Ingredients

Chicken

• 1 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs (chicken breast is also an option)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1-2 yellow squash or zucchini cut into small rounds
• 1 small onion, finely chopped or crushed in a food processor
• 3-4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro or parsley
• 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Rice

• 1 box Near East Sesame Ginger Rice Pilaf
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 and 1/2  cup water

Broccoli

• 1 small bag of cut broccoli
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Method

Wash chicken pieces and cut into small cubes. Saute onions in olive oil in a non-stick saucepan over low-medium heat until soft. Add chicken and saute more until chicken pieces turn light brown. Add squash, potatoes, salt, pepper and mix well. Add coconut milk to the mixture. Reduce heat and cook covered until chicken and potatoes are fully cooked. Remove from heat, sprinkle cilantro or parsley and cover it until ready to serve.

Cook sesame ginger rice pilaf according to the instructions on the box. Typically it involves first adding olive oil to water and bringing it to a boil. Then add the spice mix and add the rice pilaf. Reduce heat and cook covered until rice is fully cooked, about 20 -3 0 minutes.

Steam broccoli in a steamer until soft but not overcooked. Prepare a sauce by mixing olive oil, crushed garlic and white wine vinegar. Add sauce to taste just before serving.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

I have been keeping an eye on quinoa products lately, particularly after we found the Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta recently. As a grain, quinoa has exceptionally high nutritional value, but it takes a while to develop a taste for it. You can try it in a recipe like our popular chicken with quinoa, or even serve as a side dish all by itself!

Pasta made from quinoa flour certainly is a novelty in my opinion. This way, kids can get to develop a taste for quinoa in a familiar form. We found this particular quinoa from Andean Dream in our local Whole Foods Market. What invited my interest was the fact that this pasta was made from a mix of organic quinoa flour and organic rice flour, unlike the corn flour used in the Ancient Harvest Quinoa.

Here is our short review – if you try this product, let us know how you like it.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. USDA certified organic
2. Gluten free
3. No saturated fat or trans fats, no cholesterol
4. 6 g protein per serving, 3 g fiber
5. Quinoa is rich in B vitamins and iron
6. Quinoa is low in glycemic index

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Does not taste like pasta, more like a rice noodle

Overall, I think it is worth a try! It may work well in oriental recipes which use rice noodles!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Andean Dream for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Andean Dream’s website.
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings! Hope you have had another wonderful week in this new year and you are still on track with your resolutions (or priorities as I like to call them). I am saddened by the tragedy in Haiti. Every time I see a photo of an injured child waiting to be treated, I feel sad. It is encouraging to see an outpouring of support from the world community and I hope and pray that things will soon improve for the people of Haiti.

For this week’s Five for Fridays, I have compiled 5 excellent posts on recipes and tips from several blogs I follow. These are great bloggers and I encourage you to check their blogs out if you haven’t already done so.

Mushroom Rice Pilaf on KidAppeal

This is a very simple recipe, but more importantly, I like the way Jenna of Kid Appeal mixes nutrition information and tips on getting your kids involved in the cooking project. Kids love to make believe, and creating a plot involving the ingredients is a cool, creative way to get them engaged and learn about the good, the bad and the ugly of foods. As the article correctly points out at the end, this strategy is far better than the conventional “try one bite, it is good for you and you need to eat more”!

Tips for Homemade Yogurt on The Nourished Kitchen

If you are interested in making yogurt at home, this collection of practical tips will come in handy. Recent research is showing the health benefits of probiotics for all kinds of conditions. Yogurt is a great source of bacteria that are good for your system, but it is difficult to find products with low sugar. That is why homemade yogurt is such a great idea – not only can you save money, but you can also control what goes in your yogurt.

Vitamin D is often lacking from many yogurt products. This intrigues me because most milk has added vitamin D these days. Making yogurt at home using the milk in your refrigerator will ensure you get this vital nutrient in addition to the other benefits of yogurt (calcium, probiotics etc.)

