Recap - Dinner Prep

So there is this Healthy Minds and Bodies Group that I attend… participate in… ok ok, I created it and I do most of the talking… but other people come so it is fun anyway

We met recently… last month… the month before last and I’m only now getting around to recapping it.

The original intent was to do some cooking demos. Fast things like chopping onions, cooking whole wheat couscous, cooking lentils, etc. However, instead it turned into a lively discussion about how to get dinner on the table and what gadgets we use to do it.

Get Dinner Done

The biggest tips here revolve around planning in advance. Your dinner prep will go much more smoothly if you know what you’re making ahead of time.

Grocery shop with specific meals in mind, and start thinking at least the night before the meal about how you’re going to get it on the table. This is so important with healthy cooking because you may need to start some beans soaking, cook the brown rice ahead of time, or get some veggies chopped.

I hate running to the grocery store for just a few items, so I tend to shop twice a month at costco, and then 3 times a month at a regular grocery store for fresh stuff. I keep plenty of dried/food storage type stuff on hand, so ideally I never have to worry about those. I plan meals like salads for the few days immediately after a grocery store run, then dishes that use onions, potatoes, canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, etc. for later in the week when the fresh stuff is used up. The same goes for fresh fruit. I make a conscious effort to eat the time-sensitive stuff first (berries, pineapple, melon) and save things that keep better to tide me over until the next trip (oranges, grapefruit, apples, green bananas, red pears) .

Healthy Minds and Bodies Recap - Food labeling

This month’s meeting was one of our best. Although our numbers were few, I thought the topic was very compelling and enjoyable.

Granted, I chose the topic and led the discussion so I’m more than a bit biased.

The Treats

I have to take a minute here and apologize publicly for the treats. I was really excited to demo my favorite new snack, but Mackenzie started to get fussy at the end of the meeting so the demo was hasty and I just had everyone try one from a batch I had made previously. After everyone left and I had fed Mackenzie, I tasted one of the treats I had fed my unsuspecting friends.

Dry, very dry.

I had inadvertently handed out the results of a failed batch made while I was still tweaking the recipe. Ugh. Ladies - if you want to give them another try, just knock on my door.

Click here for my post on how to make these Balls of Yum.

(I’m still trying to decide on a good name for them. I prefer Balls of Yum to “date nut balls” because really, date nut balls sound gross. Even though these ARE date nut balls and they are delicious. Any ideas? )

The Discussion

The goal of the meeting was to learn more about food labeling and regulations so that we can become more educated consumers and make better choices at the grocery store.

Basically, when you see things on packages like “Wholesome” or “Lightly salted” or “Good source of Vitamin C”… what (if anything) do those things mean? And what about the Nutritional Facts on the back? Which numbers are important?

First, my best advice: Buy whole plant foods. Grapes don’t need compelling claims on their label and there’s no need to check their ingredient list. Ditto for carrots, apples, parsnips, etc. They are “no-brainers” labeling-wise and also health-wise.

If you do decide to brave the grocery store outside the produce section, here are 5 things to keep in mind. I pulled heavily from a presentation at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo 2007 by Jeff Novick MS, RD, LV/N . He was a really entertaining presenter and knew his stuff. If anyone wants to borrow the DVD, just holler!

Recap- Staying active indoors

If you missed January’s Healthy Minds and Bodies group meeting, I can sum it up in four words:

Good tips, yucky soup.

I wanted us to sample foods that incorporate fruits and veggies available in the winter months. Canned, fresh or frozen.

Unfortunately, I tried a new soup recipe that came highly recommended and it ended up tasting like baby food. Hehe… there’s nothing quite like experimenting on unsuspecting friends! Fortunately, one of those friends also brought something to eat and it was highly delicious: herbed spaghetti squash.

Here is a run-down of what we discussed:

Recap- Raising Healthy Eaters (updated)

We had another great Healthy Mind and Bodies group meeting last week. My friend Angie did a fabulous job preparing a presentation on how we can establish good eating habits in our children and avoid pitfalls like pickiness and power struggles over food.

First, though, we sampled some interesting fare.

The Food

Angie brought some yummy looking muffins and I made some very green guacamole and a loaf of wheat bread. We exchanged a few looks and tried to suppress a giggle as the other women tasted the food. Just to mix things up a bit, we had sneaked a secret ingredient into each of the foods and asked the women to guess.

Many were surprised to find out that they were eating green bean muffins(!) and guacamole with peas added in. The bread was kind of a cop-out. It was just my regular whole wheat bread with 3/4 c. of flax meal thrown in. I was a bit concerned that the other two things would be gross, so I wanted at least one edible thing!

