With three kids, life is anything but dull in our household. It's hard, but we try to eat healthy as a family. Luckily our kids are open to trying most anything. We've never been advocates of the clean plate club, but we do insist that the kids take at least one bite of each item on their plates. Even if they've complained about having to take a bite of some different or unusual looking food, nine times out of ten they end up liking it. If they don't care for it, we don't make them eat it. Pick and choose your battles as they say. The running joke in my family is over my 17-year-old son who doesn't like beets. He never has and never will, but every time we have them, his siblings enjoy egging him on to take his one bite. I think he actually enjoys entertaining his younger sisters trying to make the best gross-out face he can when he's taking his bite. Not only are we challenged with trying to feed the family healthy foods, but doing it quickly is often a must in this busy household. About a year ago, I stumbled across the best cookbook—Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. This wonderful resource contains over 500 healthy, low-fat recipes for your slow cooker.Below is one of my family's favorites—"Lean" Cowboy Beans. Dump a few cans, chop an onion, toss in a few other common ingredients, and heat for a few hours. Often I'll put everything in the pot the night before and stick it in the fridge. Then, the next day, I'll have one of the kids take it out, plug it up, and heat it for 1-2 hours. Voilà! Dinner! With 18 grams of protein per serving, this dish is great for the runner.
"Lean" Cowboy Beans (John D. Allen—Rye, CO)
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
16-0z. can baked beans, undrained
16-oz. can kidney beans, drained
2 cups onions, chopped
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cider vinegar
Directions:
1. Brown turkey in nonstick skillet over medium heat.
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker sprayed with non-fat cooking spray.
3. Cover. Cook on high 1-2 hours.
Makes 8 servings
Per serving: 320 calories (50 calories from fat), 5g total fat (1g saturated, 0g trans), 35mg cholesterol, 880mg sodium, 52g total carbohydrate (7g fiber, 30g sugar), 18g protein, 10%DV vitamin A, 8%DV vitamin C, 6% DV calcium, 15%DV iron.
Note: For a milder taste, sauté the chopped onions with the turkey in Step 1. You may also decrease the dry mustard to 1 Tbsp., or according to your taste. Also, if your family is like mine you also might want to pick up a bottle of Beano. :-)
6 comments:
Good stuff! Thanks for reminding me to make healthy meals a family deal.. too often I'm fixing one thing for me, and something else for the kids! --Alex (aka run350)
I love my crock pot. It's the best after a long ride or run to come home to a hot meal! I'm going to try this one.
Hey Runner-grrl! Yep, it definitely can be a challenge. The rule in our house is if you don't like what's fixed, the peanut butter is in the pantry. :-)
Hey Missy! We didn't have one for the longest time. Then when we did get one, we wondered why it took so long for us to get it! Sure is easy to dump a few things in and then forget it. We even made a healthy meatloaf in it!
I too struggle with feeding my son healthy foods. Kids seem to gravitate towards things that aren't the most nutritious. I try to lead by example, but that doesn't always work out. This book looks like it would be interesting,I need to check it out.
Hey Running Through Life! Oh, don't let me mislead you. We too have our struggles at times, but for the most part they've become very open to trying new things. The same publisher has another book titled Fix-It and Enjoy-It! Healthy Cookbook that's really good too. Have you ever seen the commercial where the dad and son are sitting at the kitchen bar and the mom's on the other side of the bar facing them? The dad begins to tell the son how good the food is for him and then mom begins to bang on the hanging pots and pans trying to distract him worried the kid will stop eating if he know's it's good for him. Cracks me up. LOL!
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