A Simply Healthy (& Opinionated) Nikki lecture!

I've had a rant spinning through brain over and over again for the past few weeks. It's nothing new- the importance of health and nutrition are always on my mind, especially when I come across new research. I love research (insert nerd comments here). You can't fight the facts, I like definite things. I am a control freak, and I am very aware of it. I like to control the things that are controllable, my health and that of my children's (of course, until they are grown and no longer under my roof) is a top priority of things that I intend on controlling to the best of my abilities. Yes, I understand things out of my control can and will happen but at least I can rest easy knowing that I've done all that I can do to keep my family in top notch condition. 

I recently read on forbes.com some statistics that I'd like to share. 

"In 2008, total sales for prescription drugs reached $291.5 billion, a 1.4% increase from the previous year. Lipitor, a statin used to control cholesterol, was the top-selling drug, followed by the acid reflux medication Nexium, and Plavix, an anti-platelet agent that reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke. Sales of cardiovascular and gastroenterology medications, as well as ones that regulate central nervous system issues like seizures, depression, pain and Alzheimer's, accounted for half of all drug sales in 2008."

That was in '08...Now in the year 2012 those numbers have only continued to drastically climb...and the saddest part of it all is those are all unnecessary expenses if we as a society could take control over our diets. Cholesterol is controllable, yet it's the top-selling drug. Acid reflux is more often than not, induced by our own body's inability to digest all of the processed and highly preserved GARBAGE (because it's not really "food") that we force it to digest, that along with not eating enough live raw foods that give our digestive system a break by utilizing the enzymes that are only found in non-heated foods. Yet Nexium is the second highest prescribed drug. Then Plavix to reduce the risk of heart attacks is listed as number 3. Every single fruit and vegetable contains vitamins and minerals that can naturally heal our bodies of ALL of those issues without having to just "control" the symptoms with highly expensive medication. The biggest health benefit that I believe comes from eating a plant based diet, is that when you remove animal products from your diet, you have to replace those calories, so what ends up happening is that you end up replacing those calories with more fruits and vegetables.  Seeing as two out of every three adults is overweight, and 40% of their calories come from animal byproducts, that is a whole lot of calories to replace... So you can eat 3 times the amount of food on a plant based diet for the same price (in terms of total caloric intake). Which means 3 times the micro nutrients to fuel my body, and fight off free radicals. Now how is that a bad thing?! Why do we keep adding more chemical concoctions to our system that just cover up one symptom but often create many other side effects, which then takes another medicinal cocktail to hide those issues? Do you really want to be lethargic, weak, in pain, and broke all the time? Why don't we actually HEAL our bodies, fix the root problems, and get rid of those extra expenses and drugs all together? This can and should be done naturally (for those religious readers, and as I believe, that this is the way God intended). And my blogs purpose is to prove that a whole foods, plant based diet doesn't have to be intricate, bland, or boring. It can be simple, flavorful, and exciting.

If I had a buck for every time I get a health nut joke cracked on me, or the rolling of eyes, or the remark that I am "extreme"...I'd be using cash as a form of toilet paper. As passionate as I am about these type of subjects, I try not to get too uppity with people too often, usually I just give my advice, and pray for their ignorance. But inside, I want to reach over slap some sense into these people. When I am 75, medication & pain free, and running marathons with my great grand kids, odds are that those who thought it was all fun games will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on cardiovascular surgery or chemotherapy, and wont think it's quite so funny anymore. I know this sounds extremely harsh, but it's the cold truth. Heart disease and diabetes runs in my family, but it will not run in MY family. I am standing up against the crooked food industry and changing the odds so that they are in our favor. Call me crazy, or extreme...but I was put on this earth to live a life...and LIVE is exactly what I intend to do. 

Maybe this little rant has helped you see the importance of healthy living. Maybe you can now recognize that it doesn't only improve your odds of a longer healthier life, but it will improve your QUALITY of life. Maybe it has made you roll your eyes at me. Maybe you will never read another blog post. If I can at least influence one life for the better, than it has served it's purpose. Not to mention I feel a whole lot better! 

Lastly, I recently revised a previous recipe for my sweet potato chia muffins that I had posted here. They can be made vegan simple by replacing the 2 egg whites with 1 flax egg...which is just 1 tbsp of flax seed mixed in 3 tbsp of water. I usually let my flax egg soak for about 5 minutes before putting it into the recipe. I made them this morning and they worked out wonderfully. Enjoy!

Feeling peachy!

