How-to not eat tuna helper

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.  When I was in middle school I was seriously obsessed with those boxed tuna helper meals.  The one where all you have to do is boil the noodles, add the sauce and 1 can of tuna fish and you’re left with creamy carb goodness.

Although I’m sure they’re still good once in a great while, I just don’t really do the whole meal-in-a-box thing anymore.  Not only are they loaded with funky additives and salt, I always have the opinion that you can recreate the meal with wholesome ingredients and make it taste just as good (if not better) than the processed version.

How to make tuna-noodle casserole:

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Voila! I know most of you reading this probably don’t have a problem with tuna helper or boxed meals in general, but I feel like this is a great swap for kids who are hooked on the saltiness of pre-packaged food.  I realize that Annie’s mac is still not exactly a “whole” food, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

Have a wonderful day! Just 2 more short days of class and I’m a FREE BIRD for the summer!!!!!!

POM Wonderful

Look what I got in the mail!

I was SO thrilled when Kristin from POM Wonderful offered to send me some of their pomegranate juice to sample.  I stare this stuff down almost every time I go grocery shopping but the steep price tag scares me off.  In addition to a nice supply of the product, Kristin also sent me some great educational information on the benefits.

Some great things about the company and/or juice:

• No added sugar, preservatives, colors or cheap filler juices. I like this because usually when you buy pomegranate ANYTHING, the first ingredient is apple or pear juice.  Not that these are bad, but they lack the nutritional punch that pom does so you’re definitely getting a sub-par product with a fancy name.  Check your labels!
• From tree to bottle, POM Wonderful grows their own fruit, pick it by hand, squeeze it and manufacture their own bottles.  Impressive!
• WONDERFUL Variety.  There are actually  many different varieties of the fruit itself, but the “wonderful” variety is the one with proven health benefits.  POM juice uses this variation only.
• A symbol of health, fertility and rebirth. Super interesting that this fruit has been around for centuries because it seems like the hype has just started in past few years or so.  It’s definitely not a “fad” food by any means.  It has been proven through research-based studies to have positive effects on prostate cancer, erectile function, and of course is a fabulous source of antioxidants.

I tasted the juice immediately upon arrival of my package and it tastes FABULOUS!  I’m so sad that my supply is already half gone.  Although the price is high, it’s obviously for good reason and since the flavor is so intense, you could easily get away with diluting to stretch it out a little further.

Recipes involving the use of POM, coming soon!  Thanks a bunch, Kristin!

How to ease children into “healthy” food

Hey guys!

Do you want to hear about one of my biggest peeves in the world? Yes?  Good I knew you would.  I absolutely, positively hate the way that “kid’s menu food” is always chicken nuggets, hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac ‘n cheese and french fries.  Whether you go to a fast food place or a sit-down restaurant, generally you will find the same similar set of, well,  junk.

What is the reason for this? It’s because we as adults “vote” for these types of food to be put on menus when we order them for the kids.  By showing businesses that we have a demand for the greasy meals, they will naturally keep providing these and only these in child-size portions.  AND, many individuals unknowingly push these types of food in the home as well because simply put, parents are worried that children won’t get enough food and they want to feed them something that will be finished.

I totally disagree with this mindset, and here’s why.  Did you know that it takes a baby 8-15 exposures to a new food before they may learn to like it and put it in their mouth?  That’s a lot of exposures, so before you rule out a notoriously unpalatable food at first grimace, try again!

There’s different opinions on whether or not an adolescent child should be forced to taste everything, but I definitely think this is the best way to approach eating.  There’s no need to assume that children won’t like a certain food and you won’t know until you try.

Here are my 5 ways to ease the kids into healthy food:

1. Let them be part of the cooking process. By including your kids in preparation and presentation of the meals you cook at home, they will be much more likely to taste and enjoy the food themselves!
2. Make the food fun.  Don’t serve a 5 year old baked chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and brown rice.  BLAH.  Even I would be bored with that meal.  Make things colorful and experiment with new ways to get veggies into old favorites.
3. Don’t force it.  I don’t think the whole “sit here until you finish your peas” approach is very effective because it forces a bad association with the particular food item.  Instead, ask which particular quality about that food is unappealing.
4. Let them come to the grocery store.  Allow children to help pick out new items that look good to them.  That being said, steer clear of the candy and candy-esque cereals that take up half of the aisles.  Marking at it’s finest! Try not to give into to the temptation.
5. Have family dinners.  What ever happened to families sitting down at the dinner table in the same place every night, talking about their day over a home-cooked meal?  It seems almost non-existent as our schedules get busier and technology takes over our night-time brains.  My family always did this (at least on most nights of the week) and I swear that it does wonders both nutritionally speaking and in terms of family bonding.  Bring family meals back!

My dinner tonight is an example of how you can make a classic fun and delicious meal into a healthy favorite for a child:

Veggie Quesadillas:

This was quick and easy, tasty and healthy.  The inside was full of veggie goodness:

In case you can’t tell, that’s hummus, spinach, tomato, avocado, green onion, and goat cheese.  You can make this a little less “out-there” by subbing out the green onion and goat cheese for red onion and cheddar.  I love making these because anything can be thrown in and it always tastes good.  Make it sweet by using peanut butter and banana, make a breakfast version by using eggs, mushrooms and cheese.  The possibilities are endless.

