I am a dreamer so it sort of follows that I dream, or visualize, about food too.

When I think about my meals I sort if hold an image in my mind about what to eat.    I ‘see’ my plate as being half fruit and vegetables or salad,  quarter protein (meat, fish, eggs or poultry ) and quarter carbohydrates or grains (rice, pasta or breads – here’s the good part  - I love potatoes and depending on who you listen to they can fit in two categories – veg or carbs!?)

When I put this image in mind I find it easy to help me choose how much of what to eat… it’s kind of fun trying to ‘untangle’ foods like fried rice too. It’s easy to fix if your plate gets distorted – sometimes the quarters look more like thirds –  ’cos lets face it, it is usually the fruit and veg half that gets the nudge – just eat a carrot, tomato, orange, apple or a handful of grapes and your picture gets ‘right’. (According to the health guys, about 2/3′s of us don’t get the half bit right – so that is why they are always going on about it!?! )

The other day I learnt another cool trick – it’s 20/20. As you are taking your food stop and and consciously take 20% more fruit and vegetables and 20% less of everything else. I gotta say 20%  more and 20% less isn’t hard at all – doesn’t make much difference to your meal but does to your skin and jean size!

So there you go – see a picture of a plate and play 20/20 – both easy…

PS:  No matter where you live,  you’ll have heard it –  mix it up, 5 to 10 a day,  go for 2 & 5, more matters or 5+ A Day - whatever your country is banging on about  my two tricks will just help you get there!!!

Most of us love chips or fries (whatever you call them – sort of depends where you live) but you know they have a bad reputation. Well here is the inside scoop (haha I am just studying for English and that is a good pun ?!?)

1. When a potato comes out of the ground it is just about fat free.
2. By time it leaves the processor it is around 3-5% fat.
3. By time gets on your plate it can be around 9% for wedges or thick cut ones and around 17% fat for skinny ones.

(But let’s keep this in perspective here – we need some fat. Even the skinny ones have less that most pies or chocolate cookies and neither of them have any Vitamin C  - so chips don’t deserve to be so maligned – problem  is we eat so many of them though!)

So it’s not the potato that is the problem – it is how they are cooked… but there are a few things to help …

• Go for chunky or thick cut – these have about half  the fat of skinny ones. Lots of the skinny ones can give you a big bum if you eat them too often – more than a few times a week. If there are only skinny ones then just go for small size  so you can still enjoy the yummy taste.
• Making chips at home can be great – there are lots of packets you can buy that are around 5% fat or less so that is a good choice. Read the label. They taste good too.
• And better still (cheaper and even lower fat) you can make your own wedges or roast potatoes – these are really easy  and seriously delicious.

So with bought chips and fries just make a decision to eat a little less so you can still enjoy them – my trick is to eat them slowly so you enjoy every morsel – that way you don’t feel deprived – if you feel deprived you’ll only pig out later…

But if all goes wrong,  your will-power does a runner and you succumb to a big serve – there is redemption. Go easy at your next meal, have a glass of milk and an apple, plus do a bit more exercise  to swing back into balance. Do that and it will all work out in the end and your jeans will still fit!?!?

PS; it’s the same strategy you need for chocolate.

Remember my foodie rule No 1:

All food is ok, but don’t do binge or excess – it’s how much and how often you eat a food… two or three chocolate biscuits are ok – a packet isn’t… a can or glass of coke is fine – 2 litres is over the top… Watch out for ‘portion distortion’ – a serve should be about the size of your fist.

As the Rugby World Cup gets nearer, rugby gets more fever pitch… just thought i’d let you know i am doing my bit to get all the kids excited about Rugby on my weekly Small black TV Show where I assist All Black Richard Kahui. in Cooking with Kaks.

Check out these two … Scrum Time potatoes – perfect to serve with a steak and some stir-fry vegetables …

Centers Chicken Wedges!

I am a total sushi fan!! My favourite meal on the run is a plate of sushi.  Actually I love everything about sushi – the taste,  how it is good for me, and how its nice to eat with friends.

Usually I just buy it but today is school holidays and I have plenty of time. It’s also my Dad’s birthday,  so I have decided to make a whole lot. We are having a veritable feast with fresh salmon, teriyaki chicken, sesame beef, with lashings of vegetables – carrots, avocado, cucumber and peppers. All wrapped up in the yummy seaweed with squirt of  soy sauce and a dab of wasabi.  If all goes to plan I might put this in my next cookbook!

If you haven’t tried sushi very often – get into it – it’s one of those foods you can eat quite a bit of ‘cos it is so good for you! No guilt attached!!! hahaha – my sort of food.

I wrote this post as a participant in the Eat, Play, Love blog carnival hosted by Meals Matter and Dairy Council of California to share ideas on positive and fun ways to teach children healthy eating habits. A list of other registered dietitians and moms who are participating in the carnival will be listed at the bottom of this post or can be found on Meals Matter.

