How not to Create a Smoothie

I have been kicking around this post in my head for a while now. I was not quite too sure how deep and dark the family secrets that I share should be going.

Anyway, it is obvious that I have decided to share you with - how not to create a smoothie

Last summer my mom bought herself one of those super fancy ultra-blenders. You know the ones that I am talking about, right? She was going to blend and juice her way to uber-health and super duper slenderness.

I was with her one day and she was making herself a smoothie, she added green beans, pineapple, berries and then headed out to the garage, came back in with a store brand orange soda pop and Popped! the top and poured that soda into the blender.  I could have died, I was laughing so hard.  Now this isn't going to be a rant on soda pop. I already have lots of those on the blog that you can go ahead and read if you want. But it is a little story about how my mom had no idea how to make a smoothie.

For those of us / you who may be in the same boat as my adored mother, I give you.... Create a Smoothie.

It is simple in the brilliance of it and you can add just about anything fruit or vegetable you want. You don't need a lot of liquid and actually water is one of the best ones that you can choose. That was a new learning experience for me.

Be sure to keep your smoothie healthy, but not adding too much sugary fruit juice, stay away from ice cream and frozen yogurt, and never ever add honey or sugar to your smoothie - they just don't need it!

Some ways that you can really add some pep (and protein) to your smoothie try switching out those bananas for avocadoes, and be sure the dairy products you are using are Low-fat or No Fat. Or go for a non-dairy alternative like almond milk or coconut water.

If you keep your fruit pieces small and freeze them they will keep your smoothie frosty and thick without having to add all those things they aren't so good for you. You can always thin you smoothie with water or 100% juice fruit juice (but just a little bit) -- And never ever soda like my silly mom.

There are as many smoothie recipes out there are there are people who enjoy them.  Here are some ones that I especially liked.

Smoothies from Whole Living.   They advertise the article as Breakfast Smoothies, but you all know they aren't just for breakfast anymore.

Eating Well has a few smoothies that are different. I am especially fond of the Creamsicle one that is made with coconut water. It is just so delicious!

There is no shortage of recipes that are advertised as Healthy Smoothie Recipes, Here are two of them.

But as nice as all those recipes are... you don't Need them!  We have CREATES!   We have been making pumpkin smoothies, and eggnog (lowfat of course) smoothies and someone even experimented trying to make apple pie smoothie, (they were the only one who liked it - but they did).

So bust out your blender and some frozen fruits and veggies (my dad's favorite to add to his smoothie is green beans), but leave behind the ice cream and the frozen yogurt and for Heaven's Sake the soda pop! and get creating a smoothie!

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The blog is sporting a new Holiday look. I think it is a little bit festive - all red & green and the like.

The lights are twinkling and the trees are sparkling. 

We are hard at work on getting rid of the leftovers.  Remember to only keep yours around 3-4 days for safety. 

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Holidays from me here at Snappily Ever After

I hope you get to eat lots of pie. 

 and that your turkey looks even half as good as this one here!

We are experiencing some life changes here at Snappily, and since we are all feeling extra grateful for our blessings, I thought it might be a good time to remind you all how you can apply or see if you qualify for Snap Benefits. 

Snap Benefits can be a great blessing to many, if you qualify you also qualify to be helped by Food $ense. 

Food $ense can help you benefits go farther and help make healthier choices with the benefits that you do have. 

I am so very Thankful at this time for Snap Benefits, Snap-Ed and Food $ense. It has changed my life, come with my and continue my journey. 

Help! - Mom Down

This is the view from my couch. 

I am sick today. I have the crud that my family has been passing around amongst themselves and I finally have succommed. My patience in short, my attention span is shorter and someone in this family is going to end up learning the hard way that you can't push mom's buttons when she isn't at her best. Probably a mostly innocent someone that comes along after someone else has taken their toll on me.

Here is my sink full of dishes that will multiply by about 20X after someone else makes dinner, but who am I to look a gift horse.. and all that. 

I am getting light headed from sitting up and typing. 

