Freezer Freedom

Posted by Carmen

One of the best ways that I know to make healthy foods for my family quickly, and be able to do so on a moments notice – is to utilize the freezer.

School gets out at 3 and soccer starts at 4 and runs until 7? Homework somewhere in there, and oh, by the way – I need a poster board and you have a conference call and Jimmy needs help with his reading? How will we have any dinner at all, much less one that is nutritious AND delicious?

Advance prep work will save you every time.

Case in point: I have several of the above bags in my freezer right now. When I buy fresh fruit, I take a few minutes to wash it and cut it into smaller pieces. Strawberries, blueberries, mango, banana, peaches and/or raspberries are all great choices. I fill an ice cube tray with vanilla yogurt and when it’s frozen, I stick 3-4 cubes into a baggie with an assortment of prepared fruit. Then I freeze the entire baggie. The next time I need a quick smoothie, I dump a bag into the blender, add protein powder and juice, and whiz it up. It makes a smoothie quickly and it’s a great breakfast or afternoon pick me up.

I often put two cut up chickens in the crock pot. I add a bit of water, some cut up onions and minced garlic, and cook on low. When the chicken is finished cooking, I pick the bones out and then put the chicken into baggies in the freezer. Tacos, taquitos, or quesidillas are a cinch.

I prepare several pounds of ground beef with onions and garlic. (There’s almost never a recipe that you make with ground beef that doesn’t require garlic and onions, right?) drain it and freeze it, and you’ve got the basics of spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, pastitsio, tacos – the list goes on and on. Literally – this tiny trick cuts dinner time prep in half – or more. I’ve even made the beginning of spaghetti sauce – brown the ground beef and sausage, add the onions, shredded carrots, garlic and spices, continue on with the worchestershire sauce and the red wine – all the way up until the tomato sauce. I’ve frozen that mixture before and it’s afforded me the opportunity to make sauce in literally 10 minutes.

Even when I make chimichangas – I double the filling and freeze half. The next time we have a craving for Mexican – it’s on the table in a flash.

There are recipe sites that offer meal plans that help you prepare an entire month’s worth of cooking for the freezer, with a minimum of money and quite often, a maximum of flavor.

Do you utilize your freezer when planning for your family meals? What are your favorite tips?

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Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference

Posted by Carmen

photo credit flickr/creativecommons/cajie

Kaizen.

It’s a Japanese principle that, at it’s very basic, means making very small changes, one at a time, in order to affect a big change overall. It’s most often applied to business models, but many people, myself included, have used the principle of kaizen to make changes in their health. Back to school is a perfect time to create new changes in your life, almost like a mini New Year’s. I often refer to this time of year as Back to School, Kaizen style.

In terms of weight loss or health improvement, the philosophy of kaizen fits like a glove. You should not making a broad, sweeping change – instead, make one small change, and as it becomes a natural part of your life, only then will you make a subsequent change. If you’d like to change the way that your family eats and move into a healthier pattern, here are some great, easy to make changes. Remember – don’t try to do them all at once – it’s a virtual guarantee that you won’t make changes that will last a lifetime – which should be your goal. One teeny, tiny step at a time.