What are your opinions on children and healthy eating?

And also, how do you deal with the fine line between encouraging healthy eating and causing possible food issues later on, especially with girls? This is one thing I want to be extra careful with when the day comes that I have kids…

Foodbuzz Health Section

Check out the heavenly Mango Avocado salad I ate for lunch yesterday:

I saw this on the back of a sausage label and we had everything on the list so I gave it a whirl.  Remember the jambalaya?  The sausage we used was this kind. The leftovers were chopped up and thrown in with:

• Spinach
• Diced mango
• Diced avocado
• Honey Mustard
• GOAT CHEESE (this was my own addition…)

Dinner was at our Student Dietetics “banquet” which was potluck style and insanely good.  No pictures, but just think about the types of things a room full of future Dietitians would bring to a potluck… So good!

ALSO, has anyone heard of the new Foodbuzz Health Section?  I’ve been chosen as a Contributing Editor which means I’ll be doing some more detailed and structured posts relating to a different topic each month.  Thanks Foodbuzz, should be interesting!

My breakfast was supposed to be oatmeal until I realized we were fresh out of milk of all kinds… GAH! So I settled for this instead:

Ezekial cinn. raisin with white chocolate wonderful pb/banana and simply orange.  Lot’s of name-dropping in that one little sentence…

I’m so happy it’s already Thursday!  This is my last week of school before finals and I have another fun weekend coming up here.  The only thing that’s dampening my mood is the apparent allergies that I’ve acquired since moving to Colorado.  Not for sure that this is what’s going on, but my head feels like it’s going to explode at any moment and I can’t breathe through my nose or TASTE FOOD!  I know, right?  Tragic…

Does anyone know of a hollistic/natural way to relieve allergy symptoms?  I’m not into taking over-the-counter meds but I really would like some air here.  Let me know guys!

Prenatal class tonight, I’ll be sure to do a recap later on!  Have a great day.

Eggs.

I’ve been eating a ton of eggs lately!!!  Hard-boiled from our Easter stash:

Who can guess what’s drawn in the picture below? Because I already asked one friend who had no idea… Come on Colorado people, don’t they teach you any geography when you’re in elementary school?

Scrambled…BTW, here’s the Easter brunch that I never got a chance to blog about.  It turned out pretty good!

I also just recently discovered that you can make a perfectly cooked over-easy egg in the microwave.  I know, I know it’s taken me 23 years to realize this… but using a ramekin instead of a skillet saves loads of time and dish-washing.  Perfect for my busy schedule!  This is my new go-to meal item.

***FYI, 30 seconds on high***

Also, have I mentioned the obsession I recently acquired with everything bagels?  You know, the kind that have onion, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic… loads of other stuff that constitute the “everything” title.

Yes I know they’re made with white flour and don’t offer much nutritionally—but wow they are delicious.  I saw that Thomas’s were BOGO free at the store today so you know I had to pick some up.  Along with the 100% whole wheat ones of course… Moderation, right?

Anyways, the egg sandwich I made on it was nothing short of fabulous.  I had a mini-photo shoot because the lighting was really nice at the time I ate dinner.

No egg sandwich is complete without cholula.

I put roasted red pepper hummus and spinach on the other side.  Yum.

In my opinion, the yolk is the best part of an egg.  Great-tasting and it’s loaded with essential fatty acids and vitamins A, D, and B12. Granted the amount of cholesterol is high, I feel like the benefits outweigh that as long as you’re not overdoing it.  Thus concludes my post about the egg.

Conclusion: Don’t fear the yolk!

And because I was feeling artsy, here’s a picture of yesterday’s pre-dinner snack alongside some color.  Pretty flowers, hm?

I swear green smoothies are the most photogenic food there is…

I’m going to opening day at Coors Field to watch the Rockies play tomorrow!!! Anything legitimate excuse for missing a day of school is fine by me, but this is something I’m really excited for.  Hopefully the weather is on my side.  I’ll take tons of pictures!

TGIF!!!! (close enough)

Breakfast of Champions

This reminded me of what I would eat at a hotel’s continental breakfast… but healthier and way better-tasting!

New cereal (Nature’s Path Cranberry Ginger).  Could be a little more gingery, but an overall okay cereal.

Fruit—leftover from Easter brunch

Hard-boiled egg

So sad to eat this.  It’s one of my favorites! haha… But I LOVE having hard-boiled eggs in the fridge and I think we need to start doing this more often.  So convenient!  And eggs are one of the most perfectly nutritious foods there is.  Filling and delicious too.

Coffee was consumed as well.  We finally replenished the stock with some French Roast and Italian Roast—Extra bold and wonderfully rich.

Anyone watch the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship last night? What. a. game.  I can’t believe how close the last shot was.  Nearly had a heart attack I think!  Bravo to both teams for a solid fight.  I had no probably putting off my studying to watch it.

