Bento Weekly Round 26

Still with Healthy Eats' Challenge, this week's goal is to cook daily. 

Since I do it for the most part of the week, it wouldn't be much of a work to do it daily for this goal.  After all, anything leftover would be packed neatly on the following day's lunchboxes.  Anything more would be good enough for my daughter and me.

Here's a week of cooking for my family that made it to the lunchboxes.

Bento Weekly Round 25

Eating More Whole Grains

This entire week would be eating more whole grains

as per Healthy Eats' Healthy Every week Challenge.

I will be featuring different grains each day as I pack school lunches.

Whatever my son brings is basically what I pack for my hubby to work as well, 

and what my daughter and I eat at home before I send her to preschool.

Whole Wheat Monday: 

Whole wheat Spaghetti Noodles with Tomato, Basil, Rosemary & Garlic Sauce, 

Hotdogs on it, Strawberries, Carrots and Parmesan Cheese on the spice shaker.

Tuna Sandwich

May Healthy Every Week Challenge

Check it out at Healthy Eats

Healthy Eats made it again! 

It's time for the Healthy Every Week Challenge once again.

If you haven't seen their article yet, and would love to join us for this round of healthy eating, read on and learn how to jump in and challenge yourselves to the next level.

Healthy Eats is right. Spring is a good time to reevaluate your 2012 health goals and get back on track if you’ve gone off course.

To help everyone get back on track and be fit for summer, HE have set up a get-healthy challenge for the month of May. This challenge will be similar to their January Challenge, with small, weekly goals that when practiced, can turn into lifetime healthy habits.

The May Healthy Every Week Challenge is a month of healthy eating, broken down into weekly goals:

Week 1: Eat Breakfast

Week 2: Eat More Whole Grains

Week3: Cook at Home

Week 4: Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Week 5: Stay On Track

To participate, all you need to do is sign up for their weekly challenge newsletter. You’ll receive the newsletter each Sunday with an outline of that week’s goal, plus plenty of recipes and tips to help you achieve it. We’ll talk about the goals and share recipes and tips for achieving the goal right here on Healthy Eats and on Facebook and Twitter. Since many of our readers write about recipes, cooking and healthy eating tips on their own blogs, we’ve set up a board on Pinterest just for this challenge. When you share your blog posts to our Facebook wall, we’ll pin a selection to our Pinterest board each week.

Are you up for the challenge?

Stay on Track

 
We're wrapping up Healthy Eats' January Challenge.
But as it is, we'll continue to eat healthy for a healthy life.

What has this challenge done to me?

It dawns on me that breakfast is the most important meal in a day.  It shouldn't be just a cup of coffee or tea.  We should always consider to consume something healthy that will keep our energy last till lunch.  This will help us ward off unnecessary sugar cravings to build energy, thereby help us lose weight.

Bento Weekly Round 12

 For January 23-27, 2012

Healthy Eats' Week 4 Challenge is to eat more vegetables and fruits. Do you know the average fruits and vegetables we must consume per day? Look no further.  I found a good table that lays out the right amount for every individual.  Check it out here: Fruits and Veggies Matter.

My guide is the new My Plate that has the right partitioning of vegetables, fruits, protein and grains per servings. 

Romaine Lettuce salad with crab sticks, carrots, chicken nuggets and tangerine with Ranch and BBQ sauces on the side.  He usually would toss the tangerine and Ranch in his salad and eat it with the nuggets.

 Chili on cold winter days with rice and slices of juicy and sweet Asian Pear.

 Spam Musubi and Sushi rolls.  Accompanied by corn and green peas 

and red globe grapes.

Hamburger with hummus and lettuce, pickle relish and ketchup on smidgets, corn and green peas on the side.  I forgot to include his apple slices in this picture. He brought it for snack.  He would either have fruits, fruit roll-ups or vegetable chips for snacks. 

Mini corndogs with ketchup on smidgets, tangerine and corn with broccoli.

