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There are hundreds of diets and different ways of eating right for good health. I want to tell you about a very simple way to help you meet your food needs. This way will help you eat the right foods in the right amounts for better health.

This method is called the Half-Plate Rule. You take a plate – a regular dinner size plate if you are a grown-up, or a smaller plate if you are younger.
Then you visually divide this plate in half.
You fill half of this plate with vegetables and/or fruit.
You fill 1/4 of this plate with lean meat or protein.
You fill the other 1/4 of plate with whole grains.
Young children can add milk.

There you have it. Simple. To the point. Easy.

Here’s to your good health.

Chef Crombie

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Most children are really hungry when they get home from school. Here is a quick snack even young children can help prepare.

Apple and Cheese Posts

1 apple
2 ounces of Cheddar cheese
Orange juice or other fruit juice
Toothpicks

Cut apple into quarters and remove core. Slice each quarter in half and cut crosswise into bite-size pieces. Dip apple chunks in orange juice or other juice, such as pineapple, lemon or lime.

Cut cheese in cubes about the size of the apples. Stick a toothpick into apples and cheese.  Arrange all on a plate.

Good to the core!

Chef Crombie

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As we are winding down the month of March, National Nutrition Month, I wanted to summarize six “good health” ideas that can get powerful results. For your well-being, these are suggestions for everyday living that can boost health and energy.

1. Focus on fruits and vegetables. Eat a variety of fruit. Try to include 2 a day. Berries and citrus fruits are especially good choices.

2. Vary your veggies. Eat more yellow and dark green vegetables such as sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli and dark leafy vegetables. Tomatoes, onions, pepper, celery, mushrooms, cabbage and cauliflower are other good selections.

3. Eat whole grains in moderation. This could include whole grain breads, cereals, crackers, rice and pasta.

4. Choose lean meats and use healthy cooking methods like baking, braising and broiling. Proteins are the building blocks of growth. Protein foods include beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and eggs. Salmon and fish, as long as they are shown to be safe from mercury and other toxins, are also good protein sources.

5. Young children need whole milk or 2 percent for calcium. Yogurt and cheese are also rich in calcium.

6. Choose foods low in saturated fats and no transfats. Healthy fats and oils include butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and nuts.

7. Spare the sugar. Sugar is not an essential nutrient. Our taste buds have become acclimated to the sweet taste. However, we can live very easily, and sometimes, better, without sugar.

This is the guide the Chef uses to maintain vigor and good health.

Best to you,

Crombie

Image by panduh via Flickr

Most pre-school children love to “work” in the kitchen, just like grown-ups. Cooking with children can be a challenge, but it can also be a great experience for both child and adult.

Here are some jobs many preschoolers can do in the kitchen with a little supervision:

• pre-measure ingredients for recipes
• stir ingredients in a bowl
• set the table
• wash foods in a colander
• core, tear and rinse lettuce
• tear spinach
• snap beans
• shell peas
• prepare garlic cloves
• peel bananas
• stem strawberries
• pit cherries
• peel oranges
• knead dough
• crack cooked eggs
• beat with rotary beater
• spread filling on bread
• grease pans
• cut dates with blunt scissors
• cut soft foods using a rounded point knife, no paring knives

With a little help and encouragement, children can become competent and enthusiastic cooks.

Happy and healthy cooking with kids,

Chef Crombie

Image via Wikipedia

Pineapples grow in warm climates and are native to South America. In their natural form, they have rough, prickly exteriors.  Early tribal natives called this “anan” or “excellent fruit”. Later it was called “pineapple” for its resemblance to a pine cone. It is known for its intense sweetness. juiciness, and excellent flavor.

Historians tell us Christopher Columbus discovered pineapple on one of his journeys to new lands and brought it back to Europe. Here the people were largely without any common sweet foods. Most of the sweets came from fruits grown, but each had a limited growing season. Sugar refined from cane was imported from the Middle East and the Orient but this, too, was very expensive.

Later pineapple was introduced to the New World. It was still very rare and high priced. Only the upper class could afford to have this adorn their tables. The whole pineapple was as exquisite as was the inside ripe, yellow, juicy pulp.

Now we continue to prize this fruit for its excellent flavor and nutritional value, largely vitamin C and potassium. Many grocery stores have the pineapples cut up, although this can be done at home by an adult. The outside is very hard and rough but the flavor on the inside is well worth the trouble of cutting and slicing.

The pineapple can be cut into wedges or chunks. Then insert a toothpick into each. Now you are ready for an instant treat in the manner of the early nobility.

To your good health,

Chef Crombie

Image via Wikipedia

We live in a hurried world. “Hurry, get ready”. “Hurry, we’re late” are words we may often hear or say.  Sometimes we zip through meals. We eat in cars. We go through drive-ins to grab something to eat.

But eating is serious business as it nourishes our body. We often lose track of the big picture and only think about “now”.

