I’m excited about the menu this week!  I’ve got some great links to recipes I saw this week from some of the blogs I love. 

As always, head over to the archive page for a printable version!  The photos aren’t as clear on the pdf, but I’ll figure something out for future menus.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Cottage Cheese Pancakes	Butterfly Sandwiches	Vegetable platter with Ranch	Creamy Lemon Chicken and Rice Two Peas and Their Pod
Tuesday	Cereal with fruit and yogurt	Black Bean Soup Hungry Homemaker	Trail Mix with dried fruit	Coq-Au-Vin with Chicken breasts Nana’s Kitchen
Wednesday	Smoothie	Peanut Butter and Jelly	Cottage cheese and fruit	Sloppy Janes with Green salad Itzy’s Kitchen
Thursday	Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes Burnt Apple	Turkey Wrap with avocado	Fruit Salad	Spinach and artichoke Heart Quiche Three Kid Circus
Friday	Egg Sandwiches	Bagel Sandwiches with carrots	Granola Bars	Baked Vegetable Won-Tons A Life Less Sweet

Awesome! Dana just left a comment that Batatas are also the Spanish word for Sweet Potatoes!! Thanks for making us all a little smarter today Dana!

I’ve just had our protein lecture in Nutrition this week, and have been all about the eggs ever since!  We love our eggs over here!

So, try this super quick (I’m into quick these day’s!) way to hard boil some eggs.  Let your kids fill a microwave safe container full of water, and microwave for 10  minutes.  Add a little vinegar and salt to the water, so your eggs don’t crack being jostled around in the water.

After 10 minutes in the microwave, take out, and rinse with cold water.  Your eggs will be completely hard boiled. 

For the sailboats, I sliced some colored paper, and let the kids decorate the sails. 

For the filling, I mixed the yolk, with a tiny spoon of light mayo and a squirt of mustard.  Filled the shell, and put the sail on.

Why should your kids eat eggs?

EGGS ARE:

So, make some eggs today!

Other Egg posts:

• Breakfast for my little Champions
• One Eyed Monstors
• Easter Eggs (coming up!!)

Do your kids like eggs?  What’s your favorite way to eat them?

Post edit: While our eggs turned out great, two of our readers had their eggs explode in the microwave.  Please use caution, or go traditional: Stove-top always works!

That’s the scientific name for Sweet Potatoes.  My kids think its fun to call them BATATAS!   But aren’t they gorgeous?  Just like our carrots, you can’t make this beautiful color in a food lab!  Well, you probably could, but the Ipomoea Batatas taste better I’m sure.

This is such an easy, fast, and might I add FILLING snack!  I pop one of these beauties in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes, and wa-la!  Meal is ready.  I add a little salt and butter, mash it up really good.  I don’t even bother washing it, because I generally take the skin off.   My kids gave me a token taste with their little tiny cocktail forks.  TJ said he liked it “pretty much”.

Why should you serve sweet potatoes to your kids? 

• VITAMIN A!!  262% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• VITAMIN C!!  29% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• Beta – carotene 23,018 mcg!!  (I don’t think there is a Daily value for beta carotene, but 23 thousand mcg seems like plenty!
• 
  

  Twice as high in fiber as regular potatoes

What are you waiting for, pick up a bag of BATATAS and you can whip up a snack or lunch in under 5 minutes.

Other posts with sweet potatoes: I posted more about sweet potatoes than I thought!  And I just realized, although I’ve served up sweet potatoes at least 4 times according to my blog… each time the kids think it’s the first time.  I guess I need to start offering certain things more often.

• Mashed potatoes with white sweet potatoes
• Sweet Potato vs Yams
• Sweet potato fries
• Sweet potato salad

What do you like best? Baked, mashed, or served up as fries?

I will never forget a study I read about the most “well adjusted” teenagers.  The teenagers who aren’t so self absorbed, follow the rules, and contribute to society.  The one common thread in these great teens were they all were involved in SERVICE!!  I love it!   Have you heard yet about the Free Disneyland tickets for contributing a few hours of service.  There are TON’S of opportunities from age 6 on up.  Click here to enter your zip code and find opportunities in your area.

Anyway, let’s get down to delicious Vegetables!!  Luckily I made some broccoli with the creamy sauce, and kept some broccoli without. Because as always with picky children…. some will try it, and some just preferred it plain.

Take:

• 6 oz light cream cheese
• 1/4 cup reduced fat milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Grated orange peel

Stir in a small saucepan until smooth and melted..  Then add

• 1/4 cup orange juice.

Keep the sauce warm to drizzle over steamed broccoli, or bring to room temperature and use as a dip for raw broccoli. 

  Well, I’m not going to lie here…. not ONE of my kids actually tried it.  I did! I liked it!  But there are very few foods I don’t like.

OK Mom’s and Dad’s! If the kids are going to eat their vegetables, we have to make them taste good!  Is the only way you’ve offered cooked carrots is chopped and sautéed?  I have actually never enjoyed my carrots that way.  If you are a “texture” person, like Erica (my 9 year old), cooked carrots are often too mushy, because of their size.  These carrots are cooked, yet have no mushiness about them!

The easy part of this dish, Polka Dot Peas and Ribbons, is the children can peel the carrots.  They are way easier to peel than potatoes!

So first, some frozen peas (thawed), and as many carrots as you want to peel.

Stir the carrots around with 1 TBL of butter till softened (about 5 minutes).  Then add the peas and keep cooking until the peas are heated through.

And serve up with a little salt and pepper.  My kids actually ate this without forks. 

So, go ahead and try it! You know you have all the ingredients on hand!

