February is American Heart Month, and it’s a good time for everyone in the family to show their hearts some love!  Whether your health goals are to manage high blood pressure or high cholesterol or to form lifelong healthy habits, there are plenty of foods that the whole family can enjoy to help meet these goals.

Foods that show the biggest benefits for our hearts include choices with fiber and unsaturated fats like omega-3 fatty acids, and low in saturated and trans fats, sodium and added sugars.  These would include most vegetables and fruits, beans, nuts and seeds, whole grains, fatty fish, like salmon, tuna, trout or sardines and plant based oils like olive oil.  Minimize those foods high in added sodium or sugars, and high fat dairy products.  Making exercise a part of your daily routine is also important for heart health – make time to take some family walks, or visit one of the beautiful parks around the Richmond area!  

Here are some delicious ways to show your heart some love this month:

• Avocado is a yummy source of unsaturated fat and fiber! Spread on sandwiches instead of mayonnaise, add to salads or mix into fresh salsa.  
• Beans are an excellent source of fiber! Here’s a quick afterschool snack that your kids will love and can make themselves! Using a corn tortilla, sprinkle low-fat cheddar cheese and place your favorite beans – black beans, soy beans, or kidney beans – on top.  Microwave on half power for 30 seconds, or until cheese melts.  Finish with some salsa and avocado for a heart smart snack.
• Raw, unsalted or lightly salted nuts are a great snack and easy to keep with you during the day.  If nut allergies are a concern, try dry roasted or frozen and shelled soybeans! These choices contain unsaturated fats and fiber.
• Fresh veggies make a great snack! If you or your little ones crave that “something extra” try making a Ranch flavored dip with 6 oz fat free, plain Greek yogurt and 1-2 tbsp powdered Ranch mix.  Nut butters, low-fat cottage cheese, hummus or guacamole also make great dips!
• If your children think there is something “fishy” about fish, try making salmon cakes in fun shapes, or tuna or cod fish sticks coated with some whole wheat bread crumbs or crushed Shredded wheat.  Serving these new foods with an old favorite, like homemade sweet potato fries may help your kids to try something new!
• Replace snacks like potato chips or crackers with baked kale or Swiss chard.  Baking these nutrient rich veggies is easy and fun for the whole family! Wash and dry the leaves very well, then have kids help you tear them in small pieces.  Lightly coat with olive oil and your favorite spices, like garlic, pepper or cumin and bake in the oven at 275͒ and turning halfway, for 15-20 minutes, or until crispy.
• Give PB& J a new twist! Replace the jelly with your kids’ favorite fresh fruit, like bananas, strawberries or apple slices.  Using a whole wheat wrap works just as well, and is still a source of whole grains.
• There’s still room for dessert in a diet that supports heart health! Try replacing eggs with ground flaxseed, or oil with applesauce or a mashed up banana in baked goods.   What about a dessert pizza? Bake a whole wheat pizza crust, spread with Greek yogurt or Neufchatel cheese and top with your favorite fruits. You can finish with a slight drizzle of honey if your kids crave something sweeter!

If you have “picky eaters”, try introducing one new food at a time, with foods that your child is familiar with. Picking out foods for the menu and preparing them can also help to familiarize kids with these new options, so make sure to involve the whole family in mealtime.

For more healthy tips, visit MARTIN’S website or call to schedule a consultation with Caroline, or with Valerie Pulley, MARTIN’S in-store nutritionist on Richmond’s West End.

Check out these other great healthy eating tips from MARTIN’S

MARTIN’S is a sponsor of Richmondmom.com

Now that summer has unofficially ended, many of us are back to hectic mornings. Fitting in breakfast for the family can be challenging, however eating breakfast is important for performance at school and work. Kids and adults who fuel up in the morning tend to focus and concentrate better during the day.  It’s much easier to concentrate if you’re not hungry!   It’s also true that people who eat breakfast get more fiber, calcium, vitamins A and C, zinc and iron in their diets compared to breakfast skippers.

