Have you tried making yogurt cheese yet?  Basically it’s just draining the extra water out of yogurt until it’s more thick like a cream cheese consistency.

It’s a fabulous substitute to all things creamy.  We mostly use it as a sandwich spread (as you would with cream cheese), but it can also be used as a high protein, low-fat substitute for mayo, sour cream, dips, or you know what would be good… mixing some with peanut butter for a creamy spread.  MMM, If you could see me now, you would see me drooling.

Here is the super easy method:

• Scoop plain yogurt into cheese cloth (double layered), over a colander, over a bowl. My only colander is super huge, so I used the steam basket from my rice cooker.
• Put in fridge till desired consistency (the longer in the fridge, the thicker it will get)  But generally overnight at least!

  Can’t find cheesecloth?  I had been to several grocery stores and they either “were all out” or didn’t carry it, or I couldn’t figure out which aisle they would keep it.  I finally found some at Bed Bath and Beyond if anyone is looking.

This time we spread it on bagels.  Plain is good, but I had some strawberries, so we mixed them in.

Arranging it to look like a butterfly is always a fun way for breakfast or a snack for some kids..  My kids think they are too old for butterfly bagels..  When did that happen??

My kids have a certain devotion to plain old oatmeal with brown sugar.  Not super exciting, but they love it.  I don’t know why I even bother messing with a good thing, but I wanted to widen the possibilities here.   So, I came up with

Chocolate peanut butter cookie oatmeal

After I cooked the oatmeal with some low fat milk (according to oatmeal directions), I added:

• 2 tsp natural peanut butter
• 2 tsp agave (only because all my honey is completely crystallized.  You could use either I’m sure)
• 1 TBL semi sweet chocolate chips.

I thought it tasted yummy like those chocolate no – bake cookies!  My kids were super hesitant to try it.  But once they did, they gave it a thumbs up.

Thoughts about oatmeal:

We love oats so much we buy it in bulk. In fact, I know we have over 50lbs of oatmeal in our home.

Quick Oatmeal Tutorial:

Steel Cut Oats:  These are the whole oat grain (called a groat), but cut into smaller pieces by steel blades.  While it contains the same nutrients as rolled oats, some people prefer the taste and texture to rolled oats.

Rolled Oats: First, the groat is cut with the steel blade, but then they are rolled flat.  This helps to cut cooking time way down, and some people prefer this texture better.

Coach’s Oats: The people from Coach’s sent some of this oatmeal for us to try, and we thought it was super tasty too.  Here is the difference from their literature. “Our patented process begins with the groats and toasting them.  Toasting the groats brings the natural sugars to the surface.  Next the oats are cracked into small pieces.  This way they have the nuttiness and texture of steel cut oats, but cook quickly like rolled oats.

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

This is how we garden at our house, and it actually works surprisingly well!

• Step 1: bury a few seeds (however deep we feel like)
• Step 2: Set up the automatic timer on the sprinklers
• Step 3: Wait for the harvest!!
• Note: We never weed after we plant.  We’ve weeded out too many vegetable plants that way, thinking they were weeds.  We also don’t thin our plants (too cumbersome) but this practice cost us our pear tree…dead after one season for having too many pears)

And that is how we have ended up, year after year with a run-away crop of CHIVES!   Despite our best efforts to dig it up every year, it keeps coming back in more and more abundance.  But I love the chive plant.  It makes a beautiful centerpiece, and delicious aroma, and they are good for you!!

This morning, we went out to cut a few for Omelets.

Trimmed with scissors (perfect job for the kids)

Chopped with help:

And mixed in with our Omelets.   (not how the Healthy Plate is intended of course)

Interestingly, you can eat any portion of the chive plant (including the flower).  With it’s light onion flavor, chives are perfect in many ways:

• Mixed with some light cream cheese or sour cream for a dip or a spread
• Add to your potato bar
• Add to potato salad or mashed potatoes
• Add to salsa
• Season cooked vegetables with chives, such as cooked carrots
• Make your own ranch dressing
• Add to potato soup

If you haven’t stopped by, I finally indexed my recipes!!  Head over to check it out.  In the coming weeks, I’ll try to add photos to the subpages.

Giveaway today! Chiquita Swag bag!

Last week we spent 10 hours in the car from Lehi, Utah to Newport Beach, CA!  I knew I didn’t want to not stop along the way for food, so I planned accordingly.  It’s not that I think we couldn’t get healthy food ON the road (a post for tomorrow), but my husband and I really don’t like to stop once we get going.  You know, we’d rather get there! So we plow through, full steam ahead and bring our food instead.  Here is what we brought to eat, that I felt worked for us.

The plan was: 

• Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs, homemade muffins, yogurt, apple slices.
• Lunch: Bagel sandwiches, string cheese, pretzels, carrots.
• Snacks: Trail mix, oranges, dried fruit

So, here is our new “Top Ten Healthy Food for a Road Trip”

1. Hard Boiled eggs- I don’t know when my kids started loving these things, but they can’t get enough of them!  They were perfect for the road.  The protein and the good fat in them make them a filling way to start the day. 
2. Pre-sliced bagged apples!  Lucky for us, Chiquita had just sent us some vouchers for their bags of fruits or vegetables. I redeemed them for this trip, and they were perfect.  As with bringing whole apples, the bagged variety never got bumped around and bruised, they were easy to eat, and left no core behind. Loved these (Head over to the giveaway page for today’s CHIQUITA giveaway!!)

