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Quick & Easy Oat Power Bites

2/15/2021

Eating healthy is not always easy - especially in February, when edible gardens are still waiting to be planted and decadent Valentine's Day treats can't help but tempt us. Baking up a batch of Quick & Easy Oat Power Bites is a great way to solve this problem because these Power Bites are both yummy and healthy! Mahalo Alanna Simao for this recipe! We love it!

What's to love this recipe?

Hot from the oven, its a warm and toasty cookie.
Baked in advance, it's a yummy grab-n-go breakfast or a filling any time snack.
Heart-healthy, it's loaded with fiber and fruit.
Tired of mushy Oatmeal, it's a crunchy Oat alternative.
Perfect for little hands to make, it's a fun family activity.

The basic recipe is super simple and uses only two ingredients - a banana and a cup of raw whole oats. What could be healthier?

The ripeness of the banana will affect the flavor. I like my Oat Bites to have a light banana flavor, so I use a "just ripe" banana. But for a stronger banana flavor, simply use a riper banana.

Step 1: Mash up the banana. My go-to masher is a pastry cutter. A fork, potato masher, or a clean set of hands also works well. Kids love to help make this recipe, because who doesn't love to squish up a banana?

Step 2: Mix in a cup of raw whole oats. Oats are a wonderful ingredient because they are both healthy and tasty. Baked, Oats bring a nutty, toasted flavor to the recipe. And, since Oats are full of fiber, both the soluble and insoluble types, they help lower cholesterol, decrease diabetes risk and promote digestive health.

Step 3: Squish mixture into little round shapes. Use hands and a spoon to shape the mixture into tightly packed cookies. Place on cookie sheet, bake and eat. Yummm!!!

Power Bites can be customized in many delicious ways. Want a healthy crunch? Add a handful of walnuts. Craving a chocolate chip cookie? Add a scoop of chocolate chips or cacao nibs. Fancy a granola bite? Swap in dried fruit and nuts. Out of bananas? Substitute applesauce or mashed fruit. The options are limited only by your pantry and imagination!
Proceed to the full recipe below, add your own creative spin, and enjoy!

Quick & Easy Oat Power Bites

Ingredients:
1 Yellow Banana
1 Cup Raw Oats
Plus any other ingredients you fancy (chocolate chips and walnuts are my favorites).

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. Mash banana.
4. Add oats & mix well.
5. Mix in any extra ingredients of your choice.
6. Shape into small round cookies.
7. Place on cookie sheet.
8. Bake @ 350 degrees F for 20 minutes until oats are toasty brown.
9. Eat hot or save for a grab-n-go breakfast or snack.

Family Fun: I Spy Backyard Garden Game

7/26/2020

Strawberries, Snap Peas, Tomatoes, Avocados - these are just a few of the fruits and vegetables growing in our backyard this summer. In normal times, we would never have attempted to grow such an ambitious and colorful edible garden. But this Spring, with the pandemic turning our lives upside down, the idea of growing our own fruits and vegetables at home, instead of shopping for them at the store, really took root...and so began the difficult task of banishing the gophers from our backyard.

Fast forward to the middle of Summer, the gophers are gone, our seeds took root, the baby plants flourished, and we now have a backyard full of amazing fruit and vegetable plants. It was easier than expected to start the garden. It's been buckets of fun to tend the garden. And, the whimsy and wonder of discovering the ways our edible plants change and grow has brought us unexpected joy!

To share the wonder of our edible garden with you and your family, we thought it would be fun to create an I SPY Backyard Garden Game for you to play. The rules are simple:

Look at each question and the series of photos attached to it.
Play "I SPY with my two eyes" by finding the fruits or vegetables in each photo.
Use the fruits or vegetables you find to correctly name the garden plant.
Check your answers with our ANSWER KEY located at the end the game.
Have fun exploring these amazing edible plants in our backyard garden.

#1. One of our favorite fruit plants is shown below. Can you name it?

#2. Who knew growing this vegetable would be so much fun. What is it?

#3. October is a special month for this plant. Do you know what it is?

#4. This plant is cool because its fruit is blue. What is it?

#5. This plant likes to climb and is best eaten straight off the vine. Do you know what it is?

#6. This plant has super sour fruit. Do you know what it is?

#7. This plant is a favorite of Native Hawaiians. The root is used to make Poi. What is this plant's name?

#8. This tree will grow much bigger. We'll use its fruit to make guacamole. What is it?

#9. This vegetable looks exotic but is surprisingly easy to grow. What is it?

#10. This plant makes oodles and oodles of vegetables. We make zoodles with ours. What is it?

