Fun Fruit Flower!

My kids love it when I take pictures for the recipes that I post on Healthy Isn't Boring. They help me arrange the food just so and vote yes or no on the resulting pictures. 

Yesterday, I set out some fruit for a mid-afternoon snack, and we decided to cut and arrange them into different shapes. Annie came up with the flower you see above. We loved it so much, I asked her if she would like to be a "guest blogger" on my blog and she was very excited about the idea. The boys, not wanting to be outdone by their sister, wanted to make a flower for the blog, too. Well, they started building their flower, then wanted to see how tall they could make it. I made an executive decision when I saw their creation nearing the tipping point, and that's when we took a picture of it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

The Fun Fruit Flower Tower

We had such a wonderful time making fruit art and then eating our designs. Although my children love fruit and veggies, I know that there are many out there who don't. One way to get your children to choose healthful treats over processed non-foods full of sugar and salt, is to let them have fun making their own meals and snacks.

You don't need to get any fancy equipment. Just spend some time with your kids, cutting out shapes and putting together creative combinations. Eventually, they will start to associate feelings of love, comfort and closeness with nutritious food. 

Nicholas, Annie and Jayden loved putting together this post for you! Please share your ideas for fruit and veggie edible art in the comments section!

From our family to yours,

Tamera, Nicholas, Annie and Jayden

Summer Cucumber Soup (Vegan and non-Vegan options)

Summer hasn't officially started, but, boy, the heat sure has! In weather like this, we like to eat a lot of salads and raw foods. Not only because they help cool down our bodies, but also because they save me from having to stand in front of a hot stove.

To add variety to our summer meals, I like to make cold, no-cook soups. Here's one that serves as a great appetizer, as well as a wonderful main dish for hot summer evenings. I use fresh mint that I grow in my garden. If you don't grow your own mint, I'm telling you, you should. It's just about the easiest herb to grow, and you can use it fresh or dry it. If you don't have room for a garden, you can grow mint on your balcony or even on a sunny window ledge. Just get a starter plant, either from a nursery or pull out a rooted stem from a friend's garden, put it in a pot with some soil, give it water on a regular basis, and watch it grow. Seriously, it's that easy.

You can make this soup vegan by using almond milk yogurt, or, if you like cow's milk yogurt, use the good Greek kind, with active bacteria (don't worry, it's the beneficial kind of bacteria that keeps your digestive system healthy).

Summer Cucumber Soup

(serves 4 as an appetizer)

40 Pieces of Advice Challenge - Day 11

I must confess, I changed this one a bit. The original advised to drink a glass of wine each day, and I substituted that with a green smoothie. Hey, it's my blog, and if I think that a green smoothie beats a glass of wine, then that's what I'm a-gonna say!

Now, about those berries...

World's Best Raw Burritos

Do you ever walk around the produce section of your local grocery store or farmer's market and think to yourself that all the green leafy stuff just kind of looks the same, even though they have different names? I had a little chat with a woman the other day who saw me picking and bagging up a few different leafy greens. She asked me what I did with it all and wouldn't a pre-made salad mix be just as good? Umm. No. 

While the green leafy veggies may look similar and be grouped together when talking about healthy eating ("Eat lots of green, leafy vegetables!"), the truth is that each of them provides its own unique phytonutrients that help our bodies to function at optimal levels. So, while spinach and kale, for example, are two nutritional powerhouses of the greens family, they can't cover all the bases just on their own. That's why it's a great idea to mix up your use of greens and eat a wide variety of them.

Let's talk about swiss chard. 

As of this writing, research has revealed that chard leaves have at least 13 different polyphenol antioxidants. One of these, syringic acid, is able to regulate blood sugar by limiting the amount of carbohydrates that get broken down into simple sugars. Betalains are also among the phytonutrients in chard, providing antioxidant, ant-inflammatory and detoxification support. 

So, do you need swiss chard as a regular part of your diet?

Yes, without question.

Here's a recipe that has been very popular with my family and friends, and I love it because it's easy to make, versatile, surprisingly filling and absolutely delicious. For the filling, I use whatever veggies I have in the house or in my garden. Today, I filled the raw burrito with carrots, purple cabbage, sunflower seed sprouts, cucumbers and raw pine nuts. Use your imagination - you can even set up a "raw burrito bar" with different chopped fillings that your family or guests can use to make their own burritos to their liking.

World's Best Raw Burrito

"B" Healthy!

Judging by how much food we Americans consume (and how much we throw out!), you'd think that we are far removed from the danger of malnutrition. But, you'd be wrong.

