School is starting on Wednesday for us (hooray), and we will be back to brown bagging our lunches.  Choosing lunch meat for sandwiches should be done with as much care as all your other groceries.

Promise me you won’t purchase lunch meat just because the word “Healthy” is splattered on the packaging!  Promise? 

So, what should you look for?

• Fewest ingredients rules! This is always the best rule of thumb.  Some lunch meat packages contain more than 20 ingredients with the majority of them things you cannot pronounce.  Always check your labels!  
• Purchase organic or hormone free where available.  But don’t be fooled. Sometimes, although the animals may be organic, this is no guarantee they haven’t added loads of ingredients to the lunch meat.
• “Sectioned and formed” vs. Whole cuts:  Whole cuts are seasoned with salts and sugars, while sectioned and formed are various pieces of animal products, bound with artificial ingredients.  Obviously choose- Whole Cuts
• Avoid Nitrates!  These are carcinogens.  Your children do not need nitrates.
• Best bet- Cook up whole turkey’s and slice your own.  Or custom order slices from your local farmers.

Here is another thing we learned when Anna was making our Bento lunch.  The lunch meat flower:

• Simply fold slice of meat in half
• Score the edge of the sliced side
• Roll into flower.
• Secure with a toothpick.

As soon as the photography session was over with these pieces of ham, the kids ran over to eat them! They love lunch meat!

Anyone have healthy lunch meat brands they want to recommend to the readers?

* This weeks recipes came from “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain.  Any meals you find appealing, email me for the recipe!!  Seriously folks I have over 50 ‘healthy living’ cookbooks! It’s a small obsession.  I could make menu plans from today till the day my grandchildren are grown.  

Our snack on Wednesday is Yumnuts!  We all know nuts are good for us, but sometimes, we really want them to taste good too, right?  Yumnuts achieved this without the oil and artificial ingredients that some nut companies add.  They have flavors like: Coconut, sea salt, chocolate, and honey.

We were actually so glad to have these nuts on our long day’s out with Anna and Fumiko.  When the only food at the outdoor mall was fast food, these tied us over till we got home.  But the Yumnut people also recommended using them in other ways:
·     Coconut Yumnuts as a salad topper
·     Chocolate Yumnuts served with fresh strawberries and raspberries as a dessert
·     Cajun Yumnuts to top your favorite stir fry
·     Chocolate and Honey Yumnuts as part of a healthy snack mix
·     Coconut Yumnuts to crust tilapia
·     Rice crispy treats with chocolate Yumnuts
·     Honey Yumnuts over Yogurt
·     Banana bread with Chocolate Yumnuts
·     Coconut Yumnuts over chocolate ice cream

*The company provided us with samples, but really- they were great!

This is my final wrap up to some Japanese children food culture.  I promise to be back next week with some healthy things that may be a little more appealing to your little American darlings!

SNACKS:

• I wanted to write a whole post about what Japanese children snack on, but they said they don’t do much snacking.  After school they are either in clubs, or if they go home after school they are helping with meal preparation or doing homework.
• They said, “I guess if kids snack, they would eat the packaged food”.   And normally it wouldn’t be a sweet snack, just salty.  While not super healthy, we could probably compare the size of their packaged foods with ours.  I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but these chips are super duper mini versions of pringles.

• And then, while at our house, I found the girls snacking on this.   They had a bowl of rice that they were spooning into seaweed paper and folding over and munching on.  For the record, none of us tried it.  We aren’t Sushi eaters over here.

BREAKFAST

• As I mentioned before, they aren’t accustomed to sweet things for breakfast.  Although they admit that children today are starting to eat more sweet things, my girls grew up with grandparents close by and more traditional customs. 
• They would eat rice and miso soup (always soup at breakfast) with grilled fish… for breakfast!  They’ve never tried oatmeal!
• While with us however, they made this little breakfast sandwich pictured below.  They “bread” for it was rice pressed into a bun.  Great gluten free idea for those kids who can’t,  or shouldn’t eat bread.  They put in the center a cooked egg and sliced sausage.

They also had rice balls with tuna in the middle for breakfast (they did prepare their tuna with mayo)

And one morning they had fried rice by adding a little soy sauce to their egg before cooking. And then adding those tiny chopped carrots and rice.

One more observation: Eating local, and in season.  Fumiko said she didn’t like fish, and I commented that I thought everyone in Japan liked fish.  She said matter of factly, that it was because she lived in the mountains, not by the sea!   I’ve been thinking about this since Morgan noted in her comment the other day how interesting it is that we are so different considering it seems everyone has access to everything.  I’m sure Fumiko can get fish, just as fast as we could, yet she is still eating local!

Well, that’s it for Japan! We love you Anna and Fumiko and miss you! Thanks for sharing your culture with our family!!

I had to be at church for most of Sunday, so my husband made dinner.  Our Japanese friends were so surprised to see him making dinner!  They said, “Why is Wade making dinner, he’s the father!!”  In their culture, father’s do not take part in meal preparation in Japan, so to see Wade make dinner, was culture shock for them.

