Is The Food In That Mystery Container Still Good?

I am one of those people who pays close attention to expiration dates. Especially when it comes to eggs and meat. I'm probably more neurotic about it than I need to be, but I don't like to play guessing games with my family's health. Still Tasty is an awesome website that talks about how long foods last and how to store them. I highly recommend it!

Supplements and Vitamins

By MAD21

It has been recommended that if you are trying to lose weight, and therefore are restricting calories, you should take a multivitamin (they tend to make me sick, so I take Flinstone’s complete-my Dr recommended it.) But be careful to not go overboard with this. Most of our foods contain all the vitamins we need. If you take too much of certain vitamins, it can make you sick or cause other problems.

Recipe Resources

By MAD21

Have you ever found yourself trying to decide what to make for a meal, and you only have a few food items to choose from because you haven't gone grocery shopping in two weeks? Cook Think is a great website where you can go and type in a food or spice and it will give you recipe ideas that include those ingredients. I've used it several times and have found some new favorites that our family likes to eat. Try it out:

Food.com is a site that will let you do recipe searches across several different recipe sites. It's a brand new site that is still being tested. They want you to sign in with your email and a password before accessing their site, but it's worth a try.

Recommended Food Intake for Children Aged 2-6

Foods & Quantities needed for growing strong, healthy bodies in preschoolers
Food Group	Daily Amount	Examples*
Milk	2 cups	Whole milk until age 2, then low-fat or skim milk, yogurt and cheese—hard, cottage and processed
Fruit / Vegetables	1 1/2 cups	Need to eat a variety of fruits and veggies to get the range of disease-fighting antioxidants and enough fiber in diet
Grains	5 portions	Make half of the portions whole grain to get enough fiber and nutrients (1 portion = 1 slice bread, 1 cup dry cereal, 1/2 cup oatmeal, pasta or rice)
Protein	4 ounces	1 ounce = 1/2 portion of meat, poultry or fish, or 1 egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1/2 ounce of nuts or 1 serving cooked beans
Oils	up to 4 teaspoons	especially mono- and polyunsaturated oils from plants, nuts and certain fish. These fats are needed for healthy growth and development. (Avoid artery-clogging trans- and saturated fats.)
*Information from www.mypyramid.gov, for a child aged 2-6 and based on a 1,400 calorie-per-day-diet.

Keeping Track

Keep a separate notebook, or create a spread sheet to write down all of the nutritional info you find for the foods you eat. Keep it with your food diary so it’s handy. You’ll find that after about a month or two, it’s all you’ll need most of the time to keep track of things, since we all tend to eat the same things and at the same restaraunts.

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