Serving breakfast at home is an important way to set a good example and model healthy eating for your children. Kids tend to mimic their parents’ actions, so make it a habit to sit down and eat a healthy breakfast every morning.  It doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal. A healthy breakfast can be made in just minutes! But first, be sure to set aside some time to plan out your meals, make your grocery list and buy your staples for quick go to breakfasts loaded with nutrients.

Check out these quick and healthy ideas to start the school and work day off right:

• Wake up just a few minutes earlier to squeeze in a quick morning meal.
• Aim for as many food groups as possible at breakfast by incorporating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and dairy into your meal.
• Fruit and yogurt is a tried and true quick breakfast. Choose Greek yogurt for extra protein boost. And beware of the sugar in the “kiddie” yogurts and yogurt tubes. Check the ingredient list for added sugars and stick with those naturally sweetened with fruit or make your own.
• Prepare breakfast the night before so you can grab and go in the morning. Try a whole grain tortilla with almond butter and banana rolled up, homemade trail mix with whole grain cereal, nut/seeds and dried fruit, whole grain crackers and fruit.
• Eggs are packed with protein, vitamins and minerals to keep you full and energized throughout the morning. They are also low calorie, at only 70 calories per egg. To keep eggs as a lean protein choice that is also low in cholesterol, use one egg and two egg whites as a serving.
• Egg mugs are a quick and easy way to prepare eggs in the morning. Spray a mug with non-stick spray and place in one egg and two egg whites and microwave for one minute or until set. Add your favorite cheese, vegetables and/or lean breakfast meat.
• Hard boil a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week. Cool, peel and place into an airtight container in the refrigerator. Grab an egg or two for a quick breakfast with fruit in the morning or make egg salad with toast.
• Set the breakfast table the night before to make the morning run a little smoother. Put out a couple boxes of whole-grain cereal so all kids have to do in the morning is pick one, pour into a bowl and add milk.
• Smoothies are a great option to start your day with a nutrient rich boost. Just be careful about what you add to the blender as the calories can add up quickly. Add skim milk, Greek yogurt or 100% fruit juice and one cup of your favorite fruit. Don’t forget about adding vegetables like baby leafy greens such as baby spinach and baby kale, which have a milder flavor. Make ahead the night before and freeze in a to-go thermos for breakfast on the go.
• Experiment with different nut or seed butters and add to smoothies, whole grain pancakes, whole grain waffles or oatmeal.
• Read the nutrition labels carefully before you toss breakfast bars and pastries into your shopping cart. Keep it to no more than 8 grams of sugar and look for “whole grains” as the first ingredient. A protein granola bar and fruit is an easy option.
• Get kids involved with some “make and take” portable quickies. Put fruits in zip-top bags, freeze a yogurt and add half of a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
• Breakfast doesn’t have to be traditional. Start the day with a low sodium turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, light cheese and whole grain crackers or peanut butter and jelly on a high fiber wrap. Dinner “do-overs” are also an option. Try mac and cheese with ham cubes, cold veggie pizza, or a piece of cold chicken and a small dinner roll. Add fruit and you have a well-rounded “breakfast.”

If your evenings are spent shuttling everyone to their activities, breakfast is a wonderful time for that important family meal time together! For more healthy tips visit MARTIN’S Healthy Ideas website.

Valerie Pulley, RDN has more than 23 years of experience as a registered dietitian and is currently the Richmond area in-store nutritionist for MARTIN’S Food Markets.  As a working mom of two daughters, Valerie relates well to the challenges today’s moms face trying to establish and maintain healthy habits for a busy lifestyle. She is committed to offering practical advice based on up-to-date medical information to help families make sustainable healthy changes to their lifestyle. To get a plan tailored to you, call Valerie at 804-364-3644 to set up a one-on-one consultation.

 

MARTIN’S Food Markets is a sponsor of Richmondmom.com

What will you find at the stores and markets this summer?