ANSWER KEY:
#1. Strawberry plant
#2. Tomato plant
#3. Pumpkin plant
#4. Blueberry bush
#5. Snap Pea plants
#6. Lemon tree
#7. Taro or Kalo plant
#8. Avocado tree
#9. Artichoke plant
#10. Zucchini plant

Excited to have your own edible garden? Fruit, vegetable and herb plants are surprisingly easy to grow and do well in pots or the ground. So grab some fruit and vegetable seeds, or pick up some starter plants at your garden store, and start planting! Wishing you well on your edible garden adventure!

Plant, Water, Grow, Eat!

Sew Your Own: Fabric Face Mask TUTORIAL

6/12/2020

Wearing face masks is here to stay – at least until a vaccine against Coronavirus (COVID-19) is successfully developed and widely administered.

As communities re-open and we start coming within 6 feet of others, wearing face masks can protect us from becoming infected in public spaces. So, don’t let mask-wearing fatigue get to you.

COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through breathing in infected respiratory droplets. Wearing face masks prevents healthy people from inhaling infected respiratory droplets. Wearing masks also prevents infected people from exhaling their infected respiratory droplets out into the air when they cough, sneeze or talk. Touching our mouth, nose, or eyes after touching a surface contaminated with live virus can also infect us. Wearing face masks prevents infected people from contaminating commonly touched surfaces when they cough or sneeze on it.

Mask wearing is also important because up to 40% of people infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic (showing no COVID symptoms), or pre-symptomatic (not yet showing symptoms). Wearing face masks prevents symptom-free, infected people from infecting others.

Over the past 3 months, we’ve been sewing up a storm of fabric face masks for family, friends, and the community. After sewing countless masks and perfecting our design and instructions, we figured it was time to make our Sewing Tutorial shareable. It’s a sort of video/slide experience that’s fun to follow along with as you sew a mask with us: https://youtu.be/D8OYuOkUiEo.

We hope our Fabric Face Mask Tutorial inspires you to make masks for yourself, your family, and your community. These fabric masks are not N-95 Masks, but they're washable and reusable. And, together with social distancing, frequent hand washing, not touching our face, and disinfecting commonly touched surfaces often, we can stay healthy and safe during this pandemic.

Stay Well and Sew On,
Maile
Founder, NativeFit

Finding Purpose During This Pandemic

4/7/2020

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Ever since I was old enough to understand the meaning behind these words, this mantra has guided me through life, inspiring me to find the positive in challenging situations.

In my wildest dreams, I never expected our lives and the lives of our families, communities, nation, and the world would be challenged the way this Coronavirus pandemic has challenged us. We need so much to combat and conquer this scary virus. We need an effective vaccine and proven anti-viral drugs against Covid-19. We need more PPE for our front line warriors. We need more ventilators for our sickest patients. We need so much. More.

Yet, even in this crazy time, the lemonade mantra serves to inspire me. I am grateful for the social distancing measures we are required to follow. But as I’ve shelter-in-place, I’ve wondered, how can I help my community from home?

My lemonade aha moment came when I realized my craft closet held 10 years of cotton fabric, non-woven lining material, elastic, and craft wire…everything I needed to sew cloth face masks for my community. So far I’ve sewn 40 masks and have time, supplies, and passion to sew hundreds more. And, I’ve found purpose during this rudderless time

What are your talents, passions, and loves?
How can you use them to help your family, your friends, your community?
Love to talk? Call someone and connect.
Exercise lover? Organize an exercise meet-up on Facebook Live or Zoom.
Got a green thumb? Start an edible garden.
Enjoy reading to others? Host a remote Story Hour on FaceTime.

Find your lemonade aha moment during this crazy pandemic.
It will make all the difference.

In Health, Wellness, and Lemonade,
Maile
Founder, NativeFit

Type 2 Diabetes and Rice

8/2/2016

Rice is a food staple in many cultures and communities throughout the world. But, daily consumption of white rice is associated with an increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, a serious but preventable lifestyle disease.

Luckily, if you like to eat rice, you can reduce your risk of Diabetes by at least 10% with one easy dietary change that does not involve a major dietary upheaval. Simply substitute brown rice for white rice, without even altering the amount of rice you eat.

Brown rice has a slightly nuttier taste than white rice and a slightly coarser texture, but one usually adapts rapidly to the changes. In fact, after a while, many people prefer the taste of brown rice over the blandness of white rice. Transitioning from white rice to brown rice can easily be aided by eating a mixture of brown with white rice first. And, with the newer rice cookers, cooking brown rice is just as easy as cooking white rice - just push the “brown rice” button on the control panel.

