My kids have never had coconut macaroons, and I loved them as a child.  So, I found this awesome recipe (one of the few without sweetened condensed milk).  The only thing this one (from Alton Brown) had was:

• egg whites, (totally healthy and good for you.  4 egg whites has 16 grams of protein)
• a little sugar, (this just makes it taste good)
• some coconut,  (also a power food!)

They turned out great!  I ate three. My husband had several.  But my kids, the little stinkers, weren’t exactly fans.  My husband and I were both shocked they didn’t like them.  However, I should have known. They have never liked coconut.  I had hoped these cookies would change their mind.

They were easy to make:  Coconut Macaroon Recipe (Food Network)

I whipped the egg whites until stiff

Slowly added sugar.  Then folded in the coconut and salt.  I actually added a touch of flour (because we are at high altitude and I always add flour to stuff.

Then we scooped onto parchment paper.

After they were cooked, I put some almonds on top, so they would be like little bird eggs.

Like I said,  not a hit with the kids! But soooo delicious!

Perfect nesting place for the wounded bird we found in our garage last summer.

I have a great opportunity for you. Pleasant Grove High School (in Utah County) entered a video contest to win $3000 for their Drama Department. And you know how our schools need money, right? All you have to do is vote for them! It will just take a second, and you can vote every day!! Go vote! Please vote! Save Drama!

Other coconut posts:

• Scientific Investigation

If you change anything in my house and make it sweet, chances are, 80% of us will like it.  True for sweet mashed potatoes. We already LOVE mashed potatoes.. so sweet mashed potatoes were great.  

View Full Album

I used three sweet potatoes (not the yam variety). Chopped and boiled.  An actual recipe can be found here.

The final product was a coconutty, mashed potatoey sweet treat.  Perfect with BBQ chicken.

So, are there any health benefits to adding the coconut milk? Actually, YES! Coconut milk has been shown as containing Lauric Acid (which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal properties.  It can help boost the immune system.. a definite bonus coming into flu and cold season.

There are so many different ways to make a smoothie, your kids should never be bored.  While not packed full of fruits and veggies, this smoothie sure made a great treat. We called it the Orange creamsicle smoothie.  I’ve seen different versions on many different websites, but I kept ours simple:

• 1 Cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup Orange juice
• 24 ice cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender.

  And drink

(Those are sunglasses that the lenses broke out of. She loves to wear them and “trick” people into thinking she wears glasses.  She wants braces too. Remember those days?)

This simple, easy, antioxidant rich dessert was a HUGE, bowl licking hit!  My kids were quite disappointed there wasn’t more.

This is what is called sorbet:

• 1 cup frozen berries (I had a mixed “medley” bag)
• 1 TBL Agave nectar.   (You can use other sweeteners, or no sweetener at all, but agave nectar is light, delicious, has a small impact on blood sugar, is plant based, and minimally processed. 

Place berries, still frozen in blender or food processor.  Squirt in some nectar, and wa-la! Finished.

There will be a delay in my menu posting for next week. I’m really excited about it because there will be lots of Halloween ideas, BUT, I can not bring myself to write one more post on this desktop!  My laptop is supposed to arrive TODAY!

Ever worried your kids aren’t getting enough protein? Ever wonder how much they need?  To be very general, kids need between 0.45-0.50 grams of protein per pound of body weight.  So if your child weighs 25 lbs, they need 12 grams of protein.  These cookies have 3.5  grams of protein in each cookie!   Not much, but when compared with ZERO, like most cookies, A LOT!

I’ve been wanting to try to bake with Quinoa flour.  It has taken a little adjusting and trying.  The first time I tried baking, the whole batch got a thumbs DOWN from those that matter the most (the kids).  The second time however,  I think we got it right.  These cookies were gone within minutes.  Keep in mind, while they aren’t sugar free, they offer a little extra nutrients for your kids.

• 1/2 Cup Whole wheat flour
• 1/2 Cup Quinoa flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I like mini)

Mix dry ingredients. Set aside. Mix wet ingredients, and combine.  Scoop out 1 TBLS size balls and put on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Makes 16 cookies (1 TBL each)

PRO’S

1. Good source of whole grains (no refined grains).  Whole wheat flour, Quinoa flour and oats.
2. Good fat source (Canola oil as opposed to butter).
3. Tastes great!!
4. The complete protein benefit of Quinoa flour.

