Blueberries anyone?

My favorite food is blueberries. My favorite meal is breakfast, likely because most of the ways I know of to eat blueberries are for breakfast. Although, I do have to admit that I eat them for snacks, too. Also, just because they are there, because I want something sweet or "just because".

Here are some of my favorite ways to eat blueberries, which I make as often as possible.

homemade waffles using krusteaz waffle mix, with cool whip and berries on top

Our special 4th of July cake, a devil's food cake (from boxed mix) with cool whip as icing and berries to make it look like a flag. The kids had a blast helping to make it.

They also had a blast helping to eat it. This is Addy and Evie enjoying our special 4th of July cake.

Yogurt parfait with Greek God's brand greek yogurt, honey flavored, with muesili and berries on top. This one has cool whip on top, too.

Yogurt parfait without cool whip on top, same recipe as above.

One of my favorite places to be during the month of July is Berry Patch Farms. I like it in fall, too, when they have pumpkins, but throughout the month of July, blueberries are in season.

You see, I am a foodie. And blueberries are my favorite. And Berry Patch Farms is my favorite place to get them. Berry Patch Farms is a pick your own farm. They do not ever spray pesticides on their blueberries, so its perfectly safe to pick blueberries off the trees and eat them as you go. They encourage you to when you get there. They provide the buckets, bags and berries and they mark the trees that have poison ivy on them so that you don't get unwittingly exposed to that ick. You pick the berries and pay $2 a pound for the ones that manage to stay in the bucket long enough to be weighed. The girls and I spent an hour there 2 weeks ago while we were house sitting. We went at 7:30 at night so Izzy wouldn't have any issues with the sun and we had a blast. The girls stayed with me, Addy served as the foghorn to let us know if we came within 10 feet of a pink ribbon (poison ivy indicator), we ate about 3 lbs of blueberries in the process and took home 1 lb, which means our outing cost $2, 5-10 minutes for the trip there, another 5-10 for the trip back and was the perfect outing to help the kids fall into exhausted sleep as soon as we got home. Which was bliss for me :)

Green Omelets

If you love green smoothies, so why not green omelets. They are super simple, yummy, and completely customizable. Here's my favorite:

Ingredients:
spinach
onion
tomato
habanero pepper
3 eggs
shredded Mexican cheese

Directions:
Preheat pan
Whisk eggs
With food processor, blend all veggies to make pasty consistency and to taste, wait until egg is almost completely cooked, add cheese over whole omelet and a thick layer of paste over 1/2. Fold and finish cooking. I like sour cream on top of mine. As always, enjoy and repeat :)

My Children Keep Me Healthy

My children keep me healthy. Yeah, you read that right. . . But I can see how that is confusing. I frequently hear people complaining about their kids bringing home every bug imaginable. And believe me, mine do that, too. Everything from lice to colds has made its way into my home, courtesy of my children.

So I bet you're wondering how my kids keep me healthy. . . I think it all boils down to the fact that they make me care about what I put in my body. You wouldn't put regular fuel into a diesel engine (well, not if you cared about that engine). And yet so many of us put the wrong fuel into our bodies without giving it a second thought -- and believe me, I have been guilty of that on many occasions. I have also been guilty of not eating enough in order to lose weight and struggled with eating disorders in high school. And honestly, if you were to remove the influence of my children from my life, at this point I am confident that I would live off of buffalo chicken dip, cereal and fries with the occasional salad when the mood struck. But because I care what goes into my children's bodies and because I want to be a good example for them, I pay attention to what goes into my body and I eat veggies and fruit and drink water and avoid HFCS, artificial colors and other additives and do my best to be healthy because my kids don't need a supermodel or a sumo wrestler for a mom. They need me to be healthy and happy and they need to be healthy and happy, too.

I read a quote once that said the best way to show your child the right path is to walk down it and that is how I try to live my life.

So a big thanks to my 4 beautiful girls who keep Mommy healthy. Its important.

Another reason why Ghirardelli is better than Nestle

Although personal taste differs, if you're looking for white chocolate chips that are healthier for you, Ghirardelli beats Nestle hands down because of 1 of Nestle's ingredients "artificial flavors". What is that? A liscence to just dump random artificial flavorings in at whim? I have no idea, but vague ingredients do not appeal to me, especially if those ingredients include the word "artificial" in it. Its just weird to me that they would be up front that there are artificial flavorings in their product, but not about what those artificial flavorings are. Are there so many that it would take too much space to list them all? Or is there just one that they are really ashamed of using? Its just weird to me.

That having been said, I know I'm a health nut and I *know* chocolate isn't healthy, but we all have our vices and our cravings and when you crave pancakes every morning, its nice to have a couple different options to spice them up with. Yes, I know dark chocolate is more beneficial to your health and yes I know cacao is even better for you than dark chocolate, but I'm not a fan of the dark chocolate taste. It is one of our options (cacao), but we don't use it that often because my girls don't really like the taste either and I really don't see the point in making something that none of us want to eat.