So, here is what I’ve learned about dinner in Japan for Anna and Fumiko:

• Despite being working mom’s, Japanese mother’s spend a good portion of their time at home in meal preparation!  And what they spend most of their time doing, chopping and cooking vegetables!  Kind of makes me feel guilty for trying to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as I can.
• Children help with preparing dinner if they are not at clubs (like soccer or tutoring).  Starting at age 6, Anna helped her mom with dinner preparations.  She would cut vegetables, wash dishes, or set a table.
• Although the fathers do not participate in preparing meals, the boys in the family (brothers) did help in the kitchen as children.
• When they have salads, they use lettuce, tomato, corn, tuna, with either a French dressing, a soy sauce dressing, or mayonnaise!  Straight- plain- mayo!  I couldn’t believe it! They even added mayo to their taco’s at our house!
• They never drink juice or soda. Always milk, tea, or water.

I love that they spend more time preparing dinner.  They said they chop their vegetables very tiny! When Anna made dinner for us, this is how she chopped our carrots for this meal:

I could not believe how she was able to cut the carrots so finely!  It takes time to do that.

Here is one of the recipes they prepared while they’ve been here.   They called them pancakes. If you make it, I don’t recommend calling them pancakes..TJ was quite disappointed that they didn’t taste like pancakes!

OKONOMI-YAKI

(As you like it- pancakes)

• 2 sausage links, chopped (or any other meat)
• 1 head of cabbage, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 eggs
• salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  Pour batter onto skillet like pancakes.  Flip and cook on both sides until browned.  Top with Okinomi-yaki sauce (or BBQ sauce if you don’t have any Okinomi-yaki sauce) and mayonnaise (which we did not use)

They served the pancakes with noodles and vegetables, which I could not get a recipe for, because they brought packaged noodles with an accompanying seasoning packet from Japan… but it was DELICIOUS!!  Even this cutie liked it!

(While I was taking pictures for the noodle dish, I put the chop-sticks in the bowl.  Anna and Fumiko quickly ran over and took them out, informing me  that by placing the chop sticks inside the dish, it implied it was a meal prepared for the dead… oops!) 

Thanks for sharing your own Japanese experiences!  Anna and Fumiko have loved reading your comments!!

(At the Summit County Rodeo)

I hope you bear with me this week, as I share more Japanese food culture!  All the food information I am getting is from two Japanese girls, and I should add that the details here may not be true for all of Japan!

I think it’s fun to see what people eat for lunch in other countries though.  I know my kids get bored bringing the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school everyday… and these girls had never tried a PB&J in their life!  Instead lunch in Japan goes like this:

• Elementary school- Always school provided lunch!  Pre-school and High school, they bring a lunch, usually in a bento box as pictured above.
• They eat soup at every single meal! EVERY SINGLE MEAL!  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
• School lunch for elementary school is soup, a piece of meat, rice or bread, and fruit for dessert.  They could not believe my kids when my kids said there was a cookie at school lunch every single day!
• In Elementary school, they are given milk to drink, every day.
• The above Bento lunch is typical if they brought lunch to school in high school, or went on a picnic. It included a hard boiled egg, rice, broccoli, and ham.

To make the Rice Bear Ball, Anna made small balls with warm rice, wrapped in saran wrap.  Three balls for the face and two ears were tinted with soy sauce in the rice.  The fourth ball (the mouth of the bear) she used plain rice.

Then, the facial features were made by cutting seaweed paper.  Which they were snacking on afterwards. lol

I think this is a fabulous, healthy, and delicious alternative to a sandwich for lunch! Nathan (my 11 year old) actually thinks rice and hard boiled eggs are the two greatest foods ever made (not including things with sugar)

明日は夕食についてブログを書くよ！

For some super cute Bento characters, visit Pikko’s blog!

I am so fascinated by the dietary habits of the children in Japan. This is what we’ve learned from our exchange students staying with us:

• Japanese children do not eat sweet things for breakfast (like sweet cereals)  Typical breakfast is rice and miso soup, or a rice ball with tuna in the middle.
• Japanese mothers get very angry at the children if they are caught snacking on sweet things such as cookies or candy.
• Japanese children have to clean their plates!  No food left on their plate or their mothers will be mad.
• Japanese families have dessert almost every night.  When I asked what the dessert was… they responded with, “Fruit.”
• Many food products in America are too sweet for our Japanese friends.
• Bottom line.. they eat much less sugar than American children!

This is some of the food that our friends brought for our family to try:

We haven’t tried the shrimp chips yet.

Anyway- I’ll share a few Japanese meals we’ve had this past week with you later this week.. In the meantime, here is the Meal plan for the week:  (Another Dr. Fuhrman plan) from his Eat for Health Book. (email me for recipes if you like one)

The girls are calling me down for some fried rice, so gotta go… recipe and pictures to come! 

Researches have found that kids whose parents set screen time limits (TV, video, computer, etc), those children are more physically active.

The research article came out of July’s Journal of Pediatrics.  I’ll break it down into the parts I think are interesting!

