Little Pizza Man!

It is so hard to think of what to feed your kids for lunch.. . .especially in the summer time when they are all home. Today we had pizza. Sounds hard, but it is sooo easy.

1. Take a flour or corn tortilla and spread about 1 T. jarred spaghetti sauce on the bottom.
   
2. Put some type of shredded cheese on top. We used the Kirkland brand shredded Mexican cheese. My friend Cristy introduced me to this, and I have had a bag in my fridge ever since then. (Note: not the same bag.)
3. Add olives to make a cute face. I used the ends of the olives for the nose, and a slice of red bell pepper for the mouth. Use what you have on hand.
4. Bake on 350 degrees for about 5 minutes.
   

Serve with the rest of the olives from the can, and some kind of fruit. My girls ate the whole can of olives! Don't worry, olives are good for them. Olives have lots of monounsaturated fats in them. Olive oil reduces the bad cholesterol (LDL) and increases the good cholesterol (HDL). It also has anti-inflammatory effects. One study found that 1/4 C of olive oil a day helped reduce your risk of cancer.

Here are some other combination to try when making little pizzas.

• Whole wheat English muffin, mozzarella cheese, spaghetti sauce. Add fresh broccoli for hair on top of your little guy.
• Corn tortilla, salsa, and cheese. If your kids like spicy, add jarred jalapeno peppers for the eyes and nose.
• Whole wheat bread, spaghetti sauce, and mozzarella cheese. If you have leftover spaghetti noodles, make this his curly hair on top.

Don't forget to use your pizza cutter to cut the mini pizza in quarters. This makes it really easy to pick up.

Snack Drawer

I have been married for 11 years and have moved 9 times, so being in this house for 2 years made me want to reorganize. One thing I have always wanted is a snack drawer for the kids to have readily available snacks that are healthy. I have had a snack shelve for the last 2 years, but the pantry is over crowded, and it is hard for my 4 year old to reach. So last night I found a new home for my cook books and I make a snack drawer.

I wanted to share some snack tips and some of my favorite healthy snacks.

1. Have healthy snacks somewhere that the kids can help themselves.
   
2. Don't forget the fruit. Have a fruit basket or bowl that is in sight so that the kids will see that first when they are looking around for something to eat.
3. Have a special water bottle in the fridge that your kids can access at all times. This cuts back on dishes and helps kids drink lots of water. Sometime all they really need is a drink.
4. If you have some unhealthy snacks as a treat (ie, I have some candy for movie night), keep it in a grocery bag and up high so that they are not even tempted by it.
   
5. Have a rule about snacking close to dinner time. Ours is that if it is past 5pm, but dinner is not ready, you can eat a fruit or a vegetable. That way if they do fill up, it is on healthy things. Also, since fruits and veggies are low calorie, they will likely be ready for dinner when it is ready.

Our favorite snack drawer items

• Almonds- raw
• Raisins (only 1 kid eats these)
• Gold fish
• Apple sauce- no sugar added. I do get the ones sweetened with apple juice sometimes. Just no high-fructose corn syrup.

Other snacks that are not in the snack drawer

• Cheese sticks
• Slices of cheddar cheese
• Yogurt
• Bananas
• Pears
• Peaches
• Grapes
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Carrot sticks
• Cold Cereal with or without milk
  

We have other snacks too, but these are the ones my kids like that are healthy and that they can get by themselves! I am really into that since having twins :)

I have done other blog posts on the snack ideas that you can click on.

SODIUM NITRATE

Growing up, I loved eating cold hot dogs out of the fridge. It was a great snack. Sodium Nitrites are found in most processed meats. Picture yourself at the grocery store buying hot dogs. Now look at all the lunch meats and sausages all around the hot dogs . . . all of it has Sodium Nitrate. Sodium Nitrite is what is formed when you ingest sodium nitrates. Sodium Nitrite is a known carcinogen (causes cancer). You have to eat vitamin C to negate the nitrites. So you would have to have a slice of tomato on your sandwich. Sodium nitrite is what is formed as the sodium nitrite is oxidized (exposed to oxygen). Keep in mind as I talk about "meats" that I am referring to processed meat. NOT chicken, steak, pork chops, and those fresh meats. Examples of meats that have nitrites in them ARE bacon, lunch meat, sausage, hot dogs, and jerky.

Sodium nitrite is a food additive that prevents the growth of the bacteria that causes botulism. Potassium nitrate is used for the same purpose. It is good that our meats don't give us botulism, but nitrates are toxic in high amounts. They die the sodium nitrite bright pink so that it doesn't get mixed up as anything else since it is toxic in high amounts. This is why so much of the meats with nitrates in it are kinda pink (think hot dogs).

