Lemon Rosemary Spaghetti Squash

check out my new recipe on http://www.ranaldifamilyfarm.com !!!

Spaghetti Squash Recipe

 

ADHD Nutritional INFO

First and foremost this information is not coming from my very own brilliant mind, but that of MSN “healthy living”… while googling and researching some diet tips and tricks online that could potentially help Kaelob I ran across this very interesting article. I HATED the way the website presented the article, it made it incredibly difficult to read and copy/fwd to his teachers for reference, but man was it FULL of incredibly informative stuff!!

Smoked Gouda, Bacon and Egg Casserole and Cranberry Mimosas: Easy Holiday Brunch

It comes as no surprise to those who know me that I love cooking and have been entered into a cooking competition for Whole Foods Market Encinitas.  This is not like any other culinary competition I have ever been in before, in fact I am pretty certain I have never been in any kind of cooking competition.  I love cooking, but it is a learn as you go type of relationship.  I have only recently trained myself to start actually tasting as I go instead of waiting till the end to just see how it turns out.  I’m lucky that method worked for as long as it did.  I came from  household that cooked the same meals each week and they were cheap, simple and ordinary.  There was no experimentation, no creativity and very little flavor.  My grandmother, bless her heart, cooked like we were still in the great depression and fed us the bare necessities but didn’t ever seem to have fun cooking her food.  I like to have fun with cooking. I laugh at myself most of the time because I honestly do not know what I am doing, ironically enough I have many close friends who have gone to culinary school and are professional chef’s *thanks for not making me feel like an idiot guys!*.  This competition sounded like fun to me; An incredible challenge, waaaayyyyyy outside of my comfort zone and an exciting new way to share and learn some creative new recipes!

Touchdown for Nutrition- Part 1(Apple Cinnamon Chips)

***In case You missed Touchdown for Nutrition –  Intro to read all about my Nutrition/whole foods Challenge, you can read it HERE***

So Game #1 snuk up on me before I even had a chance to catch my breath from the EVERY DAY practices AND the first week of school for my Kindergartner and 3rd grader!  Luckily for me, Whole Foods Encinitas was having a really awesome produce sale and I had a really simple recipe to make APple Cinamon Chips.  I quickly ran over and got three large bags of Fuji and Granny Smith Apples on sale!  Check out their website for their weekly specials! HERE
my total was about $11

As soon as I got home I began to cut, core and slice the apples…by hand.  I have been told by numerous people now that having a handy dandy little thing called a “mandolin” would help me to slice the apples SUPER thin. Or that I should get a coring tool for my kitchen so I can core the apples much quicker. Well Folks, I don’t have any of those things.  So cutting by hand it went.

My 5yr old was in charge of sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar (with a dash of cloves) ALL over the apples. Then we put them in the oven at 250 degrees.  They cooked for about 30 minutes and we pulled out the cookie sheet and used a fork to turn over each slice and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar again. The cookie sheet went back in the oven for another 30 minutes and WA_LA!!! they were done!

I was SO excited! We were munching on them as we bagged them all up into little baggies for the team.  As I began making these individual treat bags I began to second guess my choice for the first week of snack… I’ve got to make a good impression right? My dear husband didn’t help because he kept reaffirming the fact that ALL the kids would rather have candy or a package of cookies instead of apples.

I thought for a moment then realized I had some cookie dough in the fridge so I whipped out two dozen or so choc chip cookies so now each baggie had a handful of crunchy cinnamon apple chips and one cookie.  That aught to be a winner right??… WRONG.

The boys won their game 21-6 and were SO proud of themselves!! They were anxiously asking everyone if there was a snack and what it was and I felt a knot growing in my stomach.  Poor Haylee was SO proud of herself and so excited to pass out this wonderful snack she helped make with her mommy for her big brothers Football team and almost ALL of them were turning their nose up at it.  More than half of the boys literally refused to take a bag when it was handed to them, even after pointing out that there was a cookie in it.

Because I had felt so nervous about their reaction I happened to have a bag of leftover candy with me so once I saw they were all refusing MY snack I tossed the bag of candy on the ground and let them have at it.  It was total chaos, it almost resembled feeding time at the zoo or something… all the boys were scrambling over one another yelling, giggling grabbing for as much candy as they could.  Pretty much like when a pinata explodes, but without the pinata.

I sat there with my bag of yummy apple chips feeling defeated.

Sugar & Junk – 1  Nutrition – 0

Touchdown for Nutrition- INTRO

What is that age old saying?

“an apple a day keeps the doctor away”  

Well whether or not that’s true, it seems that despite the dramatic increase in whole food, all natural, non-processed ingredients Trend kids these days still prefer JUNK over a nice apple or box of raisins.