*Feed your family high quality, nutritional food challenge*

[Clinex5]

This is a great thread. I love all the ideas, and seeing what everyone else sees at healthy eating.

My kids just started back to school and I've been trying over the last 6 months or so to really clean up our eating. I made a new recipe for steel cut oatmeal last night and it was SO good to have waiting this morning. I have one who leaves at 6:40, one at 7:40 and one at 8:30, so breakfast is really spread out!

Anywho... the recipe is: 3 cups water, 1 cup steel cut oats (I used Bob's Red Mill) and 1/4-1/2tsp salt. Place all in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Put a lid on and remove from heat. Leave set until morning. Then, just spoon out some into a bowl and re-heat in the microwave and add desired toppings. Its even good cold with yougurt and fruit mixed in. Store the leftovers in the fridge.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I love this thread!!

I have a small whole chicken in the crockpot. It's been simmering all day in a Caribbean Jerk marinade with a few splashes of lime. It smells heavenly! We're having it over brown rice and green beans on the side. We were going to have fruited jello, but I think we'll just have fruit.

 

[LadyShiva]

This is a great thread. I love all the ideas, and seeing what everyone else sees at healthy eating.

My kids just started back to school and I've been trying over the last 6 months or so to really clean up our eating. I made a new recipe for steel cut oatmeal last night and it was SO good to have waiting this morning. I have one who leaves at 6:40, one at 7:40 and one at 8:30, so breakfast is really spread out!

Anywho... the recipe is: 3 cups water, 1 cup steel cut oats (I used Bob's Red Mill) and 1/4-1/2tsp salt. Place all in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Put a lid on and remove from heat. Leave set until morning. Then, just spoon out some into a bowl and re-heat in the microwave and add desired toppings. Its even good cold with yougurt and fruit mixed in. Store the leftovers in the fridge.

Throw dried fruit in the boiling water to soften up and it is even tastier! I do raisins or dried cherries, myself.

Brandie

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Howdy!


Breakfast:
Watermelon & Pear SLices (pears from grandpas pear tree), strawberries and raspberries with Vanilla yogurt and granola.

Snack:
graham crackers & Milk

Lunch:
Tomato, Cucumber, Avacado & Ham salad.

Snack:
Celery, Carrots and cucumbers lightly salted and sprayed with lime juice

Dinner:
Meatloaf with boiled egg center DHs fave!
French Bread
Green Beans & Cauliflower

 

[grumpy28]

Will post tonights supper:

Fried okra

Corn on the cob

squash and onions

cucumber slices

spinanch dip with Hawaiian bread

strawberry cobbler

Yum!! I can't wait!

 

[Juliah]

Clinex5,

I love your steel-cut oats method. I'm definitely going to try it. Thanks!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Now this is an inspiring thread!

Here's what we had today:
Scrambled tofu with onions, red pepper strips and broccoli

Snack: peaches (from the Farmer's Market)

Lunch: roasted vegetables (I just cut up sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, red and yellow peppers and asparagus in a casserole dish, sprinkled with basil and garlic, drizzled with olive oil and some fig balsamic vinegar, then baked at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes)

Also had apples sliced with almond butter to dip them in

Snack: blue corn tortilla chips with salsa verde

Dinner: We weren't very hungry, so we just had steamed broccoli and cauliflower and sandwiches made with tofu cream cheese and sliced tomatoes

Teresa

 

[swankybeth]

Breakfast-egg whites scrambled w/lite Swiss, hot sauce
2 slices light 7 grain toast w/strawberry preserves, spray butter
iced green tea w/honey

Snack-green tea w/Splenda
grapes

Lunch-leftover lasagna
peach

Snack-watermelon
100 calorie pack Chips Ahoy

Dinner-piece of matzah with cranberry pepper jelly
salad-greens, steamed beets, walnuts, blue cheese crumbles, oil, balsamic vinegar
leftover lasagna
lemon-lime seltzer

 

[LisaR]

That butternut French toast sounds delicious! I'll have to give it a try next weekend. LisaR, did you use actual vanilla bean in yours? I always try to follow a recipe verbatim when I do it the first time but vanilla beans are so expensive. I was wondering if vanilla extract would be a suitable substitute?

I did use a vanilla bean. I know it sounds strange but my son was actually studying about vanilla so I splurged and bought an actual vanilla bean. I bought one bean from the local herb place for $2. However, I will use pure vanilla extract the next time and I am certain it will taste just fine.

Lisa

 

[LisaR]

I am the OP of the thread and my dinner won't qualify for my own thread!

