Question Tuesday

My four year old won't eat meat and never has. How much protein should we make sure he gets daily and should we be giving him a supplement?


Thank you for your question. Now that I am a mama its hard for me to wrap my hand around all the fine details of feeding a little one. I am grateful that many of you are asking questions pertaining to children so I can be on top of things not only as a Dietitian but as a mama.

Protein is a part of the food that helps our body grow and helps it heal when its sick. Its recommended that 1-3 year old have ~16 grams a day or 1.2 g/kg of body weight and 4-6 year old ~24 grams/day or 1.1 g/kg body weight. To find out exactly how many grams of protein your little guy needs multiply is body weight by 1.1.

Example
Wt: 40 lb

40 lb / 2.2 = 18 kg

18 kg * 1.1 = 19.4 g or protein a day


So how do you get through the day not counting and measuring out every little bite he has to make sure he is getting his protein. Well its easy Eating well with Canada's food guide is designed in a way that if you eat the correct amount of servings for your age and gender you will be meeting all your daily nutrient needs.

The two food groups that contain "the most" protein are the milk and alternative group and the meat and alternative group.

Milk and Alternatives include:

1 cup milk or chocolate milk
3/4 cup yogurt
1 1/2 oz of cheese
1/2 cup pudding made with milk

As long as your little guys consumes two from this list (more can be found at the food guide web site) then he is on the right track.

Now for the meat and alternatives. "Non" meat choices include:

3/4 cup of beans
2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup of nuts.

For a four year old boy its recommended that he consume 1 choice from the meat and alternatives.

After reading this and you are thinking well I am still not sure if he is getting enough protein here are some ways you can boost that level; without him knowing.

1. Use milk (whole and powder) in soups, sauces, puddings, shakes and hot chocolate
2. Grate cheese into sauces, soups, casseroles, pasta. Add to sandwiches and pour over vegetables.
3. Mix yogurt with granola, cereal, fruit. Use in smoothies
4. Serve boiled eggs as a snack or serve an egg breakfast once a week.
5. Enjoy peanut butter on crackers, breads, fruit and celery
6. Nuts and seeds: Use in baked goods, stirfrys, salads, and trail mix.
   

High protein "meatless" recipe from the IWK Health Centre

Grilled fruit and cheese sandwich

2 slices whole wheat bread
2 slices of cheese
5 thin slices of apple of pear
1 tsp margarine

Place bread slice on cutting board. Place one cheese slice on bread, top with fruit slices and then the other piece of bread, then spread outside of sandwich lightly with margarine on both sides. Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, add sandwich, cover and cook for 3 minutes or until underside becomes golden brown. With a spatula, turn sandwich over and cook until second side is browned and cheese starts to melt.

1 sandwich contains 16.4 g protein.

Peanut butter logs

1 cup skim milk powder
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 cup rice krispies
1 cup bran flakes
1/2 cup raisins

Combine all ingredients (it will take a bit of mixing), flatten into large pan. Chill overnight and cut into squares

Makes 16. One serving contains 7.3 g of protein

Peanut butter'n jelly milkshake

1 cup milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate ice cream
3 Tbsp jelly (use your favorite)
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend all together. Makes 2 shakes. Each has 14 g of protein


Any questions can be left in the comment box or please feel free to email me


Next week topic sugar

Meal Plan Monday

Last weeks menu went great. Hubby is getting involved in the process adding one of his favorite meals each week. It really helps to have him involved...it kind of lightens the blow when I try some crazy recipe out!

The recipe he choice for this past week was chicken and peaches. A recipe that I had never made before.


This recipe was pretty simple. You can use whatever kind of chicken you would like. I used the chicken legs. First mix together flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper (you can add whatever spices you like). Take the chicken and dip it into evaporated milk then dip in flour mixture. Well you are dipping and coating the chicken. Have oven preheating to 350. In the oven place your dish which you will put the chicken into (you want to make sure that it all lays flat in one layer) and add about 1/2 cup of margarine. When you finish coating the chicken bake it for 20 minutes on one side, flip and bake for another 20 minutes. After the 40 minutes drain off all grease and add peaches (you don't want to add the juice because you want the chicken to be crispy.) Bake for another 20 minutes in 400 oven.



I served this delicious chicken with long grain rice and a nice salad. One thing I love to do with salad is I wash a lot of lettuce at once. Then I use things that don't go bad in a salad if we don't eat the whole thing. Stuff like peppers and carrots. The salad bowl goes in the center of the table and all around it are all my lovely reused glass jars that have salad toppings in them. Things like raisins, craisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, soy nuts and of course dressings. Other things I like to put out are shredded cheese and tomato slices. This is a great "salad bar" for our family and if we don't eat the salad then it can go in the fridge and be used for lunches or the next nights supper.


