Easy, low fat, batter baked veggies, your kids will hopefully eat.

This is like the ultimate cheat recipe!
They will taste deep fried and unhealthy! But they are baked and really only have oil on the bottom of pan.

Ingredients
Evenly sliced veggies, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflowers, even zucchini (sliced big)

Pancake batter
2 eggs
About a cup of milk (the only one I found not to work so far would be coconut milk)
Flour (any flour will work), enough to get a batter consistency
1 teaspoon Baking powder

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Mix all together, until a smooth batter consistency is attained.

Cover the veggies first in flour, and then mix them into the batter bowl, until everything is evenly covered.

Oil bottom of baking sheet.
Place veggies on baking sheet and bake in oven for 8 minutes, then turn around and bake a final few minutes, making sure nothing burns or over cooks. Approx 3 minutes (unless potatoes are really thick)
Sprinkle a little sea salt and pepper and serve hot.

My 2 favourite sauce suggestions would be : soya sauce &honey or mint and yogurt.
Enjoy!

Homemade play dough, fast and easy

What you will need

1 cup of flour
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Food coloring
Glitter (optional)

Start by turning your stove top burner on, at medium high.
Pour all the dry ingredients in a sauce pan (not yet on the burner),
then add oil and water. Stir and add food coloring.
Stir and place on preheated burner, bringing it down to medium.
Stir, stir, stir, it will be lumpy at first. (You would want to add the glitter in here, if you're using it)
Now stir your little heart out, until it is play dough. (You can occasionally stop stirring)
You will know it is ready, when it is one big lump. It can take anywhere from 45 seconds to 3 minutes.
Take out of pan, and let cool.

This is my favorite part. The one where I get to play with it a little before the kids, claiming it is too hot ;)

Keeping eggshells for the garden

Eggshells can be put directly into your earth for zucchinis, tomatoes, peppers, melons, aubergines and most likely many more plants that I still have yet to discover
Let the kids plant fairly large pieces of eggshells upright around your plants, then snails will slice themselves in half before they eat your plant away.

Kids love gardening! Involving our children is a great way of getting them to eat what they've grown.
There's a huge world within every garden!
Enjoy

Tomatillo salsa

About 4 cups tomatillos,
An onion chopped
2 regular tomatoes
1 any color sweet pepper (like bell pepper)
Cilantro
Hot pepper
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar

Cook the whole thing for at least 30 min. Then either puree electronically or just with a manual potato masher..
Most kids will claim it looks like vomit!
Heck they can't ALL be kid friendly recipes. He he he
Enjoy!

Slaw it up

Carrots, beets, daikon, kohlrabi, celery root, and onion.
Beautiful!

Living Gluten Free... Or at least trying to!

Hard, but not impossible, eliminating gluten from everyday diet can be quit the task.

After numerous years of trial and error with my son's digestive system, we've finally discovered that he is in fact gluten intolerant.

It was really hard at first to convince a 10 year old child that he cannot eat his favorite bread and peanut butter anymore, in fact most cereals are out too. The only way I noticed that made an impact was by letting him eat a little once in a while and getting him to realize on his own that gluten gives him a mean belly ache. Little by little after every gluten meal, I would hear “ohhhh I'm not eating pizza again” or “oh no more hamburgers”. Of course everyday I would try a new recipe that would bring him the same joy as eating his old favorites. At first rice pasta was seen as disgusting, but then when I served it for everyone and didn't tell him, well we all started liking it! I also keep a batch of gluten free crepe batter handy for a fast substitute to bread. Ham and broccoli or spinach and cheese toppings rolled up in a crepe, is not only fast but also more nutritious than the average sandwich.

A few interesting points I've learned about gluten in the system and this can be true whether you are intolerant or not.

• Excessive gluten (keep in mind in our Western Culture it is used in a whole lot of food) can lead to fatigue
• Constant fatigue can lead to laziness.
• Laziness can lead to inactivity.
• Inactivity can lead to depression.

