No Bake Energy Bites

In our house, these little gems are known as "Bird Seed Balls" and they don't last long! They are sooo yummy and though I'm not sure how much energy they give me, I do know they satisfy my sweet tooth while adding a bit more nutrition than a Reese cup would. They've quickly become my favorite Pinterest find yet.

                        You will need:
1 cup of old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup of a nut butter (peanut, almond, etc.)
1/3 cup of honey
1 cup of coconut flakes
1/2 cup of ground flaxseed
1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips
1 tsp of vanilla

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and let chill in the refrigerator for about a half hour. Once chilled, roll into balls and enjoy! These can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a week, if they last that long!

  *We aren't big on coconut around here, so we omit it and add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds. The recipe seems versatile. Play with it, make it your own :)

A Lack of Fruits and Veggies

Here, I'm sharing an interesting article I came across the other day. It's all about how our kids aren't eating enough fruits and veggies. Let's be honest, neither are adults. And after reading the article, I learned one thing. Neither of my children nor I will ever enjoy brussel sprouts, no matter what they are called. Not even if they were dipped in chocolate. But that's okay. We enjoy other green things. It's all about balance after all, isn't it?



As a parent, you might look at the government's new nutrition icon and think, "Really?"

The image is a dinner plate divided into sections. Half the plate is full of fruits and vegetables.

That's right -- half of what your child eats is supposed to be fruits and vegetables. Not hot dogs, not hamburgers, not chicken nuggets, but broccoli, squash, Brussels sprouts, and other things that come from the ground.

"It's extremely tough to get your child to eat half a plate of fruits and vegetables," says Jessica Seinfeld, author of two books on cooking for kids. "I've talked to thousands and thousands of parents, and most of them can't get their kids to try them."

Statistics show kids aren't getting nearly enough fruits and veggies. Only 22% of children ages 2 to 5 meet government recommendations for vegetable consumption, according to a 2009 study by researchers at Ohio State University.

It only gets worse as children get older: Just 16% of children ages 6 to 11 meet the government's guidelines, and only 11% of those ages 12 to 18.

In the study of more than 6,000 kids and teens, about a third of vegetable consumption was fried potatoes (potato chips, french fries, etc.), and a little more than a third of the fruit consumption was juice -- so if you don't include those, the percentages get even lower.

There's no one way to get your kids to eat more fruits and veggies, but here are ten tips straight from moms:

1. Get them while they're hungry.

If they're hungry, they'll eat. Before dinner, serve an appetizer of colorful vegetables, such as carrots, cucumbers, and red bell peppers, along with a hummus or low-fat salad dressing, Kulze suggests.


2. Institute the "no thank you bite" rule.

Tell your child he has to take a bite before vetoing something on his plate.

"We figure as long as our son is tasting the food, he'll eventually get comfortable with it," Traverso says. "It works pretty well."


3. Make up cute names.

Marketers do this, so why shouldn't you? Once Risdal started calling Brussels sprouts "hero buttons," her kids couldn't get enough of them.


4. Shop with your kids.

"Let them pick out the fruits and vegetables," Wolter says. "Let them smell the produce and admire the colors."


5. Cook with your kids.

A few years back, Duffy asked Dylan to make the green beans -- add some butter, sprinkle on some seasonings -- while she worked on other dishes.

"When we sat down to eat, Dylan insisted on eating the green beans because, as he put it, 'I made them.'" Two years later, he's still eating his veggies as long as he helps prepare them.


6. Have a "veggie night."

This way, there's no competition from other types of foods.

"Serve up edamame, hummus with veggies, mushroom burgers with Swiss, etc.," Redrick suggests.


7. Hide the veggies.

In Jessica Seinfeld's book, she tells parents how to stealthily sneak pureed vegetables into everything from shrimp dumplings to quesadillas.


8. Make fruits and vegetables the easy option.

Take a tip from the geniuses who thought to put potato chips in single-serving bags. Stock a kid-accessible shelf in your fridge with little bags of cut fruit and vegetables, applesauce, and fruit cups.


9. Let them use fun gadgets.

What kid doesn't love gadgets? Let them use a blender, juicer, and food processor to make smoothies and other recipes with fruits and vegetables. Use proper supervision, of course.


10. Bribe with dessert.

"Didn't want to finish what was good for them? No problem -- no dessert," Boecker says. "Maybe not the healthiest way to get them to eat vegetables, but it worked for us."

According to Nutrition Journal...

