This bird is enjoying people food...tortilla chips dropped while someone was eating lunch. It's calories for the bird, undeniably. It's an easy meal, and this bird and a few friends spent quite some time eating these crumbs. But while this bird may have gotten some carbohydrate energy from these crumbs, that's about all it got. To be honest, I don't know what the nutritional requirements are of this bird. It lives in Victoria, BC. It's got a pretty cushy winter compared to birds here in Alberta, so I would hazard a guess it doesn't need the same energy reserves that birds here would need to stay warm if they don't migrate. But still. I would be astonished if tortilla chip crumbs offered the same nutritional benefits as more traditional wild-forged food.

Here in the West we are most assuredly over-nourished. There has never been a time when food wasn't available for us in my lifetime. It may not be our favourite foods, or what we want to eat at the moment, but it is available. Consider famines that have stretched on for years in many parts of Africa. A complete and utter lack of food and drinking water have killed thousands of people, and yet we in the West throw out a third of what's produced and waste water like it's an endlessly renewable resource. It's heartbreaking and horrifying, and one of the reasons I started meal planning- food waste is something I'm very passionate about.

Just because we are over-nourished doesn't mean we are healthy, however. It's a common understanding that malnourished looks like skin stretched over rib cages and distended bellies such as this first picture of famine in East Africa.

Our malnourishment in North America takes on many different forms. We can look overweight or obese, we can look "average", or we can look thin or skinny. You won't necessarily see malnourishment on a person until it progresses past a certain point.

A person becomes overweight or obese due to our propensity to overeat and the easy availability of food. Serving size increases, a largely sedentary lifestyle, and the evil triplets of perceived affordability, convenience, and focused advertising have led to this growing issue. Sometimes this can be due to an eating disorder. You can read more about that here. Other people suffering from malnourishment look like everyone else, or are thin, underweight, or skinny. If they, too, aren't eating the variety of foods that our bodies require for optimal health, they can also suffer long term damage.

To return back to the example of that little bird, he may be eating too much of a single food, and not receiving the nutritional variety he requires to be a healthy little bird. Like him, we can eat too much of the same sorts of foods and prevent our bodies from acquiring the right kinds of nutrients. We may be suffering from a malabsorption disorder such as Crohn's or Celiac disease, or we may just be neglecting variety in our diets. Whatever the case, malnutrition is a serious concern that can lead to long-term quality of life issues.

I encourage you to take stock of your diet. Keep track of what you're eating, how much you're eating, and when you're eating. Log everything for a few weeks, a month. Make note of any physical symptoms you may experience but haven't noted before, and see if there's a pattern. Notice if you've got a well-balanced diet, or if you're overloaded in fats and refined carbohydrates. Once you have started tracking your intake, you will be better equipped to see changes you may need to make to your overall diet.

And like diet, movement is essential for our quality of life. If keeping track of your diet has you feeling motivated to continue with positive changes, you might want to consider a movement tracker. This article contains a link to one that is easy to use and comes with a plethora of helpful tips to begin your journey.

I wish you all the best, and have a great weekend, friends. 
Stacy

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This is my all-time favorite food group! We have so much to choose from, and the methods to prepare them are endless.
Luckily, this is the food group we can pretty much eat as much as we want from; unfortunately, most of us don't eat enough of them. If you're hungry, reach for some fruit or vegetables. Your body will thank you.

Today, we focus on Fruits and Vegetables.
First, why worry about it?

Fruits and vegetables provide a plethora of beneficial vitamins and minerals. They are naturally low in fat, high in fiber, relatively low in calories, and have no added sugar-  and for all that they are nutrient dense, the perfect kind of snack or basis for your meals.
The key to this food group, like others, is variety. No single fruit or vegetable contains exactly the same kind of nutrition, so your best bet is to change them up, and change them often.
Fruits and vegetables can reduce your risk of developing certain kinds of cancers and heart disease, can assist in maintaining healthy vision, and can help assist with weight loss.