What an awful vicious cycle! And I must say I noticed it within my son's attitude.

We are now well on our way to a gluten free diet, and well hey! It's not so bad after all...

sources

http://glutenfreeworks.com/gluten-disorders/gluten-sensitivity/

http://www.naturalnews.com/031660_gluten-free_diet_health.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten

:

Quinoa, alternative baby food cereal

Quinoa, the sacred food of the Incas, once referred to as the "Mother Seed".

It is in fact part of the same family as beets chard and spinach. Very nutritious, gluten free, and a delicious alternative to rice, pasta and potatoes for supper.

Quinoa is high in protein (12 to 18%) and like oats, it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it a complete protein source, unusual coming from a plant.

It is also a great source of dietary fiber and phosphorus. As if that wasn't enough, it is high in magnesium and iron as well.

It's also easy on the stomach making it great as a starter baby food cereal/vegetable.


FOR BABY FOOD:

Cook quinoa according to package instructions.

It may be a little bitter for Baby so try pureeing it with any other fruit or veggie you have on the menu.

My Baby's personal favorite? Pears and quinoa... I even make a little more for myself. 

A whole lot of pumpkin for your buck!

99 cents = a lot of sense =

1- 20 lbs pumpkin

12 pumpkin puree baby food meals

2 pumpkin pies

1 jar full of nutritious pumpkin seeds (dried and salted with sea salt)

and a wonderful Halloween decoration

not to mention a few hours of carving fun for a 10 year old :)

The best spinach salad ever !!!

Salad
Bag of fresh organic baby spinach
1/2 orange , cubed into small pieces
2 tbsp finely chopped coconut
2 tbsp shelled sunflower seeds
1-3 hand fulls of fresh alfalfa sprouts

Dressing
(to taste)
olive oil
rice vinegar
squeeze of lemon
honey ( I used a wild blueberry honey which is to die for!)

Mix well
Drizzle over your salad, and your taste buds are in for an ultra yummy healthy treat!

..."Baby in there" is doing summersaults!...

19 1/2 weeks... Tea for thought

Well I'm closing into my first goal,  24 weeks, this is were a fetus becomes viable. I know, of course my goal is getting way past 24 weeks, but this is the first feeling of succeeding.
Anxiety is running a little high, but I'm keeping that in check with some yummy wild oat tea.

Herbal teas are quit amazing. I've been drinking nettle tea since the day I found out I was pregnant! Then I soon added red raspberry leaf tea. Now I've added a little oats just for my nerves.

What amazes me so much about these herbal teas, are many are made using plants, that in the western world we view as "bad weeds"! They've created herbicides to keep these amazing "herbs" away from "human made agriculture, meant for human consumption" ! It's quite absurd when you read up about nettle, it used to be a blessing to have a nettle batch in your garden! I'm only mentioning nettle here, but there are so many!
Milk thistle, dandelions, chickweed, red clover, just to name a few.

Now I'm not talking about a little infusion once in a while, although it's good too. If you want results from drinking tea, you have to drink it regularly. Tea used to be the only other beverage around, besides water of course.
I've been making batches of infusions and mixing with lemon, then cooling it in the fridge. I'm at 3 cups of "home made ice herbal tea" a day. And even if I'm supposed to be lying on my back, I've never felt better in my life!

The nettle provides a huge variety of vitamins and minerals, it's like your daily multi-vitamin, just way more effective and much easier on the system!  It helps blood circulation and is rich in iron and vitamin c. It cleans the kidneys and insures it's proper functioning.
The raspberry leaf is a uterus toner, tissue strengthener, and helps re-generate cells too. It is also rich in vitamin content.  And quit important when one is pregnant it is a hormone stabilizer! I've had no "crazy woman mood swings" ! That makes life much easier around here for my boy and my man too! he he he

Oats are rich in calcium, iron, phosphorous, the B-complex vitamins, vitamin E, and vitamin K. They are also a good source of potassium, magnesium, zinc, protein, and vitamins A and C. Oat's also have a high concentration of the trace mineral silica, which is responsible for many of the health benefits of oat straw tea.
I feel well balanced and well surrounded by my tea, and my family.

