More Healthy Goodness

July 17, 2008 > 12 Comments

I mentioned in a previous post that my husband has finally jumped on the heath train. I am so excited because now I can focus on healthy meals for the whole family and get rid of the junk.

My kids have been doing great on their Eat More Fruits and Veggies Challenge. Almost everyone has been willing to try our new foods. We have had a few big losers, blueberries and nectarines, but everything else has been given a thumbs up or at least a thumbs sideways.

Since I have a Vita-Mix I have been experimenting over the past few days to see how much health I can get into their beloved smoothies. Today I created this smoothie;

1 apple 1 pear 2 frozen bananas 1 cup frozen strawberries 1 cup vanilla yogurt 1/2 cup orange juice 1 cup fresh spinach 10 baby carrots 1/4 beet 1/4 cup flax seeds splash of milk

This smoothie was a huge hit. They finished it and asked for seconds and thirds. The beet gives it this amazing red color. I will be making it tomorrow and trying to add in even more healthy goodness. The best thing was that they saw me throw all the food in the Vita-Mix and they still tried it. I have to admit, if I was 12 years old and saw my mom putting spinach in my smoothie, you couldn’t have paid me to drink it!

For dinner I made a new dish. I loosely followed a recipe from my Cheap, Fast, Good Cookbook.

I found that measuring didn’t really matter in this recipe, add more if you have a big family, less if you have a small family.

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped onions 1 TBS olive oil 1 TBS minced garlic Chicken Breast (chopped) 1 can corn (drained) 1 can black beans (drained) Cooked rice (when making your rice decrease the amount of water by about 1/2 cup and add 1 cup of salsa)

Coat large frying pan with olive oil. Saute onions and garlic. Add chicken, beans and corn. When everything has been heated through add the cooked rice. Serve immediately. This meal was super easy and everyone loved it. We topped it with sour cream, but I think it would also taste great with shredded jack cheese on a tortilla. Although what doesn’t taste great with cheese! I used white rice, but plan on using brown rice the next time I make this recipe.

I have noticed a slight change in the kid’s behavior since we have started our healthy eating. I hope to see more positive results as we reduce our sugar and white flour and increase our fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

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Comments

12 Responses to “More Healthy Goodness”

Erin
July 18th, 2008 @ 9:21 am

I love it! I too have noticed a big change in behavior since removing/reducing our diet of “simple sugars”! We do LOTS of raw (or slightly steamed) fruits and veggies! Since my boys have soy and oat allergies, it limits the cereals, processed foods, etc. that we can have! I do believe it’s cheaper to eat from the “edge of the grocery store” too…I rarely venture into the “middle/aisles” of the store. I’m glad to hear they love it! Now I need to get myself a VitaMix. I usually juice, turn it into ice cubes and then pop a few “veggie cubes” into their smoothies. The VitaMix would make things much faster!

Robyn
July 18th, 2008 @ 9:33 am

Thank you for sharing these. I hadn’t thought of putting healthy foods into shakes. Now you’ve given me some great ideas!! I’ll have to try them.

Thanks again for sharing,
Robyn

Mary aka Canadagirl
July 18th, 2008 @ 11:35 am

Ohhh you guys are doing great ! I need to try do some soothies. But my problem is that one of my ds and I are allergic to several fruits. I need to try some out with what we can. But for whole grains. We have been doing that for years and found that less fills you up more with wholegrains and that means less from the pocket book !!! [0=

Blessings and ((HUGS)) my SSiC
In Him<
-Mary

Shani
July 18th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

We are big fans of smoothies here in our home, but I will admit some of the things you put in yours hadn’t occurred to me to try. Now I will!

Thanks for sharing and for inviting us over today! Have a great weekend!

Blessings,
~Shani

Pam
July 18th, 2008 @ 1:56 pm

Those look really tasty. I am trying to sneak more fruits and veggies into my kids too.
It’s great that your hubby has finally gotten on the health train!
Pam

Katie
July 18th, 2008 @ 3:41 pm

This recipe sounds similar to something I made recently. I’ll have to give this one a try! I put my concoction in a taco shell and it was delish.

And I WISH I had the Vitamix. Covet, covet, covet….

Breanne Vasquez
July 18th, 2008 @ 5:00 pm

Those both look great. My daughter loves beans so I am for sure going to try that. What is Vitamix? You know, I wish that healthy food was not so expensive!!