  • Start with breakfast – There’s a reason that you’ve been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – it’s a way to jump start your metabolism and wake your body up after 10 or so hours without nourishment. Make that meal a good one – avoid the pastries and sugar sweetened cereals. Instead, fill your plate with a protein choice – eggs are particularly good. Cheese adds protein, as do breakfast meats, but keep in mind that those foods are higher in fat and calories. Fill the rest of your plate with fresh fruit. Other great choices for breakfast – whole wheat toast spread with peanut butter or a yogurt/granola/fresh fruit parfait.
  • Add Fruit – Make a choice to add fruit to every meal. It’s a easy and yummy way to increase your nutrition without a great calorie increase. We made a commitment to add fruit to every meal and while it sounds overwhelming – it was often as easy as topping my oatmeal with a sliced banana or adding some fresh spinach to my smoothie (yes, really – up to a handful added in to a smoothie doesn’t change the taste at all.
  • And Then There Were Veggies – Vegetables are often the red headed step child of a diet – you know you need them, but most of us don’t choose them. Try a new choice every couple of days. You may not like beets, for example – but have you tried them roasted?  You swear you don’t like carrots – maybe what you don’t like are the overcooked carrots Mom used to force you to eat. Maybe raw carrot sticks with yogurt dip are more your style. Branch out and try new things. You’ll surely find one – or more! – veggies to add to your rotation.
  • Soda Must Go – Especially full sugar versions, but even diet sodas aren’t good for your diet. If you’ve got a big soda habit – which is more common than you might think – set a goal to drop one a week. The mid afternoon soda, the before bed refresher – pick one and replace it with water. Keep going until you’ve lost all the soda. Replace it with water.
  • Add More Water – Following the above advice, switch out those sodas with water. Find water too bland? Switch it up with a crystal light packet, fresh fruit slices or a dollop of fruit juice. Your body is mostly comprised of water. Not soda.
  • Go for a Walk – Get out there and shake a leg. Don’t already have an exercise habit? Despair of ever getting back into shape? The biggest journey, the longest marathon – all begin with one step.
  • No HFCS - ever. Eliminate it from your diet in any form, and you will feel much healthier. When I was actively pursuing a weight loss, and plateaued, I experimented with dropping HFCS from my diet – and to my astonishment, I dropped 10 more pounds.
  • Whole Grains, ftw! – Experiment with removing white flour from your diet. In fact, many people follow a “no white” diet – which means that they eat no white flour or sugar. White flour has been bleached and stripped of nutrition and your body processes it chemically in much the same manner as sugar.

Have you made any of these changes to your diet? What was your experience?

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Back to School – What’s for Dinner?

Posted by Carmen

The best part of summer, in my opinion, is the lack of schedule. This goes for meal time. Often, we have “Make your own dinner” – lots of foods, laid out on the counter, and you take what grabs your eye. It’s a fantastic way to clean out the refrigerator as well as make dinner easier on you as a parent. We also do a lot of grilling out, picnicing and eating dinner poolside or at the beach.

But when school starts up, and you return to activity schedules and sports practices, dinner time becomes a focused, necessary evil. You’ve got a schedule to keep, homework to get done, bedtimes on which to crack – and you need dinner to be done, already, and in those bellies. What’s a busy mom to do?

  • Create a routine – When your children are at school, they have a routine. It helps them to know what is coming next. In the same way, having a routine helps you. Make a dinner time plan and stick with it.
  • Plan a meal rotation – Every family has favorites. Does your husband rave about your pot roast? Do you make a special pasta sauce that is so good it makes people cry? Get a notebook and jot down as many meals that you can think of that are family favorites. Figure out how many of them you can make and plan a rotation. It may work to make Monday a pasta night, Tuesday chicken, Wednesday Mexican, and so on.
  • Master Grocery Lists can be your friend – It sounds like a lot of work, but take the time to create a master grocery list. You can always find one online to copy, but I have noticed that they don’t have the foods that we purchase most often. Maybe you can modify an existing list. Post that list where the entire family has easy access, and jot down foods that need to be replenished as soon as you notice. This way, you will have the items that you need when it comes time to prepare your meals.
  • Post a Plan - Place a chalk board or dry erase board in a prominent location in your kitchen. Take into account the reality that Monday is a late night and you need to have a quick meal ready for a fast turnaround. Write down all of the meals for the week, including side dishes and desserts, if you like. This way, your family knows what to expect and you have already decided what’s for dinner, often the most excruciating part of the dinner dilemma.
  • Make use of your crock pot – Often as easy as a dump and go, your crock pot can help you make a fabulous meal with very little effort. It’s even easier to use your crock pot if you assemble the foods in the crock the night before, maybe while you are cleaning the kitchen, and place it in the refrigerator. The next morning, you merely need to pop the crock pot into its base and plug it in. I’ve posted one of our family favorites below.
  • Advance Preparation Works – You may laugh, but I often make dinner at lunch time. Then I put the prepared foods into the refrigerator, and I merely need to heat it up at dinner time. Many families have success with Once a Month cooking, or cooking large batches of easy to freeze meals on the weekends. I’ve even known families who put all of the necessary ingredients for a crock pot meal into a freezer bag, making several batches, and freezing them. There are many great websites with crock pot recipes – one very good one is A Year of Slow Cooking.
  • For back to school, try this chicken recipe that my family loves:

