What’s the difference between fruit salad and fruit salsa?  Not sure? The only thing I could come up with is how finely you chop the fruit.  Another difference of course is eating fruit salad with a spoon, vs. salsa you have permission to dip other food into it.

My kids would be eating all day if I let them.  But when I have a snack on the table, at a predetermined time, they are pretty good about going for what I prepared, as opposed to pretzels and granola bars (their go-to snack of choice)

Tooty Fruity Salsa!!

We love fruit salsa with fresh fruit of course, but fresh fruit get’s eaten pretty fast around here, so many times I have to resort to my stock pile of frozen goodies.

This frozen bag had

• mangoes,
• pineapple and
• strawberries. Then I added a few
• frozen blackberries. 

I microwaved for 2 minutes at 30% power.  The fruit was still a little frozen, which I liked better for chopping.

For a mix-in for flavoring, we used

• drizzle of honey
• coconut
• grated ginger

We have also used mix-ins like

• Orange juice
• lemon juice or lemon zest
• agave nectar
• granulated sugar
• a little corn starch to thicken it up
• fruit preserves (like jam)
• Vanilla extract
• Yogurt

Then, we used whole wheat pita chips, sliced and baked with cinnamon on top.  We’ve also cinnamon baked some whole wheat tortilla’s in the past.

Great recipe for an after school snack, or anytime eating.

Related recipe: Tropical Fruit Salad with toasted coconut

After every life event I have the same thoughts,

After my next test, I’ll spend more time in kitchen….

After TJ’s birthday, I’ll make more bread…

After the PTA fundraiser, I’ll soak my beans, rather than get them out of a can.” 

And what happens next: Another bigger and more time consuming thing!

So as a result, this menu plan is going to be Crockpot week or:

“I have no time to be in the kitchen” plan, but if possible, I’ll stick the kids in the kitchen in my place.”

If you have a healthy recipe you think our family would enjoy for future menu plans, feel free to email me a link, or the recipe, and I’ll be happy to link to your recipes in future meal plans! Thanks!!!

Disclaimer: All my children are in school, and I actually send them sandwiches in their lunch every day. These lunches are ideas if you need variety! 

Printable Meal Plans

If there is ever something in my menu that I didn’t post the recipe or link for (generally because its in one of my cookbooks), feel free to email me, and I’ll get it to you. amy@superhealthykids.com

What to look forward to this week: (subject to change if something doesn’t turn out right)

• Party/ Finger food
• Red Cabbage
• Coconut nests
• Crockpot recipe
• Indoor activity idea

I just finished watching Food, Inc.  Great Movie! The take home message is to buy local, and in season food! If you haven’t seen the movie yet, did you know you can download and “rent” the movie to watch from Amazon for $2.99!  I just realized this!  Right under “Buy”, you click WATCH IT NOW, $2.99 to rent.  

Although I’ve mentioned them before, after watching the movie, I was so glad we buy our meat local (beef and pork at least).  If you live in Utah and are looking for a local meat supplier, you must check out The Christiansens farm for well fed, well treated, organic, and super awesome meat!  Hollie Christiansen is my neighbors- sister.. which is how I found out about their farm. 

Last night, I pulled out our bag of frozen Edamame to snack on while I prepared dinner.  The kids devoured it! I forgot how much they liked this great snack the first time I bought it.  It’s definitely coming out more often this week.

As always, head over to the side bar, or Menu Archives to print the menu!

Don’t forget…. Monday is the last day to enter for Crest Pro-Health supplies,

and FRIDAY is the last day for the V8-V Fusion Visa $100 Gift card!

I plan menu’s in two ways. First and easiest way, is sit down with my list of our favorite meals, and simply assign them a day.  When I’m rushed, this is my preferred method.  Second method is take out a cookbook, and randomly choose meals I want to try to make, or that sound good.  If I stick to one cookbook per week, then I get less confused as to where I found a recipe.

But now I have a third way!! Instead of one cookbook for the week, I am using ONE WEBSITE!!!  I chose to spend a lot of time browsing Meal Makeover Mom’s!  These ladies are amazing!  Not only do they put out great recipes that my kids will normally gobble up, they test the recipes before they are put out to the public.  They are professional and smart, and I completely admire them!

