Healthy Corn Soup
By Molly

​
On Friday I really wanted something warm and different for dinner so I decided to make some corn soup. A couple years ago my mom had made a yummy corn soup but I didn’t have the recipe or fresh corn. I did a quick google search but none of the recipes I found were what I was looking for so I decided to just to try my own thing based of what I had seen and had available at home. It turned out well and I served it with millet and steamed kale... yum.

Healthy Corn Soup
*3 cups of frozen corn thawed
*3 cups of cold water
*¼ tsp of salt
*2 TBS of cashews (14g) soaked in enough water to just cover them

In a Vitamix puree 1 ½ cups of corn with 3 cups of water. Pour mixture into pot with rest of corn bring to a boil. Once boiling add salt and simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put soup back in Vitamix with cashews and blend for about 30 seconds then enjoy. Makes about 5 ½ cups of soup.  

Have you tried any new recipes recently?

Molly Hubner
Usborne Books & More Independent Educational Consultant
​I am always looking for people to join my Usborne team, host parties (Facebook or home), or just share these wonderful books! For more information visit my website or contact me at mollyhubner@gmail.com.
Plus follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/mollyhubnersusbornebooks/

7 Trends for 2017
By Molly

As I sit here reflecting on what 2017 is going to bring about there are my hopes and dreams for this year that I will fight for and thoughts too of what will be popular this year. Based on my perspective of things here are 7 trends I think will occur.

1. People turning towards Whole Foods Plant Based Diets (WFPB).

​     a. Pinterest is now full of lots of recipes that are      WFPB.
         b.  ​Amazon sells lots of WFPB cook books.
    c. Greger’s website Nutrition Facts and book is growing in popularity
         d. Plus WFPB diets are an inexpensive way to solve lots of people's health issues
 
2. Simplifying Meals.​

• Just google Instant pot and tons of excellent reviews, recipes and testimonials now popup. I got on before they were that popular and now have two so I can cook beans and grains at the same time.

3. Athletic Dress Clothes. Not everyone call live mostly in workout clothes like I do.​

• I love the comfort and style of Lululemon and LuLaRoe and if you need dressier athletic pants checkout Betabrand dress pants yoga pants (I have not tried them as I am not a dress shoe kind of gal).

4. Straightforward Sustainable Workouts that can be done at home or right out your door. I run about 30 miles a week it is easy as I just get up and go. Then walk about the same amount between dropping the kids of and my next task that day. My strength training is 4 simple exercises I do at home 3 sets of pushups, sit ups/crunches, squats and arms with barbells three times a week.  

• Based on the gaining popularity of Sweat with Kayla others like a simple to follow workout plan.  ​​

5. Local Food/ US Made

• Fresher produce and more sustainable and environmentally friendly
• Higher quality and more jobs in USA.

 
6. Buy Nothing culture growing bigger

• The group I am part of has grown a lot over that last few months with many more offers.
• Buy Nothing groups help foster community and cut down on waste.

 
7. Small House/Apartment Living

• Simpler, less expensive and environmentally friendly!
• There have recently been lots of articles, blogs, and Pinterest post about small living.

What do you think will become trendy this year?

Molly Hubner
Usborne Books & More Independent Educational Consultant
I am always looking for people to join my Usborne team, host parties (Facebook or home), or just share these wonderful books! For more information visit my website or contact me at mollyhubner@gmail.com.
Plus follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/mollyhubnersusbornebooks/

Breakfast:

During week the adults eat oat groats with cinnamon (ceylon) and a banana (we like the Bob’s Red Mill ones). The kids eat a fruit with chunky monkeys, oat bars, peanut butter packet, rice cake, Larabar or like, frozen whole grain waffles or Barbers whole grain animal crackers.

On weekends the adults oat groats or eat tofu scramble (tofu, caramelized onions, mushrooms and greens sauteed together) with homemade muffins or whole grain homemade waffles/pancakes. The kids have fruit and the waffles or pancakes (we always freeze the extras for another weekend).

Lunch:

I eat Peanut Butter sandwich, a fruit and a veggie (usually Santa Cruz PB, TJ’s sprouted grain bread, an apple, and a carrot).

My daughter eats lightly salted corn chips, Midel Graham Crackers, or lightly salted rice cake with a fruit and sometimes a nut protein.

My son fruit and corn chips, crackers, bread, rice cake or a bar of some sort.

