Tag: nutritionforrealhumans

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GNN: Strawberry Lemonade Pops – guys these are so good

Seriously these are so good. Rarely have I imagined making something and imagined how good it would be, and they turned out exactly how I wanted.

So perfectly refreshing, so perfect for eating on a warm summer evening

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles

I didn’t use a recipe for this one, but it turned out much better than my last improvisation.

This is what I used:

  • ~2 cups fresh strawberries/10 medium strawberries, tops cut off
  • Juice from 3 lemons
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 leaves of basil (I couldn’t taste these except in the last popsicle, so I must not have blended it quite thoroughly

This made 4 popsicles

You can of course, adjust the proportions to taste if you decide to make them.

Nutrition Qualities

  • 1 serving of fruit in each popsicle
  • Strawberries: excellent source of vitamin C, and a pretty good source of fiber
  • With the lemon juice, you’ll get even more vitamin C – this is classically known for being good for immunity, but it also is a vital part of how your body literally holds itself together (it regulates collagen synthesis)
  • The American Heart Association recommends that adults limit added sugars to less than 6 (for women) to 9 (for men) teaspoons a day – if you make 4 popsicles from the amounts above, each popsicle will only have 3 teaspoons added sugar
  • Naturally dairy and gluten-free. Vegan depending on the sweetener you use.

My personal rating

5/5

A great way to use summer strawberries, a delicious serving of fruit, sooo refreshing, exactly what I was wishing for.

Happy eating!

This post is intended to be informational only and is not medical or nutritional advice. If you have questions about your unique needs, ask about a custom meal plan or speak with a registered dietitian-nutritionist near you.

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Good Nutrition News: Key Lime Pie Popsicles

I watched this SORTEDfood video before making these popsicles, so I had been imagining delicious tart key lime flavor for several days when I made these.

I expected to like them because I love limes, but I wasn’t expecting them to taste so much like key lime pie!

Key Lime Popsicles from Happy Kids Kitchen!

light green popsicle with crumbs in it

The ingredients are lime, avocado, milk (whatever kind), sweetener, vanilla, salt, and graham crackers (for the crust). I used granola instead of graham crackers because I didn’t have any.

For the full recipe, and for how they look with the actual graham crackers, look here: https://happykidskitchen.com/healthy-key-lime-pie-popsicles/

Nutrition Qualities

  • This recipe gets its creaminess from fatty avocado, which as established in previous posts, is a good source of unsaturated fat, which is known as heart healthy fat.
  • If you use regular dairy milk OR even any fortified nondairy milk, you’ll get a good serving of calcium and possibly some vitamin D (good for bone and teeth health)
  • Both avocado and milk are good sources of potassium – an important electrolyte
  • Can be dairy-free, gluten free and/or vegan depending on which milk and sweeteners you use (and which graham crackers you use for gluten-free)

My personal rating

5/5

Surprisingly similar to key lime pie, a great balance of tart and sweet, the avocado and milk combine to make them deliciously creamy, and they’re pretty easy to make. And you only need 1 lime!

Happy eating!

This post is intended to be informational only and is not medical or nutritional advice. If you have questions about your unique needs, ask about a custom meal plan or speak with a registered dietitian-nutritionist near you.

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Meh Nutrition News: Peachy Champagne Popsicles

This is the first popsicle I’ve tried that I would neither recommend or make again. But in the name of science, I’m sharing all of my results

Leftover champagne + peach + honey popsicles

Half eaten popsicle - icy with peaches

I didn’t use a recipe for these (which may have been part of the problem), I just googled to see if it was feasible to use leftover champagne as a popsicle.

I added some sliced peaches, a drizzle of honey and filled the rest of the mold with champagne. Thankfully, I only had enough champagne for 2 popsicles so we weren’t stuck with meh leftovers.

Meh because 1) the champagne just got really icy and made the pop taste mostly like alcohol, 2) because they were icy they just fell apart while we ate them, 3) the peaches were in big chunks and you definitely had to bite into them – not good if you have sensitive teeth.

Many of those problems might be improved if I had blended everything up? But I probably won’t try it again.

For popsicles, I would try again, see the previous posts about avocado chocolate popsicles and rapsberry coconut chia popsicles

Nutrition qualities:

  • As peaches make up the majority of this popsicle, you will get a good portion of fruit
  • Peaches themselves are a good source of fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin A
  • As alcohol is not classified as a “food” legally, it’s hard to look up any micronutrients present in champagne. It will provide some carbohydrates and calories for energy. Moderate intake of alcohol which has been shown to have some benefits, but enough drawbacks that most experts won’t recommend starting to drink for the health benefits. Anyway. Don’t drink champagne for the health benefits 🙂
  • Technically dairy-free and gluten-free

My personal rating:

1/5

It gets a 1 instead of a 0 because it was edible, and I did eat the whole thing, plus, got to use up extra champagne? However, taste was very alcohol-y, texture too icy, made a mess and hurt my teeth. Would not make again

Feel free to try, if you’re of age, of course and share your results!