   

3. Frozen water bottles-  My husbands idea really, but it worked great!  If my kids are holding a water bottle, they will literally drink it all in one gulp, and then have to pea every 20 minutes.  And since we don’t like stopping every 20 minutes on the road, freezing the water and letting it slowly melt, self regulated the drinking! They could hold their bottle, and take sips as it melted.  Genius!
4. Baby carrots-  My kids have slowly been weaned off the NEED for dipping their carrots. Don’t get me wrong, they love to dip, but they will also eat them plain.  And with long car drives, the boredom and mindless eating sets in, and baby carrots are the perfect cure.
5. Trail Mix- (single serving sizes).  You can make these yourselves, or buy trail mix in 1 oz bags.  I bought them this time, but we’ve done both.  I prefer the single serving because in the car, with everyone dipping their hands in a big bag, it tends to get messy.  And I love portion control!
6. Bagel Sandwiches- I finally figured out the problem with bringing sandwiches on road trips.. THE BREAD!! On the road, bread gets squashed, limp, stale, whatever.  So I bought some pretty hardy whole wheat bagels, some deli meat, lettuce and provolone cheese.  The bagels held up well. I put the fillings on (we didn’t even need spread the bagels were super moist), and we ate!  I will never bring bread for sandwiches again on a road trip, only a hearty bagel!
7. String cheese- Nice little source of protein, a little calcium.. and kind of a treat to my kids.
8. Pretzels- While pretzels aren’t that special, and completely devoid of nutrients, they do make a clean snack, and after all.. we like clean snacks when it comes to road trips.
9. Dried fruit (in little boxes). Remember when you only used to be able to buy raisins in little boxes?  Now you can buy anything.. dried apricots, dried craisins, dried apples.  And if you really feel like forking out the money, you can get these boxes of dried fruit with Sesame Street Characters on them
10. And our tenth best , healthy, road trip food,  Cuties!  While oranges get pretty drippy and messy, we’ve had good luck with the cuties.  And if you are my kids and are thirsty because your parents froze your water bottle… cuties are thirst quenching!

What not to bring:

1. The muffins! Complete mess! They got squished, the bag tipped over, and then the kids stepped on them! Never again!!
2. Candy- just makes the kids cranky and more thirsty!!

So, now you share… What works on your vacations or road trips?

Related post: Our last road trip

So many blogs, so little time! Have you seen this one?  Although I am the world’s worst crafter, I love to look.   I wish I could make this Christmas Advent calendar, but I know if I tried, my dove would look like a piece of felt with a spec of blue dirt on it.  So, I won’t try. I’ll just enjoy what others can do.

My pumpkin hummus flopped like many of my crafting attempts.  I don’t feel bad.  I liked it of course.  My husband thought it tasted like baby food (but he doesn’t like hummus anyway), and the kids wouldn’t try it at all.

Here is the recipe from allrecipes. (I cut the recipe in half to fit my tiny food processor). If you like hummus, I’m pretty sure you will like this.

Give it a try!  The sourdough bread made it all that much better.

And hurry, before it’s too late. Enter Cathy’s giveaway to try some organic fruit puree!

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?)

Today’s post is brought to you by my 8 year old daughter!

chop  the    carits. cut  the  strobarys. put  in frozen bluebarys. cut a appel. chop up  frozen   charys. put it in a bole and eat.

With over 60 nutrients including a special fiber (beta-glucan) that helps to lower cholesterol, oats are a high quality source of whole grains.

I love oatmeal because it is so versatile. You can literally make a bowl of oatmeal, hundreds of different ways.  Here is one way my kids like it.

I prefer instant oats or quick oats (I think its less gummy and obviously quicker.  So, I use 1/2 cup quick oats, and approximately 3/4 cup water.

I cook the oatmeal with water in the microwave for one minute

Then I add a shake of cinnamon, and chopped apples.  Return to the microwave for 30 seconds to soften up the apples.

After mixed, I add applesauce and a tsp or two of brown sugar.

Then we eat!! This is so delicious and so filling.

Oats are

• inexpensive.
• You can always have some on hand since their shelf life is long.
• They are so satisfying on a cold fall morning.
• Kids love oatmeal if you start them young.  If they don’t like oatmeal because of the texture, try oat groats, rolled oats, or quick oats to see if it makes a difference with them.

Here is what cereal boy thought of it.

Other oatmeal posts:

Strawberry oatmeal

Oatmealpalooza

A proud moment:  Yesterday a friend from church gave us a package of microwave popcorn.  I didn’t realize how long its been since we bought microwave popcorn until one of my kids said, “You’ve got to be kidding! They put the butter IN the bag of popcorn!  Amazing!” Then the other child said, “Did they put salt in the bag too?”

I love the days when my husband makes dinner.  He has been getting really creative lately.  His meals are always super fast, because he doesn’t think about dinner till 5:00pm.  His meals are always with ingredients we have (no last minute grocery store trips).  They are always inexpensive  And usually they include tomatoes and beans.

Here was the most recent meal he’s made for us:

• Tomatoes
• peppers
• can of black beans
• frozen corn

He grilled a tortilla, cheese, and the veggie mixture and called it taco pizza.

The kids liked it, I loved it. But I already made something called Taco pizza a few months ago. His was faster though.  Mine included making whole wheat pizza dough, etc.

My husband wanted me to let my blog  readers know, he’s there for you!  When I am too busy studying chemistry to take pictures of meals.. when I’m preoccuppied with the PTA that I’m not thinking  of ideas to help y’all get more fruits and veggies into your kids,  he’ll step up and do it for me!  He really is great!