Here are a few of the top tools to stock your kitchen with to help you make quick, healthy meals on almost any schedule:

Spiralizer

Pasta is heavy with carbs and with processed flours. If you are trying to lose weight or to improve your diet, you may have to limit the amount of pasta you eat. However, pasta is also a big favorite, and for many, a life without pasta seems dismal and unappetizing. You can enjoy a healthier “pasta” dish with vegetables that have been cut up like noodles, such as squash and zucchini.

The easiest way to cut these veggies is with a spiralizer, which will produce uniform “noodles” that even curl. In just a few minutes, you’ll have a huge bowl full of fresh veggie noodles that you can dress with your favorite sauce.

Food Processor

A quality food processor can puree, pulse, chop, dice and mix your food. You can make quality stir fries, nut butters, baked goods and more. A food processor can cut your preparation time in half, making it easy for you to make a wide variety of recipes in a fraction of the time. In fact, some recipes can’t be made without the use of a food processor (such as some baked goods).

Crock Pot

Making crock pot meals is one of the best ways to save time on cooking. You can often just put the ingredients in the pot, turn it on, and leave it to cook for a few hours. You can make meals while you’re working or even while you’re sleeping. When you get home from work or wake up in the morning, you have a meal that’s ready to go.

Crock pots are also great for freezer cooking. You can make a big batch of something at the beginning of the week, freeze it in batches, and have meals ready for the rest of the week. You’ll just have to pop it in the oven or the microwave to warm it up.

Dehydrator

Chips and other crunchy snacks aren’t always the healthiest options. You can make your own healthy snacks with a dehydrator. You can make chips out of fruit or veggies such as zucchini and squash, or you can make fruit leathers to be healthy treats for children. Typically, you just need to slice up your ingredients and set them on the trays to dehydrate. Fruit leathers require a few extra steps, but all of the possibilities are quick and easy to make.

Vita Mix

A good blender is essential for making healthy smoothies, soups and sauces. A Vita Mix is a high-powered blender that will create a wide variety of healthy recipes quickly. Smoothies will be the smoothest you’ve ever had them — especially important when you’re making green smoothies with items like kale and spinach. Soups can be blended and heated directly in the blender. You can even make your own nut butters to ensure that no chemicals are added.

A Vita Mix is a big(ger) investment, but it’s well worth it for all the opportunities it offers you to make healthy foods quickly and easily.

What other tools do you think are essential to helping you make quick and healthy meals? Share your favorites in the comments!

Bio:

Amber Satka primarily writes on financial topics, many of which can be found on her app site at carloancalculator.org. She is a former office manager and current mother and writer. Her leisure activities include bike riding and spending way too much time on Pinterest.

(To watch the video, click here.)

Ingredients:

2 cups low-fat plain yogurt (or your favorite yogurt)

1 small can of peaches in juice or 1/2 large can (or approximately 1 1/2 cups of your favorite fruit)

1/2 cup juice (drained off from canned fruit or your favorite juice)

1/3 cup honey (or sweetener of your choice)

Instructions:

1. Puree fruit in blender until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.

2. Pour into ice cream maker and chill according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Have fun and experiment with different flavors.  The possibilities are endless.

A very important topic that I don’t address very often is “Home Food Safety.”  It may not be as exciting as other blog topics, but it is extremely important.  Food borne illness affects more people than you may realize, causing approximately 76 million illnesses per year!  When food becomes contaminated it can cause sickness such as vomiting, diarrhea, fever, dehydration, and headache.

First, there are certain groups of people that should especially be careful of food safety: young children, pregnant women, and the elderly, and anyone with a weakened immune system.  These people are more susceptible to food borne illness and so, following some simple rules will be important.

A few key tips for keeping your food safe to eat:

1. Keep your raw meat separate from your fresh food.  Never use the same utensils or cutting board to cut raw meat and then fresh food.  This is called “cross-contamination.  It’s preferable to keep one cutting board exclusively for meat and one for other foods.
2. Sanitize cutting boards, utensils, and counters after handling raw meat.
3. Wash all your fresh produce in cool running water, rubbing the skins to remove any bacteria.  Soap is not recommended.
4. Do not leave food out for more than 2 hours in the temperature danger zone (meaning room temperature) or more than 1 hour outside.
5. Cook to proper temperature by using a food thermometer.

These are just several important steps you can take to keep you and your family free from foodborne illnesses.  Visit www.homefoodsafety.org for lots of great in-depth information or http://www.4daythrowaway.org/iphone.htmfor a fun app to remind you about spoiled food.

Please share, what is your biggest challenge with keeping your food safe to eat?

Compulsive overeating is a type of binge eating disorder (BED).  There are two types of BED: deprivation (overeating as a result of dieting or restrictive eating) and addictive (using food to self-soothe).  Compulsive overeating falls into the addictive category.  People who are compulsive overeaters feel addicted to food and use food as a way to medicate themselves from stress, anxiety, depression, or any other type of uncomfortable feelings.

Whatever the reason behind compulsive overeating, there are several things you can do on your own to help yourself (besides seeing your therapist and dietitian).

