It’s been a crazy week with the kids home all day every day since it was spring break. I’ve meant to blog about what we’ve been up to, but just haven’t had the chance. Mostly, we’ve been gearing up for Easter—we made those fabric eggs I posted about (pictures to come), did some Easter basket shopping (somehow I was able to distract the girls when I tossed a few things into the cart without them noticing), and went to an Easter egg hunt that our neighbor put on for my girls and the one other family on our street that has young kids.
After my last Friday Food post, I think I need to clarify a couple things. While I do think it is important for my kids to know about nutrition labels and selecting foods that are good for them, that does not mean that we never have anything with sugar at our house. Just as my friend Maren commented last week, since we have treats at other times, we try not to have sugar as a part of our typical breakfast. We make a treat each week for Family Home Evening, and we go out for ice cream occasionally just like other families do! On Halloween, the girls are perfectly fine with choosing a few of their favorites from their trick or treating stash and then saving the rest for making a gingerbread house about a month later. Santa brings us all some chocolate in our stockings and the Easter Bunny fills up a few eggs as well. I think that never having dessert or sweets can make people crave it more, so while we don’t have that kind of stuff in our house on a daily basis, we do let ourselves indulge a little when we want to!
Second, if I can do it without sacrificing taste, I try to make our treats a little healthier than normal. I make some oatmeal cookie bars that are always a hit, and I only ever use whole wheat flour in them (no one can tell). I substitute nonfat yogurt or applesauce for oil when possible. I make my own frosting because it’s so much better than the stuff that comes in a can that is loaded with trans fats.
For Easter dinner, some of our good friends have invited us over, so naturally I volunteered to make my favorite coconut cake that has become our family’s Easter tradition. I will also be bringing my twice baked “green” potatoes—the secret ingredient is steamed broccoli that gets mashed up with the potato filling, along with nonfat sour cream, a little nonfat milk, and some powdered ranch dressing mix! They are delicious and look something like this:
Happy Easter!
2 comments:
Ooh, those potatoes look delicious!
What to my "I don't really cook" sister? You are a primo chef. I am impressed and envious...
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