From the South to the North

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.

We are leaving El Paso in a few short weeks to slowly make our way to our new home in Detroit.  Those of you that move as frequently understand the enormous amount of time it takes to prepare.   I am going to stop blogging until life is settled in Detroit.  Because we will be taking an extended vacation before arriving in Detroit, I expect that to be sometime in August.  

Thanks for reading and supporting me in this blog.  I hope you have had a good dose of inspiration to help you make healthy changes in your life.  I hope to provide new and interesting information from Detroit.  Until then, I wish you health and happiness!  Thanks for reading.

Week Ten Meals: What to do when you don't have time to cook??!!

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.

It was teacher appreciation week at my kids' school.  I helped the kids to make cornbread muffins.  Perhaps cornbread and muffins don't belong in the same sentence?  Now you all clearly see why I stick to cooking, not baking. 

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee." Abraham Lincoln

We all have our weeks where cooking daily meals just isn't possible. This week my daughter had a terrible stomach bug. She was throwing up and spiked a high fever. We took her to get adjusted and she was fine within 24 hours of her adjustment. However, we all know that having sick kids makes it impossible to get anything else done. So I am going to share with you the easy ways I make a healthy meal that involve hardly any work. Sorry to not post a grocery list with a meal plan, but my priority was my baby this week.

Option 1: Chicken Nuggets

Chicken Nuggets

This is a winner in our house. Take a chicken breast and cut it into pieces. Dip the pieces into a mix of gluten free flour, turmeric, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. Fry them all up in a little olive oil until they're brown. 

Then to turn it into a meal, add whatever fruits and veggies you have in their raw versions.

A gourmet meal partially prepared by a preschooler

So here we have chicken nuggets, olives, apples and a side of chocolate for dessert. The kids helped me to make the sides and serve it all.

Option 2: Breakfast for Dinner

I had some leftover chili cheese and taco shells from the night before. I made a scrambled egg mixed with the chili cheese and stuffed it into the taco shells. Fruit salad was served on the side.

Option 3: Potpourri

Yes, this is pathetic looking, but healthy. I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco and simply cut up the meat. I made some kale chips, and the rest is self explanatory. I find that when I simplify and serve the raw version, my time can be spent spoiling the sick kid that needs me.

Week Ten Information

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.

Real exercise...like how nature intended it to be.

"It's never too late to become what you might have been."  George Elliot

I'm so conflicted about exercise.  I know we need it, and that it feels good, but sometimes I am frustrated when I think about exercise.  Why do we, as Americans, think that exercise means putting on your special clothes and shoes, and going to a class, a gym, or a group to get our exercise?  Something that frustrates me about all of these diet and exercise movements is that they make people feel inadequate if someone can't afford the price or the time to be a part of the craze.  

I recently gave up my gym membership.  I am fortunate enough to live in a nice climate, and realized that I was running more outdoors (better to get my sunshine and fresh air anyway) than working out inside.  It just seemed silly to be paying for a gym.  I also have eased up on the pressure of a strict exercise routine.  Understanding the boost and health benefits I do get from exercise, I will continue to do it.  However, I have learned from my kids that exercise can be spontaneous and...ENJOYABLE (see above photo)!   

I am going to make it a point to dedicate two days a week to exercising with my children.  Some ways I am going to do this include swimming together, or taking a walk to the park and playing on the equipment with them.  If you haven't tried the monkey bars in a few years, I dare you!  Or even just playing with a ball in the backyard.  

The picture above inspires me to rethink the pressures of exercise I have placed upon myself.  It also reminds me that I don't need a machine or a watch to chart my miles achieved or calories burned.  If the end goal of exercise is to improve your health, then if classes or a gym membership work for you, great.  If you don't have the time or money for a gym, then perhaps it's time to make yourself other opportunities that would work for you.  The goal is just to get yourself moving.  

Book Recommendation:  The Miracle of Magnesium

by:  Carolyn Dean, M.D, N.D.

While focusing on the mineral magnesium, Dean brings to light the truth that we are no longer obtaining enough of the necessary minerals from our food supply.  Due to the changes in farming, our foods lack the nutrition we need.  It is proven that most Americans are deficient in magnesium.  Magnesium deficiency can cause the following:  anxiety, asthma, blood clots, bowel disease, cystitis, depression, diabetes, fatigue, heart disease, hypertension, hypoglycemia, insomnia, kidney disease, migraines, musculoskeletal conditions, nerve problem, obstetrical and gynecological problems, osteoporosis, Raynaud's syndrome, and tooth decay.  Magnesium can help all of the issues above as well as detox us from some heavy metals.  Dean explains that the use of prescription drugs, drugs, antibiotics, and steroids can damage our ability to absorb magnesium and deplete our stores of it.  Any kind of trauma, surgery, or stress, (including exercise) also call for increased magnesium.  

Deans carefully walks you through the history of magnesium and the job magnesium has in our bodies.  She then dedicates a chapter to each of the above mentioned issues.  I found myself rereading this book while I writing this book review. 

I wonder if it were possible to patent minerals, would doctors then be encouraged by the pharmaceutical companies to push more minerals on us?  Would the media and advertisers consider minerals essential, if they brought in revenue?  What I do know is that adding minerals into my daily routine has helped my health tremendously.  Do you take a daily mineral supplement?

Something my kids taught me this week:  

I know I talk about our relationship with technology a lot, but I feel so strongly that we are missing out on life when our faces are buried in a device.  My daughter wanted to see a shark.  I've shown them to her many times on the IPad.  But when she saw a real one at the aquarium, she sat down and spent a long time quietly watching the shark.  My daughter is not the kind of kid to "sit" or "quietly watch" ever.  Are we giving our children the chance to really experience life or are we simply letting them watch life on a screen?

Brain Power Activity: "I'm thinking of..." 
This is one wall in my kitchen.  In fact it's the wall that the kids stare at for three meals and two snacks a day.  Having this artistic display indeed did help them both learn their letters, but now they have found a new way to use these letters.  We play "I'm thinking of" and you have to describe an animal (insect, whatever), based on the characteristics in the picture.  I love the vocabulary they have developed, mostly because they want to trick each other to win, but hey I'll take it!  

Another benefit of these letters is the words written below them.  For your new reader, s/he can feel empowered "reading" these sticker cards.  

What do your kids look at while they eat?  What kind of conversations do you engage them in or do they have between themselves?  

Saturday I will be posting a new meal plan and grocery list.  Thanks for reading!