See what's cooking at home during this week of the challenge.

Eat More Vegetables and Fruits.

See you there!

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers and healthy eating advocates to host aHealthy Every Week Challenge, a month-long initiative to develop healthy eating habits. The plan is to develop a manageable healthy habit each week that will carry through the new year. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook andTwitter with the hashtag #gethealthy.

Eat MORE Fruits and Vegetables

Week 4 is about eating more fruits and vegetables.  

Almost everyone needs to eat more fruits and vegetables.  They are critical in promoting good health.  They contain essential vitamins, minerals, and other fibers that may help protect you from chronic diseases such as stroke, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. Substituting fruits and vegetables for higher caloric food intake is a healthy alternative towards weight loss strategy.

Most people know these facts, but the question lies to how much is the recommended daily intake for each individual?  Every individual is unique. We should base it according to our daily activities, age and sex.  I know that they've come up with a minimum of 5-a-day campaign.  But that doesn't really hold true for everyone.

I have found a fruit and vegetable calculator that measures according to your daily activity, age and sex.  And that explains to you why you have to take that much too.

If you follow this link, it should take you to their site as well to read more.

How Many Fruits and Vegetables Do You Need?

If you notice, fruits and vegetables also come in unique colors.  But their beauty lies within those colors.  For children, the best way to encourage eating fruits and vegetables is by using the RAINBOW system.

courtesy of I ate a Rainbow

What is the Rainbow System?
If you haven't heard of "Today I Ate A Rainbow", follow this link for better explanation.  I have used this system at home for a while and have found better results on my kids.  My daughter, who's not a veggie fanatic, would try at least one or couple of bites just to say that she's eaten a rainbow per meal. It's not enough, but this encourages her to eat healthier.  Over time, she would adapt to the idea of healthy eating and would soon be part of her system. Kids love color, and is a good way to reinforce eating vegetables and fruits at home and beyond.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers and healthy eating advocates to host aHealthy Every Week Challenge, a month-long initiative to develop healthy eating habits. The plan is to develop a manageable healthy habit each week that will carry through the new year. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook andTwitter with the hashtag #gethealthy.

Disclaimer:  I was not provided of any free samples by I ate a Rainbow.  I found this online while I was finding ways to efficiently feed my children with fruits and vegetables in a fun way.  I did not purchase any of their kit, but made one for each of my child that tailors to their daily needs. I will post next time once I figured out how to convert it into Jpeg files to help your child start eating healthier too.

Cook at Home

Cooking is what I do best for my family. I love to experiment, and have learned to experiment on ingredients and have created recipes we truly love to eat. So for this challenge, I think I'm all in with my kids as my #1 fans.

I wouldn't be featuring the bento lunches my son brought to school this week. Instead I will be sharing the foods I had made for us this week.

Breakfast has been a norm in our household.  No one dares leave home without anything in their tummies.  Not just coffee, but it has to be something healthy that will keep them full till lunch time.

I make sure to substitute anything I could to whole grains and organic as long as our budget could afford it.  On this photograph, it's a whole wheat waffle that I got in the market last weekend. To substitute syrup over waffle, I made use of vanilla ice cream and blueberries for the kids.  It's super yummy you're little kiddos might get addicted to.

Eat MORE Whole Grains

Week 2 Challenge would be to eat more whole grains.  If you have read my research, Strictly Whole Grains, this would be easy for anyone shopping for foods.

To be on the safe side, I shopped familiar items which we normally consume with an exception that I made sure they were whole grains. Hold your expectations though coz these were not much of what one might expect.  But, it was a huge transition for us because the list went for our children. If you look at my lists, you'd understand what I'm saying.

• Corn kernels and corn on the cob for side dishes.
• Pop corns for snacks instead of tortilla chips.
• Whole grain cold cereals for children's breakfast.
• Whole wheat breads and burger buns instead of white.
• Unbleached whole wheat flour for cakes and cookies instead of all-purpose white.  
• Whole wheat bread crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs.
• Whole wheat flour tortilla for quesadillas instead of regular flour tortillas.

