Berry Minty Fruit Salad

In my long and in depth search last week for a healthy recipe for frog eye salad, I came across this recipe for a fruit salad using quinoa. I honestly couldn’t wait to try it. This weekend was the perfect opportunity.

The baby turned one on Sunday and we celebrated with a big outdoor picnic. This provided a wonderful chance to try this recipe on my whole, unsuspecting family.

Now, I don’t recommend trying brand new recipes for the first time at large family events. I don’t recommend trying them out on people you want to impress, or if things need to be “perfect” for you. But I wanted a large audience to sample this, and I don’t really care if things don’t turn out ‘just so.’ I have had many more failures in my cooking career than I have had success.

The recipe said the salad would only keep for 12 hours in the fridge, so I went ahead and made the quinoa the day before, but I didn’t put anything else together.

An hour before the party, after chairs were all set up and table cloths on, I made the salad. There honestly isn’t much to putting it together.  I did have to make some substitutions, I used honey instead of the brown rice syrup, and I used extra virgin olive oil instead of coconut oil. Mostly because I didn’t have those two things, and I wasn’t about to go out and buy them to make one tester fruit salad. I also didn’t put kiwi in it, because kiwi wasn’t on sale at my local store, but blackberries were.

I used my little mini-blender to make the dressing and tossed it all together. I feel like it made a HUGE amount of salad. So take that into consideration if you are going to try it.

The verdict is that the reviews were mixed. Some people loved it and some people did not like it at all. No one asked for the recipe, and no one wanted to take some of it home. I think that speaks for itself. I won’t be making it again. The flavor of the mint was much too strong. I really enjoyed the texture of the quinoa with the fruit and coconut and the crunch of the almonds, but it all just ended up tasting like gum or in my case my grandparent’s irrigation ditch that we used to swim in where the mint used to grow along the banks.  I thought perhaps it was just my dislike of strong mint flavors that made me not like the salad, but there were several people there that never swam in ditch water and they weren’t over-the-moon about the salad either.

If I ever do attempt it again, I will half the mint in the dressing right off the top, and then once I made the dressing I will add it very slowly to taste.   I love the idea behind this salad and I am going to keep searching for a quinoa fruit salad that I really like.  

Frog Eye Salad

I have had an interesting food experiment on my mind today. 

With the weather turning toward spring  and family get-togethers becoming more frequent, I am craving Frog Eye Salad. Does your family eat that? Mine just loves it! They can eat it by the bowl full for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  

I have spent a good part of time today scouring the web for a “healthy” recipe or at least some substitutions that people make. Absolutely no one has changed this recipe into one that could be considered anywhere near good for you.

Here is the recipe from Spark People, the healthy recipe database--it is exactly the same as the other recipe.  There are recipes where people add sugar substitutes, use vanilla pudding mix, or a “lite” Cool Whip—and this is their version of making it healthy. 

Are there really some recipes that are just unable to be made better for you?  I was wondering if I could substitute quinoa for the acini de pepe, do you think if I doubled the fruit and halved the mini marshmallows that might be “good enough?” Do the healthy-recipe-makers of the world not lay awake at night and crave fluffy fruit goodness?

Lettuce Wraps

One of the greatest uses for lettuce is as a wrap.  I don’t know about you, but lettuce wraps are one of my favorite appetizers in the world, and they are fantastic to make at home.

I also use lettuce to mix it up with my kids when they are tired of sandwiches or burritos; we have wraps.  It is a sneaky way to cut out grains that aren’t so good for you and add an additional vegetable.  And if you are making lettuce wraps you can slip a whole lot of chopped veggies into that mix. I sometimes even add chopped apples, as well as bell peppers and shredded carrots.

If your kids still want the tortilla part of the wrap, save yourself the time and effort of chopping lettuce and just lay the lettuce leaf on the tortilla and wrap it up that way. You could even toss in a few unnoticed spinach leaves that way.

Almost anything that can be put on a bun or between slices of bread can be added to a wrap. I say almost anything, because I am not sure I would want to eat peanut butter and jelly on lettuce. But who knows, maybe my kids would. 

Soda Info-Graphic

Healthy Challenges - Week Three

Last week was week three of the Healthy Choices Challenge at work. It was the first week of choosing more physical activity. It was actually a really hard week to make active choices. It was cold and rainy, and the much-anticipated warm spring weather didn't come. I wanted to do nothing but sit on my couch under a blanket and hibernate.

But that made it a good “challenge” for me. I suppose life doesn’t qualify as a challenge if things are going to be easy. 

