Jicama

In an effort to try new fruits and vegetables, I recently made a Mexican salad that contained jicama. Before making the salad, I had never tried the Mexican potato, jicama. I am happy to report that the salad was quite tasty and the jicama really added a nice little crunch. Jicama, as I mentioned, is a Mexican potato found in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive. All you have to do is peel the jicama and slice it up. There is no cooking necessary! Jicama can be used in salads for a nice, low-calorie crunch or eaten in slices (julienne) dipped in salsa. My almost-three-year-old would not try the salad that I made, but he did enjoy eating sliced jicama dipped in salsa. He called them "french fries" and has asked for them again since that night. I am pleased to spend the expensive price tag on the jicama if he will happily enjoy a vegetable! Although jicama is not the most nutrient dense vegetable out there, it is a nice source of fiber and Vitamin C. Another reason that I like this vegetable so much is that it really is a great way to add an interesting flair to salad rather than using high-calorie toppings. I wish that I could post the recipe that I tried; however, I'm not sure about the copyright laws. Try searching allrecipes.com for some recipes of your own!

A Few Snack or Breakfast Ideas

Although my children love fruit, yogurt, and oatmeal, they don't seem to like chunks of fruit in their yogurt or oatmeal. Recently it occurred to me that I could puree the fruit! So here are a few snack/breakfast/lunch ideas that I have tried out on my children. They seem to enjoy them! The three ideas below are healthy, have no added sugar (of course there are is natural sugar in fruit and yogurt), are filling, and great sources of fiber and nutrients.

1. Thaw frozen blueberries and strawberries. Puree the fruit and mix it in with steel cut oats. Make plenty so that you can store it in the refrigerator and heat it up when you need it. The more fruit you add, the sweeter the oatmeal will taste.

2. Use the same fruit puree and mix it into plain Greek yogurt.

3. Mix canned, pumpkin puree into plain Greek yogurt. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.