My Very Own - My Plate - Really, My Plate

I have been doing some training for work. This will be my third year that I have done this nutrition training and I actually think I might be catching on to it little bit of it.  Just a little bit.

There is so much to know in the world of nutrition. More than I will probably ever understand, but I have good news for myself, and good news for You too.  We don't have to be nutritionists or registered dietitians to be able to eat healthy and take good care of our families.

One of the most simple things we can do is to follow the My Plate guidelines.  How simple is that... just look at your plate, divide in into sections and fill each one

This is like dinner - color by numbers. I can do that! 

On the My Plate website there are more helps that you will ever need. Just pick the type of help for your personality, or for your mood, or even for the season.   All of our bodies and lifestyles and personalities are so different, My Plate can fit into whatever your needs are, that is why it is called "My Plate" because it works for each of us. 

If you are feeling like you want some personalized help, a great place to start is Super Tracker.  It is  being updated all the time and you can personalize it as much as you want to . 

There is a lot to learn ( I am discovering) about nutrition and health, but I am also learning that I no longer can say, " I don't know" and use that as an excuse.   I know that I need to look for whole grains when I am buying cereal. I know that keywords like "whole wheat" and "multi-grain" are okay, but they aren't what I am looking for. I need to make half my grains whole. 

I know that when I buy fruit in cans I need to look for them to be packed in their own juices or in water - Not packed in syrup - or better yet, I should just buy them whole and fresh. I can focus on adding more fruit to my family's diet.  

We don't need to know about phospholipids and LDL, we don't need to completely understand the grams that going into making calories. We don't need to be a nutritionist or a registered dietician to make the best choices for ourselves and for our families and the people that we love and take care of.

My Plate has made it easy, and keeps on making it even easier to make good choices and to learn about what is best for our bodies. Tell me what you like best about My Plate, or how it has changed your life.  -- (That was a total plead for comments) Also, it was a secret plug for the Food $ense video challenge!

The worst dinner night of the week

The worst dinner of the week, is it Wednesday? No, it is leftover night! 

I have a love / hate relationship with leftover night. I think most people do. It is nice to have dinner already made, it is most probably something you like since you already ate it once, but that is the kicker right there, you already ate it once.  

Something mystical happens once the food enters the fridge and then spends the night, It turns into something that I would just rather not have again. I have started being really mindful of how much food I prepare. I try and make perhaps a little less, instead of erring on the side of more. And filling bellies that are still not full or wanting "seconds" with a salad - which usually ends up being better for them anyway. 

So after we had leftovers for dinner tonight, then it was the worst part of leftover night..... clean out the fridge time. Yuck! I had sloppy joe meat in there that could have walked itself to the kitchen sink!

So I got to thinking about food safety (and how extremely unsafe that was). The Food $ense website has some excellent information on food safety. The facts about how many people get sick each year and how many die can be really scary, but the great news is, food safety is something that we have complete control over. 

There are three main ways that food becomes contaminated - 

• Time / Temperature Abuse - Food can already be contaminated when you buy it from the store. If it hasn't be store properly bacteria may have already started to grow. Also leaving food out once you get home from the store is another example of Time / Temperature abuse.  You can't do much about how the store takes care of your food, but you have complete control over how quickly you get it put away once you get home. 
• Cross - Contamination - Cross contamination is when you use a knife or cutting board ( or any kitchen utensil) to prepare raw meat and then use it again to prepare something that will be ready to eat, like a salad. This is where great clean kitchen habits can save you almost wholly from this problem. Use separate cutting surfaces for raw meats and items that will be directly consumed without cooking. Be sure you sterilize your knives with hot soapy water or you can use a mixture of one capful of bleach to one gallon water. 
• Poor Hygiene Habits - This means you and me; are we clean and tidy and following good habits?Are we washing our hands correctly (even our nails)? Do we have our hair pulled back? And once we start touching food have we stopped touching our face and other non-foody things? 

