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With today’s busy schedules, it can be hard making sure children start the day with a good breakfast and eat a balanced lunch. Flexibility and creativity can help parents and children find acceptable, nutritional solutions.

If you are frustrated with your child’s eating habits, nagging probably won’t help. Instead, parents should do some problem solving with their children, like getting up a few minutes early to have time for breakfast or considering different food options.

Breakfast, so named for “breaking the fast” since the previous night’s dinner and sleep, is still a meal that should not be missed. As research has shown, lack of food can lead to fatigue, restlessness, irritability, hunger and distraction, all factors that can detrimentally affect a child’s school performance.

Yet breakfast doesn’t need to be fancy. A bowl of cereal with milk and a glass of juice is an acceptable breakfast for children. If time is a problem, children may also take a portable snack, such as fresh fruit or whole grain crackers with peanut butter or cheese, with them to eat on the way to school.

As for lunch, packing a child’s meal does not necessarily mean it will be eaten. If a child is not going to purchase a school lunch, specialists recommends children have some say in what they eat and help prepare their own lunches once they are old enough. The more a child helps preparing a lunch, even it only means rinsing off fruit or vegetables, the more he or she will want to eat it.

Meals don’t need to include traditional foods. Lunch doesn’t have to be a sandwich — it can be crackers and cheese, a bagel or a slice of pizza. Parents should provide several healthy choices for lunch and let children put together their own combinations.

If a sandwich is not appealing to your kids, try cold pasta or dinner leftovers like chicken. For dessert, offer fruit or lower-fat cookie choices such as graham crackers, fig bars, ginger snaps and animal crackers.

While letting your child select and help prepare meals is important, the best way to ensure your children develop healthy eating habits is to set a good example yourself. By eating nutritious foods, including fruits and vegetables, instead of fat-laden fast food products or sweets, parents can help model appropriate eating behaviors that children can carry with them into adulthood.

Blood pressure control involves several steps. One in particular is watching salt intake.

Adjusting to less salt takes time to retrain your taste buds. The taste for salt increases the more we use it, so decreasing it, takes time for the desire to drop.

Make the transition easier by seasoning with some alternatives:

* Lemon juice springs up the taste of fish, salad, rice or pasta
* Salt free garlic and herb seasoning can make soups, stews, and casserole spicier
* Flavored vinegar seasons potato salad, green salad, tomato slices and chicken
* Salt free herb blends can make potatoes, pasta and rice flavorful

Finally, don’t forget to check the labels of foods you buy to keep sodium in line.

Shiitake mushrooms (also called golden oak, Chinese black, or forest) were popularized by their usage in Asian cuisine. Shiitakes range in color from tan to dark brown and are characterized by broad, umbrella-shaped caps, with tan grills under the cap. With a rich and woodsy flavor, shiitakes develop a meaty texture when cooked.

Fluted and graceful, oyster mushrooms are named for their soft brown or gray color and unique oyster shell shape. They impart a delicate, mild mushroom flavor when cooked, and have a texture that is equally delicate and velvety.

Long favored by European cooks, the crimini mushroom has a naturally dark cap, which ranges in color from light tan to rich brown. Its flavor is deeper, denser, and earthier than fresh white button mushrooms. The large version of crimini is the portobello mushroom, which is terrific for grilling.

Storage: Always refrigerate mushrooms and use within 2 days. A hint is to add a paper towel to the package to absorb any extra moisture. Never wash mushrooms until immediately before use.

Nutritionists advise us to:
Avoid re-freezing foods once thawed, do not mix meat and fresh vegetables in the refrigerator and do not combine cooked food with fresh foods.

The refrigerator is a modern tool for keeping food fresh. Its use should be respecting the rules of hygiene, temperatures and food preservation times.

Re-freezing – a microbial multiplication factor
Any frozen food will not re-freeze, “because microbes will grow rapidly in number and food will become dangerous for the body. The most appropriate is to put in the freezer vegetables, fruit and meat in small packages, each for one serving, this way avoiding re-freezing the product.

Frozen vegetables retain more vitamins
Frozen vegetables retain more vitamins, (especially vitamin C) than vegetables stored for several days in refrigerator. Scientists say that nutrients and vitamins in vegetables begin to fall gradually from the time of collection, and time lost by them to arrive in stores makes consumers less fresh plates.

Moreover, specialists also notes that vegetables bought from stores, may be old for at least two weeks, during which time they have spent in warehouses and distribution network before reaching the shelves. Also, given that, after purchasing vegetables could again spend the best days in pantry before being cooked, foods often come to be eaten even one month after harvest.