Take care and happy eating!

This post is intended to be informational only and is not medical or nutritional advice. If you have questions about your unique needs, ask about a custom meal plan or speak with a registered dietitian-nutritionist near you.

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Good Nutrition News: Rich Chocolate Avocado Pops

This has been my favorite popsicle so far. Ok it’s only the second one, but it’s good. If you like fudgesicles or if you grew up eating homemade popsicles made from chocolate pudding, you’ll probably like this one:

Chocolate Avocado Pudding Popsicles

Chocolate pudding popsicle

The recipe, from Chocolate Covered Katie, isn’t even a popsicle recipe. It’s just for a chocolate avocado mousse, which is also delicious in its non popsicle form. But as a popsicle? It’s even creamier and richer than I remember fudgesicles being.

The ingredients are avocado, cocoa powder, sweetener of choice, and milk of choice, vanilla, salt. Blend them up and put them in your popsicle molds and freeze them!

Nutrition Qualities

  • This recipe involves 2 avocados, and for me, it made about 4 and a half popsicles. That means each pop contains about 1/2 an avocado, which you can totally count as a serving of fruits/vegetables
  • Avocados are a good source of unsaturated fat, which is known as heart healthy fat. The fat is also what makes these popsicles so creamy and rich
  • From my estimates (depending on the size of the avocados and how many servings are made), each pop could provide around 20% of your daily fiber needs for the day
  • Dark chocolate/cocoa is a source of antioxidants and has been shown to help lower blood pressure in some cases
  • Similar to the last ones I tried, they are gluten-free
  • Can be dairy-free and/or vegan depending on which milk and sweeteners you use

My personal rating

5/5

Easy to make, tasty, rich and chocolately, full of healthy fats and antioxidants, and a good way to use up avocados that will go bad soon!

Happy eating!

This post is intended to be informational only and is not medical or nutritional advice. If you have questions about your unique needs, ask about a custom meal plan or speak with a registered dietitian-nutritionist near you.

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Good Nutrition News: Popsicles (or whatever their generic name is)

This summer my parents gifted me popsicle molds for my birthday, so my mission is to try many many popsicle/ice pop recipes.

I figured I would share my adventures and talk about how these summery treats can be another way to get some good nutrition!

First edition – these raspberry swirl chia pudding pops from Happy Kids Kitchen!

A pink and white ice pop full of chia seeds

These are made with fresh or frozen raspberries, coconut milk, and chia seeds (and sweetener; I used maple syrup). You can visit Happy Kids Kitchen for the recipe.

These interesting-looking popsicles have a combination of creamy, mild sweetness from the coconut milk, bright tart-sweetness from the raspberry, and an different but not unpleasant texture from the chia seeds.

Nutrition qualities:

  • Some fruit towards your recommended 5-9 fruit and veggie servings/day (raspberries) that provides a decent amount of vitamin C
  • Fiber from: raspberries, chia seeds, and even a little from the coconut milk
  • ALA (the plant form of omega-3 fatty acids) from the chia seeds
  • A little bit of protein from the chia seeds
  • Because it’s homemade, you control how much added sugar (and the type) you would like to add
  • Creamy without dairy, in case you’re lactose or dairy intolerant
  • also gluten free and vegan if that’s your jam (haha jam)

My personal rating:

3.5/5

Packed with nutrients, pretty tasty, easy to make, would probably make them a little sweeter next time, raspberries and chia can get expensive so probably wouldn’t make them often.

(Also if you are looking for ways to get kids – even little kids – excited about cooking and food, spend some more time on Happy Kids Kitchen. Heather knows what she is talking about and has so many great ideas and tasty recipes! I will be probably trying several of her popsicle recipes which she has collected here)

Take care and happy eating!

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I’m teaching a cooking class for preschoolers and this is why I’m excited about it

I originally wrote this post before a class I was scheduled to teach at The Thinkery. I’ve updated the post with my online Mini Kitchen Explorers class in mind.

I’m pretty excited because I’m going to be teaching a series of food and cooking classes for preschoolers and their parents. It’s called Mini Kitchen Explorers, and it will be online August 5 or 6 (two different times offered). Kids and their parents will use all their senses to explore different foods in many different ways in a fun, interactive, low-pressure environment.

If you’re reading this before this class takes place, and you’re interested, you can learn more or sign up here:

Mini Kitchen Explorers

Now, the reason I’m excited to teach this class is that it will just be fun. I mean, it’s not going to be easy. Maintaining a semblance of order and keeping things interesting for 3-5 year olds is no easy task (even if their parents are there too).

However. Right now, I spend a lot of my time talking to people about changes they should be making, changes they want to be making, or changes they might experience as a result of their current health condition. This is often hard (because change is hard) and is not usually fun. As much as I really try to make it positive and empowering, it often feels like telling someone the rules.

