EcoLogical Mom Featured on Sassy Little Cabbages

I'm so thrilled to be featured on Sassy Little Cabbages. It is an awesome site about living a healthy lifestyle.


Thank you, Sassy Little Cabbages!

Low cholesterol diet for a healthy heart

Eating healthy is about making choices. When it comes to cholesterol- free food, there are many choices. In addition to cholesterol-free foods, a heart- healthy diet often calls for foods that contain some cholesterol.

Cholesterol-free foods originate from plants — fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. A low cholesterol diet will usually include a combination of cholesterol- free foods and low cholesterol foods, such as low-fat dairy products, poultry, and fish. By choosing cholesterol-free foods, one can easily lower risk of heart disease.

Types of cholesterol-free foods include vegetables, fruits, whole-grains and legumes.
Eat at least three to five servings of fruits and vegetables and six to 11 servings of whole grains and legumes each day as part of a cholesterol lowering diet. Fruits and vegetables are low in saturated fat and total fat, and have no cholesterol. A diet high in fruit and vegetables may also help keep cholesterol levels low. Fruits and vegetables are great substitutes for foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Breads, cereals, rice, pasta, and other grains, and dry beans and peas are generally high in starch and fibre and low in saturated fat and calories. They also have no dietary cholesterol, except for some bakery breads and sweet bread products made with high fat, high cholesterol milk, butter, and eggs.

Chicken is relatively low in saturated fat and cholesterol, especially when the skin is removed. Low cholesterol foods also include most fish. Fish also tends to be low in saturated fat.

While some types of shellfish would be classified as low cholesterol foods, others would not. But shellfish do have little saturated fat and total fat. Even shrimp can be enjoyed occasionally on a heart healthy diet, provided you eat less.

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Good Fish, Bad Fish

Fish is an excellent source of lean protein and omega-3 fatty acids called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

A diet rich in fish oil may help reduce inflammation and decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are also essential for brain and eye development. The American Heart Association suggests that we each eat at least two servings of oily fish each week to help keep our hearts healthy.
So when is fish not so good for your health?

Almost all fish is contaminated with trace amounts of mercury. While most healthy adults have no problem eliminating the mercury from their bodies, children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should avoid some types of fish and shellfish to reduce their risk of mercury exposure.

Fish that contain the highest level of mercury are larger and older sharks, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. It is probably a good idea for most people to avoid eating much of these fish. They can be replaced with other fish and shellfish such as shrimp, pollock, canned light tuna, salmon and catfish, which all contain much less mercury.

Most other fish fall somewhere in between. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has a complete listing of the mercury levels in commercial seafood and fish. It is also interesting to note that deep-frying fish may increase the concentration of mercury in fish.

Besides mercury, fish can be a problem if it isn't prepared properly. Deep fried or served with a heavy, fat- and calorie-dense sauce will turn healthy fish into an unhealthy meal fast.

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Apricot Tart

Can you handle just one more fruit dessert? Grab some fresh apricots next trip to the market and make this divine tart. My favorite fruit dessert this summer. So far anyway. Of course, like so many of my other favorite pastries, this recipe comes from Pastry Studio. I made it in a rectangular pan with a removable bottom, but you could make it in individual tart pans or a large round one.

I do have one piece of advice: I suggest you follow the directions more carefully than I did for making the crumb base/topping. Do not over mix! I let the machine go a bit too long and got more of a dough than a crumble. Stop the food processor when it's still crumbly. (Not that my tart wasn't delicious anyway but it's supposed to look like this.....a cornmeal CRUMB tart!) You can always do the final tossing by hand.
The tart isn't overly sweet so you might want to have some ice cream or sweetened whipped cream handy for any guests or family with a decided sweet tooth. I loved it just the way it was. I like a tart tart. Hah! You know what I mean.


Apricot Cornmeal Crumb (sort of) Tart
From Pastry Studio

Ingredients for the crumble:

8 fresh ripe apricots

1/4 cup water (yes, I know it doesn't sound like enough, but it is)

1/4 C + 2 T sugar

1/2 vanilla bean (I used 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste)

pinch of cinnamon

Ingredients for the filling:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon fine cornmeal

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream

Method:

Cut the apricots in half and remove the pits. Combine the water and sugar together and bring to a simmer. Split and seed the vanilla bean (or add the vanilla bean paste) and add to the syrup along with the apricots and the cinnamon. Lower the heat to a low simmer and cook the mixture until the apricots starts to  look a bit like jam but still hold their shape. Take off the heat and pour into a strainer placed over a bowl to drain. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt and place in a food processor. Add the butter pieces and pulse just enough to begin to break the butter up into smallish pieces. Mix the yolks and sour cream together and add to the food processor. Pulse just a few times until the mixture looks like it’s coming together but is still rather crumbly. Do not over mix. Pour into a large bowl and toss gently with your hands.

