Keeping Food Fun
You want to make healthy choices for your family but you don’t know where to start. Or perhaps you think your kids are going to rebel when you go from curly fries to kale overnight. Rest assured that there are many creative ways to keeping food fun and healthy when it comes to feeding your family. Say for example that Friday is “pizza night” and Saturday is hot dogs and hamburgers. You don’t have to give that up! You can simply choose healthier forms of these foods. Let’s look at pizza first.
When it comes to pizza, you have many choices, none of which include buying a frozen stuffed crust double cheese, sausage, and pepperoni pizza – sorry. The first, best, and most fun choice is to make your own pizza from scratch. Use ½ whole wheat or all whole wheat flour in your crust, corn meal and olive oil and allow the kids to join in the rolling (or make extra dough and let the kids have some fun while you compile the rest of the pizza). Next, choose an organic marinara sauce (or your homemade recipe, of course) to top the pizza dough. Follow with a light sprinkling of organic mozzarella cheese or a blend of your favorite cheeses. Choosing organic dairy products helps keep the pesticide residues and exogenous hormones out of your body. Add some organic baby spinach to up the health quotient a bit and then if you are really in the mood you can add some ground free-range beef, chicken or turkey, or some nitrite-free pepperoni (available from Applegate farms).
Hot dog or hamburger night? No problem. Again, Applegate farms has created outstanding (and healthy) hot dogs, made from either (organic) beef, turkey or chicken and left out the undesirable food coloring, additives, sodium nitrate and nitrite (shown to cause cancer in lab animals) found in most commercial brands. Organic Valley and Rocky’s also make healthy hot dogs! If your making hamburgers, choose grass-fed (and hormone free) lean ground beef, buffalo, turkey or chicken. Give whole wheat buns a try. Make sure to read labels. Part of the problem is that many of the breads and hamburger buns on the market contain partially hydrogenated oils. We want to stay away from those!
Keep healthy snacks around the house at all times. Carrot sticks, celery sticks, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, nuts and seeds are all fast and healthy. You can have fun decorating the eggs any time of year – you need not wait for Easter. For treats, think about making something together. Peanut butter cookies made with whole wheat flour, added oats and ½ the amount of sugar normally called for are a fun option. Brownies? Sure – again, you can try substituting yogurt or applesauce for some of the butter or oil. You use unsweetened cocoa, no more than a cup of sugar, whole wheat flour and call it good. Popcorn, yes. Just go very light on the salt and butter or skip the toppings altogether.
Have fun and take the seriousness out of mealtime. Kids who enjoy mealtime will likely feel better about eating their greens. Less pressure means happier and healthier kids.
May 29, 2010
by Optimum WellnessComments
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