​My husband eats dinner leftovers and/or PB sandwiches.   

Dinner:

We usually eat beans, a whole grain and a green or other veggie. On the weekend we might have lentil loaf with squash or a home made Indian or tomato sauce dish.
The kids have to choose a veggie and grain or bean (they like chickpeas best) but when we have lentil loaf with squash or a home made Indian or tomato sauce dish the kids have a veggie and pasta or a little meat.

The beans we like are chickpeas, Christmas Lima beans, Jacob’s Cattle beans, Giant White beans, lentils, black beans, Borlotti beans, split peas, Scarlet Runner beans and Baby Lima beans.

Our favorite grains are quinoa, millet, buckwheat and bulgar but we also enjoy rye berries, spelt, brown rice and Sorghum.
The adults favorite green is TJ’s Organic Tuscan Kale. We try to eat lots of different veggies as well as sweet potatoes, and squashes.

Snack:
A snack always starts with a fruit/veggie or something that contains a fruit. Here is a list of store bought snack we get.

• Larabars or bites
• Midel whole grain graham crackers
• Barbar’s whole grain animal crackers
• Plain popcorn
• Nuts
• Annies bunnies
• Rice cakes
• Peanut butter packet
• Dried fruit
• Apple sauce

Homemade snacks:

• Carrot sticks with homemade hummus (3c chickpeas, ¼c tahini, 2 cloves of garlic and ⅛c lemon juice all processed in the food processor)

• Homemade baked good (I bake in bulk and freeze most of it so we almost always have some in the freezer)

We drink mostly water, water with apple cider vinegar, and seltzer water. I do drink a cup of coffee every morning with homemade almond milk (I like it better than store bought). For more great Whole Food Plant Based healthy eating tips check out Dr. Greger.

What are your go to healthy meals?

Molly Hubner
Usborne Books & More Independent Educational Consultant
I am always looking for people to join my Usborne team, host parties (Facebook or home), or just share these wonderful books! For more information visit my website or contact me at mollyhubner@gmail.com. Plus follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/mollyhubnersusbornebooks/

By: Jennifer L. Long, RN, NCN

October is here! Oh how I love the fall colors, the fall themes and especially the fall FOOD! This month makes me think of two MAJOR things, PUMPKINS and HALLOWEEN! With that being said this can also pose as a stressful season for anyone struggling with weight management or children with food allergies. I plan to cover the nutritional benefits of pumpkin and how it can help you lose weight as well as alternative goodies for trick-or-treating.

When you think of a pumpkin, what comes to mind? Well, for the average person I would assume, the color orange, jack-o-lanterns, carving, pies and maybe even Cinderella! Since we know there will not be a fairy godmother changing our pumpkins into beautiful fairy tale coaches, lets re-think this whole pumpkin idea and switch gears into how these beautiful veggies can benefit our health.

Pumpkins can boost your immune system because they are loaded with vitamin A and vitamin C to help fight the common cold; they are packed with antioxidants and can even improve your skin. They contain phytosterols, which lower your LDL (bad cholesterol). Struggle with digestion issues? Grab some pumpkin and reap the fiber benefits, which also will aid in keeping your blood sugar stable and help you shed a few extra pounds. One cup of pumpkin contains 3 grams of fiber and only 49 calories.

There are multiple uses for pumpkins. Carving, baking, cooking and even spa treatments! When shopping this October, grab a fresh pumpkin or even a few cans that can be convenient for quick use.

Trick-or-treating advice: If you are aware a child in your neighborhood struggles with a food allergy, get together with your neighbors and offer a special goody bag for that child to be able to enjoy going house to house in their costume and fit in with the other superheroes and princesses. If you are a parent of a child with a food allergy, talk to your friends and neighbors and offer to make goody bags to be handed out to your child as they bounce from yard to yard. Goody bag ideas are stickers, little party favor toys, markers, coins, etc.

