Stay on Track

 
We're wrapping up Healthy Eats' January Challenge.
But as it is, we'll continue to eat healthy for a healthy life.

What has this challenge done to me?

It dawns on me that breakfast is the most important meal in a day.  It shouldn't be just a cup of coffee or tea.  We should always consider to consume something healthy that will keep our energy last till lunch.  This will help us ward off unnecessary sugar cravings to build energy, thereby help us lose weight.

A Cup of Tazo

Tazo China Green Tips.

Perfect for home alone, while enriching your memory.

Do you know  that reading is elemental?  I once learned that without reading, there can be no learning.  Without learning, there can be no sense of a larger world.  Without the sense of a larger world, there can be no ardor to find it.  Without ardor, where is joy?

Bento Weekly Round 12

 For January 23-27, 2012

Healthy Eats' Week 4 Challenge is to eat more vegetables and fruits. Do you know the average fruits and vegetables we must consume per day? Look no further.  I found a good table that lays out the right amount for every individual.  Check it out here: Fruits and Veggies Matter.

My guide is the new My Plate that has the right partitioning of vegetables, fruits, protein and grains per servings. 

Romaine Lettuce salad with crab sticks, carrots, chicken nuggets and tangerine with Ranch and BBQ sauces on the side.  He usually would toss the tangerine and Ranch in his salad and eat it with the nuggets.

 Chili on cold winter days with rice and slices of juicy and sweet Asian Pear.

 Spam Musubi and Sushi rolls.  Accompanied by corn and green peas 

and red globe grapes.

Hamburger with hummus and lettuce, pickle relish and ketchup on smidgets, corn and green peas on the side.  I forgot to include his apple slices in this picture. He brought it for snack.  He would either have fruits, fruit roll-ups or vegetable chips for snacks. 

Mini corndogs with ketchup on smidgets, tangerine and corn with broccoli.

See what's cooking at home during this week of the challenge.

Eat More Vegetables and Fruits.

See you there!

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers and healthy eating advocates to host aHealthy Every Week Challenge, a month-long initiative to develop healthy eating habits. The plan is to develop a manageable healthy habit each week that will carry through the new year. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook andTwitter with the hashtag #gethealthy.

Eat MORE Fruits and Vegetables

Week 4 is about eating more fruits and vegetables.  

Almost everyone needs to eat more fruits and vegetables.  They are critical in promoting good health.  They contain essential vitamins, minerals, and other fibers that may help protect you from chronic diseases such as stroke, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. Substituting fruits and vegetables for higher caloric food intake is a healthy alternative towards weight loss strategy.

Most people know these facts, but the question lies to how much is the recommended daily intake for each individual?  Every individual is unique. We should base it according to our daily activities, age and sex.  I know that they've come up with a minimum of 5-a-day campaign.  But that doesn't really hold true for everyone.

I have found a fruit and vegetable calculator that measures according to your daily activity, age and sex.  And that explains to you why you have to take that much too.

If you follow this link, it should take you to their site as well to read more.

How Many Fruits and Vegetables Do You Need?

If you notice, fruits and vegetables also come in unique colors.  But their beauty lies within those colors.  For children, the best way to encourage eating fruits and vegetables is by using the RAINBOW system.

courtesy of I ate a Rainbow

What is the Rainbow System?
If you haven't heard of "Today I Ate A Rainbow", follow this link for better explanation.  I have used this system at home for a while and have found better results on my kids.  My daughter, who's not a veggie fanatic, would try at least one or couple of bites just to say that she's eaten a rainbow per meal. It's not enough, but this encourages her to eat healthier.  Over time, she would adapt to the idea of healthy eating and would soon be part of her system. Kids love color, and is a good way to reinforce eating vegetables and fruits at home and beyond.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers and healthy eating advocates to host aHealthy Every Week Challenge, a month-long initiative to develop healthy eating habits. The plan is to develop a manageable healthy habit each week that will carry through the new year. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook andTwitter with the hashtag #gethealthy.

Disclaimer:  I was not provided of any free samples by I ate a Rainbow.  I found this online while I was finding ways to efficiently feed my children with fruits and vegetables in a fun way.  I did not purchase any of their kit, but made one for each of my child that tailors to their daily needs. I will post next time once I figured out how to convert it into Jpeg files to help your child start eating healthier too.

Cook at Home

Cooking is what I do best for my family. I love to experiment, and have learned to experiment on ingredients and have created recipes we truly love to eat. So for this challenge, I think I'm all in with my kids as my #1 fans.

I wouldn't be featuring the bento lunches my son brought to school this week. Instead I will be sharing the foods I had made for us this week.

Breakfast has been a norm in our household.  No one dares leave home without anything in their tummies.  Not just coffee, but it has to be something healthy that will keep them full till lunch time.

I make sure to substitute anything I could to whole grains and organic as long as our budget could afford it.  On this photograph, it's a whole wheat waffle that I got in the market last weekend. To substitute syrup over waffle, I made use of vanilla ice cream and blueberries for the kids.  It's super yummy you're little kiddos might get addicted to.

Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake

It is wildly known as Nian-Gao, Fah-Gao, or Tikoy.  One must have a bite of this on New Year's day, as it is the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year. This was believed to be an offering to the Kitchen God, with the aim that his mouth will be stuck with the sticky cake, so that he can't badmouth the human's family to the god of all gods.

The Year of the Water Dragon - 2012

The year of the water dragon is here!

I feel good about water and hopefully this year would bring good tidings and fortune to many. In Chinese element theory, water produces wood, which signifies growth and is the natural element of the dragon. It personifies creativity at its best.  So if there's any elemental year I like the most, it is water.  Water dragon occurs just every 60 years, which is once in each one's life time. So how lucky is that?

Today we celebrated it with families of course.  We used to dine out at the finest.  But this year, we decided to cook at home. We tried to make it as healthy as possible for a year of good health and togetherness.  And of course the non-stop laughters and chats were always fresh and new. At the end of the gathering, we always have red envelopes to hand out to children and single family members.  A couple should have at least an even numbered amount of money on each red envelopes, 2 per recipient. The generous, the better fortune awaits.

May this lunar year bring good luck and fortune to all!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!!

新年快樂

~Marie

Ham Hung Korean Restaurant

I was fortunate enough that my camera phone cooperated well.  Usually I'd get an unacceptable shot for a post.   It's either that or we were too hungry to even photograph an entree.

It was a rainy Saturday morning and we took the kids to the doctor for a check-up.  Major seasonal allergy flare-up that needs to be checked since Children's Claritin is not working anymore.  It had been a week and it worries me a bit.  Just a bit since there were no signs of fever or malaise.  We found out that it was really just an allergy, and the kids just needed a nose spray that should take care of the congestion.

For lunch, we thought of dining out after 2 weeks of cooking at home.  We wanted to chill out as a family and have a serene time together.  Dining out is one of our comfort zones on rainy days.  We thought of a good hot soup to keep us warm and soothed. 

Ham Hung Korean Restaurant is the perfect choice at this time of the day.  They have appetizing soup that you can drink all you can.  You heard that right.  We drank it like crazy.  It's refillable.

Bento Weekly - Round 11

 For the week of Jan 16-20

This was a late post so I would have to apologize for those who were waiting.

I was pretty busy with Healthy Eats' Week 3 Challenge and
I had to meet their deadline first.

But I didn't miss a day packing my Bento meals.
If you were looking for that instead, click here.

January 16 (Monday) is Martin Luther King School Holiday.  I mostly don't spend time making bento on school holidays because I'd like to teach my kids to eat on glass wares so there won't be any issues when dining out.  Bentos are strictly for school & work only.

We've got some leftover pizzas yesterday so he had it for his bento today. 

For some reason he fell in love with the Sandwich Wheat Thins and decided to bring it to school for the rest of the week.

 

I have to stuff it with different fillings everyday though so he won't get tired of it.  But believe it or not, he had this on breakfasts too and snacks after school.

We just have to juggle between turkey bacon, honey roast ham, or turkey delis with Mayo and Mustard on it.  There's not even a cheese or a lettuce there.  He said it was perfect as it is.  So let it be as long as he eats his veggies on dinnertime. 

Eat MORE Whole Grains

Week 2 Challenge would be to eat more whole grains.  If you have read my research, Strictly Whole Grains, this would be easy for anyone shopping for foods.

To be on the safe side, I shopped familiar items which we normally consume with an exception that I made sure they were whole grains. Hold your expectations though coz these were not much of what one might expect.  But, it was a huge transition for us because the list went for our children. If you look at my lists, you'd understand what I'm saying.

• Corn kernels and corn on the cob for side dishes.
• Pop corns for snacks instead of tortilla chips.
• Whole grain cold cereals for children's breakfast.
• Whole wheat breads and burger buns instead of white.
• Unbleached whole wheat flour for cakes and cookies instead of all-purpose white.  
• Whole wheat bread crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs.
• Whole wheat flour tortilla for quesadillas instead of regular flour tortillas.