And just in case you're wondering what our favorite options for pancakes are. . . We like blueberry pancakes (made with fresh blueberries), white chocolate chip pancakes, banana pancakes, and regular pancakes with sliced strawberries and blueberries on top. Every once in a while, we'll even have regular pancakes with agave nectar or syrup on them. I also like chopped walnuts in pancakes, but the girls don't so we don't have those very often.

All Natural Refridgerated Bread

I had a reality check a week and a half ago when I realised that the popcicles I was feeding my kids had red 40 in it and that reality check was this: I am too complacent. See, I bought these popcicles because they are the ones my sister feeds her kids, so of course they are what I want to feed my kids, right? Well, almost. But not quite.

So when I went to the grocery store yesterday, I made it a point to look at every label. It made shopping take a bit longer, but I think the time I invest in making sure my kids get the most nutritional foods avaialble is worth it.

I was making meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and croissants for dinner that night. Everything I needed had good ingredients in it. Everything, that is, except the croissants. I don't remember all the things that bothered me on the ingredients list, but the "artificial color" sandwitched between yellow 5 and yellow 6 really pushed me over the edge. I mean, yellow 5 and yellow 6 are artificial colors, so what does the "artificial color" ingredient consist of? I have no idea, but I didn't want to put yellow 5 and yellow 6 in my kids much less the vague "artificial color".

So I looked at the other refridgerated breads and imagine my surprise to find that pilsbury has a Simply Bread line. There was only one product from this line that was at the Kroger I was shopping at and it was french bread, not croissants, but I decided to try it anyways. It was great. I ended up burning the bottom a bit and it was still great. We had some with dinner last night, some with dinner tonight (leftovers from last night) and tomorrow night, we will finish it up by making garlic bread to go with either chicken ziti or spaghetti with meatballs, whichever I end up making. I'm really glad I bought 2 of the breads instead of just 1. . .

Easier than a box of mac 'n' cheese (and healthier, too)

If you're anything like me, you have those nights. You know, the ones where the day has gotten completely away from you and all of a sudden its bedtime and you haven't even made dinner yet. I have those days all the time and usually I reach for mac 'n' cheese, some form of veggie and a fruit. Sometimes I spice it up with hot dogs in the kiddos mac 'n' cheese. It sounds gross, but my hubby introduced them to it and they love it. Other times I make sandwitches with veggies and fruit or with soup if its cold. The only thing is, these all take about 30 minutes to figure out what I have the ingredients for and to make, which is not a fun 30 minutes with 3 screaming kiddos.

I know what you're thinking. There can't be anything easier than mac 'n' cheese that is actually healthier and takes less time to prepare. But there is. Its called Tortellini. It is found in the dried pasta aisle at Walmart. Its a pasta that is filled with cheeses or cheese and spinach and all you have to do is boil it for 11 minutes. While it is boiling, you warm your favorite spaghetti sauce (I like the chunky garden veggie kind that I can only find at Kroger, it has chunks of zucchini and carrot that I love) and when then noodles are done cooking, you drain them and mix with the spaghetti sauce and voila. . . An entire meal in one dish. Best of all, all my picky eaters will eat it happily. And Bertolli makes a brand that is all natural, no HFCS, no junk, just noodles and cheese, dried.

I choose the spinach and cheese tortellini that Bertolli makes because it is just as tasty as the four cheese variety and it has hidden veggies that my kiddos cannot detect and cannot remove. Muahaha. So even if Evie picks out the zucchini chunks in her spaghetti sauce, which she has been known to do, she's still got a green veggie in her dinner and she doesn't even know it. You can also pair this with a salad to add even more veggies or just add some fruit as a "dessert" -- either way, its delicious.

It is not the cheapest food. The totellini alone is $4.50 (or thereabouts) and then you have to add the cost of the spaghetti sauce, but you can't beat it for a quick, healthy dinner and for myself and my 3 girls, one package of tortellini and one jar of spaghetti sauce makes 2 meals -- dinner one night and lunch the next day. So considering that, its not that expensive either. $3-4 per meal for a family of 4, so $1 per meal per person. And its one of those foods that is just as `good when rewarmed. Just make sure you cover your dish while you microwave it as it will splatter otherwise, like any other dish that includes spaghetti sauce.

My husband ships out on Sunday for basic training, so guess what I'll be doing Saturday? Yes, that's right, I'll be grocery shopping. I'll be going to Walmart and Kroger and stocking up on tortellini and spaghetti sauce, among other things.

So give it a try and let me know what you think :)

HFCS free all natural ketchup

My best find at the grocery store this week is Hunt's All Natural HFCS free ketchup. Its hard to explain how excited I got, but I got really excited. The only thing on the label I'm not sure about is the last ingredient "natural flavors". I don't have a clue what that is, but none of the other ingredients throw up any GMO, GMF or artificial ingredients, preservatives or flavorings red flags and we don't have to worry about the mercury in the HFCS now, so I'm totally psyched. I've always bought whatever ketchup is on sale, but I'm a Hunt's gal now!!!