I will succeed, I will succeed, I will succeed...

The Journey ... cottage cheese, strawberries and heh? Smoked salmon

Ah Yes! The strange food combinations of a pregnant woman.

I just made an awesome strawberry and cottage cheese "salad".

Just mix some cottage cheese with lemon zest and a tiny amount of honey, mix in the strawberries...
And you've got it! I like to keep it in the fridge for a little, to let flavors enhance, however this morning I just couldn't wait, I ate half right away!

Somehow that wasn't enough, half hour later ... hum ... what to eat!

Ah Yes! Bagels! And Smoked Salmon!
Yum... I even have cream cheese...
Oh and look, what else?

Dill Mustard

Add some thin onion slices and capers...
And that's just even in my mouth.

I've been eating it this way since I discovered that dill mustard/ salmon sauce at Ikea
:)

The Journey ... Austrian Goulash

Today's meal won't have as much to do with health as it does with culture and flavors.

Well I'm saying Austrian goulash here, because a good part of my genetic code comes from there.
It could very well be Hungarian goulash, or Bavarian goulash, or German goulash... Even an Italian meat stew could resemble this! Usually the agricultural diversity of a certain area will change the herbs and vegetables used.

"To the little new growth inside of me, welcome to some great cuisine! "
"I promise you the same kind of meals through out your life time..."

he he , why not throw some temptation in there...

I buy my veal from a local organic farmer so I have a variety of cuts that I could use for this!
Basically any cut you don't know what to do with you chop up into cubes and cook  away...
Grass fed cattle produces a meat that is much richer in various forms of nutrients, you'll even find some beneficial omega fatty acids, not found in industrially raised cattle.

The recipe is the following:

Something close to a kilo of cubed veal
1 large chopped onion
1 large carrot (2 if small)
2-4 garlic cloves (individual)
you can add in some leek

3 potatoes (I just cut them into 2, they end up cooking to a mash and thicken the whole stew)
veal or beef soup bones (as many as you can ! at least 3) I have dogs so I can sometimes put up to 8  
                      bones! 
100 ml of red or white wine can use much more if you wish
water to fill over everything

(in order of most used)
paprika (about 1 tablespoon)
dry mustard
thyme
basil
freshly ground black pepper
salt

some sour cream, only to be used once serving

First take a big enough pot that can make food for hum... 8 people
Brown the onions, carrots, garlic and leek if wanted.
Then brown the veal cubes , all on Medium/High heat (hot enough to brown)
Pour in the wine and stir so that it "deglazes" the sides and bottom of pan.
Let come to a hot simmer a few minutes, then deposit the bones in and pour enough water to cover the bones.
Throw in the potatoes
Keep the heat the same until it simmers again. I usually then bring it down to low and cover the pot. Let it simmer a few hours. Generally at least 3 hours. My trick would have to be not to let the meat "boil" , but rather simmer...
After an hour of cooking add the herbs and spices.
Only add salt at the end

Serve over egg noodles and put a small spoonful of sour cream on top

Yum...
There's no other words for it!
I could eat this everyday...

I would like to have a picture, however the meal inspired the write up.
I can tell you... The meat was tender and the flavors where succulent.

I'm sure Baby has a smile on...

The Journey ...

Ok, so I skipped a few days already ! Well I'm trying to keep my mind at ease, and with out a touch of stress, so finally I'll be posting when ever my little heart desires!
Hey! I have to see the good side of having to stay quiet and practically lying down! I can actually make little "princess remarks" like the last one!

The past few days I've been starting with a banana.

It's a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium, Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.

