New Healthy Child Widget!

Food Dyes... What Were They Thinking?!

Ok, I think that people in this world are going a little mad.  

Healthy Child has a Facebook page and they post current information/articles periodically.  Today I read a post about food dyes from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy providing a Guide To Food Dyes.  

Not so shocking was the fact that food dyes are found in processed foods like sprinkles, all sorts of candies, and even things like lime sherbet.  Clearly food dyes are used to attract children, a clever marketing scheme, but a disturbing thought.  Food dyes have been linked with provoking hyperactivity in children and linked with several other health issues in children.  

Here comes the really maddening part... this article reveals that food dyes are also used on produce to enhance the color and make them more appealing to the consumer!  You think you are doing something healthy by providing a "whole food" for your child and in fact it has been sprayed with dyes!  Food dyes have also been found on the casings of some hot dogs and even in butter.  

Ok, now that I totally freaked you out, not to fear... there are simple steps you can take to avoid your exposure.  Check out the link I provided above and find out what you can do.  Clearly buying organics and whole foods is the number one step, but things have to change, when you pick up an orange you should be able to trust that thats all it is!

New Content on Nourish This!

We launched a bunch of new content today on Nourish This!  We added several new recipes including a fun new breakfast idea you have to check out called "Rice Scramble," a great, incredibly simple pink lemonade, quinoa tabbouleh (shown above) and lots more!  

Dr. Peter Bongiorno (one of our Naturopathic advisors) added a lot of info for you this month with quick summaries of research on issues such as breast cancer and kidney failure... and on a more preventative note, he wrote about how cruciferous veggies like broccoli and brussels can help ward off cancer!  Yay for broccoli!  ...I will have to think of a couple fun recipes with broccoli for next month :)

Hmmm, what else did we add?  OH, Jennifer Eastes, our Environmentalist wrote about water bottles and how much of an impact drinking from them has on the health of our bodies AND the earth.  Plus, we attached a video from YouTube illustrating her point, it is definitely a must-see!  ...I should have provided a link to Klean Kanteen or Camelbak at the bottom of the article, would have been fitting for sure!  Incase you have not heard of them, they are both BPA free water bottles made from both stainless steal and BPA/phathalate free plastics.  Anyway, check out her article, you will never look at a bottle of water the same again, and thats a good thing!

Other than that, we are filming for the Healthy Child, Healthy World videos on Monday so looking forward to that!  I have a line-up of cuties accompanying me so it should be a blast :)  Ciao for now!

Birthday Cake!

Well, I made my own birthday cake this year... although I have to say, my mom made a valiant effort to take the reins but I insisted.  Baking gluten-free is a challenge, but making an angel food cake gluten-free without sugar or xantham gum is another story entirely!! 

Like I was going to let anything stand in the way of me and birthday cake!  HA.

So, I whipped the eggs, folded the flour, prayed to the God of angel food cake while I added the forbidden liquid (maple syrup) to my peaked whites and poof, delicious, fluffy Birthday Cake was born!  I have to admit on top of the culinary difficulties we were also amidst the most humid part of the summer and I was cooking in a kitchen without AC... so we had a slight deflating issue.  No biggy, it was still fluffy and so so good.  

Being my birthday and all, I felt like I deserved a kicked-up version so I made a mixed berry syrup with fresh blueberries, strawberries, maple syrup, water, orange juice and half of a cinnamon stick.  I could literally eat that stuff with a spoon.  

I know this is completely not "Nourish This" philosophy of a well-rounded meal but I totally had cake dripping with sweet berry sauce for breakfast and loved every second of it!  Although, I do have to say that "Nourish This" (a.k.a. me) certainly believes in eating what you love as long as it is in moderation.  When it is a special occasion or you are really craving something, go for it, you only live once!  Plus, when you try to ignore cravings, the size of the craving grows until instead of being satisfied with one slice of cake you won't be satisfied until you have devoured a whole one!  Yeah, lets not let that happen, go for the piece and move on!

Pink Lemonade

Wow, I have been such a slacker lately with my blogging!  I have been super busy this past month, which is always a good thing but does not leave me too much time.  I have been trying to experiment with new recipes for next month's additions to the website but I am also preparing for my shoot for Healthy Child, Healthy World.  I have reached out to like-minded companies for product sponsorship and have been so incredibly lucky!  In the past week I received shipment from Scandanavian Child, Le Creuset, Alternative Apparel and Glass Lock!  Wow, I mean, could that be more exciting?? :)

There is still so much left to do but I am trying not to be overwhelmed!  