Cream Cheese Chicken

Into your crock pot, place a pound of chicken for every 4 people. Add one stick of butter, one packet of dry Good Seasons Italian salad dressing, and one can of condensed cream of chicken soup (low fat is fine). Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Thirty minutes before you want to serve, open the crock pot and shred the chicken. Add one block of cream cheese (low fat is fine), replace the lid and allow it to melt. Stir together and serve over brown rice or pasta.

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Back to School Breakfast Ideas

Posted by Carmen

Back to school means a blessed return to schedule, which is all kinds of awesome for many of us. I, personally, enjoy the schedule keeping – it gives me an opportunity to get people to bed early. But one of the downfalls of the entire back to school scenario is the reality that we are now forced to make sure each and every child under our care gets out of the house with a healthy breakfast. Preparing a healthy breakfast may not be the difficult part for you – maybe you are a rock star in the kitchen. You might struggle with getting the child to actually eat that meal, though. Here are some of my children’s favorite breakfast choices, those that we rely on for school mornings.

  • Baked Oatmeal – make a pan of this breakfast treat, filled with your favorite dried fruits, and breakfast is both yummy and speedy. Cut a square to eat on the run, or if you have a few minutes, crumble the square into a bowl, heat it up and serve with a splash of milk.
  • Protein Shake -  I make a big blender of these most mornings and send my high schooler off with a to go cup and a muffin.
  • Muffin and cheese – Blueberry or other fruit muffins are favorites of most children, and if you serve them with a low fat string cheese, it’s an easily transported meal that is relatively good for you. Another option with muffins – drinkable yogurt.
  • Cheddar Sausage Muffins - don’t underestimate these -  they aren’t very pretty, but they are addictive and filling. Serve with a fruit juice and this breakfast will stick with you.
  • Nut butter sandwich and fruit – while you are making a pb&j for lunch, make a second for breakfast. Serve with an apple or banana.
  • Waffles or pancakes – make an extra batch on the weekend. Lay them onto a cookie sheet and freeze until solid, and then put the individually frozen slices into a freezer bag. Pop a slice into the toaster oven while your child looks for his shoes and you’ve got an easy breakfast that tastes like you stressed.

What are your favorite breakfast choices when you are sending a student off to school?

Don’t send your kids off to school with an empty belly, or almost as bad – a belly full of sugar.

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Back, Back, Back to School Again – The Lunchbox Edition

Posted by Carmen

Photo by seelenstrum, Creative Commons

For many parts of the country, school begins today. (Not for me – I have two weeks for some of my kids and three for one more. Lucky, lucky me – they are still.right.here.) But soon enough, it will be time to pull out the lunch boxes, dust off the thermoses and scrape your brain for one more packed lunch that your kid won’t trade and will actually eat. Instead of a wing and a prayer, try some of these delicious and nutritious lunch box options?