The truth is that, while we may have more food available to us than could have even been imagined just a few generations ago, we are not getting the nutrients our bodies need to thrive. This is partly because much of what we eat are empty calories that come from "foods" created in laboratories and sold to us in bright, colorful packages, and, also because even our healthful food choices are now grown in depleted soils that produce crops with fewer vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phytonutrients.

So, we need to educate ourselves a little and seek out the best foods and supplements that we can find. Today, I want to give you a quick tutorial on the B-vitamin complex, why they are so important and how we can include them in our diets.

I do believe that a vegan diet is the most healthful way to eat, but, of course, we all have the right to follow the choices that we feel are best for us, so I have included both plant and animal food sources for these vitamins.

An excellent plant source for the B-complex vitamins is our very own E3Live. 

What are the B-complex vitamins?

Your Past Does Not Determine Your Future

Do you look at the past with regret? Do you find yourself thinking, if only I'd had better parents, better opportunities, more money - you fill in the blank - I would have done something better with my life. It's easy to fall into the line of thinking that you are where you are today because life dealt you a bad hand. After all, if you had a rocky start to begin with, how could you possibly achieve greatness? Our prisons and drug treatment centers are filled to overflowing with unfortunate people who lived through tragic childhoods that cast a dark shadow over their entire lives.

Are these unfortunate stories unavoidable? Is there a series of events early in life that predetermines the direction that that particular life must follow? Does a catastrophe occurring at any point in a person's life doom them for the rest of their life?

Hardly.

History, as well as the present day,  offer us so many examples of people who overcame unimaginable odds and achieved greatness in every field. Helen Keller, Malala Yousafzai, Frederick Douglass, Lech Walesa, Elie Wiesel, Oprah Winfrey - really this list is endless.

In my opinion, the common thread in most people's stories of overcoming adversity is this: in addition to inner strength, they had people who supported and believed in them. There was at least one person in each of their lives who said, "Here, take my hand, we can do this together."

Helen Keller had her tireless teacher and friend Annie Sullivan, Malala Yousafzai has her doting father, Frederick Douglass had Anna Murray-Douglass who helped him escape slavery and became his devoted wife, and so on with many others who beat the odds.

So, what I'm saying is, we're all in this together, folks. Look for ways you can support and uplift one another, even in small ways. Start your day with the question, "How can I serve?"

Not only will you take the focus off your own troubles, small or large, but, with more and more people living life with the attitude of giving, we will all be on the receiving end of other people's giving, as well. Our various strengths and weaknesses can be matched with those around us, so that we can all be lifted to greatness in many forms.

Here is a video about one of my all-time favorite musicians, who escaped a seeming life-sentence to poverty and crime, and became beloved by millions around the world.

Enjoy.

Tim's Place

I don't know why, but we humans tend to be afraid of those who are different from us.  We are friends with people who look like us, think like us, dress like us; we listen to radio personalities who agree with our views; and, in times past, we even killed and imprisoned people just because they didn't fit the norm.

But now, it seems to me that we are entering a new era of understanding and acceptance, at least in some parts of the world. And, some societies are even celebrating the differences that exist among us and make life more interesting. These days, there are opportunities open to people that could not have even been imagined just a couple of generations ago.

Watching the video about Tim Harris made my eyes fill with tears. The joy and love that flows from this young man just made my day. He brought back so many wonderful memories for me. When I was in high school, and for two years after I graduated, I volunteered with Down Syndrome kids, helping them to learn how to read and swim. Later, when I opened a local dance studio with my partners, I taught dance classes specifically for Down Syndrome and disabled children.

It was so very rewarding for me because these kids are the most loving people you could ever meet. They are so open, not judgmental at all. They thrive on hugs, love and smiles. They have no enemies and their view of life is so open and innocent. With the DS kids, what you see is what you get - no pretensions, no walls - just a love of life and everything in it.

And I wonder, why is it that we "normal" people can't be more like that?

In the video, Tim is excited just about going to work! How many people feel that way? How many of us start our work day with a happy dance?

How often do we let our ideas of what we can't do stand in the way of our dreams?

What can we learn from people who are different from us, and how can we use what we learn to make the world a better place?

Tim's enthusiasm and belief in himself was so strong that it swept up everyone in his path. I wonder how many people's lives he's touched just by being himself and following his heart.

Can we each take a piece of Tim's story with us, out into the world every day? Can we learn to think in terms of how we can achieve instead of why we can't?

It is possible. I'm a believer.