June: Asparagus (ends in June), beets, blackberries, blueberries, cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, greens/spinach, fresh herbs, onions, potatoes, squash, strawberries

July – August: Apples, beets, blackberries, blueberries, cabbage, cantaloupe, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, fresh herbs, nectarines, peaches, peppers, potatoes (July), raspberries, squash, sweet corn, tomatoes, watermelon

September- October: Apples, Asian pears, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant (ends in September), green beans, greens/spinach, fresh herbs, peppers, potatoes (October), pumpkins, raspberries, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes

Now that you have filled your basket with fresh produce, time to take it home and enjoy it! Time is ticking to eat up fresh produce before it spoils and we have all been there! Take advantage of any free time in the kitchen to prep your produce to help save time on busy weeknights. Your family will be much more likely to eat it if it’s ready to go. You can wash and prepare carrots, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, broccoli, green beans and melons; keep in the fridge to munch on for several days. Even your hearty greens like kale and collards can be washed, dried and stored for use later in the week. Wait to wash and prep fruits and vegetables that have a thin skin like strawberries, raspberries and peaches, they will need to be eaten within 24 hours for the best quality.

Try these ideas for incorporating local fruits and veggies into your family’s daily diet!

• Summer is great time for making smoothies! Try a green smoothie by adding spinach or kale. Peaches, blackberries and blueberries are delicious in smoothies.
• Bell peppers, cabbage, or even zucchini are great veggies to stuff with a mix of ground turkey or beans, quinoa or rice, other veggies, and fresh herbs like basil, oregano or cilantro.
• Wrap your favorite chicken or tuna salad in fresh lettuce leaves or stuff into a big Hanover tomato.
• Have the kids help you tear a bunch of kale into small bite size pieces to add to salads, mix into rice, quinoa or pasta dishes, or bake into kale chips.
• Use up a lot of veggies at once by roasting a large tray of peppers, onions, squash, eggplant broccoli, sweet potatoes and more! Add your favorite fresh herbs and olive oil. Roasting veggies brings out the natural sweetness in veggies to help cut the bitterness, making them more kid friendly! You can mix them into pastas, stuff into a wrap, or use as a pizza topping.
• Jazz up water or sparkling water by adding fresh berries or cucumbers or even fresh herbs like basil or mint.
• Add some natural sweetness by tossing a handful of berries or sliced peaches into cereals, yogurt, over ice cream, into salads, or top pancakes or waffles.
• Make watermelon savory by tossing with spinach, feta cheese and a vinaigrette dressing.
• Grill fruit for dessert! Grilled peaches and pineapples (OK, not local, but still great when grilled!) are delicious paired with vanilla yogurt or light ice cream.

Kids are often the pickiest eaters in the family, so take advantage of the dog days of summer to get the kids active in the kitchen! Involve them with possibly growing a garden, prepping, and cooking. Kids are much more likely to try their masterpiece if they had a hand in it! Enjoy the longer days and bounty of fresh produce this summer available to you from MARTIN’S!

Valerie Waters, RDN is MARTIN’S In- Store Nutritionist. Valerie is located in 3 Richmond area MARTIN’S stores and available to assist customers in their quest for healthy food choices! She has 13 years of experience as a registered dietitian nutritionist and has worked in the grocery setting for 7 years. As a working mom of two daughters, Valerie relates well to the challenges today’s moms face trying to establish and maintain healthy habits for a busy lifestyle. She is committed to offering practical advice based on up-to-date medical information to help families make sustainable healthy changes to their lifestyle. To get a plan tailored to you, call Valerie at 804-364-3644 to set up a one-on-one consultation.

 

MARTIN’S is a sponsor of Richmondmom.com

Plenty of markets but shortage on time? You can get fresh produce delivered to your door with The Farm Table, check out our article and snag a coupon here.

