Rest for the Long Roads

Nutrition is important.

Sometimes, after a bad day, it's easy to want to indulge in some junk food.  Please tell me I'm not alone in that.  After a long, frustrating day, there are few things that feel better than Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked Fro-Yo.  Or Caribou Coffee Java Chunk Ice Cream.  And when you're talking the occasional rough day, I feel ok with that (everything in moderation, after all). 

But when the road is long, and the end isn't in sight, all those bowls of ice cream really start to add up.

I've noticed that there is a distinct difference between the way I feel after a big plate of Mexican food and the way I feel when I've eaten a healthy meal with lean protein, fruits, and veggies.  I can think better, I feel better, and I'm less grouchy.

Personally, I find that the options need to be easy.  Really easy.  So I keep a bowl of apples on the counter, and usually a couple of bananas, and string cheese in the fridge.

 

An example of a (good) day for me:

Breakfast: 1/2 c. Fage Greek yogurt with 1/2 c. berries, sprinkled with Truvia
Snack: Dried fruit and nuts
Lunch: 1/2 c. Cottage Cheese, crackers, veggies with yogurt dip, fruit
Snack: apple, string cheese
Dinner: Baked chicken, broccoli, salad, with baked apples for dessert.
Other: If I'm hungry, I eat - usually a piece of fruit, or a veggie

This is just an idea of a sample menu, but you can get an idea of how I eat.  I try to keep a variety of fruits and vegetables on hand that are in season, and I eat a lot of them as an easy snack.  I've often been eating several apples a day recently! But I can get them on sale, and they're filling and healthy.

Side note: We try to involve the kids in understanding healthy choices, and we talk about it often.  My kids can both categorize the contents of their plates into proteins, carbs, good fats, fruits, veggies, and "junk."   It's been fun to see them take an interest in healthy eating!

 The other day we were talking about the benefit of apples, and Isaac admitted feeling some doubt as to the extent of their effect:

"I don't think an apple a day really keeps the doctor away, unless you throw it at him."   The kid makes me laugh!

It's easy to rationalize eating junk food when you're busy, stressed, and tired.
I did, and I found that I felt even more tired, and even more stressed.  I've felt so much better since making healthy eating a priority. 

I'd love to make gourmet meals completely made from scratch.  And there are quite a few things I do make from scratch (you can check out my recipe page for a few ideas).  But there is a season for everything.  And when I'm on a Long Road, I have to keep healthy eating really simple so I can stick with it.  

If eating healthy seems like a really big change, you could try just one little step at a time.  Maybe start with a fruit bowl filled with apples on your counter, and string cheese in the fridge.  I think you'll find that the little changes pay off - I know I did!

Tasty Challenges

We have been working hard at being a healthier household.  At the same time, we want our kids to see making healthy choices as a fun, natural part of life, not something forced on them by goal-oriented parents.

Football season is in full swing at our house, and in the past, that's always meant lots of snacks and fun foods.  I wanted this year to be just as fun, but with a change in the food, and I decided that the best way to pull that off would be to involve the kids in the snack selection.

I chose a big game - the ISU v. Iowa game - and challenged the kids to think of different kinds of foods that were red and yellow.  I was surprised with how much we came up with!

We decided that everything should be in Cyclone colors, and the kids did a great job!  Our healthy snacks included:

Red apples with yellow bananas

Babybel individual cheeses, white cheddar (yellow) and regular red wheels

Freeze-dried pineapple and strawberries

Red sugar-free Jello jigglers

Crunchy and tasty - with no sugar added!

I'm a big fan of cheese in moderation - 75 calories/piece, and you get protein! 

And, of course, we had some junk food too.  Our kids eat healthy meals and snacks on a regular basis, and we try to make sure that we let them have junk food on occasion, and in moderation.   It's my opinion that when they are allowed to experience the difference between junk foods and healthy foods, they start learning how to make the choices on their own, and we're hoping the healthy habits stick!

We had chips and salsa, red and yellow filled Twizzlers (SO yummy!), and my favorite, a giant iced cookie that we all split.

It was so soft and delicious!

I was really impressed with how well the kids did.  We made choosing the healthy red and yellow snacks into a game, and we all had fun.

And, after all the carefully selected snacks were laid out on the table, we turned on the TV (rare for the kids!) and watched our beloved Cyclones beat the Hawks.

