Back in the Saddle

It's a new year and we are firing the blog back up again! Over the past months we've continued on our healthy eating quest and Christian's BMI continues to improve. It is not always easy though! Staying on top of the game takes a lot of discipline, planning and creativity

We have fallen back into the breakfast cereal routine. Between me having strep throat in Nov/Dec, the flu this month and then just simply being out of the routine... it's been hard to find energy in the morning to pull together a healthy breakfast. No more excuses though! Christian's acid reflux has been giving him issues again so it's time to get back in the saddle again. Our Dietician, Leah, suggested we try fruit smoothies for breakfast. So that's just what we are going to do. We bought some frozen strawberries and raspberries and are all ready to go!

Lunches have gotten a little boring lately too. They have gotten plain and very predictable with sandwiches being the main attraction paired with yogurt and a fruit. Sure, it's still balanced, but just not appealing to Christian anymore. Now, partial lunches are returning home at the end of the school day, especially grapes, apples and baby carrots. A little chat with Christian revealed that he'd rather his apples cut into slices and also its tough because the other kids have "better" things in their lunchboxes like pudding and fruit roll-ups. Christian understands that he cannot eat these things because of his acid reflux, but he is still just a kid and it's tough sometimes. Right now, he is sitting in at his computer researching some recipe ideas that we can try out. :)

We have also been trying to be more active. Christian and I have started back up ice skating on Fridays. Its free for an hour after school and a great fun! We've all also got out sliding and plan to trying snowshoeing as well.

I am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things with blog entries. In a way, keeping a food blog had kept me more focused and I hope that it helps again.

Comments

What is a healthy breakfast?

Ok so I have to admit that breakfast at our household during school days had been very rushed and not so healthy. I would always let Christian pick out the oh so common cereal box that we all see advertised on TV. I'd pour a heap of sugary cereal with 2% milk into a bowl and set it on the table. I've obviously been slacking and taking the easy, unhealthy way out. Breakfast is referred to as the most important meal of the day, but somehow I don't think that a bowl full of sugar is what they are talking about. Breakfast is supposed to refuel my child and help boost his brain power for a busy day at school. Recently I've been making a better attempt to start Christian's day out with a healthier meal. I am keeping on my track of incorporating more fruits and because we have a super-sized box of cornflakes in the pantry I figured we'd have to use them up first. At a closer look at the labeling though I realized that the cornflakes aren't so bad compared to...

Greek Pita

Keeping up with healthy eating is not an easy task. We have been eating reasonably well, but it is tough to break old habits. I caved once in the past bit and grabbed Burger King for dinner for the family. This past Friday evening was beautiful and I really didn't feel like attempting some big meal. I had already had thaw ed some boneless, skinless chicken breast and thought that some sort of sandwich would be ideal. We had all the fixin's for a Greek Pita so that's what I did. I love my Wolfgang Puck Panini Maker and use it for almost everything including to grill chicken. I didn't add any seasoning... just threw them on two at a time. I got together all of the ingredients: Whole Wheat Pita Pockets, diced onion & tomato, sliced black olives, feta cheese and lettuce. For lettuce I always use my lettuce spinner that I bought at Costco some time ago. Christian absolutely loves when I call him to spin the lettuce out. It's like a toy to him. I also used...

Mango-Avocado Salsa with BBQ Chicken

One of my favorite foods in the whole wide world is avocado. It's a great thing to love because they have nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins, and folic acid. The only thing that I need to be careful with is that they are loaded with calories as well. One whole medium sized avocado is a whooping 250 calories! I was recipe searching back in April and came upon a mango-avocado salsa that I just had to try. We've had mango salsa many times before, but adding avocado was a whole new ball game. It was quite simple... cubed avocado, mango (I used frozen), and tomato, plus some diced red onion. Mix it all up and there you go. I served it over BBQ grilled chicken. Usually we have our chicken smothered with BBQ sauce, but this time I only marinaded it in some Budwiser brand BBQ sauce. Millard put it on the grill and held off on the extra sauce. It was a good choice. Our sides were sauteed a mix of fresh and frozen peas and asparagus.

Healthy Family Hangout

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