The Canada Food Guide determination for servings of Fruits and Vegetables is age dependent. From 2-3 years old, both boys and girls need 4 serving of fruits/vegetables per day. From 4-8, that jumps to 5 servings per day for both sexes. From 9-13, they recommend 6.
From 14-18, girls need 7 and boys need 8, and while it varies slightly with adults, it basically hovers around the same as you age, with an extra serving or two for men until age 50, and drops to an equal 7 per day for both sexes after that.

What constitutes a serving?

Simply put, a medium fruit or a half cup of fresh, frozen, or canned is considered 1 serving. For those times of life when you don't have much fresh in your fridge, it's good to know that canned or frozen counts, right? Just try to buy food that's not canned in syrup- fruit juice or water- and watch for added sodium on canned vegetables. I find frozen fruit works best in smoothies, and frozen vegetables taste best if they're steamed before serving.

Some specific examples include:

• 6 spears of asparagus
• 4 brussels sprouts
• 1 large carrot, or 1/2 c. coins
• 1 medium apple
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 c. sliced cucumbers
• 20 cherries or grapes
• 1/2 c. berries
• 1/4 dried fruit

One thing to note about dried fruit- because it's been dehydrated, it's very calorie dense, for a fruit. Try to eat dried fruit with some protein to help lessen blood sugar spikes. Sometimes commercially prepared dried fruit also contain added sugar, so do keep an eye on the labels.

In this picture, 1 peach, half the bowl of cubed watermelon, 2 plums, half that huge gala apple, the strips of bell pepper, all those green grapes, 1 banana, all the cucumber or zucchini, grape tomatoes, or carrots, or all that cantaloupe equals one serving of fruit.

For your school lunches, pick one fruit and one vegetable. Serve fruit and vegetables with every snack and meal, and make it easy and quick to eat when it comes to school lunches- remember, if they don't have time to eat it, they'll likely throw it out. When I was a lunch supervisor at school, I used to see all sorts of food hit the trash can.

Well friends, that's it for the school lunch series. What do you think? What do you want to see more of? There will be some blogging later in October on how you can pack multiple food groups into school lunches. In the meantime, I wish you healthy and happy lunches, and look forward to hearing how lunches are making a healthier shift.

Please like and share! Peace, friends.
Stacy

This food group, along with fruits and vegetables, comprises of what we most need to eat in any given day. Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation lately with all sorts of diets designed to get rid of them, but in truth, carbs are a necessary component for our bodily functions. Our cells use them to fuel our daily activities, and when we don't eat them, our bodies take what they can from elsewhere, to our detriment.

The caveat I want to stress, however, is that whole grains are the ones you need to eat. Processed grains, also referred to as refined, don't really do much for our bodies. They give us calories without the health benefit, and really, what's the point of that? They also tend to be high in sugar, which our bodies deal with by over-producing insulin. Not only that, but they lack fibre, which means that hunger will strike more quickly given the rate at which the foods are digested. It leads to an unhealthy cycle of spikes and crashes. These are referred to as "high GI" foods. Examples include white bread/rolls, cake/cookies, short grain rice, bran/corn flakes, crispy rice cereal, soda crackers, pretzels, rice cakes, cheesy fish shaped crackers, and so on.

Today, we focus on Breads and Cereals.

First, why worry about it?

As briefly stated above, our bodies use the nutrition found in whole grains, such as fibre, to reduce cholesterol, keep hunger at bay, keep our body's waste system working optimally, and reduce the risk of colon cancer. We also get several other vitamins from whole grains such as several B vitamins- riboflavin, folate, thiamine, and niacin- known to help our metabolism do its' job- and minerals, such as iron, zinc, and magnesium. Here's a great article about some of the other benefits of whole grains.

I'm going to take a detour from the Canada Food Guide, now, because it suggests that half of our daily consumption from this food group be comprised of whole grains. My personal opinion is that this food group has a great opportunity for us to make or break our health. It makes very little difference to eat a few whole grain servings in a day but spend the rest of the day eating high GI, low nutritional value foods such as macaroni and cheese, waffles, most store bought granola bars/snack foods, and white bread toast.

