31 Days to a Happier Life - Day 12

A big part of personal happiness is your health. If you are healthy you are more likely to be happier. Less worry, less stress, less pain.

As part of my new meal planning strategy we are also incorporating more healthy choices. Less take-away/junk food and more healthy meals. Lots of fresh veggies (we grow a lot ourselves), a little meat (mostly from hunter hubby) and lots of fruit, some grains and dairy. We try for a balanced diet, especially since we have two growing girls. They need lots of high energy food, good brain food, and lots of growing food.

Home grown veggies.

My eldest could eat eggs and meat all day long, if you let her. My little one could eat candy all day. Each one is different. But both a pretty good at eating their veggies when they have to :)

Pastured Organic Eggs.

I remember growing up with dinner at the table every night with all me family (plus my Grandma who lived next door). And after we had finished our dinner we would get dessert! Usually something delicious thing made by my Grandma, like rice pudding, or stewed rhubarb, or a pie, or bread and butter pudding. If nothing else, we would have ice cream and fruit. But it was pretty much a staple - eat all your dinner, and you will get dessert.

Fruit Kebabs for School Snack.

We still maintain the "Eat all your dinner!" rule, but rarely have dessert. My husband and I really do not have a sweet tooth, so it rarely occurs to us to have dessert. Now, with the girls, we may have it more often, but no more than twice a week.

Best Salad EVER! Spinach, cucumber, apples, pecans and Hubby's special salad dressing.

My husband has become the chef-extraordinaire of desserts - he can whip up something delicious out of nothing. Chocolate and strawberries, banana splits, coke-floats. It is interesting to see what he comes up with, and it always delights the girls.

Homemade Vegetarian Pizza - oh, I LOVE this.

I find cooking rather tedious, but I'm trying hard to get more excited by actually doing it. Even though I find it a little boring to do, I actually LOVE to collect recipes! Weird, huh? But I have started collecting recipes and keeping them in folders for easy reference. Ones that work out great, that everyone likes and was easy to make, get saved back into the file. The ones that are a FAIL, get recycled. Now we have a nice collection of good recipes that can be easily referenced, slotted into weekly meal plan, and I know will be well received. That makes my job a lot easier.



Happiness Links

Real Food - great site for real family, real food solutions. Also LOVE her school lunch ideas - I use them all the time.