It has been quite a while since I had homemade yogurt. We have gotten used to the convenience of buying different kinds of yogurts from the supermarket. Every week, we get a box of plain yogurt, about half-dozen small jars of fruit yogurts and kids yogurts. I am seriously considering trying the homemade option even if it means setting aside a few hours on the weekends to prepare it.

Feel free to share your tips if you make yogurt at home!

Gallo Pinto on A Life Less Sweet

Caty of A Life Less Sweet is one of my favorite bloggers not just because she is on a crusade against HFCS and a PhD Chemical Engineer, but also because of her very practical common-sense driven approach to food and nutrition. This recipe appeared in her Meatless Monday column, which is a great resource for those trying to cut down on meat from their diets.

Gallo Pinto is a dish made with cooked black beans and rice mixed with spices. This is an excellent – and an inexpensive way – to get a full supply of proteins in your diet. The recipe is very easy to make. I think you can also try it with red kidney beans, although we like to cook the beans and rice separately. Our favorite is Basmati rice, but you can also use brown rice.

Okra and Dal on Chow and Chatter

Rebecca of Chow and Chatter is the queen of simple but tasty Indian (South Asian) recipes. She also happens to be a Registered dietitian and a guest blogger on here, so you can be sure she knows her food!

This is a combo recipe to celebrate one of South India’s major festival called Pongal. Okra we all know, dal is basically a dish made from pulses (dried beans, lentils). These are simple and flavorful recipes which go very well with rice or naan, the Indian version of oven baked flatbread.

Okra recipe can be tricky to make because okra can very easily turn into a soft mush. If done right, the okra in this recipe should be crispy and relatively dry. Wash the whole okra prior to chopping it, and pat dry with a paper towel before you cut it.

Broccoli Parmesan on Raising Healthy Eaters

Broccoli is not a favorite of most people, us included. But I liked this recipe from registered dietitian Maryann Jacobsen because it is so simple and fast to make. I also like that the broccoli comes out crispy, and also the fact that they were a hit with her little daughter. Nothing like proven success to try it out yourself!

One of the recipes TwinToddlersMom makes is a sauted mix of broccoli with Salmon mixed with a few spices. Again the broccoli comes out crispy and flavorful. We will post it soon after we make it next.

I hope you will enjoy these recipes and share your thoughts in the comments section. Also, visit these blogs for other great kid-friendly recipes!

Photo Source: Crystl on Flickr
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

This is the National School Lunch Week. Improving the quality of school nutrition is one of the ways to address the problem of childhood obesity. It is encouraging to see that the USDA has established the HealthierUS School Challenge to recognize schools that promote good nutrition and physical activity. This week, Secretary Tom Vilsack is recognizing schools who have achieved the “Gold” status in this program. My question is: how come more schools are not participating in this program? The Secretary should address the barriers to his program’s adoption and measure performance in a transparent way. Only then he can hope to achieve the scale needed to truly address childhood obesity.

Here are the 5 nutrition related news that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Honey! I shrunk the food ingredient list

In a positive trend, Registered Dietitian Janet Helm (@JanetHelm) points out that packaged food producers are scrambling to simplify and shrink the list of ingredients on their products. Michael Pollan should feel happy – after all, he is the one who has been telling people not to buy foods that contain more than 5 ingredients or difficult to pronounce ingredients! Actually, I agree with him and welcome this trend. Even though all these ingredients including additives, colorants and preservatives are considered to be safe, it just doesn’t make sense to me when I pick up a product which has over 20 ingredients. Why process the food so much?

Some of the new products – Haagen-Dazs five ice cream for example – now claim to be made just like the way you would make at home with only a handful of ingredients. Hmmm…I wonder if they cost more than the regular products! That would be a brilliant marketing idea – make more money with less!

Rice eaters have healthier diets – really?

A new study based on national food consumption surveys finds that rice eaters in general tend to have healthier diets because they eat more grains, more vegetables and dietary fiber, less added fat, less saturated fat and less added sugar. Rice is cheap and provides a rich source of carbohydrates.

