March Super Food Challenge - Nuts

Photo by Er.We

Welcome to the third month of the Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge. I hope you are following along with me as we gradually incorporate new healthy foods into our regular diet!

The March super food is nuts.

If you want to dramatically decrease your risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes, control your weight with no hunger pangs and reduce the visible signs of aging like wrinkles and sagging skin, I recommend that you "go nuts." - Dr. Perricone's 10 Superfoods

I'm going to work nuts into my diet by taking an Altoid tin full of almonds and walnuts to work every day. Actually, I will take 5 Altoid tins full of nuts on Monday, so that I don't have to remember each day. I will eat it around 3pm as my afternoon snack.

I usually get hungry in the afternoon at work, and am always tempted by the not-so-healthy options in the vending machine. The vending machine is free, so there is very little standing between me and a bag of chips. Having a healthy, filling snack ready to go will be a good substitute for this bad habit.

How will you make Nuts part of your regular diet? Please share in the comments!

I will follow up at the end of the month to let you know how I did.

February Super Food Challenge - Wrap-up

Today marks that end of the second month of the Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge. Where we gradually incorporate new healthy foods into our regular diet!

February's super food was Oatmeal and Buckwheat. My goal was to eat oatmeal for breakfast three times per week.

So, how did I do? So-so.

I realized that I don't really like hot breakfast cereal all the time. Even in the cold winter, I really like cold cereal in the morning. I also realized that the milk I have on my cold cereal is often my only serving of dairy all day long. Having oatmeal in the morning meant that I would have to re-shuffle my habits to incorporate dairy some other way.

What I did instead is to eat granola a few times per week in lieu of my usual high fiber cereal. That way, I get my oats without giving up my daily serving of dairy. (Though, I like my granola with nonfat yogurt, instead of milk.)

My husband, on the other hand, loves his oatmeal. So, I still make a big pot for him on the weekend.

The granola I buy is just about the yummiest on earth, but a bit pricey to be eating every day. So, I am planning to try making my own. I found an easy and yummy granola recipe, and will try it as soon as I have time.

This month underscores for me the importance of making your healthy eating habits work for you. If you are forcing yourself to eat things you don't like, you are just not going to stick with it. It's about finding that match between things that are healthy and things that you love to eat. Find those things and fill your diet with them. Don't agonize about the rest.

Check back next Friday for the March Super Food!

How did you do with your healthy eating goals this month?

February Super Food Challenge - Oatmeal and Buckwheat

Photo by Aschaf

Welcome to the second month of the Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge. I hope you are following along with me as we gradually incorporate new healthy foods into our regular diet!

February's super food is oatmeal and buckwheat.

Heart-healthy oatmeal helps lower cholesterol, burn fat, and prevent cancer. It's no wonder that experts consider it one of the essential super foods. Buckwheat has been shown to have similar properties.

In order to get the health benefits of oatmeal, you have to use rolled or steel-cut oats, not the quick-cook kind. That's a bummer because the real stuff takes 30 minutes to cook. Not so easy for a working mom rushing to get out of the door in the morning.

My solution is to cook a big pot of oatmeal on the weekend, and divide it up into single-servings that I store in bowls in the fridge. On weekday mornings, it's just a matter of putting a bowl in the microwave for a few seconds.

I have a guilty secret to share - every weekend, I cook oatmeal for my husband's weekday breakfasts, but I never make it for myself! Yes that's right. It's the ultimate mommy stereotype - putting your family's needs above your own.

So, my challenge this month will be to make extra oatmeal for myself, and eat it three mornings per week. (Other mornings, I usually have a high-fiber cold cereal.)

Here's my recipe:

Hot Oatmeal with Buckwheat
(makes 7 servings)
9 cups of water
1 1/2 cup steel-cut oats
1 1/2 cup wholegrain buckwheat
4 oz dried blueberries

In a large stock pot, bring water to boil. Reduce to medium heat. Add oatmeal, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Add buckwheat and blueberries, stirring occasionally for another 15 minutes. When done, remove from heat and let cool. Spoon into bowls, cover, and store in fridge. To reheat, heat in microwave for 1 min.

Instead of blueberries, you can experiment with other dried fruits and seasonings. I like:
* 4 oz raisins, and 3 tsp cinnamon
* dried apple pieces and 3 tsp cinnamon
* 4 oz dried cranberries and a splash of maple syrup

How will you make Oatmeal part of your regular diet?
Please share in the comments!

I will follow up at the end of the month to let you know how I did.

January Super Food Challenge - Wrap-up

Today marks that end of the first month of the Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge. Where we gradually incorporate new healthy foods into our regular diet!

January's super food was Sweet Potatoes. My goal was to incorporate two servings of sweet potatoes into my family's weekly diet.

So, how did my family do? Awesome!

We had no problem working in the sweet potato frites. HB ate them without a hitch. She didn't even realize they weren't "regular" french fries. After all, french fries for her are really just a ketchup-ferrying mechanism. My husband and I loved them with a splash of red wine vinnegar.

Thanks to a commenter who left a yummy recipe for roasted sweet potatoes. I couldn't believe how simple the recipe really was! I toned down the chili pepper and cyan so that they wouldn't be too spicy for HB. She ate them just fine.

Another week, I was pressed for time, and didn't have 30 minutes to let them bake, so I steamed them in the micro with a little water in a covered bowl for about 6 minutes. They ended up a bit mushy, so I added some milk and mashed them. Super yum!

