Before we started cutting back on excessive spending and junk food, our Friday night tradition was to go out for burgers and beer, loading up on those ginormous restaurant portions we love to talk about here at That's Fit.

Now, we still go out for burgers (or sometimes, just the beer), but it's not a weekly event. Which is how I found myself home last night, furiously cooking up a couple of new recipes to clean out the leftovers in the fridge.

One of them happened to be this kale and chickpea soup. When I'd added the kale, the last ingredient, I could not get over how colorful the soup was. The orange sweet potatoes, the red peppers, the green kale, and the white beans, onions, and garlic made it one of the most visually appealing dishes I've ever made.

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What are you supposed to do if your kid won't eat his or her veggies? Over at Well, The New York Times' health blog, they're talking nutrition with two leading experts, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Dr. Joshua Sparrow. Their recommendation? If your child won't eat vegetables, don't worry about it.

I know what you're thinking ... WHAT?!?!

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You are what you eat, right? Since women have unique nutritional needs, like extra calcium and iron, it is important to address those differences through healthy whole foods.

If you need a little help knowing what the best foods are, Nursing Degree has put together a comprehensive list of the 100 best foods for women. What's nice about this list is:

• these are foods that are good for everyone, so we can serve them to our families.
• the list is segmented into categories: foods for overall health, bone health, skin health, weight loss, antioxidants, and other nutritional focuses.
• there are a variety of choices under each category, so you can pick and choose the foods you like.
• dairy is not stressed as the best food source for bone health, which is great for those who are allergic to dairy or simply don't believe it is a healthy food.

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This morning, my kids asked for cinnamon toast. So I made it for them. I used whole wheat bread, light butter with Canola oil, and a few sprinkles of McCormick's cinnamon sugar. My kids gobbled it down, which makes me happy for whole wheat purposes. My husband tends to think the rest of the equation -- the butter and cinnamon sugar -- is crap. I argued with him a bit, not trying to convince him butter and cinnamon sugar are good for our kids, just to let him know that our kids eat pretty darn healthy most days and there are far worse foods they could have ingested, with far more crap packed into them. Then I questioned myself. Then I did some research.

Hungry Girl says in one of her Chew the Right Thing posts that cinnamon sugar is something we ought to fight, not bite. Now she's speaking mostly to us grown-up calorie-counting folks and not to the kids of the world, but here's what she says: "McCormick's Cinnamon Sugar has only 15 calories per teaspoon. So why are we telling you to 'fight it!'? Well, we just don't see why anyone should waste any calories at all on this sweet spice when there is a just-as-good no-cal version available. After all, when you're watching your weight, every single calorie counts. Fifteen calories here, 30 there, another 40 here ... it can all add up." HG doesn't mention sugar in her opinion but clearly, there's sugar in cinnamon sugar.

So what does the Hungry Girl suggest? San Sucre Cinnamon Sugar. It uses Splenda and makes a great sugarless cinnamon sugar blend, she says. No calories in this goodie either. HG's final piece of advice: "Cinnamon helps keep blood sugar levels low, so sprinkle away!"

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How terribly bad can a Twinkie really be? According to some, not so bad.

It's not that an occasional Twinkie-type treat, or sandwich cookie, or cheese puff, or cracker is inherently bad. It's just that they hog up caloric space. Healthy versions of these snacks are no different.

Think about it this way: If your nutritional requirements are a train, junk foods are taking the seats of rightful passengers -- like a bowl full of berries, for example, or a handful of nuts. Says Stephen Daniels, pediatrician in chief at The Children's Hospital in Denver: What's left after all the nutritional requirements are met are a hundred or so "discretionary calories" to be used like dietary funny money. That' a pretty tight caloric budget, allowing for two cookies, a handful of chips, or well, one Twinkie.

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You'd be hard pressed to find a Smoothie King smoothie that isn't both tasty and nutritious. Delicious flavors like Angel Food and Caribbean Way are packed with fresh fruit and nutrients, and you can actually make them even healthier. Simply ask for your smoothie to be "made skinny."

"Skinny" smoothies have no turbinado (raw cane sugar) and contain 99 less calories and 23 less carbs than their counterparts. Smoothie King offers more than 30 smoothies under 300 calories after being rendered skinny. The Slim-N-Trim, for one, is a low-calorie treat used by many as part of an overall diet and training program geared toward slimming down.

Smoothie King also offers 50 smoothies with ingredients that meet customers' nutritional and dietary needs. There's The Hulk, with lots of calories and lots of nutrients, for chemotherapy patients who need a boost. There's The Gladiator for individuals who have undergone gastric bypass surgery and need essential vitamins and protein for recovery. And others can be formulated to jump-start energy and immunity; address stress relief, joint, and tissue repair; and build muscle.

Not all smoothies are created equal, say Smoothie King founders Steve and Cindy Kuhnau, who are proud to be the originators of the nutritional, fruit-based smoothie. Want to taste what they're talking about? Consider this:

Smoothie King will award one lucky reader with a $100 gift card, good for use in any one of their stores -- click here to find a location near you.