How long does food last once it is in the fridge? A good rule of thumb is 3-4 days. It might seem like a short amount of time, but it is safe. Are you a little bit more picky, or perhaps detail-oriented? Here is a much longer more detailed list of how long things are good in the fridge. 

We are quickly coming up on leftover season with all the holiday meals and get-togethers. Here is an excellent website that has holiday leftover rules.  Nothing could be worse than food borne illness during the holidays. You certainly don't want your party to be memorable for that reason. 

Remember, you are the master of your own food safety fate. Following 4 simple food safety principles is an easy way to control bacteria in our food and prevent foodborne illness.

The 4 food safety principles, known as Fight BAC! are:  Clean, Cook, Separate and Chill

African Bean Soup

Last night for dinner we made a soup that is on the new Create a Soup handout. 

The Creates curriculum is all about helping us to become confident and knowledgeable in the kitchen, with or without a recipe.  It is about cooking basics from the beginning and building confidence as we go. 

This African Bean Soup is a real treat, the taste and textures are surprising and very delicious. It is super duper easy (and fast) to make and the recipe happens to also be vegetarian. 

You start with a little water, onion and soy sauce in your pan and you saute your onions until they are soft. I'll be honest, I have never sauteed without using a fat so this was a new trick for me, but it worked out perfectly

 (I guess these Food $ense People do know what they are talking about )

The carrots and celery I cooked to al dente because I don't like them mushy, the sweet potatoes were soft and the brown rice was plump and popped in your mouth. This soup was a dish that I felt like I had become some kind of kitchen gourmet chef - and was successful at it! 

I highly recommend this one to all of you. It is easy and fantastic and you'll be impressed with your own skills after you make it.

Date Night at Home

We had a kid-free weekend this past few days. It was luxurious. We slept through the night, no one got up at 6:00am and we got to spend the weekend having some newlywed time. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

I took some of my own advice on Friday night and we cooked at home for each other. It wasn't anything extravagant, we had soup with a salad, bread and some really good cheese, but it was fun puttering around in the kitchen, talking with each other and spending some time reconnecting with each other. It really was more fun staying home and cooking something for each other than it was going out to eat.

Here is the recipe we followed for the soup we ate. It was absolutely delicious and very easy. It will probably be something we make in the future again because I can stock dried tortellini in the pantry with cans of tomatoes and frozen spinach in the freezer. The prep-time was super fast and it was comfort food to perfection.

I don't know if date night will always turn into a stay-at-home night. It is harder to get rid of all the kids than it is to find someone to come and watch the kids, but it was a really special night staying home and taking the best care of each other.

Making a Plan to Save

A big part of menu planning is food budgeting. Sure I can plan all the menu's that I want but I still have to afford those dinners and be able to buy the groceries that I am planning on using. Also for some of us, we have to use what we already have in our pantry wisely or items that we have gotten from assistance like a food pantry or food bank program.  It would be easier to plan a menu based on what you wished you could cook all week - steak and potatoes, spaghetti and meatballs, but the truth is most of us are going to be asked to make do with a very small budget and what we have sitting on the shelves of our pantry.

So what are some ways we can be successful with food budgeting?

Step 1. Know what you currently spend on food.  - You can't even begin to budget if you don't know what you are currently spending. Gather up your receipts and lists from last month and find out what you actually spent on food. Did you budget one amount but spend a different amount - was it more or less? This is where you get real honest with yourself. How much did you spend this month on take-out, on fast food, on vending machines and sodas? I have found out myself that those 1.50$ a day habits can really add up quickly.

Step 2. Determine how much you have to spend on food each month. - Add up the amounts of money that you have to spend, any benefits you receive and any assistance that you are getting. This is the total amount of your budget. Do you need to plan for some of them to vary, will they be changing the amounts each month or are they steady? This is something you need to plan for. Look at what is happening in the month. In a month like this one, we have a great big meal we have to plan for at the end of the month, So we need to be sure we are saving some food dollars to plan for that.

Step 3. Put that budget to work! Look over store ads for what is one sale, make a menu plan with what you have in your pantry and add items to your grocery list to fill in what you still need.   Some people choose to use a 4 week plan with envelopes for each week and other choose to just subtract each shopping trip from the total budget amount. Try both ways to see which works for you.

I know it seems overwhelming and perhaps like too much work to change what you are doing. But keep in mind that this isn't a one-and-done type of system, this is a lifestyle change. It won't seem so hard once you have done it once or twice. And after that it will seem like something that is second nature and you'll wonder how you ever got a long before you budgeted this way.

The casserole that almost took over my kitchen

Not too long ago  (say perhaps, last night) in a kitchen not very far away(some may even say my very own kitchen),  a casserole was created.

 It was a Creates casserole meant to be the best of the best, send to nourish a hungry family, sooth frazzled house wives and meet dietary guidelines to boot!

This casserole was created like all great and heroic creations. It took some planning,  some time, and a lot of love (it was very... Frankenstein's monster.)

It boiled over while cooking and ruined the oven I had just cleaned the week before, it thrashed the pan, it oozed over the dish's edges, it was the blob! How could something meant for such good go so wrong so fast? It was the casserole anti-hero -  Good and bag guy all in one. Sure it  fed the family, but it gave me at least a half an hour of pan scrubbing, oven scouring and general under-my-breathe cursing. 

What does this mean, dear reader? It means that even with the greatest of intentions things don't always turn out as we want them too. Does that mean we haven't done some good? That we didn't make a better choice in feeding our family than taking them out to eat or feeding them cup o'noodles? NO! It means we have some new experiences to put into our portfolio and say, "that was a great lesson learned".  Next time, I make this casserole (which tasted Great, by the way), I will use a bigger pan, I will set that pan on a tin foil lined cookie sheet and I will remember to take a deep calming breathe if things go wrong again. 

Because things going wrong in the kitchen aren't a reason to quit cooking or give up on this little adventure we are having. In fact, they are probably more valuable as learning experiences than our successes. Having said that, I think I have had enough learning experiences for the week. I would like dinner tonight to go smoothly. Perhaps we'll have grilled cheese. 

Christmas Trees and Buffalo Wings

I spent the whole day today decorating the house for Christmas. I didn't do anything else. The dished piled up in the sink, the laundry baskets silently filled up and dinner plans were not even considered until 4:30 when my oldest son asked the dreaded question, "what's for dinner?".

 I said, "go ahead and read the menu" thinking I was oh so clever and ready for this question ahead of time. "It says Shepherd's Pie" he replies to me, RATS! I haven't gotten the ground beef out to thaw, I haven't cooked the potatoes there was honestly no way this dinner was happening and we both knew it.

 He tells me, "I don't like Shepherd's Pie, ya know", so I asked what he did want for dinner. "Buffalo Wings" he says. Now I love those spicy little wings as much as the next gal, maybe even more than the next gal (if she was really thin and didn't enjoy spicy food dunked in blue cheese), but I didn't have frozen chicken wings and I don't think I have any idea how to even make the darn things. He wanted to go OUT to eat, and we both knew that too.

 Lucky for me, (and the whole family, really), I have the new Creates in my back pocket for occasions just like this. I can totally create something that is buffalo chicken flavor. I looked for my handouts for a minute (and couldn't find them - note to self... Find those!)So I brought the handouts up online, I was thinking something like the polynesian skillet that is one of our quick cooking meals. Buffalo Chicken over rice? That was it, now how was I going to create it? I brought my handout up on the computer screen. I was totally confident that I could do this.