So, every single recipe in this weeks menu is from Meal Makeover Mom’s! You must check them out if you haven’t already.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	BLT with More	Ham and Cheese wrap	Baked apple with walnut and dried fruit	Chicken Pot Pie Bundles
Tuesday	Raspberry Breakfast cake	Peanut butter swirl sandwich	Goji raspberry frosty	Tuscan Minestrone Soup
Wednesday	Little Monkey Muffins	Crunchy Quinoa with almonds and apricots	Crazy Face Fruit Kabobs	Sausage Mushroom and Cannellini Pesto Pizza
Thursday	Pineapple, applesauce, pumpkin muffins	Turkey and cheese pretzel sticks (to assemble at school)	Krispy PB and chocolate treats	BBQ Pulled Turkey Sandwiches
Friday	Berry Good French Toast	Mac & Cheese and Carrots	Fruit with peanut butter dip	Broccoli bean, and cheddar soup. Whole wheat rolls

Don’t forget the BIG GIVEAWAY LATER THIS WEEK!

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?)

Eating actual meals (rather than from the bag, or standing at the refrigerator) not only is better for you, but also keeps your house cleaner.

My kids will stand at the pantry, take a handful of Cheerios, and walk away, leaving a trail of Cheerios on the floor, and at the pantry door.  In literally makes me insane.  As soon as I step on Cereal on the kitchen floor, I know they’ve been eating from the bag.

In a span of 30 years, you will most likely eat 30,000 meals!  According to The Pleasure Trap, “anything you are likely to do 30,000 times cries out for efficiency and organization”

The following is our menu plan for next week.  Head over to my sidebar to find the printable version along with the shopping list.  Happy Cooking.

Next week I will post some pictures and recipes to a few items on this menu.

Do you love to plan your menu’s?  Traditionally on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I like to take cookbooks in my room and write our meals for the week.   So, for now on I’m going to start posting my menu plans for you all!

On Friday’s I’ll post a menu plan and shopping list, with a printable version on my sidebar, labeled with the date.  In the shopping list, if I know the best price for something, I will certainly list that too.

To kick off menu planning, I want to share a cookbook with you that I love!!

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook is having their 5th Anniversary Blog Tour!  I love this book!  I highly recommend this book!  Not only does it have great recipes, but tons of great ideas.

Right away I wanted to try the Homemade Nut Butter! I love peanut butter and almond butter, but the healthy versions can be super expensive!

This homemade version was sweet, salty, and so delicious, I had to stop myself from eating the entire bowl with a spoon.

And with permission, I get to share this  recipe. (with my photo’s embedded to show you how easy it was)

Honey/Vegan option

Homemade Nut Butter

Makes about 1 cup

Making fresh nut butter isn’t hard to do, and is a great kitchen project to do with young children, who actually enjoy the process of shelling peanuts. Ideally, use organic nuts. Conventional brands of peanut butter (far and away the most commonly consumed nut butter) almost always contain partially hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup, two unhealthy ingredients. Some brands also contain cottonseed oil, which comes from one of the most heavily sprayed crops on earth. Natural-style nut butters contain the nuts only, and are obviously a better choice, but their flavor and texture are often too intense for younger children.

This homemade version is a perfect compromise, both for flavor and health. For another great peanut butter alternative, see Silken Peanut Spread, page 000).

1 cup shelled roasted peanuts, almonds, or cashews

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup

1. Place the nuts in a food processor. Process until the nuts begin to hold together.

2. Add the oil, salt, and honey, and continue to process. Scrape the sides of the container from time to time, and continue to process until the nut butter is at the desired consistency.

3. Transfer the nut butter to a lidded container and keep refrigerated. For easier spreading, microwave for a few seconds before using.

Per tablespoon:

Calories: 64 Total fat: 5  g Protein: 2 g Fiber: .8 g

Carbohydrates: 3  g Cholesterol: 0 g Sodium: 35 mg

TIPS:

• For peanut butter, dry-roasted peanuts from a jar work just fine, but using freshly shelled roasted peanuts results in a more vivid flavor.