Healthy Swap: eat brown rice instead of white

Newer rice cookers have a brown rice button

In addition to the favorable lower sugar effect, brown rice has other nutritious advantages over white rice. Brown rice provides increased fiber content and increased amounts of beneficial vitamins and minerals. Why? During the milling process to turn brown rice into white rice, the outer husk of the brown rice kernel, which contains the fiber, vitamins, and minerals, is removed, causing the resulting white rice to lose much of its nutrition.

But what about those of you who eat bread and potatoes rather than rice as your major dietary starch? Similar findings would probably result in studies comparing whole wheat bread to white bread or unpeeled potatoes to peeled potatoes. So eat "Whole and Brown” as the healthier choice.

Enjoy!
Takenori

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024208/

Invest in Stocks

6/2/2016

One day, while chopping ingredients for a vegetable rice pilaf, my growing pile of vegetable scraps caused me to pause. Should I just throw these scraps into the garbage? Or, could they be repurposed?

My growing pile of left-over vegetables

It’s easy to get stuck in that single-use mindset of mindlessly tossing things into the garbage without considering ways to repurpose them. Contemplating my options, I considered starting a composting pile. Then, I realized there was a simple step in the middle that was easy, healthy, and tasty to do - make vegetable stock!

I put my spent vegetables into a pot of water with herbs and some other now sorry-looking vegetables my overzealous eyes had fancied while shopping the week before. Onions, mushrooms, salt, peppercorns, allspice berries, rosemary, leeks, sage, thyme, parsley, and garlic are also wonderful additions.

These make wonderful additions to the pot.

My pot of vegetables & water

There is really no right or wrong way to make stock. But, using vegetables already found in your kitchen is a great way to minimize food waste, save food costs, and make a tasty, healthy broth. In comparison, store-bought stocks cost much more, are loaded with preservatives, have too much salt, and usually don’t live up to the picture on the label!

Back to making stock:

Put pot of vegetable scraps and water on the stove to boil along with anything else you have on hand to add.
Simmer for an hour or more until the vegetables are mushy.
Strain the vegetables out of the liquid. Then, put the pot of liquid back on the stove to simmer uncovered until liquid is reduced to roughly 20% of its initial volume.
Remove from stove, cover pot with lid, and let stock cool.

Pot of stock as it simmers and reduces to 20% of its volume.

After stock has cooled, pour into ice cube trays, containers, or plastic bags. Freeze for later use or refrigerate if you plan on using it that week. This stock investment will yield you a fortune of flavor and healthfulness! Last but not least, those spent veggies are now ready for your compost heap - yielding even greater dividends on your investment into a happy and healthy lifestyle!

Additional tips: Before boiling the stock, you can develop more complex flavor by sweating the vegetables in a frying pan with a bit of salt and olive oil, or by roasting or grilling them. Don’t limit yourself to veggies. Try making stock with your spent beef bones, fish, shellfish or chicken carcasses. Broths are a great base for soup, bisque, stew, stuffing, brine, marinades, risotto, rice, pilaf, sauces, quinoa, braising, puree, dressing, pasta, gravies and pet food too.

Enjoy your stock investment!
Jeremy Jorgensen

My Passion? School Gardens

6/2/2016

Hi - I’m Jessica Ferrell and I’m excited to be joining the community of NativeFit healthy lifestyle bloggers. My passion is School Gardens. The desire to create a cultural shift towards a love of healthy eating drew me to the powerful potential of school gardens. With my studies in nutrition and a love of teaching, the garden as a classroom is an easy fit for me to reach students and the broader school community.

The school garden goes far beyond simply educating children and families about the ABC's of healthy eating, to creating an impactful experience with healthy food - well before they ever take that first bite.

Something special happens when a child plants, nurtures, and harvests their own food - actually, lots of special things happen.

I take great pleasure in sharing the excitement students experience when they see that juicy fruit finally appear or pull that earthy vegetable magically from the soil. And, I love to share their enjoyment as they happily eat nourishing food they grew themselves.

A child's understanding of food changes as they interact with the school garden: It’s not “eat your veggies because they’re good for you and then you can have dessert”- it’s “I can’t wait to eat these amazing fruits and veggies I grew myself!”

Children today face higher rates of obesity, diabetes type 2, and anxiety. The school garden provides an impactful place in the school day where children can learn the skills and knowledge needed to prevent those lifestyle diseases.

The garden is also an important tool for meeting academic standards through experiential learning, creates a sense of place and connection to the environment, and fosters a lifetime love of healthy eating. School gardens are important. Join me in bringing the power of school gardens to children everywhere!