Place about 2/3 of the dough crumbles into a 9” tart pan with the bottom lined with parchment. Gently spread an even layer to the edges and press lightly without compressing it too much. (Because I had dough at this point and not crumble, I was forced to press it more into a crust and I also pushed it up the sides a bit.) Cover the bottom of the pan completely so there aren’t any holes. Layer the cooled apricots evenly on top, leaving about a little border around the edge. Sprinkle the remaining dough crumble over the top of the apricots. Be sure to spread some out to the edges of the tart pan to form a border. 

Place the tart on a sheet pan lined with parchment and bake for about 35 minutes. Cool completely before removing from the tart pan to serve.

Exercise Is Key To Brain Health, Says Study

Regular physical activity -- even walking -- may be key to maintaining a sharp mind as we get older, two new studies suggest.

While that's not a new discovery, the studies plug critical gaps in the scientific literature and corroborate previous reports linking exercise to reduced rates of mental impairment in older adults.

The message is now clearer than ever: "If you stay physically active, you're buying protection for your brain," says Eric B. Larson, M.D., the vice president for research at Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit health-care system based in Seattle.

The studies appear in the July 25 print edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine and were published online today to coincide with the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, taking place this week in Paris.

One of the studies included 2,809 women over the age of 65 who had a history of heart disease or stroke, or at least three risk factors for those conditions. That's noteworthy because most previous studies on exercise and dementia have focused on healthy people, according to Dr. Larson, who wrote a commentary accompanying the new research.

Exercise may be particularly important for these women, since unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and other conditions that affect blood-vessel health have been linked to the memory and language problems known as cognitive decline, which often precedes Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Researchers in Paris and at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, reanalyzed data from a study originally designed to examine the role of antioxidant vitamins in heart health.

Beginning in 1995, the women answered biennial surveys on how often they engaged in various types of exercise (such as jogging, swimming, walking, and climbing stairs). Several years later, the researchers then gave them a series of telephone-based cognitive and memory tests on four separate occasions spread out over a four- to six-year period.

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Stroke risk reduced by optimism

Optimism helps protect against risk of stroke, a new study suggests.

The study included 6,044 adults aged 50 and older who self-rated their health and optimism on a 16-point scale. They were followed for two years.

Optimism is the expectation that more good things, rather than bad, will happen.

Each point increase in optimism was associated with a 0.90 times lower risk for stroke, after adjusting for age, U.S. psychologists found.

"Optimism may play an important role in protecting against stroke among older adults," Eric Kim, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan and his co-authors concluded in Thursday's online issue of the journal Stroke.

Over the two-year followup period, there were 88 strokes, the researchers found.

"Our work suggests that people who expect the best things in life actively take steps to promote health," Kim said.

The self-reported stroke history and limited followup were limitations of the study.

Previously, a sunny attitude has been associated with a lower risk of heart disease and a healthier immune system.

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Mom, Can I Have More Brussel Sprouts?

Meet Andrea Kakas, our Mom of the Week! 

Andrea has done a great job feeding her 2 kids a variety of healthy foods. As a result, they love veggies and fruits, including Brussel Sprouts! Andrea has loads of tips to share, check them out.

Mom, Can I Have MoreBrussel Sprouts?

"Mom,can I have more brussel sprouts?” You get that question everyday right?  Believe it or not, I do get that question every time we havebrussel sprouts, but don’t hate me yet. My daughter who loves brussel sprouts, hates broccoli right now.  I am not a perfect parent and I do notpretend to be, but I have to say that my 2 ½ and 4 ½ yr olds eat what I eat,which is pretty much everything.

Iam excited to share some of my tips on feeding kids.   You may not agree with everything I write, buthopefully you pick up a tip or two. I was fortunate to be brought up with extremely healthy eating habitseven though I grew up in Midwest suburbia in the 80’s.  We ate things like 10 grain cereal anddates in the morning, falafel for dinner with brown rice, etc.  Ok, we ate ice cream like it was ourjob when we had access to it, but we did not eat processed foods.  So I have a lot of experience eatinggood food and getting kids to eat it. 