Saturdays

South of the James Farmers Market
Saturdays, 8 a.m.-noon
May through early December
New Kent Rd and West 42nd Street, Richmond VA 23225

Saint Stephen’s Farmers Market
Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon
Year around (outdoors beginning April 5)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 6000 Grove Ave

Lakeside Farmers Market
Saturdays, 9 a.m. – noon
Year around. Outdoor pavilion open April – December
6110 Lakeside Ave. Richmond/Henrico, Va. 23228

West End Farmers Market
Saturdays, 8 a.m. – noon
April – November
12450 Gayton Rd. Gayton & Ridgefield Henrico, VA 23238

Chimborazo Park Farmers Market
Saturdays,  8 am – 12 noon
June 7 – December 6, 2014
Chimborazo Park
3200 E. Broad St. Richmond, VA 23223

Chester Farmers Market
Saturdays, 8:30am – 12:30pm
April – September, 2014
11901 Chester Village Drive, Chester, VA 23831
Brandermill Green Market
Saturday, 9am – noon
May 4 – Oct. 26, 2013
at Market Square in Brandermill
4900 Market Square Lane, Midlothian, VA 23112

Sundays

Carytown Market
Sundays 11am – 3pm
April  – November, 2014
Wells Fargo lot, 3201 West Cary Street

Weekday Markets

GrowRVA Pop Up Farmstand
MONDAYS from 11 am – 4pm
Westbury Pharmacy
8903 Three Chopt Rd
Richmond, VA 23229

La Plaza Latin Market
Mondays, 4 pm to dusk
May – October, 2014
Broad Rock Park
4857 Warwick Road, Richmond, Virginia 23224

 Byrd House Market
Tuesdays 3:00pm – 7:00pm
May – October, 2014
William Byrd Community House
980 Idlewood Ave 23220

Lakeside Farmers Market
Wednesdays Dawn til Dusk
Year around. Outdoor pavilion open April – December
6110 Lakeside Ave. Richmond/Henrico, Va. 23228

West End Farmers Market
Wednesdays, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
April 30 -September 10, 2014
Aw Shucks Country Store
6100 Pouncey Tract Rd.
Glen Allen, VA 23059

Huguenot-Robious Farmers’ Market
Thursday 10:00 to 2:00 from
April 17 through October, 2014
2051 Huguenot Road,  Richmond, VA 23235

The Market at First Fridays
1st Friday of each month
from 5 pm to 9 pm
Next to Quirk Gallery
311 W. Broad Street Richmond VA 23220

The Market at Fourth Fridays
4th Friday of each month
4 pm to 9 pm
Urban Farmhouse Market & Cafe
310 North 33rd St. (Lava Lofts) Richmond, VA 23223

Find more great information about buying Virginia Grown foods and  local products here.

Photo: Phillipp Kleindienst

Just how much salt are you eating?

According to the FDA recommends The FDA recommends no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day and says that over 75% of your sodium intake comes from from eating packaged and restaurant foods.

But what, exactly, is 2,300 mg of sodium? We know it’s lurking in our lunches but where?

Healthline measured out half your daily intake of sodium and gives a visual using prepackaged food.

You may be surprised to learn a just over 2oz of smoked salmon actually has the same amount of sodium than three slices of lasagna!

Check out their visual guide to sodium here.

Then tell us, which surprised you most?

It’s easy-peasy to do:
(and a real time saver too!)
Sign up online: (yeah, you’re grocery shopping at work/ while making dinner/ on your phone/ in the preschool pick up line) and pick your “Default Box”.  This is the box you’ll get delivered weekly unless you skip a week or decide to change your order.  Each box is about 12-18lbs of scrumptious, locally grown, freshly picked produce.

You have two defaults to choose from:

The Garden Box is best for busy families who want to offer fresh, healthy, low-calorie snacks to their kids, and more familiar veggies such as carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, green peppers, and tomatoes.

Or, for the more culinary customer,  The Chef Box is for those who want a broad range of vegetables such as squash, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, potatoes, and kale.

Automatic payment: Each week, your credit card will be charged $28.50 plus tax.  Vacationing?  Don’t need it this week?  That’s okay! You can skip as many weeks as you like, and you will never be charged for a week that you skip.