There is a certain segment of the population that absolutely cannot eat gluten, found in all wheat products, that have a disease known as Celiac Disease. They cannot process gluten, and with continued ingestion, can do long-term damage to their small intestines. Fortunately, there are other foods they can eat that satisfy the whole grain requirement, such as brown rice, quinoa, and oats. The most important thing to remember is to read the food labels. Cross contamination can occur.

The Canada Food Guide determination for servings of Breads and Cereals is age dependent. From 2-3 years old, both boys and girls need 3 serving of breads/cereals per day. From 4-8, that jumps to 4 servings per day for both sexes. From 9-13, girls and boys need 6 servings.
From 14-18, girls need 6 and boys need 7, and while it varies slightly with adults, it basically hovers around the same as you age.

What constitutes a serving?
Note: Look at ingredient labels! You are looking for the words "whole grain", whenever possible!

Wheat Products:

• 1/2 whole grain bagel (45 g)
• 1/2 c. cooked barley
• 1 slice whole grain bread (35 g)
• 30 g whole grain cold cereal (this often differs from the serving size on the box! Take note!)
• 35 g. whole wheat roll
• 35 g. whole wheat tortilla (about 1/2)
• 30 g. whole grain crackers

Non Wheat:

• whole grain hot cereal, such as oatmeal (check the label!)
  
• 1/2 c. quinoa, wild, or brown rice
• 2 c. plain popcorn

So what does this look like in a typical school lunch?

Here are some ideas that you could send in your typical school lunch. Luckily, gluten intolerance doesn't extend to people by being in the same room as gluten, so unless kids share their lunches with a celiac friend, there shouldn't be a problem. 

I've got a homemade chocolate banana bran muffin, some sliced whole grain pita bread (about half a pita), a plain slice of whole grain whole wheat bread cut into quarters (my second son likes plain if he can't have peanut butter!), some original triscuit crackers, shreddies, cooked brown rice, cheerios, and popcorn. Rice is a terrific base for school lunches. You can send it as leftovers from dinner the night before- think rice pilaf or fried rice- or as dessert- like the rice pudding I'm putting in the slow cooker tonight.
Most of these are full servings- the pita bread and triscuits are just over and just under one serving, respectively.

Out of all of these, just pick one! For my second son, he only needs 4 servings in a day- my first son, 6 servings. If we think about a typical breakfast involving (usually) toast or cereal, the usual dinner involving some sort of starchy side like rice or buns, and there's always a bedtime snack in our house (because we eat dinner really early) I know they're getting their recommended servings.

I just want to say, I don't completely limit my kids' food choices when it comes to breads and cereals...or anything, actually. From time to time I'll buy the Presidents Choice version of those little fish crackers. When we travel, I usually bring a box of granola bars. We do eat really well, most of the time. I don't generally buy what I consider junk food, because if it's in the house, we'll eat it, and I'd rather spend our grocery budget on nutrition. I try to make my own desserts (like banana bread, zucchini loaf, cookies, etc). I feel that sometimes we really do want a cookie- so I'll try to make them. But life is busy, and sometimes I will buy them. I still try to buy the better of the processed snacks- keep reading food labels! And I will limit how much we can have in a day- and always, overall, choose nutrition over calories. 

Please like, comment and share as you like! I can't wait to see our kids mobilized to making healthier choices even when we aren't watching! And as always, if you have some suggestions to add to this list, I welcome them. Please add your voice to my blog posts!

All the best,
Stacy

You might also like:
School Lunch Series, Part 1: Milk and Alternates
School Lunch Series, Part 2: Meat and Alternates

We, as a society, are in the midst of a protein-obsessed craze. There are many opinions on what constitutes the right amount of protein. For the purposes of this article, I'm using the Canada Food Guide as my basis.

Today, we focus on Meat and Alternates
First, why worry about it?

