Make Healthy Meals

This year I’ve faced the challenge of making lunch for my daughter to take to school. I just don’t see the point in buying school lunches when I can make something that may well be healthier at home. And if I plan it right it really doesn’t take much extra time in the morning.

The right lunch box really helps matters. I suggest the Laptop Lunches box available from ReusableBags.com. I am extremely fond of lunch boxes that give you compartments to work with. It allows for delightful flexibility and means you don’t have to waste plastic or paper with every single lunch. But you do have to trust your kids to bring it back home and not lose it.

A thermos is another good idea, so that your child can have a warm lunch on those cold days during the winter. I also like having reusable cups of one sort or another rather than pack juice boxes. It’s more cost effective over time and allows you to think more about what goes into the lunch, rather than just throwing a juice box in the bag.

One of the tricks of the trade is to prepare things in advance. My daughter loves the Sand and Shells recipe available elsewhere on this site. She thinks she wants it every day, but I make sure to vary her lunch.

Pasta salad is very easy. To vary this one I cook up a batch of pasta and keep it in the fridge. In the morning I can decide how to mix it up. Salad dressing or pasta sauce, cheese, cooked or fresh vegetables, and you can make a different pasta salad each day in very little time. Use whole grain pasta if you want this to be especially healthy.

If you keep presliced fruits and/or vegetables in your refrigerator you will have an easier time including these in lunches. Some fruits you won’t particularly need to slice, such as apples or pears, but oranges are far easier for kids to eat if you slice them first.

If you have one of the Laptop Lunches bags or other ways to separate the various parts of the lunch it can be easier to think of what you need to pack. Think of one for the main dish, one for vegetables, one for fruits, etc.

A lunch for my daughter may look like this:

Sand and Shells
chopped cauliflower
kiwi
string cheese
apple juice

Sometimes I will include an apple or pear as well, if I see that she has been finishing everything. Right now she is tending to finish her lunch at home, just a few leftover bites and often the string cheese makes it home. I add extra at those times I see she has been hungry enough to eat it all. Kids and growth spurts, after all.

As you try to make a habit of packing healthy school lunches, figure out what has made it too difficult in the past. Packing it the night before is not a bad thing for many foods, and makes life very much easier when you’re dealing with the morning rush.

Technorati Tags: healthy school lunches, healthy food, lunchbox, lunch box, bag lunch, school lunch, kids

I’ve had this one sitting for a little in my to-do corner of my mind, and I’m going to do it now that I’m back from being evacuated due to fires. That’s a story unto itself, of course.

It’s called Four Foods on Friday, although 5 questions are actually listed, oops. But that’s alright. I can handle five.

1. How do you like your eggs cooked? Any special ingredients?

Fried over medium is my basic way of cooking them. I rarely get fancy because when I was a kid I got sick right after eating an omelette. Never been able to stomach them since.

2. What’s your favorite cold sandwich, made on two pieces of bread?

Club sandwich. I used to work for Subway when I was in college, and this was the one I made for myself most often. But of course it’s not that hard to make at home either.

3. What is your favorite pie?

Lemon meringue, with nice, tart lemon. I don’t like it all sweet.

4. Name one food you refuse to eat and why.

Peanut butter. It must be genetic or something because my grandmother won’t eat it either, nor will my daughter. My son loves it, though.

5. What’s the name of your favorite restaurant, and is it small or part of a chain?

I would have to say Sorrentino’s Pizza. I used to work there and they’re still my favorite pizza. But Rockin’ Baja Lobster is awfully good too.

Deceptively Delicious, the new book by Jessica Seinfeld came out with a bang. Not only of praise, but of controversy, as people noticed its similarity to another book, The Sneaky Chef. You can get a good feel for the controversy by reading the comments section for Deceptively Delicious.

I have to admit, overall it’s a good idea if you have picky eaters and nothing else has worked for getting them to eat healthy foods. Some kids do take a long time to learn to enjoy the foods that are better for them. But I certainly wouldn’t start out this way.