Consider thoughtfully what and how you eat.

Do you allow enough time to eat, and to eat slowly? if you eat slowly you give the body time to feel full. This helps you keep from over-eating.

Do you eat too many BIG meals when more smaller meals would satisfy you?  Big meals tend to cause the body to work harder to digest the food.

Do you tend to skip meals? Skipping meals is not a good habit to get into. This can make you much too hungry when you eat again and then any food looks good.

Snacking is good, but make sure you eat the right snacks. What are some healthy snacks, you ask?

You might try some of the following for those between meal “hungries”:

fresh fruit
dried fruit such as raisins, apples, peaches and others
carrots
celery with peanut butter
raw cauliflower
real cheese
plain yogurt
pretzels
popcorn

This is a start. Can you think of other healthy snacks?

To your health and healthy eating,

Chef Crombie

Image via Wikipedia

Everyone is anxious to see the flowers come up, leaves bud out on trees, and weather warm up. With spring there is new hope.

It is good to be hopeful. This tends to lift the soul and put a smile on one’s face. It makes a person healthier and happier. Having hope may even create better relationships with family, friends, and community members.

Dr. Charles R. Synder is a psychologist at the University of Kansas who studies hope. According to him, there are certain characteristics hopeful people have that others do not. Some of these include:

• being more confident in reaching goals
• staying flexible in finding ways to reach goals or aiming toward similar ones
• turning to others to help them reach goals
• believing that things get better with time

What are some things you hope for?

Is it perhaps that you will always have friends?
To have a loving family?
To have a healthy family?
For nice teachers?
For no more bullying or fighting?
For peace and justice in the world?

Springtime is a time to renew our hope and inspire that hope in others.

I hope you have a wonderful spring!

Chef Crombie

This just came in over my radar screen – and I want you to have this information, too. Many of you know this and have been practicing it for years, but for those who have not heard – listen up – it’s important.

• Do not drink water or any liquid from plastic bottles that have been in the sun. If the bottles have been left in the car, the heat from the sun and the plastic form certain chemicals that can leak into the water and be dangerous to the body.

• Do not freeze water in plastic bottles. This releases toxins from the plastic. Toxins are poisonous to the cells in our bodies.

• Do not use any plastic wrap in the microwave. The high heat can actually cause poisonous toxins to melt out of the plastic wrap. Use paper towels or glass covers instead.

• Do not heat food in plastic containers in the microwave. Use glass containers such as Corning Ware and Pyrex instead.

Those are our “Don’t's” for today.

But two big “Do’s” are:

1. Use a stainless steel or a glass bottle for water
2. Be careful what you put into your body – it is the only one you have.

Much good health to you,

Chef Crombie

Image via Wikipedia

Today we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone is a wee bit Irish. St. Patrick is one of the world’s most popular saints, along with St. Valentine and St. Nicholas. He was known for bringing Christianity to all of Ireland. When the potato famine struck in Ireland, many people immigrated to the United States. They brought their traditions and love of St. Patrick with them.

Shamrocks and leprechauns are associated with this day. Wearing something green, and even preparing and serving something green is traditional on this day.

Here is an easy but tasty green dessert.

St. Patrick’s Green Mountain

1 (3 ounce) package lime flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 cup whipping cream
1 banana, optional

In a medium bowl, add boiling water (adult needs to do this) to the green gelatin. Whisk it a little until all is dissolved.

Refrigerate about 1 hour until the mixture is partially set, or jiggles a little and is about the consistency of thick egg whites.

Then, in a deep chilled bowl, whip the cream until thick enough to form peaks. Fold this into the cooled gelatin. Add a sliced banana, if you wish.

Pour into dessert dishes or into a serving bowl. Sprinkle top with crushed cookies or shredded coconut.

Simple, but good.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

Chef Crombie

Image via Wikipedia

Aren’t you glad you know your way around the kitchen and can prepare good food for yourself and others?  Hopefully the recipes in this blog have helped you come up with some tasty dishes to set before the king (I mean, friends or family).

The media tells us we are in a new era of thrift. There is a suggestion we may not be able to eat out as often as we would like. Perhaps the days are gone when everyone can go out for pizza or hamburger after a game.

This is not all bad. Think of the money you are saving. You can still invite your friends over for snacks. These late winter days continue to call for some popcorn popping time or quick and easy snacks like the following:

Bagel Pizzas

2 bagel halves
About 4 tablespoons or more
of tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 cup grated cheese
Toppings of your choice

Place bagel halves on a cookie sheet with cut side up. Spread with tomato sauce and oregano. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Add any toppings such as pepperoni, cooked hamburger or sausage, olives, extra cheese, or what is available. You or an adult helper can put the pan in a hot oven (375 degrees) until cheese melts.

Should be yummy, especially eating with your friends or family.

Here’s to your happy “cooking at home” days,

Chef Crombie