Hereare my 4 “rules” that I hope seem realistic and achievable.  Cater them to your family!

To me the most important thing is that mykids eat what I eat, when I eat! And the earlier you start this habit and STAY CONSISTENT, the easier itis. 

I hear a lot of moms say that their baby used to eateverything but now that they are 2,3, 4, they won’t eat anything!  It is easier to get a 9 mo old to eatpeas than a 2 year old! This is because kids are smart and they formulate evilplans to make parenting even harder….like temper tantrums over mealtime.  

Staying consistent is not easy, but it is so worth it!!  Here is an example: My son always getsa snack before bedtime so that he will not wake up at 5am screaming of hunger.  When he was a little over two, hetried  to outsmart us by eating lessdinner and a bigger snack, which then turned into tantrums and refusal to eatdinner and then huge snacks.  Wecaught on to his evil plan and decided to fight back.  We first let him scream it out and had to listen tosometimes 30 minutes of tantrums until he would finally eat dinner.  We are talking about a fight overspaghetti and meatballs and broccoli, a meal I know he likes.   After a few days of this, I rememberedmy rule for my 4 year old; no tantrums in the kitchen/family room.  She can have a tantrum in her bedroomand come downstairs with the family when she is ready to behave.  So when my son refused to eat, westarted putting him in his crib and we told him that he could no longer screamin the kitchen and that when he was ready to eat, he could call us and we wouldget him.  (He could not climb outof his crib yet.  You can strapyour kid into a highchair/booster seat in another room, you get my point)  This may sound harsh, but I wouldrather have a few days of a screaming kid that learns that mealtime is exactlythat, mealtime, than have the constant, “eat your dinner”, “sit down”, “ comeback here” during dinner.  It isexhausting! 

Maybe you like to feed your kids first and you like to eatdinner later.  That is fine, but mypoint is that they should know what dinner (breakfast, lunch) is.

Ok,but how do you get your child to eat?? Now that they know they cannot throw tantrums over dinner, what else canyou do? 

Makedinner relaxing

Yeahright.  Relaxing and dinner withchildren do not really go together. What I mean is that beside the occasional bouts of power struggle tempertantrums, dinner should be about eating, conversation, etc.  I know it sounds crazy if your kids areyoung but realistically I am talking about a few minutes!  Personally, I think it is hard for kidsto sit for very long, so I make sure we eat together, but they do not have tosit there while I finish eating. They may only sit there for five minutes max and we will have a quickconversation where I ask them what they did at preschool and they say“nothing.”  Really, theconversation is more me recapping the day and saying something nice orfunny  that they did that day.  Is this making your nauseous yet?  We are not the model family, but we tryto set the stonework for when they are older.

Makesure your kids are hungry for mealtime.

Whatif they are truly not hungry for dinner? What are you feeding them at 4pm? Granola bars?  I knew a mom whose kids did not eatmeals and she kept a drawer stocked full of kid food that they could easily getto with granola bars, pretzels, etc. Well that’s fine if that is what you want your kids to eat, but I knowthat if I had that option as a kid, I would have loved to have a drawer full ofjunk food!  My kids do not get bigsnacks after 3:30/4 and we eat dinner around 5:30 so I am not talking aboutstarving your kid!  My kids canhave snacks, but nothing that will spoil their dinner after 3:30.  I frequently give them a small bowl offrozen peas and corn.  Yes,frozen.  It is awesome for teethingbabies to snack on because it is something cold, nutritional and they cannotchoke on it.  I still give my kidsthis.  Or, I have them “help” me makea salad and they can snack on what I am putting in the salad that day.  Sometimes they love what I am puttingin there and sometimes they hate it, but at least they tried it and it will notspoil their dinner.  You know whenyour child is truly hungry and a few crackers will not spoil their dinner vs.when your kid is just begging because crackers are the only thing they willeat.  Use your good judgment.

Possiblyyour child eats a big breakfast, small lunch and is not very hungry fordinner.  That is ok too!  When my daughter was 18 mo old she justate more and was more open to variety of foods during lunch so that is when Ibrought out the veggies!  It is agood time to use up leftovers from last nights dinner and expose your kids towhat you eat.  If you work fulltimeand do not have lunch during the week with your child, make the weekends a funtime to eat together!  Again, catermy suggestions to fit your lifestyle.

Sonow that your kids know what mealtime is, dinner is relaxing, ha ha, and theyare hungry, what do you feed them?

