pudding

Here's a fun snack that takes no time at all and will help you get some fruit in. No need for a Vita-mix, any blender should work for this one.

Raw 'Pudding'

2-3 bananas
1/2-1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp raw honey

Put in blender and process until smooth. If you add some ground flax, it will gel up a bit after about 10 minutes. I did this and preferred it without, but it might seem more of a pudding consistency with the flax.

Enjoy!

oatmeal

To cut down on the amount of breakfast cereal that we have been eating, I have been making oatmeal a few days a week. This also helps to cut out some dairy as well because we don't need milk for our cereal. Here are two of the recipes that I've made.
Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oatmeal
Baked Oatmeal
These recipes make a completely different kind of oatmeal. The second one is more like an oatmeal quick bread, while the first one is more like traditional oatmeal.
Substitutions that I made:
Overnight Oatmeal- I used 3 apples instead of 2
Baked Oatmeal- I used slightly less sugar, subbed plain or vanilla yogurt for half of the milk, added cinnamon and blueberries. You could also do an egg sub with 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp water.
I bought some steel cut oats this weekend, so now I just need some good recipes for those!

dairy

Here are some links about dairy:
Sustainable Table- talks about the history of dairy in North America
Milk Sucks-PETA- put very plainly, but may be more info than you'd like to know (although if we're eating/drinking it, we should know what IT is!)
International Dairy Federation-health reasons why you should drink milk
There are pretty good arguments on both sides. Even if dairy is healthy for us though, I'm not really sure I like the idea of animals that are treated so poorly just so I can eat/drink dairy products. For now, we'll continue to cut down on dairy and see where it takes us...

salad

My main goal for January is to drink a minimum of 6 cups of water a day. My secondary goal is to eat at least 5 salads a week, with homemade dressing.
Here's what I've made so far:

Fruit and Lettuce Salad with Orange Yogurt Dressing- this was sooo good! I used organic vanilla yogurt, sunflower seeds and added blueberries. The second time I forgot to add honey and it was just as good- probably because the vanilla yogurt is already sweetened. Oh- and I did not add any bacon. We all loved this salad and the kids were begging for more!

The other one I made was just a regular veggie salad, with homemade poppy seed dressing.

Poppy Seed Dressing (a Vita-Mix recipe)
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 thin slice onion
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Place water, vinegar, onion, sugar, mustard, salt and cornstarch in Vita-Mix container. Secure lid. Select variable speed #1. Turn on machine and quickly increase speed to #10, then to high. Run for 1 minute. Reduce speed to variable #3. Remove lid plug . Add poppy seeds. Run for 5 seconds. Thicken over medium heat on the stove, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate in airtight container. Note: I actually used slightly less sugar and salt and it turned out fine.

I love my Vita-Mix! It is the most amazing kitchen appliance and well worth the money- as long as you use it!

Also, when you make things like salad dressing homemade, you really get a chance to see what is in it. Obviously, you are eliminating the chemicals and other unnecessary things, but do we really notice how much sugar and salt are in things until we make them ourselves??

cutting down on cow's milk

So far, I seem to be meeting my 6 cup a day goal for water!
Our family has always consumed large amounts of dairy every day. While I don't think that we will or even should cut it out entirely, I would definitely like to cut down.
We used to buy about 4 bags (equal to approx. 4 gallons) of milk each week! I probably drank more than anyone else in our family. We have been going through maybe one bag a week now. We have all been drinking more water recently. When I want a glass of milk, I am now making myself drink a glass of water first and then if I still want the milk then I will have some. Usually, I don't end up drinking the milk.
Also, I made some rice milk a few days ago and the kids seem to like it, especially Ethan. It is much cheaper than cow's milk and if I started making it with brown rice it would be quite healthy as well. I would highly recommend making your own, if you plan to drink rice milk. Canola oil is one of the first ingredients in commercial rice milk. When you make your own you would obviously eliminate that and you also have control over the other ingredients that go in it. I found a variety of recipes with quite a range over how much rice you should put in. I ended up doing this:

RICE MILK
1 cup cooked rice
4 cups pure water
approx 1 tsp vanilla
approx 1 tbsp brown sugar

Blend together for 1-2 minutes. I have a Vitamix (a high speed blender) and do not need to strain it, but if you have a regular blender you may need to strain it before you drink it.