Chicken Vegetable Eggrolls

Shrimp and Pork Shumai

Shumai is one of the Chinese Dimsums that I have learned since my kids love them so much.  We normally dine-in on Sundays for dimsum and tea.  A time to gather and catch up on what we've missed for the week.  Shumai is a regular item on our table along with meat balls and ha-gaw (shrimp dumplings).  Those 3 are my kids' most favorite stuffs.  So I'm learning them one by one.  And I'd be sharing them all to you.

Eat Breakfast Daily

Eating breakfast has always been a challenge to me.  That was one of the reasons why I took Healthy Eats' January Challenge.  I am not a morning person.  Perhaps I am not just a morning eater/cooker coz I can function and focus on work as early as 3am. So for this week,  I was quite lucky to have loads of leftovers from our holiday feasts.  If you have been reading my blog, you would know that we had quite a feast to welcome 2012.  So for this week, we just had to finish what was leftover, in order for me to start cooking.

Strictly Whole Grains

Week 2 Challenge is about eating more whole grain.  Honestly, I was quite dumbfounded when whole grain foods were talked about.  I didn't even realized that we were actually consuming it for the most part of our meals.  Not because we're not a big fan of brown rice and whole wheat or multi-grain breads, doesn't automatically mean we're not whole grains consumers.  Mostly we weren't just aware of what we were actually eating are products of whole grains.  But with Healthy Eats' January Challenge that we were up to, I researched a bit to be knowledgeable enough on the benefits of whole grains to our body.

Fage - Healthy as it is!

It's all-natural.

It's non-fat.

It's total 0%.

Homemade Taho (Tau-Huay), Sweetened Tofu

It is one of my favorite childhood memories. 

I like it warm and sweet.  

Best of all it is healthy and vegan :)

For those who are having a difficult time liking and eating tofu, this might be a good solution to that problem.  Even picky children love this.  Just let them adjust the sweetness according to their taste.

Picture courtesy of Niceyfemme.  I have used it for visualization purposes
only so as you know how the dessert is prepared.

Chicken Mushroom Soup

This is one of the family's favorite soup. I especially love it because this is the only way I could feed my little girl with celery.  I usually make this on rainy days when the flu is up or on allergy flare-ups.  My secret? I grind the celery stalk in a blender till they're just juice.  If you have a juicer, better.  Boil the chicken, bones-in, till it's tender with the celery juice, ginger and thyme. Then, add in mushrooms and carrots.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer till done.

Try it.  It's really worth making it.  It's good and tasty.  The kids love it. 

January Healthy Every Week Challenge

I am so excited for this challenge since the September Brown Bag Challenge.  My son and I had a blast achieving the month-goal each week. Now that 2011 is over, my son will be back to school on the 9th.  And he knows that it's time to pack his lunches again to school, and asked me to join another of Healthy Eats' Challenge.  He would call it the Brown Bag Challenge.

I told him that it will be different this time.  There is a goal that we need to achieve each week.  And we have to keep it for life.  He smiled.

The goal for this challenge is to get started on a healthier 2012, one week at a time.  I guess that would be easier to achieve... I hope!  The month of January was broken down into 5 weeks with specific goals to attain.

• Week 1: Eat breakfast daily
• Week 2: Eat more whole grains....(This is where I think I would stumble.  I would have to be resourceful to find something my kids would enjoy eating.  SO I'll keep my fingers crossed here.)
• Week 3: Cook at home
• Week 4: Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Week 5: Stay on track

If you hover on each weekly goals, you'd find my post of that specific challenge.  I will be updating it once the post is already live.

Well, we're definitely in for the challenge to start a healthier and happier 2012!!  Cheers to everyone in the challenge.

Get into Healthy Eats' Page and join in the fun!