With permission, I posted Mary Kathryn’s recipe for Banana Oatmeal Pancakes.  You can see the recipe here.

Get ready for pasta week. I just bought 50 lbs of pasta this week.  A local guy was selling for 0.75 per pound, which is a great price. He even had whole wheat.  If you are in the Lehi area, you don’t want to miss it.

Thanks everyone for entering, and Quaker for sponsoring. The winner is Natalie with

wow! quaker rocks with the giveaways!!!  We love pancakes and would love the chance to try these
 

Tip of the day:

To add a little spice and fun to the morning rut, try having a breakfast bar. My kids love the hotels with a continental breakfast. Recreate this at home.

• You can choose different toppings for pancakes or waffles; such as berries, powdered sugar, yogurt.
• A must have is a variety of fruit; canned peaches in a bowl, cut up melons, orange slices, thawed out frozen berries, or just chopped apples and bananas.
• An oatmeal bar with different toppings.
• Two different flavors of muffins.
• Bagels with various toppings such as sliced strawberries and light cream cheese, or toasted with cinnamon. 

Our kids get so many choices automatically made for them, yet they yearn for a little independence and to make their own choices. If they are choosing one healthy, nutritious food over another healthy item, its a win-win situation.

In honor of breakfast week…. its pancakes!!

Eating oatmeal is obviously part of a heart healthy, and frugal lifestyle.  Some kids however do not enjoy the taste or texture of oatmeal.  (and oatmeal cookies aren’t always the answer). 

The people at Quaker have made other options for kids (and adults) like their Oatmeal Square cereal and granola bars.  However, there is a new product out, on shelves this year.  Its their Oatmeal pancake mix.

This mix “delivers the same heart healthy oat soluble fiber as a serving of Quaker instant Oatmeal”  It has 0 grams of trans fat, its cholesterol free, and also contains iron and calcium.  A 32 oz box retails for $2.99, and is a good item to stock up on in your pantry.

My kids have always loved pancakes for breakfast.   I love a good mix because my 10 year old will make the pancakes himself.   On a school project he wrote pancakes were his favorite food! 

The awesome Quaker folks want to send you the same Breakfast in a Box they sent me.  They have limited supplies, so I need a winner by tomorrow.  This is a 1 day contest, so leave a comment to be entered today, and only today!

Heart Healthy Blueberry Pancakes

• 1 Cup Quaker Oatmeal Pancake mix- slightly packed
• 3/4 Cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup egg white
• 1/4 cup fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries

Heat skillet over med-low heat.  Skillet is ready when drops of water sizzle, then disappear almost immediately.

Combine mix, skim milk, and egg white. Stir with wire whisk until large lumps disappear.  Let stand 2-3 minutes to thicken. Add blueberries.

Pour slightly less than 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onta a skillet that has been coated with cooking spray. Turn when pancakes bubble and bottoms are golden brown.

Makes 7-9 pancakes.

I came into the kitchen this evening, a bit behind in fixing dinner, to find two of my kids having themselves a little picnic.  They were so pleased by their choices, that they asked me to take a picture.

They said, “Look mom!  We are eating from all the food groups.”

Sure enough they had

• bananas
• carrots (I don’t think they realized they got out coleslaw instead of Ranch, but they ate it anyway.)
• pretzels
• string cheese
• and pistachio’s

One of my very early posts was about teaching the food guide pyramid to your kids.  When they are hungry, we go over the pyramid and ask simply, “what food group have you neglected today?” to help us determine an appropriate snack. 

At meal time, balance is the key.  Fruits, vegetables, proteins, and grains should be a part of each meal. We have a poster of the pyramid inside our pantry door.   This has been key to teaching balance and variety to my kids.  Empowering them to make choices within healthy limits will hopefully teach them to do it even when I’m not around.   There are links on my old post to print a free food guide pyramid coloring sheet etc.

Cleaning out the fridge I found some baby carrots that were turning bad.  They had that white look to them, and some were absolutely shriveled.  I wanted to make some carrot muffins, but I pictured myself shredding baby carrots and shredding my knuckles in the process because they were just too small.

Instead, I placed the carrots in a microwave safe bowl and water. Then I cooked them till they were soft.  This took a good 8 or 9 minutes, with me checking every few minutes.

Then I poured out most of the water, not all, and pureed them in my little mini food processor. You could also use a blender.  I used the carrot puree in my muffins instead of shredded carrots.  Then I was also able to reduce the oil because of the moistness of the puree.  Here is the final recipe.  I even made the muffin picture a link today if you want to try it.

They were so good.  They have everything I like in a muffin (or any food).  Healthy, low fat, full of vitamins and minerals, and delicious! Perfect for a healthy breakfast for kids.  Cereal boy thought they tasted like pumpkin muffins.

Thanks to all 73 of you who entered to win Pistachios. The winners are:

Janine, Eliece, Brittney, Mary Kathryn, and Janet

Breakfast Cereal

Tatiana  wanted to know my opinion of breakfast cereals.

My kids love cereal. (obviously I named my 10 year old cereal boy for this blog). Luckily, they are easy to please and will eat any cereal I buy.  I love cereal because its pretty easy to clean up, and they can get it themselves. 

There are three things worth considering when choosing a store bought cereal. 