And so I parked my car at the far end of the parking lot, and walked to the store in the blowing wind and the rain. I played soccer with my son and didn't grumble about the cold. I got up off my couch and danced with the Wii, and when I was about to put off doing some yoga or taking that extra trip down the stairs, I said to myself, “Nope, you are going to do this.” And I did. Instead of killing 30 minutes playing a game on my phone, I spent that time doing something active. It was usually with my kids, but sometimes it was just something that wasn't sitting down.  I can see how a more active lifestyle is much more about a change of thinking than I previously thought. 

Thai Greens

Sometimes I make Noodles with Peanut Sauce because one of my favorite resturaunts makes this dish with grilled chicken and an "asian peanut sauce" and it is my most favorite stuff in the world. So sometimes I try and recreate it at home. It is so ridiculously easy you will wonder why I go out and pay for it to be made for me.  I use this peanut sauce recipe and then spice it up to my mood. 

When I made it recently, I decided to add some Thai Greens to it, I used the recipe that is highlighted in this month's pineapple profile. 

 I absolutely adore greens, but I have never ever made them before at home. So this was an adventure. Lucky for all of us, I documented the whole thing.   Here are the onions and garlic sauteing in the olive oil, I wish you could smell this. It was divine! 

 Then I added the whole can of pineapple and as soon as it was steaming, I added my chopped kale. 

When it was about 3/4 as cooked as I wanted, I added my peanut sauce and spices. ( I used my peanut sauce I had made for the noodles instead of adding straight peanut butter - because that is what I had.)

 Here is the finished dish. It was so delicious. It was my first time cooking greens, and my first time eating kale. The experiment was a wild success and 3 of the 4 kids ate it. That is a win around here.  Plus, it was delicious and the whole dinner rivaled my favorite restaurant. 

Busy Night Quick Meals

With spring in full swing we have gotten pretty busy around here. I don’t know about you, but being busy in the evenings makes dinner time more of a hassle than a pleasure.  I have recently made a decision that we need to cut down on fast food and “eating out” as an excuse. If we are going to spend the money and eat out, then it is going to be a conscious choice and not because it was easier than cooking.

Food $ense has a great lesson called “Quick Meals”, they have some great suggestions in the lesson for dinner such as Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Veggie Quesadillas.

We use variations of both of those meals for some of our quick dinners. We have spaghetti at least once a week here, 1. Because my kids like it,  2. Because it is fast and easy and 3.With the exception of the ground beef (which is kept in the freezer) everything is from the pantry and so I don’t have to worry about not having something on hand. We add our green salad and it ends up being a dinner that takes less than 10 minutes (since I am not a “simmer” kind of girl) and I can feel good about serving it to my kids.  

Our variation of the Veggie Quesadillas (these are in the My Plate Lesson) is something called “leftover burritos”. I realize when I type that it sounds just horrible, but it is actually pretty popular here at our house. It starts with emptying out the fridge of anything that we have left over – sloppy joe meat, pot roast, chicken, if we don’t have a leftover vegetable I will heat a bag of frozen “southwest style” vegetable which is really just corn, black beans, onions and peppers.  Then we make quesadillas and add whatever anyone feels like. Since they have to be cooked individually the kids get to choose what they each want in their own and I don’t feel like a short order cook.  We have had some pretty interesting experiments that turned out to be favorites.  You really can put just about anything inside a tortilla.

There is no shortage of people online and on tv trying to help you prepare quick and fast meals, there are shows and cookbooks galore all trying to help you make dinner with less than 5 ingredients and in 30 minutes are less. The trick to making this work for your family is to know what fast and easy meals work for you. – What do you personally have planned for that night went soccer practice went longer than usual and you have a meeting in an hour and the kids are screaming for burgers in the backseat.  The key to not stopping at the drive through is know that you have something at home that you can make that is fast, easy AND healthy.

Here are my 5 go- to recipes that I try and have always on hand for just such an occasion.

1.       Spaghetti

2.       Macaroni and Cheese (with S.O.S. Mix)

3.       Potatoes and Kielbasa (this all lives in the freezer and my kids Adore it!) 

4.       Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (I add soup on a cold day, green salad other times)

5.       Chicken and Rice – This becomes super-fast because I used canned chicken.

I think most of us end up eating fast food and junk food because we just don’t have a plan. Knowing that you have something to make even in a pinch can end up saving a lot of money and feeding your family so much better.  Also, when you menu plan, being aware of your family’s schedule can save you a lot of hassle.  I don’t plan big dinners on Tuesday nights because everyone has somewhere they have to be that night.

