Healthy Cooking For My Family of 6 | NUTRITIONIST

Today's episode is sponsored by Element, whose mission is to restore health through hydration. More on them coming up. My big kids are getting set up for homeschool. It's a gorgeous morning today, so we're gonna do school alfresco on the back patio today, which is my favorite. And before we go set up for that, I'm gonna make a little bit of fruit salad. I have some kiwis, an apple, banana, some grape, strawberries. And for the kids, I'm gonna do some Greek yogurt mixed into it and a little bit of honey for sweetness. And I might even throw in a few chopped nuts just to add a little bit of crunch and get in some extra fats and protein into it. And I think they'll really enjoy that, especially since it's so warm outside right now. For myself, I have this huge bunch of fresh spinach and I wanna make a breakfast omelet with it. So one of my favorite things to do is take a bunch of spinach and add some herbs to it and make almost like a spanakopita filling, but put it in an omelet for breakfast. So I'm gonna do that for me and get this fruit salad put together for the kids. I know you guys usually ask me where my kids are. And for the most part, at least this time of year, they're outside. They're in the backyard playing and they're perfectly happy to be doing so. Even if I wasn't in the kitchen cooking, they would probably still be out there. That's what they love doing. And they spend most of their time, I feel like, outside. And I do too. Whenever I'm not in the kitchen cooking and I can get outside, my new thing is I'll take my computer outside and I can sit while the kids are doing their school and get some recipes uploaded to the website and things like that. So I try to be outside in the garden, just outside in the sunshine or just in the fresh air in general as much as I can. It makes me feel so much healthier. Now I'm just cutting up some of these strawberries. These are just farmer's market strawberries. We have a strawberry patch in the backyard, but it's just now starting to produce fruit and they're not ripe enough yet to use. But once they are, I'll definitely use ours. But for now, the farmer's market strawberries are delicious. So I'm gonna use those. Now just an apple. And I'm leaving the skin on because I want all those nutrients. And this is organic. I'm gonna go ahead and just chop these up. I try to do this right before I'm gonna give it to them so that the apple doesn't get too brown. But we're gonna coat it in yogurt, so it should be fine. For kiwi, I just cut the ends off. That way I have a nice base to work with. And then I could take my little paring knife and just go around all the way down to the base. And it helps to get that skin off really easily. Also, when I'm cutting my kiwi, I like to cut it in small bite sizes because I know when my kids are eating it that it can sometimes kind of burn the corners of your mouth. So if you make it too big, it tends to burn it a little bit more, I think. But if you make them nice and small bite sizes, they don't scrape the edges of your mouth as much, I guess. Now I'll just toss in one banana just because I have it. And it helps to make this fruit salad really filling and stretch a little further. So I'll just take this and I'll cut the ends off just a little bit. And then I might slice it in half, actually. As usual, I used a bowl that's too small. I'm notorious for doing this. So I'm gonna get a bigger one of these bowls and transfer it over before I add in that Greek yogurt. I love using plain, unsweetened Greek yogurts, but this is one that actually has a little bit of vanilla in it. It's just what my store had this week. So I'm gonna use a little bit of that and then I'll drizzle in some of our raw honey right on top. And I'll just take a few blobs. You really don't have to measure this part. You wanna add enough so that it holds together really well and so that you have plenty of protein in here. I never use low-fat yogurts. I like it to stay in its real natural form and be really filling. So I definitely don't wanna take any of the fat out. If anything, I'll add fat to it like nuts. So I've got my yogurt in here. I'm gonna get, wait, my hand's off. And then I'm gonna get a little bit of my raw honey. And if you have a really little one you're trying to feed this to, I would definitely have the grapes or even just leave the grapes out. And then instead of honey, if you don't wanna use that, you could use maple syrup instead and that would be really yummy. So let's mix this up. Just kinda stir in the honey on top a little bit so I don't have to kinda break down the softer fruits like the banana. And then I'll just fold it in. Oh, this smells so good already. And this is such a fun breakfast. They don't even know how healthy it is with all the yogurt and everything. They just think, ooh, a delicious fruit salad. And this is perfect for this time of year, especially. Whenever the weather's warm to kinda change our eating a little bit, it makes it just fun and so refreshing. So this looks perfect. I just like it where it kinda sticks together. That's plenty of Greek yogurt for them. And now I'm gonna put this in some bowls and take it outside to the kids and they can kind of eat on it while they start their homeschool. And of course, I'm gonna have a little bite too. I love fruit salad. So I'll probably have some on the side of my omelet that I'm getting ready to make. So easy, healthy. My