I like how my pediatrician suggested we start feeding our kids fruits and veggies, back when they were on baby food. We started our kids on green beans, rather than on something sweet. This helped them to not expect their food to always be sweet. Both my kids still love their vegetables, especially fresh.

But I don’t expect that to work for every parent.

My first rule for cooking for my family is to use fresh ingredients whenever possible. I avoid boxed and prepackaged foods as much as possible. Sometimes my budget doesn’t allow me to get the best quality, but I do the best I can.

I include vegetables and/or fruits with every meal. Whole grains when possible, although that can be tough at times on a tight budget.

My feeling is that the ingredients you cook with are very important to the overall health of your diet. If you use healthy ingredients you can have a lot of fun with what you cook. Use low fat cheeses to cut back on the fat content of cheesy recipes. Think about the sweeteners you use.

But one of the best things about cooking for your family, especially if you go fresh, is that you know what you’re putting into it. If you can avoid prepackaged foods, you know still more about it. You can avoid the high fructose corn syrup and other things that really aren’t good for your family.

Honestly, I’m not planning on buying either of those books. I don’t need to find more ways to get more fruits and vegetables into my kids. So far as they’re concerned, fruits and veggies are pretty good snacks. But if you need to do it, there’s nothing wrong with using a little deception as a step in the right direction. Just keep working toward an acceptance of fresh foods as you do so. Give it time, make them available, and it probably will happen.

Technorati Tags: deceptively delicious, jessica seinfeld, the sneaky chef, cooking, kids, children, family, healthy, healthy eating

I love baking. It doesn’t always result in the healthiest of foods, but I do like to remember that I have more control over what goes into homemade cookies and pies than if I buy them from the store. So I don’t feel too bad about it, even though I like to eat healthy.

But my mixer can be a bit frustrating. Due to space limitations we just have a handheld mixer. I’m not even sure of the brand. But when I was asked to post about the Eclectrics® mixer all I could do was drool. That’s a nice looking mixer.

The Hamilton Beach® Mixer looks very nice. It looks like it could even replace my breadmaker, since it’s capable of mixing bread dough. I generally end up putting my bread in smaller loaf pans anyhow, since I don’t like the size my breadmaker makes.

My one challenge is the lack of space for a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer. My kitchen is a very nice size. But only one wall has cabinets above and below, one has under sink cabinets. A third wall is blank. No storage space, no appliances. We’ll be putting something there soon enough. And the fourth wall is nonexistent, just open to the dining area.

I’ve posted my favorite bread recipe here before, so I’m going to share an alternate recipe that just needs a little help from a mixer:

Lemon Meringue Pie

1 cup white sugar
2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups water
2 lemons, juiced and zested (sometimes I add extra if I want a really tart pie)
2 tbsp butter
4 egg yolks
1 pie crust, baked in a 9 in pie pan
4 egg whites
6 tbsp white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium pan combine 1 cup sugar with the flour, cornstarch and salt. Add water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Add butter.

Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl. Take 1/2 cup of lemon mixture and whisk into eggs. Pour back into the rest of the mixture. Return to a boil and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Pour into pie crust.

In a large bowl whip egg whites with your mixer until foamy. Start adding sugar slowly and whip until it can hold stiff peaks. Spread over the pie, making sure to seal at the edges of the crust.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes.

The trick to this one can be to get the meringue onto the pie quickly enough. It cooks best if the meringue goes onto the lemon mixture while it is still as hot as possible. This helps to cook the underside of the meringue.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
3-4 tablespoons pesto sauce
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (optional)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2-1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs in bowl. Coat chicken pieces with pesto sauce, then cover in bread crumbs. They should just be lightly breaded, not a heavy coating.

Pour olive oil into a frying pan. Add chicken and cook over medium high heat until chicken is lightly browned. Cover, turn heat to medium and continue cooking until done.

