Easy, Tasty Oatmeal

Oatmeal has a bad wrap! Most people view it as boring and bland.  Not only is oatmeal extremely healthy with loads of fiber but with the proper recipe it is easy to make and super yummy. I make a pot full and leave it in the fridge.  Then for breakfast in a rush, I just zap it in the microwave for a minute with a little milk and there you go, a healthy homemade breakfast in seconds.

Cooking Time: 15 minutes Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 cups 1% milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup pitted and chopped dates or 3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 cups old fashion oatmeal

 

Cooking Instructions

1.      Put milk, cinnamon and dates in a thick based pot turn heat on medium and bring milk to a boil.

 

 

 

2.    Add oatmeal, turn heat down to low and let oatmeal simmer for 10 minutes.

3.    Once oatmeal is at the desired texture remove from heat, let it cool for a couple minutes and serve.

  

Vegan Crockpot Chili

As a parents we are always busy, running from one obstacle to another.  Whether you are a stay-at-home dad, an executive mom, or a homeschooling parent; we just cannot keep up with all the demands and delights of parenthood, not to mention cook a decent meal.  So in an effort to provide my growing children with a healthy diet and appetizing food, I began to embrace my crockpot.  In effort to live up to my dreams of feeding my family a clean cuisine in the shortest amount of time possible I came up with this vegan recipe.  We couldn’t get enough of it, and I made extra so there was enough left over for lunch for a couple days too.  If you are using dried beans instead of canned remember to soak them 24 hours in advance.  Dried beans are cheaper with less salt, chemicals and preservatives than canned beans.

 

Vegan Crockpot Chili

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon flaked basil

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 cups of dry kidney beans soaked overnight or 2 cans of organic PBA free kidney beans.

2 fifteen ounce cans low sodium tomato sauce

1 cup red or orange sweet peppers chopped (red or orange so the family will not know they are there)

Directions:

1.       Put olive oil in a skillet and sauté onions, garlic, cumin, basil and black pepper until onion start to lightly brown.

2.       In your crockpot, put the beans in first, then the tomato sauce and onion mixture then combine.  Finally put the peppers on top.  Cover the crockpot and turn to low if you want it to be ready in 8 hours or more.  Set to crockpot to high if you want it done in 4 hours.

3.       Once it is done, stir in the peppers and serve with a side of rice or crusted bread.  Most importantly, add a salad or some roasted vegetables as a healthy side.

 

Fruity Coleslaw

This recipes will fill your kids with fruits and vegetables without the complaining. Invite your kids to help prepare this kid-friendly recipe. Studies show children are more likely to try recipes they were included in the perpetration. But trust me, they will need no additional convincing to eat this creamy, healthier version to traditional coleslaw. 

Ingredients:

2 medium sized carrots

4 cups shredded cabbage

2 medium apples

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup plain yogurt

A dash of salt

1 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)

Directions:

Grate the apples and carrots after peeling them. Shred the cabbage. Add all the apple, carrots, and cabbage together in a big mixing bowl. Mix together with mayonnaise, yogurt and salt. Put the coleslaw in a serving dish and garnish with parsley. Enjoy! Makes 6 servings.  

Treats and Fun for Kids, More Damage than Good

The last couple weeks have been eye-opening for me in regards to children's nutrition.  Two distinct and independent events occurred opening my eyes to the severity of the presence of sugar, fat, and salt in our children's diets.  The first event came along during my son’s first soccer game of the season. He is not new to soccer, he has been playing since was three; he will celebrate his fifth birthday in a month or so. The second event was at my son's school for their end of the year party.

 

Let's start with the soccer, last summer the children would play soccer and at the end of the game they got a snack and drink. The snacks were usually sugary junk food like little Debbies cakes, Rice Krispy treats, gummy fruits stuff paired with even more sugar in a Capri Sun juice.  I did not care for that practice but I was expecting it. The new snack policy for soccer this year completely blew me out of the water. Now let me explain how soccer games for these little kids’ works, half of the team plays while the other half sits.  They play in 10 minute shifts and the game is 40 minutes long; most of the time the kids don't even break a sweat.  Even though the game is 40 minutes long, in reality each child only plays for 10 minutes at a time for a total of 20 minutes. Now this year they switched up the snack policy, halfway through the game the children get a snack for example a piece of orange or watermelon and some water or a juice box.  Then once they finish the second half of the game they are given a second snack usually an unhealthy one like a fruit rollup, cookie, or Rice Krispy treat with yet another box of juice.  Now let's be reasonable here little kids jogging around the soccer field for 20 minutes might burn 200 calories if they're lucky. Between the fruit, juice, and treat these children are given over 400 calories of food. Is that really necessary, is the US experiencing an epidemic of malnutrition or obesity?

The second horrific experience was at my son’s and of the year party. The teacher provided the goodie bags and she asked the parents to bring snacks for the children for the party. I took a cantaloupe expecting there to be lots of sweets but when I walked into the classroom that morning I was completely astonished. There were nine different cakes for only 12 students! On top of that, the goodie bags were full of Twix’s, Kit Kats, M&M’s, Cheeto’s and many other candies.  Wasn't the cake enough? Nobody brought a fruit or a vegetable except for me, why? And that was only one class, how about the bus driver, the gym teacher, and anyone else who visited the class on their final week? Every where they turned they were being showered with candy.

I understand that children like candy, I'm not a kid and I like candy too. Isn’t all that overdoing it? Is there no limit anymore? Why do we always have to tie happiness and celebration with food, especially sweets? If the children made their own kites, decorated them, then went outside and flew them, wouldn't that be a fun celebration for the end of the year? Or if their teacher gave them a free period to play outside or play board games in the classroom, isn't that fun too? Why must we shower them with sweets?

Not only are we turning our children into materialistic creatures feeling they must receive something in order to be happy or celebrate but we're teaching them detrimental habits. We are branding it in their brains that in order to celebrate or be happy food and candy must be available. Without sweets, fat, and sugar there is no happiness. Is this the message we want to send our children?

Organic or not?

Should you pay extra for organic foods? Are they really worth the extra cost? Find out here on the Healthy Plate blog with the SkinLess Project http://skinlessproject.com/should-you-buy-organic/