Food for Bedtime

I periodically get informational emails from my insurance company. I used to delete them without even looking at the subject matter, but recently they've been sending some pretty interesting info. (Note: my interest level is much different from many people...just letting my freak flag fly!) Last night I got one on foods to eat before bed time, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Quick Bites: Eat Right to Help You Go Night-Night

Three out of five Americans have trouble sleeping on a regular basis. And most everyone has a night here or there where they can’t fall asleep. Does a hungry belly ever keep you up? Are you the thing that goes bump in the night as you rummage around in your refrigerator?

You want a snack, but not one that will keep you up. Are there foods that can help you sleep better?

Many people know the basics of what not to do, like avoiding large meals, caffeine and alcohol within a few hours of bedtime. But research shows that high-fat snacks such as french fries, potato chips and mozzarella sticks may also interrupt sleep cycles. Bacon, pepperoni and sausage contain high levels of tyramine, which may also keep you up.

Consider trying these foods for nighttime snacking:

1. Cherries: This fruit is one of the few natural food sources of melatonin, the chemical that controls the body’s internal clock to regulate sleep. Melatonin helps maintain your daily body rhythms and is an important antioxidant in the body known to fight cancer. If you can, find Montmorency cherries, a type of sour cherry. They have nearly six times more melatonin than a regular cherry.
2. Bananas: Potassium and magnesium are natural muscle relaxants, and bananas are a good source of both.
3. Scottish or Irish Oatmeal: A complex carbohydrate, oatmeal triggers a rise in blood sugar, which in turn triggers insulin production and the release of sleep-inducing brain chemicals. Oats are also rich in vitamin B6, an anti-stress vitamin, and melatonin. You might think of oatmeal as just a breakfast food, but it’s also a smart choice for a bedtime snack.
4. Edamame: Boiled edamame (soybeans in the pod) is high in magnesium, which has been shown in some studies to improve the quality of sleep.
5. Popcorn with Parmesan Cheese: This easy snack provides a tasty combo of carbohydrates and dairy. Dairy has tryptophan in it, which may help you sleep. And the carbohydrates in the popcorn help your brain absorb tryptophan better.

Be sure to keep your late-night snacking light and eat only when hungry. Not only do calories add up, but many experts believe that not getting enough sleep causes changes in the body that affect our ability to regulate our appetite. So a combination of the wrong kind of nighttime snacking and not enough sleep could result in weight gain.

I had no idea cherries had melatonin in them! I thought that was very interesting. I love learning ways to listen to and work with our bodies for better health. I've never appreciated sleep like I do now, I have no clue how I will ever have another baby again in the future! (Not an announcement.) 

Menu 7/22

It's been awhile, but today I was searching Pinterest for some new recipes, when I decided to post them on here! I hate having to go back through my Pinterest to find whatever recipe I'm looking for--plus, sometimes I go back through these posts and remember recipes I'd forgotten about! Win-win!

Here's what I'm attempting this week!

Shrimp and Rice Stuffed Tomatoes
-I've been blessed with a good eater. J loves tomatoes! When I first saw this I thought I'd just do the rice and shrimp part, but I figured I'd go for it and try to do the real deal...we'll see how it goes!

Crockpot Italian Chicken (several other recipes in this same link)

Sweet Chili Chicken Bowls
-I'm going to either serve this over noodles or just by itself as the main entree since we are already having rice twice this week.
-I'm usually not big on having my entree sweet, I don't know why, I just have never really liked it. However, last week we had this Corn and Black Bean Pizza, and the mixture of the sweet corn and BBQ sauce was awesome! I've been thinking about it ever since! I'm hoping this recipe will keep my new sweet craving alive!

Fried Rice
-I'll leave out the chicken on this one, we tend to get a little 'chickened out' if we aren't careful.



Anybody have any new favorites?

Miscellany Monday...

Who are we kidding, many of my posts have a "Miscellany Monday" vibe to them. At least now I have an excuse! 

1. We have traded the Naked drinks for real vegetable/fruit smoothies. We realized once we bought the Naked drinks, they were heavy on the fruit and not so much with the vegetables. K is trying to talk me into getting a Blendtec. He went so far as to show me several YouTube videos demonstrating the greatness that is the Blendtec. Men have a way of taking the simplest kitchen appliance and turning it into a 3 million horse power machine...it's actually pretty impressive.

Bonus: J LOVES the smoothies. Where did this child come from? I'm not sure, but I like her.

