Food of the month - Chocolate

 This month we decided to tackle the age-old question, “is chocolate good for you and your little ones?”  After some research we’ve got an answer for you: Yes and No.  The truth is, there are SO many types of chocolate out there and most of it is loaded with sugar, extra fat and is over all not healthy.  BUT when it comes to chocolate in it’s purest form known as cocoa (pronounced Ka-Cow) it’s REALLY good for you. 

Cocoa and dark chocolate both contain heart-healthy flavonoids, which keeps the cardiovascular system strong, has been proven to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, acts as a natural anti-depressant, contains the “good” fats and is a healthy source of caffeine.

Whether you’re sprinkling cocoa powder into your smoothies or enjoying a piece of dark chocolate to curb your sweet tooth, you want to make sure that the ingredient list is small and easy to pronounce. Also the lower the amount of sugar the better.

Now if your kiddos are used to extra sweet milk chocolate, giving them a piece of 80% dark chocolate will most likely scare their taste buds.  We recommend slowly upping the percentage of chocolate in their sweets. Also, the darker the chocolate the more the caffeine so it’s probably best that the healthy dark chocolate be placed in their lunch box as an afternoon dessert, not an after dinner treat as it may give them a pre-bedtime burst of energy.

As always, it’s so important to be an ingredient detective when choosing between types of chocolate, but once you’ve found a chocolate bar that is pure and high in cocoa, feel good about enjoying this food of the month!

New Year, New Kitchen

January is the month of new beginnings! It’s a new year, a new you and we’re here to encourage you to get a NEW KITCHEN.  Now, we’re not saying it’s time for a full on kitchen remodel, no, no, no. We think it’s time for some major kitchen organization, with the intention of keeping things neat and tidy, but most importantly, with the resolution to healthily (yep, we just made up a word) your kitchen.  We laid out five simple steps to give your kitchen a new year make over and we promise that a few hours of out with the old, in with the healthy, you’ll feel like you’re in a new kitchen.

1) Make a mess.  We’re big believers that it’s important to make a bigger mess before everything actually gets clean.  Make sure you have LOTS of free table and counter space and COMPLTELEY empty your refrigerator, pantry and cupboard.  Divide everything into four categories:

1. The expiration date has passed and it's time to compost it.
2.  Too many ingredients you can’t pronounce and not something you feel good about eating.
3.   Even though it’s open, it hasn’t expired and still looks good.
4.  Yummy, I’d eat this tonight!

2) Compost, recycle and throw away everything from category one and two.  Wipe off, organize and repackage everything from category three and four. (Here at Peas of Mind we love storing our grains, beans and baked goods in mason jars…it looks so cute and makes the ingredients last longer). 

3) This is where the spring “cleaning” really comes into play.  Now that everything is empty, wipe off every surface, wash each vegetable drawer and really get into all the nooks and crannies of every corner, crevice and crack.  If your freezer is like ours and it needs a good makeover too; a quick way to defrost and wipe everything down without unplugging the whole fridge is to place a pot of boiling water in the freezer and let sit for 20 minutes.  After this time, you should be able to chip away the ice and wipe your freezer until it sparkles. 

4) Put everything from categories three and four into the appropriate storage space, admiring your new adorable jars, dust-free surfaces and all the free shelf space. 

5) Fill the free space with items from our Pantry Staples that will give you Peas of Mind blog post. Also stock your squeaky clean vegetable drawers with winter produce like kale and other wintergreens.  Put out a fruit bowl with winter fruit like oranges, tangerines, grapefruits and apples. You want this bowl to be easily accessible to everyone so that your whole family can easily enjoy winter’s natural candy!

"Keep up the good work" resolutions

Happy New Year from the Peas Perspective!  Our New Years Resolution for the New Year was to NOT make any New Years resolutions.  We realized that in the past we've made difficult to accomplish goals that usually make us feel bad about ourselves and never seem to pan out.

In 2014, we're doing things differently. We decided to make some "keep up the good work" resolutions in which we focus on great things we started doing last year and want to keep it up.  It's like starting off the New Year with a pat on your back.  Here's a list of our top "keep up the good work" resolutions:

Cut my caffeine intake in half by brewing 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf in one pot.
Always choose stairs over elevators and escalators.
Drink two big camel bak's of water per day.
Listen to NPR on my commute. Stay informed and enjoy the great stories.
Cut out technology an hour before bed (that means no Office reruns while I drift off to sleep).
Take one day per month to focus on myself. Have a ME party a la the muppets movie!
Bring a healthy lunch to work at least 3 days per week.
Keep monthly and weekly to do lists on my phone so that I can stay on top of my housework, dinners and errands.
Take 10 minutes every night before bed to tidy up (instead of leaving 5 days of minor mess for the weekend).

We encourage you to take five minutes and think back on last year and what little things you started to do to improv you and your families life, write them down, pat yourself on the back and keep up the good work!