I didn’t realize when buying these silicone muffin cups I would use them for so many different things. They make a perfect little portion for kids of many foods.

Dinner idea:  A few nights ago, I chopped up some potatoes and let the kids put the raw potatoes into the muffin cups.  Then I simmered some white sauce and poured them into the muffin cups and baked until the potatoes were tender.  They were delicious!  The middle was quite hot however, so we dumped the contents of each onto our plates so it would cool off more quickly.

I don’t want to hear any potato trash talk! I hate that potatoes have a bad reputation. I hate that most potatoes consumed in the US are in the form of french fries.  Potatoes are a whole, plant food, straight from mother earth! We love potatoes!!

I also like those silicone muffins cups for muffins better than paper. The muffins pop out of the cups without leaving half of the muffin behind.  Here are some other things we have done with our silicone muffin cups.
Oat/ Apple Cups

And These spinach quiche cups.

Perfect Size for Kids!!! And if you were wondering, I bought 12 silicone cups at Target and they were $10. But I have not purchased any paper muffin cups since I bought them.

TUESDAY: Lunch

Macaroni and cheese made healthier!!

I dare say, I don’t personally know any mother who has not made macaroni and cheese for lunch.  Its like an American Classic.  It may even replace Apple Pie someday.  I have made loads of macaroni and cheese in my 10 years of mothering. I Even bought cases of it for $0.20 a box!  But with the salt, the fat, and the artificial colors (really, I’ve never been able to get any homemade sauce as orange as Kraft can), you are better off making it yourself.

This is my quick lunch version of macaroni and cheese. Certainly I enjoy a good baked version with lots of vegetables and good stuff, but lunch is a different story.  This takes just as long as making Mac and cheese from a mix, although you are at the stove the whole time, rather than walk away.

While the noodles are cooking,  I get the sauce ready.  As I love to make a good cream sauce, this time I used olive oil instead of butter for my rue, and it turned out perfect!  I’m so excited about this switch.  In all three cups of dry noodles, (which I got for 0.60 per lb), there is only 1/2 cup of cheese. I also added some yellow squash (pureed from our garden and frozen last summer).  I’ve pulled these baggies of squash puree all year to use.  They’ve been great.

The verdict?  Everyone loved it and went for seconds.  If your kids don’t love it, they will someday.  It is different than traditional macaroni and cheese.  Much less salty, and as I said prior, a different COLOR, but that is a good thing.  Their taste buds will change to appreciate the milder flavors.  And if your kids are really little, start them eating this version immediately, so they aren’t conned into thinking all macaroni and cheese has to be orange.

TUESDAY: Whole Grains

When your kids give you trouble about eating healthy food, the next alternative is to make it look/ taste/ feel different.

This is what I have to do with granola.  I love granola, but have never been able to get my kids to try some (out of the box that is).  My sister in law makes her own homemade granola that her kids eat for breakfast almost daily.  This is a great whole-grain way to start the day.

Although my kids won’t eat it like cereal, there are other ways they will eat it.  Here are some granola ideas.

• Mixed it with yogurt
• Use as a topping for a baked apple!!
• Add to muffins
• Bake it in bread
• Make granola bars
• Roll bananas in granola and freeze
• Top a salad with it.
• Toss it with oatmeal for a cruchy twist
• Add it to smoothies
• Soften it up with heated milk and let sit. Then eat.
• Use instead of bread crumbs for stuffing
• Crush and roll chicken in it before baking for some crispy chicken.
• Eat it straight with various nuts and seeds as add-ins.  Try sunflower seeds, almonds, raisins, craisins, pecans, m&m’s, cashews, dried apricots, dried apples, dried pineapple.
• Makes a great neighbor gift.  Pour granola in decorative cellophane bag and tie with ribbon.

What do you do with granola?

We recently tried  Bear Naked Granola.  If you don’t have time to make your own, this is the next best thing. With all natural ingredients, no preservatives, no HFCS, no hyrdrogenated oils, no trans fats, no cholesterol, and No artificial flavors.  Plus it tasted really good!  We  tried a recipe on their site for Pumpkin Muffins!! These were really great! Everyone loved them.

