Today I started with some romaine lettuce and baby spinach leaves and topped it with canned red salmon, some cooked millet, golden raisins (also known as sultanas), raw sunflower seeds, and Newman’s Own Olive Oil and Vinegar salad dressing.  See the Salmon Salad recipe here.

Delicious!

I like salad lunches because they’re relatively quick, super delicious, and super healthy. I’m a big fan of salads with something substantial on them, like kidney beans, garbanzo beans, chicken, fish, and/or some cooked grains like brown rice, millet, or quinoa.

And then, I ended it all with a piece of Moser Roth 85% dark chocolate (from Aldi grocery store).

Grape seeds are great for kids, because they give them the much-needed chance to exercise their little jaws (I could write a book on the neglect of and the need for jaw exercise in young children).  Plus, grape seeds are full of healthy antioxidants.  I would like to see us humans move back to eating seeded grapes.  They’re more natural and they’re healthier.

• 5 large organic free range eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ teaspoon iodized salt
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 1 large fresh tomato
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• ½ cup spinach leaves, chopped

Dice the tomatoes and basil, crush the garlic, and set them aside. Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. When heated, add the diced tomatoes, basil, and garlic and saute for two minutes. Add the beaten eggs and cook, stirring occasionally to cook the eggs through, about five minutes. Move to a plate and top with fresh chopped spinach leaves.

Now, some twenty-odd years later, I can proudly say that my own son has passed through the same rite of passage.  And I was there to help him through it.

This morning I was cleaning out his lunch box and noticed that—oddly enough—he hadn’t eaten any of the White Beans with Tomatoes and Greens in his stainless-steel thermos!  I was a little perplexed, because I knew he loved them and that he always has a big appetite for lunch.

When he woke up, the cute little guy came into the kitchen and asked me if I had noticed that he hadn’t eaten his beans.

I told him I had noticed.  ”Why didn’t you eat your beans?”  I asked

He dejectedly explained, “the other kids said it looks like vomit and they were making fun of me, so I didn’t eat it.”

I kneeled down and began to explain with empathy, yet confidently (to pass on some confidence to him), “you know why they said it looks like vomit?  Because they don’t get food like that at home, and so it looks strange to them.  They’ve never seen it before.  And you know why we feed you beans?  Because they make you strong and smart and healthy.”

“So why don’t their parents feed them beans?” he asked.

“Because their parents don’t know that they’re so healthy.  Isaac, you know it’s not vomit.  And you know it tastes really good.  You shouldn’t let them control what you eat by making fun of you.  If you do that, you’re making what they think more important than what you think, and that’s not true.  What you think about your food is what’s important, not what anyone else thinks.”

That seemed to hit home with him, and his face agreed.  ”But what if they make fun of me?” he asked.

Exhibiting confidence so that he could mirror it, I said, “Isaac, if they make fun of you, just say that you like it and it’s really good, and then go ahead and eat it.  Just don’t care about what they think.  Try not to let it bother you.  If they keep making fun of you, tell them it’s not cool to make fun of other peoples’ food, so they will know it’s not okay.”

He seemed to soak in my explanation, but I could tell it would take some courage on his part.

Pointing at the thermos I packed this time, he said, “I don’t want the thermos.”

“Why not?”  I asked.

“What’s in it?” he queried.

“Rice with butter,” I replied.

He seemed to be okay with that.  I hope he applies what I taught him.  But if not, we’ll just have to keep working on it.  This is a good lesson for him in learning to stand up for himself and his own opinions and beliefs.  I’m glad I was there to coach him through this experience, because leaving a kid to pilot such difficulties alone can be dangerous to their self-esteem and life skills.  If he can be different in what he eats and still feel comfortable, then he can be different in other areas of his life and maintain confidence and respect for his own opinion.  I’m glad he is learning this lesson now, at such a young age.

Later on, Anika came into the kitchen.  ”Did you see that I ate all of my beans?!  They were so yummy with the rice!”

With all the excitement I could give, I said, “yes!  I saw you ate all your beans!  I am so proud of you!”

She grinned ear to ear and giggled at that.  She has a little time yet before peer pressure affects her eating habits, but we’ll be prepared and lovingly guide her when the time comes.

“I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Watch his “TED talk” below. It is powerful.

It’s always good.  The secret sauce is made of soy sauce, fresh grated ginger, toasted sesame oil, a little olive oil, and freshly crushed garlic.

Here’s the healthy Stir Fry Recipe.

Actually, the story was born after Anika declared she is “tired of having soup all the time!” There was a little teenage angst coming coming from our four-year-old regarding our having soup again, so I pulled the old “it’s princess food” trick.  It worked like a charm.  And then Princess Clementine gave her a clementine from her clementine orchard for dessert. She really liked that one, too.

