat, less sugar, no artificial sweetners, no preservatives, plus some great vitamins and minerals to boot from the zucchini.  Here is the recipe in it’s modified form.  If you haven’t yet, I typed up a handout for a church class about healthy eating.  You can download it here for other substitution ideas.

I had to laugh at Wendy’s comment on my last post stating that her kids think she has gone “too far” with all this healthy eating stuff.  It reminded me of phases my mom went through throughout our lives.  One time it was “tofu season”, and she started putting it in all our food, including a cake she made.  Then there was the gluten free days, the dairy-free days, the sugar-free day’s, you get the idea.  She has since moved on from experimenting on her kids to creating meal plans for her poor husband.  Sorry to throw you under the bus mom.

The best way to change your families eating habits is to make small changes to already familiar things.  Such as adding fruit to breakfast, or a vegetable to dinner.  Changing from white to wheat, or pop to water.  One thing at a time.   Second, substitute healthy ingredients for unhealthy ones.  Third, eliminate unhealthy things. Fourth, change your method of cooking to grilling, broiling, etc. And Fifth, reduce portion sizes. 

Here is a download with those ideas and healthy substutions or add-ins.  Healthy Meals for Families.  But remember, you don’t want your kids to rebel. You want them to enjoy eating healthy so they will choose it for life.  To empower them to want to feel better by eating better. The best way to do this is start very small, and talk about the why and how and what about healthier eating. 

If anyone has additional ideas for Wendy, please comment for us!

Oh, yeah one more thing… reoffer and reoffer and never give up. It took 9 years for my son to start eating salad.  But we never gave up.

Including fruit for breakfast teaches kids how important it is to start the day that way.  If included often enough, and young enough it becomes a habit that they will continue into adulthood.   I remember my first year in college I lived in the dorms.  The breakfast fare was typical for a cafeteria.  Most students were picking up piles of pancakes, dispensing froot loops from the cereal bar, or scooping soggy scrambled eggs.  Undoubtedly there was always that small bowl of whole fruit that I would walk by and if nothing else would at least take an apple from.  I knew how fruit gave me the energy without the calories, the fiber with the nutrients, and the sweetness without the fat. 

Well we are officially out of fresh fruit and I can’t go to the store today cause I’m babysitting my sister-in-law’s kids all day, but luckily I have frozen blueberries, frozen cherries, and frozen strawberries.  The frozen cherries are FABULOUS!  No seeds, and super sweet. They would probably be pretty good in a smoothie.

It’s getting hot around here.  My kids have always been good water drinkers, and now they are even better. My husband found the most adorable hydration packs for kids to take hiking. Yesterday when the kids got these, of course they wanted to start using them right away. No big deal I thought.  So they drank, and drank, and drank, and drank.  Well we went to a softball game for pack meeting last night.  The flip-flopper had drinken so much she had to pee really bad, as soon as we arrived. I made her go behind a tree.  Twenty minutes later, she had to go again!  Twice in one hour.  Then at 10:00 last night, I heard Ketchup boy whimpering in his room.  When I went in to check on him, he had stood up next to his bed, pulled his pants down and started peeing ON his bed! Like it was the toilet!  He had no recollection of the event when he woke up this morning.  TOO MUCH WATER!

People have asked me how much is enough water for your kids. And the truth is, it changes constantly. Depending on what they eat (lot’s of food contains water), depending on the weather, what activities they are involved in that day, etc.  It comes back to the good old urine test (light yellow is good, dark yellow, not enough water).  What you need to remember, is always have it available to them.  When you go to soccer games, hiking, playing outside, make sure they know where they can get a quick drink when they are thirsty. Always provide a glass of water with your meals, and drink the good stuff yourself.