1. Amount of sugar (look for cereals with less than 4 grams or 1 tsp per serving)
2. Amount of fiber (kids need 5 grams plus their age in an entire day. So let this number be determined by how many other fiber sources there are.)
3. Presence of whole grains (look for the words whole grain)

Each is important, and may differ depending on your priorities.  Our priority is low sugar because I feel like we get enough fiber from other sources.  We buy lots of cheerios and my kids love to put yogurt on top rather than milk. 

Consumer reports ranked these cereals as the healthiest:  Cheerios,  Kix, Honey Nut cheerios, and Life for being both low in sugar and high in fiber.  Then the article goes on to tell us there is as much sugar in Sugar Smacks as in an entire glazed donut from Dunkin Donuts.  Sugar Smacks and Golden Crisp were more than 50% sugar!  This is a must read article.

A letter I recieved from the General Mills folks stated 75 % of kids do not get the recommended levels of Vitamin D and calcium.  They have added this to some of their cereals including Kix.  At about 100 calories per serving, they can provide at least 10 of the vital nutrients.  You can visit growupstrong for more information about the General Mills options.

So bottom line is read your labels!! Look for less than 4 grams of sugar, and as much fiber and nutrients you can stuff into your little kids cereal bowls.

Menu planning

Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day.  Don’t forget the fruit!!  Its so easy to make your entire breakfast from grains, but balance is also key.  So my orgjunkie menu planning for this week is for breakfast.

Monday:  Scrambled eggs, zucchini bread (I made it last night), and orange slices.

Tuesday:  Smoothie and a muffin (made on weekend and frozen)

Wednesday: Cereal day!!  Cheerios, yogurt, and fruit on top, plus 100% Orange Juice.

Thursday: Pancakes with strawberries on top.

Friday: Fruit salad/ yogurt and whole wheat toast with Simply fruit (jam).

Saturday: Oatmeal

You don’t need to be locked into traditional breakfast foods.  My husband eats leftovers from dinner, and just today the flip flopper had a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich for breakfast.

Any more ideas?  What other healthy breakfast would make a good start to a child’s day?

We’re back from Park City. Didn’t see anyone famous, but had a great time. 

I must be doing some brain washing.   My awesome sister in law babysat all night for us.  She said she asked the kids what makes a good mom?

Ketchup boy said, “a good mom should make healthy food.” 

She laughed and said, “Anything else?”

He said, “Yeah, they have to buy healthy food too!” 

She said, “That’s all?  She can spank you, but if she feeds you healthy food, she’s still a good mom?”  Yep, that was the consensus! 

It stems from the complaints, “Why do we always have to eat healthy food?”  I respond with, “Cause I’m a good mom and I love you! I want you to grow up big and strong!“  I guess it sunk in.

I’ve tried spinach lasagna with mixing the frozen spinach into the sauce, and then I tried fresh spinach this time.

We liked it!  There are lots of places you can add heart healthy, nutrient rich spinach into your diet.  Check these out.

Mini spinach quiches

Spinach dip

On your pizza

Smoothies

In a huge hurry. Got a big (overnight) date with my hot husband in Park City. It also happens to be the Sundance Film Festival, so if I see anyone famous I will take a picture and totally post it tomorrow when I get home.

In the meantime… don’t forget to enter the giveaway.  I can’t moderate comments till tomorrow, but I promise they will all be approved (unless your mean).

Here is dinner from the other night. Sorry I’m so late posting the recipe.  The kids ate it up, it was heart healthy with beans and spices, and it was under $5.00 for the entire dish. That’s what counts, right?

We were so excited to come home with this gift box on our doorstep:

The letter said for Super Bowl Sunday, the number one day for snacking in America, offer your guests something heart healthy!  What a great idea. And we love pistachio’s as you can see!

“Delicious and fun to eat, pistachio’s offer important nutrients along with protein and fiber, which help satisfy appetites- so game day grazers are likely to snack less but feel full longer.” 

This is the very reason pistachio’s are also a good snack for your kids!  My kids love bringing pistachio’s in their lunch.   And I used to let them until cereal boy told me he traded one pistachio for a boys entire bag of cheetos!  The kids at his school love pistachio’s too. 

“Known as the Skinny-nut, pistachios yield the most nuts per serving.  49 kernels per ounce!”  I can eat 49 and feel pretty full. That’s a lot of nuts.  Especially after you have to de-shell them.

GIVEAWAY!! The awesome Everybody’s Nuts people want to give 5 winners of this blog free nuts!!!!!  Make a comment if you love nuts and you could win.  Contest will run through Sunday. Please be patient if you don’t see your comment right away.  All new commenters are moderated.

My other posts about how much we love pistachio’s:

The Nutty Family

Sunflower Market has cherries on sale this week for $1.99/pound. So we bought a bag of them!  We love cherries, but they usually cost so much.  Once the kids get the hang of spitting the seeds out, they really like eating them.  Here are the super benefits of cherries:

• Good source of Vitamin A & C
• Full of anti-oxidants.
• Full of phytochemicals that assist with lowering cholesterol, fight cancer, reduce heart disease, and reduces inflammation.
• Cherries cause a rise in melatonin (the sleep hormone) in your body!

When cherries aren’t on sale, we love the frozen ones too.

Other Cherry Posts:

Cher-Apple Smoothie

A Day in The Life

Our Adorable Cherry Apron