healthy foods

Clean Eating for Busy Families: My New Favorite Cookbook (Giveaway!)

May 27, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 107 Comments

A few days ago several readers and I had a great discussion on Facebook about make-ahead breakfast ideas. As I was mulling over all the great options you suggested (and thank you for those!) I remembered that there was a gem of a recipe (details later in the post!) in my new favorite cookbook: Clean Eating for Busy Families, by Michelle Dudash, R.D.

You have likely heard of “clean eating” or the “clean food” movement, but if not, the basic idea is that you attempt to eat food as close to its original source as possible, avoiding GMOs, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and high-fructose corn srup. I’ve been intrigued by the idea for a long while, but honestly, the thought of switching my entire approach to eating (and letting go of many convenience food options that are loaded with all that bad stuff) was pretty overwhelming.

My family actually was on the Paleo diet for about a month, and that was a great way to force a restart in our systems and get our bodies used to not inhaling sugar and additives constantly. We have since that time migrated over to a more whole foods, clean eating approach, and this cookbook has been instrumental in that process.

Why do I love it so much? Because it is REALISTIC. Michelle wrote this book with families just like mine in mind. We want to serve wholesome, delicious food. We also have a million things on our “to do” lists such that cooking complicated dishes from scratch constantly isn’t feasible. And we have real budgets, meaning that we can’t spend hundreds of dollars every week at places like Whole Foods. Michelle’s recipe ideas are the perfect balance between price, time and health consciousness!

Michelle even includes weekly grocery list ideas and practical tips to help encourage healthy eating habits in your home. And most of the recipes are ready in 30 minutes or less! Heck yes!!! Michelle is an outstanding resource for finding practical ways to clean up the food in your house. I actually had the chance to be part of a conference call with her a while back and I learned some fantastic tips for encouraging healthy habits for kids. Definitely give that a read if you haven’t yet!

Ok, so about that recipe I found for a make-ahead (and totally freezable) breakfast idea. Check it out!

Are you shocked to see a breakfast recipe with the term “cookies” in it? Especially in a “clean eating” cookbook? I think this gives you an idea about just how practical Michelle’s approach really is! Her recipes are delicious AND appealing to the entire family, including kids. When I told Darah were were having “breakfast cookies” she almost couldn’t contain her excitement. She inhaled these (and to be honest, so did Tim and I!). I am actually going to make another batch today to tuck away in the freezer for the weeks ahead. They come together fast, and they go so well with a cup of coffee! 🙂

I’ve been wearing out the pages, lately, and I plan to continue doing so over the summer and beyond! Need a few more ideas for simple clean eating recipes? Check out my easy clean eating version of a Lunchable, as well as some picks for frozen foods that are clean (or close to it!).

I received a complimentary book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links.

4 Key Tips for Promoting Healthy Habits for Kids

March 22, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 12 Comments

Wednesday afternoon I participated in a very informative conference call with Michelle Dudash, a certified Cordon Bleu chef and author of the highly praised book, Clean Eating for Busy Families.

Michelle had SO many great tips for those of us looking to encourage healthy habits for kids and get more nutritious food into the tummies of our little ones. She also shared some news about the Walmart Foundation that REALLY impressed me. This nonprofit arm of Walmart has dedicated $2 BILLION in cash and in-kind donations through 2015 to help fight hunger in America. That is simply outstanding!

One of the ways that money is being spent is through a $6.7 million series of grants to 5 national nonprofits that are providing 250,000 Americans with access to school breakfasts and nutrition education programs.

During our conversation, Michelle shared some of her top tips for encouraging healthy eating habits in your family. Here are the ones that really stood out to me as things I need to implement:

Get Kids in the Kitchen!

Darah likes to help me prepare food, but as we all know, when little ones want to “help” it really just means more work for the head chef! However, studies have shown that children are more likely to eat food that they help prepare. I need to keep in mind that spending an extra 5-10 minutes on dinner because I had a little helper will pay dividends in the form of a peaceful meal with no whining and complaints such as, “This is yucky!”