Chicken Vegetable Eggrolls

How to Make Eggroll Wrappers

Shrimp and Pork Shumai

Shumai is one of the Chinese Dimsums that I have learned since my kids love them so much.  We normally dine-in on Sundays for dimsum and tea.  A time to gather and catch up on what we've missed for the week.  Shumai is a regular item on our table along with meat balls and ha-gaw (shrimp dumplings).  Those 3 are my kids' most favorite stuffs.  So I'm learning them one by one.  And I'd be sharing them all to you.

Blog button created!

I have finally created my blog button with the help of a tutorial from The Little Hen House.  Thank you, Mama Hen!!

There are 2 of them which you can choose from.  Grab and share and help my blog grow!  I will absolutely return the favor, just leave a comment to any of my posts. 

Little did I know that it only takes a while to create it as long as you have the right image in your files already. You can use almost anything.  Anything that best represents you or your blog.

Eat Breakfast Daily

Eating breakfast has always been a challenge to me.  That was one of the reasons why I took Healthy Eats' January Challenge.  I am not a morning person.  Perhaps I am not just a morning eater/cooker coz I can function and focus on work as early as 3am. So for this week,  I was quite lucky to have loads of leftovers from our holiday feasts.  If you have been reading my blog, you would know that we had quite a feast to welcome 2012.  So for this week, we just had to finish what was leftover, in order for me to start cooking.

Strictly Whole Grains

Week 2 Challenge is about eating more whole grain.  Honestly, I was quite dumbfounded when whole grain foods were talked about.  I didn't even realized that we were actually consuming it for the most part of our meals.  Not because we're not a big fan of brown rice and whole wheat or multi-grain breads, doesn't automatically mean we're not whole grains consumers.  Mostly we weren't just aware of what we were actually eating are products of whole grains.  But with Healthy Eats' January Challenge that we were up to, I researched a bit to be knowledgeable enough on the benefits of whole grains to our body.

Fage - Healthy as it is!

It's all-natural.

It's non-fat.

It's total 0%.

Homemade Taho (Tau-Huay), Sweetened Tofu

It is one of my favorite childhood memories. 

I like it warm and sweet.  

Best of all it is healthy and vegan :)

For those who are having a difficult time liking and eating tofu, this might be a good solution to that problem.  Even picky children love this.  Just let them adjust the sweetness according to their taste.

Picture courtesy of Niceyfemme.  I have used it for visualization purposes
only so as you know how the dessert is prepared.

Chicken Mushroom Soup

This is one of the family's favorite soup. I especially love it because this is the only way I could feed my little girl with celery.  I usually make this on rainy days when the flu is up or on allergy flare-ups.  My secret? I grind the celery stalk in a blender till they're just juice.  If you have a juicer, better.  Boil the chicken, bones-in, till it's tender with the celery juice, ginger and thyme. Then, add in mushrooms and carrots.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer till done.

Try it.  It's really worth making it.  It's good and tasty.  The kids love it. 

Winter Break

Winter break is one of the most awaited breaks in our household.  The other one is SUMMER, of course.  We either travel out of state or over seas to see other family members and re-bond.  This year we opted to stay and relax.  The children were on break for about 3 weeks, so I have to make it worthwhile and reminiscing.

I'm glad that I'm a stay at home mom so I get to spend a lot of time with my kiddos.  The first week was pretty hectic and busy.  Almost each day was all about the Christmas season.  We did paper ornament crafts, fulfilled our Christmas shopping and decorations, and formulated my paella menu for the Christmas eve.

January Healthy Every Week Challenge

I am so excited for this challenge since the September Brown Bag Challenge.  My son and I had a blast achieving the month-goal each week. Now that 2011 is over, my son will be back to school on the 9th.  And he knows that it's time to pack his lunches again to school, and asked me to join another of Healthy Eats' Challenge.  He would call it the Brown Bag Challenge.

I told him that it will be different this time.  There is a goal that we need to achieve each week.  And we have to keep it for life.  He smiled.

The goal for this challenge is to get started on a healthier 2012, one week at a time.  I guess that would be easier to achieve... I hope!  The month of January was broken down into 5 weeks with specific goals to attain.

• Week 1: Eat breakfast daily
• Week 2: Eat more whole grains....(This is where I think I would stumble.  I would have to be resourceful to find something my kids would enjoy eating.  SO I'll keep my fingers crossed here.)
• Week 3: Cook at home
• Week 4: Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Week 5: Stay on track

If you hover on each weekly goals, you'd find my post of that specific challenge.  I will be updating it once the post is already live.

Well, we're definitely in for the challenge to start a healthier and happier 2012!!  Cheers to everyone in the challenge.

Get into Healthy Eats' Page and join in the fun!