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#I’ve recently learned how to make a broccoli pasta too which I just had just now
yaminerua · 2 months
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God nerfs me in frustrating ways
Born into this world like woe anosmia be upon ye, may your nose never know the sweet aromas of worldly things, and may your sense of taste be forever lacking
so after years of thinking I was just a picky eater I eventually realised I just needed more flavour to make food more enjoyable so I gravitated towards spicy things and the things I would happily eat and try expanded widely
but god said no, no more will you enjoy the flavoursome joy of eating foods bathed in spices. I curse you with stupid angry burning tomato face if you indulge in any of these enjoyable foods anymore
and now I’m still trying to figure out which foods are safe and which foods set me off and it’s narrowed down what I can eat so much that it’s even worse then where it was before. and I have to make separate meals for my dad and brother that use all the old tasty stuff I can’t eat bc I’m still figuring out what I even can eat and my meals are weird as a result.
and then god said I’m not done with you yet. woe, executive function issues, hypermobile joint pain and as of yet undiagnosed brainshit be upon ye. Have fun trying to gather the mental spoons to make all those meals and try not to feel physically put through the ringer at the end of every day bitch
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howellrichard · 5 years
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11 Fridge Must-Haves for Your Vegan Grocery List
Hiya Gorgeous!
Picture this: You just had the longest Monday in the history of Mondays. It’s late afternoon and the gremlin in your stomach is already grumbling, so you open the refrigerator to figure out what’s for dinner. And, yikes, it’s emptier than a water park in winter!
If you can relate to this scenario, join the club! I’ve had my fair share of those omg-my-fridge-is-barren moments. And I don’t know about you, but despite being a two-time cookbook author, putting together my vegan grocery list used to give me mind-numbing brain farts (proof it happens to all of us). But thanks to the tasty tips I’m about to share, I haven’t had any mealtime mayhem in a while!
Welcome to Part 2 of our fridge-stocking series! A couple of weeks ago, I gave you 5 overarching guidelines for shopping, stocking and storing plant-based groceries (check out that post here if you haven’t yet). And, as promised, we’re taking it a step further today…
I’m inviting you into my kitchen to talk about the specific staples I always keep in my fridge. This really is my secret to simplifying and sticking with a healthy plant-based diet! Once I figured out the ideal combo of fruits, veggies, proteins, sauces, grains, etc. to keep on hand, shopping and cooking got a whole lot easier. Now my fridge is always brimming with goodies that are easy to mix and match to make quick, nourishing, vegan meals.
For each food on my list of must-haves, you’ll learn…
What to look for at the store: How to spot the freshest produce and decode confusing labels, plus other ways to simplify trips to the grocery store.
How to store it for maximum shelf life: We covered storage basics in Part 1 of this series, but today I’ll share more detailed tips for each food on the list.
How to use the ingredients in plant-based meals: Of course we have to talk about what you’re going to do with all of these delicious groceries! I’ll recommend a couple of recipes that feature each food.
By the way, you don’t have to be vegan to benefit from this blog. I am, so naturally all of my refrigerator staples are, too! But these foods are great additions to any diet, and I encourage you to create a version of this list that meets your unique needs. Your fridge, your choice, got it?!
Ok toots, the wait is over… Let’s talk fridge faves!
11 Refrigerator Staples to Add to Your Vegan Grocery List!
1. Leafy Greens (1-2 types)
Shock of all shocks, leafy greens are at the tippy top of my plant-based diet grocery list! Well, I suppose it’s not all THAT surprising—you know me, queen of greens. My go-tos are baby spinach and kale (curly, green, purple, dino, I like it all!), but you can also enjoy collard greens, Swiss chard, arugula, romaine, mustard greens, etc.
At the store: Look for crisp greens that look and feel fresh. Avoid anything slimy or wilted, or greens with brown spots or yellowing leaves. Go organic when you can—kale and spinach are both on the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen list, which means the conventional varieties tend to be high in pesticide residues.
In your fridge: Wash greens with cold water when you get home from the store, then spin them in a salad spinner (or leave them to drain) to remove excess moisture. Then you have a couple of options: Wrap the greens in a damp paper towel or small dish towel and store them in the crisper in glass containers. Or, like we talked about in Part 1 of this series, try something like Debbie Meyer GreenBags or these cotton bags for a plastic-free option.
In plant-based meals: Throw spinach into this yummy Calming Greens smoothie from Crazy Sexy Juice or try one of my most popular recipes, the Crazy Sexy Kale Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen!
2. Hand-Held Fruits (1-2 types)
Portable fruits are must-haves for midday snacks. Oranges, apples and pears are my personal faves—they’re delicious on their own, but can also easily fit into smoothies, juices and other recipes.
At the store: Citrus fruits that feel heavy for their size tend to be the ripest and juiciest. It’s a good sign if you can pick up a bit of their zesty smell through the rind. Apples should be firm and free of cuts or bad spots (it’s ok if they have a couple bumps and bruises—don’t we all?). Peaches and pears are easily damaged when they’re ripe, so I often go for the slightly underripe variety then let them ripen in a paper bag at room temp for a couple days.
In your fridge: Some folks keep these totable treats out of the fridge because they prefer how they taste at room temperature. That’s totally fine, but they usually don’t last more than a couple days that way (especially if you live somewhere particularly warm and humid). Otherwise, put these fruits in your crisper drawer and wash them just before you dig in!
In plant-based meals: You don’t need a recipe for this one—just wash, peel if applicable and chow down! If you’re in the mood for a refreshing sip, try this Citrus Shine from Crazy Sexy Juice.
Want to add even more plant-based power to your kitchen? Download your free cheat sheet to find out how to use my 10 favorite nutrient-boosting ingredients!
3. Colorful Veggies for Raw and Cooked Meals (3-5 varieties)
Let’s load up your vegan grocery list with a rainbow of veggies! When I’m shopping for the week, I usually choose a couple of veggies I really enjoy raw, like carrots and cucumbers for snacking, juicing and blending. Then, I grab a few for cooked meals, such as mushrooms, broccoli and eggplant. I like to mix it up from week to week and buy local (or go to my garden!) whenever possible.
At the store: Aim to get a variety of colors, because different colors mean different nutrients! Plus, what’s better than seeing a rainbow every time you open the fridge? Pick veggies that are firm, free of discoloration and don’t look slimy. Get in-season produce when you can!
In your fridge: Other than leafy greens, you don’t need to wash most produce before putting it in the fridge. Just put it in the crisper drawer and wash right before you plan to use it. Veggies like garlic, onions and potatoes can usually be stored at room temp. Pro tip: If your broccoli or carrots go limp and rubbery, hope is not lost! Give them new life by trimming a bit off the end and putting them in a cup of filtered water (just don’t submerge the head of the broccoli).
In plant-based meals: In the mood for a raw-licious dish? Treat yourself to my Beetroot Ravioli & Cashew Cheese from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. If veggie-packed comfort food is your jam, try this Creamy Mushroom & Kale Pasta from my Test Kitchen!
4. Berries
Ah, berries! You can always find these little antioxidant superstars in my fridge. They’re great on their own, on top of yogurt or oatmeal, in smoothies—you name it. I get them in season whenever I can and freeze my bounty to last the rest of the year.
At the store: Berries are another regular on EWG’s Dirty Dozen list, so opt for organic when possible. Look for berries that are dry, plump and rich in color. Steer clear of anything wrinkly, and take a peek at the bottom of the carton for signs of mold.
In your fridge: Keep berries in their original packaging and wash them right before you plan to eat them. If you have frozen berries, transfer enough to last a couple of days from the freezer to the fridge and let them defrost for a few hours (depending on their size).
In plant-based meals: This Mixed Berry Crisp, a favorite from my Test Kitchen, is perfect if you’re after something sweet. Or, kick off your day with this refreshing Strawberry Ginger Chia Pudding. Delish!
5. Plant-Based Protein (1-2 options)
Protein is essential for numerous bodily processes and helps make meals more satisfying. There are plenty of options to choose from, such as organic, non-GMO tofu or tempeh, beans and other legumes (either homemade or once you open a can—no need to put dry or canned beans in the fridge), nuts and seeds, and certain vegan “meat” substitutes in moderation.
At the store: Soybeans are one of the most genetically modified crops in the US, so I always look for USDA Organic AND Non-GMO Project Verified on tofu and tempeh labels. Canned legumes are a quicker option than making them from scratch—just go with varieties that don’t have tons of added salt or preservatives. Same goes for nuts, seeds and especially nut butters—they’re wonderful on their own and don’t need added oils, sugars, etc.
Plant-based meats have gained a lot of popularity recently, so you might be wondering where they fit into your diet. I enjoy them occasionally, but I’m selective about the brands I trust because many are highly processed. I encourage you to read the ingredients list carefully and watch out for stuff you can’t pronounce—a list with the fewest possible ingredients is usually best! I’m planning to write a whole blog about plant-based meats soon, so stay tuned for more info and specific recommendations!
In your fridge: Plant proteins that come in sealed packaging, like organic, non-GMO tofu, usually have a pretty long life, so let the best by date guide you. Once you open the package, leftovers will stay good in your fridge for about a week. Keep extra tofu in water in an airtight container. Cooked legumes usually last in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container. Nut butters are often shelf stable when they’re sealed, then need to go in the fridge once opened. And you might be wondering why I keep my dry nuts and seeds in the fridge—it’s because they can last up to 6 months in there (whereas it’s more like a few weeks in the pantry)!
In plant-based meals: This Morning Glory Cinnamon & Almond Baked Oatmeal packs a healthy punch of protein and good-for-you fats. And this Country Tofu Scramble from my Test Kitchen Tuesday series is a regular at my breakfast table.
6. Whole Grains (2-3 options)
Whole grains contain lots of fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Our bodies digest and absorb the sugars in these complex carbohydrates more slowly than simple carbs (like soda, refined flours, etc.), which means they provide more sustainable energy and are less likely to cause blood sugar spikes (learn more about whole grains here!). Plus, they’re deliciously filling and help bring different ingredients together to make a perfect plant-based meal!
At the store: Save some money on your grains by shopping the bulk bins! And you can help save the environment too by bringing your own reusable containers (I use mason jars). Quinoa and brown rice are staples in my fridge, but there’s a whole grain out there for everyone—gluten-free options included! As far as bread goes, Ezekial is number one on my vegan grocery list because it’s made with sprouted grains, which make it easier to digest than many other breads.