Another area that really has been helping is eating less cold cereal. We have always eaten cereal for breakfast, so this is a really hard one to get away from. I have found some oatmeal recipes that I have been trying, my favourites are ones that I can prepare the night before, so I don't have to cook anything in the morning! I will add those recipes this week hopefully. When we have oatmeal, we don't need milk. When we have cereal, the boys seem to want rice milk now. So we have cut down to about a quarter of the cow's milk consumption that we used to have!
Now to do something about the cheese and yogurt!

water, water, water

Background: I grew up in a house where water was something you showered in. My dad drank coffee and tea, my mom drank Pepsi and milk, my sister drank Pepsi and I drank milk.
Now: My husband works for Culligan, the water company, so water has quite a bit more of an important role in our lives.

My goal for January is to drink at least 6 cups of water a day. I'm finding it a little easier than I expected. I used to have a hard time getting one glass down.
We always hear that we should drink more water, but why? Here are some reasons:
to prevent Rheumatoid Joint Pain and Arthritis
to prevent a high level of Cholesterol
to prevent Brain Damage
to prevent Osteoporosis
to prevent Cancer
for skin health
to help elimination of body wastes and toxins
to help in maintaining the body Ph balance in order to prevent and cure disease
to lose weight
for eye health
to reduce water retention
to transport of oxygen to cells
to maintain muscle tone
to regulate body temperature
For more detailed info on these benefits click here.

We also only drink water purified through Reverse Osmosis (RO)- we started that long before Perry started working for Culligan (in case you were wondering!) You may be surprised to know that most bottled water(like the ones that say spring water) actually have more contaminants in them than tap water. The purity of water is measured by TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Pure water comes in under 10ppm, acceptable water under 50ppm, our tap water is about 130ppm and many bottled waters are 200-300+ppm. RO water is pure (under 10ppm), the only purer form is distilled water, but many people feel that it has an odd taste. The other concern that I have with tap water and this includes bathing water is chlorine. We are planning on installing a de-chlorination system in our house very soon.
When Dr. Oz was asked, "Should I use a water filter in my shower?" his response was:
"Drinking water isn't the only water that should be free of toxins. You should also shower and especially bathe with toxin-free H2O. Instead of squirting yourself with Evian, remove chlorine by adding a charcoal filter to your shower or bath. Chlorine - which isn't just found in swimming pools but also in tap water - dries out the hair (as well as the skin). It's especially important if you take 10-minute showers or baths rather than a quick rinse. The problem isn't the straight chorine but what it turns into - stronger toxins called trichloromethanes. These can irritate your skin and eyes, but may also cause other health problems in higher concentrations." He has also strongly warned parents not to bathe their children in chlorinated water. Oh, and I thought a 10 minute shower was a quick rinse (I prefer a good 20 minute shower)!
Lots and lots of healthy pure water is my goal for January.

my goal

My overall goal: to be healthier
But isn't that everyone's goal? Really, what does that mean? I have been doing a lot of research over the past few months about nutrition. I'm coming to the conclusion that food is either hurting your body or helping it. There's no in between. There is no food that I know of that passes through your body without having any impact on it whatsoever.
So, keeping that in mind, is it possible to virtually eliminate the harmful foods? For me, I think it seems unattainable. But, I would like to eliminate as much as I can.
But sometimes there are varying opinions on what foods are harmful, what then? Meat and dairy, are the first that come to mind. I guess we have to decide for ourselves; everyone's body and lifestyle are different and their nutrition needs may be, as well.
I'm sure it's obvious, I'm no expert. I read what I can, I am trying to be educated in what I am eating, and I hope to share it with you here.
I hope you'll join me.