Protein found in this food group is essential for building and repairing cells in our entire bodies. Inadequate servings can also lead to iron deficiency anemia and lower immune system function. Many B vitamins are also found in meat and alternates.

Iron deficiency anemia is a disease that can be caused by the inability to absorb iron, and/or insufficient amounts of  iron-rich foods. Although you can get iron from non-meat sources, known as non-heme iron, the iron (heme) from meat sources is more readily absorbed by your body. Be sure to compliment the iron found in non-meat sources with vitamin C, and avoid sources of calcium at the same time as that can inhibit iron absorption. Zinc can be found in other foods as well, and is one factor associated with a higher immune system.

The Canada Food Guide determination for servings of Meat and Alternates is age dependent. From 2-8 years old, both boys and girls need 1 serving of meat/alternates per day. From 9-13, that jumps to 1-2 servings per day for both sexes. From 14 onward, girls need 2 servings, and boys need 3.


What constitutes a serving?

• 3/4 c. cooked beans or lentils
• 1/4 c. shelled nuts or seeds
• 3/4 c. hummus (chickpea based dip)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. peanut butter
• 75 g. of meat- beef, bison, chicken, duck, goat, lamb, pork, etc.
• 75 g. of canned fish (~1/2 c.)
• 75 g. of fish (fresh or frozen)
• 75 g. of deli meat

So what does this look like in a typical school lunch?

Here are some protein-rich foods you could send in a lunch. The cooked chicken, in the top left corner, is about a half serving- around 37 g. That's what my first son is taking to school tomorrow, because we also plan on eating peanut butter toast for breakfast, and pasta with meat sauce for dinner. He's in the 2-serving a day age range.

Everything else in this picture is 1 full serving of protein. Chia chocolate pudding in the top middle, sunflower seeds top right, 2 eggs below the chicken, canned tuna bottom left (my lunch!), and some cooked salmon from the freezer. A full serving of fish, for example, would be a lot for a child to eat in their lunch. 

If your children are picky eaters and only like peanut butter but can't take that to school, it's ok. Chances are good they won't be lacking in this department, because many other foods have protein in them as well- such as milk and bread. Give yourself permission to skip out on a dedicated protein portion in their lunch box.

If it makes it easier, consider breaking their protein portion in 2. Give them a tablespoon of peanut butter for an after school snack, and a small handful (1/8 c. or so) of sunflower seeds in their lunch box. Or a single egg in an egg salad sandwich, and  a little  pork for dinner, about 1/4 c. You can eyeball servings, but if you pick up a scale you'll use it. We have a sensitive postal scale that we've used more than you'd think possible over the years. Just be sure they don't run on those awful little watch batteries.

Remember what the Canada Food Guide suggests for protein servings, and chances are good you're eating too much. I know we tend to! I also know this is controversial in the age of fad diets and fitness experts. We're all on this journey to become healthier. Pay attention to your overall consumption and your health in general.

Hopefully this will help you with your school lunches this week! Feel free to like, comment, and share. Together we can make school lunches a healthy habit!

Stacy

You might also like:
School Lunch Series, Part 3: Breads and Cereals
School Lunch Series, Part 1: Milk and Alternates
Talking Nutrition with Kids

And that means, for those of us with kids, back to school lunches. Is anyone ever really ready for it? 

I've seen this same photo circulating on Facebook for years now. It's a great idea, and has generated a lot of excitement on getting your kids ready to accept some empowerment and having them to choose their own lunches.

The biggest issue I have with this particular example is the vast quantity of heavily processed, nearly nutritionally void foods. Many of them are high in sugar, fat, and.or sodium. The only items I see basically unprocessed are the cheese strings and the cucumber.

I totally understand the frustration with building a lunch for your kids. The schools my children attend have so many restrictions on what can be brought in their lunch- and when you add a picky child to the mix, as we have lived through with both, options become extremely limited. Take heart, though. My first defined picky, but he's a great eater now. I have high hopes for the second.