Do you want to try some Bear Naked Granola??  They are offering a blog reader two bags of granola. For your chance to be chosen, comment today. I’ll choose a winner on Thursday.

It makes me crazy that pasta has gotten a bad rap.  People assume its not healthy, or will make you gain weight.  However, pasta is a fabulous food and part of a healthy and balanced diet that kids need.  But remember, the food guide pyramid recommends, half of your grains should be whole grains.

Whole wheat pasta, just like brown rice or whole wheat bread, is absolutely superior to white pasta. Here are some of the reasons:

• More Fiber!  Need your kids to be “regular”.  More fiber in their diet is the perfect place to start. (one cup has approximately 4 grams)
• More nutrients!  Per calorie, whole wheat pasta (or whole semonlina or whole duram) has more nutrients such as maganese and vitamin B.
• More Protein.  Per cup, the whole grain varities have almost 8 grams of protein.
• Is more filling! Due to the higher fiber and more nutrients, whole wheat pastas fill those little tummies up longer, and prevent spikes and drops in blood sugar the way white does.
• Studies show women who eat more whole grains, weigh less.  Sorry Atkins, over the long term, you lose.
• When mixed with sauces like Tomato sauce, the vitamin C in the tomato sauce, helps absorb the iron in the pasta!  Double bonus.

How do you make the switch with the least amount of whining from your family?  Simple!

• Start half and half.  Even 1 cup whole wheat pasta mixed with 1 cup white pasta will add nutritional value to your meal.
• Experiment.  There are so many varities and brands of whole wheat pasta.  Don’t try one and decide you don’t like it. Some are smooth, some are earthy and grainy.  Just depends on your preference.
• Sauce.  Some of our meals are easier to eat with whole wheat than others.  A heavy saucy meal, such as spaghetti, no one ever notices what kind of noodles I use.  However, one we eat a lot that only has vegetables and parmesan cheese….very obvious.
• Start with their favorites.  Do they love mac and cheese?  Later this week I’ll post our recipe for mac and cheese.  Using whole wheat pasta in a dish they already like is a great way to start.

Last night we made this dish. No recipe for it, because I just threw it together.  However, anytime I make a dish like this, I indulge my kids and seperate it all out on their plate for them. I’m a pushover like that.  Veggies in one section, pasta in one, and their chicken in the other…. And as always with pile of ketchup for ketchup boy.

1. Whole wheat spaghetti noodles
2. Cooked chicken
3. Bag of mixed frozen vegetables
4. Yoshida sauce!

What other ideas do you have for making the switch?

With no fruit left in our basket (except 1 banana which I am saving for pre-run tomorrow) I pulled out a bag of frozen mixed fruit that I’ve had since February for a day like today!  What a treat! It’s great to have on hand when you are out of fruit.  Today was warm, so I left it frozen, and added a spoonful of plain yogurt on top.  This is a stock up item when it’s on sale.  It can last quite a while in your freezer and still be pretty good.  You could also blend this up for smoothies, icee’s, ice cream toppings, skewer it for kabobs, chop it up for muffins or pancakes…. so versatile!

Inspired by Roni’s delicious looking post yesterday, I HAD to make it. She pureed watermelon with yogurt, and froze. Click over to her post for more details. It was so terrific.  My kids devoured it. I was hesitant to share it!  There just wasn’t enough.  Ketchup boy and I actually drank some before we froze it.  It also made a yummy smoothie.  I like this idea, because I always cut up our entire watermelon right when I bring it home.  By the time we get to the bottom of the bowl, we have small broken pieces.   My kids do like eating the wedges with the rind on, but my chopped up pieces are so much cleaner.

Why we love watermelon:

• Good source of lycopene, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin A
• Good source of water (kids are going to start needing to be hydrated and watermelon is 92% water!)
• High in energy, low in calories and fat
• Excellent snack and fun to eat

Side note: my mean brother told me when I was very small that I must have eaten watermelon seeds and was growing a watermelon in my tummy cause it was so huge.