  • Ask. The most important aspect of packing a school lunch that will be eaten is actually involving the lunch recipients. What does your child think will be a good lunch? (You might need to use this time to do a little bit of education here – go over the need for protein, veggies and such – you can reference the USDA’s new My Plate for a guideline if you need a little refresher yourself.) Discuss your child’s nutritional needs, especially if an after school sport is involved. Make a list and tape it up inside your cabinet
  • Pick your (protein) poison – The basis of a healthy school lunch is protein. Peanut butter and jelly is the industry standard, but don’t shorten your vision. Think about cheese and crackers, yogurt, chicken legs, cold pasta salad with meat and cheese, hummus, even a cup of peanut or other nut butter with veggies. If your child loves sandwiches, check out these great sandwich cutters to jazz up a lunch.
  • Flesh it out with a fruit and/or a veggie – fully half of your child’s lunch should be a fruit or vegetable choice. Fresh fruit is the preferred choice, but don’t discount the packaged options. Just read the label and avoid those fruits packed in syrup or with high fructose syrup.
  • Water it down – Many students beg for sodas or other sugar sweetened beverages, but your student needs water or 100% fruit or fruit and vegetable juices. Caffeine and sugar can cause spikes and dips in both blood sugar and mood and should be avoided. In addition, many schools don’t allow soda – let the school be the bad guy.
  • Sweeten it up – Let’s face it – everyone loves a treat, and you really don’t want your child to feel deprived. Deprivation leads to discontent. If you enjoy baking, there are many cookie recipes out there that are both delicious and nutritious. My mom often made a treat called Honey milk balls. Mix one cup each of dry powdered milk and crushed cornflakes. Mix in 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup peanut, nut or soy butter. Form into small balls and roll in additional crushed cornflakes.

What are your favorite school lunch foods?

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The Best Ever Pork BBQ

Posted by Carmen

My mom and dad loved pork bbq when I was a kid. It was a food that my parents told me I’d grow to love, but I was never able to get into the taste of traditional bbq. It was too spicy, too wet, too – just too much. Living in the South as I do, it’s almost a sin to despise pork bbq – I keep waiting to be drummed out of town on my ear, to borrow a trite Southern phrase. Especially distasteful to me is the traditional bbq, covered with Texas Pete hot sauce. Blerk.

My mom developed a recipe that she thought I’d like better, and she was correct. It was so yummy that it became a favorite for me, and I have served it at numerous parties and get togethers, and the one great thing about this recipe – everyone like it. It’s not spicy, it’s not too sour, it’s a kids favorite and an enormous crowd pleaser. Get ready to be a star at your next party – this is one recipe I’m asked for time and again.

PORK BBQ

In a large crock pot, place one pork roast. Cover with water and cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove roast from pot, drain water. Shred the roast and return it to the crock pot.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 cups of tomato sauce, 1 cup A-1 sauce, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup vinegar. Mix the sauce ingredients well and pour over the shredded meat. Allow to heat thoroughly and serve atop whole wheat sandwich rolls. (With or without (Shudder) coleslaw.)

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Summertime Beverages

Posted by Carmen

Summer is hot. Every year, we complain about the heat – and, don’t get me wrong, it is HOT. We’ve regularly seen triple digits in most of the United States during the past month. What’s a girl to do to stay cool?  If you don’t want to live in a pool or hibernate in the refrigerated section of your grocery store, you can cool off with some delicious chilly beverages. Rather than visit your local coffee shop for a calorie laden cup, try some of these delicious alternatives.

  • Iced Coffee – Mention “iced coffee” and many of us think of frozen, blended coffee treats – but traditional iced coffee is much different. Prepare a pot of coffee and refrigerate it overnight. The next day, fill a cup with ice and pour the coffee over the ice. Splash with a bit of flavored syrup (sold at grocery stores, or you can make your own simple syrup by boiling equal parts of water and sugar together until clear and chilling) and add milk if you like. It’s an easy and refreshing afternoon pick me up.
  • Fruit Smoothie – One of the best ways to up your fruit and vegetable intake, a fruit smoothie can be comprised of just about any fruit combo that you enjoy. Try strawberry/banana, blueberry/raspberry/strawberry, or peach/mango. A handful of spinach gives you additional iron and vitamins without changing the taste (but, be warned, the color does change!)
  • Lemonade – basil or traditional, lemonade is a fantastic thirst quencher that practically screams “summer!” If you want to reduce your sugar intake, look for versions sweetened with stevia.
  • Sparkling Juice – Juice is a tasty drink, but sometimes, it isn’t as refreshing as you’d like. If you make a juice from concentrate, swap seltzer water for the regular water. Bubbles make any drink more fun!
  • Iced Tea – the ubiquitous treat of the summer, it can be enjoyed sweetened or unsweetened, and both choices have their fans. If you enjoy Iced Tea – and who doesn’t? – try adding slices of fruit to your glass. Peaches or strawberries make an amazing flavor addition. Mint or basil leaves that have been shredded have a cooling effect as well.
  • Water – the most basic of all drink choices, water can be thought of as boring and uninteresting. Change it up by adding in fruit or cucumber slices. Put grapes, blueberries or sliced strawberries in an ice cube tray, fill with water and freeze. When the ice melts, the fruit adds a yummy touch of flavor.