It does have high sugar contents, which is what I'm supposing aids the nauseous morning sickness effect instantaneously! Since I've been eating a banana per morning, I've been feeling a lot less of that icky sicky feeling!

And I've read that morning sickness is due to low blood sugar level... Yay for bananas!!! 

Next I made an awesome fruit salad with the last fruits from the local farmers market! 

 - Black Berries

- Strawberries

-And a strange variety of yellow raspberries!

Mixed together, left in the fridge for at least 1/2 an hour and then voila! I actually made a tiny amount of chocolate syrup to drizzle on top !

My "semi healthy chocolate syrup" (this is way junk food for me!)

-1 teaspoon butter

-2 tablespoons cocoa

-drop of vanilla essence

-some milk (like 2-3 tablespoons)

-a little honey to sweeten :)

This is for a tiny amount! You can double or triple or what ever it to your own wanted amount.

I rarely cook with precise measurements, again these are just ideas for your mind to ponder upon and experiment with yourselves.

So you melt the butter, add the cocoa and honey and stir... Stir until melted... Add the milk and vanilla and stir again. That's it! Drizzle it over your awaited fruit salad! You can make big amounts of this salad! It stores well for up to 2 days in an air tight container, kept in the fridge.

The point here to keep it healthy is not to drown the fruits in the chocolate! Ya get what I'm saying?

Organic butter has no harmful BHA and BHT added, making it actually ok to consume in SMALL QUANTITIES! And since I'm trying to "fatten" a baby here! ...

Cocoa derives its health benefits from flavonoids which are plant pigments capable of acting as antioxidants to counteract some of the cellular damage that can lead to chronic diseases. Again I'm not talking about a "Twix or Snickers Candy bar" here ! Just pure, organic cocoa.

Another thing we made in the last days was Pumpkin soup and Pumpkin Pie! Loads of food from one lousy pumpkin that my son just had to get us to buy at the farmer's market! At least it kept him busy for hours carving and finally destroying this huge fruit.

I don't actually like pumpkins! However the soup was quite tasty indeed! 

And I do enjoy the healthy benefits of eating pumpkin seeds! They contain L-tryptophan, which is is an essential amino acid formed from proteins. Very good for brain development amongst other things!

Of course other things got eaten, my garden is overflowing with a variety of different tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers. My lettuce patch is feeding us well too!

I made a yummy brown rice, veal, and veggie dish last night, enough to last for few lunches as well.

And so my journey has brought me to absolute healthy eating! I bet I'm the healthiest I've ever been!

TO BABIES !
;)

Journey of a pregnant woman towards a healthier and safer child bearing time

 I know it's a cliché to say that a revelation came to me as my first child was born! Yet it happened sort of something like that.

I knew that very simply we were put on this earth for that one purpose.

No more existential question of “why am I here” or “what is my purpose” … It just seemed purely, simply natural.

Nine years have past since that moment and through everything my body has been through it has brought on a new question. Why can't I fulfill a full term pregnancy?

So my path has lead me on this farm, living amongst a few alpacas, a few ducks and chicks, a few (which have multiplied fast he!) angora rabbits, my 2 busy dogs and a farm cat! Oh yes and a few fish aquariums! But that's a whole other story about aquaponics which I'll get into some other time, when our system will prove worthy to talk about!

I have a small modest garden which actually produces way more than my mother could have imagined!

A steady growing raspberry bush, a few apple trees and 2 mirabella trees! With the ducks and rabbits we raise ourselves about ¼ of meat intake per year and 1/3 of our fruit and veggie intake per year!

Everything else I buy is now been switched to strictly organic and or locally naturally cultivated (which in sense is the same thing). Some research suggest that organic foods have 30 to 60% more nutrients than conventional/ industrial foods!

Presently, I am exactly 12 weeks pregnant and I must say, lots (doctors and family members, probably a few friends too) expect me to most likely fail! But with everything I've researched and studied, I sense that I have to try! Otherwise , well I'll never know...

