Nutritious choices made simple®
Mmm, delicious, juicy…yes, I will take another and another and another.
What am I talking about? Berries. Freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, blackberries or raspberries. Growing up in Maine gives you all of these pleasures, and you don’t have to go very far to find them. My dear mother (an avid canning queen) always took me and my two sisters berry picking, no matter the berry in season–we picked what was available and abundant.
Oh June…an emotional month of gearing up for summer while saying goodbye to another school year and all of its chaos. If you have school age children, you probably see June as another symbol–another mark on their growth chart. It is both thrilling and a little sad to see them grow.
Along with the many end-of-year emotions comes the never ending series of activities, parties and attempts to dodge the ice cream truck at the park. Before you know it, every day is filled with one “sometimes” food after another. Add to it the pressure of not wanting to be the parent that continually brings unhealthful foods to parties (try being the “dietitian mom”!).
I’ve adopted a family. By that, I mean that I’ve adopted a family who is interested in learning how they might eat healthier. That, of course, begins by better understanding how to make more nutritious choices in the supermarket. Like you, they have ideas about how they should eat better, move more and learn how to reduce their risk of future health problems. With me by their side and the Guiding Stars nutrition navigation program in their tool box, we are beginning their journey of better living. My “adopted” family of four and I are working together over the next several months to set goals that we can build upon to encourage lasting dietary change for their family.
On a day when people like you and I, despite our better judgment, purposefully cart our children around collecting junk food, here’s a fun way to keep the spirit of healthy living alive tonight. When my children came home and saw these just casually hanging out on the kitchen counter, they were more than a little disturbed…and my kids are not easily impressed by anything I do. But with a few pieces of fruit and about 15 minutes with a paring knife, you’ll have a fun item to share for your Halloween celebration.
Fall is here in New England. For a sports fan, a chef and a father (stepfather and grandfather), it’s the best time of the year. We’re still picking tomatoes, broccoli, onions, brussels sprouts, chile peppers and more from the greenhouse, and we’ve begun pruning, planting spring bulbs and introducing some new perennials to the family. We’ve also decided on an addition to the deck for container gardening and are already plotting out square footage for next year’s gardens. But… fall is for New England sports. We don’t talk about the Red Sox anymore in our house this year, but the Patriots are up and running. Sunday afternoon, are you ready for some… Labne?..some Souvlaki,? How about some Otsu?
What New (School) Year resolutions are you making this year? I know that you have them…we all do. September means crisp new notebooks, pencils with perfect points and all the promise of a school year that is organized, productive and dare I say…healthy?
Did you know that September 18th kicks off “Eat Dinner Together Week”? Yes, we have officially reached a time in our social history when we need to remind people to do something as basic as finding a way to eat together. I need to pause and say (in full disclosure) that I’m like you. My dinners are not likely to be gracing the cover of a gourmet food magazine and when my family sits around the table, it is not calm or even always relaxing for that matter.