Cooking with Kids - Try it!

My tip of the day is if you have kids in your life, cook with them! The kitchen can surely get a bit messy but it is totally worth it. Frequently I cook with our three and one year old and we make everything from oatmeal at breakfast to quinoa for dinner. Five of the best parts:
1. You get to spend time with your children.
2. It makes meal preparation more eventful.
3. It will get them excited about the meal.
4. They will be more likely to eat what you make.
5. You can answer 1000+ questions about the foods (e.g. where does oatmeal come from?).

Need a recipe to try? Grab my Grilled Asparagus and Quinoa Salad recipe.

The only downside is more cleanup but get them to help with that too! Share your cooking with your kids story with me via my Web site, click here.

NEW TODAY! 2010 Dietary Guidelines!

The long awaited 2010 Dietary Guidelines were released today! Here is a re-cap of the key messages:
1. Balancing Calories:
- Enjoy your food, but eat less.
- Avoid oversized portions.

2. Foods to Increase:
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
- Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.

3. Foods to Reduce:
- Compare sodium in foods like soup, breads, and frozen meals - and choose the foods with lower numbers.
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Take a look at the above list and figure out what areas you need to focus on! While these steps sounds very simple, they are totally effective ways to boost your health. Interesting that the key changes didn't include exercise... don't forget to keep (or get) moving too!!

Superbowl Strategy

The amount of people indicating no guilt about dropping the ball on their eating plans on Superbowl Sunday? 60 percent of men and 46 percent of women idicated in the 2011 Supervalue Snack Down Survey by Harris Interactive that they would have no guilt about what they eat while watching the big game.

If you are thinking about what to serve up at your Superbowl party, my suggestion, is to strive for balance! Make your game day strategy to provide a mix of healthy items among some crowd pleasers (like chicken wings).

Here are a few healthier ideas to consider:
- Guacamole with colorful pepper slices (red, yellow, orange, & green)
- Baked chicken fingers with wing sauce
- Make your own trail mix bar: whole grain cereal, almonds, dried fruit, walnuts
- Fresh fruit kabobs (grapes, melon cubes, pineapple, berries) with Greek yogurt dip
- Milk bar: low fat milk with add ins like flavored syrup

Meatless Monday

I try to make every Monday a "meatless" dinner! This week was falfel with tzatziki sauce and roasted beets. If you have never tried falfel, you must... it's really yummy. Basically it's ground chickpeas that are spiced up. I wimp out and buy the boxed falfel mix (one of these days I will try making my own from scratch)! Falfel are pan cooked with canola oil until crispy (use some cooking spray too to cut down on the amount of oil).

The tzatziki sauce I made from scratch and here is the recipe (See below), it's quick and delicious. To serve falfel: Place the pan cooked falfel on a pita and top with veggies (cucumbers & tomatoes), reduced-fat feta, and tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki Sauce
16 ounces plain greek yogurt
1 medium cucmber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
4 cloved minced garlic
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Combine all of the ingredients and chill. Serve with falafel.

The Skinny Rules, Pre-sale!!!

You can buy a copy of The Skinny Rules! It's available now for pre-sale from amazon.com!! It will come just in time to give you a boost this Spring to get you ready for bathing suit season.

Easy, Healthy New Years Resolutions

If you are looking to calibrate your resolutions or are still thinking of one. Check out this article from Family Circle, the tips are realistic and attainable and include: getting organized, stall the snack attack, swallow a supplement...! Check out my expertise in tip #9.

Easy, Healthy New Years Resolutions

It's that time to think about resolutions. Perhaps you are thinking about not having a resolution or maybe you are drafting your list? This article from familycircle.com can help you with Easy, Healthy New Years Resolutions! You can find my expertise in tip #9! Wondering what it is? Check it out. Happy New Year!