HipMamaB San Diego: THIS Sunday September 9th: Eat Your Greens to Give Some Green at Whole Foods #WFMSaladDay

"Wow Mom, I just want to buy all these vegetables and take them home and eat them all!" - Lucas, age 8

So, that was a total brag. But when Lucas said that to me while walking though a local farmer's market last Saturday, my pride SWELLED. Yay! I'm doing something right! I'm lucky, I know it. Not a lot of parents have kids that love arugula and broccolini. 

I'm also very lucky that our public school district, San Marcos Unified, has made healthy eating in our schools a priority and has instituted the USDA's new guidelines that requires meals to be healthier and served in smaller portions, with more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and with less sodium and no trans fat. Additionally, in order to encourage kids learn to eat healthier all the time, all students MUST have one serving of vegetable or fruit on their tray.

But doing this is not cheap. Many California districts are strapped for cash and sometimes just being able to offer free or reduced price meals is better than nothing. 

That's where Salad Bars 2 Schools comes in. One of the major programs of the Whole Kids Foundation (in partnership with the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative), is Whole Foods Market's ‘buy a salad, give a salad’ program that supports putting salad bars and other healthy eating programs in schools.  

This Sunday, September 9th, you can help support this program with the "Eat Your Greens to Give Some Greens" donation drive at your local Whole Foods in the Southern Pacific region (Southern California, Hawaii, Arizona & Las Vegas). 

It's easy to participate. Simply buy a salad or hot food item from the bar at Whole Foods this Sunday and a $1 per pound donation will be made based on total salad and hot food bar sales.

Hitting even closer to home, the donations will be tallied up and made for each metropolitan area - meaning the money raised locally will go to bring salad bars to schools in San Diego County. Schools such as the ones in the Encinitas Union and Oceanside districts or any other local schools/districts that apply for a grant online at www.SaladBars2Schools.com. 

So this Sunday take the day off cooking, at hit up a local Whole Foods salad/hot food bar for a delicious lunch or dinner. Locally, Whole Food locations include, Hillcrest, La Jolla and the new(ish) location in Encinitas. 

So, let's recap: 

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Whole Foods Market.

Special Thursday Night Confession: 3 days and about 87 points later...

So since Monday my head was all a flutter with deep thoughts of life, I didn't confess anything for the week. So I thought I would make it for it tonight, with my confession of this: I've re-joined Weight Watchers. 

The new year, Jennifer Hudson, a lady at TJ Maxx that asked Zoe if she was going to "be a big sister soon", and my friend Maria all played a big role in the decision. But since I actually completed all levels of Angry Birds, I needed something new to obsess over. So off I went to weigh in and sit through the introduction of PointsPlus. My take? It's lipstick on a pig - just a new color lipstick.

However you slice and dice it, we all know the answer to weight-loss is actually fairly "simple" - eat less, drink more water and exercise. Viola. We see the men in our lives do it all the time! "Honey, I'm feeling flabby..." all of a sudden they are running again, not eating bags of chips while standing over the sink and switching to diet soda and BAM! They are 15 lbs lighter (MEN. But we get to birth babies! I don't think that was really a fair trade there, ladies). And while yes, the points have changed - most people get 29 points a day {forever} and 49 weekly BONUS points, fruit is now free (because as they like to say, "you're not at WW because you ate too many fruits and veggies!") and wine is now 4 points instead of 2 (priorities) - it's basically the same program.

But what I do like about the new PointsPlus is that they have made it easier to make the "better health decision." This was my biggest problem with the program last time I did it: that instead of eating right, people (myself included) just ate as much processed low-point food as possible. 

Take the 3 PM snack attack - you have 2 points to spare, do you reach for a 2 point apple or a 2 point bag of baked Doritos or a 2 point Jello Pudding Snack? In the past, one would probably reach for the chips or sweetie. Now, being that fruits are free, it's more like "I'll have that apple/pear/grapes/banana first so I can have a glass and a 1/2 of wine later!" Okay, maybe not the best example, but you catch my drift. 

The best part about Weight Watchers for me, and why I've been moderately successful with it in the past, is that I am held accountable and forced to face the music about just how fattening the majority of food I consume without thinking about it is. I'm the queen of exclaiming "Really! I usually do eat healthy! I don't get it!" and really, it's true. Fast food is an occasional occurrence, I don't buy big bags of chips, we use 1% milk, and buy "better for you" alternatives from Trader Joes. Yes, we do eat out, but at good restaurants that serve good food. But even "good food" can be bad. 

A great example is the leftover from NYE Ham Sandwich-fest Boudin sourdough roll. Sweet and innocent looking and something I consumed 3 of earlier in the week, this sucker clocks in at 8 points. EIGHT POINTS. For a BUN. That's 2 glasses of wine and a banana, in case you are keeping track. 

So now I'm thinking about things more. Instead of the random handful of almonds (not "technically" bad, but still), I will try to reach for grapes. Instead of an assortment of crackers, salami and cheese, we will have sliced cucumbers and tzatziki sauce! Pizza will be a treat, not a staple, in the dinner rotation. And I'll recite the good old 80's WW mantra that we probably all remember from our mothers: "Nothing tastes as good as it feels to be thin!"

Except for maybe tots and chicken & waffles. Those taste 50 million times better than being thin.

Oy. Issues. 

Delicious Dish - Pasta Heaven

I think we can all say that we are looking a little closer at the things we eat these days. Not just from a dieting calorie counting stand-point, but from a healthy lifestyle view. Movies like Food, Inc and shows like Jaime Oliver's food revolution have really brought to the forefront the idea behind trying to eat simpler, healthier and not so processed food. 

I struggle with this daily. I love food and love to eat good food. I'm not happy replacing items that I love with things that are just over-processed and lower in fat/calories. Earlier this year, I started seeing a naturopathic doctor regarding some recurring issues. Since I've been seeing her, I've learned a lot about treating the underlying issue, and not just treating the symptom. An idea so simple that I'm working on approaching my diet the same way.

Over the past week I was introduced to two similar fresh and easy pasta recipes from two very cool bloggers - ModChick's Lindsey and PureMama's Juli. Both were simple, fresh, easy and OH SO DELISH. 

Over at ModChick, Lindsay made her family a summer pappardelle with tomatoes and arugula. Go check out her pictures and tell me your mouth is not watering. I dare you! While I'm not not a fan of tomatoes (that's actually putting it nicely), I know that Jason loves them and that he would so dig this dish. And arugula ON your pasta?! I had never thought of that, but lemme tell you.. I may never eat pasta without it again. 

Then last Saturday night my friend Juli from Pure Mama's had us over for dinner. She told me she was just whipping up some simple pasta, but I will say that nothing about this pasta was simple tasting. Juli sautéed some green beans, asparagus and garlic and in a separate pan mushrooms. She made some Angel Hair noodles, tossed in some olive oil - then served the pasta, the veggies with fresh parsley, toasted pine nuts, some parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon. Simple, easy, fresh and heavenly!

With these thoughts in mind as I ran to Trader Joe's at 5:00 yesterday (obviously, I'm insane), I did a bit of a mash-up between the two pastas. Jason's had the tomatoes, while the rest of us had the peas and asparagus mix. 

The arugula, cheese and lemon made the dish for me, with the added hint of bacon crumbs rounding out the flavor with that touch of salt. 

The kids liked it, Jason liked it - and I actually COOKED something which made everyone happy...  we were in Pasta Heaven.