One of the early reasons for the success of fast food, was the ability to eat an entire meal without a fork or spoon.  Our forkless breakfast solution: The Pocket Scramble.

My kids love this way to eat their scrambled eggs.  Once in a while, I can sneak some mushrooms, peppers, or carrots in their eggs, but they are much happier with more egg, less veggies.

Another benefit to our Pocket Scramble (especially on this first day of school), is the amazing benefits of eggs on young, developing brains.  Eggs are a great source of Choline, which is a component of Acetylcholine, a powerful neurotransmitter that carries messages from the brain to nerves.  The consumption of choline is critical during the first 6 years of life to ensure maximum development of the brain’s memory center. (source)

Pair the amazing benefits of eggs, with a steady source of glucose from the Whole Grain Pita, and we’ve got a perfect recipe for getting our kids from breakfast till lunch at school.  Without the dips and spikes in blood sugar white bread would provide.

So, we’ve paired, convenience, brain development, and energy and came up with the perfect first day of school breakfast: 

The Pocket Scramble

Nathan, eating his breakfast:

  Then, I returned to the kitchen later, to find Nate having a second breakfast (cheerios and milk).  This kid must be growing.  He can eat a ton of food all of a sudden.

Have fun at school kids! (and mom’s)

I was thumbing through this book at Costco, and these “Guacamole Cones” caught my eye.  If your kids like chips and guacamole, they’ll also like these cones!

So, the way we made ours was to

• take 6 inch whole wheat tortilla’s (you could make your own)
• Then we sliced the tortilla in half 
• Then rolled them into a cone, secured with a toothpick.
• Placed on parchment paper
• Brushed with olive oil
• sprinkled with chili powder
• Baked at 350 for about 7 or 8 minutes.

   Our guacamole recipe is

• Mashed avocado
• 1 tsp lime juice
• salt and pepper to taste.

Do you add anything else to your guacamole?  My kids seem to like it plain, and so do I.

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!!

Monday nights around our house is our dessert night.  This last week we made Dessert Taco’s.  That’s what my kids call them. But simply dessert tacos for us is Crepes and fruit. I love Crepes because you can literally pack them full of good stuff like strawberries and blueberries like we’ve done.  Warning… these are messy to eat.  So let your kids go outside with them and drip yogurt and strawberries all over themselves, and then hose them down.

Our Basic Crepe recipe is:

• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water (or a little  more until it’s a consistency you like)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 TBL melted canola oil
• 1 cup whole wheat flour

Pour 1/3 cup of batter onto skillet and cook until both sides are browned and middle is cooked through.

For the filling we used plain yogurt and berries

So enjoy this beautiful summer day, and hurry with the berries, they are already starting to go up in price around here

We’ve been adding berries to our French Toast to make them a bit healthier (although with eggs and whole wheat bread, I think they are already pretty great!).  But this time we took it up a notch by adding a splash of pure orange juice, and wheat germ.

If you have never made oven French toast, You ought to try it.  There is definitely a crispy texture that seems different than French Toast on the pan.  The kids loved how it turns out, and I love that I can cook ALL the slices at once, rather than slave over the hot skillet for 30 minutes!

So, Here it is:

• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 TBL honey
• 3 whole eggs, 3 egg whites.

Whip up egg mixture until frothy.

Soak bread in egg mixture for 5 minutes.

Grease a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan very well!   (I melted butter in the pan).  Then sprinkle half the wheat germ along the bottom of pan.  Lay soaked bread on the prepared a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle the rest of the wheat germ over the top.

Bake in oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until eggs are cooked.

Why wheat germ?

• Great source of Vitamin E
• Great source of folic Acid!!
• In addition: Fiber, phosphorous, magnesium, and zinc!

Other French Toast Posts:

• Breakfast on a stick
• French Toast with Almonds
• Flaxy French Toast

I would love to take my kids to Hawaii!  Wade and I went the year of our 10th wedding anniversary.  We went scuba diving, enjoyed the weather, the beach, and the food.  We have wanted to take our kids back ever since.  But instead, we made Hawaiian Bread.

I love the combination of pineapple, coconut, and walnuts.  It’s a great way to get whole grains, and a little fruit.  The bread itself is super moist.  However, some kids are going to like this.  Some kids aren’t:  (I liked it of course)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 can crushed pineapple with juice (12 -20 oz)
• 1/2 cup grated coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 TBL baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together and put in bread pan.  Sprinkle the top with extra coconut, a little brown sugar, and some nuts. Bake in bread pan for 45-60 minutes at 350, or until cooked all the way through.

Come back tomorrow for my awesome cookbook giveaway!!

Good morning!