 Step 1: Choose a protein - Chicken. Done, I popped it into the microwave to thaw while I planned the rest of my attack.
 Step 2: Choose a starch - Rice. Done, I had frozen rice in the freezer that I could just reheat. Got it out and moved on to the next phase of my plan
Step 3:Choose a flavor - Buffalo Sauce. This was going to be a bit more difficult, I had buffalo sauce in the fridge, but I didn't think I could add it straight on top of the chicken, what was I going to do? Okay, think back to the polynesian skillet recipe I am trying to "follow". (remind myself, I CAN do this) Choose the celery and green pepper option (along with buffalo sauce)
Step 4: Choose a vegetable - I had a bag of frozen mixed veggies in the freezer that I was going to use as a side dish.
Step 5:Choose a liquid - Water. Could I really already be at step 5. I really AM doing this.
Step 6: Choose a sauce - Hey! this is Exactly where my Buffalo sauce comes in!
Step 7:Choose a topping - Blue Cheese. How about some little cheese crumbles, just for authenticity.

So I mixed the water and the buffalo sauce, I put it into the skillet with my chicken and put the lid on to cook. I added a bit of water to my rice and popped it into the microwave to heat. As soon as that was done, I put it into the skillet and put the veggies in the microwave.

I let it cook until the chicken was done and most of the liquid was absorbed into the rice. It turned out really well and the kids were happy with their dinner choice and bellies were full and happy. I made something that was good for them (I even used brown rice) and good for me too. My confidence in the kitchen has increased and I will be ready next time dinner plans fall apart. Remember if I can do this, so can You.

New Utah Food $ense Video

How to Eat a Pomegranate

 Pomegranates are in season in the fall and so that is when they are the most flavorful and cost conscious to buy. I love them, but growing up we didn't know how to cut them very well and so we ending up getting messy and staining everything within out fingers' reach.  Perhaps that was part of the tempting rarity of the treat of pomegranates, but now that I am a mom and in charge of my own kitchen (and I love these fruit) we are going to do it the less-mess way.

 You just need to cut off the top, score down the sides, peel apart the chambers and pop out of the seeds!  EASY!

Here are the two best explanations that I have found. One for you instructional learners and one for you visual learners.  Once I watched the video, I was blown away and have been following his instructions ever since.




You can them use the seeds in salads, wraps, on top of cottage cheese - They are delicate and tart with a great little crunch.  I usually just end up eating them plain and enjoying my cleverness at freeing these delicious little seeds.

Is new always a good thing?

There is so much that is new around here at Food $ense, I'll be honest with you, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it is exciting and fun and I really really like the "new", but I am not quite sure what to do with it, ya know.

I feel like I was just getting good at my menu planning and my budgeting, and just understanding the dietary guidelines. Now those things haven't "gone away", they are just in a new form and I am not adapting as quickly as I would like myself too.  It is a lot like The Love Boat, "exciting and new" I am all aboard, but it just happens to be a small city in size.

I made a create a ... stir fry two nights ago. I was very nervous because I didn't have all the kitchen tools that I felt I needed to have, but I needed a late dinner quick and my husband had just gotten back from the gym so he was wanting something "healthy".  I had some left over rice and thought to myself, "You can do this". (I say that to myself a lot, I guess I am the kind of person that needs lot of encouragement - the little pom-pom waver in my head must get really tired) So I warmed up the left over rice in the microwave, and opened the pantry to see what protein I could come up with. My husband hates beans so I turned to the trust canned chicken. I didn't have any fresh veggies on hand but I had a frozen bag of broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and zucchini and decided to use that. I followed the instructions on the hand out and since the chicken was already cooked it went together super duper fast - like lightening fast! The smell brought the kids up from downstairs with questions of "what smells so good" and my husband suggested "we should make this more often". So dinner was deemed a wild success - the baby ate her weight in it and did the same the next day with the leftovers.

I know there is a lot of "new" that has been arriving and it is exciting and sparks our imagination, but we wonder what to do, it isn't what we know, it is what we are used to.  So hang in there with me as we make these changes.

Progress and change are exciting. I believe in this system and I believe in Food $ense, and most of all, I believe in you and you are amazing!

Are you feeling wildly inspired to be embrace some change? Enjoy this video we watched at Annual Conference. It is fabulous.

How do YOU My Plate contest

Here is a really fun contest that Food $ense is just starting.

It is going to be really exciting to see what creative ideas you all come up with.