I took DD and friends to Orlando for a concert. We all ate at Earl of Sandwich. DH and DS picked up Subway. At least I didn't have to do dishes!

Lisa

 

[mrs.beast]

for those near whole foods, z bars are on sale, i think i saved $3 per case today. i stocked up and got 4.
today:
breakfast kids only:cereal-again (my kids cannot eat it during the week once school starts, they have to have a hot breakfast so they are pigging out ) organic vanilla yogurt with raspberries organic from Farmer's market,
mango juice Odwalla
snack: cheese squares, bananas, whole wheat crackers, water
lunch: carrots and hummus, ravioli with red sauce (annie's from a can at school), fruitabu (i am pretty sure i spelled that wrong), milk N/F
snack: pretzle sticks, water, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and celery
dinner: horrible (In and out cheese burgers -had to eat on the run because dropping daddy of a meeting and would be home at exactly bed time) we have not had fast food other than baja fresh in a while so can't hurt too much, besides that, i love them, milkboxes from home, carrots again, and the all natural white cheddar doritios.

 

[ticktock]

I am a semi-regular who posts on the $10/day challenge thread (which the OP really meant to be a $20/day challenge as she lives where food costs are very low).

I want to share that it is possible to eat a healthy diet with organic fruits and veggies and whole grains while not spending a fortune It helps that I garden, as you will see.

Our dd12 has food allergies (soy, sesame, peanut, treenuts, watermelon) so we no longer consume any of her allergens. She was diagnosed in March btw and before that we ate a LOT of soy. It's been a long adjustment process!


So today's food (only 4 people today as ds14 is away at marching band camp until tomorrow night ):

Breakfast

dh, dd7 and I----whole wheat toast with butter (bread from outlet, no HFCS), $0.50
dd12---bran flakes and milk, $0.25 (10c for cereal, 15c for milk)
orange juice with calcium (we use 1/3 of the carton daily), $0.88
coffee etc, $0.90
dh had a peach (not-yet-certified local organic orchard) $0.33

Lunch

Dh ate with clients (business expense)
The girls and I had extrasharp cheddar (4oz, $0.50 on supersale), Triscuit crackers (free, Kraft sent me coupons ), sliced tomatoes (not dd7) from garden, peaches from orchard $1.00
water to drink

Dinner

Looks like it will be some sort of a taco-mexican lasagna-ish dish:

canned black beans, rinsed $0.50 (As an aside, Goya dried beans are now marked as contaminated with soybeans Hopefully the other brand of dried beans I can buy will still be ok or I will have to increase the garden size! I had to buy canned beans at the store Monday.)
corn tortillas, guessing at 10 (maybe more) for the meal, 3 cents each from the Mexican grocery, $0.30
cheese, the other half of the extrasharp cheddar, $0.50
tomatoes, garden
peppers, garden
onions, garden
yet more zucchini, garden
herbs, garden
one of dh's hot sauces, negligible cost

with
green beans, steamed, garden

milk to drink, one kiddo, $0.25
decaf sun tea, $0.20 for the halfgallon pitcher

Dh will probably have a homebrewed beer once home (had to drive 1.5hr to deal with umm, highmaintenance clients )---that money comes from his "allowance" portion of the budget.

Total for the day: $6.11

This total would be impossible without my garden I'm a recovering research chemist and am currently studying horticulture at a botanical garden (www.longwoodgardens.org) I hope to one day teach organic gardening techniques

Don't Triscuits contain soy(I really miss triscuits)? And the bread? Almost all big company baked goods have replaced the eggs in their products with soy. Does your DD only have a problem with soy proteins or has she developed a sensitivity to soy oil and lecithin yet (most people eventually do)? Good luck.

 

[Juliah]

Breakfast:
Whole wheat strawberry muffins
Milk or o.j.

Lunch:
Swiss cheese
Whole wheat sesame pretzels
Honeydew melon
Water

Dinner:
Pot roast with root vegetables (in crock pot)
Roasted corn and garlic whole wheat couscous http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_32659,00.html
Roasted brussel sprouts
All-natural vanilla ice cream or blueberry shortcake with whipped cream
Water or iced tea

Snacks:
Honeydew melon
Whole grain tortilla chips
Apple juice

 

[MEM]

Breakfast:
Whole wheat strawberry muffins
Milk or o.j.