CON’S

1. This is NO diet food!  Each cookie has 130.5 calories.  I wish I knew that before I ate 4 of them!

Need more ways to make Quinoa, here is Another posts about Quinoa

Don’t forget to enter this weeks giveaway!

Just like I don’t have an awesome, expensive blender, I also am lacking a juicer.  I guess its for the best, because I would add carrot juice to my kids drinks, where I should just be making sure they are actually eating the carrots.  This week however, I’m dedicating to all things JUICE!! 

Let’s start with my kids favorite thing to do with juice. POPSICLES!! No need to purchase expensive juices for this most delicious way to get fruits and veggies into your kids.  Here is what we do:

• Canned fruit (100% packed in its own juice). We go through tons of canned pineapple. We buy our canned fruit packed in its own juice (no sugar), so I can drain the pineapple juice into our popsicle molds.
• When juices pouches go on sale!  We can get 100% fruit box/ or fruit juices for 15-20 cents per juice box (ocassionally).  Stock up and pour that juice into a mold.
• Mix expensive vegetable juice/ fruit blends with in-expensive apple juice.  Pour that into your popsicle mold.
• Fruit about to spoil.  I’ll puree old fruit about to spoil, dilute it with apple juice, and pour it into a mold. 
• The bottom of the pitcher.  You know, the part of the juice that all the heavy stuff has settled and no one will drink!  Pour that into your mold.
• Pour half juice, and half yogurt into the popsicle mold.  This gives the kids a creamy/ crunchy popsicle.
• Always be on the lookout for popsicle molds.  I seem to see them all the time when I’m not looking, then once I decide to buy them, I can’t find them anywhere!!
• Go the old school route.  Remember when we used to use a small paper cup, fill with juice, line it with plastic wrap, stick a popsicle stick into the center and freeze!  those were the days.

Just remember to read labels here! As with anything, you are looking for pure ingredients.  MANY juices add sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup! DON”T BUY IT!!

SHK NEWS:  I’ve  been invited to spend the weekend in Chicago with 9 other awesome bloggers to learn all about Tropicana’s new “Get your Fruit On” Campaign!!   Stay tuned this week for:

1. AN AWESOME GIVEAWAY
2. More Juice ideas all week
3. Follow our adventures on twitter at #tropicana
4. And, if you have any questions for the Tropicana people (including their dietician) let me know so I can ask.

The other bloggers I can’t wait to meet in Chicago will be:

Kristen Seymour www.thatsfit.com

Laurel Moll www.laurelonhealthfood.com

Melissa Garcia www.consumerqueen.com

Jenn Walters http://fitbottomedgirls.blogspot.com/  

Michelle Stern http://whatscookingblog.com/

Fitz Koehler www.fitzness.com/blog/

Sarah Fulghum http://totallyher.com/

Cristin Jones http://www.self.com/fooddiet/blogs/eatlikeme

Maridel www.vitaljuice.com/everywhere

Have you been with me long enough to remember when I couldn’t STOP posting dessert ideas.  I love dessert.  But one thing I’ve been mulling over lately, is the fact that although you can lower the fat or lessen the sugar of a dessert, generally there is nothing redeeming about the final product. Its still empty calories, void of nutrients.

This is why I’m trying to add fruits, nuts, seeds, etc to desserts, so there is something redeemable about them… and still DELICIOUS!

Therefore, tonights meal included a fancy schmancy specialty drink.   My kids named it PEACH SPLOOSHY! 

I added a jar of peaches that I canned in Sep. 04.  I still had 2 jars for some reason. I’m sure there was sugar in my canning process.  But I included the

• small mason jar of peaches, with the juice
• 5 oz greek yogurt (5 oz has 15 grams of protein!!)
• ice

The verdict! Everyone loved it.

