Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Eat The Rainbow!!!

I was at my favorite local market this morning with my 2 youngest minis and I saw something that made my palms sweat and my heart race, and nope, it wasn't the grind-your-own peanut butter, it was these beauties.....





Come. To. Mama.  If you have never had organic rainbow carrots before, you need to run to the market and get some.  Do it.  Right now.  You will never eat another bag of baby carrots again.  Carrots are a great source of fiber and Vitamin A (they really do help you see in the dark!).  They also support healthy immune function, younger looking skin, and help repain sun-damaged skin.  So, for vanity's sake, eat your carrots!

So once I got my hands on these puppies, I had to totally change my dinner plans for tonight.  I was tempted to do a fancy schmancy carrot dish and then I realized my minis were as excited about these carrots as I was, so we will peel 'em and eat 'em raw.  We're hardcore like that!






Tonight's dinner is called lunch-for-dinner.  We are having wraps with tortillas, hummus, yellow grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and diced rainbow mini sweet bell peppers.  Our side dish will be rainbow carrots and roasted beets.  Dessert will be yogurt with mashed bananas and honey. 

Here's the beets.  Oh. My. Delish.  A few changes....I roasted mine for about an hour and I used balsamic vinegar instead of raspberry.  These were the best vegetable I have ever eaten.  If you love beets, try this.  If you hate beets, try this.



I just realized that we will be eating a boatload of rainbow veggies tonight.  That is excellent because it will guarantee two things.  One, our dinner conversation will revolve around how rainbow colored veggies lead to rainbow colored poop.  And, two, the McGhees will be getting a large dose of phytochemicals.  Phytochemicals are the compounds in fruits and veggies that give them the vibrant colors.  The deeper the color, the more phytochemicals in that fruit or veggie.  The crazy thing about phytochemicals is that there are thousands of them and scientists haven't really identified them or established what each phytochemical specifically does, but they do know they lower risk of cancer, chronic diseas and inflammation.  We do a rainbow challenge in our house, where the minis can make their own lunch and try to use as many colors on their plate that they can.  They love it, it's way fun and the resulting rainbow poop is oddly fascinating as well!




So, I am challenging all my readers to do a rainbow meal!  Let me know what you come up with!

I also thought I would share with you a little trick I just saw on pinterest.  You take a toothpick and etch a message or drawing on the skin on a banana.  Super fun.  Super easy.  Total guarantee your mini will be bragging on you at lunchtime, which hopefully will offset the "I am the only kid that doesn't get oreos" attitude.





Look at that face.  He clearly loves it.  He clearly never brushes his hair either, which is all part of his charm.

Tomorrow night, Mr. McGhee and I are going to a rock concert.  I know, I think it's a little shocking too, considering I've been known to say at 9:30 on a Saturday night, "Should we stay up for House Hunters International or just go to sleep?"  At which point, Mr. McGhee doesn't answer because he's already snoozing.  So, yep, a rock concert on a Thursday night should be interesting.  We're going to be staying overnight in the city and then spend Friday hanging out with the city folk.  Why am I telling you this?  Because, our goal is to not eat any processed food while we're gone!  (And, when I saw "our", I mean "my" goal for "us".)  I'll update you on how we do, and I am hoping to come back with a blog-worthy rock concert story!