I read in the paper the other day, our generation (today’s mom’s and dad’s) do not know the basic steps of cooking. That we complain we have no time to be in the kitchen to make food for our families, yet we spend an average of 4 hours in front of the TV a day.  While I’m sure this doesn’t apply to anyone reading this blog, it got me thinking though if I was doing a good enough job teaching my kids how to cook. 

I invited the flip-flopper to the counter to help me make dinner the last few nights.  I said, “When you are a mom, you are going to need to know how to cook!”  So, she pulled out an old spiral bound notebook, put page numbers throughout the ENTIRE thing, and asked me to spell each and every ingredient for our salad (the recipe she is holding was a bread recipe).  Then she started an index.  I thought it was so stinkin cute, I wanted to rush out and buy her her very own CUTE recipe binder where she can collect her favorite recipes until she leaves home.  I resisted however, and decided to let her do it her own way. She doesn’t know any better.

It is more difficult and time consuming to let your kids help you in the kitchen. But studies show, if they do, they are more likely to eat healthier, and when they leave home they will prepare healthier meals for their own famlies. And the cycle of  health continues….

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Zucchini, mushrooms, and broccoli!  I dipped in egg whites, rolled in bread crumbs with parmesan, and baked!  Super yummy.  Cereal boy didn’t love it, but as with everything else in his life, he obediently ate it.  He is very obedient.  The flip-flopper actually liked it.  And here is ketchup boy 1 hour after we all were finished eating, still deciding whether he would try it or not.  He tells me, “mom, i just did eenie-meanie-mine-mo…you are not it. and it pointed to the broccoli, so I can not eat it.  It told me to and it’s the master.” The he tells me he threw up in his mouth.  That’s why I didn’t know, cause it never came out.
A good dip idea for the breaded vegetables is pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. You can add a few shreds of mozarella to your vegetables prior to baking.

Do you get confused at the grocery store? So many manufacturers are out to trick you with their gimmicks.   Don’t be fooled. Know these terms the food people are required to follow when creating their packaging.  Teach them to your kids.  Taken from my “Nutrition Now” textbook):

• Low fat = 3 grams or less of fat
• Low saturated fat= 1 gram or less saturated, 0.5 grams or less trans fats.
• Low sodium = 140 mg or less of sodium
• Percent fat free = specific percentage of fat on a weight basis.
• Reduced = 25% less calories, cholesterol, or saturated fat and transfat than the regular product.
• Trans fat free = less tahn 0.5 grams trans fat and less than 0.5 saturated fat.
• High = 20% more of the daily value for a particular nutrient (i.e., “High in vitamin C”)
• Lean = fewer than 10 grams of fat, fewer than 4.5 grams of saturated fat and trans fat combined, and fewer than 95 mg cholesterol.
• Less= 25% less of a nutrient than comparable food.
• Light or lite = 33 % fewer calories or half the fat as regular product.
• Low calorie = 40 calories or fewer per serving.
• Low cholesterol= 20 mg or less cholesterol.
• Good source = 10-19% of the daily value for a particular nutrient.
• Free = no negligible amounts of sugars, sodium, or fat.
• Fat Free= less than 0.5 grams of fat
• Extra or more= at least 10% more of the Daily Value of a nutrient per serving than in a similar food.
• Extra lean = Fewer than 5 grams of fat, fewer than 2 grams saturated fat, and trans fat combined.

Today’s my television debut.  See you at 11:00 on KSL channel 5 for Studio 5.  I’ll be talking about getting more fruit in your diet! 

Click here to see the whole segment on Studio 5

For all my new readers, here are some of my oldies yet goodies:

Brown Rice Why you should eat it, and how to get more.

Healthy Cookies Because everyone needs to eat cookies, here is a recipe to try.

Healthy Muffin Recipe The fastest healthy muffins in the west.

My Pyramid How to teach your kids to eat better

7 Days to More Fruits and Vegetables Loads of ideas on getting more produce in your families diet.