Sea Vegetables-- nutrient dense food

I remember being very turned off by the idea of eating "seaweed" when I first began reading about the health benefits of this amazing nutrient dense food.  I wasn't fond of the idea of eating something that tastes like fish but isn't fish.  Then I discovered how many different varieties of sea vegetables exist and how each one has such a unique taste and texture.

As I began experimenting, the boys, ever curious about what I am eating, wanted to try them also.  To my surprise, they LOVED them!  They like eating them as snacks directly out of the container or in soups or on salads!  Our cats love them also, especially Nori.

Sea vegetables are loaded with vitamins A, B and C, and mineral dense, chocked full of iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, and iodine, to name a few.  They are great for your skin and hair!

Below is an example of some of the sea vegetables we keep in our pantry.

• Kelp:  this is the least fishy of them all... it tastes more salty than anything.  Kelp granules are a great salt substitute and one we use often in our homemade soups.
• Dulse:  this red sea vegetable is a favorite of the boys... we buy the flakes which the boys like sprinkled on salads.  This is my least favorite due to the texture (I prefer crunchy to chewy).
• Nori:  these are the flat, dark sheets used in sushi.  The kids will eat it by the sheet as snacks-- Taylor and Noah like them the best; Matthew will eat them plain like that if he's really hungry.  A local sushi restaurant gives us bags of the inch-wide strips that are left over from making sushi... which is why we share with our cats sometimes!
• Wakame:  this is my favorite... it is crunchy little pieces that can be eaten straight from the container or used in soups or salads.  Below I've listed a quick and easy recipe for "seaweed salad" -one of my favorite lunches!

Below is bowl of salad made with wakame.  It takes about 2 -3 minutes to make and is extremely yummy and filling.  I like to eat it when the boys are not around, so I actually GET some!  It's convenient and easy to take to the office also.

Recipe:

• Sprinkle half a bowl of dried Wakame into a bowl and cover with water to the top of the bowl. 
• Let soak for approx 2 minutes, then pour off the water, pressing the wakame to squeeze out excess water
• Drizzle toasted sesame oil to taste
• Sprinkle sesame seeds
• Use chopsticks to get the full effect!

Guacamole- the good fat!

If you pass on the guacamole and stear clear of avocado's due to their fat content... have I got some GREAT news for you!  This wonderful fruit, the avocado, is packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and is rich in the important fats-- the mono and polyunsaturated fats.  It can actually assist in weight loss efforts (unless you go crazy and eat 5 or more a day!)  See the bottom of this entry for more nutrional info about one of God's greatest fruit creations!

The first solid food the boys ate were avocados and bananas.  Mashing them up provides a very quick and healthy homemade meal for a baby.

Mashed avocados (as quacamole) still provide quick and easy meals for our family.  Dinners on "Guacamole nights" take about 15 minutes to prepare and they are filling and delicious.  By altering ingredients or spices, guacomole never gets boring!

Recipe:

Chunky Guac:

• Use roughly 2 avocados per person  
• Mash them up with a fork in a bowl or on a cutting board
• Dice onions, sweet red peppers, tomatoes and cilantro and fold these ingredients into mashed avocados
• Mince fresh garlic or use garlic powder to taste
• Add sea salt to taste
• For spicier palettes, add diced hot peppers
• For a zestier flavor, try adding cumin or chili powder

Smooth Guac:

• The only difference to recipe above is to put the avocados in a blender or food processor to create a smooth texture 
• Fold the remaining ingredients above into smooth avocado mixture

Add organic corn chips or organic sprouted grain tortillas and your favorite salad makings or cut up veggies to complete the meal.

Once you have homemade guacamole, you'll never go back to the "cheese whiz guac" served at most Mexican restaurants!  (Some restaurants have a dish called "Guacamole a la vida"...which means they come to the table and make the guac in front of you.  Most of the ingredients above are used--- it's very good and an option we look for when we go out to eat.)

Avocados and Babies

The avocado's smooth, creamy consistency makes it one of the first fresh fruits a baby can enjoy. Sodium- and cholesterol- free, avocados contain valuable nutrients including 8% of the recommended Daily Value (DV) for folate; 4% DV for fiber and potassium, 4% DV for vitamin E; and 2% DV for iron. A serving of avocado also contains 81 micrograms of the carotenoid lutein and 19 micrograms of beta-carotene. Per serving, avocados have 3.5 grams of unsaturated fats, which are known to be important for normal growth and development of the central nervous system and brain.