Lunch:
Swiss cheese
Whole wheat sesame pretzels
Honeydew melon
Water

Dinner:
Pot roast with root vegetables (in crock pot)
Roasted corn and garlic whole wheat couscous http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_32659,00.html
Roasted brussel sprouts
All-natural vanilla ice cream or blueberry shortcake with whipped cream
Water or iced tea

Snacks:
Honeydew melon
Whole grain tortilla chips
Apple juice

What a great sounding menu! Do you buy any specific brand of the whole wheat sesame pretzels?

 

[Juliah]

What a great sounding menu! Do you buy any specific brand of the whole wheat sesame pretzels?

The brand is Beigel Beigel (but it just says BB on the bag). I ordered them from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Beigel-Wheat-...ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=grocery&qid=1187385397&sr=1-1

The only other place I've ever seen them is our Big Lots, but we aren't blessed with much in the way of natural foods store. Maybe if you've got more options where you live you'll have better luck finding a local source.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

bfast: oatmeal, bananas, blueberries

well lunch was Panda Express so let's just skip over that....

dinner Soup and Salad
vegetable soup
chicken noodle vegetable soup
1 loaf of French bread
one large salad w/ several vegetables ... assorted toppings to pick and choose from

dessert
frozen bananas dipped in chocolate

 

[BarbWB]

oh, I LOVE this thread. Some of the other stuff was scaring me!
It's me, DH, and 4 kids (and 1 of those is a super-picky eater!!)

BREAKFAST

2 kids: Peach/Strawberry/Yogurt smoothies
Blend it all together (2 peaches, 6 strawberries, one small low-sugar yogurt and a tbs of honey) with some crushed ice. They love it.
I tried adding geni-soy protein powder, but they hated it, so I cut it out. Does anyone add powder to smoothies? If so, how much to avoid that powdery taste?

1 kid -- 1 banana, 2 oz "white cheese" (fresh mozzarella) and 1 slice whole wheat bread w/tsp Nutella spread (bad habit we learned on vacation)

1 kid (picky eater) -- 2 slices whole wheat w/Nutella (it's usually just peanut butter, but I was nice today

LUNCH

All kids -- Barilla Plus rotini pasta (I LOVE this new tip from Dis-ers!!!) with either red sauce or olive oil/capers; small seedless watermelon split between all kids (they inhaled that thing!!!)

DINNER

Friday night so we fall apart -- My mom is babysitting so they are going to Scholtzsky's! Not very healthy or nutritious!

SNACKS (different stuff for different kids)

PB on whole wheat crackers
White Cheese/fresh mozzarella
Bananas
Popcorn
Soy chips (they stole MY snack!)

 

[Clancycat]

I just found a great book that some of you might be interested in checking out. It's called The Sneaky Chef Simple Strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids favorite meals by Missy Chase Lapine.

My kids eat fairly well, but I figure there's always room for improvement . Her philosophy is to add pureed fruits & veggies to kids fave recipes with little to no taste difference.

On to the question at hand...

Tonight we had turkey and bean tacos.

- 1 lb browned ground turkey
- 1 packet taco seasoning mix
- 1 jar of your favorite salsa
- beef broth or water (I use broth)
- 1 jar black beans, drained
- taco shells or flour tortillas (we use whole wheat tortillas)
- your favorite toppings (sour cream, cheese, onions, lettuce, jalapenos etc)
- 1/2 to 1 cup frozen corn

Follow directions on seasoning packet, substitute broth for water if you choose to. Add salsa, corn and beans, simmer until most of liquid has been absorbed.

My kids won't eat beans (if they can see them ), so in a separate pan, I mash them up with a little bit of broth (looks like refried beans) then add them to the meat mixture.

Put in shells/tortillas with toppings.

 

[MaMa3Princess]

Bkfast
Cinnamon french toast (left over cinnamon bread that was a bit to chewy for eating)
scrambled eggs
turkey sausage

Lunch
we snacked around no one was terribly hungry
kids ate the cereal bars that were on sale at Whole Foods
milk

Dinner
Marinated some center cut pork chops
tossed salad
fresh green beans

Made chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert.

 

[LisaR]

Tonight we had Salmon Chowder. I have to make this at least every week to ten days or the kids complain "you NEVER make Salmon Chowder anymore." We had some leftover blueberry muffins, banana bread and watermelon to finish up with the chowder.

I use broth, onions, carrots, celery, frozen peas, corn and green beans, cut up fresh spinach, barley and a potato. I season it with lots of dill and garlic. Let it simmer for awhile. In a pan, I cook up a piece of wild salmon, pull it apart into small pieces and throw it in the chowder. Right before serving, I add milk (rice milk for our family) and cornstarch and stir it into the chowder until it is thick. Nothing fancy but the kids sure like this one.

Lisa