This coming weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. A time for families to get together, create special moments and enjoy a delicious meal. The following from Reader`s Digest provides some ideas for delicious side dishes that are full of nutrients. We hope this provides you some inspiration to try something new this year and enjoy and happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
How Do You Like Them Apples?
It’s fall and the local orchards are full of apple trees with delicious fruit ripe for the picking. And you know what they say… “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are packed full of nutrition as they provide a healthy dose of fiber, vitamin C and disease fighting antioxidants. Check out more of the health benefits of apples from Best Health Magazine.
Best Health Magazine: 15 Health Benefits of Eating Apples
What’s the best way to enjoy these delicious and healthy fruits? Any way! Apples can be a great snack, dessert or addition to a salad. Try some of these tasty recipe ideas from Canadian Living and enjoy all that apple season has to offer!
Healthy Fall Harvest Meals
Fall is here and the harvest has begun. It’s a wonderful time to enjoy all the delicious vegetables the season has to offer. The following from the Cooking Channel offers some of the most enjoyable, healthy and easy to make fall recipes. Try one today!
Back to…Healthy Meals
The “lazy days” of summer are over, vacations are done, the kids are back to school, and it’s time to get back to routine. As a mom of four, believe me that I understand the stress of September and how parents can easily lose themselves with the focus on getting the kids back to a manageable routine. So, this September, we wanted to provide a series of ideas and strategies to make sure you are going “back to school” while also getting “back to you!”
We’ve shown you ways to get “Back to” both fitness and a healthier mind. Now, in the third week of our series, we will focus on getting back to a healthy diet! Summertime can be a time of indulgence, filled with barbeques, parties and eating out. Now that fall has come, it’s time to refocus on healthy meals and we know these are most likely to happen at home. With proper planning and preparation, creating healthy home cooked meals can be simple every day. Check out our top 5 ways to save you time and to boost your nutrition at dinner time!
1. Plan Ahead: Planning and posting your weekly meal plan in advance each week will save you time and keep your organized! From this, create your list and hit the grocery store for all you need for the week. Post clearly on your fridge so you remember to pull what you need out of the freezer each day.
2. Shop Only Once: Going to the grocery store multiple times per week eats away at your time and your pocket book. Although you may have only gone in for a bag of milk, often you come out with things you don’t really need. With proper meal planning you should be able to shop for the entire week.
3. Make Ahead: Once you have your meals planned, your ingredients purchased, and your fridge stocked, start cooking! Prepare your vegetables and meats for your next meal ahead of time or, better yet, create some of the many healthy make-ahead meals you can freeze to eat later in the week.
4. Make Friends With Your Slow Cooker: A slow cooker or crock pot can become a busy cooks’ best friend! Simply toss in your pre-prepped ingredients before you leave in the morning and come home to a delicious healthy meal ready and waiting for you when you walk through the door!
5. Eat As a Family: Although schedules are busy and time is tight, make an effort to sit down and eat together as a family. Doing so is beneficial for your mental and physical health and helps to maintain that family togetherness. If this just can’t work during the week, make an effort to connect as a family over meals on the weekends. Check out our previous post, “Make Time for Family Dinner Time.”
Good, Better, and Best Healthy Meals
Ensuring you and your family are consuming a “rainbow” of foods and eating enough fruit and vegetables each day is important. But do you know if what you are serving is providing yourself and your children with the nutrients they need? The following, from Parenting, invites the Author of the “Sneaky Chef” to show you the good, better, and best you can be serving at each meal of the day. Check it out!
Healthy Home Cooked Meals In A Hurry
New schedules bring an adjustment to eating and food preparation routines. With less time available to put together a proper meal, people tend to rely on fast food or ready-made options that lack essential nutrients, or that are packed with preservatives and empty calories. The following from Greatist.com provides you with 52 different meals from breakfast to dinner that you can prepare in 12 minutes or less! Bon appetite!
Greatist.com: 52 Healthy Meals in 12 Minutes or Less
Check out more great healthy eating tips and recipes in our “Food For Thought” section.
A Healthy Breakfast– Start The Day Off Right
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day – especially for children considering their physical and cognitive development and need to attend to school activities all day. Studies show, among other things, that eating a healthy breakfast promotes concentration, however, it is known that more than 40% of Canadian children skip this important meal regularly. The morning rush can be quite chaotic, so check out these great easy breakfast recipes that kids can eat on the go.
Parenting: 15 On-the-Go Breakfast Recipes
The month of September celebrates “Breakfast for Learning,” a Canadian charity that for over 20 years has helped to nourish school-aged children by providing breakfast, snack and lunch programs in schools. Be sure to check out their great work and help support Breakfast for Learning across Canada.
Healthy School Lunches
School starts next week and although many welcome the return of routine, packing a healthy lunch that won’t come home uneaten remains an ongoing parental challenge. It’s true–packing your child’s lunch can seem like a daunting, never ending task, but it doesn’t have to be. The following from Eat Right Ontario provides all the information you need know to ensure your kids are eating healthy foods every day.
Eat Right Ontario: Packing Healthy School Lunches and Snacks
Comparing The Top Milk Alternatives
Lactose intolerance, food allergies, and lifestyle choices are resulting in people choosing to switch to a dairy free diet. While life without dairy is necessary for some and can be healthy, it is important to ensure the substitutes you consume are providing you with the vitamins and minerals your body needs. The following from Eat Life Whole compares the most popular milk alternatives in the marketplace to help you find the right replacement to maintain a healthy diet.
The “Death by Sugar” Dilemma
Recently Maclean’s published an article “Death by Sugar” about how sugar consumption is one of the leading causes of the obesity issues in North America, and may also have links to rising numbers of diabetes, heart conditions and alzheimers disease. Statistics Canada indicates that on average Canadian adults consume 88 pounds of sugar each year. Many of us are good at avoiding high sugar sources such as chocolate bars, candy and pop, however, due to lack of information on nutritional labels we are not fully aware of the sugar consumption in everyday foods. Foods such as bread, cereals, spreads and pastas are all high in sugar content and it’s time Health Canada made the average consumer better aware of this.
Check out the full “Death by Sugar” article from Maclean’s here.