Avocados Nutrient Profile:

• One-fifth of a medium avocado, or about one ounce, has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 beneficial nutrients to the diet.

• Avocados contribute nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, including 4% of the recommended Daily Value (DV) for vitamin E, 4% vitamin C, 8% folate, 4% fiber, 2% iron, 4% potassium, with 81 micrograms of lutein and 19 micrograms of beta-carotene. Phytonutrients are thought to help prevent many chronic diseases.

• Avocados act as a "nutrient booster" by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha- and beta-carotene as well as lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.

Avocados and Heart Disease:

• Avocados can help consumers meet the dietary guidelines of the American Heart Association, which are to eat a diet that is low to moderate in fat. The fats should be primarily unsaturated and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. The avocado is virtually the only fruit that has monounsaturated fat.

Fruitshakes... The Breakfast of Champions

One of the most difficult mental transitions for me when I was pregnant with my first child and in the throes of completely changing my diet, was the concept of eating only raw foods (with a focus on fruits) until lunch.  I mean... what about my morning cereal or bagel?  But it was right there in all the "health through nutrition" information I was studying (www.hacres.com; Dr. Joel Robbins tape series "Pregnancy, Childbirth & Children's Diet" to name a couple).  The science was logical and made sense to me... so, I embraced it and noticed immediate benefits.

Our breakfasts have looked different through the different seasons of their development, but when the boys entered school, we discovered a breakfast that is quick to make and consume, in-expensive, great tasting, and provides all the "green" energy the boys need to keep them mentally alert, provide even energy distribution, while keeping them full until lunch.

We named it "Fruitshake", but another great description is "Green Smoothie" (see pictures below).

Basic Recipe: 

• Banana's (organic recommended)
• Greens-- kale, spinach, cucumber, celery (either indiv or a combination)
• Water (distilled is our choice)

Fill 1/3 of blender with greens.  Add roughly 5 to 6 bananas.  Fill water to cover 3/4 of ingredients.  Blend well.

To change the flavor, add fresh or frozen berries, mango or pineapple... or any combination to the basic recipe above.

Some days I'll add toppings to make it seem like a special treat:  shredded coconut, vegan carob chips, frozen berries etc.

The wonderful thing about bananas is they hide the flavor of the greens!  At Matthew's 11th spend-the-night birthday party, several of his friends decided to be brave and try the green smoothie and they all said it was really good AND they drank it (ok, one of the boys didn't drink a lot, but he didn't eat much either).

Raw greens contain an abundance of protein, are high in fiber, make the body more alkaline and help support our homeostatic balance in the most optimal way.  An excellent resource about greens is a book called "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko. 

Green smoothies are also a quick and easy snack option.  Using them as a meal replacement once a day for a couple of weeks can help us parents quickly lose the extra holiday pounds we may have gained:)

Dippers- A Salad Alternative

People often ask me if our family gets bored eating so much salad.  I think that could easily happen, so over the years I've learned some tips and tricks to try to keep it fun.

Below are some of these tips:

• We "name" many of our meals--the boys get to help with that... they love it! 
• We sometimes focus on "presentation" of the food
• We make very creative dressings/dips
• The boys get to use their favorite herbs/spices on their salads (some of their favorites are cumin, garlic powder/granules, onion powder, onion flakes, dill, turmeric, curry, mustard powder... we buy them all in the bulk section of our local health food store).
• I include the boys in the preparation as often as possible--- they even make their own very fancy salads from time to time
• By adding a couple of handfuls of pasta, grains, or beans, the salad becomes a special (quick & inexpensive) meal (more to follow in upcoming days regarding these meals)

When we need an alternative to the typical salad, we have the meal the boys named "Dippers".  Below we focused on the presentation by using an inexpensive textured peeler that creates fancy looking vegetable slices.  This dinner took about 20 minutes to make. We also made 3 unique dips... 1 for each boy.  We used the base dressing for all 3 and added tahini and certain spices for two of the boys and added veggie mayo and spices to the 3rd dip.

We try to focus on seasonal veggies when possible.  Summer Dippers would look very different, including lots of tomatoes!

Fresh Squeezed OJ... not just for breakfast!

When someone asks me "What's one of the top 5 things I could do to make a difference in my health or my kids health?", I always tell them to buy a juicer. 

