Food Storage Friday: Broccoli Wheat Salad

This recipe is a combination of one from I Dare You to Eat It and a salad that is often served in the cafeteria at the hospital where I work, with a few of my own touches. (Before you turn up your nose at the thought of hospital food, I have to say they make some really yummy things at my hospital. Not all hospital food is created equal.) I love this salad, my husband loves this salad, I have many extended family members who love this salad. My children however will not try this. However, that doesn't mean much because they are ridiculously picky.

And here is my food storage tip for the week: How to determine how much food to store: 7 cases (6 #10 cans each) of basic dried food per person will give you enough food  to last a year, plus a little extra. There are 6 basic food storage items that everyone should store: wheat, oats, rice, beans, pasta and potatoes. So pick which one of those that you eat more than the others (I recommend wheat.) and double up on that one. If you have one case of each kind, plus your extra, you will have a year supply for one person.

Broccoli Wheat Salad
Food Storage Ingredients:
2 cups cooked wheat berries
1 cup + 1 Tablespoon light Miracle Whip
1 & 1/4 cup dried cranberries
3 Tablespoons sunflower seeds
1 Tablespoon sugar

Fresh Ingredients:
8-9 cups fresh broccoli florets, chopped
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup red onion, diced

1. Mix Miracle Whip and sugar. 2. Combine remaining ingredients and stir Miracle Whip dressing to coat. 3. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

I have tried this one without letting it sit overnight. I warn you that this is not a good idea. The wheat, red onion and broccoli all taste too strong. I like to make this salad as a side to barbeques, sandwiches and relish trays.

6 Healthy Junk Food Alternatives for Kids

Joy Paley is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on earning your nursing degree  for the Guide to Health Education.

Sure, we all want our kids to eat healthier. But where do you even start, when their main dietary staples are hot dogs and chips? It’s hard enough to get adventurous eaters to try anything labeled “healthy,” much less a kid who lives off two main food groups that weren’t even invented a hundred years ago. The key to keeping your kid feeling well, however, is to make sure they get a variety of foods. Try out this list of sneakily healthy alternatives on your kid---you may just end up with a few more foods that they’ll actually ask to eat.

Junk food kids love: Chips

A healthy alternative: Bagel Chips

• Why kids will love them: While pita chips might be a good “adult” alternative to potato chips, the taste is a little bland in comparison. Bagel chips have the same satisfying crunch and crispiness of potato chips, to pass a kid’s taste test. Stacy’s brand comes in yummy varieties like garlic and everything bagel. They’re not fried, and they have less fat and sodium than regular chips.

Junk food kids love: Hot Dogs

A healthy alternative: Turkey Dogs

• Why kids will love them: While it’s probably impossible to sneak a tofu dog passed your kid’s taste buds, turkey dogs mimic the flavor and texture of traditional dogs quite well. The upside? They have a lot less fat than regular hot dogs, and you can easily find brands that promise organic meat and no nitrates or fillers. 

Junk food kids love: Oreos

A healthy alternative: Bananas and Raw Chocolate Spread

• Why kids will love it: You’re not skimping on taste, when you choose a chocolate spread made with real cacao and sweetened with a low glycemic index sweetener like agave nectar. Instead of eating Oreos that are full of fat, processed sugar, and an array of artificial flavors, you’ll be feeding them something that’s actually real food. Love street is one brand to check out.

Junk food kids love: French Fries

A healthy alternative: Cheese Straws

• Why kids will love them: Kids can’t get enough French fries, not only because they quell a hunger for something salty, fatty, and fried, but also because they’re fun and easy to eat. Baked cheddar cheese straws are a kid friendly shape, and they’re great for on the go. Pack some in a Ziploc instead of stopping at a fast food joint. While they’re not exactly as healthy as carrot sticks, they’ll keep you out of that drive through window.

Junk food kids love: Sugar Cereal

A healthy alternative: Organic Cereal

• Why kids will love it: While you can’t really find the day-glo colors of Lucky Charms anywhere else, you can find cereals that have real wholesome ingredients, less sugar, and even better taste. Most kids cereals are fortified with vitamins, but that’s no good reason to get your kid hooked on a bowl of sugar for breakfast. Nature’s Path Envirokidz line includes some great kid friendly cereals, like the peanut butter Panda Puffs, which are high on taste but low on sugar and other processed ingredients.

Junk food kids love: Ketchup and Ranch Dip

A healthy alternative: Hummus

• Why kids will love it: You may have trouble getting your kids to try hummus for the first time, but after they have taken the initial plunge, I bet they’ll love this snack. It’s delicious, and the protein will have them hooked—the hummus will satisfy in a way that those other low-nutrient spreads won’t. It’s fun to eat, and if you pair it with bagel chips, you’ve replaced a former high-calorie junk food pair with a delicious alternative. It’s great for kids’ lunches or on-the-go after sports practice, and it comes in tasty flavors like garlic and red pepper.

