Pool Treats!

If you've been reading my blog long you know I have a love affair with www.Superhealthykids.com. If you haven't ever gone to their site take a minute and give it a look. There are so many sites out there that brag about having simple snacks and meals, but this site ACTUALLY has them. You can go there and get meal plans too! So so cool. This week they sent me an email on poolside snacks! You know those littles get so hungry playing outside. Fast yummy snacks are a MUST! Here are some of their ideas. I'm only listing the ones I've already tried. Go here for more.

• Banana Boats Cut a banana in half lengthwise and spread with peanut butter. Then sandwich back together for less of a mess!  
• Boiled Eggs and Veggie Sticks Packed full of protein, boiled eggs are easy to transport and filling. Veggie sticks are a given – by themselves, or great dipped in hummus for a little extra oomph!
• Frozen Grapes Sweet, refreshing, and delicious! Never frozen grapes before? It is so easy.
• Muffins Who says muffins are just for breakfast? Packed full of healthy carbohydrates, they are the perfect pool snack to give your kids lots of energy. Make them ahead, freeze them and then pull a few out for your next trip to the pool.
• Homemade Lunchable
  Cheese, turkey, whole-grain crackers and your favorite fruit. Great for a pool-side snack or lunch!
• Trail Mix I love this one because you can use anything you have on hand. Especially if you are almost out of several things. Just put them all together for a fun trailmix. I PROMISE your kids will love it!

Super Healthy Kids Hits Another Home Run!

So, I've blogged before about my love for the Super Healthy Kids site. It continues to impress me. They have ideas that are actually SUPER easy and very simple ways to make your grocery shopping simple and the food you buy healthy for your family. I recently got an email update with the following info. I was already doing most of what was recommended in my shopping, but thought that the resource might be very helpful to some moms just starting out on the healthier meal plan route.
The following came straight from the email sent to me by Super Healthy Kids. I'd recommend you going to their site and taking a look around for other GREAT ideas on feeding your family right.

5 Ways To Eat Less Sugar!

I'm noticing in our house lately the effects on added sugar on my kids, and even myself. When we consume excessive sugar, I can almost always guarantee the next day every one is moody, sluggish, and we are more likely to get sick (particularly with sinus congestion). I've actually been keeping records to document this phenomenon and it has happened almost 100% of the time!
So, I've put together a short list on how you can minimize the effects of sugar for your kids?

1. Be a label checker! Just yesterday, I was turning yogurt containers over at the grocery store. One Greek Yogurt, 6 ounce container contained 20 grams of sugar! The plain Greek yogurt had 7 grams! You could further argue by checking the ingredients, that the extra 13 grams had to come from added sugars, rather than milk sugars.
2. Cook foods yourself. Rather than purchasing storebought muffins or baked goods, bake them yourself. You can always cut the sugar called for in a recipe by half without having much impact on the texture of the outcome. The flavor of course will change, but who needs super sweet? I can tell when I may have gone a little far on cutting back on the sugar when my kids eat what I've made and say, "This tastes like nothing!". ha ha. Funny thing though, they still eat it!
3. Keep Low Sugar Snacks Accessible. Rather than 'fruit snacks' or even Graham crackers, keep carrots and cheese, hard boiled eggs, or nuts and seeds. When we eat foods that are not sweet, somehow we are more satisfied. The sweeter our snacks, the more we want to eat!
4. Never, Never, Never buy cereal that is over 6 grams of sugar per serving! Your kids don't need it! Especially when you can find cereal that contains 1 or 2 grams of sugar, then you can add berries or bananas to it.
5. Prevent the biggest source of added sugar of all by not even bringing them into your house: sugar sweetened drinks. Make your own juice, check for 100% juice, or implement a water only policy at home!

There is never a need for added sugar in a child's diet. Make sure all their sugars are coming from natural fruit sources and you will notice a difference in your kids health and behavior!
I will say this. The moment I started doing this in my home all the kids(at the time it was just the two oldest girls) started staying healthier! When we start to slip up or it's birthday season and they've had more sugar I can start to tell it's time to look at their diet. Such a simple way to improve the overall health of your family!!

Also, I KNOW you mommas with Littles will LOVE this section on ideas for a simple healthy snack time.

It's an Apple...That looks like a Turkey

Looking for a fun activity/snack for the kids this week to go along with Thanksgiving?

How cute are these little fellas?

It's an Apple...That looks like a Turkey! Ha!

I just love snacks that go along with holidays. And THESE are healthy to boot!

Simply buy the .98 per pound apples(never spend more than that on apples, BTW.)