• Recommended screen time limits are less than 2 hours per day
• Of kids 9-14, 27% exceeded recommended limits.
• Kids whose parents had limits within the recommended guidelines were more likely to be physically active.
• The more active kids were one week, the less screen time they used the following week.
• 76.9% of homes with cable had more children going over the limits.
• While almost 50% of parents said in a survey they set screen time limits, only 37% of those kids said there were limits in their home.  LOL!

We are not a family that eliminates screen time altogether.  My husband and I enjoy some television shows, and we both obviously use computers.  I think it’s important for kids to have rules and limits, so they will eventually self-regulate their own screen time and not become zombies as teenagers, or worse- video game addicted husbands!

We definitely have screen time rules at our house.  They get 30 minutes of video games per day. Also, they watch TV in the morning and then the TV get’s turned off at 9AM (sometimes it’s 9:30AM if I’m distracted).  I bought a small timer they set by the computer or the Wii that they set for 30 minutes when they are playing video games.  Once it beeps, they know their time is up.  Then it’s pleading of “Can I win or Die” scenario from there.

What are your screen time rules?

Update on our Japanese friends.   After an 18 mile run (my friend and I are getting ready for a marathon), they decided they wanted to hike to Timp Caves (3 miles round trip)!!   I am so sore today!

We love our kiwi more than the average family!  If I get Kiwi from the store, it is gone before the day is over!  Every time my kids buy school lunch, they always get kiwi for their fruit!

But how can I complain when I know by eating kiwi my kids are

• getting as much vitamin C as an orange! 
• getting more potassium than a banana when they eat two
• getting more fiber than a half bowl of bran! 

We like them so much we have kiwi tatoos:

And what we like to call, a Kiwi spife (spoon plus knife)

Then, the Zespri Kiwi people sent me some recipes that I thought were pretty great.

The first was called:  FRESH KIWI FRUIT BUBBLE TEA

Fill the bottom of a glass with large tapioca pearls, cooked in water till soft:

Then in a blender:

• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 cup low-fat sweetened condensed milk

After smooth, add

• 3 kiwi fruit peeled and sliced.  Only pulse for a moment. Don’t pulverize the kiwi.

Pour drink over tapioca pearls.

Then, we also tried their Kiwi Mustard Dip.  Sounds weird… but all it was was

• 1 sliced, peeled and chopped kiwi
• 1 TBL mustard
• 1 TBL honey

We used it to dip our chicken tenders in.  LOVED IT!!!

Our Japanese visitors loved the dip too!  Zespri Kiwi has more recipes on their site here.  And in full disclosure, they did send us the kiwi for my kids to eat (as well as the tatoo’s)!!

So, go get some kiwi!  I’ll be honest.  TJ only started to like kiwi because of peer pressure!  You gotta love it when their friends are the ones to get them to try new, healthy foods. Sometimes nothing you as a parent will say has any impact, then one day when their friends make the suggestion, BAM! They are converted!

Well, we are sure having fun with our Japanese friends.  They REALLY wanted to go to East High where High School Musical was filmed.  So we headed off to the school, not expecting to get in, because it is an ACTUAL working high school.   Well, when we got there THREE vans full of Japanese tourists showed up! It was hilarious.  We followed them into the school, and the girls were able to get pictures of EVERYTHING!  Classic, right?

 And one more thing… My blogs tech support (also known as my sister) fixed my shopping cart!! So now you can buy plates.  again! Thanks Sarah!!

PLUS… One more thing:  You can win a trip for 4 to New Zealand with The Great Kiwi Adventure!  With this post, I am also trying to win a trip to New Zealand with the Kiwi-a-go-go Blogger contest.  I hope we both win!!

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.

Or should I say, no added sugar, considering the fruit sugar.  Either way, this jam was so easy, I don’t know why I haven’t been doing it for years.

This recipe actually came from my mom.  She first gave us a box of apricots the other day, that needed to be used ASAP!  Then she told me about some new pectin in the stores that do not require adding sugar to your fruit.  It specifically says on the box, “No sugar needed.”

I used

• 6 cups of apricots
• 2 TBL lemon juice
• 1 box No sugar needed pectin
• 1/4 cup concentrated apple juice
• 3/4 cup water

I through everything in a pot, and stirred.  Waited it to start boiling, and break down the apricots.

Then I put it into jars and straight into the fridge! No canning at this house!

MMMM,  and you know what it tastes like?  Apricots!  Tangy and delicious, not sickingly sweet.  Apricots are supposed to be tangy!

We pick up our Japanese friends from the airport today!  We are excited. I asked Anna what she and her friend wanted me to pick up at the grocery store.  She’s so cute, her reply was

Hi, this is Anna. Today is Monday morning (10:10) in Japan. But I’m still sleep… Because I’m excited too!! I couldn’t be sleep.

Dinner menu is anything OK. But, my friend can’t eat "sea foods" And I can’t eat milk, cheese and butter. We have their allergy. We’re so sorry

Isn’t she cute?