That being said, there are things we can do as parents and caregivers to provide healthy, balanced lunches for our kids. We can give them the choices needed to build their own lunches, still. It just requires a little bit more planning and preparation on our part. I promise, a balanced diet will do wonders for your kids and their health, both now and into the future.

Because my boys are finally going back to school tomorrow, this blog post will be spread out over the week as a school lunch series. Please comment, suggest, and share! I would love to see school lunches transformed into something more than just stuff to fill an empty belly- make them the backbone of healthy bones, growing minds, and active bodies!

Today, we focus on Milk and Alternates.
First, why worry about it?

As a child I used to hate the "because I said so" answers. As an adult, I still do. So I'm not going to throw out a whole bunch of things you should do with no reason behind it.

Calcium is a mineral that is found in your bones and teeth. To simplify, the amount you get into your body as a child will directly impact your health as an adult. If you are deficient in your younger years, there will be bone density problems as adults. Calcium also impacts the health of your teeth and plays a role in disease prevention. We have such a short time, as parents, to make sure we are doing what we can to make our kids as healthy as possible not only now but long after they've grown. I think it's marvelous that we can take the reins and do this for our kids. For further information, check out this article!

The Canada Food Guide determination for servings of Milk and Alternates is age dependent. From 2-8 years old, both boys and girls need 2 servings of milk/dairy/alternates per day. From 9-18, that jumps to 3-4 servings per day for both sexes.

What constitutes a serving?

• 1 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of yogurt
• 50g. of cheese block (cheddar, mozza, goat, etc)
• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 1 cup of soy beverage (make sure it's fortified with vitamin d!)
• 3/4 cup of kefir

So what does this look like in a typical school lunch?

At our school, students get about 20 minutes to wash their hands, eat their lunches, use the bathroom if needed, and clean up after themselves. As you can possibly imagine, this is not an easy task for some kids who would prioritize social time and play over eating. I advocate easy-to-open and easy-to-eat lunches, so that we can hopefully get some nutrition into our kids for the afternoon session of classes.

And here's how easy it is...just pick one. This is the dairy I had on hand today, but there are many more options you can use. 

If you don't want the added sugar, skip the flavoured yogurt and eat unflavoured. Our school has a milk program you can opt into. Assuming that most kids won't guzzle a whole 1 c. of milk plus eat lunch in their 20 minutes, if you opt into a program like that I wouldn't worry too much about sending additional dairy, unless you want to. They'll probably drink half of their milk in that time. 

If it is easier to think about, for the younger kids, 2 servings of dairy a day can be broken up into 4 half-sized servings.

For example, the Activia is not a full serving- just over a half serving. And the cheese string is just under a half serving. So combine those in your day, and that is one serving of dairy. That's a half serving of milk, and just over a half serving of feta cheese (not that my kids will eat it!). If you make sure they are drinking milk or eating yogurt with their breakfast, having some for lunch, some after school, and some at dinner or at bedtime, they're likely going to hit all their nutritional needs for the day.

Bigger kids, well, are bigger- my experience this summer with my first son is that he's always hungry. Getting him to eat an extra serving or 2 of dairy is not a problem.

Hopefully these ideas will help you figure out what's for lunch this week. Over the course of the next week we will be examining all the food groups, and then a series of put-together lunches will follow after that.

Enjoy the rest of your day, friends!
Stacy

My kids are adorable. I mean, seriously, completely adorable. Some days I look at them and wonder how they got to be so amazing. But in today's digital reality world, with a plethora of games, devices, movies, and so on, there isn't a whole lot of enthusiasm when I say the words "Go outside and play!" So while they are at a healthy weight and body type now, I know it's going to be tricky to keep them healthy as they continue to age in such a sedentary world. Both diet and activity levels are important, and while we're taking steps to mitigate the lack of activity, we also have to address their diets while they are young. And our vigilance can be never-ending. This digital age isn't going anywhere. The kids know more about my phone than I do, and in school they use electronic tools I hadn't even heard of before, like "smart boards". Each grade 6 student had a Chromebook to use for the school year, and I think tablets (or iPad's?) were used every day in kindergarten.