2a. J's toddler-isms are increasing in number at a remarkable rate. She's a pretty funny and quirky kid...I like it! Sometimes when we say it's time for bed, she starts grabbing random objects and running for her bed. This particular night, the objects of choice were every. single. couch pillow. She throws them in there and asks to be put into bed.

2b. Sometimes I go to put on my shoes and find little surprises.

Anyone know a good remedy for cleaning those suede-like shoes? I tried the Nuskin shoe cleaner on a different pair and it made it look bad. These are my favorite shoes ever, so I'm afraid to ruin them.

2c. Even little lambs need to be buckled in when they eat. Side note: My late Grandma Cora collected stuffed animal lambs because she grew up on a sheep ranch. When she died, each grandchild received one of her lambs. She died when I was pregnant with J and I've always felt they had some sort of connection with each other, like they met before J came to earth...or J sort of took her place? That sounds a bit hippie-ish, but I think you catch my drift. J has always taken a special interest in her lamb "Lola" and it has slept in her crib every nights since we brought her home from the hospital.

2d. This kid can get down like no one else I've ever known. Sorry for my mom-singing-voice. She likes to combine these two songs--a little remix, if you will. Also, at the end she comes to blow raspberries (they're called Philburts (Filburts?) in our house. Just realizing I've never actually typed that word out!) on my face--as is custom at the end of any song..?

3. I can usually stay pretty strong at Costco. I eat the samples and move along. Today, they got me! Not only did they get me, they got J too. We were loving these things. Not healthy in anyway, but a wonderful blend of sweet and spicy.

 Of course, if you're anything like me, you'll eat them like this. 

I'm such a wimp with spicy food. These were too spicy for me!

Pretty much all my link-ups I find from my friend, Whitney's blog. Go check her out, she's the bomb dot com. <---I felt a need to use this saying since we've been friends since high school...throwing it way back!

Menu 4/14

A little late this week, but I wanted to try out some of these recipes so I could tell you how they went. And I just forgot to post on Monday. Typical :)

Fish Tacos

More than just spaghetti

Lasagna
-For some reason I've built up quite the collection of lasagna noodles. This is more out of necessity to get them out of our pantry than anything (I never made it last week).

Pancakes
-This was Monday. Sometimes you just need to add water and eat.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
-Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, how I miss this restaurant! You people in the Utah/Idaho area, don't take this blessed place for granted! This was probably the closest copy cat recipe I have ever found! This was the one I wanted to try before I posted because I'm sick of people trying to do their sweet pork and disappointing me (dramatic much?).
Cilantro Lime Dressing
-This was not as good as other copy cat recipes I've had before, but here it is. I could still taste the greek yogurt, which is always gross. It needed more lime I think.

Since yesterday, simple changes

My friend, Megan, told me about this awesome website called 100 Days of Real Food. It goes right along with what I'm trying to do, so I thought I'd share for anyone else that might be interested. What I particularly loved were her rules. Like I said yesterday, this can be so overwhelming! But her rules really help break down the process and make it seem less scary. I wish we lived in a warmer place where we had Farmer's Markets year round. I did have a friend tell me that between our town and the surrounding towns, there is a different Farmer's Market just about everyday in the summer! Just one more reason for me to look forward to the summer time!!

This is all a process for me, trying to decide what changes will work for our family and what changes won't. I liked the way 100 Days talks about eating locally. As I've been researching more and more about what exactly are 'organic' foods, I've found some interesting information. This first one is from the FDA's website.

Confusing Claims

The terms "natural," "healthy," and "organic" often cause confusion. "Consumers seem to think that 'natural' and 'organic' imply 'healthy,'" says Schneeman. "But these terms have different meanings from a regulatory point of view."

According to FDA policy, "natural" means the product does not contain synthetic or artificial ingredients. "Healthy," which is defined by regulation, means the product must meet certain criteria that limit the amounts of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, and require specific minimum amounts of vitamins, minerals, or other beneficial nutrients.

Food labeled "organic" must meet the standards set by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Organic food differs from conventionally produced food in the way it is grown or produced. But USDA makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food.

For example, says Schneeman, "A premium ice cream could be 'natural' or 'organic' and still be high in fat or saturated fat, so would not meet the criteria for 'healthy.'"

I followed up to find this from the USDA's website because a friend had told me that not all foods that are labeled 'organic' are actually organic. To me it seems like they need to be unless the farmer sells less than $5,000 worth of product. Anyone else ever heard of this claim?