The verdict? Nobody could taste the peas in the guacamole and it stayed green and appetizing much longer than usual. It was also a way to extend an expensive avocado to make more dip! Try it yourself: Just food process 1/4 c. of peas for every avocado. I used frozen green peas.

About half the women (including myself) really liked the muffins. They were made with 2 c. of 100% whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 c. of canned green beans, and they were moist and cinnamon-y. Mmm! (Recipe attached)

The Discussion

I was thrilled to have some new faces at this meeting and it definitely spiced up the discussion to hear fresh perspectives and questions. Angie passed out hand-outs with some really good tips and I’ve attached a full-length hand-out to this post. The first six pages of it are things she passed out to all of us, and the rest is from two great articles she found online and discussed in the meeting. Click here to save it.

Here are the main things that stuck out to me:

1) Your kids start by eating what they see YOU eat. So be a good example and show them how yummy healthy foods can be.

2) Your kids are not in charge of what food is in the house, but they are in charge of how much they eat. It’s your job to stock your home with healthy options. You can give your kids some choices like “should we have broccoli or peas at dinner?” And, your children can get involved in choosing the greenest cucumber at the supermarket, picking a tomato from the backyard, or spinning the salad before dinner.

3) For “picky” eaters, be persistent. Keep offering a new or disliked food along with meals and try fixing it in different ways. It may take many exposures to a new taste or texture before they decide they like it.

4) Plan ahead and have healthy snacks available and convenient. If you have cut up fruits and vegetables in the fridge, that’s even easier than driving to get a drive-through burger!

We also talked about a few tough situations:

- My children don’t each much dinner and then they beg for snacks or dessert shortly afterwards. My favorite solutions that were discussed? It depends on the child’s age and situation, but if they are doing this because they didn’t care for what you served for dinner, you can make that food the only option until they go to bed. They may eat more of their dinner or nothing at all. If, on the other hand, they are doing this because they are easily distracted at dinner-time and don’t sit down and eat with the family, a better solution might be “I’m sorry you chose not to eat when the rest of us ate! Hopefully you’ll eat better tomorrow so you won’t be hungry at night-time”.

- Husbands who don’t care to eat healthy. Whether it’s an affinity for white bread and ding-dongs or an insistence on meaty cheesy meals, this can definitely be a challenge! In my opinion, you can do quite a bit to encourage them just by example and by purchasing and preparing healthy dinners and lunches. If you pack their lunch for them, they’ll eat it! At the end of the day, though, they are adults and therefore they really need to make the decision to be healthy themselves. Until they do, it’ll always be a bit of a compromise (like many things in marriage!)

- Your children aren’t always eating at home under your watchful eye. How do you keep them from going crazy on cake, ice cream and candy at every birthday party or family reunion? This is another tough one and it’s something I’ve thought about a lot. I can imagine that if you make too big of a deal about avoiding those foods and they are totally forbidden at home… kids may take every opportunity to eat them when they get the chance. I think for Scott and I, we’ll lean heavily towards teaching our children good principles and letting them govern themselves. We’ll buy and eat healthy foods in our home and as a family, but our children will need to make choices about how they will eat in other situations. Hopefully they will love good, whole foods, so they don’t feel the need to eat more than a slice of cake or a piece of candy on occasion.

Thanks again for a fantastic meeting, ladies. I’m learning so much from our discussions! Here again is a copy of the hand-out . I should mention that Angie made the recipe on the hand-out with the whole wheat flour and she added cinnamon. Brilliant move, Angie. I hate canned green beans but those muffins were tasty.

Next time

Well, the group is called Healthy MINDS and Bodies, so I thought for November we’d focus on our minds. Of course, it’s all connected anyway so this will help our bodies out as well.

We’ll be talking about humor and ways to incorporate humor and fun into our lives. I’m asking everybody to bring two or three things to the meeting that make them laugh. Whether it’s a funny video clip, photo, book, comic strip, story, game, or whatever… bring it and be prepared to share (and laugh!)

UPDATED TO ADD:

My favorite thing about introducing your kids to new foods: Not one child ever has starved to death from pickiness. I don’t mean that to sound harsh, but there’s no need to wheedle and bribe and coerce your children into eating healthy things. Just offer them the option of healthy foods or nothing. I promise when they are hungry, they will eat whatever you put in front of them. Again, you can respect their right to decide how much they’d care to eat, and you can give them some power in decision making (should we slice up two cucumbers for the salad? Which ones?) but at the end of the day, I promise they’ll eat. So there’s no need to cave and feed them junk food just so they’ll eat “something”.

Oh, and in case I didn’t add this disclaimer before… I have no children yet. However, I’ve watched many many parents feed their children and I’m basing most of my opinions on discussions with parents, observations, my own experience growing up and eating things, and a good dose of what I hope is common sense.

If you have a different opinion, please feel free to share it in the comments!