Here are 2 recipes for a PUMPKIN SPICE SMOOTHIE

VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE RECIPE: makes 2 servings

2 CUPS ALMOND MILK

½ CUP ROLLED OATS

CHIA OR FLAX SEEDS

1 CUP CANNED OR FRESH PUMPKIN

BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES

1 FROZEN RIPE BANANA

2 TSP CINNAMON

GROUND GINGER/ NUTMEG

MAPLE SYRUP (optional on top at the end)

PROTEIN BOOST with HEMP PROTEIN

FOR A THICKER CONSISTENCY ADD ICE

VANILLA PUMPKIN SPICE SMOOTHIE: makes 2 servings

​2 CUPS ALMOND MILK

​2 SCOOPS MONAVIE VANILLA RVL SHAKE MIX

​1 CUP CANNED OR FRESH PUMPKIN

PUMPKIN SPICE/ NUTMEG

​ICE

For nutrition consulting & to get your Monavie RVL please emailRNutrition2013@gmail.com or call (508) 360-2032


Jennifer L. Long, RN, NCN DBA RNutrition Health & Wellness 
"Transformation Begins With Nutrition"

By: Emily
Cape Cod Mommies was given this opportunity from NaturallySavvy.com to review the Free e-book: Label  Lessons: Unjunk Your Kid's Lunch Box. We received no compensation for this review and the thoughts and opinions belong to the author.

“As parents, we’re not immune to temptation… It’s easy to be drawn in by conveniently packaged foods promising to save time, especially in the morning rush.”
 
I would say that quote from Andrea Donsky and Lisa Tsakos’ eBook, “Label Lessons: Unjunk Your Kid’s
Lunch Box” sums up my personal relationship with packaged foods nicely.  I want to provide nutritious and
healthy meals for my son.  I make efforts to minimize packaging, keep sugar low, and offer a variety of veggies and fruits with his meals.  I am also lucky as my son, while picky at times, is a pretty adventurous eater and broccoli is one of his favorite foods.  That being said, it can still feel overwhelming to keep up on all of the things one should or should not be feeding their child.  Growing up in the 80’s when Velveeta cheese was a staple ingredient in at least one of my weekly dinners and my lunch box included a can of Coke and a bag of Double Stuffed Oreos, it is easy to rationalize that, “I turned out fine” and avoid thinking too much about ingredients.
 
But a lot has changed since I was a child. As consumers we are able to more easily arm ourselves with knowledge  (thanks to the almighty Internet) and manufacturing processes continue to incorporate more and more artificial ingredients into foods (to make more money) while packaging and marketing them towards our
kids.

What I like most about this eBook is that well first, it is FREE, and second it condenses a whole bunch of information into an accessible and easy-to-read format.  You are not lectured or made to feel guilty. 
The authors are not out to build themselves up as the Ultimate Moms leaving you feeling like an inadequate parent as you read along.  The eBook is designed to empower you with information and teach you some
quick ways to be a better label reader.  For all the parents out there with smartphones, you can reference the
eBook right in the aisle of the grocery store.
 
The eBook includes their list of the “scary seven” ingredients to be mindful of in packaged goods.  I totally agree with every item they list and appreciate how they have itemized things to explain why they are worth avoiding for parents who may be less familiar with the negative nutritional impact of a specific ingredient.
 
You are then provided a side-by-side comparison of similar products, such as two brands of whole wheat bread, to show you how to read product labels and make better choices.  I already considered myself pretty knowledgeable regarding their “scary seven” list of ingredients, but when I got to the first product comparison I discovered an ingredient I had not paid much attention to before. DATEM.  From the way they describe it this nasty, man-made fat somehow manages to avoid being included in the calorie or fat count on the product
labels.
 
I hopped onto the internet to do a quick search for DATEM, since it was not something I was familiar with. 
Several websites come up that describe the chemical structure but none of them discussed any of the claims about hidden fats that the eBook contends.  When doing my own research on claims like this I strive to find not-for-profit sites (addresses ending with .org, or  educational sites ending with .edu). There were not a lot of those options to choose from.  I then noticed that the eBook provides a citation associated with each of
their claims about DATEM. I was able to follow the link about hidden fats to the Weston A. Price Foundation. As a side note, if you are not familiar with the Weston A. Price Foundation nonprofit charity, I highly recommend you read their mission statement.

So my personal conclusion on DATEM is that I would avoid it based on the rationale provided in the eBook, but want to point out that the source they cite is from a 2004 magazine article. While I believe the Weston A. Price Foundation (publisher of article) to be a reputable source of information, it is far different from a peer-reviewed scientific article that follows strict testing standards.  Going back to the citation for a minute
  though, one of the key points of the article was:

This article was written nine years ago.  Trans fats were only added to food labels four years ago in 2009.  So I would be highly suspect of any food containing DATEM today simply because the public is FAR more aware of trans fats now than when the article was written.  I just pulled out the whole wheat bread I used to make my son’s sandwich this morning and guess what, it contain  DATEM.  Gross.
 
