Kids' Healthy Snacks - Nutritious yet Easy-to-Make Snacks for Growing Kids

Kids have many things going on in their lives. After school, they have their sport, their dance class, or other extracurricular activity that make them as busy as adults are. Thus, when it comes to the snacks that they eat, it is essential that their snacks are not only healthy, but provides them with the energy that will help them last the day.

Cut up fruit is a good snack option and source of energy for a growing child's body. Apples, bananas, apricots, melons, strawberries, and kiwis are just some of many types of fruit that can be easily cut up into snack-size portions, and enjoyed at any time of the day. Not many kids, or even adults for that matter, fancy eating fruits. However, by making it look fun to look at, it naturally follows that it will be fun for them to eat. Today, there are many commercially prepared cut up fruit that you can buy at the store, so snacking becomes not only healthy, but convenient as well.

Instead of preparing milkshakes made of ice cream for snack hour, yogurt can make a great alternative to this rather fatty afternoon refreshment. They say that fancy yogurt is an acquired taste. If that is indeed the case, starting yogurt as early as possible for your children should help prepare their taste buds. You can purchase yogurt flavored naturally with fruit, such as strawberry and blueberry, in order to balance the yogurt's natural sour taste.

Potato chips make for great afternoon snacks, but when consumed regularly, can potentially have negative effects on the body, particularly in a person's renal system. When too much sodium is consumed, it can lead to bloating or water retention, which is not safe for kids. To avoid these risks, make sure that any chips served during snack hour have small amounts of sodium, like popcorn. Popcorn utilizes oil and butter, but the salt content is very minimal. If you want to serve your kids healthier snacks than popcorn, why not create your own chips, such as tofu and sweet potato chips, and use an oven to bake them?

Chocolate bars and kids are always a perfect combination, but if you want a healthier alternative, make sure to provide snacks that can provide the same level of energy, without boosting their sugar levels. Granola bars are great alternatives to chocolate bars, especially if they are chocolate flavored. This is a creative way to incorporate the element of chocolate in healthier snacking alternatives.

When preparing or buying healthy snacks for kids, it is prudent to look for the freshness value and nutritional content. Read packages well, and if there are indications that consumption should be within 24 hours, follow the said instruction in order to maximize its nutritional value. Also, if there are specific directions pertaining to its storage or serving, similarly follow it to ensure freshness.

Crunch Pak cares about you and wants to give you healthy desserts.Crunch Pak products are mostly gluten-free(except for pretzels and granola). We list gluten-containing ingredients on the package label. Crunch Pak is the industry leader in fresh pre sliced apples. Your healthy calorie snack on the go.

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Share and Learn - The 1st session at Azzuri Bay

An evening with a difference is how I would describe last evening. We were a whole bunch of foodies packed into a room, but we were not there to eat or sample any dishes. It was going to be an evening of learning and sharing. The new initiative from CFG aptly titled "Share and Learn" had its 1st session at Azzuri Bay last evening. 

[Image courtesy: Chennaifoodguide.in]

A small group of about 25-30 members were present, apart from the 3 presenters and the one hour dedicated to the presentations flew in a jiffy. After a brief tug of war with the TV, and with not one or two but 5 guys pouring over the computer and TV, they gave up and decided to use the laptop to show the presentations while the ladies spoke. 

The theme for the day was : 

What you eat matters... Making the dish look good matters and 

Understanding what you eat/drink matters... 

Opening the evening was Smriti Kirubanandan . With a degree in engineering, she is a long distance runner, yoga practitioner and someone who believes in Raw Food concept. She spoke about the three categories- Raw Vegan, Raw vegetarian and Raw meat, and her life since she switched from normal diet to Raw Vegan. It was interesting and insightful to say the least, and I wondered if I had half the amount of conviction she did to make the leap.  She was not preachy, not advocating that people switch over, but spoke about the positives of such a diet. It was an eye opener of sorts and we all wondered how easy it was to follow this diet in India. She did mention it was easier in the western world, but it was not impossible here, especially since we had quite a few Organic products available out in the market. 