• If children other than your own will be partaking of this snack, make sure that none are allergic to peanuts—it’s a more common allergy than you’d think, and can be quite serious.

• This won’t work in a blender—a food processor is a must.

Isn’t that a great recipe!  All her recipes are easy and family friendly.  So, now the giveaway!

One reader will get their own copy of The Vegetarian Family Cookbook!  Leave a comment and I’ll choose a winner this weekend!

The best thing about the raw food movement, is the simpleness of food prep! If you can use a knife or a blender, you can do raw food.

I went to a raw foods class at my local health food store last week, and they made for us some Jicama fries.  I thought they were pretty tasty.  I was excited for my kids to try them, but I guess they weren’t as excited as I was.  They were actually pretty stubborn.

“I want my fries cooked!”

“They aren’t french fries! They are different.  Its from a Jicama, not a potato”.

“I only like fries from potatoes”. 

You know the drill.  So maybe call them something other than fries, so they are judged on their own goodness, and not by comparison to the familiar.

But once again, I like to share anyway, for all you RAW-some parents out there who have kids a little more compliant than mine.

The raw food teachers used a fry slicer to cut their jicama up, but mine just must not be sharp enough. It was so much easier to just use a knife.

After Jicama was sliced we added to a bowl and mixed with

• olive oil
• salt
• garlic powder

 and wa-la!  No cooking, just coated with seasonings and done.  We ate our fries with some black bean burgers.  The friends I went to the class with thought they were great.  You can decide!  Let me know if you OR your kids like them.

Don’t forget to enter to win the Amazing Grass Kidz Line of smoothie mix-ins.

I am ready to plug back in!  Not only to the computer, but to more mindful eating!  It has been a crazy 2 weeks.  Full of distractions, parties, feasting, playing, socializing, working, and eating.  As fun as it all is, isn’t it nice to be back into a routine again.

Today’s idea is apple chips!  For some kids (and parents) with fruit texture issues… this one is for you.  My flip-flopper does not like cooked fruit, but crunchy or crispy she can handle.  So we sliced up some apples to make into apple chips.

• First boil apple juice with either a cinnamon stick or cinnamon. 
• Then we sliced apples as thinly as possible. (crosswise so the core was in the center.  No need to seed it, they just fall right out)
• Then we boiled the apples in the apple juice till they were somewhat transparent. 
• Then we took the apple slices out of the boiling juice, and patted them dry.
• I laid them on a cookie rack (the kind you cool cookies on) and placed the entire rack in the oven at 250 degrees.
• We baked until they were dry and slightly browned.
• Final product:  Delicious apple chips!! So much tastier than potato chips.

  Come back tomorrow for a giveaway!!

Friday: Exercise Ideas

Can you think of any better exercise than farming?  Our poor kids don’t get the opportunity to take part in such rigorous hard work.  Sometimes I wish we lived on a farm, just to teach my kids some good life working skills.   

And then came the opportunity!   Just west of us, our church owns 3000 acres, where they grow wheat, corn, and hay (I think).  On Saturday morning (it was a little rainy), but we got our medical gloves (we don’t have gardening gloves, but we have lots of medical gloves) and our rain jackets and headed over there.

For two hours we piled sage brush for burning, and moved rocks.  There was kids from 1 years old, to probably 80 years old there helping.  Even a wheel chair bound guy came.  There was something for everyone to do.  And it was HARD WORK.  I can run 12 miles and feel great, but bending over and throwing sticks made me exhausted.  The kids did great though. They never complained once. In fact they had so much fun doing it, they weren’t even asking to go home.

What can we do in regular old suburbia to teach us the skills of rural life?  I suggest:

• Let your kids help with yard work, no matter how old they are.
• Clean up your parks nad neighborhoods!!
• help an elderly neighbor maintain their yard.
• Walk more often than drive places.
• Watch Little House on The Prarie  

When kids work hard, they feel good about themselves!

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.