Anyways, once the Farmer's Markets start, I'm hoping to buy my produce there because the fresher the food the more nutrient dense the product is. Until then, I'll have to just trust the labels at the store!

Fun fact: a fact that always stuck with me from my Nutrition 100 class in college was how frozen fruit and vegetables are often more nutrient dense than fresh fruits and vegetables. This is because a lot of fresh produce must be picked before it is completely ripe in order to avoid spoiling before it gets to the store. Frozen produce has the opportunity to develop all the way without having to worry about spoiling since it will be frozen. So don't forget about your friends in the frozen section!

Another interesting tid bit from the 100 Days website. She talks about looking at the food ingredients a lot, not to be confused with the food's nutrition label. One thing that really stood out to me was when she talked about bread.

"...what I bought for my husband from the grocery store was what I thought was whole-wheat bread. When we finally checked the ingredients and found 40 different items on the list, including white flour and sugar, we decided it was time for a change. Why would there be so many on the list if it only takes a handful of ingredients to make bread? ... honey whole-wheat loaf only has five ingredients – whole-wheat flour, water, yeast, salt and honey."

Now I've never been a real "ace" in the kitchen (just ask my mom) so I've truthfully never made real bread before. For some reason, anything involving 'yeast' is just scary to me. But when she states the small amount of ingredients that you need to make bread, and what all actually comes in bread, I was floored! I had never even thought about it. So of course I went straight to our pantry to look at our bread.

I just so happened to have bought Costco's Organic bread this week! I had never even noticed the Organic Symbol until I read about it on the USDA's website, but there she blows in all her green and white organic glory. While everything seems pretty normal in the ingredients, I think I might try to make our own bread. K just about died when I told him that :). Anybody have any good tips for a first time bread maker?

So that's where we are today. I'm going to shoot for organic/natural/locally grown produce in the coming weeks and attempt to make bread at some point. It's hard because our pantry is stocked FULL of all the foods I'm trying to get away from. Being the cheap frugal people that we are, I'm going to have to just transition as I go.

I do want to throw this out there: if I was working, there is no way in heck I'd consider doing a lot of this. It's so important to remember to just do the best you can. When I worked, I never would have had enough time to read ingredients, let alone, to try and make bread. (Note: I will probably fail big time at this...the key word is TRY and make bread!) This blog is all about the process of having a more balanced and healthy life.

What's been happenin' / Menu 4/1

You may have noticed, I haven't been doing Weekly Goals lately. This move has really taken the wind out of my sails. I've had the hardest time getting a routine going that I like and can stick to. The thought of having weekly goals has become too much (sad, but true). Lately we've been taking it one day at a time. Sometimes, that's just the way life goes.

To make matters worse, J has been sick since last Thursday. Since I am passionate about not letting my kid go to public places where other kids will be when she is sick, I haven't been to the gym since last Thursday either. Basically, I've been a hormonal nut job without my much needed endorphins. Last night I went totally loco on K. When I freaked out over nothing, I thought, "Where did that come from?" Do you ever have those out-of-body-arguments where you know the entire time that you are wrong and have absolutely no idea why you're continuing on in your quest for right-ness? Yep, that was last night. So tonight, as a peace offering, I'm going to admit my wrong and go to the gym. That sort of seems like a backwards peace offering, but K will understand and accept it gladly. That's what we call "a peace offering on a budget!"

While my life may be crazy everywhere else, I have loved still putting up our weekly menus. It makes me feel like I still have my life together...even if it is only in one small area! It really is all about the little things!

Ham sliders

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos 

I'm excited about this one!

Twice Baked Potatoes
Remember a few months ago when I said I was going to do this. Yeah, I never did. I did find this new recipe, though. So, hopefully, I'll be giving this a try at some point this week.

Tostadas
-Hard shell corn tortilla, refried beans, lettuce, salsa, cheese, sour cream, green sauce, other stuff. Sometimes we throw nacho cheese on it if we're feeling up to it.

Beef Noodle Casserole

Tilapia marinated in Sun-Dried Tomato dressing, on George Formen, with cheese melted on top, and random spices thrown over it. Basically I loved this recipe and will recreate it with what I have on hand.

Pizza Night
The local grocery store here has a pretty decent generic pizza dough. You can't beat an entire pizza for $3.00!

