Did you make a resolution to eat healthier this year? Here’s a few tips to help you turn those resolutions into lifelong healthy habits: ¿Se fijó el propósito de comer más saludable este año? A continuación se encuentran algunos consejos para ayudarle a convertir esos propósitos en hábitos saludables para toda la vida. 1. Choose a specific habit to change. Instead of making a vague goal like “eat healthier” or “lose weight,” try making a small specific goal that you have control over. Examples: Drink 1 glass of water before eating lunch Only drink water with meals, no soda Limit the sugar in my morning coffee to 1 teaspoon instead of 2 Only buy unsweetened cereals for breakfast Stop buying packaged cookies 1. Escoja un hábito específico para cambiar. En lugar de fijar una meta indefinida como “comer más saludable” o “bajar de peso”, trate de fijar metas pequeñas y específicas sobre las cuales usted tenga control. Ejemplos: Tomar un vaso de agua antes de almorzar. Tomar sólo agua en lugar de refresco (soda) con las comidas. Limitar el azúcar en el café en la mañana a una cucharadita en lugar de dos. Comprar solamente cereal sin azúcar para el desayuno. Dejar de comprar galletas en paquetes. 2. Add in a daily habit instead of taking something away. It is important to limit unhealthy foods, but it is equally important to drink water and eat healthy foods. Examples of how to add in healthy habits: Drink 8 oz of water at the start of every day, before eating Eat a piece of fruit for a snack every day (could be fresh, canned or frozen) Eat 1 vegetable at dinner every day 2. Incorpore un hábito diario en lugar de quitar algo. Es importante limitar el consumo de alimentos que no son saludables, pero es igualmente importante tomar agua y comer alimentos saludables. Ejemplos de cómo incorporar hábitos saludables: Tomar 8 onzas de agua al comienzo de cada día, antes de comer. Comer una fruta para la merienda cada día (puede ser fresca, enlatada o congelada). Comer un vegetal para la cena cada día. 3. Switch out a healthier option for foods you are already eating. Examples: Use whole grain pasta instead of white pasta Buy low fat milk instead of whole milk Choose 100% whole wheat bread instead of white bread Choose lean ground beef instead of 80% fat beef Choose plain yogurt instead of sweetened yogurt 3. Sustituya los alimentos que ya está comiendo por opciones más saludables. Ejemplos: 1. Usar pasta integral en lugar de pasta blanca. 2. Comprar leche baja en grasa en lugar de leche entera. 3. Escoger pan 100% integral en lugar de pan blanco. 4. Escoger carne de res molida magra en lugar de carne de res con 80% de grasa. 5. Escoger yogur natural en lugar de yogur endulzado. 4. Tack a new goal onto something you already do. It’s easy to remember your goal if you add it to a routine you are already doing. Here are some examples: Pack a vegetable every day with lunch Have a piece of fruit every day with my cereal Drink a glass of water every day with my afternoon snack 4. Agregue una nueva meta a algo que ya está haciendo. Es fácil recordar su meta si la agrega a una rutina que ya tiene. Aquí hay algunos ejemplos: a. Empacar un vegetal todos los días con el almuerzo. b. Comer una fruta todos los días con mi cereal. c. Tomar un vaso de agua todos los días con mi merienda en la tarde. Losing weight and eating healthy are big goals consisting of hundreds of small choices. Find 1 or 2 small, attainable goals and stick to them! Once you’ve made your goals into a habit (at least 6 weeks), add on a new goal. By keeping goals SPECIFIC, SMALL AND ATTAINABLE, you are setting yourself up for success. If you want some help making and keeping healthy eating goals, ask your family advocate for a referral to the Dietitian or sign up for the “Cultivating Resilience” classes. Bajar de peso y comer saludable son metas grandes que consisten en cientos de pequeñas elecciones. ¡Busque una o dos metas pequeñas, alcanzables y aférrese a ellas! Una vez que sus metas se hayan convertido en un hábito (por lo menos 6 semanas), agregue una nueva meta. Al mantener metas ESPECÍFICAS, PEQUEÑAS Y ALCANZABLES entonces se estará preparando para tener éxito. Si desea ayuda para fijar y mantener metas para comer saludable, pídale a su Defensor de la Familia una remisión a la dietista o inscríbase en las clases de “Cómo cultivar la resiliencia”.

