Healthy Family Hangout

Soccer season is winding down. The playoff tournament has started and Christian has 2, possibly 3, games left to play.  He scored his first goal on Monday evening and helped his team to a 3-0 win.  It was really exciting for him and we took him and his friend, Brandon for DQ icecream afterwards.  A little treat is ok occasionally.  Throughout the summer Christian has played 2 games a week and has really enjoyed it.  He has improved in his play, as have the other players on his team.  One thing that I think is very noticeable about Christian now compared to the beginning of the season is his running.  He can run faster and run harder without having to stop for a breather.  Sure, he still gets tired, but so does his teammates.  Christian is now more conditioned and most importantly...getting healthy! 

When we lived in Virginia we occasionally would go to this little place in Norfolk that made the best Philly Steak & Cheese Subs.  We'd get a foot long sub piled high with meat and oh boy it was delicious!  We made our own for dinner last night that were very yummy! I picked up a 3-pack of red, yellow & orange peppers and Millard picked up some local onions from a road side veggie stand. I would've liked to have fresh mushrooms too, but I had to settle for canned from the pantry.  I sliced everything and put it on the Wolfgang Puck Grill and fried it in a little olive oil. We had bought the frozen Philly-style steak meat at M&M Meat Shops.  Millard put it on the grill, poured a little water over it and covered it with a pan to cook and steam it.  He seasoned it with a dry mix that I will post the recipe for below. Then he added the already cooked pepper/onion/mushroom mix.  We didn't have any mozzarella cheese on hand so we improvised a...

Burgers were on our menu for tonight, but I wanted to try something different.  I had a little burger recipe booklet from "All You Need is Cheese" with a Mexi-Mozza in it that I decided to try.  I had the ingredients for the patties, but didn't have the recommended garnish, but I figured I'd give it a go anyway.  I served it with side salad.  I always have a fresh supply of lettuce from my dad's garden and my uncle's garden.  Before we started eating healthier our burgers used to be massive.  This time I broke out my scales and measured out six 4oz patties...a much more reasonable portion size.  The recipe called for Salsa which made the burgers a little wetter than usual... and made it a little tougher to keep them from falling apart when cooking.  The recipe also called for 1 tablespoon of chili powder and 1 teaspoon of ground cumin which as you can imagine was very strong tasting in the burgers.  As I already said we didn't have the su...

Today was grocery day.  I shopped the sales fliers and came home with some lovely looking strawberries.  I knew they would go great with the Fat Free Jello Pudding that we already had in the pantry.  I prepared the pudding with 1% milk and spooned 1/2 cup into each dessert dish.  I washed and sliced the strawberries and layered them on top and lastly added a heaping tablespoon of cool whip on top.  A very simple and low fat, low cal dessert and oh boy was it ever delicious!  For dinner we had Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Coleslaw.  We tried Renee's Salad Dressing for the first time tonight and it was very good.  Overall our meal was about 4 carbs which was perfect!  

There's nothing like eating a good meal in the great outdoors!  A couple of weeks ago we packed up our picnic basket and headed to Cape Spear National Historic Park for dinner at The Most Easterly Point in North America.  We don't use my picnic basket very often but I love the darn thing.  Millard bought it for me at a store in Lynnhaven Mall, Virginia Beach.  I've had it for maybe 10 years, but it is still in great condition.  It actually came with its own cutlery, plates, cups and salt & pepper shaker, but I hadn't taken the time wash them all up after taking it out storage therefore I used real forks, paper plates and canned coke and disposable cups. For the meal we had chicken and veggies.  I'm sure you heard of Beer Can Chicken, well we did Diet Coke Can Chicken .  Same idea, just a different beverage.  We filled up Rubbermaid containers with the chicken, the veggies, and cantaloupe.  We sat at the picnic table just next...

We have been really working on balancing out lunch for the kids.  It used to be so much easier to open a can of  Chef Boyardee or throw some chicken nuggets & french fries in the oven.  I have learned though that making a better lunch is not all that difficult.  I was just stuck in a rut but now, with some lazy day exceptions, I have done a full 360! This is one of Christian's favorite lunches:  Pizza Burger (this one I used Turkey Pepperoni) , Celery Sticks... and well the applesauce is not necessarily his fav, but he manages.   It was served with Milk.

Ok, so it seems as if I have a little bit of a 'stuffed' theme happening here.  A few weeks back we made Crab Stuffed Mushrooms .  I had found some nice mushroom caps ideal to stuff and couldn't pass them up.  Christian, being the seafood fan that he is, wanted to stuff them with crab.  I cannot remember exactly how we made them, but I do know that we used canned crab.   They turned out good, but next time we will use 'lump crab' to get more crab flavor. I just wanted to share this photo of Christian stuffing the mushrooms.  As you can see he really enjoys helping in the kitchen and he is also trying to piece together his own recipe ideas.  He even made his own soup one evening!