Happy Tuesday.  Go Brewers!

Feelings on Milk

Good morning!

A nice and comforting, hot bowl of oats is exactly what I wanted this morning.  I mixed 1/3 cut old fashioned oats with 1/4 cup grape nuts to add some different flavor and texture.  I absolutely LOVE grape nuts (buy it in bulk from Sam’s Club), especially hot, so I knew I would like this.

I dumped in some milk, chopped up a banana, and microwaved for about 2 1/2 minutes on high, then topped with a scoop of PB, jelly, and rest of the banana.  Delicious!

Does anyone else feel like milk has gotten a bad rap in the past few years?  I started avoiding it when I moved away to college the first time and I’m not even sure the exact reason… Probably something to do with the antibiotic/hormone scare tactics at first, then I think I just lost my taste for it.

I’m definitely BACK ON the milk train. It’s such a nutritious and tasty food!  Also, it’s nice for when I feel slightly hungry at night time but don’t want to load up on snacks.   For those of you who don’t love the taste, oatmeal/other hot cereals are a great way to sneak some into your diet because the result is creamy oats and you don’t even taste it!  Vanilla soy milk makes the CREAMIEST and frothiest coffee.

Opinions?

Vegetarian Enchiladas

We had to do a recipe “make-over” for food science lab and what better choice than something so notoriously unhealthy–enchiladas.  I love making these because you can pretty much use whatever you have on hand and they’re super quick.

Step 1. Chop veggies and throw in a skillet with some garlic infused canola oil. I used 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper and half of a yellow onion.

Step 2. Add cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste, along with a can of black beans

Step 3. Divide the mixture evenly between 6 whole wheat tortillas, sprinkle with shredded cheese and roll tightly. Pour 1/3 jar of enchilada sauce into a baking dish, place the rolled tortillas in the dish, then cover with the remaining sauce and about 1 more cup of the cheese.

Step 4. Cover with foil, bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 5-10 to melt the cheese on top.

Ta-da! We made them cheaper by replacing the typical meat with beans, and made them healthier by adding fresh veggies, cutting back on cheese, using the whole wheat tortillas, and ditching the sour cream (I HATE sour cream anyway!!!)

These turned out really good! We got lots of props from everyone in class so it was definitely a success. Can’t go wrong with Mexican food, the only thing we were missing was guac… quite possibly my second favorite condiment (if you can call it that?) of all time behind hot sauce.  Next time.

Supplements and Cookies!

Good evening all!

My eats were pretty boring today (cereal, soup, leftovers, apple w/aioli), so I decided to switch things up a bit and talk some nutrition instead.

I went to a Soup Symposium for lunch today and listened to an R.D. (Robin, whom I intern for) talk all about Vitamin D.  She focused on the increasing number of those are deficient, why it’s happening, and where we can get Vitamin D.  After hearing her presentation, it kind of got me thinking about whether or not I get enough on a daily basis?  I eat well most of the time, but I don’t really eat dairy besides yogurt and even that, I don’t eat on a daily basis.

I figured I would do a little rundown of the foods that are considered good sources so that maybe you can start adding them into your grocery cart more often.  I think it’s definitely something to pay attention to!

According to the National Institutes of Health, there are three ways to get the sufficient amount of Vitamin D.  These include sunlight (which triggers your body to synthesize it), supplementation, and food.  Here are some sources:

• cod liver oil (anyone?)
• salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines (eat your fish!)
• milk (be sure to check your milk substitute to be sure it’s fortified)
• fortified breakfast cereal
• egg yolk (there’s lot’s of good stuff in there, just don’t go overboard)
• beef liver
• cheese (YUMMY)

Most people get sufficient exposure through sunlight because the body is a wonderful thing and can work magic by synthesizing the stuff, but apparently if you’re above the 42 degree north latitude, sun exposure from November-February is not sufficient… another reason why I love living in northern Michigan! haha just kidding… kinda.

Anyways, I’m not one to take supplements, and I don’t think I’ll start taking them even in this case.  Multi-vitamins are even if’y to me because I feel like for all I know, the thing may not even have what it claims, and to me they’re just a waste of money until the FDA starts regulating them.

That being said, I do have some brown rice protein powder samples coming my way because I want to start lifting more and increasing my protein intake a bit, but I can’t find a whey protein that doesn’t have weird ingredients and artificial sweeteners.  After seeing it on Gina‘s blog, I figured I would give it a try.  Anyone have thoughts on supplementation? Multi-vitamins, protein powder, or in general? I would love to hear what you guys think…

Of course I wouldn’t leave you completely picture-less tonight… I decided to make some of Tina‘s Banana Oatmeal Chip Cookies to eat with breakfast/for snacks this week…

This is the second time I’ve made these and let me tell you, they’re great!  I left out the oil and substituted honey for the agave nectar, but other than that I followed it pretty close.  I used a mini-muffin pan for the second batch and they’re the perfect bite-size snack!  Enjoy your night!