Get your "turkey"supplies ready. You can use anything you want for the feathers, but we used marshmallows, cheese, pretzels, and grapes. For the beak we used candy corn(which was actually really hard to get to stick on the toothpick) and sliced strawberries. For the eyes we used raisins. The only other thing you need is toothpicks to get these dudes ready.

Next, call the kids in to help! They'll LOVE getting to stick toothpicks into the apples!

I tried a few variations. This one includes some lemon heads. I decided we didn't need candy and pulled this one and added a strawberry slice.

The kids LOVED them! We took some to our Friend Thanksgiving Feast and they seemed to like them too. They smell really good. I think it's a combo of the marshmallows and the pretzels and the apple, but they are nice and tastey and a good healthy snack to feed the kids maybe while your cooking your thanksgiving feast this week.

Diligence is Key

Lately I've felt really suffocated by the clutter in our home. Yes, I keep a tidy home, but in the last several months clutter has been creeping into my home. Several of my friends have been talking lately about finding your energy drainers and getting them out of your life. I'd say clutter is for sure an energy drainer for me.
This week I've taken our home and broken it into sections to de-clutter. I've finished all areas except the girls room and the playroom. As I've worked I've realized one thing. Diligence is key in keeping a tidy organized home. It's pretty simple for me to organize things. I actually really love to take a messy room or space and get in in tip top shape, but taking the extra step to put things away when things are wild around here isn't always easy.
It seems easier to just stash things in a drawer or make a neat stack to go through later, but I'm telling you, if you take a few extra moments to go ahead and finish a job your home will thank you and you'll end up having more time for the things you love, like your kids, or eating, or water polo...

Feed that family right!

Over the last few years I've worked really hard to create a healthy meal plan for our family. After Scotty and I got married and I could cook all of oh....TWO meals, we ate mostly already prepared meals in the frozen food section. Yes, we were out of shape and overweight. Yes, we felt terrible. But it was all I knew how to do, so that's what we ate. When I was pregnant with Emma Claire I started feeling really terrible and I started wondering if it was because of our diet or(MAYYYYYBE just maybe) my lack of exercise. I was attending a Bible study for women at the time, which included a section on feeding your family in a healthy way on a budget. THERE'S the kicker, I thought. Now you and I both know that eating whole foods and HEALTHY foods is more expensive than the JUNK in the frozen food section, but this study claimed to help me do it on a budget! Turns out, they were right!
We quickly started turning things around and I started learning to cook on my own. Turns out I was really good at it. I just needed to give it a try! AND, I was learning when to buy things on sale and when to buy store brand products, when to but organic, and when it was OK to pass on organic(this was before the HUGE fad on organic stuff). Now, all of this isn't to say that we didn't still have an occasional box of fishsticks or chicken patties, but overall, we cleaned up our menu and QUICKLY started seeing the benefits! By the time Emma Claire was born I was around 20 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant. How's that for loosing baby weight! Ha! I started running every night on the Tony Little Gazelle(YOU CAN DO IT!) and quickly started loosing even more weight. Scotty joined me on this quest to get healthy, and between the two of us we lost a PERSON!=)
We started feeling healthy, our kids were acting and feel better, and we weren't out a huge amount of money in our grocery budget. Now, this is where you come in. I've been doing all my shopping WITHOUT coupons. We always just make a STRICT menu, go to WalMart, and buy ONLY what we need. We never buy extra snacks or food that's not on the menu or my shopping list.
I've recently been exposed to http://www.moneysavingmom.com/, and have really enjoyed watching all that she does(and her contributors)to save money in the area of groceries and toiletries. I've never been one to spend time cutting coupons and most of the time I'd find when I did I could get the store brand for cheaper than the coupon anyway and I'd feel like I just wasted my time. THEN, last month happened. I decided to go on a thirty day challenge to spend less money on groceries and...I DID! I mean, we talking stacking coupons and this is something I knew nothing of. We went to Kroger(which I've always hated, but we gave it a try!), which also saved Scotty money at the pump(I can't use Kroger gas in the ol' grocery grabber). I ended up saving so much money that we were able to go OUT to eat  a few times and still have money left in the budget for the rest of the month expenses!
Since I'm so new to this I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips of saving money at the grocery store. Do you do the whole store hopping option? Do you go to Walgreens? How does Walgreens work? I'm confused about that whole register rewards or whatever it's called. Groupon? Coupon Mom? What programs do you use? Do you get the paper or just do printable coupons?
I want to be the best I can be at both feeding our family and being frugal, and I know I'm doing a pretty good job, but I always think there's room for improvement! Let me know what you've got! I'm listening!