What the heck is jicama? And should you be eating it.?

well, i know what jicama is . but i have never tried it till tonight.

We have a store here called Pete's Frootique where you can get the more obscure fruits and veggies. And i found Jicama!

Jicama is a root vegetable that is used alot in Mexican food. Some people have characterized it as a cross between an apple and a potato. it looks like a turnip has a thin brown skin you can peel. it can be used in a zillion different way.

jicama is a low calorie, low-fat, high fiber food. it's mostly water about 90% yet a cup o it contains more than 6 grams of fiber. that alone makes it one of the worlds healthiest foods. but jicama also has calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin c, vitamin a and beta carotene. with a measly 49 calories per cup.

You can bake or broil a jicama like a potato, or slice it into stir fries. great raw. i mixed it into a berry-fruit salad for my snack later. i had a few bites and it is really satisfying.

so a new recommended superfood. jicama. Try it !

What to do today?

I started out writing a post this morning about my schedule for the day, or the lack of anything to put on it. and then i decided to take a walk to the grocery store to get vegetables to make another vegetable bouquet for my husbands work. Took the baby. ( of course)

it takes about 35 minutes to walk there, no sidewalks so a bumpy go. and well it takes 50 minutes back on account of the weight of the groceries and fatigue It is rather cloudy so it was a nice walk. i got a lot of superfoods, radish's , cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, snow peas. and more will post a pic later. so i got a lot of exercise today.
and i still have to go get the children from school.

my husband is working all day and he has the army tonight. He is a 2nd Lieut. in the reserves. Artillery. he enjoys it . It takes him out 1-2 nights a week. and some weekends. He is really enjoying it. this is a part of the reason that scheduling is so hard for things like part time work. But i am finally gonna try and fit something in.

when my daughter started primary , a little boy in her class was actually the son of someone i met in university, since school started we have had coffee and chat frequently. It is nice to have someone to chat with sometimes. she invited me to a girls night out in October. I haven't confirmed i would go but it is tempting. it is downtown and i haven't been downtown in 8 or more years, i can hardly imagine it. but i am thinking of it seriously.

Healthy food, at your fingertips.

A part of being a good mother has to be making sure my kids are eating enough, getting their vitamins and minerals, experimenting with new vegetables and meats. and learning to stick to a certain, loose, schedule of eating.

Allowing kids to make choices as they get older is a great chance to teach them about healthy choices and to see how much they have learned from you already.

Now that doesn't mean that it is all healthy all the time. I treat my kids too. and in turn they always give me the benefit of the doubt when i ask them to try something new and different.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on what exactly makes a food healthy or you.
what we think may be healthy is sometimes not the case especially when most ruits and vegetables are covered in pesticides.

my first recommendation is to buy a fruit and vegetable wash. they are commonly available now. i bought one in the natural health section of my local grocery store. my second recommendation is if you can buy organic. do so. if it is not available or out of your price range give your fruits and veggies a good wash.

here is the Environmental working group shoppers guide for level of pesticide use.

top 12 highest level of pesticide.

Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Lettuce
Grapes - Imported
Pears
Spinach
Potatoes

are your families favorites on this list? Some of my families are. now I cannot afford to buy all organic vegetables and alot are not even available in my area, so i wash them in a natural wash and use them sparingly.

conversley

top 12 least high in pesticides are
Papaya
Eggplant
Broccoli
Cabbage
Bananas
Kiwi
Asparagus
Sweet Peas-Frozen
Mango
Pineapples
Sweet Corn-Frozen
Avocado
Onions

alot of my favorites are here too so we eat alot of these.

my idea will be to post a meal idea everyday using one of the 150 of the worlds healthiest foods . Today we had grilled fennel, spinach, tomatos, onions,mushrooms, peppers, chicken, and more

it is not hard toincorporate at least one superfood everyday. A superfood is a ood packed with nutrition. low in at and and usually high in fiber.