Positives of this diet:

1.High levels of energy

2.No weight issues

3. Better digestion

4. No skin or digestion problems

5. Overall health and fitness maintained.

She did mention that she had begun incorporating a small cup of regular food. There are times when she is out and has no choice but to eat some normal food, and to avoid her body reacting strongly, she has begun making it a part of her daily regime. 

Smoothies, salads, fruits, shakes, nuts, almond milk, sprouted grains are what you can eat if you follow this diet. And if you are a Raw vegetarian, you can include raw milk and raw diary product as well.

You can read about her here or follow the facebook page  

Phew... Imagine living on bananas and papayas? Anyways, breaking into my thought, Sanjeeta K Kumar took over the stage and began talking about Food Styling & Photographer. I have interacted with her at multiple occasions and kinda knew what she did. Her forte are creating rustic images.

I enjoy photography but have never been able to take a good shot of food items. Listening to her talk about the impact of light, props, colour or material of the plates, cutlery used, the rule of the 3rd gave me quite an insight into what to do or not to do. She showed off a few of her photographs, emphasising on how it is best to keep it simple and make sure the food item is the hero of the dish. Not only emphasizing s she a great photographer, she cooks/bakes amazingly well as well. Last weekend, she brought us brownies and cake at the Chennai Blogger meet and they were both divine! She also told us how most of the ad copy photos we see are taken not with the original food item but with something else that is made to look like food. For ex, potato mash for ice cream, red tar for tomato sauce and so on. 

Eeks.. we wondered how many photographs we had oggled at where such products...hehe... Finally, taking stage was our very own Avanthi Vissa the woman behind Bellaria and co-partner at Froyo Factory. A sensory scientist from Kraft, Avanthi took us through the concept of tasting, how our senses react, and the elaborate processes they followed for Oreo sandwiches when they had to make a change in the flavour or texture. She spoke in length about how our human brain perceives food, flavours and how we react differently. It was a moment where many of us thought back to how the same thing tasted different at different occasions. It depends on our mood, health, mental state and surrounding factors as well. When we have a cold, we cant taste things- well, this is only partly true she says. Our tongue can identify only 4 basic tastes- sweet, salty, sour and bitter. The rest of it all comes from our nose. She said "take a spoon of honey, taste with your nose closed and once with it open,.. the results will be different". I am definitely going to try this asap. :) 

Before we knew it, Q&A session drew to a halt and we moved over to the room next door for a quick [ya right, who am I conning] group photo before heading upstairs for dinner.................... the fun continues 

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Healthy Happy Weight Loss, Healthy Happy Life!

As you know, healthy weight loss involves more than just cutting calories and exercising more. You want to change your weight, but you also want to create a healthy relationship with your life, food, body, and self. You want a life that is in balance, without constantly be obsessed with calorie counting or worry about good foods versus bad foods. Healthy weight loss means that you have abundant energy to pursue your dreams and vibrant health to enjoy your life. Follow these simple guidelines and learn a few tips on how to make your weight loss journey balanced and healthy.

De-Stress Your Digestion

Sweets

Is your digestive tract energetically charged with tension and worry? Stress affects all parts of your body and your digestive tract is no exception. If you are obsessed with what you can and cannot eat, worrying about whether your food is fattening, or unable to relieve your stress, you are upsetting the health and effectiveness of your digestive tract. Stress can lead to ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, and poor absorption of nutrients. Help your digestive tract by keeping your thoughts clear and your body at ease while you eat. Enjoy the food you are eating, relax with company of those eating with you, and learn to breathe deeply and fully while you are eating. Practice eating consciously, with joy, and with a clear mind for three days and watch your life health and happiness increase.

