This post is where our discussions about nutrition and finances come together. In the summertime, we tend live on snacks more often than big meals. Nothing beats “snack dinner” at the lake on a hot summer evening. No kitchen clean up when we get home!

What snacks do you buy or make that are easy, nutritious, and inexpensive? I’ll start us off by sharing a few of my favorites:

• Bananas — Every last one of my kids (and me!) loves them. Peel and eat!
• Grapes — These are not always inexpensive, but when they go on sale, you can buy a bunch and freeze them. Frozen grapes — yum!
• Boiled eggs — I boil these up by the dozen and then store them in a (clearly marked!) carton in the fridge. Not all of my kids are fans, but for the ones who are, eggs are a quick and easy source of protein. Even if you don’t have laying hens, eggs are an inexpensive option.
• Apple slices with peanut butter — A winner with kids every time, and nutritious too. My favorite is green apples with Smuckers natural peanut butter.

How about you?

I give up. I keep spending more and more money on food, but my family just keeps eating the stuff. Between higher food prices and the expense of gas to drive 40 minutes to the larger stores where I know there are (slightly) lower prices, I feel like I can’t win.

Are you feeling the pinch this summer? What kinds of things are you doing to feed your family or drive for less?

Technorati Tags: food prices, grocery shopping, frugal meals

Some of you have been kind enough to ask me for a Diet Coke update, and the news is good. I am coke-free and feeling good. I don’t even think I miss it very much. Well, okay there was that one painful time when I ate a handful of Doritos and the thought, no the need for DC flashed through my brain. But it was a passing pain. I am over it. Moving on. Life is good.

In the comments on my Can Kicking post some of you mentioned that even the “fake” sweetness of diet sodas can increase cravings for sweets and “bad carbs” and wondered if I might notice a difference in my other eating habits as a result of giving up the soda.

I may not be the best test case for this particular study because I cut way back on my bad sugar habits long before giving up diet Coke. I used to live my life from one sugar high to the next. Something about being pregnant many times, though, wakes a person’s body up to these kinds of sugar abuses.

When I was newly pregnant with Raphael and (typically) sick as a dog, I discovered the wonderful power of protein. In proper doses, it could settle my stomach, at least for a bit. It kept me from feeling hungry and held off that awful low blood sugar shakiness and nausea that plagued me when I tried getting by with cookies for breakfast. Lean meats, eggs, nuts, and dairy became my go-to foods. And, when I was feeling better, I added whole grains too.

My diet these days is not perfect (note the Doritos mention above), but it’s a lot closer to normal than it has been in past years. I find that when I make the first move to keep my sugar intake under control, it winds up keeping itself under control. I don’t crave the stuff if I don’t ingest large quantities of it in the first place.

I’d love for us to have some discussions about diet and nutrition. Do you have particular nutrition struggles, thoughts, or questions? Share them here and maybe I can follow up with discussion posts on some of the topics that are brought up.

Dani writes:

A while back you did a “your turn” for quick recipes. There were a lot of good recipes that came from that, and I’m wondering if you would consider hosting a “your turn” for recipes to cook on those sultry hot summer days when you can’t stand to stand over a hot stove, and can’t bear the thought of firing up a grill and enduring 100 degree heat outside while standing next to a 500 degree BBQ. After this heat snap, I’ve about exhausted my own supply of quick fix summer dishes that don’t really require heating up the kitchen, and I’d love to see what other families do.

Here’s mine: On a day when you know it is going to be crazy-hot, marinate chicken breasts in your favorite salad dressing for at least an hour — really any salad dressing will do. Then, in the morning, grill the chicken, let cool, and store in the refrigerator. At dinnertime, slice chicken in strips, and serve with raw vegetables (baby carrots, cut peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes) and dip. If someone insists upon having a grain, put the cold chicken between slices of bread and make it a sandwich.

On a day where I fail to plan ahead, fruit, yogurt, and deli meat sandwiches also make a popular, no-cook dinner. What about you? What do you “cook” when it gets hot?

***UPDATED to add the link to the original “easy meals” post.

Technorati Tags: summer cooking, no-cook dinners, meal planning

Do you drink Diet Coke? I do. Tons, actually. And I have decided that I do not like this about myself.

I first started drinking Diet Coke in college. It was an “acquired taste” one of my girlfriends told me, and I aimed to acquire it. That didn’t take long. Soon I was drinking several cans a day. I decided to give it up for Lent that first year and was rewarded with the biggest Ash Wednesday headache I have ever had the occasion to “offer up.”

I have also given up Diet Coke when pregnant. Each time I get away from it for a while, I am amazed by the fact that the first sip of the stuff I take after months of being “clean” tastes like … a horrifying mouthful of chemicals. And yet back I go.

I’m not worried about caffeine. In reasonable doses, caffeine is my friend, and you will not convince me otherwise. I will continue to drink caffeine in coffee, but I plan to give up the Diet Coke.

I am mostly concerned about the other stuff in Diet Coke — heroine, maybe? — that keeps me coming back to it. Something about the stuff convinces me that I need it. And not Diet Pepsi or that horrible store-brand cola stuff, I need Diet Coke. That’s just not a good thing.

I don’t like to feel like decisions about what I put into my body are being made by anyone other than me. Besides, there are plenty of people out there who will tell me the health risks of drinking diet soda and even thoughtfully reflect on the reasons why diet drinks are an abuse of your body and an unhealthy approach to physical fitness.

So I figure there’s no time like the summer for kicking the can and drinking water instead. We have an unlimited supply of water from our artesian well and it flows freely from the tap.

So. Here goes.

Technorati Tags: diet coke, diet soda, aspartame, healthy drinking

Dawn writes:

Since you have so many wonderfully smart and creative readers, I have a question that perhaps they can help me with. We are expecting baby #5 in the fall and will need to re-arrange where the existing children will be sleeping in order to accommodate the new baby.

We currently have four boys who, when the baby arrives, will be 9,7,4 and 18 months. We have decided to pair up each older child with a younger child so the 9 year old will share with the 4 year old and the 7 year old with the 18 month old. With that said, I am trying to find inexpensive ways to perhaps give the older boys a little bit of “privacy” within their room sharing situation. Perhaps some sort of room divider or curtain near their beds to create their own little nook where they can feel like they have a little of their own space. Any suggestions?

Do your kids go online? I like to have bookmarked pages of “approved” sites for my older kids to visit when they have computer time and I thought we could share some good ones today. Where do your kids like to click?

Also, I don’t dare let my kids Google, even with a filtered search. Can anyone recommend a “clean” and kid-focused search engine or collection of links?

UPDATE: shutting down comments while I’m away

Technorati Tags: kids online, filtered internet, safe surfing

But I will beg you — beg you — to tell me how to stop a toddler-baby from putting his hands into his diaper when long pants don’t stop him, onesies don’t stop him, and scolding, removing, and distracting don’t stop him either.

Something’s got to work here. Duct tape? Hypnosis? What?

Technorati Tags: babies, toddlers, diapering, parenting dilemma