For me, the most important reason to eat nutritious food is to have a healthy life. I have conversations with the kids that focus on the various health-related aspects of nutrition, such as strong and straight bones, a brain that's fast and able to learn, muscles to help us do all the fun things we like to do. We talk about how every food has different vitamins and minerals, and the point to eating a "balanced diet" is to get as much good stuff into our bodies as possible.

My first son is at a complicated age. He's at that awkward place between child and teen. Boys aren't immune to body image issues, and unfortunately the word "diet" has negative connotations, such as being fat and needing to lose weight. The very last thing I want is for him to think that I think he needs to lose weight, or worse, for him to think badly of his body. So we focus on the quality of food, and we focus on the quantity. Nothing is off limits in our house. I personally remember smuggling "off limits" food into the house when I was a teenager, and hiding it or binge eating after an emotional day. I don't want the kids to feel like they have to hide what they're eating. 

If the bulk of our food choices has a high nutritional component, I won't say no if asked for something less quality. I will monitor quantity, however, of both healthy and junk, because too much of anything is still too much.

My second son is also complicated right now, because he's picky. He will eat more now than he did a year ago, but I wouldn't say he's a great eater at this time. Our conversations about food happen almost every day. He's had a summer cold, so his usual favorite foods were pushed aside when his taste buds went funny from the cold. The thing is, he has very few favorite fruits, and when he starts to turn up his nose at any of them we have a problem. When he pushed away his apple slices we had a conversation that went something like this:

Child: I don't like apples anymore.
Me: Ok. What new fruit will you try instead? We have grapes, cherries, kiwi, oranges, strawberries, and blueberries,
Child: I don't want to try any of those.
Me: I know, but if you won't eat apples, you need to pick something else. Fruit has lots of nutrition, remember?
Child: <long sigh> Fine, I'll just eat my apples.

It isn't that my son isn't exposed to new foods every single day. He's just very, very stubborn. I won't let food fights happen, but I won't give an inch either, in allowing entire food groups to be discarded. He was eating cheerios for a snack the other day and asked if it was a balanced meal. We talked about what it means when I say "balanced". I explained that cheerios are a grain product, and they are an excellent source of iron, which helps your blood carry oxygen through your body. To make it a balanced snack, we needed to add in other food groups, such as dairy- and I gave him a glass of milk- and fruit or vegetable- and he got some cucumber slices.

When I was a kid, I hated the "because I said so" response when I would ask "why". I think it's important to teach kids now, before food and health issues typically start, so that they have actual facts at hand when they navigate the waters of adolescence. There's no shortage of advertising designed to make us feel badly about ourselves, and the more tools in our arsenal the better.

For the summer, whenever possible, I've got a meal and snack plan set up for the entire day, not just dinner. I'm finding that the kids are feeling more satisfied and asking less often "What can I eat, I'm hungry". If you'd like me to post it, let me know. 

Enjoy the day, friends.
Stacy

All in all, this was a surprisingly productive week. Surprising, because I had a few unexpected hoops thrown at me, but I managed to keep from tripping on them. Woo Hoo! And if you look at all my dinner plates, you'll notice a lot more colour in them when compared to last week's dinners! I tried to really up the ante on fruit and vegetables this week. The more nutrition the kids eat when they're young, the better equipped they'll be as adults. And although both of them don't love my dinners all the time, just being exposed to the flavours and foods is training them to be good eaters with an adventurous palate. I always try to put something on the plate that they'll enjoy- even, like in the halibut meal, it was only the peas and corn that passed approval from my second son.

I finished my last class of my Diploma in Personal Nutrition, and now aside for the final exam I have a month off until my next begins. Both boys had their soccer games, I managed to keep my river valley walking commitment, I actually did the paper filing from my kitchen counter, and even managed to surprise the kids with a doubled recipe of their favorite muffins. I worked in my #testkitchen- a couple of recipes for my cookbook, too. Like I said, surprisingly productive.