I don’t know if you remember watching the old G.I. Joe cartoons when you were little, but at the end they always taught a little lesson and finished with, “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” And now you can make a plan and since you will know what to make for dinner you won’t be caught unarmed and unprepared in the battle against hungry kids wanting hamburgers.  

What bad habits are costing me

It has almost been two weeks since I started my behavior challenge at work and decided to give up soda. Well, I actually decided to cut back on soda, but I have ended up not having any at all. It was much easier for me to just cut it out of my routine than try and cut back on what I was consuming.

I very much would enjoy the ritual of going to the local convenience store, getting out of my house and saying "hi" to the clerks. It made a nice break in my day. I would usually do it as a reward for finishing a task that I had set out for myself to accomplish.

It has been both easier and harder than I expected to give up soda. I haven't really missed the actual drink, but I have very much missed the ritual of it. Anyway, I am doing pretty good, I am very glad that I set the goal to just cut my consumption in half and that has given me a little bit of freedom to make choices about what I wanted to consume, instead of saying "none" and then feeling deprived.

As another incentive, and one that I hadn't realized is that I have saved a little bit of money. I didn't do refill cups and so my habit was costing me almost 2.00$ a day. And that was at a minimum, if I had kids with me it was usually more than that as they always wanted something too. It has been a little bit shocking to see the money not disappear so fast out of my wallet.

Do you have a habit that is costing your wallet as well as your health?  I read this article this morning about the cost of convenience treats and fast food. I didn't realize how much those few dollars can add up so quickly. When this challenge ends this is going to give me a lot more incentive to keep up with my better behaviors and not only save my health, but perhaps save for a new pairs of shoes too!

S.O.S. Mix - Paused

If you are going to make the S. O. S. Mix, be sure you have all the ingredients before you start. 

I am on pause because I don't have enough cornstarch! I also bought the kind of bullion that needs to be in the fridge and is gooey  so I couldn't mix it in.  


I am annoyed, because I wanted to make angel hair pasta with garlic sauce for dinner tonight. 

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Here is a blog post that I found on Pinterest of another woman who uses S.O.S. mix that she discovered through her local NEA and Extension. 

Aebilskivers

I made a super fancy breakfast the other day.

 Aebilskivers! 

The hardest part is finding yourself a pan.

I grew up eating these at my grandma's house and now my mom makes them for my kids.

We filled ours with applesauce, raspberry jam and peanut butter.

We cut the most lovely pineapple tonight. I know they can be a little spiney and intimidating, but fresh is so delicious and worth it.

Here is a little bit of info from Dole. I didn't find it particularly helpful.

Here is some great information on how to cut one up. And some brilliant recipes to use that fresh pineapple in.

We just ate these two plain, they never made it past the "snack-off-the-cutting-board" stage and into a recipe.

10 Things I Have Learned

10 New Things I Have Learned Lately

I read a pretty cool blog written by an amazing woman. She is slowly helping me to be a little more enlightened and gentle with myself. And she's helping me be more  courageous.  I wish that I could afford her courses, but that isn't going to happen any time soon. And so I read her blog and newsletters.  

Recently she sent out a newsletter listing "10 Things I learned lately." I thought they were interesting so here they are: 

1. There is an astonishing ease to the things that flow from following your enthusiasm.

2. That ease doesn't exempt you from hard work, but it does mean you don't have to scramble.

3. You don't always have to put your hand up. If your intention is strong and clear, the people who share that intention will find you.

4. Your belly will always tell you the truth. Listen to your stomach. Seriously.

5. Balance means very different things to different people. For me it means a softness in my belly and an openness in my chest and throat, no matter how 'busy' I may be. Balance comes in waves and cycles. It's not about rigid routine.

6. Everything goes better with tea. Especially if the tea is vanilla roiboos with almond milk.

7. Grace is a comfortable bed you can fall back into, a place of accepting everything - including yourself. Unlike most beds, however, you never have to get out of it.

8. Kindness is one of the most powerful forces on earth. All the more so for how profoundly it seems to be under-estimated by most.

9. Singing, especially chanting, really is a shortcut to bliss. If you don't think you can sing, I assure you, you can. If I can, you can. I promise.

10. You know that saying "We teach what we need to learn"? So far in my life, it seems to be true. Therefore, I teach the yoga of kindness and ease.

What are 10 things you've learned lately? If you have a blog, maybe you could the list. Or turn it into 10 updates for Facebook or Twitter. 

Most importantly, notice that you already know a lot more than you give yourself credit for. 