So, healthy eating - score!
Cyclone win - score!

That's what I like to think of as a win-win kind of situation.

The Garden is Growing

Remember that weird looking gardening project I told you about while ago? I really wasn't sure how it would go, exactly.  Working with seeds hasn't exactly gone well for me in the past.  However, I think I may have found my method now!

Here are some of those same plants now:

We've even started harvesting from our garden already!

Our first harvest was pretty small:

The next one was a little bigger:

And thus begins my favorite salad-season of the year! I foresee lots of fresh green salads loaded with veggies on the menu this summer. Yum!

Soy-Free Saturday: Pasta Sauce (Dave, avert your eyes)

Today's soy-free Saturday is about marinara sauce.  I was really surprised awhile ago to find that the brand that I had been using, as well as many other mainstream brands, use soybean oil in their pasta sauce.

Somehow, even though soy is in so very many things, I wasn't expecting that one.

However, I found that the light version of Tomato & Basil Ragu, with no sugar added, does not contain soy oil!  And actually, it has also become one of my favorite tasting sauces as well.  It seems to taste....lighter, somehow.  More fresh?  Anyway, I like it.

I am surrounded by carnivores at my house (case in point, I heard my boys making up songs about steak and mashed potatoes the other day!), so spaghetti sauce without meat would make for a sad group for dinner.  However, we always have a supply of hormone-free beef on hand since we buy it once a year from a local farmer, so I just brown some of that and throw it in, simmer for a bit, and viola! It's done. Just make sure you also use soy-free pasta (I know that Target's brand of whole-wheat pasta uses only flour) to make it a great meal!

However....I have wanted to take this a step further and make my own spaghetti sauce.  Then I'd really know what was in it! Also, I had been wanting to add beans to the meat in the sauce.  They add fiber and protein, so you'd stay full for longer, and they help to stretch the package of beef a bit further.

But if the carnivores found out what I was trying, there might have been a revolt.  So I surreptitiously took a few photos while doing my sneaky business in the kitchen.

I'm not posting this as a recipe, because this was a first-time experiment, and I'm sure there are many seasoned sauce makers out there who could give you better tips than I.

However, I had a lot of fun in the kitchen.

I started out with two frozen bags of blanched tomatoes (from last year's garden!) from the freezer, and set them on the stove to thaw, then simmer.  I added lots of seasonings, like parsley, rosemary, oregano, basil, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Then I started browning my beef, and here's where I really had to move carefully lest I be seen: I opened a can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed them, and added about half of them to the beef to cook and absorb beefy flavor.  I'll probably try a few more next time.

Once it was pretty well cooked (don't worry, I see the pink spots in the picture and I finished cooking it!), they started to blend in a little better.

Then I added the tomato stuff to the beef, and let it simmer for awhile, and I think I added just a little bit of olive oil. Finally, it wasn't really thickening up like I wanted it to, and I didn't have time to let it simmer down anymore, so I just added some cornstarch (dissolved in a little cold water first) to the mixture.  Within about a minute, it was thickened, and ready to serve!

pre-cornstarch

The whole family liked it, and nobody caught the beans.

topped with a 5-cheese Italian blend. 

Success!

Soy-Free Saturday: Ranch dressing and dips

We eat a LOT of ranch at our house.  

I really mean a LOT.

But if you look at your average bottle of ranch, it will likely contain soybean oil as a first, or possibly second, ingredient.  Occasionally it will list it as a possible ingredient, which is just frustrating.  When that happens, it just means that they are using the cheapest kind of oil they can get, so it could be any one (or a blend) of the oils listed.   Honestly, is it really that hard to make separate labels?

But I digress.

When I say that we eat ranch, I primarily mean that my kids eat a lot of ranch.  They eat it on chicken nuggets (yes, I occasionally feed my kids pre-made chicken nuggets. I know, I know.....I'm not proud of myself either), use it as dip for carrots, they like it as a dip for pretzels or whole-wheat crackers, on salads (ha! My kids eat salads.  That balances out the chicken nuggets, right??), or anything else that is vegetable related.  

So really, my problem became two-fold.  I wanted to find soy-free ranch dressing, but I also wanted to provide a healthy alternative to ranch for the kids as well, because let's be honest - soy-free or not, ranch isn't exactly a health food.