I actually did the muffins and some apple crumble on a soccer night because I had the oven on at the right temperature and the kids have been begging me to bake. I had some sad apples to cook and enough over ripe bananas too. Doubled their muffins, because I don't like baking. I left a few out on the counter and found space to freeze the rest flat in a ziplock.

The boys provided breakfast in bed for me on Mothers Day, which was pretty nice. They gave me a heaping portion of fruit with my toast and yogurt, and a nice big cup of coffee, and left me alone to enjoy some moments of peace.

What did your week look like? Did you accomplish something that's been bugging you for a while? My nemesis is paper clutter. I'm so glad to have just put it away.

If you're in Canada, I hope you're enjoying the long weekend! Have a wonderful week, friends.
Stacy

Yesterday I made the slowcooker soup during the day (while it was actually snowstorming outside!) so that I wouldn't have to worry about cooking dinner tonight. Looking over these pictures I'm realizing that there are 2 major colours missing from our meals- red and green! My family picked up on that too, and asked for red and green after-soccer snacks. We ate strawberries and grapes, red pepper strips, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas.  The Canada Food Guide suggests the kids eat 6 servings and we eat about 8, so there's always room for more veges and fruits at snack time. I do need to get more fresh fruit and vegetables though, because I'm now out of carrots, snap peas, and all fruit except oranges and apples. Keep it colourful in that shopping cart! You'll get a wider variety of nutritients.

I had an abundance of potatoes, mushrooms, and carrots this week in the fridge and pantry, so those were the first vegetables I turned to when prepping dinner. Plus it's been more like winter than spring, and I seem to turn to root vegetables when I'm cold. 

Spring soccer's always a bit of an adventure when it comes to the weather. Tonight's game time forecast is rain, and lots of it. This is good for us, though, because our forest fire season has started early and in earnest. We had a brush fire about a month ago not far from our home. It's pretty scary when the smoke is close and the wind is blowing in your direction!

What food do you gravitate to when the weather turns wintery? Do you seek out the company of soups and stews, or do you like warm roasts with potatoes, or spicy and peppery stirfrys? I look forward to hearing about your favorites!

Have a great day,
Stacy

Here was my dinner plate from tonight. Notice how 1/2 the plate is full of bright vegetables, a 1/4 is a measured serving of brown rice, and 1/4 a measured serving of salmon.
Thoughts? Have a great week, friends!
Stacy

Yesterday morning after we finished breakfast and exchanging gifts, I went back to bed to the calm and quiet to "plan my day", as I call it. My first son came to find me and apologized for waking me up, but I wasn't asleep. I was thinking about what we were doing, where were going, when to put the different parts of dinner on, and how to get everything hot at the right time before serving. That planning is as much an essential part of meal preparation as the actual standing in the kitchen and cooking.
I find if I don't take a few minutes to order my thoughts and my day, chaos ensues.

We settled on this menu:
Turkey
Gravy
Stuffing (dressing- cooked in the slow cooker)
Roasted sweet and russet potatoes
Roasted orange and red peppers
Steamed carrots and celery
Caesar salad
Lemon/cranberry sauce
Mimosa's
Coffee
Homemade apple pie
Vanilla ice cream

If you'll look at the plate, there are lots of vegetables. Portion sizes over "the holidays" is something most of us forget to think about, but it's never too late to start eyeballing your plate. If half your plate is vegetable and/or fruit, you're off to a good start. I did actually add some carrots and celery after I took this picture :) Imagine a hockey puck, and that's your protein. Stuffing, being mostly bread chunks, count as your breads/cereals- the amount of stuffing pictured was about 2 slices of bread.

I designed my own spice blend for the turkey and stuffing this year, and it was definitely most enjoyable. Over the next day or two I'll be posting a few recipes for what we ate on Christmas day. I'd be happy to hear how your meals turned out! Did you try anything new? Discover a new favorite? Is there anything you'd like me to post about over the next few days?

Enjoy your weekend, friends. 
Stacy