To enter to win, just leave a comment below before 5 PM Eastern on Thursday, June 12 describing the tastiest and healthiest smoothie you'd create if you could -- we want our mouths to water so make it good. Feel free to go to www.smoothieking.com for inspiration. Click on "Find Your Favorite" under the "On The Menu" category and you'll find bunches of possibilities. We'll randomly choose one winner amongst the eligible entries and announce the winner on Friday, June 13. Some other important details:

• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below describing the tastiest and healthiest smoothie you'd create if you could.
• The comment must be left and confirmed before 5 PM on Thursday, June 12.
• You may only enter once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• One winner will receive a $100 gift card for the purchase of Smoothie King smoothies.
  
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
  
  

Click here for complete official rules.

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As your loving online fitness trainer, I'm constantly searching for fun new products to help you achieve ultimate fitness with the most ease and enjoyment. Thomas Kemper Low Calorie Root Beer, with only 20 calories per 12 ounce bottle, is one of those products. Look. We all know that plain old water is the best beverage in the world health wise. But...I'm a big fan of the no and low calorie drinks as well. I find that a diet soda satisfies my sweet tooth and keeps me from hunting down muffins throughout my day. It keeps me in the teeny jeans I like to wear as well.

Thomas Kemper did a great job creating the perfect low calorie version of their Original Root Beer. It tastes delicious and my die hard root beer loving neighbor guzzled it down to rave reviews, without even knowing it was a low calorie drink! He almost fell off of his chair when I told him it was a 'diet' drink. Having said that, I think his new addiction to Thomas Kemper Low Cal Root Beer is going to help him get rid of his 'regular beer belly'. Such an easy way to lose weight!

Not only is the Low Calorie Root Beer a yummy treat, the bottle will make you feel fancy. It's brown and beige with a cutie logo, and will make you feel like you're sitting on a farm with Wilford Brimley and Huck Finn. Not that those two characters were known to hang out together, but Thomas Kemper will make you feel like they did. It will make you feel like you're all three together on the farm throwing rocks....or something else sweet and old fashioned like that!

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Ah, the food label. There it is, smack dab on your food packages, containers, boxes, and bags, calling your name, begging for your attention, eager for you to read it over and make an informed decision about the nutritional contents that lie within. Seems easy enough. Yet in reality, reading food labels can be quite confusing.

WebMD makes food-label reading a bit more manageable. In this article, experts offer tips on interpreting serving sizes and making sense of these commonly-used label words: calories, calories from fat, nutrients, ingredients, and % daily value. A neat little chart also helps explain label claims. If a label claims a product is fat-free or sugar-free, for example, this means it contains less than 0.5 grams of fat or sugar.

For your own personal lesson in label reading, take a stroll over here.

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Honey may not be the worst of all diet pitfalls, but it's still sugary -- honey is 75 to 80 percent simple sugar and only contains trace amounts of some vitamins and minerals. Spoon for spoon, it's sweeter than actual sugar and contains 65 calories per tablespoon to sugar's 45 calories for the same measurement. If you're looking to limit your intake of sugar then, honey should make the cut list. Feel free to use it for other purposes, though. It has plenty of impressive non-nutritional qualities. Here are a few.

Disease Protection. Honey has antioxidants, just like fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants are non-nutritive agents that decrease the activity of cell-damaging free radicals. The darker varieties of honey can contain large quantities of a particular antioxidant called flavonoids, the same substances found in red grapes and linked with a lower risk of heart disease among wine drinkers.

Skin Protection. Honey helps skin retain moisture and its antioxidants may also find a role in skin-care products because nectar can be used to produce alpha hydroxy acids, a vital ingredient in skin creams and moisturizers.

Preservative. Honey is a preservative and doesn't spoil. It can therefore slow chemical reactions that cause rancidity in foods. Substituting honey for refined sugar might even extend the shelf life of some products.

Honey's nutritional value is less than what many believe. But its other properties are considerable, clearly.

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Eating out can be a dangerous proposition for those trying to maintain healthy eating habits. It's just so hard to tell how restaurant chefs prepare their menu items. Ordering a piece of fish may seem like a safe choice but what if it's been doused in butter, cooked in oil, and sprinkled with salt? Not so healthy anymore, right? Right.

Before heading out for your next out-to-eat experience, find out just what's in store by giving this tool at try. I just gave it whirl by typing in my city, state, and zip code and a desired price range. Up popped three dining locations with links to nutritional information for various dishes. Not everything I found met my healthy criteria, but that's the point -- to determine what's good and what's not so good for us.

This online option -- healthydiningfinder.com -- does operate according to some nutritional criteria. Everything you find when you visit must fit these guidelines:

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Does it surprise you that people who eat fast food several times per week weigh significantly more than those who don't eat fast food very often? It's no shock to me that a study released on Monday reveals what every one of us should already know: Fast food makes us fat.

Each additional fast-food meal packs on the pounds, according to a Temple University obesity study that reveals these specific facts:

• The weight of people who consumed three to six fast-food meals a week was significantly higher than those who consumed no fast food or ate one to two such meals per week.

