Be Prepared

Cutting up vegetables and preparing snack size portions of fruits to keep in the refrigerator can make all the difference in the world when you're trying to make good choices. Think about how easy it is to grab a bag of chips or candy bar. It's not so easy to grab celery...stalks need to be cut and washed. Try storing some clear containers of carrots, celery, cucumber slices, grapes, strawberries and melon in the fridge in plain view. If you and your family are on-the-go a lot you can also put snack-size ziplock baggies inside so everyone can grab a snack and go. Outside of the refrigerator, keep bananas, apples, raisins and nuts for "emergency" hunger. It sounds simple but it makes a huge difference.

Hungry for Water

Yes, hunger can very well be mistaken for thirst. One great tip for eating less is to drink a glass of water before each meal. In general, adults should drink about eight glasses of water a day. It's harder than you'd think. I've never managed to drink my daily allotment of water. The best trick I've found for this is to drink 16 ounces three times a day...that's still not enough but much better than no water. Keep an extra large glass at home and at work to fill and "chug" in the morning, at lunchtime or throughout your work day, and then again when you get home. Here is a fun site that gives you some tips on how to learn to identify your body's cues for thirst and hunger. Remember that colas, coffee and teas -- although made with water -- don't count as water. Many beverages can actually dehydrate your body. Hmm, just typing this today is making me thirsty. I'm going to get a drink and get my big glass out for the morning.

Got Eggs?

The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life begins when the chick hatches out of the egg.  One of the oldest traditions is to color eggs to celebrate Easter or springtime.

If your family wants a new and natural way to color eggs, here is how you can do it! First, boil eggs in a small sauce pan of water, add a couple tablespoons of vinegar and then add some of the natural dying material listed below until you get the desired color:

• Yellow onion skin = yellow
• Red onion skin = yellowish brown
• Birch leaves = light green
• Beetroot peel = brownish-red
• Blueberries = purple
• Whole red cabbage leaves = purple
• Chopped red cabbage leaves = blue
• Beetroot juice = pinkish-red

You can even use some material that you were going to compost.....HAVE FUN!

Tip: after cooling, rub the eggs with oil and it will make them shiny. Feeling extra creative? Before dying, press little flowers, leaves or any other piece of nature onto the eggs. Put them in a nylon stocking, stretch so it fits tightly around the egg and then tie with a string. After having dyed, remove the stocking and you will find beautiful patterns on the egg.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle = Composting

Compost, according to Wikipedia is: "organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment."

Compost, according to layman terms is: "taking any and everything that came from the ground that we can no longer have a use for, and putting it back from where it naturally came from."

In plain English, compost is used to enrich gardens with its nutrients. For example, when we make a salad think of all the “scrap” that we pitch in the garbage.  You would be amazed at how much we throw away compared to how much we return to the earth. Great ideas for re-gifting to Mother Nature are ends of lettuce heads, tops of peppers, mushroom and onion scraps. Start saving citrus skins, banana peels, berry tops, grape vines and melon rinds. Any thing you remove from any produce item can most likely be turned into compost!

Compost can be used as a free, environmentally-friendly fertilizer to help the next generation of plants grow, especially if you plan on planting an herb or vegetable garden in the spring. Here is another good deed you're doing when you create compost -- you are saving valuable landfill space for items that are NOT biodegradable. Less landfill is a really good thing.

So next time you cut, chop, pare or peel produce be sure to put the parts you're not eating in a compost pile.  If you don’t have one, start one.  It is easy, effortless and free and it is your way to give back to Mother Nature that has been so generous to us!

Sweet and Sour Chicken on a Weeknight

This is the most simple, flavorful and healthy Asian meal I've ever prepared. My best time-saving tip for weeknight meals is to start tomorrow's dinner while you're loading the dishwasher after tonight's. So, the night before you will need to cook a batch of rice, preferably a rich flavorful brown/wild/whole grain rice. And you will need brown chicken breasts, leaving them slightly undercooked. Put the cooked rice in a container. Chop the chicken into cubes and you're done for the night.

To prepare the meal the next day, you'll need 1/2 a pineapple (fresh if possible), 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper and 1/4 C of Frank's sweet chili sauce (or any other duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce you like).

Put the chicken cubes in a skillet and begin to reheat them. While chicken is cooking, cut peppers and pineapples into bite size pieces. [Tool tip -- I use a manual food processor that processes all of my chopping and cutting in about two minutes.] Reheat the rice in the microwave [using a steamer basket]. When chicken is heated through, add the pineapple-pepper to the skillet and heat it all. Prepare the plate using a drizzle of eel sauce or peanut sauce. If you don't have either one you can create a sauce by diluting peanut butter with a bit of water. Plate the rice using a measuring cup to create an nice round shape and then add your sweet and sour pork. Finish the presentation with crushed red pepper and chopped peanuts and sesame seeds (all three or any one.) Enjoy!

Looks do matter

Wait! Don't read this blog until you look at the picture. Did you see it? Good, now here is a funny story about this beautiful (if I do say so myself) dessert. I wanted to write a message today about the importance of food presentation. I went to a meeting after work and got home at about 9:30 pm. After folding two loads of laundry and emptying the dishwasher I knew I still need a visual aid for my post. Here's how the petite cherry pies were made: used a glass to cut circles in a boxed pie crust, opened a can of cherry filling and baked them for half an hour, mixed some Snack Pack pudding with water, made four dots then added four dots of blueberry pancake syrup in between, swirled the plate, plated two mini pies, doused it all with powdered sugar, shot some whipped cream and pinched a piece of mint off the plant by my sink. It was truly effortless, but you'd never know. By the way, less than 100 calories a piece and it tasted as good as it looked. After all, taste matters too.

All about color

Here are two simple tricks to determining whether or not the foods you are putting in your body are good for you. 1) how close to it's original state is the food? 2) what color is it? In fruits and vegetables, their original state of raw is the state in which you capture all of the nutrients the produce has to offer. Steam it, and you retain a lot of the benefit. If you over-boil it or cook it out of a can...not so much. And pay attention to color. A general rule is that the more colorful the food, the healthier it is (usually). For example, dark lettuce varieties are healthier than light green iceburg. Many eating plans talk about avoiding the white stuff (sugar, white bread, salt, white rice, white pasta). Switching to other alternatives is definitely a plus. We will talk about this later when we discuss food absorption, but here are your better options:  whole grain bread, brown rice, whole grain pasta and as little sugar as possible.

Food for thought, food forethought...

We all think about food. Most of us even have emotional experience relating to liking food, disliking food, craving food, loving food. At some point as an adult, we start to think about food based upon how it makes us feel after we've eaten it. When dieting, we obsess about everything that's on the "don't eat" list. What do you think happens when one tells herself "I can't have cheesecake, I can't have cheesecake, I can't have cheesecake" incessantly? You will likely give your right arm at the end of the day for a piece of cheesecake. The aftermath of guilt and digestive agony is a recurring nightmare.

Here's our plan: let's think about food, what we CAN eat, before we eat it. Food is so much fun! If you look at what the earth provides us, rich in color and nutrition and taste, it's amazing. We want to take a look at healthy and flavorful recipe options that will change your mind, and change your health.

Here's the interesting part (and the disclaimer): the contributors of this site are not physicians, not nutritionists, and not culinary experts. We are parents, spouses, full-time office workers, neighbors, and friends. We are on this journey with you, adapting common comfort foods for a healthier life.

As we get to know each other, we will share our secrets and successes and we encourage you to share yours too. Thanks for joining us!