Heart Happy Breakfast Yogurt

I went to a Girls Night Out with my church
awhile back and the hostess was asked to share
a healthy eating tip.
Famous for her unbelievable skills & knowledge
in health & nutrition, she is also an amazing
cook with at least one cookbook to her name!

I have incorporated this into our lives ever since
she shared it with us and decided that today
it is time to share it with you!

As a substitute for the more expensive
Greek Style Yogurts available on the market,
she suggested this method of removing the
extra fluids in regular yogurt.

Start with your favorite Plain Yogurt
(yogurt is good for you in this form-
when you start buying the flavored yogurts
you end up with fillers and artificial colors
and flavors- AVOID!!!)

Line a mesh strainer with coffee filters,
and place the yogurt in the strainer.

Place the strainer over a bowl that is
just large than the strainer

Cover the strainer with a dish cloth
and place in fridge over night.

In the morning,
remove the yogurt into a serving bowl,
discard the extra fluids (you will be amazed
at how much is there)
and stir in a little vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
and some lemon or orange zest.

Add fresh berries and nuts if you like,

and enjoy a delicious start to your perfect day!

Veggie Lover Sandwich Wrap

In an effort to re-vamp the lunches
that the kids take to school
and to encourage
"more good stuff" into their
school day diet,
I have spent a busy week
waking up early to get
breakfast ready first

and than getting all the fixin's
out and ready so the kids could
come and prepare their lunches.

Think the Brady Bunch on steroids
as everything is lined up for the
kids to come and package up their
lunch bags.

Our favorite lunch was a
Veggie Lover Sandwich Wrap-

I was hesitant with this idea,
because I wasn't sure how they
would take eating just a Veggie Sandwich.
Who can complain when there is so
much goodness available to put
in the wrap?

I got no complaints when they saw
the plate full of veggies,

and only compliments
when they got home from school.
So I can say it was a hit on the home
front for sure.

Today, Karli confessed that she had
several people at school today tell
her how lucky she was to have such
good lunches all week!!
SCORE!

The thing I liked most was how the
work from that one morning
carried over for a few days-
the next day we had wraps with chicken-

the yummiest roasted buffalo chicken evah!

and I had everything ready for a fresh salad
at lunch.

I struggle with making & eating
lunch when I am home all day with no
one to prepare a meal for, so this
preparation was nice for me too.

It's Friday and I feel good about
everything the kids took to school
this week-

Breakfast this morning was focused
on my desire to supply the fam
with protein, fiber and fruit
to start their busy days off with
the energy they would need to
go about their various activities.

I am desperately waging the war
against teenagers who think nothing
of skipping breakfast and lunch
and then devouring all their daily calories
+ some...
in the hours between school and bed!
It's just NOT HEALTHY I tell ya!!

What I have discovered is that as long
as I have it all out and ready,

I can get ALL of my kids
and my hubby,
down to the kitchen to eat together.

We sandwiched scrambled eggs
& turkey bacon topped with
a small amount of cheese
between two Whole Wheat English Muffins.

I served it with strawberries and a delicious
homemade juice smoothie!

 I used my juicer to juice some green apples
and 1/2 of a HUGE pineapple.
I dumped that in my blender with a frozen
blend of strawberries, papaya and mango.
I didn't blend it smooth,
so there was some chunkiness to the smoothie,
and because I added the frozen fruit to
the fresh fruit juice,
it was thick like a smoothie-
but had nothing but fruit goodness
to go down to our belly's.

It was a delicious way
to start our day.

A Good, Hard Look

Last week was one of those weeks
that seem to be very reflective.
I feel like I was forced into taking
a good, hard look at my life,
my health,
and the health of my family.

The more I considered certain
habits and activites in our lives,
the more I felt like I uncovered
these little hidden monsters that had
taken up full time living arrangements
in our lives. And all these MONSTERS
were sabatoging my long term goals
of health and wellness.

It wasn't anything serious, mind you,
but just one of those weeks where
a lot of thought occupied my days-
probably more thought than productivity
I am sad to say.

I wrote a little bit about why I struggle to
keep sugary goodness out of my life here
At least it's one of many of my reasons
 
 But I started to think about the in's and out's
of how I raise my family.
Once I started looking,
I found that I still have a lot of room
for improvement.

First off, I give little treats for incentive
ALL the time-
this goes back to the early days of using
a sticker chart to motivate my first daughter
to potty train and continues today
with the clean house fairy.

I use the anticipation of treats as a way
to help one child overcome a personal
obstacle with what we call a "10 Sticker Date"
and I use treats as a way to celebrate all
manner of successes in our home!

Of course we celebrate holidays and birthdays

with some kind of dessert-

and when you add that up,
that's a lot of dessert in a every month!

I use cooking as a way to bond with my kids,

and a way to share what I love with others.

I like to socialize and host parties that range
from small and intimate,

to 'Over the Top' Huge,

and food is always a big part of that.

Above all of that,
I have treats in Christmas Stockings,
Easter Baskets and
as love notes at Valentines Day.
Add in Halloween, and there is SO much CANDY!
Do you know ANYONE who actually
ends up EATING all their candy??

Really it is CRAZY how much sugar we
have the opportunity to consume in our lives.

So one of my heavy, heavy, HEAVY
thoughts last week was,
if I am going to keep the sugary treats at a minimum
in our house,
I have to replace all of these habits and traditions
with something else.

Well have you seen the grocery stores and
the Walmarts and Targets of this world?
The first thing you see is a HUGE display of
holiday candy and treats! And seriously just
when one holiday ends,
another display goes up.
I am personally shocked they haven't
started to make President's Day colored
M&M's yet- I think that's the only holiday
that doesn't have its own candy display!

So how do I go about replacing all that sugar!
By now it is a habit. If I just all of a sudden quit
celebrating the holidays with stockings, baskets
and love notes, my kids aren't the only ones that
would feel a void and resort to mutiny-

I don't offer a lot of screen time- computer, TV,
or video games-
so that is one option.
But that seems like trading Satan for the Devil-
and doesn't sit really well with my heart!

I've decided love notes WITHOUT the candy
is a good alternative to some of the treat giving,
especially the treat giving that is for celebrations!
At the dinner table, we have implemented
a time to share the highlights of our day
and I am taking a little more time to celebrate
our persoanl successes.
And at holidays in baskets and stockings,
I have decided on healthy snacks that they
can eat whenever they want.

I have tried and really liked
having dessert only on Sundays,
and making this dessert REALLY worth it!
Not just boxed brownies and ice cream...
but chocolate molten lava cakes
& haagen daaz!
I like that and will probably return to that.

I don't think any of my motives are bad,
I just think that they have all gotten out of control.
I really feel like my bad habits are going
to turn into my children's bad habits and I feel
sick about that.
I feel sicker knowing that my bad habits
have contributed in part to my health struggles,
and though I feel incredibly blessed to enjoy
the health that I do have because I know it
could be a zillion times worse,
my desire is to empower my children to
greater health and wellness than I have-
not to teach them to follow in my unhealthy footsteps!
I have a doctor who believes
my changes today, will impact my childrens health tomorrow

I am wondering if all of the tangible rewards
we give to our children have taken a toll on
the natural self esteem boost
that kids should feel from a job well done?
And I am wondering if all the synthetic goodness
that we are offered constantly
has changed our ability to enjoy life in its
natural and pure form?
I guess I just wonder if all that I get
from the sugary treats in my life
is worth all that it takes!

For some reason,
I am a S-L-O-W learner,
maybe because I have so much I
am trying to reset,
but I just have to keep pushing forward
with what I have and what I can do.