Wait for a weekly menu in your inbox:  Want to modify your regular order? Need a little something extra? A menu is emailed on Friday where you can take a look at what’s available that week.

Place your order:  You, multi-tasker, you! Once again you’re ordering your groceries while waiting for a meeting to start, or during naptime! OR you’re not even thinking about groceries because you know that your delicious default box will be arriving at your doorstep shortly.

Wait with baited breath: Alright, maybe it’s just me who gets this excited about fresh produce delivered to my house…  But I’m not going to lie, I find this part thrilling: The Farm Table delivers every Thursday during the season (unless it’s a holiday).

With each delivery you’ll get a weekly newsletter, with instructions on storing your produce and recipes and ideas for using it (I can always use more ideas). Your produce is harvested from local farms at the peak of ripeness, gathering as many nutrients as possible from the environment before it’s delivered directly to you – unlike grocery store produce that’s sometimes weeks old when it finally arrives on shelves. Not to mention that amazingly farm-fresh taste!

Recycle: Place your empty Farm Table box from your last delivery outside in your preferred delivery location. The Farm Table team members will pick it up and we will re-use or recycle it.

Sign up today and get a $15 off the membership fee!
Use code MOMCOM

The Farm Table is an advertiser with Richmondmom.com

Each year eating healthy tops the list of New Year’s Resolutions.
But how does one actually eat healthier?  I like to think that I’m a healthy eater, but I tend to get bogged down by all the conflicting information.

If your goals are to clean up your eating habits and get to a healthy weight,  the nutritionists at MARTIN’S are there to help with a bunch of great healthy eating tips to get you started.

Here are 14 tips for 2014:

1.  Set a S.M.A.R.T goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely).  Yeah, it’d be great if we could all instantly drop 20lbs, gain a 6 pack and have tons of energy overnight, but unrealistic expectations hurt more than help, and your disappointment can cause you to give up on your goals.

2.  Don’t get bogged down by the scale.  Focus on behaviors and not numbers.  Once you’ve decided on a weight goal and a reasonable amount of time in which you want to lose the weight, any other goals you set should be goals over which you have direct control.  For example, set mini goals of how many servings of fruit you eat each day or how many minutes you exercise.

3.  Get creative with food tracking.  For some people keeping a food journal can be tedious (and who wants to carry around a food journal?).  Instead of writing down what you eat, snap a quick photo of it on your phone (besides, that’s what instagram was made for, right?).  Pictures are a great visual representation of what you have had to eat or drink and can help hold you accountable during the day.

4.  Plan your meals.  Set aside time to plan your meals for the week prior to grocery shopping.  Make half of your plate non-starchy vegetables, a quarter protein and quarter starch.  If you have chicken breast as the protein, pair it with a non-starchy vegetable like green beans and a whole grain, like brown rice.   Pssst… MARTIN’S has great recipes to help you plan meals right on their website!

5.  Breakfast gives you the energy you need to start your day off right.  Try to incorporate at least three different food groups at breakfast every day, like whole grains, fruit, and low-fat dairy.  A yogurt parfait is a great example that contains all three!

6.  Keep your metabolism fired up by snacking between meals.  Getting a combination of carbohydrates and protein will help keep you full longer and stabilize blood sugars.  Some good choices include an apple with peanut butter, reduced fat cheese and whole grain crackers, hummus and carrots, or dried fruit and almonds.

7.  Double your veggies. “Veg out” by doubling the volume of non-starchy vegetables you eat at every lunch and dinner.

8.  Actually pass on the salt.  Too much sodium in the diet has been linked to high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease. Limit your daily intake of sodium to less than 2,300 mg and instead increase your intake of herbs and spices to boost the flavor of your plate.  Get creative with garlic powder, cumin, ginger, paprika and more.

9.  Make the TV room a no food zone.  Yes, as it turns out that mindless snacking can really add up in pounds. If you really want to step it up, for every hour of television you watch, use the commercial time to get up and continuously move or exercise with hand weights. For an hour long television show, you’ll be moving about 17 minutes (that’s a lot of commercial time)!