1. Keep a food journal.  Before you eat or whenever you have the urge to eat, write down your feelings.  Document what foods you are craving and what emotions you are experiencing.  If you decide to eat, write down what you eat and how you feel afterwards.  If you decide not to eat and do something instead, record what you do and how you feel.  Doing this exercise will help you see patterns of the types of emotions that cause you to eat.  You may discover that certain emotions or situations always cause you to eat instead of dealing with your feelings in other ways.
2. Honor your hunger.  When you are hungry, eat.  This may sound simple, but ignoring true hunger signals may make you more susceptible to overeating or eating for reasons unrelated to hunger.
3. Find ways to cope with your emotions without using food.  Before you eat ask yourself, “Am I truly hungry?”  If so, then go ahead and eat.  If not, ask yourself, “What am I feeling?”  Once you determine what emotions you are experiencing, ask yourself, “What do I need?”  Maybe you need some time alone, some relaxation, an outing with a friend, a hug, or some sleep. Whatever it is, try to give yourself what you truly need rather than using food to numb your feelings.
4. Exercise.  We all know that exercise is good for us, so this is just a simple reminder.  Besides keeping our bodies strength and healthy, exercise helps us emotionally.  It relieves stress and may help us better deal with emotions.  When you have the urge to eat for reasons unrelated to hunger, grab your walking shoes and head out the door.

These are just several things you can do to help with compulsive eating.  If you are struggling with overeating, my Intentional Eating Home-Study Course would be perfect for you.

If you’re a compulsive eater, please share what works for you to prevent overeating.

Since the 1950s research has found a link between sedentary lifestyles (mostly sitting) and heart disease.  More recent research has suggested that when we are sedentary for most of the day (even if we exercise) we are at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and some cancers.  When we sit most of the day our lipoprotein lipase decreases, which then causes an increase in blood triglycerides (the “bad” cholesterol).  To make things worse, HDL decreases (the “good” cholesterol).  This sets us up for poor health.

As you can see, it’s not enough to exercise every day; it’s also essential to monitor our activity for the rest of the day.  The key is to get up and move around at least every 30 minutes.

Please share, what do you to do keep yourself moving around all day? 

We often tell our kids, “don’t call her fat.”  Have you ever thought about what that teaches our kids?  The word “fat” then becomes negative and powerful in that child’s mind.  If “fat” is a “bad word,” does that make us “bad” for being fat?  Of course not, but that’s what a child would think.

Obesity is a disease, just like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Is it curable?  No, not really.  We just treat it.  Can you say it’s like cancer and “in-remission?”  Yes, but is that person still always pre-disposed to it?  Yes.  I think we should re-think how we talk about being fat.  We should treat it matter-of-fact, just like eye color, skin color, hair color, and height.  You’re probably thinking, “but you can control whether you are fat or not.  My reply, “kind-of.”

What if you had a daughter who has diabetes and you were having a hard time controlling her blood sugar.  Would the doctor say, “You’re a bad girl because you can’t control your blood sugar.  You’re lazy and not working hard enough.”  Of course not!  The idea is ridiculous.  It’s the same with people who are fat.  We  don’t know their story.  We don’t know why they are fat.  When it comes down to it, they just haven’t learned how to manage their disease properly, which doesn’t make them a bad person.

In my opinion, we need to treat fatness the same as any other disease.  Not as a stigma or a defining characteristic of someone.  Instead, it’s a disease that has to be managed one-day-at-a-time, the best we can.

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For Moms: Promoting healthy body image in kids 

As a parent, what’s one fear you have for your child?  That he/she will be fat and insecure?  If so, let’s discuss how to promote healthy body image in children no matter what size.

• Accept your child no matter if she is tall, short, fat, skinny, muscular, etc.
• Make sure your child knows you love him or her no matter what.

• Discuss society’s thinness mania and myth.
• Encourage children to eat well instead of diet.
• Practice good nutrition and exercise habits yourself.
• Avoid criticizing your own body.
• Discuss how our culture affects the way we view ourselves and others and how it has changed over the years.
• Do not push your children to excel.  Instead, validate them for who they are rather than what they do.
• Balance rules/limits and freedom/responsibility.
• Avoid commenting about other people’s weight, especially children.
• Confront others who make sarcastic comments or jokes about weight.
• Focus on health, rather than weight.
• Love, regardless of looks.
• Spend time developing all aspects of yourself: physical, mental, spiritual,      and emotional.

Weekly assignments:

1. Examine your own feelings about “fatness”.
2. Pick on item from the above list and implement it into your life.
3. Please share your ideas and thoughts on my blog or Facebook page.

Luna Fiber Bar

Pros:

• Extremely tasty—I was surprised how good it was.
• Only 110 calories
• 7g fiber
• Filling (for a snack)
• No saturated fat

Cons:

• Sugar (syrup) is the first ingredient
• Highly processed
• Low in protein (1g)
• Tasted more like dessert (not sure if that is a pro or con?)

Luna Chocolate Dipped Coconut

Pros:

• Tasty (has chocolate!)
• High in protein (9g)
• Filling
• 3g fiber
• Good as a post-workout snack

Cons:

• 4g of saturated fat
• No whole grains
• Highly processed

Please share, have you tried these bars?