Fill Up On Inner Worth

On a deep level, those who use or abuse food have made a decision (perhaps an unconscious decision) that they are not worthy of being themselves. They believe they should not express themselves powerfully, and they should not receive pleasure for themselves. Overeating often stems from basic unmet needs for excitement, play, love and genuine self-expression. Often, people have decided they are "supposed" to give pleasure out to others, by being nice and good, smiling sweetly, not being bold, loud, or assertive. We go along with protocol buying into the idea that uniformity is the key to a happy and rich life. We are supposed to look a certain way, dress in order to please others, or contain our excitement. Yet to conform is to live in a state of rejection. Realize that denial of your individuality and uniqueness leads to feeling disempowered, mutes passions, and prohibits your ability to receive pleasure. Without pleasure and genuine self-supporting self-soothing strategies, we often turn to food to relieve basic emotional states such as stress, anxiety, fear, tiredness, depression, and anger.

Food In Your Pantry

Diets tend to make us uncomfortable around food. We begin to remove all temptations from our homes. No ice cream, no chocolate, no cookies. After awhile - no food in our pantries. This tactic doesn't really stop us from eating. Instead, it beckons us to venture out to the nearest convenience store or drive through. Once there it is difficult to resist the temptation of the hamburgers, fries, shakes, and cookies which we then devour in the car on the way home. This is the boomerang effect of deprivation. Scarcity makes us anxious while surplus calms us down. Begin to find your own way to allow food back on your shelves in your life.

Healthy Actions For Today

Health and happiness are not that difficult to have in your life. It just takes some attention and some action to insure that you have as much of both as you desire. Read through the following list and decide what actions you could take to increase the quality of your life:

o Notice what is right for you from the inside out

o Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains

o Drink lots of water

o Walk outside

o Movements of balance - balance board, exercise balls, yoga, Tai-chi, etc.

o Dance, exercise, play

o Laugh more

o Rest enough - not too much, not too little

o Remember the playful kid inside of you

o Be kind to yourself

o Feel good in everything you do

o Savor every moment

o Be grateful and count your blessings

o Learn to receive

o Recognize what you are receiving

o Pursue your goals

o Play up your strengths

o Find your calling

o Gain trust in yourself

Make Peace with Food

Do you sometimes feel like food is the enemy? Being at war with food and your body can only lead to decreased passion and a low energy life. The mood and attitudes you eat with affect the positive energy flow between food and you. Indeed, creating harmony with food is critical if you wish to live a happier, healthier life. Take a chance, call a truce, and begin to develop a more peaceful relationship with food. When you stop viewing food as the enemy, you regain control of your own life. You can connect with your body and discover you own subtle fullness and satiety cues. You can become involved in determining what, when, and how much your body wants to eat.

Healthy Happy Weight Loss, Healthy Happy Life!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Annette Colby, RD can help you take the pain out of life, turn difficult emotions into joy, release stress, end emotional eating, and move beyond depression into an extraordinary life! Annette is the author of Your Highest Potential and has the unique ability to show you how to spark an amazing relationship with your life! Visit www.LovingMiracles.com [http://www.LovingMiracles.com/] to access hundreds of content filled articles and sign up for a Fr'ee subscription to Loving Miracles! newsletter.

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Healthy Desserts

Healthy and dessert are two words that are not usually linked together. Maybe that's because we consider dessert to be a combination of sugar and fat, loaded with calories and other bad stuff. The reality of a healthy dessert can be yours though if you are willing to try something different. Oh yeah, fruit is already a dessert in some countries, but in the USA we consider it a treat only when it's baked inside some kind of crust and loaded with sugar.

Granted, if you have a serious sweet tooth, this alternative healthy stuff is probably not going to satisfy you but if you are also trying to be healthier and weigh less, it will help a lot. The easiest way to give yourself a healthy treat is to go for a really good yogurt-like Bulgarian yogurt, or Greek yogurt-which can be found in your local health food store. Then wander down the aisle where they keep the cacao products and grab yourself a package of cacao nibs. To that you can add some Goji berries or golden currants but stay away from the Incan golden-berries unless you are a great fan of TART and sour tastes (those little things may be packed with great antioxidant power but boy, are they tart). Throw in some chopped nuts, add a little stevia for sweetness, mix it all up, and you have a great healthy dessert. Another healthy treat is to put the same things in some ricotta cheese. That's a little heavier but just as tasty and usually doesn't require any sweetener.