Oh, I love the abundance of peaches we have here in Southern Utah this time of year! We have so many peaches we even have a local 3 day festival annually called "Peach Days". We look forward to the parade, rides, carny food, shopping, local entertainment, and Peach cook-offs.  It's a fun little shindig we take part in every year. Point being, peaches are huge here. 

Two weeks ago we got a large case of peaches with our weekly produce basket. What to do with that many peaches? EAT THEM, OF COURSE! And as we do end up eating a lot of them plain-Jane style, we probably had at least 50 peaches, we can't eat that many plain quicker than they ripen. I could always make pie using my whole wheat pie crust...which is very tempting but time consuming, and lately with our new school & extracurricular activity routines I'm scattering for extra time. So that was out this go around. My chickpea salad with peach puree dressing is quick, tasty, and painless. But that is an ideal lunch menu item, and I'm the only one here for lunch so that maybe used up 2 peaches total- not a large dent in our case. Dutch oven peach cobbler was a must-do for labor day weekend while the entire family was in town and that went over well and used about 15 peaches! I still needed to do something with these ripening peaches. 

I started experimenting. Always a dangerous thing ;)

My mom brought me a bag of whole millet and hulled barley along with a book called "Cooking with Chef Brad-Those Wonderful Grains" after she went to a seminar of Brad's on the benefits of grains. She wanted me to learn to cook them. I had never before fooled with these grains but was more than happy to try something new! I looked up several millet recipes online, but nothing popped out at me. Chef Brad in his book gives the ratio of cooking the grains so that's about all I knew about these grains was how much liquid to use. I didn't know what it would taste like but I started thinking breakfast...why? BECAUSE I LOVE BREAKFAST (and because I had a bajillion peaches left to use and peaches go great with hot breakfast cereals)! After 2 attempts I got it just right! If I can go from not knowing anything to a perfect meal then it must be pretty darn simple...so here it is! 

Simply Healthy Peach and Blackberry Millet Cereal:

Ingredients:

1/2 c millet 

1 c water

1/2 c almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon (dash more for garnishing)

2 tbsp raw honey

1 peach

handful of blackberries

handful of chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Directions:

In small sauce pot pour dry millet in and toss over medium heat until lightly toasted and fragrant. Remove millet, then add water and almond milk and bring to a boil. Once boiling add toasted millet back to pot, return to boil, add vanilla and cinnamon. Cover and boil for 20-30 minutes, occasionally stirring, until liquid is absorbed and millet is tender. Top with raw honey, sliced peaches, blackberries, pecans, and serve! You could add the honey when you add the vanilla and cinnamon, I just prefer my honey raw & enzymatic so I add mine after the fact. The fruit is interchangeable but let me just say the combination of the peaches with the blackberries and nuts really made this dish fabulous! This feeds about 3 mouths.

Isn't it gorgeous? And you know how I feel about a colorful plate!

So you get the point this was breakfast a few times but what about the rest of the peaches?! They were quickly ripening.

When all else fails: JUICE!

8 peaches (peeled and seeded), 1 large cucumber, 1 orange (peeled), & 1 pear

made a very lovely frothy juice for a very rainy day. 

My daughter and I downed several glasses while my son was at school and still had some left for him when he got home, as well as enough for 1 more glass for breakfast the following day.

Oh but wait, there is more. So much more. We still had and still have more peaches! I started thinking I'd just slice them and freeze them, but then I need shelves and shelves of freezer space because you have to freeze the slices separately on wax paper before you can put them together in a bag...otherwise they freeze into one solid piece. Ughh. BUT THEN, the crafty Nikki came out. I pureed a bunch of peaches in my vitamix, skin and all, poured it into mini muffin tins and stuck them in the freezer over night. The next day I popped them out using a butter knife, threw them in the bag and back in the freezer they went. If I'm making a smoothie and want some peaches all I have to do is grab a little cup or two and toss it in. No washing, peeling, slicing because it's all been done. CONVENIENT, YES?!

Lastly, as we speak...because we got another 8-10 peaches in this weeks produce basket I am making  my kids favorite fruit leather using peaches! 

This scattered post is just proof that fruits don't have to be repetitive...they are versatile. Don't let them get boring. Experiment, switch it up, and make convenience a priority because that always helps make it easier to make healthy choices!

Fun Facts: One peach only contains about 68 calories. They are high in dietary fiber that aids in digestion, and the skin is loaded with antioxidants that ward off free radicals and cancer growth. Peaches are super rich in vitamin A, which is vital for healthy vision, and vitamin C & E, which are antioxidants and tissue builders. Peaches contain vitamin K which is needed for proper blood clotting abilities. Other helpful vitamins found in peaches include thiamin, riboflavin, B-6, niacin, and folate. 