Naps, it's what's for dinner/ Menu

Today was out of control! I don't even want to type it all out, but it involves my debit card being declined at a weird grocery story in front of a loooooong line of strangers (total mystery because I called my bank and they said there were no attempts...I got back in line and it worked? I. Was. Mortified.), thrown eggs, whiney baby, and exhaustion because my 21 month old has decided she doesn't know how to sleep through the night anymore..? There was one point where I honestly said to myself, "Is this real life?"

K could tell it had been a day as soon as he walked through the door. I'm grateful for a husband that leaves is career job and comes right home to his dad job. I gave him a few minutes to unwind before handing over J and going in the back bedrooms to hide. I fell asleep for a good hour or so and am glad I made that choice. I woke up loving my family again, which I'm pretty sure is a good sign :).

Here's this week's menu, as always, feel free to share what you're having because I need some more ideas :):

Vegetable Mac and cheese
We aren't spicy people, so this recipe sans spicy ingredients + more vegetables and still debating the crust...because the picture of it in the skillet looks pretty dang good to me!

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken
We ended up having several people over for dinner last Sunday. This got pushed to this week and I made a lasagna in its place on Sunday. Thank goodness for lasagna leftovers because my family probably wouldn't have eaten today without them!

Shrimp Tacos


Corn Chowder + BLTs


Ham (or lamb or something cool for Easter) + Potatoes and other cool Easter stuff
The whole reason I went to the weird grocery store today was because they had a good deal on ham, but once I got there all the ham they had was HUUUUUUUGE! I knew I'd regret it, so I let the reasonable side win out over the cheapskate side and I left without a ham! I'll be on a meat search tomorrow.

This week's menu...

Well, thanks to my friend Megan, we are slowly inching out of our dinner slump (thanks, Megan!). Where were we before, Pinterest? After a not so healthy week, last week, I'm hoping to get our family back where we like to be in terms of complete meals. I'm a little nervous because I've never eaten tilapia before, but I'm hoping for the best! Being raised in Alaska, I've become a seafood-snob. I usually NEVER eat seafood unless we are near an ocean. The entire time we lived in Utah, I only had seafood once. I had always told K that I'd never eat seafood in Utah, but then one day I decided I wasn't being fair since I'd never given Utah seafood a chance. Worst. Mistake. Of. My. Life. It was not good...like...at all. Recently, I've decided I need to give seafood (away from an ocean) another try because the only meat we ever eat is chicken and turkey beef, with an occasional turkey bacon. Needlesstosay, we are over chicken. Without further ado, here is what we are having this week. Feel free to share what you and your family are having for dinner this week!

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

BLT Pasta Salad

Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken
I have been loving the website "The Girl Who Ate Everything". She has great recipes that call for very reasonable ingredients that most people have, or should have, in their pantry already--those are my favorite kind of recipes!

Winter Fruit Salad
This I will probably just make so have on the side for a few nights

Nelson Style Margarita Pizza
This isn't anything very special, we just take the stuff we like from a normal Margarita Pizza and replace the parts we don't like. Here is what we do:

Ingredients:

·      12 inch pre-made pizza crust

·      Marinara sauce

·      1-2 cups mozzarella cheese, personal preference

·      1 tomato, sliced

·      Parsley, to taste

·      Basil, to taste

·      Oregano, to taste

Make it:

·      Coat pizza crust with marinara sauce (as much or as little as you want)

·      Lay a layer of cheese over sauce

·      Lay tomatoes over pizza, again, as many as you want

·      Sprinkle parsley, basil, and oregano over pizza

·      Cook pizza according to directions on package

I should probably tell you that we always have some sort of vegetable with all of our meals. Our go-to vegetables are a green salad with carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower; just eating carrots, broccoli and cauliflower plain (raw or steamed); and canned French Cut green beans. We love doing the green beans because J likes them and there is zero fight--which is always a nice bonus!

This week's menu...

