Yum: Who says healthy food can’t be yummy food? Part 1

Variety is the spice of life. But planning and routine are your best friends when it comes to maintaining a healthy diet.

I love variety in cooking, and I am passionate about enjoying a wide range of healthy foods. After all, the more interesting, colorful, and tasty you can make your meals, the more satisfied you will be with an adequate portion, and you’ll avoid overeating.

Still, for me, I’ve found that the best approach to healthy eating is to save variety for dinner, and to stick to one or two standard meals for breakfast and lunch. This takes the thinking out of meal preparation, and oftentimes during our busy days, that’s a nice feature. I’ll eat one or two things until I grow tired of them, and then I’ll come up with a new idea. (This also saves a ton of money at the store, because you can buy in bulk, rather than getting lots of different ingredients for 5 or 6 different meals.)

I’ve been eating two of my favorites for a while, and I thought I’d share with you. These are my takes on oatmeal and a salad packed with all kinds of protein.

Snore.

Oh, you don’t think oatmeal and salad can be interesting AND healthy? Well, you’d be wrong. Well…maybe you aren’t completely wrong. Because there are LOTS of examples of these meals out there that don’t inspire rhapsody…I had a salad at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago that almost made me cry with boredom: romaine, some julienned peppers, orange wedges, some seared tuna (not terribly flavorful and the texture seemed like it may have been frozen) and a bland vinaigrette. There was nothing fabulous about it…no attention to flavor…no unifying ingredient that made all of these random foods mesh into one terrific eating experience. Okay…so maybe my standards are a little too high…but this mess tempted me to overeat about 5 minutes after I had finished. And I was full! But I was bored.

The key to making healthy food interesting is – you guessed it! – interesting ingredients! Do you love blueberries? Then put them in your plain yogurt, along with a little granola and a teensy bit of honey. Can’t get enough avocados? Try it on your hamburger, and you will NOT miss the mayo.

Here’s my take on oatmeal. I’ll post my salad in a day or two. Enjoy them just like I do, or use them as inspiration to try something new. Who says oatmeal has to come from a packet, and good salads can only be found at Panera?

Brooke’s Really Good and Deceptively Healthy Oatmeal.
My brother, Lee, thought this was just about the best oatmeal he’d ever tasted. Oatmeal is a terrific source of soluble fiber, which can aide in lowering cholesterol. Walnuts are a terrific source of protein and heart-healthy fats. Cinnamon regulates blood sugar. The Smart Balance spread lends some luxury to the dish, and adds a bit more healthy fat, which balances the dish and, along with the whole grain of the oatmeal, slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Cherries and sugar are just yummy, and adding the crunchy sugar on top is way more satisfying than adding lots of white or brown sugar and stirring it in. If you’re keeping track, the dish comes in at right about 350-400 calories.

1 cup water
½ cup old fashioned oats (substitute pin oats if you’d like and adjust the cooking time)
2 tablespoons dried cherries, roughly chopped (they’re pretty big, and this spreads them throughout the cereal without using too many)
2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped
½ cinnamon
2 teaspoons turbinado sugar (Look for Sugar in the Raw)
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon Smart Balance spread
Skim milk to taste (I use between ¼ and ½ cup)

Combine water and cherries in a small saucepan over high heat; bring to a boil. Add oats; reduce heat to medium low and cook for five minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 2-5 minutes. Place in bowl and top with the remaining ingredients, nestling the spread in the middle to melt it. Serves one happy person.

Look for the salad next time.

Wellness: The Great H2O Challenge

Don't believe Martha Stewart or Dr. Agatston when they say you don't need 8 glasses of water a day. Because you do. It aides in digestion and helps to rid your body of waste. It keeps your skin from drying out. Also, did you know that thirst often mimics the feeling of hunger? So when you're reaching for that snack, a bottle of water may be what your body really needs.

If you are anything like me, then you struggle to get it all in. Either you're drinking something else (party day on the boat, and rum punch seems like a good idea), your day gets away from you (crazy morning, you look at your watch, you've had nothing to drink since your coffee at 7:30am), or you're out and about, and the prospect of going to the bathroom 4 times an hour to get rid of all that water just doesn't appeal. I know and I totally get it. But for me, getting all that water is an absolute necessity.

Just over a year ago, while getting ready for a busy day, I had some of the most debilitating pain I've ever experienced. I had a kidney stone. And you know that old story about them being like childbirth? Totally true. (Except in this case, no cute anesthitest was standing by with a smile, offering to shoot pain medication into my spine.) I had several more attacks, spanning about six months, before I passed the wretched thing (I assume I passed it; it hasn't bothered me for sometime.)

If you have one of these, you will never, I repeat, NEVER neglect water consumption again.

Did you know that kidney stones are on the rise in children? And I'm not talking about that horrible instance of the melamine-in-the-baby-formula-in-China mess; I'm talking about right here, right now, in America. Pediatricians link the sharp rise of kidney stones in children to - you guessed - lack of water consumption, and way too much processed and fast food, which are both notoriously high in salt.

So why am I lecturing you on something that, if you have any sense, you already know? To make my blog longer, of course.

But seriously, I struggle with getting enough water, and I struggle with keeping track to make sure I get enough water. I had been trying to figure out how to remedy this, and I had decided to go buy 4 16 oz cute water bottles, fill them every morning, and when they were gone, I was done. Kind of like Deal a Meal. But then I saw a GREAT suggestion on Fine Living last nite (I sooo wish I could take credit.) Wear bangles, either 4 for 16 ounce servings, or 8 for 8 ounce servings. For every serving of water, move a bangle from one wrist to the other.