I won't get into the whole depth of it, because it's quite technical and possibly boring.

Basically I have an “incompetent cervix” ! Yup one stupid cervix indeed...
It has previously caused quite some problems, which in return has obliged me to be pretty much in "bed rest"
mode... I basically have narrowed my activities down to "slowly walking the dogs" and cooking! 
Cooking I love, I would even call it a passion! 

So this brings me to food...
Everything I've read seems to point at the food we eat! How many people could change their entire health record by simply nourishing themselves properly and or differently! Something that we've seemed to have lost with all the processed foods out there.
I have for the past 4 years “drastically” changed my eating habits, of course my family has had to follow and what a blessing that is to them!

I will start a daily enumeration of my daily food intake... What I eat, where I got the ingredients, the nutritional value of some produce and sometimes full recipes! This is more of a self reminder than anything else! If I slip a few opinions here and there, well I'm sorry... I am quite an opinionated woman. However I am simply stating my facts and then my recipes! Not to be taken in a medical way or anything like that!

So here's day one !

Originally written for my mother, who's a little worried about my daily vitamin intake

The e-mail was titled “Sardines and pregnancy”

-Just so you know,

I get my spirulina from kelp!
Lecithin is found in a lot of things (including eggs, which I eat regularly)

Folic acid is a lot of things too! greeny leafs like cabbage and lettuce , full
grain cereal like kamut which I eat every morning.

I'm eating "pretty close to organic" trout 1-2 times a week
I do take a omega vitamin from sardine fish oil and anchovies (only other
additive is gelatin, glycerin and purified water)

And if I don't think I  drank enough nettle tea on any given day, I do take the
pregnancy vitamin supplement once in a while ('cause I paid for it, and refuse
to let it go to waste).

Otherwise I eat organic grass fed veal. Since it's
grass fed it's filled with omega's that industrialized beef has lost, and all
other meat is organic right now too!

In fact every single fruit and veggie is organic for now! (my health food store
gets fresh organic fruits in every Tuesday) keep in mind organic fruits (and
veggies) are 30 to 70% higher in vitamins than industrialized food!

Trust me I get what I need from food and tea.
It is the biggest  natural health/vitamin industry's myth to make us believe
that food doesn't have everything we need! Diversification and "what they call
organic now" is the key to getting everything the body needs!

My pee is a nice yellow, not to watery meaning not much nutrients are passing
through the body, and not to brownish yellow, which means the liver and kidneys
are over working to pass un-needed nutrients...

Love,
S.
:)

ps: Todays menu?

Yogurt, then some blueberry pie (your recipe with a home made sesame crust)
clementines
cereal (full grain and organic) with milk and raisins
grapes
tomato cabbage soup
a piece of veal steak
probably more yogurt as a snack in the afternoon or some nutty bar
"cuisse de pintade" (not sure what that is in English, coming from the chicken
farm. It's a sort of bird!)
sweet potato and cinnamon
broccoli

Then something sweet like sesame snaps or apples cooked in honey and cinnamon.

(invented by me,inspired by the Greek restaurant, I discovered with you in Tarpon Springs... I love cooked apples!)
And just before going to bed, I need more cereal or some wholesome grain, other
wise I wake up in the middle of the night feeling nauseous (morning sickness
comes from low blood sugar).

And that's just today!

Talk to you soon
S.

Here are 2 recipes and a few nutritional tips, for today.

Sweet potato and cinnamon! Yum both really healthy nutrients!

1 boiled sweet potato

50 ml organic milk (ideally 3.5%) , remember I'm pregnant here!

And that's it 1 ½ teaspoon of cinnamon!

Mash it all up … and yum yum yum, I'm sure your whole family will love it! Mine does!