Desserts

Okay now let's get real and talk about chocolate, which is what you are really reading this for right? Yes, you can have your chocolate and still be eating something healthy. The cacao bean is chock full of antioxidant power; it's the sugar that gets added that is the problem. You can get the cacao bean and grind it up with some coconut oil or organic cream and get yourself a creamy treat but you'll still have to add some sweetness to it. You can get the sweetness either from stevia (a natural-source sweetener called Honey Leaf) or just add honey, fruit juice or sugar. To be healthiest though, use stevia. If you just make the creamy cacao mixture you can spread it on something healthy like apple slices or make some almond bark. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a healthy dessert, right?

Another healthy alternative is to put some nut butter on fruit; that works best on apple or pear slices but you can always thin the butter out a bit with some coconut oil or cacao and dip strawberries, cherries and the like...and then roll them in nuts. Whipped cream is also an easy addition to make some fresh fruit special and if you fry some bananas in butter or coconut oil, dip them in cacao cream and then throw some chopped nuts on them, with a dollop of whipped cream...well...Elvis would have gone for that, I'm sure.

©2010 Dr.Valerie Olmsted All Rights Reserved

Healthy Desserts

Dr. Valerie Olmsted is an author, naturopathic physician, metaphysician, internet entrepreneur, artist, speaker, and lover of life. Traveling with the Quantum Vortex Experience, she has helped thousands of people reach the inner connection they are seeking and has contributed to the discoveries of manifestation practices via quantum physics applications.

http://www.BeWhoYouReallyAreCoach.com
Contact: Dr. Valerie Olmsted
2370 W. SR 89A
Ste.11-#121
Sedona, AZ 86336
928-257-3290

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Easy Healthy Dessert Recipes to Improve Health

Desserts are everyone's favorite and we all love indulging in sweets. However, you may have to skip your share of dessert in order to stay fit and healthy. This is because, desserts are usually considered to be a prime source of fat, sugar and calories. But, what if I tell you that you can concentrate on your fitness and enjoy the bite of desserts at the same time? Yes, it is very much possible. You can always try making some healthy dessert recipes at home. There are a number of healthy dessert recipes that can be deliciously sweet and healthy also. These dessert recipes are actually prepared by using natural sugars that are not fattening at all. So, we bring to you some healthy dessert recipes to improve the overall health. Following are some of the ideas that one should try:

1. Yogurt and Fruit Parfait: This is one of the best and healthiest dessert choices one could ever make. It might not taste like a cookie, but this fruity treat is equally delicious and satisfying. The combination of yogurt and fruits is always healthy and less in calories. You can add any of your favorite fruits to double the pleasure.

2. Frozen yogurt: We all like to have frozen yogurt with toppings, which is very easily found in the market. But, if you are aiming for healthy desserts, then you must learn to make frozen yogurt at home. Making frozen yogurt is probably the easiest thing one can do in the kitchen. You just need to pick some yogurt and keep it inside the freezer. This will give you a fresh, homemade and unadulterated dessert easily.

3. Frozen banana bites: Bananas are very healthy for everyone. So, one can anytime use this healthy fruit banana to create some healthy desserts. Frozen banana bites are extremely popular all across the world for its delicious flavor. You just need to cut the banana into bite size pieces and cover them using regular peanut butter. After that, roll each piece of banana in crushed nuts and put them into the freezer.

4. Baked apples: Baked apple is again a very healthy dessert choice. It is healthy, it is delicious and it is extremely simple to make. Simply core and slice an apple in to two slices. After that, sprinkle some cinnamon, natural sugar and granola on the top of the apple. Then, bake it for about 10-15 minutes. And your healthy baked apple is ready to be served.

Desserts

Easy Healthy Dessert Recipes to Improve Health

Get a few more Healthy Dessert Recipes.

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