Not a bangle-wearer? Me neither. Doesn't really go with my Mommy Chic look I'm sporting most days. I use brown hair elastics. I don't know if they still exist, but those jelly bracelets that we use to wear would work, too (yes, I know they have "meaning" for teenagers. But I don't figure there's a lot of teenage readership in my audience...and if there is, hey, time to change the meaning.) Or, those "cause" bracelets would work...think Livestrong yellow. I'm sure you can find them in other colors.

So give it a try. And try to get that water in...and don't fool yourself if your drink of choice has caffeine, sugar, or alcohol. All of these substances are diuretics and DON'T COUNT.

Happy Drinking!

More About How This is Going to Work

This probably isn't necessary, but it's how I do things, so bear with me.

I tend to write about five main topics: food, God, wellness (fitness and balance), travel, and adventures in parenting. At first, I thought I'd divide these topics into separate blogs, but that seems like it would make things more complex than they need to be. So I've decided to post everything here, and to preface each post, so you know what you're getting into ahead of time.

Secondly, I have a lot of posts from my time on Myspace that I'd like to migrate to this blog, but I realize that some of you have already read that stuff, and I don't want you to get bored. To that end, I'll try and follow a format where I'll post new stuff twice a week and old stuff once a week. Look for the posts to be (mostly) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But I TOTALLY reserve the right to publish more :-). This week, for instance, I'll probably have more as I move my recent Key West series out here. (And this little post doesn't count.)

Hey - it's my world. I make the rules.

Happy Reading!

Brooke

Attack of the Picky Two-Year Old

Once upon a time, two foodies met and fell in love. They celebrated milestones in fabulous restaurants and cooked together. They planned their modest wedding around a sumptuous reception and towering wedding cake. They journeyed to Paris for their honeymoon and ate their way around the City of Lights (they also walked a lot, too.) And through it all, they dreamed of the future, a future full of little foodie children that would grow up loving food like they did. These children would never eat canned vegetables or cowboy stew (don't ask.) They would love their veggies and foods prepared in all the ways of the world, because their fabulous parents would expose them to wonderful things. And of course, after all of this amazing (and balanced) eating, the Foodie family would go out and be active and fit and trim and fabulous, and they would be happy and have clear skin.

And then, Elliette Savannah was born.

Elliette is our beautiful, enchanting girl, now 2 1/2 years old. And guess what? She's not a foodie.

We know she's ours. Jeremiah saw them pull her out, and she has my dad's eyes and her dad's chin. She can be grumpy and stubborn, too - further evidence that she's ours. But where food is concerned, we have serious doubts.

It all began when she was a baby. Commensurate with the rosy picture that I had of motherhood and foodie parenthood, I planned to breastfeed. It was a bonafide disaster. Since I'm a buxom girl, Elle had a heck of a time latching on, and my milk production never increased. At her 2 week check up when she hadn't gained back to her birth weight, her pediatrician said we needed to supplement with formula. I didn't see the point in banging my head (or what have you) against a wall when I was formula-feeding anyway, so I discontinued breastfeeding. The problem was, Elle wasn't crazy about the formula, and never really took all that she needed. It wasn't until I introduced whole milk that she really started drinking milk well.

So, jump forward to table food. Again, we had fantasies that she would "eat just what we ate." Perhaps mashed up or blended, perhaps a little less seasoned - but table food. No dice. We ended up buying all of the premade baby food that I swore I would never buy.

We introduced her to our favorites. First on the list - peaches! She hated them.

Jump forward to present. Elle is a finicky two year old. I can count the vegetables that she'll eat on one hand: broccoli (surprisingly), corn, pureed cauliflower (think fake mashed potatoes), sweet potato fries (baked or fried), tomato sauce. For fruits, there are bananas, strawberries, blueberries, grapes. She'll lick an apple, but she won't eat it. I'm serious. But there are also unpredictabilities about her favorites...for instance, she won't often eat a favorite two days in a row. Surprisingly, she loves things you wouldn't expect - last nite, she ate marinated flank steak. She also loves sausage of ANY kind. I ask you, what picky kid do you know eats bratwurst?

We've had to lower our expectations. We've had to expand our patience. This little person is teaching us some good - and hard - life lessons.

On the up side, Elle is not a big fan of chicken fingers or nuggets, and french fries don't get a lot of attention, either. She does like pepperoni pizza, and I'm okay with that. Our rule of thumb: keep exposing her to different things, and don't freak out when she doesn't like something.
So, the next time you are tempted to judge a family who brings their two-year old's meal with them, remember what you've read here.

I'm off to make cheesy eggs and toast for a hungry little person.

POSTSCRIPT - I originally published this blog in July 2007. but it remains one of my favorites. Elle is a happy, healthy, picky, opinionated four-year old now. I don't know where she gets it.

Welcome to By The Brooke!

So...after thinking, and procrastinating and thinking and procrastinating some more...I've finally done it...I've finally started a real blog! If you read my material regularly, you'll likely find lots of interesting stuff about one of my favorite pastimes, cooking. BUT, you'll get a regular dose of information about travelling, fitness, and spriritual stuff, with a hearty helping of plain old opinion on...whatever. I'm starting with blogs that I've previously published on MySpace, the forum I used to cut my teeth on blogging, to see if I could really sustain an interest in it. Here we go. Wheeeeeee! Happy reading!