In your fridge: Whole grains can go in the pantry, but the fridge gives them an even longer shelf life! I like to put grains like brown rice, quinoa and buckwheat in wide-mouthed, quart-size mason jars because it allows me to identify them quickly. Most whole grain breads can go on the counter for a few days, but they’re less likely to develop mold in the fridge (especially if you live in a humid environment).
In plant-based meals: I love serving my Save the Tuna Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen on toasted whole grain bread! And this Vegan Risotto with Asparagus and Lemon from my Test Kitchen features farro (or short grain brown rice for a gluten-free option).
More must-haves for your fully-stocked fridge!
Here are some more of my fridge staples to add to your vegan grocery list…
7. Vegan cheese: Kite Hill cream cheese to top my whole grain bread and Miyoko’s Classic Double Cream Chive for snacks (go here for my in-depth review of vegan cheese options!).
8. Soy sauce substitute: low sodium tamari or coconut aminos for dressings and stir fries.
9. Nondairy milk: Oat and almond are my current favorites!
10. 1-2 ready-to-go sauces: I batch cook sauces ahead or choose premade options with minimal ingredients. Having them on-hand can quickly transform bland ingredients into a meal—I dig pesto for whole grain pasta or a Thai-style peanut sauce to toss with veggies.
11. 1-2 dips for veggies or whole grain crackers: You can usually find this Smoky Southwestern Hummus in my fridge!
Your fabulous fridge is complete!
I hope these ideas from my fridge give you more ways to enjoy plants and nourish your fantastic self. The only question is… what will YOU cook with all of these amazing ingredients? Whatever it is, I sure hope you invite me over for dinner!
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Your turn: What’s the #1 staple food on your vegan grocery list? Let’s share ideas in the comments below!
Peace & fresh foods,
The post 11 Fridge Must-Haves for Your Vegan Grocery List appeared first on KrisCarr.com.
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definegodliness · 7 years
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Taggery things: food ‘n  self-love
Food: @sarahmariepardy asked ten food related questions and I simply cannot withstand any opportunity to talk about food. So thank you for thinking of me, I had so much fun replying! (Note: I’ve done this tagging game before, so I’m not going to come up with another ten questions and bug another ten people with them :’) ~ but anyway) here goes:
1. If they invented a pill you could take so you never had to eat again, would you take it or continue to eat food? Continue to eat food, else I’d feel like I’m really missing out on one of the joys of life.
2. Do you eat “fish and chips” with your hands (like a savage) or with a fork? Never had fish and chips to be honest. How do you eat fish without a knife and fork? Also, I’ve this sensory thing where I low-key hate it when my fingers get greasy and salty. So I’m not a fan of chips/fries, crisps/chips. Especially nacho cheese Doritos.
3. As we all know, goldfish crackers are salted on one side and one side only. What you may not realize is that goldfish crackers are a joke food. What is your favorite “joke food?” Y’know, junky or not serious food. Beef Jerky is the most glorious gift the New World has bestowed on the world. But I don’t know if that fits your question. It might be too glorious. So… string cheese?
4. If you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, no loopholes, what food would it be? Dammmn this is a hard one. Let’s say nutritional value doesn’t matter and it will forever taste good: Pavlova.
5. Some people really don’t like beer and wine. Is it really an acquired taste, or is it all a conspiracy and people just pretend to like them? It’s an acquired taste that develops over time. I recently went to a restaurant with 150 different beers, which you could draft yourself; paying per centiliter. It was a great concept and I’ve tasted / sipped a lot of different pilsners, lagers, (Indian Pale) Ales, and beers. Belgium beers are my favourite. Not a fan of wine though, so I supposed some tastes can’t be acquired.
6. Is a hot dog a sandwich? @reinventing-wednesday recently asked this question. I’ll just copy / paste what my answer was because I actually put way much thought into it: “My theory is that a sandwich consists out of two separate elements of bread, stacked vertically, with contents in the middle. A hotdog is a bun, twisted 90 degrees, sliced (yet still intact as one single element!), with contents in the middle. This is what sets the two apart and makes them two entirely different foods. Following that logic one might say that if the bun were to be cut into two separate parts, it’d be a hotdog sandwich. I’d say if you can’t eat your meal by holding the bun sideways because the wiener would fall out, it isn’t a hotdog. By this standard a hamburger would be a sandwich, though. Food for thought.”
7. If you had to give up one of the following forever, which would it be? Potatoes, rice, bread, or pasta? Rice, no contest.
8. Rank your top 5 vegetables. 1) Broccoli, 2) Paprika (Bell pepper?), 3) Zucchini, 4) Kale, 5) Asparagus
9. If you had to veto one type of cuisine (Chinese, Italian, etc etc) from your diet forever - THAT YOU ACTUALLY EAT - which one would you veto? Indian food. All those spices. What’s wrong with simple, natural flavours?
10. Number 10, the most important question. IS PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA OKAY AND CAN YOU EAT THAT PIZZA WITH A FORK AND KNIFE? Yes, and yes. I never got what all the hubbub was about with pineapple on pizza. If people like it I’ll happily let them enjoy it. If the pizza’s pre-sliced you grab a piece, if it’s not you use fork and knife. At home with an ordered pizza it’s usually the first, and in a restaurant usually the latter. Of course I’m not counting some kind of munch-hut as a restaurant.
Self-love: The other tag read: “when you get this message you have to tell 5 things you like about yourself then send to 10 of your favourite followers :)”, it’s a tag that I tend to casually ignore because it’s always so confrontational how hard it is to come with five of these things. But one does not simply ignore a tag by the lovely @soulreserve (thank youuu :)), so here goes:
1. I like that I can get passionate about things. 2. I like that I have a good eye for detail. 3. I like that I have become a very decent cook. 4. I like that I am curious and eager to learn. 5. I like how I turn mundane tasks into games.
I will tag people for this one! In the end it is a nice tag, after all it’s good to promote self-love and positivity. So let me see, I’m tagging: @cravingwitandwisdom, @madworlddiary, @storiavitali, @yaamarhabibi, @mikefrawley, @rarasworldbro, @thespiandrummer, @denmysterywoman, @electricarmchair, and @pomegranatepithos. If any of you guys feel like doing this, by all means feel free to ‘casually ignore’ ;)
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donkeyvirgo8-blog · 5 years
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The Real-Life Diet of Taylor Hall, the Most Valuable Player in Hockey - GQ Magazine
The 26-year-old Hart Trophy winner talks pregame meals, recovery tricks, and why carrying a tennis ball on game day might be the secret to greatness.
Everything clicked last year for New Jersey Devils winger Taylor Hall: The former top overall draft pick set career highs in goals, assists, and points, and even embarked on a tidy 26-game point streak, just for fun. It paid off in the important ways, too, as the Devils returned to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in five years, and Hall finished the season by winning the Hart Trophy, awarded to the NHL's most valuable player every year.
Alas, as the NHL gets faster and more physical, playing in it has become a year-round grind, and so Hall had no time to get complacent during the offseason. We caught up with the 26-year-old Calgary native to learn more about the ways in which he's aiming to improve on a career year; how he learned to enjoy burgers and pizza more than ever before; and why you won't find him on game day without his trusty tennis ball in hand.
GQ: After an MVP season, there is always a microscope on you. Knowing that, what were your focuses for the offseason? Taylor Hall: Last year was one where a lot of things went well. My focus is on maintaining that success, and making sure that I’m not a player that dips—it’s about consistency, year after year.
I’m always trying to get stronger, and healthier—that’s the biggest thing in today’s NHL. It’s all about speed, quickness, and power. Anytime you have a full summer to work on those things, that’s what you do. I’m still trying to develop my overall skill package and get better as a hockey player. I'm taking skating lessons. I don’t think there’s any age where you can stop doing that stuff.
How does your position affect your training? For hockey players, it’s a lot of one-leg strengthening, because we spend so much of our time on one leg, whether we're striding out or battling in the corner. Core strength and trunk rotation are big parts of hockey, too. You need to be able to get around the ice really fast.
Watch:
The Anointed Ones: The Future Athletic Greats
You’re headed into your ninth year. Over the course of your career, have you altered your approach to dieting at all? I’ve never really had to mess around with my diet—I never felt like any type of food really gave me a huge advantage. That said, my diet is heavy on carbs and protein, and I try and eat as many vegetables as possible. I stay away from fruit, and I’m not a big sweet-tooth guy. I don’t really like chocolate or ice cream. If I’m going to cheat, it’s going to be a cheeseburger or a slice of pizza.
As you play more and get older, your metabolism can slow down a bit, but mine is still pretty good. I find that if I don’t eat as much, I get low on energy. So for me, after I exercise, it’s about getting as many carbs and proteins in me as possible, and having carbs throughout the day to make sure my energy level stays high. If I do that, usually I feel pretty good.
You’re missing out on sweets! Do you at least enjoy more the cheat days during the offseason? Oh, I’ll take a couple of weeks and have a few more cheeseburgers or some more pizza than I otherwise would. I try to stay pretty consistent with my diet, though. I like eating well and finding new foods that I like. I live in Toronto, so there’s a lot of food options downtown, whether you want Indian food or Mexican—I think an Australian place recently opened up near me, too. It’s fun to try out new foods and see what you discover.
What does your game-day eating schedule look like? In the morning, it’s pretty simple: I have eggs with oatmeal and sausages. I try and mix in a green juice with breakfast as well. From there, my pre-game meal is gluten-free pasta. I’ll have some meat sauce with it, and salmon. I really love salmon because it has a lot of protein, and my body always seems to digest it really well. I like it a lot more than chicken because I feel like it has more flavor.
I’ll go home and take my nap and then have a snack when I wake up. Usually, that’s some rice and salmon again, this time with broccoli. I’ll have another green juice as well. When I get to the game, it’s all about getting electrolytes in me and making sure I’m hydrated. There’s a drink called Catalyte and another called Amino Complex—I mix those together, and I have that for about four to five hours during the lead-up to the game, and more during the game. I find that fuels me pretty well.
I’ve heard about an elaborate pre-game stretching routine of yours. Just how elaborate are we talking? I wouldn’t call it elaborate. I like to warm up pretty well. I wouldn’t say it's any different from a lot of other guys, though. I’m just trying to get my body loose and warm. Besides, we have 82 games a year, so it’s hard to warm up super hard before every game. I find that if you do that, you get a little too tired.
The main components are hamstring and glute stretches to make sure that my thoracic spine is mobile. I also try to carry around a tennis ball, bouncing it off the wall, getting my hand-eye coordination ready for the game.
What routine have you adopted for postgame recovery? I think the biggest thing is hydration and making sure I get some calories in me. Sometimes I find that even if I go walking around all day during an off day, my legs are a bit tired the next day. So I try to stay off my feet and relax.
Any personal goals for the season? I’m not going to put any numbers on it or try and come out and win the MVP again. For me, it's just being a top player on a playoff team and performing well. I have a lot of good players to play with, and we developed a lot of chemistry last year. I want to come in with a relaxed mindset—but also be ready to go.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE
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Source: https://www.gq.com/story/taylor-hall-real-life-diet
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elhamzaoui2016ramo · 4 years
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3 Recipes Guaranteed to Get Kids to Eat Veggies
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Let's face it: If it wasn't hard to urge kids to eat healthy, we wouldn't be talking about within the first place. As an adult, i do know how hard it's to urge myself to eat healthy--so what proportion more for youngsters who are innately wired to crave everything they are not "supposed" to eat--essentially any nutrient-less, sugar-packed food?
 I can speak from personal experience (not from being a mom, but from years and years of "playing mom" as both a babysitter and nanny) once I say that convincing a toddler to end their 'healthy' food are often a legitimate battle. i do know what it's wish to sit for an hour after dinner should have ended trying to force a 5-year-old to swallow just two more "big-kid bites" of vegetables. And, let's be honest, what was really achieved when it had been all said and done? Did I leave the table proud that I won the tearful battle of will against a toddler? Did I feel accomplished having overcome a 5-year-old's stubbornness and packed a whopping two teaspoons-worth more butternut squash into his tiny belly? No. Not in the least . it had been hour of pure torture and utter frustration, that is what it had been .
In a recent post I wrote on weird food phobias, I acknowledged there's actually a phobia called lachanophobia, which suggests , "fear of vegetables." Thank goodness none of the youngsters I wont to watch knew about this, or it might are be game over. Once a toddler seems like he/she has legitimate legs to face on (figuratively speaking), things can go from bad to worse quickly.
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But don't despair! there's excellent news here. What I've learned over the years--both through personal experience and knowledge gained through observation--is that the key to getting younger children to eat their veggies is bound up (literally) in one little word: disguise. There are many techniques out there for disguising veggies, like adding an easy sauce or additional flavors kids will love, chopping or shredding produce finely, etc., but it all comes right down to essentially masking more prominent vegetables (in flavor or appearance) in order that kids will eat their full helping and be none the wiser.
These 21 delicious dishes below cleverly sneak in healthy veggies like fresh broccoli, carrots, spinach, zucchini, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms, squash, onions, garlic, kale, and more. These are foods the youngsters will actually enjoy, and you'll too. With everything from casseroles to quick breads and soup to pasta, try one among these kid-approved, veggie-loaded recipes, and you're one step closer to making sure your child gets his or her daily dose of healthy veggies.
1. Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
2. Sausage and Spinach Spaghetti Pie
3. Classic Minestrone
4. Veggie Pizza with Cauliflower Crust
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Every parent at some point in their children’s lives with deal with picky eaters. Children’s palates change so much during their first years that is hard as a parent to know what a toddler will or will not eat on a weekly basis.
Currently in our household, we are dealing with a fussy or picky eater. My otherwise food-loving toddler decided a few months ago that he no longer loves vegetables and that he would only eat fruit, eggs, chicken strips, pasta, bread, potatoes and rice. You know, the toddler favorites. He still eats most fruits I put in front of him, but as a concerned parent, I wanted him to branch out and eat more vegetables as well. So I started trying out different strategies to get him to eat more of the good stuff.
Over these past few months, there were some things that resonated with me and also some valuable finds! So I thought I would share with you in case you are also dealing with a picky eater.
For those who prefer videos, check out my collaboration with Beech-Nut® Naturals™ on YouTube.
Tips on how to deal with a picky eater
[ 1 ] Be a role model
Kids will emulate what their parents do, so it’s only natural they will want to eat what you eat. Any good habits that you want your kids to have will have to be learned from you. Eat as many vegetables you can during meals and snacks and let them see you.
[ 2 ] Serve vegetables with every meal
Even if your kids don’t eat certain vegetables or are stuck in the “white foods”(bread, pasta, potatoes) phase, serve it with every meal. If kids see it on the table, it’s more likely they will associate that as a normal event and consider vegetables an essential part of every meal.
[ 3 ] Don’t stick with what they will eat
I made this mistake, because it was much easier and I thought my son would starve if he didn’t eat anything, but kids won’t starve. If they are hungry, they will eat. By giving them just things they will eat, you are perpetuating those bad habits and possibly raising even pickier eaters.
These days, I serve 1/3 of food I know he will eat, 1/3 of food he eats sometimes and 1/3 of food that he doesn’t eat.
Of course, if you notice your child is loosing weight or shows signs of hunger, it’s time to talk to a pediatrician. There are other things that can be happening such as sensory issues or problems with chewing.
[ 4 ] Hide vegetables
Some people say you shouldn’t do this, because 1) you can create distrust in your children and 2) children should learn to eat vegetables in their natural form so they know where they come from.
I disagree with these points, because 1) food is complex – we don’t eat vegetables by itself all the time. Some of the best dishes are combinations of flavors, so if I want my child to be exposed to a diverse world of food, I need to introduce it early and 2) children can, should and will learn where food comes from with other activities such as grocery shopping, gardening, field trips and books.
My philosophy is if hiding veggies gets them to eat it, then so be it. My son doesn’t eat carrots by itself. I’ve tried raw, steamed, mashed, puree, roasted… He just doesn’t like it. But he loves my carrot applesauce muffins, which are packed with carrots.
Most adults have likes and dislikes and I don’t think it is different for children, which brings me to the next point.
[ 5 ] Don’t stress
I used to have that dreaded mom guilt and feel like I was failing, because my child had suddenly decided that chicken fingers was the only thing he would eat. Or so I thought.
Once I started really paying attention, I realized he eats a lot more. He will eat virtually any fruit and there are some vegetables he never says no to. This kid can eat his weight in tomatoes, corn, peas, beans and cucumbers. So, why should I be stressing out if he doesn’t like broccoli and carrots? I shouldn’t and neither should you.
[ 6 ] Try different preparations
As I mentioned before, I tried every preparation for carrots there is and my son still doesn’t like it, but he will eat some vegetables raw or cooked better. It’s about texture. So if your child is not eating green beans one way, try another. You might be surprised.
[ 7 ] Be consistent
Don’t overwhelm you child with every vegetable you see in the store, but continue to present it with every meal. Consistency is key. Even if they don’t eat, make it available. I put small amounts in his tray and if he doesn’t eat it, that is fine. It feels like a waste, but sometimes a few pieces make it in and internally I do a happy dance.
[ 8 ] Act like it’s no big deal
I used to make such a fuss if he ate or didn’t eat something. Then I realized that my son was starting to use food to manipulate me. He would bring things to his mouth and wait for my reaction and either spit it out or throw it on the floor. Now, I act like it doesn’t affect me one way or the other. I keep the celebrations internal so he doesn’t associate any food with my reaction. Sometimes, when introducing him to something new I will serve it to him and walk away and watch him from a distance. That way he is free to form his own judgement on a new food.
[ 9 ] Go back to puree
This was so surprising to me. Recently I was working with Beech-Nut, a brand I used when introducing Roark to solids. One day, I had a thought while looking at the jars- will he eat it if I gave it to him now?
I used a jar with vegetables that he usually doesn’t eat and lo and behold, he ate it – the whole jar and asked for more. I was stunned and of course elated, but how didn’t I think of that before?
[ 10 ] Remove distractions
You know that first point of being a role model and that kids will emulate what you do? Well, my husband and I were a childless couple for over 10 years of marriage and we developed some bad habits – watching tv during dinner was one of them. Naturally, our son picked up on this and became hooked as well. He would take ages to eat, because he was so distracted.
Now, I  remove all distractions and the only thing to entertain him is his food and our conversations. No more TV or phones are allowed at dinnertime. R eats much faster and is more deliberate on how he eats. He likes to use utensils and that takes concentration at his age.
[ 11 ] Serve vegetables with a dip
R loves humus and will eat almost anything dipped in it. Most times he will just lick it off the vegetable, but sometimes he will take a bite. Humus is super healthy so either way, I see that as a win. He also loves tomato sauce, so I give him vegetables to dip in it. Other dips could be yogurt, peanut butter or even dressing.
[ 12 ] Get kids involved if they are old enough
R is too young for cooking. He likes to watch, but can’t quite help yet. However, he loves grocery shopping. I let him pick fruit and when we get home, I let him try it. Recently he picked some plums and loved them.
[ 13 ] Remember it’s just phase
Children’s palates change a lot faster than ours. What your child liked or disliked a month ago, may not be what he/she likes now. That’s ok. Just keep introducing the same things and also new foods, and eventually they will find foods they love.
Sure, some people never grow out of being a picky eater, but most of us eat more than 5 foods, right?
[ 14 ] Don’t force it
It causes trauma when you try to force feed a child. I know this from first hand experience. I was a picky eater and when I 4-6 years old, a family member tried to make me eat raw tomatoes by force feeding it to me.
I didn’t eat raw tomatoes until I was in my late twenties and I only eat it now when it’s mixed with other things like bruschetta or salsa. So please, don’t force feed your children.
I hope these tips on how to deal with a picky eater help you find a trick that works for your child. Remember, parenting is hard work and although there are many books on the subject, every child is different. Listen to your gut and do whatever works for you!
If you have any more tips, I would love to hear it. Please leave them in the comments below!
Jana
Tips on how to deal with picky eater #tips #parenting #blogger #toddler #momlife #motherhood Every parent at some point in their children's lives with deal with picky eaters. Children's palates change so much during their first years that is hard as a parent to know what a toddler will or will not eat on a weekly basis.
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wellpersonsblog · 6 years
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The Most Important Food Lesson I’ve Learned in a Decade of No Meat Athlete
When I first started on this journey, nearly ten years ago (!), it was the advice in Michael Pollan’s classic In Defense of Food that really called out to me, and still does today:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
In time, that became synonymous with the simpler advice to “just eat whole plants.” On a whole-food, plant-based diet, the “not too much” part becomes almost redundant.
As advice goes, it’s hard improve on that.
But last night, as I was chopping some broccoli to make dinner for myself and my kids (my wife, Erin, is away visiting family), I was reminded once again of another distinction I’ve learned along the way, a crucial one that made it all click.
While “eat whole plants” is the what to eat, what I had to discover for myself was the how.
It’s what removes almost every last bit of stress from the process of eating and planning meals, and, for me, makes Pollan’s advice sustainable.
Last night, broccoli was a main course, and it was simple. It was what we had in the fridge, so I just steamed until just slightly crunchy, and served with a little whole-wheat pasta (no sauce) and some chickpeas on the side.
Until writing this blog post, it didn’t occur to me that what I served and ate was a grain, a green, and a bean, my favorite formula for a quick, healthy meal.
Actually, it barely occurred to me to call this a “meal.”
What did occur to me was that those were foods we had on hand — and that this “meal” was something I could throw together fast, fast enough to get a fantasy football lineup in before the Sunday night game started.
I still feel a tinge of guilt about meals like this (not the gambling, though!). More so when I serve them to the kids. It’s not that they don’t taste good — honestly, my kids much prefer simple flavors and textures like these to complex meals with rich sauces and lots of spice. (And if you’re a parent, I don’t need to tell you that less stress at meal time = win. Trust me, food being interesting for me is the least of my concerns.)
So why the guilt?
It’s that I still forget what I discovered back in 2013, driving across the country on my DIY book tour for No Meat Athlete.
And that is this:
Those times when it feels like you’re punting on a meal — when you’re not really cooking at all, but rather assembling, just throwing a few ingredients on a plate because it gets the job done — this is actually the way you should eat, most of the time. Not the opposite.
And in 10 years of thinking about healthy food being how I earn a living, my most important lesson is just two words long:
Eat. Simply.
Like I said, I discovered this when I was on the two-month tour I did for my first book, No Meat Athlete (a revised edition of which is coming out later this month!).
That coast-to-coast tour took me through stretches where vegan restaurants aren’t a thing. Not even close, and without the usual next-best-things like Chipotle or Subway. (Once in Wisconsin I did Taco Bell — yes, it’s possible!)
But most dependable, what saved me on these stretches, was just stopping at a grocery store to load up my backseat with fruits, vegetables, hummus, and trail mix.
As long as I had a way to keep some of it (somewhat) cold, I could eat that way for days on end, even without stopping.
At first, I felt guilty about eating this way for several meals (then days) in a row: these weren’t square meals; there was nothing comforting or hearty about them. They didn’t have much of that satisfying saltiness or fattiness that provides the illusion (these days) of nourishment at the end of a day, and it felt like surely I was missing out on something.
But after a few weeks went by and I got used to eating so simply — free of the rituals and constraints that come with our normal, cultural concept of a meal — I realized that I was eating exactly (and almost exclusively) the foods I always strived to eat more of.
Fruits, raw veggies, beans, nuts, and seeds. And sometimes, if the grocery store happened to have a good bakery, whole grains.
Assembling vs. Cooking
Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking a meal. Health-wise, it’s a huge leap forward from eating processed food, and the first step for so many in turning their health around.
Plus, it’s fun. Recently I’ve enjoyed a renewed interest in cooking — mostly classic, regional Italian dishes, spending extra hours to make pasta and dumplings by hand (often with the help of my kids), and soups and sauces that simmer all day long.
But that’s a hobby; I do it under ideal conditions. Not when work gets busy or life is stressful. And certainly not under the guise of healthy eating. (Healthier than a standard American diet, sure, but that “standard” is a pretty low one.)
It’s food as entertainment — and now and then, I find it really entertaining.
And truth be told, most of the meals we eat at home aren’t as simple as broccoli, chickpeas, and whole-wheat pasta. Even for a family that eats as simply as we do, that would get boring.
So sometimes its burritos. Or “mac and broc,” a spin-off of this dish that’s become a staple for us. Or stir-fry.
But, for as many meals as possible, we try to assemble, rather than cook. A good day looks like:
Smoothie in the morning (and if you don’t like that, then even better, just eat the raw fruit, nuts, and seeds that go in it).
Salad topped with beans for lunch.
A grain, green, and bean for dinner. (But remember, it takes many forms: it could be as simple as last night’s meal, but a lot of soups, tacos, and stir-frys fit the bill as well.)
And on the nights when a “real” dinner just isn’t happening — these illustrate the point best, perhaps — it might be just a smoothie and some steamed brussels sprouts. Or just a salad, maybe with a whole wheat pita and hummus on the side.
“But What About Protein / Macros / Calories?”
I want to emphasize an important point.
We don’t take this framework and then cram some other diet philosophy into it.
We’re not taking care to “complete our proteins” when we combine a bean and a grain. We don’t strive to eat 70% carbohydrates, 15% protein, and 15% fat, or any other magic combination that will supposedly unlock the vault of health. And we certainly don’t count calories.
What we do is eat whole foods, and forget all of that junk the diet books try to sell us.
Now and then, because I read a lot about food, I’ll focus on different things. Like being 100% oil-free for a stretch, choosing cruciferous vegetables and maximizing sulphorophane content, or getting as many of the 7 Foods to Eat Every Single Day as possible. Those goals keep it interesting, and if nothing else, provide a placebo effect of feeling great about the foods I’m eating and feeding to my kids.
But none of this stuff is important, really. What matters is what you do for years, what you make work on a near-daily basis and then sustain.
And for me, that’s what eating simply is.
To eat this way without stress requires that you give up several deeply held assumptions (and like I said, I’m still working on really, truly dissolving these in my own head):
Every meal needs a “protein source.”
Every meal should be “balanced,” in terms of macronutrients.
In order to be nourishing, a meal needs to be filling, hardy, and comforting, and to provide a lot of calories for strength and health.
It turns out these are wrong — leftover from a time when we knew much less about food, and when avoiding malnutrition was the concern, as opposed to our current problem of chronic overnourishment. And the industries that are built on them have certainly helped to prop them up.
Indeed, science is showing the opposite of these assumptions to be true:
Protein deficiency isn’t a problem in the absence of general malnutrition, and whole foods (even plants) provide plenty. Too much protein (certain amino acids in particular), though, is linked to cancer and shortened lifespan.
If you’re eating a whole-food, plant-based diet (i.e., keeping protein relatively low in comparison to other diets), macronutrient balance doesn’t matter. High-carb, low-fat is what most vegan docs promote, but David Jenkins’ “Eco-Atkins” diet experiment showed that the opposite (vegan low-carb, high-fat) works for weight loss too, and others have even demonstrated heart-disease reversal with it as well. Even if macronutrient ratio did matter, it would be only be necessary to balance the total diet, not each meal.
Caloric restriction is linked to longevity. Whether you restrict calories deliberately or because your food just happens to be less calorically dense, fewer calories is better than more (again, assuming you’re not malnourished, or suffering from an eating disorder). So a lighter-than-usual dinner now and then is certainly not a bad thing, and in fact is a very good one.
I don’t pretend that it’s easy to give up beliefs we’ve held for years. But I know that “eating simply” has helped to free me from not just these, but all sorts of other hidden emotional attachments to food.
Everything I Need to Know About Healthy Eating, I Learned from My Kindergartner?
One final example, just because it makes me smile.
This is the lunch I packed for my daughter today, to start off her third week in kindergarten:
In case you can’t tell what’s what, from left-to-right, top to bottom, that’s hummus and carrots, whole cherries, clementine, rice cakes spread with peanut butter, pretzel nuggets filled with peanut butter, roasted seaweed strips, and big ol’ pile of chickpeas.
Sometimes the pile of beans is replaced with a peanut butter sandwich. Or the pretzel nuggets replaced with peanuts. But mostly, this is what lunch and snack look like for her.
Ellarie was born after we were already vegan. She was also lucky enough to be born after the “if it’s vegan, it must be healthy” phase (hello, Gardein Chick’n Tenders!) we were in when we had our son.
My wife and I often remark that Ellarie is the healthiest eater in our family, and this is why. Her favorite meals consist of a handful of whole foods, next to each other. Not combined with any rhyme or reason.
Call me inspired. (Well, except for the seaweed; that stuff is just gross.)
When our bodies aren’t accustomed to processed foods — with far more concentrated salt, sugar, and fat than you’d find in nature, day in and day out — it turns out that we actually like the healthy stuff. Even kids do.
Now, I’d be lying (and doing you a disservice) if I said we never gave her vegan ice cream, cookies, potato chips, or “normal” meals with lots of ingredients, spices, salt, and sometimes oil.
But I think that only illustrates how sustainable this “diet” is: she eats that stuff now and then, whenever we make it available to her. Sometimes she’ll shock us by not liking richly flavored cakes or super-sweet drinks, but usually, she loves those treats.
But then, when it’s time for the next meal or snack, she’s back on her routine, and quite happy to eat the way she does.
To me, this is what we should strive for. To be able to eat healthy food most of the time — even to love it, despite its initial blandness compared to processed foods or more intricate meals — with the occasional indulgence that adds variety, entertainment, and joy to life, especially when shared with friends and family.
And then, once that moment has passed, to go back to the routine of eating healthy, simple (and eventually, delicious) food — without regret or the desire to indulge again until it’s appropriate. And somehow, you know when it is.
Easier said than done, I know. But if you take small steps towards it — small so that you don’t throw up your hands and quit when perfection becomes unsustainable — and begin to question our unquestioned assumptions about what constitutes a healthy meal… then over time, you’ll get there.
The post The Most Important Food Lesson I’ve Learned in a Decade of No Meat Athlete appeared first on No Meat Athlete.
First found here: The Most Important Food Lesson I’ve Learned in a Decade of No Meat Athlete
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gethealthy18-blog · 6 years
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20+ Healthy School Lunch Ideas (With 2-Week Menu)
New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/20-healthy-school-lunch-ideas-with-2-week-menu/
20+ Healthy School Lunch Ideas (With 2-Week Menu)
Before I share these healthy school lunch ideas, I have a confession to make… Since we homeschool, this isn’t an area that I have daily experience with as I don’t need to pack lunches every single day (but much respect to all of you parents who do!).
Most of us grew up on turkey sandwiches (crusts on or off?) or the classic PB&J, but it is possible to reinvent the wheel and pack more nutritious options at back to school time.
Real-Food Healthy School Lunch Ideas
This year, we’ve made field trips a priority each week, so I have gotten a lot of experience packing lunches for 6-8 kids (we bring friends) at least once a week, sometimes more. In experimenting with packing these lunches, I’ve also realized how much time it saves when it is actually time to eat lunch, so I’ve also started “packing” lunches a few days a week for the kids to eat at home on our lunch break.
They love pre-packed lunches because it is a break from the norm, and I love it because there is zero food prep for lunch that day and I can pre-make a couple days’ worth of lunches at a time.
Don’t forget, mom needs to eat too! I usually just make a mason jar salad for myself or eat leftovers while the kids enjoy their “school lunches.”
Over time, I’ve found some tips for making the preparation of healthy school lunches easier and since I get quite a few questions about creating healthy school lunches, I thought I’d share. If you have any tips for preparing real food school lunches or any meal plan ideas, please share them in the comments below!
Tip #1: Let the Kids Help
One of the most important things I’ve found this year as we’ve been making lunches is the importance of letting the kids help with the preparation and how this translates into them being excited to actually eat the foods they’ve made. In fact, working with my older kids to allow them more freedom to help in the kitchen is a big goal in our family this year and the results have been incredible.
How to Teach Your Kids to Help Safely
Let your children help with all aspects of cooking. Kids naturally enjoy helping out in the kitchen with food prep and cooking, and they are probably able and willing to do much more than they’re currently allowed. Our family has recently started watching these Kids Cook Real Food online classes (you can watch three of the lessons, including an amazing knife-skills class for kids of all ages, at no cost using the link above) which teach kids basic and advanced cooking skills.
While these videos have been the easiest way I’ve found to let my kids learn how to help (because they get to learn from someone else besides just me… and she is an excellent teacher), I recommend finding ways to involve your children more in food prep and cooking and they will likely be much more willing to eat healthy foods that they have helped to prepare.
Setting Up the Kitchen for Kids
Keep all “kid” dishes in a bottom cabinet in the kitchen, not just the ones for lunches. This way, they can reach the dishes easily and get a cup for water when needed or a plate for food. In our cabinet, we have:
Tip #2: Use Reusable Lunchbox Containers
One of the biggest hurdles I encountered when we started packing lunches for field trips and school days was finding something to pack the lunches in. When I was growing up, I had a plastic lunch box and things we packaged inside plastic Tupperware and plastic bags.
Since we try to avoid plastic, these weren’t options for me and I didn’t want to use our regular glass food storage dishes when we were away from home at field trips (and I know that many schools don’t allow glass dishes or lunch boxes either).
Reusable Lunch Boxes (no plastic)
After trying several options I finally decided on large size lunch bots steel lunch boxes, which are large enough to hold food for my older kids, and which are dishwasher safe and easy to clean. I’ve used smaller size lunch bots in the past and they are great for our little kids, but didn’t hold enough for my school age kids (6+). These options are more expensive than plastic lunch boxes, but they are much healthier and will last longer.
Other Containers
I also ordered some leak-proof containers for condiments and dips, steel water bottles for drinks, and some silicone bottles for smoothies, chia seed gel, etc. For cooler months, we have these stainless insulated thermos containers to keep food warm.
This reusable and plastic-free beeswax wrap is good alternative to plastic food wrap and helps keep small or crumbly items contained in each section of the lunch containers. Bonus: The larger sheets also double as a placemat!
I keep all of these containers in one bottom cabinet in our kitchen so the kids can get to them to help pack lunches and put them away after washing.
What to Put in Your Child’s Lunchbox: A Rotating Meal Plan
We homeschool our kids, but I attended public and private schools at different times when I was growing up and remember one thing very clearly about school lunches (besides how bad most of them tasted): the rotating lunch schedule.
While I didn’t often get to buy lunch because my mom usually packed ours, we would occasionally be given money to buy lunch and I’d scour the lunch schedule to figure out which day to buy lunch. Ironically, I often ended up never using the money to buy lunch, always waiting for better options, but I remember that certain days were always certain foods. Tuesday was usually fish nuggets and Friday was usually pizza (the most popular day at my school).
I certainly won’t recommend a rotating schedule that involves microwaved fish nuggets and pizza, but I think there is a valuable lesson in the idea of a school lunch schedule. Children appreciate consistency and knowing that a favorite food is the usual on Friday gives them something to look forward to, even if they may not love all the lunch options quite as much.
For our purposes, I have a rotating group of ten meal options that I use whenever we have to pack lunches. For families on a regular school schedule, this could simply be a two-week rotating lunch schedule.
This is what our rotating schedule looks like:
Best Lunch Ideas for School
And here is a linked list of some of our favorite lunch recipes:
Protein + Main Course(s):
Egg Muffins
Beef Jerky Sticks
Mini Greek Meatballs
Fish Sticks
Lettuce Tacos
Chicken Salad
Chicken Fingers (Honey Mustard)
Meatza
Sweet Pepper Steak Salad (add gluten-free noodles if desired for pasta salad)
Sides + Drinks + Healthy Snacks:
Zucchini Fritters
Chia Seed Gel
Chocolate Coconut Energy Bars
Probiotic Marshmallows
Chia Seed Energy Bars
Fruit Leather (Like Fruit Roll-ups)
Drinks
Condiments and Dips
Coconut Butter Cups
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bomb
Tangerine Gummies
Apple Cinnamon Coconut Muffins
Homemade Applesauce
Hardboiled Eggs (the Instant Pot is great for this)
Trail Mix with Dried Fruit
Dark Chocolate
These healthy lunch ideas are also just a starting point for us and include the basics of a protein, vegetable, fruit, and healthy fat. I also often include some homemade sweet potato chips or other snack and often a soup in a thermos in cooler weather. This list is a starting point and to keep things simple, you can just rotate these ideas on a two-week schedule and post it on the fridge so that kids can help prepare lunches each day.
I also think it is important to note that these lunches don’t have as much variety of vegetables and healthy fats as we would typically eat at home, but I focus on making sure that over the course of a day, our children eat a well balanced diet and get enough of each macronutrient, so I typically make more of their favorite foods and finger type foods for lunches to keep things simple.
If you fall off track, don’t worry… leftovers also make great school lunches!
Tip #3: Always Include Veggies and Fruit
Vegetables are excellent sources of many nutrients and eating a wide variety of colorful vegetables and fruits not only helps make sure children are getting enough micronutrients, but also helps develop their taste for these foods. Fresh fruit and vegetables can also be some of the more difficult foods to get children to eat and enjoy, but I’ve found that the tips above help facilitate this.
Some of our favorite produce to pack includes:
Snap peas
Cherry tomatoes
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrots
Sliced bell peppers
Apple slices
Cucumber slices
Diced jicama (with a little lime and salt)
This is one area of lunch prep that I always allow my children to help with or completely handle because it encourages them to try and enjoy new foods. My older kids have now graduated to using a regular 8-inch chef knife for cutting vegetables (thanks to this class!) but the toddlers can safely use these crinkle cutters and love helping as well. They even cut grapes and strawberries with these to put in their lunch boxes.
Tip #4: Get Creative With the Drinks
Thanks to our steel water bottles for drinks, and silicone squeeze bottles, we’ve been able to get really creative with drinks and this is another way I can sneak in vegetables, fruits, extra calories and vitamins. I always send water but also send a smoothie, chia seed energy drink, protein drink or yogurt with fruit blended in the silicone bottle. The kids always willingly drink these “treats” and I add extra vegetables, green drink, gelatin and other nutrient-dense foods to up the nutrition.
These all pack more of a nutritional punch than juice or milk (and especially soda!) and they take only minutes to make.
Tip #5: Use a Meal Planning Tool
If you want to simplify the process of lunch meal planning even more and integrate with your shopping list, consider using a meal planning tool. The best one I’ve ever found is called Real Plans and I like it so much that I merged my own meal planner with into it and added all of my own recipes (including the ones above). You can seamlessly plan your meals for the week (breakfast, lunch dinner, or any combination) and it creates a shopping list that can be adjusted based on what you have in the house. The system is so easy that kids can use it (and mine do) and it saves me hours of time and money each week. You can read about it here.
Top photo used with permission from the talented Michelle Tam of NomNomPaleo.com, for more great school lunch ideas, check out her post of Paleo Lunchbox Ideas.
I want to hear from you… all of you super moms who pack school lunches day in and day out… Please share your healthy school lunch ideas and tips in the comments below!
