Eating To Live

  Have you ever asked yourself: Do I live to eat?  Or do I eat to live?
 I live to eat...but I also eat to live in the same meal.  Like every other mom reading this, I don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen preparing home-cooked meals from scratch.  So would you believe it if I told you my kids asked me the other day what a drive - through is and what a happy meal is?

We just celebrated Earth Day and many of us probably explored some new green living options.  It's just as important to live green on the inside of our bodies as on the outside, but how can a busy mom not give in to the once a week or once a month fast food stop?  Or keep school lunches packed quickly and nutritiously?  Or feed "starving" kids now during a long errand run?

Over the past 11 years, as I have studied food and health I have asked these same questions again and again.  The most important factor to being successful with healthy eating is to be 100% commited to avoiding the places, foods and ingredients that you know to be unhealthy or dangerous.  Now, with this 100% commitment in place, let's look quickly at a couple tips and tricks even the busiest mom can use.  I will add more in future articles.

1. The time spent in a drive - through could be used before leaving the house to prepare a fast snack.

• chop up carrot sticks or your child's favorite veggie or fruit.
• throw a handful of nuts and rasins and pretzels into a baggie (or buy premade trail mix)
• make "Energy Balls" using nut butter, honey and powdered milk as a base, and add whatever you want to that!  Store them in the fridge and pull some out as needed.
• my favorite: stash energy bars or healthy packaged snacks in your purse, diaper bag or car.

2. Smoothies are the perfect way to pack in the nutrients under a time crunch.  We keep a supply of frozen fruit handy, and I try to never be without avocados.  If you haven't heard of avocado in smoothie before, you might think it sounds strange or even yucky, but give it a try!  Avocado is virtually bland and tasteless, so it merely adds a rich creamy texture to your smoothie.  Not to mention the essential fatty acids and other good stuff avocados boast of!  I've successfully used smoothies to give my young children supplements they needed that were in capsules by just breaking open the capsule and pouring it into the mixture.

I'd love to share some recipes with you soon!
Thanks for reading.  :)
A hui hou,
Anna Hakes
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