You Can Prepare Breakfast Ahead of Time!

My family loves to have a hot breakfast. I try to accommodate that wish as much as possible, but there are certainly days when I just don’t have time. And truth be told, I usually reach for a box of cereal or a bag of bagels that is made with enriched flour. Michelle shared that she actually makes a batch of boiled eggs once a week and keeps them in her fridge. They are one of the very best sources of protein, and as compared to other protein sources, are also one of the least expensive. What a great idea! Reaching for an egg is even faster than reaching for a bagel!

Tips for Getting Through a “Food Funk”

I think we’ve all witnessed our kids clinging to a particular food for a few days or weeks or maybe even months. My oldest gets on a cracker kick that just can’t be stopped. Same goes for peanut butter. Michelle reminded us all that the child will move past those finicky habits eventually, but while we are waiting them out, we just need to make sure we are giving them the most nutritious options possible. For example, if you are making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. for one of your kids, be sure you have switched to whole wheat bread, a peanut butter with no sugar added, and a natural jelly. If your kid balks at that option, maybe they are ready to come out of that particular food funk! 🙂

Organic or No High Fructose Corn Syrup…Which to Choose?

I asked Michelle which one was the lesser of two evils…non-organic produce or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I asked this question because we have to watch our pennies in the store, and that means that I can’t fill my cart with every single thing I’d like to get for my family. I simply have to choose. Michelle gave some really helpful advice here. She said that nutritionally, there isn’t too much difference between organic and non-organic food, so while she recommends purchasing it whenever you can, she says to skip it if your budget just won’t allow for it.

As far as avoiding HFCS, Michelle is definitely in favor of doing so, but she said, “If a product is $1 more because it is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, it doesn’t make a difference. Sugar is sugar!” I don’t think Michelle is saying not to worry about HFCS, because it really is a nasty ingredient, but rather, to be more concerned about sugar consumption altogether, whatever its form. Don’t be so quick to assume that you’ve purchased a “healthy” product just because the sugar in it isn’t HFCS. That’s a light bulb moment for me!

What questions would you love to ask someone like Michelle? And do you have any tips for encouraging healthy habits for kids? Please share! I think we could also use some helpful hints!

This is a sponsored conversation with The Motherhood. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Let MagicKitchen.com Take Some Work Off Your “To Do” List!

November 16, 2012 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

I work from home. It is not uncommon for people to somehow miss the “work” part of “work from home” and assume that my agenda every day consists of little more than changing diapers, making my baby laugh, and shuffling my preschooler to and from school.

WRONG! I also have to manage this blog, and though I’m currently taking a break, I’m also often teaching a college course on world religions online.

And frankly, even if I didn’t have those two jobs on my plate, being a stay-at-home parent is also a boatload of work. I’m so completely embarrassed that I used to not understand why people who stayed at home with their kids didn’t have sparkling clean homes and very little stress.

Karma’s a you-know-what, that’s all I’m sayin’ about that.

Anyway, whether you are in the office from 9-5, juggling raising kids with working from your home, or devoting your time to the kiddos on a full-time basis, you need some help. We all need some help! I’m excited to share with you an option that really can save you quite a bit of time and that I think is worth every penny.

It’s called MagicKitchen.com, and it is a website FULL of healthy meals that are prepared by chefs, frozen and delivered to your doorstep. All you have to do is follow the simple re-heating instructions just before dinner, and you are all set.

What a lifesaver this is! And it totally beats heading over to the drive-thru for something that is really just junk. MagicKitchen.com has healthy options that you will most definitely want to eat! This makes it easier to feed your family something nutritious on those days when you just can’t be tied down to the kitchen for an hour.