Although it has not been terribly hot this summer... and by not terribly hot I mean I think I have seen the sun a total of 5 days so far.  Bummer.  However, it is a goal of mine to take advantage of every gorgeous moment so I have been on a few kayaking trips, camping, walking, etc.  All of which have put me in the mood for an old summer classic: pink lemonade!

Of course I do not eat refined sugar, so how in the world do you make pink lemonade without killing yourself in sourness?!  I tried Truvia this week because I have used Stevia for a while and gave in to the marketing trap and needed to know what I was missing.  Its ok but I have to find out if it has "other" ingredients in it besides stevia.  Stevia is a natural sweetener made from the leaves of a plant and does not register on the glycemic index at all and has no calories.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!  haha, yeah I know, I'm not that funny ;)

Anyway, I made a couple varieties of lemonade but liked the simplest one the best: the juice from one whole lemon, 1 tsp. of stevia and 1/4 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice, about 3/4 cup of water and several ice cubes.  So fantastically refreshing you absolutely cannot go another sunny day without trying it.  And don't tell me you don't have time cause it takes about 30 seconds!

Alright, I am off to cook dinner... confetti turkey burgers, orangey sweet potato strings and roasted asparagus. YUM.

Mer and Meatloaf

My good friend Meredith came over today to keep me company (and ultimately help maintain my sanity) while I experimented with recipes for my upcoming HCHW webisodes.   The goal of the day was to sneak veggies into every food possible to help mom's and dad's get their potentially uninterested children to eat veggies!  

SO, in 3 hours I made: Carrot Crackers (need tweaking), Quinoa and Veggie Meatloaf, Secret Spaghetti Sauce (cause it has so many veggies!!) and finally Wild Smoothies (cause I added spinach!).  Whew!  Oh, and I had an extra ripe plantain (maduros) hanging around so I baked it in the oven for an extra treat... yeah, I need to take a load off.  

The verdict?  Well, all I know is Mer went home stuffed and I don't think either one of us will be needing dinner tonight.  According to my taste-tester aficionado, thumbs up on the meatloaf and spaghetti sauce, maybe a touch less spinach in the smoothie (I went a little slap happy with the spinach!), and crackers had great flavor but work on the texture.  Oh, and Mer recommends dipping the crackers in the spaghetti sauce :)

I will work on all of these to make them even better, the first try is always the toughest, especially when you cook 5 NEW recipes in 3 hours!  Sometimes you feel like a nut... this time I do, but I will keep trying until those crackers come out perfect.  No pictures of the food for now, I want to keep you guessing until I achieved perfection... or close enough to it!  This picture is of the two of us making collaborative artwork, a portrait of Mer's first house many moons ago when we were in graduate school together.

Thanks for the help!!

Knee Schmee

I have had a solid 9 operations on my left knee alone... and 3 in the past 6 months.  To say the least I am sick of being knee-restricted!  After my surgery in December I could not walk for three months and then had another surgery and could not walk for another 2... not cool, not cool at all.  For those of you who don't know me on a personal level, I love being active- whether I am walking, hiking, kayaking, tossing the football with my brother or dad, biking, doing yoga, etc., I love love love to move!  This past week has been one of the best for me knee-wise and that in combination with the fact that it was sunny for the first time in about 8 weeks, I went a little berserk!  

From the second I woke up and saw the sun I was psyched... made breakfast, went for a walk and then decided it was time to attempt outdoor biking for the first time (since my surgery).  I took my bike out of the garage, which was filled with cobwebs, dirt and buggies... hosed it down and hopped on.  Ok, I TRIED to hop on.  Yeah, not so successful!  After about 3 tries (I felt like I was 4 again!), I was able to get up on the bike and pedal fast enough not to tip over!  The first two tries I did in fact fall over, kind of a slow motion fall where if I could actually move my leg well enough I could have dismounted the bike instead of getting tangled in it, but alas I was not so nimble!

After conquering the pedaling, I made it about 3 laps around my house!!  YEAHHHHH, I was thrilled.  Yes, the pain started shortly after that and I had to call it quits for the day but whatever, bike ride outdoors- check!  

Then I thought it would be a great idea to put air back into every sports ball we had in the garage, dust them off and give them a spin.  For the next hour I was shooting hoops, bumping the volleyball and hitting the whiffle ball across the yard.   It was close to dinner time so I went in and made... hmmm, what was it.  Oh, creamy spinach and lentil stew.  Dinner $5.35/person, Whiffle Ball $.99, playing all day like a 5 year old- priceless.