What I've learned is that it's pretty difficult to mess up sweet potatoes. They taste really good no matter what you do. Given my lack of culinary skills, this is a good thing!

So, I think it will be relatively easy to keep using sweet potatoes as our veggie side dish 1-2 times per week. 1 super food down, and 11 to go!

Check back next Friday for the February Super Food!

January Super Food Challenge - Sweet Potatoes

Photo by Carl E Lewis

Welcome to the first month of the Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge. I hope you are ready to follow along with me as we gradually incorporate new healthy foods into our regular diet!

This month's super food is Sweet Potatoes.

One sweet potato has all the beta-carotene you need in a day—a nutrient that research indicates may be cancer-protective. Your heart will be happy, too, thanks to the vitamin C and potassium content. Be sure to eat the peel—it contains fiber along with additional disease-fighting phytonutrients. - Woman's Day - 10 Perfect Foods

I'm going to work sweet potatoes into my diet in two ways.

First, Trader Joe's sells some awesome Sweet Potato Frites. I'm going to use them as my veggie side dish once per week. Now, I know that some of you may think it's humorous to start my year eating healthy by vowing to eat french fries! But, hey, this is supposed to be realistic! If I commit to buying and baking whole sweet potatoes, I know this just won't happen on a regular basis. Besides, these frites are baked, not fried. And no matter what form they take, they are still sweet potatoes and still contain all those healthy vitamins.

Second, Trader Joe's sells cubed sweet potatoes in a microwave steam bag. I am going to try to work these into one of my regular recipes once per week. Perhaps inside of my lentil soup, or steamed on top of my big spinach salad. Come to think of it, I might substitute them for the zucchini in my chicken apple sausage stir fry!

I think that sweet potatoes will work in any recipe that calls for regular potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a much better choice! So, feel free to get creative.

How will you make Sweet Potatoes part of your regular diet?

1) Use the Mr Linky below to link to your post about how you will incorporate sweet potatoes, or any good recipes you have that use them. In the name field, put your name and then your post title in parens. (Like this, "Josie (Sweet Potato Frites)"). Feel free to also just leave a comment!
2) On the last Friday of the month, I will round up with some of the best ideas and let you know how my family did.



P.S. I apologize for my reliance on Trader Joe's here. It's where we shop for food. We just don't have time to go to multiple stores for our groceries.

Organized Mommy Super Food Challenge

Get the button!

One of my goals for the new year is to eat healthier. I would love for all of you to join me in this endeavor!

I've been thinking a lot about how to accomplish healthy eating in a way that will change my eating habits for the long run. No fad diets here! In approaching these kinds of goals, I know that certain tactics do and don't work for me. I don't do well with diets that "outlaw" all sorts of foods. I'm just not good with "don't". As soon as someone tells me that I can't have ice cream, it's all I can think about! So, if eating better means "don't eat this" or "don't eat that", I know it will not work for me.

What does work for me is to concentrate on the "dos". So, my tactic for eating better is to fill my diet so full of healthy food, that I won't have much room for the bad stuff. To eat healthier, I am going to focus on what I *should* eat rather than what I shouldn't.

To make sure that these healthy eating habits really stick, I want to do this in a series of small changes. Taking a cue from Simple Mom I want to approach this goal slowly like a Tortoise. And, according to Leo over at Zen Habits, it takes about 1 month to really seal in a new habit.

So, I am going to focus on one new healthy food each month. During that month, I will work on incorporating that one food into my regular diet. I'm not going to go overboard, eating *only* that food. Rather, I will find ways of incorporating that food into my regular eating patterns, so that it becomes just a normal part of my eating habits. After 12 months, I will have 12 new healthy foods solidly incorporated into my regular diet.

Now, to the question of "what foods?". If you Google "super food" a surprising number of great resources pop up (see the Further Reading list at the bottom of this post). What's even more surprising to me is that there is a lot of overlap in these lists. Experts really do agree on what the super food are.

Here is my list of 12 super foods that I will incorporate into my diet - one per month:

Jan) Sweet potatoes (wrap-up)

Feb) Oats and Buckwheat (wrap-up)

Mar) Nuts

Apr) Broccoli

May) Avocado

Jun) Blueberries

Jul) Salmon

Aug) Garlic

Sep) Green Tea

Oct) Spinach

Nov) Yogurt

Dec) Lentils

Here's how the challenge will work:

1) On the first Friday of each month, I will post the new super food for the month along with a few ideas about how I will incorporate this food into my everyday diet.
2) I will post a Mr Linky where you can link to your post about how you will incorporate this food, or any good recipes you have that use this ingredient. Feel free to also just leave a comment!
3) On the last Friday of the month, I will round up with some of the best ideas (and maybe a prize if I can get myself organized for it - no promises here; I'll see what I can do.)

I will start next Friday with the January super food: Sweet Potatoes. I hope you will join me!
Check back in next Friday, or better yet, subscribe to my feed so that you won't miss a thing!

Further Reading:
* 10 Foods that Pack a Wallop
* Dr. Perricone's 10 Super Foods
* Woman's Day 10 Perfect Foods
* WebMD Superfoods
* NuVal Food Scoring System

A New Definition of Food

Amen to this!

“What if we had a definition of food that said a food is something that doesn’t just have calories but has a certain amount of nutrients and micronutrients?” “If your product did not reach a certain threshold of nutrients per calorie, it’s just not food. We’re not even going to call it junk food. We’ll call it junk.”

- Michael Pollan

Mr. President, Let’s Talk About Food - Well Blog - NYTimes.com