Pink Foods for Kids and Valentine’s Day

My last blog inspired me to look up recipes for Pink foods. I have tried quite a few out on the kids and especially my small daughter who is obsessed with the color pink.

Here are some good recipes that will tickle your children's fancy!

Pink Potato Salad
6-8 medium potatoes, boiled
1 red onion, diced
1/4 c. dill pickle relish
2 boiled eggs (if desired)
3/4 c. Hellman’s mayonnaise
1/2 c. Catalina dressing

Several hours before serving, boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender. Drain and cool slightly, then peel and slice.
Pour Catalina dressing over warm potato slices coating slices well. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator until cold. Add onion, pickle relish, boiled eggs and mayonnaise. Mix well and serve.

My kids go gaga for this dessert.

Pink Fluff
2 small boxes Raspberry Jell-O
1 large can crushed pineapple, drained
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 9 oz tub Cool Whip
1/2 cup chopped pecans or nuts
Dissolve Jell-O in 2 cups boiling water.
In a blender, combine Jell-O and cream cheese. Refrigerate until the mixture has thickened slightly.
Stir in the pineapple and nuts. Fold in the Cool Whip.
Rinse a silicone mold with cold water and shake out excess water (do not dry).

Transfer mixture to the mold and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
When ready to serve, dip the outside of mold into hot water for a few seconds to release. Run a butter knife along the edge to loosen the gel from the mold. Flip over onto a dish and serve.

The following recipe is the party version of the drink but I serve it to my kids all the time. I don't always add the soda water. The point is that the frozen strawberries make it nice and pink and add this really yummy sweet kick to the whole thing.

Pink Punch
6 (6 oz.) cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate, partially thawed
6 pkgs. frozen strawberries, partly thawed
6 (6 oz.) cans frozen orange juice concentrate
8 qts. ginger ale
4 qts. soda water
Ice

In each of two large punch bowls, combine half of each ingredient. Stir until frozen, lemonade and strawberries soften and break up. Add ice and serve.

I find making fun pink drinks like this is a good way of getting the kids to take their vitamin C!

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Healthy Sugar Substitutes

My kids have sweet tooths and so do I and my husband. Still we all know how sugar is supposed to be bad for you.
The first thing that you have to do is cut the level of refined sugar that you take on board every day. This means that you must cut right back on sugar rich foods such as cakes, cookies, candies, chocolate, jellies and the like and if you currently ladle sugar all over your breakfast cereal in the morning, stop doing it right now.
In addition, if you take sugar with your tea or coffee, try to wean yourself off sweetening your drinks or if this is something that you cannot imagine doing, try a natural sweetener like stevia or sucanat as alternative.
The first of these natural sweeteners is somewhat controversial in that it is approved by the FDA as a dietary supplement but not as a sweetener. Nevertheless, even though it is a little expensive, the extreme sweetness of stevia means that a little goes an awful long way, so the cost per cup of tea or coffee is probably no different to cost of the sugar you are currently buying.
On the other hand, sucanat is a one-for-one direct replacement for processed sugar and as always, there are plenty of places on the net where you can obtain both of these substances.
The point about having too much sugar in your diet is that not only does all of that instant energy tend to get piled on as fat if it is not used, processed sugar is bad for your immune system and particularly for your skin. Consequently, if you consume too much processed sugar or products made from sugar, it is pretty much a given that you are going to suffer boils and other skin problems.
Of course, this does not necessarily mean that you have to cut all sweet foods from your diet, but what you should do is replace the sweets that you used to use with natural sweet substances wherever possible. For example, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables is an essential of any well-balanced diet, and if you want to boost your immune system, then you can replace some of the sweetness that you have lost with the sweetness of fruit.
Furthermore, there are lots of other entirely natural sweet substances that you can use to satisfy your sweet tooth. The sweet syrup that is commercially extracted from Agave comes in three different variations, ranging from a ‘light version' that has little traceable taste of the plant (just sweetness) to the version that carries a noticeable taste of the plant itself.
You then have reliable old standbys like maple syrup as well as less known but entirely natural sweeteners such as barley malt, date sugar, fruit juice concentrate and sorghum syrup.
There is also honey with some varieties such as manuka honey from New Zealand having acknowledged antibacterial qualities as well as being stunningly sweet as well. Indeed, as you can read on the website, the antibacterial qualities of this particular honey are so pronounced that you can even apply it to wounds for its antibacterial qualities!