Heathly Lunches - Peanut Butter and What?

While at a play date the other day, handing my kids their standard lunches of peanut butter and jelly, I saw a friend take out some whole wheat bread, organic peanut butter and honey. She made some sandwiches right there for her kids. How about that. Honey. I have heard that the dyes and astronomical amount of sugars in jams and jellies were terrible for our children, but never did I think there was an alternative. After finding this one, I am sharing it. This seems to be the new standard now (my children didn't even ask about the switch, and I didn't offer to tell them). I am open for more new additions to their luncheon diets, so please do share!

Sprinkles

How do you get your kids to eat plain yogurt, or plain oatmeal?

And the answer is......... SPRINKLES!

Who knew!?
My mouth-watering vision for the creation of sprinkles has me with a smile holding either a donut, ice cream or cake with sprinkles on top, and there's a special occasion. After all, that was the purpose of their creation, right? I thank God for my connections to impressive moms with creative approaches to moving towards healthy eating for family.

Now every day can be a special occasion!

Seasoning Vegetables

Results from an annual medical exam came back with a great increase in cholesterol numbers.

Now introducing.... How to "process" making Heart Healthy Meal Choices.

With the needed change, I called two of my trusted Health Nut Friends that I had not wanted to take very seriously in the past regarding food until now.. and said "where do I begin". What stuck out from the first conversation was... No Meat, No Dairy, and No processed Sugar.

Almost everything I have made usually had instructions right there on the box. As you may imagine, I was lost. If you would be too, you don't have to admit it. You can simply benefit from my lack of knowledge.

Lesson 1 Seasoning vegetables
A little salt & pepper and some lemon zest (grated lemon peel) goes a long way.
My Health Nut Friend asked me how I prepare my vegetables, and my response was; 1. Go to pantry 2. Get can of Veg 3. Open can ... She let me know kindly yet firmly that canned was not a future option. Ah Boy, so she was kind enough to share this simple seasoning with me.

First Recipe from what I had in the house!
Wheat Spaghetti Noodles
Frozen Broccoli
Baby Carrots
Lemon Zest
salt & pepper

Prepare Noodles from directions on box.
Steam Broccoli for 5 min
Cut and steam baby carrots 5 min
Put Noodles on plate, add broccoli and carrots to center, top with a dash of salt & pepper and lemon zest. Whala! He loved it and so did I. Who knew?!

Special note, we will be doing chicken, turkey and seafood as I have much to learn before we take that huge step to no meat if that is a step we choose to take. We are simply taking the biggest step possible for now.