So where is this tangent going and why should you care?  This DATEM tangent illustrates how much time it takes to investigate and research ONE ingredient that appears on a food label.  I did it to make sure that
the conclusions outlined in the eBook follow my own line of thinking when it comes to avoiding ingredients. The point of Label Lessons: Unjunk Your Kid’s Lunch Box is to save you time and condense a lot of research and  information that can be difficult to find into an easy-to-read format.  They do not shy away from providing sources for each claim, so should you want to do your own additional investigating into a specific ingredient they flag, you can. I appreciate this kind of transparency as it makes me feel confident that
  the authors of the eBook are truly out to help parents without any hidden agendas or off-the-wall claims that have no merit.

 The eBook is only 27 pages long, so it is pretty easy to read through it, especially since much of the information is organized in bullet points or brief paragraphs. I expect it to be a resource I will refer to a lot as I go about finding products that do not contain any of the ingredients I want to avoid.  First up for me is to find a new whole wheat  bread.

Let's face it, getting kids to eat their vegetables requires some creative thinking and a lot of patience at times.  Vegetables are a crucial necessity for every child's diet but often kids turn up their noses at even the most deliciously prepared meal!  We know a lot of you parents out there are SUPER CREATIVE in how you incorporate the veggies into meal time or snacks, so we want you to share the ideas with everyone so parents who are struggling can try new things!

We have decided to issue a 14 Day Eat Your Veggies Challenge! 

One Cape Cod Mommies Reader will receive a:
 $100 Gift Certificate to Stop & Shop!

How to Enter:
It is really easy and you can enter your submission by simply posting a PICTURE of your creative way to incorporate Veggies on either Facebook or Twitter (or both if you'd like). 

Post your submission with the following:

Getting #healthy with @Capecodmommies & @StopandShop #VeggieChallenge

When you post the picture you MUST tag both Cape Cod Mommies, Stop & Shop and #VeggieChallenge.

Rules:
Contest will open on Monday August 5 and will end on Monday, August 19, 2013.  Cape Cod Mommies will select the TOP 3 submissions and post them on the blog on Tuesday August 20, 2013.  Readers will cast a vote for their favorite submission (more info to come when Final 3 are announced).  Voting will close on Aug 22nd at 11:59pm.  A winner will be chosen and announced on Friday August 23, 2013! Stop & Shop is responsible for delivery of prize.

By: Amy E
Let's face it, the majority of kids LOVE Mac & Cheese, my child would eat it every single day if he could.  There has been a lot of PR lately regarding mac & cheese, in particular the manufacturer Kraft which uses the unnecessary food dyes Yellow 5 & 6.  Between the latest hype and the fact that mac & cheese doesn't contain any veggies, I find myself on a quest to make the perfect Mac & Cheese to meet our needs.  Since I haven't quite found the right combinations to make a cheese sauce, I used Annie's Organic's as my base.  The result was a healthier and more delicious version that was a lot of fun to make together.... plus I snuck in a whole veggie!

Cooking together was fun.  It gave ownership of the meal to the Tiny One, plus since he is obsessed with measurement lately, we got to discuss a little math while we prepped. "Measure up, measure up, measure up!" Then we separated it into 3 separate meals and the next day pulled another out added some fresh strawberries and voila!

You will need the following:

- 1 Box of Annie's Mac & Cheese (you can use any brand or type you want, I decided to go with some of the Annie's Organic Shells as they were on sale at Stop & Shop last weekend)

~ 1 Yellow Squash (I may try a zucchini next time!)

~ Milk & Butter

~ Food Processor

Prepare up the Mac & Cheese accordingly.  While boiling the water, chop up the Squash into chunks.  Use the food processor to break up the chunks of squash. 

Once the macaroni is cooked, combine it with the squash.  Mix the rest of your ingredients and ENJOY!

These Fruit Popsicles are an easy and fun to get fruit into the little ones and a refreshing treat for bigger kids and adults too!

What You Need:
Popsicle molds
Watermelon
Assorted chopped fruit:
Blueberries and Bananas
Strawberries and Raspberries
Kiwi and cherries
Pineapple and peach

Blend up the watermelon in a blender.  Prepare the dices/chopped fruit and place it into the molds.  Have the kids help you!  Then pour in the watermelon juice.  Freeze and ENJOY!