Make good food

Isay “make good food” because good food prepared well is so much better than badfood prepared poorly and kids are so much more likely to eat it.  So maybe you don’t love to cook.  I love to cook, but it does become achore when you are constantly feeding hungry kids!  You all know what you should do.  Plan meals, make a shopping list, grocery shop, put  food away, prepare food, clean up…I amexhausted just thinking about it.

Hereis one example on how to spend very little time and money making good food foryour family.  I could give you manyexamples, but this is very simple and basic.  You do not need to be a top chef to do this.  I have cooked like this for years whileworking, being a stay at home mom and a working mom and it all works.

Ifind that roasting things in the oven is so easy and brings out the flavor somuch more and my kids love the food…simple and delicious.  You do not have to tend to something onthe stove or worry about kids getting close to the stove.

Buya whole chicken or whole cut up chicken with skin and bones on (it just takesbetter).  Buy a bag of sweetpotatoes or potatoes, broccoli or some other veggie and ingredients for asalad. 

 If you are home 1.5 - 2 hours beforedinner, put olive oil, salt and pepper on chicken and put it in a pan.  Cut up potatoes or sweet potatoes (ornot ), put  on cookie sheet coveredwith foil (or without foil if you are environmentally conscious and don’t mindcleaning the pan) and put olive oil and salt on potatoes.   Don’t peel the sweetpotatoes.  You will be surprisedhow good the peel is roasted and it is so good for you and your kids!

Putchicken and potatoes in 400 degree oven for 1.5 hours for cut up chicken, 2hours for whole chicken.   Ifyou are not home 2 hours before dinner, put potatoes and frozen chicken in ovenand turn “time bake” on for the oven to start cooking before you get home.  Cook veggies and make salad rightbefore eating.

Youcan make this meal many different ways adding things like lemon zest , rosemaryand garlic to chicken.  Make it aMexican meal and add garlic, cumin and cilantro to the chicken, make brown riceinstead of potatoes and use leftovers for burritos, etc.  (If you work you can make the brownrice the night before and reheat…I do this a lot)  If you are more kitchen savvy, use the chicken bones to makechicken stock for soup.

Mypoint is that you do not have to use a recipe, lots of ingredients, expensiveingredients.  Just do a little workin the morning or the night before and make enough for TWO meals so you don’thave to do this every day.  I haveeven tripled recipes and frozen a portion for another day.   Vegetarian?  There are many vegetarian meals you canmake this way too.

Ialso hear that it is expensive to eat healthy.  I have to disagree! Yes a bag of apples is $3-$5 but have you ever heard anyone say “I ateone apple last night and couldn’t stop and I ate the whole bag” Nope, neverheard that.  Prepared healthy foodand out of season food is expensive, yes. However, healthy food that is not prepared and packaged with fancylabels on it, like beans, brown rice, in season fruits and veggies, are notvery expensive, fills you and your kids up, and you eat less of it! 

To Recap:

Eatwith your kids and be consistent with their diet.   You do not necessarily have to be consistent to thepoint of skipping a happy meal, but that is up to you!

Besidesthe occasional power struggles, try to prevent dinner from being the constantbattleground.  You and your kidswill dread mealtime if it is stressful!

Snacksare important for kids.  They gethungry!  But try to monitor theirsnacks before mealtime. 

Makegood food.  You don’t have to be aseasoned chef to make decent food. Keep it simple if cooking is not your thing!

Some pointers on consistency

Yourchild will not.  I repeat, WILL NOTstarve themselves.  I am amazed atthe power struggle sometimes and I just ignore my kids when they are throwingtantrums and say that I can help them when they calm down.  I am not talking about food that theyhave never tasted or is very spicy or requires an adult palate, etc.  But if a child knows that if theyscream over spaghetti they will get a bowl of cereal, they will scream! 

Iam sure you have heard that some kids need to taste something 14 times to likeit.  I believe it.  Offer foods frequently and do not makea big deal about it as to make it seem like torture to eat it.  This may seem contrary to letting themscream over spaghetti.  I amreferring to new/newer foods or foods that have a stronger flavor.  For example, my kids used to not likecilantro, but now they love it. 

Eatingshould be a family affair.  Mostpeople don’t have time to sit down with their kids 3 times a day to eat (ifthey are not at school), but what I mean is feed your kids what you eat, sitdown and eat…but make sure you are eating well too!  I heard a kid say that “mom’s don’t eat lunch”  Seriously?  Actions speak louder than words.