Some concerns come up when it comes to these additives. Back in 2006, a study was done that linked lung disease to eating cured meats. It found that people who ate cured meats regularly had a 71% higher chance of developing lung disease than those who never ate cured meats. Though not proven, nitrites are what people want to blame this on.

If you read my recent post on breakfast burritos, you remember me saying that processed meat consumption gave you a 67% higher rate of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. On a stage for stage basis, cancer of the pancreas is met with the shortest median survival time out of all cancer types, most often less than 1 year. Pancreatic cancer is not something you want to get!

What are some other alternatives to never eating another cold cut sandwich and summertime hot dog?

1. They do have nitrate free meats. Hormel has nitrate free ham. See my Breakfast Burritos Post. They also have buffalo hot dogs that are made from grass-fed bison, so they are loaded with omega3's. You can get them at northstarbision.com. Applegate farms has organic nitrate free meat. You can buy this at Whole Foods. Boar's Head is a brand of lunch meats that you usually get at the deli counter at the grocery store. Their turkey and chicken products are nitrate free, but their ham is not. I love their turkey and chicken . .. sooo good!
2. Just get out of the habit of eating these foods. Most are high in fat and salt.
3. Vegetarian is always an option, but I am often left with a tasteless taste in my mouth when I have tried this option. Morningstar does make some tasty morning vegetarian sausage, and when I was pregnant with the twins, I couldn't get enough of their vegetarian corn dogs. You can find morning star products in the freezer section of your grocery store.
4. For kids, try cheese sandwich without the meat. Have hamburgers instead of hot dogs when you do a BBQ.
5. Nuts instead of jerky. Both are high in protein and help feel you up.
6. Make bacon and sausage for breakfast a special treat. We always have sausage for Christmas morning, and when it is your birthday, you can pick what ever as well. (we are having doughnuts in August for my son's birthday breakfast).

To sum up, here are the top reasons not to feed your family lunch meats and hot dogs with nitrates.

• Because they contain sodium nitrites which converts into sodium nitrites, known carcinogens.

• Most lunch meat and hot dogs are mechanically separated meats. "Mechanically separated meats" means the meat was removed from the bones by machine. These meats can have a gritty quality due to small bone particles.

• Most lunch meats and hot dogs contain high levels of salt. This can cause high blood pressure.

• Hot dogs are very high in fat. You know this isn't good.

Healthy Ice Cream?!

I am an ice cream snob. I think it is a waste of calories to eat "no name" ice cream. I only waste my calories on top brands. My all time favorite is the Haagen-Daz chocolate ice cream bar . . . at 300 calories, and I don't even want to know how many grams of saturated fat (oops, I found out ).

Tonight, for family night, I made a Vita-mix strawberry frozen yogurt. It was so creamy and delicious that I consider it to be up there with my favorites. It only had 3 ingredients in it . . .

3 Cups Frozen Strawberries
1 Cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/3 Cup sugar

It not only tasted great, but for 1 Cup of it only has 212 calories, and no fat! You also get a bonus of 3 grams of fiber and 100% of your daily vitamin C. And don't forget about all the health benefits of yogurt.

Here is the directions for the recipe

You will probably need a Vita-mix for this, but it never hurts to try.

Place all ingredients in Vita-Mix container, yogurt first, then frozen strawberries, then sugar. Select VARIABLE, speed #1. Turn on machine and quickly increase speed to #10; then to HIGH. Use tamper to press ingredients into the blades while processing. In about 30-60 seconds, then sound of the motor will change and four mounds should form in the mixture. Stop machine. Do not over mix or melting will occur. Serve immediately.

Breakfast Burritos

Dallin and I made a big batch of breakfast burritos this morning. We are going to freeze them so that him, Amanda, and Dad can have a fast and easy breakfast in the morning. I hate making breakfast during the summer (actually, I haven't liked it much since I got pregnant with the twins . .. Just too tired). Breakfast burritos is one of those things that can either be really healthy or one of the least healthy things to eat. It is all about how you make it.

1. Tortillas- Most store bought tortillas have hydrogenated fats in them! The 2 that I have found that do not are : Tortilla-land uncooked tortillas. You can buy these at Costco. My Smith's also carries them. They are made with canola oil. You put them in a frying pan and cook them yourselves; no oil needed. You have to keep them in the fridge. Also, Carb Chopper's whole wheat tortillas. They have a non-wheat one as well, but the wheat one has 3 grams of fiber in them for only 70 calories. Remember, a good guide is if it has at least 2 grams for every 100 calories. For more on Hydrogenated fat, see my banana post from May.
   
