St.Patrick's Day Guacamole

Making guacamole is a great thing to do with little ones on St. Patrick's Day! Today I went to our son's preschool and made guacamole with his class. And I am happy to report, most of the children loved it!!! We did it 'cup cooking' style, where each child had their own cup to mash the avocado and stir their very own guacamole. Here is the recipe for the big batch (See below). Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day Guacamole
Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:
3 avocados (skin and pits removed)
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Mash the avocado until smooth.
2. Stir in lime juice and garlic. Add a pinch of salt (you don't need much!).

Serve with: baked pita chips, tortilla chips, or vegetable slices.

Eat Right With Color

Happy National Nutrition Month! The theme of this month long event is "Eat Right With Color"... which I personally think is an awesome message. We know that people are not eating enough fruits and vegetables yet they provide important nutrients like: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber! Plus fruit and veggies are filling and have a relatively low calorie price tag (many are only 50 calories or less per serving). Check out these simple ways to add more color to your eating routine:

• Top blackened salmon with mango salsa.
  


• Add sliced avocado, tomatoes, onions, or dark leafy green lettuce to your sandwich.
  


• For snack: grab a small handful of walnuts and dried cranberries.
  


• Fill the bottom of your cereal bowl with sliced fruit like strawberries or bananas, this will help your bowl to seem full while keeping your portion of cereal in check.



• Instead of crackers, choose apple slices with low-fat cheese.
  


• Great side for lunch: red pepper slices with hummus (personal hummus favorite: roasted red pepper).
  


• Mix in fresh fruit to yogurt.



• Add a side of fruit at dinner like: applesauce, fresh berries, or sliced mango.
  


• Fill at least half of your plate at dinner with fruit and/or veggies!



• Add a handful of frozen veggies to prepared soups to up the veggie content!

Oscars Party Planning

Are you hosting or going to an Oscars party? Here are some simple party planning strategies.

1. Strategically place light party foods throughout the house like: fruit platters, shrimp cocktail, air popped popcorn, trail mix.
2. Put away the candy dishes. One ounce of m & m's has 140 calories, mindless snacking from candy dishes can pile up the calories in a hurry!
3. Have a 90/10 rule: 90 percent healthy items, 10 percent splurge! This will still allow for plenty of delicious goodies.
4. Lighten-up party heavy weights. For example: instead of chicken wings, make baked chicken fingers and serve with hot sauce, barbecue sauce, or light ranch dressing. And have plenty of sliced carrots and celery on the side for dipping!
5. Try a new recipe! Grab my Wasabi Avocado Dip with Crispy Wonton Chips recipe.

Last but not least, focus more on spending time with your guests and take some of the emphasis off of food!

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.