I’m in a Body For Life mood!  So, this week’s menu has a lot more protein than I normally cook for my family, but like I said, I’m just in the mood. . 

Fun stuff for locals (which means Utah County):

If you love photography, live in Northern Utah county, and have an SLR camera, my neighbor Natalie from Middle Gray Photography, just started the “Lehi Photography Guild”.  A club for emerging photographers who want to hone the craft.  Email her (middlegrayphotography@gmail.com)  if you are interested in joining.

If you are looking to join a CSA and get fresh produce weekly, here is one that is just starting in Orem.

If you love Alison’s Pantry, they are closing their store front!  But you can still buy their stuff, and the price hasn’t changed.  You just need to buy from a local rep.  For Northern Utah County, call Liz Kump.  (lizkump@yahoo.com)

	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Oat Pancakes with berries	Ranch Chicken Salad	Oranges and cashews	Italian Chicken Wild Rice, broccoli
Tuesday	Omelet’s with salsa	Chicken Pita Pizza’s	Cottage cheese with berries	Potato Soup (making soup for Blue and Gold banquet)
Wednesday	Egg Sandwich and banana	Sub sandwich with veggies and turkey	Apple and string cheese	Enchilada soup with avocado
Thursday	Oatmeal with apples and cinnamon	Egg Salad Sandwich	Yogurt and strawberries	Taco Soup (making soup for Primary Dinner)
Friday	Sunny Side- up eggs with whole wheat toast	Chicken pita with grapes, tomato, lettuce, almonds	Cinnamon apples with sliced cheese	French Dip sandwiches, salad

We decided to do a science experiment at our house.  I was hoping by pouring some cola onto a tooth, that we would see the tooth disintegrate.  And maybe it would if we left it there for a very long time.  But after two weeks,  the teeth don’t disappear.  However, the results in my mind were equally disturbing:

Gross, huh?!?!?  Enough to scare your kids away from cola?  

A friend (Doreen) picked up the following handouts from her dentist.  You will have to click on the images to see it full size, but basically, image #1 indicates enamel being destroyed after 14 days of exposure to various drinks.  Image #2 shows the pH value for different candies, as compared to battery acid).  Good talking points to have with your children tonight!

Other posts about dental health:

• Kids and Cavities
• Cavities

Busy? Poor? Still want to eat healthy?  The best weapon I have is frozen vegetables!  When they go on sale, I fill my freezer with all kinds!  Stir-fry mixes, broccoli, peas and carrots, corn, etc!

We add frozen vegetables to rice, noodles, soups, casseroles, pot pies, and as a side dish.  Here is what I like:

• They last forever!  (in contrast to fresh veggies)
• They don’t need to be washed
• They don’t need to be chopped/ peeled/ cut.
• They are generally cheaper.
• They are usually picked at the peak of ripeness
• We can eat them out of season and all year long!

So, here is our favorite, fast, healthy, go- to meal.  I always have the ingredients on hand, and my kids will eat a ton of it!  It looks like a long recipe, but I promise it is QUICK!!!

• 3 TBL butter
• 3 TBL flour

Melt butter in small saucepan and stir flour in until bubbly.  Then Add:

• 1 cup of Chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp oregeno
• 1/2 tsp pepper.

Bring to a boil and simmer. Stir occasionally. Then, in large skillet add:

• 1 TBL butter and 1 TBL olive oil.  Then after butter melts, add:
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped.

Cook till browned then add:

• 2 cups frozen cauliflower. (defrosted)
• 2 cups frozen broccoli (defrosted)
• 1 package frozen peas (defrosted)

Cover and cook till heated through.  Then stir in:

• 1/2 Cup chicken broth
• 1 large fresh tomato (or canned tomatoes)

Add 1/2 pound cooked whole wheat noodles (such  as spaghetti or linguini).  Mix everything together (vegetables, sauce, and noodles)  then top with parmesan cheese.

NEED SOME FROZEN VEGETABLES? AND PERHAPS A $25 TARGET GIFT CARD TO GO ALONG WITH IT?  HEAD OVER TO THE GIVEAWAY PAGE TO ENTER!!

Today’s idea: Simple, but very effective!!

According to Dr. Fuhrman, Enjoying the taste of healthy food is a SKILL!  For most people, a preference for healthy food needs to be developed.  In order to do this, he recommends (In the book Eat for Health) eating a bowl full of vegetables every single day, and eating it slowly. Without changing any other habits, you can begin to enjoy the flavors and textures of healthful food.

So can the kids!  I wanted something measureable and specific to help them develop this skill.  Each day we wash and peel 5 carrots.  Each of us need to eat one carrot during the day (including me).  Simple, right?  I love simple.  If dinner comes and they haven’t eaten their carrot, they can eat it just before we sit down for dinner. 

Although I send carrots to school, and I provide carrots for snacks, I can’t exactly say they are eating them! This way, I will know. The more consistent we are with this “exercise”, the tastier those carrots will begin to be.

When I presented the idea to the kids, they willingly agreed to begin the exercise.  Although Erica did ask if she could make a chart and assign points, etc. etc…. but I told her, “I just want you to eat them! No incentives!”

The best way to get addicted to healthy food, is to start eating them… over and over and over.  Read Dr. Fuhrman’s blog post today “Are You a Food Addict?”.

Here is a new menu plan… If you get a chance, go check out the cute sidebar image for the link to the printable menu’s!

Also, we need your help!

This group; XX1st Century Kids 1st foundation is trying to win $50,000 to provide low income kids in the Chicago area with healthy food and lifestyle choices.  They just need your votes to win!!  Go here to vote!