kids could eat this for every meal. Okay, so now the kids are devouring that fruit salad and I can make me and my husband's breakfast. And I've been using this little cutting board. I have my big booze block down here that I live off of. It's amazing. I make everything on it, but I try to stick with savory stuff on my booze block. But then I've been using this little tiny cutting board for sweeter things or like my fruit cutting board, basically, because we eat so much fruit every day that I think I can have a dedicated cutting board do it now because it tends to want to absorb the onion and the garlic and all of those more savory flavors. You don't want to combine with your fruit. So it's just easier to keep this kind of savory and then have one that's smaller that we can just use for cutting the fruit. Now I'm gonna get started on my spinach and like wild greens omelet. I'm so excited. I know this is gonna be delicious. I'm gonna take some of the spinach here. I'm gonna give it a rinse again. And then I'm gonna start by chopping that up a little bit. I'm gonna pick a few different herbs to put my spinach mixture. So I'm pulling a little bit of fresh parsley, flat leaf parsley, along with some dill. I think it's also really typical to put mint in. So if you're growing mint, you could definitely grab that too. I'm not a huge fan, so I'm not using it today. I'm just gonna use some parsley and dill in it. And I think it'll still be delicious. So I'm gonna take these inside and give them a little rinse. The first thing you're gonna want to do to make the spinach and feta omelet is get a sweet onion or even leeks would work and get those sauteed in a skillet here with a little bit of olive oil or avocado oil or even butter will work and just get those nice and soft. And while those are softening, I'll go ahead and start chopping up my fresh spinach. Season the onions with plenty of salt and pepper. So we start building really good flavor. Then I give my spinach a good rinse and now I'm just taking my knife and roughly chopping it. It doesn't have to be super small because spinach wilts down a lot anyway. And if you don't have spinach on hand, you could easily substitute it with kale. Your baby stroller. Now to get started on the omelet portion, I'm just gonna make my standard omelet. And since I'm making one for my husband too, I'm gonna go ahead and double up on eggs right here. But I just crack my eggs into a bowl, season them with plenty of salt and then whisk them. I don't even add anything like milk or half and half because I find it makes it a little bit too fluffy. I actually prefer a more thin omelet. But if you like it a little fluffier, just add in a splash of milk or half and half, or you can even mix in a little bit of Greek yogurt. So now I have my griddle preheating and while that's happening, I have my spinach that's sauteed down and released all those liquids. And then a little trick is just to pop it in a strainer and kind of press out the rest of the liquid before you add in that feta cheese and herbs into the mix. I like to wait for my spinach to cool down a little bit before I add in the feta. That way, if I wanna save any of this mixture in the fridge for a few days, that my cheese isn't already melted before I wanna use it. So you can make a big batch of this and then just keep it in the fridge and make omelets every day and it's a great filling. So now my griddle is preheated and I go ahead and put a lot of butter on it and I wait until it foams. That way, my eggs aren't gonna stick to it. Now I'll drizzle half the egg mixture onto the griddle and I'll wait for it to start to set before I flip it. I always get this question, but my favorite pan to cook eggs in, fried eggs, scrambled omelets is my Smithy griddle or just Smithy in general. Their cast iron skillets are incredible. It's almost hard because my eggs just kind of slip all over the place. And the reason is is because most cast iron skillets have that bumpy surface, but Smithy cast iron actually is smooth. So it's a completely different experience. If you've ever struggled with cast iron, I highly recommend getting one of theirs. They last a lifetime. I'm about to head outside and do some gardening today since it's such a beautiful afternoon. First, I'm gonna make up a little bit of electrolytes. I like to do that instead of just water because water kind of just hydrates you a little bit, but then if you don't have electrolytes, then you're gonna be imbalanced and not feel good. There's so many different symptoms of an electrolyte imbalance. And that's why I'm so excited to be partnering with Element on today's video. Element is a zero sugar electrolyte drink mix. You can just add it to a bottle of water like I do, and then I take it with me wherever I go. And it's so easy just to sip on and it gives you that energy boost that you need without having to reach for things like coffee all day long. Healthy hydration is more than just drinking water, especially past your thirst. It's actually about balancing your electrolytes. So Element is full of potassium, magnesium, and sodium that really helps to replenish you and just feel really, really good throughout the day. And since I've partnered with Element, they did give me a good deal for you guys. And you can go to drinkelement.com forward slash healthy Elizabeth. I'll leave it linked down below. They're gonna give you a free sample pack of eight different flavors to