Tea is a simple way to stave off the desire for second helpings. Researchers believe that catechins, natural compounds found in tea, may boost satiety whether your cup is hot or cold. Just remember not to load it down with milk and sugar.

thought for the day

Is almond butter better for you than peanut butter?

Who knows? The important thing is they are both better than squeeze cheese.

The Nutrition Diva's Rules to Break!

This is a post from Monica Reinegel, the Nutrition Diva. She's pretty down to earth with her nutrition advice and this is a list of rules alot of nutritionists believe in that she feels are breakable. She calls the list 5 Dumb Nutrition Rules Worth Breaking!


Rule 1: Eat every 2 to 3 hours to prevent metabolism slow-down

Your body doesn't go into starvation mode every time you go several hours without eating. In fact, it takes about three days of fasting or serious caloric restriction for your body to respond with any sort of metabolic adjustment. It’s also not necessary to eat every few hours in order to keep your blood sugar steady. In fact, spacing your meals out more can have some very beneficial effects on your blood sugar and on other aspects of your health. So if you’ve gotten stuck in the waiting room at the pediatrician, you can give your kids all the Goldfish and not worry forgoing a snack means you’ll wake up two pounds heavier.



Rule 2: Don't eat late or you'll gain weight

Calories consumed after 9 p.m. won’t make you gain weight any faster than calories consumed earlier in the evening. Research shows that what matters most is how many calories you eat over the course of the day, not when you eat them! If you’re putting away a second dinner’s worth of calories before bedtime, that could certainly end up on your hips. But you don’t need to worry if a crazy schedule means a late supper.



Rule 3: Don't consume caffeine because it's bad for you


There are a lot of negative claims about caffeine, most of which are not true. Caffeinated drinks are not dehydrating, caffeine isn’t bad for your heart, it doesn't cause benign breast lumps, and it doesn't weaken your bones. In fact, caffeine has a lot of health benefits: Not only does it stimulate the brain and central nervous system, but it appears to protect against Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.



Rule 4: Choose chicken! It's is always the healthier choice

There are cuts of beef and pork that are just as lean as a boneless, skinless chicken breast. And, by the same token, there are cuts of chicken and turkey that have just as much fat as a well-marbled steak. If you were to replace a serving of London broil with a roasted chicken leg, for example, you’d end up eating three times more fat! Additionally, if you compare lean ground turkey with lean ground beef, guess what? Both have the same amount of fat and calories; but the ground beef has almost twice as much iron, zinc, and vitamin B12 as the ground turkey.



Rule 5: Avoid high-fructose corn syrup because it's the devil!

Biochemically-speaking, high-fructose corn syrup is no more fattening or harmful than regular table sugar. The problem is not the type of sugar we’re consuming these days but the amount! So the solution to our obesity epidemic is not to replace high-fructose corn syrup with a different type of sugar but simply to reduce our consumption of all concentrated sweeteners -- even the “natural” ones! Do continue to read those labels and keep a lid on the amount of added sugar in your diet. But you don’t have to worry about a little high-fructose corn syrup any more than you’d worry about a little cane sugar, honey, or maple syrup.

Food Rules

Following are five rules from Natural Health magazine to be used as a guide when you're at the grocery store, reading labels and trying to figure out if a product is relatively healthy or not. You can print out a wallet sized version from naturalhealthmag.com/foodrules.

1. The first ingredient should be representative of the product. For example, the first ingredient listed in the nutrition facts panel on the packaging of mango juice should be mangoes, not apple juice.

2. Ingredients should be mostly recognizable. The following (often unrecognizable) additives are safe: acids (citric, sorbic, lactic), alginates, annatto, carrageenan, casein and lactose, gelatin, glycerin (as long as it comes from a natural and not a synthetic source), lecithin, monoglycerides and diglycerides, natural flavorings, pectin, and sorbitol.

3. There should be NONE of the following food additives: hydrogenated fats, artificial food colors, nitrites and nitrates, sulfites, artificial sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K, and saccharin), MSG, preservatives (BHA, BHT, EDTA, THBQ), artificial flavorings, refined flour.

4. There should be reasonable amounts of sodium and sugars per serving. Actual numbers for sodium and sugars will vary greatly depending on the food, so keep serving size and what kind of food it is in mind. Remember the daily guidelines for sodium (approximately 1500 mgs per day) and sugar (approximately 24 grams for women and 36 grams for men per day).

5. There should be optimal amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients depending on the food. For example, whole grain bread should have a good amount of fiber; yogurt should be high in calcium. Bonus points given to products that get their optimal amounts of nutrients from the food source versus added ingredients.