Meals for this week

Monday: Hashbrown casserole and ham steak (carry over from last week)

Tuesday: Pork stir fry over rice (carry over)

Wednesday: Sweet Potato burritos

Thursday: Hamburger meat pie, mashed potatoes and corn (Hubby's pick)

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Black bean tortilla bake

Hamburger Meat Pie

Hamburger
Garlic
Onions
* Fry all together and drain grease

Add BBQ sauce and place into pie plate
Top with cheese slices, shredded cheese or cheese whiz
Top with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

For more yummy meal ideas check out Organize Junkie

Use it all

Recently the babe and I went apple picking with our mothers club. It was a lot of fun and I ended up getting a lot of apples. I picked 21.5 lbs!!! I really wanted to make my own apple sauce for the babe, pies and crisp.

I have been having so much fun baking up a storm. First I made two batches of apple sauce; the first batch I decided to do on the stove top...well I ended up having the burner on WAY to high and I had a good two inches of burnt apples at the bottom. Sorry I didn't get a picture as I was freaking out about my good pot looking like that! But luckily my good friend Niki just did a post on how to clean your pots when they get like that!! So before I got even get the camera I had dumped a bunch of baking soda in the pot, used my vinegar and water sprayer to spray in some of that and filled it up with hot water. Placed it on the stove to boil for about 10 minutes before I used a scrub brush to simply wipe away the black stuff. I did have to take an SOS pad to it to get the very bottom of the black stuff but it saved my pot. Thanks Niki.

So for the second batch of apple sauce I used my crock pot, which was the way I should have went in the first place. It seems this little guys are getting a lot of attention in the apple sauce making business. I have had some friends and family members give me their greatest crock pot recipes. There are lots of variations you can use but since this pot was for the babe I simple just stuck to apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. Other ingredients that could have been used are orange juice and vanilla.

For the recipe I place just enough water to cover the bottom of the crock pot. As I was cutting up the apples I had it on high. As you can see from the picture I cut the apples in big chucks instead of small pieces. Thats because I have a hand mixer which I always use to puree my apples when they are really soft and tender to make a creamy apple sauce.

When the crock pot was filled with the apples I put in some of the spices, placed the lid on and let it cook on high for about 2 to 3 hours. When the apples were good and tender I took the hand mixer to it.


Once cooled I placed it into a old apple sauce jar and now it sits in the fridge ready for the babe to eat it. I will continue to make apple sauce and freeze it in Ziploc baggies for the baby.




So now looking at all the peelings, cores and seeds in my kitchen I think to myself there must be something you can do with these things. Of course there is and once again Niki has already done a post on it. Your great girl. However instead of making apple jelly from it I decided to make my own apple juice!! I decided to can it and use it for my homemade apple cider recipe this winter.

So I gathered up all the left overs and put them into a big pot (not my good one because that was being cleaned) and started to boil it up. After it was done boiling and all the peelings where turning into mush I dumped it into an pillow case and hung it from the kitchen door. After I let it drain for a while I rung the rest out with my hands and the help of the kitchen sink. That black and white thing is the pillow case that is tided around the sink.

After I got all the juice out I could I placed the pot back on the stove and let it simmer a bit. Well it was simmering I add a bit of sugar to it and then I put two canning jars into the oven to warm and placed lids and covers into boiling water. When the liquid was done I poured the juice into the jars and placed the lids on top. There was enough for these two jars plus a mug full.


We did get to sample the mug of juice later that night after it cold. It taste like a fresh apple (should I be surprised). It wasn't sweet enough for hubby but I think that it will work out great for the cider recipe.


I still have lots of apples left and we plan on going picking again next week. So other things I plan on making, I am sure I will post about them, include apple butter, pies, turnovers and crisp.


Here are some recipes that I will be trying.

Crock pot apple butter

Butterscotch apple crisp

Apple Crisp

For more frugal ideas check out Biblical Womanhood

Quick Salsa

This is a delicious recipe that I had laying around my recipe box. I don't really know where it came from or how I got it but I tried it out this week because we had a lot of tomatoes given to us. Its easy to make and taste so yummy.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

2/3 cup chopped tomato
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 Tbsp mint leave (didn't have one so I didn't put this in)
2 tsp lime juice (used fresh lime but don't have to)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp lime zest
Sprinkle of Sesame seeds

mix all together and enjoy with some Nacho chips.

Question Tuesday

Question:
I have a question about fats. I know that there are good fats out there and bad fats, but what are they? And if I'm looking to buy oil how do I know which is the best one to buy when I am comparing labels? How much fat are we supposed to consume on a daily basis (I know that a totally fat-free diet is a no no)?

