Healthy Family Hangout

Over the weekend we had sliced steak with a balsamic vinegar reduction.  It was delicious.  Sides were canned corn and sauteed veggie: carrots, yellow peppers, onions, celery and a few pine nuts.  It was a great meal!

Have you ever seen a yellow watermelon?  We discovered it last week at the grocery store and just had to try it.   It was so deliciously sweet!  And the color was so appetizing on our dinner plate.  We would've liked to get a whole yellow watermelon, but they only had smaller pre-packaged chunks, big enough to serve a family of 4.  It was a special treat for sure!!

A Rainbow of Food For months now my family have been focusing on eating healthy.  We had improved what foods we were eating, but the serving size pretty much stayed the same.  It was mostly evident after a visit with the pediatric dietitian last month.  She seemed impressed with the changes we had made up to that point, but there was still progress to be made.  She had little plastic toy food that she used as serving size demos.  She'd show us how much of each food Christian should be eating and question us on his intake. We were going way over the serving sizes by double and sometimes triple. Oh my!  And after reviewing Christian's typical daily meals she pointed out that Christian was eating too many grains.  By lunch time he had already consumed more than his recommended daily grain allowance!  Canada's Food Guide recommend that a child between the age of 4 & 8 have a total of 4 grains per day.  I knew this already, but wasn't follo...

I am always looking for new healthy dessert ideas. Sure, it would be nice if we could have ice-cream every night, but we both know that's not a wise choice. I found this fruit recipe on KraftCanada.com . When we went grocery shopping Christian was so excited to see that they had Star Fruit. It was the highlight of his day to find a little fruit that was shaped like a star. That particular shopping trip I took the actual print-out of the recipe with me because I didn't have time to write a list. I actually liked shopping with the recipe as a list because I could easily see what I needed the items for. Poppyseed Fruit Salad Ingredients 1/3 cup Kraft Signature Creamy Poppyseed Dressing (I used Compliments Lemon-poppyseed Dressing) 1/3 cup strawberry low-fat yogurt 2 cups halved strawberries 2 cups seedless green grapes 2 medium Kiwi, peeled, sliced 1 small Cantaloupe, sliced 1 medium star fruit, sliced 1 small honeydew melon, sliced Directions Mix dressing & yogurt until ...

In our attempt to eat healthier we are testing new ingredients that we've never tried before. A little while ago I was trying to figure out the whole 'grain' thing and I learned that Quinoa was a common suggestion. I bought some at the Bulk Barn and it sat in the pantry forever... until now! Menu: Mediterranean Quinoa Salad, Mango-Avocado Salsa w/ BBQ Chicken & Poppyseed Fruit Salad I found a recipe at Kraft that I adapted to what ingredients I had. About mid-afternoon one day I put my quinoa in the pot to boil and started prepping my veggie mixture in a bowl. Once the dressing was added it was yummy enough to serve as is. I put the salad together about 15 minutes before serving. I didn't have much lettuce left in the fridge so next time I will use more lettuce. When Christian walked into the kitchen and saw the salad on the platter he got very excited. He said that it looked delicious and couldn't wait to try it. I guess it is true that we eat with our...

I was at the Bulk Barn last week and decided to try out one of their rice blends. It is Aztec Blend #1656. It includes colusari red rice, long grain brown rice, split peas, and amaranth. I had no idea what some of those ingredients were but figured anything's worth a try, right? When I got home I looked up colusari rice & amaranth. Colusari rice is a burgundy-colored chewy rice that has a light nutty-popcorn-like flavor and amaranth is actually an herb. It was very simple to prepare & actually pretty good. The peas were a little crunchy which added nice texture. I was surprised that both kids really liked it.

Two words that come to my mind when I think of summertime cooking are 'refreshing' and 'fruit'. I had found a peach salsa recipe idea that I thought would be great to try some summer evening. I adapted it to suite our needs and I think it would go good with chicken or pork or maybe even fish. Tonight`s menu was Pepper Crusted Pork with Peach Salsa, Spinach Salad, & 1/2 cup Jello Fat Free Chocolate Pudding with a dollop of Cool Whip. We had bought a big hunk of pork a couple of weeks ago and before freezing it Millard prepared into a few meals including pepper crusted boneless chops. For tonight's meal all I had to do was thaw the pork, make the salsa and prepare the salad & pudding. First I prepared my Roasted Red Peppers on the grill. Then I took 2 peaches and peeled and diced them and tossed them in a bowl. They smelled so refreshing! I then diced the half a cup of both yellow and red peppers. Diced & added the red onions Mixed it up, added lime ...

Today I was making a salsa that called for Roasted Peppers so instead of using the jarred one packed in sodium I decided to make my own. I used red, yellow, and red peppers. I first washed and dried the peppers real well. Then I brushed them with some extra virgin olive oil and put them on the heated grill. I had a very active 15 month old and a very curious 8 year old on my hands so I didn't time how long it took to roast them. I lifted the grill cover about every minute and turned them as they blackened. Once they were blackened I began to place them in a plastic container and KERPLOP! I dropped one on the deck and it exploded!! Oh well, thankfully I only dropped one!Once I successfully put the other peppers in the plastic container I put the cover on them for 20 minutes. When the time was up the charred skin pulled off ever so easily. The whole process was much easier than I ever could`ve imagined. I thought that I was in over my head for sure, but the hardest part was keepin...

We have been having some nice, hot weather here in Newfoundland recently. Every day Christian asks if we can go buy a slushie so tonight I decided to make blueberry slushies for Christian, Alexander and their cousin Josh. Lemon-Blueberry Slushie Ingredients 1/3 cup Lemon Juice 1 cup Water 1 cup Blueberries 1/4 cup Sugar 16 ice cubes Directions In a blender, blend the lemon juice, water, blueberries, sugar, & ice cubes until slushy. Serve in a glass with a straw.

It was a beautiful, hot Saturday. We grocery shopped this morning and needed a quick lunch for the kids. I made Pizza Burgers and served it with Unsalted Potato Chips, Yellow Pepper Strips & Blueberry Yogurt. Christian loved his pizza burger of course. He tried the raw peppers, but didn`t like them. I was just happy that he tried them.

Recently menu planning has been a huge chore. I had done a lot of repeats and a lot of last minute planning which doesn't always turn out the healthiest of options. Last night I took the time to sit and put together a rough menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for this weekend and upcoming week. I ran out early this morning to pick up some of the items that I needed. I made a short shopping list AND because I was short on time I printed off the recipes that I planned to use and took them along with me. I was proud that we got in and out of both Walmart & the grocery store with mostly fruits & veggies. I did buy 'Unsalted Potato Chips', but hey, that's not as bad as what we used to buy before!

Good Monday afternoon! I have been MIA for a little, but I am hoping this week will be more productive on the blog-side of things. Lately I've been doing a lot of repeats of what we've already had. I am getting bored though. Christian is doing well with his reflux and looking slim and both myself and Millard have lost a few pounds. But I need some fresh, new ideas that will keep us excited about eating our meals. Managing the meal plan to worry about Christian's acid reflux & his dad's Diabetes & keeping it low sodium too... whew, it's a big deal to figure it all out... and keep going! I have been surfing online for new menu plans and hoping that I can hurry and get a good idea of what's on tap for this week together tonight... wish me luck.