Compared to other snack bars, I do recommend these Luna bars.  They would be a good choice to keep on hand in case you don’t have time to pack your own snack.

Her cookbook is divided into 17 categories, from appetizers to desserts and everything in-between.  So far I’ve tried “Frozen Lemonade Squares” and “Red Potatoes and Green Beans” and loved them both.

With her permission, I am sharing the recipe for Frozen Lemonade Squares. It’s a perfect summer dessert: light, cold, and refreshing.  Everyone in my family loved it.

Now, I do want to point out that some her recipes call for Splenda.  I don’t mind using Splenda, but I know some of you don’t use artificial sweeteners.  If you prefer sugar (or another sweetener of your choice) then feel free to substitute your favorite sweetener.  Remember, the calories will higher than listed and the texture might be slightly different.  But, don’t let that stop you from experimenting.

Enjoy!

Frozen Lemonade Squares

9 servings

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 ¾ cups Splenda granulated, divided
• 2 tbsp margarine or butter
• 2 cups plain non-fat yogurt
• 1/3 cup lemon juice (about 1-1 ½ lemons)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp lemon extract
• 1 cup light whipped topping

1. Spray an 8” square baking pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the graham crackers crumbs, ¼ c Splenda, and the margarine until crumbly.  Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, the remaining Splenda, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract.  Gently fold in the whipped topping.  Pour into the crust and smooth top.
4. Cover the pan and place in freezer for at least 4 hrs.
5. Before serving, let stand at room temperate fur 10 minutes.  Cut into 9 portions using a heated sharp knife.

Nutrition info: 115 calories, 15g carbs, 4.5g fat, 3g protein

The key to an active family is finding fun things to do that everyone in your family enjoys throughout the year. Adults want to aim for a goal of 30 minutes per day and 60 minutes a day of moderate activity for kids – no matter the weather!

To get in shape for spring and summer, you don’t need to do everything at once. Put one or two changes into practice, such as taking a brisk walk or gardening in the yard. Once you feel comfortable with these changes, then try adding something else. Spring weather makes it easy to get outdoors and get your 30 minutes of daily physical activity.

These activities can count towards your day’s total exercise:

• Go for a brisk walk during your lunch hour or after dinner.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator whenever possible.
• Skip the drive-through car wash and wash the car yourself.
• Walk in place while watching TV.
• Park a further distance away from the entrances of stores.
• When possible, ride your bike to school or work—or use it to run errands.
• Plan an active family vacation or a weekend outing.

Like good eating habits, regular physical activity needs to be part of everyone’s healthful lifestyle. Remember, your goal is to make changes gradually so you can stick with them and won’t have to repeat this process next year.

Summer Activity is Crucial for Children

Don’t let your child spend his summer sitting on the couch. Teach them to enjoy the benefits of being physically active.

Help your child stay fit this summer with these ideas:

• Sign your child up for a local sports camp or swimming lessons.
• Make going for a walk, run or bike ride together a scheduled event.
• Take up a new hobby together, like inline skating, tennis or hiking.
• Run through the sprinkler when it’s hot outside.
• When it’s raining, stay inside, turn on some music and have a dance party.
• Organize community kickball, soccer or softball games or relay races.

Being active now also helps reduces their risk of chronic health problems later in life. Encourage your kids to engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Teaching the importance of physical activity while your kids are young will help them maintain the habit when they’re older.

It seems like family mealtime has become old-fashioned for some people.  It’s time to bring it back!  Did you know that family meals are linked to children’s weight and nutrition intake?  Research shows that families that frequently eat meals together have children that are at healthier weights, eat more nutritiously, and are less likely to engage in unhealthful behaviors like drinking alcohol and smoking.  It’s a small thing, but obviously very important.

Eating meals together provides an opportunity for parents to model good behaviors.  It’s an ideal time to teach young children mealtime manners.  For older children and teenagers, it’s a great time for discussions of current events, a review of the day’s activities, or coordinating schedules.

To make mealtime pleasant, first start with meal preparation. Try to include your children in every step of the process.  Ask for input on the menu, include them when grocery shopping, and request their help in cooking.  Children, especially picky eaters, are more likely to try new foods when they have a hand in choosing and preparing.  Even toddlers can be included.  My 3 year-old loves to be in the kitchen while I cook.  She’ll help add things to the mixing bowl, set the table, and just observe. For the little ones, they don’t mind so much what they do, as long as they are with you!  Older children can help with some of the cooking.  Teenagers can be taught to cook the entire meal, leaving you some time to get caught up on other tasks.

During the meal, make sure to keep the discussion topics positive.  Save lectures for another time.  You want your children to enjoy eating dinner together, knowing that it is a “safe” time to enjoy each other’s company and be together as a family.

Your family meals don’t have to be elaborate—the point is that you are eating together.  It doesn’t even have to be dinner–if a family breakfast works better for you, then make it a priority and enjoy the benefits.

Weekly assignments:

1. Make a list of 3 easy, healthy meals that everyone in your family loves.
2. Make a goal to eat with your family at least 4 times per week.
3. Please share your results on my blog or Facebook page.