And just in case you're wondering "why is high fructose corn syrup so bad?" After all, there's a commercial that says HFCS is fine when eaten in moderation and we all know that commercials never lie. . . Refer back to my original posts regarding GMOs. HFCS is not only derived from GM corn, but it can also contain mercury. If we don't want to use mercury thermometers, where the mercury is separated from us by glass because it might break and expose us to mercury, then its probably a bad thing to digest, right? Right. There is a link to the article I'm referring to in my post regarding avoiding GMOs in our foods.

Weekly Meal Planning The Single Parent Way

I've been trying to come up with some meal planning routines for while Joey's gone.

So far, I'm thinking breakfasts will be mostly a combination of cereals, yogurt, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, breakfast burritos and milk. All fairly easy, all of which I am capable of cooking or preparing myself in a way that I will like to eat it. As opposed to over easy eggs, which I cannot prepare at all and must rely on Joey to make for me. So I'm eating my fill of those while he's still here. . .

Lunches will either be leftovers from dinner or sandwitches with pretzels, chips, fruit, veggies, salads, etc. All quick and easy to prepare, which is always good because I seem to lose track of time between breakfast and lunch and don't always have tons of prep time for lunch when the girls are already "starving".

Dinners are the hard ones for me. I like dinners to be healthy, wholesome, and yummy. Usually, they are hot as well. While Joey is gone, I plan to stick with what I know I and the girls like. That includes lemon pepper chicken caserole, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies/salad, chicken pot pie, turkey/venison burgers, chicken hot dogs, chili, 15 bean soup with cornbread, chicken ziti with salad, lasagna with salad, chicken fettuchini caserole (has steamed squash and zucchini in it) with salad, a weekly pizza night with salad, tilapia with yellow rice and steamed veggies or with baked potatoes/fries and salad, pinto beans with cornbread and salad, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, nachos, and chicken salad sandwitches (for an easy night). These are all great, healthy meals (at least the way I make them) and most of them have the added bonus of having plenty of leftovers that are easy and tasty to reheat for lunch the next day or dinner the next night. Some of them even have an additional bonus of being able to be made into another dinner for the next night.

If you've noticed that most of my meals include salad, that's because its a veggie side that all my girls will eat without complaint. I'd love to experiment while Joey is gone and find new veggies/veggie dishes that the girls will eat, but I think it will be just too frustrating for me if they don't eat what I prepare and then I'll worry about if they are getting all the nutrients they need, etc. I may end up experimenting some, but my mission for while Joey is gone is to provide a happy, healthy, peaceful environment for my kids and having a stressed out mom or a mom who's frustrated because she spent x amount of time trying to make something new they'd like only to have them turn their nose up at it will not help me in my mission. So for now, I plan to stick with what I know.

I'm not sure how I'll determine a weekly meal plan while Joey is gone. Some people do a different meat every night (i.e. monday ham night, tuesday chicken, wednesday fish, thursday beef, friday turkey, etc), some people do a different genre of food every night (i.e. monday pizza, tuesday mexican, wednesday italian, thursday chinese, etc) and some people just pick a certain meal for ever night, but I prefer to just choose 7-10 dinners as options for that week and make sure that I have the ingredients on hand so that come 4 pm whatever I'm hankering for, I can prepare for dinner. That's more pregnant friendly IMO.

So there are my thoughs on weekly meal planning the single parent way. Keep it simple, stick with what you know and what you know you like, always be prepared and be flexible.

ISO kid friendly veggies

We're having issues with our middle daughter not eating her veggies. We really like the california blend veggies steamed with cheese on them. Its 3 colors of veggies in one dish, its easy and its yummy. Unfortunately, she won't touch them. So we're ISO more Evie-friendly veggies to add to our diet.

In our diet, we are aiming for GMO free, preservative free, artificial flavoring and artificial colorant free foods. It doesn't sound like a lot to avoid, but it is. Its difficult to find products that don't have any artificial ingredients and are GMO free. But that's what we are aiming for.

Fortunately, she will eat salad, even salad mixes with red cabbage and carrot slivers in them. She will also eat tomatoes all day long and she loves zucchini bread. She will also eat the mixed veggies that I use in chicken pot pie and she will eat pickles. She also likes spaghetti sauce, so I gravitate towards sauces that include veggie chunks of several different colors in them. She will not eat broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (except in carrot cake), cucumbers (except pickled). . . the list of veggies she won't eat is larger than the list of veggies that she will eat. Its very frustrating. I'm trying to broaden her food palate, but she is a stubborn lass and hard to convince to try new foods. She won't merely trust mommy that its good for her or that mommy will make them taste good, so practically every meal is a struggle with her.

Fortunately, in contrast, my oldest and youngest daughters will eat practically everything placed in front of them without complaint, so that leaves me free to concentrate on Evie, who I am fully confident would happily eat nothing but meat and cheese if I let her. Unfortunately, this wreaks havoc with her digestive tract and she often has issues with constipation as a result. This is definately a work in progress and I would happily welcome any tips or recipe ideas.