healthy recipes

Valerie is a guest blogger for the DietsInReview.com special series on Healthy Summer Kids. Valerie is an outdoor loving, flip flop wearing, fit mama with three young children. She is an ACE certified personal trainer and owns her own Stroller Strides franchise in Houston, TX. She feels every day is a chance to have fun and be inspired. You can find great fitness tips, ideas for healthy living, and plenty of mindless mommy banter at her blog Moms Living Fit.

Summertime can be summed up into one word, “fun.” Kids look forward to this time of year every year and welcome the outdoor activities, picnics, and gatherings. Why not take advantage of this summertime enthusiasm and integrate a few good habits to promote health and fitness in your children’s lives?

Get Moving

There is a lot competing for your child’s attention these days, especially on TV. Reduce the “screen time” for your kids and increase their physical activity with daily outdoor playtime. Invite some friends over, get out the soccer balls, and let them run a few laps in the backyard.

This week, we here at DietsInReview LOVE Healthy Cookbooks. New to DietsInReview.com is a feature called “Healthy Cookbooks” under our Popular Topics tab. While healthy cookbooks are all over bookstores these days, we’ve skimmed the bookshelves and online retailers to bring you what we feel are the yummiest, most creative and of course, healthiest cookbooks ever.

A few that have made our list include the Hungry Girl cookbook and Eat, Shrink and Be Merry. We also love the 1,500 Calorie per Day cookbook, and the newly released Gordon Ramsay’s Health Appetite. Continue to check out this section as we add more healthy guides to keeping your stomach satisfied and trim.

While most exercise forms suggest that you nosh a bit beforehand, with yoga, you are well-advised to refrain from eating 2-3 hours before down-dogging. This recommendation is due to yoga’s deep breathing and postures which together can cause undigested food to bother your stomach or travel upwards and result in acid reflux. But when it comes to eating after your yoga class, you’re free to replenish your energy.

Here are a few pointers to consider for your next post-yoga meal.

1. Hydration: Rather than reach straight for a granola bar, chug some water. This is especially true if you engage in highly intensive yoga classes like Bikram, Ashtanga or power yoga. These forms of exercise will cause you to sweat, and particularly in the case of Bikram yoga, you’ll sweat a lot. So you’ll want to rehydrate before you assess your level of hunger. Avoid expensive flavored waters or sugary sports drinks. Good ol’ fashioned water will do the trick.

Monica Shaw is a freelance writer who specializes in science, health, fitness and food. She is the primary author of the website and blog, SmarterFitter.com.

Looking to weather the financial storm without sacrificing flavor or nutrition?  Then look no further than lentils, a vegetarian Super Food that will nourish you and your family without breaking the bank.  Economic crisis or not, there are plenty of reasons to love lentils:

• Lentils are high in protein, including the essential amino acids isoleucine and lysine.  And when combined with whole grains, lentils give your body all of the amino acids it needs to form a complete protein.

• Lentils are rich in complex carbohydrates and high in fiber, helping your body balance its blood sugar levels while providing steady, slow-burning energy to keep you fuller for longer.

• Lentils are high in iron.  This is especially good for vegetarians, growing children, and pregnant women, all of whom have greater needs for iron in their diet.

The October Featured Guest Blogger of the Month, for October, are two talented ladies from ChewOnThat Blog. They’re two foodies who can’t help but share their knowledge of and love for the edible everyday on their blog. They’ve always got an engaging anecdote as to why this or that recipe warms their heart, and the recipes are always a hit! Tune in every Tuesday in October to hear what Maxine and Hillary are chewing talking about!

Chew On That blog here. We’re so honored to be featured as the DietsInReview.com guest blogger of the month this October! And hey, it couldn’t be more perfect timing to talk about some of our favorite ingredients to cook with. Fall harvest produces so many delicious and heart-warming recipes which is why each week of October we’re going to focus on a different fall ingredient and share our favorite recipes to go along with them. You can cook tons of new fall dishes right in your very own home!

This week we’re going to talk about: apples. (I’m sure you probably guessed that from the photo!) Apples are probably one of the more perfect fruits out there. It’s hard to find a person who doesn’t like an apple. You can pack an apple for a great side dish to lunch, grab an apple for a mid-afternoon snack. They’re healthy snacks that provide natural sugars to give you that mid-day boost.

And you see, there are so many different varieties of apples that there is literally an apple for everyone. We’ve got honey crisp (the first picture), Gala, McIntosh, Red Delicious, Granny Smith…the list goes on. From red skin to green skin, new apple cultivars are being created what seems like every day.

But if you think the list of apple varieties is long, try counting all the dishes you can make with apples! Yes, it’s nearly impossible, but Chew on That is here to get your own list started and help you brainstorm some new apple dishes to make this fall.

Since apples are inherently sweet, they lend themselves to a great deal of delicious desserts that don’t need extra sugar! Make your favorites with these recipes:

Fat Free Apple Crisp

Sugarless Apple Cookies

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

Sugar Free Apple Pie

Lite Apple Pie

Another lighter and luscious apple dessert is the infamous apple dumpling, try Apple Almond Dumplings for a tasty recipe. Or, try some On the Trail Caramel Apples that provide a crunchy outside to your ordinary caramel apple that’s topped with candy.

Apples can also make some tasty, thirst-quenching beverages. Try out a few of our favorites:

Great Apple Banana Smoothie

Fat Free Iced Apple Tea

Easy Apple Cider

Of course, these are just a few of the things you can make with apples. For more apple recipes, check out our list of 120 Apple Recipes for Fall Cooking! Happy cooking and tune in next week for our next fall ingredient feature!

Like what you’re reading? Check out Chew on That for more or sign up for our feed!