Source: https://wellnessmama.com/76599/healthy-school-lunch-ideas/
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hotfitnesstopics · 6 years
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I've been following the 16:8 intermittent fasting (IF) plan for over seven months now, which means I don't eat for 16 hours a day and only eat during the other eight hours. I find a lot of inspiration and information from watching YouTube videos on IF. Recently, I'd been seeing a lot about the Warrior Diet. It's a stricter form of intermittent fasting, during which you have a much shorter eating window of just four hours and then a fasting window of 20 hours. Before Warrior Diet: It seems crazy, right? Yet so many people rave about it. You're meant to obtain more mental clarity, increased energy, better digestion, reduced sugar cravings, and, for those looking for it, faster and better weight-loss and muscle definition results. I never gave it serious thought, though. I mean, how can you only eat for four hours?! But one day, it happened accidentally. I meant to eat at noon as usual, but I was running around doing tons of errands, and it was 4 p.m. by the time I realized I was hungry and able to eat. If I could do it one day, I could do it for one week, right? One of the best things I've experienced from intermittent fasting is getting a handle on my sugar cravings and food addiction. Not eating until noon was so freeing. It was beginning to help me not obsess about food all the time. I wanted to see how shortening my eating window to four hours would affect that. Related: I Did Intermittent Fasting For 1 Month and This Is What Happened I felt like an eating window of 3:00/3:30 p.m. to 7:00/7:30 p.m. would be good for my work, life, and family schedule. I decided to commit to one week on the Warrior Diet because I thought I'd be starving the entire time and wouldn't be able to stand another day. But by the sixth day, I was feeling so good, I wanted to keep going. I decided to commit to two weeks. Weren't You Insanely Hungry? (In Other Words: Didn't It Suck?!) This surprised me, too, but no, I wasn't. I felt a little hungry around 10 a.m., so I'd have a cup of black coffee or green chai tea. The first couple of days I felt a little hungry around noon, since that's when I was used to eating. But by the fourth day that passed, and I instead noticed noon was the time of day when my mental clarity, focus, energy, and happiness really started kicking in. Related: I Fasted For 16 Hours a Day For 6 Months and This Is What Happened How Did You Feel? One thing I noticed about the Warrior Diet compared to the 16:8 plan is that eating eight hours a day still didn't entirely prevent me from overeating or wanting sugar, which always made me feel uncomfortably bloated. Eating just four hours a day made it impossible to overeat - my belly filled up so quickly and I felt so satisfied that I didn't want to eat more. Because I had no desire to overeat, I didn't feel bloated at night or in the morning. Mentally speaking, before I started IF, I was always thinking about food, stressing about counting calories, feeling hungry and deprived, or feeling bad if I ate too much or ate "bad" foods. I realized I was so unhappy back then because all my hard work was just making me gain weight. Only eating in a four-hour window helped me think even less about food, and when I ate, I didn't feel restricted or bad about it. I wasn't expecting to feel such an emotional weight lifted, and this is what kept me inspired to stick with it. After 2 Weeks on Warrior Diet: What Did You Eat? When 3:00/3:30 p.m. rolled around, I felt a subtle sense of hunger but wasn't completely famished. I craved mostly healthy foods and would eat a big tofu kale salad, leftovers, or a bowl of roasted tofu, sweet potatoes, and red peppers. I followed that with a banana, sometimes two, with raw almonds or cashews and plenty of water. Dinner was around 6:00 p.m., and I'd have whatever was on the menu: black bean burritos, avocado pasta with Trader Joe's meatless meatballs and steamed broccoli, lentil soup and bread, or veggie burgers with roasted veggies. If I felt like it, I'd eat a little dessert after. Sometimes it was some trail mix and fresh fruit . . . annnnd sometimes it was a vegan brownie sundae. Related: This Is the Diet That Helped Me Get a 6-Pack I ate what I craved, and as much as I wanted. That was one of my favorite parts about the Warrior Diet. I never felt deprived. I was able to sit down to a huge plate of food and feel completely satisfied and not guilty because my meal was over 400 calories. Another surprising benefit was that my taste buds became so sharp that even basic foods like fresh mango tasted mind-blowingly delicious. Were You Able to Work Out? Yep, my 5:45 a.m. CrossFit classes still happened. I felt the same as I always do, but this shortened eating window made for amazing deep sleep, so I felt super rested and energized. I was still able to box jump and burpee as usual, and today I even got a personal record for my squat snatch. One thing I noticed was that from not feeling bloated, I felt lighter and more agile and just more excited to move my body. Did You Lose Weight? I was surprised that I lost about two pounds - I've been about the same weight for years! This doesn't seem major, especially since it's hard to tell from the before-and-after photos, but for me, it was all in my belly. I noticed zero bloating (zero!) and a flatter tummy. I've also noticed more muscle definition in my arms and thighs, but that's not just from the past two weeks; it's because I've been doing intermittent fasting for over seven months now. Isn't It Bad For You Not to Eat All Day? Someone expressed their concern to me that intermittent fasting is an eating disorder. I actually feel like it's the exact opposite. I feel more in control and have a healthier relationship with food than I ever had. I finally know what true hunger feels like and am learning to listen to my body to eat when I'm hungry and - this is the most important thing - to STOP when I'm full. I'm no longer overeating or obsessing about food, and I feel more free from the thoughts about how eating affects my weight. Will You Keep Going? I've been wondering this every single day over the past 14 days. Some days I'm like, "Hell, no!" I especially felt that way on the third and 13th days. But then on the other days I just felt so good; I felt like I wanted to keep this up. There are two main reasons I've contemplated sticking with the Warrior Diet. One, not being bloated has been huge for me, since I have been struggling with that since July 2016. It's made me so self-conscious and uncomfortable - on my worst days, I felt really depressed about it. So to look down and see a flatter tummy and not feel pain makes me tear up; I'm so happy. Intermittent fasting feels like free therapy. And two, I can't get over how I'm not obsessing about food. Even when I begin my eating window, I'm not scarfing food down or craving sweets, and I'm not overeating. And during my fasting window, I'm not daydreaming about the food I'll eat. Restricting my diet for over 20 years and obsessing about weight loss really f*cked me up, and intermittent fasting feels like free therapy. It's slowly curing me of all my worries and detrimental body-negative thoughts. OK, so the one thing that was hard was the weekends. I had my best friend visiting on the sixth day, and we went out for brunch. Sipping on coffee while she ate pancakes was tough - I'm not gonna lie. But that's what's cool about choosing IF as a lifestyle. I can tailor it to meet my needs, which means sticking with it most days and being lenient about not fasting when I want to. Related: Forget the 80/20 Rule! This Trainer Says to Follow the 90/10 Rule to Lose Weight I've loved the heightened benefits of the Warrior Diet vs. the 16:8 plan - I'm blown away that I haven't been famished all day and that I've been so energized. I'm over the moon that I'm feeling zero belly bloat because I'm not overeating all day long, and I love not obsessing about food. I think I'm going to keep going! I'm not sure I'll be strictly Warrior-ing it up every single day. Maybe some days I'll have a five- or six-hour eating window. Some days I'll do 16:8, and, well, other days (like on the weekends), I'll wake up and hit up my local vegan bakery for a sticky bun and keep eating all day long. Final Thoughts If you're considering intermittent fasting, I definitely would not try the Warrior Diet right off the bat. I'd start with a 12-hour fasting window, not eating from, say, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Gradually increase the amount of time you're fasting by 30 to 60 minutes every few days. I took a few weeks to get on the 16:8 plan, so just ease your body into it, and you'll find more success. As always, chat with your doctor before making any serious changes to your diet. Aside from jumping into IF too fast, avoid these other intermittent fasting mistakes, such as eating the wrong foods. Once you get into a rhythm, you'll love the benefits of weight loss, increased energy, and the lowered risk of disease and feel inspired to keep going. You just might inspire someone else to hop on the IF train, too! from POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2h8cS5L via IFTTT
http://www.fitnessclub.cf/2018/06/i-fasted-20-hours-day-for-2-weeks-and-i_20.html
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Gluten Free Monthly Favorites: The Creamiest Vegan Chocolate Spread, the GF Teen Summit and More
New blog post! Long time no talk! By the time you’re reading this post, I’ll be frantically finishing my final exams and packing up to drive back to Colorado Springs for the summer. I skipped sharing my favorite moments of March, mainly because the month mainly consisted of work, writing, and grad school...which means I have even more delicious gluten free eats, grad school adventures and exciting news to share this time around.
What gluten free and vegan chocolate spread has become my latest sweet addiction? What's the Gluten Free Teen Summit all about? And what can you expect from the blog now that summer - and Celiac Awareness Month! - is finally here? You know the drill by now: keep scrolling to find out all of those answers and more!
What I’m Eating
Trays of roasted broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Ever since I figured out that you can crisp-ify frozen broccoli and frozen Brussels sprouts by baking them at a high temp in your oven, I’ve been loading up on the 89 cent bags of both from Aldi’s. Roasted veggies + avocado = one very happy girl. 
Too many homemade energy balls to count. I suppose this is expected considering I needed all the energy I could get to push through my final two months of the semester, but energy balls have seriously been making up the bulk of my night snacks. Recently on Instagram, I shared the recipe for these “Birthday Cake Batter” superfood energy balls featuring Manitoba Hemp Seeds (which I represent as an ambassador!). These cake batter bliss balls are addictive and sweetened mainly with banana, so I’d definitely recommend giving the recipe a try.
Homemade banana ice cream upgraded with fun superfood mixes like Matakana’s Superchoc, açaí, turmeric and even spirulina (in small doses). Considering that I don’t add much superfood powder to my nice cream, I doubt the powders are giving me tons of health benefits...but I can’t be the only one who thinks a variety of colors always makes food taste better, right? Tell me if you’re a rainbow food lover in the comments! 
Last but not least, the dreamiest, dreamiest chocolate spread thanks to the Date Lady. I won this spread along with a few other goodies in an Instagram giveaway and OMG...I’ve never tried a dairy free chocolate spread that is THIS creamy. The date puree seriously makes all the difference, and I love that dates also offer additional nutrition (like lots of dietary potassium, fiber, iron and magnesium) compared to other sweeteners.
What I’m Doing/Loving:
Surviving a very adventurous first visit to Minneapolis with a group of gals from my MFA program. We’d planned an epic weekend of dancing, walking around the city and exploring...and then a historic blizzard hit Minnesota, and basically snowed us in for most of our weekend. The snow weekend definitely wasn’t ideal. (We went out one night during the blizzard and I was a bit terrified when my friend’s car got stuck in a snowdrift, we saw several cars stuck and abandoned in the snowy freeway and watched a car almost spun out in downtown Minneapolis. The things girls do for pizza.) However, I learned how to free said stuck car (thanks to two very kind gentlemen who pulled over when they saw us pushing), enjoyed some good bonding time with the girls in our AirBNB and loved exploring the Minneapolis Art Institute before the snow shut it down.
Good ol’ midwestern male hospitality. (See picture below for story time). Nice people make snow in April a little less depressing. 
The end of the semester! I’m sure I’ll do a full reflection post on my first year of grad school later on, but I’ll just say that this semester was a LOT better than the first semester. I got a lot more creative writing done that I’m proud of and made socializing more of a higher priority. However, I’m definitely more than ready for a break from constant writing and teaching, and for some time with the family. 
What I’m Planning:  
Spending summer in Colorado Springs! Although I had the option of staying in Mankato for the summer, I haven’t seen my family since Christmas and I’m very excited to have more time to explore Colorado this summer. I’m still going to be busy working (send me some good job hunting vibes, please!), lesson planning, blogging and writing, but the change of scenery will be greatly appreciated.
Partnering up with some epic brands for Celiac Awareness Month and the rest of summer. I can’t give away any details yet, but if you love pasta, you’re going to be drooling over one of my upcoming sponsored recipes...
Speaking at the first Generation GF Teen Summit & Family Retreat in Orlando, Florida! I’ve been sitting on this news for a couple of months now, but I'm no less excited at the opportunity to speak this June about how to eat gluten free in a college without gluten free options. The summit will feature big names in the celiac community like Dr. Peter Green, Director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia. This will also be my first chance to meet Taylor from Hale Life and Erica from Celiac and the Beast in person. If all of that isn't cool enough, my partner in gluten free - my mom - is coming with me, which will make the whole experience even more special. 
When I started this blog over four years ago, I never imagined it would lead to me being asked to speak at an event like this, so I feel extremely honored and grateful for every reader that’s helped me get this far. I’ll be sure to blog all about the experience after, but you can also follow me on Instagram and watch my Insta stories for live updates when I go! You can also find out more information about the Gluten Free Teen Summit here and here...and if you have any recommendations on where to eat in downtown Disney (in public parts/not the parks), I’d love to hear.
My second semester of grad school - and the last two months of March and April - definitely flew by in a blur of classes, teaching, blogging and lots of tasty gluten free eats. Hopefully, my summer will go by a little more slowly...and I’m excited to see what my summer ends up consisting of since so much of it is still undetermined. I do know, though, that there will be more adventures, more good food and more exciting blog posts in the near future - and I can’t wait to share them with all of you, as usual. 