Is there someway you can make it so you don't have to re-look through all of your Pinterest recipes (don't ask how many times it took me to finally spell recipe right) to find the one you want? I feel like there should be some way to put certain pins in a place so you don't have to look through a million. I don't know. Anywho, I didn't want to have to re-look through my pins later this week, so I decided I'd make a post where I could just click on the exact link. As a result, you all get to know what we're eating for dinner this week!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup
Alfredo Roll Ups
Mexican Pizza 
-Whenever a recipe calls for ground beef, I always use turkey beef. It is a little more expensive, but we just aren't huge red meat people. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE STAKE! But overall, we just don't eat a lot of red meat. We like to buy the turkey beef in bulk from Costco or Sam's Club (Sam's has Jennie-O, which is my favorite). Then we just separate the meat into one poundish sections and put them in individual freezer bags. Whenever I'll be using the beef I just take it out of the freezer the day before to make sure it thaws. Easy! (and cheaper)
-Also, you can buy hard shell corn tortillas. Maybe frying and baking yourself taste better to some people, but I can't tell the difference. I think sometimes as moms and internet searchers, we feel like we have to make life harder on ourselves over achieve. I'm all about simplicity!
-Mexican Pizzas remind me of my Grandma Cora, haha. When I was little, if we went to Taco Bell we always had to get tacos or something else equivalent in price. However, Grandma always let us get whatever we wanted and this is what I ALWAYS got when I was with her. So random (and slightly gross) to think about, but it always felt like such a treat.
Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole (slow cooker)
-This one is really random, but I am so over the food we've been eating. I need some new food to add into our line up. So this week's menu is a little odd, but I just need to spice up our dinners.

Let me know if you use any of these and your experience, or if you've done them in the past. I always love to know what other people are eating for dinner, so please please please share what you've been eating lately. Can you tell we're in a dinner slump?

K Texts...

And because some of you were all, "Hey, me and my pan of brownies were doing just fine before you and your last post came along!" Here's this one for you,

and this...

These may or may not have been on my nightstand...yep, it's all about the process!

Who's ready for the weekend??? Any weekend plans? 
Going to Portland!! Excited :)

Serving Size

Today as my sister and I were on the treadmill, we started discussing some of our different teaching experiences (she taught Social Sciences for several years). I was reminded of a time when one of my students had an "Ah-ha" moment.

She was the Student Body President, a senior, AP Student, and was for some reason in my sophomore class. Usually, seniors were only in my sophomore class because they had failed health as a sophomore. Although I didn't know her, most people can pretty much figure out from Day 1 that the Student Body President probably didn't fail health. I asked her on the first day of school,
Me: Why are you taking this class?
Student: I don't know...it just kind of looked interesting
Me: Alright, but most of the health stuff will be a review for you
Student: Oh, it's okay!
This class was not just a regular health class, it also explored a variety of health careers...plus it was easy. I totally loaded my schedule senior year with easy classes, so while I liked to hope that she really did want to learn about health careers, I could read between the lines on that one.

Later on in the year we began our Nutrition Unit. One activity I would do with the kids was to (1) learn how to use the food labels on the back of food products (2) look at the food labels on foods that they actually eat to see how they were doing nutrition wise. One of the biggest mistakes people (not just teenagers, people of all ages) make is that they do not understand serving sizes. For example, most ice cream has a serving size of 1/2 cup...when was the last time you had only a 1/2 cup of ice cream? I can't help but throw this in...

So this was always a very eye-opening experience for the kids. (Side note: if you keep track of the sodium you intake, your mind = blown!). This same student came up to me a few weeks after we had this lesson,

Student: Nelson, I need to tell you something.

Not usually how teachers like to start conversations...I've had that turn into "I'm pregnant" one too many times!

Me: What's up?

Student: You know how we did that food label thing? Well I used to eat, like, two peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches a day, because, you know, that's not that bad right? Well since we did that activity I realized how much I was eating...and how much I wasn't using those calories. So I just stopped eating them so much. I've lost 10 lbs! 

Aww, to be young with crazy good metabolism :)

I can guarantee, my intent was never to have my students lose weight. However, I was all about CHOICES! Taking what I taught them and using it for their own good. Like I said before, this was definitely a well above average student, about to enter college. This concept escapes many of us! For many people, they work out non-stop and the weight still doesn't seem to come off. A lot of that comes down to your serving size. Like the video suggests, Fig Newtons are most definitely a health alternative to other cake and cookies, but eating them by the sleeve isn't going to get you anywhere! Serving sizes don't have to be a scary thing, either. It's one small adjustment you can make. It can take you from the feeling that you can "never eat what you want to," to eating what you want, just in moderation. 

Do you ever look at food labels? Do you like to? Or does it just depress you? :)

I don't do it all the time. I go through stages where I'm awesome about eating right and then when I'm not. Usually I do after a not so good binge to help me be where I want to be.

I do look at them for what J eats though!

What has helped you with your serving sizes?

Do you have questions about nutrition or eating right?