Healthier Processed Food

Many stressed out stay at home or working moms turn to processed foods for their meals. Generally processed foods are exactly that processed to the point of taking all the good stuff out. Generally, I create my own "Helper to Hamburger" but even if I use a box I put good stuff back into the meal for nutritional value.

Here are some of my favorites:

Purees

Yellow Processed Food - Anything that says "Cheese" such as Box Mac & Cheese or Ground Beef Helper to Hamburger "Beefy Cheese" add pureed yellow/orange veggies such as carrots, squash, yams, sweet potatoes. You can also add diced canned or fresh tomatoes.

Red Processed Food- Anything with a tomato base takes all the yellow/orange veggies well too. Tomato based meals all take all the green veggie purees such as broccoli or spinach as and is usually undetectable by those picky eaters. For fun try pureed beets, it really kicks up the color which usually interests younger children. To pick up the sweet buds try adding apple puree (or no sugar added apple sauce) to your pasta sauce. Yum.

White Processed Food - such as Helper to Hamburger Strogonoff or Potato-off, I add pureed cauliflower, you will never find it in there. I also, add canned or fresh diced tomatoes to these meals.

How to make a puree search my SunEday's Recipe File.

Fiber

I add ground flax seed to just about everything. It is high in Omega 3's and say yes to the fiber police. Just a tablespoon a day added to any meal you prepare will make a huge difference in "ummmmmmmmmm" lets just say keeping things moving along. You can find it in the health food section of your most grocery stores. Make sure it is ground as the whole seeds are hard to digest, so you don't typically get all the good stuff out of them unless they are ground.