Mineral wise peaches are rich in potassium that maintains blood pressure as well as prevents kidney stones and bone loss. Don't forget about the other minerals that work to support red blood cell, bone, and nervous system health such as magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, maganese, iron, and calcium.

Happy, Healthy, and HUMMUS!

Summer is coming to a close, and my oldest starts kindergarten next week. I have no idea what I am going to do with just one kid during the day! We will probably be spending a whole lot more time in the kitchen creating, as if I don't spend enough in there already. I love getting my kids involved in the making process. They are so much more inclined to eat it if they've participated in the process. Then when we aren't in the kitchen we are outdoors kicking a soccer ball around, playing tennis, frisbee, football, riding bikes, hiking, exploring new parks, and soaking up that vitamin D. 

Get your kids involved in living a healthy lifestyle now. It's much easier to change them now than at age 45 when they have their first heart attack and have to kick 45 years of bad habits.

 Make it fun and be the example. If they see you do it, they'll be more inclined to follow suit. 

 Before I made my lifestyle changes, I was drained all the time, we were loaded up with sugar, my kids and I watched entirely too much television, which lead to depression for me, and behavioral issues for my kids. Once I changed my lifestyle, theirs obviously changed too. Now a days most of the time my kids will pick their fruit cup over their cookie, soccer over blues clues, and the behavioral issues that I was convinced they had, vanished. This change didn't happen over night, in fact it's taken 2 years to wean them off of junk and onto whole foods. They still thoroughly enjoy and devour that occasional treat, and those rare movie and popcorn nights with mom and dad...but they recognize that it's a treat, not a lifestyle. 

This is what we made yesterday for lunch right before heading to the park to play some basketball and run through the splash pad.

Doesn't that just look scrumdiliumtious!!!! The other day in my chickpea post I mentioned sweet potato hummus and I haven't been able to get it off my mind since. I had a left over baked sweet potato from a few days ago, so that made it super easy to toss this together for lunch yesterday. 

1 large sweet potato-baked

1 can chickpeas

1/3 c tahini

Juice from 1 lemon

3 cloves of garlic

salt & pepper to taste

Wrap potato in aluminum and bake at 350 for about 45 mins, then remove skin and allow to cool. Add sweet potato and remainder of ingredients into a food processor and viola! 

Pairs perfectly with veggies (celery, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, etc), whole wheat pita, veggie wraps or sandwiches. My kids made hummus "sandwiches" using whole wheat crackers and cucumbers. Yields quite a bit too so you can eat on it for a week or so. 

This is the perfect way to ensure you're getting enough vegetables in your diet, and the sweet savory taste with a punch of protein rocks too! 

A healthy fruit snack alternative!

I was in a mood yesterday. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. I was in a "I want to play in the kitchen all day" type of mood. So that is exactly what I did! It started when I got home from my 2 hour cardio gym sesh. My case of mangoes from Saturday's basket were ripening much quicker than we were eating them, so I started racking my brain. I could always peel, slice, and freeze them for smoothies later but where is the fun in that? I wanted something, and I wanted it now. I happened to look at the weather- 106 degrees all week. Do you know what that means? That means it is perfect weather for naturally drying fruit leather outdoors. SCORE! MANGO FRUIT LEATHER IT IS! I much prefer fruit leather to any kind of processed sugary fruit snack, in fact, I kind of boycotted fruit snacks and refuse to buy them for my children. I know, I'm a mean mean mother, but it's for the best interest of my children. When they are in the house, if my children had a say so, it would be the only snack they consume all day everyday, and it's a melt down if I refuse their demands...so it's better if I avoid that all together. But homemade natural fruit leather, sweetend with just a touch of raw local honey...there is no harm in that!


Ingredients:
4 cups of mangoes
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of cinnamon


Directions:
-Peel, slice, and core mangoes until you have 4 cups of diced fruit (I used about 7 mangoes to acheive this).
-Put fruit and water in saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until fruit begins to soften and you can mash it with a fork.
-Add lemon juice and honey. Taste and adjust proportions as needed, the amount of sweetness needed often depends on the ripeness of your fruit. Allow to cook together for another couple minutes until flavors are well blended and mangoes are soft and mashed.
-Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg. Then take an emersion blender and puree until smooth. If you don't have an emersion blender you can pour ingredients into a regular blender and blend until smooth.