Love, 

Marianne

I am going to be courageous and accept her challenge. 

Ten Things I Have Learned Lately 

1. Even small changes matter. 

2. Being courageous doesn't necessarily mean you aren't afraid; it means facing your fear.

3. Always try and Act instead of Reacting. Purposeful actions will lead to fewer regrets.

4. Smile, even if you don't feel like it. It usually just feels better than frowning— and leads to fewer grumpy wrinkles.

5. My kids will not be able to find the toilet brush, their Sunday shoes, or anything I send them downstairs to get out of food storage. They will however find a bag of Hershey's Kisses no matter how well I think I have hidden it. 

6. If I try and look at my household chores as something that blesses my family, I feel lots happier about "serving them" instead of "cleaning up after them."

7. Chocolate, soda pop, and Doritos really do not make me feel better emotionally when I eat them. Going on a walk and yoga Really DO!

8. I will never be upset that I acted with kindness. 

9. The best thing to do in ANY situation is the loving thing. 

10. Start now, whatever it is I want to accomplish; don't put it off any longer, start now. 

Another sign of Spring

We have been working hard in the yard here at our house, planning and getting ready to put in our first garden. 

My grandparents had a huge garden when I was growing up, and I have fond memories of picking peas and carrots and eating fresh tomatoes and berries. It seems everything just tastes a little better (and some things taste a LOT better) when you grow them yourselves. 

We are lucky enough that here at our house we have a garden space. This is the first time we have had one and the first time the timing has worked out that we will be able to plant something in it. (Our move in July last year earned us nothing but a garden full of weeds.) 

So we have been working to get the garden soil ready and planning what we want to grow. I would like to grow peas, lettuce and some herbs; the kids want to grow carrots and watermelon. 

This is a first for all of us; my own parents were never big garden people. They helped my grandparents a lot, but they never really caught the "gardening bug." My dad will grow pumpkins and garlic most years, but I think it is mostly from the peer pressure of his friends than a love of gardening. 

If you are like me and have no idea where to start, I have done some research for you that I am going to share - and you are going to LOVE me for it! 

This is the best place to start. It is home-base for our state gardening extension.  This site is the Food $ense of gardening. Things are going to be very different if you are gardening down in Dixie as opposed to Cache Valley.  This site has all kinds of classes depending on what level you are and what you're trying to do in your garden. It has everything from basic planting, to container gardening, to a class that I am looking forward to—Family Gardening.   They have tips for the month, so you know what you need to be doing now.  This is a really great place to start, and the information is specific to your local needs. 

Strawberry Spinach salad

The fruit of the month around here is strawberries and one of the veggies is spinach.

Here is the famous strawberry spinach salad.

The reason I like this recipe so much is the dressing is homemade, which has means less fat, less chemicals, more flavor and more nutrition.

Salad for lunch

I love to eat salad. Or I guess a more correct phrase is that I love to eat salad my way. I adore crispy romaine lettuce. I buy it in the huge Costco packs and it never has a chance to spoil in my fridge.
I try to have a salad meal at least once a week, taco salad or pulled pork salad or 'big salad' is what we like to call a loaded chef's salad.
My kids eat salad nightly, it became one of my small weekly changes a while back and now is a wonderful habit. The dinner chore to be assigned is salad making instead of dishes or table clearing.
Here's how I did it.

• Don't make salad an option, make the dressing an option, but everyone eats salad.
• Start with a mild lettuce. Try not to get them hooked on iceberg because there is no nutrition in it. But the strong flavor of baby field greens may be a bit much to start with. Try red leaf, green leaf or romaine. And buy it in the head, it is much cheaper and tastes so much better.
• Explain the benefits to them, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at their desire to eat good food and take care of their bodies.
• Offer salads for snacks!

Here is some fantastic salad information from Food $ense. I especially love the salad outburst game. You really can put anything on a salad. Let your imagination run wild.

Homemade Yogurt - First Attempt = Fail!

I made my first attempt at homemade yogurt from powdered milk. Perhaps you can tell from that sentence that it wasn't a wild success. This is one of those experiences where I must remind myself that making something is about the making and not always about whether it turned out exactly as I imagined.

I don’t know exactly why this didn't work, since I have only tried it this one time. But I will try it again, and I will be doing a few things differently. For example: first, I am going to be much more prepared, and second, I am going to actually follow the recipe / instructions.

I started the yogurt on Monday morning. This should have been a fine idea, but I was gone all day Monday. The kids are off school for spring break, so that was the day that I decided to make eye appointments for all of them. This was not a great time to start cooking my yogurt because I wasn't here to monitor the temperature.