Have you ever noticed how BORING nutrition messages are – I mean does it really worry you now if you might get heart disease in 30 or 40 years??? “Eat less fatty food and you will reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease”.

Blah, blah I am asleep already… It needs to be translated to “eat less greasy stuff and you wont get a big bum”. That has a lot more relevance to me.  I mean, I want to fit my ball dress and look good in my jeans.

Anyway with the help of a team of teens and some people that know stuff about nutrition and food we came up with 10 Foodie Rules that  if you follow will help you feel really great. I think it is where common sense and science collide we took all the boring nutrition and turned it into stuff kids like me think is important. We printed these foodie rules in my book Who’s Cooking Tonight? and so many people said that they liked them so we made a  foodie rules You Tube.

btw –  some of my foodie rules are about other things like tv, laughing and exercise! Curious…

Hope you like them!!

Claire

Don't stop here! Join the carnival and read other Eat, Play, Love blogs from dietitians and moms offering the best advice on raising healthy eaters. And if you don't get enough today, for more positive, realistic and actionable advice from registered dietitian moms, register for the free, live webinar Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters on Wednesday, May 18.

The Best-Kept Secret for Raising Healthy Eaters, Maryann Jacobsen, MS, RD
Feeding is Love, Jill Castle, MS, RD, LDN
5 Quick Ways to Prepare Veggies with Maximum Flavor, Dayle Hayes, MS, RD
The Art of Dinnertime, Elana Natker, MS, RD
Children Don’t Need a Short Order Cook, Christy Slaughter
Cut to the Point – My Foodie Rules, Glenda Gourley
Eat, Play, Love – A Challenge for Families, Alysa Bajenaru, RD
Eat, Play, Love ~ Raising Healthy Eaters, Kia Robertson
Get Kids Cooking, Jessica Fishman Levinson, MS, RD, CDN
Kid-Friendly Kitchen Gear Gets Them Cooking, Katie Sullivan Morford, MS, RD
Kids that Can Cook Make Better Food Choices, Glenda Gourley
Making Mealtime Fun, Nicole Guierin, RD
My No Junk Food Journey – Want to Come Along? , Kristine Lockwood
My Recipe for Raising Healthy Eaters: Eat Like the French, Bridget Swinney MS, RD, LD
Playing with Dough and the Edible Gift of Thyme, Robin Plotkin, RD, LD
Picky Eaters  Will Eat Vegetables, Theresa Grisanti, MA
Raising a Healthy Eater, Danielle Omar, MS, RD
Putting the Ease in Healthy Family Eating, Connie Evers, MS, RD, LD
Raising Healthy Eaters Blog Carnival & Chat Roundup, Ann Dunaway Teh, MS, RD, LD
Soccer Mom Soapbox, Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD
Teenagers Can Be Trying But Don’t Give UpDiane Welland MS, RD
What My Kids Taught Me About Eating Mindfully, Michelle May, MD

It never ceases to amaze me how some cafes seem hell-bent in overfeeding us. It seems many café owners have adopted the rule of Miss Piggy the Muppet “Never eat more than you can lift”…
Over the past few months I have really started to notice how gross or huge some portions actually are… enormous muffins (enough for you to share with two others) or the excessively huge pieces of caramel slice (which ideally should be cut into thirds or quarters). Whopping portions are everywhere! If you munch your way through the whole piece not only do you feel sick – you have just eaten almost half your days energy intake.
The worst example is the “killer ice-cream” I found in a store on the Coromandel Peninsular. The ice cream was SO huge they gave you a piece of paper to hold it up with. It was so bad – it was funny and nearly violated Miss Piggy’s rule! They even had a chart on the wall listing the names of the hardy souls who had managed to eat it in record time. Okay, I know you don’t have to buy it.
I think this portion distortion has got to stop… so in my own way now I am taking a stand. I understand that cafes want to be generous – but there comes a point when generous becomes obscene.
When I want to have a muffin but the only one that is there is over-the-top-huge I am going to ask for a half, share it or ask them to wrap half up for me to take home.
I stand by my foodie rule “All food is ok but don’t do binge or excess”.

If you are like me you will have heaps of homework at the moment… so if you want better grades here is a tip you might want to listen to!!! Some of my friends don’t eat meat – but you need to know that meat is loaded in iron and you need iron to carry oxygen to the brain and muscles, and keep you physically and mentally fit. If you don’t have enough iron you feel tired, can’t concentrate and find it harder to learn! Of course you can get iron from other foods but meat is the quickest and easiest place to get some – tastes good too! So there you have it, if you want to get better grades – eat lean beef and lamb – don’t laugh – it’s true!!

If you want more detail on why iron is good check this link out!