I’ve got some basic banana bread for you this morning, that was a big hit with the kids (although my husband didn’t think it was sweet enough).  But come on honey, it’s not cake!  So anyway, my kids liked it, and that’s what this blog is about anyway… right?

BANANA TEA PARTY BREAD

• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

In a separate bowl, I mashed and combined

• 2 bananas
• 4 TBL canola oil
• 4 TBL plain yogurt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

I didn’t mash the bananas super well, and there was chunks of banana in the bread.. which we liked!   Then combined the wet with the dry ingredients.

Pour batter into loaf pan 9X5.  Sprinkle

• Dried, chopped banana chips
• Brown sugar

over the top! Crunchy and yummy topping for the bread.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes (or until knife comes out clean)

(printable recipe)

And then of course, sit down to a lovely tea party.  It makes all the food you’ve made for the kids tastier!

Healthy benefits of bananas:

• Good source of potassium!  They can literally lower blood pressure (high blood pressure is becoming more common in CHILDREN today!
• Do your kids get heart burn?  Bananas are a natural antacid!
• High in B vitamins (improves nerve function)
• Good source of fiber.  So many kids have bowel trouble, fiber is a great way to relieve that.

Recipe notes:

• This recipe started with one from the book Good For Kids by Dr. Penny Stanway.  Her first ingredients called for 1 3/4 cup self rising wholemeal flour.  To make your own whole meal flour, add 1tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt for every cup of whole wheat flour.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you will know, we love our breads!  Probably my favorite food group in the world.  To work in a bakery for me would be both a dream come true, and a nightmare at the same time (I’m weak, what can I say).

But with Berry season upon us, and my 50lbs of oats, we decided on making Oatmeal – Blueberry Bread!

First, the dry ingredients:

• 1 Cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp salt (optional)

• ¾ cup low fat milk
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• 2 eggs

• 1 ½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen-thawed)

Mix dry ingredients (flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, soda, allspice, and salt). Mix wet ingredients into dry. Fold blueberries in gently. Pour into bread pan. Bake at 350 for 60-65 minutes.

Printable Recipe

So, what are the health benefits of Blueberries:

Like any dark purple and blue fruits and vegetables they are high in Anthocyanin and phenolics.  The benefits include reduction of age related memory loss, controlling blood pressure and slowing the effects of aging (I like that one).

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Looking ahead:

• Friday- Exercise with your kids Idea
• Saturday- New Healthy Meals Plan
• Monday- GIVEAWAY!!!

While we love health food over here, it is rare that I shop at a a health food store.  We opt for ‘made from scratch’ version of healthy foods, or just buying whole foods at our neighborhood grocery store.  And we ESPECIALLY don’t spend extra money on specialty food.  That is why I love the idea of making your own rice milk! I don’t even know how much they charge for a container of rice milk, but I know it isn’t pennies, like our rice milk!

First thing that made this possible was I borrowed my sisters (the best blogger for learning technology blogger) Vita-Mix!  While I try not to covet my neighbors things, I totally covet the vita-mix!!

Then it was simple.  We used

• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup brown rice
• a dash of vanilla extract (optional)
• a dash of agave nectar (also optional)

Then blend for at least 2 minutes until the consistency is like milk!

Stored in the fridge, this rice milk can be used on cereal for the lactose intolerant (or when you are out of milk), can be used for French Toast, as a replacement for milk in recipes like pancakes, waffles, chocolate milk, etc.  Here are some recipes from the company that makes the store bought version of Rice Milk.

When you buy rice in bulk, this Rice milk is SO CHEAP!!

Healthy meals don’t have to be boring.  Especially snacks for kids.  My kids like to make food fun with these cracker toppings.  We used Melba Whole Wheat toast crackers to assemble these snacks:

FLOWER POWER (Grapes, blackberry, pear skin, light cream cheese)

CHOMPIN BROCCOLI (Broccoli, shredded cheese)

CREAMY TWO-LIPS (Apple slices, blackberries, light cream cheese, cinnamon sugar)

   HAMMIN IT UP (slice of ham, string cheese)  PROTEIN POWER (Cottage cheese and salsa)GHOSTLY DELIGHT (Light cream cheese, raisins) PB&B (Peanut butter and blackberries)

CRAZY CROSS-EYED TOAST (hardboiled egg, black beans, broccoli, tomato nose)

My kids had a blast putting these together (and eating them). 5 of these ideas came from this site, and there are TON’S more!  Be careful with crackers! A majority of store bought crackers are not healthy.  Particularly pay attention to sodium, (remember, you want less than 1500 mg in a day) and trans fats (or partially hydrogenated oils in it’s ingredient list)