Mycardioparty

Mycardioparty

Monday, February 28, 2011

An Active Weekend




Wow what a fun and active weekend we had this weekend. My kids are involved in activities. They choose the activities they want to do...our only rule is that each child only does ONE activity at a time. This is just our rule. I know many of our children's friends are in 2, 3, 4 even 5 different activities and this does not include school and that works for them, however, for us I feel like life can get too hectic very quickly and school has plenty of things to focus on and we want to make sure we have time just to do things as a family, so this is just our guidelines. Even though the boys are twins their interests are very different. Nate loves any activity that has a ball, football, basketball, baseball etc., Nick loves gymnastics. Heenjoys a sport where he relies on himself to succeed.



This weekend began with a Gymnastics meet
in Lincoln for my son Nick. (He took 4th place All Around and we are very proud of him). Then a basketball tournament on Saturday and Sunday for Nate. (Nate's team won the Championship game and took home 1st place, again we are very proud of him and his entire team, as they grew a lot over the season). Now even though the weekend was busy, we took time for church before the games. This is a very important ingredient in our "healthy family recipe" we get refueled for the week and focus ourselves on what is important in our family.
After getting home Sunday evening I was exhausted, however Kati was still rocking and rolling and she
pulled out the Skinny Dish book and made cupcakes. The PERFECT ending to an active weekend.

Next weekend we
have another gymnastics meet, but this time in Grand Island on Friday night, this is where my mom and dad live, so we are spending the weekend relaxing and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa! Another important ingredient in our "healthy family recipe" finding time for those special Grandparents! They have so much to teach & share. I can't wait! This is the perfect follow up to this busy weekend.

Friday, February 25, 2011

How-Is-This-So-Moist Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze

Straight from "The Skinnygirl DISH" Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life by Bethenny Frankel; here is the How-Is-This-So Moist Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze recipe. It is Fabulous!!!

This recipe is wheat-free, vegan, and easy:

1 1/4 cups oat flour
1 cup raw sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp real vanilla extract
2 tbsp vegetable Oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl & stir until combined.
2. Pour the batter into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake 40-50 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through the baking time. When a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, it's done. However, I like my cake a little bit underdone and gooey If some moist crumbs cling to your toothpick, you can consider that done.
3. Let the cake cool completely, then top with Peanut Butter Glaze (recipe follows) Slice & Serve.

Peanut Butter Glaze
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp creamy 100% peanut butter (the natural kind, no added sugar)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp real vanilla extract

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a hand blender until the sugar crystals are dissolved. If they aren't dissolving, you can gently heat the mixture until they do (heat on low on the stove or on 50 percent power in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds). Be careful of spatter when blending this recipe. Spread the glaze on the cake

VARIATIONS...
for cake:
instead of oat flour you can try any other flour, preferably whole grain
instead of raw sugar any other granulated natural sweetener
for glaze:
instead of raw sugar, try 1/3 cup agave syrup or 1/3 cup real maple syrup ***I used the real maple syrup because that is what I had***

I must say since planning the monthly meals, it gives me more time to find some good dessert recipes to have with the family. We are loving this! Hope you enjoy the cake! Please share your thoughts if and when you try it!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Meal Planning & Calorie Counting

Meal Planning

Now I know a few years ago I would have been extremely overwhelmed trying to come up with ways to be healthy, how to cook everyday for the family without throwing Chicken nuggets in the oven. I remember those days. Something that has helped me and I hope may help you is planning out our meals for an entire month. AN ENTIRE MONTH? WHAT? Stay with me here...Theme your days...Meatless Monday, Turkey Tuesday etc., I use a wonderful "free" site: www.sparkpeople.com as my place to track calories etc., for myself, but it is a great place to find recipes. So I went to Sparkpeople recipes and typed in meatless recipes and a nice list came up. I then picked out 4 meals (as that is all I need for a month of Mondays), the recipes have nutritional content listed so you know what you are choosing and it will help you count your calories or figure your points, whatever system is working for you.

Planning a month of meals really helps you to stay on track. So far it is working for me and I am seeing a few more lbs. come off. I think it is not only because it is easy to stay within my calories but I am less likely to snack late afternoons because dinner is taken care of, and it has relieved some stress in my life...which we all know makes you hold on to weight...so there you go, it's working for me. (I do not have meals planned on Wednesday's as the kids have Midweek classes at Church and eat there. So I enjoy leftovers from the previous night) My meals for the month are listed below just for an example.

MONDAY
(meatless)
----------
Meatless Lasagna
Spinach Feta Quiche
Cheese Enchiladas
Veggie soup

TUESDAY
(slow cooker)
----------
Beef & Mushrooms
Salsa Chicken
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Tacos

Wednesday
--------
X

THURSDAY
(Chicken)
---------
Chicken Parmesan
Crispy Ranch Chicken
Spinach Fettucine Alfredo w/chicken
Chicken & vegetable casserole

FRIDAY
(Turkey)
---------
Turkey Meatloaf muffins
Turkey pot pie
Tater Tot Turkey Casserole
Turkey pasta bake w/spinach

So there you have my weeknight meals for a month. Again most of these recipes were found on www.sparkpeople.com and all the nutritional information accompanies their recipes. If you have the iphone they also have an app for that :-) I use it to track everything I eat, so when I'm out and about I can add it to my tracker and that way I won't take the chance of forgetting it by the time I get home...because I have been told my "memory is as short as I am"...for those of you who do not know me I am 5 ft even...(Thank you Mr. Trumler, my high school German teacher for giving me a complex regarding my height and memory :-) just kidding!)

I hope this helps you & your healthy family recipe!

Welcome

Welcome to A Healthy Family Recipe. I am not well written, however, I recently made a transition in my life, I found a passion for health & fitness and am now trying to make that transition for my entire family. So I want to share the things we are doing, will do and what we are learning along the way. Just like a recipe you try it & then make your changes, then try it again, make another adjustment and try it again until you get it it right. That is what this recipe is going to be all about, trying things making adjustments and trying again. What I have found so far is that including the kids in health & nutrition really gets them excited to try other things and the education about the unhealthy options has a huge impact on them too. My kids no longer ask to go to McDonald's or Burger King and are wanting to make better choices which fills my heart! We are not perfect by any way, shape or form, we still enjoy our ice cream when we can (We all LOVE ice-cream!!!!) But we are having fun coming up with healthy treats/desserts for after dinner. We enjoyed Pomegranates a month ago, So GOOD! So much FUN! And everyone can't wait for me to buy more! This is all part of the "recipe", trying new things TOGETHER as a FAMILY.