Healthy Recipe Tuesday

When Riley was about 18 months he really was eating very little organic food, except for milk. One day I was watching Oprah and it was one with Dr. Oz and they were going through this woman's refrigerator and taking all the stuff out that was bad. He was explaining why hydrogenated oils were bad and high fructose corn syrup and my mouth just dropped wide open. I ran to my pantry and starting reading ingredients and just started crying. I couldn't believe what I was feeding my son, much less myself and my husband. I felt like the worst mother and I was furious that my OB or my pediatrician hadn't told me about these ingredients on the first visit. I worked in health care as a nurse and we never talked about a patient's diet before recommending treatment. Why is that? We know that diet can affect everything. It can make someone depressed , it can make them hyper and agitated, it can depress someone's immune system and can predispose someone for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Yet it's almost never discussed. I decided that day to throw everything out and start feeding my son clean, healthy organic food. And this decision is something I am very passionate about. My son deserves to be healthy and not have to worry about having diabetes at 10 or high cholesterol and high blood pressure at age 12. 1 out of every 3 children will now develop Type 2 Diabetes in their lifetime. That is unacceptable to me because Type 2 is completely preventable and diet induced. Anyways, I know I rant a lot about this subject but it really fires me up. I actually used to get teased by my coworkers about how I fed my son. To be honest, I really don't care what anyone thinks about it because I know I am doing the RIGHT thing for my son. He is 4 1/2 and has only been on antibiotics once. He is healthy and happy and I think it is my job as his parent to teach him healthy eating habits . He is just like any other kid, if I brought in a plate of brownies he would eat the entire plate . We make all kinds of cookies , muffins, and sweets, we just make them healthy by using whole wheat flour and wheat germ, and substituting part of the oil and sugar. Ok, so I'm done ranting , here is the cookbook and recipe.

The cookbook is The Eat Clean Diet for Family and Kids by Tosca Reno. Tosca has several cookbooks and I think I have them all. She was 40 and over 200lbs. By age 50 she was a swimsuit model for bodybuilder magazines. That's what I want to look like at 50. Her philosophy is clean eating and basically here are the principles:
*Eat 6 small meals daily
*Eat every 2-3 hrs
*Eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal
*Drink 2-3 liters of water every day
*Depend on fresh fruits and vegetables for complex carbs, enzymes and fiber
*Eat whole grains, not refined, over-processed, chemically charged foods.
*Choose lean protein from poultry, fish, wild game, soy, and legumes
*Eat healthy fats from fish, healthy oils, nuts, seeds and grains
*Never miss a meal, especially breakfast
*Stick to reasonable portion size


Avoid these:
*Over-processed, refined foods
*Chemicals and preservatives
*White flour
*White sugar
*artificial sugars and sweeteners
*Saturated and trans Fats
*Alcohol - or minimize intake
*Calorie dense food with little or no nutritional value

This may seem like a lot but it really isn't. This is the diet that Jesse and I have followed throughout our P90x workout and it's the way I have always fed Riley. Once you clean out your pantry and fridge it really isn't hard to maintain this.

Here is your recipe for today:


Pina Colada Smoothie

1/2 organic mango
1 cup of fresh pineapple
1 cup of organic papaya
1/2 banana
1 cup of organic coconut milk
1 scoop of protein powder
1 c of crushed ice

blend in a blender
makes 2-3 smoothies
This will actually serve as breakfast and is really yummy.


Tip of the day : For those of who like the spreadable margarine spread but know it's really bad for you, here is a way to get a creamy spread and make it healthy. Butter is saturated fat however if you mix it with a healthy fat like olive oil it cuts down on half the fat. So take 1 stick of room temperature organic butter and 1/2 cup of organic EVOO and put it in a blender or food processor to combine. then store in an airtight container in the fridge. You need to use organic because there are pesticides that get stored in the fat. Happy smoothie making.