We recently had a meal from MagicKitchen.com and it was good. Actually, it was REALLY GREAT. I was expecting it to be good. But I mean, frozen food is only going to be good, and never great. At least that’s what I assumed.

That pork tenderloin was SO moist. I wish I knew their secret for getting it so perfect. All I did was follow the reheating instructions, so I didn’t do any magic, I promise! It was seasoned beautifully. I ate more than I should have because it was just so darn delicious.

We also had a side of green beans. They were a gorgeous, bright green and still had a bit of firmness to them. I was quite surprised, as it is VERY easy to overcook green beans. The taste was fantastic.

And for dessert, we had a brownie. I should mention that this brownie was bigger than my whole hand. We cut it into fourths! All you had to do was let this thaw. But I thought it was AMAZING heated up in the microwave just a little bit. Yummy!

MagicKitchen.com offers meal bundles, special diet menus, and various a la carte options. There’s something for every taste preference and budget. And I can tell you, the taste is exceptional. This would be an unbelievably awesome gift to give to brand new parents, or even to parents who are just in the trenches, slogging away at this season of life where chaos is king.

If you’d like to request a catalog to learn more about all their options, click here to request one. You won’t regret it!

I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Best Frozen Food Ever? Maybe!

August 19, 2010 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

Several years ago, I didn’t think twice about stocking my freezer with convenience foods such as hot pockets, pizza bites, frozen pizzas, etc. They were SO easy to prepare, they were tasty (thanks to mountains of sodium being added) and they were reasonably inexpensive, especially if you watched for sales.

But as I’ve gotten a bit older (and arguably, wiser) I’ve realized that those things are SOOOO bad for you. Terrible, even! They are loaded with sodium, preservatives and other questionable chemicals. Very few frozen food items have much nutritional value to speak of, and make you feel gross after you’ve eaten them. While we break down every once in a while now for a frozen pizza, on the whole, we just don’t have frozen convenience foods in our freezer (ice cream aside, obviously…I’m not yet ready to acknowledge how bad ice cream is for me…)

But I do miss being able to “prepare” dinner in 3-5 minutes, start to finish.

Enter Amy’s, a fabulous company that makes wholesome organic foods that taste great and are a snap to prepare. Amy’s also offers types of foods that you don’t traditionally find in the freezer aisles (hello there, Indian cuisine!).

We had the opportunity to try out a few different foods from Amy’s, and we loved every single thing. LOVED, I tell you!

The Paneer Tikka was some of the most outstanding frozen food I have ever had. Seriously. Every thing about it was delicious, and I cleaned my plate. Most of the time when I crave Indian food I go to a buffet here in town. For $10, I get some fantastic food, but I ALWAYS eat way too much. After I finished this food, I realized that I was full, but in a comfortable way. No unbuttoning my pants this time (am I the only one who has had to do that?). I will absolutely be stocking my freezer with this dish so that when the Indian craving hits, I’ve got a simple solution that won’t cost as much money or take up as much space on my waistline!

Tim had the honor of trying the burritos. He thought they were fantastic. He commented to me that they were the best frozen burritos he has ever tasted (and he’s tasted LOTS of different frozen burritos, folks). Here’s the really awesome thing about these particular burritos: they are gluten-free! This is great news for folks like my mother-in-law who have wheat allergies! We are going to be sure we have some on hand for her the next time she visits us.

Finally, we got to try a pizza, the classic frozen food. We got the broccoli and spinach pizza and it rocked! I thought it was really flavorful, and I felt good knowing that it is made of organic ingredients. Can you say that, DiGiorno? Don’t think so!

So my experience with Amy’s products was completely awesome. I didn’t know frozen food could taste so yummy, and I’m thrilled to discover that there are terrific options out there for people who might need something super fast AND healthy. Thank you, Amy’s!

Buy it!: Amy’s products are available at major retailers nation-wide. Find your local store now!

Do you have a favorite Amy’s dish? Tell me what it is; I’d like to try it!

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.