Keeping Your Baby Safe

I think most of have heard of or know of a parent that has experienced the horrors of SIDS. For those of you who haven't, SIDS stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and it's just that, the sudden unexplained death of an infant under a year old. While the causes are characteristically unknown, there are several things you can do as a mother to lower your baby's risk.

• Always put your baby to sleep on its back.
• Eliminate excess bedding, clothing, soft sleep surfaces and stuffed animals. One sleeper, one onesie and one blanket should be enough.
• Breast feed. This one factor reduces the risk of SIDS by 50%.
• Keep room temperature in infants sleeping area cool.
• Eliminate exposure to tobacco smoke
• Use a fan to circulate air in the infant's room.
• Eliminate mold.
• Do not put an infant to sleep in your bed or in a bed with other siblings.

Other than the reverse of the above factors there are many things that increase the risk for SIDS. These include: prematurity, maternal drug, tobacco or alcohol use in pregnancy, inadequate prenatal care and nutrition, and the infant or mother being overweight.

Recently the FDA has warned consumers not to use infant sleep positioners. Many of these sleep positioners claim that they reduce the risk of SIDS, but this claim is unfounded and these positioners have in fact resulted in the suffocation of several infants. There are two basic positioner types: mat with side bolsters or wedge with side bolsters as shown below. If you have been using these I strongly recommend that you stop now.

Mat with side bolsters

Wedge with side bolsters

Another Awesome Deal from Amazon: Subscribe and Save

So I had planned on taking the week off from blogging, and I generally prefer that my content is information that is continuously useful, not just quick hot deals. However, this deal is just too awesome not to tell you guys about.

I am kind of picky about my toilet paper. Even when it is not on sale and I don't have any coupons, I buy Charmin. I just does a better job. Enough said. That's why I was excited when I saw this deal on Amazon. I just bought 40 rolls of Charmin Ultra Strong Big Rolls (176 sheets per roll) for $22.14. And it will be delivered to my house in 2 days. And it will be continuously  and automatically delivered to my house, at that price until I cancel it. I will never run out of, or have to shop for toilet paper again. Wahoo!

Here's how it works. Go to Amazon and find your Charmin. The variety I bought is listed as $26.34. If you sign up for Subscribe and Save and you will get an additional 15% off, bringing the total down to $22.39. You can have it delivered every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months, depending on your needs, and you can cancel at anytime. If you click on the coupon under the listing before you click the subscribe button, it will take off and extra 25 cents. If you prefer the Charmin Ultra Soft variety, you can get 45 Large rolls for $20.14 with Subscribe and Save.

I've also found that Amazon is the best place to get Huggies diapers. If you use Subscribe and Save, you can get size 4 for 16 cents per diaper. You can also get deals on many other health and personal care products such diabetic supplies, energy bars, batteries, cleaners and baby wipes. And if you use any of these on a regular basis, it can save you a lot time and money.

Ornament Winner #3

The winner of the Nativity Story Ornaments is Jocelyn of We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ. Congratulations! Thanks to Ceder View Christian Gifts for donating these ornaments, and thanks again to riricreations and Mike's Wood Craft for donating the ornaments for the other giveaways this month.

Food Storage Friday: Healthy substitutions from your pantry.

Using your food storage can improve your diet and make your life easier. Here is a list of ways you use ordinary food storage items in place of other ingredients and make your meals healthier at the same time. Now these substitutions don't work every time, but often enough to improve your diet. (This is similar to a post that I put up awhile ago, but I'm putting it up because it was requested.)