What’s your favorite summer time beverage?

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Sometimes, You’ve Just Gotta Eat the Cake

Posted by Carmen

Chocolate Cake

So, I know that this blog is *supposed* to be about healthy family meals. But, every once in a while, you need a treat. Maybe you have a party to attend. Maybe you are having dinner with your dad and want to make a treat, but you are away from your house and you don’t have your recipes and darn it – you just really want to make something good.

So you turn to your standby – the cake you used to make religiously. The one you made so often that you have the recipe engraved in your brain, the cake that your kids have missed the most since you both stopped making treats and decided to cook from scratch. The cake with which your name used to be synonymous, the cake that calls your name to people -

The Darned Good Chocolate Cake.

Delicious warm out of the oven by itself, this cake needs no frosting – although friends have frosted it and adore it decorated, to me it’s just too much. One friend made a vanilla/butterscotch version, but to me, it just wasn’t same. I’ve even experimented and made it lower in fat by using egg beaters and reduced fat sour cream.

Here is my recipe, with my notes in italics. Enjoy – it’s best served with whipped cream and berries. Ice cream is delicious as well.

In a mixing bowl, place one package chocolate cake mix (milk chocolate is my favorite, but you can use dark or regular chocolate), one package instant chocolate pudding mix (I like the white chocolate or the cheesecake flavor, but any chocolate flavor is fine), 4 eggs, 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil, and 4 oz sour cream.

Mix on low for 2 minutes. Scrap bowl down thoroughly and then mix on medium high for 2 minutes. Batter should be creamy and look satiny. Stir in one bag of chocolate chips. (I REALLY like the mini hershey kisses, and have been known to buy a bag of regular kisses and cut them in half. That might be just a bit much for you, and so you can feel free to use any type of chocolate that you like.

If you are making the vanilla version, use white or yellow cake mix, vanilla or butterscotch pudding and either white chocolate or butterscotch chips.

Pour the batter into a greased Bundt pan – it must be a bundt pan, as the batter doesn’t cook correctly in a different pan – and bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes, or until the cake pulls away from the sides. A cake tester should be used to make sure that the inside of the cake is completely finished. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then invert onto a cooling rack.

Serves between one and ten – depending upon how many hungry people are at the table.

photo from kimberlykv – Creative Commons License

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Road Trip Foods That are Good for You

Posted by Carmen

It’s summer, and for many families, that means one thing – ROAD TRIP. My own family is no exception. I’m currently deep in the heart of Texas, visiting with my dad, step-mom and half sister. The trip has been great fun so far, but there’s been one area that has been difficult for me – what to eat on the road that won’t make me feel like an oil covered blimp.

Different parts of America, of course, have different offerings. Texas is known for BBQ, coastal towns advertise fresh seafood – and those are all well and good, except that you can’t eat them in the car. Stopping at a restaurant for lunch isn’t always possible and adds time to the trip – often the last thing you want in a long day of driving.

So what can you pack and take in your vehicle to eat on the road?

The basic parameters of road trip food are easy. Non smelly (no one wants to be in the car with a plate of fish!), non messy, and easy to eat. These guidelines cross out a number of foods, but there are still many delicious alternatives available.

Rather than depending upon a truck stop or gas station for your snack and meal needs, try some of these delicious – and good for you! – lunch and snack options.

