Follow our family’s journey to eating better. Read our first #PCStars #GuidingStarsCA post here.
Eating healthy is important for busy families. When it comes to my family, our food consists of vegetables, fruit, protein, dairy and whole grains. I like cooking my family’s meals mostly from scratch, but there are times I need a little help when times get a bit busy and chaotic.
When it comes to food that I don’t make myself (crackers, oats, pasta, kefir, yogurt, cheese, etc), I like to make sure I pick wisely. I read labels, check ingredients, and do side by side comparisons. What makes things easier is finding Guiding Stars on shelf labels in store for simple nutritional choices.
At home, we eat lots of oats. Steel cut oats are our favourite. We’re going on a camping trip, so Hubby asked me to pick up some oatmeal packets for the weekend. Since we normally get steel cut oats or large flake oats, I wanted to check out which instant oats had the most stars. There were some with 3 stars and some with 1 star. The Guiding Star ratings were really helpful in when it came to selecting our hot cereal for our camping trip.
I don’t normally buy juice, but some of the children on the camping trip drink juice. I must have spent what seemed like an eternity in the beverage aisle! So many juices and other drinks to choose from! I was happy to see that some of the beverages had guiding stars on their shelf labels. It made picking one juice over another much easier.
For those wanting to change eating habits and choose healthier items, the Guiding Stars 0, 1, 2, 3 rating system rates food individually against a strict standard and not against each other.
If you have a PC Plus card, you can rack up rewards easily and in no time. On my last shop, I earned 2200 PC Plus points.
Since we were running errands in Espanola (and a wardrobe change for Little One), we did our shopping at Independent and got everything we needed for our camping trip. On our way home, Little One and I ended up going to our local Valu-Mart on the Island because she wanted Brussels sprouts for supper! We picked up a few other items that we don’t grow on our farm.
Thinking about the purchases I make for my family, I made a conscious effort to find alternatives with higher stars. It is amazing how easy and how quickly the stars in my grocery cart increased. It’s also interesting to see how easy it was to change current eating habits with the Guiding Stars program.
With some of the ingredients we picked up, I made this dish.
Sweet and Savoury Summer Rice Dish
Ingredients:
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1 cup Jasmine rice
- 4 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar snap peas, cut into 1 inch pieces
- Herbamare (or salt)
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 10 green onions, sliced
- parsley, chopped coarsely
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1 In a medium sized saucepan, add broth, Jasmine rice and wild rice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for 40 minutes and remove from heat.
2 Whisk together the olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and sesame oil.
3 Carefully and gently mix together the cooled cooked rice, green onions, sugar snap peas, dried cranberries, and dressing in a large mixing bowl. Add Herbamare and freshly cracked pepper to taste.
This dish is best served cold, so chill completely before serving. Enjoy!
Do you have a PC Points card? Sign up for the PC Points program so you can track your stars too!
Disclosure – This is a sponsored post, however, all thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.
So simple yet looks so delicious and healthy! Thanks for sharing that recipe! I love the guiding stars program, it’s so easy to slip away into what we think is healthy versus what really is! Thanks for sharing this post! 🙂
Thanks, Alyssa!
Thanks for the ‘star-full’ recipe!!! Looks delicious!!!! I love the Guiding Stars program and adore that we have access to a dietitian for the final tweaks to our diet ;o)
We don’t have a dietitian at our store, but I’ve been enjoying reading everyone’s posts about their visits with their dietitians!
Love seeing photos of my hometown independent!
Recipe looks great.
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Thanks, Melanie! 🙂 I love your hometown Independent! Great variety!
I’m finding so many delicious ways to “change it up” and get more stars. Loving this program!
Same here, Tina! Same here!
I just met with a Loblaws dietitian and she was wonderful! She suggested easy things I could change that would make our food choices more nutritious and increase my star value! Your recipe looks delicious.. although I was gently scolded for buying jasmine rice lol. I suppose it’s balanced off in your recipe with adding wild rice. Jasmine scented rice is just soooo yummmy!
Hehe! I thought the wild rice would make things healthier 😉
The Guiding Stars are so helpful with grocery shopping, saves so much “label reading” time! Your Sweet and Savoury Summer Rice Dish looks amazing, I will definitely be making this!
Thanks, Monica! If you try the recipe, let me know what you think!
I’m always amazed at how there’s most often an alternative to what I’m about to buy, that has 3 stars instead – which is awesome! I’ll have to check out this recipe…sounds delish! We love rice dishes 🙂
Brandi, we always go for the 3 star products! Little One made it a rule!
I need to try to make more summer rice dishes. I am bookmarking this one.
I love my PC points card and the PC stars program, they make shopping effortless!
Thanks, Tammy! Agreed! I love the PC points and PC stars!
The Stars definitely help with the comparisons within a category. I love the guidance.
I’ll be meeting with an in-store dietitian tomorrow to review my Guiding Stars profile and talk about how I can improve. Should be interesting!
Wish we had a dietitian at our store! Enjoying everyone’s posts about their visits with the dietitians at their stores!
I’m surprised and happy to learn that you can find instant oats rated with 3 stars! I’ll look for them next time we’re shopping, along with the ingredients for your sweet and savoury summer rice dish. Looks so deelish!
Julie: Me too! I was really surprised!! 🙂