1. Wheatberries for ground beef- Less saturated fat, more folic acid and fiber. This works well in Tacos and Enchiladas. I generally use a portion of half ground beef to half wheatberries
2. Wheatberries for lettuce- Why do we eat lettuce anyway? For folic acid and fiber. Wheat has both of those and a much longer shelf life. Not that I am opposed to lettuce by anymeans, but I do really enjoy a couple of salads that use wheatberries instead.
3. Beans for butter- No, you can't fry anything in mashed beans, but it works well in cakes and cookies.
4. Beans for shortening- Same idea. I make cookies with beans, and I promise you can't taste them. My friend calls them my "crazy good cookies", because they taste really good, but have a few surprising ingredients.
5. Beans for sour cream- I tried this for half the sour cream in my chicken enchilada recipe and my family liked it just as much. The texture is a little different, but they were ok with it. I also found another recipe this week that it worked pretty well in, but I want to experiment with it one more time before I put it up here on the blog.
6. Evaporated milk for cream or half and half- Still gives you a thick creaminess in soups and sauces, with much less saturated fat and calories.
7. Chicken broth for white wine- I have yet to find a recipe that this doesn't work in (cocktails excluded.)
8. Oat flour for white flour- To make oat flour, just toss some oats in the blender and press puree. Oats have a lower glycemic index than white flour, plus the soluable fiber can lower your cholesterol and your blood sugar. I don't use it for everything, but when baking I usually use half oat flour every time that it calls for white flour.
9. Applesauce for oil- I find that when I use this in cakes and muffins they come out more moist.
10. Nonfat powdered milk for regular milk- I use this whenever I have a soup recipe that calls for more than 2 cups of milk. When you cook it with other things you can't taste the difference.
11. Wheatberries for wild rice- No, it doesn't taste exactly the same, but the texture is similar enough that you can get away with substituting it, if you are looking for different ways to use your wheat. There are a few good examples in I Dare You To Eat It.

The Doing and Not Doing Lists of Christmas

I have recently decided that December is not long enough. I believe that it should be at least 6 weeks long. Would anyone really miss it if January and March were a little shorter? I know that I wouldn't. But as it stands I am not capable of doing all of the Christmasy things that I would like to do. As much as I would love it, the "perfect Christmas" is not going to happen. I concede, I can't get it all done and I don't want to drive myself crazy trying. So I made a list of things that I am doing and things that I have decided not to worry about.  I just have to remember that it's OK if I don't get these things done. If I magically have more time, maybe I may do a few from the "not do list".

The December Do List

1. Read Christmas stories to my kids every night
2. Put up the tree
3. Make cookies for my brother-in-law serving in the Phillipines.
4. Take the kids to see Christmas lights in ours and surrounding neighborhoods
5. Take the kids to see Christmas lights at the temple.
6. Team up with some friends to take dinner and gifts to a friend in need
7. Visiting teaching. I think this is the first time ever that I am done before the 15th of the month.
8. Maintain a semi-state of order in my home. Much easier said than done.
9. Healthy meals between the sweets.
10. Birthday stuff for Thing 2
11. Read the Christmas story from the Bible
12. Spend time playing with my kids
13. Shoe gifts for the 12 days of Christmas
14. Online Christmas shopping including gifts for siblings and in-laws, stocking stuffers and probably more toys than my kids actually need (but it's just so much fun to snag a deal on something fun for them).
15. Visit friends and family that live several counties away.
16. Movie/Game night with extended family.
17. Teach my children to serve someone in need. Still trying to think of the perfect idea.
18. Pressing Home and Car Repairs
19. At least one date with the love of my life.
20. Oh yeah, and did I mention I'm working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, along with many other 12 hour shifts throughout the month?

The Not Do List

1. Christmas cards- not that we didn't have pictures taken, just the actual designing, stamping and mailing of Christmas cards is not going to happen. Sorry friends if you had your hopes up. If I am really on top of thing you may get an email. Save a tree.
2. Making cookies for my neighbors. My neighbors are awesome. I am really lucky, and I feel kind of bad that we aren't doing things for them at the moment, but we're probably going make cookies in January. Maybe I'm really doing them a favor. Sweets in Moderation.
3. Have perfectly wrapped gifts under the tree. Do you know what is under my Christmas tree? 3 nativity playsets (not set up mind you, but jumbled into several piles) and a few dozen Christmas books. No actual presents yet. We go for function here.
4. Gifts for my coworkers. Again I love each of them and think they are awesome, but I can only do so much.
5. Paper chains and other various crafts with the kids. Just not happening.
6. Put up the outdoor Christmas lights.
7. Put up the greater part of my Christmas decorations.
8. Make my own Christmas ornaments. When there are too many other things to get done, say no to craft!
9. Attend more than half of the parties we've been invited to.
10. Host our own Christmas party. I guess we're just party poopers.
11. Attend local festivals, concerts and programs.
12. Decorate my blog for Christmas 
13. Christmas caroling.
14. Ice-skating
15. Vast quantities of baking.
16. Build a snowman, unless there is some very drastic change in the St. George weather.
17. Gingerbread houses
18. Put money into savings this month. Oops.
19. Make gifts for my own kids. Thought about it, but no.
20. Have an elaborate Christmas dinner (see #20 above) Today I am going to make enchiladas and freeze them. So on Christmas Eve we'll have those with Cafe Rio Style Rice which is also in the freezer. Not fancy, but it will work. And it's not like my kids ever eat elaborate meals when I fix them anyway.
21. All of those other things that I wanted to do this season that I can't even think of right now.
22. Save the world.