Cinnamon has a few great health benefits

• 
  
  It has an anti-clotting effect on the blood.
• It has shown an amazing ability to stop yeast infections.
• It can have a regulatory effect on blood sugar
• When added to food, it inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage, making it a natural food preservative.
• Can help arthritis pain, soothing joints.

 And that's just naming a few! So I try to sprinkle cinnamon regularly on diverse meals or deserts.


Sweet potato has ranked number one in nutrition of all vegetables!
The numbers for the nutritional sweet potato speak for themselves: almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 42 percent of the recommendation for vitamin C, four times the RDA for beta carotene, and, when eaten with the skin, sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal. All these benefits with only about 130 to 160 calories!

Sweet Potato Nutrition Facts
(for one medium size sweet potato)
Calories 130
Fat 0.39 g
Protein 2.15 g
Net Carbs 31.56 g
Dietary Fiber 3.9 g
Calcium 28.6 mg
Sodium 16.9 mg
Potassium 265.2 mg
Folate 18.2 mcg
Vitamin C 29.51 mg 
Vitamin A 26081.9 IU Source: US Department of Agriculture

Wow! Do I ever love sweet potatoes !

On that note I'll leave you all to another day !
Where my quiet journey continues... Towards a path nobody knows!

Cooking with children

Cooking with your children can be a great challenge...
I know...
However, I have realized that if you never start, then they will never learn!
The more you let them cook with you, the better they become and the easier it gets, and the cleaning diminishes...
What I mean by that is...
When they are little, a simple task like pouring milk in a bowl can leave a mess... But this gets better with time :)

Cooking is a great way to teach numerous things...

Mathematics : 1 egg plus 1 egg = 2 eggs ! Seems silly to a grown up, but for a 2 year old toddler this can be the beginning of logical thinking. Later on ... 2 pieces of a pie sliced in 8 = 1/4 of that pie! By the time my son was in 2nd grade , he "understood" simple mathematics! And impressed the teachers immensely! All thanks to cooking at home with Mama!

It can teach colors ... This is a RED apple, YELLOW apple, GREEN apple...

It can help concentration and manual ability! Getting your 2 year old to peel an orange...
I always incorporate general food knowledge... what is fat, what is sugar, what is protein ... So on...

And it can be a fun science experiment too ! Waiting for dough to rise, or mixing oil and vinegar for your salad!

So many possibilities to incorporate important child/parent time while making something basic and essential...
Your next home cooked meal ! 

The most important 2 things to remember while cooking with your children is:

PATIENCE (messes will happen)
CREATIVITY (finding different ways to explain, explore and discover)

Beans, beans...

Beans, beans are good for the heart,
The more you eat? The more you ...

There's a lot more to that "toilet song" than just a good rhyme (I heard it for the first time, after my brother used a public stall on one of the numerous summer road trips... And when I heard it, I didn't stop repeating it from Ottawa all the way to Shediac (NB) !

Beans are an essential "brain nutrient" . It is a seed!

Where I come from, people eat beans at the yearly "cabane a sucre" gathering! Beans drenched in Maple Syrup! That's it once a year !!!

In fact, I hated anything made with beans. Until recently, when I got creative with them!

 

                         Black beans left to dry  

                         Then stored in glass jars                          

                       Was a gift from a neighbor

                       This amount was enough for a huge   

                       pot of chili...

                       and a little black bean salad :)

So it got me thinking...

These are basically dried, like the organic dried "in bulk" kind at the store.

Essentially a seed right...

I took an organic kidney bean/seed, soaked it in water overnight (kids love these kinds of experiments!)

and then my son planted it 1 inch deep in some of my compost/ super soil... And pouff ! Withing 5 days a sprout !

And then... BAM 2 days later !

My son woke up every morning for a week, running to the bean stock ! LOL 

He found it so much fun, that he's brought enough "organic kidney beans" to his classmates for every child to try and grow their own plant...