Editor’s Note

This one was a huge hit with my kids and husband. Making pesto at home is fun if you have a basil plant really take off. Much cheaper than buying it.

I adapted this recipe from one my husband found online for baking the pesto chicken in the oven. I was short on time and decided cutting the chicken up and using a frying pan would be faster than waiting for it to cook in the oven. You can do this recipe the other way by not cutting up the chicken, and baking in the oven.

Technorati Tags: pesto, chicken recipe, pesto chicken

3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pine nuts on a tray and roast for4-5 minutes. Remove and cool.

Combine basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts in blender or food processor. Add in oil slowly as you mix.

Editor’s Note

Do not blend at too high a speed, or the basil will be broken down into too small of pieces, and the flavor will be poor. I find a food processor works better than a blender, if you have a choice.

I freeze my excess pesto in an ice cube tray. Once it’s frozen I put the cubes in a plastic bag. This allows me to defrost only what I need for a particular recipe.

Technorati Tags: pesto, basil

Many people find it hardest to eat right when money is tight. Many of the healthiest foods are not easy on a really tight budget, while processed and unhealthy foods can seem cheaper.

Or maybe it’s the time crunch. Having too little time is one of the big reasons why people choose unhealthy convenience foods.

I discovered a set of ebooks today that are quite affordable. They’re collected in a group called Living on a Dime, and the focus is on living on a tight budget. The 11 books focus on:

• Money Management
• Grocery Savings
• Cleaning Cents
• Kids Cents
• Debt Free Holidays
• Gifts In A Jar
• Menus On A Dime
• Plan Ahead Leftovers
• Quick Dinners
• Pretty for Pennies
• Moving On A Dime

In addition they have a variety of bonus ebooks that are also quite practical. I’m much into ebooks these days as I only have to print that which I need, while I can conveniently refer to anything I like on the computer.

Even if you aren’t cooking perfectly healthy meals when you’re trying to stick to a budget, you can make them far healthier at home than if you were eating out at cheap places. You don’t have to do everything perfectly healthy; just making things healthier than they would be otherwise is a good place to start.

Technorati Tags: spending, money, tight budget, cooking, food

Eating right is one of the best things you can do for your body. It’s also something that is very easy to have illusions about how well you do at it.

A quick measure of how well you’re eating is how much energy you have most of the time. If you’re constantly tired, you probably are not eating right. The condition of your skin, hair and nails can also give clues.

You can also look at your kitchen to think about what it is you are really eating on a daily basis. Are you eating lots of fresh foods or are they mostly processed? Do you vary your diet?

Some foods can be made more healthy simply by making them at home rather than buying them premade at the store. Even cookies made at home can be better, simply because you have more control over the ingredients and can do things like replace butter with applesauce. They may not be 100% healthy, but they become better for you than the alternative.

Similarly, look at how much you tend to eat things like white bread, white rice or regular pasta. You can do far better for your health by switching to whole grain varieties, and you may even find that you prefer them.

Snacking is of course a challenge, especially at work. One of the simplest tricks is to have something healthy that you’ve brought from home. Bring some of your favorite fruit or a bag of trail mix, and you have a much healthier snack than if you raid the candy machine.

Take some time and take an honest look at how you are eating. Then figure out if there are ways you can improve your habits. Some changes will prove to be fairly painless, and quite rewarding in the long run.

Technorati Tags: healthy eating, eating habits, healthy food, healthy snacks, food, eating

8 cups spinach leaves or mixed greens
1/4 medium red onion, diced
1-2 pears, sliced
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 to 1 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste

Place spinach or other greens in bowl. Add onion, pear slices, pecans and feta cheese. Pour dressing over and mix.

Editor’s Note

You can mess with this salad freely. Change the dried cranberries to dried cherries, for example. Try different vinaigrette flavors. Use grated mozzarella rather than feta. Have fun.