I found Annie's organic ranch, which is soy-free ranch at Target (also sold other places).  It's so good!  And my kids love the flavor.  

No soy-oil at all!

Now on to the next problem to solve:  a healthier alternative to the massive amounts of ranch my kids like to eat. I started buying Fage Plain Greek Yogurt, and ranch seasoning.  Whal-laa! Healthy ranch dip.

Note: It's SO much cheaper to buy the ranch seasoning in bulk!  Sam's Club has it that way, or you may be able to find it other places as well.  Much cheaper than the packets!  And yes, I know that's a lot of cinnamon. 

Now, to be clear, this ranch seasoning does have a little soy in it.  It says on the label that it has 1% or less of a few things, including "natural flavorings," and at the bottom says it contains soy.  So, I'm guessing the natural flavoring is soy.  However, this was a place where I had to choose what kind of balance to strike.

I'm not allergic to soy, it's something I'm working to eliminate out of my life for health reasons, and reduce in the live of my family.  So, I can give them ranch that has a lot of fat, a lot of calories, but not very many nutrients all the time,  or I can find something with very little soy, but a lot of nutrients. 

Greek yogurt has a lot of protein in it, and the Fage brand is made from the milk of cows that have not been treated with growth hormones.  So when the ranch dip we make is made primarily of that, plus a little bit of ranch seasoning that contains less than 1% of a soy flavoring, I think we've reached a compromise I can feel good about.

I know there are a lot of blogs about going completely all-natural, if-I-didn't-see-it-grow-I'm-not-eating-it, but honestly, that's just not where we are right now.  Maybe we will be someday, but for right now, we are trying to make healthy choices, but stick to ones that can work for our family.  

So if you're allergic to soy, stay away from the seasoning and just get Annie's.  Really, it's pretty delicious.  But if your kids are like mine and like ranch on everything, this might be a good alternative, and it will still be much, much lower in soy!

**Disclaimer: These Soy-Free Saturday posts contain only my opinion, and should be used with discretion according to your doctor's assessment of your personal needs.  

Soy-Free Saturdays: First post!

For the most part, this blog has become about adoption (which I LOVE). But there are still health factors that are different in my life because of cancer, and if my research can help anyone else at all, I'd like to share what I've found.

To that end, welcome to the first post in the new series I'm going to be writing: Soy-Free Saturdays! Mostly, I'll be sharing where I've found some of my favorite, hard-to-find soy-free products.  I'll also share some of my opinions about soy, and why I not only avoid it for myself, but also try to feed as little of it as possible to my family.

As a disclaimer, my oncologist told me to stay away from soy, with the exception of soy lecithin.  So, while I always welcome opinions, I want to be upfront and say that I do not expect my opinion to change from what my oncologist has told me to do.

To add to the disclaimer, I am not a doctor, and not qualified to give medical advice.  As such, these posts contain only my opinion, and information in them should be used with discretion, and as they fit with what your doctor tells you for your own health needs (There.  I think that covers all the fine print requirements.).

I know that whether or not to use soy can be a hot topic, but I simply want to share my opinions, and even more, the products I've already found that are soy-free (except for the soy lecithin).

Soy is in so much of our food, that for anyone who is attempting to start eliminating or lessening the soy in their diet, it can be extremely overwhelming to do it all at once.  I tried to do it, and spent a lot of time hungry, or just eating fruit, so I backed off and started eliminating soy little by little.  I am still working at eliminating it completely, but have made huge strides in finding most of my favorite foods in a soy-free version.

So, here is my first product:

Tortillas!

Believe it or not, I spent a LONG time trying to find tortillas.  I even tried making them at home.  I've heard it's possible to make them at home, but I cannot begin to tell you how much time, flour, and other ingredients were completely wasted in my inedible attempts at home-made tortillas (ugh).

I even tried corn tortillas.  They are not the same.

I'd checked the Target brand before, but I'd only checked Market Pantry, and one day, I decided to reach up to the top shelf and check the Archer Farms brand, fully expecting to be once again disappointed, and my to my delight, found they were soy-free!

I do try to stay with foods that have a shorter list of recognizable ingredients, but for now, I'm really happy to have soy-free, whole-wheat tortillas.

Do you have any favorite soy-free foods, or foods that you'd like to find a soy-free version?  If I have found a source, I'll share it in a post, and if I haven't, maybe I can find one!