-Line a baking sheet with microwave safe siran wrap, and evenly spread puree over entire cookie sheet. -Cover with cheesecloth and place outside early in the morning and allow to dry all day. 8-10 hours. I didn't put mine outside until about 10am so come 9 when the sun began to set I brought mine inside, removed the cheese cloth and stuck it in my oven at the lowest temperature setting with the door propped open for another hour. It turned out perfect. For those who don't live in the desert with extremely dry summer temperatures, you can cook it indoors for 8-10 hours (perhaps overnight) in your oven at it's lowest temperature setting. My oven will only go as low as 170 so I prop my door open slightly with metal spatula.

-Once it's done allow it to cool, then cut through the plastic and fruit leather into strips, roll them up, and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them. They will store safely for about a week. However, ours usually don't last more than 24 hours!

You can experiment with different types of fruit, the amount of lemon juice and honey might need to be adjusted slightly- taste test for accuracy. And cinnamon and nutmeg doesn't go well with all fruits so exne those ingredients when necessary.

Remember how I said I was in a mood, well as if delicious mango fruit leather wasn't enough, I experimented with dinner and made a sweet and spicy mango glazed chicken. This very well might be my new chicken recipe- stay tuned for that recipe!

And for all my fun nutritional facts about mangoes check out my previous post on mangoes here!

Getting around picky eaters.

I wasn't kidding the other day when I said I LOVE breakfast! Yesterday my children at about 11 decided they were hungry again. I asked them what they'd like to eat for lunch and my son started asking for waffles...for lunch. Some abnormal easy-going-ness came over me and I said, OK! Parker's jaw dropped for a split second until he started to jump up and down and shout for joy! Over and over and over! Confession: Usually I'm a little more by the book and a little less spontaneous, as you probably gathered by my sons reaction.

So I pulled out the waffle iron and went to work. This was my end result.

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

2 tbsp stevia

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 oil of choice

1 egg

1 1/2 c luke-warm milk

2 tsp vanilla

Combine wet ingredients in one bowl, dry ingredients in another bowl then combine wet with dry. Blend well then cook in waffle iron until golden brown.

It's the topping creations that make it so much fun. Our fridge is loaded with strawberries currently because we have been making jam. So I topped my whole wheat waffle with raw maple almond butter and a few fresh strawberry slices and homemade clean strawberry syrup. Strawberry syrup can be made by slicing and boiling down the berries with a touch of water in a pot and adding agave nectar, honey, or stevia until you find the sweetness you desire. You can also make a raw uncooked berry purée by throwing the same ingredients in a food processor or blender. Yummmy!

My daughter went the peanut butter, banana, and honey route on her waffle, while my son skipped the nut butter all together and just wanted the strawberry syrup and slices. Blueberry or raspberry syrup would be pretty bomb too! Get creative with the fruit topping!

Best part is I didn't feel in any way guilty treating my kids to this for lunch. They got a healthy whole foods meal which included grains, fiber, protein, and antioxidant loaded fruit using zero table sugar or refined flour- so why should I feel guilty?! This brightened there day which always brightens Mommy's day! 

So all you Mommy's with picky children (or husbands for that matter), get creative, get sneaky, do something out of the ordinary and when they scarf it down without hesitation: that's the time to do some educating. For kids, talk about how big and strong they're going to grow because of the healthy food they're eating. Explain that fruit helps prevent them from getting sick. It's kind of like positive reinforcement. Get excited when they eat healthily...and I mean get over exaggeratedly loud and jump and dance and sing ridiculous happy songs kind of excited. That excitement for healthy eating will rub off.  Parker used to be that picky eater...if it wasn't gummies, Cheetos, or mac and cheese he didn't want it. Now he'll at least nibble on foods he doesn't particularly care for without a fight because he wants to be strong and healthy (he's also terrified of the doctors, so I kind of used the whole "you don't want to get sick and go to the doctors do you.." to my benefit when we first started our healthy eating adventure). Stay consistent..if other unhealthy options are readily available then naturally they'll opt for those choices. They'll over time adapt to the newly introduced tastes and they'll be a lot healthier and happier- as will you, because no mother likes a grumpy sickly child, or a sugar crashing meltdown. My son is now known for opting out of that piece of candy or cupcake completely on his own...the less sugar they consume the less they crave it. Proof that in time it does pay off. That's just a few of my own tips that have worked for my kids, let me know what worked for your children! Stay tuned for a blog in the not so distant future on some of the snack alternatives we use around here to keep snack time healthy and fun!

FUN FACTS ABOUT STRAWBERRIES:

Strawberries are loaded with fiber and antioxidants (particularly vitamin C) which boosts immune system, regulates digestion, and blood pressure. Strawberries are a natural anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory (which can work wonders for those with ailments such as arthritis). Then to top it off they also contain maganese, potassium, vitamin K, and magnesium which all promote bone health as well. Moral of the story: Eat your strawberries!