Some of my favorite desserts I’ve posted here:

• Chocolate no-bake cookies remade
• Caramel corn; we make this one a lot!
• Pineapple popscicle; great for summer
• Cinnamon Almonds

I didn’t think it was neccesary to cut the stem off of a strawberry for my children. They are old enough to do something like that themselves!   Then I found this bowl of FINISHED strawberry garbage:

Seriouly kids? You might as well put your bath towel in the laundry after you dry your face with it each time… Oh yeah, you do that too! 

Guess I will continue to chop apples (I’ve found a few with only a bite or two in the garbage too ) Cut crust off of your toast, and cut your strawberries too. 

Should you buy organic Strawberries?  I don’t buy much of our fruit organic, however, out of any of the produce, strawberries are the most treated with chemicals.  After they are picked they begin to go bad so quickly, the chemicals are necessary for them to make it to your store and last awhile.

However, frozen strawberries need not be purchased organic. They are flash frozen at the point of picking, and preserved through freezing rather than chemically.

We love STRAWBERRIES!!  Putting strawberries on top any muffin, angel food cake, or of course shortcake is delicious for any child!!  Your kids will love helping you prepare these.

On a personal note: We were having an awesome weekend with my dad in town until my husband’s 03 Corolla got totalled on Friday by a 21 yr old uninsured motorist!  The max we’ll get from our policy is $3500 because I put liability only on that car. Pretty stinky, huh!

TUESDAY: Whole grains (oats)

Food is more than the nutrients they provide, it is also for our pleasure and a HUGE part of our culture. So in honor of pleasure and culture, I wanted to try to makeover some yummy no-bake chocolate cookies. 

There is a place for treats in our diet. When treats become a special event, they truly taste better and are more delicious.  A dietary habit of making treats commonplace diminish the pleasure of them altogether. 

I experimented with two batches of no-bake cookies on Sunday. These are the changes I made. 

 Both batches turned out exactly the same in taste!  There was absolutely no difference in sweetness. There is no reason to use the full amount of sugar in any baked goods.  Here is the recipe.

I intentionally added extra oats and some heart healthy nuts (almonds, peanuts, and walnuts), and some cocoa!  (my father-in-law’s eyes are still improving!!)  We need to be intentional about adding healthy, whole foods to our kids diet.  That is a responsibility that can not be delegated.

 

 Happy Cinco De Mayo!   I am soaking some black beans right now, and we are having taco soup for dinner.  Delicious.

THURSDAY: Health Issues and Ideas

I’ve always been a skeptic to research suggesting chocolate will improve your health.  I don’t care much for it, and have assumed most people will use the information as an excuse to cut back on veggies and add more chocolate!  HOWEVER…. I may be changing my tune:

My father-in-law has Macular Degeneration.  He is about 99.5% blind, and has been for more than 30 years.  Recently during a doctor’s visit he asked for advice for keeping his memory.  His doctor suggested some patients were trying dark chocolate.  So for two weeks he ate dark chocolate every day. At this point he told us for the first time in over 30 years the spot in front of his eyes preventing him from seeing anything was starting to shrink!  I will definitely keep you updated if anything comes from this, but it was enough to make me look into it a lit further.

According to David Grotto’s new book 101 Foods that Can Save Your Life, Chocolate can:

• Give you healthier skin (increased hydration and decreased roughness and scaling)..this dispels a common myth.
• Flavonoids in cocoa beans can combat diarrhea (who wants kids with diarrhea?)
• Improves heart health by reducing LDL and lowering blood pressure.
• Improved insulun sensitivity (vital for diabetics)
• Theobromine (found in chocolate) was nearly a third more effective in stopping coughs compared to codeine!!!
• One antioxidant found in cocoa may be effective in supressing genes that trigger colon cancer cell growth.
• Verbal and visual memory were significantly higher in subjects who consumed milk chocolate!

Are you as surprised as I am?  Clearly the antioxidants in cocoa are responsible for the benefits.  With most of the chocolate we eat, there is a small amount of cocoa, and a large amount of milk, sugars, and fats.   The so-called dark choclate bars that claim 70% cocoa are expensive too. 

Solution:  How many of you have a tub of baking cocoa in your cupboards?  Mine is 100% cocoa!  Use that in your next recipe or smoothie.

For Recipe ideas using 100% baking cocoa, go here. 

 Last day to enter to win some free Peanut Butter Coupons.