Thursday, September 29, 2011

Snack Time


Snack Time


So am I that mom that curls her toes at the sight of her daughters helping themselves to munchkins and goldfish?  I am getting better!  Our girls have a handful of treats twice a week at school.  I can bring them cut up fruit if I want.  But in finding the balance in all of this I do not want our girls to be the only kids in the class eating a different snack.  And, of course, they love the snacks they get in school!  Play-date and party food makes our ladies giddy as well.  My friends all make fun of me when my daughters just sit and eat and don’t play.  I try to explain that they are eaters and even if it were something healthy on the table they would do the same thing.  But the sight of the Gilroy twins slamming munchkins and goldfish does make for some good comedy.  You should see their faces when they try to suck droplets out of a Capri Sun package!

They are almost 2 and I do what I can.  When we are not on play dates or at parties, I try my hardest to stick to the real stuff.  Here are some of the healthy snacks that we enjoy.

Healthy Snacks

  • Fruit and vegetables.
    • One of our favorites is sweet potatoes.  The girls love them so much they eat them cold!
  • Vegetables and hummus, guacamole or a healthy dressing (healthy meaning the least amount of ingredients and additives in your dressing; low fat dressing is not a healthy option). 
    • For younger kids, I would steam or boil the veggies for a few minutes so they are not too hard to eat.
    • For bigger kids cut up a variety of fruits and vegetables and let them make their own salad.  It will make them feel like they had a choice too!
  • Apples and peanut butter, almond butter or sun butter.
  • Dried fruit and nuts.
    • We enjoy dried apples and raisins.
  • Nuts
    • Go to the bulk bins with your kids and let them create a trail-mix.
  • Fruit and vegetable smoothies.
  • Popcorn on the stove!  (Olive oil in a pot, put the kernels in the pot, put the cover on - and instant snack; season to your liking).
  • Pickles.
  • Whole grain crackers and hummus.
  • Sliced Banana with peanut or almond butter. 
  • A small dish of last night’s leftovers.
  • Rice cakes or rice crackers with a topping (hummus, almond butter, pureed or sliced fruit).
  • Natural chips & salsa - add black beans for protein
    • Drain, rinse and puree a can of black beans.  Add a half a jar of mild salsa, two tablespoons of pureed kale and you have one healthy dip! 
  • Natural chips & guacamole.
  • Homemade fruit juice popsicles.
  • Organic yogurt / Greek strained.
  • Granola (make sure you read the labels for the least amount of additives).
  • A cup of oatmeal with fruit, nuts and honey.
  • A few small pieces of cheese, some almonds and a piece of fruit.

Reminder! Don’t use any of the butters (peanut butter, almond butter, sun butter) unless you have gotten the OK from your doctor.

Love deeply and snack mindfully,
Kim Gilroy

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Brown Bagging It!


Brown Bagging It!

I became interested in the health and wellness industry for a variety of reasons.  The biggest draw for me was the connection between what we eat and how it affects the way we think and feel.  I was always the kid with potential in class, but I often had difficulty focusing. I was bright, but often came up average.  But every school year was a clean slate for me!  “This is going to be my year!”  I would say to myself.

I vividly remember my new binders organized and ready because that was the year I was going to be organized the whole school year; not just the beginning.  Schedules, new fall clothes, and the lunches my mom made. My lunches were everything from an olive loaf sandwich to a leftover meatloaf sandwich that I would eat cold with a touch of ketchup.  Homemade chicken soup, left over stew or spaghetti and meatballs were thermos specials. I was a brown bagger through and through! 

Now as a mother, teacher and holistic health counselor, I look back on my school years and wish I could go back and track my behaviors.  I would love to see if I was more focused on the days I ate homemade stew (meat, egg noodles, carrots, and peas in a tomato sauce) compared to the days that I ate preservatives with a side of preservatives (olive loaf with mayonnaise on Wonder Bread!).

The health and wellness community is starting to understand the connection between eating well-balanced, whole food-based meals and our cognitive function.  Dr. Mark Hyman, author of “The Ultra Mind Solution” writes: “Feeding our brains is not something most of us know how to do.  What you put in your mouth provides all the raw materials to build the structure of your brain cells and keep all the communication systems running well so you can think, emote, learn and remember.  You have to start with the right food and enough of the right nutrients for the brain to function well.”

I think Dr. Hyman and others are on to something.  I have big dreams of sending my ladies on the school bus with cute lunch bags filled with nutritional goodness to “feed their brains.”  Here are some of my ideas:

1.)   Cook once and eat twice.  Turn leftovers into sandwiches.  Meatball sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, pot-roast sandwiches.  Or use a thermos and heat up last night’s primavera and beans or soup.

2.)   Egg salad sandwiches.  Puree carrots and broccoli and add it to the mayonnaise in the sandwich. And chop up celery and you have a serving of vegetables in your egg salad!

3.)   Almond butter, sun butter, or good old fashion peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Please read your labels.  Your butters should not have any sugar added to them and your “jelly” should really be a fruit spread with no sugar additives.

4.)   Hummus, avocado, cucumber, and carrot sandwich.

5.)   Raw vegetables, a piece of fruit, a bag of trail mix, a side of hummus to dip the vegetables and some whole grain crackers.

6.)   Good quality yogurt with granola and trail mix, raw vegetables (if you don’t have raw vegetables on hand, thawed out frozen veggies work just well . . . my girls eat them just the same), and piece of fruit.
   
Get creative and accept help from anyone who is willing to help you prepare good, healthy food!  Review my kale blog for the vegetable soup recipe and ideas for getting leafy greens into your food.  Remember, you don’t have to start your day on a school bus to be a brown baggerJ

Love deeply and eat mindfully,
Kim Gilroy