   
2. Eggs- You need about 1 egg/breakfast burrito. Free range eggs are best. This means that the chicken eat the grass/weeds that grow from the ground. This gives your eggs lots more omega-3 fatty acids. Other chickens are kept in cages and fed grain. They don't have as many nutrients in them. Costco sells Omega-3 eggs. They are vegetarian fed (doesn't say cage free though). The Costco ones also say on the egg carton that they have 10x more vitamin E than regular eggs. Beware of egg cartons that just say Omega-3 eggs and nothing else. They can just put Omega-3 eggs on any label. If it says cage-free then you are probably safe. Eggs really are good for you. Especially kids. One extra large egg only has 80 calories, and 7 grams of complete protein. When you pair eggs with toast, skim glass of milk, or another low fat food, it balances out the fat in the egg. Do you ever notice that the mornings you eat an egg it stays with you so much longer than a bowl of cold cereal?
3. Cheese- Good source of calcium and protein.
   
   
4. Beans- We used canned pinto beans. We drained them and rinsed them before we put them in. Beans are a complete protein along with the other stuff in the burrito. They also have 6 grams of fiber for 1/2 Cup.
   
   
5. Meat- We used ham. Beware of lunch meat though. Lunch meat is full of sodium nitrites. Sodium nitrite is found in almost all lunch meats, hot dogs and sausages. Consuming processed meats (those with sodium nitrates, or sodium nitrites) increase your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%! I am planning on doing a separate post on this, so I will save the rest for later. We used Hormel Natural Choice Honey Deli Ham. Cost more, but has no sodium nitrites or nitrates in it.
   
6. Salsa, Hot sauce or Taco Sauce- Just spicy veggies. Most choices are great. We love the organic Kirkland salsa from Costco. (I just got back from Costco and realized that I forgot to buy some!!!!!)

Put is all together in the tortilla and then fold up the tortilla and put in individual zip lock bags. Then put them in the freezer and heat them up in the microwave when you want one.

A few breakfast facts:

• Children who eat breakfast perform better on standardized achievement tests and have fewer behavior problems in school.
• Eating breakfast keeps you thin. People who skip breakfast tend to eat more calories during the day.
• Kids who eat breakfast have been found to be more likely to participate in physical activities and tend to eat healthier in general.

I added up the calories of the breakfast burritos I made that had about 1 egg, 1 whole wheat carb choppers burrito, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 2 T pinto beans and some salsa and hot sauce.



Calories: 275
Fiber: 5 grams
Fat 11 grams
Protein: 15 grams
Calcium: 19% of your daily amount needed

They are a little high in fat, but for kids this shouldn't be a problem unless they have some extra fat on them. If you just use less cheese, you will be fine.



Enjoy!

Semi-Healthy Truffles

Truffles are known for being very naughty little treats. I came across a recipe recently in Family Fun, my favorite magazine. They had a recipe for truffles that used vanilla soy milk instead of heavy cream. I have been wanted to make good truffles ever since my friend Bonnie made them for me. She makes the best truffles. My 2 older kids and I made them for their teachers as an end of the year present. They turned out great! Here is the recipe. After the recipe I will put some benefits of dark chocolate.

1 1/3 C semi-sweet chocolate chips or some dark chocolate
1/3 C vanilla soy milk

Make a double boiler by taking a pot and filling 1/2 full of water, then place a glass or plastic bowl on top. Bring water to a simmer and stir chocolate and soy milk until melted together and glossy. Add one of the following flavors or leave plain: 1 teaspoon peppermint extract, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, 1 teaspoon orange extract.
Or you can add a sprinkle of the following spices to make it really exotic tasting. Cheyenne, Cinnamon, ground cloves, star anise.

Put into freezer until it is hardened and doesn't look glossy anymore (don't freeze, just chill to a gnash).

Spray some oil on your hands and take a heaping teaspoon into your hands and roll. Then roll into one of the following toppings: chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds, sprinkles, cocoa powder.

Put on wax paper and refrigerate. Can be kept out for about 8 hours, but should be refrigerated beyond that.

Why is Dark Chocolate Good for Me?

1. One study found that Dark Chocolate helped lower blood pressure. This is because chocolate has plant phenols in it. The darker the chocolate the better since darker chocolate has more of the plant phenols.
   
2. Dark Chocolate has lots antioxidants. Antioxidants help get rid of free radicals in the body. Free radicals cause oxidative stress. Free radicals are like rust for the body. Antioxidants help get rid of the rust. Antioxidants are involved in the prevention of cellular damage -- the common pathway for cancer, aging, and a variety of diseases.
   