Jessica Ferrell
School Garden Educator & Community Liaison

How This Athlete Found Her Healthy Diet

5/27/2016

As an athlete, I know how important it is to find a healthy diet that fits each of our bodies' needs. For me, the right diet is a vegetarian diet. It’s easy to find ways to replace meat with other protein sources such as legumes and nuts.

To successfully create that healthy diet that best fits one’s individual needs, it is important to figure out what food we want to change, then replace the good nutrients in that food with the same nutrients from a different food source.

For example, we can replace the protein and iron in beef with the iron in spinach and the protein in lentils. Breaking down our diet and what we eat enables us to pick and choose the nutrients and vitamins that we need and helps us decide what foods would be good for us to eat.

Eating veggie rolls after a swim workout

Being a vegetarian has made me realize the importance of maintaining not only a healthy diet, but a balanced diet. Balancing the fruits and vegetables we eat with our grains and proteins is important, whether we are athletes or not. Eating from all of these food categories maximizes our performance, helps us live a healthy lifestyle, and contributes to our overall positive mentality!

Olivia Ross
High School Athlete

When Willpower is Not Enough

5/15/2016

Change can be hard – especially when it involves adopting healthy new behaviors. How often have we channeled our inner warrior willpower, only to cave to temptation and eat that candy bar we swore off, stay up too late, or skip our workout again?

Why is choosing healthy over unhealthy difficult? Look no further than the theory of willpower depletion. This theory comes from research that showed that resisting temptation over and over again takes a mental toll – like a muscle that tires from overuse. Our daily supply of willpower is a limited resource. Using willpower in one situation to make the right choice drains the self-control needed to make good choices for the next situation. Bottom line? We need more than willpower to develop healthy habits.

Willpower is like a muscle that tires from overuse.

So hooray for Behavior Change Strategies! These strategies are great because used with willpower, they help make healthy habits stick. Behavior change strategies work because they target unhealthy behaviors, motivate change, and help us develop sustainable new habits. These strategies are always available to use once we understand them. And, these strategies all start with change in motivation - which means that when we starting using them, we'll be making cool healthy changes inside our minds well before anyone sees our cool healthy outside behavior changes!

Healthy living is a journey...

Excited to learn more? In future blogs, we’ll talk about the different behavior change strategies and how to use them - so check into our blog space often.

Starting today – approach healthy living as a journey - not a destination. Take joy in this adventure, grab friends and family to travel along, don’t be afraid to take a wrong turn or start again. And, celebrate joyful moments and good intentions every day!

Grab friends and family to travel with you.

Celebrate joy and good intentions every day!

Maile Jachowski, MD
Founder, NativeFit

7 Simple Rules for Healthy Living

5/5/2016

My name is Mary Anna Weklar and I’ll be joining NativeFit as a contributor to its Healthy Lifestyle Blog space. I hope that together, we can explore simple, easy ways to bring positive lifestyle practices into our day to day lives.

An integrated approach to healthy living has the opportunity to heal and renew us as individuals, communities and beyond! But, there is such an explosion of new information about health and lifestyle, that it can be incredibly overwhelming and confusing to figure out. So, here are some basic guidelines I believe can help build a strong foundation for healthy living:

Move your butt!
Strive for at least 30 minutes or more of physical activity daily…outdoors if possible. Vary physical activity to use all your muscles…walk, stretch, lift weights (a water bottle in each hand works), shoot baskets, or jump rope anyone?

Eat a rainbow!
Not skittles or other packaged, processed foods, but 5-7 servings of real veggies and fruits daily. Aim for whole and as close to how it grows as possible – an apple not applesauce, an orange, not the juice.
Rest and Repair.
Sleep at least 7 – 8 hours per night. Remember our bodies and minds are not machines.
De-stress with Recess.
Find time to play (games, music, dance, hobbies, draw) and take a break from our cell phones!
Share quality time with others.
We need our peeps! Friendships cultivated and laughter shared are some of the greatest riches free to enjoy!
Practice gratitude and appreciation.
Lighten the heart and sooth the soul with positive thoughts and simple thank you’s.
In the simple find the joy – a flower, a smile, a sunset, a bath.

Wake up to a rainbow breakfast! Photo Credit: Mary Anna Weklar

We all need our peeps... Make time to share quality time with your crew. Photo Credit: Mary Anna Weklar

Incorporating these 7 simple practices into my life helps me live a positive lifestyle. I’ve enjoyed sharing them with you and I challenge you, in the spirit of healthiness, to try them out for yourself. I think you’ll find that adopting these 7 positive lifestyle practices can be fun, simple, and easier than you think!

So how about making a healthy meal with friends or planning a group walk, anyone? Enjoy!

Mary Anna Weklar, MHA