Nutrition Tips from Let's Move!

I seriously love the Let's Move campaign. They offer such great tips and have so many great resources on their website and blog. 

Here is a great article from the Let's Move Blog about starting your day (and your kids day) off right!

"Nutrition Tip: Start the Day Right With a Nutritious Breakfast

Posted by Shirley Blakely, Ph.D., R.D., FDA Senior Nutrition Policy Advisor on October 21, 2010

Like most working moms, I used to start the school year vowing to begin each day with a sane, unrushed, healthy breakfast. But within a few weeks, those plans would give way to the reality of lost socks, misplaced homework, enforced tooth-brushing—and breakfast on the fly.
The truth is, a quick breakfast can be healthy if you look at it as the first piece of that day’s nutrition puzzle. Hot and cold breakfast cereals are fast and easy. Pair a bowl of oatmeal or cereal with low fat milk and banana slices or blueberries, and you’ve gotten the day off to a pretty good start.
Preparing a healthy meal really starts at the grocery store, where you should check the nutrients in each item before filling up your shopping cart. Zero-in on two things:

• the Nutrition Facts label—which tells you the calories and percentage of recommended nutrients per serving for one day
• the ingredients list on the label of prepared foods—which lists each ingredient used to make the product, with the predominant ingredient first, the next most prominent second, and so on in descending order

Pay close attention to the ingredients list. If the cereal your kids like has some type of grain listed first, that’s a good sign. But if fructose, high fructose corn syrup, or sucrose—in other words, sugar—is listed first, you’d best leave that item on the store shelf because added sugars are taking the place of more nutritious ingredients.
But sugar isn’t always bad. Some foods—such as fruits—contain naturally occurring sugars. Bananas or juicy oranges straight from the tree or your grocer’s produce aisle are naturally sweet. But if you see sugar listed as an ingredient in canned, frozen, or packaged fruits, you’ll know it was added in the same way it’s added to cereals or other prepared foods.
Make a healthy breakfast part of your children’s morning routine. Studies show that students who eat breakfast perform better in school.
Ed. Note:   This blog is part of a series of nutrition tips from FDA nutrition expert Shirley Blakely, Ph.D., R.D."


(http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/2010/10/21/nutrition-tip-start-the-day-right-with-a-nutritious-breakfast/)

Make Ahead Breakfast Ideas

So my favorite cooking Mama at One Hungry Mama posted this great article with recipes for make ahead breakfasts!

ITS THE BEST IDEA!!

Whether you have kids in school or are just too tired to be creative in the morning (umm...me!) these are life savers!!

One Hungry Mama got these recipes from Simple Bites

Cottage Cheese & Yogurt Parfait with Fruit

Coconut Milk & Berry Smoothie

Buckwheat Pancakes

Berry Powerful Bars

Egg ‘McMuffin’

Scottish Oat Scones

Muffins…your way

Chai-Spiced Granola

Click here to read the entire article


AND Click HERE for the recipes!!

Breakfast ideas for toddlers

If you are like me, mornings are a fuzzy time. My son happens to be a very early riser. Around 5:30-6am everyday. I am more inclined to sleep until 9am...so obviously, being creative at breakfast is not an easy task.

However, I do like to offer a variety of options for my son to increase his tastes and offer many nutritious options. I figured that it might be helpful to list some of our morning menus to give you some new ideas! Hopefully, you will be inspired to do the same so I can get some new plates into our repetoire as well.

- Instant Organic Oatmeal mixed with organic unsweetened applesauce. (they make a variety of flavors of applesauce to make it more exciting)

- Scrambled eggs (I only buy free range, organic)

- Dry cereal (I stick to no sugar, organic, whole wheat varieties)

- Omelets (mixed with anything I have in the fridge. Onions, peppers, ham, turkey, cheese, broccoli, etc.)

- Whole Wheat toast with banana spread (just mush up part of a banana and spread it on top instead of butter or jelly)

- Breakfast burritos- whole wheat organic tortillas with eggs, ham, turkey or chicken and some cheese and veggies

- Organic no refined sugar added waffles or pancakes (they sell many varieties at Whole Foods made of flax seed, whole wheat, gluten free, etc.) Instead of butter and syrup, I use a fruit puree and let my son dip his waffles or pancakes...he loves to dip!

- Any fruit on Earth, haha. My son loves fruit and I usually give him a bowl full with breakfast

- Cheese and fruit platter. My son is not a huge milk lover yet (still likes mama's milk best) so I am diligent to give him lots of other dairy for his calcium

- Yogurt. I only buy organic or greek (normal yogurt has lots of sugar added and other nasty preservatives. Check the labels!) My son also loves to dip fruit, toast or waffles in yogurt.

I will post lunch and dinner ideas soon! Let me know- What are your favorite breakfast items?

My Favorite Easy Breakfast

I am not a morning person- and somehow my son was born with a love of waking before the sun comes up. He is always in a happy mood, so that does help, but it is always hard for me to get going. So I LOVE when breakfast is not a big ordeal. Of course, I always focus on health, but easiness is always a plus.

My favorite breakfast is organic instant oatmeal with organic no sugar added applesauce.

You can buy a box of organic instant oatmeal at a place like Whole Foods, but they even have it at my local grocery store. (I always buy it at Fry's. It is cheap and goes on sale and is certified organic).

Now, most people like oatmeal with brown sugar mixed in, or at least the fruit already in the package. This is not the best if you are trying to stay away from sugar. Read the label- too much sugar!! So I buy the plain one and mix in my own fruit (or leave it plain).

I used to buy whatever organic fruit was in season, plums, peaches, pears...anything works. BUT you have to chop, puree, clean...which is not so hard, but that is a lot of work when you are not a morning person. So my favorite is to mix in some organic, no sugar added applesauce. It lasts forever and is really inexpensive.

Here is a great cost saving tip: If you have a baby or toddler who does not eat a whole packet of oatmeal yet, ignore the directions and just put a little bit of water in a mug, heat it up in the microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds and pour in the oatmeal until it is the desired consistency. Put the rest of the oatmeal from that packet into a ziplock bag and save it for another day. My son (who eats a ton) usually has about 3 bowls from one packet.

Easy, nutritious, and cost effective! Enjoy!!