Here's a healthy, very easy family-friendly recipe that can be assembled fast, perfect for all the mamás out there who just can't seem to find the time to cook like a pro, courtesy of a professional chef!

Chef Cindi Avila has starred in a few Food Network series, including Chopped and Dinner Takes All. She owns her own PR agency, Green Goddess Public Relations, and is the PR director for the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. She's also a dedicated mommy of a 2 and a half-year-old and is 7 months pregnant with her second baby girl. So the woman knows a thing or two about being busy--and, of course, about easy-to-prep dishes. Avila shared with us one of her favorite recipes, below. Enjoy!

How can my friends expect their kids to have healthy eating habits when they don't! Believe me, I'm not saying that it's easy to provide a healthy eating environment at home when you have picky eaters, you're working full time or if you yourself have always eaten traditional Latin dishes that were once considered healthy and you've only recently realized that they're actually rich in everything you should be having little of: fat, sugar, and carbs! There are three lessons I've learned on instilling healthy eating habits on our kids that I'd like to share with mamás who are just getting started. 

The nonprofit advocacy agency, Environmental Working Group (EWG), just revealed that many nutritious foods we eat are not as healthy as we think because they're drenched in pesticides. The EWG's list of the most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables sold in markets is quite shocking.

And, can you guess WHICH popular fruit topped the list? Hint: You probably put one in your kids' lunch boxes every day...

The solution to your child's obesity problem may stem from the size of their dinner plate. A study done by researchers at Temple University found that first graders served themselves more food when they used a large plate as opposed to a smaller one. As if controlling what your child eats hasn't become an issue on its own, plate sizes have increased, too.

The study was done to see if reducing plate size could affect how much children eat--especially since the theory has been held true for adults. So, did portion control help kids with their food consumption?

Turns out that the Aztecs knew what many in current times are just beginning to learn: Chia seeds are a healthy addition to your diet. Huh, I've only ever given them as a gag gift to be grown on a Chia Pet. This ancient seed, a member of the mint family, is having an "it" moment that promises to last.

As women we'll try whatever diet is out there to shed a couple of pounds. Most recently, the popular U.K. diet 5:2 based off the book The Fast Diet, has Brits raving about the health phenomenon. This latest weight loss fad was created by journalists Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer with the promise that not only will you drop the pounds and suppress your appetite, but you'll live longer too.

However, it requires you to practically give up two days of eating--hence the "fast" portion--and you're only allowed to consume about 500 calories on those days. As you can tell this diet may not be for the faint of heart…

Losing weight can be a difficult task especially when you start getting hunger pangs and want to reach for your favorite junk food. Snacking can make or break your diet if you reach for the wrong foods, but there is one solution which will keep you losing weight while satisfying your hunger. The answer? Dried fruit!

Now, not just ANY dried fruit isn't going to cut it. In fact, Dr. Kevin Soden of Realage.com shared that the best ones to eat happen to be ... 

They key to keeping your waistline small may have something to do with the timing of each meal.  A new study reveals that the key to maintaining a healthy weight is by following the body clock rule. Researchers found that by having a large lunch and a small dinner, it allows your body to properly make use of the sugar in food to turn into energy.

The study showed that the body's ability to make use of the sugar we consume, fluctuates throughout the day according to our body clock. And by tuning into this timing can be the key to maintaining a healthy weight.