• Every additional fast-food meal during the week was associated with a 1 1/2-pound increase in body weight. There may be factors other than fast-food here -- like a sedentary lifestyle of people who tend to eat fast food, for example.

• About 50 percent of respondents -- there were 4,600 in all -- said they'd be more likely to eat healthy options if offered as part of a value meal, and 41 percent would like to have nutritional information on menus. This data offers clues about what might help people make healthier choices.

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All of the conflicting information about food that is circulating out there -- what you should eat, what you shouldn't, what's going to make you fat, what's going to give you cancer -- can be a bit maddening. How is anyone ever supposed to know which of the information to believe?

Perhaps this article on nutritional myths may help. Written by a nutritionist who explains that many client's were getting grilled about the foods they'd been recommended, the author tries to set the records straight on a few common misconceptions about what you should and shouldn't be eating.

Five food rules that you should break are discussed in the piece, so if you're interested in reading the nutritionist's information about whether red meat causes cancer, if salt consumption really leads to high blood pressure, whether too much protein will damage kidneys, and why butter isn't so terrible after all, take a look at the full article here.

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I know you know this. I know it too. Still, sometimes I end up fooled by the spin some companies put on their nutritional information. I don't mean to imply they mess with the numbers at all. I just mean they communicate them in a way that can mislead consumers.

I just saw a magazine advertisement for Kellogg's Rice Krispies® treats. Did you know this ooey-gooey snack, wrapped in an individually-wrapped package, contains only 90 calories? Yep, that's what the ad tells me. But with it's accompanying fat, carbohydrates, and sugar, is it really that great a deal? For those only concerned with calories and those who are satisfied with this mini dose of food, maybe. For those wishing for a wholesome, nutritional bite to eat, I think not.

I write this post to remind you -- and myself too -- to remember that when some food item is touted as low in one category, it may be high in another. If it's low in fat, take a peek at the sugar and sodium and other ingredients used to bind your indulgence together. Sugar-free? Look at everything else that went into creating your favorite guiltless goodies. Some things are just too good to be true. Really, the are.

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One of the best pieces of parenting advice I've ever received -- and now the best I have to offer -- is to give kids choices. Not just any choices, though. Just the choices where each option is a winner from the parent point of view. Take bedtime, for example. In our household, one of our two bundles of joy always resists this dreaded hour. He'd do anything to stay up a few minutes later. He'd also do anything to avoid completing his first-grade homework. So we, his parents, often present him with a choice. First we back up bedtime by 20 or 30 minutes. Then we ask, "Would you like to go to bed right now or would you like to do some homework first?" Homework always wins. And so does everyone involved. Joey gets to make an important decision and postpone bedtime -- kind of -- and we get a more cooperative boy when tucking-in time arrives.

The choice thing works for picky eaters too. For those who beg for cookies and candy snacks, why not head off the sweet request with a question like this:, "Do you want a crunchy apple or a juicy orange?" For the kid who complains about veggies, try this: "Do you think I should make piles of peas or bunches of broccoli for dinner? Let's face it -- kids like power. And if they can use it to arrive at safe and healthy outcomes, I see no problem with a little delegation. In fact, I sometimes leave our weekly menu planning up to Joey -- he fights bedtime and eating -- and he gets to pick the meal for each night of one week. As long as it meets our nutritional standards, it's a go. If he picks it, he eats it. He likes to be in charge.

Next time you're faced with a cranky kid, whip out some options and see where it takes you. Just make sure you're happy with each choice. This way, both you and the kiddo will end up satisfied.

I started changing my diet at the end of April. I started slow, with just a few modifications -- no soda, no sweets -- and then tweaked things here and there until I'd ditched all crap from my cupboards and kept only the healthy goods. It took a while before I'd identified all my wrong-doings. In the beginning, for example, I'd liberated myself from sugar and was eating loads of fruits and veggies but hadn't quite caught on to the whole low-fat thing. It hit me one day after eating a Pizza Hut personal pan cheese pizza. Sitting like a lump in my stomach, that mini-pizza told me I'd made a wrong turn when I pulled into that Pizza Hut parking lot. So I rushed home, sat in front of my computer, and began hunting for nutritional information on the gut buster I'd just consumed. I found it. It wasn't good.

My little pizza cost me 620 calories and 26 grams of fat. It came with 69 carbohydrates and seven grams of sugar. So I didn't bomb on the sugar thing but holy cow did I go way wrong on everything else. Ever since that day, I've been investigating all sorts of food items before I eat them. Before my husband I went to Red Lobster with a gift card, I took a peek at the stats on those yummy cheesy biscuits. Yikes -- 160 calories and 9 grams of fat fill one Cheddar Bay Biscuit.

I've since checked up on fresh fruit -- seems one cup of most fruits come with about 100 calories, some natural sugar, and no fat -- and kiddie snacks, and anything that makes me wonder. If you'd like to do the same, check out calorie-count. You can also visit restaurant sites directly. Try these Web sites for the lowdown on McDonald's, Subway, and Taco Bell.

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