For many, buying a vegetable juicer is too large of an investment without knowing if it's something they'd maintain (more on that another day), so I recommend they start by buying a citrus juicer!  They are sold at Wal-Mart or K-Mart for around $15. 

Fresh citrus juice provides calcium and a myriad of vitamins and it tastes great!  It's also wonderful for those who have the tendency to get constipated.

Although it's great for breakfast (especially breakfast-in-bed for all those who like to suprise their spouses),  it's also an awesome after-school snack for kids... and who would EVER say "no" to a glass of fresh-squeezed OJ?

My favorite citrus drink combination combines the fresh-squeezed juice from one grapefruit, one orange and one lemon.  I drank this recipe every morning while I was pregnant with each of the boys-- YUM!

Although organic is always the best, due to expense, we often buy our oranges and grapefruit at Aldi... they have great quality and prices. 

2 Minute Salad Dressing

Since we eat a lot of salads, one of our staples is salad dressing.  The picture below contains the main ingredients of our basic salad dressing.

Some great things about this dressing:

• It's quick and easy to make (takes about 2 minutes to make up a batch)
• It tastes great!
• 
  
  It does not have to be refrigerated (which means you can keep some handy in your car, purse, diaper bag, office desk etc)
  
  
  

Recipe Ingredients:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (organic always recommended) 
• Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar 
• Bragg Liquid Amino's or Organic Tamari (salt replacement)
• Herbs of choice (garlic powder, onion powder, italian seasoning, dill, cumin etc)

Fill vinegar to vinegar line (V) of cruet.  Add Bragg's Liquid Amino's or Tamari to the water line (W).  Add Extra virgin olive oil to the oil line (O).  At this point you can add a dash of water if desired.  Add herbs.  Shake well and serve.

This dressing can also be a base for a wonderful tahini dressing (just add desired amount of tahini to the base recipe and blend together in blender... my kids could drink this as soup it is so good!) or even a mayo dressing (we use Veginaise which is wonderful! and tastes like regular mayo).

                  Cruet

                               Ingredients

Introduction

Welcome and Happy New Year!

The boys and I have been talking about creating a "Food" blog since last summer.  Since then, we've been taking pictures and naming some of our repeated meals.  Then I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" and felt prompted to use the New Year as a reason to propel me into action and create our blog. 

My aim is to provide ideas, recipes and support to those families that want to transition their family into a healthier diet.  I'll do this by using examples from our own lives and the lives of those I know that are like-minded regarding diet and health.  I've been encouraged by many to write a book, but I'll let my Dad remain the only published author in the family for now and I'll content myself with a blog. (Shameless Plug for Dad's book: Lincoln's First Nomination: Champagne, Deals, & Dirty Tricks by Jay Miner available on Amazon.com)

Just a little background:
Since the boys were in my belly, they've existed on a mostly vegan, mostly raw diet.  As they've gotten older and we've had the challenges of school, birthday parties, going out to eat and camping with grandparents, we've relaxed our rules a bit to allow for social interaction, while still making the best choices possible. 

To date, they haven't been to a doctor due to illness.  They've never had an over-the-counter medication.  When they have had a fever or felt badly, they've healed through it quickly and naturally, with occassional help from homeopathic remedies.  I mention this information as an encouragement to everyone:  transitioning to a natural diet, filled with raw fruits and vegetables can lead to robust health AND taste great AND be affordable!

The boys and I have had many conversations about what to call our diet (we don't fall into a classical "label")... we're not 100% Vegan or Vegetarian or Raw-Fooders or Organic.  We try to eat all our food as close to the way God designed it as often as possible... we've adopted a Genesis 1:29 approach to our diet.  The name we finally agreed upon was a "Natural" diet... but the word "natural" has lost much of its meaning as it's been over and incorrectly used for so long.


Some of the topics this blog will address are as follows:

• Healthy and fun recipes for kids and families
• Creative tips to involve the kids in meal preparation
• Healthy school lunch options
• Suggestions for different social situations:  birthday parties, church nurseries, restaurants
• Healthier alternatives to Standard American Diet recipes and foods
• Relevant Web sites and links
• Recommended reading

Please feel free to comment with feedback!

Here's to a healthy and happy 2010!

Audrey Seiter
Matthew Seiter
Taylor Seiter
Noah Seiter