Lets dissect this question just as it is written. First off you are right there are two types of fats saturated (this includes trans fats) and unsaturated fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated). Saturated and trans fat are the ones you want to look out for and consume less of. That is why Trans fats made it in the marketing world and now everything is TRANS FAT FREE. Research has shown that trans fat and saturated fats are not healthy for us to consume because when they enter our body they raise LDL (bad) cholesterol; increasing our risk for heart disease.

Ways to lower our intake of saturated fats
~ Limit processed foods made with lard, palm and coconut oil
~ Baked goods made with shortening and hydrogenated oils and margarine (the hard blocks)
~ Packaged snack foods
~ Deep fried foods

Unsaturated fats are a healthier fat. Within this category of fats there are the Omega 3 fats. We (Dietitians) recommend more of your daily intake of fats come from unsaturated fats because they have heart health benefits and may improve your cholesterol levels.

Ways to increase your unsaturated fats
~ 1/4 cup of nuts and seeds (walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and flax seed)
~ Avocado and olives
~ Oils (Sunflower, safflower, soybean, corn, canola, olive and peanut)
~ Non-Hydrogenated margarine
~ Eggs, fish, lean meats and chicken without skin
~ Lower-fat milk and milk products

Reading the oil labels at the grocery store is always a head ache for me and I have boiled it down to this. The cheaper the better! hehehe...ok so maybe its not that simple. I tend to stick with canola oil; other better oils to stick with include safflower, flaxseed, sunflower, corn, olive and soybean and peanut oil. Other oils such as cottonseed, lard, palm, butter and coconut oil are ones that you want to stay away from because they are very high in saturated fat.

Here is a little chart that might help you out


On a food item to find out if its a "lower fat" product you want to check the % Daily value (DV). The %DV shows if there is a little or a lot of a nutrient in the product you are looking at. If % DV for fat is 5% or less it is a low-fat choice and for the saturated and trans fat together you want the % DV to be 10% or less.


Fat free diets are a NO NO because fats are important for normal body function; they also provide energy, add taste and texture, make us feel fuller longer and help us absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A,D,E and K). Fat should account for 20-35% of your daily energy (calorie) intake.

That means:

Women 19-74 years old consuming 1800-2000 calories a day should consume between 40-75 grams of fat a day. Which is equivalent to 8-15 tsp (40-75 ml)

Men 19-74 years old consuming 2300-3000 calories a day should consume between 50-115 grams of fat a day. Which is equivalent to 10-23 tsp (50-115ml)

**Remember this is an approximation so keep in mind your own needs may differ.

To put these numbers into prospective lets compare fat contents of some foods
Bagel with 1 Tbsp cream cheese 6 g
Croissant 12 g
Doughnut, chocolate coated 18g

The one thing to remember is that Fat is Fat and no matter if its good fat or bad fat it is still adding calories into your diet. Be sure to consume fats in moderation; this can be easily done by following Canada food guide portion sizes.

To have your questions answered on question Tuesday please contact me @

References

- The National Academy of Sciences. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein and Amino Acids, 2002.

- Health Canada. Nutrient Value of Some Common Foods, 1999

Meal Plan Monday

Another week here already. Wow the weeks are flying by and like many other menu planners pointed out last week I am starting to want, what we call in our house, "warm fuzzy meals". Which means soups, stews and roast. But I think I will hold off just a couple more weeks since it is still pretty nice outside in the day times...last week it was even a bit too warm to have the oven on.

This week there is something special with meal plan Monday. All participants are asked to share their family favorite recipe. Ours is Mexican Mesagna Hope you all enjoy!!!

This weeks menu

Monday: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies

Tuesday: Chicken and peaches with rice (a new recipe I am trying)

Wednesday: Pigs in a blanket, fresh broccoli and carrot sticks

Thursday: hash brown casserole and ham steak

Friday: Stir fry over rice

Saturday: Noodle dish??

Sunday: Taco's with nachos

From now until Christmas we have a commitment at our church in the evenings which means we will have to eat on the run, literally. So I am wondering if anyone has any creative meal ideas for car driving?

For more meal ideas and family favorites check out Organizing Junkie

You just never know

One mans junk is another woman's treasure!!

I love keeping containers that food comes in. For one thing they are great (when washed out) to give away as gifts filled with treats. This way you don't have to worry about getting your containers back and you don't need to spend a fortune buying containers so you can give them away as gifts.

This was my latest give away.



This summer my mother-in law catered and used cherry tomatoes for her skewers. When she was done with the containers I packed them into my bags to come back home with me. I knew they would be great for putting some short of treat in. For this gift I lined the container with wax paper and placed the chocolate frogs in; layering a piece of wax paper between the rows. Then to cover over the large cherry tomato label I cut a piece of card stock, used a stamp and signed the middle.




For more idea about being frugal check out Biblical women hood