I didn't plan ahead in time before I began the project, and so I didn't have any of the supplies that I was going to need. I chose to put my yogurt into jars and then into a water bath inside my crock pot  I don’t even know where my hot pad is, so I didn't really have the other option available to me. (Plus, I do love my Crock Pot . When I had the mixture all whipped up, I started looking for jars (AFTER, not before, mind you).  Well I couldn't find any jars that were the same size besides baby food jars. I had two small jelly jars and three or four jars from spaghetti sauce, but no lids. I eventually ended downstairs in storage and found four jars that were roughly the same size, but they used to be pickle jars, and yes, inside they still smelled very much like pickles. And even I am smart enough to realize if you put your yogurt into pickle jars it is probably going to taste like pickles.  So I had to use a bowl with a dinner plate lid, because even my casserole dishes with lids wouldn't fit inside my Crock Pot.

But that’s not all! I didn't mix up the mixture right. I bought my sample of plain yogurt at the grocery store, but it got taken in the bag to Easter Dinner and didn't come back home. All I had here were flavored yogurts. But I thought I would be brilliant and just use one with “fruit on the bottom” and I would just use the top.  The recipe clearly states, “Plain yogurt – no additives.” I clearly replied, “I KNOW you’re not talking to me!” Surely, just using the top fruitless part of the yogurt was exactly the same thing, right… Uh Wrong.

I finally got it all put together, set into the crock pot  and ready to cook. I checked the temperature a few times, but I was trying to get four kids ready to see the doctor. I kept forgetting, and I know that it was way too high. The thermometer read 133 – 135, I would take the lid off and turn it down, then check the temperature, and it would be 112-113. It was like my pot was purposefully avoiding my temperature window.  I probably boiled all my good bacteria and was left with nothing to grow yogurt, except for the but lemon fruit on the bottom--that wasn't supposed to be there anyway.

After a day of cooking, and another day in the fridge, I checked on my pseudo yogurt. It was pretty much just cooked powdered milk with lemon fruit on the bottom yogurt in it. I was disappointed, but also very rational: there are many many reasons why this didn't succeed.  I am going to try again, perhaps not this week, but I am going to try again. 

How to Chop, Peel, Cut and Seed Anything!

I found a cool website the other day and wanted to share it with you.  Here is how to Peel, Chop, and Cut lots of different things that you may not have had experience with.

Giving up "the Drink"

Part of my employment responsibility includes “modeling behavior.” That means we get to practice what we teach.  I heard an old quote the other day and wrote it down on a post-it and put it up on my fridge it says, “Parents tell, but never teach, unless they practice, what they preach.”  My job is kinda like that; I can’t tell y’all how awesome it is to eat healthy on a budget with Big Mac & fries on my breath.

So this month my fellow employees and I are working on four different challenges, divided into 4 weeks. The first week we have been challenged to give up 250 empty calories. The second week, we have been asked to increase our activity by 250 calories and the third and fourth weeks we are supposed to do both.  I can’t wait for week two, that is going to go right along with my walking everywhere to take better care of myself, but this first week is going to be like taming a lion for me. I’ll tell you why.

Soda is my vice; I drink a certain one; I drink a lot of it, and I drink it often.  It would, perhaps, not be even too strong of a word to use the word addiction. I crave it as soon as I wake up in the morning; it is my comfort food and my coping mechanism, and my treat to myself whenever I think I have done something worth treating. I am honestly salivating just writing about how much I love the stuff. But it is BAD for me, and I mean really really bad, like BAD bad….. BAAAAAAAAAD. And I know it.

And so, for week one of my behavior modeling, I will give up 250 calories of the stuff (and actually I am going to give up almost 300 calories of the stuff, because I am going to limit myself to two cans a day). I won’t even embarrass myself by saying how hard this is going to be.  I may turn into a raving lunatic or be in the back of my closet crying – but I hope it goes better than that.  I don’t plan to take it back up next week either. This is going to be a permanent change for me. I have stocked my kitchen with limes for my water, and bought a few yummy beverage alternatives like green tea and the sugar-free flavored drink mixes that I like. I even did a practice run this weekend and I Did It!

This is going to be a challenge for me, but I know that it is important.  Soda is a large portion of our grocery budget and it really is terrible for me; hopefully, I can remember how dedicated I feel at this moment and remember that it is much better to try and keep trying than decide it is not worth the risk of failing. Even little changes matter a lot, and so here we go.