250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu Recipes – a cookbook review

I love beans and lentils. Convincing my family to love beans and lentils? That’s another story.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of going “meatless”. From nutrition to money-saving and environmental benefits, the advantages of going “meatless” one night a week benefit everyone.

And, although my husband listens when I extol the virtues of a meat-free night once each week, I know he’s not keen on the idea. And you can probably guess what my kids think about it.

To support my argument in favour of meatless dinners, I need an arsenal of recipes that are delicious, easy and kid-friendly (because “delicious” alone doesn’t cut it for my kids).

And here it is folks, my new recipe arsenal:

Health Coach to Moms: Fall in Love with Your Food

Oh how mothers struggle with their weight and their busy schedules that make it more difficult to fit healthy eating and exercise into an already crazy life.

I’m one of them. I watch what I eat. But I’m not perfect. I get up at 5:00 am to work out. But not every day. How does one come to terms with food and weight gain? Beth Aldrich has some tips that are proving useful to me. I particularly like the second point below:

Tips to Jumpstart an Affair Your Jeans Will Remember

Oatmeal: hot or cold

In trying to eat healthy and provide a good example for my kids, I recently returned to an old breakfast staple of mine: oatmeal.

Since my childhood, oatmeal has figured highly in my life. It’s a comfort food to many. There’s just something about it’s warm, creamy texture lightly sweetened with honey, maple syrup or brown sugar that helps start any day off on a good foot. But I’m especially fond of the hot cereal because of my mom.

Mmmm, rotisserie chicken

So, who wants to eat better, be healthier and generally take really good care of themselves? I think it’s safe to say that this is what almost all of us want.

My biggest reason for not being a perfect eater (OK, my two biggest reasons):

1. It’s a lot of work to eat healthy
2. Healthy food doesn’t taste as good as not-so-healthy food

I know there are easy recipes and tasty recipes out there covering all kinds of foods. I’ve even tried some of them. But I always come back to plain, ol’ chicken. Why? Because it’s the only thing, regardless of how I prepare it, that is easy and that my whole family will eat without an argument.

So when I heard about the Ronco Rotisserie, I thought, “Hmm, there’s one way that I have never prepared chicken.” And my family loves rotisserie chicken (but we only get it at restaurants because we don’t have a rotisserie).

Ronco Showtime 5500 Stainless Rotisserie

The rotisserie would make it a cinch to make delicious, juicy chicken. So that takes care of my two big reasons for being a bit of slacker in the healthy eating department.

And another thing Ronco helps me with is saving some money on my latest coveted small appliance. Here are the details from Ronco:

It’s Fan Appreciation Month for Ronco Foodies! Ronco’s July contest/giveaway is over and it was a huge success!!  While Ronco could not give everyone a free rotisserie, they sure would like to help get a Ronco 5500 Rotisserie in your kitchen. For the entire month of August, Ronco fans can receive $50 off a Ronco 5500 Rotisserie. Simply use discount code THANKS5500 when you check out at Ronco.com.

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Staying on track

Last week, Husband sent me an excited, adamant text message mid-way through the day stating that he was done with crappy eating and he was cleaning up his act.

I jumped on his band wagon, eager to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Brain Overload!

OhMyGosh! Can we say, “brain overload?”

Of late, I have been trudging through the World Wide Web, looking for tips and information on healthy eating for families who want to get back on track. And by back on track I mean, Mommy and Daddy want to lose some serious pounds before the family vacay, and kid #1 and kid #2 need to start eating enough healthy food to give them energy for all the fun activities we’ll be doing on said family vacay.

Now, we all know there is a TON of information out there and it would take eons to get through it all. Plus a good portion of the information probably isn’t great anyway. But WOW, it’s almost a full time job just sifting through some of it, trying to find what might work for me and my family.

The Yogurt Monster

Empty yogurts, left behind by a satisfied two-year-old. This was the order in which he ate them. He claims he was looking for the booberrwies. He found them at the bottom of the last yogurt.

My 2-year-old son is single-handedly keeping Astro in business.

What is it they say? If a kid wants to eat only one thing for days or weeks on end, as long as it’s a healthy choice and you keep offering other foods as well, you’re better off saving your breath for a real issue, rather than fighting him on a trivial thing like eating only one kind of food day in and day out.

Thank you McDonald’s

For April, it was a cold Sunday afternoon. No rain. But no sun either.

If this were January, I would have happily dragged the kids outside, all bundled up and ready to play for hours.

But it’s not January. It’s April. And I couldn’t justify snowsuits (because it’s really not that cold).

Stretching the meat budget

So, in the on-going effort to make the almighty dollar stretch ever further, I have started looking for ways to “increase my meat”.

Brown rice is not my friend

I’ve been trying to feed my family in the healthiest way possible. When it comes to healthy food, there are some things my kids will eat, and some things they won’t.

Quinoa is one of those things that go over like gang busters. Brown rice, not so much.