I have a big garden. One my very favorite foods to grow and to eat is honeydew melon. To me, a garden grown honeydew melon is like gold - I savor every last bite. I cut one up this week and put it in front of my son. He said "I don't like that yuckydew melon." I said, "okay, more for me!" Then I went about eating my meal and left the honeydew melon slices in front of him. Next thing I knew, this was happening: He ended up eating rest of the melon! The point of this story is this: don't pressure your child to eat. Pressure makes kids eat worse, not better. I often use the line "great! more for me!" when my child doesn't want to eat a food. Then I enjoy my own meal and continue to talk with everyone at the table. This takes the pressure off my child and lets them learn to like a food on their own time. I try to give them some "privacy" to try the new food - meaning I sit with them and talk with them, but don't look at them for a few minutes so they can sneak up on the food without any pressure from me. Your job as a parent is to offer your child healthy food. A child's job is to choose whether to eat the food or not. Do a good job with your part, then let your child do a good job with eating. For more information on how to help your picky eater, visit the picky eating page of this website, or the Ellyn Satter Website at: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/ Also, to keep up with tradition, here's what we are eating this week: M: Turkey and lentil lettuce wraps with cabbage ramen slaw, canned pineapple T: chili with baked potatoes, fresh cut melon on the side W: tortellini soup with sausage and veggies, bread and pears Th: pasta with pesto, green salad, fruit smoothie F: easy enchiladas, canned corn, canned fruit S: homemade pizza, green salad, fruit smoothies

This week is very busy for me, which means I don't want to take too much time cooking dinner. Even though I won't have much time to cook, I still make cooking and eating dinner a priority. Eating balanced meals together as a family is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to teach kids healthy eating habits. Here's what I'm cooking this week: MONDAY: breakfast for dinner. Oatmeal pancakes, crust less quiche, fresh grapes. I will use swiss-chard from my garden instead of spinach. TUESDAY: Peanut noodles with cabbage ramen slaw and frozen mangoes. WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti squash with red sauce and cheese. Garlic bread and green salad with fresh tomatoes on the side. THURSDAY: Chicken noodle soup, cheese sandwiches and honeydew melon. If chicken is expensive I will use tofu instead of chicken (just cut it into cubes and drop it in). FRIDAY: We are going camping, so we will be eating hot dogs, pasta salad and cut apples. SATURDAY: We will be driving home from camping and will probably eat pizza on the road.

I'm delighted that you are here. My name is Nicole: I'm a mom and Registered Dietitian. One of my favorite things to do is cook a big meal and sit down to enjoy it with my family. If you are a DDI VANTAGE family, I hope you can be inspired to find joy in feeding your kids while you are here. If you are a Family Advocate, I hope you can find all the info you need to inspire families to eat well. On this site you will find tips and tricks for feeding kids age 0-3. There's also a few family favorite recipes and nutrition tips for daycare teachers. Happy Eating and Feeding! Nicole

Does your 18 month to 3 year old seem to love only noodles, chicken nuggets and flavored yogurt? If so, this post is for you! Picky eating is common in children age 18 months to 3 years. Most parents have at least one child who is choosy at mealtime. Picky eating is often a phase that passes by the time a child enters grade school. Sometimes picky eating sticks around until a child is much older. Knowing this doesn't make it easier to feed your child, but here is one tip that will make things easier: Eat meals with your child and Eat the same thing as your child at those meals If you are at home with your child, make breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Make foods you enjoy and adjust them for your child. Always offer your child the same things you are eating. Kids don't need "kid food." They can eat anything you are having as long as it doesn't pose a choking hazard. The only difference between a parent's meal and a child's meal is serving size. The photo on top is a common lunch I eat with my 3 year old. He didn't start out liking tuna or avacados. For several months he would only eat the pears and the bread. I never told him that he had to try avacados. I never told anyone that he "doesn't like avacados." I just said nothing at all and kept on serving it every few days. Eventually he tasted them on his own and learned to like them. Avoid labeling your child as picky or saying they don't like certain foods. Just keep offering foods and eventually your child will try them. It can be helpful to keep foods separate, kids usually don't like foods to be mixed up. That's why I've put the tuna on the side of the bread. He eats his tuna with a spoon and then eats the bread plain. Serving the same meal from the start eliminates the chance of your child getting stuck on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or chicken nuggets. If you let your child know from the start that they always get the same thing you are having, then that is what they will come to expect. Worried your child won't get enough to eat? Research shows that children are very good at regulating their intake. If they don't eat a lot one day, they will make up for it the next day. The key here is to keep your cool, keep offering new foods and never force your child to eat. Just offer food and let them decide whether they will eat it or not. Don't be afraid of your child starving. As long as you've offered a balanced meal, you've done your job. Now let your child decide how much to eat. For more information about picky eating, ask your family advocate to show you the InJoy video about 2 year olds during your next visit. You can also read up on picky eating here, here and here.

My air conditioning doesn't work well. To keep the house cool, I run fans early in the morning, keep the blinds closed during the day and I avoid using the oven. Now that we have two days of 70 degree weather, I can keep the blinds open during the day use the oven again without a (literal) sweat. I can also start serving my favorite easy dinner: chili! The other wonderful thing about September is the availability of fresh peaches, pears and grapes! My family eats a lot of fresh fruit this time of year because it is affordable. In the winter months we mostly eat canned fruit and oranges. Eating food that is in season saves you money and tastes better. Here's my menu plan for the week! Monday: My favorite chili recipe with cornbread and avacados. Fresh cut peaches on the side. photo from eatingwell.com Tuesday: baked eggs with swiss chard from my garden. Bread from my freezer (I buy day old bread and freeze it to save money) and fresh cut peaches on the side. Photo from budgetbytes.com Wednesday: Panfried eggplant with fresh tomatoes and cheese on top + green salad and fresh cut pears on the side. Photo from allrecipes.com Thursday: Peanut noodles with swiss chard from the garden and frozen peas. I will be posting this recipe on my site soon! Fresh grapes from the garden. Friday: Easy enchiladas with garden salad and fresh cut peaches on the side. photo from tasteofhome.com Have a great week and enjoy these couple of days of cool weather!