Until then, safe travels to anyone else traveling this week, and I’ll talk to you again from Colorado!
What have you been up to these past few months? Any exciting plans for May? Tell me in the comments!
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torontoseoulcialite · 7 years
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Surf’s Up Restaurant & Surf Shop
Aloha, Seoul!  Get ready for ‘Ono Grinds in Apgujeong.  Surf’s Up Restaurant and Surf Shop in Apgujeong has been around since I started working in the area back in March 2017.  Back then I had a vested interest in Hawaii and the laid-back life.  I popped in to check out their menu, but at that time they were only serving desserts and craft beer.  A bizarre combination, to be sure, but I loved the calm, elegant interior and the chill vibe there.  A couple of weeks ago I walked by and saw a pop-up sign advertising pub grub.  We had to pop in for lunch!
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Since it’s a Hawaii-themed surfer’s oasis, Surf’s Up in Apgujeong uses lots of wood paneling.  Exposed walls and ceilings create an industrial vibe softened and accented by surf boards and ocean vistas throughout.  In addition to the cafe, Surf’s Up operates:
A Surf Shop (with their own collections/ lifestyle brands)
An Accessories Store
A Surf School
A Guesthouse in Yangyang
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Surf’s Up Menu
The menu at Surf’s Up lacks focus insofar as the food is pretty basic with a hint of Hawaiian flavours.  You definitely won’t find poke on the menu.  There are 5 kinds of hot dogs, and they seem more American-style than the sweet corn dogs they tend to make up here.  We didn’t give them a try.  On a more adventurous day I’ll let you know if the Cheese Chili Dog is Coney Island-worthy or just sweet cheese from a gun.  The menu seems to have been run through Google Translate, but has some pretty reasonable items.  Having mistakenly paid $8 for an iced Americano across the street from Surf’s Up, these are very welcome price points for the area!
We tried:
Mac n’ Cheese Balls (KRW 6,000)
Grilled Buffalo Chicken (KRW 7,000)
Beef & Cheese Sandwich (KRW 10,000)
(Greek) Salad (KRW 5,000)
Americano (KRW 4,500)
Caffe Latte (KRW 5,500)
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Mac N’ Cheese Balls
If macaroni and cheese is on the menu then it’ll be a must-try for me!  I’ve been pretty disappointed recently by macaroni pasta salad in Jeongja and toxic-waste coloured macaroni in Gangnam.  Surf’s Up served up their mac n’ cheese balls (KRW 6,000) with a light breading, a creamy drizzle, and a fresh Marinara sauce full of parsely.  The Marinara may have stolen the show as a perfect pairing.  It wasn’t overly rich or thick.  It tasted as though the chef had smashed up a bunch of tomatoes, onions, and parsely that morning and let it marinate so it would be perfect for our lunch.  I probably should have stopped there, but at such low prices we thought portions would be smaller!
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Grilled Buffalo Chicken
While this portion looks pretty small, it was definitely filling.  The grilled chicken was tossed in a tangy sauce which reminded me more of  a pineapple and teriyaki bbq sauce than Buffalo.  With chunks of bell pepper, broccoli, pineapple, and caramelized onions it was a mean in and of itself.  I think I’ve found my new go-to meal in a pinch by work.
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Beef & Cheese Sandwich
KRW 10,000 in Gangnam won’t get you too much, so we were surprised at this super loaded, toasty, grilled cheese sandwich.  A dug right in and loved the meat and cheese combo.  I didn’t give it a try, but A told me I should 100% get it the next time we stop in.  Just look at all that ooey-gooey cheddar cheese!
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I wish I knew what kind of coffee beans they use at Surf’s Up.  The latte and Americano had a floral aroma and a smooth and sweet taste.  After mac n’ cheese and chicken, I had no room for salad.  Underneath the veggies and Greek dressing there was actually a good amount of Feta cheese.  The salad came with two crusty and squishy pieces of sourdough – another rare find in Korea!
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Surf’s Up Surf Collection
On the 2nd floor of the building you’ll find some great gear!  Surfboards, wet suits, and beachwear are displayed in the airy, loft-style space as well as online.  Looking online the wet suits seem to be as reasonably-priced as the food.  Boards are all around 2,150,000.  Tops start at KRW 39,000.  They even sell surf wax on site for KRW 4,000.  I’ve only surfed once in Tofino, British Columbia, but Surf’s Up makes me want to trip out to Yangyang!
Surf’s Up Surf School
Cowabunga, dude!  Want to learn how to hang ten in Korea’s surf capital, Yangyang?  Surf’s Up offers group and one-on-one surf lessons for kids and adults alike.  Surf’s Up lessons range in price from KRW 80,000 (beginner group Lesson) to KRW 650,000 (5 one-on-one lessons for intermediate to advanced surfers).  Overnight guests pay KRW 25,000 to stay at the Surf House.
Surf’s Up Surf School & Guesthouse
Weekdays 9am – 6pm / Weekends 8am – 6pm
강원 양양군 현남면 동산큰길 17 서프스업 / 033-671-0549
Gangwon Yangyang Hyunnam-myeon Dongsan Mountain Highway 17 / 033-671-0549
Getting to Surf’s Up Restaurant & Shop in Seoul
I work between Apgujeong and Apgujeong Rodeo stations, so I pass this place on my way from the gym to school in the morning.  For those treating this as a destination, head to Apgujeong Rodeo Station and take Exit 5.  Walk 2 blocks (past the MAC Cosmetics and Lululemon stores) and take a right.  Surf’s Up will be in the 4th block across from FIFTY Cafe.  You might not get lei’d, but it’s definitely a great spot to relax and unwind (or get lit before Monkey Beach)!
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Surf’s Up Address: 642-25, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul // 서프스업 | 주소: 서울특별시 언주로 168길 33, 1층, 2층
Phone Number: 02-511-2503
Business Hours: 10:00 – 23:00
Parking: Valet Parking
Surf’s Up Menu: Hawaiian, Pub Grub, Coffee, Desserts
Surf’s Up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surf5upseoul/
Surf’s Up Website: http://www.surfshop.co.kr/
Seoul Food: Surf’s Up Restaurant and Surf Shop – Apgujeong Surf's Up Restaurant & Surf Shop Aloha, Seoul!  Get ready for 'Ono Grinds in Apgujeong.  Surf's Up Restaurant and Surf Shop in Apgujeong has been around since I started working in the area back in March 2017. 
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12setsofchopsticks · 8 years
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What's For Dinner Tonight?
What do I eat here? A lot of different things! One question I get asked by literally all of my classes is “what is your favorite Japanese food?”
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Okay, maybe it’s more like “Japanese food…you like??”
But yes, I tend to say the easy “oh, yes I like Japanese food very much! My favorite foods to eat are sushi and ramen!” which is 100% true, but I’ve found there is so much more to Japanese cuisine than just ramen and sushi! I think I can definitely say that my international food palette has expanded. I have tried so many new and interesting foods, some have been good, others…not so much (please see the liver incident).
Everyone knows about sushi and ramen, but let me tell you about some of the “lesser known” foods I enjoy that are common here:
JAPANESE CURRY
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Oh yes. This is one food in particular that I have really come to love.
WHO KNEW that curry, a food we usually think of as being unique to Indian cuisine in America, would be such a culinary staple in Japan? First things first, Japanese curry is distinctly different from it’s Indian cousin. Indian curry tastes like, well, curry. Japanese curry tastes like heaven. I really can’t describe the taste of Japanese curry; it’s just like spicy gravy goodness over rice and some sort of friend meat. I also have no idea what it *really* is, but goddamn do I love it.
ALSO I feel like I must add that my bias is partly due to the fact that I live literally right above a CoCo Curry house so the restraint I need to not eat there every night is EXTREME. At first it was kind of a running joke that I would go to CoCo Curry everyday but now it’s become frighteningly close to reality. OOPS.
OMURICE
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Omurice gets its name from the words “omelet” and “rice” and that basically sums it right up; it’s a thin, cooked egg filled with ketchup-fried rice and topped with MORE ketchup. Like I just mentioned, the rice is usually ketchup-flavored (which tastes much better than it sounds) and stir fried with chicken and vegetables, but I have seen variations like beef stroganoff, seafood, and (OMG!!!) curry! I am not sure why Japanese people love ketchup so much.
HISTORICAL NOTE: I find the very idea of omurice to be kind of hilarious, because it was basically what Japanese people thought western food was like. To be fair, it is one of the closest Japanese foods I’ve found to resemble brunch so they weren’t too far off in their assumptions.
YAKISOBA
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Yakisoba is what I get when I think I’ve ordered lo mein. It’s basically the same as the westernized Chinese staple, but the flavors are slightly different. This is another festival-favorite and usually a failsafe for me to get at the conbini when I don’t trust any of the other options. It’s usually packed with veggies and a generous helping of pickled ginger (the pink stuff) which I promptly pick out every time.
Fun fact! They also sell yakisoba rolls – meaning sub rolls filled with yakisoba – at the conbini for when you get that ~*special hankering*~ for carbs.
OKONOMIYAKI
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The only thing more fun than saying okonomiyaki is eating it. When I first came to Japan and was like “what is this food called okonomonaki” first, they laughed at me cause I said it wrong, then they said it was “japanese pancake” and I guess technically they aren’t wrong, but you won’t find me (or anyone for that matter) eating an okonomiyaki doused in syrup in the morning for breakfast.
Okonomiyaki can contain a number of different ingredients within the batter, but often you will encounter the usual suspects like cabbage, egg, and some sort of protein like bacon, octopus, shrimp, etc. It’s cooked like a pancake and then served with special sauce and mayo on top. There are plenty of dedicated okonomiyaki shops around, but they are also a common food found at street vendors during festivals.
Side note: I have a pair of socks that have okonomiyaki on them and every time I wear them to school, my students go bananas.
TAKOYAKI
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Closely related to okonomiyaki is takoyaki. Takoyaki means fried octopus ball so, of course, there usually is octopus somewhere in there. However, I’ve seen vegetarian takoyaki or takoyaki with lil hotdog bits in them. They are made by putting batter in a special takoyaki pan that has round recesses for the balls to form. Every time I see someone making these lil balls delight I’m like “okay there is no way that is going to become round” but somehow every time they come out looking like perfect globes and I don’t understand how they do it.