I now get my beans from my 3 different kind's of bean strains: 

-Dragon Tongue Bush Bean

-Golderbse (peas) herloom 16th century strain

-and the black bean seen above, which comes from my neighbor, he doesn't know the exact name...

So far it's been a fun activity, a great learning experience for my son, and a surprising "penny pincher" trick!

a few more recipe idea: 

-Mashed beans with cheddar cheese/ baked in the oven

-Mixed bean salad with crunchy lettuce and onions, topped with a raspberry vinegar dressing.

-Adding beans to soups and stews adding wholesome protein and oh so much more ;)

-My son's favorite, crushed beans and avocado with salsa and baked tortillas! 

Remember ...

The more you eat the better you feel....

So eat your beans at every meal !

;)

Thinking about my child's future got me into composting

Four years ago, I found that starting a compost in the backyard, was a great way to teach my child about waste, recycling, growth, and rebirth. Every 2 weeks or so we go and turn it over. After a month, it starts to look less like “trash” and more like... well? Dirt.

And then finally it becomes fresh black/brown earth. And we soon realized, what once looked really gross and icky, now looks just like the expensive plastic wrapped, store bought black/brown earth.

Amazing! It really made me feel silly for having payed so much over so many years !!!

I could have done this back in my 1 bedroom apartment! I had plants in every window! And I bought bags of earth all the time !!! Yet I had a tiny balcony, were I could have/ should have had a tiny composting unit...

I compost everything that is an “organic matter”.Bones and things like chicken carcasses I through out, because they don't decompose fast at all... Paper and cardboard can be composted too, however they take longer. ( I ended up just putting it back into the next compost) I now put my paper and cardboard in the recycling container.

A composting unit can be as simple as 1 single trash can, close it up and let it decompose. If you want to be lazy about it just leave it out and CLOSED for a long time. Possibly a year! To speed up the process you can turn it over every once in a while. The fastest I got was 35 days, turning every 3 days.

I googled composting and found so much info that I won't even try to top it off here ;)

Basically, everything that once grew, can be composted … However I've gone a step further...

It wasn't long until we started using this soil, which made some rich nutrient food for our plants !!! Things started growing like … “WILD” !

Ask anyone who's been to my house... It's out of control !

My son tells people we live in a “botanical garden” .

Anyways, back to composting.

I'm now using my compost to help in growing certain veggies, that I've already eaten!

And my son already knows how to collect seeds, collect roots, plant, grow, compost, and eat!

And as I read him this post he replied: "And I'm showing and talking about it to my friends at school !"

Isn't that an essential basic in life...

And all this doesn't cost a penny !

Bad soft drink / bad soda pop

I will never forget the first coca-cola my son ever got.He was 6 years old and we were on vacation in Orlando Florida.

We were sitting outside a McDonald, waiting for a taxi to get us to a Science Museum called Wonder Works (a great, cheap place to visit if ever your in Orlando)

He sipped on my coke that I had dragged outside. Honestly usually I choose orange juice (in fact McDonald diners happen like once a year), but on this particular day I just craved a coke! (hey it can happen)

So without me noticing he sipped up the entire cup ! (And we all know that McDonald sizes are just out of wack!)

The taxi took for ever , or so it seemed... Because suddenly my (usually) well behaved son was running everywhere in a parking lot.

Seriously “like if he just got really high, and was totally out of his mind!!!”

He was so fast and out of control, a car almost hit him! And I'm quite a fast reacting person!

He heard nothing I said, and I had to physically hold him tight, until that taxi finally arrived!

Then in the 20 minute taxi ride, he was jumping up and down in his seat! He's never done that on any occasion before!

I remember apologizing to the driver, and told him it was due to the first soda pop he just drank!

The taxi driver was surprised, he says his kids drink that stuff all the time !!! And he agrees they're all hyper...

He calls that normal!

I associated this behavior with the soda...

And then I actually tested my theory a week later again, before the end of my vacation.