  • Pack bread, peanut butter and jelly packets – hamburgers or other fast food might taste good, but they are not great choices on a road trip. A hamburger lays heavy in the stomach, can cause indigestion and a general feeling of lethargy. Peanut butter and jelly makes for a quick, healthy lunch and it’s easy to pack because it doesn’t take much room.
  • String cheese and crackers – String cheese is a great, low fat protein choice that packs well and can be amusing for your kids. Choose a whole wheat or multi grain cracker that will help add fiber (important when traveling, due to your system slowing down)
  • Baby carrots, cucumber slices and other veggies – cut veggies are a great choice, as they are low in calories and fat free, and when you are driving for a long way, having something to crunch keeps the monotony at bay. Keep the veggies in a cooler so that they stay crisp and crunchy.
  • Edamame – known as the snack with a nutritional punch, edamame are green soybeans in the pod that are picked before they ripen. They are low in calories and a great alternative to potato chips. They are delicious and high in protein and fiber.
  • Pop Chips, air popped popcorn or pretzels – Let’s face it – sometimes, you just need a chip. Rather than munching on Doritoes or potato chips, which leave you feeling greasy and bloated, pick a crispy, crunchy healthy choice. Whole wheat pretzels add fiber and air popped popcorn is a great source of fiber as well.
  • Apples and other hard fruits – soft fruits, like bananas and pears, don’t travel well, as they tend to get easily bruised and mushy. An apple holds it shape and is a yummy snack. Full of fiber and crunch, apples take a while to eat and fill you up, so that you won’t be tempted to dive into the chip bag. (Which hopefully you don’t have in the car…)
  • Grapes – grapes are an awesome finger food. Keep them in your cooler with ice for a slightly frozen, thirst quenching treat.

Freeze water or Gatorade bottles before you leave and toss them in your cooler. They will help to keep your foods cool and will still be slightly icy even in the afternoon.

What are some of your favorite road trip snacks?

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BBQ Treats and Tips

Posted by Carmen

Basil LemonadeHappy July 4th! It’s a great holiday that just screams “outdoor cookout” – but often, foods that are served at cookouts can be unhealthy, detrimental to the diet and flat out bad for you. Instead of filling your tummy with bad foods, why not make some of these great picnic foods that won’t leave you feeling remorse the next day?

  • Corn on the cob – either boiled, steamed or grilled, corn is a filling and delicious addition to the bbq line up. Mix together cilantro-lime butter ( 2 T butter, 2 T chopped cilantro, 1 T fresh lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt) and slather it on for a fresh twist on a yummy side dish.
  • Avocado-Corn Salsa is a delicious low fat salsa that is delicious with baked tortilla chips. (Psst – I may or may not have made dinner out of this one evening. Yes, it’s THAT good.) Sauté 1/2 cup olive oil, 4 cups of corn (2 cans drained),1 tsp salt 3/4 tsp pepper ingredients for 5 min and let cool.  Mix 4 avocados (cubed), 1 red bell pepper (diced),4 green onions (lt green parts sliced thin) and 1/2 cup red wine vinegar in bowl.  Add corn mixture & let sit 20-30 minutes to blend.  Serve at room temp.
  • Grilled Bruschetta is a phenomenal use of fresh summer produce. Rub a thick slice of french bread with a garlic clove and toast on the grill for a minute on each side. Top with fresh chopped tomatoes, coarsely chopped basil and grated Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper.bar of toppings.
  • Basil Lemonade – My sister in law turned me on to this and although it sounds very odd, it makes a cool and refreshing treat. In a 2 qt pitcher, chop 15-20 basil leaves and zest three lemons and place into the pitcher. Add one cup of sugar and stir. Fill the pitcher halfway with ice and fill to the top with cool water. Stir well and serve with a straw.
  • Got Mason Jars? One really neat way to serve dessert at a BBQ is to fill individual Mason jars with chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Put the jars into a buck of ice and serve with a topping bar – think sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, and fresh fruit.

What are some of your favorite summertime BBQ Treats?

Photo courtesy of zappowbang on Flickr – Creative Commons

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