This class will be preschoolers and their parents doing fun activities that involve food.

Talking about food.

Playing with food.

Looking at food.

Smelling food.

Tasting food.

Or not tasting it if they don’t want to. This is a low pressure, relaxed environment. The goal is to give kids and parents lots of different ways to experience food and cooking together with no pressure to EAT VEGETABLES or TRY HEALTHY FOODS.

Lots of experience with any skill increases comfort and ability with it. This is no different for eating and being around foods, including unfamiliar foods.

A kid who says broccoli is gross and yucky and won’t eat it or anything remotely like it is really different than a kid who knows they don’t really like the texture of broccoli and can express that politely and clearly and also knows that trying a food and not liking it is not that scary because they’ve done it before lots of times and it was fine.

A kid who’s messed around in the kitchen and tried some cooking techniques and recipes (even a little) is going to be more comfortable eventually cooking or preparing foods on their own.

A kid who has learned a lot of value-neutral ways to talk about food (salty, fresh, rich, crunchy, colorful, high in protein) may be better equipped to have a nuanced understanding of nutrition and avoid black and white, extreme diet mentality around food.

Being comfortable around food and cooking doesn’t mean guarantee a person will make “the healthiest” choice. It does mean making a healthy choice (if they want to) is going to be way less difficult because they already have a basic familiarity with food.

They know what they like and what they don’t and why. They know how to choose and procure food, and how to prepare it. And if they don’t, they probably feel fairly comfortable learning how. They know at least a little bit about how foods affect them and what food can do for them.

They have a foundation from which they can make choices, rather than being hindered by fear of the unknown.

So I mean, I guess that’s my hidden agenda – remove barriers for future patients and make my future job easier. Or you know, prevent that they even have to come see me, because they have a healthy relationship with food and don’t even need my help.

*Hehehehehe*

Plus, seeing kids learn and explore anything is SUPER fun. They have such honest questions and interesting observations.

If this type of learning experience with food sounds good to you, sign up for my class!

Or if it sounds good to you but your kids aren’t in the 3-5 age group, or you have other questions – talk to me about how we can design a learning experience just for you, your family, or your group. Let’s find a solution that will work for you.

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Good Nutrition News: Frozen Fruits and Veggies

Frozen fruits and frozen vegetables are good for you!

They are just as nutritious as fresh produce, and may sometimes be even a little more nutritious!

Because fruits and/or vegetables are processed (washed, cut, and frozen) very soon after being harvested, their freshness is “frozen” in place at just-picked quality! This can include ripeness (as they don’t have to be picked early to prevent spoilage on the way to the customer) and nutrition. Here’s how the process works:

The process is very similar for frozen vegetables – except they are usually blanched (boiled very briefly) before freezing so the natural enzymes in the vegetables don’t break the texture down over time. Here’s a video about frozen peas if you want to watch the vegetable process

Why are frozen vegetables and fruits are sometimes higher in nutrition than fresh ones?

Some vitamins and antioxidants degrade over time. Freezing a fruit or vegetable stops or really really slows down this process, so the vitamin content of frozen produce might be higher than one that has been sitting in the produce section (or in your fridge drawer) for a few days.

(This is not to say that fresh vegetables or fruit are devoid of nutrition if you don’t eat them right out of the ground or off the tree – it is only a very small portion that degrades. I just like to illustrate that you aren’t missing any nutrition by eating frozen produce)

Besides excellent nutrition, think of the other benefits of frozen produce!

  • No washing, chopping, slicing, peeling, needed – ready to use!
  • Most plain frozen fruits and vegetable products are just that – frozen fruits and vegetables. They don’t contain any added salt, sugar, fat, or preservatives! (You can always check the ingredients list if you want to make sure)
  • As long as you have freezer space – no need to worry about them going bad. According the USDA, they are safe to eat indefinitely (forever) as long as they have been continuously frozen — although the taste or texture might not be as nice if they’ve been frozen for a long time
  • Sometimes they are more affordable than fresh, especially if it is a seasonal item (like strawberries or peaches) or one that does not grow where you live
  • Some vegetables are even packaged in a bag you can microwave directly so you don’t even have to get another dish dirty! (This is easy and pretty safe and a great way to get kids helping – just be careful with the hot package when it’s done!)

Some ways to use frozen produce besides steaming or making smoothies

  • Add frozen fruit to baked goods – blueberry muffins anytime 😀
  • Top a cereal or yogurt with frozen fruit
  • Cook frozen fruit with a few spoons of sugar to make a syrup that you can use on whatever you like!
  • Add frozen vegetables into the last few minutes boiling pasta to get an extra serving of veggies
  • Add frozen vegetables to a soup – again you can just throw them in the last few minutes
  • Roast frozen vegetables – here’s a recipe for frozen roasted Brussels sprouts

How do you like to use frozen produce?

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