Is using fairy tales at the table bad form?  Hey, not if it gets your kid to eat her soup!

So I had to try them out again just to get a fresh opinion.

Sardines rock!  They’re so good.  All you have to do is dump them in a bowl, add a lot of mustard, mix it together, and put them on some toast and you have a beautifully tasty meal.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think people who don’t like sardines just haven’t tried them with mustard (mustard is a good approach to hiding strange flavors, as you may have gathered from the liver mcnuggets post.)  Also, if sardines aren’t packaged or processed right their flavor will really suffer. You can get good sardines at Costco, or online at Vital Choice seafood.

Sardines are high in omega-3 fatty acids.  They are low on the food chain, and thus are very low in mercury.  Not only do they contain a lot of omega-3, sardines also contain a lot of iron, selenium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, phosphorus, potassium, protein, and coenzyme Q-10.  Sardines are good for your heart, brain, joints, and pretty much everything else.  Yes, sardines are very good for you!  You can read more about sardines at Associated Content, or better yet, at whfoods.org.

Sardines can have a lot of histamine, which isn’t a problem unless you’re sensitive or have urticaria or hives.  Check out an article about histamine avoidance if you’re curious.

If you get quality sardines and you like fish, you’ll probably love them right out of the can.  But mixing them with mustard has never failed at making them a hit for me.  I have not tried them on the kids yet because we haven’t yet incorporated them into our routine like we have with salmon.  That’s on my agenda, and I’ll let you know what they think by posting a comment.

A tin of sardines

I made some Indian Chili with Avocado tonight.  I love the recipe.  Isaac wanted some right after it was made, but it was still very hot.  So what did I do?

I added ice cubes of course!  But cooling with ice creates a problem: it waters down your food as it melts.

Science Lesson

If there’s one thing I’ve learned while studying free radicals and natural products in a laboratory, it’s that a standard freezer has a temperature of -20ºC.  But (and this is important) ice begins to melt at 0ºC.

So what?  Well, that means that you have 20 degrees of cooling power in an ice cube before it starts to melt!  Isn’t that amazing?!

Real-world Application

I put my neurons to work on Isaac’s quandary.  Because I care about the little guy, I didn’t want his chili to be watery, so I added six ice cubes immediately out of the freezer, stirred madly for ten seconds, then scooped the cubes into the sink.  They were a little melted around the edges, but were not that much smaller.  The magic?  His chili was the perfect temperature, but it wasn’t watery!  I put those extra 20 degrees of cooling power to work.

The bottom line for cooling without watering down

The bottom line is this: when you have hot soup, stew, or chili you want to cool down without watering down, add a lot of ice cubes, stir them in quickly, and then discard them just after they start to melt.  This way you get maximum cooling power with minimum wateriness.  Oh, and it helps if you have a lot of ice cubes on hand.

I should teach this concept to Isaac.  Naahh…It’s his bed time.  Maybe he’ll read this some day.

That said, I cannot stress more whole-heartedly the benefits that you will receive by feeding your family right. I have listed below a few of the benefits of health and nutrition, although the list can go on much longer.

Avoiding Disease

• Put simply, the top ten killers in the United States are diet related. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, overweight, stroke, and the rest have significant ties with the foods we eat. Virtually all chronic disease is preventable, and nutrition is one of the tip-top factors in this.

Energy Levels

• Our biochemistry thrives on what we were designed to eat. One of the best ways to get prolonged energy throughout the day is to feed your body what it needs to keep the metabolism running efficiently and quickly– so that you become efficient and quick. Additionally, your energy will naturally increase as a by-product of making healthy food choices.

A Healthy Foundation for Children

• The buds of cancer start in a child’s early years, long before they grow old. This is because their cells are dividing most rapidly at this time. But adequate nutrition can significantly reduce the damage that causes cancer. For lifelong health, it is necessary that children have a healthy foundation. Health coaching provides hands-on, practical knowledge of how to get kids and teens eating what is healthy and enjoying it. Their brains, bodies, and little organs will benefit for years to come.

Saving Money

• All other benefits aside, the money savings involved in eating healthy are well worth it. Unexpected health problems can significantly drain a family’s finances, and healthy lifestyle is directly associated with the prevention of many diseases. In addition, a healthier family means more time doing what we like to do and need to do, and less time nursing sicknesses. Last year in the United States, the cost of insuring the average family of four was $11,500.(1) Investing in a healthy eating plan is much less costly, yet it provides much greater dividends.