Pediatric Home Health Care

Two Obscure-but-Healthy Vegetables You Need to Start Eating

Heading to the farmers’ market this weekend in search of fresher-than-fresh veggies? We all know that Americans need to eat more vegetables and less meat. Sometimes, though, we get sick of our tried-and-true peas and carrots. Here are some up-and-coming vegetables making the rounds in the culinary circuit. Best of all, they provide some amazing nutrients that your body desperately needs.

Swiss Chard

This green leafy vegetable is like a farmer’s dream. It’s a hearty crop with a lengthy growing season, and it’s jam-packed with nutrients your body needs. Of the world’s most nutritious vegetables, swiss chard is second only to spinach. This low-cal veggie has sky-high levels of Vitamin K, A, and E in addition to dozens of other benefits. Taste wise, swiss chard tastes like a cross between spinach and collards. Don’t throw away the stems, either: you can parboil them and turn them into a tasty gratin or creamy pasta sauce. Swiss chard comes in many varieties, including ruby chard and beautiful rainbow chard.

Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes are the green offshoots of garlic. Farmers trim them to encourage the garlic bulb to grow even larger. These greens are edible and can be used to make garlic scape pesto, chopped to sprinkle in a dish the way you would use scallions, or sauteed as a stand-alone side dish. They taste like garlic in the same way that scallion greens taste like onions. Garlic scapes contain the same nutrients as garlic, including high levels of manganese and Vitamin C and Vitamin B6. Some research suggests garlic helps regulate fat cells or has cancer-fighting properties.

Filed Under: Pediatric Home Health Care Tagged With: Chard, Garlic, Vitamin K

Eat Healthier: Forgo the Store-Bought Stocks and Make Your Own

Image by TheCulinaryGeek via Flickr

Stocks and broths are a wonderful and nutritious way to add easy flavor into a meal. Want to spice up that rice? Cook it in chicken stock. Need to add a powerful punch of flavor to your beef stew? You’ll need beef stock. So many of us buy our stocks at the grocery store that we’ve forgotten how easy it is to make our own. Here’s why homemade stock is healthier than store-bought stock.

Less Salt, More Flavor

Store bought stocks are packed with sodium to help increase their shelf life and increase flavor. We all know we need to use salt in our cooking, but store-bought stock goes overboard with sodium. By making your own stock, you control your own salt intake.

Homemade stocks also contain a much richer flavor than you’ll find in a store-bought stock because you add so much more healthy and flavorful ingredients.

More Nutrients

Homemade stock is loaded with nutrients that your body needs. Best of all, a stock’s proteins and minerals are already in an easy-to-digest format. Many meat-based stocks contain gelatin, an essential digestive aid that allows your body to use its proteins more effectively.

Never Wasteful, Easy to Make

Using the bones for flavor means that you’re eating green as well as healthy by not wasting those nutrient-packed bones. Plus, homemade stock is ingredibly easy to make: give whatever root vegetables you have on hand (carrots, celery, onions, etc.) a rough chop and throw ‘em in a stock pot. Simmer for a few hours until the flavor’s strong and delicious. Best of all, homemade stock is cheaper than store-bought.

Filed Under: Pediatric Home Health Care Tagged With: Grocery store, Salt, Stocks

Make Your Child’s Lunchbox as Healthy as Possible

Image by Jeffrey Beall via Flickr

You could let your child eat the cardboard pizza or his cafeteria serves. Or you could take charge of the 180 lunches your child will eat at school every year. Packing your child’s lunch is an act of love, true, but it’s also a surefire way of making sure she’s getting her daily nutrition. Here are some healthy lunch-making tips for making your child’s lunchbox as nutritious as possible. Happy packing!

Start Early. If you’re a new parent, start your child out in the school system with a packed lunch every day. Your child will grow up assuming brown-bag lunches are standard procedures. If you’re switching your older child onto bagged lunches, have a talk with them and explain that their lunches will still be yummy– and probably more fun than standard school lunches.
Take their Input. Does your child have any requests or ideas? Find out their favorite (healthy) foods and incorporate them into the school week. Don’t be afraid to expose them to new things, though!
Make it Fun. Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of sandwiches– crusts included. Pack “build your own” kits with crackers for peanut butter sandwiches or mini cheese-and-fruit sandwiches.
Plan for the Week. Why not make a huge batch of granola mix on Sunday, so you’ll have it throughout the week? Make up your “snack bags” of things like carrots or crackers over the weekend, too.
Don’t be Afraid of the Prepackaged. True, prepackaged foods are often a dead giveaway for unhealthy, processed foods. However, what about individual yogurt or mozzarella sticks? These are quick-and-healthy snacks that kids love.

Filed Under: Pediatric Home Health Care Tagged With: Child, Health, School meal