Every time I get these, I eat them in one bite and every time it is a huge mistake because the inside is always hotter than the molten core of the Earth and I apparently don’t know how to learn from my mistakes. SAD!
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ON THE TOPIC OF FOOD:
One thing I really didn’t anticipate when I moved to Tokyo was that I would basically have to learn how to cook all over again.
There are two reasons for this:
The first is because my Japanese supermarkets do not offer the same foods that the American supermarkets I used to frequent did. This seems obvious! Of course a Japanese supermarket is not going to have things like Oreos or Ritz crackers…or one would think. Actually, it’s quite easy to find Oreos and Ritz crackers, but I have an incredibly difficult time finding things like Italian sausage, many types of cheese, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (still looking for that one, btw). So basically, while products tend to be easy to find, some of the ingredients that used to be staples in my cooking seemingly don’t exist in this country (it’s hell-ery trying to find celery. Why?). Not to mention that when I do go grocery shopping, all of the labels are in Japanese. Ask me about the time I accidentally got decaf coffee or sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasted red peppers. I’ve since learned hiragana and katakana, but it’s still slow-going in the supermarket and to this day I still have no idea what kind of meat I’ve been buying.
The second reason is because of the restrictions of my kitchen itself. My apartment is small. Really small. “Do I even have a kitchen?” is probably a better question than “how big is your kitchen?” Yes, the sad reality is that I have only one induction-heat burner and NO oven. I do, however, have a rice cooker and a toaster oven. How has this impacted my cooking? Well, obviously I can’t use any recipe that requires baking. I also can’t cook things separately (for example, broccoli sautéing in one pan, pasta boiling in another) without it taking forever and getting cold. I’ve had to get rethink my recipes and have now become a huge fan of one-pot meals, not that I wasn’t before, but now I am an even BIGGER fan that I was. This means doing a lot of things like skipping the step where you boil the pasta and throwing it right in the pot with the sauce (which actually makes it more delicious anyways). Space is, of course, a huge issue as well, so I’ve gotten quite crafty, especially with hooks and shower rings, to effectively utilize all my vertical space for storage.
Also - holy hell, how had I gotten this far in life without a rice cooker? That little machine is like god’s gift to humanity. Literally just push one button and there it is, perfect rice. I’ve recently tried experimenting with making different flavors of rice in it with mixed results. I’m sure I’ll get coconut curry rice down after a few more tries B-)
Full disclosure: I only wrote this blog post because I am SO hungry and still have a half hour until lunch time OMG I’m gonna starve.
Also, I have no idea what's for dinner tonight. Probably CoCo Curry, TBH. LOL.
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RELEVANT VOCAB:
まいにちCoCoカレー (mai-ni-chi Co-co Ka-ray) - Everyday Coco Curry
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hotfitnesstopics · 6 years
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I've been following the 16:8 intermittent fasting (IF) plan for over seven months now, which means I don't eat for 16 hours a day and only eat during the other eight hours. I find a lot of inspiration and information from watching YouTube videos on IF. Recently, I'd been seeing a lot about the Warrior Diet. It's a stricter form of intermittent fasting, during which you have a much shorter eating window of just four hours and then a fasting window of 20 hours. Before Warrior Diet: It seems crazy, right? Yet so many people rave about it. You're meant to obtain more mental clarity, increased energy, better digestion, reduced sugar cravings, and, for those looking for it, faster and better weight-loss and muscle definition results. I never gave it serious thought, though. I mean, how can you only eat for four hours?! But one day, it happened accidentally. I meant to eat at noon as usual, but I was running around doing tons of errands, and it was 4 p.m. by the time I realized I was hungry and able to eat. If I could do it one day, I could do it for one week, right? One of the best things I've experienced from intermittent fasting is getting a handle on my sugar cravings and food addiction. Not eating until noon was so freeing. It was beginning to help me not obsess about food all the time. I wanted to see how shortening my eating window to four hours would affect that. Related: I Did Intermittent Fasting For 1 Month and This Is What Happened I felt like an eating window of 3:00/3:30 p.m. to 7:00/7:30 p.m. would be good for my work, life, and family schedule. I decided to commit to one week on the Warrior Diet because I thought I'd be starving the entire time and wouldn't be able to stand another day. But by the sixth day, I was feeling so good, I wanted to keep going. I decided to commit to two weeks. Weren't You Insanely Hungry? (In Other Words: Didn't It Suck?!) This surprised me, too, but no, I wasn't. I felt a little hungry around 10 a.m., so I'd have a cup of black coffee or green chai tea. The first couple of days I felt a little hungry around noon, since that's when I was used to eating. But by the fourth day that passed, and I instead noticed noon was the time of day when my mental clarity, focus, energy, and happiness really started kicking in. Related: I Fasted For 16 Hours a Day For 6 Months and This Is What Happened How Did You Feel? One thing I noticed about the Warrior Diet compared to the 16:8 plan is that eating eight hours a day still didn't entirely prevent me from overeating or wanting sugar, which always made me feel uncomfortably bloated. Eating just four hours a day made it impossible to overeat - my belly filled up so quickly and I felt so satisfied that I didn't want to eat more. Because I had no desire to overeat, I didn't feel bloated at night or in the morning. Mentally speaking, before I started IF, I was always thinking about food, stressing about counting calories, feeling hungry and deprived, or feeling bad if I ate too much or ate "bad" foods. I realized I was so unhappy back then because all my hard work was just making me gain weight. Only eating in a four-hour window helped me think even less about food, and when I ate, I didn't feel restricted or bad about it. I wasn't expecting to feel such an emotional weight lifted, and this is what kept me inspired to stick with it. After 2 Weeks on Warrior Diet: What Did You Eat? When 3:00/3:30 p.m. rolled around, I felt a subtle sense of hunger but wasn't completely famished. I craved mostly healthy foods and would eat a big tofu kale salad, leftovers, or a bowl of roasted tofu, sweet potatoes, and red peppers. I followed that with a banana, sometimes two, with raw almonds or cashews and plenty of water. Dinner was around 6:00 p.m., and I'd have whatever was on the menu: black bean burritos, avocado pasta with Trader Joe's meatless meatballs and steamed broccoli, lentil soup and bread, or veggie burgers with roasted veggies. If I felt like it, I'd eat a little dessert after. Sometimes it was some trail mix and fresh fruit . . . annnnd sometimes it was a vegan brownie sundae. Related: This Is the Diet That Helped Me Get a 6-Pack I ate what I craved, and as much as I wanted. That was one of my favorite parts about the Warrior Diet. I never felt deprived. I was able to sit down to a huge plate of food and feel completely satisfied and not guilty because my meal was over 400 calories. Another surprising benefit was that my taste buds became so sharp that even basic foods like fresh mango tasted mind-blowingly delicious. Were You Able to Work Out? Yep, my 5:45 a.m. CrossFit classes still happened. I felt the same as I always do, but this shortened eating window made for amazing deep sleep, so I felt super rested and energized. I was still able to box jump and burpee as usual, and today I even got a personal record for my squat snatch. One thing I noticed was that from not feeling bloated, I felt lighter and more agile and just more excited to move my body. Did You Lose Weight? I was surprised that I lost about two pounds - I've been about the same weight for years! This doesn't seem major, especially since it's hard to tell from the before-and-after photos, but for me, it was all in my belly. I noticed zero bloating (zero!) and a flatter tummy. I've also noticed more muscle definition in my arms and thighs, but that's not just from the past two weeks; it's because I've been doing intermittent fasting for over seven months now. Isn't It Bad For You Not to Eat All Day? Someone expressed their concern to me that intermittent fasting is an eating disorder. I actually feel like it's the exact opposite. I feel more in control and have a healthier relationship with food than I ever had. I finally know what true hunger feels like and am learning to listen to my body to eat when I'm hungry and - this is the most important thing - to STOP when I'm full. I'm no longer overeating or obsessing about food, and I feel more free from the thoughts about how eating affects my weight. Will You Keep Going? I've been wondering this every single day over the past 14 days. Some days I'm like, "Hell, no!" I especially felt that way on the third and 13th days. But then on the other days I just felt so good; I felt like I wanted to keep this up. There are two main reasons I've contemplated sticking with the Warrior Diet. One, not being bloated has been huge for me, since I have been struggling with that since July 2016. It's made me so self-conscious and uncomfortable - on my worst days, I felt really depressed about it. So to look down and see a flatter tummy and not feel pain makes me tear up; I'm so happy. Intermittent fasting feels like free therapy. And two, I can't get over how I'm not obsessing about food. Even when I begin my eating window, I'm not scarfing food down or craving sweets, and I'm not overeating. And during my fasting window, I'm not daydreaming about the food I'll eat. Restricting my diet for over 20 years and obsessing about weight loss really f*cked me up, and intermittent fasting feels like free therapy. It's slowly curing me of all my worries and detrimental body-negative thoughts. OK, so the one thing that was hard was the weekends. I had my best friend visiting on the sixth day, and we went out for brunch. Sipping on coffee while she ate pancakes was tough - I'm not gonna lie. But that's what's cool about choosing IF as a lifestyle. I can tailor it to meet my needs, which means sticking with it most days and being lenient about not fasting when I want to. Related: Forget the 80/20 Rule! This Trainer Says to Follow the 90/10 Rule to Lose Weight I've loved the heightened benefits of the Warrior Diet vs. the 16:8 plan - I'm blown away that I haven't been famished all day and that I've been so energized. I'm over the moon that I'm feeling zero belly bloat because I'm not overeating all day long, and I love not obsessing about food. I think I'm going to keep going! I'm not sure I'll be strictly Warrior-ing it up every single day. Maybe some days I'll have a five- or six-hour eating window. Some days I'll do 16:8, and, well, other days (like on the weekends), I'll wake up and hit up my local vegan bakery for a sticky bun and keep eating all day long. Final Thoughts If you're considering intermittent fasting, I definitely would not try the Warrior Diet right off the bat. I'd start with a 12-hour fasting window, not eating from, say, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Gradually increase the amount of time you're fasting by 30 to 60 minutes every few days. I took a few weeks to get on the 16:8 plan, so just ease your body into it, and you'll find more success. As always, chat with your doctor before making any serious changes to your diet. Aside from jumping into IF too fast, avoid these other intermittent fasting mistakes, such as eating the wrong foods. Once you get into a rhythm, you'll love the benefits of weight loss, increased energy, and the lowered risk of disease and feel inspired to keep going. You just might inspire someone else to hop on the IF train, too! from POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2h8cS5L via IFTTT
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