I wanted to share one of my favorite treats/desserts. It’s great because it is 1)healthy 2)quick & easy and 3)I always have the ingredients on hand. 1-2 tablespoons of organic almond, or cashew butter a handful of sliced strawberries (or any berries really) add coconut milk to cover sprinkle with stevia That’s it! Make coconut milk a staple in your pantry- it is so versatile, yummy, and healthy.
Author: Kimberly Roberto
Wife, Mom, Daughter, Business Owner with a Passion for Cooking and Eating Healthy Food and Helping Others to do the Same!
Finally, a meal post
Originally I thought I would use this site to post recipes but the recipes are the easy part. You can pretty much take any recipe and alter it enough to make it healthy. So I decided to sprinkle in some other useful (and probably a little use-less) information.
On this post I will share what I made for dinner yesterday. It was one of those nights where I did one of my little victory dances because my whole family loved my meal. yes!!! So here’s what it was. Like many of my meals, they were fast, easy, and yummy.
I picked up some bison steaks from Super Target (mainly because I forgot to defrost my grass-fed beef steaks) and seasoned them with a little all purpose seasoning (I like Spike) and some sea salt. I put it on my cast iron grill pan (a necessity for cooking) and grilled it up to medium. One of the keys to good grass-feed steaks is to cook them as little as possible. I used to be a hockey-puck steak kind of girl. I wouldn’t eat it unless it was well done. Well, I’ve come a long way and can almost eat a steak rare. Not only is the taste better, but you retain a lot of the nutrients, and it keeps the steak nice and tender.
The kids talked me into getting some fresh organic ears of corn (I usually don’t do corn) but they talked me into it and then I made some Mashed Cauliflower to go along with it.
It was a hit. Than goodness eating healthy can be fast and easy.
Mashed Cauliflower
Core and Advanced Plan
Serves 4
This is so simple it seems silly to even call it a recipe. It is super versatile and can take the place of potatoes.
1 head cauliflower
Organic butter to taste (about 2-3 tablespoons)
Sea Salt to taste
A little bit of full fat, whole milk (preferably raw) or almond milk just to get it to the right consistency and to get it to mix in the blender.
A little squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1/2 clove garlic (optional)
Lightly steam the cauliflower and then put everything in the blender or Vitamix. Blend it to your desired consistency.
Lunchables = Laughable
Well folks…it never ceases to amaze me what I will see at the grocery store. I really try to resist the urge to look in other people’s carts but it is as hard as not rubbernecking to see the accident on the other side of the street. One of my observational “hot spots” at the store is the Lunchable section. I usually whiz by it after picking up my organic turkey bacon at Publix (it’s on the same aisle). Inevitibly I see moms swooshing them into their carts. Never once have I seen anyone pick them up and look at the label.
Even before I even went near the things to check the label, the look of them was enough to turn me off. Pinkish white turkey discs, flourescent cheese, candy, and some sugary drink. MMMMM. But the label just illuminates the anti-nutrient status of this product. Anti-nutients are not only lacking nutrients, but they actually pull nutrient stores from the body as they are injested.
I found this article on line that made me chuckle while exposing the horribleness (is that a word?) of this crap. Some of the kids comments were very funny. As crazy as it may seem, if you really look at what kids are eating in the school cafeterias, many kids get a healthier lunch by buying it from the school than bringing it from home. Lunchables are a perfect example.
Read the article for yourself and share it with anyone you know who is ingesting this stuff. I really don’t understand how it even makes it to the store shelf. This is a true example of how we have succumb to the power of convenience over quality. For goodness sakes, it doesn’t even TASTE good!
The Peanut Butter Example
No, I’m not going to talk about the recent peanut butter recalls but that did make me scratch my head this week. All of the affected items (besides the dog biscuits) were processed crap/snack foods. So here’s a solution- don’t eat the processed crap and you don’t have to worry. From my point of view, if this deters people from buying Nutter Butters and Little Debbies- that’s cool with me.
This post actually stems from an email from one of our Weight Loss Challenges at a local school. We got an email from a participant asking about peanut butter. It said something to the effect of, “how could organic peanut butter be better than the low fat Jif I bought. I looked at the labels and the organic peanut butter had so much more fat in it.”
This just brought to light how misinformed the public is about nutrition. First off, not all fat is bad! Your body actually needs fat- good fats (email me if you want to know what they are) that is. Secondly, reading the top part of the label is often a waste of time. When I pick up a label, I go straight to the ingredient label. That’s because I could care less if something has high fat as long as they are good fats. The only thing I ever really look at on the top of the label is the amount of grams of sugar, other than that- straight to the ingredient label.
So back to our peanut butter example…the ingredients on my Arrowhead Mills Organic Peanut Butter is: VALENCIA PEANUTS. The label on the Low Fat Jif are: PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SUGAR AND SOY PROTEIN, CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), SALT, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, MOLASSES, NIACINAMIDE, FOLIC ACID, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM OXIDE, ZINC OXIDE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, AND COPPER SULFATE.
I took it right from the Jif website: http://www.jif.com/products/details.asp?prodID=330
Are you kidding me with those ingredients? What does common sense tell you about which one is better fuel for your body? The -iamides, the -cholorides, the -phospates, the -oxides, or the peanuts?
By the way, it is not the fat that is making us fat, it is the carbs and the sugars. Don’t believe me? Look at the rates of obesity since the onset of the low-fat craze (in the 80’s). It has been increasing by leaps and bounds. Want to see something scarry…check out the CDC’s slideshow on obesity rates. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/
Peanut butter anyone?
Fresh Produce Delivery.
So today, I am awaiting an order of fresh produce from my local natural foods store (Nature’s Corner Market www.naturescornermkt.com ). They have given their customers the opportunity to order bulk organics from their vendors.
I and a couple of friends are splitting some of the items and I am eagerly anticipating getting them in my hands. How crazy is it that I am so super excited to receive produce???
I am just anticipating what I am going to do with it all, what recipes I’m going to prepare, what new things I’m going to subject my family too, how yummy it’s going to taste, and most importantly, how good it is going to be for me.
Things like this are available in almost any city…it just takes some digging. I was part of a CSA previously and that was another way to receive fresh, local produce. You can go to www.localharvest.org to find one near you. There are even services now that will deliver organics right to your door. Granted it is a little pricier, but of very high quality. I have used www.offthevineproduce.com several times and have been very happy.
EatSmart Meals 
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