So within about 5 minutes of soda ingestion he becomes insanely hyper (where nothing can even be said to him, because he just doesn't listen) then as the energy level rises, mother stresses, child keeps acting up and anger develops... Finally within about a half an hour the energy level drops, mother is now fully stressed and angry, and child is starting to calm down... Only to get a “downer rush” …

Where suddenly nothing pleases the child, and an all around bad attitude develops, finally a few hours later, this soda leaves the body, and lets my child come back to normal...

Few...

This had brought me to better understand the huge problem we have with all these hyperactive kids!

Even my child found the “high” too much, and since I brought it to his attention that it was the soda doing this to him, he hasn't since asked for more...

Since that day, everywhere we go, even if soda is included, he politely says :

“No thank you, I'll take some water instead”

Keeping them active! A moving body helps a healthy brain

An active body increases a healthy brain.

I have noticed, with the help of a very attentive teacher, that on the days were my son gets an extra 15/20 minutes to actively play outside before entering the class room, he is actually more attentive for that 2 hour period, before the 1st break.

On most days I try to get him ready just a little earlier and a little faster, and then I entice him to go play... We have a dog which helps getting him going!

If he really doesn't want to, well then I go out, and start a game...

That's my trick, I take a little 2 minutes to initiate the activity :)

Whether it be biking to the mail box, creating a long jump circuit, timing a certain run around the yard, or timing 25 jumping jacks and 10 big huge "frog jumps" !

Anything... creativity is key ... If I only had front stairs as outside space, I'd turn that into a timing game of how fast he can run up, then down, then up down, then up down up down... One can expand the fun in so many ways!

His teacher noticed a change in the classroom within the first few days, and I saw the change at home, because he was suddenly remembering the lessons learned in class. Extra fresh air and exercise helped him on his way to concentrating and improved his "morning memory" ...

The best activities are the ones that don't cost anything, however the best "toy" I ever bought
was a trampoline ! Surrounded by a net, quite safe and oh so much fun !

He has played countless hours on it, alone or with friends, summer as well as winter, and the trampoline is going on it's 4th summer... Hours of joy laughter and ... "brain oxygenation" ...

:)

3 easy recipes to feed the brain in the morning

Feeding the brain...
The way we are able to process information partially relies on what we eat.
The brain needs certain nutrients to make neuron transmission possible.

These are NOT found in "Fruit Loops" !

These are found in naturally Omega rich foods.
Not just Omega added foods (like eggs and milk now has added Omega)

The easiest way to incorporate this into your diet is by adding seeds...
Most of our foods nowadays have no more seeds (seedless grapes, oranges)

There's fish too, but with our polluted water ways, I stick with seeds... Besides fish is not always a child's favorite either ;)

I have a constant variety in my fridge ... Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds... and lets not forget what we call "grains" are in fact seeds too.

Here are my simple tricks in getting the seed into your child's mouth !

Recipe 1 An apple a day keeps the doctor away ;)

1 Sliced apple
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
a dash of cinnamon
a little bit of honey

That's it , put the apples on a plate and sprinkle on the rest...

WOW !
How easy was that !!!

Recipe 2 Smart Smoothie!

1 avocado
250 ml milk (or the amount of liquid wanted)
a few ice cubes
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (or any other ground up seed, if the seeds aren't crushed it will feel like there's full of pits in the smoothie, you want to be grinding these seeds, coffee grinder works well)

Mix all up in a blender... And VOILA!

Recipe 3 Eggs for the brain

1 large organic egg
a drop of milk
sprinkled with any seed, and a tiny bit of maple syrup

This can be made into a simple omelette,
letting the child believe it's a crepe!

And again... almost as easy as pouring a bowl of "Lucky Charms"
The difference?

Your child isn't wasting energy and brain power getting rid of preservatives, artificial flavors, and artificial colors (which are all essentially chemicals).

Instead the brain can actively concentrate and learn !