try. That way you can try them all, see which ones are your favorite. I feel like we all have our own favorites. So that's a really great way to try it out, just risk-free. Make sure you take advantage of this good offer. It's only a partner exclusive. So make sure you get the deal here. And thank you so much again to Element for sponsoring today's video. I still need to clean the kitchen, so don't mind that. I'm gonna be making some sourdough sandwiches for lunch. I always have some of my crusty sourdough bread or even sandwich bread on the counter. So I'm gonna make a really quick and easy veggie sandwich. And you guys know we're Orthodox Christians. And so we're still waiting for Orthodox Easter, which means we're still in Lent. And so we're not eating a bunch of meat right now like we normally would. For lunch today, I'm just gonna take some leftover veggies that we have in the fridge and put them on a sandwich. And I like to toast up my bread a little bit and then I'll add a few like spreads on there to give a good flavor. It's honestly one of my favorite lunches year round. It doesn't matter if we're in a fast or not. I feel like more veggies, especially on a sandwich, it's just like really fresh and crunchy. So I'm gonna make a veggie sandwich up. Later, I'll come back and make our dinner. And I have a little sweet treat that I also wanna make tonight that I think is gonna be really delicious. This bread knife came with my knife set and I feel like if you don't have a good bread knife, oh, it makes all the difference with sourdough. To make these delicious vegetable sandwiches, I'm just starting out with a little bit of stone ground mustard on one side of the toast. And then on the other side, I have a little bit of hummus and I'm topping that with sliced heirloom tomatoes. I have cucumbers and red onion. I'm also doing a little bit of micro greens. I love these. They're the most nutrient dense food almost on the planet. So I try to include those whenever I can and they're just really fresh and bright. I also do a few sprouts and then I like to top it with a little bit of sharp raw cheddar cheese. Anytime I do vegetables though, I always make sure that I add plenty of salt and pepper because I feel like that's what just brings out that good flavor in all of the veggies. I go ahead and cut up as many vegetables as I can. And then I'll just store those in the fridge in little silicone baggies and I can make this again all week long. To go with dinner tonight, I'm gonna make up some really simple and delicious bone broth rice. I love having just staples like this that I know that I can pair with anything. So I'm gonna start that and then I'm gonna pair it with this delicious kind of braised green beans and potatoes and tomatoes. This is perfect if you have garden fresh tomatoes especially. I'm starting by getting my braising pan filled with a little bit of olive oil and some onion, salt and pepper and get those sweating down while I prep the rest of our ingredients. I just have some Yukon gold potatoes that I'm chopping into cubes. And then I have a bunch of fresh garlic and a can of diced tomatoes. And I'm just gonna start by getting those onions nice and soft. And once they are, I'll go ahead and add in those cubes of potatoes followed by a can of tomatoes. And I'm gonna add in a little bit more water. So I just add in about half a cup of water to my can and then I'll just add that right back in. This is one of those one pot meals that has really simple ingredients but has the most amazing flavor profile. So I'll let my potatoes and tomatoes come to a simmer and then I'll top that with loads of fresh green beans. This is great if you grow them or can find them locally or just fresh at your grocery store. Load it up with tons of green beans and then just put the lid on and we're gonna let that simmer low and slow. And this is one of my favorite green bean dishes I've made in a while. So while that's simmering and kind of cooking down and braising, I'm making a little sweet treat to have for dessert tonight. I just have some medjool dates and I'm taking the pits out and then I'm spreading in a little bit of pasteurized organic cream cheese inside. So full of nice healthy fats to keep you really satisfied. And then I'm using a little bit of my favorite kind of maple roasted pecans that you can do really quickly in the oven. Just drizzle your pecans or any kind of nut with a little bit of maple syrup and let those toast and they make the most delicious natural candied pecan. And then I'll just take one of those and stuff it into the dates. I always like to save my veggie scraps either for compost or for feeding my chickens. So I'm taking the ones from lunch and I'm gonna toss those out to the chickens. I also have a little bit of micro greens that I've been sprouting under a little chicken run. And so I'll let them sprout and then I'll move it over and start a new side of sprouting seeds. And that helps to keep my chickens really happy and healthy. I honestly can't believe how delicious this green bean dish is. You have the tender green beans and the tender potatoes and juicy tomatoes, that liquid you just need to put all over your bone broth brown rice. And this meal is ready to go and so filling and comforting and delicious and fresh. You definitely need to try this one out. Don't forget to use my link below to grab your free sample pack. Thanks so much to Element again for sponsoring today's episode.