Friday afternoon, we were invited to a friend’s house for a little get together on Saturday afternoon. I was happy to say “yes”, but I wasn’t ready to worry about my pot luck dish that night.

On Saturday, I ran some errands. I was SO ready to be done, and the baby was getting cranky, so I decided to forego the grocery store and grab some chips near the checkout stand. I didn’t even consider getting salsa because, like everyone else, we’re pinching pennies.

After getting home and tucking the baby into bed, the wheels starting turning. “Hmm,” I thought. “I think I have all the stuff to make fresh salsa!” I Googled a few recipes, so I could figure out what things mainly make up fresh salsa, and here’s what I ended up putting in the food processor:

- 3 1/2 tomatoes (the 1/2 came from a tomato I partially used from lunch the other day);
- 1/3 cup onion (it was WAY too big to use the whole thing);
- juice from 1 lime (found it in the back of the fridge, almost forgotten forever);
- cilantro (I had bought this for soup, so I just rinsed the bunch, and ripped off 4 pinches of leaves, so there wouldn’t be any stems. This way, I didn’t have to cut anything with a knife and get a cutting board dirty. You will soon learn the lengths I go to, to have LESS dishes to wash!);
- salt to taste.

It turned out to be a big hit! All of the food at this party was delicious, and I was very pleased to be part of that club. This salsa virtually has 0 Weight Watchers Points (TM), so when I eat it, I pile as much on each chip as I possibly can. Why not?!?!

Give this a try as one of your healthy snacks for kids, or a side to one of your healthy dinners. It is delish!

I want to share one of my healthy breakfast ideas. This morning I got off to a decent start. My oldest son stayed home sick, so I was able to sleep in and remain tired longer than usual. I crawled out of bed around 8:30 and exercised to a 30-minute video. The only motivation I can think of this early in my day is that I do NOT get to eat a bite until I finish the video. I must say, it works pretty well! If I eat before I exercise, I feel more bogged down, and sometime I even get a side-ache… and we all know we don’t want a side-ache.

I checked on the baby — still sleeping, so I thought, “What can I make that is super-fast, that’s not cereal?” All of our good cereal is gone at the moment, and we have no bananas. I don’t feel like eating straight carbs. Blech. So I opened the fridge, and guess what’s sitting on the top shelf? The two full bags of Thomas English Muffins my hubby bought the other day when he was craving who-knows-what. But now I am SO glad he bought them.

Here was my assessment of the possibilities:

- I’m going to put an egg on this because it will make me feel full.
- Do I have mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, anything? Not anything I feel like making this time.
- Do I have any meat? Yes. Deli turkey.
- I don’t consider a side dish. There is no time for fluff.
- Did I just hear the baby cry?

Here’s how I made my breakfast:

- I grabbed a muffin, cut it in half, and tossed it into the toaster. (I had to do this first because, believe it or not, it is the longest step.)
- I pulled out a clean bowl, sprayed it with Pam, cracked an egg into it, and poked it with my finger, so the yolk doesn’t explode in the microwave… then I sprinkled salt.
- I nuked the egg for 45 seconds. (Test yours the first time you do this, and COVER it, so it doesn’t pop all over your microwave.)
- While it was cooking, I used the same knife from the muffin to slice a funky odd-shaped slice of cheese. I don’t care how hard that was, I was NOT going to dirty my cheese slicer for this tiny meal.
- The egg was done (I checked to make sure it was cooked on the bottom side). I put 2 slices of the deli turkey on the egg, then the cheese, and nuked it 15 more seconds, while I got my plate out.
- It was time to build the sandwich. DONE.

And it was so nice to be able to take the time to eat this while I waited for the baby to sleep a bit longer. And it was EXACTLY the right amount of time. I had the energy now to take care of the sicky, hold the baby, and entertain the kindergartener. It was nice.

I figured this to be only 5 Weight Watchers Points. That is good. Is it a lot for a breakfast? Not when you consider that you won’t be needing to take the time or points for a mid-morning snack! I’ll have to make one of my healthy dinners later… See also my Banana Pancakes on Breakfast recipe.

Preparing a healthy food shopping list is really pretty simple.

Most people would recommend creating a menu first and that may be the best way for you too, but I just don’t work that way. Instead, I like to make sure my kitchen is well stocked with basic ingredients that can be used to create a variety of healthy recipes and then fill out my list with items needed for specific recipes.

For us, a health shopping list includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk or dairy and lean meat which are purchased about twice a week. These ingredients are supplemented by whole grains, dried beans, spices, teas, coffees and natural sweeteners that are purchased less frequently and kept on hand at all times.

Before you start preparing your healthy food shopping list, I would suggest taking inventory of what is currently on hand. Most American kitchens are stocked with an assortment of cans and boxes of less than healthy “food” items.

We do use a few convenience foods, but we always check the ingredients label first and refuse to purchase products that contain high fructose corn syrup, high percentages of any form of sugar, high amounts of sodium, hydrogenated oils and anything else that basically adds calories but doesn’t add nutritional value. We do eat out a bit more than really necessary and since we have little control of ingredients used by restaurants, we try to make the healthiest choices possible when preparing meals at home.

Fruits and Vegetables:

- Carrots – Add to recipes or salads or eat raw.
- Celery – Add to stir fries, soups and casseroles or cooked as a general vegetable.
- Tomatoes – Always on hand, both fresh and home dehydrated.
- Onions – we use onions a lot. You may choose not to.
- Peppers – Assorted yellow, red, orange and green bell peppers. Used as ingredients in recipes, added to salads or roasted as vegetables.

Grains, Cereals and Flours:

- Whole Wheat Flour – Whole grain flour. Purchase as fresh as possible or consider grinding your own. Used as a basic ingredient. Throw out the bleached white flour!
- Wheat Berries – Wheat Berries are simply the whole wheat grain. When cooked, wheat berries are more chewy than rice and have a slightly nutty flavor. They are a wonderful substitute for rice in soups and casseroles, make a great hot cereal and can be cooked, chilled and added to salad.
- Brown Rice – The long cooking brown rice. No instant, quick or white rice here.
- Barley – Whole barley grain. Great added to soups and casseroles.
- 7 Grain Cereal – Or 9 grain. Add to bread recipes or cook and serve as a hot cereal.