Give Your Kids a Nutrition Boost

School's back in session and your anxiety over what to prepare for your child's lunch is probably in full swing. This week on The Inspiring Cook blog, we are fortunate to have a guest blogger, Kim Corrigan-Oliver from Your Green Baby, share ways you can prepare nutritious and delicious meals that are good for learning and good for the environment.
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As a nutritionist a common concern many parents express is they know what their children should be eating but life is so busy they find it difficult to always provide the highest quality nutrition for their kids. My approach is to introduce them to foods I consider “super foods for super kids”, they provide a wide variety of nutrients and health benefits and pack a nutritional punch; including them in your child’s diet will have a significant impact on their health and well being.

So here they are:

Blueberries are high in antioxidants, provide phytonutrients and are the perfect finger food for tiny hands. Serve them straight up fresh or frozen, added to smoothies, great as part of a meal or a quick snack.

Leafy greens provide a wide range of nutrients including vitamins A, C, and K, folate, iron and calcium. Getting leafy greens into your babes, toddlers or children is not easy. See below for links to a few recipes.

Avocado is full of healthy fats and for this reason makes it a winner for our developing children. Enjoy it in sandwiches, added to smoothies, as guacamole, or cut up in chunks as a great finger food.

Legumes and beans offer your children a wide range of minerals, fibre, slow release carbohydrates and protein. Beans make great finger foods, can be pureed into dips (what child does not love to dip) and used to perk up a salad, rice dish or soup.

Quinoa is used as a grain in our part of the world but is really considered a seed; and this little seed is a nutritional knockout! It has a full amino acid (protein) profile, provides fibre, calcium and iron, among other nutrients. It can be served warm as a replacement for rice, cold in a salad, pureed for babes, in patties with vegetables for a great finger food, in pancakes and its flour can be used in a wide variety of baking recipes.

Adding these kid friendly super foods into your child’s diet will have a positive effect on their health and well being today and in the future. And let’s not forget the benefits of these foods are not just for the kids; add them to your diet mom and dad and reap the benefits too!

A few helpful recipe links:
Easy ways to use leafy greens http://yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/2010/05/greens-and-your-toddler.html

Bean dips http://yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/2010/05/beans-beans-and-more-beans.html

Spiced up crunchy beans http://yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/2010/04/spiced-up-crunchy-beans.html

Quinoa pancakes http://yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/2010/07/quinoa-banana-cinnamon-pancakes.html

Quinoa vegetable patties http://yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/2010/06/quinoa-vegetable-and-black-bean-patties.html

 

 
Kim Corrigan-Oliver RNCP, ROHP is a registered holistic nutritionist specializing in nutrition for mom, baby and toddler.


Visit her:
Blog http://www.yourgreenbaby.blogspot.com/
Twitter www.twitter.com/yourgreenbaby
Website http://www.yourgreenbaby.ca/

Quick Tips for Organizing Your Healthy Kitchen

It is hard to get inspired to cook when your kitchen is in disarray. This week on The Inspiring Cook blog, we are fortunate to have a guest blogger provide 4 Quick Tips to help us organize our kitchens for healthy cooking! 
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4 Quick Tips:


•Contain messes by housing sticky items on an easy-to-clean lazy Susan.

•Keep plastic bags, wrapping, BPA free containers together near the refrigerator to quickly store leftovers.

•Sliding shelf organizers make easy to access.

•Drawer organizers keep cutlery neatly separated, so you never have to rummage around for what you need.

Guest Blogger:  Julie Seibert, Owner of Healing through Organization, LLC
Professional Eco-Organization Services
919.559.3925
web: http://www.healingorganization.com/
blog: http://www.healingorganization.com/cleanblog/
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/healingthroughorganization

Eat Better, Act Better? Food as a Predictor of Behavior in Children

This week on The Inspiring Cook blog, we are fortunate to have a guest blogger help build the case for feeding our children more natural food.
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Most of us know if we eat healthy we’re more likely to be healthy. But how often do we relate what we eat to our behavior, and more importantly perhaps, the behavior of our children? In a talk I recently gave about nutrition I had used several examples of every day foods to bring my point home about what is really in the foods we are eating, that we may be unaware of. One of these foods was children’s breakfast cereal. A conventional brand listed sugar as the first ingredient, and therefore a main ingredient. Yet every parent knows that after eating sugar kids are likely to go off the deep end and become hyperactive and misbehave, followed by the sugar low that causes irritability. So why are we feeding our kids sugar first thing in the morning? Are we helping them to start their day on the wrong foot? Among other toxic and possibly disease causing ingredients, there were 3 different food dyes in this cereal. Food dyes have been linked to hyperactivity, reduced mental capacity and several forms of disease, including asthma and cancer.Reading the ingredients in this one food got me thinking more about the ever increasing incidence of ADD and ADHD in children, and the behavior problems that parents and teachers are so well aware of. Is it possible that by simply changing what we feed our children we can relieve and perhaps eliminate hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children? Increasing evidence indicates the answer is “Yes”.

Guest Blogger: Carole Hoffman, CNDP, is a Holistic Health Practitioner. She may be reached at 919-303-5851, carole@carolehoffman.com, or visit her on line at www.achievingoptimumhealth.com