3. Dark chocolate has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by up to 10 percent.
4. Dark Chocolate stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure.
5. Dark Chocolate contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant.
6. Dark Chocolate contains theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants (this is good if you are a sleep deprived mom of twins).

Keep in mind that milk chocolate doesn't have any of the above health benefits. You must stick with dark (semi-sweet is the same). This means 60% or more. Costco has a really yummy bag of chocolates that they sell. I haven't seen it in a few months, but it is Kirkland brand and it has 3 kinds of individually wrapped dark chocolates. Remember, chocolate still has calories in it, so you can't just eat as much as you want. A little goes a long ways. Also, if you buy dark chocolate with carmel in the middle, it doesn't count. Sugar and milk seem to cancel out many of the above health benefits. Guess that means my truffles are out? Not sure if soy milk has the same effect.

Five Healthy Pancakes

This morning I was making pancakes and talking about this blog post when my son Dallin came up with the title for the post . . . Five Healthy Pancakes. Kids are so funny. Then he started going on about how every post I did could be titled "Five Healthy" and then what ever food I am talking about.

So what makes pancakes so healthy? I started making home made pancakes because Bisquick was expensive and had hydrogenated fats in it. Then I continued to make pancakes because my oldest (Dallin) has never liked milk, and I was always looking for ways to get some milk in him. Home made pancakes have a lot of milk in them.

Recently I discovered one of my new favorite things (drum roll please . . . ) WHITE WHOLE WHEAT! What is it? It is another variety of wheat that bakes up much better then the usual Red Whole Wheat. It is kinda like how there are lots of kinds of grass. There is the blue grama grass which is great for places where it is cold like North Dakota or there is the Bent Grass, which is great for golf courses because of its softness. They are both grass, but they are different species of grass.

Red Wheat

1. Stores for 25 plus years in the whole kernal form
   
2. Heavier for breads and baking

White Wheat

1. I have heard it doesn't store as long (even if it is 10 years, that is ok with me)
2. Has a lighter less harder texture; ie: its texture is like white bread

Just so we are clear, I am not talking about white flour. I am talking about 100% whole wheat flour made from the hard white wheat kind of wheat. Both white wheat and red wheat have the same nutritional value.

So what are the benefits of 100% whole wheat vs. enriched wheat flour?

The white flour that you buy at the store to make cookies and bread with is enriched wheat flour. It is enriched because they lose so many nutrients in the process of making the enriched white flour. Enriched white flour is wheat flour that has had the bran and germ removed; therefore, just using the "middle" section. This "middle section" has so little nutrients that it is a law that certain amounts of nutrients are added back into the flour; therefore, enriching it. The bran is the outer layer of the wheat kernal and the germ is the inner soft middle.

For a better visual of this, think of a piece of popcorn that hadn't been popped. The outer layer that gets stuck in your teeth is the bran. The inner layer that is soft and chewy (if you have ever chewed a popcorn kernel) is the germ. The middle section is the part that explodes into the popped corn.

The bran is particularly rich in fiber and omegas, and it also has vitamins and minerals. Wheat germ is a concentrated source of several essential nutrients including, vit E, folic acid, phosphorus, thiamin, zinc, and magnesium. It is a good source of fiber.

The wheat germ is the part that spouts into a plant. So that means that the germ has enough nutrients to support the life of a plant until the plant makes enough roots to get its own nutrients.


One Cup of 100% whole wheat flour has:

59% of your daily fiber
26% of your daily iron
20% of your daily vitamin B6
13% of your daily folate
23% of your daily zinc

Because they "enrich" (which mean "add back in") processed white flour, many of the main nutrients are the same, but a huge difference is the fiber.

Click on this link to see someones test between white and red wheat with cooking bread.

I don't do a ton of baking, but I do like to make pancakes from scratch. It doesn't take that long, and it is easy to replace white flour with whole wheat flour. I don't know if they sell the whole wheat white flour already ground up at just any store, but I did find it online here. If you are unsure, just check the ingredient list. It would be safe to say that if it doesn't have the word enriched in it, it is probably 100% whole wheat white flour.

My favorite pancake recipes come from my brother Scott and his wife Brenda.

Pancakes
2 C. milk
2-4 T canola oil
2 eggs
4 T light sour cream (yogurt also works)
2 C. whole wheat flour
2 T. baking powder
1 t. salt

Buttermilk Hotcakes

2 1/4 C. flour (I tried whole wheat white flour and it was good!)
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3 T sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3 C. fat-free buttermilk
3 T. canola oil

Mix all ingredients together.

Soon you will never eat another white pancake again!