Healthy Family Hangout

It is much easier to prepare Christian's lunch box the night before. It also gives me the time to be a little creative compared to rushing something together in the morning. Tonight I made a dino-shaped sandwich with deli chicken meat, 1/2 cup of grapes, and in honor of the gold medal men's hockey game tonight 1/2 cup of maple leaf and star shaped cucumbers. I saved back the outter trims of the cucumber for another lunch or snack.

Today's school lunch is quite simple...extra lean black forest ham and lettuce wrap (no dressing by Christian's request), celery sticks, and homemade banana bread made with Splenda. Christian loves when he gets a school lunch that departs from the typical sandwich.

Christian and his dad are both fans of soup. Me, not so much. I have decided to start making soup because it can be a low-cal meal and to feed my family what they like. Although I am nearing my mid-30's I only consider myself a beginner cook and made my first pot of soup just a few weeks ago. I used to think that soup was difficult, but learned quickly that chicken stock is my new best friend. Yesterday I made a tortellini soup with my trusty chicken stock, minced garlic, onion, spinach, a little potato, can of tomatoes, and tortellini with a side of mini crab balls stuffed with mixed veggies. The tortellini were Christian's favorite part of the soup, of course. Christian has always had an afterschool snack, but it was never something planned. He'd just raid the pantry when he'd get home. More lately I'm preparing snacks to be ready & waiting for him. Last night I pulled some tortellini from the remaining soup, rinsed them & put them in a container wi...

I am still trying to get the hang of planning healthier meals. I am trying to overhaul breakfast, school lunches, & dinner. I am now focusing on following the food guide which means incorporating more fruits & veggies. The Canada Food Guide suggests children 5-8 years old should have '5 servings of fruits & veggies'. The US Pyramid breaks it down a little different saying Christian's age group needs 1 - 1 ½ cups of fruit ad 1 ½ cups of veggies. I like how the US version breaks it down into 'cup' servings because it makes it easier for me to measure just how much he really does get. On Sunday we picked up a Take & Bake Pizza and all the fixin's for salad. Millard diced & chopped everything and set up a 'build your own salad' bar on the kitchen island. It was a big hit with Christian! He was super excited and dug into his salad right away. One thing we decided to try was to serve the salad alone as a starter. This way the foc...

Chinese dinner was not a total bomb, but it wasn't spectacular either. Christian gobbled up his General Tso's chicken and requested more, but for once I cooked just enough for one helping each. He also enjoyed his rice. He ate around his peas to eat just the shrimp and it appears that he shuffled his veggie stir fry around the plate to give the illusion that he had eaten some. I could use the excuse that he has an ear infection and isn't feeling 100%, but somehow I think that if I had piled his plate high with General Tso he would've eaten it all. Despite the fact that I was using a 'reduced sodium' soy sauce I still feel like I used too much. And although I attemted to round out our meal with lots of veggies... they didn't get eaten so it's back to the drawing board on a healthier chinese meal for us.

It's hump day and I am attempting Chinese food with NO DEEP FRYING... I must be loosing my mind!! We had just gotten our recipes down which included bacon in our fried rice and now we've gone to trying to eat healthy. Christian absolutely loves cornstarch-battered chicken & pork with a variety of sauces. I am hoping that he will still like the healthier version tonight. The menu in more detail is: Artic Garden Thia Style Veggie Stir Fry, General Tso's Chicken, Fried Rice, and Shrimp & Peas. Hoping it all turns out good. Wish me luck!

This week I have to plan healthier meals around what we already have in the freezer & pantry. I did however make a quick trip to the groceries on Saturday and picked up the weekly staples: fruits, veggies, dairy and wheat breads. I hope to include Christian more in the meal planning and prepping. He loves to help and has his very own child-safe chopper. Today’s menu called for ‘Sloppy Joe Sandwiches’. The problem was we only had medium grade ground beef… not healthy! In an attempt to cut the grease I pan fried it then followed an old trick that my mom always did. I double-lined a bowl with paper towels and dished the ground beef into the bowl layering with more paper towels, as needed, to drain some of the grease off. It helped! I sneaked in some finely chopped onion, celery, green peppers, and grated carrot and put it all on a whole wheat bun. It made for a good meal.

This is our adventure in the culinary world as I prepare fun & healthy eats for my 8 year old son, Christian. Our fire behind this quest is he has Acid Reflux. Our goal is to eat his way thru this discomfort by avoiding bad foods and making healthier choices. Sounds easy right? Wrong! This is a boy who hangs from the fridge and swings from the pantry door so what better to start my little monkey out with than bananas. Yesterday when searching for an afterschool snack "Cocoa-Nut Bananas" popped up on several different sites so decided to give it a try. It called for Cocoa Powder, Toasted Unsweetened coconut, bananas (sliced on the bias). You simply roll the bananas in cocoa powder, then dip in coconut. They didn't look as good as the online pictures, but hey... what do you expect? When Christian came home from school and saw his snack sitting on the kitchen table he was so excited. He rushed to wash his hands and sit and take a taste. The fist banana slice was a succe...