My kids started school this week (yay!). It's been tooooo long since they've been gone and I was excited for them to go. I like them to have a favorite dinner to look forward to the first week of school, so I had them plan the menu. Luckily their comfort foods are pretty simple. Monday: sourdough bread (I buy it at my local smith's for 1$ in the discount bin) topped with pesto, garden tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. I grow a lot of basil, it's one of the easiest things to grow here in Utah! Pan fried eggplant. Grapes and green salad from the garden on the side. Tuesday: Enchiladas using this EASY recipe from Taste of Home (a great place for simple recipes) with watermelon (only 4$ at walmart this week!). Wednesday: My daughter wanted hamburgers, but hamburger was way too expensive, so I'm making black bean burgers using this recipe from epicurious. Watermelon and potato salad on the side. I always use whole wheat buns to make it healthier. Thursday: store bought pita bread, naan, hummus, tabouleh and tzatziki Friday: Homemade pizza topped with pesto, peppers, olives, spinach and cheese. Green salad from the garden + canned pineapple. Saturday: tortilla soup with tortilla chips, sour cream and avacado Sunday: eat any leftovers in the fridge and probably ramen noodles cooked with some veggies.

It's the last week of summer break at my house. We're feeling really excited about starting up school again! Because we are packing in a lot of fun this week, the meals are going to be really simple. Here's what we are eating this week! MONDAY breakfast: oatmeal with frozen blueberries lunch: cottage cheese with crackers, fresh tomatoes and fresh peaches dinner: whole wheat spaghetti with jarred tomato sauce, green beans from the garden, green salad with garden vegetables, bread with butter, fresh cut peaches need tips on how to get your kids to eat salad? Check this out this post by my fellow dietitian at Real Mom Nutrition: https://www.realmomnutrition.com/starter-salads-teaching-my-kids-to-love-greens/ TUESDAY breakfast: peanut butter oatmeal lunch: leftover spaghetti, bread with garden pesto and fresh tomatoes dinner: crock pot lasagne (I will use cottage cheese instead of ricotta and no meat to make is less expensive) green salad, fresh grapes from our garden WEDNESDAY breakfast: oatmeal pancakes with fresh peaches on top lunch: green smoothies, crackers and cheese dinner: little cesears pizza (we will be headed out on a trip and won't have time to make or clean up dinner) THURSDAY-SUNDAY Grandparents are in charge while I go camping for 4 days. Kids will be eating whatever grandma and grandpa eat. I'll be eating simple food like crackers, salami, cheese, hummus, fresh fruits and vegetables and granola bars.

Having a meal plan for the week is the best way to make sure your kids eat well. It minimizes shopping trips and saves you the headache of trying to figure out what to cook when kids are HANGRY (Hungry + Angry). August, September and October meals will focus on fresh vegetables from my garden. I love greek food, so we eat tabbouleh and tzatiki a lot! If you don't have a garden, shopping at a farmers market is the BEST way to shop for vegetables in the summer and fall. With the double up program, you can double your food dollars at farmers markets, check out the details here https://www.uah.org/get-help/snap-farmers-market MONDAY BREAKFAST: healthy apple muffins LUNCH: Hot Ham + cheese on bagles with fresh carrots and garden tomatoes DINNER: Steak + zuchinni stir fry, brown rice, canned pineapple TUESDAY BREAKFAST: peanut butter oatmeal LUNCH: Cottage cheese, triscuits, peaches, garden cucumbers DINNER: rice + black beans with fresh garden salsa WEDNESDAY BREAKFAST: blueberry oatmeal LUNCH: Leftover rice and beans with salsa DINNER: tzatziki, tabbouleh (check out the link! there are videos on how to cut tomatoes and parsley!), hummus, tortillas THURSDAY BREAKFAST: blueberry oatmeal LUNCH: tzatziki, tabbouleh, hummus, homemade tortillas DINNER: Green salad with grilled chicken (just marinade in italian dressing and cook on grill until 165 degrees), fresh peaches, fresh croutons (sourdough bread torn up) FRIDAY BREAKFAST: blueberry oatmeal LUNCH: leftover salad DINNER: pizza using winco whole wheat dough, topped with fresh mozzerella, garden tomatoes and basil SATURDAY BREAKFAST: cottage cheese pancakes LUNCH: lftover pizza DINNER: Chana masala with store bought naan bread