I was intrigued by this news, not because we eat a lot of rice in hour household, but because the correlation implied that people should switch to rice! But then upon a closer look at the story I found that this research was sponsored by the USA Rice Federation. There is nothing wrong in urging people to eat more rice, but then the study should also point to the risks of eating too much rice. White rice is a refined grain and even when enriched with added vitamins and minerals, it is nutritionally inferior to brown rice. It also has a high glycemic index which will make your blood sugar rise rapidly. On the other hand, brown rice comes with an expiration date, may be more expensive, takes longer to cook and you may not like its chewy texture.

Just because someone eats rice, does not mean their diet is healthy on its own.

Home remedies for the common cold not backed by science

No doubt, eating warm chicken soup when you are down with the cold and flu is very comforting. But is there any scientific evidence that home remedies like the chicken soup, drinking plenty of fluids, vitamin C, zinc, echinacea, honey and garlic can treat or prevent your sickness? In an extremely well-researched article, Dr Ayala (@DrAyala) concludes that there is no solid scientific evidence on food, nutrients and relief from the common cold. Her advice – you can try these home remedies for comfort, and they don’t hurt except that you need to be careful about supplements.

I do take vitamin C every day, but I am under no illusion that it is the magic bullet for preventing cold and flu. The best way to prevent cold and flu is to avoid contact with sick people and frequently wash your hands. Vitamin C is an immunity booster, not an immunity builder. Proper nutrition, healthy lifestyle, good hygiene are the building blocks for good health. Not an isolated supplement!

New York City bans bake sales in schools

Would banning bake sales from schools solve the childhood obesity problem? New York City regulators seem to think so! They seem to be on a roll because in their zeal to impose a wellness policy, they are going after everything they can find which can be labeled as nutritionally evil for the health of our children. This is nutritionism at its best without regard to the cultural norms.

You might be wondering why it bothers me so much! After all, I don’t live in New York City and my children are too young to go to school.

What I find troublesome is that regulators and policy makers feel that simply by making new rules and demonstrating their power, they can change unhealthy behaviors. It is only the stick, never the carrot! In this case, everybody is rightly upset that they will lose a very traditional way of raising funds for school activities. But are the regulators providing any alternative? A few exceptions to the new rules are provided, but they are practically useless in terms of fundraising.

They should try to focus on encouraging children to make the right choices about their eating habits in the long run. Not simply ban stuff without providing alternatives.

Parents magazine offers tips for turning your baby into a veggie lover

Dr Greene, the author of Feeding Baby Green, has a nice article in the November issue of the Parents magazine. He advises to build on your child’s curiosity about colorful things by introducing him to colorful fruits and veggies. Start early, keep trying,  and introduce variety right from the very beginning. A lot of parents are concerned about allergies, so they do not introduce new foods quickly. He disagrees with this approach and offers scientific data which suggests that babies learn to love new flavors best when they are introduced to new foods in rapid succession. He gives you a nice list of 21 plant families you should sample with your child before he reaches the age of 1.

It may work, or it may not work – and of course, all bets are off in the toddler years! That is when they get picky and nothing seems to work anymore. Here are a few articles we have published to help you with fruits and veggies:

Ask the Expert – Developing a Taste for Fruits and Veggies
Help! My Kids Don’t Eat Enough Fruits and Veggies
Ask the Expert – Getting Complete Nutrition on a Vegetarian Diet
Help Your Child with Autism Have Fun with Food

Enjoy and do let me know you think. I would love to have you share your best tips in comments below.

Photo source -tomhe on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Ingredients

• Leftover Turkey carcass, most of the meat and skin removed
• Baby carrots
• Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice, Original Recipe, 6 oz. box
• Parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
• 5 – 10 glasses water

Method

Place the turkey carcass in a big pot (by this time, the legs and wings should have been removed). Break-up the leftover bones a little so everything fits in the pot. Add enough water to cover the bones. Place it on medium heat until the water is close to a boil, though not quite boiling. Cover, reduce heat to the lowest setting and let it simmer for a long time (~ 1h or so). By this time, most of the meat should separate from the bones. Add extra turkey meat if needed. Add rice and spice mix from the box. Add carrots. Continue to simmer the mixture at low heat until rice is cooked and carrots are soft, about 15 minutes or so. Remove the bones. Add chopped parsley or cilantro and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately.